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Getting Paid Speaking Engagements, Part 2

The speaking market can be a little confusing! How much should you charge if you're just starting out? If you price yourself too low, you lose credibility. If you price yourself too high, you lose the gig!

I suggest you find out what others are charging and find a fee that you're comfortable with. The first sale, after all, is to yourself. If you're not comfortable, you won't be credible making the sale. And yes, the truth is, you're not in the speaking business, you're in the marketing and sales business.

Find a fee that is just above your comfort level and go with it. You'll soon be comfortable with it. More professional speakers hurt themselves by charging too little than lose the gig from charging too much. If 15% of your prospective clients don't object to your fees, you're priced too low.

Make sure your marketing materials such as website and promo page, support your fee in terms of the level of professionalism.

If you'd like more information, sign up for our advanced marketing newsletter at www.speakersgold.com

Cathleen Fillmore

www.cathleenfillmore.com

416-532-9886

Is your Message Getting Across?

To do well as a professional speaker, you need to make your marketing material stand out. You really need a strong positioning statement and great speech titles to catch a meeting planner’s attention.

Gone are the days when lame materials got the hiring
committee’s approval!

You may be a great speaker with a powerful message but if your materials don’t convey the value you bring to audiences, you’ll lose
the gig to other and possibly less talented speakers. And that hurts!

You know how good you are. Isn’t it time others did as well? Review your material and see if it stands up to scrutiny. If not, then back to the
drawing board!

If you’d like to more about becoming a six figure speaker, register for my free teleconference call at http://www.eventbrite.ca/org/441217050

Cathleen
Fillmore

Speakers
Gold bureau

What Do Speakers Bureaus Look for in a Speaker?

What Speakers Bureaus Look for in a Speaker

As a bureau owner, I have chosen to represent a small select roster of speakers simply because I
like to be really familiar with the speakers I recommend.

Here’s what I look for when considering whether or not to represent a speaker.

First of all, integrity and enthusiasm.

Secondly, does your promotional material really reflect your fee level? If your fee is higher than your promo
materials merit, I have to wonder about the disconnect.

Do you have a well designed promo page? If not, I just can’t sell your services. Bureaus sell
the package not the person.

Do you have a credible short video? Buyers want to
make sure you can engage an audience.

And finally do you have a reputation for being easy to work with?

If you’d like more info on becoming a six figure speaker, register for my fre*e webinar at http://www.eventbrite.ca/org/441217050.

Cathleen Fillmore

Jamie Clarke

Jamie Clarke was one of the best speakers I’ve ever seen. I was sitting at the back of the auditorium out of the fear that listening to a speaker for an hour would be boring and I could escape easily if I needed to. There was no need!

Jamie ran onstage and rather than loud music and huge fanfare, picked up the microphone and said quietly “Good evening ladies and gentlemen.” It was as though he spoke directly to each of us and he had us all in the palm of his hand from that moment on.

After that, he showed fabulous slides of his journey walking across the Saharan desert and mentioned briefly his climb up Mount Everest. He had us enthralled and took us on his adventure with him. So we all felt like heroes although we were safely in our seats!

When we left, a woman turned to her husband and said “I know he climbed Mt. Everest but how did he do this here tonight?” And I thought, “Right. This was a great accomplishment!” And a rare one. How good a speaker are you? And how can you become the champion speaker?

What makes a successful speaker?

Whenever I’m asked what makes a successful speaker, I have to say that it’s life force. Everyone alive has a life force but a dynamic speaker is not only fully in touch with that inner force but actually becomes one with it. Cheryl Perera, our 2011 Talent Showcase winner, was like a woman on fire when she was speaking. She wasn’t perfect, she wasn’t all that polished but she was astounding and the audience hung on every word.

Her authenticity was simply shining through. Every year when I run the showcase, I ask myself why I do it. A couple of years, I didn’t have an answer until almost the last speaker spoke and those three minutes were so amazing that they were worth all the time and money we put into the showcase. Those three minutes changed my life forever because I will remember the speaker and the story forever.

Do you have that kind of power? Are you really in touch with your life force or are you disconnected? You need to be healthy and happy in order to be fully connected. And you need to have that inner knowledge not only that you’re brilliant but also that it’s not about you at all. It’s about the value you bring to your audience.

Are you Doing What Fuels You?

