The Gig After the Gig: How to Turn Every Event Into Your Next 3 Bookings
The Speaker Lab Podcast
The Speaker Lab
4.8 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 30 April 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Cold outreach is a great way to start — but it's not how you scale."
Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! In this solo episode, host Dan Irvin makes the case that the most efficient gig you'll ever book is the one you just finished. The problem? Most speakers walk off stage, shake a few hands, grab a photo, and move on — completely missing the two, three, maybe five opportunities that were already sitting in that room.
Dan breaks down the exact post-event process he uses to turn every speaking gig into referrals, rebookings, and long-term relationships — including the story of a low-fee local event that turned into over $50,000 in workshops with a client he's still working with today. This isn't about doing more work. It's about doing the right work after the work most people think is the finish line.
You'll learn:
- Why the stage is just the beginning — and what your job actually looks like in the 48 hours after you leave it
- How Dan's post-event process generates referrals, repeat bookings, and long-term clients on autopilot
- The handwritten thank you note habit Dan swears by (and why it still works in 2025)
- Why post-event calls are non-negotiable — and exactly what Dan covers in every single one
- The performance review section: how to ask for honest feedback without making it awkward
- The one question Dan always asks to surface referrals — and who you should (and shouldn't) be asking it to
- Why most event planners won't bring the same speaker back year over year — and why that's actually great news for your business
- How to stay top of mind without forcing the relationship
- The $50,000 follow-up: what happened when Dan showed up to a packed standing-room event he almost didn't take
- Why your next 10–15 gigs are probably already sitting in rooms you've spoken in
- And much, much more!
"Your next gigs are already sitting in the rooms you've spoken in — but only if you treat the relationship that way."
Want help building a post-event system that actually works?Grab a free 15-minute Speaker Business Assessment at thespeakerlab.com/SBA — Dan and the team will look at your audience, pipeline, and revenue model and help you figure out exactly what to do next.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | What's going on? Dan Irvin here. I have a question for you. Are you tired of doing free gigs? |
| 0:05.0 | I can't tell you how many students I speak to that are telling me, yeah, I'm doing lots of gigs, |
| 0:09.3 | but they're all free. How do I find the paid gigs? I was there one time. So if you want to go from |
| 0:14.5 | free to fee, oh man, I can't wait to connect with you. In fact, what I'm doing these days is that I'm offering 15-minute sessions with me. |
| 0:24.3 | We call them speaker business assessments where I can really get to understand where you are in your speaking business. |
| 0:31.4 | Maybe you're just getting started. |
| 0:32.3 | Maybe you're already down the path a little bit. |
| 0:33.8 | And maybe you're already booking paid gigs and you want more of them. |
| 0:37.1 | Wherever you are, I want to connect with you. |
| 0:39.1 | And so go to the speakerlap.com slash SBA. |
| 0:43.0 | That stands for speaker business assessment. |
| 0:45.4 | But all you have to type in is the speakerlap.com slash SBA. |
| 0:50.5 | I can't wait to connect with you. |
| 0:51.7 | Talk to you soon. |
| 1:10.3 | The most efficient, successful gigs that you'll ever book is the one you already did. |
| 1:13.6 | Most speakers miss this completely. They walk off stage to go try to find the next opportunity. They don't realize their next two, |
| 1:20.6 | three, maybe four or five gigs were already sitting in that room. |
| 1:32.0 | What's happening out there? |
| 1:35.9 | Dan, we're back here with you for the Speaker Lab podcast. |
| 1:43.6 | We're back again, connecting with you in this multi-part series that I'm kind of referring to like speakers in the trenches |
| 1:46.2 | helping connecting with other speakers. So if you're out there, if you're in the trenches, |
| 1:51.0 | if you're trying to get booked and page speaker, maybe you already are and you want more |
... |
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