From Free Gigs to Paid Speaking with Dr. Yvette E. Pearson

The Speaker Lab Podcast

The Speaker Lab

Authors, Public Speakers, Public Speaking, How To, Marketing, Smallbusiness, Coaching, Education, Entrepreneurship, Speaking, Business, Side Gig

4.8 • 575 Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“Everything [The Speaker Lab] does is very intentional drive, step driven, process driven, and it can fit whatever time that you can give it…So time is less relevant. Consistency is more relevant.”

Welcome back to The Speaker Lab podcast! In this episode, we’re diving deep into the realities of building a thriving speaking business while balancing a busy professional life. Our host, Erick Rheam, brings on Dr. Yvette E. Pearson, an engineer, executive in higher education, and passionate advocate for people-centered STEM organizations.

Dr. Pearson opens up about the unique challenges she faces as she transitions from speaking for free at conferences within her industry to establishing herself as a paid, professional speaker. She discusses the struggle of carving out time for business-building activities—like prospecting for speaking gigs—while balancing the demands of a full-time job and a consulting business.

Throughout the conversation, Erick offers practical advice on how to break out of the “industry speaker” mold, set and negotiate fees with confidence, and implement consistent power hours. You’ll hear actionable strategies for navigating awkward money conversations, leveraging free speaking gigs for future opportunities, and building momentum that can transform your speaking business. Whether you’re just starting, looking to move from free to paid gigs, or searching for ways to fit speaking into an already busy life, the insights and encouragement in this episode are for you!

You’ll learn:

How to break the cycle of free speaking gigs
What defines an industry versus a professional speaker
Strategies for handling payment conversations
How to utilize contracts and exit interviews to set expectations
When to refer other colleagues for a gig
Following up with free clients for testimonials, referrals, etc.
Tracking daily prospecting as a motivational tool
And much, much more!

“...that’s your walkaway price. That’s number one. You have to have that in your mind, and you have to be prepared to actually walk away.”

Episode Resources

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, friend, are you looking for ways to book more paid speaking gigs?
0:03.7	Well, of course you are.
0:04.4	Maybe you're just starting out as a speaker. You're trying to figure out what to prioritize in order to get booked and paid as quickly as possible. Listen, if that's you, I want you to join us for a free live training where you're going to learn how to create the number one marketing asset that you need to consistently book more paid gigs. This is a tool that one speaker on our team used to book over $36,000 in paid gigs before he even had a website.
0:27.2	This training is free.
0:28.1	It's live and we offered a few times a week so you can find a time that works best for you.
0:32.5	All you got to do is head over to thespeakerlab.com slash get booked.
0:36.3	That's all one word.
0:37.2	Thespeakelab.com slash get booked. That's all one word, the speakerlap.com slash get booked
0:39.3	and register right now. We look forward to seeing you on the live training.
1:28.2	Hello. A lot of times as speakers, as entrepreneurs, we're always thinking about, well, what if, what if this happens? What if this happens? Well, what if it happens? Nobody knows. Let's wait until it happens. Well, she's knee deep in it. She just mentioned, I love when she said, this just happened. I just had the proposal. I just sent an email. What do I do? We can coach that, right? She just said, I'm busy. I can't figure out when to carve out this time. We can coach that. Like Grant always says, you can't steer a parked car. Well, guess what? If that is not a parked car, she is a moving vehicle. We're steering here to make sure she stays within the guard wells and we're going to get her to greatness. This is fantastic.
1:38.1	Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Speaker Lab podcast. This is one of our special episodes,
1:42.8	my favorite episode, because this is when we get a chance to talk to real speakers out there. Hey, my name is Eric Ream. I'm a professional speaker. I'm an author, but I'm also a facilitator and former student of the speaker lab. Man, I love all things. Speaker Lab. It's so fun to come and hang out with other professional speakers, talk shop. I mean, this is the place where we talk all things, man, grinding, non-grinding, fun stuff, lifestyle, all the above. This is fantastic. Now, I just got off the speaker trail myself. Here's why I want you all to understand. I'm a full-time speaker myself. I ain't messing around. I'm out there too. I mean, our guests coming on the day, she can see the smoke literally coming off me right now, because I just got off the road. Last week, I was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, before that. I was in Boise, Idaho. I was in Iowa before that. Tomorrow I head out to Columbus, Ohio. Then it looks like I'm heading out to Milwaukee. And then after that, it looks like we're going to, it looks like Nashville, Tennessee, then we're going out to Utah, then we're going out to Milwaukee and then after that it looks like we're going to uh it looks like
2:34.3	Nashville Tennessee then we're going out to Utah then we're going out to Ohio for
2:39.0	the end of the year so this fun being out the speaker trail here's what I'm
2:41.5	to tell everybody right now the speaker land man the speaking industry is hot right
2:44.8	now it is hot I mean events are are hiring speakers there's a lot to be had out
2:50.2	there that's why we're so excited
2:51.5	to the Speaker Lab, and I'm so excited to work with speakers that we're bringing on today.
2:55.9	Dr. Yvette Pearson's coming on today. So welcome, Yvette. It's good to have you here. Where are you
3:00.6	from, Event? Thank you so much for having me. I'm in the Dallas area, and I'll have to say,
3:06.0	after listening to the podcast for a year plus since I joined the speaker lab, it's exciting to have this opportunity.
3:14.9	Yeah, that's awesome. It's fantastic. I tell you, it's kind of, you've had your own podcast before, right? So it's kind of different though when you're the guest and you go back and listen to it after the fact, it's going to be fun. But I'm so glad that you're willing to come on here, Vett, and talk about your speaking business because you have to be a little vulnerable and transparent to do that. And thousands of people are going to be listening in and learning from you, which is fantastic. Thank you so much for doing this. Tell us a little bit about
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Speaker Lab, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Speaker Lab and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.