Speaking Expert

3 Steps to Getting More Money From Your Speaking Engagements

admin — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:08:29 +0000

Do you ever wish you could be paid more money per speaking engagement?

If so, here is a simple 3-step process ot help you do that:

When asked you fee, state it with confidence.
Shut up.
Deal with their response.

Sounds obvious right? And if you have been in sales or the speaking business for a while, you are probably familiar with these three steps.

However, what I have found is that many speakers, new and experienced, including myself from time to time, will undercut how much we make by doing one of two things:

Discounting our fee in advance (i.e. you think they won’t have the money for your full fee so you lowball yourself)
Immediately following our stated fee with “however I can work with you…” before we know what the prospect thinks about the full fee.

These are pretty natural feelings. However, just because they are natural, that doesn’t mean they are effective.

I had a recent experience where a prospect called me and they were an organization related to one for which I did work in Philadelphia. I gave the Philly one a discounted fee because it was local, and they plead poverty, and I had known the contact for years.

So when it came time to discuss fee with the out of state group, in my head, I was 100% sure they would have the same budget.

However, when they asked, I forced myself to state my full fee and then I shut up.

You know what happened? The woman on the phone said, “oh great, that’s right about what we had planned to spend.”

Wow. If I had acted on my certainty about their small budget, I would have talked myself out of thousands of dollars for no reason!

Of course, sometimes you’ll state your fee and they won’t have the budget, which is where step #3 comes in. This is where you decide what you want to do. You can negotiate and take less money in exchange for other things (permission to record, referrals, promotion, etc). You can pass. You can help them find more money.

(NOTE: I have found this only works well via phone. Over email, if your stated fee is too high, they often won’t give you the chance to work with them. They’ll just move on.)

The next time you are talking to someone on the phone and they ask what your fee is, state the number with confidence and then shut up and wait for their response. You may very well be surprised at how much more money you can make this way.

***

Want to learn how to get paid speaking gigs in the next 90 days? Then download the free e-book, “Six Figure Speaker Secrets – Learn the 7 Steps to Getting Paid Speaking Gigs in 90 Days or Less!” now! When you download it, you’ll also get the bonus MP3, How to Make Real Money In the Next 30 Days Giving Free Speeches!” Click here to download your free public speaking ebook now!

Speaker Marketing: 3 Marketing Items Worth Spending Money On

admin — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:08:11 +0000

The speaking business is a business like any other, which means there will be some key things that you will need to invest in.

Fortunately, there is not nearly the overhead in this business that there is in others. You can get started with a very tiny investment of cash.

Even though you don’t have to spend money, there are a lot of places you can spend money. Coaching, products, conferences, business cards, office space, etc. It can get confusing and overwhelming pretty fast.

Here are 3 items that I believe it is worth spending money on. They are critical components of a speaker marketing package, and you will have a hard time commanding good fees without them. What’s worse, if you have poor quality version of these you may hurt your credibility.

Video Footage – Nothing will sell you as well as a great demo video (plus additional video clips). Planners want to see you in action, speaking at an event (as opposed to talking to the camera). Get permission as often as you can to video record. Then budget some money to have a videographer record your speech. Trust me, the more footage you have, even if you don’t use it right away, the happier you will be. Important: Even though it’s video, the most important element is the sound quality. Make sure your videographer knows what he/she is doing and either gets sound from the sound board or puts a lav mic on you.
Web Design – A professional looking website is one of the few “must-haves” in any business. It’s the first place people are going to want to go if they are interested in hiring you. Saying, “I don’t have a website yet” is the same as saying, “I am not a professional yet.” That being said, get your website professionally done. If a planner comes to your website and it is obvious you did it yourself or used a program like FrontPage, they won’t be very impressed. With all the template and what-not out there it may be tempting to do it yourself for less than $20. This is fine if you are just getting going. But to be a serious pro, get some help.
Action Photos – For a long time I underestimated the need for good photos of me in action, speaking. Now I realize how useful they are to give your website, demo video, and other marketing the right “feel.” Posed shots are fine, but if you want to get work as a speaker, then show people pictures of yourself speaking.

If money is tight, these are the things I would invest in.

