377 – He’s back bringing tons of speaking leads: Tom interviews Mitch Davis

Episode 377 – Mitch Davis
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey, everybody it's Tom here with Episode 377 of Screw the Commute podcast. I'm here with Mitch Davis, an old friend of mine. He is quite an entrepreneur. He's been on the show, I think. I don't know. I think it's his third or fourth time. He's got such a great entrepreneurial story to tell. You want to look up some of his past episodes, but he's got something new for us today, but really old. So I'll tell you about that in a minute. I hope he didn't miss Episode 376. That was spot training with Fiverr. This is a highly efficient way to get training on various software and things you need for your business. Very cheap and gets it done like instantly, even on holidays, evenings, weekends, you can get what you need to do for very cheap with Fiverr. All right. How would you like to hear your own voice here on Screw the Commute? Well, the show's helped you out at all in your business or giving you an idea to start a business. We want to hear about it. Check out screwthecommute.com, look for a little blue sidebar that says send a voicemail, click on it, talk into your phone or computer. Tell me how the shows helped you out and also put your website in there so you can get a great big shout out in your own voice on a future episode of Screw the Commute. Now, while you're over at screw the commute, we have some freebies for you. And one of them has just one tip in this ebook I'm giving you for free has saved me seven and a half million keystrokes. And we're not exaggerating.

[00:01:55] We actually kind of estimate and figured it out one time. This helps you run your business lightning fast, cut your workload down like crazy. So check it out and grab a copy of it. We sold for 27 bucks, but it's yours free for listening to the show at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. And one other freebie we got for you is our podcast app. It's at screwthecommute.com/app, where you can put us on your cell phone and tablet. It does all kinds of cool things. We got training to show you how to use it and you can take us with you on the road. All right, everybody, stop freaking out from this pandemic. I'm not. My students aren't. But I know there's a lot of pain and suffering out there, but I've been preaching for years to try to get you out of that so you can make money from home legitimately, which I have been doing. 26 years straight, OK, I mean, literally 44 years straight, but this was that was before the Internet. I was still working from home. And what this does is it doesn't matter if they're telling you, you know, the kids are supposed to go to school. Oh, no, don't send them school. No, send them. No, don't send them. They'll catch on fire if they go to school.

[00:03:12] I don't know what the heck's going on out there, but, you know, people have to quit their jobs to take care of the kids at home. And that's just crazy. In today's atmosphere, when you could be selling stuff from home with a good online business, either as a side hustle or your main thing. So I've been teaching this for twenty two years, but I formalized the training, went through living hell for three years to get the license, the only dedicated licensed Internet marketing school in the country. And it's distance learning. So you can be anywhere that you can hear this and get a great education. And we have people making money before they even graduate. I mean, without being in debt for the rest of your life and and learning how to protest is what they're teaching announced. So check it out at IMTCVA.org. And also a little later, I'll tell you how you can get a scholarship to it. And by the way, folks, this this this is certified by the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. All right. So this was a lot of jumping through hoops to get this school going so that you could have a legitimate high quality education that is in high demand because the skills are needed by every single business on Earth.

[00:04:31] All right. Let's talk about that more later. Let's get to the main event. Mitch Davis is here. You may know him as the brains behind expert click. This is the place where I have all my listings in the press releases and all this stuff that he that he does for me and also the yearbook of experts, which he started in 1984. But today he's going to talk about another thing. If you have any aspirations of speaking and you should you know, I know people, you know, hate speaking, but I'll tell you what, it's made me millions of dollars and and, you know, sold a lot of my offline stuff. And, you know, it's just just been so good for my career. But he also runs the International Platform Association. It's a speakers bureau that was founded in 1831. And I never dreamed he was this old. He does not look at I just can't can't believe it that he's founded this in 1831. Or maybe he did.

[00:05:39] Well, we'll talk about that. I mean, I don't want to reveal your age, you know, so so if you want to put it on somebody else, that's OK. But he's rolling out a new service that helps speakers find gigs. And guess what? It's free. It's called speaker leads. And you can it's got a Twitter account. He's got to tell you all about this stuff. But the crazy part is it's free because now speakers, bureaus, the mainstream ones. Yeah, they're free also. But try to get into one. Good luck. All right. So anyway, Mitch, are you ready to screw? The commute?

[00:06:16] Absolutely.

[00:06:19] So good talking to you, man. He's up there in D.C. freezing himself to death like I am down here in Virginia Beach. But tell us about this new gig you got going.

