Unless event planning is your speciality you’ll probably want to keep things simple at this stage. Why not host a VIP gathering for your clients and their contacts?

Giving your event a VIP label will make your guests feel special and by allowing your clients to bring guests of their own their clients will feel special too. Meanwhile you’ll get to speak in front of an audience and grow your list at the same time.

When I first started in my speaking business I hosted a small gathering and spent $17 on nibbles and by presenting my offer made $795 in sales. The second event I ran I took it up a level, spent $350, invited more guests and made $10,000 in sales! If you keep it small and intimate there isn’t much planning involved either.

Let’s consider the process of hosting a client gathering:

• Guest list:
  • How many people are you going to invite?
  • Will you invite all of your clients or a selection of your best clients?
  • How about inviting the clients who have signed up to your list but have never bought from you?
• Content:
  • What are the solutions your guests are most in need of right now?
  • How can your offer help them to find the answers?
  • Will your presentation entertain or educate?
  • Are you intending to invite guest speakers too?
  • How about partnering with another speaker in a complementary niche and jointly hosting the event?



• Venue:
  • Now you know the number of guests you’ll be inviting and the type of content you want to deliver, do you know where you can host your gathering?
  • Your home can be great for small groups but not so good if you’re expecting a lot of guests. If you’re not comfortable inviting clients into your home, where could you hold your event instead?
  • Are you going to offer chips and dips or a larger selection of food?
• Your ‘no brainer’ offer:
  • It is important that you consider your audience when creating your offer. Think about the solutions you are presenting to your guests and ask yourself if what you are offering is going to compel them to take action.
• Invitations:
  • How are you going to invite your guests?
  • If you already have their mailing address you might like to create a personal invitation and mail it to them?
  • We don’t hand write much these days but isn’t it lovely when you pick up your mail to find a hand written envelope addressed to you? It always makes me smile.
  • You can invite your guests in an email if you really want to keep it simple or if you’re good with technology you might want to create a website invitation?
  • However you decide to invite your guests, your copy should be compelling and state the benefits of attending your gathering.

Why not make a definite plan to hold a client gathering soon? They are a great opportunity to connect with lots of fantastic people in a great environment that you’ve brought together. Plus you’ll get another chance to show off your speaking skills in front of an audience which is always a bonus.

Have you held a client gathering? Please leave me a comment-I’d love to hear your ideas and whether there was a particular element of your event that made it successful?

Or in other words, Happy Chinese New Year!

January 23rd marked the year of the dragon and with the dragon comes lots and lots of babies. Why? Because children born in dragon years are supposed to be particularly lucky.

In fact, in previous dragon years, countries like China and Hong Kong have experienced massive baby booms and I read in the paper the other day that makers of pre-natal and infant care services are already rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of all these new babies.

So what, you might be asking, has this got to do with you and your public speaking aspirations or business goals?

Well, as the dragon is the only mythical creature out of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac, it is seen as the most auspicious out of all the animals and is the link between the imaginary world and the real world.

In other words, it really is a special year to bring into manifestation something you have long been dreaming of. Or to use the baby analogy – to give birth to something you deeply desire.

Now this doesn’t have to be a child (although that is my deepest wish for this dragon year!) it could be something professional or something personal.

So what project or dream do you most secretly yearn to realize this year?

If you’ve never spoken in public before, is it to speak in public for the first time? Or if you’ve been speaking in public a while now, is it time to take the step up and put on your own public speaking event?

Do you have a financial goal? Dragon years represent change and mobility and in terms of economy, tend to herald in better economic wealth. It’s an energetic year and a great year for entrepreneurship.

So is it time to leave your job and set up your own business? Giving birth can be to a new business or even just a new project. Or is now the year to create those products you’ve been talking about doing for years?! Perhaps this dragon year is when you really start to leverage your time and make some passive income.

Or would you like to manifest something more personal than that? To bring forth and co-create a deep and meaningful relationship?

To set sail on a round the world adventure?

Or like myself and Greg, is it to have children?

So this week, I invite you to think of one great dream you want to give birth to this dragon year and see come forth into its physical manifestation.

