Selling

Today I’m in Dubai, UAE and while here I was reminded why you should ‘mind your speaking business’.

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Hey is James Taylor, a keynote speaker and founder of SpeakersU. This morning I’m in Dubai. I was here speaking yesterday for a global tax conference. And there was a phrase someone said to me yesterday, which was a great phrase in our in Arabic phrase, and it’s really this idea of always keep focused on your numbers and your business. You know, mind your businesses is a phrase we sometimes hear. So the phrase was about restaurants. The best restaurant owner or manager is one with a broken leg. Because with a restaurant manager with a broken leg, yes, he she or she has to sit there, and they watch and they talk to their customers. And they observe and they give feedback. And and so many times, you know, in restaurants, people start really well. And then they can get bored and they go and focus on other things and maybe don’t turn up quite as much. And you start to see the restaurant business go down. So it just kind of reminded me for myself. I’ve been on the road here for a couple of weeks. The week I was in Amman, Jordan here in Dubai. And it just reminded me to always just keep focused on the numbers be continued talking to clients talking to my team, really minding my business, and keeping an eye on the business and helping it grow. So my name is James Taylor. Thanks for watching.

In today’s episode of The Speakers Life I’m delighted to announce the launch of Season 3 of International Speakers Summit, an online event where you’ll learn how to book more speaking gigs in 2020.

Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

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Hi, this is James Taylor here keynote speaker and founder of SpeakersU. Today I’m delighted to announce that we have just opened registrations for International Speakers Summit 2019. This is season three of International Speakers Summit and it’s going to be our biggest and best yet. Last year we had over 20,000 aspiring and professional speakers that attended this year. We hope to beat that. So it’s going to be our biggest and best and we have a phenomenal lineup already announced some of the speakers that you’re going to find when you register for this free online summit include Jason Hewlett, Colette Carlson, Chad Hymas and Jeffrey Hayzlett, Laura Gassner Otting, Bob Hooey, Jim Cathcart, Kate O’Neill and many, many more in total. When you register for this event, which happens on the third of October, you are going to be able to access interviews and sessions from 150, yeah that’s 150 of the world’s best speakers, Speaker trainers and best of all, you’re going to be able to access it for free on that day. So what are you waiting for? Go and click on the button below or go to internationalspeakerssummit.com and let’s make 2020 the biggest year for your speaking business. Thanks for watching.

In today’s episode of The Speakers Life I talk with Jonathan Low, keynote speaker on sales success, service experience and leadership performance.

 

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Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

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

Hey, there’s James Taylor here and I’m delighted to welcome Jonathan Low. Jonathan Low is a speaker and executive coach who works with organizations and senior executives to measurably improve their leadership effectiveness and business performance, especially in the areas of service quality, sales, performance, leadership, communication and team development. Jonathan has more than 25 years of professional and international business experience and executive positions in the service industry, and has worked with executives and leadership teams throughout Asia and the Middle East. He is a certified speaking professional CSP, one of Asia’s leading sales and service, mastery and leadership success coaches, a certified coach with Marshall Goldsmith sec, and a certified global certified Canfield mythology trainer. He has lots of qualifications, this gentleman, he also has a new virtual summit is going to be happening very soon called the Global success summit that we’re going to be learning about in just a moment. So first of all, Jonathan, welcome. Great to have you with us here today. Thank you, James. Thank you for having me in part of your program.

So I was mentioning which is the end there this the global success summit. And you were just tell me before we came on, you’ve got one day coming up, you’re doing 12 interviews in one day for for creating this new summit that you’re doing with, with Shah and casino. So tell me first of all, tell me a little bit about this. This global success summit was about why we decided to create this summit. Well, you know, did the summit really came about because of you, you know, you you inspire others, you give us the opportunity to reach out and both shine myself. We are graduates of jack Canfield. So obviously the success principle. And because of that, we say hey, you know what, why don’t we do something on the area of success. And let’s explore things that we can do to you know, create better success for everyone in the world, whether they’re speaker, whether they are entrepreneur, whether they’re in a corporate environment. So we came up with Why don’t have the global success summit, right. And we developed five different pillars. So they want us on the pillar of sales, second day is on customer service experience, 30 days on leadership, four days on communication, and 50 days on the power of digital marketing. So we thought, you know, these are elements of success that people will generally meet in their life. And we say, hey, great, and I’ll let’s do it. And yeah, my first on my summit coming up in August 26 to 30 years, so excited.

So a lot of people I know where I deal with speakers, like yourself, my speakers, you program and, and the hear about doing online summits or virtual science, they get really excited because they see the possibility in terms of helping them position themselves and bringing more speaking gigs and other revenue streams. But the thing that often puts them off is the technology piece, they get worried they get little bit worried about I have to deal with the web pages. And now that I do that, so how are you finding the process? Because you don’t come from a technology background? You come very much from a speaker, service leadership side. Yeah. So one thing I noticed was, you know, find people so Charlotte’s actually done the online Fisher global summit. And I thought we have expertise in running dash you are probably have the backend already done. So I gave her a call and say, Hey, you know, share, you have done the backend, I’m pretty well connected to a lot of good friends globally, during my tenure as the global speakers Federation president of three years ago, and I say, Hey, why don’t I just connect with the right people. And let’s see how we can, you know, bring more global experts to share their expertise. And you know, I’ll take care of the front end, and you work on the back end to support. So I think that’s working out pretty well. And it’s about collaboration, I like to say, you know, the back end really is like so much work. But you know, it’s been a great ride, you know, and she was very comfortable in doing that she’s got a great team supporting us. So that’s a good balance. And collaboration is key, especially in the speaker’s world, because we have caught respective talents, respective expertise, and just begin to focus on those.

They talk about this idea about collaboration, you mentioned that you were the president of the global speakers Federation, which kind of sits I always think it kind of sits above all the the National Speakers associations are happening around the world as well. And everyone, I know this, this, take it on that that role is a very, it’s been quite an intense job to have to do that, that role as well. But I know it’s very rewarding for the people that do it as well. So what what were your key takeaways from being so deeply involved in the speaking into the association side of speaking? Well, actually, and I spent about 20 plus year in the hospitality business, you know, working different hotels around Asia Pacific. So I really come from a platform of service. And when my hotel Korea, you know, gave me an opportunity to become a professional trainer speaker, I learned it myself in this association in Malaysia, which is called the Malaysian association of professional speaker. And I serve, you know, ran into the premise of what can I do for you, you know, because of my hotel background, I kind of like this asset ruin, if there’s anything I can be of service to you, how can I assist you? And never did I know, opportunity came and I was elected to be the president, then at the Malaysian association of professional speaker. And then after, when that finish, I open my mouth and say to the global in the global team and say, Hey, you know, I’m done with my Malaysian duties, is there anything I can be of service to the global speakers Federation, and, you know, I came in as a treasurer, I became the secretary. So I went through the whole different roles.

But, and that was where I got the opportunity to become the first Malaysian the first Asian president of the global speakers Federation, a huge honor, lot of responsibility. But fantastic, rewarding experience of just, you know, learning from an individual perspective, from a speaker’s perspective. And just from a service perspective to if anyone is watching or listening to this just now who is a speaker or aspiring speaker, but they’re not a member of Speakers Association, what do you see the benefits of joining Speakers Association? Think the Speakers Association will give them a collective network of professional speakers who are really active. And sure, you know, there are a lot of great clubs, you know, they can help build your public speaking, competency like Toastmasters is fantastic clubs. My personal experience joining a professional speaking association is that you really have people who are actively involved in the business. And the member association is really there to help you to become better in doing your business, giving you new tools, giving you new insight, providing resources, that generally may not be available in a Toastmasters because there’s just the speaking side of it, but also the side of building the business, which is very important. So you learn a lot of perspective, right? And with all this perspective that you gain, it’s about what resonates with you, you know, some people like this large scale businesses, some are pretty happy with a smaller size business and are quite happy with it.

