How to get speaking engagements (and get paid for them)

You know your subject. You could give a strong talk next month. But nobody books you, because the people who book speakers have never heard of you.

The fix fits in one line: be easy to find, and start the conversations yourself. This is the full system from my video above, with the exact messages I'd send organizers, plus two things the video doesn't have: a plan to build a speaker reel from content you already post, and a speaker one-sheet filled in for a leadership coach.

Event organizers search you before they book you

Before anyone books you, they look you up. They check your LinkedIn, your YouTube, your website and whether you've been on any podcasts. That search is what gets you picked.

The bigger events make it official. SHRM requires "proof of performance" from every speaker, and the form it prefers is a link to video of you presenting to an audience.

So what do they find? For most speakers, pretty much nothing. Or a carousel of stage photos captioned "Had a great time at this event. Thanks for having me." There's no moment from the talk, and nothing about the problem their company is dealing with.

Most keynote speakers I talk to run their whole business on referrals, past clients coming back and bureaus. That's great right up until it goes quiet. I'm not anti-bureau at all. They write real checks. But a bureau is a channel, not a strategy. It sends you work when there's already demand for someone like you.

You don't walk out on stage and wing it. Treat your business the same way: max out every way someone can find you and start a relationship with you.

Speaking gigs come from a loop, with your personal brand in the middle

The whole system is a loop, and you're in the middle of it. You record, and it goes out on every platform. The right people find you while you reach out to them. That turns into calls, then bookings, consulting work, podcast invites and sometimes a book. Every talk you film becomes more content, so it keeps going round.

Be on every platform, in 1 to 3 hours a week

I want you on all of them: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, even Reddit. You don't get to pick where an event lead or a CEO is scrolling. All you control is whether you're there when they are. A lot of people say only LinkedIn works for their industry. That's just not true.

That sounds like a full-time job. It isn't, because you record once and post everywhere. Here's a realistic week, 1 to 3 hours including recording:

Make most of your short videos on purpose. Plenty of speakers only cut their keynotes into clips, but a moment from the middle of a talk often lacks the context to stand alone.

If you've only got time for one thing, do the long videos and LinkedIn. This is a relationship business. Someone watching you think and talk for 10 minutes on YouTube is about as close as you get to grabbing a coffee with them. By the time they reach out, they kind of already know you.

Turning one recording into all of that is honestly the whole reason I built CreateSocial. Record the long video once, and it writes the LinkedIn post, the carousel, the X thread, the email and the blog post from it, in your voice.

What to post: four steps that reach the people who book speakers

This is where most speakers go blank or post inspirational quotes. Four steps fix that.

Step 1: Name the person who books you and the problem they have

Be specific: a head of people whose new managers are struggling, or a CEO whose team brings every problem back to them. Then post about that exact problem.

"Five productivity hacks for executives" pulls in people who want a shortcut, and they aren't qualified to work with you. "Why your leadership team keeps bringing you problems instead of solving them" reaches the person with the problem and the budget. That's qualified attention.

Step 2: Find topics that already work, by spotting videos that beat their channel

This is my favorite step, because you don't have to guess. Search your buyer's problem on YouTube, something like "how to improve company culture", and look for videos with way more views than the channel has subscribers. When you see that gap, it means the topic's doing the work, not just the creator.

Then sort channels in your space by Popular. Leadership channels show tips for new managers, dealing with difficult employees, your first team meeting. That's a tested list of your buyers' problems. Make your version, with your take and your stories. Copy channels that stay specific to their buyer, not the ones chasing viral videos.

CreateSocial keeps this research going. Add the competitor videos you found to your knowledge base, then follow those channels with competitor tracking so their new posts come in each week. Trending Now adds what your niche is talking about every Monday.

Step 3: Borrow formats that already work

One of my favorites for short videos is the flipped list. Instead of "how to keep your best employee", make it "four ways to get your best employee to leave". Pair them with the lazy worker. Check in on them constantly. Make your instructions vague. Don't reward them. Every manager watching thinks about their own team.

Rankings work too, like leadership habits sorted into what matters, what doesn't and what's actually harmful. People love disagreeing with a ranking, so they comment. And reaction videos let you give your take on a leadership video that already spread. Whatever the format, the text on screen should tell viewers what they're getting in the first second. These video hook examples give you 60 first lines.

Step 4: Use your stage

Film every single talk. Pull out the moments where the room went quiet, everyone laughed, or someone quoted a line back to you. Keep the ones about a problem a company actually has. A clip like that shows you can hold a room, and it does far more than a "thanks for having me" post.

Before you post anything, ask yourself two things: "Who exactly is this for? And what do I want them to do after they watch it?"

This works when you start small, too. Pat, a speaker and coach, went from a couple hundred followers to nearly 20,000 in about two months. His words: "So easy, this whole process. Just sit down for like an hour once every week or two." The part you actually care about is the business that comes with it, way more than the follower count.

Give people somewhere to go after they watch

If someone likes what they see, where do they actually go? Set up three things behind the content.