Keep in mind my advice from my new year blog post and really take a moment to connect with your deeper self. This means the goals and intentions come from the higher self and not your ego.

The Truth About Those New Year Goals

Now is the perfect time to set forth your intention into the world.

And if you’ve landed on this blog post and your goals are purely speaking related, know that there’s tons of resources on this blog to help you, anything from filling the room, writing your own copy, shooting your own videos and lots more speaking tips!

How To Fill A Room

The Anatomy Of The Perfect Squeeze Page

How To Create A Professional Video Even Spielberg Would Be Proud Of

Sow the seed of your desire and know with dragon energy on your side, anything is possible.

I invite your comments, thoughts and dragon dreams below.

“Dear Joey,

The more I listen to you talk about how successful your 1-day speaking events are, the more incapable I feel. You get hundreds of people in your room but when I recently ran a preview night for my 1-day workshop only 12 people turned up and only 3 people booked! Now my 1-day workshop is coming up early next month and I’m afraid NO-ONE is going to show up. Do I really have to go and do another preview night? How else do I fill this room other than market to my list?

I’m on the verge of giving up.

HELP!

In gratitude,

Susan”

Sound familiar?!

Knowing how to market your seminars and filling your rooms are such a common source of pain for us speakers, I thought I would share her email and my response:

Hi Susan,

First of all do not give up!

I hear stories like yours ALL the time. I’m not going to lie, filling the room is the hardest thing about speaking. Far harder than actually standing on stage delivering the content!

And before I share some seminar marketing strategies with you, let’s get things straight. I haven’t always put on huge events! It’s easy to forget that because I now have a fantastic team around me, that when I first started I was just like you. Remember, we all have to start somewhere.

In fact, I remember the very first event I put on – it was a client appreciation night in my own home – and I invited less than 20 people and most of them were friends and family! I was racked with nerves too but I made a few sales and I was over the moon!

You see, that small success gave me the confidence to go onto bigger and better things which ultimately led to me setting up my own business and putting on my own 1-day events and becoming who I am today.

So wherever you are right now is the perfect place for you! Give yourself permission to be small when you start out and that means setting realistic targets.

(Honestly, the amount of times I hear people who have NO list say they’re going to get 150 people + in a room in less than 4 weeks time. Yes that can happen, but it’s the exception to filling a room and not the rule!)

Now in terms of the practical advice, here are 8 key guidelines for filling a room:

1. 12 Week Lead-in

   Give yourself a 12 week lead-in for marketing your seminar. This means your sales page and promotional emails need to be prepared in advance of these 12 weeks. We’ve found anything between a 12-week to 8-week lead-in works best for our list.

   TIP: A lot of people either book right at the beginning or right on the deadline so remember to angle your email copy to those people specifically. Offer earlybird bonuses for booking quickly and then angle your copy to the ‘fence sitters’ toward the end.

2. Is Your Event A No-Brainer?

   Make it a no-brainer to attend your preview night or workshop. Offer good quality free bonuses and make sure you deliver exceptional value – not a sales pitch. Make it such a feast that the only choice is to attend!

   TIP: Use testimonials from happy clients as social proof.

3. Hire A Copywriter

   If you’re not a great copywriter, invest in someone to look over the copy for you. A few tweaks here and there could be all the difference between a 10% conversion or a 1% conversion on your sales page. The reason why copywriters can charge a lot of money is because of the money they make you!! Too often I see a great idea let down by weak copy. If you can’t afford a copywriter, then in your emails offer a clear message to market match, some clean bullets and at least 2 links to your registration page. Use of success stories also works well.

   TIP: Don’t be too salesy in your emails. Coming from the heart will create a stronger connection in today’s email saturated market place.



4. Is Your Niche Clear?

   This is really important and something I talk about a lot – make sure the event has a clear niche and that you have a very clear message to market match! For example, our niche are small business owners, coaches, entreprenuers and our message is how to leverage your time through speaking so you stop trading time for money and start reaching more people. Not nailing the niche is one of the biggest reasons events don’t fill or why you don’t get great conversions.

   TIP! If you don’t do anything else, just do this one!

