So, you want to be a real estate speaker? Nobody starts at the keynote

People ask me about this all the time. They saw someone on a stage, thought “I could do that,” and want to know how it actually works.

So here it is. The honest version. Not the part where you’re the keynote with your name on the banner. The part before that, which is most of it.

There’s a ladder, and you climb it

Almost nobody starts at the top. There’s a ladder, and everyone climbs the same one. You usually start as a panelist. Then you earn a breakout room. Then you get a spot on the main stage. And eventually, if you put in the work, you become the keynote.

That last rung takes real concentration. It doesn’t happen because you want it. It happens because you have it good enough that an organizer trusts you with the biggest moment of their event, the one their whole crowd showed up for. Keep that ladder in your head as you read the rest of this, because almost everything below is about how you climb one more rung.

Your first yes is closer than you think

It’s your own brokerage or one in your network.

Offer to run a training session for the agents in your office on something you genuinely know well. That’s the on-ramp. You get reps, you get comfortable in front of a room, and you start to figure out what you’re actually good at, which you can’t know until you’ve done it a few times.

That’s how you get on the ladder. Nobody hands you a stage before you’ve stood on a small one.

Before you climb, be honest about which kind of speaker you are

This is the one most people don’t think about.

There are two kinds of speakers that events want. The first puts butts in seats. People buy a ticket because that name is on the bill. The second makes the audience feel like they got their money’s worth, even if they’d never heard of them before they walked in.

Some speakers aren’t amazing on stage, but they sell tickets, and they can figure out the rest. Some aren’t well known at all, but they blow the room away. Most of us start firmly in the second camp and have to earn our way toward the first.

Be honest about where you stand, because it decides everything downstream: how you pitch, which events say yes, what you can charge. Pretending you’re a draw when you’re not is how you price yourself out of the rooms that would have actually built your name.

Speak about what you actually know

Speak on things you know cold, and have a real point of view. Then decide what you want to be known for.

Here’s the mistake I see constantly: people pitch with “just tell me what you need, I can speak on anything.” That gets you nowhere. It hands all the work back to the organizer, who now has to invent your talk for you.

Have clear pitches. And know how to deliver each one in 20, 30, 45 and 60 minutes, because different events hand you different windows, and “but I only have a 60-minute version” is not the answer they want to hear.

There are actually two ladders

Before we even talk fees, money isn’t why everyone does this, and you should be clear on which camp you’re in.

Some people speak to give back to the industry, and they’ll never charge a dime for it. Some do it to drive referrals. The talk isn’t the pay day, the relationships in the room are. For plenty of agents, the financial return isn’t up front at all. It shows up months later as business, which makes speaking for free a deliberate strategy. And some people do it purely because it fires them up. That’s the whole return for them, and that’s reason enough.

Know your own answer, because it changes what “getting paid” even means for you, and whether a free gig is a loss or worth it.

Then there’s the second thing nobody points out: the career ladder and the money ladder don’t move in lockstep.

When you’re starting out, you may not be able to charge much. Or anything. That’s normal, and it’s not an insult. It helps to think about the host. If someone’s making money on the event, they’re more likely to pay you. If it’s a smaller or community thing, the budget may just not be there, and that’s not them lowballing you.

Pay climbs its own rungs. Some events won’t cover your travel or even give you a ticket. Others comp the ticket. Others do ticket plus travel. Then, eventually, you get into actual fees.

I started out getting paid nothing. No fee, sometimes not even a ticket at the door. The first time someone actually cut me a cheque, it was $500, and I had offered to do it for free, and they insisted on paying me.

Today, I charge up to $10,000 an engagement, and I’ve technically gone higher, but only as part of packages that include more than the stage itself. 

I’ll be straight about the Canadian market, too. There are fewer events here willing to go north of $5,000, and the number thins out fast above that. They exist. There just aren’t many. If you want to build a consistent revenue stream as a speaker in real estate, you will need to eventually go south of the border.

If you’re selling, your upfront fee may change depending on what you can get on the backend. There have been times I’ve charged nothing because I knew the room was filled with our ideal clients and I’d make enough on the backend. There are other events I’ve added a premium to my fee because there was zero chance of revenue outside of the fee.

Be willing to get creative, too. If an event doesn’t have the budget, would they let you find a sponsor for your talk? Some outside companies might be willing to pay to put their logos on your slides with a thank you at the beginning of your talk. Never do this without clearing it with the event first.

The unwritten rules

Most hosts don’t want you selling from the stage, especially the ones paying you. So ask what you even have to sell. If you’re an agent, it might just be referrals. If you can’t pitch from the stage, offer your slides for download or a resource afterward, so you can follow up with them afterward.

Treat the event staff like gold. They talk. Be the easy one, the speaker nobody’s worried about. Be difficult, and you get quietly labelled some version of “diva,” and it gets harder to book. People in this industry talk more than you think.

