226 – This skill can skyrocket your business: Tom talks Professional Speaking

Episode 226 – Pro Speaking
[00:00:09] 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 two hundred and twenty six of Screw the Commute podcast. Today, I'm going to talk about professional speaking and what it can do for your business and your whole life. Really. And also, I want to refer you to episode 7, which was called the Top 10 Ways to Make Money Speaking. All right. Now, I hope you didn't miss episode 225. Oh my goodness. We had former CIA agent Jason Hanson there, who's built a multi-million dollar really cool business and a lifestyle business using many of the online marketing techniques that we talk about. But sometimes he goes really old school and is successful at it. So check that out. Episode 225. And I know if you've been listening to me for a while, you've grabbed your copy of your free automation e-book. Screwthecommute.com/automatefree. This is a complete e-book on all the ways I automate things so I can handle tons of customers and do it really, really fast without pulling my hair out. And while you're over at screwthecommute.com/automatefree to get your copy of that book. You may as well grab a copy of our podcast app. It's in the app store, but we also have complete instructions and screen captures on how to use it at screwtheCommute.com/app. Now our sponsor. Guess who it is? I'm going to give you three guesses who it is. Fact I'm going to give you 24 guesses of who it is. It's my twenty four week intensive pro speaking mentor program where I take you from where you are to a much higher level professional speaker. And if you're just a beginner, that's really great because I don't have to clean up the messes you've made all these years, though. So there's different levels, including a level that teaches my famous back of the room selling technique where I've made millions of dollars and without being obnoxious, I might add, like many sales speakers are. So check that out at screwthecommute.com/prospeaking. And later on in this episode, I'm going to give you a coupon code for 10 percent off any level mentor training you choose.

[00:02:54] All right. Let's get to the main event. If you want to rapidly increase your business, raise your fees and travel on somebody else's dime, if you have one, get over your problem with public speaking. It can do all of these. It can enhance your regular business. That's not really totally based on speaking and do all these great things for you. The benefits are just enormous. And, you know, most people hate public speaking so you can pass up thousands of competitors if you have the guts to do what they're not willing to do. And that's learn to become a professional level speaker.

[00:03:37] Now, let me be clear. I'm not suggesting you just call yourself a pro speaker and then go out and do terrible speeches and presentations that hurt your business. I'm suggesting you learn what the top pros do both onstage and off. So you don't make a fool of yourself and and don't get all the benefits I'm going to tell you about. Also, I'm not suggesting you become a, quote, motivational speaker. They're a dime a dozen and really good ones have inspiring stories you most likely could never compete with. I mean, there's speakers out there with no arms and in wheelchairs after having been burnt to a crisp in car accidents. And there's one whose mothers starved and stabbed him and I mean loads more. They overcome came all these things. And I'm not saying you couldn't become a motivational speaker if you wanted to. But the money will come faster, easier and bigger if you are an entertaining expert who speaks and yes, that can be motivational in itself, but just booking yourself as a motivational speaker is a hard way to go. And yes, I did put the word entertaining in there on purpose. You certainly don't have to entertain. If you're an expert on a topic and can convey your expertise to an audience, I'm just saying that if you are an expert and you can convey your expertise to an audience, you will get booked way more often, you'll sell way more products and services easier, and you'll get way more referrals, higher evaluations and higher fees if you are also entertaining. All of this boils down to way more money in your pocket. If you add an entertainment value to your presentations and I don't care how dry you are, I can make you more entertaining than you currently are. And I have plenty of training materials and mentoring to help you. Many of the things you don't even have to say a word, you can use props and funny visuals and all kinds of things. So. So it's really worth it to add this entertainment value because it means more money. And I can attest to the fact that's really worth it really, really for me and many of the people I've helped.

[00:06:03] All right. Now let's get into what pros speaking training can do for you. Though it can increase your cash flow, either getting paid directly selling product or both I mean even a rank beginner can break in at fifteen hundred dollars per presentation. And I got to tell you, being too cheap is not in your best interest. When I first broke in, I was coming out of the entertainment field where I was doing stuff for seventy five or hundred bucks a show. And when I broke into professional speaking, I thought I'll charge five hundred and I'll clean up because a lot of the other speakers recharge and thirty five hundred and four thousand five thousand. Guess what? I couldn't get one speech at 500 bucks because the meeting planners know what good speakers cost and if you're too cheap, they instantly think something is wrong with you. You could be like in my case though they might have thought I was a womanizer. I am drunk. I get off color humor. I don't show up, you know, any number of things that there's going through their mind. If you're too cheap. So there's just absolutely no reason to be too cheap. Good non-celebrity speakers generally are between thirty five hundred and 5000 for a presentation.

