The Tarryn Reeves Show

How to Get Paid Speaking Gigs: Public Speaking Secrets for Entrepreneurs

• Tarryn Reeves • Episode 64

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Public speaking isn’t just about sharing a message, it’s about creating authority, visibility, and profit. In this episode of The Tarryn Reeves Show, I sit down with powerhouse speaker, author, and transformational coach Evolve Benton, the force behind Speaking for Profit University.

Evolve has helped students generate over $3 million in revenue through public speaking and consulting, trained more than 100 global organisations, and was named one of the world’s top 10 public speaking coaches by Yahoo Finance. Together, we dive deep into:

  • How to land paid speaking gigs (and stop speaking for free).

  • The power of creating a signature talk—your “killer single” that audiences will never forget.

  • Why entrepreneurs should combine a speaking career with a bestselling book to unlock visibility, income, and impact.

  • The biggest mistakes new speakers make (and how to avoid them).

  • How to pitch events and conferences with confidence… and actually get booked.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur looking to grow your authority, a coach ready to amplify your influence, or a leader who wants to get paid to speak, this conversation is packed with strategies to help you step onto the stage with confidence and cash in on your expertise.

If you’ve ever wondered how to turn your voice into a revenue stream, this episode will show you the exact path.

Connect with Evolve:

You’ll love this episode if you’re interested in:

  • public speaking for entrepreneurs
  • how to get paid speaking gigs
  • signature talk strategy
  • speaking career for coaches
  • monetize your speaking
  • book and speaking authority
  • speaking for profit
  • Evolve Benton
  • build visibility and authority
  • entrepreneur public speaking tips
  • paid keynote speaker tips
  • how to pitch conferences as a speaker
  • avoid free speaking gigs
  • build credibility as a speaker
  • speaking and publishing strategy
  • speaker pitch email template
  • speaker reel tips
  • mistakes new speakers make
  • professional speaking career growth
  • speaking opportunities for entrepreneurs

Welcome to the Tarryn Reeves Show, the podcast for elite entrepreneurs, visionary leaders, and high impact CEOs who are ready to grow their brand, amplify their message, and build a legacy. I'm your host, Tarryn Reeves, multiple international bestselling author, publishing strategist and founder of Automatic Authority Publishing and Press House. Each week we dive into powerful conversations with trailblazing entrepreneurs and change makers who are using storytelling. To scale their business and impact. So grab your favorite drink, settle in, and get ready for a dose of inspiration, strategy, and the truth behind what it really takes to turn your wisdom into wealth. All righty, everybody. Please meet Evolve Benton, speaker, author, and transformational coach. Evolve is the powerhouse behind speaking for Profit University, where they've helped students generate over $3 million through public speaking and consulting from leading DEI initiatives at one of America's top medical schools to training over 100 global organizations evolve as a recognized thought leader in equity, empowerment, and entrepreneurship. Author of Sir Poetry dedicated to Boyhood and Black Queer Love and Executive Director of Boy Doc. Evolve is also celebrated by Yahoo Finance as one of the world's top 10 public speaking coaches. In just three years, they've built a thriving coaching business, relocated to Atlanta and become a first time property owner, all while staying committed to helping diverse voices claim both professional recognition and financial freedom evolve. Welcome to the Tarryn Ree Show. Thank you. Thank you. I love the way you read that bio too. I was like, yeah, I did that. I did that. I appreciate that. Thank you. And thank you so much for the invite. I've had some time to listen to some of your episodes. You're just doing some really great work. So thank you for continuously uplifting entrepreneurs, business owners, authors. Right. I really appreciate your. Oh, thank you so much. It's honestly, this podcast is one of my favorite things to do in my business. I just love chatting to people and speaking as well, which is what we are doing today. Talking all about the speaking industry and the impact it can have, and I'm very, very excited. So thank you for coming on the show. Now, I wanna start off by talking about the amount of money that you have generated with students.$3 million through public speaking. What started your own journey into kind of like the speaking world? Yeah, great question. So I started off my journey as a speaker, actually in graduate school. I was gonna school for a psychology program, and during that program they were trying to raise a lot of money to keep the program going. It was a private institution, so they would have these talks, right? Dinner talks where students can come and share their experience or talk about psychology and the human brain. And I would go and talk and they would pay me an Amazon gift card. Usually give me dinner.'cause I was a broke graduate student. Right. So I had no idea that Right. And free dinner. Right. So I had no idea that it was an industry. I was just like, okay, I can talk about my experience, I can get some free food. Mm-hmm. But when I moved to the Bay Area from Los Angeles. That's when it hit me that I needed a side gig, right? Mm-hmm. Los Angeles. I was living there. I'm born and raised from there, so I had rent control apartment. I didn't have a high rent. I moved to the Bay Area for Love, where I met my amazing wife, and when I got there and I got paid my first paycheck from the medical school I was working at. I couldn't even buy us a bacon sandwich, right? Mm-hmm. And if I did buy us one, we would have to split it in half. So I was like, okay, I need a side gig. Maybe I Uber, maybe I'll DoorDash. And then I remember a woman hit me up and she said, Evo, can you speak on a panel and share about your experience and your journey in corporate America? And I said, sure, I could speak on the panel. She said, how much do you charge? And I was like, oh. We're moving past these Amazon gift cards. Let me think about this. How much do I charge? So I told her $500. I don't know why. That's like the standard for most speakers. Mm-hmm. And she was so nice to me. She said, actually, we have a bigger budget. Ask for more. So at that time, I was getting paid about$3,000 a month for my corporate job. So I said, let me see. Let me see if she'll go for it. I asked for 3000. She said Yes, and I was on from