Professional Speaking: Known. Booked. Paid.

Professional Speaking: Known, Booked & Paid is the definitive business podcast for keynote speakers, subject matter experts, and corporate consultants who are serious about building a commercially viable business, not just getting better at public speaking. Each week, host and speaker coach John A Ball cuts through the noise on what actually drives client bookings, inbound referrals, and premium fees. Solo episodes tackle high-ticket positioning, pricing strategy, and the critical business mistakes keeping good speakers underpaid. Guest episodes bring in working speakers, event planners, bureau insiders, and industry experts with the kind of candid insight you won't find in generic public speaking advice. If you're ready to move from inconsistent gigs and underpriced keynotes to a scalable speaking business that commands market attention—this is the show.

Professional Speaking: Known. Booked. Paid. is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 0 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Professional Speaking: Known. Booked. Paid., a business show with 0 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #286

  What AI Can't Write For You: Stories and Structure (Part 2)

  Aug 19, 202614 min

  Part two of the AI and keynotes series. Last episode covered the tells that give away a keynote written too much with AI. This one goes underneath that, to the parts of a keynote that were never AI's to write in the first place, even for speakers who've already cleaned up the obvious tells. John draws the line between a personal story and a personalised one: a personal story is something that happened to you; a personalised story is something that happened to you, chosen and shaped to do a specific job for a specific audience. He walks through four questions he uses with clients to audit which stories actually earn a place in a keynote, including a real example from his own experience: the story of being a flight attendant working the flight that turned back on September 11th, 2001, and the communication breakdown that followed. The episode also covers a practical structural point: why a keynote built to run exactly 45 minutes and nothing else is a commercially fragile talk, and how to identify the load-bearing throughline that has to survive at 20 minutes, versus the expansion material that fills you out to 60 or 90 minutes. Closes with a brief mention of frameworks, teeing up next episode's conversation with Susanna Reay, author of Framework Thinking. Find out more about the Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint founding cohort here: https://presentinfluence.com/kbpb Any questions, you can find my LinkedIn and email info at the end of the show notes. Chapters: 00:00 AI Tells Aren't Enough 01:35 Personal vs Personalised 03:21 Four Story Audit Questions 06:00 Why AI Can't Write This 07:51 Build Talks That Flex 09:37 Steel Thread and Expansion 10:25 The Real Principle Behind It 11:27 Frameworks and Next Episode 12:50 Subscribe and Program Invite 13:39 Final Send Off FAQs What's the difference between a personal story and a personalised story in a keynote? According to John Ball, a personal story is simply something that happened to the speaker. A personalised story is something that happened to the speaker, deliberately chosen and shaped to do a specific job for a specific audience. The distinction is what separates a keynote that gets a warm response from one that gets people talking about it afterwards. How do you know if a story belongs in a keynote? John Ball uses four questions with clients: did the story cost the speaker something (embarrassment, money, relationship, status), does it have a direct line to the specific argument being made rather than just a thematic connection, can the audience map it onto their own situation, and could literally nobody else on a stage tell that story. Why can't AI write personal stories for a keynote? AI has no access to which parts of a speaker's actual life carried real stakes. When prompted for a story, it either genericises the material it's given, smoothing out the specific and awkward human details, or invents a plausible-sounding story that means nothing because nobody lived it. How long should a keynote be? John Ball recommends designing the core skeleton of a keynote for 45 minutes, but identifying which sections are load-bearing (the talk stops making sense without them) versus expansion material (adds richness but isn't essential), so the talk can flex to a 20-minute or 90-minute brief without falling apart. Why does keynote length flexibility matter commercially? A talk that works only at a specific length is structurally fragile. Speakers either turn down briefs that don't match their fixed version or deliver something that doesn't quite work, both of which cost bookings over time. Visit https://strategic-speaker.scoreapp.com to take the 2-minute Strategic Speaking Business Audit and find out what's blocking you from getting more bookings, re-bookings, referrals and bigger fees. There's a special surprise gift for everyone who completes the quiz. Want to get coached for free on the show? Fill in the form https://forms.gle/mo4xYkEiCjqtz9yP6 , and if we think your challenge could help others, we'll invite you on. For speaking enquiries or to connect with me, you can email john@presentinfluence.com or find me on LinkedIn You can find all our clips, episodes and more on the Present Influence YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PresentInfluence Thanks for listening. Rating the show 5* on Spotify helps their algo recommend the show, so please take a moment to follow the show and leave a rating. Mentioned in this episode: Do you want to join the Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint September Case Study group? This September I'll be working with a group of 5 speakers who are already speaking but not getting the level of bookings and speaker fees that they really want. We'll work on the 3 key areas that will allow your speaking business to flourish. Since it's the founding group, there's an extra special deal on the price for joining that will never be repeated. Go to https://presentinfluence.com/kbpb for full details.

