Podfluence

You’ve prepared a talk and told people you’re available. Why is the diary still quiet?

In this solo episode of Professional Speaking: Known. Booked. Paid., John Ball walks through the questions that help you identify where your speaking business needs attention before investing in another fix.

Follow an organiser trying to work out whether your talk fits their event. Then examine the enquiry that goes quiet and the session that earns applause without leading to more work. Along the way, John looks at buyer demand, bureau expectations and what makes a recommendation feel safe.

If enquiries arrive but bookings stall, there’s a brief check on fit, budget, timing and the next step.

Choose the question that reveals your biggest gap, then commit to one useful action this week.

In this episode

• Checking whether the market wants your talk.

• Waiting for work and relying on a bureau.

• Unclear profiles, missing speaker pages and too many offers.

• Outdated websites, weak demos and evidence buyers can assess.

• Enquiries that stall.

• Overloaded talks, lecture-style delivery and referrals.

• Budget fit and choosing your next action.

Resources and invitations

Podcast guesting live event: https://present-influence.kit.com/products/get-heard-get-known-podcast-guesting

Monday Prospecting Power Hour: work on finding opportunities and following up alongside other speakers. Cameras on, microphones muted; a prospecting tool is available on the call. https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86172745844

Find Your Booking Bottleneck quiz: presentinfluence.com/quiz

CHAPTERS

00:00 Why aren’t you getting booked?

01:15 Can organisers tell what to book you for?

02:15 Does the market want your talk?

03:15 Reaching suitable buyers

03:55 Working with speaker bureaus

04:30 Monday Prospecting Power Hour

05:40 Why speaking enquiries go quiet

06:40 Why applause doesn’t lead to referrals

08:40 Making recommendations easy

09:15 Building relationships with bookers and event crews

10:40 Staying after your talk

11:00 Choosing your next useful action

12:15 Booking Bottleneck quiz and closing

FAQs

Why am I not getting booked as a speaker?

Start by identifying where progress stops. Suitable buyers may be missing your offer, struggling to understand its relevance or finding too little evidence to assess your delivery. If enquiries arrive, examine fit, budget, timing and the next step. If you already speak at events, review whether the talk fulfils the brief and earns recommendations.

Will joining a speaker bureau get me speaking bookings?

Clarify what the bureau will do, how it handles enquiries and what it needs from you. Make a clear offer and provide strong evidence of your delivery. Keep developing your own buyer relationships and opportunities alongside the bureau relationship.

What should a speaker website include?

Provide a dedicated speaker page that explains your intended audience, main talks and relevant outcomes. Include current speaking footage, specific testimonials and an obvious way to enquire. Check that links work and that the number of options helps a buyer choose.

What should a speaker demo show?

A demo should let an organiser hear you speak and assess your delivery. Use clear audio and footage relevant to the kind of engagement you want. Music, graphics and stage entrances alone give limited evidence of how you deliver a talk.

Why do speaking enquiries go quiet?

Review what you established about the event, available budget, decision-maker and selection date. Check whether you agreed a next step after sending information or a proposal. Silence alone does not identify the cause; use follow-up to clarify the opportunity.

Why am I not getting referrals after a talk?

Review whether your talk fulfilled the organiser’s brief and gave the audience an experience someone would confidently recommend. Look for overloaded material, unclear structure or a mismatch in format. Ask for specific feedback, then make a relevant introduction easy by supplying a short paragraph the organiser can forward.

How can I find my speaking booking bottleneck?

Review recent approaches, replies, enquiries and completed engagements to locate where progress stalls. Consider how much activity you have done and when organisers choose speakers. John Ball’s Booking Bottleneck quiz can help you decide where to focus; use the quiz link in the resources below.

Connect with John:

• Find out more about the Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint
• Subscribe to the Serious About Speaking newsletter on LinkedIn
• Find me on Insta
• Find me on TikTok
• Find me on Threads

Discover the bottlenecks in your speaking business with the Applause Vs Invoice Quiz

For speaking/podcast enquiries or to connect with me directly, you can email john@presentinfluence.com or find me on LinkedIn

You can find all our clips, episodes and more on the Present Influence YouTube channel

If you know a speaker who would enjoy this show, let them know. Thanks for listening.

Mentioned in this episode:

Get Heard, Get Known. Podcast Guesting For Professional Speakers

Join us for a live workshop where you'll learn why most podcast guesting doesn't do much except take up your time. You'll also learn how to fix it, find podcasts that will move the needle for you professionally and we'll even look at whether starting a show is a good idea. All your podcasting questions will be answered in this intensive event with podcasting veteran John Ball.

