7 Little-Known Keynote Speaker Tips That Make It Easier To Share Your Ideas In Meetings

Boost Your Confidence, Clare Josa keynote

You feel the 'spotlight' coming your way, and you're all psyched up to share your brilliant idea, but as soon as it lands on you, your mind goes blank. Or you tone your 'Marmite' down to 'beige'. Discover seven little-known keynote speaker tips that that make it easier to share your ideas in meetings with courage, confidence and passion, even if you secretly wanted to crawl under the table and hide.

I'm really aware how blessed I am to love being on stage. It started when I lived in El Paso, Texas, for a few years as a kindergartener. My first stage performance had me excited to see so many smiling faces. There were a few barren years at school, where my clarinet and saxophone playing had me stuck in the pits, but I've always loved speaking in front of people.

That doesn't mean I don't get nervous, though, especially if what I'm sharing is challenging the status quo. On the morning of a keynote or speech, I definitely get butterflies. And the more my message matters to me, the more those butterflies turn into bigger, flappier things. So, whilst I enjoy it, I'm not always fear-free.

Here are some important stats:

11%

Fully confident in speaking up

47%

Hold back on being visible

44%

Spotlight = fear of mistakes

According to my 5-year research study into Imposter Syndrome and burnout, the secret fear of being found out as not good enough or a fraud leads to 89% of people not feeling fully confident when speaking up with their ideas. 47% actively hold back on being visible, and 44% actively fear that being in the spotlight means that they will make mistakes and be judged.

So it's no wonder people worry about sharing their ideas in meetings. Look around you in your next meeting: 9 out of 10 of the people in the room feel the same way.

You're in good company.

Gandhi was well known for cleaning the venue's toilets before making a speech. But those close to him said this was, in part, because he needed to be near to the loos.

To help you to feel more able to share your ideas with courage, confidence and passion, I've pulled out seven little-known tips that I and other keynote speakers use to feel confident sharing our message, so we don't have to push on through the fear or fake it till we make it.

I hope they help.

7 Little-Known Tips From Keynote Speakers To Help You Share Your Ideas In Meetings

1. Get Grounded

Feeling stressed or nervous impacts the blood flow in your brain, physically making it hard to think straight, as your body runs the fight-flight-freeze response. And which of the fight, flight, or freeze options your unconscious mind chooses comes across in your voice and body language.

So it's essential to get grounded - to manage your internal state - before speaking up with your idea.

Here's an audio to guide you through a technique that can help: Press Pause

2. It's Not About You

In 2015 I co-led a campaign that changed EU law, but as part of that journey I had to go head-to-head in a live radio interview with the boss of the UK's tax authority, in front of over a million people.

The key to having the courage to do this was deciding that this wasn't about me; it was about the micro-businesses I was trying to help. Every press interview and speech I gave for the campaign, I did it for them. And that made all the difference.

Make your 'why' bigger than your fears.

3. What's In It For Them?

How can you position your idea in a way that makes those you want to win round look good, instead of stupid for not having though of it themselves? How can you pre-empt their potential objections?

How can you make it an easier yes? What's in it for them? What's the 'hook'? Start with their 'why'.

I teach this to my Stepping Up To Lead coach clients, and in our Imposter Syndrome First-Aider certification, with Soultuitive® Listening.

4. Be Still!

Calm your body, calm your mind. And don't fidget!

Doing my NLP Trainer Training, back in 2003, was like bootcamp for speaker skills: they broke us and rebuilt us. That, and my meditation teacher training a few years later, taught me the value of being fully present when you're speaking, and being intentional with your movements. I consciously move my energy to the lower half of my body to do this.

And calming your mind gets you in flow, speaking with clarity, and inspiring others with your message.

5. Share A Story

I gave a keynote at the European Parliament as part of the law-change campaign, and I knew that if I messed up, I'd fail 100,000+ microbusinesses.

But, instead of talking about the stats from our research study, I told a story. I took the decision-makers on a journey to experience for themselves the new law's impact, inspiring them to take action.

Stories plus data are a fabulous way to change minds. Humans buy on emotions and then rationalise that decision with the data.

6. Non-Attachment

The more important an idea is to us, the harder it can be to share it. We're really attached to the outcome. But that's a fast-track to sounding needy and pleady.

Instead, we need to do our homework - especially on tips 3 and 5 - and then let the idea fly, like releasing a newly healed bird back into the wild. It can feel tough, but it sets your idea free and increases its impact.

As a speaker, I have to let go of attachment to the outcome of a talk. As long as I've done all I can to inspire, it's up the audience whether they take action.

7. The Power Of The Pause

When we've just shared an idea, the natural instinct is to keep talking. Silence can feel awkward and we want to fill that gap with more words, often accidentally undermining the message we just shared.

But there's immense power in a pause.

Make your statement and shut up. Give your audience a few seconds of processing time, to allow the impact of your idea to ripple through the room. And watch the magic happen.

Bonus Tip: #8

Imperfectly said is better than perfectly silent.

The Power of #MicroCourage

Breathe in, breathe out, smile (if appropriate!) and speak.

Want more? Here's a whole podcast episode I did on this, if Imposter Syndrome - the secret fear of being found out as not good enough or a fraud - is what's getting in the way of you speaking up with your ideas:

These are just some of the ways you can increase your confidence, courage and passion when sharing your ideas and I hope that they make a difference for you.

