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2 excellent and proven ways to finance your next speaking engagement




A few weeks ago, I spoke at a security conference as a subject matter expert. While there, I was able to sell books and provide advice and assistance. If you are a niche expert, chances are that’s someone will also contact you to present; especially if you have a book, blog, or other product identifying you as the go to person.  In fact, you might receive a letter with wording similar to the one that I received last April.

“Dear __(fill in your name)___, we are contacting you to see if you are available to present at __(name of upcoming event)_____ conference. We thought it would be a good idea to present some information from your book _(your book title)____.
Please let us know if you are available and how much you would charge as compensation…”

Congratulations, you just made it to the big leagues. The two critical steps are to negotiate the payment and knock the ball out of the park with a grand slam presentation.

The last sentence “please let us know…how much you would charge for compensation,” is the hardest to address. We all have an idea for payment in mind, but just like a job interview, we can really stumble answering this question; especially if it’s your first time at bat.

1.      There are several ways you can answer this question and it depends on your situation:
a.     Will you travel to the event?-figure in ALL expenses
b.    Will you need to spend the night?-figure in sleeping and eating arrangements
c.     Will you have to take time off from your writing or full time job?-figure in these expenses

The point is, you do not want to go broke on a business endeavor. You don’t even want to break even. It’s important for your expenses, convenience and profit to be included in payment. However, there are trade-offs that can offset costs.

For example, I covered all bases with my last speaking engagement with a direct bill and some compromises.

My last speaking engagement required a 750 mile round trip and two overnights. Though I only spoke for an hour, I had to consider the logistics cost for travel and missing two days of work. Since I presented to a professional organization that supported government contracts, I asked for the equivalent equal to government per diem, lodging rates and per mile driving reimbursement (what the government would spend to put up employees in a hotel, feed them and pay per mile to get them there).
Wow, all expense paid vacation to the beach. However, I still had to figure in the cost of being off the job for two days. You can do this by figuring how much you earn per hour and apply it to the amount of business hours you will be out of the office. You might even consider the cost of leaving your family behind and missing important events.

This is where I negotiated a value tradeoff. I was able to get free booth space and permission to display and sell books at the event. Many organizations charge vendors anywhere from $300 to $3500 to occupy booth space.  Though reasonable for a vendor with a $3,000 product, but for a book seller, this is a lot of money. Where many vendors can earn a profit with the sale of one product or service, authors and book sellers would have to sell anywhere from 10 to 100 books to a potential audience of less than a 500 attendees; that defies the odds. In reality, you can expect to make a sale from 1-5 % of attendees based on sales statistics. If you’ve read my book “Get Rich in a Niche”, you’d understand why I rarely ever pay for booth space.

So, the booth space and other compensation provided the win-win agreement I looked for. Here are other ideas you can negotiate to cover expenses:
  • ·        Ask organization to purchase a minimum number of books
  • ·        Ask for free advertising in upcoming newsletters or on their website
  • ·        Collect attendee names to include in your newsletter


2.    Knock the presentation out of the park. This begins as soon as you accept terms. Now that you have their attention, get as much information on their playbook as you can and engage with intended audience regularly.

a.     What is the theme of the seminar-You can ensure your presentation carries on not only the topic, but the setting. Our conference featured an Olympic them. To support the theme, my presentation featured Olympic art and photos as well as how to be a “World Class Security Manger” while comparing the niche expert with an athlete in training. (By the way, did you notice the baseball theme in this article?)

b.    What will the others be presenting-A colleague contacted me as soon as he found out I was speaking. His main point was to let me know what he was presenting, so that I would not present the same information. In a small niche world, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to present the same topic.

c.     Who will attend-This is important to determine the technical level of the folks you are presenting to. The last thing you want to present is something too far above or below their skill level. They pay good money to learn something new, so keep information fresh. Instead of offering the same old tired topic, how about presenting something they haven’t seen before?

d.     Who are the other vendors-This is a good time to get to know the other vendors and make alliances. I’ve sold books and advertising space to other vendors. I made it my job to get to know them and become and go from rookie to MVP among vendors.

e.     Add all attendees or event POCs to newsletter-This not only allows you to introduce yourself, but ensure everyone knows who you are prior to your arrival. Communicate continuously before during and after the event.

f.       Attend any social events planned-The organization that invited me to speak put up a world class social. Many members were invited. I had a great time meeting attendees and members the night before I presented. This both bolstered my confidence and game me the opportunity to build my credibility as an expert.

If you are a niche expert, chances are that you’ll be invited to teach or present at a seminar. If so, make sure you ask for proper compensation and prepare a presentation that knocks their socks off. Congratulations, you just made it to the big leagues, now prepare ahead of time to play well.



Jeffrey W. Bennett, ISP is the owner of Red Bike Publishing. Jeff is an accomplished writer of non-fiction books, novels and periodicals. He also owns Red bike Publishing. Published books include: "Get Rich in a Niche-Insider's Guide to Self Publishing in a Specialized Industry" and "Commitment-A Novel". Jeff is an expert in security and has written many security books including: "Insider's Guide to Security Clearances" and "DoD Security Clearances and Contracts Guidebook". See Red Bike Publishing for print copies of: Army Leadership The Ranger Handbook The Army Physical Readiness Manual Drill and Ceremonies The ITAR The NISPOM
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