Do speakers need a book to get booked? No. Can a relevant book be a powerful authority asset, often called your best business card and a useful tool when negotiating speaking engagements? Hell yes.

In this bonus episode from the archives, John Ball speaks with ghostwriter and book coach Ginny Carter, author of Your Business, Your Book. Recorded in early 2022, the conversation is still useful for speakers and other experts considering a business book.

They discuss how to decide what your book is for, when you’re ready to write it, how to keep it engaging and persuasive, and how to make it part of the marketing you already do. They also explore publishing choices, formats, editing, and the role podcasts can play in helping authors share their expertise.

At the end, John shares the fast book strategy behind his forthcoming book, Serious About Speaking: The Business of Becoming Known, Booked & Paid. He explains how he’s using his existing LinkedIn newsletter articles, podcast transcripts and programme materials to build a useful, coherent book, with AI helping to compile and organise the material. It isn’t a case of asking AI to write a book and publishing the result: the process includes reviewing, editing and shaping the work.

John will release a wait list for Serious About Speaking with next week’s episode.

Ginny Carter’s book, Your Business, Your Book, is available at all major retailers. Find Ginny and her work at ginnycarter.co.uk.

Frequently asked questions

Do speakers need a book to get booked?

No. You can build a professional speaking career without writing a book. A book is an asset, not a requirement.

How can a book help a speaker get booked?

A relevant book can demonstrate your expertise, strengthen your authority and give event organisers a tangible sense of your ideas. It can also be a useful negotiating tool when discussing a speaking engagement, if it connects to the talk, audience and client’s needs.

Is a book really a speaker’s best business card?

It can be. A book gives potential clients a deeper view of your expertise than a business card can. The more clearly the book relates to your speaking work, the more useful it is as an authority asset.

When should an expert write a business book?

When they have enough experience, examples and insight to offer readers, and they know what they want the book to achieve. Ginny advises getting clear on the book’s purpose before making decisions about its content or publishing route.

How can speakers market a book without creating more work?

Ginny recommends incorporating the book into marketing that’s already working, such as a podcast, blog or existing online presence, rather than automatically building separate channels just for the book.

What makes a business book persuasive and readable?

Stories, examples and the author’s personality help keep readers engaged. Ginny also discusses a “why, what, how, what if” structure: explain why the topic matters, what it is, how to act on it, and what could happen as a result.

What is John Ball’s fast book strategy?

John is developing Serious About Speaking from existing material, including LinkedIn newsletter articles, podcast transcripts and programme resources. AI helps compile and organise relevant content; John then reviews, edits and shapes it into a coherent book.

Chapters

Times are approximate. Check against the final published audio/video before posting.

00:00 Why this archive conversation is being released now

02:40 Introducing Ginny Carter and the value of an engaging business book

05:20 Why people struggle to start and finish books

07:40 Making book marketing part of your existing marketing

10:00 How books build authority

12:20 Is it the right time to write your book?

14:00 Book as an asset: cache, not cash

19:00 What writing a book can do for your expertise and business

24:00 What makes a business book effective?

27:00 Traditional publishing and self-publishing

29:00 Book design, production and first impressions

32:00 Print, ebook and audiobook formats

34:00 Podcasts as a way to reach relevant audiences

35:00 Writing persuasively: the “why, what, how, what if” structure

38:00 Editing, grammar and reader trust

42:00 How authors can use podcasts

44:00 Ginny’s book recommendations

47:30 John’s fast book strategy and Serious About Speaking

Recommended next episode

Why Great Speakers Are Often Broke

Listen next for a related conversation about the business skills and assets speakers need alongside their stage craft: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/0f56e6d2-15f1-4c21-8a5b-96d44ab8c67b/

Upcoming episode

Next week: Why Aren’t You Getting Booked as a Speaker? We’ll look at what may be standing between your expertise and the bookings you want.

Podcast guesting live event: https://present-influence.kit.com/products/get-heard-get-known-podcast-guesting

Connect with John:

• Find out more about the Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint
• Subscribe to the Serious About Speaking newsletter on LinkedIn
• Find me on Insta
• Find me on TikTok
• Find me on Threads

Discover the bottlenecks in your speaking business with the Applause Vs Invoice Quiz

For speaking/podcast enquiries or to connect with me directly, you can email john@presentinfluence.com or find me on LinkedIn

You can find all our clips, episodes and more on the Present Influence YouTube channel

If you know a speaker who would enjoy this show, let them know. Thanks for listening.