And I'd love to hear from you:

I'm curious: what are your thoughts?

Which of these seven tips resonates most with you? And how might you remember to apply them? And how might #MicroCourage empower you?

Here's where we're talking about this

what's the next step?

Want to find out how big a role Imposter Syndrome might be playing for you, and how it's causing you to self-sabotage?

Get your research-backed score plus a personalised action plan in under five minutes - for free:

Tell Me My Imposter Syndrome Score!

If you're looking lead with courage, confidence and passion, you might also find these articles helpful:

7 Little-Known Keynote Speaker Tips That Make It Easier To Share Your Ideas In Meetings

How To Prevent Scope Creep From Trashing Great Relationships

Clare Josa keynote

Scope creep - clients increasing what they want after agreeing the budget - is well understood in industries like the building trade, but how do you handle it in your B2B service business? Find out why it used to make us tear our hair out, but why we now celebrate it. And how you can either prevent it, or make it a win-win.

I'll never forget back at the start of the first 2020 lockdown I was running a keynote for an ED&I group for a major corporate, on Imposter Syndrome. We had agreed an event fee for 100 attendees, with me hosting the replay for those same 100 people in my training resource vault, for 12 months.

And the invoice still showed no sign of being paid, despite being over a month late, 4 hours before the keynote.

Then the call came:

"Our legal team says you can't host the replay, we have to."

A few quick questions revealed that the client wanted to add the keynote to their online worldwide training vault, for 100,000+ global employees as an in-house training course, forever, for free.

As you can imagine, that's a very different fee.

And there was more:

Having agreed a fee for 100 delegates, they now had over 1,000 registered.

"But you've already done the work, apart from the hour of delivery, so it shouldn't make any difference to the fee."

The thing is, it does. You can't buy one ticket to, say, a Beyoncé concert and then show up with nine friends on your lap. Sharing a life-changing training with ten times as many people significantly increases value to the company.

The ED&I committee lead had signed the contract months before, but was being yelled at by the legal and leadership teams, who wanted blood for their money.

In that moment, we had to decide whether or not to pull the plug.

We went ahead, capping the room at 500, and there was no recording or replay because the legal team couldn't consider our suggested options in time. That was sad, because it was a great session, despite the major, last-minute stress. And, two months later, I did eventually get paid the original fee.

But it was a big lesson in scope creep. And it got us thinking...

We all accept scope creep and price changes for building works, so why has that system broken for B2B services?

We all understand that a builder might need to do that sucking-air-over-teeth thing, once the old plasterboard is off and they can see the real state of the wall. And we have all heard of building jobs 'growing', taking longer, and costing more, when the customer changes their mind about what they want.

"While you're here, could you just...?"

It's accepted that there has to be give and take.

We realised we needed to rethink scope creep, if we wanted to prevent the stress - and relationship damage - it can cause.

Scope Creep? Now We Celebrate It!

We talk about two types of scope creep:

The Two Types Of Scope Creep

1
Unconscious Scope Creep - the client hasn't thought through the potential cost and timing implications of a request for changes, or even considered that the requests are different to the briefed or contracted project. Fixing this requires educating the client.
2
Conscious Scope Creep - the client is fully aware that they're moving the goal posts, and they're doing it because the project is important to them. They know there may be cost and timing implications. Fixing this requires negotiating with the client.

Conscious scope creep isn't usually a problem. The client understands they're changing the brief - or the contract - and they'll expect you to revisit the fee. But unconscious scope creep can turn previously happy working relationships sour, fast. It's important to prevent it (more in a mo).

But first:

3 reasons why we now celebrate scope creep, whereas before it had been known to make us cry.

1. More people = the teams are excited

It can be really tough in an initial briefing meeting to accurately predict how many team members might attend a workshop or keynote talk. That's why we quote for ranges of attendees.

And with the extra support that we give clients to build buzz and maximise impact, it can mean you end up with more people than you would normally expect at that kind of event.

But this is a good thing. It means that the topic is important, and that it's more likely to create a wave of change than if people just felt 'meh' about it. The audience is excited.

2. More deliverables = the client is excited

Perhaps the client wants to add in extra elements to the project - great! They can see the value of the work you're doing together and they want to give you the chance to make it even better.

In our work, this can mean everything from adding human-generated captions to a keynote replay, through to every attendee getting a copy of one of my books, through to extending the post-keynote research report from a summary, to be a full report and board presentation.

3. Increased scope = the client wants to solve the real problem

This means the client has seen that the 'wall behind the plasterboard' needs more to fix it than previously thought, and they're not going to bodge it. They really want to solve the problem.

In the past, this has included things like asking us to add in post-keynote focus groups and a full company-wide research study, to prioritise high-impact, low-effort actions to make as big a difference as possible.

How We Proactively Prevent Unconscious Scope Creep

Conscious scope creep - as a reminder - is where both parties are aware and agree that the changes affect the original brief and contract. To handle that well, it just takes a deep breath and a bit of renegotiation.

But unconscious scope creep is a bit trickier: the client may genuinely think it's a fair request, within the contract. So here are three ways we try to prevent it.

