SpeakersU Podcast with James Taylor – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of the SpeakersU Podcast, James Taylor and Maria Franzoni explore one of the most important challenges for professional speakers: how to stay relevant in a rapidly changing marketplace.

Maria explains why relevance to a paying market is the first element of her Bookability Formula and how speakers can identify what audiences will need today—and in five years' time. James shares how he blends perennial topics like creativity with fast-moving ones like AI, and why staying a few steps ahead of clients keeps him in demand.

From industry reports and boardroom insights to experimenting with new keynote content and testing topics with the market before creating them, this conversation is packed with strategies to help speakers stay visible, booked, and valued in an ever-evolving industry.

• Relevance drives bookings – It's the #1 factor in Maria's Bookability Formula.
  
  

• Think five years ahead – Use strategy insights to prepare for how industries and audiences will evolve.
  
  

• Blend perennial and trendy topics – Pair evergreen skills (creativity, leadership, resilience) with emerging trends (AI, tech, demographics).
  
  

• Listen more, talk less – Relevance often comes from asking the right questions in discovery calls.
  
  

• Experiment before you build – Test keynote ideas, topics, or programs in the market before investing time and money.
  
  

• Differentiate by audience – Tailor your pitch for C-suite, event professionals, and bureaus, as each values relevance differently.
  
  

• Stay close to your industry – Associations like MPI and global markets (US, Europe, Asia) often signal future trends.
  
  

• "The most important element of being bookable is relevance to a paying market." – Maria Franzoni
  
  

• "Don't wait for five-year plans—ask what the world will look like in five years and move your speaking to match." – James Taylor
  
  

• "Sell it before you create it. The market decides what's relevant, not you." – Maria Franzoni
  
  

• "Relevance isn't just your topic—it's how you present it to different stakeholders." – James Taylor
  
  

• 00:00 – Welcome and updates: group sessions and risky live AI music demos
  
  

• 04:24 – Why staying relevant matters: Maria's Bookability Formula
  
  

• 05:18 – James on blending perennial topics with fast-changing ones
  
  

• 06:45 – Strategy lessons from Eric Schmidt: think five years ahead
  
  

• 07:34 – Maria on LinkedIn Learning and WEF reports as future-skills guides
  
  

• 09:10 – How James tracks trends using board minutes, Gartner reports, Reddit
  
  

• 11:11 – Tech examples: AR glasses, live facial recognition, event tech
  
  

• 14:54 – Staying close to the meetings & events industry for insights
  
  

• 16:22 – Meeting professionals shaping the future of conferences
  
  

• 18:48 – Being too early: when audiences aren't ready for your message
  
  

• 20:01 – Test the market first: lessons from publishing and Dragon's Den
  
  

• 23:15 – Differentiating yourself in competitive pitches
  
  

• 25:00 – Evergreen vs. niche topics and industry-specific competition
  
  

• 27:20 – Relevance shifts depending on whether you're pitching C-suite, planners, or bureaus
  
  

• 28:07 – Discovery calls: listening, mirroring language, and building relevance
  
  

• 29:18 – Why listening is the most underrated skill for speakers
  
  

• 30:17 – Maria's tip: ask clients "How did you find me?" and "Why me?" before and after gigs
  
  

• 32:43 – James' tool: Opus Pro for creating viral short-form video clips
  
  

• 34:16 – Closing thoughts and listener questions
  
  

👉 Have a question for James and Maria? Email: hello@speakersu.com

In this episode of the SpeakersU Podcast, James Taylor and Maria Franzoni tackle one of the most common dilemmas for speakers: should you ever speak for free? From the early days of building your career to strategic opportunities later on, there are times when waiving your fee can make sense—and times when it's a clear no.

James and Maria share their own experiences, including James' infamous "Ham Salad Tour" of free Rotary talks, Maria's love of prospecting, and why speaking for peers rarely pays. They also explore when unpaid gigs can serve as marketing, help you perfect your craft, or provide valuable assets like video footage, networking access, or bulk book sales.

If you've ever been asked to "speak for exposure," this episode will give you the tools to decide whether to say yes, no, or "yes, but on my terms."

• Get your reps in – Early in your career, free gigs help you practice, refine material, and build confidence.
  
  

• Peers don't pay – Speaking to your own industry or colleagues rarely results in paid bookings.
  
  

• Make it part of your marketing – Free gigs targeting your ideal audience can lead to paid work.
  
  

• Negotiate value beyond fees – Ask for video footage, attendee lists, association memberships, or bulk book sales.
  
