In today's Q&A, we are helping JJ figure out the path to higher-paying speaking gigs and exactly what you need to focus on to book yourself solid as a speaker. Do you have a question you want answered on our podcast? We would love to help you! Click here to ask your question! [Tweet "Most speakers don't get paid to speak, but they get paid because they speak"] Resources Mentioned in this Episode Today's expert is Matthew Kimberly from matthewkimberley.com Matthew on Twitter Heroic Public Speaking Book Yourself Solid Let's dive into this week's question! JOCELYN: Hey y'all! You're listening to an Expert Q&A with S&J. Today's expert is Matthew Kimberley of matthewkimberley.com. Welcome to the Flipped Lifestyle podcast, where life always comes before work. We're your hosts, Shane and Jocelyn Sams. Join us, each week, as we teach you how to flip your lifestyle upside-down, by selling stuff online. Are you ready for something different? All right, let's get started. SHANE: What's going on guys? Welcome back to our Thursday Expert Q&A. We have Matthew Kimberley back with us again today to answer your questions. Matthew, welcome back to the show. MATTHEW: Thanks for having me, Shane and Jocelyn. JOCELYN: Yeah, we are happy that you're here. Today's question is from a Flip Your Life community member, JJ Mayo and JJ says, "I've posted before that as a side hustle, I'm a speaker for a continuing education company albeit making a small portion of my total sales. I'll be interested to know from Matthew, what steps are needed to get higher paid speaking gigs even if I'm not a celebrity. Is it having the right contacts or some system that needs to be followed? Any resources would be excellent." SHANE: And this is a special planted question just for Matthew Kimberley. Matthew Kimberley is all about booking yourself solid. He's one of the best, live speakers that we have ever seen, so when we knew you were coming back on this show, we went into our premium Flip Your Life membership community and we said, 'Hey guys, we're gonna give you first dibs on our expert question.' This was one of the first ones that popped up, was just how do I get move live speaking gigs when nobody knows about me. What a perfect question for you. So, how do you do that man? How do you get on stage when maybe nobody knows who you are? MATTHEW: Okay, so I'm gonna presume here and correct me if I'm wrong that when I talk about higher paid speaking gigs, we are talking about getting paid to speak; not getting paid because you are selling from the stage, or because you speak and people book you on the back end; am I right? SHANE: Exactly, JJ wants to speak, like he wants to be a paid speaker, he's not gonna pitch, he's gonna deliver valuable content in this space, he just wants to get more of those gigs and get paid more to do them. MATTHEW: Absolutely; well, I know a few things about this, but not least because my business partner Michael Port is the founder of Heroic Public Speaking, and that's the first resource I think you should check out. Go to heroicpublicspeaking.com and have a look at the stuff that we've put together there for you. At the Hero Public Speaking live in Fort Lauderdale last February, we had this question asked of our expert panel, and they were people like Bob Burg and Scott Stratten and Dorie Clark on the panel. And Dorie said, there are various steps to your speaking career, and I can't remember whether there were three or four, but I'm gonna go through them as I remember them; the first step as a speaker is: 1. When you want to speak but nobody wants to hear you speak, and nobody will pay you to speak. So, first step is no one wants you to speak and nobody will pay you to speak. 2. People are happy to have you speak, but they still don't want to pay you. 3. People will happily have you speak and they'll pay you a little bit. 4. Yes, you must speak and yes, we'll pay you whatever you want.