We Pre-Empt Scope Creep In Our Quotes

We include 2-3 pricing options in any proposal, and the most expensive option includes the most common scope creep requests, at a discount. We display this in a table, to make it super-easy to see what is and isn't included at each price point.

We Remind Clients In Their Welcome Pack

Once we have the purchase order, our clients get a welcome pack, putting them at ease on how things will run for the project. It also includes a table with what is included in the quote they chose, plus the common upgrade options, with prices.

We Check Again, At Our Final Briefing Call

We take them through that welcome pack table in the final briefing call, making sure that nothing has changed. And if it has, we can use the table to discuss the cost implications, so that the client can make informed choices.

And if those don't work?

Then it's time for a call. How to handle it to make increase the likelihood of a win-win outcome?

Keep it factual. Take out the emotions. Even if the scope creep is intentional - and cheeky - it's not personal. Get grounded, so you're not tense and wound up as you speak.
Don't accuse or blame. Come from a place of curiosity, not frustration.
Use the 'if this, then that' cause-and-effect model. For example, "If you add in an additional ten questions to the research questionnaire, then it will add £x to the project price and have z impact on timing." And if you need it, consider using a "because...", but you really don't have to.
The power of the pause: after you share the price / timing implications, shut up! Give the client time to process, rather than filling the silence with waffle that undermines what you just shared.

Then the client can choose whether to increase / vary the scope, and it's a win-win outcome.

If you're in the situation where the client needs to understand why their new requests could impact the price, it's really worth having educational content on your website that pre-empts it. They're much less likely to take it personally (and you're more likely to stick to what's fair) if they can tell that this is public your message to the world, rather than personal about them.

It's why we have articles like How Much You Should Expect To Pay For A Keynote Speaker and What Goes In To Creating A Brilliant Bespoke Keynote?

If it's not knowledge a client is born with, then it's not fair to grump with them for not knowing it!

And to give you more examples, common scope creep items for us with, say, a keynote talk, include:

Having ten times as many contracted attendees on a virtual event
Turning the replay into a company-wide training course
Changing the event from all-virtual to hybrid, with solo viewers and in-person watch-groups, which requires redesigning the way interactions and exercises work
Last-minute asking us to host the event as a Zoom webinar, rather than on the client's platform
Last-minute asking not to use Zoom, but to use something bespoke that requires slide and content redesign, as well an extended tech rehearsal
Adding in print or digital copies of Ditching Imposter Syndrome or Dare to Dream Bigger for each delegate
Adding in human-created captions for the replay, in three languages
Designing and running a panel discussion for immediately before or after the keynote
Adding in a 30-minute Q&A, after the keynote
Adding in an afternoon workshop on a different topic, having done the opening keynote for a conference
"Just running a few more questions" through the data in the post-event research summary report
Presenting the research summary report, in person, to the company's board
Designing the questions for post-event focus groups on the keynote topic

All of these can be accommodated, but they may impact the price and timing.

And it's really common for clients to ask to add back in things they had previously asked to have removed, to make the event fit within their budget, without considering that this will put the cost up.

I'm curious: what are your thoughts?

Whether you're the client, or the one delivering the service, what kinds of scope creep do you regularly see? And how would you advise handling it? Click the button to join in the discussion on LinkedIn.

Here's where we're talking about this

Want to find out more about booking me as a keynote speaker for your teams?

My keynote topics include ditching Imposter Syndrome, preventing burnout, clearing out toxic resilience, leading from your heart in a head-based world, and working with my Natural Resilience Method® and HOPE Matrix® frameworks to grow thriving, diverse, authentic teams and confident, courageous, inspiring leaders.

If the idea of working together has you curious - or even perhaps excited - here's how to take the next step:

what's the next step?

To find out more about booking me as a keynote speaker and my areas of expertise - and to get a copy of my speaker brochure (which contains price ranges for the various options) - please click the button:

I want to find out about booking Clare Josa as a speaker

As interviewed by:

Clare-Josa-Media-Interviews-Transparent-Background

Clare In Numbers

8 Books

helping over 100,000 people change their life

20 Years

as an international keynote speaker

17,500+

podcast listeners in over 100 countries

If you're considering booking a professional keynote speaker, you might also find these articles helpful:

How To Prevent Scope Creep From Trashing Great Relationships

3 Reasons Why I Might Say No To A Keynote Request – And None Of Them Has Anything To Do With Money

Clare Josa keynote

One of the things I love about my business is that I can wake up to find that overnight someone has booked a speaking enquiry meeting in my diary - often without me having any idea who they are. It's exciting to get to find out about their project. But there are three red flags that mean it'll be a 'flat no' from me, and none of them has anything to do with money.

I totally love co-creating high-impact, bespoke keynote talks with clients. And the majority of the time, the enquiries we get through are a really good fit. We even have vetting questions as part of the meeting-booking process, to make sure that we don't take up each others' time, if it's not going to work out.

However, sometimes an enquiry looks great, on paper, but it has one of the three red flags that means I know from 20 years' experience that it's not going to work out, no matter how much we might both want it to. Here are three of my red flags - and I'm curious: whether you're an event organiser or a speaker, I'd love to know if you think I should add any more to the list!

#1
It goes against my values

Some keynote requests would leave me struggling to sleep at night. But the reasons why might surprise you.