it. From then on, I was like, okay, if I can get paid $3,000 for 45 minutes to talk about my experience and my expertise. Why haven't I been doing this? So that's really what started me, right? Like that needing extra income, but also someone who put me on the game and said, actually, you need to charge for more. And that's what I, most of the time, spend time with my students is saying, Hey, you can actually make a little bit more from that. Or just ask for more and see what they actually have. Yeah, so interesting and I think being an entrepreneur myself and having spoken on other stages, now, I'm gonna be completely honest, I've actually never been paid. And I know a lot of entrepreneurs are in the same boat. So my question is then how does one find paid speaking engagement versus those people who are just looking for free speakers? Yeah. You know, I think what it's really important to think about, and you would love this 'cause you're an entrepreneur, so I know you'll resonate with this. What industry do you wanna impact and what problem do you solve? A lot of people just tell me, I'm a motivational speaker. There's a lot of those. Yes. But there's not necessarily a motivational speaker that motivates women in aviation. Right. So if we're able to really niche it down and talk about a particular problem that we're solving in an industry, that's when the payment starts to happen. And then the other thing is that organizations have funds for professional development. Four speakers to come in and speak. But if you don't ask for the money, they're gonna continue to bring in free speakers as much as they want to so that they can keep that budget and allocated for something else. So what I find is that often there is that front end money, 'cause that's what I call it, right? Because when you speak from a stage, you can make money from the back end, right? By selling your books and your products and your services, which is most entrepreneurs, they're like, I just wanna get in front of people. Yeah. And then I can make money on the back end. But what if we can make money on the front end just by being there? And a lot of times it's about asking. The other thing is like conferences, summits, organizational events. We know that those events usually have the budget to pay you, but oftentimes you don't have the relationship. Yeah. So the first year you might have to go in and do a, you know, a plannery or a workshop to get to know the organizers. If you're able to get some really good testimonials from that experience, then you can use that for the next year and say, Hey, I would like to be a keynote speaker or a Plannery speaker, and then speak to the whole conference instead of a small group of people. Hmm. Yeah. Great tips. Now, with that, you would obviously have to pitch them, right to build a relationship. How do you start out building a relationship with these people? Do you find the person in charge and it's like an email and then you just pitch like. I suppose any entrepreneurial pitch you do, you have to have a speaker page, do you have to have a media kit? Like what are people looking at to get started? Definitely. So it depends on the relationship. Relationships are so important, right? If I asked you to speak at your event and we've done this amazing podcast and I've overdelivered. Yeah, I don't need to send you a speaker's reel. You already know what I'm down with. Right? So if it's someone who's already seen you speak, it's really about having a conversation about is there an audience for you to speak to? Now, if it's cold traffic, people that we've never bent before, maybe we're sending code email pitches, maybe we're reaching out to people on LinkedIn. Then it's really important to have a way to document your work. That's where maybe a speaker's reel comes in, which is really important. That's a short video of you speaking. It might even have like client testimonials saying, Hey, I loved E Evolve. E Evolve was amazing because of this. It might have a video of you walking up to the stage or maybe you in front of the audience, and it's only gonna be two to three minutes because we know that people's attention are like that, and we don't want to take it too much farther. Hmm. But if you do not have a speaker's real. Then I always tell people a short presentation of what you've done, even if you're just able to go in a amazing studio like you have set up where you're speaking is better than not having anything.'cause most people who don't know you, they're gonna wanna see some type of documentation before they trust you to come into their event or their organization to speak. Right? So you at least need a speaker's role. The other thing you need is actually a pitch. Right, and that's where understanding what industry and what problem you solve is key. But what event are you pitching to? Mm-hmm. A lot of people are just like, I wanna come to your organization, but that doesn't help necessarily that person. You need to say, I wanna come and speak at graduation, I wanna come and speak at new hire orientation. I wanna speak at the leadership retreat that you all do every summer. So doing your homework on the organization and understanding what are those annualized events. That you can go and share your expertise are at, which is important. You have to customize the pitch. I think a lot of people get into the code emailing and it's beautiful, but the code emailing should be used to get attention, and then you should customize it once they answer and respond to you so that the people can know that you're human and that you actually have something to offer. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Mm-hmm. Now, I know in the speaking industry, there's this thing that is termed the signature talk. Yes. And I know this is something that you are so amazing at helping people develop so that they can go into these niche places and shine and then obviously launch their speaking career into the stars. So what is a signature talk and why is it so powerful for speakers and entrepreneurs to have one? Thank you. Great question. Signature talk. I want us to think about our favorite artist. My favorite artist that is living is Beyonce. Mm-hmm. My favorite artist that is no longer here is Michael Jackson. So I've got high tears here. Right. Yeah. I have such a diverse music taste. I read, this is gonna shock people 'cause I look so nice. I really like, like Lincoln Park. Yes. Like I'm a bit of a punk girl myself. Yes, I love Lincoln Park as well, but let's say that Lincoln Park, right, their number one single, when they perform that, whether they perform it where you are in Australia, or they perform where I'm at in Atlanta. It's gonna be very similar performance. Now, they might add a different vibe