Is the stage calling your name? If you’ve been considering becoming an event speaker and pitching yourself for opportunities, today’s guest is going to set you on the path to success. Laylee Emadi is a business coach, who helps business owners become educators to better serve the creative industry. In today’s episode, she’s sharing what you should consider before you become a speaker, how to prepare yourself for pitching, and steps to take to pitch appropriately!

The Branded by Bernel Podcast is brought to you by Bernel Westbrook, lead designer and founder of Branded by Bernel, a design studio dedicated to building strong brands and Showit websites for creative entrepreneurs.

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Laylee is an educator with a heart for serving clients and fellow creatives, through her coaching work, as the host of the So, Here’s the Thing Podcast, and as founder of The Creative Educator Academy. She believes in serving the creative industry with heartfelt encouragement, honest advice, and a shared pursuit of the ever-elusive “balance.” Laylee is passionate about her goal to help you feel confident in your ability to make a difference, create impact, and to build a life doing what you love.

Becoming a Speaker

If you’ve entered the educational space of your creative industry, becoming a speaker can help grow your influence, build a larger audience, and even contribute to your finances. As you explore speaking opportunities, ask yourself why you’re exploring speaking and the opportunities.

Why is it that you’re wanting to become a speaker? Are you interested in speaking, growing your network, or getting paid? Depending on the industry you’re in and the type of speaking opportunities you’re pursuing, your expectations may shift.

In some industries, the payment is much smaller, while other industries pay really well. You can still pursue both paths, but know the reason you’re committing to each. For the speaking opportunities that don’t pay well, do they offer networking with an audience that matches your ideal customer? That benefit can sometimes do more for you than the payment from a gig that doesn’t have your ideal customer in front of you.

How to Get Started as a Speaker

Now that you know why you want to start speaking, let’s walk through preparing to pitch yourself to event hosts.

1. Do your research on where you want to speak. Every event is different and there are so many options out there for you to try out! Look into what your options are and explore them!
2. Determine your signature topics. As you determine what your topics are, make sure they align with what you’re an expert in and the services that you offer.
3. Start applying and pitching yourself. We’ll dive into the best ways to pitch yourself, but don’t hold back when you do. It’s easy to fear rejection, but you have to first put yourself out there.
4. Determine what’s worth it and what’s not. Before you get accepting and are given an offer to speak somewhere, know what you want out of it. Whether it’s getting paid to speak or using an event to network and grow your business, you need to know what it’s worth to you for each and every event.

How to Pitch Yourself for Speaking Opportunities

When it comes time to actually pitch yourself, there are a few key tips to consider to maximize your chances of getting selected as a speaker.

1. Reach out in the appropriate places. Event hosts pay good money for web designers to build out beautiful landing pages for their events and even speaker applications. Take a look around their website to find it or an email to pitch to. The last thing you want to do is pitch yourself in-person or in the DM’s, because the host won’t remember you.
2. Don’t go into a pitch without topics tailored to events. What you’re speaking on needs to be relevant to the audience that you’re speaking to, so if that means you need to altar your pitch the match the audience, make sure you’re aware of that in your research.
3. Build a relationship with event hosts. Industry relationships and friends can make a huge difference in how your pitch is perceived, but it also give you the opportunity to support the host in other ways outside of their event.

THREE ACTIONABLE STEPS TO MOVE YOUR BUSINESS FORWARD

Now to my favorite question here on the show, I asked Laylee, what are three actionable steps that someone could take today to move their business forward?

1. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new things and fail at them.
2. Speakers, don’t be afraid rejection when pitching.
3. Reach out & build relationships with others.

Connect with Laylee

layleeemadi.com

layleeemadi.com/creative-educator-academy

layleeemadi.com/mastermind

soheresthethingpodcast.com

Connect with Bernel

brandedbybernel.com

instagram.com/brandedbybernel

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