BOOK YOUR PLACE

FIND IT.
WIN IT.
GROW IT.

How to get more paid speaking gigs (and grow client value)

A practical day to help you find more of the right speaking opportunities, win more bookings and create more value — and potentially more income — from every client relationship.

Thursday 29 October 2026 | Holiday Inn Guildford

Led by Maria Franzoni and Mary Tillson-Wharton

Scroll down to find out more ⬇️

Are you relying too much on speaking opportunities finding you?

This day is for speakers who already have a clear area of expertise and want to generate more paid speaking work.

It will be particularly valuable if:

You know you need to prospect more, but it keeps slipping down the list because you're unsure who to approach, what to say or how to start

You receive enquiries but aren't converting enough of them into bookings

You want to create more value and income from existing clients, and are looking for how to uncover or confidently propose opportunities beyond the keynote

This is exactly what this day is designed to change.

This isn't training in stagecraft or speech delivery.

It's about building the business around your speaking.

What the day covers

FIND IT.

Create more of the right opportunities.

Identify the organisations, events and decision-makers most likely to need what you offer — and learn how to start relevant conversations with them.

WIN IT.

Turn more conversations and enquiries into bookings.

Approach client conversations with greater confidence, ask better questions and demonstrate that you understand what the client really needs.

GROW IT.

Create more value from the opportunities you win.

Use better scoping to shape more relevant solutions, identify opportunities beyond the keynote and build stronger, longer-term client relationships.

"I've been speaking professionally for 20 years, but I knew I could do better. Maria gave me advice I needed to hear and so many gems that will benefit my speaking business. Her years of experience are blatantly obvious. She was worth far more than she charged."

— Richard McCann

This is a working day, not a listening day

You don't need another day of taking notes and promising yourself you'll do something with them later.

You'll work on your own speaking business throughout the day, with direct support from Maria and Mary.

You'll research real prospects, create messages you can actually send, practise real client conversations and learn how to recognise opportunities hidden within a brief.

The aim is simple:

Leave having already started the work.

MORNING: FIND THE OPPORTUNITY

Practical Prospecting with Maria Franzoni

Most speakers know they should prospect.

Far fewer know:

where to find the right opportunities

who to contact

how to approach them

what to say

how to follow up without sounding pushy

Maria will take you through the prospecting methods she used when she was acting as an agent and that she now shares in her private one-to-one work, expanded into a three-hour working session.

You'll learn how to:

  • clarify the problem you solve and who needs it
  • identify organisations and events that are more likely to book you
  • find the right decision-makers
  • spot genuine and relevant reasons to make contact
  • write messages that are easy to respond to
  • use proven approaches for email, LinkedIn, telephone and follow-up
  • build a prospecting routine you can realistically maintain

This won't be theoretical.

You'll research real prospects, adapt the approaches to your own voice and begin making contact during the session.

"Mary shared powerful scoping questions that helped me understand my clients' needs in a way that gets me more business. That's what I call a high ROI."

— Ricardo Cabete

AFTERNOON: WIN AND GROW THE OPPORTUNITY

Quality Scoping with Mary Tillson-Wharton

Getting an enquiry is only the beginning.

The questions you ask next can influence whether you win the booking, how relevant your solution becomes and whether you uncover opportunities beyond the keynote.

In a competitive market, the quality of the scoping conversation can itself become part of what differentiates you.

Mary will take you through her Critical Questions approach — a practical framework for uncovering the real brief, ensuring your content is relevant and identifying opportunities to add value beyond "just the speech" — potentially increasing both your impact and the client's return on investment.

You'll learn how to:

  • ask smarter, more strategic questions that get beneath vague or shifting briefs
  • understand the business context, client objectives and why this matters now
  • balance the needs of the booker, stakeholders and audience
  • identify the "golden threads" that make your keynote more relevant to that particular audience
  • shape a stronger, potentially more transformational solution
  • recognise when the right solution may extend beyond the keynote
  • identify opportunities for workshops, follow-up sessions, programmes or wider organisational support
  • turn a one-off booking into the potential for a longer-term client relationship

There is another important reason your questions matter.

Quality questions build trust.

They show the client that you are genuinely interested in understanding their world rather than simply selling them your speech. That builds confidence in you and helps position you as a trusted partner rather than simply another speaker.