  

• Positioning matters – Your website, testimonials, and branding can either attract paid gigs or signal you'll work for free.
  
  

• Give back strategically – Schools, associations, and podcasts can be the right places to serve without charging.
  
  

• Always set boundaries – Say "I normally charge X, but I'm waiving my fee" to reinforce your value.
  
  

• "Peers don't pay. If you're speaking to your own industry, don't expect a fee." – Maria Franzoni
  
  

• "Don't fall in love with the stage—fall in love with the audience that can book you." – James Taylor
  
  

• "If you're converting every inquiry, your fees are too low." – James Taylor
  
  

• "Speaking for free can be smart—but only if you're clear why you're doing it." – Maria Franzoni
  
  

• 00:00 – Welcome and Maria's targeted outreach experiment
  
  

• 01:56 – Introducing today's topic: speaking for free
  
  

• 04:01 – Maria's "I will speak for biscuits" mug and first perspectives
  
  

• 04:56 – Why free gigs are valuable for beginners (reps & stage time)
  
  

• 06:18 – James' first paid music gig vs. 40 free Rotary talks
  
  

• 07:41 – Speaking for free as part of your marketing budget
  
  

• 09:47 – The "Ham Salad Tour" and the moment free gigs led to paid bookings
  
  

• 09:57 – Why podcasts, peer events, and associations are worth doing unpaid
  
  

• 11:05 – Giving back: Speakers for Schools and pro bono speaking
  
  

• 13:01 – Schools as a paid speaking market (School Speakers example)
  
  

• 15:01 – How your positioning and testimonials attract (or repel) free requests
  
  

• 16:45 – Negotiating non-fee value: video, access, booths, memberships
  
  

• 18:20 – The myth of "sharing the stage with…"
  
  

• 20:22 – Free gigs as leverage for podcasting, YouTube, and influencer deals
  
  

• 23:41 – Digital twins, AI, and future revenue opportunities
  
  

• 24:28 – Tools & tips: Otter.ai for transcriptions and positioning your website
  
  

• 28:06 – Wrap-up and invitation for listener questions
  
  

👉 Have a question for James and Maria? Email: hello@speakersu.com

Entertaining and unreservedly direct, our guest isn't just a motivational speaker – he is a company turnaround specialist driving everyone from CEOs to schoolchildren to ignite excitement and action in their life.
For more than 20 years, he has been on his quest to make you the best by sharing his techniques and tools to break through the boundaries we put up around us. His always animated and interactive presentations have inspired thousands of FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 delegates, school children, charities, and prison inmates, in groups of five to 5000 and all over the world, into taking positive strides in their work and personal life.
No longer living the dress rehearsal of their life, his words whip up listeners into action; energized and passionate.

Questions:

• How long have you been speaking?
• What is your speaking biz model?
• How did you become speaker of the year from Vistage Ace Footdown and YPO?
• Why do you specialize in CEO groups?
• How many books have you written?
• Why books can be a massive income producer
• Why speakers are more concerned with testimonials than re-bookings
• How to get rebooked even before the first event

Our guest this week started in the speaking industry in 2012 and began as an agent handling the speaking for a range of motivational speakers from the world of sport, adventure, and military. In 2014, he relocated to Hong Kong to start the Chartwell Asia office. The majority of clients there were financial services firms sourcing experts to speak at their regional conferences. During his time in Asia, he got a lot of experience in "co-broking" with US-Based Agencies. In 2016 he returned to London and took over as Managing Director of Chartwell at that time. His role now mainly consists of handling "exclusive speakers" and managing the corporate speaking engagements for a range of high-profile economists, politicians, technology entrepreneurs & academics.

Questions:

• Tell us about Chartwell and what makes them USPs
• How did you get into the Speaking Industry? What's your background? 
• What's going on in the market?

• What type of speaker would work with you / Chartwell? 
• What advice would you give to a speaker looking to get booked by an agency like Chartwell?

Jessica Killingley: How Writing A Book Can Help Your Speaking Career – #136

Jessica Killingley is a Literary Agent, Publishing Consultant & Life Coach. An accidental serial entrepreneur, she runs a business that supports founders, consultants, and coaches who want to write & self-publish books that grow their business and their profile. Her podcast, The AUTHORity Show, gives aspiring non-fiction authors the inside track into what it really takes to get a book out there that turns readers into clients. After working for over 20 years in the publishing industry, she also co-founded The BKS Agency – a literary management Agency based in London – with two friends. They currently represent around 75 authors globally, across a wide range of fiction and non-fiction genres. Their authors are Sunday Times bestsellers, Olympic athletes, gifted storytellers, international speakers, entrepreneurs, journalists, consultants, and experts in their field. Jessica's interests lie in business, personal development & smart thinking projects and she is looking for authors who have strong brands in their fields to be the thought leaders of tomorrow. 

