Your employer has asked you to book a professional speaker for an event, but how on earth do you decide who to hire? The internet is full of glossy speaker reel mini-videos and airbrushed headshots, on beautifully-written speaker pages. But how do you know who is the real deal, versus who is just great at marketing?
I've been a professional speaker for over 20 years, and I've put together a list of ten questions that can help you to cut through the noise, and to find the right person for your event.
10 Questions To Ask A Professional Speaker, Before You Hire Them
Not all of these will apply to every situation, and you might want to adapt them, but hopefully these will give you a head start.
- 1How did you get into being a professional speaker on XYZ topic?
What you're looking for here is passion, and expertise. It's far too easy for a speaker to pick the latest hot topic and pivot, because they hope it will bring more work. But do they have a longer-term, proven track record in the field? How many years have they been a speaker? Did they ever get professional training? - 2What is your process for understanding our audience's specific challenges and goals, before designing your talk?
Do you want a one-size-fits-all talk that gets rolled out for every event the speaker talks at? Or do you want something that is bespoke, and tailored to your teams' needs, for maximum impact? How might the speaker achieve that? - 3What specific research or evidence backs the core principles of your talk? Can you cite any key studies or sources?
This one is essential if the talk is one where you want more than a speaker's personal opinion. How do you know that what they'll be sharing is true - rather than an idea they had in the pub? For many audiences, it's vital that more abstract concepts are grounded in science or research, to avoid them rejecting the ideas, and then the whole talk. - 4What can you do, before the event, to support us in creating a 'buzz' and getting as many people as possible showing up live and fully engaged?
A great speaker will be able to help make your marketing easier, by providing not just the standard 'speaker media kit', but also 'blurb' for their talk. And they might even have things like a quiz-style pre-event questionnaire, to help them tailor the talk, which can build excitement and get people talking about the topic. - 5How do you adapt your presentation style for a hybrid audience?
The Covid pandemic turned the speaking world upside down, and most speakers quickly adapted to going virtual. But how do they handle hybrid events, where some of the audience is in the room, and some is online? It's a very different skillset and it requires careful planning, to keep both audiences engaged. - 6How do you ensure that your talk drives meaningful change, after the event itself?
If you want a session that will lead to change, then it will need to give people both the tools and the permission to change. That could include practical tools or concepts that people can apply right after the end of the talk. If this is the kind of thing you're looking for, make sure you specifically ask about it, and also make sure you ask Q10! - 7How do you proactively address and overcome potential objections to your message / reducing resistance to change, in a talk of this nature?
Part of creating a bespoke talk, tailored to the audience's needs, includes being able to predict which of your ideas they might be more reluctant to take on board, and knowing how to address this, before it happens. People are understandably skeptical about 'big ideas' that are presented without substance or data to support them. If your speaker doesn't know how to overcome this, you're likely to see people switch off and the talk risks harming the desired outcome, instead of delivering on it. - 8How do you decide which elements of your content to emphasise for different types of audiences?
The answers you'd want to this depend on the kind of talk you're looking to book. But the key is to look for processes and strategies, rather than just buzzwords. It's ok to ask a speaker to give you specific examples of how they have done this in the past, and how they might tailor it for your audience. - 9What steps do you take to stay current and at the leading edge of your field?
Some speakers are still 'dining out' on a book they wrote 20 years ago. And if the book is good enough, that's great! But if you're looking for a talk in a field where things are changing, and new ideas and strategies are being created, it's worth making sure that your chosen speaker is proactively staying up-to-date. Ideally, you'd want them to be leading the changing narrative. - 10What post-event support, resources or follow-up do you provide, to help attendees to implement what you covered in your talk?
You might be happy to have a once-and-done session. But if you want to create lasting change, what kinds of after-event resources does the speaker provide? These might include follow-up self-study training, a copy of their book, a post-event Q&A call, or even access to an app, to support on-going change and implementation.
And I'm curious: are there any questions you'd add to this? Any that you've used which have helped you to find a great speaker? Or any that you've been asked yourself, as a speaker, which helped you to showcase how you could help?
Here's where we're talking about this on LinkedIn.
Clare Josa
10x Author & Keynote Speaker
Looking for a keynote speaker on Imposter Syndrome, preventing burnout, and how to change the world by changing yourself?
Want to ask Clare Josa these ten questions?
