Behind The Scenes Of A Successful Speaking Business
Geoff Burch is a leading authority on sales, leadership, customers, and change and has been voted Business Communicator of the Year by the Speechwriters’ Guild.
He is a regular contributor and presenter on TV and Radio and was the star of BBC television’s hit business show ‘All over the Shop’. Currently, Geoff is regularly seen as a business correspondent and presenter for BBC televisions Inside Out program.
Due to his love of riding huge motorbikes, the Sunday Times referred to him as the Hells Angel of Management, and where once he might have been thought of as a disruptive influence he has now been rehabilitated as an agent for change.
Geoff is the author of many highly successful business books with six currently in print and has some powerful business messages to bring, but most of all he would like you to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
Welcome Geoff Burch
Questions:
• How did you get started in the speaking game?
• How do you prepare for each job?
• How do you set your fee level?
• How do you find most of your work?
Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript
Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors.
Behind The Scenes Of A Successful Speaking Business
James Taylor 0:00
I’m James Taylor and you’re listening to the SpeakersU podcast a show for aspiring and professional speakers. This episode is with my co host, Maria Franzoni. Enjoy the episode. So this week, we’re going backstage, we’re going backstage to another speakers career, we’re going to look about find where the bodies are hidden in this industry,
Maria Franzoni 0:24
because today, there might be some today there might be somebodies and bodies today.
James Taylor 0:28
We’ve got a wonderful speaker today joining us. Jeff birch. Jeff Birch is a leading authority on sales leadership, customers and change and has been voted business Communicator of the Year by the speech Writers Guild. He is a regular contributor and presenter on TV and radio and was the star of BBC televisions hit business SHOW ALL OVER THE SHOP. Currently, Jeff is regularly seen as a business correspondent and presenter for BBC televisions Inside Out program, due to his love of writing huge motorbikes, the Sunday Times referred to him as the Hells Angel of management. And when once he might have been thought of as a disruptive influence, he’s now been rehabilitated as an agent of change. Jeff is also the author of many highly successful business books with six currently in print, and some powerful business messages to bring but most of all, in our conversation, he wants you to sit back, relax. Enjoy the ride. Welcome, Jeff birch.
Geoff Burch 1:33
Well, an Intro Hey, God, Welcome, Jeff.
James Taylor 1:35
Lovely to have with us today.
Maria Franzoni 1:37
It’s it’s it’s a fabulous intro, isn’t it? Yeah, we’ve made you larger there. Look, we’ve made you center stage center screen and loose. Yeah, hanging loose. And it’s wonderful. You’re good to share with us and take us behind the scenes of your speaking business. Yeah. So Jeff, I want to know, I want to know where did it all start?
Geoff Burch 1:56
Now, do you want me to be a jolly loony or actually be helpful to your aspiring speakers? Did you do a bit of both? Oh, right. Well, it was first of all, it was an accident. Really? I got a friend who’s a loony? I’ve got a lot of friends who are loonies. But this particular one I come from right way back when when there just weren’t any speakers, the only ones with a big evangelical sales experts people like John Fenton and Richard Danny and so on, we’re about them. But but on the whole, there weren’t very many. And they could fill the Albert Hall literally, they would sell tickets through the Sunday Times because no internet then close that. So close that sale and, and 30 quid a ticket times 10,000 people, you know, and that was when 30 quid was cut like the equivalent of 300 quid so they were making they drove white Rolls Royces and this loony friend of ours had to could do that, Jeff, and he went and rented a theater and sold tickets to go and see Jeff Burch, but I hadn’t neglected to tell me, you know, but but in the meantime, I had been working my butt off as a, as a management consultant, specialize in getting people sales up for them. You know, I’d sold my own businesses. I run businesses for years, I sold my businesses, and using but the experience of my dad who was a mad old psychiatrist, and an expert in persuasion, and my mum, who was a Cockney businesswoman, and my own business expert, I was doing sales, sales, training, sales expertise. And from that we filled this theater. I mean, we actually did it, which was quite jolly, but also one of my big clients who had a chain of shops. So yeah, would you speak at our conference for 20 minutes? And I said, Yeah, absolutely. Because it would promote my my sales training business. And anyway, I spoke at the conference, and it was very successful, and the guy taught something in my top pocket. So on the way home, I pulled this thing out, it’s a check for 800 quid, that’s like a month’s money. Like, what this guy has paid me, like nearly 1000 pounds to talk for 20 minutes, and I talked for two days for a 10th of that, you know, and off we went. And at the same time, Harvey Jones was doing after dinner speaking and this is working for nothing.