1. A free lead magnet. A checklist, named around what your client wants. For a leadership speaker, maybe "The new manager's first 90 days checklist". This guide to lead magnets covers building one.
2. A weekly newsletter. Everyone who downloads the checklist hears from you every week. Your email list is the one audience you actually own.
3. A website with fresh content on it. Every long video can become a blog post, and CreateSocial writes it from the recording, 1,500 words or more. Organizers search your name. Buyers search your topic. A fresh post every week means you show up for both.

Find speaking engagements by messaging the people who book them

Content on its own is kind of passive. Most speakers need to reach out as well, and a lot.

In the 2024 Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, 9 in 10 decision-makers and C-suite executives said they're moderately or very likely to be more receptive to sales or marketing outreach from a company that consistently produces high-quality thought leadership. So when you message someone and they look you up, there's something there. That's why content is the engine under every other channel.

Message whoever signs and whoever you'll be dealing with. That depends on your offer:

On LinkedIn, send about a hundred connection requests a week, each with a short note, then follow up. You don't pitch. You ask a question that's easy to answer. Copy this and fill in the brackets:

Message 1 (with the connection request)
Hey [first name], how do you usually find speakers
for your [sales kickoff / leadership offsite] these days?

Message 2 (a few days later)
The reason I ask is I speak to [their team] about
[the problem you solve, e.g. why deals stall after the first call].
Happy to send you a two-minute clip of the part
that landed hardest. Want me to send it over?

For consulting, do the same with the CEO:

Message 1
Hey [first name], curious, as the team's grown,
how much of the decision-making still ends up on your desk?

Message 2 (a few days later)
The reason I ask, that's most of what I work on
with leadership teams. I made a short video on the
three things that usually cause it. Want me to send it over?

It's easy to reply to. There's no pressure, and it gets a conversation going. The clip you offer comes from step 4 or from the reel below.

Email is the same idea with more volume, sent from separate domains so your main address never gets touched. The five paths a client takes to you has the full cold email setup. Warm every new inbox for four to six weeks before you send anything real, then keep each one to 20 to 25 sends a day. Instagram and X DMs work too. On Instagram, message the people viewing your stories who fit your ideal buyer.

Pitch the podcasts your buyers listen to the same way, question first. Every episode shows up when someone searches your name, and listeners often feel they know you after a long interview. Clip it like a talk.

Which speaking engagements pay, and when a free one is worth it

Not every slot pays, so check before you pitch. Content Marketing World's 2026 call for speakers said that, except for workshops and keynotes, it was "unable to cover travel expenses or pay speaker fees." Every selected speaker got a complimentary Festival Pass. Corporate events and sales kickoffs set their own budgets, so ask what the slot pays once the conversation is going.

A free slot can still be worth it if the room is full of people who book speakers or buy what you sell. Keynote director Mike Ganino found a lot of unpaid speaking opportunities through call-for-speaker forms early on, and built his speaking business from the photos, video and audiences they gave him. Say no to free stages full of the wrong people.

Build your speaker reel from content you already post

You don't need a polished sizzle reel to start. Organizers want to see you present, and Content Marketing World's 2026 call asked anyone without a past talk for a simple recording from their phone. This personal branding guide for consultants lists what four big events ask speakers for. Here's a reel built from what you already make:

1. Pick one long recording: a webinar, a workshop, a video podcast episode or one of your long YouTube videos. No talk yet? Run a 30-minute webinar and record it.
2. Upload it to CreateSocial and open Find Clips. On any video of 8 minutes or longer, it suggests up to five moments that stand on their own, each about 15 to 90 seconds with a strength score. Each clip becomes its own vertical video with subtitles.
3. Post the clips over the next two weeks.
4. Watch which ones bring messages and comments from the right people. Those are your proof clips.
5. Put your best two or three on your one-sheet and pin them to your profiles.
6. Offer one in message 2 of your outreach, as "the part that landed hardest".
7. Film every new talk and repeat. Each stage clip replaces your weakest webinar clip.

This also fixes the context problem with keynote clips. Find Clips never pads the list with weak moments, and a suggestion can stitch a setup and its payoff together from different parts of the talk, so the clip makes sense alone.

A speaker one-sheet template, filled in for a coach with no stage history

A speaker one-sheet is a one-page summary an organizer can scan to decide whether you fit their event. Most templates assume a long list of past stages. This one, for a hypothetical leadership coach who works with heads of people, leads with the problem and video instead.

SPEAKER ONE-SHEET

[Headshot]

[Your name]
Leadership coach and speaker for companies
promoting their first managers

THE PROBLEM I SPEAK ON
Your new managers were great at their jobs.
Now their teams bring every problem back to them,
and the managers are drowning.

SIGNATURE TALK
"Why your leadership team keeps bringing you
problems instead of solving them"
45-minute keynote or 90-minute workshop,
in person or virtual.

