Brief Overview

Speaking to live audiences can be tremendously profitable… with the right plan. I’ll tell you the two primary ways to leverage every speaking opportunity you get.

• Download as an MP3 by right clicking here and choosing “save as.”
• RSS feed for Marketing Your Business

Big Ideas

[03:24] There are 2 primary ways to leverage speaking opportunities to grow your business. The 1st way is to generate leads. In other words, you get the contact information from a percentage of people who are in the audience. This gives you an opportunity to follow up with them. The 2nd primary way to leverage speaking opportunities to grow your business is by selling something directly from the stage you’re speaking on, or even from an exhibitor booth or something like that.

Now, I believe there is actually a few more ways to leverage speaking engagements…

[04:00] The 3rd way to leverage speaking engagements—Positioning & Awareness. If you’re featured on a big stage, you’ll be positioned differently in the minds of the audience. Not only that, but you’ll build more awareness, as you’ll be getting in front of people who may not otherwise be exposed to you, your products and services.  

[04:27] The 4th way to leverage speaking engagements is to capture the video of your talk and use it to create future content. For instance, I capture and re-purpose my talks on stage to create my marketing materials.

[05:50] I recently joined a group of high level entrepreneurs being led by Pete Vargas, who has become widely known for his ability to land stages. Not only that, but he shows others  (like me) his step-by-step approach. In this group I’m a part of, Pete shared his system in terms of how he leverages speaking to grow a business. He breaks it down into 3 parts…

1. Pre-game: Everything that you do prior to the speaking engagement. So, things like finding and identifying events, conferences, and seminars that you want to speak at, reaching out, negotiating contracts, selling yourself, etc.
2. Game-time: Everything you do at the actual event. Clearly identifying a purpose for your presentation and why you’re speaking at the event. Then having a strategy to maximize whatever your intention is.
3. Post-game: Everything that happens after the speaking engagement. One of the biggest mistakes that speakers make is that they deliver a great presentation, but then have no follow-up in place. This is the greatest opportunity to capture a lead and/or make a sale.

[10:21] “Speaking” does not only refer to speaking live and on stage. You can also take advantage of digital stages. E.g. Podcasts, Facebook Live, etc.    

Memorable Quotes

“I guarantee you, there are speaking opportunities that you could be taking advantage of.” – Stu McLaren

“I’d like to speak on bigger and bigger stages, therefore, maximizing the opportunity. Because I’m not going to be a road warrior. I just don’t like being away from my family.” – Stu McLaren

Resources

Funnel Hacking Live
Click Funnels
Pete Vargas
Tribe – Join the Waiting List

Rate & Review the Podcast

Reviews for the podcast on iTunes and greatly appreciated! They help us build awareness for the show, which in turn allows us to bring value to more listeners like you. Not only that, but they help us better understand what matters the most to you so that we can constantly improve. If you received value from this episode, it would mean the world if you could take a moment and leave your honest rating and review. You can do that by clicking here.