Maria Franzoni 4:42
And actually, he was charging quite high because we were at that time, yeah.
Geoff Burch 4:48
Only because somebody told him to have a proper chin. And he said, Oh, of course I’ll come to your dinner so I don’t have to pay for my food. And I’m the guy that the founder of Don’t get the celebrity speakers or so he said, You should be charging. You should be charging and started charging him out. He was booked every day of the week. But he was an old gentleman then anyway. So they found me. And I think I was on the books of the biggest speaking agency in the country without for other people. And on and on. It went. It was a it was a bonanza time for speaking. Unbelievable.
Maria Franzoni 5:28
Jeff, I remember it. Well. I was.
Geoff Burch 5:32
I remember you. Well. I remember. Strictly Come Dancing. sultry music dancing a tango with you. It was your 21st birthday or something? Oh,
Maria Franzoni 5:44
I wish I wish I had been my 21st. But it wasn’t. So James.
Geoff Burch 5:51
Sorry. Yeah. So I mean, it’s very hard. I mean, but I spoke a lot of gigs for nothing. I, I work really hard to keep it going. And, and I was in a very lucky time. I think if you want to become a success, you’ve got to have talent. You’ve got to have luck. You’ve got to work your nuts off, literally. And if you neglect any one of those three, you’re not going to crack it. I mean, I see a lot of people who work very hard at their speaking career. But I’ve got absolutely no talent. And then I see people on a tube station playing, playing Stravinsky on a violin. And they just haven’t had the luck. I know it you got to get those three or isn’t going to work Mind you, the harder you work the luckier you get. So
Preparing For A Speech
James Taylor 6:49
so on that topic of work, I’m always interested in talking with other speakers about how they, how they prepare for a speech, what does it look like when that client comes to you and says, Jeff, we want to book you to be our closing speaker, opening speaker whatever the thing may be, take us through your your process, but how you prepare for that speech?
Geoff Burch 7:09
Well, I am very lucky. I have a very, very Behind every successful man is a very surprised woman. And I have Mrs. Burch Who is she who must be obeyed. And she is the one who was the brains again, when I was a Hells Angel. I clambered into Cheltenham ladies college dormitory one night. And that’s how I met my wife. And we’ve been together ever since. And what happens is she she sits in because I talk too much. And I’m a loony. And what you have, briefing calls are very difficult for me with a client because I’m a real bubble hat. I’m very interested in engineering. I’m incredibly interested in business. I mean, these shelves behind me are full of every book on psychology, business, everything, I love business, I have a passion for it. But the clients get quite scared. And then here’s an interesting nugget for those of you who want to be speaking stars. I was speaking to a very experienced speaking agent the other day, and he said, Jeff, you scare the clients to death. And I said why I said I questioned them intensely. And I questioned about the business. I asked them about the pitfalls about the things they want to achieve. And he said, but it scares them. Because it suggests to the one client told me that they had the impression you didn’t know what you were talking about. And he said, I said, Yeah, but I can’t stand these speakers that just have to set speech, you know, the guy that sailed around the world in a bid bag or donkeys way of a shallow grave using his teeth, you know, and then just tries to tie it in the last 10 seconds of his speech to the companies working for, you know, this, this agent said, Yeah, but Jeff, a lot of my clients feel very comfortable with a speaker that says, Yeah, I know, I know what I’m talking about. I’ll do my speech. I’ll take my money, and I’ll bugger off. So Mrs. Burch sits in and intercedes. And I sit there like a sort of pet monkey, while she takes down all the details of the client. And then she nags me solidly until the job about have you got your head around that company that makes the cast iron pipes. Do you understand what a malleable flange actually is? Do you understand that they’ve got a discipline problem with the thing did you pick up on Which story are you gonna do about No, that’s a crap one. The last time you did that, we had to run for the airplane to the lynch mob after Yeah. And so we really prepare. Obviously, I have some little jolly bond lots. But I’m also aware that if you’re Too inquisitive you can scare the clients off.
