How Speakers Bureaus Work with Speakers and How to Get Booked with Brian Palmer

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If you can align yourself with a speakers bureau your public speaking business can grow exponentially. I discuss how to do that in this episode with my guest, Brian Palmer.

Brian is the Senior Vice President of Premiere Speakers Bureau and a respected leader in the speaking industry. With decades of experience, Brian has built a reputation for helping business professionals select the perfect speakers for their events. He does this by delivering engaging, relevant, and high-impact presentations that align with organizational objectives.

Brian’s Journey into The Professional Speaking World

In 1972 when Brian was a freshman in high school his dad started National Speakers Bureau. His dad was a band leader who got tired of traveling all over the country. He decided to do something on the fringes of the entertainment business. The speaking industry seemed like a fit. Brian started with envelope licking and note card sorting. During college Brian worked there during the summers. In 1980 he finished college, and he started working at National Speakers Bureau full time and he’s been around ever since.

For reference for the rest of this post: National Speakers Bureau was eventually purchased by Premiere Speakers Bureau (PSB) and Brian stayed on board as a Vice President.

The Process of Booking Professional Speakers

There’s a variety of ways to book great speakers. PSB has established themselves as a great place to turn to when you need a good speaker. People reach out to them, describe a situation where they need a speaker, give them their criteria and their budget parameters. They make recommendations and provide potential clients with the means with which to plan for an outstanding event. That includes biography, presentation descriptions, video samples and more.

Proposals started out long ago with audio cassette tapes. Now it’s obviously video and it’s a lot easier now through online video. Many buyers are also very interested in testimonials from past speaking engagements. Sometimes people have other questions and PSB tries move the process along and help people make a decision that they’re happy about. Then, once it’s booked, PSB handles all the arrangements in a way that builds the buyer’s confidence. The speaker shows up prepared, ready to go, ready to make a contribution to that organization’s objectives. They speak, they get a lot of applause, the client’s really happy because their boss says “That was a great choice”.

The Process of Vetting and then Working with Professional Speakers

To a certain degree, Brian knows an outstanding speaker when he sees one. He studied speech in college and some of what he learned makes a good speech back then still applies today. Sometimes he prefers to watch full speeches. He watches a speech, watches the stories they tell, how relevant they are to the audience, how personalized the presentation is, and so on. One thing Brian does is study how much time elapses between a laugh or some kind of emotive response. All those things factor together to delineate a good speaker from an excellent speaker.

There are so many people that want to speak, and Brian chooses to recommend people who are excellent.

PSB books over 2,000 engagements a year and their clients rate the speaker, and they rate the speaker as well. They consider things such as how cooperative the speaker is, how good they are at personalizing the presentation, how they work with PSB overall.

All those things combine to drive the recommendations that they make.

Speakers Bureaus: Do They Approach You or do You Approach Them?

When PSB learns about a speaker that they’re not involved with, and they hear the speaker does a great job or PSB loses business to somebody repeatedly that gets their attention. Speakers often refer other speakers that they’ve seen or that they’re friends with. On average PSB hears from 30 people a day interested in PSB booking speeches for them. There’s a veritable flood of people that want to speak. One of the factors that drives that is that during COVID many good speakers with a lot of good experience took a buyout, were let go, or decided to retire.

Because of that there were a lot of newer people with a lot of interesting experience who wanted to speak. They’ve been working on honing their craft and practicing more and more. Brian says that it seems over the last few years a lot of people have decided to try to get the attention of companies like PSB. Brian’s peers tell stories about the incredible number of people that are approaching them now and it’s a lot to deal with. Speakers bureaus simply don’t have the capacity or the bandwidth to consider all the good speakers that are out there.

In this episode we discuss ways to stand out in the market and we dive into topics such as:

The right way to approach a speakers bureau and get them to represent you.
When and why to engage with a speaker’s bureau.
What to expect from a speaker’s bureau when it comes to marketing your services.
What to do before you approach a speakers bureau to create more demand for your services.
How to get booked more when you’re a “decent” speaker.
How to mentally “keep on keepin’ on” during the tough times when you’re a professional speaker.
How to stay ahead of the ever-changing market demand curve for speakers and how to stay relevant.
The one thing, above all else, you need to do to get booked by a speaker’s bureau.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

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About My Guest

Brian Palmer is the Senior Vice President of Premiere Speakers Bureau and a respected leader in the speaking industry. With decades of experience, Brian has built a reputation for helping business professionals select the perfect speakers for their events—prioritizing engaging, relevant, and high-impact presentations that align with organizational objectives.

Throughout his tenure, Brian has been instrumental in advancing the speaking industry, guiding clients toward speakers who not only entertain but also leave a lasting impact. His expertise has earned him numerous industry accolades, including the Council of Peers Award for Excellence (CPAE) from the National Speakers Association and recognition as an industry innovator by Meetings & Conventions Magazine.

Brian’s deep understanding of the speaking business, combined with his commitment to transparency and client success, has made him a trusted partner for associations and corporate event planners alike.

Click here to learn more about Premiere Speakers Bureau!

Click here to connect with Brian on LinkedIn!