Speaker Success Strategies

Food for Some Very Serious Thought...
By Randy Gage
Feb 26, 2003, 10:00

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President Bush is getting ready to start bombing Iraq. Last Friday, the U.S. State Department upgraded the terror alert from Yellow to Orange, indicating a high potential for attacks with chemical and biological weapons in the next few weeks.

So here’s the million-dollar question for you...

If George W. starts dropping bombs in a couple weeks, and there are reprisals, or even just the serious threat of reprisals – and travel gets more of a hassle, the economy gets worse, and more conventions and trainings are canceled – what are you going to do to pay your bills?

I’ve been writing you pretty regularly the last few weeks. Mostly because the final Speakers Institute is coming up, and I wanted to make sure you had all the details. So I wasn’t planning to write you again, until after that event was over.

But the events of the last few days have changed my mind...

When the Orange alert was issued, I was at the National Speakers Association Winter Workshop in California. I always look forward to these, as they give me an opportunity to rejuvenate, learn, and get inspired on many new projects. What a difference this one was!

I went to a session by a sales trainer. This particular trainer was the first professional speaker I heard when I became a speaker myself, about ten years ago. I was so impressed with him then.

Now he was talking about how hard it was to pay his mortgage. He has no e-products, and isn’t even selling his regular products on the Internet. His website is done by a 16-year-old kid. He has no residual income at all. If he doesn’t get a speech, he lives on savings. As long as that holds out. Everywhere I turned, I heard the same thing. People crying about 9/11, the dot-com meltdown, reduced training budgets and the like. It just served to reinforce something I’ve been telling you for years...

You need to be diversified. Products, consulting, coaching, public seminars, and the Internet. Things that make you money without getting on an airplane. Things that make you money while you sleep.

I would estimate that 80% of my income comes from non-speaking income. So when I lost a couple speeches for 9/11, I had other areas picking up. I actually lost a lot more from the strike in Venezuela than 9/11, because I have five dates in Latin America on hold because of that.

Not to worry, because I just sold a $100,000 sponsorship for a seminar I’ve got coming up in Central Europe. In fact, I’m getting a total of $250,000 in sponsorship for that one program! Not to mention the other quarter of a million I’ll make on registrations. And don’t get me started on product sales.

One thing the weekend in California did do is make me realize how out of touch most speakers are with reality. They are still slogging along with the broken model of trying to cadge individual speeches here and there. And they think they’re in a slowdown from September 11th. They think the worst is over and good times are on the way.

Think about this...

There is no exit strategy for speakers. Once you can’t travel and speak any more, what will you do? Who would buy your business? What is it worth without you?

What is your income mix right now? What percent of your business comes from non-speaking income? How much money did you make while you were sleeping last night? How many profitable websites do you have? And then go back to my original question...

When George W. starts dropping bombs – and even more conventions and meetings are canceled – what are you going to do to pay your bills???!!!

Please. Get proactive NOW! If you are already registered for my final Speakers Institute, finish the homework and get it in to me. If you are not registered – do it now! We have obtained a slightly larger room and can probably fit in about eight more people before we have to close it off.

Of course, we’ll cover how to get bookings, working with Speakers Bureaus, developing information products, getting publicity, selling information products, promoting public seminars, and building a multi-million-dollar consulting business. But I am really going to expand the sections on the Internet, and how you make money without speaking.

For the Internet segment, we’re going to do something like you have never seen before. Ford Saeks and Alicia Gregg from Prime Concepts Group will be joining me there. I will be picking out a volunteer from the attendees, and we will actually build their website while you watch and learn how.

We will include their programs, bio, booking information and build the actual shopping cart with their products. Then I’ll show you how to set up your meta-tags to get the most traffic from search engines.

Next, we will open an account with a pay-per-click search engine and register the appropriate key words for that speaker. Then we will check in over the remainder of the Institute to see the number of hits, track the actual sales, and analyze where they came from!

Having Ford and Alicia there will bring a tremendous amount of added value for you. Ford has forgotten more about computers and the Internet than most of the so-called “experts” know. He and Alicia build all of my websites, and created the infrastructure that hosts my Internet coaching program. Alicia is very bright, and can help you understand all of this computer stuff in layperson’s terms.

We’ll also teach you how to start an e-zine, how to grow the subscriber list, and then make tens of thousands of dollars in product sales with your e-zine. You will leave with your own e-zine conceptualized, and your binder will have plenty of examples of successful e-zines I had done. We’ll even check in all week to see how the sign ups are going for the volunteer whose site we built.

By the way, that’s isn’t all. I’ve invited my good friend Tom Antion to join us as well. Tom runs his entire business on the Internet, and he’s made quite a name for himself in online circles. He doesn’t print sales letters, catalogs or anything paper. He just markets online, and he’s doing great with it. He will share with you how he built his e-zine list up to more than 150,000 subscribers!

Two other important segments of note...

We will do an entire segment on how you start and manage a coaching and mentoring program. I think almost every speaker and consultant should offer some kind of program like this. It gives your audiences and clients an opportunity to get personalized attention, and better implement the things you teach. From your end, it gives you tremendous fulfillment, and a great source of residual income. As in money without getting on an airplane!

The Internet based coaching program that I launched last year has already brought in more than a quarter of a million dollars. This year it will go into the millions. I’ll dissect exactly what I’m doing, so you can adapt and work out a strategy for your own program. Just this segment alone will justify your investment in the conference about ten times over.

One more thing...

I am going to launch four new products on day one of the Institute. It’s a book series on Prosperity. I am going to offer them as both downloadable e-books, and in the paperback versions. You will witness as we launch them, and then follow along as the orders come streaming in, real time! I’ll show you how you could have a downloadable product ready and being sold—within three weeks after the Institute. This is the kind of sales you need. Non-airplane income, and best of all, money you can make while you are sleeping!

If you want to still be in business after the bombs drop, you’d better be setting yourself up with diversified income. If you already have that, my hat is off to you. You’ve planned ahead, and you know how to leverage what you have to offer.

If you are not protected, please get to the Institute. And if you can’t possibly get there, better pre-order the Home Study Program now, so you get it as soon as the CDs are finished. You can get all the details at www.SpeakersInstitute.com.

I do hope you’ll be joining us in San Diego. Have a great week!


-RG

© MMXI Randy Gage. All Rights Reserved.

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