I remember a couple of years ago turning down a large amount of money (here's a guide for how much to budget for a keynote speaker) to run a session for 1,000+ global employees, because I refused to deliver the outcome that the company wanted:

"Teach them all mental toughness!"

Of course, I could have created a one-hour session that would deliver on their objectives. But I refused, because they couldn't see why this strategy was back-to-front and potentially harmful, no matter how much data and science I shared to explain why their goal wasn't reasonable.

Why do I refuse to teach 'mental toughness'? Because it's code for 'toxic resilience' - telling staff they have to cope better with the appalling levels of stress, workload and toxic managers that have already taken them close to burnout, so that the organisation doesn't have to change.

You shouldn't have to have the mental toughness of the UK's SAS or US Marines, just to work in an office.

Any consulting work I do has to be grounded in my 3 Pillars approach: addressing not just the individuals' personal habits, but also working on changing the culture and environmental triggers for burnout, Imposter Syndrome and wellbeing problems.

I won't 'fix' employees so that they can continue to be - let's call a spade a space - bullied and abused.

Here's more on my 3 Pillars model and the burnout research study we ran that developed it.

#2
It doesn't have leadership team's support

This risks us co-creating a fabulous bespoke keynote session that leaves people feeling betrayed, afterwards.

A few years ago now (thank goodness!) I remember getting to the end of a live, virtual keynote that had gone really well, and the organiser handed over to a C-suite member to give the closing remarks. Everyone was on a high, fired up to take action on ditching Imposter Syndrome, and the virtual room was full of hope and enthusiasm. The closing remarks were addressed to me, and started with the words:

With the greatest of respect...

We all know that means the opposite. And the C-Suite member proceeded to tell everyone they didn't need sessions like the one we had just run - that they should all just pull their socks up and get on with things, and that Imposter Syndrome was just an excuse for poor performance.

This was a fairly extreme example, but I see this kind of thing regularly: passionate ED&I committee members wanting to make a difference, but secretly knowing that the company's leadership doesn't want to take action to create change, that the event is a box-ticking exercise. I don't do tick-box exercise talks.

I'm happy to do all I can to help with this, but I won't take on a keynote where I know there's a strong risk that attendees will finish the session believing that their employer cares and is going to do things differently, only to discover by the end of the week that it was just lip-service. That kind of betrayal runs deep. And I don't want that energy attached to my name.

#3
It's a competitive pitch

But that's not because we don't think we'd win.

This isn't an ego thing. And it's not a fear thing. Sometimes we don't realise we're pitching, and we usually win, as long as there's sufficient speaker budget.

But competitive pitching is really bad for our team. Here's an overview of how much time, money and energy goes into a bespoke keynote talk, even just up to the pitching stage. And it's totally frustrating - not to mention IP theft - to find our best science- and research-backed ideas being handed over to a low-budget competitor (or even the in-house L&D team) to try to deliver, which we all know happens...

But competitive pitches are not right for you, either.

Getting multiple keynote speakers to pitch you is not the way to find the best one for you.

Aside from the fact that you're effectively asking a bunch of strangers to 'peacock' their way into your wallet with glossy brochures and slick speaker reels, how can you tell whether they have:

Deeply understood the challenges you want to resolve with the keynote?
Proposed a solution that will actually deliver on those objectives?
Will co-create a session that delivers a fair return on your investment?

It's a huge amount of pressure to put on the person booking the speaker - to have a perfect brief, having already diagnosed the causes of the problem they want the keynote to address, and being able to assess whether a particular quote will deliver on that or not.

So, in the absence of other metrics, the decision often comes down to who is the cheapest, and that's definitely not the way to get the best speaker for your needs.

I've lost count of the number of times I've been asked to deliver a 'repair session', to make up for a budget speaker's session the previous year...

Instead of putting time, effort and energy into competitive pitches, we'd rather work with you to more thoroughly explore your brief and create a plan that includes diagnosing what's really causing the problem you want to solve (for example via our pre-keynote quiz-style scorecards for attendees - find out how they work here).

This means you're getting something totally tailored to your team members' needs, based on data and science, not mind-reading and assumptions. It will lead to a keynote that you know will deliver on your objectives and leave you feeling glad you booked me.

We'd prefer to work with you as problem-solving partners, rather than just rocking up and giving the one-size-fits-all talk that we're assuming your teams might need.

It's why I'm transparent on pricing (you'll get ball-park options for various speaker solutions before we even have our first meeting), and I share full-length videos of me presenting, so you can get a feel for my style and what it will be like to work with me. And by the end of our initial meeting (no obligation), we'll both know if we're a great fit to work together to take the project forward, and feel excited about it.

Who Do We Love To Work With?

After 20+ years in this field, I'm really clear on who we love working with, and who we'd rather not get in touch!

Yes, Please Book A Call!

You and your leaders are committed to creating a culture, environment, and personal habits that support teams to thrive
You know you're ready to take action, and not just window-shopping, and you're excited about what we could co-create
You want to work with an expert who can go beyond 'just a keynote' to use data to support you with your 'next steps' strategies
Your teams are hungry for change, and you know it will make a big difference

Hmm... Please Hold Off...

The keynote is just a box-ticking exercise, your leaders don't actually want to create change
You know it's going to be 'keynote by committee' - remember what they say about horses & camels?
Your company culture is alpha-male, highly competitive, & no one really cares about wellbeing
You know your accounts team is a nightmare at actually paying invoices...
You know your company has 'previous' on scope creep and wanting blood for their money

Are you a great fit?

