How to use a Book to Get Speaking Engagements

Welcome to the best seller secrets podcast where business owners and experts come to learn how to write a best selling book and use it to grow their income and their impact. I’m your host, Rob Kosberg. And today we’re going to talk about how I use what I call the tap process to attract as many speaking engagements as I like and as you would like to grow your business and your income, and your impact. First of all, let’s dive in and talk about what a speaking engagement is, and really how to think about speaking engagements. Not long ago, I was invited to speak at a conference. And it was a former client of mine that introduced me, and I would get a $5,000 speaking fee, it was a simple one hour speech that I would be giving. It would be on growing your sales to a sales organization. And this sales organization, I knew that the people that I was going to be speaking to weren’t really ideal clients. For me, they weren’t a great fit. However, I realized, okay, this is 5000 bucks. I don’t have to fly anywhere. Literally, it’s down the street from where I live. And it’s an hour what could go wrong, right or so I thought, well, something actually significantly went wrong. And that was I didn’t look at the agreement. I didn’t look at the contract. And I didn’t realize that the date coincided with an event that I was going to be speaking at for free. I’ve spoken at the Funnel Hacking live event that Russell Brunson puts on for click funnels. For a number of years, I have been in Russell’s inner circle mastermind since almost its inception, and helped Russell with a number of book launches, etc, as well as a number of people in the inner circle, the Clickfunnels inner circle. And and so I was invited to to speak, to do a roundtable discussion. Typically, these events are very, very large, they’re now as large as five to 7000 people, I have never gone to an event like that and spoken where my ideal clients are and not gotten even six figures worth of clients. Well, I did not realize but the event took place on the exact same day that I was invited to do this roundtable for Click Funnels, I had already signed the agreement. By the time I realized that we were months in this sales organization could not find a new speaker. And so I had to forego my opportunity to do a round table at Click Funnels for this $5,000 speaking engagement. So that is not a made up story. That is actually the truth. And I lost at least $100,000 in opportunities in business because I accepted a $5,000 engagement. Now, you may say, Well, that’s firstworldproblems Rob, and I would love to have that kind of problem. And I understand but if we’re going to use a book, to attract speaking engagements, and to speak on stages, the very first thing we need to do is we need to make sure that we approach speaking engagements the correct way. Now, if the only thing you think of when you think of speaking engagements, is someone writes you a check. And for that exchange of dollars, you are going to give a certain number of hours where you show up on stage and you perform that we are thinking about speaking engagements a little bit differently. See I as a business owner, want to use a speaking engagement to grow my business. Ultimately, I would really like to limit my travel, speak as much as possible, even right here in my home office right here on my own stage, and still attract a very, very high number of clients and opportunities. Now you may say, Well, I’d like to be on the road, I’d like to do that no problem at all. You can certainly use your book to attract any kind of speaking engagement. But before you dive in, and start using your book with the tap process that I’m going to give you in just a moment, I want you to first take a step back and consider what type of speaking engagements Am I really interested in. Even if you get paid, let’s say as much as $10,000, which I’ve never been paid that much to speak. I’ve been paid five to $7,000 to do engagements. But let’s say that you are getting 10,000 hours for an engagement. Do you realize to make a half a million bucks, you’ve got to be on the road 50 weeks a year? Do you really want to do that? Now you may say that sounds like fun. And that’s exciting. And I’ll tell you a story in just a few minutes about a client of mine that actually did 98 paid engagements using her book in only an 18 month period she did over seven figures in speaking fees. And for people that love to travel and they love the excitement of that thing. Fantastic, more power to you. But you know what, if you think of speaking engagements as a way to get in front of your ideal client, and you sell something, a service coaching consulting, that is high ticket, it’s 5000 10,000 50,000 100,000, then being in the right room can make you hundreds of 1000s of dollars, even if you’re in that room for free, meaning that they didn’t pay you anything. They didn’t pay for your travel, you got out there yourself, but you’re speaking in front of your ideal audience. So the very first step right in the tap process is the T. And that is figure out who your target audience really is, who do you really want to be speaking to, as a business owner, as somebody that helps experts and entrepreneurs to write a best selling book, and then use that best selling book to grow their business, I want to be in front of coaches, consultants, financial advisors, doctors, dentists, orthodontists, those that have some type of high ticket practice, or service, or coaching that they offer, if I can get in front of them, I can show them how a best selling book, we’re