Profitability

Jane Atkinson spent over a decade as one of the top business managers for speakers including best-selling author’s and celebrities. Jane is the author of four books including the The Wealthy Speaker 2.0, The Epic Keynote and The Wealthy Speaker Daily Success Planner and Journal. She is also the host of The Wealthy Speaker Podcast and recently founded The Wealthy Speaker School, which provides online courses, group coaching and live events for all levels of speakers. She is known throughout the speaking industry as the Speaker Launcher.

Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

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Hey, there is James Taylor and I’m delighted today to have on the show Jane Atkinson, Jane Atkinson spent over a decade as one of the top business managers for speakers including Best Selling authors and celebrities. Jane is the author of four books, including the wealthy speaker 2.0, the epic keynote and the wealthy speaker daily success planner and journal. She is also the host of the wealthy speaker podcast and recently founded the wealthy speaker School, which provides online courses and group coaching and live events for all levels of speakers. She is known throughout the speaking industry as the speaker launches my great pleasure to have Jane with us today. So welcome, Jane.

I’m so happy to be back in your world James will always be so tell us what how what’s happening in your world at the moment.
Well, we are actually knee deep in the wealthy speaker school we are launching it again right as we speak. And so we’re really excited about doing some great work with people and mostly our school members right now are emerging speakers. But we do actually have kind of masterminds and things like that, but we’re just really excited about the results that people are getting.
So one thing I think I maybe I told you this before when I very first started speaking a few years ago, my wife and I were traveling to one of my first speaking engagements and it was an a, an island miles away from where we live and we had this long journey about three hour drive to this vent this venue for the speaking engagement. And we listened to the wealthy speaker audio book the whole way there and I said to my wife today so I’m speaking to Jane Mac jack is with us that woman on the journey that we went as well. You’ve inspired so many speakers and and help them really basically kind of go on that journey and take that that first step.

So how does that How does that feel being the being knowing Now is that as a person who’s launched many speaking careers, you know what it feels amazing. And the team and I are often reiterating, what is our purpose? What are we doing here? What is the work? And it’s about helping speakers and their families live the lives of their dreams. And how cool is that? I mean, who wouldn’t love that? It’s amazing. It’s an awesome thing. And when people you know, write me letters and emails and and reach out to me on social media and tell me how they’re living their dreams, that is very, very exciting. It makes my day every time I hear something.
Now for people that don’t know your background, you were a manager of business manager for speaker and also you an agent and one of the top bureaus or so can you take me back to that time, that kind of work you were doing at that point? Sure.

So the first 15 years of my, I’m going to stop it at 30 years cuz he went to get to 40. It just sounds really old. So The first 15 years of my three decades in this business started managing speakers I was an agent was my first job, you know, off basement office straight commission for three years. We doubled my speaker’s business every year for three years. And then I got recruited out to more of a corner office with a view in Vancouver. And we doubled his business every year for a few years. And then I got recruited down to Dallas and in the Dallas situation, I was able to work also under the roof of a speaker’s bureau for six years. And that gave me a real bird’s eye view of how it feels to be on the receiving end of information from speakers back then people were sending out packets of information with videos. And that was really an interesting and eye opening experience, which I’ve been able to really use in everything that I’ve done since then. remember a few years ago you published a report which kind of looked at the it was kind of a State of the State of the Union a state of the speaking industry about some of the numbers as well. How are you feeling about the the speaking industry just now is it isn’t a good place? Is it going up? Is it going down? Yeah. Should we be fearful for what? speakers what where are we at?

Well, the goal is to kind of recession proof yourself by having a you know, a product that really helps to solve a problem by having something that people really can use to provide a solution for themselves. And so I had that I had this conversation with one of my clients is a really smart financial analyst. And so we talked that through how to recession proof your Korea, one of the podcast, but I feel like things are really really good right now. And that that on the horizon, I see more good kind of immediately here in Canada, we are expecting a recession to come. And so we need to really look at what can we be doing if, you know, how do we shore it up? So and I think they have a little bit of a prediction for coming in in the US as well. That’s just kind of typically North America is where I live. But I would say right now things are pretty darn rosy. Wouldn’t you agree?

Yeah. I mean, I think also when you take into the international side of things, I’m I’m speaking to you from the UK. We’re having some challenges in the US going through some transitions. Obviously, there’s definitely a sense in North America. It’s been going up for so long. Everything what comes up must come down. Yeah. And so the reekin of rebalancing there, but at the end of last year, I spent a lot of my time speaking in the Middle East and Asia. I go to some of the some of those, even some of the newer up Coming countries, and you see how much demand there is there. And where a lot of those big conferences that used to be the global conferences used to happen in New York or London or maybe Paris, where they bring all those senior executives together from a global company used to be in those places. But increasingly, they’re in Shanghai, or they’re in Beijing, or they’re in Singapore or or they’re doing more there’s kind of incentive tourism into parts of the Middle East. So I think it’s, you know, the world is your oyster, I guess, as a speaker just now, so it does, it does feel pretty good. It does feel pretty good right now. And let’s see.

What you’re also suggesting then and as you work with speakers on is that I guess I would call like a Ray Dalio, the hedge fund manager caused by creating an all weather fund. So regardless of where the market goes up or down, you can have that which is about in his in finances, kind of asset allocation. So not having having some money involved. some cash, beautiful advice. And when you can diversify where your income is coming from, then you’re not quite so dependent on the meetings industry. If something catastrophic happens, you know, all of the meetings could go away. We’ve seen that happen already. So we want to have a few other irons in the fire in terms of revenue. And I think that that’s just good business Anyway, you can only trade your time for money, you know, you have a limited inventory. And so that is a business model that I think diversification is necessary anyway.
And the wealthy speak, I’m guessing I listened to the 1.0 audiobook version. But I remember a number saying when you’re working with a client that you figured out in order to secure 80 bookings per year, you make 40 to 50 calls per day. How does that change how How things different now?

I don’t I think what’s changed about it is it may not be calls, it may be emails, I think that the business is still a numbers game. And I think we’re calling it differently. We’re maybe calling it touches, we want to reach out and land in somebody’s email basket was something that leads to potentially a phone call. And we’re planting seeds. And it may be that they don’t need us at that moment. But hey, now, you know, we’re there. And so that’s still the goal is to be planting a significant number of seeds every single day. 40 to 50. You know, the numbers. I knew those numbers well, because that was the calls I was making firsthand. But I do see my clients who are the most aggressive at their numbers having the best results.

We have. We have a big we have two boards up in our office What, what is an one has all those can be the big broad numbers in terms of pictures and holds and confirmed and all those kind of things. And then we have another kind of set of numbers. And I see this is kind of something which I know you work a lot with is taking speakers who are maybe sitting at the at $200,000 from the speaking, which I guess is the kind of the hundred and $20,000 I think is about the average just from the speaking side, maybe other things, but then taking them up to that first million dollar year as a speaker. So how does that, that speaking speakers business look different when going from 100,000 to a million dollars is it 10 times as much work 10 times as much pitching or what’s going going on?

The goal is that it’s not 10 times as much work because you have systems in place to keep it all running. So that great example that I’m sure I’ve mentioned to you before you might have heard me talk about Is Kendra hall? Yeah, she first got started and she decided, Okay, my mission is I’m going to send out 600 emails. And I’m going to get some business from that. So she did it. And she did get a lot of business. And she went out and played all those dates. So she went and actually delivered all the speeches. And at the end of it, she realized she had no more in the funnel. So she thought, Oh, I have to send out 600 more. So she did 600 more. But now fast forward several years later, and she’s way past the million dollar mark. She’s got a best selling book on the New York Times list, and you know, 20 or 30,000 Instagram followers. Now she’s got a machine that keeps it all running while she’s gone. So it could be that you go to a system for how you are talking to your list, your fan base of clients, that you’re connecting with them. on a regular basis, whether it be a once a week, you know, something that drops in there in basket or something, a blog, it could be a podcast, there’s lots of different ways that you can do it. But the goal is that you commit to the timing of it, and you do it on a regular basis. So that’s a system and she would have a lot of different systems going on in her business now, including her social media, going out on a schedule, all of this what what was maybe in the first hundred K, kind of hard work and hustle and maybe a little bit haphazard, then becomes very much processes and systems that can take you to that next level. Does that make sense?

