Myths You’ve Been Led to Believe About the Recession Proof College Speaking Market

Posted on February 11th, 2009.

The following post comes to us from James Malinchak (part 1)

Photo of James and me Susan Levin at the National Speakers’ Association Convention

Prior to me sharing my college speaking secrets with others, I would often hear speakers in the industry often share information with others that wasn’t correct. Those sharing this information weren’t mean spirited. They just didn’t understand the college market. Therefore, they “assumed” certain things about it and would pass those assumptions along to others like us. Basically, what I’m referring to are seven myths I’ve been hearing people in the speaking industry pass along to speakers for years. Just because they don’t understand the college market, they think you can’t possibly make serious money speaking in it. I have a saying I’ve been repeating for years which is: “Just because someone doesn’t know, doesn’t mean it isn’t so!”

So, here are 2 Myths You’ve Been Led to Believe About the College Speaking Market:

Myth #1: There’s no money in the college market

For years, I would constantly have speakers, authors, trainers, coaches, consultants and info-preneurs approach me and say, “There’s no money speaking in the college market.” And, for years, before I began sharing my secrets with others, I would simply smile and respond with, “Well, you’re probably right.” Then I would just keep-on-keeping-on. There’s money if you know where to look and it’s not your fault if you’ve been believing this myth because nobody has ever taught you why there’s money.

Let me teach you why there’s money because if you understand why there’s money, then speaking in the college market will make perfect sense to you. And I really want you to understand this because as the old saying goes:

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and he feeds himself for a lifetime!”

Almost every college requires each student to pay an Activities Fee when registering for classes. Some schools charge this fee per semester, while others charge it per year. It depends on the individual school. This fee ranges from $20-$200 per student. Again, it depends on the individual school. One of primary uses of this fee is to bring people just like me and you to the school, meaning speakers, authors, trainers, coaches, consultants, info-preneurs, bands, comedians, hypnotists, and others. This $20-$200 fee doesn’t seem like a lot, but remember that most schools have thousands of students. So let’s play this out in an example:

$50 activities fee x 10,000 students = a potential $500,000 BUDGET

$100 activities fee x 10,000 students = a potential $1,000,000 BUDGET!

That can be per year or per semester. Again, it depends on the individual school. Wow! You can clearly see that some schools have bigger semi-annual and annual budgets that many corporations and associations. This activities fee will always be charged because it’s similar to a vacation resort fee. When you check into a vacation resort, there’s always a minor resort fee that all guests get charged. There’s no way around it and we all pay the resort fee. The same goes for this activities fee. It always gets charged. In addition, there are anywhere from 10-15 different departments at each college that have well-funded budgets to bring in speakers! They could be funded by state and/or federal grants, alumni donations and other sources. And, here’s the best part. Colleges will have these budgets every year because there will always be thousands and thousands of students going to school, no matter how bad the economy gets or how bad corporate or association training budgets get cut. Which means the activities fee will always be charged.

Let me give an example of the power of this. When the unfortunate 9/11 terrorist tragedy happened, I was flying to Tallahassee, Florida where I was scheduled to speak at Florida State University that night. Obviously, the presentation for that night was canceled. But the remaining presentations I had scheduled for the rest of the month of September weren’t canceled. While many speakers’ businesses came to a sudden stop because corporate and association budgets were immediately slashed, I made around $40,000 in the last few weeks of September alone! Then, the remaining months speaking in the college circuit continued on as if nothing had happened. What I mean is the other college presentations that were booked on my schedule from October-on all remained booked and I never missed a beat! The college market is one of the greatest, most overlooked, most untapped, most lucrative speaking niches and anyone who walks up to you and says, “There’s no money speaking in the college market,” obviously doesn’t understand the market. Simply smile and respond with, “Well, you’re probably right.” Then you just keep-on-keeping-on following my recipe and enjoy getting an MBA for yourself (Massive Bank Account!)

Myth #2: Marketing to the college market is the same as marketing to any other market, whether it’s youth, corporate or a specific niche

I hate to break it to you, but people in the speaking industry have been misinforming you for years! Marketing-wise, it’s totally different marketing to the college market than ANY other market if you want to get booked. Anybody who ever tells you that you can have a “one-sheet” or have one set of marketing materials that is used to market yourself for all markets, you can be sure they have no clue how to market to colleges. It is not the same as other markets and it’s as different as night and day, apples and oranges. I don’t care which market or niche you may be speaking in, the college market is so much different and if you don’t understand the proper way to market to colleges, then you won’t get booked and you won’t make any money!

Note: Meet James in person on May 3, 2009 at the Speakers’ Summit09

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