Expand Your Fempire Podcast #158 Transcript

Being a Loud and Proud Speaker:
Strategies to Boost Your Visibility and Bookings

 

Welcome to Expand your Fempire with Caterina Rando, the podcast for women in business on a mission. Sharing ideas to support you to grow and thrive. Now here’s your host, Caterina Rando.

[00:00:27] Caterina Rando: This is Caterina Rando and I am blissing to be back with you for another episode of the Expand Your Fempire podcast. Today we are gonna talk about a very important, very hot topic. In fact, I sat down to prepare for my podcast with you today and I started to work on a completely different topic.

And when I got to this section, I said, “you know what? This needs to be [00:01:00] its own episode because there is so much to explore here.”

And let me tell you what that hot topic is. Our hot topic today is being loud and proud that you are a speaker. Loud and proud that you are a speaker, not only to get you more bookings, being loud and proud that you are a speaker, to bring more opportunities to you, to increase your visibility and your authority, and to create more magic, more memories, more amazingness in your business.

I have been doing my thing for 30 years, more than 30 years now. One of my best memories ever of life is going [00:02:00] 26 years ago to Venice, Italy, speaking at the International Congress of Business and Professional women. Meeting women from 87 countries.

I took my dad with me. He had the time of his life. We went to the gala. He was the only guy there besides the waiters and the women in all their costumes from their countries of origin. He had the best time of his life. I had the best time of my life.

Speaking. Brought that to me. I got myself booked for that speaking engagement.

Speaking brought me to New Zealand. I spoke at the National Convention of the New Zealand Speakers Association. Met amazing speakers. Met speakers who had impacted me. It was books I had read who I was so [00:03:00] excited to be in the same room with.

And of course, speaking has brought to me literally hundreds if not thousands of amazing clients.

The only way to get booked, to get people at your events, to have speaking opportunities come to you is when you are loud and proud that you are a speaker.

Now, before we dive into our ways that I wanna make sure you are using, I wanna let you know that in my work and in our time together, i’m not trying to make you a motivational razzle-dazzle speaker. I’m looking at this from the perspective of what I call a “speakerpreneur.”[00:04:00]

A speakerpreneur is an entrepreneur who sees the value and uses speaking to get in front of new people to invite to be your clients, to get in front of new people to serve. Who uses speaking to build revenue with retreats and group programs and workshops and seminars. If that’s you, you wanna listen here.

Right now I am gonna give you my loud and proud speaker challenge. Here it is.

If you are loud and proud speaker, you have speaker on your business card. If you don’t have business cards anymore, you have a speaker in your email signature. You have speaker in your digital [00:05:00] business card. You have speaker in your profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook and instagram. On your Facebook business page.

Why? Because it’s searchable. Why on LinkedIn? Because it’s searchable.

If someone searches for “wellness speaker,” if you are a health professional, guess what? You’re gonna come up. But if you just have their wellness coach or health coach, sorry for you. Your speaking opportunity will go to someone else.

Pause this podcast right now. Go and check. Do you have speaker on your instagram, your Facebook, your LinkedIn, any other socials that you’re on?

Does it say speaker? If not, add it immediately. That’s a easy thing that you can do.

Next. Your website. [00:06:00] Do you have a page on your website for speaking? That says, “Sheila, whatever your name is, Sheila is an amazing speaker who brings massive value to her audiences. Here are her most requested speaking topics.”

Now my friend, I know you’re super smart, you could talk about 25 different things. However, remember I’m talking to you as a speakerpreneur.

I want you to talk about what matches what you sell.

For example, many years ago I used to teach proactive dating strategies because I like dating. I thought it was fun and I wanted to help other people do it. I had a great workshop. I still have a great workshop on proactive dating strategies. I had so much fun giving my talk, but then after a while I realized I’m putting a lot of time out for [00:07:00] something that is not giving me any ROI.

I was not a dating coach. I did not have dating products. I was just doing it for fun. Well, fun is fine. When you’re running a business, you have to look at what do you talk about that matches what you sell.

Because here’s the other thing. If you talk about topics that don’t match what you sell, it dilutes your audience understanding of what you do.