[00:07:29] Now, if you have product or services to sell, you can easily surpass those fees even if you speak for no fee. Let's say you have an online training course that sells for nine hundred ninety seven dollars. You only have to sell five of those to equal what a journeyman professional speaker makes at the high end of that mid-scale. Sell 10 and you make more than most lower level celebrities. If you have more in-depth mentor programs like I have, I mean, I really can't remember in the last 20 years doing less than a hundred thousand dollars selling them when you put at least 200 qualified people in front of me, sometimes I do 250,000. So I hope you can see if you're crying about cash flow in your business. Pro speaking can turn that around in a hurry. Keep in mind I work like crazy to get really good at both the business and onstage performance of professional speaking. Don't expect numbers like that if you're not willing to learn what you need to learn and practice professional speaking techniques that I pretty much guarantee you don't even know exist.

[00:08:50] All right, the next thing. It stimulates referrals, people in the audience, no others who should hear you. But guess what? It won't happen if you just get the information across. You have to do things to make them remember you as a speaker. I mean, this is where entertainment value comes in again. Plus, there's things you can do that have nothing to do with your onstage performance that stimulate referrals. For instance, you could offer as part of your fee to do a special VIP session or executive board session, all included in your fee. Heck, you're there anyway. Why not give extra value? This also gets you in good with the highest level, most powerful people in the organization. Maybe you're speaking at a state association meeting. Those state leaders will call up the national organization and refer you for the national meeting. But only if you're really good. Now when I talk about really good, I got I got to go here. I'm not talking about good. Like people at your church said you did a good job speaking. I'm talking about you being the last speaker at a sales awards function in Las Vegas. And you're the last thing between the audience and the golf course. And they would still listen to you. That's how good I want you to be. I can't tell you how many people come to me. And they say they only want the business of speaking training because all I'm already great onstage. I look at their video and I'm thinking, you're great compared to what I mean, a donkey with a microphone. So here's the thing, folks. Never, never, never think you're great stage. Don't do it. What will prove your great on stage is how much money you make from the audience and how many referrals you get. All right. So referrals and getting you in with high level people in an organization is another one of those benefits.

[00:11:00] All right. Next benefit exotic and free travel most of the time and part of the business of speaking is that you will get reimbursed for your travel expenses. This means here traveling for free and nicer meetings are held in nicer places and you usually aren't tied up 24/7 with the meetings so you can sightsee and experience lots of things on someone else's dime. And here's a simple travel technique that can actually add significant amounts, amounts of money to your bottom line. Whenever possible, I want to pay the travel expenses myself on my credit card and I get points for doing so. Then when I get reimbursed for the travel cost, I've effectively got the points for free. And for a lot of years, I pretty much always have about a million and a half points just sitting there waiting for when I want to travel somewhere for free. I'm not a travel expert, but from what I understand, travel is the best way to use the points. Electronics and anything else really isn't a good bargain. I mean, I just saw amazon now lets you pay for stuff with points, but I really don't do it. I save it for first class or business class airfare mostly.

[00:12:23] All right, back to travel, here's a negotiating tip from the wake him up video professional speaking system and mentor program as part of negotiating your speaker agreement with the group. You may be able to get extra days at the hotel or a resort or spa and possibly an extra airfare for a spouse or an assistant. Many meetings, book so many rooms, they get free room nights thrown in and they can use them however they want. Well, why not give them to you? It's possible an airline is one of their sponsors, which means they probably get some free airfares to use as they wish. It never hurts to ask. I was sponsored twice by Thai Air to go to Thailand to help them with tourism, and I even got to fly a 747 simulator is pretty cool. You can take advantage of a lot of great travel perks if you're a pro speaker.

[00:13:24] All right. How about speaking establishes you as the expert. Groups don't generally put terrible people that are lousy in their field in front of their members. All right. Just being in front of the group is an implied endorsement from the group that you are the real deal. This means the audience members feel more comfortable purchasing your products or services because they assume, and not necessarily correctly, they assume the organization has vetted you thoroughly. Unfortunately, many scammer speakers take advantage of this. And I want you to be very careful when you go to a seminar because the group may not have vetted the speaker at all, or maybe the promoter he or she is a scammer themselves. And they bring on people that they don't really care if you get ripped off as long as they make a lot of money. Check out my article, the top 20 seminar scams to see how speakers and promoters rip you off at seminars. I'll have the link in the show notes. Of course. This is episode 226, the link actually is Antion.com/top20seminarscams.htm. And also I actually had that on episode 16 of this podcast, if you want to listen to that. Make sure you don't get ripped off at a seminar. But anyway, if you aren't a scammer, you should use the fact that you spoke at Group A to help get the job at group B. See the people at Group B will automatically think you're qualified if Group A had you and so forth. And the more of these groups you speak at the more you will look like an expert. And that in turn will help you raise your fees, get jobs easier and so forth.

