I was standing in front of my classroom in grade seven, petrified, not able to say a word. I had rehearsed my expose the night before and somehow, I could not remember anything. Instead, I started to cry and left the classroom. I felt so stupid. The next day, my teacher gave me another chance and allowed me to have my cheat sheet with me so that I could consult it if the nerves made me forget my speech once again. Trial number two was going to be great…. Nope… Even with my notes, no sound came out of my mouth. I was completely ridiculing myself in front of my ‘friends’ whom, I thought at this specific moment, were having a great time watching me fail.
This was actually the start of my speaking career. You would think a normal parent would have consoled me and said: “It’s okay honey, you are just shy, you did your best, don’t worry about it”. Well, my parents were not ‘normal’. Instead of letting me believe this, which would have been very limiting, they registered me to a personality contest – which I won by the way. I just did not have the skills yet and needed to turn my limiting beliefs around. This was an opportunity for me to learn. This really uncomfortable place in front of an audience turned out to be my new safe place. I learned how to stand, how to prepare, how to focus, how to connect with my audience, etc. I soon became obsessed with stages and constantly looked for opportunities to be on them! The first time I wore a headset microphone, I was so excited. I felt like Madonna in Vogue. It totally made me forget the fact that I had to pay $200 to be on that stage, as of course, I was not getting paid for that gig.
I have been training and talking in front of groups for over 30 years now, and more specifically giving workshops and conferences for the last ten years. I remember my first big gig was in front of 800 people attending the Business Owners Group’s Annual Convention in Sherbrook. I was 23 years old. I visited my old mindset for a second and could feel the butterflies in my stomach, feeling petrified at the idea that I had to stand in front or a ‘real’ audience. This wasn’t another wedding I was emceeing. I applied the skills and new beliefs I had learned at a young age and triumphed over the nerves.
So, whatever you are afraid of, you are more likely just a few skills or one mind shift away from transforming your life. I had a secret smile this morning, remembering my own story, as I attended Jane Atkinson’s Wealthy Speaker Positioning Bootcamp at CAPS Vancouver. I feel that I am now at the next step of my speaking career and Jane put me on the right track to my next level.
Jane Atkinson has been helping speakers catapult their careers for nearly 30 years. She is the author of The Wealthy Speaker 2.0, The Epic Keynote and new this year, The Wealthy Speaker Daily Success Planner and Journal.
Prior to coaching, Jane worked as an agent for several speakers whose careers skyrocketed. She also served as Vice President of a Speakers Bureau in Dallas where she represented several celebrities, best-selling authors and business experts.
She taught us the three specifics areas to focus our time and money to become successful as a speaker and the keys of a business generating website. Now whether you are a speaker or not, these totally apply to any business. Whatever it is that scares you, you can turn it around, just like I did with public speaking. Here are my notes on what she enlightened us with. Enjoy.
The three most important areas to concentrate your time and money are:
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#FOCUSEDHUSTLE
Many different definitions of hustle. Stop waiting for table service at a buffet.
Example 1: Ryan Estis, dressed up in his business suit and make 50 calls a day from his kitchen and took his business to 7 figures very quickly.
Example 2: Kindrahall.com check out her demo video. Send 600 emails: “hi, I see you have a meeting, I think my thing would be great for this, here is why, and here is how to contact me.” 100 per week for 6 weeks, planting seeds.
Example 3: Schinkle, became a specialist in front row leadership for manufacturing. Found a niche and collects now million dollars contracts.
Example 4: Make money in your jammies with an online course. $95,329 per month in online courses. When you just trade your time for money, it is just a great job. You only have so much time. Hustle doesn’t mean working 12 hours days and having no life.
So hustle is consistently performing the tasks that are aligned with your long-term strategy. Following every lead, down every avenue, while avoiding squirrels. Be productive. Don’t have a stack of business cards that have not been followed up.
2. CONFIDENCE
Key to standing tall is clarity. That is what gives you self-confidence. Without clarity, you can’t say: “I’m sorry, my fee is this, and I will have to pass on this one.”. Confidence is hug. The entrepreneur’s biggest job is to protect your confidence.