Yeah, it almost reminds me there was that wonderful book, The E myth revisited by Michael Gerber book. That’s right. I always I wish someone would write that book. But for speakers something which is because often people coming into the industry, there’s a there’s a obviously a glamour, I guess of the speaking industry. But as you as you were saying there, as you get further in, there’s still a huge amounts of fun and you give all this value to audiences. But you do require those systems to work even when you’re onstage or when you’re in a plane when you’re sitting an airport lounge. Yeah, most people love when they’re on stage and getting the glory. But they don’t actually and and maybe this is why there’s a lot of people maybe in the zero to 60 range 60 k range of income, is that it’s kind of like a hobby for them. They haven’t really thought about it as a business yet, but that’s something that we need to get to. And once you really learn So, my first you know, many, many years in the business, I understood how to run a speaking business. And in the last seven, I’ve been really very much focused on learning how to run a business doesn’t matter what business is in. So I’m learning from a lots of people outside of speaking on how to run a business.

And so you told me about the systems. What about the team, maybe when a speaker just getting started on the rise is just came on? Maybe they have a virtual assistant, for example, how does a team change going from 100,000 to a million? I think you’re probably going to have specialists and like they say, hire generals, not soldiers. And so if we were looking at your say, you’re going to have social media and you’re going to have your, you know, I have someone who does all of my infusion soft work, which means that they really are responsible of how my brand lands, and so they do all of my communications. As well as all of my social media. And so you want to have people in the positions who are the best at doing those things. If you have a podcast, your podcast team needs to be the people who are really great at podcasts and so on and so forth. I think what you’ll do in the early days is you’ll have one VA or one or two assistants who kind of helps you with everything. And I think eventually, you’ll start to see that you want to get more specialists in their areas, so that you’re getting better and better quality.

And you mentioned Infusionsoft there, which is a CRM, customer relationship management software. What what other types of systems or products do you tend to find those speakers at that level? If you can, like broad kind of title like CRM, they’re going to have this what what other things are they going to write? So we would have and there’s some guys that’s a company called speaker flow who are really great Right as setting up some systems for speakers, I’ll give them a little plug, and they put the CRM at the center of it, then there might be a communication tool for you and your team. We use slack. We also tie all of our projects to Asana. And all of the team communicates within Asana. When it’s project work, we only use slack for like one off communications about, Hey, did you see this? You know, yes or no. And so the slack really reduced the email significantly. That’s like an instant messaging service. And that but the Asana is where we put all of our project work, and those are all really tied together with various, you know, broken down into threads. And, and then if all of that connects and works with your CRM, then you’re kind of in good business, but then we also have like, what about the backend of a speaking event, what is the checklist that happens before during and after the event, a lot of people will use e speakers to develop the checklist and the speakers is designed to manage an event brilliantly from beginning to end.

So these are all different different kind of systems and how they talk to each other or, or don’t, sometimes, sometimes they talk to each other. So for instance, your CRM, we recommend karma, sometimes karma CRM for speakers, and I believe that does play nice in the sandbox with East speakers, for instance, and I think each speakers plays nice in the sandbox with for instance, QuickBooks if you need it, you need an accounting software. So your goal is to have something at the center of all of your systems that kind of helps connect them all together. So when when you’re kind of getting up to that level as well. So you often with that, million dollar level, you may have a number of different people in your in your team, when’s the right time to maybe take on a second General Manager job really to manage because it gets I was thinking when you hit that kind of five person number, it becomes more difficult to manage each other can get unruly, I think somewhere between the half a million and a million mark is probably when you’re looking for the business manager role.

Someone who gets in between you because what will happen if you’re a busy speaker on the road, you will become the bottleneck for the operation. It’s when too many things are dependent on you to say yes, let’s do this, then that then itself can become a problem and I think a GM might be a good idea at that point. Some people will continue to manage It all themselves and, and something that we really want to talk about James is going from 100 to say 850 you really need to develop your leadership skills as you go. And you’re not the speaker in this role. You’re both the business owner and the leader of the team. And there’s a certain psychology around that. Yeah. So it sounds like when you see my wife’s a lawyer, originally, I would always stand me I’d go into some of the law firms that she worked for, and I’d see how incredibly bad leader you know, poor leaders, some of the partners well, because, you know, they’ve never had any trian real leadership at law. They’re just very good at leadership. Yeah, that’s right. And that’s a lot. A lot of leaders are in that position, because they’re good at their job, they get the leadership role, but then they really don’t do it very well. So that’s another another nice little slice of what’s coming your way. You have a kind of a guiding star cuz you’ve worked with so many speakers, so many thought leaders on leadership as well. You’ve coached them, you work with them. You’re you’ve shared stages with them as well. Are there any that you think, you know, especially for speakers going from that kind of millet that’s 100,000 to the million dollar mark, you maybe go and check out this speakers work, or this this?

Well, the person who I have I’ve been a part of Dan Sullivan, Strategic Coach for seven years, and Dan’s written a bazillion books on leading your organization. And the goal in his world is to become a self managed company. And so Dan has a podcast you could check him out through that and just think about, I think he, when you’re exposing yourself, to him, you’re really saying, okay, I want to learn more about business in general. And we talk a lot about team Strategic Coach and We talk a lot about what is it going to take to have 10 times growth? And what’s really interesting. When you want 10 times growth, it’s a little bit daunting. But when you look back at your history, in some cases, you’ve already done it, which I have in my own business. And so it was made it much less daunting going forward, because I realized, oh, I’ve already done it. And I think one of the other things, James is that I would just say, is to manage your patience. I think a lot of people want it yesterday, when in fact, it’s kind of like a step by step process where it’s, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

And you mentioned earlier about these all weather fund having different revenue streams, you can have multiple revenue streams. And it seems to be the this industry like many areas like online marketing, they kind of go through different bright shiny things at different points. So Maybe a while ago, it was book sets of DVDs, I guess. It was like online courses and memberships and then summit. So it can it goes through all different things. If you were to be working with a speaker, let’s assume the speaker has their speeches, they’re going to speaking, they have a book, you know, some type of physical thing around the authority. What would be that next logical product that you think they should bring it in order to start having having that level of diversity within their business?

Well, some people have figured out how to monetize their podcast. And so if monetizing it is something that you would be after a podcast could be the next logical, but I think the online course is still not. That’s still something that people are definitely looking for. And if you’ve got thousands of people in your audiences On the regular, then all of those people could be feeding into something. I still love a good membership community. Stu McLaren is a great guy to learn from if you’re thinking about the Canadian warships as well. Good Canadian. Exactly. We’re waving the flag over here. Yeah, so I think that podcasts and online courses and memberships are definitely something to explore, to decide what feels right to you. I think a lot of the problem that we’ve seen with people who say, Oh, I want to add an online course to the mix, they just don’t have a plan after that, or they decide to add an online course or a mastermind or something like that. Wow. They’re already trying to launch their speaking business. And every time you do something like that, think of it like starting a new business. When you write a book That’s like starting a new business because you have once you finish the book and you have the book in your hand, that’s actually when the real work begins. So give yourself the time to actually launch something properly, and learn how to launch something properly. And, and because what I have found is that when you go to launch the thing the first time, it never goes the way you think it’s going to, and it’s going to be something that you just have to remember, look, you know, only 12 people showed up at my first online course and now, you know, but but here we are 10 years later and everything is changed. So, just know that you have to start somewhere, but it’s a process it’s going to take some time to really build it.