Tailor Your Speech
James Taylor 10:05
We were talking before you came on actually just about, about surgeons and top surgery and doctors. I remember talking to a surgeon who he trains top surgeons in, in London. And he we were talking about this. He was actually talking about surgeons in relation to creativity of innovate innovation. He said, there’s some that who want to when the client comes to them, they want to get some something done. They want the creativity of certainty, he called it and then there’s another type, they want the creativity of risk. So he was saying that, so the creativity of certainty that when you go and get a suit, you won’t get a jacket, you might go into like a just a regular store Debenhams when they used to exist, I guess, and you just buy something off the shelf, you knew kind of what it was, this is what it is, this is what it looks like, fine, and you’re off. But he said, there’s another grouping of people that want certainty. They want a creativity of risk. So they want to have a conversation, say, you know, I like this fabric, but I like this thing. And I always, you know, I’ve got a bit of a potbelly now. So I need to have this thing that just a little bit, takes a little bit of that from me and makes me look a bit slimmer. But you don’t know right at the start, what you’re getting? Isn’t those kind of cars it. So it sounds like what you’re doing is you’re more in real life talking about it. But you’re kind of more like tailoring that speech or not doing that canned type of presentation?
Geoff Burch 11:28
Well, that’s what I have seen. Yeah, that’s very profound. And it’s also in this world of grab and go. There is a leaning towards having something, you know, I mean, people are putting their entire business reputation on the annual conference. And to have what they might suspect is a loose cannon is very scary for them. So we know that we need to reassure them that they’re in us in safe hands with us.
James Taylor 12:04
Which is any words that you is any words that you use? Or maybe was it your wife uses? Yes, yeah,
Geoff Burch 12:09
she does. You know, I’ve got a friend too. Who does psychological counseling right. Now, this is very interesting, because he helps me too. Because I am. Nuts. And anyway, we were doing this thing for this massive client, one of the world’s biggest motor manufacturers, he was talking about his sales people. And I support your staff turnover, your sales is like 20,000 car salesmen. And they are men. Oh, by the way, I’m not being sexist. They got very few women work in there. And I said, What’s your turnover? And he said, 50%. I said, Holy crap. I said, That’s appalling. And he, he just shut down. And it was, it was a, it was like, we nearly lost that job. Okay. It came up again, with a similar client or similar situation. And this time, my counselor sat in there with me, my friend who’s this top emotional counselor, and it’s Jeff, Please, God, let me handle this. And the guy said, What’s your staff turnover? And he said, 50%. And before I said, he said, Oh my gosh, and how do you feel about that? And the client went, Oh, it’s crap. I hate it. I’m so and I’m going oh, yeah, you know, and it’s like, oh, you know, cuz I’m, I am a bit autistic. And that’s what makes me such a great speaker. And it makes me impossible to deal with face to face. I said to I said to somebody, it’s like, it’s like, the client wants a firework. What we’re got what we want at the end of the confidence is a bloody great firework. So Maria, could you provide us with a bloody great firewall, you go up, Jeff purchase a bloody great fire Well, oh, well bring him into the office and let us meet him. So you will in this oil drum with a fuse sticking out of it. And it goes well, that’s what’s this. This is the biggest firework we got is called the Jeff birch. You know, whatever it is golden fountain or whatever. Okay, so what does it do? Well, it’s spectacular. Well, it looks like an oil drum with a few stick it in it. Light it? No, you do not want it to go off in your office. Oh, yes, I bloody do I need to see it. So when it goes off, and there’s this scorch shadow of the bloke on the wall and he’s sitting there with his hair, smoking He’s going Bloody hell. And you say what? This was meant to be put in front of 8000 people not let off in your office. So I think performers perhaps shouldn’t always. I think that’s why rock groups always have managers, isn’t it?
James Taylor 15:17
You know, that’s why we have wonderful people like Maria to help us.
Geoff Burch 15:22
Maria, you see, retired? More often than not. Yeah,
Maria Franzoni 15:27
I have a lot. I loved working with you, Jeff, listen to you. So you mentioned at the beginning, you mentioned at the beginning, that somebody put a check in your pocket for 800 pounds. And obviously, that’s not how you normally set fee levels. And what advice can you give to anybody listening in starting out about offsetting fee levels?