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  Episode #285

  How to Get Booked as a Speaker: Pitch Mistakes to Avoid.

  Aug 12, 202653 min

  Mike Verret last joined the show in 2021, back when it was still finding its way under a different name. He's back with a sharper, more focused message: the reason most pitches, whether for a speaking gig, a podcast guest slot, or a networking room, fall flat isn't the words. It's that the person pitching is thinking like a business when the person listening is thinking like a human. Mike spent fourteen years in advertising and agency work before six years on-site at Hasbro Toys, where his job flipped from "think like the audience" to "think like the business," and back again once they discovered he could actually talk to a room. That whiplash is where his framework comes from. In this episode, John and Mike cover why an "I help" statement is the fastest way to sound like everyone else on LinkedIn, how to turn an elevator pitch into an eight-floor conversation instead of a monologue, why the order you deliver information in matters more than the information itself, and why AI-written pitches are becoming easier, not harder, for audiences to spot. Mike also shares the Hasbro Monopoly Cheaters Edition story: a single audience insight and three slides that sold 500,000 units. If you've ever frozen up trying to explain what you do in under thirty seconds, or wondered why your polished LinkedIn "I help" line isn't landing bookings, this one's for you. Guest: Mike Verret, founder of Pitch Lab, former agency and Hasbro Toys communications director. Connect with Mike: linkedin.com/in/mike-verret Pitch Lab (membership, founding rate $99/month for the first 30 members) connect with Mike on LinkedIn to find out more. Want to check out my chat with Mike from 5 or so years ago? https://player.captivate.fm/episode/5d6eb0be-87a4-427c-b568-7ff34507c7e5/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Business vs Human Pitch 00:35 Meet Mike Verret 04:02 Hasbro Pitch Lessons 06:27 Instant Audience Connection 10:52 Set Expectations Fast 12:23 Pitching Speaking Gigs 14:43 Ditch the I Help 17:11 Practice for Authenticity 18:46 AI Voice Pitfalls 24:51 Order Beats Content 26:34 Taming the What Ifs 28:46 Stop Catastrophizing 29:30 Emotion Beats Logic 30:03 Curiosity And Closure 30:17 Rethinking Elevator Pitches 31:42 Eight Floor Pitch Framework 34:21 Benefits And Proof 36:11 Fixing Bad Guest Pitches 40:04 New Offers Pitch Lab 43:53 Think Like A Human 45:57 Monopoly Cheaters Edition 48:18 How To Connect 50:38 Wrap Up And Next Episodes FAQ Section Why do most professional speakers' pitches sound the same? Most speakers pitch from a business mindset rather than a human one. They lead with credentials, services, or an "I help X achieve Y" statement, all of which are common phrasing patterns that blend into every other pitch an audience or booker has already heard. What's wrong with the "I help" statement in a LinkedIn bio or pitch? The "I help" opening, sometimes called StoryBrand Mad Libs, is one of the most common ways professionals open a pitch, which means it carries no differentiation. Using verbs like "I guide" or "I assist," or reframing the sentence around the audience's outcome rather than the speaker's service, creates more distinctiveness. Is the elevator pitch still relevant for professional speakers? Yes, but not as a scripted monologue. An effective elevator pitch is structured as a conversation with predictable stages: what you do, who you help, how you help them, the benefit to them, and proof it works. Each stage should prompt the listener to ask a follow-up question rather than switch off. Why do audiences disengage from AI-written pitches and bios? Audiences increasingly recognise AI-generated phrasing, including consistent cadence and punctuation patterns such as em dashes. Once a listener or reader identifies content as AI-written, their engagement and trust in it drops, even if the underlying information came from the person themselves. What causes stage fright before a pitch or presentation? Pre-presentation anxiety is often driven by catastrophic "what if" thinking: imagining unlikely negative outcomes before speaking. Naming this pattern and consciously redirecting attention toward likely positive audience responses reduces its grip. Why does the order of information matter in a pitch? A pitch organised in the order the speaker's business thinks in (services first, credentials first) rarely matches the order an audience needs to understand and retain it. Presenting connection, then problem, then process, then benefit, then proof follows how a listener processes new information, which increases retention. Are you a speaker who wants to be better known, more booked and paid what you're worth? The Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint might be just the ticket. Check out our founding member offer: https://presentinfluence.com/kbpb Visit https://strategic-speaker.scoreapp.com to take the 2-minute Strategic Speaking Business Audit and find out what's blocking you from getting more bookings, re-bookings, referrals and bigger fees. There's a special surprise gift for everyone who completes the quiz. Want to get coached for free on the show? Fill in the form https://forms.gle/mo4xYkEiCjqtz9yP6 , and if we think your challenge could help others, we'll invite you on. For speaking enquiries or to connect with me, you can email john@presentinfluence.com or find me on LinkedIn You can find all our clips, episodes and more on the Present Influence YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PresentInfluence Thanks for listening. Rating the show 5* on Spotify helps their algo recommend the show, so please take a moment to follow the show and leave a rating. Mentioned in this episode: Do you want to join the Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint September Case Study group? This September I'll be working with a group of 5 speakers who are already speaking but not getting the level of bookings and speaker fees that they really want. We'll work on the 3 key areas that will allow your speaking business to flourish. Since it's the founding group, there's an extra special deal on the price for joining that will never be repeated. Go to https://presentinfluence.com/kbpb for full details.