For example, I could absolutely give a talk on style and how to look great all the time, and I’ve got all my super amazing style resources that I’ve put together. Love it.

But then I’m confusing the marketplace… is Caterina now a style coach? No, I am not a style coach. I’m a style enthusiast, which is why I will [00:08:00] smatter some style tips and smatter some style resources in a talk every now and then, but I’m not giving speeches on it. Because that would confuse my audience. Are you with me?

I speak on selling. I speak on speaking. I speak on strategy to expand your Fempire. And sometimes I talk on how to create your own retreats. Because as you know, I love to do retreats.

Three topics is what I for sure want to see on your website, not 10. Two is fine, one is fine. Three is the ideal number.

Here’s the other thing. I want you to maximize your time. I don’t want you to take time to put together 10 talks when you’re not selling 10 things. You probably have one or two or three [00:09:00] areas that are really all under one umbrella, like health and wellness or marketing or technology or finance. There’s three topics under there. Not 30.

If I go to your website right now, is it gonna be easy for me to see the topics you talk about? Is there gonna be a little description? Is there gonna be a little bio? Is there gonna be a list of places you’ve already presented at? Is there gonna be a couple of pictures of you presenting? Is there gonna be maybe a video of you presenting?

Even if it’s a Zoom video of you presenting, that’s fine, my friend, because you know what? A lot of your speaking is gonna be virtual.

I love virtual speaking. I love live and in person speaking too. Live and in person is better. However, it takes 10 to 30 times more time. Last month I did 16 speeches in one month, [00:10:00] only one of them was live and in person. This month I’m doing four live and in person and nine speeches, including virtual.

I’m hoping that you are really focused on both live and in person and virtual presenting.

For your website, don’t hesitate to put a clip on there of you presenting in a virtual room, but make sure that your the big smile on the screen and not one of several little boxes.

Okay. Pause this episode right now to go and check your website, see what’s there. Maybe say, “oh yeah, I thought I had a speaker page.” Well maybe you haven’t looked at it in a while. Let’s make sure it’s current on your current hot topics.

And if you don’t have anything there yet, my friend, pause this podcast, write up your [00:11:00] three topics, and let’s be very clear, done is better than perfect. That’s the beauty of a website. You can change it whenever you want.

What are your three topics or one or two? And make sure your title focuses on the benefit. For example, if somebody asks me what I talk on, I usually say “how to gain insta clients with speaking or how to achieve sales bliss.”

Sales is the topic. Achieving sales bliss includes the benefit, right? Speaking is the topic. Gaining insta -clients when you speak shares the benefit. Make sure your titles are benefit focused.

Then simply share, and you could even do bullet points, three things the audience is gonna learn when they’re with you. Again, benefit focused.

My friend. Do not overthink this. Get something up [00:12:00] there. The sooner you have something up there, the sooner you can be louder and prouder that you are a speaker and you can get more bookings. And that’s what we’re talking about today. Bing, bing, bing.

Next, are you using your social media to be loud and proud that you’re a speaker? Here’s some ways I’d like you to use it, and I’d like you to make these ways SOPs, Standard Operating Procedures.

When you get booked for a speech, celebrate the booking. Post “hey, my friends, I’m Blissing. I just got booked to speak at X, Y, Z Group, X, Y, Z location, X, Y, Z organization on the topic of X, Y, Z.” Whatever your topic is.

Very important for you to share your topic. Don’t make the assumption everybody knows what you talk about. They don’t. In fact, most of your social followers and [00:13:00] friends and connections probably don’t even know you’re a speaker, which is all the more reason why you wanna be loud and proud about it.

You share this place, you’re speaking, you share the topic, and then you say, “I’m looking for more groups of X, Y, Z.” Whoever your ideal audiences are- moms, professionals, women over 50, whatever it is.

Be loud and proud about the topic, about the audiences you’re looking for, and then you say, “what groups can you refer me to?”

Make sure, of course, that you include a picture of you and the person who just booked you, if that’s possible. Bing, bing, bing. Okay. That is an SOP to do a post when you get the booking.