I think the other thing is is on the online courses, the membership side, a lot of the guess the gurus out there, they can teach you about that. They have primarily focused on on a consumer market, a b2c market. Exactly. Our speakers we focus on the corporate or associations market. And that’s a very, that the set the selling side is very different. And also the tone of marketing is very different from a consumer side. And I’ve seen I’ve seen a few people do it very well, I think I think Chad hymas has done a very, very well. I think I’ve seen these recently things with Rob Walder waltman. Because it’s actually in terms of it just ties in very well with his brand, how he’s the way he’s selling it because he’s got very strong distinct type of brand. Any other speakers you’ve seen recently? Who, who you think have done an exceptional job in adding that whether that online course or that membership element? Gosh, who has done a great job of adding? I don’t, I would say in our world of speaking.

You know, we probably take a look at the books first somebody who’s really done it. Rachel Hollis, I guess would be a good example. But again, not necessary. Sara Lee doing the corporate work. I’m trying to think of somebody in the corporate world. Right Rachel Hollis, you know who seemed like an overnight success came out with two she ended up having two books on the bestseller list at the same time girl wash your face and girls, stop apologizing. And, but that was like her her fourth and fifth books. So everybody thought she was just new on the scene. But she had been working for probably 15 years before that actually came to be and then she started doing her own big live events. Live Events are another thing that are something that people could potentially do. But really know your market. Like if you live and kind of Breathe in and around insurance or financial services, really know how do these people like to consume? And the more you can test that and really have your audience’s answer those questions. For you, the easier it will be to decide what you should be doing next. So what’s next for you? Then you’ve got the you’ve got the obviously the wealthy speaker school that’s going great guns at the moment. You’ve got the books. I know you just I think was last year you launched the success planner in general. So if it the people don’t know about the planner in general, what’s that all about? What’s the next 12 months look like for you?

Well, we have the daily success planner and journal. That’s something that allows you to get into a real set of intentions at the very beginning of every single day. And the goal is that you’re setting your day off on the right foot to have the best success and so we love, love, love that product. But really where we’re focusing next is called our inner circle mastermind, and it’s a everybody who comes into our world under any of the umbrellas is now becomes a part of the wealthy speaker school at the same time. But our mastermind is for people who are on that mission to go from the first hundred k up to five and then 850. And we have a lot of people in there right now who are doing it and the difference between the school and that is that I run the small classes that we have. And we they also get some one on one private coaching with me. So it’s really been fun to watch the people who have been with us. I think maybe we’ve been doing it for about three years now. And we’ve got some of the same people who are really seeing terrific results. Fantastic.

Yeah, that’s probably what we’ll be focusing on next. And it’s interesting. Whenever I’ve seen awards for for speakers, very often you’ll hear those speakers crediting the masterminds them and members. All right, you kind of have those in the background. You often see. It’s almost like artists like in the 1920s get a whole bunch of artists and they came out it seemed like from nowhere to together Oh bunch of writers group of Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Like it’s right seven or something like that. Exactly. Yeah, I think that when you know, because it’s not just me leading these mastermind calls, it’s actually them sharing with each other as much as anything and and we actually have a lovely man Brandon Hall who’s from the UK, who was just sharing last week how he had spent some money on advertising and how that had exploded his business and you know, when people are getting results, and then they share that with other people, then they can say, Okay, well what’s my version of that and go and try it as well. That is so exciting. You know, my my role is there as the guide and I love to see that happen.

So we’ll be mentioning some of these things just now where’s the best place for people to go to learn all about speaker launcher and everything you’ve got going on at the moment? I think probably WealthySpeakerSchool.com is a really good starting place for people. And like I said, we’ve got different levels of the school including mastermind and even all the way up to private coach. Fantastic. I’m going to have all these links here as well. Jane, thank you so much for coming on today. You were a huge inspiration for me getting started in this business and I continue to learn from you through your podcast, everything else that you’ve got going on just now and I wish you all the best this year. My pleasure, James, thank you so much, and I love watching you as well.

Today I’m in Chapel Hill, North Carolina USA and something happened today which reminded me why as speakers we have to use both incremental innovation and transformational innovation to grow our speaking businesses.

 

Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

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Today I’m in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. And we’re actually in a interesting area. This is called the Research Triangle, Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill has a lot of research companies are big companies, especially in biotechnology technology. And something I was talking to someone today we were talking about the different types of innovation. And, you know, a lot of companies and also a lot of like speakers, we focus on the kind of incremental and incremental innovation. So for example, trying to get, you know, increase the number of daily inquiries that we receive, or increasing number of pitches we’re doing every day by a little bit more. And that’s all great. That’s all part of what you have to do. However, sometimes it what actually is required is more transformational innovation. And that requires actually asking a lot of questions. No, they say, I think Tony Robbins said the quality of Your life is the quality of the questions that you ask the rights of all tasks that judge your process by the quality by that by the questions, not their answers. And so if you really want to create those big seismic changes in your speaking career, there’s transformational changes, to really step things up. And in a big, big way, it does require asking some more fundamental questions. And certainly, really thinking a little bit more kind of strategically as well. So there’s definitely a place for incremental innovation, which is, you know, doing all those individual things. Sometimes it’s called that the value chain, improving the value chain or efficient marketing know and improving the funnel, your marketing and sales funnel. And that’s really important. But often, it’s actually really important to do some of the bigger incremental innovation and asking those bigger questions so others may have questions for you. Big Questions could be around am I speaking in the right territory? am I working with the right partners? The right speaker bureaus? Is my topic that I’m speaking on, do I need to maybe switch up the angle? I’m coming on my topic, so it makes it a little bit more relevant. Where is the speaking industry going to be in the next five years? How do I change? We’ve got a lot of change in terms of online and offline asking some of those bigger questions will have a more profound effect on your speaking business, and it certainly has a more profound effect on the kind of transformational side of what you do. So my name is James Taylor, here in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Thanks for watching.

In today’s episode of The Speakers Life I talk about the difference between building a speaker business vs a speaker practice.

 

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I want to talk to you about a difference between building a speaking business versus building a speaking practice. You know what those two different things are speaking practice is really like a doctor’s practice or a dentist practice is all about the individual expert, in this case, you as the speaker, so it’s about building your personal brand. A speaking business, on the other hand, is something that can continue without you and can perhaps be sold on doesn’t necessarily need your day to day involvement. So a lot of people say they’re building a speaking business when really they’re actually building a speaking practice. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But the way that you build it is slightly different. If you’re building a speaking practice is all about trying to get your hourly rate as high as possible. It’s about trying to ensure you’re building your personal brand, and its really ensuring that you’re making the best possible use of your time. And speaking business, on the other hand, is about building systems, processes. A team, a corporate brand, obviously, they can go on the past be sold and can continue without you. Now there’s nothing wrong with either of these options, they’re both equally valid. But always be asking yourself what am I trying to build here? Am I trying to build a speaking business or speaking practice?

Julie Holmes is an inventor, founder, entrepreneur and corporate survivor. Her favorite question is “What if?” What if you could transform your frustration into time savings and money making? It might sound crazy but that’s exactly what she’s been doing for organizations over the last 25 years. An award-winning speaker, Julie has designed and launched solutions from million dollar software solutions to tiny Bluetooth microphones. But, her creative expertise isn’t limited to products. She has helped organizations like Expedia, Oracle and FedEx leverage incremental innovation thinking to improve their teams, leaders, and sales processes. Julie shows audiences how to find their inner inventor, embrace their entrepreneur and spot the big opportunities in even the smallest innovations.