Regrets
Geoff Burch 15:46
Can I tell you a story that infuriated me? What, when things. We had this guy ring up and said, I want to come and see you. I’m coming up from Cornwall, I’m travelling to the north of England. And I must come and see it. Okay. Okay, and this man arrived a sort of digital dumpy, middle aged man with a sort of Hitler mustache at this extremely rotund wife, who sat with her handbag on her knee like they do holding it. And he said, The reason we have come to see you today, Jeff, is that I have this, we had happened to see you speaking at a conference. And I said to my good lady, I said, I could do that. Didn’t I, Marian, you did Frank, I could do that. So I have decided to become a motivational speaker. So fight. Well, as he went on to say that he decided that his fee level would be 5000 pounds a gig. But he would restrict Himself to merely doing two a week. And I, I just, anyway, Sally threw him out, actually, because I’m too polite. But basically, she said, You know, we’ve worked for nothing. You know, we’ve driven the motorways, all night long, we’ve worked our way up to where we are. Now, fee level, I make the mistake of saying to my lovely speaking agents, what’s the budget, and they tell me a figure and I’ll either do it for that, or I won’t. The only thing my biggest regret was that when Maria was was was queen of all she surveyed, I it was crazy, I would get home from a job. This is Game slightly, you know, three mobile phone? And I’d have 2030 messages from speaking agents. Jeff, can you do this? Yes, can you do that I could have done three jobs a day, every day of the week, completely, just you have to pick the customers off with a stick. And we didn’t really put our fees up, some of my colleagues managed to manage the over work they were doing by pricing themselves out of it. And I regret we didn’t do that. Then people were saying to me, Jeff, you should be charging 25,000 again, and I was at a Buy It Now in those days, 2000 to 1500. Again, you know, we were doing jobs we shouldn’t have been doing going to places we shouldn’t have been going and doing too much work. So the flip, the first thing is you’ve got to do is to have more work, then you can handle and then use your pricing to you know, use your pricing to balance the amount of work you’re doing. But those days have finished. Really, I mean, the days of 1000s of conferences. I mean that that was that was insurance companies that had 3000 salesmen. So they would do 10 conferences with 300 people in each conference. Yeah, they keep you working for a fortnight. Yeah. You know, I don’t know, I don’t know how you feel about this, Maria. But where’s all that God?
Setting Fees
Maria Franzoni 19:16
It’s changed. Jeff has changed that there’s still as many events but they’re different events. It’s not, you know, that there are still those big events, for sure. But there’s a lot more internal events now. And so this sort of you have to be able to sort of, yeah, you have to be able to do both. But you’re absolutely right, you should have put your fees up. And it’s a shame you didn’t you could have had a whole garage full of Harley Davidsons I probably.
James Taylor 19:41
I’m James Taylor, keynote speaker and speaker business coach and this is the SpeakersU podcast. If you enjoy listening to conversations that will help you launch and grow your speaking business fast new thought possible, then you’ve come to the right place. Each week we discuss marketing strategies, sales techniques, as well as ideas to increase the profitability of yours making business and develop your craft. You will find show notes for today’s episode as well as free speaker business training at SpeakersU.com. This week’s episode is sponsored by SpeakersU the online community for international speakers, SpeakersU helped you launch grow and monetize your speaking business faster than you thought possible. If you want to share your message as a highly paid speaker, then SpeakersU will teach you how just go to SpeakersU.com to access their free speaker business training.
Geoff Burch 20:28
I still think that the fees I received no good. I think it was incredibly generous, whether when a when a doctor or a nurse can work for a month for the same money as speak and get for 20 minutes. It does make me feel uneasy. I have this sort of deep seated morality there. So perhaps, you know, I don’t know. I’m very I love doing it anyway. I mean, as you can, you know, I do it on buses for free. You know, I I entertained the entire surgical ward of Cheltenham General Hospital. You know, I actually managed to get one of the nurses crying with laughter and I mean, that’s with bits of me missing and sort of people with their hands inside me. No. Yeah. So I mean, you know, I don’t stop doing it ever. Not until I drop.
James Taylor 21:23
You making me like that, you know, people coming up to you and booking you because they maybe saw you a conference he saw you. You speak at another event. And wondering like, for you now, the kind of work you do now. How do you find most of your work? Maybe I think it’d be useful to, to kind of hear how that’s changed over the years because we were hearing the in terms of the actual events, changing the nature event staging, or untruth? Like the actual where the the inquiries come from? How has that changed over the years?