Mentioned in this episode:

Get Heard, Get Known. Podcast Guesting For Professional Speakers

Join us for a live workshop where you'll learn why most podcast guesting doesn't do much except take up your time. You'll also learn how to fix it, find podcasts that will move the needle for you professionally and we'll even look at whether starting a show is a good idea. All your podcasting questions will be answered in this intensive event with podcasting veteran John Ball.

Lorne Kelton asked AI to find research supporting an argument. It returned what seemed like a cited study. When he checked it, the study and researcher didn’t exist.

That experience opens a conversation about the responsibility speakers carry when they use evidence on stage. Lorne and John discuss why confidence can be mistaken for competence, how “fake it till you make it” advice can lead speakers astray, and what critical thinking looks like when a client wants to put it into practice.

They also disagree, or at least place different bets, on what AI means for professional speaking. Lorne sees pressure on familiar keynote topics as AI gets better at producing plausible content. John argues that an audience’s relationship with a live speaker still matters. Both questions are worth asking: how strong is the thinking behind your talk, and what happens in the room because you are there?

The conversation also covers Lorne’s use of AI during preparation, his approach to choosing stories, and the less glamorous reality of earning a living as a speaker.

In this episode:

• How an invented citation made it through an AI research request
• Why confidence and competence need separating
• How Lorne turns a critical thinking idea into a corporate workshop
• What AI can help a speaker do, and what the speaker must check
• Why a speaking business may need more than keynote fees

Connect with Lorne to find out more: https://www.thinkshift.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lornekelton/

Chapters:

00:00 AI Citation Hallucinations

01:14 Confidence vs Competence

03:48 AI as Speaking Partner

05:04 Generic Topics at Risk

07:11 Training AI to Your Voice

10:55 Fact-Checking and IP Rights

13:44 Will AI Replace Speakers

20:19 Critical Thinking Origin Story

22:59 Workshop Framework and Triggers

25:29 Biases and Motivation Industry

27:41 Evidence and Truth Seeking

30:14 Future Opportunities for Speakers

32:37 Owning Your Viewpoint

32:54 Expertise vs Relevance

34:32 Celebrity and Internal Competition

37:07 Making Speaking Pay

38:43 The Business of Speaking

41:32 Why Speakers Get Booked

43:35 Storytelling Over Slides

50:42 Finding Stories and Testing

53:49 Encouragement and Authenticity

55:27 Where to Connect

56:23 Host Reflection on AI

57:47 Final Sendoff

FAQ

What is the difference between confidence and competence, according to Lorne Kelton?

Competence is built through real experience and expertise. Confidence can be performed without either. Kelton argues that speakers, and especially newer ones, get told to fake confidence before they've built competence, which he says derails careers rather than accelerating them.

Why does Lorne Kelton think certain keynote topics are at risk from AI?

Kelton names leadership, productivity, change management and resilience as topics where AI can already generate passable content, which he expects will lead booking committees to question paying five figures for a human speaker on those subjects specifically.

How does Lorne Kelton recommend speakers use AI without losing their own voice?

Kelton feeds AI his own books, articles, emails and video transcripts so it can act as a sceptical research partner rather than a writer. He treats the deep, time-consuming version of this process as the only one that produces anything close to authentic output.

What happened when Lorne Kelton asked AI to find supporting research for an argument?

The AI returned a fully formed citation for a study that turned out not to exist, attributed to a researcher who also doesn't exist. Kelton now treats this as a standing warning to verify any AI-sourced research before using it on stage.

What is Lorne Kelton's process for teaching critical thinking to corporate clients?

Kelton works backwards from a specific trigger incident, then moves the person through reflection, surfacing their assumptions and biases, reframing the situation, and finally writing a concrete plan for how they'll respond differently next time.

What percentage of Lorne Kelton's speaker association members make a full-time living from keynoting alone?

Fewer than 13%, based on an internal survey his association conducted. The majority earn keynote fees as one component of a broader income that includes facilitation, training, MC work and consulting.

How does Lorne Kelton choose which stories to use in a talk?

He starts from the client's desired outcome and works backwards to find a personal experience, often a failure, that speaks to it directly. He then tests the story with a small trusted group before using it on stage.