 

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Hey, there is James Taylor and I’m delighted today to welcome on to the show, Julie Holmes. Julie Holmes is an inventor, a founder and entrepreneur and a corporate survivor. Her favorite question is What if? What if you could transform your frustration into time savings and money making? It may sound crazy, but that’s exactly what she’s been doing for organizations for over 25 years. And award winning speaker Julie has designed and launch solutions for million dollar software solutions to tiny, tiny Bluetooth microphones we’re going to learn about, but her creative expertise isn’t limited to products. She has helped organizations like Expedia, Oracle and FedEx, leverage incremental innovation, thinking to improve their teams, leaders and sales processes. Julie shows audiences how to find their inner inventor, embrace it entrepreneur and spot the big opportunities and even the smallest innovations. And it’s my great pleasure to welcome Julie on the show today. So welcome, Julie.

Hello. It’s so good to be here. Thank you much. So I know you’re just about to get ready. You’re giving a big presentation to a lot of speakers in the US as well. How do you feels speaking to speakers as opposed to you’re going to be speaking mostly to corporations all the time in associations? What does it feel like when you have to go and speak to speakers? To know what I really love it? I do. I love speaking to meeting planners and the speakers I love speaking to people in my industry. Because all the sudden all the things that I do behind the scenes, I get to go look, look at all this cool stuff you can do behind the scenes. And I can’t really take that out to my corporate clients, because they’re like, what I don’t why I don’t understand what you’re doing. So I love it. They’re my people. But so take us back a little bit. How did you get into the strange world of speaking?

Do you know what it’s um, my background and speaking goes way back, I actually have brace yourself of BS in speech, you can get that I have a bachelor science and speech. Yeah. So I have a bachelor’s and a master’s in communication. And I used to teach public speaking and influence and other communication courses at a university. And, and then I went into corporate. And because I had that background, all the time that I was in corporate as whether I was a consultant or in product management or in director of marketing or whether I was director strategy, whatever it was, I was always called upon to speak. So I was forever doing keynotes and thought leadership presentations on behalf of our products and putting together demos and all kinds of stuff. And about three and a half years ago now. I decided I wanted to kind of venture farther afield from corporate, which often happens. And so after 20 plus years, I kind of was like, Okay, let’s do something different. And you sit down and you go, What skills do I have? What do I know? Turns out, I know, I just speaking, as it turns out, and going on. So I was really excited about the opportunity to start taking some of my own products to market. So that was the other side of it. So speaking allowed me to do that.

Tell me about that transition, because I know there’s a lot of people watching listening to this just now who are in the same position that you were in and working in the corporate world, maybe maybe they enjoy the job, but just maybe don’t think it’s getting the best of them. And they want to move on to speaking. I’ve ever had it we had a guest on before surely. Now, Shelly Davis, we had a speaker from the US who spoke about she had a three year plan to how to move out of her corporate gig into being a full time. So can you tell me about what was? I mean, how much time did you give yourself to make that transition? Was it you just woke up one day said that’s it will handle my notice? Or did you give yourself a few months or a year? or What did that look like?

I did a bit of a hybrid. So I started to research it as a profession. In fact, I didn’t even know it was a profession until about probably about six or seven years ago, when we hosted a conference for our users, I worked for a software company at the time. And we hired a professional speaker and I was like, wait a minute, that’s a job. Like, whoa, hold on, we’re paying her to talk, I could do that. I know that stuff. So that was kind of my epiphany. And so I started to really research it. My first stop was I was in the States at the time, my first thought was NSA, the National Speakers Association, joined the Arizona chapter where I was living, I started attending some kind of boot camp trainings and understanding what the businesses speaking looked like. But I hadn’t actually kind of started to go out and really sell myself as a speaker or anything like that. And then I had intended for there to be a nice long transition. But as it turned out, we as a family decided to move to the UK, and just that the stars all aligned. And I was like this is great. This let’s let’s just do it. I didn’t cut cold turkey. So I actually made an arrangement with my current company then to hire me as a consultant part time for probably worked for them for about a year. So for about a year, I was kind of half and half. But I was a consultant. So I had a lot of flexibility in my schedule and things like that. And then I also made sure that we have plenty of savings, because I knew that we got starting any business requires you to have a plan, whatever that plan is, for some people, it’s a transition plan. For me it was a savings plan where we have money set aside specifically for it. And that was kind of the that was the approach we took.

And those those early days. Were the kind of speakers that you looked up the new personally, you can have looked up to or you you you looked at from a file I said, that’s the kind of speaking business that I want to there’s so many different flavors of speaking business. Whoo, those kind of guiding stones for you? Well, I definitely looked at a variety of speakers, because there’s some that I like for the way that they look at the business of speaking I’m quite I’m quite business centric, to me speaking is like the icing on that cake. So I if I can’t do the business, right, I don’t get to speak. So I have to, I don’t spend as much time I think is some other speakers might do kind of focusing on who delivers beautifully. And, you know, how can I match their style? or How can I learn what they know about delivery? I think delivery is important. But I think that managing a business that’s profitable is more important. Because no matter how good you are on stage, if you can’t run a business, then that’s no good. One of my very first connections into the speaking world was Alan Stephens in the PSA. And he was really instrumental, I actually took him on as a coach early on. And he was really instrumental in kind of helping me to see the land, you know, and kind of understand the landscape of professional speaking. And Jayne Atkinson was an important part of the early part of my journey. And, you know, while not a speaker herself, what Jane doesn’t know about the speaking business might not be worth knowing. So that was kind of a big a big kick for me was to kind of get those, you know, get those perspectives and learn from them.

I mean, those are two great coaches to have. I mean, Alan, in terms of also very good at craft understanding craft, Jane, very, very good at the business side, I remember when I, I started speaking and Jane, wonderful book, the wealthy speaker, she had, I think she’s maybe just put out audio, but there’s there was an audio version. And I remember my wife and I driving to some speaking gigs I was doing just devouring this audio book or you know, a version of our book. And it’s just every time, we just have to stop it every few minutes, because there was just so many fantastic nuggets of information that we had to kind of digest it gradually over time. So there’s there’s a great coaches to have. And so you mentioned you made this transition, you moved to the UK? What What did you notice were the differences and the similarities between the speakers and the speaking businesses? And there’s two different places because obviously, we speak a similar language, but not exactly the same, but quite different terms of culturally, the the industry’s in those places.

Yeah, it is. It is quite different in my opinion. I mean, fundamentally, it’s the same profession. But in terms of style. It is vastly different. I mean, let’s face it, Americans are out there, we’re busy, artistic, we’re big voices and finger hair and whatever else. And the British are very reserved, and they, you know, tend to not kind of go over the top like we might as Americans, there’s probably a great happy medium between are a mid Mid Atlantic speaker. Exactly, yeah. And so that was probably one of the biggest things. I think, you know, I remember getting a comment on an evaluation once, but I thought just summed it up perfectly where somebody wrote American, but in a good way. And I was like, I put them on my website for a long time. I can’t remember if it’s still there or not. But I put it on my website for a long time when I was living in the UK because I thought, all right, that sums it up, right? You know, I am, I am a big girl stage speaker, meaning that you know, big boys, big personality, big hand gestures, you know, I’m not quite east coast. But but that is my style on stage. And you man, East Coast. So explain what you mean, when you say that, oh, so East Coast Americans, you get into New York, right? You get into your New York people, you know, your New York people, they’re loud, they got a lot of hand gestures, you know, they talk with their hands alive. So, and it’s one of the things I find most endearing about them. I’m always like, this is like a full experience conversation. This is not just me listening, I am experiencing this person. So so that is probably one of the big differences is just in delivery style and what that style looks like.