to it. There might be some different colors in the background. They might even die to hear a different color. Yeah. But it's gonna be pretty much the same. That's what your signature talk is. It's your killer single that people love and that you're gonna share around the world, and you become so good at doing it that people wanna hear it over and over again. Mm-hmm. One, it helps you become a better speaker. Right, because you're practicing. Two. It helps you develop a framework and a story so that you can put it into other mediums. That's when you'll see people that say, Hey, I have a book talk, because they have a signature talk that's actually connected to that. And then the other thing is it makes you memorable, right? Because people will be like, you know what? I remember you did that talking. You shared that story about your grandmother and how it really helped you with your confidence, and that still helps me to that day. Mm-hmm. So I love it because it takes us from being novice speakers to more advanced speakers because we're utilizing our skills. But also it helps us to not recreate work.'cause what a lot of people do is they think every time they have a new gig, they have to come up with a new talk. And then there's just analysis paralysis at that time. Yeah. Now you're not doing what you need to do in the business because you're worried about overperforming and creating something new. So that's what a signature talk is. It's like your killer single. Awesome. I love that. And what a great way to describe it. Your killer single. I've always wondered what it would be like if everyone had their own theme tune, like when they just walk into a room. Yeah. So you can make that a part of the vibe. Like everywhere I go, they gonna play Beyonce when I'm getting up on the stage. Right. You can bring that into it as well. That's right. Now for someone just starting out crafting their signature talk, what kind of foundation pieces do they need to start with? Yeah, I would say that you need to at least have an understanding of what you want the outcome from the signature talk to be. And this is what I work with. A lot of my clients in the Profitable Speaker Circle, the community that I have around people oftentimes are connected to other stories that they've heard, right? So they'll say like, I heard Oprah or other people do this motivational speech. And I have to tell them the reason that Oprah is motivating you. Yes, the speech is amazing, but it's because you know who Oprah is. Hmm. You know her story. You know her struggles, right? And that's because she's a public figure. But for you, oftentimes the audience doesn't know. So do you wanna motivate, do you wanna inspire? Do you wanna leave them with a transformation? What type of feeling do you want the audience to have? And then we backtrack that with the storyboard. What are the stories that you tell often in your life that are easy? Like one of the stories I would often tell people is the benefits of taking care of yourself. Mm-hmm. And I often describe how I was having a conversation with my grandmother when she was really going through some health challenges, and she told me, she said, evolve charity starts at home and then spreads abroad. Right. So the importance of starting with our vessel before we give it to others. I can tell that story over and over again because I remember, and I was in that moment with my grandmother. If we have those key stories, we can build that into our signature talk and build that around our framework. And then the other thing is like, what problem is the talk solving? Is it like ending world hunger? Is it telling young people to get off of social media so that they can actually enjoy the world and not have these chronic headaches that we're starting to hear back, like what is the key problem that the talk is solving? So if you're able to have those foundational things in practice. Which is what we do in the circle. Usually you'll get a little bit more comfortable with it. Mm-hmm. I loving the crossover here between our two industries. You being in the speaking industry and me being in the publishing industry, you know, the Signature Talk really is your bestselling book as well, you know, and, and there's a lot of crossover in telling those real, raw, vulnerable stories, making people feel something. And it's start with the end in mind. That's when I'm working with people on writing their, they're selling books to position them as authorities. Lead generating for their business. It really is start with the end in mind. What do you want that ideal listener or that ideal reader to walk away with, and what do you want them to do next? Yep. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Because the key is to not only have them wanna hear it once, but have them to want more. And I know that that's what you do with authors write for the book. So when they're ready to write the next one. It's an easy transition. I love that. Absolutely. Absolutely. It becomes this little ecosystem. Now with books, we often talk about a lot of visibility, income, and impact, and I know that this ties in so beautifully in my very biased opinion. Every entrepreneur should have a speaking career as well as a bestselling book for their business. I agree. I agree. I can't wait to work with you on my book 'cause I'm the one who write a business book. I've written a poetry collection, but I have not written my business book yet. So I am looking for a coach. So when I seen that you did that, I was like, oh, I'm on the right show. Well, it is happening baby, like spit speaking career because they do tie in so nicely, especially when pitching. Right. If you are pitching to a. Speaking event. Also, let's just even go the media. If you are pitching to a podcast, if you are pitching to a radio show, a newspaper, a digital publication, Forbes, entrepreneur, anything like that, if you lead with, I'm a bestselling author and I do this, this, and this, and here's my speaker reel, and here's my link to my bestselling book, they automatically want to sign you over someone who doesn't have. That. Right, exactly. And vice versa. It's our, here's my speaking reel, here are all the events that I've done. They're gonna choose you every time over somebody who is, has maybe not got as much experience or hasn't done the work yet to get exactly that position. And it's this weird, subtle psychology that happens behind it. And I don't think people ever really think about it, but event organizers automatically think that you know what you're doing and you're an expert in your space if you have speaking. Evidence as well as a book under your belt. They just go, yep, I'm signing this person. I think it's legitimacy, right, and credibility, but it also shows