When I started my own business years ago, I had no idea how to make money. I started writing for trade publications and ended up working way too hard for too little. Since I’d learned so much about the speaking industry as founder of the Atlantic branch of CAPS, when I returned to Toronto I took on my first speaking client who insisted I write his speech and then complained because it wasn’t in his voice!

I would like to thank him for being my wake up call. I realized that I didn’t leave a steady paycheck just to get caught in another trap. I resolved only to do things that fuel me and avoid what’s draining. As Henry David Thoreau said “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” And that, of course, is non-renewable.

And now I love my ‘work’ especially when my clients have that ‘aha’ moment. And I love knowing that I’m living a life without a ceiling, that there’s no limit to the learning or to the stretching I’m required to do. The stretching that’s required these days of all of us is like a spiritual form of yoga, expanding both minds and capabilities.

How about you? What traps are you caught in? What can you let go of? If you’re too driven or rigidly focused on goals, you’ll miss great opportunities that are lurking just beneath the surface. You’ll have a much more rewarding career in every aspect by taking a deep breath and just relaxing into doing what you love most.

Create Your Own Future

You can’t change the circumstances you find yourself in but you CAN adapt to them and create your own destiny. Seriously, there’s a solution to every problem, no matter how insurmountable it may seem. The economy is bouncing back as you’re reading it yet there are those who are mired in a consciousness of scarcity and don’t see the rebound just as they didn’t see the downturn coming.

If you’re a professional speaker, you’re in the business of speaking. And being in business, much like a good novel, has lots of twists and turns that you need to navigate with great expertise. If you’re flexible and the versatile, you’ll do very well, as long as you don’t succumb to fear.

I remember Roxanne Emmerich, speaker and consultant to bankers, mentioning that her business as a consultant and speaker in the banking industry was hugely affected by events on September 11, 2001. She had some large signed contracts that were instantly invalid. Of course, that was not the first thing on her mind after the event. She also knew, though, that now was the time that bankers needed her expertise most.

What she did over the next couple of years was look at how needs had changed in the banking and financial world and then change her business model to meet those needs. Before long her business was expanding like crazy. She not only figured out, but really cared about what the bankers needed at the time, i.e., shorter and less pricey programs which she then created and delivered in spades. Her programs also helped devastated industry get through a very difficult period.

There was one year, a few years back, when I had to work to fill my all-day seminar on marketing your speaking career. So I decided to change my plan and offered a two hour seminar from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. so it wasn’t either a huge time or financial commitment for my prospects.

I charged half the fee but got twice the number of attendees – and I was finished in just two hours! I see a lot of professional speakers being equally creative by finding new ways to reach their audiences, i.e., by offering boot camps, retreats, mastermind groups and group consulting sessions.

No matter what the economy is doing, when you meet the needs of your clients and deliver on a great promise, your business will thrive. When you learn to love this rollercoaster ride for the creative opportunities it spurs, you will do really well and you’ll be a leader in your field.

Exceed your own goals and expectations!

Develop a Compelling Tagline

The speaking market is highly competitive and the only way to make your mark as a sought-after professional speaker is to offer stand out value.

The whole idea in marketing yourself as a speaker is to make yourself and your material so compelling that people beat a path to your doorway.

Difficult? Sure – but it can be done. It’s well worth the time. And it’s ultimately much more effective than the ‘push’ approach to marketing which often sends the buyer running in the opposite direction.

Marketing is nothing more or less than a strategy – it is communicating the value of what you have to offer to those who can benefit from it.

And the buyer is often not as price-driven as you think. He or she will pay whatever it takes if they’re convinced of the value of your services. In fact, low fees can work against you.

The first step is to position yourself not only as an expert but as THE expert. You do this by developing a personal logo or tagline that defines your branding and sets you apart from your competition.

The logo or tagline I’ve developed to set me apart from Speakers Bureaus is ‘Speakers Gold: The Proactive Bureau’. As a consultant, my tagline is ‘Speakers - Make More Money Doing What You Love’.

Your logo needs to focus on what your strength is as a speaker. Make it memorable so that people remember who you are and what you stand for.

To make it memorable, you need to use powerful yet simple words. What you don’t want is to make anyone have to stop and think about what you mean.

Buying decisions are initially made from the impulse part of the brain and they’re then justified by the logical part. If you don’t attract the impulse part, you may well lose them.