And you get insights with a lot of opportunities, virtual assistants, so that the whole campaign. So sometimes, you know, when I first came into the business, I was really blown away, I went to an NSA convention, which is in the States. And I was like, wow, there’s so much to learn. Read, where do I start? Am I ever even going to succeed in this business because it was so overwhelming. So So for me, it was the the the education perspective, that was great. But more importantly, was the people in it that made it really great. So something I didn’t really realize, last time I was in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur that we were together, was just getting us a better feel on the speaking industry in Malaysia itself as a place to speak. And the thing I hadn’t really realized was how big the training industry is in Malaysia. Now, I also know that it’s gone through some difficult times recently, there’s been a lot of changes in the speaking and the training side of the business. So we, I think it’d be useful for anyone that doesn’t know that part of Asia. What are some key things that you find it but people coming in from outside and not from Malaysia, and they’re looking at the speaking or the training industries in in Malaysia, that they can have to recognize that it’s useful to know about?

Well, current training is big, you know, in terms of the government, they actually set up a place that is called a p SME, or what we call the Human Resource Development Fund. So organization have to contribute a certain percentage of their revenue you set aside for training and development for their own team members in the company. So that fund is available. And if it’s not utilized, it’s going to be burning and everything. So which means it is going to be compulsory for organization to set people into training. Now they are slowly moving into coaching, allocation. Speaking, is somehow you know, a little bit in between, because speaking, keynotes, is usually one hour, one and a half hours. And so from the training perspective, they like to see more of the nine to five, you get some tangible skills take back as part of the deliverables. So this is where the focus of training has been much more, I would say, in Asia, unless you are a speaker is traveling around different region. So that’s a little bit different. So primary, a lot of the people in Malaysia would be trainers, come speakers I started started as a trainer. Right? So So I still do, perhaps about 50% sound of my work currently is your workshop facilitation, two or three days, workshop facilitation, and speaking is about 20 to about 30% of my business mix.

And if you do it also a lot of work in the Middle East, as well as in Asia and North America as well. What do you notice as you start to move around different countries different territory, there’s that there’s that blend change for you? Do you find that you’re doing more keynote speaking and speaking in Middle East, for example, where Asia tends to be more on the training side, in the Middle East to, especially in Saudi is still a little bit more on the training side of it, that has got more engagement, in terms of the keynote is really events that happen, and it may select the destination. So primarily, the business is usually for people who are working there. And this is where you get a little bit more of the people who are resonates towards their. But I see more of like destination like Hong Kong, right? Singapore, which is very popular for North American companies that will have their annual conferences in Asia, you know, they will have it a perhaps Bangkok. And this is where a lot of the keynote speaking primarily in those cities. But the audience may not necessarily be from those countries. Yeah, I was amazed in Singapore, how, how, how many events conferences are going on there? You go to some of those. There’s conference venues? And it’s I don’t know the exact numbers. But it all seems there’s a lot of international speakers who use Singapore as their as their hub of places to go as well. Does that does that? Does that benefit you in Malaysia? Or is actually is that correct? Does that cause a bit of a challenge? Because you’ve got all this competition is just sitting over the board of it?

Well, I see it a little bit different. Some people they will see it as competition, for me personally, is about what can I do better, to upscale myself, right, so that I’m in the same playing field. And I can be just as great as one of my peers in Singapore. Right. So I think, you know, bringing that level of playing few really helps one another. So it’s not so much about a the internet to my pie. But we always believe in the speakers were the pie is big enough for everyone to have a slice of it. And we didn’t speakers, we can do everything. And the thing is, you know, I like my James, you focus a lot on creativity. And for me, I do a lot of on sales and service. So you know, if things are creativity, I would probably say, Hey, you know, reach out to James Taylor, you know, he’s one of the best in creativity and innovation. So we also cross reference, we cross support, because the conference organizers they may be engaging me for this year, but may not be the same speaker for next year. And this is where the opportunities, and when we see someone have spoken as a speaker, we are going to be more comfortable to promote or to recommend. So what one of the great benefit as a member of a professional speaker Association, when you get a chance to be there. Other people get to see you in action, too. So highly recommended for you to visit as many as possible.

Yeah, I’ve recommended a lot of those, you know, when we’ve been united been together in Singapore or in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, we’ve seen speakers together and oh, I want to recommend her she’s great, you know that she’s got something you know, I know you have, you know, everyone has websites, and all those good things as well. But I should to see someone in, they can really do their thing on stage, it just makes you feel confident that the when you refer that person to a client, because maybe you’ve spoken there one year, and then they come back to you like just last week, I had three clients who I spoke for last normal 12 months ago, and maybe 10 months ago. Who came but James, can you recommend some speakers? These are the topics that with all themes for our conference. And I’m immediately going back in my mental Rolodex and thinking like to Oh, I see it seeing polio, who do they see in India in Chennai, it’s an Oh, who’s this great that Bureau, they’ll be a great person to connect with them in that territory. So you talk a lot about services. And whenever I think of jobs, I always think of ServiceNow that’s, that’s what you’re going to know and for that. So as you’re with your part speaker, hat on and part service hat on, when you look at how other speakers are delivering a great service service excellence for the clients and for the audiences. Can you put me to some people you’ve seen do some speakers or do things recently, where you went? Actually, that’s great. That’s, that’s an example of giving great service either to, to the client or to the audience.

But it’s a great question. So in terms of examples, I think a lot of the speakers in, for example, in APSS, to or even in the different member Association, what one thing that I like, is, you know, when when they actually finish an engagement, they follow through processes really good. And the sharing of the knowledge is a very powerful in terms of how they are developing the relationship and the sharing that openly amongst speaker, but with the client, I also see a lot of them doing pairing up opportunity. Now what is pairing up opportunities or parallel opportunities, you know, when you see, when you visit a speaker’s bureau, you know, you go as a pair. So again, you may be a different discipline. And this is where you can actually support one another. I mean, if I were to say, Jonathan, Jonathan is really a great guy. It looks funny if I say about myself, but if I am there with you, James, I think you know what James James is an excellent speaker and interview via concert in James on at the end of you, James, you’re there with me, and you speak about them. Me. So it’s much more credibility. And I began to see more speakers buddying up to do that I did in a networking event, or when a going together to meet clients, potentially a lot of cross opportunities happening. And that was really giving service, you know, really not about thinking about the next transaction or the business. But how can we best give value to the customer? Because this is really a long term business. And industry is really small. Because everyone after a while pretty much know who is who, and if, and the same the speaker’s bureau, right, because they also talk among themselves. And they also process they, you know, who is the recommended people, you know, that is going to be really reliable, who are the prima donnas kind of a day very difficult to work with, you know, we shy away from that or just make it easy for the customers to what we do, right? Whether it is a bureau whether it is because because that represented professionalism, and as member of the global speakers, Federation member Association. I mean, personally, for me, it is so good that people will speak highly of the member Association for professional members. And people say, Oh, you belong to a professional Singapore or you belong to match or you know, Australia. They’ll say, Wow, they have got the quality of the speakers that you should highly consider. Yeah, that would be my aspiration.

But essentially, that you just mentioned that about the buddying up. I think that’s that’s an interesting, I mean, obviously, you were with your, your online summit you’re doing just now with a char. That’s it. That’s a form of buddying up. And you’re actually I think there’s something really powerful about I remember doing that with event professional sort of myself and a speaker from California, Aaron Gargan, as a great speaker on social media. And a lot of people commented about because it’s so unusual to see, you know, you normally see the speakers out on their own and these kind of lone wolf characters, to see two people working together that well, that’s, that’s, that’s an, especially if you get a nice, a good chemistry together, you know, either in person or whether you’re, you know, you’re filming together, for example, I think that could be really cool. But you actually got me thinking there about, about that.
Solving the customers problems and helping them solve their problems. I’m often you mentioned, I speak about creativity. And, and I’m talking often more about generation of ideas, developing those ideas. I don’t often focus so much on the what we call it more innovation processes, which is, you know, the standard operating procedures, different things about creating innovation, on what ongoing innovation processes in your business, right. But that’s, maybe for example, we IO actually, maybe why should be doing is I should be connecting with some of those great innovation speakers are out there. And saying, why don’t we buddy up together, and we’ll go in and pitch on certain pieces together, or maybe even the stage before me, when on strategy I work I’m often brought in because they’ve done some companies some big strategy document into actually we need to be more creative. And that’s why they will they’ll bring me in and help work with them there.