Geoff Burch 21:50
Well, I still personally would prefer to get my work from speaking agents. That’s what I would prefer, simply because they get me a higher fee than I’d ever dare ask for myself. They tie the client into contracts, which I’ve never got customers who come direct, they say, Have you got a contract, they’re gonna just drop me an email. And if they ring up a week before and say, Jeff, our Managing Directors just be eaten by a tiger. We’ve got to cancel like I know so well. But the speaking agents would get me a cancellation fee, you know, which I haven’t got the bottle to ask for. I’m a bit of a pussy like that. So So agents are the best. I always like to work through a third party
Working With Speaker Bureau
James Taylor 22:41
when you got started or how did you because I think it’s a common question by a lot of speakers is starting to come through, they start building their own speaking they go on those this kind of ham salad tours, you know, you take it up and down the motorways or the highways. But then you can get to a point where you start to get to a level where it’s maybe it’s attractive to work with an agent or a bureau. How did you build those first relationships with bureau?
Geoff Burch 23:05
They approached me. I mean, that’s the point that they were queuing up. I mean it that it was just such a lucky time. I mean, there was the I SMM, which was a sales conference. They still sort of have it, but it used to fill the Birmingham conference center fill it. I mean, that’s 5000 people, and every one of the audience were sales managers. It’s 5000 sales managers. My phone didn’t stop ringing. And I mean, the agents didn’t stop ringing. I mean, I never I, even now, if I’m feeling sort of dreary, and I google Jeff Burch, I see a speaking agent called Thunderbolts speakers. I’ve never done business with them in my life. I don’t know who the hell they are. I type in Jeff birch. They’ve got my details. We represent Jeff, but I’ve never worked for them in my life. You know, that’s, that’s a double edged sword. Because the speaking agents, every speaking agent in the world has got Jeff birch. And what clients do now is they shop around how much the Jeff birch or we can get him for a tenner. Well, we can get him for eight quid now with Jeff that we’ve got this client he’s got a budget of six quid so you get this fight. So the ancients don’t make any money out of me. I don’t make any money out of me. So you get also get the big speaking agencies developing this little herd of speakers that aren’t available anywhere else. They might be crap, but it doesn’t matter because they can’t be found anywhere else.
James Taylor 24:46
So we ever attempted to go that route to go to the exclusive just say, I want to make my life I have one partner.
Geoff Burch 24:53
I’ve got a friend who’s done very well from being exclusive because that’s all the speaking agent ever offers. But I don’t know, I wouldn’t be good for the international business. And a lot of the bigger speak agents have also become my friends. I mean, people like Maria and, and, and so on, you know, we’re big come close friends rarely so it i don’t know I’m a bit crap at this to be honest I just have, you know I’m old and festering now and I just get the work just trundles in but I mean, I used to have 10 times as much work as I could do. And now I have one times as much work as I can possibly do. But until
Maria Franzoni 25:38
calf two with Jeff will talk. I wouldn’t,
Geoff Burch 25:41
I wouldn’t necessarily want to be starting as a speaker now. And if I was, you’ve got to have something to hang your hat on. You’ve got like, like, James, you’re your speciality is creativity. But you get others and you go, Well, what do you speak about? I talk about soaring with the Eagles. I talk about believing in yourself, and you go well, how did you? You know, what, what about your life? You know, well, I was a tax Clark for a number of years. And then I decided to get into speaking. What, you know, are you funny, are you
James Taylor 26:27
but I think what you what you said there just previous to that was just by the international side not wanting to go through because it does cut you off in the international, that I think that’s the amazing thing. Now, probably for speakers. And obviously this has happened for you know, a couple of decades, though, is that we moved to international, so you that very, very defined topic, wherever that could be emotional intelligence, wherever the person is taught that topic. And they’re like the expert on this topic. If you’d have just been a speaker, let’s say in the UK and the UK was your only market, they probably wouldn’t have been enough work there for you. But now International, your market and now over the past couple of years virtual suddenly this very defined thing that you have, you know, that’s that’s got a global audience for you.
Geoff Burch 27:16
Yeah, I, I’ve had a sort of Renaissance, I had a kind of, not a low patch. But the work the work, I had a I had, I said how I was busy having my heart rebuilt, which took a bit of time. And bits and pieces. And the I did a couple of TV series which took you out, it takes a year out of your life, it’s, you know, I wouldn’t be doing it again. I just do little bit of guest presenting now. And I think people have suddenly said, Oh, I saw Jeff birch the other day and that the immediate request is obviously still alive. You know, I used to love it. And I suddenly got all these old clients coming out the woodwork saying I don’t know if you remember Jeff, but about 25 years ago, you spoke to a load of our sales people. Now we’ve got all new salespeople, are you still doing the same messages? And I go, Well, I got some new material and they go now we want. It’s like hiring out John and they want crocodile rock? You know, we want you to do the crapping dog story. I haven’t done that for 15 years. No, no, no, we love it. It’s very relevant, because people suddenly want to sell again. You know, I think there’s almost a backlash against this. You know, this cuddly New Agey thing, and they suddenly realize that, you know, they might be making recycled cardboard clogs. But there’s nobody to flub them, you know. So, you know, I’ve got a bit of a renaissance going.