My specialist areas are all about about changing the world by changing yourself, so you can take off the secret masks, armour and self-imposed glass ceilings that had kept you stuck, dreaming big but playing small.

And as keynote topics, this can include things like ditching Imposter Syndrome, preventing burnout, clearing out toxic resilience, leading from your heart in a head-based world, and working with my Natural Resilience Method® and HOPE Matrix® frameworks to grow thriving, diverse, authentic teams and confident, courageous, inspiring leaders.

If the idea of working together has you curious - or even perhaps excited - here's how to take the next step:

what's the next step?

To find out more about booking me as a keynote speaker and my areas of expertise - and to get a copy of my speaker brochure (which contains price ranges for the various options) - please click the button:

I want to find out about booking Clare Josa as a speaker

Clare Josa - as interviewed by:

Clare In Numbers

10 Books

helping over 100,000 people change their life

20+ Years

as an international keynote speaker

25,000+

podcast listeners in over 140 countries

I'm curious: what are your thoughts?

Whether you're the client, or the one delivering the service, are there any red flags that would make it a 'no' for you? Are there any we should add to the list? Click the button to join in the discussion on LinkedIn!

Here's where we're talking about this

If you're considering booking a professional keynote speaker, you might also find these articles helpful:

3 Reasons Why I Might Say No To A Keynote Request – And None Of Them Has Anything To Do With Money

What Goes In To Creating A Brilliant Bespoke Keynote?

Clare Josa keynote

"But it's just an hour of your time!" There's so much more than just the presenting-live hour that goes into creating a brilliant bespoke keynote talk. And the amount of work might surprise you. They say it takes a village to raise a child, well it takes a team to create a keynote! So here's some insight into what's going on behind the scenes, to make that inspirational hour happen.

Some speakers have the same talk that they use for every client. It's why they can run five sessions a week. Same slides. Same stories. Same jokes. Apart from a 'discovery call' and email admin setting up the event, the cost to them to deliver the session is pretty low.

But what you're getting is a one-size-fits-all session that they know so well it might as well be pre-recorded.

On the other hand, you can have a keynote talk or workshop that is designed just for your teams and your business. This might include data and quotes from your team members, insights into how the keynote topic is affecting your specific organisation, with stories, examples, and strategies tailored to your needs and culture.

That's the kind of talk I love to do. And I won't do the cookie-cutter types.

But what's involved? And how much more than the 'presenting-live' hour does this take to create and deliver? Here are some insights into what goes into to creating that bespoke keynote for you.

It All Starts With Booking A Call

I'm often asked via email to quote for a 'standard one-hour keynote', but I can't.

Why?

Because the budget for a bespoke session depends on five key factors (you can read about them here).

But I know that potential clients will have a 'find a speaker' item they're super-keen to tick off on their to do list and I want to give them that dopamine hit!

Even before our first meeting, there's work happening in the background to make sure we can fully support your event, to co-create something brilliant.

And if we can't, we'll let you know, so we're not wasting your time.

So the first step is booking a briefing call. That will either be with me, for conference keynotes and 'destination' events, or with our Client Relationship Manager, for workshops and smaller sessions.

As part of booking that meeting, you fill in a short form to give us information about your event, so we can check before the call whether there are any of the common red flags that might mean it's not a great fit (we'll let you know, with love), or if we need more information.

The Client Relationship Manager and I will discuss whether we have space in the schedule for your chosen date, and whether it's the kind of opportunity that excites us - there are some gigs we'll always turn down. And at this point, we'll also hold your date, until two weeks after we send you your proposal. You get onto our VIP list.

So even before your first meeting, there has been behind-the-scenes work going on, to make sure we're all-in and able to support you in co-creating a brilliant event.

Creating Your Proposal

After the initial meeting, if we both agree that working together would be fun and a great fit, then we'll create a proposal for you.

This is something you can wave under the bean-counter's nose to get budget approval, and it also helps you to get fellow decision-makers on board. A chunk of work goes into that proposal, including:

Understanding the problem you want to fix

We want to make sure that we're being super-fair - sometimes a keynote isn't the best investment to address the challenges your organisation and team members are facing. So we want to make sure that we can truly help. We'll be honest with you if we think that different solutions might work better for you.

Making clear recommendations

Then, if a keynote is the way to go, we'll make clear recommendations on the outline of the content to cover, the additional implementation resources that will support your team members, and the format of the session, including Q&A and panel discussion options, to have the most impact for you.

Putting together pricing options

We know that speaker budgets can be an awkward topic, which is why we're transparent about my fees. You'll have already had my speaker brochure, before our call, which shares my fee ranges, and we'll have had that discussion in more detail in our initial meeting, so there won't be any surprises. Even so, sometimes we're asked to put together a range of options, and we'll put time into creating those so that they will all add value, and so that the differences between them are clear.

We hold your place in my queue for two weeks

I'm normally booked up 3-4 months ahead, but we know you need time - and certainty - to make a decision.

So we hold your place in my queue for two weeks.

Once we have the purchase order, your place is confirmed.

If we don't have it after that point - and it's not looking imminent - then we have to release your slot to the waiting list.