What advice does Lorne Kelton give speakers who feel threatened by the current market?

Be authentically yourself rather than copying another speaker's style or delivery. He calls this the fail-safe way to get booked and rebooked, and warns against speakers who present themselves as facsimiles of someone else.

Connect with John:

• Find out more about the Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint
• Subscribe to the Serious About Speaking newsletter on LinkedIn
• Find me on Insta
• Find me on TikTok
• Find me on Threads

Discover the bottlenecks in your speaking business with the Applause Vs Invoice Quiz

For speaking/podcast enquiries or to connect with me directly, you can email john@presentinfluence.com or find me on LinkedIn

You can find all our clips, episodes and more on the Present Influence YouTube channel

If you know a speaker who would enjoy this show, let them know. Thanks for listening.

Mentioned in this episode:

Last Call For Founding KBPB Mebers

There's one last spot in the founding membership of The Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint. This is the only time you can get the program at 50% off. After that, it goes to the full program price, which is still great value, but it's not half-price value. Find out if it's the right fit for you at presentinfluence.com/kbpb

A man paid $6,000 to a speaker agency that promised him multiple $10,000 bookings. Six months later, he had nothing but excuses. John, your host, has been in the coaching industry for years and has either seen or personally walked into most of what he covers in this solo episode: six distinct ways new professional speakers get sold something that looks like opportunity and isn't.

Some of these are straightforwardly dishonest: fake agencies charging registration fees, pay-to-speak stages dressed up as exposure. Others are murkier: podcast invites that turn into PR funnels, speaking coaches with no paid industry experience, and PR agencies that deliver exactly what they promised but don't move the needle. John draws on his own experience getting pulled into a podcast-to-PR funnel, and on years inside the coaching industry watching credentials fail to guarantee competence.

Every example comes with a specific, practical question to ask before you hand over money or trust, the kind of question a legitimate operator answers without flinching and a dodgy one stalls on.

You'll walk away with a single filter that applies well beyond the six examples covered here: a real opportunity survives you asking one basic question.

4. FAQ

What is a fake speaker bureau/agency? A fake speaker bureau/angency charges new speakers an upfront registration fee, typically five hundred to fifteen hundred pounds, to be listed in their directory, without any track record of actually booking speakers into paid work. A legitimate bureau earns a commission, usually twenty to thirty per cent, only once it has booked a paying gig.

How can a new speaker tell if a speaker bureau or agency is legitimate? John recommends asking any agent or bureau to name three speakers they've booked into paid gigs in the last six months. A real bureau answers specifically and quickly. A fake one stalls or gives names you can't verify. Most proper bureaus will feature their speakers on their website, so you can ask directly.

What is pay-to-speak, and why is it a trap for new speakers? Pay-to-speak conferences charge speakers, typically five hundred to five thousand pounds, euros, or dollars, for a short speaking slot marketed as exposure to bookers or credibility building. The trap is that the audience is often largely made up of other speakers who paid the same fee, not buyers deciding whether to hire a speaker.

Is paying to speak at a conference always a scam? No. John Ball notes that paying for access to a room isn't automatically illegitimate, since some sponsorship arrangements are genuine trades. The key question is whether the room includes real buyers or mostly other paying speakers.

How can a new speaker tell if a podcast guest invite is actually a sales funnel? Warning signs include a show whose business name mimics a recognisable publication it isn't actually associated with, interviews that get rescheduled repeatedly for no clear reason, and a post-recording debrief that pushes toward a call with someone else who can "help with your business goals" rather than simply asking the guest to share the episode. John Ball notes that a defensive or angry reaction to being asked about this confirms it as shady.

Do certifications like ICF or EMCC guarantee a good speaking coach? Not at all. John Ball states that these bodies certify a coaching process, not a coaching outcome. He notes as an example that ICF certifies specifically in ontological coaching, a purely question-based, non-directive style, which is why he's never pursued the certification himself despite operating as a coach for over twenty years. No barrier prevents anyone from calling themselves a speaking coach, regardless of paid speaking experience.

What should a new speaker check before using a podcast pitching or PR agency? Ask how they actually find and select the shows they pitch you to, and whether they check for topical relevance before sending a pitch. John Ball notes that most of these agencies blanket-pitch the same generic message to any podcast that's loosely adjacent to your field, regardless of whether the audience would ever be an interested buyer, which is why the placements they deliver often don't produce any inquiries even though they're technically legitimate.

