Agents and conference offices represent the majority of the best professional speakers specializing in motivating lectures. Finding the right speaker is often done through their agent, but this is not always the case.
Find an Agent
Agents are only interested in someone who is already established as a professional speaker. They proactively promote the speaker, putting the name of a speaker to the conference organizers and others. They charge a speaker fee for this service, usually based on a percentage of the orator’s fee for the occasion. For efficient numbers management reasons, the agent may limit the choice of available speakers for an event. Offices tend to be dedicated to providing conference organizers, companies, associations and educational institutions with a wide selection of professional speakers to choose from. Too many choices can be a disadvantage.
Go Right to the Speaker
A so-called motivational speaker, good or bad, experienced or amateur, often represents his own interests, so it is useful that I present some tricks to identify a professional and professional motivated speaker of high quality instead of a run of the mill, Johnny-come-lately speaker. The top position for a “motivational speaker” on search engines usually fluctuates from one day to the next, so dial-in a shortlist of the first two or three pages, and you’re ready to start. There are a few simple ways to narrow your short list.
Try Creative Searches
Repeat the search you originally searched in the search engine, and add one of the names you have saved to your short list. Search for motivational speaker + his or her name, or if they have spoken somewhere, try one like Seattle keynote speaker + his or her name. That way you can better determine if that particular speaker has the expertise you need. You will also have an indication whether an agent or an office represents them as a “motivational” speaker, and can make a choice from there.