Which speakers do you admire most? What are their taglines? What sums up exactly what your mission is in just a few words? What has your best keywords in it?

It’s worth spending time on your tagline – it’s your mini advertisement that can go out into the world over and over again. It will become a category or a branding statement that you own.

Use it in your email signature as well as when you submit articles to directories. Also incorporate it – perhaps as a top banner – in your one page promo sheet.

Who Really Hires Speakers?

Recent research shows that the final decision maker authorizing the hiring of a speaker varies widely but the most common decision makers are these:

The head of the organization (25.8%), especially when the organization is small to medium sized
A board or volunteer committee (20.2%)
VP or director of meetings (15.3%)
Education/Professional Development department (13.5%)
Staff committee (8.6%)
Other (16.6%)

Often the decision is made by some combination of the above. We’ve had organizations come to us with a certain budget looking for a speaker and then the director has gone over that person’s head and hired a high profile speaker at triple the amount that they originally quoted. In most cases, a member of the search committee or a corporate meeting planner makes a recommendation to the decision maker who is usually the top person in that organization.

(Data compiled from a report compiled by www.tagoras.com and www.velvetchainsaw.com)

Create and Sell Products

If you have a powerful message, you’ll want to expand your reach by creating products as well as by being the keynote speaker. After all, noteveryone will remember every word you said on the platform.

That’s why a book, a DVD or a program for participants to take home can help to reinforce your main message.

These days, we all have the tools to do this fairly easily. This means that many others are creating products and not all of them are worthwhile. So make sure your product contains serious content rather than just fluff and that way, you’ll guarantee yourself not only repeat sales but repeat speaking engagements. It’s so important to provide real value to your buyers.

While I don’t recommend pitching from the platform during a paid speaking engagement, some speakers do make it a condition of their agreement to be allowed to sell their materials at the back of the room. They hire someone to handle the orders and make a discrete pitch during their speech.

Others pre sell their books or DVD’s in bulk at a discount to the meeting planner who’s hired them. Still others put on events open to the public and sell their programs and products there.

The products you can create are only limited by your imagination. What would you yourself buy? When you have the answer to that question, you have the concept of the product you’ll find easiest to sell. Some of the possibilities are DVD’s, books, e-books, online programs, manuals and so on.

You’ll note that it will be the most successful people in your audience who will purchase the products.

You need to have a merchant credit card account which is fairly easy to set up. Talk to your bank about this. As long as you keep the dollar number low, you should be approved quickly. Merchants would go out of business if they could no longer depend on the impulse buy. You need to take advantage of that impulse as well. It will significantly increase your income.

If you sell from your website, you’ll need to have e-commerce set up there.

From something as simple as a recorded phone call, you can have MP3 and CD’s made and packaged on demand at the website www.kunaki.com and later sell them to your audience.

For some speakers, product sales represent a major part of their income. What products will you create? How will you position and sell them? Who will benefit from them?

Start with something simple and once that’s become successful, move on to a higher priced product or program.

It’s great insurance for a rainy day!

Make Your World Spin: 10 Ways to Implement Your Vision

I know how it feels to work as hard as you can and still spin your wheels, not getting the returns you have every right to expect. In my case, with hindsight, I can see I was doing a lot of things the wrong way. It wasn’t until I changed my mode of operation that my business really began to take off. And that, believe me, is a great feeling.

This happens to professional speakers, more often than not. In most cases, they’re on a steep learning curve. I know I was. And I spent a lot of time dreaming about my future rather than actually doing anything to make it happen.

A top real estate seminar leader told author and business leader Michael Masterson that the same people kept signing up for his programs and then took more advanced and expensive programs. He found it disturbing that they came back over and over again and he believed it was because they were way more invested in the “dream” of becoming rich than actually creating a solid business plan to bring the dream in for a landing. I think he’s right and I think they’re spending way too long in the preparation phase. Some people never graduate from that! Here are ten guidelines that I personally find useful for keeping me on track:

1. Get clarity.

2. Identify what holds you back.

3. Compensate for your limitations.

4. Maximize your strengths.

5. Make new attainable goals.

6. Construct a plan to put them in action.

7. Evaluate and modify on a weekly basis.

8. Get a good team around you.

9. Find a mentor/cheerleader to keep you accountable.

10. Spend the majority of your marketing and selling your services.

Let me assure you that you’re good enough and you know enough to provide value right now, just as you are. So go get out there and make 2012 YOUR year.