But maybe I need to be working with the person women before me who’s focusing on helping develop the strategy and talking about strategy and companies or positioning guys, that is real value, right. And the beta customers get the whole spread from point A to point z. Yeah, so his journey, and that is really adding value, and you’re giving them easy accessibility to the right speaker that can complement the whole experience of the conference, and people are looking for experience these days, you know, because the more engaged and more emotionally engaged in the conference, and that is really about the what what the speakers can actually bring about, then then the whole experience is much better, right? Rather than you have independent speakers, and they’re probably focusing on the core expertise area, without really connecting the dots for the whole event. So that that’s another opportunity, I feel. And you mentioned that you’ve seen a lot of speakers at do really well the follow up process, after you’ve come off stage. And you’ve done your as a speaker, you’ve done your thing, and they’re very good at that follow up and helping to continue to continue that journey with the client or to continue to add value or to continue to follow up to look for new opportunities related to that, that gig, can you give me an example, as many speakers are yourself things that you do, just to ensure that you’re, you’re providing great value, and you’re helping that, you know, client solve their their problem.

So one of the things from my, the things that I’m currently doing is that give them accessibility to me. So I use the platform LinkedIn, pretty much a lot. And this is one platform that can really connect with me. So whoever I see in a conference, I have a large QR code. And there are some of the speakers already sharing this about connecting via QR code, putting onto the screen and people just a minute camera there and get connected with you immediately. So you have a connection, wishes very good for your follow up. And because you have that immediate, so he was speaking a conference for 100 or 200 people, within the time that you’re there is relatively very difficult for you to reach out to so many. But with this opportunity, you can immediately follow up with them. And as part of the follow up, what I do is, I will always say thank you so much for being there. And at the same time, I will provide a videos for myself, because I do a lot of video sharing tips on what people can actually do. So send them a video and say, Hey, you know, I was just in Hong Kong speaking at a conference, and I did a video on, you know, three strategies on how to gain better commitment with your clients. So I hope you appreciate that. And if you like it, you can connect with my YouTube playlist. So adding all these additional things, which is not so much on the selling side of it, but just providing value, helping them to become better in whatever they’re doing. And then remember you they will remember yourself. Yeah, so it is what what are some of the things that I do to follow up. So go to opportunity, if you’re done a really good job, reach out to a couple of them to share some of their experience right in as part of the recommendation of how the conference has actually benefited them.

So in your time in the past 20 years of speaking and training and speak about global speakers, Federation, and maps as well. you’ve attended a lot of events, I’m sure you’ve picked up been given a lot of business cards at that time as well. What have you found x I’m always I have these bags, every time I speak at event, I have a plastic Ziploc bag, each event. And obviously just put all the business cards in that event. And sometimes I’ve written on the back of them. And also I can process either at the airport lounge and go through them or when I get back back into the office. What do you do with all those those business cards? How do you have a process in terms of going through those to be able to know which ones you connect with? Well, I actually have an apps on my phone and the apps just trying to find the apps I’m using right now. But the FI gives me an opportunity to choose to scan the business card. So I’ll have a business card and there it will lead me. He also asked me where do I want to fight which database? It gives me a chance to prioritize in different segment, Oh, I know what corporate whether it’s speaker or whether it is you know what conference that I met that person. So it helps me to manage my folder a little bit. because like you said, You know, I use him bags and bags of cards. And after obviously, I’ll get someone to get in. But that’s someone never really happens. And after all that oh my gosh, discuss all like six months old. What do I do it? What do I do key it is to value. And the other thing is also because of the privacy factor is very stringent data protection. So I’ll be cautious when we do emailing when it comes to that. But otherwise, you know, I try to get everyone to continue on social media, because I think that is safer platform that people can still communicate and work with you or find you on just have a relationship bill. So we will find the name of the app, I think I used one A while back called card Munch or card muncher or something which seemed to connect with LinkedIn. Mostly that’s still available. But we’ll get we’ll get the name of the app that you you’re talking about. And I was actually caught a abbyybcr business card reader. business card reader I surely guess yeah. But that’s the apps. Yeah, yeah, that’s great. So we’ll put that link in there if anyone’s interested in that as well. Because there is that thing when you go and speak in event you get so many business cards, I have to I’ve got such a terrible memory, I have to almost immediately write on the business card. I don’t like writing and business card in front of someone. I think it’s disrespectful. But as soon as I get to a quiet place, I’m immediately writing down all the notes from these business cards. But maybe that’s a sense that you’ve got much more streamlined way of doing it. So definitely check that out.

And just a couple days ago, we had the opportunities to I had an opportunity to interview Gil Gil Pepita, sir Yeah, and you know, he’s called the networking mastermind and he was sharing some tips on how you know about how he collects the card and how he has caught p one p two p three p for and what he does with that. So that’s going to be happening on the online global success summit. Right. So again, opportunities to learn from some of the great people who are practice you know, who actually did the masters of doing that? Well get Gail is amazing. So if anyone’s watching this listening, and you want to know about Gil system, because he I mean, Gil works with Tony Robbins, he’s an absolute master when it comes to networking, then you’re going to want to sign up for that the password global success summit, so you can hear your Jonathan’s interview with Gil and just start to finish up here. I always ask this question of any speakers I’m with I’m always intrigued about the gadgets and things that they carry with them. What’s in your speaker bag? What do you carry with you to all those various speaking engagements, customer speakers by a mic, I have a mic and really go on road ROD. Right. And I’m always ready if there’s opportunity to get a quick video or recording, especially in conferences that are spoken in. And if I know that a couple of people who resonate and they’re really intrigued, I was just kind of asked them to share a couple of things that we should have found really useful. And what was really exciting about it, so always have that handy. And possibly for me, every city that I go to, I will also have a tripod ever ready so that I can do video recording. And use your phone to do the video recording you have like a separate cameras the iPhone, so I use the iPhone. And there are a couple of apps that supports that too.

And the mic you’re talking about is that the the road I think it’s called the lab the lab smart lab one which you just connect on you put on a lovely Oh my god, yeah, I’ve got one there’s they’re great. And I think it’s especially because I remember doing my my first few events and people ask that we’d love to give you a testimonial. And I would go at that with my phone. And it would give me testament I didn’t they didn’t have a mic on. And I’ve go back to try and look at the video. And I couldn’t hear what they were saying because it was so loud in these conference recording. So that’s that’s a good tip. Just have one of those the road mics, one of those mines and also have another extension. Hmm, you know, it’s always good, because sometimes people may be a little bit further. So when you have an extension, it gives you the opportunity that they a little bit further away. And you can get a little bit more of the background of the convention too. Because if not, it’s going to be proximity is going to be just face to face at this distance. So if you have a longer Mike extension that connects much better. And what about things like clickers? Do you take you click it your own clicker on the road with you? Or do you just use whichever clicker you’re given this? Yes, I do have my own, and I use one by Congress. That’s fantastic. And then if people want to connect with you to learn more about Jonathan louder, the speaker and everything you’re going going on there. And then also if they want to go and find out about global success summit, where the places that they should go to do that.