Maria Franzoni 28:53
Absolutely, absolutely. And just to sort of reassure anybody out there who is starting out, there actually is a lot of work. And my bureau colleagues are all back to the 2019 levels. And 2019 was a record year in this industry. I mean, phenomenal, phenomenal. So there is there is a lot of business out there. You just need to know where to find it and to position yourself for it, as you said to be relevant. So you said to us, you shared a regret earlier. And obviously, I don’t want to dwell on the negative side, but has anything ever gone terribly wrong?
Geoff Burch 29:29
A lot of times, but what I was talking to Sally about getting it because we were doing too much work. We were getting a little bit lazy about the background of the clients. And we were told that there was an America it was an American Insurance Company. We’re taking their salesman to Portugal for a big Urbino piss up and then there’d be like a speech the other day. So it’s a room full of America. A salesman insurance salesman for heaven’s sake, you know, so I, I’ve, I can’t Yeah, I’ve know what this is. I know this audience. Well, it’s a bit naughty. I’ll do my cucumber. Joe can’t do the whole kind of bit. But we got invited to the garlic dinner that night. And they had because it was Portugal. They had a Brazilian night. So there’s all the Americans all their wives, hundreds of them. And they had this copper Cabana, don’t St. Women don’t strip there was 12 of them. And you could have made the costume for the old 12 out of one silk tie in an ostrich feather. Literally jank Janka. The wives just wet mat and started covering every their husband’s eyes. And like there was the bandsaw that stopped playing and it’s chaos. It turns out that they were called that something or rather have something of salt like they were all Mormons. A room full of Mormons. And SAP Sally just leant over to me and said, Should we pop back to our room and rewrite your speech? I said Yeah, I think we better do that. Lucky escape lucky. So I logged in a few Allah Lu years and, you know, Lord be praised into this. All my punch lines.
Maria Franzoni 31:26
Fantastic. Fantastic. James, you have some additional information to share about Jeff and also how people can get in contact with him. Yeah, absolutely.
James Taylor 31:35
So we’re going to put a link if people go to speaking business.tv We’ll put a link for for Jeff’s website also for his email, because I think Jeffrey said we’re always happy to connect on on LinkedIn as well.
Geoff Burch 31:48
Now, Maria,
James Taylor 31:52
you got six books in print you on self employment, three on sales, one on management. But you were saying earlier, self made me you think would be a really good one if people are wanting to introduce your work for the first time?
Finding Engagements
Geoff Burch 32:06
Well, not that it’s self-made me is anybody who wants to try and develop their speaking career. It’s like any small business, it’s how you develop your product, how you market your product, how you find work, because that’s, you know, that I keep meeting people with fabulous talent, whether it’s speaking, making cakes, whatever it is, and all they want is work, you know, if only I could find the work, you know, that is the key, you know, I spend too much of my time finding my work. I just want to do my work. And I’m sure most of the viewers out there, you know, want the work. I mean, you know, I’d much rather be practicing my jokes, my style, my stories, my messages than farting about trying to find work and self-made me kind of condenses how we can build the value of our personal brand.