Then of course you do a post of you after the event, raving about the event, [00:14:00] raving about the audience, how amazing they were, raving again about the organization. And again, sharing the topic and again, asking for other places that your connections, followers, friends, know where you can get booked. This is SOP.

By the way, make sure this is on your checklist for post events and speeches. And this is both virtual and live and in person. Take a picture of the screen and post it. I know it’s not as exciting as some other places you talk. But still it gets the point across.

What’s our topic today? Being loud and proud that you are a speaker for more bookings.

 And let me tell you something. When I teach how to get booked in our Speaker Mastermind program, we always take time for booking, focusing on getting booked. We do what we call a “insta booking [00:15:00] blitz” where people do posts about speaking.

I have had gals in my program get as many as six, my friend, no exaggeration, “insta bookings” within 30 minutes when we’re doing a booking blitz.

Are you being loud and proud in this way? If not, please make it SOP, Standard Operating Procedure.

Now, I have also had gals tell me, “Caterina. You made me do that post, I asked people to refer me. Nobody referred nothing. I was not happy with you. And then two weeks later I got a booking and they in fact wanted to even pay me to talk.” This is what I’ve heard.

Let’s be very clear. When we’re talking about hosting emails, calls, reach outs, all these things we do in our business.

All the time gals are saying to me, I, I did all [00:16:00] those reach outs. I got nothing, my friend. It’s not that you got nothing, you simply didn’t get any “insta” something. We’re always looking for the “insta” something. Not all our results are “insta.”

Being loud and proud gets you some results hopefully now. Hopefully down the road too. Which is why we wanna be consistently loud and proud that you are my friend, a speaker.

Here is another important one I wanna make sure you’re doing twice a year. Again, this is what loud and proud speakers do.

Have you sent a dedicated email to your list that says pretty much what it says on your speaker website? Where it says, “my friends, you may or may not know that in addition to the amazing service I [00:17:00] provide, I also frequently speak. These are my most requested topics. What groups can you connect me with where I can present?” And share, of course the audiences you present to, the types of audiences. Put your contact information.

You can even say “anyone that refers me and the next month is gonna get an extra special something.” Especially women. We love gifts. We love special somethings. A swag bag, a bonus session, whatever it is. This is all part of being loud and proud and incentivizing your contacts can only result in more bookings. Bing, bing, bing.

Right now, pause the podcast. Go schedule. When are you gonna do a dedicated email to your list about your speaking? Now, [00:18:00] hopefully this is gonna be after your speaker page is on your site and in your profiles per our discussion.

Next, go to your schedule and put on your calendar. When you are gonna write that dedicated email or when you’re gonna talk to whoever’s gonna write it for you.

Be a woman of action. Don’t overthink this. Done is better than perfect.

 Next, when you are speaking, make sure your audience knows that you’re looking for more bookings.

One of the things I do is if I’m giving a talk on speaking, I make sure I tell my audience that I also speak on sales and strategy and retreats.

If I’m speaking on how to do retreats, I make sure my audience knows I also speak on speaking and sales and [00:19:00] strategy. Are you doing that as a standard operating procedure every time you’re giving a talk? I’m hoping the answer is yes. If not, put that on your pre and during speech checklist.

The other thing is I’m sure you’re already on top of sending out emails after your talk to your audience, inviting them to your next thing, inviting them to talk to you, giving them additional resources. Does it say on there as standard operating post speech email template, does it say, “Hey, my friends, I’m looking for more talks. These are the most requested topics?”

Now I know you told them that in your talk. But remember, people need to hear things a few times. And now when they’re back at their desk and they’re looking at your email, they can open a browser. Open their contact list. [00:20:00] And send you some referrals.

 And incentivize that audience as well. Meaning the people that were in your audience that are gonna read that post email, incentivize them to give you some referrals. Very, very exciting.

Why is all this important to be loud and proud that you’re a speaker? Because we wanna keep you as booked as you wanna be.

If you want to speak four times a month, great. If you wanna speak five times, six, whatever it is. I will tell you. My goal, it was five speeches a month. For whatever reason, we now seem to be much higher. We’re having a lot more requests, and I’ll go as high as my schedule will allow, knowing that a lot of that is virtual.

But the thing is, I’m only speaking to groups where my ideal clients are [00:21:00] gathered.