If you want to connect with me, I have to website, I have a personal website that is triple w Jonathan Lau l o w.net. Or they can visit my company’s website, which is triple W. Global success learning. net. So that’s the company you want. That’s great, fantastic. I also make sure that I have a we have a link here to the summit, as well. So people want to because I think this interview will be coming out just probably a few weeks just before the summit begins. So you’ll be able to go in there. Learn all about that summit, as well. Jonathan, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing. You’ve a huge amount of experience in terms of speaking and the train business globally as well. So I always learned lots whenever we get a chance to hang out together and speak. So thank you so much for coming on. And also thank you for being a speaker. You remember, first of all, I had to ask how you how you enjoying being a speaker as you’ve ever been part of the community? Oh, it’s fantastic. How about the speakers? You community? Yeah. Fantastic, fantastic. You know what one of the best investment I’ve really done, because of the value, especially I am just filled with gratitude about you know, the way you’ve been sharing the way you’ve been passionately helping speakers, the way you’ve grown your business, and you’re Happily helping other speakers to do the same. And that’s the wonderful thing about the speakers community. It’s not about what I know. But what I know that I can help other people become more successful. When we see success in others, everyone becomes successful. So that’s a great thing that you have done, James. So thank you so much for creating that and just sharing your wisdom, selflessly. Well, thank you for sharing your success and sharing what ways people can become more successful, whether their speakers, or anything, anything else they’re doing in their life in business. I wish you all the best for the summit. Jonathan, I’m sure you’re just going to do a phenomenal job. I can’t wait to see when it comes out. Thanks so much for coming on. And sharing all your speakers like thank you so much for inviting me are the best James.

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In today’s episode of The Speakers Life I share a powerful tip on how to stand out as a speaker.

 

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Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

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

Is James Taylor he a keynote speaker and founder of SpeakersU. Today I want to give you a little tip on how to stand out in a crowded marketplace of other speakers. So something I learned from Josh Linkner and Phil M. Jones was this idea of being hyper responsive and changing modalities. So let me explain what I mean by that. You’d be amazed a number of speakers that lose speaking gigs, because they’re not quick enough to respond to that inquiry that comes in. So last night, for example, I had an inquiry that came in via email into my inbox about an inquiry about speaking somewhere in South America, I immediately jumped on a call, I call the number that was on there that they’d left and starts having a conversation with that client about their event, a client was blown away by how hyper responsive I was. And also, it just should, I was respectful and valued their time and their inquiry.

So here’s how to ensure that you’re always hyper responsive, and you can stand out because you’d be amazed at number of speakers, it might take a day, two days or a week to respond to that inquiry. The first thing is, if you have some type of alert that maybe has on your phone and SMS, or some type of ping, that kind of goes on your phone, every time you get an inquiry, and I would immediately try and jump on a phone call with that client. If you can do that, let’s imagine this the middle of night for you. And if you have a team, create a standard operating procedure, an ESOP, a checklist and some standard email responses that your team can then send to that client so they can get back straightaway. And sometimes while even do is if I’m about to jump on a long haul flight, I’ll respond immediately to the to the client to the inquiry. And in that, I’ll say, Hey, thank you so much for inquiring me about speaking at your event. I am available for this that date, but what I’d like to do is introduce you to x from this speaker Bureau, who can discuss fees, etc, and move things forward. So what you’re doing there is you’re helping to move the conversation forward. And even while you’re on that flight a while you’re speaking someone could be booking that speaking gig for you. So that’s my tip for today. Hello, stand out is to be hyper responsive.

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.

In today’s episode of The Speakers Life I show you how to help speaker bureaus sell your speaking programs.

 

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• Training speaker bureaus to sell-up
• Example of German speaking enquiry
• Discovery call
• Dealing with objections

Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

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

Hey guys, James Taylor here, founder of the SpeakersU. Today I want to share with you a piece of advice on how to help speaker bureaus to sell you. A speaker bureaus are an amazing resource. But as a speaker’s, I heard a statistic the other day, which said that 75% of speaking gigs at pay over $15,000 are being booked by speaker bureaus. So if you want to be in one of those kind of highly paid speakers, you’re going to be doing a lot of work with Speaker bureaus. So one of the things we have to think about is when working with a speaker Bureau, we need to be able to give them the tools and the words to use in order to best sellers, it’s called selling up to give that that speak up, you’re the agent of that Bureau, all everything that they need in order to help sell you to their prospective client. And I want to give you a little story, and this happened to me last week, and it was something I actually never done before, but actually is going to something I’m going to do a lot more with some of the speak of yours, and you speak of yours I work with. So I received an email came in from a perspective, a client, they were a company, a global company, and they were doing an event in northern Germany. And they contacted me because they were said, Hey, James, we would love to have you come and speak at our event in Germany. And we think you’re the perfect speaker, because you speak on this topic. And I noticed you’ve spoken to some of our competitive companies in the past as well. Great. Now I could easily have just jumped on a call with that client and look to close the deal that way.

In fact, you are always or nearly always your best salesperson, you know, your topic really well. You know, your presentation really well. You know what the problems often of that particular client on how that can relate to what you can deliver the value that you can provide. However, in order to scale, we need to take what’s in your head, and help put that into the mind of a speaker appear that speak of your agent. So I received this email from this client in Germany. And instead of just merely jumping on a call with that client, I did something slightly different. So I responded to it. And I said, Hi there. Thanks so much for inquire me inquiring about me speaking at your event, I am available on that particular date. In order to move things ahead. I’d like to set up a call with me, you. And this person from this speaker’s bureau is a new speaker beer that had worked with before we just started building a relationship together. They hadn’t actually sent any work my way as yet. No problem. The client comes back. Yeah, that’d be great. Let’s do it. We do it two o’clock tomorrow. So I contacted the speaker’s bureau, we set up a time we did a group conference call was a three way call with me, the prospective client and agent from the speaker’s bureau. And the way that we ran that call was very similar to the way that I would run almost any discovery call, the only thing I did slightly different is when it came to talking about pricing, I actually let the speaker’s bureau speak on my behalf. So this is how the call went, we started the call, all three of us are on the call. I asked the client about their event, what the theme was for their event, what the length about previous speakers, they booked in the past that kind of common things that we teach our speakers you on how to do a discovery call.

And as I’m speaking them and saying, okay, that’s great, here’s how I think I can help that event. And I actually go into how I structure my presentations, the value that my presentation gives, what the key takeaways, actionable. Those are how the people are going to feel when you hear me speak on the stage. As I’m speaking to that prospective client, the speaker’s bureau is listening in to the entire conversation. Now he’s been hearing from me, how I like to sell myself, what the what the often the words and the phrases that I’m using, when when that prospective client comes back and ask well, what about this, we have a particular challenge around this, how can your speech help on that? Then the Bureau’s hearing me talk about that, how I can help in that way how I can tailor my talk to really serve this particular client. And then we can go through all the questions I asked I share with them the value that I can bring as a speaker why they should be booking me as a speaker for their event. And then when it gets the thing about Now, can we should we talk about fees, we should have our pricing? And the client says yes, let’s talk about fees. And I say, let me hand you over to

the speaker of your agent who can talk to you about that sort of thing. He handles all that and the contracts and everything. And now he on the call starts talking to the client, about me as a speaking why charge and, and all the various things there. Now, this point, the client starts to push back a little bit, they say well, that’s, that’s a lot of money for, for, you know, this 45 minute speech, for example. But then the bureau really starts coming in and adding the value that they can add. So well. Think about it, you know, you’ve had previous speakers in the past who haven’t worked out so well for you, and you’ve, and maybe you paid them a little bit less, but they haven’t really delivered your event. And then that reflects badly on you as the person is organizing that conference. So I’m standing back, I’m not saying a word at this point. And the the Bureau and the client are talking to each other. And the other thing I’m able to do here is I’m also able to listen to the Bureau and hear how they handle objections when it comes to fees. Very, very useful to be able to just listen in, what the words they using, how the strategy, the way that the the the deal with the client when the client has certain objections. So we do that, that’s all great. You get the end of the call, and it will spin up fantastic call, you know, when you’re in a position now to confirm the date, or do you need to, you know, confer with some of your colleagues and said, I’m actually going to confer with some of my colleagues, no problem, when when can we set up the next call.