5. Seek JV Partners and Alliances

   If you’ve only got a small list or even no list, I wouldn’t suggest going to the big promoters, but do find people who have approximately the same list size or a ‘step up’ from you. Offer them an incentive to send for you, for example a percentage of the ticket sales or if you do have a good-sized list, a reciprocal email for them.

   TIP! Make sure you write the promotional emails for their list – basically you want to give them everything on the plate already done to make it as easy as possible for send out to their list.

6. Set-Up An Affiliate Program

   Set up an affiliate program and make it easy to join! Again, take away any effort to someone being an affiliate. Offer 50% or more on the front-end ticket price. If you are selling something at the event, your money will come on the back-end so you can afford to be generous on the front-end.

7. Keep Building Your List

   Keep focusing on building your list with new prospects! The more new prospects, the more people you can market to with news of your 1-day event. Social media is a great way to engage new people, or guest talk on other’s webinars, write value packed blogs like this one and have your squeeze page offering a relevant free gift like ours:

   http://www.shiftspeakertraining.com/

   When you are building your list, the idea is to offer a free gift to draw people in and start a relationship with them. So you don’t want to be marketing your event to these new prospect straight away but at some point, you do want to let them know you’re putting on a live event to give them the opportunity to see you in person!



8. Social Media

   If like Susan, you’re just putting on a preview night, then use social media to its fullest! Set up an event for it on Facebook and then invite your friends and ask them to share the link with as many people as possible. You might want to film a short video and post this too. You could even put on a free 60minute webinar in addition or as an alternative to get people into your 1-day.

   TIP: If you are using social media, then remember to ‘seed’ your idea with status updates/tweets which are about your topic and invite interaction.

9. Be Realistic!

   Remember what I said at the beginning – keep your expectations realistic. If you’ve never put on an event before aiming for 20 people is a good start. Go up incrementally from that point on. Quality is always better than quantity in the beginning.

So, now you have some clear strategies for filling a room or getting people to attend your preview night. No-one ever said it was easy, but it doesn’t have to be that hard either!

If you’ve got any marketing seminar tips for how to fill a room, share them below or if you’re looking for JV partners, share that below too!

It’s the start of a new year and time to dust off our new year’s resolutions for yet another year…

Or is it?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve read countless articles and emails in the past week all advising me how to create the perfect new year goals and yet none of them seem to resonate with me.

Why is this?

Well, in part because we each respond differently to advice and so what might work for someone else might not necessarily work for another. But, I sense it’s deeper than that – at least for me – and maybe for you too.

All of the messages I read about setting new year’s resolutions miss one key part. . .what if we don’t know what we want?

That’s why in today’s blog post I want to talk about HOW to reconnect with what you really want and therefore how to set some new year goals with a difference.

The best way to get back in get back in touch with your heartfelt dreams and so create your ideal lifestyle, is to re-connect to yourself again.

Here’s a challenge for you to get you reconnected (and remember just because we’re almost 2 weeks into the new year doesn’t mean it’s too late!) I want you to spend the next 7 days connecting with your Self with the purpose of finding out what you really want. If you know what you really want, try this anyway, because you might get even more clarity or fresh insight into your goals.

The process of reconnection is easy. You can do this with morning pages (stream of consciousness writing), meditation, daily walks in nature, swimming in the ocean, yoga, basically anything which is YOU connecting to YOUR soul.

The idea is that you are giving your higher Self (divine essence, soul, inner you – however you call it) the opportunity to speak and be heard about what it wants in life.

What usually happens for me is that my ego wants one thing (related to safety and something logical) but the deeper part me wants something else and when I’ve followed that something else – that’s been my path to happiness however absurd or crazy it sounded like! Quite often your deepest dream is connected in some way to your life purpose so don’t even try to make sense of it and rationalise it.

So when you have heard what your soul wants to say (and often the answers surprise us!) don’t discard it straight away. It might be something completely left-field but allow yourself to sit with it a while.

Perhaps starting a family came out top and you hadn’t even considered this. Or maybe it was breaking through a financial barrier – perhaps the 100k mark – even though you have no idea how. Or maybe it was professional, for example, putting on your own speaking event – but you have never spoken before!

