So many people plan a speaking or book tour (or large event) without enough time to properly plan, secure partnerships/sponsorship and collaboration partners, or to maximize time and minimize workload.

Believe us, we’ve made those mistakes too… BIG DREAMS need a team and the time to raise them for success.

In this article, we’ll explore myths, must knows, and methods related to sponsorship to help you gain clarity and take action in relation to the project you’re working on or dream you are raising. 

Sponsorship Myths: ​

At Raise a Dream, we dispel the myth that sponsorship is a handout or philanthropy. It is not grant funding or a donation.

Sponsorship is a marketing relationship.

Companies and brands are using their marketing dollars to invest in sponsorship marketing. So just like a company measures the return on investment (ROI) with their different marketing activities (e.g. direct mail, media, digital advertising, print, etc.), they measure how well sponsoring your project met their marketing objectives.

Corporate sponsors certainly sponsor a lot of movements, but it is important to be clear that what they are sponsoring is the ways in which your movement, cause, message, event, dream, or project solves some of their marketing and brand management needs.

Sponsorship decision-makers measure the value and ROI (return on investment) they received from the sponsorship spend against the results expected or promised.

For example, if your project or movement promised the sponsor very concrete ways to connect them with your audience (which is likely one of the reasons they agreed), you will need to be able to report the results. Such tracking can happen through recording video/photo reach, comment numbers, and engagement metrics, to name a few.

Speakers, trainers, keynote presenters, and seminar leaders... have you started growing your business through collaboration and sponsorship?

If not, now's the time to get started. There are billions of dollars available in corporate sponsorship, and your next presentation, speaking tour, book launch or philanthropic project could be uplevelled in income, impact, and influence through corporate sponsorship.

Recently, Charmaine led a mastermind session with speakers who have a successful speaking business and are committed to now building their speaking business through corporate sponsorship and collaborating with influencers.

I recently heard colleague and speaker, Karen McGregor, say something about speaking that also translates into the collaboration and sponsorship world.

She said, "One of the mistakes is that speakers don't understand what the audience is buying, e.g. transformation or the ability/skills to get over a problem. You can help them understand this through stories. You must share stories."

So how does the need to share stories relate to getting your projects funded, securing sponsorship dollars, attracting people to support your crowdfund, or turning prospects into contracts?

Getting paid to speak is often a challenge that we hear about from speakers.

When conference organizers have no or low budgets, speakers feel their expertise is not valued. They often have their fee negotiated to next to nothing.

Thankfully, there are many strategies to overcome this challenge. Speakers CAN be paid to speak!

In this article, we'll explore how collaborating with companies and corporate sponsors can bring you your full speaking fee, plus more.