Introducing Scott Media Speakers

Alongside the workshops and other services, I already offer this month I’m launching an additional service for my clients: Scott Media Speakers.

This is an idea I have been thinking about, and recently discussing with clients, friends and professional speakers Stefan Thomas and Taz Thornton, over the last few months.

It will be a free value-add for my clients, or members of my PR Academy who want to be part of it. For anyone else, once they’ve been vetted, it will be a paid-for service, though low cost.

Those of you who have worked with me know that I always advise that public speaking can be part of your PR. It’s a great way to share your stories, knowledge, expertise, experiences to inspire others.  Not everyone wants to do it as part of their PR and that’s fine. However many do and many don’t really know where to start.

Some people may feel the need for training – or they do need training –  before taking on any public speaking. I won’t be offering training as my clients Taz and Stefan both offer that so I’m not intending to reinvent the wheel – it’s not my forte.

Speaker agencies already exist of course, many of them for people who are already well known, or famous, and they often demand big price tags. However, there is little out there for people who don’t want to be paid to talk, or are supporting a cause or campaign, or want to build their experience and are willing to talk for no fee or smaller fees. I’m looking to fill that gap in the market.

Scott Media Speakers will have four tiers and each person featured on the site will be featured in the tier or tiers which are relevant to them.  Some clients, depending on the subject they are talking about will possibly appear in two tiers.

Example 1: If I’m speaking in my own community of Swindon about Ainslie’s Pavilion Project, as it’s a charitable community project in memory of my friend Ainslie, I will not make a charge for that, other than reasonable and relevant expenses. I might also ask for a donation to the cause. By expenses I mean a little mileage or parking.  That would fit into tier 1.

Example 2: If I’m asked to travel 300 miles, stay overnight in a hotel and talk at a conference about a subject that is related to PR or the media, then that’s my professional work, and I’d expect a fee of around £500 plus VAT, and reasonable expenses.

Therefore, as a speaker, with those two different scenarios, I’d fit into both tier 1 and tier 3.

As I’m offering the speaker booking platform free to clients, and if they get a gig, then as a service, my little team will make arrangements, handle logistics and take a ten per cent cut of the agreed fee. If it’s a person who will talk for free then I’ll charge the booking organisation or person £25 plus VAT as a one-off fee for arranging that ‘gig’.

These opportunities might come up once a year, one every two years or ten… we can’t plan for that – I cannot predict that.

When this service begins, I’ll be talking about my speaker clients on my social platforms regularly and I’ll ask them to do the same. Over time this will become a natural part of the service I offer – for those clients who want speaking to be part of their PR activity.

Next week I’ll talk about how it will work for non-clients.