discipline. There takes a lot of discipline to become a really good speaker and it takes a lot of discipline to do a book. So I believe that too. If I see that you have that, that's the Carfax for me, I believe. And including awards, right? Like business awards, anything like that? It's just that authority building. My whole business name is automatic authority. That's for that very reason. Yes. Right. And it becomes this gateway, your signature talk, your book becomes this gateway to more visibility, income, and impact. And that's really what we want as entrepreneurs. Exactly. I mean, we want more people to know about us and for us to have to do less work, right? Mm-hmm. So I always say if you're able to document yourself, clone yourself, which essentially is what a book is. Yes. Or if you have a podcast, right? People could be listening your podcast right now, and you're in this conversation. So creating as much evergreen content that we can is possible. It's less work for us as business owners. And we could spend time really serving our clients and doing the work that we love to do and creating impact. So I totally agree and resonate with that. Yeah, I always say work smarter and not harder, and books, speaking recordings, and especially with the advance of ai, right? Like you can plug a whole chapter of your book or upload the transcript from your speaking event into chat GPT or whatever it is, and go, Hey, like call a heap of content next minute. You've got a year's worth of blog posts. And YouTube shorts and videos. It's like, why? Why would you not be doing this is the question. Yeah, exactly. I had a call with my clients yesterday and I told them, I said, write this in the chat. If you don't use ai, you will be left behind. 100%. Yep. You have to just go on and tap into it because the folks who are using it, they're gonna be faster. Mm-hmm. It's gonna be quicker and the smarter it becomes. It's also gonna be like light years ahead as far as information, so. Mm-hmm. I totally believe in that. And some people, I think that the reason they struggle with it is'cause they're literally trying to. Use AI but not humanize it. It's like you gotta give a AI something or you, you gotta feel it like really intimately. And people always ask me as a writer,'cause I ghost write books for people. I freelance write for the media. Like writing's my thing, right? And people go, as a writer, aren't you worried that AI is going to take over your job? I'm like, absolutely not. Because if you watch people plug something into ai, it's. Spits out this really robotic sounding thing. Then you have to ask another question and then you have to ask another question or give more guidance or feedback. And then it usually goes, Hey, like, okay, thanks for the feedback. That's awesome. What about this? And then you go, yep. And then you like can take that and change a few words here and there, and it's not this. I think people have this misconception about ai where they go, oh, I'm just gonna copy and paste whatever it says and then wonder why it lands flat. Or it doesn't sound like you. I mean, you've gotta have a brain in your head. You've gotta be the expert in your space already. You gotta be a critical thinker. That's what you're talking about, critical thinking layers of question, deeper and deeper, right? Mm-hmm. And you have to know the field and industry in, in order to really be successful. Exactly. People go, oh, well, I'll just go into AI and it'll write my whole book for me. I'm like, yeah, good luck with that because. You are gonna struggle. You're obviously not the expert in your space. Like you've gotta be the expert first. You've gotta know what you're talking about. Let's talk mistakes. Mm, that's a great step. Oh, a good mistakes. Sorry. I wanna know, what are the biggest mistakes that you see new speakers or new entrepreneurs trying to make it in the speaking industry when they are trying to get paid? To speak because there's a free summit every other day in a Facebook group, and they usually have an audience of about 10. We don't wanna play there like you can, we don't wanna play there. Right. What are people, what mistakes are people making? Mm. The number one mistake that most people make is that they wait too long a charge. Mm. Right. So it's like you've spoken at this event. In that event they've never paid you. So when it does come to an opportunity to negotiate. You're always gonna skew low because you haven't been in enough negotiations, you just haven't done enough reps, so they don't charge quick enough. The other thing is most people just wanna be a preacher and a motivational speaker, and they think that that's the only way to speak. So you find a lot of people who are just yelling on stage, so they're not really learning the craft of speaking and moving the audience and really becoming a master at their work. And they wanna skip the steps, right? They wanna be the top speaker of the world without actually. Practicing the craft. And then I think the third mistake that most beginner speakers make is that they really rely on, how do I put it? Word of mouth, right? So instead of like saying, this is a business, I have to go out and tell more people about it. They're like, you know what? They asked me to speak at my local high school. They asked me to speak at this event. That's it. That's the only way that I'm going to find speaking engagements, right? But they don't actually think, how do I put myself out there? How do I establish a pitching routine? How do I establish some way to do outreach? They just wait for business to come to them, and then I'll give you a bonus because, you know, I said three, but I'm always trying to throw in a gift. I wanna leave places better than when I arrived at them at all times. Not getting testimonials. That's something that I actually made a mistake with. I told you I was speaking up here in the Hollywood Hills eating those good old charcuterie boards, and I never asked for anyone to give me feedback. So when it came to me shifting to being a professional speaker, I was like, I wish I had more testimonials and I asked for more feedback during the time so that I could have that as my credibility to share with other people as I'm doing more outreach. Yeah, absolutely. Now I wanna talk about this outreach because you are right. Most people just sit on their butts and it's the same thing with a book, right? Publish a book, or you do a speaking event and then you sit on your butt and wait for the bookstore to come to you, or the next business come to you and ask you to speak. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that, not with the amount of noise and competition in the arenas that there are now. So what are some of the key things? That somebody can include in like a speaker pitch or a speaker kit that will actually get attention that will help them stand out. Yeah. Yeah. I think when it comes to outreach, it really depends on, and you know, we talked about this earlier, what's the end goal? And I like to look at it that way. Like what type of events are you wanting to speak at? Are you wanting to speak in the educational industry, corporate industry, K through 12? Because all of these industries have different years and different momentum and different times in the year where they're doing different kind of work. So your outreach needs to be. Abroad at first so that you can understand your industry. I find that sometimes when people go niche down and they're like, I just wanna speak at a college graduation, that's great, but there's other things that happen at colleges. So why don't we look and see what are the events that happen on a regular basis and pitch to the event first. Mm-hmm. Then once you're on the campus, or once you're at the organization, you can talk about more. Now what you asked me was more about like the messaging. Mm-hmm. What should the like email look like? Right. What is the conversation, and I want you to think about it in three parts. The first part is you gotta get their attention. Yeah. The way you're gonna get their attention is by making it about them. Yes. Not making it about you at first. Right. So. So-and-so, I noticed that you all did this event last year and you had some amazing speakers that spoke about this topic this year. This is your thing. You are showing, you've done your homework. Mm-hmm. And also that you care about their event this year. This is your thing. I think that I could be an amazing asset for it because I've worked with these organizations. They need to know about credibility before they're even gonna listen to you because they're like, okay, this is just another person reaching out to me. So first thing, we make it about them and we cue in on an event. The second part, we wanna make it about us, but we wanna bring in our credibility very quickly, and then we wanna just lead them into our documentation. Check out this speaker's reel. Check out the trailer of my documentary, which is what I'll do when I'm sending the boy dot if this interests you. Let's get on a phone call. I don't wanna say reply to this message because by then they reply. I reply, it's like chasing a stray cat. I don't wanna do that. I'm gonna put my Calendly right there and then they can get on my Calendly and we can get in a conversation. Yeah. So I find that that works out. Now I usually have a follow up correspondence that will say, Hey Jim. Hey Jan. Did you see this message? Those are the things that kind of keep getting the attention, but you need to make sure you make the best use of that time. Yeah. Because if they actually are opening that message or that email, you only have seconds to really capture them. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like it's the same kind of common sense strategy that happens when pitching the media or pitching to podcasts. It's not everyone wants to know about themselves. They don't, they don't really like what's in it for me. Yeah, exactly. They don't care about you, unfortunately. I'm sorry, friend. Yeah. And I want to stress the importance of the follow. Like everyone goes, oh, I pitched this publication.'cause we have a whole PR and media department as part of the publishing company because there was just a huge hole in the industry where people were publishing books and no one was marketing them. And I was like, well that's a bit stupid. We have a whole PR and media department. But people were say to me, oh, I pitched to this radio show and I never heard back. And I was like, well, how many follow ups did you Exactly. There? Like none. And I was like, well. Media and event organizers, speaking organizers, they're extremely busy people. Mm-hmm. And they're going to have 40, 50, 60 emails plus a day popping into that inbox. You have to follow up because they might have read it and gone, oh, I'm gonna get back to that person. And then, I don't know, the event producer ran in and was like, oh, this is happening. We've gotta go and do this. And then they forgotten about it. It's not necessarily that you weren't a good fit. It's that you didn't do the hound dog follow up. Exactly, exactly. And so many organizations that I've reached out to will tell me, thank you so much for following up. They'll be thankful for it. Like a lot of my clients are like, I don't wanna be bugging people. Most people tell me thank you so much.'cause I didn't intentionally forget about you. I just got really busy or this event happened, or something happened in my life. Yeah. And then you come back and they're like, thank you, because I did want your service. I did want you to come in and speak. Mm-hmm. I just couldn't focus on it during that time. So yeah. I like to send at least six to seven follow-ups. Yes. And then I kind of pause the game. And some people think that that's intensive, but. I think it's important and that's why it's good to use tools where you're able to track to see if the person opens. That helps you a little bit as well. Those different, like CRMs I use instantly. That's one of the ones that I use. That's really great. But yes, follow up is I call myself the queen. A follow up? Yeah. You at this point, because I'm trying to, I'm trying to be royalty at it. Queen this King and queen put together. Yes. Um, because I'm trying to be royal with it. I'm trying to do it on a consistent basis. And even when it comes to folks who are interested in speaking for profit, that's B2C. I'm still following up. That even shows more of an impact if you have actually clientele.'cause they're like, oh, if you're gonna be this way and I'm not even a client, imagine how much accountability and support I'm gonna get when I actually start to work with you. Absolutely, absolutely. And I want people to think about it as service. You're not annoying the people. These people are busy. You're actually helping take some of the mental load off of their plate. So follow up is actually service both to yourself and to somebody else. Follow up until you get a no. Yep. And and a no until it's a no. It's a yes for me. And a delay is not a denial. We always have to remember that delay is not a denial. I love that. I think we can take that into every aspect of our life, right? Yep. Now I wanna talk about this community that you have. What happens inside of this community that you have? I think it's on school.'cause I checked it out. Is it school? Yeah. Yes, yes. It's our school. It's called the Profitable Speaker Circle. So I have within that community our Signature Talk Mastery course that teaches