Are you an event planner?

Do you have an upcoming conference or seminar where you need to inspire people?

In this article, we are going to outline how to find a motivational speaker for your event ensuring that your attendees leave invigorated.

On this page, you are going to learn:

  • 7 strategies for searching for a motivational speaker
  • How to narrow down your search so you are not overwhelmed
  • How to choose the right speaker
  • How to handle the hiring process
  • Should you work with a speakers bureau

And lots more.

Lets begin.

Contents show

Introduction

Hiring a professional motivational speaker can be a bit overwhelming when you have a lot of options and don’t know where to start.

But what can be more stressful is making sure you choose the right person as the success of your event will heavily depend upon the speakers you partner with.

This is why it’s important that before you begin your search, you have the following basics in place:

  • Your budget
  • Your theme
  • The date
  • Your objective or goal

This will help you save a great deal of time and headaches during your search.

How To Narrow Down Your Search

If you want to save yourself some time and frustration, here are the things you will need in place:

1. Budget – Make sure you have set a budget in place because motivational speakers can range from $0 to over $100,000.

Generally speaking, you are going to need to spend a minimum of $2000 if you want someone who has enough experience to deliver a decent quality speech. You will want to have $5000 in your budget if you want to be able to afford someone who can leave a lasting impression.

2. Theme – Having a clear theme is also important because you want to make sure that the person you work with can support and amplify this theme so that he or she fits into what you are doing.

3. Date – Many speakers are booked in advance and so you don’t want to waste your time talking to potential presenters if their calendar won’t be able to accommodate you.

(Tip) To combat this issue, some event planners find a speaker they want to work with and then choose their date based upon their availability.

4. Your goal – It’s important to have at least one or two results you want to accomplish when having this speaker. It could be as simple as you want to inspire people and associate your brand with that inspiration.

Or, maybe you want to increase sales, drive awareness around a product, or shift your company culture.

Just make sure that you have these results clearly outlined so that when you begin your search, you create a tunnel vision to find that person.

And, by having this information in hand, when you reach out to potential speakers, you can let them know these things up front which will give them the opportunity to tell you whether or not they think they are a good fit which will save you a great deal of time.

See also: How to choose a motivational speaker

So now that you have a search criteria in place, here are some ways you can find a motivational speaker:

Search This Website

Did you know that this very website has an entire directory of motivational speakers?

We have aggregated a listing of some of the top professionals from around the world who cover a variety of topics and niches.

We have them broken down in the following way:

And more!

Use this link to search our entire directory.

Speaker Bureaus

Need someone to do the heavy lifting for you?

Then try reaching out to some of the top motivational speakers bureaus.

There are over 25 bureaus that you can work with and all them of them have a great deal of experience of helping you find someone who suits your needs.

Just keep in mind that there are some pros and cons to working with a speakers bureau:

Pros: You have someone who will send you some suggestions and can help you with the logistics.

Cons: You are limited to their database or reach of clients and won’t have much wiggle room for price negotiation.

So you will need to make the choice of either doing your own search or reaching out to them directly or partnering with a bureau.

Go here – Motivational speakers bureaus

TED Talks

If you are not familiar with TED talks, they are one of the leading public speaking platforms with thousands of live talks.

You can visit their website and search for motivation (that link will take you to the search).

Or, you can visit their home page and browse a wide variety of topics.

YouTube

Next to Google, YouTube is the largest search engine in the world and will give you direct access to some great speakers.

All you need to do is search for motivational speaker and begin going through all the different talks.

Keep in mind that there are many edited videos with multiple speakers in them.

But if you go into the description area of the video, they generally tell you who the speaker is.

Visit – YouTube Motivational Speakers

Speakerpedia

Speakerpedia is an encyclopedia of speakers where the owner of the website is aggregating a directory of all of the speakers.

They have a compiled over 10,000 speakers that cover almost every topic imaginable and have created profiles for each one so you can get a better understanding of what each person does.

You can search their website for motivation and it will pull up over 4700 potential candidates for your search.

Local Motivational Speakers

Need someone who is local to you?

One of the great things about finding a speaker who is already in your area is that you don’t have to pay for travel and accommodations.

That right there can easily save you a couple of thousand dollars.

The Bash and GigSalad both allow you to search their site for someone local.

Managing the hiring process

The back and forth of negotiating fees and all the small print can be a bit stressfell and overwhelming.

If you have never done this, just remember that the person you are trying to book has their own business objectives as well.

Make sure to put yourself in their shoes and think about what else they can gain by working with you.

Of course, most speakers want to be paid.

But you will have lots of room for negotiation if you are bringing more to the table.

See also: How to hire a motivational speaker

Final Thoughts

Finding a motivational speaker is not easy.

Just remember to have a game plan before you begin contacting professionals as this will save you a great deal of time and energy.

Know exactly what you are looking for and it will help you create the tunnel vision you need to pinpoint exactly who will be the perfect fit for your event.