What Happens After We Get The Purchase Order?

We'll help you with marketing copy and any links you need.

Then you can relax, knowing it's all in-hand, while we:

What My Team Does Next!

Once we've got the purchase order number and the initial invoice instalment has been approved for payment, work begins in earnest. That's when I deep-dive into the final design of your session, and my team members play vital roles, too.

designing the scorecard

To help us tailor the session to your teams' needs, we'll ask them to complete a science-backed, quiz-style scorecard. This gives them their 'score' for the topic we're covering.

They also get to ask me a question in the scorecard, and I use these to decide what content we should be covering. They're gold dust!

Imposter Syndrome scorecard action plan - Clare Josa

building the buzz

You don't want to put all of that investment into a bespoke keynote, only to have five people show up.

So we help build the buzz with the scorecard, which also gives people a personalised action plan, getting the conversation started even before the event, and it's also proven to increase join-live rates.

analysing the scorecards

As a reformed engineer and Head of Market Research for one of the world's most disruptive brands, I know it's important for a keynote on, say, Imposter Syndrome to be grounded in data, not fluff.

So I'll build the results from your teams' scorecards into the keynote, making it really relatable.

creating the live session

There's more to a brilliant keynote that reciting 300 bullet points from slides.

At this point, I'll be choosing the stories that will pre-teach the key points we'll be covering, which audience participation will help to create 'lightbulb moments', and how to make this even high-impact and empowering, whether it's virtual, in-person or hybrid.

And I'll be practising it!

designing High-impact slides

No one wants to sit through yet another #DeathByPowerpoint presentation. Ever.

The slides I use in my keynotes are specially designed to help people to learn what we're covering and create change, even before they finish the session, at a conscious and subconscious level, using accelerated learning techniques, and designed to accommodate differing learning styles.

implementation Vault

There's a world of difference between information and implementation. And information doesn't create change.

So my bespoke keynotes come with a post-event resource vault, where we host the replay and share other resources that I mention during my talk, increasing the actions that people take after the event.

We make sure you're kept in the loop

Your Client Relationship Manager will be your main point of contact for any questions you might have.

Then, a couple of weeks before the event, once we've got the initial scorecard data, we'll have a final briefing meeting with you, via Teams or Zoom.

This is to make sure nothing has changed in the brief (you might be surprised how often it does!) and to get your approval if I'm recommending a shift on some content suggestions, based on your data.

If it's a virtual event, this is also when we'll have a short tech check meeting and agree exactly how things will run on the day, so you can relax and trust that it's going to be great!

on the big day!

We'll have a great session, which your team members will love, inspiring them to move beyond information, into implementing the changes you've been hoping for.

After The Event

Your Implementation Vault

People can register to access this even during the live session. Your replay will be in there one working day after the event.

Your Summary Research Report

About a week after the event, you'll get a summary report from the scorecard research with your teams, letting you know the most important findings and recommended next steps.

Strategy Meeting With Clare Josa

Pick my brain on your research report and get answers to your next steps questions in this strategy meeting. You can invite all of the relevant decision-makers to this call.

There's so much more that goes into a bespoke keynote than just the hour of presenting.

Ready to find out more and potentially book a call about working together to co-create an inspirational session for your teams?

I want to find out about booking Clare Josa as a speaker

Clare Josa - as interviewed by:

Clare In Numbers

8 Books

helping over 100,000 people change their life

20 Years

as an international keynote speaker

17,500+

podcast listeners in over 100 countries

If you're considering booking a professional keynote speaker, you might also find these articles helpful:

What Goes In To Creating A Brilliant Bespoke Keynote?

How Much Should You Expect To Pay For A Professional Keynote Speaker?

Clare Josa keynote

How much should you expect to pay for a professional keynote speaker? The obvious answer is 'it depends'... Probably less than former Prime Minster Boris Johnson's £250k, and certainly more than free. But what is the right figure for your team's event? How can you tell if you're getting a good deal? And how can you avoid the embarrassment of the 'what's your budget' question?

Booking a great keynote speaker can feel like it has an element of 'chicken and egg' about it. I always have a meeting with a potential client before agreeing to take on a gig, and it makes me chuckle: for me to want to work with them, the meeting will have been something we both enjoyed, we'll have hatched a plan for a brilliant session, and we'll both be feeling excited...

... but then comes the question:

"What is your budget?"

Cue staring at shoes, shuffling awkwardly, and usually mumbling something non-committal, that certainly doesn't have concrete numbers in it.

And I get it. It can feel hard.

I've asked a few clients, after the event, what is going on with this and they came back with some fascinating responses.

"We didn't want to feel we'd be ripped off if we gave a higher figure than you usually charge."
"I didn't want to look stupid, because I'm not sure what the budget should be."
"We don't really have budget yet and we need your quote, to get it, but we didn't want to tell you that."

I'm curious: what would you add to this list?

The problem is if you don't tell the potential speaker your budget, then it can waste a lot of time - for you and for them. And if money isn't discussed at all during the initial meeting, then you risk falling in love with an idea, only to later realise that it's not an option for you. Or, the other way round: if you don't use your spare budget, you might miss out on great post-event implementation support that could have made an even bigger difference for your teams.