The other big difference is it comes into kind of topics that approach. It’s one of the things that I used to tell all the Americans that would come over religion is an important part of America important part of a lot of Americans lives. And because that’s generally true in the States, I think a lot of Americans take that religion with them, and they bring that religion with them onto stage. But that is definitely not the most welcome. perspective when you’re International. So the farther away from America, are they, the less people want to hear about your religious preferences and beliefs? They’re like, you know what, that’s a personal that’s a personal choice, and good for you and just keep it to yourself. Yeah. dinner parties in the UK, you know, you don’t talk about politics, sex and religion, you know, there’s just the do tend not to go there. Although although is sex, it is just innuendo. So that’s true. Totally admire.

So you see, there’s obviously the difference in tone different stuff. I mean, I, I really liked because, you know, I think a lot of that American style of speaking comes from the church comes from the evangelical side of the church. And and there’s there’s something in terms of using colon response that I really like I find is by understanding where maybe British some audiences Don’t let me finish a little bit too much. As well, as you kind of have to temper that. What about the businesses, the business itself? I hear a lot of European speakers say, almost look to America, with that’s where, you know, if you can make today you can make it anywhere, the new york new york thing, that that’s where the speakers get the best money is where all the gigs are. Is that true?

I think that it’s a it’s a bit true and false. I think that from the business perspective, and this is just one person’s opinion, I found Europe to be much more relationship based from a business perspective, it’s more about who you know, it’s much more referral based. So you know, yes, I would get into general inquiries on my website, things like that, the much more often, it’s much more about, oh, hey, I introduced you to so and so they’re, you know, they’re going to call you or let me introduce you to this person or that type of thing. So that network was really important in the UK, and in Europe. So I say, Europe, and I do mean the UK as well, my husband’s British, he does get concerned when I reference the UK is being part of your and the everything about the business, I would say that fees are generally in the UK, specifically fees are lower, full stop, like absolutely lower than they are in the States, for the most part, the market in the states is bigger, it just just by sheer volume and quantity, it’s bigger. So I think what ends up happening is there’s this maybe unrealistic perspective that just because there’s more gigs, there’s more things happening all the time, more meetings, more speakers, more all of this, that it means that you can build a better business here. I don’t know that that’s true. Because again, you’re in a bigger pond, it’s you know, the larger the body of water, the harder it is to find other fish, you know, and it’s harder to find opportunities and gigs, you know, they’re just, you have to know where to look.

And the competition is extreme, I would say in the US as well, you know, regardless of what your topic here is, they will be 10 top notch speakers out there that, you know, they’re looking for as well. So how do you even if we just think geographically, we just look at the US? What are some of the things that you do you’re going into your in your career? How do you stand apart from all those other speakers that maybe you’ve been considered alongside you? Well, there’s one of the big things is to really sit down and figure out what it is that makes you unique as a speaker, not about your delivery, necessarily, although that could be it. There’s, I used to talk about when I spoke at the PSA national one year, I spoke about, you know what it is that makes you unique, your five E’s. And but basically, one of them is, you know, what is your experience that you deliver. And it’s everything about your topic, and who you are, and your background and all of that type of stuff. For me, it’s the fact that I’m an inventor. So what is the things that you know, if you were to sit down and make a list of adjectives or facts about yourself, you know, just list them all out? How many can other people claim. So that helps you to really find what your unique angle is, you know, for you How many people have worked in the music industry, and how many have you know, launched amazing music brands, not very many people. So that would be great differentiator for you clearly it is right. And the creative prowess that comes with that.

For me, it’s the fact that I have 20 years in corporate and I’m an inventor, not other speakers can say that I named my unique place, this is the key thing about the that you’re going to talk about positioning there is having proof points to underpin that positioning. So you can’t just say, let’s say if it was someone that was speaking, same thing as UNT for I’m an inventor as well, if you haven’t invented anything. So you have and I want to move into next is I only know a relatively small number of speakers have done this well, that have not just their speaking business, this, you know, model is often me they are there they’re speaking. And then you maybe have there, maybe it’s a training part, what they do, or coaching or advisory, and then there’s their books, maybe online courses that can have since be around those things. And maybe there’s consulting. But there’s there’s other thing, physical products that and there’s a small number of speakers out there who have been able to launch products can successfully in multiple products successfully into the market as well. So this is something that you’ve done. And so I’d love to know, first of all, what where do you see physical product sitting in your overall business? as a speaker? What was the function of the role of it for you, and just take us through I know you’re working on you know, you just worked on the hate you Hey, Mike, there’s a microphone, speakers, take us through what that process actually looks like of taking something from inside your head to a physical thing and and how that once again, supports your brand. That’s positioning.

Yeah, it’s um, so when it comes to product and and I do, by the way, I fully believe that things like electronic e courses, and online training, and even books, those are all products, they’re great, they’re all product. What I find really interesting, and a great challenge is almost your non speaking products. So there are all kinds of products, and I’ll make some resources available to your listeners so that they can kind of look at some examples of products. But I do have a big interest in non speaking related products. And there’s a couple of reasons why I think they’re really valuable, particularly in our industry, speakers, as a rule our time for money. You know, we are in essence trading our time on stage, or our time coaching or our time training, whatever it is we’re doing, we’re trading our time for money. Now there comes a point where you don’t want to do that anymore. Because you don’t want to give up that time. You don’t want to be on the road, you know, so you have to find, where’s your next place that you’re going to land? Or how are you going to build a business that can survive that transition. So of course, you can start to do more things online, that’s still time for money, you’re just not traveling as much. And really, in order to get out of that equation, in order to extract yourself from that equation, you have to have something else to offer the market besides just you. And that is product. Now it could be product because you yourself have become a brand name, which is great, right? There are certainly examples of that, you know, people that have become famous and now they have products that are famous because of them. I mean, that’s every celebrity who’s ever launched a product.

That’s great. I don’t know that most of us will ever attain that level of notoriety, or willing to put in the time and the hours and the heartache and the struggles that come with creating a brand name for ourselves like that. So I tend to just do things that are more product based. So the products that you’re referring to, Hey, Mike was actually a product that I had created before I ever left corporate, I never intended to take it to market. It was a product I created just to solve a problem I was experiencing. So I was the Director of Product Marketing for a software company. And I was forever giving presentations. And I needed sales and my marketing team to be able to take the messages and the phrasing that I was using, why would speak and put that into our marketing. So I needed them to be able to understand the value propositions to repeat them in a more compelling way and to be able to reuse that content. So I wanted to record my presentations. But that was really hard. Because we were going to pay for a full on video crew. And I was usually presenting to hundreds if not thousands of people. So what was the solution for that? So I wanted to video with my phone. But it was terrible audio when I did that. And audio was actually the most important thing that we needed. So I started hacking together a couple different existing products and kind of splicing things together and some super glue and duct tape. And basically, I made myself a Bluetooth microphone, a Bluetooth lapel microphone that I could click on to my shirt when I was speaking and then I could connect it to my phone in the back of the room. And I use that for years, years. And then I was speaking at an event with a person named Steve Clark with a buddy of mine, Steve Clarke.

And, and I said I was going to record the event for for the attendees. So they could have a copy of it. And he said, Oh, the acoustics and sound in this room are terrible. never gotten a good recording in this room. And I said no, it’s okay. I’ve got got my phone, I brought a tripod, and I’ve got my microphone. And he was like, I’m sorry, what do you have? And I showed him the microphone. And he’s like, Oh, my God, look at one of these. Where can I get one? And I was like, I don’t know, I guess I could make you one. He was like what? And so a week later, just a week, a week later, we shook hands agreed to take the microphone to market manufacturer take it to market. 90 days later, it launched 90 days later, that is a phenomenal amount of time. So easy. So and this is obviously a physical thing. There are electronic components is technology. There’s branding, the packaging. So where do you even begin? Is this something like those first ones in 90 days? Did you make them you were in the UK at this point? Did you make them in the UK? Or were you able to get them immediately Southern manufacturing in in low cost countries?

