Do you know that you can design relationships and partnerships? If you’re in a relationship or partnership, whether personal or professional and you think it’s not going well or it’s not what you had imagined it to be, then it may be time to design it. When you hear the word “design”, you might think, “How do I design a relationship? What does that mean? We MAKE friendships or we START a partnership, and so how is there this thing called designing?” In coaching, we talk about designing relationships because we have the ability to talk about how we want things to be in our relationship. It's better to design it from the beginning. Now, for those of you who have the Dynamic You book, this is some of the stuff that I cover in the Dynamic You Pillar called “Collaborate”. Designing Relationships Imagine this: You're at a pool. You're going to go swimming, and this is your second day at the pool. Maybe you're on vacation, and on the first day you got a really bad sunburn. What do you do? Well, if you're anything like me, maybe you cover up and rather than just putting sunblock on, you actually put on a t-shirt. You jump in the pool, and you feel the relief from the heat. Then all of a sudden the lifeguard starts yelling at you, blowing their whistle, and kicking you out of the pool. They say, “You can't wear a shirt in the pool.” Now, if you had already looked at the rules, and it didn't say that there, or you didn't see the rules, and it did say it there, you now feel embarrassed. Because if you knew that was a rule, you wouldn't have done it. There wouldn't need to be this whole show of whistling and kicking you out of the pool. It's the same in relationships. When you don't know what the other person expects, it's so easy to mess up their rules, their guidelines, and their expectations. What could happen is they completely end your partnership or your relationship. It could cause a massive fight or embarrassment, shame, and guilt on your part. What about if you're on the other side? What if you have these internal rules or guidelines for relationships and partnerships? Maybe you think it's so obvious. Why would the person ever do that? Of course, they should never do that. Well, you'd be surprised, right? By you stating these things up front, it's so much easier and less uncomfortable for you than to have to be that lifeguard blowing your whistle and yelling at them to get out of the pool. You can just say, “Hey, remember when we talked about this? That's not happening right now” or “You went and did that thing that has gone against how we've designed things to be.” If you remember back to when you were a kid, maybe in a classroom or on a team or club, the teacher or the coach would set up guidelines and rules for the classroom, practices and games. For example:
There are certain rules and maybe you were involved in making the rules of the classroom or wherever you were. That's what we want to see in relationships. We want that ability for each person coming to the relationship to be able to say what they're wanting. Coming from that place of ideal: What is ideal for this relationship, partnership, collaboration, affiliate, whatever it is. In the collaboration pillar, it explains a little bit about what a collaboration is. I want you to just think of two people working together or two groups of people working together. It can be called a collaboration, a relationship or a partnership. In designing relationships, it's important that each person answers these in advance of meeting:
Also answering,
Now, there's even more that comes into it. I design with my clients how they want things to be. We talk about the best way to communicate with each other and how coaching sessions are going to go. There's even a “What do we do if someone doesn't like how the other person's being in the relationship? How do we redesign that?” These types of questions or statements are more so with collaborations and partnerships, involving a project or business of some kind. But in a relationship, in a friendship, in a romantic relationship, how do you design it? Let me give you an example: You meet someone out. It could be through a mutual friend. It could be at the playground because you have kids that are playing together, wherever it may be. You hang out a few times. Then maybe you want to get clarity on what type of relationship you have. This often happens in love or romantic relationships where you want to know:
You talk about those things. The same in a friendship. You can just ask simple questions like, “Hey, I love that we're hanging out. Is this working for you? Do you want to hang out more or do other kinds of things?” Start off by saying these things above rather than, “Hey, new friend, let's design the relationship.” You can also give some positive feedback, “Hey, I like that we're hanging out more. I love that we do active things together. Let's do that more.” Or “I love how we're open, and we can talk with each other. Let's continue that.” Or maybe you suggest things like, “Hey, I love that we're meeting up and we chat. But I’d love to jump on the phone with you every now and again and have more of a conversation.” Rather than sitting there hoping and wishing for something positive in that relationship to develop more, why don't we say it when we talk about it. Then other things like, “Hey, you know how I often say a lot of personal things to you. I trust that it's in confidence and that it's not leaving our conversations, and I appreciate that you're always showing up on time, that's really important to me.” Expressing these things in the beginning, in a relationship, a friendship, whatever type of relationship, really helps to start to lock in how things are. The key thing is just thinking about designing from the beginning. Designing Partnerships Let's go into partnerships because I think that's where more naturally we make this happen, especially in business relationships. I set some of the statements that you can ask yourself. You might want to go back, pause, and write your answers down. It's really nice that you give them a heads-up, “Hey, I want to talk about these things. I want to go through some expectations for our collaboration or our joint