And even though virtual is so great, it doesn’t take as much time. I really wanna encourage you to be strategic. Because if you’re gonna take my advice here and you’re gonna do all these things to get booked for more speaking, you’re also probably gonna get some requests that are not the right match for you.

Make sure you have your criteria: you’re only speaking to audiences where your ideal clients are gathered.

Now if you wanna go speak to the high school, if you wanna go speak, uh, sometimes I would get asked to speak to people that were, were between jobs. Job seekers, of course, are not my audience. If a client asked me, I would always be a yes. That’s what we call community service.

My friend. Fine, do a little community service. But please do not fill your calendar with community service.

What is community service? When you’re talking to audiences that are not your ideal clients, that is community [00:22:00] service. Unless they’re writing you a big check, then that is professional speaking, and that of course is okay. It is in fact welcome. Very welcome.

 I wanna check your attitude about speaking now. Nobody is doing you a favor by booking you to speak.

You are an amazing speaker with massive value to bring. You are gonna make that organization, that group, look good. You are gonna have the people in that room leave more uplifted than when they showed up. They’re probably gonna get new members that day because of your amazing talk.

I have another podcast episode on how to be a good speaker partner, which I encourage you to listen to. I have another podcast episode on how to get booked for speaking, which discusses some of this and other things. [00:23:00] Be sure to listen to both of those.

Let’s be clear, nobody’s doing you a favor booking you. People say to me all the time, “Caterina, I wanna get paid to speak.”

Well, let me tell you something. I’ve been paid to speak many, many times and it’s always nice to give a talk and get a big check.

But I’m also very happy… in fact, I am blissing, to go talk to audiences where my ideal clients are gathered. Because some of those speeches have paid me for years. When I say 10 years, I’m not exaggerating.

Most of my clients, 95% at least of my clients come from speaking.

One amazing gal I ran into a little while ago, we’ve reconnected. Hopefully she’s gonna join us for some more excitement. Met her about seven years ago at a luncheon [00:24:00] speech. There was maybe 25 gals in the room. Went, gave my talk, came home. She became a client. She was a client for five years, going to retreats, joining programs, was with us through the pandemic, uplifted her life, uplifted her business. And of course that was a big investment she made with me as a result of one free talk.

So please, if you’re doing it right, your free talks are massively monetizable. If you’re not massively monetizing your free talks, my friend, come talk to me because this is what I teach my clients is how to massively monetize your speaking.

That’s what I want for you. Okay? But before we could massively monetize, we gotta be loud and proud we are a speaker and that’s what we are back to here.

 The other thing is, do you have speaker, friends or other [00:25:00] speakerpreneurs that talk on other topics?

For example, professional organizer, a style consultant, a health coach. These are all topics that, while I’m an enthusiast in all these areas, I do not give speeches on. When I go give a speech to a group and they say, “thank you so much.” I can say to them “what other types of speakers are you looking for? What topics are you looking for?”

And I can refer all my friends for getting booked for speaking. And guess what? That has them remember me when they go speak.

A couple years ago, one of my clients was hosting a virtual event. She wanted to have 10 speakers for the day. It was a wonderful conference. She said to me, “Caterina, who do you know that [00:26:00] could speak?”

I referred her 19 of my clients, and I said, “these are all amazing speakers.” And guess what? Every single one of the speakers, except for one who was her friend, were on that roster that day as speakers. That’s what you want.

You wanna be a great speaker partner, not just to the people booking you. You wanna be a great speaker partner to your other speaker friends. And refer speaking opportunities back and forth.

Because all the groups that love you that you’ve spoken at, guess what? They’re not gonna have you more. Then twice a year. We’ll get to that next. And they need speakers for the other months, or the other conferences, or the other events, or the other trainings. And that’s why you want to refer your friends. And they will now refer you more and that is them being loud and proud about you and that is [00:27:00] awesome.

As I mentioned. I wanna make sure you also go listen to our episode on How to be a Great Speaker Partner, that you listen to our episode of How to Get Booked for Speaking, where we’ll cover other things we’re not covering here.

The last thing that I wanna touch on with you today, being loud and proud that you are a speaker, is always ask for the “insta rebook.”

