In this episode of Expertise Made Real, Kristin N. Spencer asks Bobbie Carlton, founder of Innovation Women, to walk through her system for speaking as if you’ve never heard anything about it.

Bobbie shares her four-part framework for deciding which speaking opportunities to say yes to. It starts with your “happy price,” the value you bring to the audience weighed against what it costs you to deliver the talk. From there, she covers treating every stage like an audition in front of the right people, looking for something else of value (video, photos, a prestige stage, a list of attendees), and the fun bonus of travel.

Then Kristin and Bobbie turn to what happens when speaking and authorship work together. Bobbie explains why an organization with no speaker budget may still have money for educational materials, swag, or gift bags, and why you should have organizers sell your book with tickets instead of settling for a table at the back of the room. They also talk about why a book, a framework, and a speech feed each other, so the content you’ve already created works across speeches, social media, your website, and workshops.

In this episode:

• The four questions to ask before saying yes to a speaking opportunity
• What a “happy price” is and how to calculate it
• Why every audience should be treated like an audition
• The non-cash value to look for in a speaking deal
• Extra business models that only authors have
• Why you want the organizer to buy your books, not you to haul them
• How one framework can feed your speeches, social media, website, and workshops

Connect with Bobbie:

• Sign up for the weekly newsletter at innovationwomen.com.

Links referenced in this episode:

• innovationwomen.com
• bit.ly/expertisemr

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Innovation Women
• Harvard University
• United Nations
• Disney
• Universal Studios