Before they book an initial call with me, we ask potential clients about their budget, and whether it's signed off already, or just a maybe. But a surprisingly high number of people leave the budget box blank, so it becomes something we need to discuss in more detail in the briefing meeting.

The only real answer to 'how much does a keynote speaker cost' is 'it depends'. So here are five key factors to consider, when looking at a price:

Do you want 'bespoke' or 'one-size-fits-all'?

I'll never forget seeing a celebrity-level entrepreneur who I really looked up to do a conference keynote. He was brilliant, though the content was fairly basic. Then, a few months later, I saw him at another conference - the exact same speech. Then I heard him on a podcast - the same stories and structure. He had one talk and everyone got it. It was working for him, but not repeat audience members.

When booking a speaker, it's important to think about whether you are looking for a speaker who has, say, three standard keynotes that they trot out on demand, or one who will co-create something tailored to your specific audience and needs.

An off-the-peg talk will likely be cheaper than just-for-you, but the just-for-you is likely to have more impact and give you a better ROI - if the speaker knows how to figure out how to tailor it for you.

Who, how many And Where?

Is it opening a high-ticket conference for 2,000 business leaders? Is it an informal lunch-n-learn session for 20 junior staff? [Click here to find out about the differences between a keynote and a lunch-n-learn session]

Is it virtual or in-person? (Note: these are very different speaker skill-sets).

Some speakers have flat-rate fees for an event, others charge based on the intended number of attendees.

If it's the latter, please make sure you're being fair - if your number of attendees increases, you should agree an increased fee, after all, you wouldn't expect to get ten friends in on one ticket for a concert!

How will the session be used?

Will there be a replay? How will that be used? Will it be shared beyond the original audience in the quote? Is it just for your team members or will you also want to share it with client organisations?

Note: if you want to use the replay for in-house training, hosted on your company training portal, the speaker is likely to charge an annual licensing fee and that needs to be factored in.

What do you want the session to achieve?

In other words, what is it worth to you? How big and painful is the problem you want it to address?

Do you have any thoughts on how you might measure the ROI? An experienced speaker should be able to help you with that. [Here are some ideas to get you started.]

Is it just about building awareness on a topic, or is it a formal training session that is needed to create change? How important is the topic to your company? And what is the value to the attendees of watching the session?

What kind of post-keynote implementation support do you Want?

Is it a 'show up then leave' session, with no follow-up? Or do you want additional resources to help people make the shift from 'information' to 'implementation'?

And is it important to you to have consulting with the speaker after the event, or to be able to 'pick their brain', to support that implementation journey?

Don't worry if this feels like a lot to think about. An experienced keynote speaker can easily guide you through these decisions, perhaps even making recommendations if they're things you haven't considered yet.

But as you can imagine, what you decide you need can make a big difference to the price.

What's the biggest mistake I see event organisers making when thinking about speaker fees?

Thinking about it in terms of price-per-hour.

"It's just an hour of your time!"

I hear this one so often.

It's easy, particularly in a corporate environment, to think that the only time the speaker puts in to the event is for the hour that they're live. But there's so much more to it than that. Here's an article on what goes in to creating a brilliant bespoke keynote, to give you an idea.

But pricing for a keynote isn't just about price per hour of the speaker's time. You're paying for the value that their expertise adds to your teams and clients, the difference they can make.

So choosing a budget for a keynote speaker is not an exact science.

As some ballpark figures, here's what you can expect to budget for a keynote speaker:

Free

Please just don't go there. Exposure doesn't pay the mortgage. Or the speaker's team. If the people in the room are being paid, or paying for tickets, please pay your speaker.

And the promise of future work isn't fair payment. Most professional speakers have trusted this one at least once, only to find that the person making the promise wasn't empowered to deliver on it. In general, companies who want freebies up-front don't tend to pay fairly down the line, either.

A really common request is for free keynotes from ED&I networks. They're often run by volunteers in a company, and they have often been given zero budget, so hope that the speaker will also work as an unpaid volunteer. Personally, I've lost count of how many times I've been asked to run a session for women on how to feel more confident and value yourself, unpaid... #irony #TheAnswerIsNo

If your employer is turning over millions - or billions - it's not fair to expect a speaker to subsidise the ED&I initiatives that the employer hasn't given adequate budget. You should be being paid, too!

And here's a reminder of the huge amount of work that can go into creating a great keynote - it's so much more than just the hour of presenting time.

Beware a speaker who agrees to this. Yes, they might have other revenue streams that mean they can donate their time and resources in the hope of future high-ticket work, but they might instead not be very experienced, or you could find yourself pitched-to-death as their keynote turns into a sales presentation.

Build a positive relationship with them and an experienced speaker may even be able to help you to find creative ways of getting the right budget!

Up to £500

This is what you can expect to pay for a speaker who is at the beginning of their journey, who isn't a professional speaker yet. Or it might be someone who has some speaking experience, but is just delivering their standard, one-size-fits-all talk, five days a week.

You might strike gold and get a future fabulous person for peanuts, but you probably won't. And, as anyone who has sat through yet another death-by-Powerpoint presentation knows far too well, public speaking is a skill. Creating and delivering a session that is inspirational, educational, engaging, relatable, and which actually has impact, takes years of honing your craft.

Up to £2,500

These speakers will have a few talks under their belts and may be really good.