What's Your Umbrella

In other words, what do you stand for? Tom Stoyan is known as Canada’s Sales Coach. Suzanne Sherkin is known as the expert on Essential Conversations. What is your personal logo?

Think about it. What do you want to be known for? Can you sum it up in a few words? Once you can, it nails down your positioning. By positioning I mean where you stand as a brand in the marketplace. How can you stand out in a crowd of wannabe speakers? How can you be truly memorable?

For example, Tom Stoyan uses Canada’s Sales Coach as his umbrella. That umbrella stretches over everything that he does. If something doesn’t fit under the umbrella’s theme, it gets left out.

Your umbrella is based on your core message. What is that message?What do you have to say to the world? That core message defines your positioning and your positioning defines your audience. Once you’re clear on your message, you know exactly who would benefit from hearing it.

Give your core message some serious thought. I hate to see speakers with a list of topics as long as your arm and as diverse as the population of New York City!

You need to stand for something, you need to own a certain category the same way Larina Kase owns the theme of confidence, the way top copywriter, Joe Vitale, owns the name Mr. Fire.

Chris Widener knew he couldn’t compete with the big name speakers out there such as Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Denis Waitely and so on. He also knew that he really wanted to be one of that group. So Chris crafted a really great (and highly risky) plan to create a relationship with these top speakers and to position himself as exemplifying The Next Generation of Great Speakers.

It worked out brilliantly. Check out Chris’s website at www.madeforsuccess.com to see for yourself. In the past couple of years, Chris has become a columnist for Success Magazine. If you’d like to find out more about his brilliant plan, go purchase my book, The Six Figure Speaker where North America’s top speakers share their success secrets with you.

Now back to you. What is it that you own? Not necessarily that you’re the only person speaking on that topic (if that’s the case, it’s a pretty unpopular topic!). It’s that you have your own unique spin on an in-demand topic and you have something fresh and new to say.

That’s your position, that’s your umbrella, make it as high and as strong as you possibly can.

Power Broker Sneak Peak Part II: Service in Singapore

When Bob Urichuck wanted to expand his speaking engagements (and his influence) he began by faxing (this was before the internet) hotels in Singapore asking for a free two week stay in exchange for doing customer service training with the staff. Just one hotel faxed back. And one hotel was all he needed.

I’m not sure if even Bob knew at the time what a huge door he had just opened. And that’s the exciting thing about using your influence. You’re never quite sure where it will lead. When you combine a strong intention with a great opportunity, magic can happen. Once in Singapore, Bob did a fabulous job of staff training and in his free time, he hooked up with local business organizations. Taking this great big leap of faith paid off hugely. Bob ended up doing the majority of his work in Asian and middle Eastern countries over a period of years.

He continues to be an inspiration for many other speakers who find that they are much more appreciated in other countries than they are in their own.

Click here to download a copy of Power Broker.

Power Broker Sneak Peak Part I: Achieve Crystal Clarity

It begins with being very clear about exactly what it is you want. Create a list of what you’d like to have in your life.

You may want publicity, higher income, higher profile, becoming known internationally, getting a publisher, an editor, a web designer, a mentor, a mastermind group, more travel, better technology, a logo.

It all starts with a wish list. Make a long one and revise it on a monthly basis. If you take this process seriously, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you’ll fulfill your wishes. When you do create your wish list, think big.

What’s on your wish list?

Here’s how I started claiming my power – on a very small scale initially! Ten years ago, I went to Nova Scotia to make a career change from teaching to speaking and writing. I was completely unknown, finding a new direction, breaking into a new field and rapidly running out of money.

That’s a great formula for stress. I buried all my bills deep in my filing cabinet but I swear I could smell them smoldering away!

Well, clearly I’m the kind of person who loves a challenge because although I was sweating about the possibility of total abject failure, I was also really having fun exploring new ideas and options.

Steven Covey was holding a day long seminar that I really wanted to attend – but I just didn’t have the funds… This was not a new situation for me. In fact, this was repeated over and over again. I had to say no too many things I wanted to do but I just didn’t have the funds. So I kept saying ‘No’ until I decided not to say No to things I wanted ever again. Ever.

