Booking a professional business speaker provides lasting benefits for your organization. Whether speaking virtually or in-person, a professional keynote speaker will motivate teams with powerful, proven messages of success. 

Simon T. Bailey, recognized as one of the most influential motivational coaches of our time, brings that rare ability to electrify any audience in any profession to every event. His entertaining delivery and warm style impart messages and takeaways that enhance business and lives. 

So what exactly makes Bailey a standout motivational speaker for your next event?

Bailey brings prestige to your event.

No matter how great the message, it won’t help if it doesn’t grab your audience’s attention—or if you don’t have an audience.

Bailey elevates the seriousness and importance of your event. Hiring him as your speaker tells those in your organization and beyond that you have something special planned. Widely-known for his televised Spark You talk show, Bailey has also authored seven influential books on business, personal brilliance and leadership. Online, his presence spans from the professional LinkedIn courses he developed to his viral Goalcast video with 90 million views.

Booking Bailey is like reaching for the top shelf wine at a dinner party: with him as your speaker, guests know this event is something special.

Bailey reaches audiences at a personal level.

Getting your audience’s attention is just the first step. The second is booking a professional speaker who delivers. 

The value of hiring a motivational speaker doesn’t rest in repeating a corporate line or providing the platitudes your associates want to hear. It lies in inspiring positive change. And for real, lasting change to take place, you need to reach your audience at a personal level. Bailey is an expert at understanding people at this depth. A professional success coach for much of his career, he provides widely popular online courses such as Shift Your Brilliance and How to Find a Sponsor while providing one-on-one coaching for leaders. Likewise, his latest book, Ignite the Power of Women in Your Life, speaks to his understanding of people, relationship-building and success.

Bailey brings that level of honesty and mastery of personal motivation to every keynote address.

You get an expert in business and sales.

Delivery is one thing. But you also need a keynote speaker who understands business, sales, branding and overall accomplishment because they have been through it. They started at the ground floor, they worked their way to the top, and they know every twist and turn on the road to lasting success.

That is, you need someone who knows what they are talking about.

Bailey could not afford college tuition, dropped out in his first year, divorced at age 25 and was soon thereafter diagnosed with cancer. And still, he built a successful career, one which includes 30 years of work in hospitality that led to his becoming sales director for the Disney Institute. He has worked with more than 2000 organizations in 50 countries and—if his level of education concerns you—has finished his degree and been awarded 3 honorary doctorates.

Bailey knows sales, branding and entrepreneurship intimately. More importantly, he knows what it takes to find your brilliance and elevate from surviving to succeeding.

Count on utmost professionalism every time.

“It was terrific to have Simon as the host and a keynote speaker at our virtual annual conference. His positivity, joy and sense of humor are contagious. He’s an energizing speaker with a natural curiosity and he set the perfect tone for our conference.”

Wylecia Wiggs Harris, PhD, CAE

Chief Executive Officer at American Health Information Management Association

Skill, relatability and experience matter. But professionalism matters, too, when booking your next speaker. You need someone who delivers dependably every time. Your reputation depends on delivering the best. So let’s get to the bona fides that ensure professionalism and are coveted by speakers worldwide.

Bailey has been honored as:

• Top 12 Business Speakers by Washington Speaks Bureau
• Top Inspiring Black Voice by Atlanta Daily World
• Top Sales Kickoff Speaker by Big Speak Speakers Bureau
• Top 20 Motivational Speakers by Direct Selling News in 2021

Bailey has also been inducted into the National Speakers Association’s CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame, among other honors and awards. It seems there is no holding him back, and he can help your organization do the same.

How do I hire Bailey?

Whether you’re seeking your next keynote speaker for a virtual or in-person presentation, Success has connected the right business speakers with the right leaders since 1987. Just as importantly, we have built lasting, empowering relationships for more than 100 years.

When you book Bailey for your event, the simplest way is to connect with the Success Speakers Bureau. We’ll make bringing Bailey to your stage the easiest part of your next company event.