Just because you have never done them before or you have no idea HOW to make them happen, don’t panic. This is what YOU most deeply want and the most important part is already done – being honest about it.

The next step is making it come to fruition and again, there are as many strategies as there are stars in the skies so I’ll keep my advice simple and clear:

• Trust
• When your soul has spoken, there are a million and one things you can do to move toward your goal – plan, invest in a program, get healing/coaching/mentoring to take away limiting beliefs, take clear and specific action etc
• But the biggest tip of all is to trust the voice of your soul. For example, if your dream is to meet your ideal man or woman this year, then take the necessary action but also trust in the outcome. Remember, ‘to realise one’s destiny is a person’s only real obligation.’

May your dreams come true this year.

It’s that time of the year when unless we bring ourselves back to the present, it’s easy to get swept away in the busy-ness and the planning of the perfect holiday season.  Remember – this is a perfect opportunity to be present to what’s occurring in your life- and grateful.  So as you’re standing in the supermarket queue, or rushing down to get that last gift- just remember- to be present in the joy of the last minute rush!

Take a moment to watch my special seasonal message just for you. . .

Have a beautiful Christmas and New Year and I’ll see you in 2012!

Joanna

xx

There are various reasons for icebreakers but the most obvious is because you want to get the audience on your side and loosen them up a bit. Everybody’s energy is going to be in a different place when they first arrive so your role as the public speaker is to bring them all together as one. This is even more important when you’re speaking on someone else’s stage and they perhaps don’t have a prior relationship with you.

As you have probably seen from your own first-hand experience – you get all types of people coming to live events! Shy, confident, outgoing, reclusive – believe I’ve seen THE LOT and then some . . .so that’s why ice-breakers are so good at bringing people together.

Remember also the context in how they arrived at your event. Some people might be naturally chatty but have had a stressful journey trying to get to the venue, or just stressed in general this particular day!

As the public speaker your job is to capture people’s attention, lower their guard and get them engaged in your presentation. Nothing is easier to do when it comes to building rapport, and raising the energy and involvement of your audience than using an icebreaker!

So what sort of things can you use as “Icebreaker Activities”?

Here’s a few simple examples that you’re welcome to use:

1. Long Lost Friends.
   Nothing breaks the ice like pretending someone’s a long lost friend. I invite people to go and meet 5 people that they don’t know, but greet them like they are “long lost friends”. This usually works well in a personal development type environment, but might not be too crash hot in corporate.

2. What’s your intention?
   In this exercise you send people off to introduce themselves to 3 new people they don’t know. Have them share their name, occupation and what their intention is for the workshop. This is a great idea because it has the added advantage of getting people thinking about why they are there and what their outcomes are.



3. Share a Dream Holiday.
   This is a great one because it gets people instantly in a good mood! Have participants introduce themselves to 5 people, share their name and where they would most like to visit on a dream holiday and why.

4. Memorable Moments.
   I like this because again it raises the emotional energy. Invite people to introduce themselves and tell the most memorable moment in their life so far, in a wildly inspirational way.

For my Icebreakers I prefer to send people off into small groups, or to network and meet people personally rather than having each participant stand up and introduce to the whole group. The reason is that the intention of my icebreaker activity is not only to get to know each other, but to raise the energy in the room. So the more noise, and fun, and hub-bub we can create, the better.

I also recommend playing some fun music underneath!

So why not at your next live event practice one of the above ice-breakers and see the instant effect it has on your room. And if you’ve got any tried and tested ice-breakers of your own go ahead and share them in the comments section so we can all benefit. Until next time!

Wowsers. I just realised this morning that I’ve been speaking from stage for around 10 years now!

Apart from making me feel quite old it also reinforces just how much experience I’ve had on the speaking circuit . . . I’ve spoken on other people’s stages, I’ve run my own highly successful events, I’ve even put on my own multi-speaker event . . . and during this time I’ve seen a lot of strange things.

But the strangest thing of all is not what actually happens on stage . . . it’s the myths and perceptions that everyone else has about public speakers!

Today, I’m going to dive into them and dismantle them one by one!

Here are four common, and untrue myths.