And while AI can generate a list of questions, this session will help you develop the judgement to know what to ask next, what to probe further and how to recognise the opportunity hidden within the answer.

You'll practise the Critical Questions approach using a realistic client scenario, identify opportunities within the answers and then apply the process to your own speaking business.

By the end of the day, you'll have:

a clearer commercial message and understanding of who to target

a focused list of genuine prospects to pursue

practical prospecting scripts and messages ready to use

greater confidence approaching potential clients

a stronger process for handling and converting incoming enquiries

a bank of Critical Questions to improve your client conversations

a repeatable process for getting beneath the brief and uncovering what the client really needs

greater confidence shaping and recommending the right solution

the ability to spot opportunities to add value beyond the keynote

a clearer route towards repeat bookings and longer-term client relationships

a practical plan for generating more speaking income

Most importantly, you won't leave with a notebook full of good intentions.

You'll leave having done meaningful work on your speaking business — with prospects to pursue, conversations to start and practical tools to help you find, win and grow more opportunities.

"Maria is straight talking, no filler, no nonsense, just incredibly relevant information designed to help speakers get booked and paid to speak. I now have a clear pathway to getting booked and a complete strategy for cultivating and maintaining relationships with the people who matter in the industry. The impact of Maria's expertise has been immense."

— Dave Kitson

Why Maria and Mary?

Maria Franzoni

LinkedIn: Maria Franzoni

Maria has worked in the professional speaking industry since 1998 and spent 23 years as a speaker bureau owner and agent.

She founded and ran an international multi-million-pound speaker bureau and has worked with speakers including Neil Armstrong, Anita Roddick, Bob Geldof, Richard Branson and Bear Grylls.

She is the author of the number-one bestselling book The Bookability Formula: What the 1% Most Booked Speakers Do (and You Can Too).

Maria understands how speaking opportunities are found, assessed and won from the booker's side of the desk.

Mary Tillson-Wharton

LinkedIn: Mary Tillson-Wharton

Mary is a keynote content and transformation strategist who helps speakers become more relevant, memorable and commercially valuable.

Drawing on more than 20 years' experience in management and leadership development with global blue-chip organisations, she helps speakers uncover the real client brief, shape stronger solutions and turn keynote opportunities into wider organisational work.

Her Critical Questions approach helps speakers build trust, improve relevance and identify opportunities beyond "just the speech".

Two specialists. One commercial journey.

Maria helps you find the opportunity.

Mary helps you convert and grow it.

Together, they help you move through the full speaking-business journey:

FIND IT. → WIN IT. → GROW IT.

Find the opportunity → Convert the opportunity → Grow the opportunity

Who is this not for?

This day is not designed for people looking primarily for help with stagecraft, delivery technique or writing their first keynote.

It is designed for speakers who already have expertise to sell and now want a more proactive, confident and commercially effective way to generate and grow paid speaking work.

"Mary's Critical Questions tool has been game-changing for me. She explained not only what it was and how to use it, but the thinking behind it, using real stories and data to cement my understanding."

— Squash Falconer

The investment

£997 + VAT

£750 + VAT early bird to 21st September 2026

This is not simply an investment in one day.

The prospecting and scoping approaches you'll learn can be used repeatedly across future opportunities and client conversations.

One additional keynote, workshop or piece of follow-on work could potentially cover the investment in the day.

No guarantees. No magic scripts.

Just a more deliberate, commercially intelligent way to build your speaking business.

The details

Logistics

Registration, tea/coffee and pastries from 09:00

Programme 09:30 to 18:00

Early Bird: £750 + VAT until 21st September 2026

Standard investment from 22nd September: £997 + VAT

Refreshments, lunch and parking included.

Places are limited

Included:

  • a full day of in-person training, support, and coaching
  • practical exercises and direct support
  • prospecting scripts and working materials
  • the Critical Questions framework
  • refreshments
  • lunch
  • parking on site

Ready to build a more proactive speaking business?

Stop relying solely on referrals, luck and inbound enquiries.

Learn how to create more of the right opportunities, convert more of them into bookings and make more of the client relationships you win.

FIND IT. WIN IT. GROW IT.

Early Bird: £750 + VAT until 21 September 2026

Standard investment from 22nd September: £997 + VAT

Refreshments, lunch and parking included.

Thursday 29th October 2026

Holiday Inn Egerton Road, Guildford, GU2 7XZ