Now is a great time to learn how to make money from public speaking. Speakers’ fees have increased with demand, and median income for public speakers stands at nearly double the national average. Expertise, a personal brand and strong speaking skills pay. So how do you get started in a public speaking career?

First, your big leap forward might require a step back. Even if your public speaking experience has won over audiences, turning it into a career requires sober reassessment. Here are some tips from the Success Speakers Bureau to help you get started making money as a public speaking professional:

Define yourself, your niche and your brand.

When seeking financial backing for a new product or service, the first questions investors often ask you include:

• How is it useful?
• What outcomes do buyers gain from your product?
• How is it different from others like it on the market?

To make money as a public speaker, the questions are nearly the same. The difference is, the product is you.

To make money as a public speaker, think of yourself as a full package. You are the product, the brand, the packaging and even the company history. It’s not enough to have excelled in business or to be a guru in sales, communications or well-being. You need to develop your niche, too. What is your angle? How does your path to success differ from others? Did you face unusual obstacles along the way, and how did you overcome them? Relatable, funny and relevant anecdotes come in handy for any public speaker by helping to define and set you apart as unique and engaging.

Have the logistics ready to earn money as a public speaker.

As with any venture, starting out can take time. But when you finally gain traction, your vehicle may seem to leap miles ahead all at once. Be ready for it!

Don’t wait until your first event before building out your social media, website and other digital channels. Put everything out there that you can, and keep it aligned with your vision and brand. Not only will it help you develop your brand, but you’ll also learn what audiences respond to most. Starting out, you may consider taking time- and cost-saving shortcuts. Resist that temptation whenever possible. Presentation doesn’t just matter onstage, but on your website and social media, too. 

Additionally, be ready with a trusted agency to handle your booking and logistics. Handling these yourself takes time away from money-earning work.

Take every opportunity to hone your craft as a professional speaker.

The role of a paid, professional speaker in some ways resembles that of a comedian. You will write, edit and rehearse your material. You will spend time on the road, too. But most importantly, you will work out your presentations in front of live audiences. Even the most famous celebrity comedians play small clubs. It’s not because they need the money. They are honing their craft—getting it just right—before the next HBO or Netflix special.

Likewise, a novice professional speaker-for-hire needs to work out the kinks of their presentations. No opportunity is too small to better understand what audiences respond to and what falls flat. Appearances on podcasts and local radio or at graduations, club dinners and brunches each provide an opportunity to hone your craft. Even voice-overs for radio and animated digital ads help you develop your pacing, cadence and confidence as a professional speaker.

What can you earn as a paid public speaker?

Income for paid public speakers seems limitless. Top speakers can earn tens of thousands of dollars from a single booking. But that’s not where they started. Experience builds on itself, and you need to constantly aim higher and improve. Greater demand for your services equals not only more speaking opportunities, but higher rates, too. Growing your demand may include starting your own podcast, developing downloadable eBooks, blogging and accepting guest appearances that fit your niche. It may even mean writing your own book. Each of these can help build on demand and increase revenue.

A novice speaker may earn $1,500 to $5,000 per event while celebrity speakers can charge $25,000 to $100,000 per event. From there, earnings largely depend upon your time, drive and ambition. If you are truly passionate about starting a career as a public speaker, now is a great time to get started as demand strengthens across the industry.

Get started on your public speaking career.

As with any venture, a career as a public speaker requires keeping the consumer in mind. Yes, the booking process should be simple for you. But it also needs to be simple for those seeking to hire you. That’s where the Success Speakers Bureau makes starting your career as a speaker easy. We are more than a trusted resource for top business professionals—we are also a full-service bureau for event professionals with a vast relationship network. Our engagement process handles the booking logistics for you and for your clients. That way, you can focus on what you do best knowing that your clients receive equal care and ease of booking. Join in-demand speakers such as Anne Grady, Erin King, Jay Shetty and dozens more of our top corporate speakers.

See be a Success Speaker to get started on your next and best career!