Questions:

• Writing a book is hard work – why should someone bother? 
• How can having a book support your speaking career? 
• What is the best way of getting my book published? (See also Do I need an agent? How do you get a book deal?) 
• How do I make a book work hard for me once it's out?

Our guest is the author of the global best-seller, "How to be a Productivity Ninja". He is the founder of Think Productive, one of the world's leading providers of personal productivity training and consultancy. His podcast "Beyond Busy" explores the issues of productivity, work/life balance, and how people define happiness in their lives. Previous roles include Chief Executive of Student Volunteering England, Head of Volunteering at the University of Birmingham, and an advisor to the UK Government on youth volunteering policy.

Welcome Graham Allcott

Questions:
•What stops people from being productive?
•What are the ways to ensure a good work-life balance?
•How do you switch off?
•How do you ensure that a keynote delivery always feels tailored for the specific audience?

I'm James Taylor, and you're listening to the speakers you podcast, a show for aspiring and professional speakers. This episode is with my co-host, Maria Franzoni. Enjoy the episode. Today, I'm outnumbered. I'm the only one. I'm the only stranieri here. I'm the only non-Italian on this call on this event, so 100 million new businesses start every year, and 99% of them actually fail within three years. So really our businesses, we're kind of a little bit unusual here. So how do we create these sustainable businesses, businesses, businesses that could survive and thrive in the toughest market conditions? That is what our guests will help us discover today. Simone Gen Z is a multi-award-winning serial entrepreneur and author who has helped people to launch more than 500 profitable businesses before he reached the age of 30. He writes for Forbes Entrepreneur Magazine and regularly features on TV and radio, please welcome to speaking business TV Simone Vincenzi

What differentiates high performers from good performers? What helps one person to achieve in 3 months what others do in 12? These are the questions that have inspired our guest for the last 20 years and have led to his #IAM10 methodology for high performance. The world is changing faster than ever. There is more competition than ever before. The global economy, AI, automation all mean that you and your people need to work with conviction, embrace change, maximise productivity and add more value to every situation. Good enough is not good enough anymore. You need to be the best. You need to be a 10.  We are delighted to have Gavin Ingham as our guest this week.

Questions:

• How did you get into speaking? 
• What do you think makes a bookable speaker? And how has this changed over the last couple of years? 
• Why do only such a small percentage of speakers succeed? 
• What is it that speakers do/ don't do that would make the difference? 
• Where do most of your business come from? 

• What three things would you recommend to a speaker wanting more business?

For the last decade, our guest has worked with Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, MD's & Investors in order to help them stand out when they are delivering talks and speeches, pitching or looking to win business through delivering speaking. His unique and effective structures, impactful delivery training, and teaching "language that lands" has helped to hone their messaging, perfect their stories, and thus enable them to win more business. He has spoken globally at conferences, events, in front of teams, leaders, and managers on how to pitch and win new business. As well as speaking he has worked with some of the leading companies and corporations and entrepreneurs on customer service, how to get into the media and how to successfully pitch on top-rated television programs such as "Dragons Den" and "MasterChef the Professionals".  Welcome Elliot Kay

Questions:

• What does it mean to be more giraffe?
• How can someone apply this to their speaking?
• Tell us about the 8 principles – could you share a couple.
• Biz model
• Why is it important to stand out as a speaker?
• How do you help people be more giraffe?

We have a phenomenal guest today we have a very, very, very special guest today, her name is Maria Franzoni. You may have heard of her because the day we're talking about speaker bureaus, and when it comes to this topic of speaker bureaus working with Speaker bureaus, there are no finer experts to bring in than Maria. So as a speaker, at some point, you're going to consider working with Speaker bureaus just to help you grow your fees, and your business. Speaker bureaus can not only get you higher fees, but they can also get you booked by the right type of clients and take all that horrible admin stuff off of your shoulders. When the relationship works, your business is going to fly to the stars. Sounds great. How do we make it happen? Today's guest has spent 23 years amazing working in running international speaker bureaus. She'll be sharing some insights into what it takes to get listed and work with bureaus. Yes, Maria Franzoni is in the hot seat this week.