really take their business to the next level. And because they’re busy entrepreneurs, I can also show them, hey, we can take all of this workload off you and show you exactly how to do it. In fact, in most cases, we can even do it for you build all of that stuff out. If you can do something like that for a client, then don’t just take a check from anybody that wants to have you come think in terms of how can I get in front of my ideal audience. So the very first thing you want to think about with the tap process is who really is your target audience. And when you think about your target audience, you’re going to consider, okay, what conferences? Are they at? What associations? Do they belong to? What corporations are they a part of or within? When you figure out what that list is, my suggestion is that you make a list of 50 to 100 of the ideal conferences, associations, private organizations, that your ideal clients are at now remember, every Association has national events, regional events, state events, local events, okay? So even and there are 10s of 1000s of associations around the country in the United States alone, let alone around the world. So even an a single association might have dozens and even 100, or more events in a year where you can be on those stages. So if you’re a beginning speaker, no problem, right, because you can speak on a more local stage and get in front of your ideal audience, even though it might only be 2040 50 or 100. People, you can always build up to the regional, state and national stages down the road. That is the same for most conferences, associations, and private organizations. So begin making your list. This is where my ideal client is. This is the group of people that I want to get in front of, and here are all their conferences, here are all their meetings, their state, their local, their regional, their national, etc. Okay, so, first step, make that list think through what your real target is, what conferences, associations and private organizations do those people belong to, and then begin making your list of that. Step number two is we are going to prepare our assets. That is the A in the tap process, prepare our assets. What does that mean? Well, as a speaker, you need a landing page, you need something with speaking information doesn’t have to be super fancy, but it needs to be professional, and it should be great. So it can be a couple of images of you speaking it certainly needs information about your bio, ideally, samples of speaking etc. You should have a speaker one sheet, or what we call at another company of mine authority speakers agency, a celebrity speaker sheet. This is something that really makes you look like the celebrity you are it has your various PR appearances. It has information about your book, information about the kind of clients that you serve, et cetera. Ideally, you also want to have a sample of your speaking and if you have some testimonials, you want to have those as well. These are all assets that you’re gonna have both from the standpoint of sending information out, as well as assets that people can go to, on your website, etc. Where they can see these videos. They can see testimonials, they can get information about you and they can feel like okay, this is the right person to speak at my event. So we start with the target. We figure out we build a list of 50 to 100 At least we then move on we make sure that all of our assets are in order they look Great so that we present ourselves in the absolute most positive way possible. Step number three has some multiple kind of a, b and C’s to it. And that is we want to start a process, right? So tap target assets, P process, what is a process? Well, a process is something that is systematic, meaning that this isn’t something that you just do one time, and you cross your fingers and hope it works forever. But this is something that you’re going to do over and over and over again. And this is where your best selling book comes in handy. Something you need to understand is that if you’re trying to get on a stage, even a state or local or regional stage, not necessarily a national, certainly true with a national as well, though, is you’re probably in competition with hundreds of other speakers, meaning that they’re looking at people that are speaking on the same topics, they’re considered experts as well. And they may even have more authority, or maybe a little bit more experience than you do. So you need something that is going to set you apart. Well, how do you start? Well, like many things, speaking engagements are often one because of relationships, right? We do business with people we know, like, and trust. So if these people don’t know you at all, we have got to introduce you to them in a way that frames you as the expert, how do we do that? We do that with your best selling book. So here’s the process that we follow. And I’ll tell you about Amy, a former client that now as a business partner of mine, Amy use this tap process, and in particular, the P part of it the process to book herself on 98 stages over an 18 month period where the lowest fee was $5,000. Now she loves travel. And she’s single, and she just wanted to see the world and get out there. And that’s fantastic. I’m a little older and crotchety and I love my dogs, and they don’t want to travel. But if you’re the person that wants to be on the road, here’s how you do it. So what she did, and what we teach is you, you make that list, you know the name, you know, their contact information, you know, their mailing address, their email, et cetera, you are going to send them