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WILLING TO TAKE RISKS.
You need to put money towards setting yourself up to the level you want to get in your perfect day. Hire website pros, coaches, etc. Photographers, marketing agencies, etc.
Mapping out your vision
Establish what your perfect day looks like. You can build the business of your dreams.
Your Perfect Day exercise allows you to define exactly and place the order to what is really important for you. What does your perfect day in your speaking career looks like 5 years from now? Elicit your perfect in the present tense as it is already happening.
How to position yourself in the market to earn higher fees:
THE WEALTHY SPEAKER FORMULA: READY – AIM – FIRE
READY. Get crystal clear on what you are selling.
Pick a lane. What is your lane? What topic do I want to be known for, 5 years from now. Get to the place where passion and profits meet.
Positioning – Expert 1st, Speaker 2nd. Clients no longer want to book speakers. They want to hire smart people, who happen to speak. Deliver your knowledge in many different platforms. “I am a Speaker” is not really what you do, it is how you do it.
AIM – Aligned Marketing. Mainly your website. Have your website ready to illustrate exactly what you are doing.
What is your Brand? Example of a Brand: OWN IT!
Brand is like the book title:
- The Fearless Leader
- The radical listening manifesto
- The sales institute
FIRE – Focused Roll Out.
Promise Statement. The Promise is like the subtitle of the book:
- Courageously Catapult connection and engagement
- Honing Communication in your top performing team
- Flawless performance for high stakes sales
Have a strong Promise. Focused on them and not you. Outcome-oriented. Short and Sweet. 5 to 7 words. – different than your mission statement. Promise statement is used in marketing. Provides clarity. Within 10 seconds of being on your website, people are able to see exactly what you will help them with. Your promise Statement is used as a tagline. Use $10 words, instead of $0.50 words. Catapult, leverage, rejuvenate, mobilize. Who is it for? What do you do? How do you do it? You can use some words as a headline before your promise statement.
Example of promise statements:
Ignite the Customer Service Experience.
End Addiction and Get your Family Back.
Get more done in less time. Vs. Book me, I am a really good Speaker.
Pierre Battah: Mobilizing your workforce by strengthening your leadership, confidence and capability.
Ryan Estis: Business Performance for the New Economy.
Kindra: Capture Attention, Close Sales, Increase Influence through the art of strategic storytelling.
Get some outside perspective.
“It’s hard to see the label when you are inside the jar.” Jane Atkinson
THE THREE P’S OF WEBSITE
POSITIONING – Expert first, Speaker Second.
PROMISE – (+ BRAND)
PERSONALITY
Use the language of the buyer on your website. What are they shopping for?
Have your magnet on the home page: i.e. Ryan Estis: CRUSH your sales target, adapt & thrive: win in a 2018 world. Downloadable with an attracting title. Vs.: Sign up for my newsletter.
Example: Colleen Francis. The Sales Leader. The one expert with proven strategies to drive nonstop sales results.
WEBSITE DELIVERABLES
Outcomes
Credibility (and tell a story)
Call to Action – connection
Build the Fanbase: Pull people to your website and keep them there until they buy from you. Magnet example on Jane’s website: Start now: Take the Wealthy Speaker Audit, it can be a quiz, a video, a quick consumable product. Have a pop up instead of embedded.
MARKETING INITIATIVES
Weekly blog posts, podcasts, email to list, do it on a regular schedule, social media engagement, contest giveaways (twice per year), affiliate program, articles for business magazines in the industry you are in, webinars, testimonials, ask for referrals, Facebook ads, be a guest on someone else’s blog,
Learn LINKEDIN if you want to work with corporate. Check out Jane’s podcast on that.
If you have learned one thing from my post today, remember:
“Learning something doesn’t do anything for you or your business. Unless you do something with it.” – David Gouthro
Jane’s Wealthy Speaker University offers online and private coaching programs for speakers at all levels helping speakers position to gain those almighty HIGHER FEES.
For more information on Jane, check out www.SpeakerLauncher.com