When I get booked for speaking and I go speak, and they say to me at the end of my talk, “Caterina, that was awesome.” I say, “great. When would you like to have me back? In six months or a year? I’m happy to talk on this topic or another topic.”

And here’s the strategic thing that I do, that I wanna make sure you are doing.

I say to them, “your [00:28:00] group meets on the second Tuesday of the month in six months. This is the second Tuesday, whatever the date is. Do you have a speaker for that day?” If not, they usually say no. I say, “Bing, bing. I am available that day.”

Here’s the strategy. Before I go give that talk, I have looked at my calendar. I have seen, am I available in six months on that day? Am I available in a year? Whenever their meetings usually are? And sometimes I even say, “okay, I probably wanna come a month earlier” for whatever reason. Maybe because it’s better for my strategy of speaking before an event or a retreat or something that I’m wanting to fill.

I go with the dates ready. Knowing that I am available. Often before I leave the venue or I leave the meeting virtually, I’ve gotten a insta rebook. And that’s what I want for [00:29:00] you.

The more you can get insta rebooks, the more your calendar will be full. I wanna tell you, I wish I’d been doing this for 25 plus years. I’ve only been asking for the insta rebook for a couple of years, and it’s awesome.

Now, here’s another thing I want you to do. If you have been speaking already, I want you to look at the last 12 months and I want you to look at every place you talked, and I want you to go back and ask for a rebook. Again, being loud and proud that you’re looking for the rebook.

Because not everybody’s walking around thinking about, “Hey, how can they book you?” Even the people that book you.

By the way, here’s another very important thing we didn’t touch on here. I mentioned about the dedicated email to your list.

Your clients, your active clients- ask them what groups they belong to. Ask them [00:30:00] what conferences and associations they go to. Because you know what? They all go places where their speakers, and you could be presenting.

I have many clients who are in charge of booking speakers for many groups. And you know what? They don’t ask me. ‘Cause they’re not walking around every day thinking about how they could book me.

I ask them. And that’s okay because I’m not too BIG, to ask them. I just reach out to them, usually through direct Messenger on Facebook, and I say, “Hey, my friend, I think you’re in charge of booking the speakers for X, Y, Z group. Do you have all your speakers for the year? If not, I would love to speak. What months are you looking to book?”

Simple. And guess what? This gets me insta bookings.

Again, loud and proud that you are a speaker, [00:31:00] is not just about being loud and proud to the masses, like in your dedicated email or on your profiles or on your website.

It’s also being loud and proud that you’re a speaker to the individual Mary, Jane and Sheila that can book you for speaking.

My friend. I hope that you have gotten massive value from our time together today. I hope that you are gonna take some immediate action to get you booked for a lot more speaking. Today, again, is about being loud and proud.

Oh, by the way, here’s another super tip. When you introduce yourself at networking events, in meetings, wherever you’re introducing yourself, say that you’re a speaker.

Again, not everybody knows. This is one I personally forget. I gotta do it more myself. And you know what? The reason I’m gonna do it more myself is I have clients that have gotten insta bookings [00:32:00] simply from saying “I’m a speaker” when they introduce themselves at a meeting, that’s what I want for you.

It can be that easy. It is easy to get as many bookings as you would like.

My friend, remember, you got massive, massive, massive value to bring. There is a lifetime supply of people to serve. Be louder and prouder that you are a speaker. Implement all of these things that we’ve discussed today.

And by the way, I hope that we are already friends on Facebook. I hope that we are already connected on LinkedIn. I hope you’re already following me on Insta. Follow me. I will follow you back.

I look forward to being connected to you on social, and I would love to see your smile on the screen at one of my upcoming free workshops, virtual workshops we do every month.

And if you’re in the San Francisco Bay area, please connect with me. [00:33:00] Because you know what? Now that we’re living post Pandemic Lifestyle, I am hosting events at our center, both social events and business development events, and I would love to get to know you and invite you into our amazing Thriving Women in Business Community.

Go be loud and proud that you’re a speaker. Bring your massive value. And uplift the world. Bing, bing, bing.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Expand Your Fempire with Caterina Rando.