Myth #1: You have to be educated to become a public speaker

Although education is a great asset, it is not a requirement if you want to start speaking from stage. Yes, a high educational qualification may appeal to some audiences but it all depends on your niche. If your market is academic, then a good educational background can pull interest from buyers.

But the truth is most of the market does NOT demand a highly educated speaker. A lot of public speakers don’t have college degrees and yet still make large amounts of money selling from stage. . .

In some niches, blue collar speakers with little or even no education may possess more mass appeal because the audiences can more easily relate to them.

Tip: As a speaker, remember you must inspire and motivate your audience to take action with you. If you have a lack of higher education and yet have achieved professional and financial success – then this is a very inspiring premise indeed.

Myth #2: You have to possess the gift of speaking in order to stand up in front of people to speak

Public speaking is a skill and just like any skill, it can be developed and practiced. There are formulas that anyone can use to create great speeches . . . all you need is a message and the willingness to deliver that message to your audience. . . .
. . . Then after a few tweaks, revisions, and rehearsals; you can present a knockout speech even without the possessing the “gift of speech”.

Tip: Technique and practice are the key factors in improving public speaking skills. Dedicate yourself to the art of practice . . . and greatness awaits you.

Myth #3: You have to be different or change who you are to speak

Many people will often say that a career in public speaking will make you fake, somewhat pretentious and change your personality.

If this is the case, public speaking seems like very hard work but in reality, you do not have to change in order to become a speaker!

Great speakers are individuals who stay true to their characters, including their weaknesses and idiosyncrasies. It makes them human.

Tip: Always be authentic when you are speaking from stage. Audiences are far more perceptive than you realise and will soon pick up if you are putting on an act. Just be yourself, that’s all you need to do and you’ll be surprised at how quickly people warm to you.

Myth #4: You have to work hard to be a public speaker

This can be rather subjective. Yes, it can be hard work if your heart is not into it. Any endeavour without passion is not an easy task. However, if you are really committed to the career and loving it, it won’t matter, will it?

Moreover, once you get the hang of it public speaking will come naturally to you.

Tip: If you love speaking or you’re passionate about your topic, then speaking from stage will be like a hobby for which you’re getting paid!

So this week, I suggest you sit down and make a list of all the myths or fears you have around public speaking or selling from stage . . . take the time to really get them off your chest. When your fears are on paper they won’t seem as scary any more and you’ll see them for the myths they really are! Remember, you don’t get anywhere in life without taking action so why not get out there and get yourself on a stage or a webinar soon!

The key benefits of using success stories are:

• They hammer home your credibility.
• They convince your audience that you do what you say you do – that you can deliver; the bigger the results the better.
• They prove you have market trust in you – this makes your audience more receptive to putting their trust in you. This means more sales.
• In terms of presentation skills, it uses social proof perfectly – other people have risked their time and money investing in you. It worked for them so it could work for you.
• By using someone else’s words to promote you, and not just you saying how good you are, it’s a compelling call to action.

The “HOOK” to grab your audience from the get-go!

The best way to start a great success story is with an audience-grabbing opening question. It’s a fantastic way to engage your audience. An obvious opening question would be, “Does anyone here know Joe Bloggs?”

Painting the Picture

The next step is the details of the story. When I met the person, here’s what their life was like before they joined my program. Let the audience know the biggest challenge for that person that they needed to overcome.

Prove Success

This part of the presentation skill is where you will explain how the tools were applied to create proven success. We are going to want to know those skills and lessons. And then you show the results:

• Increased his closing ratio from his presentations three times
• Has more clients that he knows what to do with
• Is enjoying the financial rewards of that with his partner..

Before Picture: My biggest challenge was!

After Picture: Ultimate benefit!

It’s key that you get into the details of the story by following these steps:

• Does anyone know …?
• Acknowledge that – “I wish you did…” or “Brilliant, you’ll love…”
• When I first met them – their biggest challenge was…
• What happened was…
• What that meant was…

You’ll love this TIP!

If you don’t have any success stories for your next presentation, go to your clients.

• Ask them what successes have they had.
• Find out what people have been up to or get on the phone to your clients.
• You can run “The World’s Greatest Testimonial Competition!”

