Twice in the past week I’ve been told I should be charging more for my speaker training programme.
Also, coincidentally, twice in the past few weeks, I’ve had conversations with people who paid way, way more (additional digits more!) for their speaker training, only to be left wanting.
They have been given no real direction, no idea how to package and market their keynotes in order to get paid bookings and no real training or support when it came to honing their personal brand, generating positive PR or marketing themselves as speakers.
Why, then, am I not charging way more for speaker training that actually delivers all of this and more?
Let me ask you a question in return: do you believe the professional speaking industry should be elitist?
No? Thought not.
So, why would I want to go charging tens of thousands of pounds for my speaker training programme?
The Heart of Speaking does what it says on the tin. It’s an exclusive three-day retreat that teaches you to ditch the script, craft a really power-full signature keynote, learn all the stagecraft you’ll need, including how to engage and work with your audience, as well as training on marketing yourself, getting the gigs and getting paid.
We do NOT teach you to sell from stage (that’s another post for another day) and we definitely advise you NOT to pay to speak. You’ll leave our retreat with everything you need to become a professional speaker, and nobody should ever be expected to pay to work.
We cap our attendees at 12, to make sure you all get the care, attention and mentoring you need. You get the opportunity to work with a professional photographer, feedback from a live audience on showcase day and, yes, of course, you’re welcome to capture footage for your showreel.
To give you an idea, our top tier option, which includes a year of additional coaching and mentoring to help you get out there and smash it, as well as a guaranteed speaker slot at a properly promoted online summit, comes in at less than four grand.
Already speaking and want to use this to improve? Sure thang – I’ve trained Olympic champions, inventors, entrepreneurs, event organisers and more – plenty of people who already have a platform but want to level up.
Totally green, but feeling called to share your story? Perfect – we’ve helped plenty of people with exactly that mission.
Want to do a TED talk and need to learn how to structure your presentation and get the gig? Awesome. I’ve delivered three TED talks and compered a fourth, and Asha’s curated and promoted TED events, so has the inside scoop. We’ve helped people step onto that red dot many a time.
So, again, am I a mug for not charging more?
I mean, I could, for sure…
Right now, though, I don’t want to.
I want to help people from all walks of life access top quality, award-winning speaker training without needing to remortgage their house.
For now, thanks very much, I’ll happily carry on running our annual, award-winning retreat in a way that makes it as accessible – and awesome – as possible.
What do you think? Am I a mug, or just sticking to my values?
#UnleashYourAwesome