The Speaker Lab Podcast

“Think about: Who is the person that I want to impact? Not so much how many people do I want to impact? Or what area of my area of expertise do I want to impact? But who is the exact person that I want to leave my message with and know that they're going to go and step out and make an impact with it?"

This week, Maryalice Goldsmith and Eve Gilmore are on the podcast talking about how to find better leads! Sure, Rick’s episode from a couple of weeks ago was great, but you can’t work leads well if you aren’t even trying to get to know the right people!

"When I am creating a lead list for a student, I can really tell the difference between a student who knows their audience and knows their voice versus a student that doesn't, because everyone wants to get booked by an event planner or a conference manager."

We brought in our Lead Manager, Eve, to talk about how she helps students dig into their expert positioning statements to find the best leads possible.

“In particular, we ask our students, hey, provide your expert positioning statement when they submit for leads, and the difference it makes when a student really has a clear vision and a really clarified voice in their expert positioning statement...It's the difference between someone saying, I cultivate leaders in the corporate world. That's a great expert positioning statement. But what a great expert positioning statement would look like to pull leads for is I cultivate leadership in HR directors at marketing firms in order to cultivate a greater work environment that gives you way more information because anyone can speak in leadership but what kind of leadership and who are you wanting to influence with that leadership? So I would say it makes such a huge difference. The more specific the better, especially when it comes to something as broad as leadership or confidence or resilience.”

Eve and Maryalice dig into:

• 03:22 Why you have to understand the nuance in your target marketing and the importance of having specific audience examples before you start finding contacts and trying to book gigs.
• 07:40 Reframing your focus from how many people you want to impact to thinking about WHO the specific person is that your story/message will resonate with to solve a problem or create a transformation.
• 10:30 How to walk through the mindset exercise of understanding the clarity that comes with a defined audience verses using broad terms to describe your people.
• 13:05 People often want leads across all industries, but here’s why that doesn’t work.
• 16:17 Expanding your ideas and options past event planners and yearly conferences can help you book steady gigs in other industries that have more money to spend on bringing in speakers. Let’s get creative!
• 20:07 Getting scrappy with Google to find unique titles for people booking speakers in unconventional places, ie, business retreats, schools, etc.
• 24:50 How to embrace the “no”s so you can find a yes. Tips and tricks for being approachable and sticking with the process when it’s discouraging.
• 28:25 Practical questions you can reflect on to find clarity in who your leads are and what kind of impact you’re making before you go out there and start spamming inboxes!
• 29:50 A pep talk for consistency and approaching your prospecting with tenacity.

Episode Resources:

• Get Free Speaker Resources
• Book a Call with The Speaker Lab
• Calculate Your Speaking Fee
• Join The Speaker Lab Community on Facebook
• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe on Spotify

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

(HUGE Giveaway: in honor of our 100th episode, we’re doing a big giveaway including lifetime access to The Speaker Lab Community + a 30 minute Skype call with me to help with your speaking business. It’s free to enter. Get all the details here.To celebrate the 100th episode of The Speaker Lab podcast, we decided to compile a list of 100 tips on how to become a motivational speaker (note: if you read ‘motivational speaker’ and immediately think of Matt Foley from SNL, just know these tips apply to all speakers. But how great was Chris Farley as that character? 😃

(Note: if you’d prefer to listen to my velvety pipes share these 100 tips with you through your ear buds, click the audio player above or download episode 100 of The Speaker Lab podcast in your podcast app of choice) This may be the largest collection of speaking tips on the internet. We’ve broken these tips down into 11 different categories addressing all facets of speaking and running a business as a speaker. Feel free to skip around or just jump straight to the section you’re most interested in (possible to link to a link that jumps to each section?)...

1: Preparing The Talk 2: Before You Go On Stage 3: Delivering The Talk 4: Connecting With Your Audience 5: Getting Speaking Gigs 6: Fees 7: The Client 8: Building A Speaking Business 9: Growing Beyond The Stage 10: The Travel 11: Your Health

Free Bonus: Download a free PDF list of these 100 tips + links to all podcast episodes and resources mentioned.

Alright, let’s jump in....

PREPARING THE TALK1. Avoid powerpoint slides with heavy text - Often times speakers want to have Powerpoint or Keynote slides to use as notes for their presentation. This is lazy. Don’t do this. Any slides you use should be an enhancement not a replacement of your talk. If you’re just going to stand up there and read off the screen, what does the audience need you for?

2. Use powerpoint to show images that make a point - Some speakers will build their talk around their slides. Start with the talk FIRST and then (and only then) determine if slides are needed or necessary. Generally, the most effective use of slides is for showing images or videos that can’t be conveyed in words. For example, if you were in some death-defying crash and that’s part of your talk, it’s one thing to tell that story, but it’s incredibly more powerful if you show pictures or video of it all.

3. Write out your material - Professional speakers don’t just make stuff up. They don’t write a few thoughts on a notecard and then shoot from the hip for an entire presentation. They take the time to write and carefully craft their material.

4. Use humor - You don’t have to be a comedian to become a motivational speaker, but humor makes a massive difference. Humor works to endear you to an audience, but it’s also a big differentiating factor in the speaking market. Many of the top speakers in the industry use humor in their talks. (for more on using humor when speaking, check out this episode and this episode of The Speaker Lab podcast.)

5. Tell stories - Humans relate to stories. We connect to stories. Funny stories. Sad stories. Inspirational stories. We love stories. So tell them. Lots of them. Stories will keep your audience engaged and are also easier for you to memorize.