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  Episode #284

  The AI Written Keynote Tells You're Not Catching

  Aug 5, 202621 min

  Most speakers think the problem with their keynote is the content. It's rarely the content. In this episode John breaks down why writing your keynote with AI is a bad idea, even as the tools keep improving, starting with a story about a speaker he coached at TSL whose entirely AI-written talk was, in John's words, drivel. John walks through the planning-stage traps that happen before a word gets written: AI's sycophancy (it will tell you your topic is great and bookable when it has no actual market data to base that on), and its habit of fabricating statistics, quotes, and studies with total confidence and zero hedging. He then moves into the writing-stage tells that show up once a talk is drafted, particularly the overuse of rhetorical devices deployed because they pattern-match to "sounds like a keynote" rather than because the moment earned them. The throughline: AI can't lose you a booking, so it never needs to hedge. Everything it writes for you sounds finished. That's the tell, because nothing true costs that little to say. This is part one of a two-part series. Part two covers what AI genuinely can't do for your keynote: write your stories, or build a framework that means anything. FAQ Is it a bad idea to write a keynote with AI? Yes, according to John Ball, because AI produces confidently mediocre talks. It cannot access personal stories, emotional experience, or genuine insight into what makes a specific keynote work for a specific audience, and it will validate a topic's commercial viability with false confidence. What is AI sycophancy in the context of keynote writing? AI sycophancy refers to the tendency of AI tools to validate whatever topic a speaker brings to them, including telling the speaker their topic is strong and highly bookable, without having any actual data on what talks are currently being booked or what the market wants. What are common signs that a keynote was written by AI? Common tells include overuse of rhetorical devices such as the rule of three, tricolon, and "not this, but that" constructions used because they pattern-match to keynote style rather than because the moment calls for them, along with generic phrasing such as variations on "a wolf in sheep's clothing," and bland, generic stories that show no sign of having actually happened. Can AI write good stories for a keynote? No. AI cannot generate a speaker's personal stories, emotional experiences, or unique perspective, since it has no lived experience of its own. When prompted for a story, it tends to produce generic content or invent one, according to John Ball. Does AI fabricate information in keynote research? Yes. AI tools can invent statistics, quotations, and studies and present them with full confidence and no indication of uncertainty, which has caused real-world problems in other professions, including cases of lawyers citing non-existent legal statutes generated by AI. CHAPTERS 00:00 AI Keynote Red Flags 01:09 Welcome And Host Intro 01:35 The AI Written Keynote Story 03:56 Speechwriters Versus AI 06:01 Why AI Flatters You 09:51 Ethics And Smart Use 11:44 Hallucinations And False Certainty 14:14 Rhetorical Padding Tells 15:58 Outlining Tool And Real Stories 17:26 Confidence Without Stakes 18:20 Next Episodes And Wrap Up Visit https://strategic-speaker.scoreapp.com to take the 2-minute Strategic Speaking Business Audit and find out what's blocking you from getting more bookings, re-bookings, referrals and bigger fees. There's a special surprise gift for everyone who completes the quiz. Want to get coached for free on the show? Fill in the form https://forms.gle/mo4xYkEiCjqtz9yP6 , and if we think your challenge could help others, we'll invite you on. For speaking enquiries or to connect with me, you can email john@presentinfluence.com or find me on LinkedIn You can find all our clips, episodes and more on the Present Influence YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PresentInfluence Thanks for listening. Rating the show 5* on Spotify helps their algo recommend the show, so please take a moment to follow the show and leave a rating. Mentioned in this episode: Do you want to join the Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint September Case Study group? This September I'll be working with a group of 5 speakers who are already speaking but not getting the level of bookings and speaker fees that they really want. We'll work on the 3 key areas that will allow your speaking business to flourish. Since it's the founding group, there's an extra special deal on the price for joining that will never be repeated. Go to https://presentinfluence.com/kbpb for full details.