Summary

By now, you know why and how to use success stories in your presentations! It’s an absolute must if you want to increase your sales. So, if you still haven’t got any success stories, why don’t you make it your focus this week to gather as many as possible so that next time you give a presentation you can inspire your audience to take the next step with you.

Did you know the one secret ingredient that can make or break an effective and profitable presentation?

Luckily it’s an ingredient all of us have but sadly not of all us use effectively.

What is that ingredient?!

It’s your voice!

Take a moment now to recognize the power that your voice has to impact another human being. Now take another moment to see how your voice can also help create emotional change in another human.

And what happens when we create change in another?

It can lead to transformation and as such, this can generate more sales if your product or service assists in that journey.

The 3 keys to using your voice dramatically

Creating emotion with the intention of making sales from speaking has a few key elements that cannot be missed.

These are:

1. Awareness
2. Intention
3. Vocal strength and flexibility

1. Awareness

   It has been said that the words that we choose are only 7% of the message that we communicate. 38% of our message is due to our tonality, and 55% of it is due to our physiology, our physical action.
   So over a third of your outcome depends on your voice.

   Create awareness of your own voice and use it dramatically.

   Listen to how you use your voice, listen to the vocal range that you have.

   Start to listen to other people’s voices, how they use them, and then start to bring awareness to the extremes that you use in your own voice. Do you have extremes or is it all flat lining?

   You will make more sales from stage AND make it easier to listen to you if you can work on your voice variation.

2. Set the intention

   These are the intentions you will want to set if you want to make more sales from stage:

   • That you will start to expand your vocal range
   • You will create moods with your voice
   • You will carry your confidence in your voice
   • And that your voice will take people on an emotional journey.



3. Vocal Strength and Flexibility

   If you start to learn how to use your voice in a powerful manner, then you’ll find that it will be more powerful for longer, and you will be able to preserve and conserve your voice. You want to use your voice in such a way that it touches the hearts and minds of the people in your audience and thus create more sales from speaking.

Don’t Be Just Comfortable . . . Be Memorable!

If you’re committed to becoming, not just a profitable speaker, but also a memorable speaker, then the next step is to get masterful with your voice.

Be the sort of person that when people leave the room they continue to talk about you, not just because of your content, but because of your style, your charisma and your ability to take them on an emotional journey.

And be the sort of speaker that makes massive money from stage!

So, What’s Next?

Well, my suggestion is for you go to have a little bit of fun this week . . . and go see a high drama movie. Here’s an opportunity for you to listen to the way these highly trained actors use their voice to create mood. Notice the high, the loud, the soft, notice the pace changes, notice the volume changes.

So I want you to spend the whole time listening to people with a new intention and then see how you can utilize this in your next speaking gig to make more sales.

And remember, have fun!

I believe that one of the best presentation skills you can have is the ability to deliver “effective presentations”. These are the kind of presentation that don’t just inform, but involve, inspire and move people to action.

A core part of moving people to action is that you have to prove and back up your points and arguments. There are various presentation skills that will support you in this- use testimonials, quotes, stories and so on. But we all know that “STATISTICS DON’T LIE!”

So it’s a great idea to use statistics in your presentation. However this needs to be done with a certain level of skill and aplomb so here are some guidelines.

Statistics as a Presentation Skill

1. Do not overwhelm people with all the statistics in one part of your presentation. There is such a thing as too much data! Try to restrict it to 3 stats at a time, and then some qualitative information, or stories.
2. It’s a good idea to mention the source for data. We know that the more legitimate your sources are, the more credibility you will have; and therefore the more power your presentation will have.
3. Back up statistics with personal stories or stories of clients that further demonstrate the point your statistics make. Generalizations are great and can hold power, but people will remember the specifics of stories.



4. Make any numbers “real life”. This is one of the best presentation skills you can develop. For instance you might say “In the year 10,000 B.C., there were only 5 million people sharing 57,268,900 square miles of land- imagine that! The current population of Sydney spread out over the entire planet! My how we’ve grown!”

Don’t avoid statistics because you think they may be boring. They can be really influential and quite exciting if used in the right way. What’s more, when people “see the proof” they are more likely to act! And having people take action is the best presentation skill you can ever learn.