Better Than A Business Card™

Learn to speak like a pro & sell from the platform...without selling!

Even if you are not a speaker...yet...I want to quickly share with you some information that I think you'll be interested in. You see, one of the biggest growths in your income can come as a result of learning how to speak and sell products and services from the platform.

From February  19th-21st in Las Vegas, NV, my friend, James Malinchak, is going to peel back the curtain and show you all of the tips, strategies, and techniques to easily sell thousands and thousands of dollars of your products...fast...and do so while always maintaining an ethical foundation and never coming across like you are ever selling anything!

You can read about it all at this website...

There are only 120 seats available for this event. As of today, 99 people are enrolled and registered. That leaves just 21 seats left...and they will sell-out fast!

Here are some details (Put these on your calendar then book your hotel room):

DATE:  February 19-21 (Thur., Fri., Sat.)

Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa (5 miles from Las Vegas McCarron Airport)

I STRONGLY suggest that you head over to the webpage and enroll asap.

P.S. I almost forgot...when you enroll before midnight on Jan 31st, you'll receive a $1,250.00 discount. Now, between us, James could be charging the normal price of $2,997 and still sell out. But, James wanted to make sure that my friends and colleagues had a very special deal today, so hurry!

An interview with Larina Kase, small business marketing coach

Recently, I was able to ask Larina Kase, a small business marketing coach and author, a few questions. I thought you all could benefit from her insightful answers:

What are some tips for overcoming fear and gaining confidence to speak to groups (especially for those who are now involved only with one-on-one counseling or consulting)?

The cliché is true that the more you do it, the easier it gets, but there are some additional factors to consider. First, you want to get practice speaking in low-stakes situations. This means that the audience and the result of the speaking engagement are not particularly important to you. Groups like Toastmasters can be very helpful for this.

Second, you want to get comfortable with the people in your audience before your talk. One of my favorite ways to do this is to mingle with people as they come in or stand by the door and great them.

Third, you want to feel confident that you are delivering helpful relevant value to your audience. Learn as much as you can about their needs and their goals for your talk ahead of time. Speak to the meeting planner, survey members of your potential audience, and research the group so you know what style of presentation (formal, interactive, etc.) works best for them.

How do we move through the comfort zone into new and varied avenues of marketing, such as writing or online networking?

Most of my clients who are owners of professional services firms have several aspects of marketing that they’d like to avoid. Common areas include public speaking in person, hosting teleseminars, and getting involved with social media.

There are 3 steps to getting going in uncomfortable marketing venues:

1) Make sure that the marketing avenue is one that is likely to reach your target audience and have great result. There is no point pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone if the marketing activity is not the best one. It is crucial that your marketing activity fit into your overall business strategy and that you commit to it (rather than trying out a whole bunch of random things).

2) Prepare and get support. Your concern may be about wasting a lot of time learning something, and it may be valid. If you aren’t sure how to set up a blog, get started on Facebook, or start your ezine, it’s worth it to learn from someone who knows.

3) After you get going, raise the bar for yourself. Let’s say your goal is to offer a once-monthly teleclass. At first, make it your goal just to do it and get comfortable in that venue. Then, raise the bar by making it your goal to include a strong call to action. Then, raise the bar again by including a brief sales pitch at the end.

Is your new book The Confident Leader just for 'leaders'?

It’s really about personal leadership- being the leader in your career, business, community, and life. It’s for the person who wants to take charge, push their own boundaries, surprise themselves with what they are actually capable of, and make a real difference in the world. You can get it plus lots of bonuses at
http://www.ConfidentLeaderBook.com  If you get the book before November 10th, you can attend a telesummit where I’ll interview business leaders like Dan Pink and Joe Vitale at no charge.

Are you ready to go 'on the air' as a radio show guest?

Being introduced as an Expert Guest on a radio or podcast show holds tremendous potential for boosting your professional credibility and visibility to a large audience. Done properly, you can propel yourself to Super-Expert status, drive traffic to your website or to bookstores to buy your books, and position yourself to be interviewed on more shows. It can have a valuable 'snowball' effect on your business.

As an extension of my company's new book series, The Smartest Thing I Ever Did...®, and QwikSmarts® qwik-tips books & booklets, I am in the process of lining up guests to be interviewed on a series of podcast shows by these same names. I'm searching for knowledgeable guests to talk about topics such as small (and home) business management, personal finances, career development, health, parenting, marriage, and more.

If you're considering applying to be a guest with me on one of these shows, you'll want to maximize your time on the air. Here are just a few tips to help you prepare for your time in the spotlight plus a highly-valuable training series that I recommend for anyone who wants to shine as a radio guest (with me or on any other radio show):

• Warm up your voice before the show, especially if it's being recorded or aired in the morning and your voice isn't quite 'awake' yet. Read some of your notes aloud, with a smile, to loosen things up.
  
• Put your notes in plastic sheet protectors so you can have them in front of you during the show, but not make those revealing crinkly noises as you refer to them.
  