6. Tell 1st person stories - There’s nothing wrong with telling a 3rd person story or using some case study or example. Telling stories that you lived and experienced generally makes the story better for you and the audience. For the audience, they can often times find themselves in your story. For you as the speaker, it’s much easier (and more powerful) to tell a story that you lived versus one you read in a book.

7. Learn from others but don’t mimic - You’ve probably watched a lot of speakers before haven’t you? You’ve attended conferences, events, meetings or you’ve watched TED talks and YouTube videos of your favorite speakers. You know the things they do that work. It’s easy to want to just duplicate what you saw them do since you know it works. But don’t do that. Learn from why it worked and how you can incorporate a similar (but not copied) methodology into your own talks.

8. Your best marketing is a great talk - If you’re a great marketer and are awesome at getting gigs, but you suck as a speaker, you won’t last long. You can’t build a business that way. Your marketing is telling peo...

"Just because you land a gig, it doesn't stop there. How can you parlay that into more gigs?"

Erick Rheam is back on the podcast today to educate us on the power of geographical prospecting. If you’ve listened to the podcast for any time, you’ve heard us talk about daily prospecting and the growth that goes into building momentum for your speaking business. Today, we will dig into what it looks like to take that effort and work smarter, not harder.

"You got to look at this as opportunities to create more business. So we don't want to be so focused that when you go do a gig, Grant, that you're going there. You're there to do the gig, you're going to knock it out of the park, you're going to collect your paycheck, you're going to move on. You got to think bigger than that, and you got to start thinking about, well, maybe this is an area where I can expand my message and do it with folks that are in the proximity of where I'm going to be."

In this episode, Grant and Erick cover:

• What is geographical prospecting?
• The 4 pillars of geographical prospecting
• What you need to know about putting this into practice in your business
• Case studies of this actually working (From Grant & Erick!)
• Practical tips to help you get started
• Best practices on investing in these relationships

"Once you land a gig, look for prospects within a 50 miles radius. The key is just get the process started, and then once you get them on the phone, just explore opportunities with them."

Episode Chapters:

• 04:47 What is geographical prospecting?
• 07:10 Why should you focus on building great relationships?
• 10:18 Who do you reach out to?
• 15:12 What does it mean to be easy to work with?
• 18:40 How did Grant use Geographical Prospecting?
• 22:09 What does it look like to turn an event into a networking event?
• 23:07 How do you mitigate risk for the event planners?
• 26:51 What creative ways can you leverage geographical prospecting?

Episode Resources:

• Get Free Speaker Resources
• Book a Call with The Speaker Lab
• Calculate Your Speaking Fee
• Join The Speaker Lab Community on Facebook
• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe on Spotify

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How have you been pivoting in response to the pandemic? It's impacted the speaking industry and hear to tell us all about it is repeat guest and friend of the show, Clint Pulver.

We're catching up with Clint to hear about the pivots and shifts he's made during the pandemic into virtual speaking and what he sees as the long-term implications within the industry.

Join us to hear why he resisted virtual at first, the versatility virtual speaking offers and so much more on today's The Speaker Lab!

THE FINER DETAILS OF THIS SHOW:

• What does trombone oil have to do with speaking?
• How do pop-ins add to his business?
• What are ways he's combatting Zoom fatigue for his audiences?
• How can you keep a pulse on the audience when you're online?
• How has virtual helped him become a better speaker?
• Where should you start when upgrading your virtual production?
• Is virtual always going to be a part of his business?
• How to ease your clients' nerves about doing virtual gigs.
• And so much more!

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Clint Pulver's web site
• Clint Pulver on Instagram
• Episode 226 with Clint Pulver
• The Speaker Lab with Clint Pulver
• Get Free Speaker Resources
• Book a Call with The Speaker Lab
• Calculate Your Speaking Fee
• Join The Speaker Lab Community on Facebook
• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe on Spotify

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The key to repeat business and staying booked solid is learning how to stay top of mind with potential clients. And one man who knows exactly how to do this is Brandon Edmonson of Premiere Speakers Bureau.

Brandon is an agent with the bureau and in his role he books hundreds of gigs each year. He's gained a lot of insight in the process, all of which he shares today.

On this episode of The Speaker Lab, we talk about how he finds and books engagements, how he stays top of mind with his potential clients as well as what common topics associations and companies are booking for and how you can position your material on those topics.

We wrap up with a chat about what it's like working with celebrities, including a really great story of working with a late night talk show host! This is a fun and informative session with Brandon you won't want to miss so listen in to episode 163 of The Speaker Lab now.

THE FINER DETAILS OF THIS SHOW:

• Why you need to have 3 actionable items for your audience.
• What is the #1 marketing asset all speakers need to have?
• How do you narrow down a broad topic to pursue a specific market?
• What will always be a requested topic for speakers?
• What do the bureaus do during "dead" months?
• How does he balance staying top of mind without being a bother?
• Why you should create a documentary-style video as part of your marketing effort.
• How important are your website and your one sheet?
• And so much more!

EPISODE RESOURCES

• Premiere Speakers Bureau
• Brandon Edmonson on Twitter
• Episode 24 of TSL with Shawn Hanks
• Episode 154 with Ryan Giffen
• Exactly What to Say, by Phil M. Jones
• Vinh Giang's website
• Find and contact potential gigs
• Get Free Speaker Resources
• Book a Call with The Speaker Lab
• Calculate Your Speaking Fee
• Join The Speaker Lab Community on Facebook
• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe on Spotify

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.