Loading…
Hosted by Unknown Host · 🇺🇸 US · EN
Established thought leaders with verified media credentials.
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.
Unknown Host hosts Professional Speaking: Known. Booked. Paid..
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 firs
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 gues
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
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, A
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
Most speakers think joining a bureau is the finish line. Dominic Eldred-Earl, who books speakers for London Speaker Bureau and speaks himself, explains why it's closer to the starting line. He breaks down the real differ
Most speakers assume the flood of AI-generated content is bad news for them. In this solo episode, John Ball argues the opposite: as content gets cheaper and more abundant, a real human voice saying something only they c
Most speakers can speak. Almost none of them can sell themselves. Ryan Botner can do both, and he learned the second skill the hard way: twenty years in sales, a million-dollar income before thirty, a near-fatal overdose
Most speakers are working hard. They're creating content, building relationships, showing up consistently, and still wondering why the enquiries aren't coming in the way they should. The issue usually isn't effort. It's
Magician-turned-keynote-speaker Brian Miller built a speaking career on the back of a TEDx talk that went viral in 2015, then watched that career dry up within eighteen months because charisma and entertainment weren't e
Most speakers talk about authenticity. Fewer actually practise it. There is a version of you that turns up on stage and a version of you that exists everywhere else, and for many speakers, those two people are further ap
Bernadette Marciniak is a video producer who works specifically with speakers and event organisers, giving her a rare dual perspective on what actually gets speakers booked. She has captured footage at live events, produ
There comes a point for almost every speaker and coach where the doubt becomes hard to ignore. You are doing the work, following good advice, showing up consistently — and nothing seems to be moving. The bookings are not
David Newman is a speaker, consultant, and author of four books, including Do It Speaking and Market Eminence . He's spent decades helping experts, consultants, and professional speakers build what he calls market eminen
If you're a good speaker who isn't getting booked at the rate or fee you think you deserve, this episode is going to be uncomfortable in the right way. The problem, in most cases, isn't your speaking. It's your positioni
Beth Sherman is a multi-Emmy Award-winning comedy writer who spent 30 years writing for Letterman, Jay Leno, Ellen DeGeneres, and multiple major awards shows, including the Oscars. She now works as a keynote speaker and
Elliot Kay is the founder of The Speaker Awards, a seven-time author, and one of the most connected people in the UK speaking industry. In this conversation, John and Elliot dig into what's actually changing in how profe
Taki Moore recently wrote that conviction is a shortcut to charisma. It's a clever line. It's also only half right, and the other half is quietly costing speakers bookings. In this episode, John unpacks why confident, po
Last week I bombed on stage at a standup comedy gig. Not catastrophically -- more in the way where you know before you walk onstage that you're not ready, and then it shows. I want to talk about it, not for the catharsis
Most speakers are working on the wrong problem. They're polishing their delivery, tweaking their slides, and hunting for better techniques. Meanwhile the gap between where they are and a well-paid, regularly booked speak
Beth Sherman
7-time Emmy-winning comedy writer and humour strategist
1 appearance on this show
Elliot Kay
CEO · Speaker Awards and Summit
1 appearance on this show
Clinton Young
International Keynote Speaker, Certified Pickleball Coach
1 appearance on this show
Sapna Pieroux
1 appearance on this show
Maria Franzoni
Speakers' Advocate & Coach, Author of 'The Bookability Formula' · Speakers' Advocate & Coach
2 appearances on this show
Michelle J Raymond
founder · B2B Growth Co.
1 appearance on this show
Mark Schaefer
bestselling author, keynote speaker, and top marketing strategist
1 appearance on this show
Steven Puri
former EVP, Kurtzman/Orci @ DreamWorks Studios and 20th Century Fox VP · The Sukha Company
1 appearance on this show
Joel Benge
author of Be a Nerd That Talks Good · Message Space Consulting
1 appearance on this show
Rebecca Williams
PhD researcher exploring FTD and apathy · Dragon Mountain Acupuncture, Bodywork, & Chinese Medicine
1 appearance on this show
Brad Beeler
former U.S. Secret Service Special Agent, polygraph examiner, author of Tell Me Everything · United States Secret Service
1 appearance on this show
Mark Robinson
Former NZR CEO and new Chief of Rugby at World Rugby · Black on Madison Avenue
1 appearance on this show
Detected from recent episode content. Sponsor presence is a real signal of listener purchasing power and show monetisation.
No public pitch examples yet for this show.
Generate your own personalised pitchBased on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:
Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.
Shows with the most semantically similar episode content. Pitch one, pitch all; producers cluster.
Professional Speaking: Known. Booked. Paid. has a verified contact on file. Create a free PitchCentric account to access it and generate a personalised pitch in seconds. Research at least 3 recent episodes first and lead with a specific angle that serves their business audience.
Professional Speaking: Known. Booked. Paid. is hosted by Unknown Host. The show is categorised under Business (entrepreneurship) and has published 0 episodes.
Professional Speaking: Known. Booked. Paid. regularly covers Business, Careers, Entrepreneurship. It sits in the Business category, with a entrepreneurship focus.
Professional Speaking: Known. Booked. Paid. is accessible for guests with genuine business expertise. A personalised, episode-aware pitch will still outperform a generic one every time.
Professional Speaking: Known. Booked. Paid. hasn't explicitly signalled guest openness in recent episodes. That doesn't rule out pitching. your hook just needs to be especially compelling and relevant to their recent content.
Episodes of Professional Speaking: Known. Booked. Paid. average 34 minutes. a focused format where a clear narrative arc and tight preparation matter most.
Our data rates Professional Speaking: Known. Booked. Paid.'s guest bar at 80/100 (Premium tier). Established thought leaders with verified media credentials. Sign in to PitchCentric to see how your own Pod Score compares against this show.
Methodology. Booking Probability™ blends Listen Score, 30-day Virality, open-to-guests detection, and Apple ratings. Data refreshed every 60 minutes. Listen Score and Booking Probability are calculated by PitchCentric. Last enriched 2 days ago.