And then what ended up doing is actually the Bureau and the client did client scheduled a call for later that day, as well. So I can now stand out the picture a little bit, and let the two of them just kind of go through some negotiation side of things. And the reason I want to share with you the number of important things happened here. The first important thing is that it goodwill to Bureau to a new bureau I had worked with before, by essentially giving them a cake giving them a piece of work which they can take a commission on. The second thing that happened is the Bureau is able to hear how I like to sell myself what value I add, as I speak, I speak on creativity, innovation, artificial intelligence. These are different areas. So you really got to understand what my presentations all about the value that adds. And the third thing I got to understand was how to deal with objections from a pro This is a speak of your agent who’s been in the business for 25 plus years, has had lots of discovery calls with prospective clients, and is very good at dealing with objections, especially objections around pricing. So I’m using this as a learning opportunity. So think about this next time you get an inquiry in instead of immediately jumping on the phone and doing that call that discovery call with that client. What about if you invited a bureau to join on that call? And okay, you you give the bureau that piece of work. But it’s a real win win win, because you’re learning lots, the Bureau is learning lots. And also, the the client is going to get great service because it’s not just us also about the Bureau’s able to come in and add value from their side as well. So that’s my piece of advice is essentially helping a bureau to sell you to sell up. 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.

Today I’m in the San Francisco Bay Area and this episode is about how to overcome price objections as a professional speaker. In this episode I share some simple but powerful tips on ensuring you are paid what you are worth.

 

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 you’re watching The Speakers Life. In today’s episode I’m going to talk to you about how to deal with price objections how to deal with that situation where you may be considered to speak at an event but the organizer of the event doesn’t quite want to pay your fee, maybe your fee is a little bit higher than they were thinking about. And let’s add another little difficulty to it. Maybe they’re considering you compared to another speaker. So they can you look into have them compare apples with oranges, really. So what you would look to do in this situation is you want to really separate yourself out from your competition. And the way that we do that is by showing how we’re going to provide additional value for their attendees at their event.

So let me give you an example here. And I’m asked to go and speak at a conference, I see an association event and the same that we can’t quite make your fee, there’s this other speaker, we’re considering their fee is a little bit lower than yours. So I would say is what I can do. In addition to me coming, giving the keynote, I’ll give all of the attendees at your event access to my online course which accompanies my keynote. And in my case, I have an online course, which contains my keynote, it’s about, you know, $200 worth of value for each member of each of those courses, there’s like $100,000 worth of additional value that I’m gonna be able to give you if you book me.

It’s about separating yourself from the competition. So they can, you know, comparing apples and oranges, you’re providing that additional value. And that something as simple as that. So you’d have to reduce your fee can just going to get you over there. And that’s it, you know, we’re going to go go ahead with you and book you. If you don’t have an online course, don’t worry, a lot of associations will be doing regular monthly online trainings, online webinars, continual professional development for their members. So what you might say is, okay, in addition to my fee, this is my feet. In addition to giving the keynote, how about, you know, a month after the the the event, I’ll do a online webinar. So all of your your members can attend this webinar. And we’ll go a little bit deeper into something maybe I’m going to be talking about on the on the keynote, or you can even do it beforehand, and you could do it maybe two months before the event and just say is a little bit of a lead in to what you’re going to be talking about the keynotes and another way also promote helping them promote their their event.

So it’s about providing that additional value. I mean, it’s what does it cost you to do is to do webinars and error at your day to to do a webinar, what does it cost you to create an online course at the 10 video or 20 video online course not much time. And it’s zero cost of distribution. But it can often be the reason that someone books you as opposed to another speaker because you’re providing this different value. And so it’s for them as an organizer is like being able to compare apples to oranges, they’re just two different things. You’re providing that additional value there. I wish you all the best with your speaking this week and live here from sunny California where I’m speaking today. Have a wonderful week.

 

Ever wanted to know the secrets of top speakers bureaus? In this new episode I speak with legendary speaker bureau owner and agent Maria Franzoni of MFL about how keynote speakers can work with speaker bureaus.

 

 

In this episode:

• Scoping the event
• Scoping the event
• Leadership speakers and motivational speakers
• The rise of Futurist speakers
• How to work with speaker bureaus
• Speaker showreel tips and common mistakes
• Connecting diverse audiences

Show Links:
Dropbox
Salesforce
Deviate by Beau Lotto
Spandau Ballet
Maria Franzoni Ltd
Maria Franzoni on Facebook

 

Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript

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

Hey there’s James Taylor and I’m delighted today to welcome onto the show Maria friends only Maria friends only is the founder and CEO of Maria friends only limited, a UK based speaker and advisory bureau with a global reputation working with some of the most renowned thinkers and practitioners in the world. Today, Maria and her team provide expert speakers and advisors, the companies who want to inspire, educate, and entertain that people in clients and help them adapt to change. She is also the host of the speaking business podcast and co chair of the European Association of speaker bureaus. It’s my great pleasure to have Maria with us today. So welcome, Maria.

Thank you, James. Thank you for having me.

So share with our listeners. What’s happening in your world just now.

You know, we’re in silly season. Actually,

this is a high conference season. So lots of events going on. Lots of people planning lots of inquiries. So I’m pulling my hair out at the moment, take a step back and have a little chat with you. Good. Well, thank you so much for coming on.

So how did you get started in this business, you probably should explain, you know what, obviously, we have lots of listeners and attendees on the watch this podcast and this this show who are on the speaker side, there may be just getting a speaker. But we also have a lot that are more on the client side who who are booking speakers bring speakers to talk at their events, their conferences. So let’s explain the role that you have, as a speaker view, where were you sitting all this? And how did you get started into this business?

Okay, so two questions there. Let me start with how I got started. And, and actually, it was completely by accident. So certainly, I mean, many, many years ago, when I was at school, nobody would have known what to speak of your awards. I don’t know if they even existed. And I had a couple of careers before I went into this business and the career more or less before that was I was a management consultant. So you know, what management results like, we think we know everything, and we know the answers. And when we talked to anybody at their level, what have a senior they are. So I saw this cryptic have that said, if you can negotiate that senior level or not fazed by talking to very senior people. And I thought, well, you know, I’ll be sitting in front seat iOS and telling them what’s wrong with their business. So I can do that I had no idea what it was about. But I knew I wanted to change, I wanted to do something different. I wanted to stop traveling.

And so I met this amazing guy who was running a fantastic bureau who’s, who’s the company, still one of my big competitors. And he explained the business of the speaker’s bureau, which is, in fact, a wonderful resource for clients who are looking for experts to go and assist them with their business. And it might be in the form of a speech at a conference, it might be to go and do some training might be going to sit on an executive board, but it’s basically bringing expertise from around the globe to your business to help you with whatever’s going on in that business.

So there’s someone who’s organizing a, whether it’s external facing conference, or an internal client event, or internal events themselves, that person is organizing that event, there’s a lot of risk for them in terms of brand reputation, they probably have their C suite there as well, how does working with a camera like you, how does that help them decrease that that risk?

Well, I suppose if you’re going just going out on Google to find a speaker, it’s very difficult, because you have no sort of yardstick of how good they are. And you have gotten that we’ve got nothing to compare it to, I come into Bureau, all of the people that we work with, we will either have seen them that you recommended somebody in the mirror and seeing them or that have been recommended by another client that they’ve gone through a bit of a process. It’s not hugely difficult, but we are quite selective about who we have. So you don’t have everybody on your books. So there’s that part. But the other part is that we will have an understanding of what they can do and what they can’t do. Many clients will come to you with a fixated idea of the kind of speaker they want, as anyone they speak to the viewer, they think will actually we can actually expand that and maybe look at a different profile or different times.

So all we do day in, day out is that deal with speakers. So our knowledge is quite, quite wide.

