When people ask me what I do for a living, here’s what I say:
I talk about my issues and I hit stuff!
After a moment of silence, most people then ask me to elaborate. I then explain that I am a professional drummer and a mental health speaker. The career path for a professional drummer is much easier to explain than that of a mental health speaker.
I regularly receive calls and emails from people looking to learn more about how I grew my career as a mental health speaker. I hope to answer some of that here.
This article started as an email exchange when a woman named Susan Estes reached out to me for advice about becoming a paid mental health speaker. Instead of writing her a long email, I got her permission to publish her questions and answer them here. If you or someone you know is interested in becoming a paid mental health speaker, here is some information that will hopefully shed some light on this career.
If you have any additional questions, please submit them as a comment below and I will respond.
Become a Paid Mental Health Speaker
Susan: I am currently working with NAMI as an In Your Own Voice Speaker and would like to add paid speaking engagements to my calendar. What would you do to leverage these opportunities when speaking to colleges and other organizations?
Mike: First of all, thank your willingness and courage to share your story. Your commitment to helping others is truly inspiring. In terms of leveraging opportunities when speaking to colleges and other organizations, it’s important to have a system (checklist) in place. For example, after every speaking engagement, I ask my clients for a recommendation letter, video testimonials, and if they know of any other organizations that I should contact. If you’ve done a good job presenting, the people that hire you will be most excited about you immediately after you speak. Therefore, it’s important to be prepared.
Your checklist should also include recording and saving all of your presentations on videos. In my case, I record presentations with my iPhone and save it to a folder in Dropbox. This serves two purposes:
- It gives you honest feedback on how your presentation looked and felt to the audience. Be sure to take notes when you review your videos.
- It gives you a critical piece of marketing material for meeting planners who are interested in hiring you.
At the same time, it’s important to be ethical and follow the NAMI In Our Own Voice Operating Policies and get written permission from your affiliate to do what I suggested. If your affiliate is uncomfortable with any of these, be sure to enthusiastically honor your commitment to them.
Susan: After your first paid speaking engagement how did you find additional opportunities?
Mike: At first, I took a shotgun approach to this. I used the internet to find every mental health conference taking place in New York State and called each the meeting planners. It took a lot of time at first, but it allowed me to start the right conversations with the right people. At the same time, I began building this website. Initially, this website started as a page on MikeVeny.com.
Susan: Would you invest in a professional website in the beginning? How important is a website?
Mike: Absolutely! A website is critical because it serves as a home base for people to go to. This website was relatively inexpensive to build. It’s a WordPress site hosted on BlueHost and uses StudioPress templates for the design. Getting the website set up and running is easy. For most people, it can be done in less than one day. The challenge is learning how to create content that works for the internet.
It’s also important to understand that a website is the main component of your platform. To learn more about building your platform, read Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt
Susan: What initial investments did you make? Brochures? One Pagers? Website?
Mike: The most important investments that I made (and continue to make) are in my knowledge. In my first year of speaking, I read every single book that I could on professional speaking and the speaking business. I took lots of notes and you are seeing the results of that work on this website.
Here is a list of the books that helped me:
- Paid To Speak: Best Practices For Building A Successful Speaking Business by the National Speakers Association
- Speak More!: Marketing Strategies to Get More Speaking Business by the National Speakers Association
- The Six-Figure Speaker: Formula for a Six-Figure Income as a Professional Speaker by Cathleen Filmore
- Speaking for Millions: How to Make REALLY Big Money as a Professional Speaker (Public Speaking is just the START!) by Fred Gleeck
The other important investment to make is in your mindset about the speaking business. I know many people who are interested in doing this because it appears to look like a no brainer – simply deliver a good speech and get paid a nice fee.
Let me share a few myths that I hear from people who are looking to get paid to speak:
- There is a “speaking circuit” – There is no speaking circuit, but there are relationships. If people know you, like you, and trust you to deliver what you say you are going to deliver, then you will get hired.
- Someone will discover you – This is similar to the myth of the overnight success. No one ever discovered me. Someone encouraged me to speak at an event in 2011 and at that point, I discovered myself.
- The organization said that they have no money to pay speakers – Most of the time, this is not true. If people really want to hire you, then they will find the money.
- Everyone tells you that you are a great speaker so you should be a professional – Again, this is a business. If you aren’t comfortable learning how to market and sell yourself. In addition, you have to be able to handle pressure and criticism.
- You have a great story so people will want to pay you for it – No meeting planner cares about your story, no matter how many people tell you they are inspired by it. Meeting planners have one focus – delivering a great event while preventing things from going wrong.
Susan: Are there any associations or organizations that you would recommend?
Mike: I’d suggest joining your local Toastmasters International club, the National Speakers Association, and your local chapter of the National Speakers Association. Being a member of Toastmasters allows me to practice my speaking skills, get critical feedback, and grow my skills as a speaker. That National Speakers Association provides invaluable education on building your speaking business.
In addition, I have a profile on eSpeakers and SpeakerMatch.
Susan: How do you find meeting planners and network with them? What do they require in order to book you for presentations.
Mike: Another organization that I am a member of is Meeting Professionals International. I am developing relationships with meeting planners on a regular basis. In addition, if I cold call an organization, I ask to speak with the person in charge of planning the conferences. It’s that simple.
In my opinion, meeting planners are looking for edutainment. Edutainment is combination of an educational and entertaining presentation. Meeting planners want to make sure that they make a decision that will make them look good. If you think about it, when a meeting planner hires a speaker, their jobs are on the line.
Susan: How do you adjust your presentations for different audiences?
Mike: I make it a point to call people that are going to be in the audience prior to my presentation. I do this to take the time to listen to their specific challenges. This allows me to deliver a presentation that’s targeted to them. As I said before, when you are getting paid, your story is only a component of your presentation. It’s critical that you connect with the particular audience that you are presenting to.
In my opinion, your top priority should be to solve problems and add value to your audiences lives.
Susan: How do you set your fees?
Mike: That’s a really good question. I set my fees based on demand. When I first began in 2011, I would speak anywhere that people would let me speak and many times I’d do it for free. This is necessary to get more experience and begin developing relationships. Nowadays, I get calls and emails about hiring me on a weekly basis.
Susan: Should I pay for my own transportation to an event?
Mike: Travel, meals, and hotel should always be provided (or you should be reimbursed). In my case, I’ve got really wide shoulders, so if an organization wants me to fly a certain distance, I’m not doing it unless I’m flying business or first class.
Susan: What is most challenging about the work you are doing?
Mike: My biggest challenge is that I want to do EVERYTHING. This year, I’ve had to learn to say “NO” to stuff. It feels so weird to write that, by the way. One lesson that I’ve learned the hard way is that it’s important to say no to speaking engagements that aren’t a good fit for you – even if they pay well. Like most things in life, you have to trust your instincts.
Also, I’ve had to learn to develop a thick skin around haters and critics. As you develop your career, the haters and critics will come out of the woodwork. Ironically, they can actually be the people that were supportive of you when you started out.
Susan: What is most rewarding?
The most rewarding part of this is the people that I meet. I learn so much from them and they have helped me in my recovery.
Truthfully, I don’t really like being a professional speaker. I LOVE HELPING OTHERS, however.
Lately, I’ve been trying to embrace a concept that I learned from a podcast featuring Brené Brown…showing up for myself. I’m learning to embrace this new concept of making sure that I deliver a presentation that makes me NAUSEOUS. If I don’t feel nauseous after presenting, then I haven’t shown up for myself.
