Building Your Speaking Career: Negotiating Fees, Getting to Bigger States, and Attracting Referrals with Teri DeLucca, PhD
episodePreviously titled “The Business of Speaking: Negotiating Fees, Building Relationships, and Getting Referrals with Teri DeLucca, PhD” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
Speaking Your Brand: Public Speaking Tips and Strategies
51 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the overall focus of this episode with Teri DeLucca?
If you want to know what it really takes to get paid well for speaking engagements and how to build your speaking career, you're going to appreciate my candid conversation with return guest Terry DeLuca on this episode of the Speaking Your Brand podcast. Hey there, and welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast. I'm your host, Carol Cox. Today, we're talking all things speaking, especially the things that you don't necessarily know about the speaking industry and have never thought to ask. I have back on the podcast, Dr. Terry DeLuca. she was on here last almost three years ago in episode 338 it is a must listen to episode if you haven't already i'll put the link in the show notes because we talked about terry's journey from an academic presenter to a sought-after speaker
because she escaped what I call the expert trap. And Terri and I first met back in January, 2022, when I spoke at the She is Fierce conference. And it's funny because I did this presentation about women and thought leaders. And literally as soon as I sat down, I feel this tap on my shoulder and I look up and it's this woman, this blonde woman and Terri, and she's like, oh my gosh, that was amazing. I need to hire you. I was like, I need you in my life now. Yes. And then Terry went through our Thought Leader Academy and we've worked together ever since. So Terry, welcome back to the podcast. Yes. I'm so excited to be here. This is my favorite podcast of all. I love it. Well, thank you so much.
Well, so you are the founder of a company called Impact Early Education. You're a developmental psychologist. You have not one but two PhDs. So definitely very much an expert in what you do, which we certainly need. But I know you've learned through working with us the power of storytelling and the power of really structuring a great talk. And now you are flying all over the place doing speaking engagements. We had dinner back in February when you were in Orlando. and you got to telling me things like oh my gosh i've raised my rates i've learned so much about speaking about like whether i should sponsor and pay to play and all these different things and i'm like oh my gosh yes come on the podcast because i have a feeling that my audience will really appreciate
hearing from someone like you who is on the ground doing this week after week. So Terry, tell us a little bit about your speaking journey over the past couple of years, and then we're gonna get into your new AI venture that you're doing. But first let's talk about the speaking that you're doing. So what are your topics and who are your typical audiences?
Sure. I have a really wide range of topics. And so my heart, my passion, my industry, my people are the early childhood education field. And so I do the majority of my speaking with them. And so who that is, it's primarily women dominating that field. It's 93% women. And it's a lot of business owners and leaders of what you would think of as preschools. So those that are serving primarily birth through kindergarten, they go up in age and for after school programs. But I also work with teachers. And so sometimes I'll be speaking to an audience of teachers and leaders. Sometimes it's just leadership. And the topics range from. of course, child behavior, classroom management things. But often it's much more, not the broad leadership, but more organizational culture, communication, personal leadership and personal accountability, because that's where things really start to unravel.
And that far extends education. So the other audiences I speak to a lot of women's groups. Um, I do a lot, some faith based conferences as well. And, um, it's interesting how things have changed in our country over the last couple of years. And as things have become just heavier and more hard, more difficult, just life in general. A lot of the requests I'm getting, especially this year, have been focused on nervous system regulation and rewiring your brain to deal with stress and staying ahead of the overwhelm. A lot of mental health aspects as well.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the overall focus of this episode with Teri DeLucca?
0:00–5:40
2
What topics does Teri specialize in and who are her typical audiences?
5:40–12:43
3
How did Teri shift her mindset from performance‑focused speaking to a service‑oriented approach?
12:43–18:50
4
Why does sharing vulnerability and personal challenges matter for a speaker’s impact?
18:50–25:16
5
How did Teri land her first speaking engagements and what strategies helped her get booked?
25:16–31:58
6
When is it worth saying yes to speaking for free or “pay‑to‑play” opportunities?
31:58–38:11
7
What does the gender pay gap look like in the speaking industry and how can women negotiate better rates?
38:11–48:50
8
What is Luma, Teri’s AI thinking‑partner platform, and how does it support educators and leaders?
48:50–50:51
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Speaking Your Brand: Public Speaking Tips and Strategies
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Expertise Alone Doesn’t Get You Booked as a Speaker - Here's What Does
3 Ways AI Can Hurt Your Public Speaking, and 3 Ways It Can Help
The Expert Trap: Why Great Speakers Don't Become Thought Leaders