And when a client comes to you, do they ever come to your saying, Listen, I don’t know really what we need what we want. I know I’ve been asked to do this event we’ve gotten my overall remit is to inspire people that say, but I’ve no idea where to go. Where does that conversation began, if a client comes to you like that, we have

a lot of that she. And more often than not, they think they know what they want, but they don’t really know what they want, because they can’t articulate it. And I suppose you have to take a few steps back with that client and say, Well, what are you trying to achieve? What is the objective that you’ve got here, either with the event or with the internal meeting? Or where the board is? What do you what is the outcome you’re looking for? And to really understand, where are they at in their business? What are they dealing with? What are the problems, what are the issues and understand also the level of the audience because the audience will dictate a lot of the time where you can go with your speaker, because you have to really be either at that level or higher, so that you’re stretching that audience. So there’s a lot of our weekly scoping that are the questions you want to ask the client about what they’re trying to achieve. You want to know what’s happened in the past, what’s worked for them in the past, what hasn’t worked for them. But the really important one is, you know, what’s the outcome? What does success look like for you what’s going to make if you’re the organizer what’s gonna make you look great in your boards I so that you’ve succeeded in your business succeeds in the audience succeeds, and you don’t always get to have to have that conversation. And that makes it difficult for you.

What about when you’re contacted by let’s say, it’s the person that has been charged with doing this event, but they’re not the end decision maker, they’re not the personal make the final call and write the check. How do you deal with that the difference between the consumer and the customer,

that happens a lot that has more often than not, there isn’t one decision maker Anyway, there’s usually more than one. So you are not always dealing with all of the decision makers. So it depends how far down the line it’s gone, I prefer it if somebody brings us in the tour more senior level, because you can have a better discussion. But you, you start with where you’re at, and you have to ask the questions of them. And they might need to go away and come back. And sometimes you’re dealing with people who are very new to running events, or you to booking speakers, and you have to educate them, you have to teach them, you have to help them

what happens when you get that that the call happens. We get the email that comes in saying, we’re running this event and we, we, we, we want a celebrity we want that that high profile spy sports person or politician or we want Richard Branson is we want to do an event want people to be more entrepreneurial, and our company so we won’t bring Richard Branson, but they haven’t quite got the perhaps the Richard Branson budget.

How do you steal that conversation

that happens a lot as well that people got, I call it champagne taste, and beer money. Because I have I have that in my life. I am

and

Sam, why’d you want the celebrity and if they wanted to put bums on seats, and to attract people, then they need to find the money if they want to do that, if that’s what the purpose is. But if it’s because they want the glitz and the glamour, whatever, again, it goes back to we know what is that you want to achieve by having that person there. And that I mean, there is only one Richard Branson for a start. So, you know, and and he’s a busy man. So, you know, you might have to sort of stepping back and say, Well, actually, let’s see what realistic human can do. And why you want to celebrity

when someone a client comes to you, and they have Okay, this is the event this is the topic theme that we’re wanting for this a you normally coming in providing, is it one or two suggestions or you’re giving them maybe a little bit more than that. And, you know, suggesting, like, go away, have have a have a conversation. see which one you think maybe there’s one or two and then we’ll we’ll go in detail around those two

very good questions. James. It’s like you’ve actually thought about this.

I’ve been I’ve been on both sides, especially having this group has been on both sides of actually having books, speakers, events. And also obviously we want to get me as Speaker as well. So I’m always fascinated as much from the other side from the person who’s booking as I am from the speaker side.

Yeah, I forgot the question.

So when you get that, that that remit, it comes in, and they’re saying, okay, we know, we know our theme. Our theme this year is on x topic, we this is our budget, and it’s okay. budget, and the event is happening in, say, in Berlin, would you give them like, maybe just one or two suggestions? Like, okay, this is exactly the person that you should have for this? Or do you give them maybe five or six? And once they do, then you really can go in depth on those, and especially on the content side of what they’re going to be doing for the event?

Yeah, and it’s still a great question.

So it really depends in terms of time scale. So I mean, occasionally you will have a client come to you with a really, really tight time scale. And therefore, you can only recommend a couple because you have to check their available before you recommend them. Personally, I like to have a longer lead times I can give people a selection, I like to give about five, ideally, if I can. And at that point, I won’t have gone to the speakers to talk to them about the event or to have check their availability out of respect for the client. Because if the client doesn’t like James Taylor and I put forward there’s actually that is not the appropriate person isn’t very embarrassing. If I’ve spoken to James and said, Listen, James, I’m talking to you about this particular event. Actually, you’ve gone the wrong way we’ve made and it’s not quite with now that we’ve thought about it. And now that you’ve given us the answer going to rethink it. So you have to respect to both the speaker and the client. So I will try to give them four or five and say to them, Listen, if we’re on the right track with that, but usually we are giving your first choice and your second choice in case your first choice isn’t available. And or in case your first choice doesn’t think it’s the right fit for them. Because sometimes there is a conflict of interest as well that, you know, you don’t want to work with the client, because actually, you’re working with that competitor, and I might not have that information available to me. So I like to get four or five, I think more than that can be too many. But there are some clients who want to follow ideas.

I was having a conversation the other week with someone very senior from the advertising industry in Spain, and we were talking about some of their clients and they work with very large energy companies, oil companies, and this is actually it’s a bit of a challenge because some of our more millennial workers coming into the business or refuse say, we will not work I do not want to work with that particular client. Even if it’s let’s say, if it’s a oil company, and they’re doing a wind, you know, farm or something like that. They just say we want to, do you ever find that is there is the equivalent with Speaker some speakers will say, Listen, I will not work with tobacco not work with certain compensated companies.

Yeah, speakers who weren’t with work with arms, obviously, tobacco, some gaming, something went what, we’re gaming companies, and you have to know about that. So yes, there are speakers who won’t work with certain industries, and it’s absolutely that property.

And then when you’re you get the mentors, because you’ve you’ve had for years and years, you’ve been getting all these briefs coming in daily, you know, where people they’re doing their events, what themes what topics have you noticed, have become more in favor in recent years, you’re getting asked for more and more and one of those ones where, frankly, you’re just not getting asked as much.

He’s too That’s a good question. That’s interesting. I suppose that there’s one area that it has always been there and will always be that and will continue to be there. And that’s anything to do with people. So people leadership, motivation, you know, team and all that kind of always there what’s come up a lot more over the last decade has been certainly security cyber technology AI future future is have become very hot in the last 10 years.

And what have we lost? I’m trying to think I’m not sure you will, the Millennium Park we don’t talk about

Do you ever get clients I just don’t come to with saying we just want someone to motivate you know, it doesn’t write the code but we just want we just want motivation because I’m because my mind is saying that that was slightly started to fall out of favor it wasn’t being requested so in North America quite as much what what you find a lot of your of your clients internationally, you have a lot of clients based in Europe,

we do have that you do aren’t get asked for motivational. But usually there’s a topic that we want somebody who’s motivation on the speaker to talk on that topic. So it’s slightly change, rather than sort of just come in and do the rah rah,

you do get people asking, we’d like to be inspired. Like to be surprised. We like to have big thinking out the box, we want to have a different angle exception.

So as you’ve been building now, you’re in your own business, you’ve been building your own business, I’m interested when you previously what these other companies you were, you’re you’re going in there, you like an employee, then you went in faith can senior in those organizations, how things different now that you’re the boss,

and it’s your name is on the front?

I suppose I’m Basia.

Um,

gosh, has it changed. I mean, I chose to become my own boss, because I wanted to sort of do things differently and change things and shake things up. And I think once you become your own boss, and I don’t if you found this too. But after you’ve been doing it for a while, you’ve probably met yourself with unemployable because you just want to do things your way and you want to have control. And I love that I probably worked harder now than I ever have done. And it’s a I feel, in many ways, I feel very responsible for my team and the people who have come with me. So the staff that I have with me, and I feel, you know, they’ve taken a risk with me, really, and they will be with me for a very long time. And it’s wonderful. And so I feel very maternal towards them, and very nurturing. And that’s a big responsibility, which you don’t have if you’re working for somebody else. They have that headache in a way, I suppose. So, but I do I don’t think I could work with it for anybody else. Separate, again, realistic, honest with you,

was there something in particular, when you decided to go out on your own that you said, I don’t want to be doing this type of, you know, in terms of how maybe the usual way that speaker bureaus work, you know, I, I’m actually going to be against that. And that’s just not the way that I want to build a business I want to build a slightly different was a was anything you can like fighting against that maybe is a is a current norm in this business.