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  Episode #283

  Charisma Isn't Innate, It's Built: Owen Fitzpatrick on the Psychology of Influence

  Jul 29, 202655 min

  Most speakers assume their audience is persuadable by good evidence. Psychologist Owen Fitzpatrick, who trained under NLP co-creator Richard Bandler and has travelled to over a hundred countries, including North Korea, Afghanistan and Iran, studying how belief actually forms, argues that's backwards. People believe what feels right, fits their identity, and keeps them inside their tribe. Evidence comes after, as justification. Owen built his reputation on charisma work (his book The Charismatic Edge argued charisma is an impression you create, not something you're born with) before moving into belief and propaganda with his new book Inner Propaganda, out 4 August. In this conversation, he lays out his DELP model (an expansion of Aristotle's ethos, logos, pathos to include demos — understanding your specific audience), explains why intelligent, critical-thinking people are often the most convincing propagandists to themselves, and draws a sharp line between persuasion, manipulation and propaganda that every speaker standing on a stage should sit with. We also get into why spontaneous, unscripted delivery reads as more truthful than polished delivery (with Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" as the example), and why AI's tendency to flatter you is quietly making this problem worse, not better. In this episode: Why charisma is built, not innate, and why it matters more now than when Owen wrote The Charismatic Edge in 2013 The DELP model: demos, ethos, logos, pathos Why perceived authenticity beats actual authenticity, and why spontaneity reads as truth Why critical thinking doesn't protect you from bad beliefs (argumentation vs investigation) Motivated reasoning, naive realism, and sacred values: why smart people hold ridiculous beliefs The difference between persuasion, manipulation and propaganda, and why every speaker is, to a degree, a propagandist Owen's practical tools: the belief audit, the feels right/fits in/makes sense framework, and E-Prime language Connect with Owen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/owenfitzp/ The book and the special workshop are available at https://innerpropaganda.com , and you can discover more about Owen and his work at https://owenfitzpatrick.com FAQ What is Owen Fitzpatrick's DELP model? The DELP model is Owen Fitzpatrick's expansion of Aristotle's rhetorical triad of ethos, logos and pathos. Owen adds demos, the requirement to understand the specific audience being addressed, alongside ethos (credibility and positioning), logos (logical structure and evidence) and pathos (emotional impact). What is Owen Fitzpatrick's book Inner Propaganda about? Inner Propaganda is Owen Fitzpatrick's book, to be released on 4th of August 2026, about how individuals generate their own propaganda internally through feelings, self-narratives and motivated reasoning. It argues that people convince themselves of beliefs the same way state propaganda convinces populations, through internal versions of state media, indoctrination and truth engineering. What is the difference between persuasion, manipulation and propaganda, according to Owen Fitzpatrick? Persuasion is the ethical attempt to change beliefs, attitudes or behaviour while genuinely caring about what the other person wants. Manipulation uses deception and serves only the persuader's own interests. Propaganda combines both, using every available tool of persuasion and manipulation to construct an entire reality for the audience. Why doesn't critical thinking protect people from believing false things? According to Owen Fitzpatrick, critical thinking and intelligence make people better at constructing airtight arguments (argumentation) rather than at genuinely investigating what is true (investigation). Motivated reasoning, a concept from psychologist Ziva Kunda, refers to people reasoning toward conclusions they already want to be true. What is naive realism? Naive realism is the belief that one's own perception of reality is objectively accurate and shared by anyone reasonable. Owen Fitzpatrick argues this prevents people from applying the same critical scrutiny to their own beliefs that they readily apply to beliefs they disagree with. What is E-Prime language and why does Owen Fitzpatrick use it? E-Prime is a form of English that eliminates the verb "to be," originally developed by David Bourland based on Alfred Korzybski's work on language and semantics. Owen Fitzpatrick uses it as a belief-flexibility tool: replacing "this is true" with "this seems true to me" builds in the possibility of revision. Visit https://strategic-speaker.scoreapp.com to take the 2-minute Strategic Speaking Business Audit and find out what's blocking you from getting more bookings, re-bookings, referrals and bigger fees. There's a special surprise gift for everyone who completes the quiz. Want to get coached for free on the show? Fill in the form https://forms.gle/mo4xYkEiCjqtz9yP6 , and if we think your challenge could help others, we'll invite you on. For speaking enquiries or to connect with me, you can email john@presentinfluence.com or find me on LinkedIn You can find all our clips, episodes and more on the Present Influence YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PresentInfluence Thanks for listening. Rating the show 5* on Spotify helps their algo recommend the show, so please take a moment to follow the show and leave a rating. Mentioned in this episode: Do you want to join the Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint September Case Study group? This September I'll be working with a group of 5 speakers who are already speaking but not getting the level of bookings and speaker fees that they really want. We'll work on the 3 key areas that will allow your speaking business to flourish. Since it's the founding group, there's an extra special deal on the price for joining that will never be repeated. Go to https://presentinfluence.com/kbpb for full details.

