How can you make money from your information, skills and talents when you aren't on the platform?
The speaking world has shifted. It may never be what we grew to expect a few years ago. For example, we were used to earning good fees and all expenses paid to speak to a group, often in a nice location.
Lately more groups are just paying expenses, and no actual speaker fee.
Some groups are paying no fee or expenses. You pay to get yourself to the event and speak. Some groups are requiring you to pay a registration fee.
A few groups not only require you to pay your own way, but are charging you to speak to the group! Why? Because they feel the room is full of decision makers so you are getting to present an infomercial. They think you’ll make a lot of money from those attendees so you should pay for the privilege of their attention.
If business returns to what you’re used to with clients paying us nice fees and expenses, great. If not, however, you need to shift how you make income from your gifts, talents and knowledge. You need to know how to make money that is not dependent on your getting paid to speak live in front of a group.
How can you do that?
There are so many ways we don’t have room in this article. But here are some common ones that are supplementing or replacing speaking income for many:
Webinars/teleseminars
Even if you are a keynote speaker, there are ways you can offer your “magic” even when not on the platform. Is it as good as watching you live in person? Probably not. It would be like watching a play on DVD vs. live. Some of the enchantment is missing. However, a DVD can offer better close-up images than if you are in the back row of the theater.
So whether you are a keynoter, trainer, or coach, you can probably morph what you do to be effective virtually. I’ve helped all types of presenters create a webinar or teleseminar format that fits their style and audience.
Home-study courses
If you have at least an hour’s presentation, you can augment that with implementation guides, worksheets, quizzes, case studies, etc. to create a home-study course. This allows you to have something to sell after any presentation (paid or unpaid), as an adjunct to webinars, or to sell as a stand-alone learning system. It could be a paper product, bound or in a binder, or a downloadable product, coupled with audio or videos — or not!
Video or audio subscriptions
If you are comfortable with videos, make a series of short ones to post to YouTube and your website touting your more in-depth ones that are part of a subscription service or membership site. However, those teasers must be very good to get people to pay you money for more.
These ideas are just the tip of the ice berg. There are so many other ways to deliver your information so you can make money even when you aren’t on the platform — even in your jammies!
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