Yeah, there’s lots of things actually, that’s really interesting. That’s very perceptive. And yes, there is, and I was working within a bureau and I have such a good relationship with that Bureau, I still have a great relationship that we would appear as the London speaker Bureau. And so I wanted to do things differently. But I didn’t want to break that relationship. So although I have my own Bureau, my friends only limited, I’m still part of that network. I’m part of the recording the elders and one of the, of the people that have been there the longest, and, and I’m involved in a password work, if you like, as a non executive, like with with, I’ve kept the relationship. But what I wanted to do, and I think it comes from having been a management consultant, I want to change things all the time, it drives my team nuts. But for me, nothing is ever quite right. You have to keep improving and improving and changing it and not change for the sake of change. But if I see something that can be done better or differently, that is a benefit then to the speakers, the client, I want to be able to do that. And I got to the point with on the speaker Bureau, that they got too big to be able to do that to do quickly, because I’m not getting any younger. And if I was 20 years younger, I would be patient say, okay, we can do it all together. But I thought, No, I want to do these things differently. And you’re working with me now. And you know, that we do several things that are quite different from other bureaus and some of the things that I don’t want to do that a lot of us do, and not just yours, will the businesses do? I don’t want to do AdWords, I wanted to work

to come to math. I want speakers to recommend me our clients to recommend me, I don’t want to be paying for adverts. Because I think it’s more about people coming to you because they’ve had a referral. And because you don’t have a business, I don’t want to compete. So if a client comes to me, and they’ve said, we’ve already gone to other viewers with this inquiry. My question to them is, well, why are you not allowing them to do that work? What Why do you come to me to what are they not doing for your mother doing great, I just want to I don’t want to compete on price. I think that’s incredibly unfair for my speakers, is incredibly unfair to the viewers, you’ve got two or three years battling for one inquiry for one booking, what are they doing, they’re battling on price. And then I think that ruins the industry, I think that’s really terrible. So I won’t I always step out and say, guys, you go stay with the first Bureau, they will do a great job for you let them do that job for you. If they don’t do a good job for you, for whatever reason, then you come to me. But nine times out of 10, they’re not going to I hope other viewers do that. That kind of stuff. I don’t want to be doing that. I think that’s a waste of time. It actually ruins the industry, when you’ve got everybody fighting for one inquiry. That’s crazy.

I guess from your perspective, it means that you’re not obviously you’re getting inquiries in all the time. But they’re not those those inquiries, which have a lower chance of going to completion or alert chance to budget, you’re, you’re you’re building relationships with people over a longer period of time, they know you, they trust you, they trust your judgment on things. And I’m wondering how you in especially in your case, it started to be affected by a conversation I had last week with a with another conference organizer in the Middle East. And he was asking you what the trends are noticing. And one of the things he said, Well, we’re seeing a lot more internal event going on. And he was explained to me, one of the reasons was that because of anti bribery, and all kinds of things like that companies have to the same to really invest a lot more in their cars, their clients, their customers, their best customers, best partner, let’s say, and they’re doing a lot more internal events as well. So So when you’re working, I mean, have you if you are you find that in Europe, are you starting to see an increase in what we make classes that can internal events, as opposed to kind of outward public facing events

balance for us, as always being more internal events than outward facing public events. That’s really interesting. And I don’t know if that’s because of how, you know, the kind of speakers that we work with, and the kind of clients that we attract. But it has mainly it’s been a bigger intelligence, which for me, are much more satisfying, because you can really get into sort of what we were talking about earlier, understanding what’s going on in the company, what they need, how we can help them with an external event, it’s, you know, these huge shift customers or prospects. And so the client isn’t really interested so much in talking about, you know, what’s going on in their particular business, they were talking about what’s going on in their industry, and they want to be seen as leaders, and they want to be innovative in that respect. But it’s difficult, so much more difficult, brief and in a way, and a much harder relationship, because you’re constantly just trying to raise the bar on the last day. And that’s tough. That’s really tough.

Now, if we flip it around slightly, I know we have a lot of people listen, watch this, who are either professional speakers or the aspiring speakers me to the authors and got a new book coming out, and they’re looking to get out and spread the word via keynotes and speaking, how do you you know, is there a stage in a speaker’s Korea which actually really makes sense to work with the Bureau and it doesn’t? That’s, that’s my first question when, when is when, you know, if it’s right, as a speaker to work with a bureau and in the second question is, how do you like them to connect with you and reach out to you.

So I can’t speak for yourself, they’re all different, I suppose. But for me, and that sort of my peers and sort of viewers that I work with, and no, we’re not interested really in speakers that are just starting out unless that speaker has done something amazing. So we tend to work mainly with experts or people who have another job if you like. So as you mentioned, sports people. So if you’re if you just want to do for Olympic gold, then you may not have spoken before that kind of person. Yes, we are actually because that person has a level of profile. But if you’re somebody who’s coming on because I get as a speaker and you you’re just starting out and you’re expecting a bureau to get your gigs and to market you that’s not what we’re about. We really although we call the speaker Bureau has reclined are reacting to clients inquiries. And we’re responding to what their needs are. So we tend to go out and reach out to speak as if we’ve got a gap. The best way for me to take on a speaker is a speaker that has been recommended by another client, because that tells me that somebody else has paid money for this person there are good or if I see them, I mean, when I met you, I saw you and I thought, oh, love this, this is different. This is unique. I’ve never seen this approach taken. And I’m immediately I wanted to connect with you. I mean, that, for me is great, because then I’ve seen you, I love it, and I’m enthusiastic about it. And it resonated. And I needed to get, you know, this could go somewhere. So that’s the best way and the kinds of speakers I particularly like, of those who are too busy to deal with speaking business. Yeah, that they have a full time job, or they have another year, they’re busy doing their stuff, or they’re busy out there speaking or busy out there consulting or busy out there. Being a futurist or being an economist or being a neuroscientist or whatever it is, they do, and they just don’t want to be dealing with the actual the business part of the speaking and it’s like Ripley’s handle it please do with the clock. Please find out if it’s a real inquiry, find out if it’s appropriate for me. If, if it’s if I can add value to it. And if I can add value, can they can they compensate me appropriately. And they can make it happen, do the contract, do the negotiation met, get the money and deal with it all. For me, that’s the best kind of speak of me, because then I’m helping them they can carry on with what they need to do. And I’m doing the bit that I know how to do now, when we met before you spoke very passionately about the role of video for speakers. Yeah, but the rise of video and hours, you’re just every client, you’re you’re you have so such a short period of time in order to make that connection with the with the view and your videos being watched by multiple people in a room.

What what let’s let’s talk about the the common mistakes that you see, I normally don’t like to go negative on things. But let’s just see if we can rid the world of some common mistakes and speak of videos with the world might be a better place Well, I mean, the common mistakes that you see, and and what are the things that you’re seeing amongst the people who are doing video very well as speakers and, and clients reacting very well to those videos.

I suppose the the common mistake is poor quality. And you’ve got to remember that, you know, somebody is watching it on the computer or on their mobile, and they need to be able to hear you properly.