On travel: a flat amount you book yourself is usually best, because then you control the flights (nobody wants three connections at strange hours) and the hotel. Not every event allows it. Some have set allowances. Work with them. Planning an event is stressful enough without you making it harder.

Have everything ready so they never have to chase you. Headshot, bios, the works. If your name is hard to say, like mine, give them the phonetic spelling and they’ll thank you.

Be the easiest speaker in the building

This is the engine that moves you up the ladder: give overwhelming value to the audience, and be the easiest speaker to work with. Do both consistently, and most of the rest takes care of itself.

Part of being easy is being prepared, so if it’s an option, go do a walkthrough before you’re on. Check with the AV crew that your slides load and advance the way they should. Ask whether there’s anything about your talk that would make their job easier. Then walk the stage itself and get a feel for it. If you wear heels, walk it, and look for the gaps where a heel can get stuck, because the middle of your talk is the worst possible time to find that out.

Then network with the other speakers. They’ll send you more work than anyone. Speakers get asked for recommendations constantly. I have boards, associations, and brokerages reach out all the time asking, “Who do you know who’s good on X?” But if I’ve never seen you speak, I’m not putting my name behind you. The ones who get recommended are the ones other speakers have actually watched deliver.

Give it all a home

Which is exactly why you need a place to point people.

If you’re serious about this, you want either a standalone site or a dedicated page on the one you already have, somewhere an organizer can land and find everything in one spot: who you are, what you speak on, your headshot and bio, and the clips and testimonials that prove you can deliver. Organizers want to see you before they book you. This is where they do it. For what one of these looks like, here’s mine, built to make an organizer’s life easy, which is the entire point.

It matters for referrals, too. When a speaker like me gets asked, “Who’s good on X?” I need somewhere to send them. No page, and you’re counting on me to make your case from memory. A page makes you referrable.

Practice for when it goes wrong

Years ago, I took a boot camp for real estate speakers with Jeff Lobb. Day one was about getting better at delivering content from the stage. Day two was mostly about delivering that content while everything around you falls apart.

Slides not working. Mic cutting out. Power going down. Someone loudly on their phone mid-talk. Hecklers. All of it can happen, and eventually some of it will. I know speakers who’ve had to deliver an entire session by candlelight when the power went out. Practice for the chaos, because the day it shows up is not the day to start figuring it out.

Fun fact: the highest-rated talk I ever did was a live demo of how to build Facebook ads in Ads Manager at the National Association of Realtors event in Boston many years ago. It was the biggest stage I had been on at the time, and the internet wouldn’t work, or the backup, or the backup to the backup, or hotspotting my phone. If I hadn’t done Jeff’s training, I’d have fallen apart. I sent him a big thank you after that one.

And if you ever have to cancel, which should be almost never, show up with a replacement in hand. They might not take it. But once again: make their life easier.

You have to keep working at it

I think I’m a good speaker at this point. Having been part of the National Speakers Association, I also know I have a long way to go until I’m truly a great one.

The best have every second planned. They obsess over cadence, over half-second pauses, over whether a sentence has one too many syllables. Some can run a talk ten times and nail it identically. I’m still climbing toward that, and I’d rather tell you than pretend I’ve arrived.

A few last things I’ve picked up along the way:

Some people are great panelists and only okay on the main stage. That’s completely fine. Panels are great and audiences love them. Your main stage future might be better as fireside chats rather than solo talks. 

Breakout rooms are about tactical value and takeaways. The main stage can lean more motivational. Know which room you’re in.

Collect stories. They land your points better than any bullet ever will, and people remember them long after the slides are gone.

Collect testimonials, clips and reels. This is the one I still need to do better at myself, so take it as advice from someone working on it, too. Organizers want to see you before they book you. Make that easy.

It’s normal to be nervous

It’s normal to be nervous, and it never fully goes away. Don’t wait for it to. Here’s the part that helps. Unlike school, nobody in that room is hoping you trip. Everyone is rooting for you. They want you to be good, and you’re up there for a reason. Hold onto that and the nerves get a lot easier to carry.

The real path

That’s it. Panelist, breakout, main stage, keynote. Climb the career ladder, let the money ladder catch up, and don’t confuse the two.

Be useful. Be easy. Keep getting better.

Where to start

So here’s your first move, and you can do it today. Write down three things that move the needle in your business. The three that, when you bring them up around other agents, get people leaning in and asking questions. That’s the spine of your first talk.

Map it out. Then ask your broker if you can teach it to the office.

And if you’re not somewhere that can hand you a room, find a Zoom session and do it there. A local board, a mastermind, an online group, whoever will have you. There’s always options. Like I said, your first yes is closer than you think. You just have to ask for it.

If you’re already on the road and want to compare notes, I’m always happy to talk shop.

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