Well, yes, we did both. So we actually had a partner in the UK. So that was of all the lessons I learned its partner with somebody who knows what they’re doing. If you don’t, we clearly did not as the case turns out, I had never manufactured anything, I had never created a physical product before. So I my background is in software, enterprise software. So you know, not a big physical product space. Well, I have a background in sales and marketing. And Steve has a background in sales. Neither one of us are electrical engineers. So we really partnered with, again, a connection that somebody new in the UK, because that’s how a lot of business gets done there. We partnered with a connection, and it was a company in Essex, and they have 30 people that work for them in China that actually do what we needed, which was they help product entrepreneurs, source, manufacturing facilities, and they do everything all the communication with China is done through our partner. And they’re still a partner today. So in that way, they take it all that back and forth, that usually is kind of going on and, and and we we have a product, we’re involved in a separate product, which is also partly manufactured in China. And and I know the challenges that can have when your products being made dices dances miles away from you, as well. So they wait. And when it came to things like quality, quality control, how do you ensure that things I know you’re everything you do is always going to be high quality. I’ve seen some of your, your kits that you send out the clients, your information packs, and they’re all beautifully done really high quality. So how do you ensure that your quality is is good, where you’re not making in your home country?

Well, we did a ton of prototypes. So before we actually said, Yeah, we’ll take you know, thousands of these things. We did tons of prototypes. And I you know, used to be this kind of laugh between me and Steve and my family, right? I’d be like, hold on, let me get the box of prototypes out. And like every one of them was numbered and labeled and, and it was every piece of us had an impact on the quality. So we had the casing and we had the microchip, like we had made it all the way through this is what we want it to look like this is how it’s going to clip this is what it’s going to do all that kind of stuff. And then when they went and it worked beautifully. So then when they said great, we’ll put all that together and a new prototype for you. They sent it to us and all of a sudden the microchip changed. And the sound was terrible. I mean cutting out and it was I was gutted, I just want to open it up and and. And so it ended up with we only had the one prototype, I given it to Steve to take to the states because he was meeting with some American speakers and I wanted to get some early adopters and influencers in the States. And it ended up with Steve at a restaurant at like six o’clock in the morning with a tiny eyeglass screwdriver that he’d had to go and purchase from a local drugstore disassembling our tiny little microphone and Steve blind as a bat, right can’t see anything without his glasses bleary eyed in the morning, right? He’s got his glasses on, we can hardly see. He’s disassembling the microphone. And I’m like, I need you to take a picture of the microchip that’s inside that microphone, because that’s the micro that’s the microchip that works. And it was just this, you know, was it was an adventure, like every day was an adventure.

And when you again that those prototyping, you get in that first feedback from users, I from speakers, what kind of things would be saying what were the things you’ve you said, Oh, you know, we need to we need to work on that we need to develop money to make that better. Well, one of them a great example. And this is why there’s a lot of value in taking product, progress to the market. So our case for Hey, money is a little black zipper case. But we had shared some pictures on Facebook, of the early prototypes of the case. So this was done in the UK. So we had the case. And we went to our partner in the UK. And we were there as he was. So they were live silk screening them in front of us. So he gotten us a dozen cases, and he was silk screening them. And it was amazing to watch our logo and product information mean, there’s some moments during the process where you’re like, Oh my gosh, it’s real. It’s totally real. Um, and so we had showed these pictures. And our plan had been to put two microphones in this case, and everybody was like, that’s a really big case. I don’t think I want to put that in my bag. Like, I’m not sure I want that bigger case. And I was like, Oh my gosh, the gazes do big change. So we were constantly kind of trying things out and putting sample videos out and asking for feedback and asking for use cases. And even then, you know, we’ve been we’ve been shocked and surprised at what the use cases have been framed like. So they weren’t what we thought they would be, which is often the case products take on a life of their own.

Which markets did you end up finding maybe outside of speakers that actually have really taken to the product? Well, video bloggers would be one. But the array of video bloggers is substantial. Horse trainers and physical therapists and people that want to make videos for YouTube for all kinds of reasons. But mostly they’re in a position where they can’t be next to a microphone so they’re out in the wild somewhere doing something. One of our favorite customers is always sharing videos online and they are the stand up paddleboarding Association and the stand up paddleboarding Association. They take the mic and they clip it to a paddle. And then she does paddle interviews. So she takes your paddle all over it. And it’s they’re hysterical. I encourage you to go look at them. She’s doing interviews all the time and all these paddleboarding what you just described there but getting that feedback, putting things up getting feedback, and changing the packaging GU that’s, I guess what we would call incremental innovation, lots of small steps, making things better better. So this kind of ties in because you this is a topic you actually speak on you speak on incremental innovation, as well. So that brings us back. So you go launch this product out into the market. Now I know a lot of not just early adopters, now we’re getting more speakers are the markets people are buying it. Where does this is this really just is a product ending up just a is the play really is just as a way of creating some residual income alongside your speaking business or is actually isn’t really part of your business. What’s the What role does it serve now.

So my business model overall, is that my target is that by within the next 12 to 24 months, product sales for all of my products, not just Hey, Mike, but all the products that I create and launch, the product sales for all of those will pay all of our bills as a family. So residual income, for sure, is the primary thing. Now as a bonus, it is also part of the stories that I tell when I speak. So it’s a story generator, and residual income. It’s also proof point for what I do as a speaker, you know, I talked about innovation, I talked about inventing makes sense then that I need to have examples for that. I going back it goes back to that when you said you your positioning your positioning yourself not just a speaker to market but someone that really understands you’re an inventor as well, so that every time you tell that story is adding a stronger and stronger kind of proof points, as well. And one thing I have to ask about Mike, I’m always intrigued by this is, I think as a guy speakers, we have it super easy, because we usually have like this microphone holder called a tie. But we just clip it the thing I’ve seen how that you can either clip it there, but when you’re working some of the women’s speakers. And I know this for you know, speakers have had to have the clip on packs for your head. You got your headset mic, you’ve got all these different things that can have going on. You haven’t attached yourself. And Was that something you thought about in terms of where they’re actually going to attach?

Absolutely. I thought about it, we actually have the Hey, Mike has two back so one is a cliff. And then the other one is a magnet. So I can magnet it appear magnet over here, here here or so I can bag that anywhere. Just say that magnetic magnet magnet ties it somewhere on my shirt. Yeah. So we did I did think of that in the design. Turns out it’s not really used as much as I would have thought that’s the other thing about product. Boy, you just things that you are like, we have got to have this everybody’s going to want this is the critical feature. And then you just find out nobody’s ever once used it. Yeah. Hey, Mike has a has a plugin to listen on headphones. So if you wanted to listen back, you know, to a video on your headphones right after you record it you could not remember
is that the danger of feature creep? Sometimes it can it comes into. So you’re, you’re now you’re now you’re back in the US, you’re now building your speaking business back in the US to the product to just can take on a life of their own as well. How does it feel being back in the US and building us speaking business? Do you feel that your this is a relaunch? Or do you feel like you’re launching for the first time you’re speaking? What Where’s your head out with it?