• Keep the audience in mind. A radio show is not a feature-length commercial. Provide the listeners with some real 'meat' that they can take away and use, and which will provide incentive for them to visit your site or read your book to get more of the same.

Before you do that phone interview or turn on that mic, I highly recommend participating in a valuable teleseminar training series being hosted by PowerFull Living called Insider Tips to Shine as a Radio Guest.

They'll be hosting a free training call on Monday, September 29, 2008 from 7 to 8 pm Eastern. Register to receive all the details for the FREEteleseminar as well as the whole series (which begins on Wednesday, October 22nd). Learn more about this exciting new training and its special guests. I think you'll be very glad you did!

Even if you can't be on the call, you can listen to the recording, but you must be registered to receive it!

There's big money for speakers on campuses

If you’re a college grad, do you remember that ‘activity fee’ you had to pay every year (or maybe every semester)? Those fees are still around and have not gone down by a dime in decades (more likely, the fee increases every few years). Do you remember all those speakers and lecturers who visited your campus, sometimes for just a short talk, sometimes for a series?

Guess where the funds came from to pay those speakers. Now do a little math: the activity fee charged by your local college or university times the number of students on that campus. Are you astounded by the resulting dollar figure? Would you like a piece of it? School is back in session, so now is the time for you to get your feet wet (if you’re a rookie to the speaking circuit) or jump into the deep-dollar end of the pool by speaking at colleges and universities.

For you rookies, you can start by coming up with at least a couple topics that you can talk about for 30 minutes or so. That should be pretty easy for anyone. Now, call up a professor at your local college who teaches a subject related to your topics. Offer to speak to their class at no charge. Take copies of articles or topic outlines you’ve written and use them as handouts. If you’ve written a book, ask permission to offer it for sale after your talk—ten dollars is usually a good price point for a student audience.

Once you’ve got a few campus talks under your belt, offered gratis, you can start approaching other schools for paid talks. Show them the list of schools you’ve already presented to and the topics you covered (you don’t have to reveal that the talks were unpaid). As you get more experience, offer more topics and types of presentations, and want to expand your speaking services, it will be time to raise your fees. More about how to do that successfully later. 

If you want to explore more about breaking into the college speaking market and learn the nitty-gritty of how to do it successfully, you need to learn from James Malinchak. James is called 'The King of the College Speaking Market' and has taught numerous authors, coaches, consultants, trainers, and aspiring, beginning, as well as experienced speakers how to take their message to the college market and make a ton of money!

James is hosting some special preview training calls before his huge College Speaking Boot Camp in December. On these calls, James will prepare you for your Boot Camp experience by sharing money-making ideas for speaking at colleges and universities, youth events, corporations and associations. Plus, you'll even hear from special guest speakers on the calls.

It doesn't cost a dime to listen in on the calls so I hope you’ll take advantage of it! Then, give it some thought, and realize how you can boost your career, your book sales, your coaching fees, and your income by adding speaking engagements on college campuses to your offerings.

If you can’t attend the live calls, register anyway, and afterwards you’ll be sent a link to a recorded audio – you’ll be able to listen online or download it to your MP3 player.

Colleges have large budgets for booking speakers, authors,trainers, coaches and consultants, but the trick is knowing who the people are who have the money. Here is some of what you’ll discover during these no-cost calls:

• Why there's BIG money in the college market;
• Which topics are most in demand and why;
• Which departments have the budgets to book you;
• Who you must contact to get booked as a college speaker;
• How to create marketing materials that will get you noticed and booked;
• And much more!

Speaking at colleges is one of those things that is most definitely Better Than a Business Card™. Add it to that book you're going to write and you've got yourself a real winner! I encourage you to seriously consider adding college speaking to your repertoire and attending James' Boot Camp--he even offers a 100% money-back guarantee, so what have you got to lose!

I'm afraid of stepping up to that podium...now what?

It's an all-too-common lament, "I'm terrified to stand up in front of a crowd of people to talk for an hour...or even ten minutes." I can definitely relate! My stomach would be in knots while waiting my turn to present to the class when I was in grad school. It didn't make sense, really, because I was tremendously prepared. But growing up as a shy, self-conscious kid doesn't just melt away in adulthood, apparently.

When I did get up to make my presentations, though, I did a good job. I spoke up loud and clear, and managed not to knock all my overheads onto the floor. So I pulled out good ratings on those, despite the coronary I had in the process.

The key here was preparation. Lots of it. If I had not been (overly) prepared to take the podium, I would have been in the running for a Most Embarrassing Moments in Speaking History prize. So to give yourself the best chance at success, I recommend that you only accept speaking engagements that allow you lots and lots of time to gather your material, organize your thoughts, prepare great visuals, and truly internalize your entire talk.

Practicing at home is a great way to prepare, too. Even practice handling papers or overheads if you'll be using them, or get intimately familiar with your laptop and Power Point so you can quickly overcome any technical glitches. The  more you've actually, physically done what you will do at the event, the more likely that your body will be able to kick into autopilot and get the job done, even if you're nervous.