And if they can’t hear you and see your property. There’s just no point just don’t bother having it in. Just don’t do it. So quality is is a conversation. And often people will take video from an event and they are desperate to show how big the audiences and so you’ve got a camera place right at the back. And there’s a time a little person up front on the stage. And when I’m watching it on screen, I can’t connect with you. And yes, you’ve got a huge audience. But is that going to impress me as a book or or not? Probably not. Because I don’t know whether you’ve paid to be on that stage. I don’t know whether you’re doing that gig for free, I have no understanding of why there is such a huge audience or whether you’ve been invited to speak. So it there’s no context and a half of the people in the audience are, you know, reading What’s Next on the agenda, or looking at their mobile phones, or tweeting and not paying attention. That doesn’t do you any good either. So that’s all that’s a huge reset. Everyone’s obsessed with the size of the audience. You know, I think it’s more important for you to speak to really senior audiences rather than very big audiences. Because those people in that big audience could all be, you know, people just bullshit off the street, and then no disrespect to them. But they might not be my, the kind of client folder. So that’s one of the mistakes that I could go on all day about. Instead, just focus on the positives, so things that people do, right. And if you can, we can do a show real, that’s a really good idea. And the reason and yes, you should have longer videos to for when a client wants to go much more in depth. But because most clients have to have a choice and have to give a choice, and even the feeling of choice if you’ve got a short show real around three, four minutes or less. And I’ve got, you know, five speakers and I’ve got five of those rules. I can watch live with those rules. Now, if I bought three speaks of reels, and then two speakers, one with an hour speech, a mom with a 20 minute speech, it’s probably going to be easy for me to get a get a better feel a real you’re going to show your highlights, you’re going to present yourself as you want to present yourself to potential clients. So that’s really good. And the me the best shows are the ones that stand alone. So if I watch your show, real, I know everything I need to know about you to make a decision. I don’t need to look at anything else. Now that that video does that. That is a brilliant real, very few people get that right.

I saw one you show before. It’s one of your client, one of your speakers. And I’ve forgotten her name. Now. She was the founder of one of the big coffee coffee public public. Yeah, and you should be one of our videos. And

obviously some of it is a little bit all some of the actual footage itself is very old. But the thing you overwhelmingly watching that video was how passionate she was what expert she wasn’t her topic. And even though it wasn’t like, I think it was like cutting the segments. That was his music and sitting as a Sam bait. underneath. At the end of it. There was there was a feeling that you will left with like, Okay, this person is like, not only do they know what they’re doing, but they can inspire my audience, they can educate my audience as well. And I thought that was a great show. We’ll that one.

Yeah, it is. And in fact, actually, this is an event where I was asked to deconstruct to really say what needs to be in it and show an example of good on average, the only one I could show which was really sad. And we’ve since gone on to make some real, some speakers. So we’ve done it. And we’ve used the template that I think is the perfect template and what you’re left with that you know exactly who she is what she can bring to the table. You know how credentials she’s introduced by a third party, which I always love, I prefer it when somebody else introduces you in a real rather new saying I am I think it’s much stronger than somebody else saying who you are.

And you come over. And also the music is her personality, the music she had or any shows up personality. So you come away because I think a Gosh, these grades you that really is 15 years old, 14 years old, and it still gets the bookings.

And it’s a reminder that Maya Angelou quote, which says something like people will forget what you say, and the fax numbers you share. But they’ll they’ll they weren’t, didn’t remember the, the shouldn’t forget how you make them feel. And I can still I can, I can still feel that sensation. Now, seeing that that video and that was a few months ago, having seen that video. So that’s gonna, that’s gonna sit in my the back of my mind, if I’m thinking about, you know, thinking about, oh, you know, someone is being asked by client, can you recommend someone because speaking about entrepreneurship nation makes you a woman speaker? Because Because entrepreneurship like that’s sitting right at the back of my ticket to refer refer that speaker as well. And as you built your career, was there a key aha lightbulb moment a time when you went out? Okay, this is the direction I want to go with, with the work that I do. This is where I think I can make make a difference in the world.

Yes, actually, that’s really interesting. In fact, for me, I’ve always had this thing about connecting people who are very diverse, and who perhaps would never meet. So as when I was younger, I used to always put friends together who never would have met, and perhaps, you know, and I still do it, and I still mix it up. And so when I first got into the speaker,

I can do this Connect speakers that perhaps client never thought of booking. And I can do that, and now it’s gone. Other than that, it’s gone a lot further than that. Now, it’s sort of actually not only doing that there’s, there’s that initial, but actually, I can change stuff, I can make a change, and I can change the way people think and feel and act by putting speakers in into their business. And in the same way, now, I’m also doing a lot of work with speakers, what I’m doing training was because I can change how they can make other people think and feel and act by helping them to get their messaging, right, and help them with the speaking business. So it’s all it’s all being Yeah, it’s really, really good place. It’s finally all come together or so make sense.

As you mentioned, I’m thinking of a mutual friend that we have. I know he’s also one of your fellow speakers as well, Frederick car, and there’s a great speaker at his good friend of ours. And I remember Frederick saying he really wants to, he has a real passion to help other speakers as well. Because I think if I can influence them and make an influence those days, and speakers, and each of those thousand speakers are speaking 100 times a year terms of 500 people, there’s a huge leverage that you get from that from being able to, to even just one one cool idea one, something good that you want to put out into the world, it can reverberate through through other people, and they can almost act as as your kind of your voice and on stages that you can’t be on.

Ya know, it’s fantastic. So yes, it certainly makes sense. And then it becomes really satisfying, especially when you get feedback them from a client that, you know, you get some amazing emails to speakers, thanking them and saying how it’s changed them and move them and how will they going to do differently next, and that’s wonderful. That’s the best piece really.

So as we start to finish up here some quickfire questions, I would love to know, are there any tools or apps, things that you find very useful in running your business?

I use Dropbox a lot, I find that fantastic. We also use Salesforce to to manage our relationships. And what else I suppose there’s the two main ones, I would say yes.

And this will be a difficult question for you, because reps and lots of speakers who are also great authors, so you’re probably reading all the time getting those ideas. But if you were to recommend one book to our audience, it could be a book on speaking or it could be just a book on a topic that you’re really interested in just now, what would that book be

Indiana, I’m going to get into trouble now. Because I’m going

to be see now you’re going to get me a lot or probably the book I would recommend is a book called A deviate and it’s a by a neuroscientist called Bo lotto and, but once you’ve read it, you will know less than you did when you first before you read it, because he really makes you rethink how you perceive everything.

And I mean, every time I talk to him, yeah, absolutely blows my mind. And

so in perception, and that he explains why you perceive things the way you do. And if you can ask different questions. You can change change. Everything is just brilliant. Fantastic. We’ll

put that down here on the show notes. We’ll put that link Yes, everyone. People just go to James taylor.me go to type in my dear friend zone. And you’re gonna find all these links that we’re talking about here as well. What about an album or record is or one hour more records that you love more than any other?

Oh, my God, that’s such a difficult question.

Oh, I’ll tell you what I’m going to. I’m going to name a band at the moment rather than an album, because I’ve just been to see them. And they they blew me away. There was so good. They’ve got a new front man. Now, I will see stand up early, which will tell you my age as well. And I saw them recently at the Apollo. And they were so good. They’ve got a new front man, a guy called bras, my heart room. But he’s selling who had to step into the shoes of Tony Hadley. And he was phenomenal. And it was one of the best concerts I’ve been trying not to someone even album going to give you a band, the whole band

and I didn’t even realize the other new front man. So that’s, that’s definitely new news to me as well. And I want you to imagine for a second that you woke up tomorrow morning. And you have to start from scratch. So you have all the knowledge all the skills you’ve acquired over the years, but no one knows you, you know, no one you have no contacts, what would you do? How would you restart?

I know nobody and I have no contacts. Oh, my goodness. And I probably would try to do a lot of research I think I do a lot of research to find out you know about the industry about the business about other players and I’d start networking modal socks off. I think

I like to meet people and if people want to talk about meeting if you want to connect with you reach out to you. Maybe they have an event coming up and they’re looking for a speaker or maybe there are there are speaker and they just want they want to reach out and connect that way where’s the best place to go and do that

LinkedIn or Facebook are probably the two best places and we can put links in your in your notes.

That’s great. And we’ll put all the links also to Maria’s website for the for the bureau here as well. We thank you so much for coming on today. Really looking forward to you and I working together obviously, and then seeing your business go from strength to strength.

Thank you, James.

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