What is a Keynote Speaking Coach? A keynote speaking coach is someone with industry, coaching, and often additional experience and expertise who can help you improve your keynote talks, which in turn helps you get more bookings and referrals. Many keynote coaches only work with speakers on the talk and stage elements, but a select few, like John Ball, will first work with speakers on the business side of speaking before developing the stage and presentation side, which may still involve work on the keynote itself but will more relate to market positioning, becoming known as a speaker and developing warm relationships with bookers, as well as developing an opportunity engine that will help you to stay as fully booked as you want to. Programs like John Ball's Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint offer the full range of elements to help you grow your speaking business.

What is the Known, Booked and Paid Blueprint? The Known, Booked and Paid Blueprint (KBPB) is John Ball's cohort-based coaching programme for professional speakers, built to give speakers a structured route into the industry rather than having to work out what's legitimate offer by offer. Find out more at https://presentinfluence.com/kbpb

Connect with John:

• Find out more about the Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint
• Subscribe to the Serious About Speaking newsletter on LinkedIn
• Find me on Insta
• Find me on TikTok
• Find me on Threads

Discover the bottlenecks in your speaking business with the Applause Vs Invoice Quiz

For speaking/podcast enquiries or to connect with me directly, you can email john@presentinfluence.com or find me on LinkedIn

You can find all our clips, episodes and more on the Present Influence YouTube channel

If you know a speaker who would enjoy this show, let them know. Thanks for listening.

Mentioned in this episode:

Last Call For Founding KBPB Mebers

There's one last spot in the founding membership of The Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint. This is the only time you can get the program at 50% off. After that, it goes to the full program price, which is still great value, but it's not half-price value. Find out if it's the right fit for you at presentinfluence.com/kbpb

This isn't a normal episode. It's an announcement about where The Professional Speaking Show goes from here.

John explains the decision behind moving the podcast from weekly to fortnightly, why the numbers that once looked promising dropped off a cliff earlier this year, and why he's stopped trying to force a recovery that isn't coming.

He talks honestly about what it means to admit a show isn't finding its audience, why the podcast is becoming more of a personal passion project than a professional growth channel, and where his time and energy are moving instead: focus on coaching clients and speaking gigs, daily short-form content, and a new exclusive to YouTube content strategy.

He also shares a review point. At 300 episodes, he'll decide whether the show continues at its current cadence, drops further, or ends altogether.

If you're a speaker weighing up whether podcasting is the right growth channel for you, this episode is a candid look at what that decision actually costs, and how to know when a passion project should stop pretending to be a business strategy.

In this episode:

• Why John moved from weekly to fortnightly episodes
• What happened to the show's numbers this year, and why he stopped chasing a fix
• The difference between a passion project and a professional growth channel, and why the podcast is shifting to the former
• Where John is redirecting his time: prospecting, coaching clients, daily short-form content, and a new YouTube strategy
• His honest take on whether podcasting is the right move for speakers starting out
• The 300-episode review point and what happens next

Links mentioned:

• Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint: presentinfluence.com/kbpb
• Subscribe to the Serious About Speaking newsletter on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6882642444815519744
• Find me on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/professionalspeakingpodcast/
• Find me on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@professionalspeaking
• Find me on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@professionalspeakingpodcast

Subscribe and follow on your podcast platform of choice. Rate on Spotify, review on Apple Podcasts, and subscribe on YouTube.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Announcement Intro

00:25 Why The Change

00:57 Stats Drop Reality

01:49 Passion Versus Business

02:24 New Content Strategy 03:22 Podcasting Lessons

04:37 Six-Month Review Plan

05:08 How To Support

06:35 Back Catalogue And Coaching

07:15 New Cadence Farewell

Connect with John:

• Find out more about the Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint
• Subscribe to the Serious About Speaking newsletter on LinkedIn
• Find me on Insta
• Find me on TikTok
• Find me on Threads

Discover the bottlenecks in your speaking business with the Applause Vs Invoice Quiz

For speaking/podcast enquiries or to connect with me directly, you can email john@presentinfluence.com or find me on LinkedIn

You can find all our clips, episodes and more on the Present Influence YouTube channel

If you know a speaker who would enjoy this show, let them know. Thanks for listening.

Mentioned in this episode:

Last Call For Founding KBPB Mebers

There's one last spot in the founding membership of The Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint. This is the only time you can get the program at 50% off. After that, it goes to the full program price, which is still great value, but it's not half-price value. Find out if it's the right fit for you at presentinfluence.com/kbpb