[00:15:27] All right. Next thing is it gets you publicity. That would be hard to get otherwise. Just like I mentioned, having spoken at a number of events is impressive to the media, at least to a certain level. They still want to make sure you can handle a three minute TV segment when you're used to doing one hour speeches. So I don't think they will be overly impressed with your speaking resume. It's just a door opener, however. Here's another technique from my business of speaking, training and mentor program. If you land a job speaking at a big event, you can offer to do some of their media interviews. They can get press way easier than you. They may have their own publicity department or they may have hired a publicist for the event. Just as an example, say you landed a gig speaking at a big United Way event in Los Angeles. Who do you think could get on the media in the second largest media market in the US? You or the United Way? Now, I'm not saying you can't get on. I can teach you the best chances on how to get on in my publicity training. I'm just saying the United Way putting you on is way easier. Also, you may want to go back and listen to last Monday's episode on publicity. It's episode 223 at screwthecommute.com/223. So speaking can get you publicity. Now, I've always said that combining speaking with my online business really was a catalyst. I mean, rapid, you can rapidly increase your online business with more highly qualified people in your database. See, I do a business card drawing when I speak and I manually put the people in my database. In my program. I teach you what to say from the stage to get the most participation in the drawing. But there's no better people to have in your email list than people that I've seen you speak and loved you. Getting in on your list and everybody knows your list is gold is one of the most important things you can do, because no matter how good you were, people were busy and have lives and they're going to soon forget you. Keeping in touch with them over time can mean a lot of money to you. I've had some people on my mailing list for well over 20 years and they continue to buy products and services. Now you can ignore this advice at your own peril, but get them on your list and it will get you more speeches and sales of your products and services.

[00:18:13] All right, here's one you might not have thought of. It brings you investors. I've had many people come up to me after I spoke and want to invest in my business. Now, I'm not really looking for that, but you might be.

[00:18:26] All right. Before I tell you another benefit that I'm reluctant to tell you about and give you one super bonus tip for authors or up and coming authors, I want to tell you about my twenty four week intensive pro speaker mentor program where I take you from where you are to a much higher level pro speaker. And like I said, if you're just a beginner, hey, I can start you doing things correctly and give you a rapid rise rather than fix up messes that you might have made or bad habits that you've gotten into over the years. But anyway, whatever you are, I guarantee you I can take it to the next level. I claim that I've taught more professional speakers than anybody living. If you want to ask me how I can justify saying that when I talk to you, I'll be glad to tell you. Now I've got several different levels of the mentor program for pro speaking. It's a twenty four week intensive. So this happens very quickly. You concentrate on it now, doesn't end there because you'd be improving, improving, improving as you go forward. But you'll know how to do it correctly. So check it out at screwthecommute.com/prospeaking and to tell me you heard it here on screw the commute, use the coupon code, SPEAK10 for 10 percent off whichever package you choose. I really want to turn you into a great and busy professional speaker. That's great on stage. Remember that when I talked about the last speaker in Las Vegas. That's how great I want you to be. And you'll know the business of speaking to maximize the value every time you speak. There's loads of ways to do that, too. All right. Check it out at screwthecommute.com/prospeaking, pick which level you want and put in SPEAK10 for your 10 percent off.

[00:20:20] Ok. Back to some benefits of pro speaking. Here's one benefit that may or may not interest you, or it may even get you into trouble when you are the speaker and you do a fantastic job educating, inspiring and entertaining the audience. There's a high probability someone or many people in that audience will be attracted to you on, let's say, a more personal level. Ok, maybe groupie level. What do you do about it is up to you. I don't really want to know. OK. There you go. That is definitely a benefit of pros speaking.

[00:21:02] All right. One last bonus tip out of the hundreds in my wake him up says. I mean, actually, I identified over a thousand things you would learn that will help you blow past tens of thousands of other hacks who call themselves pro speakers. My fee prior to my first major book being finished was thirty five hundred dollars. As soon as I got my book done, I raised my fee to forty five hundred dollars and I included a hundred copies of my book in the deal. Since the book only costs me $2 each to print, I basically gave away $2 times a hundred is two hundred dollars to make an additional thousand dollars, which means I cleared an additional eight hundred dollars for the speech. But wait, there's more. I now had a hundred advertisements out there promoting me and lots of those people that had the books went on to spend a lot more money with me over time. But wait, there's more again. What if there was 500 people in the audience? The meeting planner would ask me if they could buy another 400 books. And I'm like, oh, let me think about that for like a millisecond. All right. Even at half price, it was a twenty four ninety five book. I sold them to them for like twelve bucks or something like that. And it costs me $2 to print, so I made an additional $10 per book. Times 400 books. That was an additional $4000 for the day. Almost doubled my fee. And now I had five hundred books out there advertising me and getting people to buy more stuff. You see how this can go. And also, here's a bonus I didn't even write down to tell you. There's a speaking budget in many places and there's an educational materials budget. Those are two different budgets and sometimes groups have to spend their educational budget or they don't get it allotted next year. So they're looking for things to buy. So you make sure you always offer educational materials along with your speech and they can either buy them or not. But if you don't offer them, I can assure you they'll never buy. And I have loads of ways to structure those deals that I can teach you. And again, that's just one of the hundreds of tips and techniques I have for you to make more money with pro speaking and either in your own business or just as a pro speaker.

[00:23:36] So if you want to get serious about this and totally change your business life for the better. Get in touch with me and let me train you to get all these benefits. Go to screwthecommute.com/prospeaking and then get in touch with me and I'll discuss with you how I can help you become a top pro speaker. All right. I'll catch you on the next episode. See ya later.

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