Tool Of The Week
Maria Franzoni 33:08
Brilliant, brilliant. You’ve also got a tool for us, haven’t you? Apparently, your idea is that we should channel professional burglars or use them as role models. You’re gonna have to explain that. Well,
Geoff Burch 33:20
it’s because sorry about the sun is shining straight in the window. So I bleached out names but still, anyway. Yes, the PERT the burglar is the perfect model for the small business, right? Because burglars don’t sit going around. Oh, I wish I could find some burglar in work. Because they go out because they don’t do they they go into a burglary in the work that they find work right. But here’s another thing. If a burglar if you leave a wallet, your wallet on the bar, the burglar will nick your wallet. He doesn’t say no, no, no, I just constantly restrict myself to Berlin. I wouldn’t touch your wallet. No dishonesty is his driving value. And he uses that to pick up other opportunities in the case of Nick in wallets, cars or anything else right. So he is he is not only to see burble and that’s his skill and he works very hard at being a better burglar but he would nick your wallet and that’s another thing if a key is look for opportunities that might be outside what you feel your sphere is right. The next thing is if he’s going to do a bank job. He gets off with Johnny the driver Billy the safe man. You know Susie Susie the sort of you know Susie the money launderer and they work together on the bank job. Whoever’s idea it was getting the biggest share, but they don’t rent an office call themselves robbery incorporated and do glossy brochures. They work well together. Complete the job. But because they know they’re all criminals, they don’t trust each other. So at the start of the relationship, they make sure they’re going to get paid. You know, they’ve put in systems to make sure they’re not going to get ripped off by their jolly chums. The number of people I’d meet, who have had this great idea or speaking job they haven’t been paid for, you know, it’s not a matter of trust, it’s a matter of you, knowing that you’re gonna receive what you expected to receive. So they work together, they work well together. The one whose idea is it’s got the biggest share, but if it’s the other ones idea, they get the biggest share. They work well. They go their separate ways. And that’s like, speakers are like that. We work. We work I’ll work with, you know, maybe Robin Sakers one day and I’m with somebody else that x i with, you know, Alan piece the next day, and he’s my chairman, we collaborate and then we park our ways, we never want to set up a lasting relationship. Now, if it goes horribly wrong for the burglar. He ends up in prison. But nine out of 10 burglars who end up in prison go back to Berkeley. It doesn’t beat him. It doesn’t knock him back. He just sits in prison and one of them says What did you get any other? Oh, coppers found my mobile phone at the site of the robbery? Oh, bloody hell, I’ve done that. What What have you learned from this? Have you learned to stop Berkeley? No, I’ve learned to stop taking my mobile phone with me on jobs, you know, and they come out from prison after a period of reflected as better burglars. Whereas we when we fail. We’re beat we’re done. It’s done. Now. It’s horrible. You know, the, the audience were unpleasant to me the client wouldn’t pay. So what did you learn from that? Yeah. What did you learn from that? And then go back and do it again. The burglar will be a better burglar every time he does it. And in the end, he’ll have a jolly life as a burglar and never go to prison again. He might have gone to prison five or six times but in the end you’ll get it right. And it’s just that’s where the burglars the model.
James Taylor 37:24
I can hear I can hear you just now booking a speaking tour for Jeff around all her majesty’s prisons to inspire to motivate the current generation of burdens.
Geoff Burch 37:35
True story. My son who is a complete hooligan, is a criminal barrister.
Maria Franzoni 37:42
Fantastic, actually, I
Geoff Burch 37:43
think, very helpful advice with the help of his dear old dad.
Maria Franzoni 37:48
I thought it was I thought it was actually the another book that was going to be coming out because
Geoff Burch 37:52
I, myself like me, the burglar, it’s in the self made me brilliant,
Maria Franzoni 37:55
really, really brilliant. We’re getting some lovely, lovely comments from our viewers. Thank you for all these lovely comments. We’ve run out of time. But James is going to leave us with another tip not related to crime on shoe or another tool. In fact,
James Taylor 38:08
yes, actually, we’re just talking about how the business has changed over the years, for good or for bad. But one of the big areas, there’s changes we’re seeing a lot of speakers now who are able to always build part of their speaking business online and one of the big platforms on the big tools that they use for doing this. So offering online training courses, their online coaching online memberships, is a platform called Kajabi. And what we’re going to do is we’ll put a link to Kajabi because they’re actually doing I think a 30 day free trial so you can go and check out Kajabi if you have expertise on something maybe go and watch online course launcher, online membership, launch a coaching program around that, so we’ll put that at speaking business.tv To get your free 30 day trial to Kajabi
Maria Franzoni 38:53
super and we’ll also put links to Jeff so you can contact him and just all that’s left to say is thank you for being too for doing exactly what you promised being a bit loon but being a bit of a give a bit of advice, too. We love that. Good. I
James Taylor 39:06
Yeah, super. You can subscribe to the SpeakersU podcast on Spotify, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts while you’re there. Leave us a review. I really appreciate it. I’m James Taylor and you’ve been listening to the SpeakersU podcast.
Successful Speaking Business