you how to create, deliver, and monetize your first talk. So this is for beginners, folks who are just getting started and they're like, Hey, I need a place to come and practice. So we do a monthly open mic where you can come and share. I often post in that group speaking opportunities. So first I've been in the field for a while. I get a lot of things in my email. Also have a team who's doing research for me to find opportunities as well. So as I see them, I post it in the group and then. I think the cool thing about school is that you can create competitions and really gamify it. So in the month of January, the beginning of 2025, we had a pitch competition. Yeah. Where I was like, Hey, if you can submit 20 pitches this month, you can submit a Google form. And all I need to do is just see the little receipt that says like submission. I don't want all the detail. Yeah. And then for that, I gave people a hundred dollars gift card. Or they got an opportunity to come to our live event that we're doing in October, 2025 here in Atlanta Speaking for profit live. Yeah. Or they got a shirt that I made that caused, says I make money with ease. So we had three different prizes. We had about 14 people who competed, and then I did the little will spinning on a live and I was like, yeah, these are our winners. So I love it because people need community. The reason I started speaking for profit is like. If you don't have community, you end up like feeling isolated. You don't do the work and the work becomes work and it's not fun. So it's an amazing space. It's an amazing space. I love it. And it's probably one of the most diverse speaking spaces that you'll find. Yes. And that's mainly 'cause I have such a strong background in DE. I've done a lot of work with folks of color here in the US and LGBT folks, so. I coin it as one of the most diverse speaking groups that you have. Yeah, it, it looks amazing. I'm gonna pop that link in the show notes, videos of you watching and listening to go and hang out there because it's actually really affordable as well. And I can see the value that is overflowing in there from Miss. Yes, and you can make money in the group. Did I tell you about that part? That's even better. There's no free dinners here, but you can get, fill a card, you can make money. We just launched our affiliate program, so if you join. And you invite two people and they stay in for the rest of the year. Your membership is free. I have a. 50% affiliate in that group. So it's a hundred dollars a month. For folks who are listening or wondering the cost, I'm always price transparent. Mm-hmm. But you come in and you invite someone, you'll be getting $50 a month as long as they stay in the community. So it's a way for folks to also monetize. What I love about that is that teaches you to market. That's why I wanted an affiliate group. You become more and more comfortable marketing someone else's product, then you can definitely market your own. Absolutely. Now, while we're on the topic of numbers and money, I want to know the juice behind how much do public speakers really get paid and what does that look like at different levels? Because obviously a starter speaker is not gonna get paid as much as someone who's. Pretty much made it their bread and butter, but what kind of numbers are we looking at here? Yeah. It depends on what a starter speaker is. Some people will come to me and say, I'm a starter speaker, but they have a PhD. They have a whole book of research that they've done. They have credibility in their field, so they're not a starter, but they feel like they are because that's not the way that they've made money. Yes. Whereas you have some people who've literally never spoken before like they were. The computer programmer behind the computer. So I'll say it depends on your year, years of experience and your expertise, but. What I see with my clients, the minimum that I want most people to charge is $3,000.'cause that's where I started. Right. So at minimum $3,000 of speech maximum, my wife just hosted a two day workshop event on healing with some state legislators here, and I think that was a $250,000 contract. Wow. Right. That was more of like facilitation, putting on event. Bringing in other speakers, right? So this can take you so many different places. Um, and then I would say middle ground, when people have a book, right, like you said, they have a successful podcast, a successful film, then we're talking about five figures. Anywhere between 15 to $50,000, depending on the stage and depending on the expertise that you have. Amazing. So if you are already an entrepreneur. I think it would be so silly for you not to monetize a speaking career. Just ask for the budget. Y'all. Like a lot of us are just afraid, like people hit us up and they're like, come and speak. And you're like, okay, cool. But instead say, do you all have a budget for that? Just see, just see y'all. Just, just ask the question. And even if they only pay you 15,$1,500, that's a lot more than nothing. Exactly. For first opportunity. Right. Exactly. And and the worst response you're gonna get is, no, we don't have a budget for that. Yeah, you were gonna do it for free anyway, so it doesn't really, it's not a big deal for you. Well, if you don't ask the question, I listen to a very interesting podcast episode by the Diary of A CEO, Stephen Bartlett. I'm not sure if you're aware of the podcast. Oh, I love his show. Yes, yes. I love this show. But she, and the way the room is set up, I'm just like, I just wanna sit in that room. It's just such a beautiful place. It's so funny. Actually, I'm in my office here down. And I'm actually starting to set this up for the podcast. And when I hop off here, this is gonna sound so silly, but I, when I hop off our call, I'm actually gonna go onto the internet and buy a monogrammed pillow for my couch. Yeah, my show logo on it. Um, but inspired by that. But he had a man on there, a speaker coach. And he was really able to communicate how somebody should be speaking for impact, because we've all seen terrible speakers, right? Yeah. They speak too fast. They stumble over their words, they lose their place, and that's not impactful in a good way. It's definitely impactful, but not in a good way. Now, like you said, it takes hard work to become a good speaker. What are some of the things that somebody needs to be aware of? When it comes to stage presence, using their voice, the pauses, I know that they're super important. Talk to me about that. Yeah. I think posture on stage is so much about right. Our personalities and us being comfortable. Yes. And knowing that the interesting things that we do when we're nervous, right? Like what are our nervous twitches? Some of the best speakers that I have seen