But this is still towards the entry-level end of speaking fees, and it's less likely that you'll get something high-impact and bespoke, from a genuine subject matter expert.

Upwards of £10,000

For this kind of fee you should be able to work with speakers who are seen as thought leaders, perhaps with a book under their belt, a researcher in their specialist field, or known in the media.

Make sure you ask to see examples of them running a full talk, not just their 'speaker reel' - it's easy to make an audience stop doom-scrolling and pay attention three times in an hour, but what about the other 57 minutes?

At this price point, you want to be booking the kind of person where your boss will congratulate you afterwards for making a great decision, rather than one who leaves you cringing under your desk!

Up to £25,000

This is the kind of fee you can expect to pay for someone who is a global leader in their field, with a proven track record as a professional speaker, especially if you want them to be the opening or closing keynote speaker at your conference or attend an in-person event that involves some travel, or you want follow-up resources to support implementation in your teams.

And beyond that, you're getting to the kinds of prices that celebrity speakers charge. Bear in mind that their speaker bureau will be adding a fee, too, which can be up to 100%.

These figures are rough guides, rather than set in stone. You'll sometimes find mediocre speakers at premium price points, and brilliant speakers who are under-charging. But I hope this helps to give you an idea.

The most important thing is to be open and honest with the speaker about the budget discussion. Sometimes it feels like the 'guns at dawn' scene from a cowboy film, waiting to see which party will mention a number first in the briefing meeting. That gets awkward. And embarrassing. Fast.

Your speaker budget either works, or it doesn't. No hard feelings.

It's much less embarrassing to be up-front about it than to ghost the speaker once you realise you can't afford them, and there's also that sense of relief when you realise that you can work with them!

With the right plan and ROI proposal, you might be surprised how easily the budget you need can be unlocked.

What Is My Speaker Fee?

All of the points above mean you won't be surprised to hear that I can't give you a 'standard' fee, I need to talk with you first (no obligation) to discover what you're looking for.

I have a range of solutions to fit a spread of budgets. And I'm transparent about about my fee ranges, before we get on that call.

what's the next step?

To find out more about booking me as a keynote speaker and my areas of expertise - and to get a copy of my speaker brochure (which contains price ranges for the various options) - please click the button:

I want to find out about booking Clare Josa as a speaker

Clare Josa - as interviewed by:

Clare In Numbers

8 Books

helping over 100,000 people change their life

20 Years

as an international keynote speaker

17,500+

podcast listeners in over 100 countries

If you're considering booking a professional keynote speaker, you might also find these articles helpful:

Clare Josa keynote

You're in good company.

7 Little-Known Tips From Keynote Speakers To Help You Share Your Ideas In Meetings

1. Get Grounded

2. It's Not About You

3. What's In It For Them?

4. Be Still!

5. Share A Story

6. Non-Attachment

7. The Power Of The Pause

Bonus Tip: #8

Imperfectly said is better than perfectly silent.

I'm curious: what are your thoughts?

what's the next step?

Want to find out how big a role Imposter Syndrome might be playing for you, and how it's causing you to self-sabotage?

Scope Creep? Now We Celebrate It!

The Two Types Of Scope Creep

But first:

3 reasons why we now celebrate scope creep, whereas before it had been known to make us cry.

1. More people = the teams are excited

2. More deliverables = the client is excited

3. Increased scope = the client wants to solve the real problem

How We Proactively Prevent Unconscious Scope Creep

We Pre-Empt Scope Creep In Our Quotes

We Remind Clients In Their Welcome Pack

We Check Again, At Our Final Briefing Call

And if those don't work?

I'm curious: what are your thoughts?

Want to find out more about booking me as a keynote speaker for your teams?

what's the next step?

To find out more about booking me as a keynote speaker and my areas of expertise - and to get a copy of my speaker brochure (which contains price ranges for the various options) - please click the button:

Clare In Numbers

#1It goes against my values

#2It doesn't have leadership team's support

#3It's a competitive pitch

Who Do We Love To Work With?

Yes, Please Book A Call!

Hmm... Please Hold Off...

Are you a great fit?

what's the next step?

To find out more about booking me as a keynote speaker and my areas of expertise - and to get a copy of my speaker brochure (which contains price ranges for the various options) - please click the button:

Clare In Numbers

I'm curious: what are your thoughts?

It All Starts With Booking A Call

Creating Your Proposal

Understanding the problem you want to fix

Making clear recommendations

Putting together pricing options

We hold your place in my queue for two weeks

What Happens After We Get The Purchase Order?

What My Team Does Next!

We make sure you're kept in the loop

on the big day!

We'll have a great session, which your team members will love, inspiring them to move beyond information, into implementing the changes you've been hoping for.

After The Event

There's so much more that goes into a bespoke keynote than just the hour of presenting.

Clare In Numbers

What's the biggest mistake I see event organisers making when thinking about speaker fees?

So choosing a budget for a keynote speaker is not an exact science.

Your speaker budget either works, or it doesn't. No hard feelings.

What Is My Speaker Fee?

what's the next step?

To find out more about booking me as a keynote speaker and my areas of expertise - and to get a copy of my speaker brochure (which contains price ranges for the various options) - please click the button:

Clare In Numbers

#1
It goes against my values

#2
It doesn't have leadership team's support

#3
It's a competitive pitch