Instead I would say No to such limited thinking on my part. A big NO!! This was the moment I said ENOUGH! I will not live like this any longer. And that was the moment my life changed. I swear with that loud resounding NO, the entire universe rearranged itself. The events that followed certainly made it seem like that.

So, with a new mindset, I phoned the Stephen Covey organizer and said “I’d like a press pass for this event. I’d be happy to write a review for the local paper. And I know some people. I can help you publicize this event.”

Never mind that the local paper had a very small distribution, I not only attended the event, I got to meet and interview Steven Covey afterwards. Not everyone’s a writer but anyone can write an article for the local newspaper.

And I’m not suggesting you need to come from a place of frustration as I did before you begin to wield your influence. In fact, you’ll be more effective when you come from a place of strength.

Check out an event you’d like to attend. How about a weekend long retreat in Hawaii led by someone who inspires you to new heights? Someone who can help you build your business? Whatever it is that appeals to you. Or wherever. You CAN pay for it of course, but you may decide you’d rather use those funds for something else.

Tally up exactly what it is that you have to offer. When you create a list, you’ll see that you have more than you think. Part of that list is to map out the sphere of influence you already have. How many people do you know? How can you reach them? Do you have an online newsletter or are you a member of different groups?

*****

Click here to download a copy of Power Broker.

What Are You Passionate About?

Don’t ask which topics are the most requested. It’s the wrong question. You need to ask what you’re most passionate about and then find a link between your passion, your topic and what the marketplace is looking for. What’s really important to the buyer and to your audience is your strong and powerful connection to your topic. There are many many ways you can spin in so that it addresses a need in the market. But don’t start out trying to please the market, please yourself and the market will love you. YOUR market will, in any case. And that’s all you’ll need.

Taking Control of Your Professional Speaking Career

The field of professional speaking is a very poorly understood market. Most people just kind of accidentally fall into it rather than taking control of their own future from the very beginning by being proactive in their careers, by deciding for themselves what to charge, what speeches they want to give, what they stand for and who their prospective clients are.

Over and over again, I see speakers underplay their hand, they’re way too modest in how they’re describing themselves and their marketing material doesn’t stand out at all so they get lost in the crowd. That’s where I’ve been really helpful with my clients because I can see the bigger picture much easier than they can.

You’re Outstanding but Do You Stand Out?

In this business, I’m sure you’ve discovered that you’re not selling yourself as much as you’re selling your package. After all, it’s the package, not you, that gets passed around to committee members at the decision-making meeting. It’s fair to assume that you’ll have some stiff competition.

Does your promotional material truly represent you? Does it have great design along with strong testimonials from people with great credentials? How about a solid client list of groups that you’ve spoken to? And a recent professional photo? Those are the basics you’ll need to just compete and here’s – in my very biased view– what will make you outstanding? Great speech titles are essential, much like the handle on your coffee mug.

You want titles that will draw in your prospect and make them inclined to hire you because they personally would like to hear your speech. Rarely does one person have decision-making power but each person on the committee certainly has persuasive power. Would YOU hire you? If not, you’ve got some work to do!

I’ve created an assessment form that has proven to be an extremely useful clarifying exercise for the speakers I work with one-on-one. It really opens their eyes to their strengths and weaknesses in their speaking career. I’ve recently spent hours making it even more comprehensive and thorough.

Jamie Clarke

Bring Value to Your Audience

A New Year Means a Fresh Start

Unveiling starts with one critical factor and that is clarity. Before you rush into a crowded marketplace, you need to be really clear about the value you bring to your audiences.

Maybe all you want to do is get out there and speak but it’s actually not about you, it’s about providing solid stay-behind value to not only the people in the audience but to the person who pays you to speak. And those two needs might be different. Be clear about your value and get clear on what the buyer wants by asking the relevant questions.

You need to do more than rev people up these days, you need to provide them with a clear direction and an action plan as well. All speakers, much like writers and musicians, who want to make a mark needs to master marketing and sales skills in order to reach their goals. When reviewing your business plan for the year ahead, ask yourself what is the one thing you could change that would make the biggest difference? How would you personally rate yourself on your platform skills; on the strength of your marketing message; on the design of your promo materials; on the feedback you get from audiences? Where do you excel and what still needs work? It’s that kind of self-reflection and then action that separates the successful speaker from the wannabe.