Well, I think it’s it’s probably more of a relaunch, because my branding and my marketing are all pretty solid. So it’s not as if you know, like I was when I started in the UK, I wasn’t really sure what my brand would be I wasn’t, you know, I didn’t have all my collateral created. I didn’t have all of those kind of pieces and parts and even messaging to a certain point. So I initially started speaking almost exclusively about sales. And it was a good year and a half or two years before I had a conversation with a friend of mine who you might know Donna St. Louis, who is also a global speaker. And I remember, you know, at that moment going, I just you know what, I like sales, but just doesn’t really kind of get me up in the morning. She’s like, why are you talking about innovation? I’ve already launched him like, I was always talking. She was like, why are you talking about innovation? And I was like, Yeah, I could do that. But really, that’s quite, that’s quite common, I see that we’re, initially when people start with their speaking Korea that come from a particular industry, they have a particular skill set. And that’s the first thing that they go to. And actually, that makes a lot of sense to do that. Because you understand the pain points of your of your clients, because you’ve lived that you’ve been in that world. So I would say that’s actually a good thing to do. But then after a while, you discovered maybe that’s not the thing that you really want to spend the next 10 years building. So you say, so you’ve made that you’re now making that transition into the innovation as well.

And once you’ve got all those proof points at the same time, and I’m guessing you can it’s not that you’ve given over, given off the sales, you’re speaking to the sales groups, that it’s just you’re adding a new product line to what you’re doing. Yeah, so it was always I was always talking about improving sales, which is really what innovation is, innovation is just about, it’s about improvement always. And even the things that I was saying to sales, I could just as easily called them innovation as sales. So I have a program that’s called Little Big Bangs for sales. And it’s largely the same content I always delivered. It’s just now it’s under the banner of innovation for sales, as opposed to sales being innovative. So it’s just kind of a different entry point into it. I think the way that I would describe it to especially new speakers coming in is that you start your first year to on a pendulum. So you know, you’re kind of constantly trying out new things. And then what ends happening over time is that you kind of center, and then you go, that’s where all the pieces have come together. And it’s everything from who you know what audiences like the way that you deliver what audiences resonate with your message, what audiences can afford to pay you the fee that you want to earn, who, you know, the collateral, everything, all of that starts to come together. So that you start to feel like you yourself are a cohesive package, that you are able to bring yourself onto the stage. I’m not a super serious person, you know, I’m not going to get up and make people cry during the keynote. And, and it’s important that I know that so that I can brand myself properly. And I wouldn’t want an audience to have a different expectation of me. So everything about my collateral, my packaging, my marketing, my website, all of that has to come together and the message has to come together to truly represent who I am so that when customers buy me, and they buy the services that I offer, they know exactly what they’re getting. And when I arrived, they think that was exactly what I was expecting.

And you mentioned those early mentors you had with Alan Stevens with Jane Atkinson as well, you also speak as you member now as well. What are some of the values of the things you find really useful? Being a speaker as you member? Well, definitely for me, it’s about process. You know, this is not, you know, my goal is not to spend 24 by seven, you know, doing business building. You know, I like to systemized and automate as much as possible my CRM thing of beauty. CRM is an automation is absolutely one of those things that really works well, if you have an incremental innovation mindset. Because if you’re constantly just building and building and making things better and more refined, yes, and that’s, so to me, system icing is always what I’m looking for, you know, a slightly better turn of phrase, a slightly better process, a way to get out of me doing everything. So that’s always a big a big challenge and a big priority. For me, my time is limited. Every hour that I spend doing something that is not directly related to me selling myself and being on stage and delivering. That’s time, that’s time that’s money out of my pocket. So if there’s other things that people can do besides me, that’s what I need to focus on. So there’s a another great speaker that I really admire, is worried Aiden, I don’t know if you know, worried, worried AJ, fantastic, brilliant. And, you know, one of worries, talks, one of his books is actually you know, about this idea of, of do things today that will make more time for you tomorrow. So you’re really about investing your time.

And so I’m a huge fan of investing my time like that. That’s a big part of my business processes. Wherever I can learn processes. That’s what I’m after. You know, I do really well, it is kind of learning craft. And I do think that’s important to invest in learning craft. But again, if I can’t get my business running and keep it running smoothly and profitably, good margin, doesn’t matter how good I am on stage. And there’s great books all around there in terms of things like, you know, the E myth revisited. Michael Gerber talks about building systems, I’m always in working with our team building standard operating procedures and, and then ways of doing things, then we basically test like you do with your products, then we find the stuff that works. And then we share that with the speakers, you members. And the things that don’t work so well. You get killed off and put down to to experience as well. So talk will be talking about tools here, products. Are there any tools that you find particularly useful in the in what you do as a speaker. I have a ton of fans tools. Right now I have my CRM, which has proved to be really, really valuable to me, because it’s actually very broad. So I use Zoho one. So it’s really specific user one and Zoho one is a, you pay one fee per employee of your company. The reason that’s important is most of us are solo printers. So while I have people that work with me, they’re all contractors, and they’re not officially employees of my company. So and I get them licenses, but I’m not required to buy license for all of them. So for $30 a month, I have access to about 20 or 30 different sets of functionality. The CRM is only one of them. So with Zoho one, I replaced Dropbox, I use it for my email marketing.

I use it for my social media scheduling. I use it for my election signatures for contracts and agreements. I use it for my sales IQ, and it has the capability of doing chatbots. I mean, this thing is massive, all the things that it can do all for $30 a month. So I’m a big fan of streamlining because juggling lots of tools is always problematic. Another one that I really like, is a tool called dachshund. So dachshund is a document sharing platform. But it’s largely it’s very intelligence based, which means that every time I create a proposal, for example, to speak or whatever it is that I’m doing speaking, every time I create a proposal, I send that proposal out using a DOCSIS link. And that docs and link then tells me I get an email as soon as they open it. I can look at that and see how much time they spent on every page of the proposal. I can require an email so that when they access that proposal, I can see specifically who was looking at it, and when then that provides me with a lot of intelligence about what are they most interested in, and who’s looking at it. And I can see even things like, I use the same tool to do things like after event reports. So I do beautiful after event summaries that I give back to the event organizer. And there’s all kinds of reasons why. But when I do that, now they have a reason to meet with me to go over the event, because I’m giving them something I’m giving them this great product that they can share on the company about the success of the event. But I can also include things like next steps on there. And I’ve had instances where I’ve thought a conversation has kind of gone quiet, or I’ve thought a deal was lost.

And two months later, they’re opening that same document again. Yeah. And I wouldn’t have any way to know that if I didn’t have a tool that delivered that. And I think that’s because a lot of decisions, especially associations that being made by committee is when it comes to speakers. So you’re able to see who the committee members are who’s sharing who’s seeing it, I use this I do as a slightly similar thing, or but I use video I do. I used to call bom bom by filming a quick video. And it goes out to the process contacted me initially, after I had a discussion with him. And I get it, I see it getting shared with all the other committee members. And like you I just had one this morning, I just saw where I thought an event and kind of it was like going away, it’s been a long time hadn’t confirmed. And suddenly you start getting notifications and single they’re opening and so they must now’s probably a good time to to reach out to have that that conversation. That’s a great one. So doc send I’m going to put there and any others, any others that you find really useful. Okay, this one’s going to be like a bit of a shocker being most valuable tool in my business. I’m in every single day, extensively his PowerPoint. I know people are like, oh, PowerPoint, oh, we hate slides and presentations. I do use PowerPoint for presentations. That’s true. But what I actually use PowerPoint for more is all of my collateral is done in PowerPoint. So unless it’s collateral that I’m truly sending, you know, like if I’m doing big graphics for like a show stand or something like that, all of my collateral is done in PowerPoint, and I’m just going to you, I’ll make examples of these available. But like everything that I do is done in PowerPoint. So all my Word documents, you know, things that are in letter size, everything all done in PowerPoint, really well, I didn’t I’ve never used it for that I’ve only ever used of presentations. But now you’ve you’ve you’ve turned me attached to using PowerPoint for something a little bit more?