Keep in mind, I didn’t say, “invest a lot of money in.” While some people will charge a lot for these, you can get quality work done for reasonable prices if you look around and ask for recommendations. I have had a one hour speech video recorded and photographed for under $500 for each service. Web design can range wildly depending on what you need, but you should be able to get a solid, professional looking site done for under $1,000.

Is that a lot of money, especially for people starting out? Sure, but all businesses require investment. For speakers, it’s a lot less than most businesses.

Besides, those investments are a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things, and one speaking engagement should pay for all of them combined…

***

How Much Product Should You Bring?

admin — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 19:52:45 +0000

On one of the Speakers Facebook groups, someone recently asked about how much product should they bring for back of the room sales. It seems she had brought enough for 20% of the audience to buy, but she ran out and ended up turning people away.

If you have product (and if you don’t, you should consider creating some soon!), then you may be familiar with this issue. Packing product up and traveling with it – especially if you are flying – can be a pain. Then it feels like a ton of wasted effort if you spend a lot of time and energy packing it up and then have to pack up and travel back home with a ton of leftover.

So how do you know how much product to take?

Sadly, there is no set answer. Some speakers consistently sell product to 80% of the room, while for others it’s 50% and for others it’s 10%.

Even though there is no set answer, here are three steps you can take to start figuring it out:

Take as Much as You Can Travel With - In the beginning, when you are unsure of how sales will go, take as much as you can comfortably travel with. It’s better to have to take product home than to have to turn people away who want to give you money.
Keep Track - Over a few engagements, you’ll start to get a sense of what percentage of your audience will buy. You may also get a sense of how many sales you’ll get from different markets, industries, and events. Use these numbers to plan accordingly (I would still take a little more than your standard, because you never know…).
Have Extra Order Forms – Regardless of how much product you take, have order forms made up so people who want to buy after your inventory runs out can still get your product. They fill it out and pay then (cash, check, or charge – you can write down the Credit card number or use a device like the Square) and you ship their product to them when you get back to the office.

Over time you’ll get a good idea of how much product you can realistically sell after an event and your planning life will get much easier. Just remember – err on the side of having more product and make it as easy as possible for people to buy from you!

***

Lessons from Miss Utah: Be in the Moment During Q&A

admin — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:52:28 +0000

Many presentations end with a “questions and answers” segment (Q&A). For some speakers, this can create anxiety, as you never know exactly what the audience is going to ask about.

(By the way, you should not “end” with Q&A, but rather put in Q&A in right before the end of your program. Then, you can wrap up the Q&A section and still do a big, planned finish that ends in a memorable way.)

To counter this, some speakers prepare a list of potential questions their audience may ask. This is a good idea to do, even if Q&A doesn’t make you nervous, but there is a danger in this:

Sometimes you end up answering a question the audience didn’t ask!

Take the case of Miss Utah from a recent Miss America competition:

Her answer had nothing to do with the question at all, and ended up being a bit of a rambling mess.

There could have been a few reasons she rambled. She could have been nervous, she may have misunderstood the question, she may have gone blank, or maybe she really had no idea.

To me, however, it seemed as if in her practice sessions she had really prepared for questions on education. Then, when the question came, her mind went right to her pre-planned answer.

End result? Disaster.

Is this what happened to Miss Utah? We may never know. But there is still a valuable lesson here:

Preparation is great, but when you get into the moment and you are interacting with others, you must let that preparation go and be present.

Listen and understand what is being asked. Formulate your thought in that moment and answer the best question you have.

Be sure to listen to and understand the whole question. Sometimes we hear a “trigger word” that makes us think the question is about something we have prepared for when in fact it is about something completely different.

Do this, and not only will you answer questions more effectively, but you will also engage with your audience as you will make a real connection with them by being present.

***

How to Quickly Write Great Content

admin — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:50:07 +0000

Do you struggle to write content quickly? This could be for your blog, guest posts, articles, or speeches.

If so, here’s an article that may help:

Why Your Blog Posts Are Falling Short of Greatness and What To Do About It

The article is about writing blog posts specifically, but as I was reading it I was struck with how much the same principles can apply to putting together presentations.

By taking a few minutes to think through your content, come up with your one key point, and then brainstorm, you can make your content creation life much, much easier!