are amazing storytellers, yes, but are really grounded when it comes to a stage. I love when a person uses a room. I've seen Brandon Brouchard, I don't know if you know who he is. He's an amazing speaker, but he's getting out there dancing, he's running around. He has a lot of energy. That's the kind of speaker I am. Right, right. But for the type of events that he does, and he is like a performance. Yes. He's really working with people to become the next version of himself. That totally makes sense. Whereas if I was to see like a Gandhi or one of my favorite spiritual teachers is Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith. When he speaks from the stage, he's very much in the center. He may even crouch down and get into his body and explode, but he's not moving a lot around the stage, right? Because he wants people to be calm. So I think the way that we sit on stage is the way that we want our audience to react. Yes. And what we're comfortable in, in our most authentic self. And then the other thing when it comes to being a impactful speaker is really practicing eye contact. And being connected to your audience. That's something I've had to work on.'cause I was a, a poet, I was a performer before, so I didn't take that as intentional. Let me look you in your eye. But it's so important, even if you just find one person in the audience to connect with, to continuously connect and take that time. I love pauses. I love pace. I think that that's important, but everyone doesn't speak that way. So I'm never trying to like get in there when I'm working with speakers to change them so much where they're not authentic. Yes. Because I think that authenticity, like some people's accents require them to talk a little bit faster, especially if they're translating things into English. Yeah. I think that that's great because it shows who you are in the moment. Yeah. But we also need to make sure that the articulation is there so that the audience can actually hear you and really receive your message. Yeah. Such great tips there. Now I wanna have a bit of fun because I always say if we're not having fun, then what's the point? I mean, what is the point? If we're not having fun or making money, what are we here for? We're eating a good meal. So when I come to Australia, I expect, you know, maybe a lunch or two with me and you'll go to all the good places We the road from the wine country. So we'll go out there and we'll have our some boards and some nice. Olives and glasses of wine. Ugh. I'm down for, I love wine. Love wine tasting. I used to live like 30 minutes from Napa Valley when I lived in California. So Nice. Yes. Well, we've got some amazing wine regions, so you come and play with me over here. Actually, we should do an event. We should. We should do it. That'd be cool. Wouldn't that be fun? I mean, wife is, is ready to go to Australia, like, well, she must come. You must bring her. She travels everywhere I go. She is like a suitcase with me. She will be there. I love that. I might not see her on camera, but she's gonna be there 'cause she loves to travel. She got me into the travel bug, which I really appreciate. Yeah. I have the travel bug so bad. I'm a Sagittarian and I'm always like, let's do this. Actually, I'm this. Get along. I'm a Leo. My best friend is a Sagittarius, so yes, this is why we're connecting. I understand. Nice to Tasmania later today. So there you go. All right, let's ask some fun questions. What's one piece of advice that you'd give someone who's absolutely terrified of public speaking? Oh, terrified. Mm. Ter like hands shaking, palms sweating. But this is me, right? I hate public speaking yet I have this podcast. I get up on stages and every time I sweat and my hands shake until the first, like two minutes of speaking is over, and then I'm in my flow. Mm-hmm. It's kind of like, get over this hump. But what advice would you give somebody who's terrified? They need a really strong pre-talk ritual. Mm-hmm. That allows them to ground. Right. So for me it's movement. I might go for a walk, I might do some pushups. Yeah. I do a little bit of meditation. You can't see, but off camera, I have candles that are lit right here. Right, right. So what creates a space where you feel less anxious? Mm-hmm. And practice. Because oftentimes when we are afraid, it's because we're not well practiced. Yes. So that's the other advice I would give. Yeah, what's been your most memorable mic drop moment on stage? Ah, most memorable mic drop moment. So I have this poem that I wrote called Boy, right? IE The Boy, and in the poem. There's a part in there where I talk about gender inclusive restrooms and not knowing where to pee. And I remember the first time I did the poem, it is funny. It is a funny line, but I didn't take it as funny. Yeah, right. So someone just starts laughing in the background and I think that, I don't know if that was a mic drop moment for me, but I think it's a cool moment. This is why practice of a signature talk is important. Because it's not just you. Once you get on the stage, it's the audience. Mm. And you'll get to know the moments where maybe it wasn't meant to be a joke, but it was a joke, and everyone's gonna laugh out loud. Yeah. So that was just a cool moment to be like, oh, that was funny. But I didn't expect it to be there. And then the other thing that I'll share with you is now, I was once at a college graduation and I was speaking directly to folks about. When I graduated from college, my dad told me, you're gonna have to wear a dress to get a job. And I was like, I'm not doing that. Right. And that's one of the stories that I tell, especially at like queer graduations. And I remember sharing that story in particular and the person coming up to me afterwards and really feeling affirmed about who they could be to show up to their job interview and they got that job. So for me, that's always like a really like intimate moment where I was like, I was able to share my experience. They were able to actually put it into practice and be successful. I love that. What a gift to give somebody. See, and this is the power of speaking as well, like and writing a book, I always say if just one line, one sentence, one thing that you share with someone changes somebody's life forever. Y'all like, what job done? Like what a gift. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. All right. Let's fill in the blanks. Oh, goodness. Okay. I mean, I'm a writer. I'm looking at sentences. Okay. Speakers don't just inform they what? Profit. No, I love it. They profit. Beautiful. What's one speaking related myth you'd love to bust forever? Hmm. One speaking method that I love to what forever. One speaking related myth that you'd love Oh forever. That you can't say, um. Ugh. I don't like it all the time, but if you look at like newscasters, sports people, everybody's humming around. So all this like, I'm getting rid of the um, thing. It's like, just be yourself. Absolutely. I was listening to somebody the other day, it was on the news and I actually had to turn it off because the young woman said the word like literally about 20 times in the space of. Eight minutes. I actually turned to my partner and I said, we're lucky this isn't a drinking game for taking a shot every time. She says, why? Because we would be unconscious right now. Like, yeah. Yeah. Usually when people have those things right, and I have it sometimes. It's because we're not slowing down. Mm. So if I notice myself umming and liking or doing any of that, I like, I'm like, oh, I need to slow down so that the words can come before they enter here. Mm. Right. Just slow down. Usually the, um, is just like a, it's a bridge because you're not giving yourself the pause. That's all that is. And practice, right. Practice. Absolutely. So for someone listening or watching us today, who wants to break into paid speaking? What's the very first step you would recommend they take today? Very first step is you should join the profitable Speaker Circle. That would be a great place to get started, but you need to make a list of conferences and events in your local area that are happening in the next six months and pitch them. Mm-hmm. If they're up the street from you, if you could take a bus, a cool Uber, or walk there, why aren't you actually pitching them and trying to get on the stage? Yeah. Absolutely. So I know our listeners can connect with you and learn more about all the links that I'm gonna pop in the show notes, but let's talk about Mic Drop Millions Framework. Mm-hmm. It's kind of like your special source. Where can they learn more specifically about Mic Drop Millions. Definitely they can learn more On my YouTube channel, I post every week very similar to you on Speaking for Profits YouTube channel. Mm-hmm. And then I teach that framework primarily in my higher tier speaking program, which is called Speaking for Profit Academy. It's 12 month program and we support you with making your first a hundred K plus in speaking. But what really is into the mic drop?'cause I, I know people are like, okay, that's a cool name, but what does it really mean? Right? And we think about three things. We think about you building your actual credibility. So a speaker's reel or some type of speaker's kit. If you have a book, then we can turn it into a speech. If you have a speech, we have a friend that can turn it into a book. So we got you for that as well. How do we build our credibility? How do we build our audience? Because as we're growing as speakers, we need a method to be able to bring our email list in so we have people that we can reach out to, and then how do we build our profit? And that's all about negotiation, getting on phone calls, sales, and all of those practices. And that's what goes into it. So if you're interested in that, that is like a more, I guess. Pricey program. That's what people will call it. Yeah. But for me it's more about, you have more access to me and my team, but there's some do it for you opportunities in there, including a media kit, and you get to come to Atlanta, hit the stage, and we'll record you and put together your speakers. Real amazing. It's just like everything in entrepreneurship, you know? It's the time versus money Exactly. Decision that you get. Yeah. And for some people you've been speaking for a while and you still don't have a video of yourself. Yeah. Why is that? What's that about? Is that really about the lack of knowledge around recording a video? Or do we need to build our confidence up and really start to look at this as a business? So if you're looking to take it serious, it's definitely a great program for you. Absolutely. Now we have a tradition here on the podcast called The Book Drop Evolve, and know what book has either impacted you personally or professionally. So, do you know who Arlen Hamilton is? I don't, but I'm about to feel like I should. Yeah. So she is is an amazing entrepreneur and business owner. She has a book called Your First Million. And what I love about Arlen in particular is that her story very much is centered in um, recovery, right?'cause she was an alcoholic and she was homeless at one point. She actually was living in the Bay Area, in the San Francisco airport. As a homeless person trying to figure it out. So what she wanted to do was be an investor, but when she started to look into investing, she was like, there's not a lot of women. Mm-hmm. Right. And there's definitely not a lot of black women in that space. So she's really built her portfolio around creating spaces for building money for entrepreneurs and business owners and inventors. So she is like a class A investor and she raises funds for that, but she has a book, it's called Your First Million, and she talks about the different strategies to get there, but one of the main revenue streams that she talks about. Is what? Writing a book. Yes. And also speaking. So that's what I love about it, because she's giving you different ways to do it, but it's the foundation of building that audience, building that credibility. And one of the first ways that she made her first millions. Was through the book Your First Million, so it's an amazing book. It's a great listen if you wanna listen on audiobook. She's actually speaking and she has a really cool YouTube channel as well. Very cool. I'm definitely adding that one to my list in case I have 800 years to do nothing. I know, exactly. It's a really good read though, like I think it was, yeah. Feel like I wanna bump that one. That sounds amazing. Yes. Beautiful. Alright, vol, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom today. For those of you listening and now understand the importance of authority building and credibility, go and jump into E evolve's world. Her YouTube channel is incredible. I obviously friendly stalked her before she came on the show. Yeah, thank you. And her speaker circle on school is an amazing place to start. Vol, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much for the invitation and I can't wait to visit you. My pleasure. Thanks for tuning into the Tarryn Reeves Show. If today's episode litter firing you, share it with someone who needs to hear it and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a story that could transform your business. If you're ready to write the book that positions you as the go-to authority in your industry, visit automatic authority.com to find out how we can help you make it happen. Until next time, keep owning your story, leading with impact and building a legacy.