WHAT THE ROOM LEAVES WITH
1. The three questions a manager asks before
   taking a problem back
2. How to spot the decisions a team should own
3. A 90-day plan for a manager's first team

BEST FOR
Leadership offsites, manager training days,
HR and people conferences, sales kickoffs

WATCH ME FIRST
Clip 1: [link] Why "my door is always open" backfires
Clip 2: [link] The question that hands a problem back
Full webinar or talk: [link]
Podcast episode: [show name and link]

WHAT PEOPLE SAY
[One line from a client or attendee, with their role.
Leave this out until you have a real one.]

FREE FOR YOUR ATTENDEES
The new manager's first 90 days checklist

TO BOOK OR ASK A QUESTION
[email]   [booking link]   [LinkedIn URL]

The problem goes first, because the organizer is buying a fix for their audience. "Watch me first" replaces the list of past stages, and the free checklist gives attendees a reason to join your newsletter. Send the PDF once someone says yes to the clip.

Get every interested person onto a 15-minute call

Bookings don't come in a straight line from video to stage. Someone sees a clip, hears you on a podcast or Googles your topic, then checks you out. Or you reach out first. Or they like your post and you message them.

It all ends up in a conversation. Once there's any interest at all, get them on the phone. Don't let it just die in the DMs. A 15-minute call does more than 20 messages. How to get coaching clients with video walks that path from viewer to booked call.

Set it up in two weeks, then give it three to six months

The content side takes about two weeks to set up: profiles, lead magnet, a first batch of videos and your list of people to message. Start the email inboxes warming on day one, because they need four to six weeks before they send anything.

Then give it three to six months before you judge it. So many people quit straight away, with no strategy in their content or outreach. This stuff stacks up. The clip you post in month one is what someone might find in month four, right when their problem gets urgent.

Events book early, too. Content Marketing World's 2026 call closed on March 27 for a conference held October 5 to 7.

Referrals, repeat clients and bureaus are great. The problem is depending on them. Do all of this, and the bureau email still comes. It's just the cherry on top instead of the whole cake.

How CreateSocial runs the content side of getting booked

I built CreateSocial to help experts build a personal brand that brings in clients, speaking gigs and customers, without content taking over their week. It learns what you know and runs the whole content week, video and written: ideas, scripts, posts, recording, editing, thumbnails and scheduling. Your hours go to the outreach and the calls.

Here's this page's plan inside it:

• Topics that get you booked, waiting on Monday. Add your website, YouTube channel, past talks, client stories and the competitor videos from step 2 to your knowledge base. CreateSocial turns it into 80 personalized ideas a month, each with a hook and talking points or a full script. "Ask me first" asks you a few questions before it writes, so the script carries your real stories.
• The week recorded in one sitting. Read your points off the teleprompter near your camera, at your desk or on the iPhone app. Each point is its own section with one-tap retakes. Dual mode frames 16:9 and 9:16 at once, so one take works for YouTube and for Reels.
• An edit that's mostly deleting words. Cut the video by editing its transcript. Remove Silences takes out the pauses in one click, eye contact correction keeps your gaze on the viewer, and subtitles go on in one of 11 styles. YouTube thumbnails come from your footage and photos of you, three at a time.
• A speaker reel from talks you already gave. Upload a recorded talk or webinar (MP4, WebM or MOV, up to 2GB), and Find Clips turns its best standalone moments into vertical videos with subtitles.
• LinkedIn covered on weeks you don't film. CreateSocial writes LinkedIn posts, X threads, newsletter emails and blog posts in your voice from your knowledge base, with no video at all. Your lead magnet can start as a LinkedIn carousel exported as a PDF.
• Everywhere, without you doing the posting. Schedule to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and X, each with its own caption, and we post it for you once your accounts are connected. The Analytics page then tracks followers, views, likes, comments and shares on your connected TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts.

Also in the one plan: Trending Now every Monday, competitor tracking, reaction videos in Layout or Stitch mode, screen recording with your camera as a bubble, green screen and virtual backgrounds with or without a real green screen, B-roll with free stock video search and platform safe-zone guides for TikTok, Reels and Shorts.

I'm Ben Moore, and I'm a solo founder. I built CreateSocial on my own, bootstrapped, here in Cincinnati, Ohio, so you talk to me directly. Feature requests come to me, and a lot of what customers ask for gets built. Before this, my agency generated millions of followers and millions of dollars in revenue for clients, and I've generated hundreds of millions of views.

It's $129 a month, or $99 a month billed annually, with no add-ons and no per-feature charges. Start your free trial and record this week's long video inside it. Want to map your booker, your topics and your outreach with me first? Book a free strategy call with me.

Send your first five questions this week

1. Write down the person who books you and the problem they have right now.
2. Search that problem on YouTube and list five videos beating their channel size.
3. Record one long video on the best of them, plus three short ones.
4. Pull your strongest moment into a clip and put it on your one-sheet, using the template above.
5. Send the one-question message to five people who book speakers for your buyers' events.

When one of them answers, get them on a 15-minute call. A free CreateSocial trial gives you the ideas, the teleprompter, Find Clips and the schedule for week two.