***

Writing a Speech: Practice Connecting Unconnected Ideas

admin — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 15:46:32 +0000

One of the most useful skills for a speaker to develop is the ability to connect 2 seemingly unconnected ideas.

For example, if I were to ask you, “What can we learn from a cat about sales?” what would you say?

Think about it for a minute.

There is no right or wrong answer to this. In fact, I just came up with this idea by looking over and seeing my cat sleeping on a chair and then thinking of a popular speaking topic.

Here are a couple of possible answers:

Cats don’t chase you, they make you work for your love. In the same way, if you make prospects work a little, they’ll value your business relationship more.
Cats are pretty self-sufficient. I can leave my cats home alone for a few days if I leave them enough food and water. In the same way, the best salespeople should be self-sufficient. Give them the basic resources they need and then get out of their way.

Did you come up with your own idea?

At this stage, it doesn’t matter how “good” your idea was. The important thing now is to practice and develop the skill to do this.

This skill is incredibly valuable because it opens up tremendous doors for you when it comes to your content:

You can use more and better stories, because you can find more ways of connecting them to your main points.
You can recover from tangents and off-topic questions from the audience by connecting their randomness to your content.
You can bring in examples and skills that might seem unrelated to your content (i.e. improv, music, juggling, magic, etc.)
You will have a much easier time connecting your content to current events in the world and your industry.

Developing this skill does take some practice. So start now by doing the same thing I did with the cat example. Pick 2 random unrelated things (objects, concepts, activities, locations, etc.) and practice coming up with a list of ways they could be connected. Don’t censor for quality! Just let your creativity flow, and soon you will be able to connect your content to a variety of topics and situations!

***

Give it Your Best, Regardless

admin — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 15:45:13 +0000

Let’s be honest: not all gigs are created equal. Some pay better, are more fun, have better crowds, have more possibility of spin of business, etc.

As busy speaking professionals, it can be tempting and easy to “phone in” the presentations we deem less important.

I had a gig like this recently where I felt that temptation. It was for a small service group. It was a short presentation. I did these types of groups before and received almost no spin-off business. And it was one of the few “pro bono” gigs I had agreed to do.

On top of all that, it was at a busy time where I had a lot of other thing going on.

I felt the temptation to ignore my prep altogether and just show up and just do the best I could in the moment.

Fortunately, I managed to force myself to put in the work, regardless of how I felt.

And I am glad that I did.

You know why?

Because the very next day I spoke with one of the audience members and we closed a full-fee training gig!

The very. Next. Day.

Amazing.

The next time you feel the temptation to put in less effort for a “less important” gig, remind yourself of three things:

You Never Know. Sometimes the gigs that seem horrible on paper are the ones that lead to great things (and sometimes the awesome sounding ones turn into duds). Give it your best 100% of the time so you are always poised for success.
You are a Professional. If you are reading this site, then you are either a professional speaker or you aspire to be one. As professionals, we do the best we can, every time, regardless of how we feel, what our biases are, what the outcome may be, etc. As a professional, you owe it to yourself, your audience, and your career to do the best you can. Because it is what we do.
Practice. Every time you are in front of an audience is an opportunity for you t practice. You don’t get better by half-assing it. You get better by doing the best you can and then saying, “ok, that was the best I can currently do. How can I do better?”

This advice may sound trivial and unnecessary, and in theory it is. In theory we know we should do our best every time we can.

In reality, life happens and cutting a few corners becomes very appealing. Consider this a reminder to never cut corners on the most important element of your speaking business: your program and the value you bring to your audience.

***

100 Things to Tweet About

admin — Tue, 28 May 2013 18:34:46 +0000

If you’ve spent more than an hour thinking about the marketing of your speaking business, you’ve probably figured out that Social Media is all the rage.

You’re also probably aware that Twitter is one of the giants of social media.

If you, like me, have then struggled to figure out just what the heck you should be “tweeting” about, this article from Social Media Today can help.

It’s a list of 100 Things to Tweet about. They range from the obvious to the innovative. The next time you get on Twitter and feel stuck, look through the list and take some inspiration on what to Tweet about.

Here’s the article:

100 Things to Tweet About Besides Yourself!

To get yourself started, why not Tweet about the SpeakingExpert Blog? Just copy and paste this into Twitter:

Interested in being a better and more successful speaker? Check out this great blog from @avishp http://goo.gl/V5AG3

5 Ways to Remember all of Your Content

admin — Tue, 28 May 2013 18:25:15 +0000

One question I get asked a lot, especially by newer speakers, is, “how do you remember all your content?”

