Anyone responsible for hiring motivational speakers can be (understandably) hesitant to trust someone without any street cred. Street cred can come in the form of having a best-selling book, a video reel of you speaking so they can gauge your ability to deliver, or even just word of mouth that you’re the go-to speaker.

Understand none of these things mean that you’re actually a better speaker than Blake or Stephanie or Janet, it just means they’re pre-convinced of your ability to deliver and they know what they’re getting before you hit the stage.

In fact, when they are 100% pre-convinced you can deliver, you can start to command higher rates because they’d rather bet on a winning horse than an unknown.

So how much do motivational speakers get paid? Well, there are three categories of speakers: the long shot, the value bet, and the sure thing.

Category #1: “The Long Shot” AKA The New Speaker 

No one’s ever heard of you, no one’s ever seen you speak, and you either don’t have a video of you speaking or frankly not a great one. Don’t lose heart. Everyone starts here.

Category #2: “The Value Bet” AKA The Mainstream Speaker

You’ve done some gigs, you have a pretty solid video of you speaking, have references / testimonials, and are a GOOD speaker BUT there are likely others out there who are better and/or more unique.

Category #3: “The Sure Thing” AKA The Stand-Out, Veteran Speaker

I’ve seen you speak or someone I deeply trust saw you speak and you BLEW THEM AWAY, your message and/or delivery is ONE OF A KIND (you’ve made yourself a category of one), the video of you speaking is 95% as good as seeing you in person, everything about your message and marketing is first class.

Before we even get into how much youth speakers can charge, two quick disclaimers:

1. These ballpark ranges are generally true but they’re not exactly hard data.

2. All of these ranges go out the window if you are a “household name” celebrity such as a former President, have had a movie about your life, or a former Superbowl MVP. These speakers often command $50K-$1M per speech and it’s largely to “fill seats” -vs- their message being extraordinary. 

Regardless of which category you’re currently in. Keep growing and pushing yourself as a speaker. Put your audience’s needs first and earn your way to that next category by adding more value and becoming more of a sure bet. 👍

---

LET US HELP YOU INCREASE YOUR SPEAKING FEE.

Click here to schedule a call with our team and let’s talk about how we can help 👍