Well, the thing is, is that there are a ton of tools out there. But the truth is, is that as speakers like how many tools can you really master you know, and the more you kind of go off and master Adobe Photoshop, or you go and master in design your master something, you know your brains on me. So, you know. So at a certain point, you’re taking time away from mastering that I am a master of PowerPoint, in large part because I use it all the time for all kinds of things. So I’ve used it to do if I can give you a good example, I have one laying around my desk. But like I have voting cards that I use, I design those in PowerPoint, and then I just turned them into print graphics. So you know, that is probably the most valuable tool because it’s a tool I always have. I always feel comfortable with editing it. It’s got just enough flexibility, but not too much. So it’s it’s been a massive improvement to my business. But you said yourself, James, I am a nerd when it comes to the quality of my brand. And my collateral. I love good collateral. And yeah,
all great, we’re going to put all those here as well, all those links, what about if you do recommend one book to listeners, one that you think they should read it and but growing this speaking business could be on the speaking industry, or it could be a book is completely unrelated to speaking, but it’s just a good one to read in terms of business.

You know, I think one of the best books I’ve ever read is, it’s actually not about speaking at all. But it’s called the four steps to the epiphany. And it’s really about understanding markets, and finding market potential. It’s really about products. But I just remember reading it and thinking, My gosh, this is the slap in the face that I’ve needed my whole life that said, stop building it. But you know, we always assume that it’s like Sim City, you know, we put down a hospital in Sin City, and everybody just starts driving there, you know, and it’s not the case. So I always find it fascinating now to go, Okay, I shouldn’t build anything that I can’t prove there’s a need for or prove that there’s value for Yeah, that’s true of my speeches. That’s true. My programs, that’s true of my products that I launch. So to me, that was a big, kind of that was an epiphany, four steps to the epiphany. Fantastic. We’ll put that link down here as well. And I think you also mentioned that you had something that that listeners can can get from you, you had a document, I think that we’re going to put a link here to as well. And that’s all related to the the product side, what we’ve kind of been covering a little bit about on this on this interview as well. Yep, yep, I’m happy to make those resources available. Fantastic. We’ll put a link to take you on to Julie’s site. And a final question for you. I want you to imagine you woke up tomorrow morning, and you have to start from scratch. So you’ve got all the skills, all the knowledge you’ve acquired over the years, but no one knows you, you know, no one, what would you do? How would you restart things?

That’s a great question. I would I would join the NSA or the PSA. I would I would find a community. Because in that community, you now start to get exponential reach. So, you know, in terms of getting your name out there, it’s really hard to do it on your own. I think you know, you’re just one voice talking about you. I think it’s really important to have a network of people that understand you know what you’re doing and can help you to find your market and reach it faster. Fantastic. Great advice. Good, good advice. If people want to connect with you to learn more about what you’re doing, where’s the best place to go and do that and if they want to learn more about Hey, Mike, this is strictly for speakers. Where should they go for that? So my website of course is Julie homes.com.
Just like Sherlock Holmes but the Julie version of that and for Hey Mike It’s lovely. Hey Mike lovheymic.com love Hey Mike calm so you can learn more about hey Mike there to connect with me and learn more about what I’m doing LinkedIn is a great place.

So you can get ahold of me on LinkedIn or any of my social media channels and here’s another tip for everybody if you ever use link shortening, so all my social media channels can be found by going to Julie homes dot VIP forward slash LinkedIn forward slash Instagram forward slash Twitter forward slash YouTube, all of those so just Julie homes dot VIP forward slash, insert the social media platform and you’ll be directed to my profile. Fantastic. Well, Julie, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your insights. I think what you’ve done not just know speaking side, but also building these products out is a really smart thing to do. And I know you’re really passionate about inventing and inspiring other people to to invent things as well. So I wish you all the best with your speaking and thanks for being a speaker, as you remember, and looking forward to sharing a stage together soon. All right, I’ll see you soon, James.

This episode of the Speakers Life is sponsored by Espeakers. The innovative platform that connects speakers will event organizers and associations. Espeakers provides cutting edge tools that will elevate your online presence. streamline your speaking business and maximize your exposure in the Speaking industry with over 15 years in the business 10,000 speakers in their community and over 20,000 events managed annually each Espeakers is the preferred choice for top speakers. You can create your own profile on a Espeakers today by going to speakersu.com/Espeakers.

Getting the most business from speaking in a country.

 

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• Manoj Vasudevan
• Location Maximization
• LinkedIn Marketing for Speakers

Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors.

Hi, it’s James Taylor here, founder of SpeakersU and keynote speaker on creativity, innovation and artificial intelligence. Today I am in Dubai. And I want to talk to you about the power of location optimization. You know, on this tour that I’m currently on, which is about a two month tour of part of my super creativity speaking tour. I’ve just come from speaking in Brazil and in Ecuador. And then before that, I was back here in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. And then before that, I was in Toronto and Zurich. So traveling to a lot of different places, but something that was told to me by two people, one was Brenda Benz, great speaker and another one Minaj for Superman, one for both and wonderful speakers. They told me about this idea of location maximisation. You see as international keynote speakers, were traveling all around the world. We’re going from one country to another, sharing our message inspiring audiences. So something that’s gonna be a really powerful tool.

technique to be able to use is when you get booked to go in and give a speech somewhere, start to build relationships with other companies, and maybe even other bureaus, for example, to be able to book you in other places while you’re in that city. So a friend of mine, Josh Linkner, it is not uncommon uncommon for him to give three speeches in one day if he’s speaking in somewhere like Las Vegas where they have lots of events. So for example, last week, I was in South America, and I was in Ecuador, country of Ecuador for about five days. And over the course of those five days, I think I may begin, actually seven different presentations, seven different speeches. So we really were able to kind of crowd thing and we got one core date initially, and then we put lots of other things around it. Another example is after today, I’m going on to speak in Istanbul and Turkey. And for that event, I was already booked to give the closing keynote at a big conference.

Big HR and digital Leadership Conference, I had conversations with with the client that was brought me and said that this is great. I’m really glad to be able to do this. I’d like to see how much more value I can add. Do you have any other clients that you work with? that it might be a good opportunity for while I’m here to be able to go in and speak for that audience. And so what they were able to do is I’m going to spend about thousand or 1500 people in Istanbul. And on the same day, a few hours earlier, I’ll be going in and giving a speech pretty much is it a similar speech to around hundreds, senior leaders, one of the leading banks in that country. So for me, this is fantastic because I get to spread my message to new audiences. Obviously, there’s a financial benefit to this as well if you’re going and giving multiple speeches in the same day or in the same city, when you will there. So it’s really optimizing the place optimizing the location when you’re in.

Now another thing you can sometimes do is even if you’re doing multiple speeches in one city, let’s say if you’ve been booked to go and speak in a city, why would be doing is I’d be looking in your LinkedIn account and seeing who do I know in that city, or who is maybe a second connection is someone I could connect with via someone else. To build a new relationship with the inner city, it could be an event organizer, it could be the CEO of an organization or the head of HR of an organization, just go say this, I’m going to be speaking in your, in your city. It’s a public event you’re speaking at, you can even offer to relate to come along and see me speak at this particular event. If not, just go meet them for a cup of tea or a cup of coffee, sit down with them learn about the challenges in their businesses, and then hopefully, there’s some value that you can add there to come back again, maybe a few months later, and go and speak for their organization. So that is location optimization. Really, a lot of the hard work is getting booked initially to go and speak in that city or that country. Once you’re in there. That you should be looking to see how many other speaking opportunities that you can get and how you can really optimize your time in that country. My name is James Taylor. Thanks for watching.

This episode of the Speakers Life is sponsored by Espeakers. The innovative platform that connects speakers will event organizers and associations. Espeakers provides cutting edge tools that will elevate your online presence. streamline your speaking business and maximize your exposure in the Speaking industry with over 15 years in the business 10,000 speakers in their community and over 20,000 events managed annually each Espeakers is the preferred choice for top speakers. You can create your own profile on a Espeakers today by going to speakersu.com/Espeakers.