That is, people want to know how, if they are doing a 45-90 minute keynote, they can remember everything they want to say.

Good question. Here are 5 tips that will help you with that:

Get Experience. Early on I used to forget a lot more of my content. I would finish my speech and realize, “oh man, I left out a whole chunk!” This even used to happen on shorter, 5 minute speeches. Now, after 10 years in the speaking business, it doesn’t happen very often. The more you speak, the easier it gets.
“Chunk” Your Content. Instead of memorizing a whole speech, word-for-word (which I do NOT advise people to do) I break my speech down into 5 or so chunks, or shorter segments. Each of those is only 5-20 minutes long. Sometimes the longer chunks have sub-chunks too. This makes it easier to both practice and remember, which makes it easier to work on each piece. I don’t need to remember every word; I just need to remember what the 5 to 15 chunks are.
Repetition. Yeah, I hate practicing too, but the more you go over your material, the easier it is to remember. I have some 15-20 minute segments that I have done so often that as soon as I say the first few words everything else flows automatically.
Have Good Notes. We’re talking about memorizing, but this doesn’t mean you can’t have notes. If you go with the chunking method, it should be very easy for you to create a bullet point outline. This makes it easy to remember and, if you get lost, you can easily find your place again by scanning the outline (as opposed to looking through a full script).
Remember That No One Knows What You Meant to Say. One thing that causes people to forget what they were going to say is stress. They get so worried that they speed up and skip things. A good way to combat that is to remember that no one knows what you had prepared. If you forget a bit, leave something out, or skip around, you’re the only one who knows. If you don’t let the audience know you’re off, they’ll never be the wiser. So stop worrying so much about it

If you ever get worried about losing your place or forgetting what you are supposed to say, use the five tips above and you’ll soon easily be able to deliver one0hour (and longer) presentations without worry!

***

4 Ways to Go From Good to AMAZING as a Speaker

admin — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:09:00 +0000

I was a guest on a recent teleseminar titled, “Marketing for Speakers Who Hate Marketing.” (You can listen to the recording here) One of the central points I was making that in order to succeed as a speaker, especially if you hate marketing, is to push yourself to be the absolute best you can possibly be.

After I had mentioned this point a few times, the host, David Newman, asked, “Avish, can you give us a few ways people can get better?”

Great question, and I answered it on the call. Here is a quick summary of 4 ways you can get better and better as a speaker:

Dig Deep – Your greatest asset as a speaker is your unique point of view. In order to make that as strong as possible, you should spend serious time digging deeper into your own head and getting clear on what that point of view is. One great technique is to write your own 50-page autobiography. Do that, and you will dig real deep into your own head.
Get Help – Hire a coach, take a class, attend a seminar, etc. An outside perspective can seriously cut your learning curve. One caveat though: you still have to speak. So just reading a book or listening to a speaker is not enough. You must put in the speaking reps to practice and apply what you learn.
Start Over – Do you have a speech or program outline that really works? Good for you. Now throw it away and write a new presentation on the same topic that doesn’t use any of the old material. And make it better than the old one. Hard? You betcha (more on that in a second). But by avoiding falling back on “what works,” you open the door to some great new material. The final presentation you end up doing for a client may end up with a lot of old material, but the only way to generate the new stuff is to temporarily throw it away.
Set Incredibly Difficult Goals – As speakers, we sometimes play the “I wish” game. “I wish I could make my dry topic funnier.” “I wish there was a way to make this more interactive.” “I wish I could find a way of using props.” Then we discard those “I wishes” because they seem to hard or impossible. Don’t discard them! Even if they seem impossible or difficult now, hold on to those goals. Because someday you just might figure out how to achieve them, and when you do, you will have taken your speech to the next level. Remember: all speakers struggle with those limitations. If you can push past them by doing what’s hard, you can create a clear distinction between you and your competition.

There are other ways you can get better too. But the key is that you do something. Because at the end of the day, you and your presentation are the product. And nothing is going to make your marketing life easier than having an amazing, knock it out of the park home run,” level presentation.

***