What If This
Summer Changed
Everything?

Dear Fellow Speaker,

Let's talk about a brutal industry statistic: 31 out of 32 emerging speakers fail to get booked on a consistent basis.

Why? It's not because they lack talent. It's not because their message isn't powerful. It's because they are practically invisible. While they sit around waiting for the phone to ring, event planners are desperately searching for speakers — and booking people with half the talent simply because they were easier to find.

Here is the part many emerging speakers never see: while Summer feels like a season for vacations, travel, and getting away from normal routines, event organizers are entering one of the most important planning periods of the year. Across the country, conference committees are building agendas, leadership teams are planning retreats, associations are organizing annual meetings, and planners are making decisions that quietly shape events happening months from now.

Most opportunities do not arrive with a giant flashing sign announcing that booking season has started. Instead, a planner runs a search, a committee creates a shortlist, someone says, "What about this speaker?", and a room gets filled. While many speakers are waiting for a lucky break, opportunities are quietly moving around them every day.

If you want to take charge of your financial future and build a lucrative side-hustle, you cannot afford to be a ghost.

While You're Thinking About Summer, Event Planners Are Thinking About Fall

After working with speakers and event organizers for more than two decades, I've noticed something interesting: event organizers are rarely sitting around hoping to discover "the world's greatest speaker." They are trying to solve a very specific problem for a very specific audience at a very specific moment.

Someone needs a speaker for healthcare leadership. Someone else needs a speaker for financial advisors. Another planner is trying to energize a breakout room. Someone else needs a keynote for a leadership retreat. Their world revolves around solving problems, not discovering celebrities.

That creates tremendous opportunity for emerging speakers — if they make themselves easy to find.

MAKE IT EASY FOR EVENT ORGANIZERS TO SAY YES.
When your profile clearly shows who you help, what you speak about, and why you fit their event, you give planners what they need to put you on the shortlist.

THE OLD SPEAKER BUREAU MODEL WASN’T BUILT FOR EMERGING SPEAKERS LIKE YOU

Before I go any further, let me say something that has irritated me about this industry for years.

Traditional speaker bureaus built their businesses around gatekeeping. The old model often expected speakers to sit quietly, wait for permission, and hand over 25% to 50% of their hard-earned speaking fee for the privilege. That may work if you're already famous. It is a terrible model for emerging speakers trying to get booked, get noticed, and build a real speaking business.

SpeakerMatch was built differently. No gatekeepers. No waiting for someone to decide whether you deserve an opportunity. No commissions taking a chunk of your success.

For more than two decades, SpeakerMatch has helped connect speakers and event organizers. Instead of sitting around hoping someone magically discovers you, SpeakerMatch helps put you where planners and opportunities already exist.

Create a professional profile that showcases your expertise, videos, topics, and experience so organizers can quickly understand where you fit. Review speaking opportunities and open calls. Explore leads gathered from a wide range of sources and relationships built over years inside the industry.

SHOWCASE YOUR EXPERTISE

Create a powerful speaker profile and highlight the programs you offer.

FIND THE RIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Browse curated speaking opportunities that match your expertise and goals.

PURSUE WITH CONFIDENCE

Review detailed event information and act on the best-fit opportunities.

Sometimes One Event Changes Everything

What If This Summer Started Something Much Bigger?

Most people imagine that life-changing opportunities arrive with fireworks and giant flashing signs attached to them. In reality, the opportunities that eventually change someone's direction usually look surprisingly ordinary at first.

A planner discovers your profile. You come across an opportunity you would have missed six months earlier. Someone remembers your name after an event and passes your information along. An organizer introduces you to someone else. A small event turns into a larger invitation months later.

That is how speaking momentum often works. The event itself is rarely the whole story. The audience member who remembers your name matters. The organizer who shares your information matters. The person who asks whether you consult matters. The invitation that appears three months later matters.

Because speaking has a funny way of creating opportunities beyond the speaking fee itself. One event can create referrals, consulting work, business relationships, travel opportunities, podcast invitations, and introductions you never saw coming. Something that originally looked small quietly turns into something much bigger.

That is why Summer matters. While many speakers are focused on vacations and stepping away from work, event organizers are quietly planning conferences, meetings, retreats, and events that will shape the next several months.

Six months from now, some speakers will still be waiting for a lucky break. Others will look back and realize they spent the Summer putting themselves where opportunities already existed.

See Where This Summer Can Take You →

This Part May Sound Blunt — But SpeakerMatch Isn't For Everyone

If you're looking for a magic button, close this page. If you believe speaking success somehow falls into people's laps, close this page. And if spending fifteen minutes creating a polished profile sounds like too much work, SpeakerMatch probably isn't for you.

The speakers who build momentum usually do something very different. They put themselves where opportunities already exist. They make it easy for event organizers to understand them. They show up.