Photo by l i g h t p o e t/Shutterstock

Your company event is coming up!

Whether you are preparing your next product launch, raising funds for a charitable cause or just want to reinvigorate your teams, a company event can play a critical role. A well-planned event educates and motivates your staff while teaching new skills and building employee cohesion. Event organization is tricky, but it’s worth the effort. You’ve got this!

So how does hiring a professional business speaker add lasting value to your event?

You show teams you’re invested in them.

Booking a keynote business speaker shows your staff that you’ll support and care about them long-term. You want them to continue learning. You believe in a process of continual improvement. And your business culture is strong and confident enough to provide outside views from the best business speakers available.

Booking a high-profile business speaker quantifies just how invested you are in your employees beyond a paycheck and perks. It shows that you want to inspire them, and that you believe their best is still inside of them.

Motivate employees at a personal level.

The top business speakers provide inspirational, relatable stories and personal anecdotes. Far from dry lectures and number-crunching, they provide motivational, actionable accounts of what personal and professional success look like.

Business speakers such as Erin King, Grant Cardone, Anthony O’Neal and others reach your audience at a deeply personal, motivational level that is not always possible in a routine workday. They’ve experienced challenges every step of the way and can relate practical means to build resilience and overcome those challenges. Best of all, they are gifted at sharing that information in a way that is inspirational, entertaining and memorable.

Business speakers inspire creativity and leadership.

Business requires processes and procedures. For teams and cross-teams to function cohesively, Standard Operating Procedures must often be followed to the letter—and it’s not always easy teaching employees to do so. During that process, it’s easy to lose sight of what inspired you to hire these unique individuals in the first place. That is, their past successes that made them so attractive.

What makes business speakers ideal for your event is their ability to step back from routine for a day. They tap into the creative and leadership attributes of your staff, reminding them that every single one of them has the potential to become a bold thinker or leader. They prepare your employees to share creative new solutions and to brainstorm better processes that can take your operation to the next level.

Promote beneficial lifestyle and work habit changes.

Investing in an employee is different than investing in new hardware or software. Both can increase revenue and productivity, but humans… well, we’re complicated. While labor resources will be some of the best investments you make, people come with baggage. They have both positive and negative attitudes, sometimes on the same day. And they bring varying degrees of mental health and resilience.

A professional business speaker has been through it themselves. And they’ve learned to not only thrive in difficulty, but to use challenges as fuel toward bigger accomplishments. Business speakers such as Allison Graham, Anne Grady, Michael Gelb and others bring deep, relatable knowledge that helps your audience build better, more resilient lifestyles. In turn, those lifestyles produce happier, more cohesive employees and teams. Hiring the right business speaker means hiring someone who knows the key to building a more resilient and productive work culture with useful tactics anyone can learn and implement.

Professional business speakers help focus your event.

Event planning isn’t easy. There’s the micro level of ensuring you have the right number of chairs, water bottles and space to accommodate your guests. But there’s also the macro level of ensuring your event has a consistent theme or message. When planning events, sometimes the best presentations and workshop ideas don’t fit neatly into a singular, memorable message.

Hiring the right keynote speaker helps you to tie it all together. Whether your corporate event lasts half a day or a week, the best business speakers provide unity to your event. They pull everything you planned into a larger message your audience will never forget. Best of all, they’ll make that message actionable, motivating your audience to lead and assist you on the next steps toward organizational success.

The Success Speakers Bureau can get you started.

Hiring the best keynote business speaker for your event can be simple. It’s just a matter of knowing where to start. The Success Speakers Bureau gets you on the right foot with dozens of top business speakers and influencers from across industries to choose from. Plus, our speakers are carefully vetted with more than 100 years of the SUCCESS name standing behind them. Best of all, we make access to the top business speakers simple for you by organizing availability, travel and even last-minute changes.

Make your next corporate or institutional event great! Visit the Success Speakers Bureau to create your short-list of top keynote business speakers and influencers.