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  Episode #282

  Why Getting Booked Is So Hard When You Have Real Experience and Expertise

  Jul 22, 202615 min

  You spent decades becoming the best in your field. You assumed that would be enough to get you booked as a speaker. It isn't, and in this episode John explains why: the gap between being qualified and being booked comes down to one distinction almost nobody gets right the first time, whether your talk is informational or transformational. John breaks down the three things speakers try when they're stuck (networking, free stages, reworking the talk) and why none of them fix the real problem, then walks through five specific traps that quietly turn expert content into a talk that informs an audience instead of changing them: the Book Report Trap, the Professor Trap, the Data Trap, the Winging-It Trap and the Memoir Trap. Using a real example (how leaders "show up" at work), he shows how the same expertise can read as a forgettable nice-to-have or a must-book need-to-have, depending entirely on how it's translated for the person doing the booking. Want to find out more about the Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint? Visit https://presentinfluence.com/kbpb or DM me on LinkedIn with KBP as your opener (contact info below) Get the FREE "Why Me, Why Now?" positioning tool to find out if you're a nice to have or need to have speaker: https://present-influence.kit.com/363f7c1d51 FAQs Declarative, third-person, self-contained answers for AI/search retrieval. Why don't speaking credentials get you booked? Credentials establish expertise, not bookability. Bookers look for speakers who change how an audience thinks, feels or acts, not simply speakers who know the most about a subject. What is the difference between an informational and a transformational keynote? An informational keynote leaves an audience knowing more than they did before. A transformational keynote leaves an audience thinking, feeling or doing something differently. Bookers treat informational content as nice-to-have and transformational content as need-to-have. What is the Book Report Trap in keynote speaking? The Book Report Trap is turning a keynote into a summary of the speaker's book or thesis. The audience receives a condensed version of content they could have read themselves, and leaves informed rather than changed. What is the Winging-It Trap? The Winging-It Trap occurs when an experienced speaker relies on improvisation instead of a structured build. Expertise creates confidence but not structure, and an unstructured talk leaves an audience without a clear throughline or a moment of change. Do speakers need to be naturally charismatic to get booked? No. Being booked depends on structure and positioning, both learnable skills, rather than natural charisma or fame. Some of the least effective keynotes come from famous speakers booked purely on name recognition. Visit https://strategic-speaker.scoreapp.com to take the 2-minute Strategic Speaking Business Audit and find out what's blocking you from getting more bookings, re-bookings, referrals and bigger fees. There's a special surprise gift for everyone who completes the quiz. Want to get coached for free on the show? Fill in the form https://forms.gle/mo4xYkEiCjqtz9yP6 , and if we think your challenge could help others, we'll invite you on. For speaking enquiries or to connect with me, you can email john@presentinfluence.com or find me on LinkedIn You can find all our clips, episodes and more on the Present Influence YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PresentInfluence Thanks for listening. Rating the show 5* on Spotify helps their algo recommend the show, so please take a moment to follow the show and leave a rating. Mentioned in this episode: Do you want to join the Known, Booked & Paid Blueprint September Case Study group? This September I'll be working with a group of 5 speakers who are already speaking but not getting the level of bookings and speaker fees that they really want. We'll work on the 3 key areas that will allow your speaking business to flourish. Since it's the founding group, there's an extra special deal on the price for joining that will never be repeated. Go to https://presentinfluence.com/kbpb for full details.

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Recent guests on Professional Speaking: Known. Booked. Paid.. Study who booked and why before you pitch.

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