[00:06:31] Well, I noticed that the news media and the speaking business are sort of merging because somebody's speaking events are virtual these days, like Tom has his own radio station here having a podcast and he has guests on. So the question of all these meetings with virtual presenters, virtual events, it's like the news media. They've merged together. So they're like a new cable channel. So finding people media interviews is very similar or finding them gigs in a world where it's virtual. Now, hopefully in a year it will not be virtually more than real speeches. But I realized my people, my experts, my spokesperson wanted media gigs. But speaking gigs are sort of like media gigs these days because they're both virtual. So I decided, why don't we look and find speaking virtual speaking gigs and those gigs with my members, tweet those gigs, email the most appropriate ones out to give them experts like our public relations experts. I found all these public relations virtual conventions and I've gotten them booked as virtual presenters at these conventions. And I called it speaker leads because it's leads for speakers and there's a Twitter account you can follow.

[00:07:52] And he's got a domain name speakerleads.com, and you can find it. And yeah, you have to apply to join. But I check people out to weirdos in my system. I bona fide speakers to be following that cuts me up. Yeah, I know you're here out of this thing, but all you gotta do is go to speaker collegeboard.com and click click request to follow and you'll follow. We also run the International Platform Association, which is a big site of speakers and speaker bureaus of your beer. You can join for free if you're a speaker. There's a sliding scale depending on how old you are, if you're 70, four seventy dollars and we always give discounts. So if you join international platform after hearing this audio, don't forget to ask for a discount when you call in with your credit card.

[00:08:43] Now, you mean if I'm 30, I only pay thirty dollars.

[00:08:45] So on the base rate is one hundred ninety five dollars.

[00:08:50] You're going to give the young people a break.

[00:08:54] But I do give people breaks and they are 90. You got to pay 90 bucks.

[00:08:59] No, no, no.

[00:09:00] I just wanted to cut off at seven days. Had somebody to today with sixty nine and I gave him the seventy dollar price. But you can see that side of international platform big. What is merging together and are all these events out there. And the meeting planners are desperate to have people present at their events. And if you follow the Twitter account, you'll probably find about 50 events already posted. And if you opt in expert newswire, you'll get the email send out with all the events in it. Why is it free? Because I'm helping my meeting planners. I'm attracting people to the audience. Oh, and I do run an ad in the feed. What was it that last night, again?

[00:09:45] Expertclick.com is the main site.

[00:09:50] Oh yeah, I know that.

[00:09:51] But I thought you said something else here to the site where the leader is speakerleads.

[00:09:59] Speakerleads. Right. And we have a news release wire that comes out of our expert Web site. And if you subscribe to that, you'll get our news feed and you'll get the speaking events offering, OK, how do I pay for it? I pay for it because it helps my speakers. And also I run advertising on.

[00:10:18] All right, so, you know, we probably said it's been a while since you're on, go ahead and tell them a little bit about expert kallick in the yearbook of experts.

[00:10:26] It started out as the talk show guest directory and it sort of morphed into being the yearbook of experts, there's all kinds of journalists wanted it.

[00:10:35] You were still waiting tables when you started this?

[00:10:37] I was still waiting tables when I started. I started this I started this 1984, two years after I got out of college. And I got the idea from a company that wanted to hire me, but they went belly up before I started. So who knows? But it's a great idea.

[00:10:52] And it's what these entrepreneurs that hear this, you were waiting tables. And I think if what I recall, it took you six thousand dollars to start this thing in nineteen eighty four, which is, you know, a lot of money.

[00:11:06] And having a computer at the computer cost before. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:12] The first mailing cost me to bring my first advertiser was the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. So you just have to go out and find the people who are interesting and want to promote themselves and they become your customers. Now I have the network of that. I have enough people in the system, more people are attracted to me. And that's where speaker leads is will attract more people to my site, more activity. And I share the leads in. The best part about the leads I share is you can share them too. So if you go into that Twitter feed and you find an event that's just not right for you. But, you know, somebody is right for Cut-and-paste that that lead it to your buddy and he can find out about the other guy. Ask me is where you found it. The speaker leads that down.

[00:11:59] Yeah, that's a great, great service. And what kind of events are you getting?

[00:12:07] There are a lot of conventions that used to be live in person, like the National Association of Communicators, like the like the International Association of Business Communicators. Hey, I've got go. I've got a show on this time for the people that run the Internet. Submarine cables around the world is sort of security. And all these people in that business, little and there are a lot of leadership events, a lot of wellness events, and there's also a lot of computer and computer, unless they're big. A lot of computer events happen. Well, 11 people find gigs that customer service is big, too, also philanthropy, caring and giving is big, too. But just look at the site.

[00:12:50] Are they mostly using Zoom?

[00:12:54] A lot of stuff, I assume, yeah, yeah, Zoom is big time on this thing.

[00:12:58] Well, I wish I had about stock in that maybe.

[00:13:01] Oh yeah. Well, sometimes you miss things. Sometimes you get them funny. But about what's what's the next thing going up. That's what I want to hear about.

[00:13:09] Parler, I mean, I wish they got five million new subscribers in one week, you know, an alternative to Twitter.

[00:13:16] Oh, yeah. You know, they I'll get on board out some people. So, I mean, a lot of that stuff, they're absolutely.

[00:13:23] Yeah, so so how long have I been with you?