My other piece of advice, which I actually got from my children's public speaking videos, is to stop thinking about yourself and think only of your audience. Unfortunately for me, I learned this one talk too late. I was presenting an informal, informational seminar on international adoption (my husband and I have four beautiful daughters from China). I was terribly nervous...and it showed. Why? Because I was thinking of myself and how nervous I was plus, for the section where I had to discuss paperwork requirements for different countries, I wasn't as prepared as I could have been.

Before the second time I had to present this same seminar, the kids and I started working on a set of public speaking training videos. Thinking about your audience was the very first, and truly valuable, tip they presented. So the next time I got up in front of a dozen couples anxious to hear how they could start or expand their families through adoption, I thought about them. I thought about myself when I first went to one of these seminars--how I didn't care what the person looked like up there, just that they gave me the information I needed about how to proceed and showed how blessed they were to have gotten their children.

It worked! People who witnessed both seminars were flabbergasted at the difference. Night and day. They wanted to know what I did to create that amazing transformation. Now, I'm no professional speaker and I still sweat at the mere thought of talking to a crowd, but I can now survive the experience and help the people who are listening to me meet their goals of gathering information.

So, the bottom line is: prepare, prepare, then prepare some more so your talk becomes second nature to you, and stop thinking about how you feel about speaking and think about what your audience wants to learn...and give it to them wholeheartedly. If you still can't stand the thought of speaking, there are plenty of other ways to get your message out and showcase your abilities, so stay tuned.

Booking speaking engagements when there's no budget to pay you

One of the best ways for folks new to the speaking arena to get their feet wet is to offer to speak for free to non-profit organizations. If those go well, you'll want to move on to getting paid, but you may run into the challenge of groups working with very small budgets.

1. Suggest to the organization wanting you to speak that they partner with another organization to share the expenses. This can be a great win-win-win: both organizations get a valuable event and you get a larger audience of potential new clients or customers.
2. Suggest to the organization that they find a corporate sponsor to foot the bill for the event in exchange for exposure. Be sure to graciously thank the sponsor at the beginning and end of your talk.
3. Offer a discount for booking several speaking engagements and lower the price on each.
4. Barter. Depending on the nature of the organization that wants to have you speak, you may be able to arrange for a trade of services or product.
5. Split the fees with the organization if attendees will be paying to hear you speak.
6. Offer a discount on your group talk if you'll be doing other consulting or coaching work with the same organization.

As the saying goes, "where there's a will, there's a way." Don't let a lack of funds keep you from presenting to a 'target rich' audience.

But who would want to listen to me?

So...you're not known for your speaking abilities, but you realize that getting out in front of a group of people is an excellent way to showcase your expertise. Now the challenge is to find an audience. A great place to find one is through local non-profit organizations. Non-profits are always looking for speakers for events from small weekly meetings to their annual awards dinner or conference. Their challenge is their budget...often they don't have one for paying speakers so they can't afford the high-priced 'names.' Do you see a win-win situation developing here?

You need to get your feet wet in the speaking arena...you want to create some publicity for yourself and your business or practice...and you want to show people what you're capable of. Perfect. If you're anywhere near a metropolitan area, there are at least a dozen non-profit organizations looking for a speaker just like you...right now. They want someone interesting...someone they can afford...and someone who will provide value to their members and attendees.

So where do you start? By tracking down all the non-profit groups in your area, then sorting them by their focus: community service organizations, health-related groups, historical associations, and so on. Now, don't get discouraged if you're an expert in relationships and you can't find a local chapter of the We Need Relationship Therapy Association. These groups don't invite only speakers who are experts in the group's focus area--they want to give their members more value than that by providing a well-balanced mix of events.

Your tasks are to find a topic you can speak on and a way to make it applicable to the group's membership. Maybe a relationship-oriented talk would go over particularly well around Mother's and Father's Days, and just before Thanksgiving and Christmastime. A financial talk would do well around the holidays, in January, and just before and during tax time. A teamwork-focused session might do particulary well in the spring and early summer as many corporate groups are thinking of off-site teambuilding events. Many executives participate in and are on the boards of these non-profits, so your talk, generously offered gratis, may be just the way to get your foot in the door to paid speaking, coaching, or consulting engagements.

If a business card won't get me noticed...what will?

Are you one of those unfortunate people who didn't get any public speaking training in school? or are you one of those who shrunk to the back wall of the room, hoping not to get called on to make a presentation? If so...it's time to take this bull by the horns and get yourself ready to do some speaking!

If you work for yourself, particularly as a consultant or coach, what's the best way to let your potential clients know how good you are? Show them! There are many ways to do that, and this blog will try to cover them all, but one of the best is to get out there and speak!

Never spoken to a large group before? Look up your local Toastmasters group at www.Toastmasters.org and get involved. They offer instruction on how to improve your speaking performance as well as many opportunities to practice, from just a couple minutes to a full-length talk. These groups are great because there's no pressure on you to make a sale...you might not even be speaking on your specialty. Then, again, you never know who else is there--you could end up with frosting on your cake by making a valuable business contact.