a copy of your best selling book, this is your process, your best selling book is going to frame you as the expert, you will also have an introductory letter in that book, something that lets them know that hey, I’m interested in speaking at your upcoming conference, I see that your conference is about ABC, that’s the title. Well, I am an expert on a here’s my best selling book on that topic, you may not have time to read the entire book. But if you go to page 106, you’ll see a great story that illustrates how I help people on this subject matter. Right, so you’re introducing yourself this, this speaker coordinator has never heard of you, this event coordinator doesn’t know who you are. But you’re introducing yourself in a way where you’re leading with the giving hand, you’re giving them something for free a copy of your best selling book, you’re pointing them to a place in your best selling book that illustrates that you’re an expert on the topic. And you have a cover letter in that, that really helps them to understand that this is what you’re interested in. And hey, let’s get on a telephone call and take next steps. Okay, so that’s the first thing to do, you’re going to send your book, you’re going to send the cover letter, you’re going to direct them to a place in the book that will help them to understand who you are. From there, you’re going to follow up with a telephone call follow up is really important. Now what I always suggest is that you just pay a virtual assistant to do these follow up calls for you. If you send out two or three books every single week to your list of 50 or 100 speaking engagements, then your virtual assistant is only going to need to make an hour worth of telephone calls in a week. So very, very inexpensive to pay somebody to do it. And when you have somebody else calling on your behalf, then you look like even more of a rockstar than you calling on your behalf. Now, with that said, if you don’t want to hire a virtual assistant, you still need to be the one to call and that will work great for you. I have a client of mine, Roddy Chong, who that’s what he does, he follows up directly himself and he books himself for $25,000 speaking engagements. Now he is the lead violinist for Shanaya Twain, and Celine Dion in the past and now the Trans Siberian Orchestra. So he’s got a pretty great reputation, but he is the person actually does the follow up call. My suggestion though, have a virtual assistant do it. And here’s the thing you’re gonna do this over and over all you want your assistant to do or you is to set an appointment with the decision maker to get to know them. Hey, this is what this is like a little mini script that your assistant may use, say Ring ring. Hello, may I speak to Miss Jones, I’m sorry, Miss Jones is unavailable mask who’s calling? Sure My name is Rob, I am setting appointment or I am following up and make sure you got a copy of my boss’s best selling book, my boss’s schedule is filling up over this coming fall, I know you have an event coming up. And so we want to see if there’s a synergy, could we get a call with your boss, Miss Jones and my boss, just as a get to know each other call to see if there’s a possibility for this upcoming event. That’s it, all you’re trying to do is schedule a meet and greet between the virtual assistant between a meet and greet between you and the person that makes the decision about this virtual or this live event that you’re going to be speaking at. And guess what, some of them, you’re not going to get an appointment with fine, some of them, you’re going to get an appointment with immediately, but there’s not going to be a good fit, there’s not going to be a good synergy. But some of them are going to book you because you are exactly what they need. You are the best selling author on the subject, and you followed up or had somebody follow up with you. Now here’s the thing, if you send out five or 10 books, and it doesn’t work for you just understand, this is a process member tap right, find your target, put your assets together and then start a process a process is not I’m just going to send out a few books and cross my fingers. No, a process is you continue sending the books out, you continue making the telephone calls, and it will hit it will work for you. And here’s the coolest thing. It builds a tremendous amount of momentum. And what that momentum does is it packs your schedule up. And it allows you to incrementally raise your fees, because you’re going to have more and more opportunities. In fact, you may get to the point where you have more speaking engagements and opportunities, then you know what to do with. That’s the tap process. The magic of the tap process is twofold. Number one, the magic is using your best selling book to frame yourself as an expert on the very topic that they’re conferences about. And then step two, the magic is in the follow up, right? You introduce yourself with the book, and then you follow up until it leads to a call to see if you guys like each other and then you move on from there. If you just do those two things, I guarantee you’re gonna book yourself for speaking engagements. And in fact, you may be able to book yourself to the point where your fees are 5000 10,000 $20,000 and above, that’s the tap process. That’s how you use your best selling book to grow your income and your impact with speaking engagements. If you want to learn a little bit more I go into even more detail in my book, publish promote profit you can get it publishedpromoteprofit.com You can get it as a discount there with over $1,000 worth the bonuses as well.