[00:13:27] I think you joined about nineteen eighty six when you were doing Frank Masters.

[00:13:32] Oh yeah, that's right. It is, yeah. It was probably yes. But 88, I think is when.

[00:13:39] Yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You've been around a long time and I have a lot of people have been with me for 20 and 30 years. Yeah. It's amazing to me. They stick around because they are there's two networks. One network is for the journalists and experts and experts like the other network is for speakers and meeting planners at the International Platform Association. And you can see that side of international platform dog and it links from the speaker. Leads it down to this start up speaker means that Tom and you'll find everything.

[00:14:11] All right. But they don't. You have a deadline coming up for your yearbook. Experts are.

[00:14:16] Thirty seven annual yearbook of experts closes on January 30 floors and you can see are thirty six live on expertbook.com. Just download the PDF. It'll help you with their networking because you'll find lots of people and the expert will get expertbook.com. Download that PDF or go to expertclick.com and search on your keywords to find experts.

[00:14:40] Yeah, and and also this is a legit press release service it goes to no one knows it goes to Lexus, it goes out of feed to talk radio.

[00:14:53] Explain that concept because, see, there's so many of these, quote, free press release sites, but, well, a lot of press release sites.

[00:15:02] And all they do is they syndicate your content to some unranked page of some bogus journalist Web site and they don't really engage the host. There's there's no host calling it back and say, I want to interview you on my program. And that's the biggest break. That's the biggest disjunction or break in most of these news releases. It's all they're doing is putting you on some site, on some some page, but you got to qualify to be in the places you're at, right? Yeah, because the talk show host wants to find real people. They want to find interesting people. That's the key.

[00:15:40] But I mean, just to to qualify for you to be connected with Google News, they just don't take everybody.

[00:15:46] And Google News doesn't take everybody. And LexisNexis pays for the content. So you put a terrorist in my system. LexisNexis give me a few pennies every time somebody puts in my system. So they're totally on intelligence stuff. And I I've had The New York Times by my people through Lexis looking at all kinds of topics, and I'm very careful who I let in the system. I want real people. That's what I want. Except every request that speaker leads to Tom I won't accept those requests from people are photos without some reality or already having some followers themselves, because I don't want my leads deluded by people that are interested.

[00:16:29] Yeah, and then, yeah, the leads will say, well, this is bogus and you're wasting my time.

[00:16:35] Yeah, because we have to get those leads and the meeting planners, they want to know they're getting real people. Right. But the biggest thing I can do for a meeting planner is I go to Amazon, I get a copy of my book, and it goes prime delivery right to that meeting planner. And he's got six hundred guests in that book available for interview right then and there. So we've got the legitimacy to make this work. And Tom, there's an old joke about the news about the expert, the expert book, and that is your expert as soon as your check clears, because the people have to have skin in the game to want to be listed and they have to be professionally interested in answering those phone calls and going on those interviews, which is why I don't take free lessons in the book. And I don't include speakers for free in International Platform Association.

[00:17:25] Yeah, and that's that's.

[00:17:28] To their benefit, because that means they're not going to be lumped in with a bunch of riffraff.

[00:17:34] Exactly. You've got to have some reality to yourself. And one thing I've learned is if they can't make a phone call, are they real? Right. You know, that's that's one of the big things in life, because the host is thoroughly dependent on that guest being there when the host goes live on the air the same way a meeting planner is totally dependent on that speaker being there, available. So never blow it off and always get there from this room. Call five minutes early, always email the host and assume call an hour at a time saying I'm going to be there five minutes early because it's just like a talk show host. The talk show host can't promote you as being on the air in five minutes. You can look out that glass window and see you in the green room.

[00:18:26] Yeah, so so give them the sites again.

[00:18:32] The first place to go to start is speakerleads.com, and that leads to the Twitter account, Twitter.com/speakerleads and that will lead you to the International Platform Association and InternationalPlatform.org and the main website. We have expertclick.com. That's where you'll find all the experts and expertbook.com is where we have the Yearbook of Experts free as a download. But just start at Speakerleads.com. You'll find everything there. And when you follow me at speakerleads, I'll email you back to say welcome to the system.

[00:19:12] Yes, so we'll have all those in the show notes, folks, along with my mentor program, greatInternetmarketingtraining.com, which, you know, between me and Mitch, we'll make you superstars, you know, because you got to have that in, you know, that presence online to be even more attractive to the the people that want you to speak.

[00:19:35] So thanks for coming on. Oh, also, you get the scholarship to the school if you're in my mentor program. So check that out at greatInternetmarketingtraining.com. So thanks much for coming on. We want to get this out really quick so people can get get fired up and get ready and get lined up with this so they can grab those leads and be ready to hit the hit the road running at the first of the year.

[00:20:01] Thank you for having me on as a guest, Tom.

[00:20:03] All right. We'll catch you next time, everybody. Hit that speakerleads.com. See you later.

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