venture”. Or asking them to have a set of guidelines that you'd like to work by when doing this type of partnership or this type of affiliate, collaboration, project, or whatever it is. Let them provide you with their needs and wants and then you provide feedback. Having a set amount of time to be able to do this is also crucial. Having a half an hour conversation where each person writes down and then shares the answers to those statements or questions. Then also ask yourself, “What's ideal for this relationship?” Having that exit strategy is also vital. For example saying, “Let's set this up for the next three months, and then at that time, let's have a conversation about how things are going. If either of us doesn't want to continue at that point, then we have the easy way out to part.” You don't want to lock yourself into an infinite partnership or collaboration. That's awkward when someone has to break things off. If you say, “Let's just try this for three months” or "let's try this for one event”, or “for one joint venture”, you have that opportunity as an out without it being uncomfortable or burning any bridges. Anytime I go traveling with someone, I always make sure to design the relationship for that trip. The first time that I went away with someone I didn't really know, we were staying in the same hotel room. Some of the things I asked her where:
All of these questions help to make it less uncomfortable. Otherwise you might feel annoyed that your roommate is getting up at five in the morning to do exercises in the room. Or that your roommate is staying up until 2-3am talking on the phone or doing work. This way you can help each other to have the right expectations and respect what each other needs. The example I gave of the person I stayed in the same room with for the first time all those years ago is now a very close business and life friend of mine. Yes, when I asked her those questions, she thought it was a little bit strange. But we had the most amazing time and found out things that each other likes. One bonus was, she likes to get up early, and I hate getting up early. So she got up early and went and grabbed us breakfast. She got us muffins, fruits, and coffees and I got to sleep in. By then, I wasn't so grumpy, and I was ready to go. But I don't mind at night being the one to kind of tidy up in the room or make sure I shower at night so that in the morning, she has enough time to do what she needs to do. We've been able to really coordinate this because I've had times where it's been very uncomfortable traveling with someone I didn’t do this with and did not work out well at all. But this was before I knew about designing relationships and before I had my coaching certification. I'll give myself a little bit of grace for not knowing about it. But now that I know, I'm always designing relationships, partnerships, and collaborations. This is the way that you have more success from the beginning. Wrapping Up As you develop more and more collaborations and partnerships, you're going to think about, “What do I now need to add in?” Because maybe you thought, “It’s so obvious that we'll both promote.” You say, “Yes, yes, we'll both promote”, but what's the definition of promotion for both of you. Is one of you thinking, “I'm just going to post this once on my social media platform, my personal one?” And for the other person, does it mean emailing your list three times, going live about it and posting on every single platform plus stories multiple times? You don't want to be resentful that you're promoting more. You also don't want to be ignorant to the fact that you're not promoting enough. That's what breaks really great potential partnerships. I can go on and on and on and on for a long time about this, but I’m guessing you’re already thinking of how people have ticked you off in a relationship. Having the honesty to be able to say things in the beginning will give you the opportunity to really hit the ground running with that partnership or relationship. P.S. Do you want to know the three dangerous trends professional women face that keep them overworked, overwhelmed, and pulled in a million directions? If yes, then download my free ebook today! Read my other blogs here:
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You can do both of those through speaking. There are three keys to getting off to a fast start in growing your audience and building your income. As I go through these three keys, I will also share dos and don'ts and some tips. Key #1: Find Win-Win Opportunities You may have heard of this before: a win-win situation where both people in the partnership or relationship benefit. It's good for both of them when you follow these tips: 1. When you're looking for hosts of summits, events or podcasts, you want to find ones whose target market aligns with yours. It's much easier to have a win-win when the target market is the same. For example, if you're both serving female business leaders then their audience will appreciate your content which is a win for you. Then when you share the event with your network and invite them, it’s a win for your host since your guests will be in alignment with their audience. 2. Work with a host who understands this is a business opportunity. If you're speaking on their stage, it's because you see it as a business opportunity to build your audience, attract leads and market yourself. Maybe you have a legacy and just want to share your message, but usually, it's because you want to build your business. Make sure they know it's a business opportunity for you so that they take it seriously.
These specific actions will position you in the best way possible. I have been on other people's stages before when these things didn’t happen, and eventually, audience members found me and said, "Wow, there was no promotion of where to find you and how to get in touch with you." The sad thing is, I gave them all my social links, my website, everything, but they decided not to share any of it. I even shared a free gift with their audience, but they edited it out. Since I understand it’s a business opportunity, this is what I do when I have people speak on my Dynamic Women Podcast, my YouTube channel, and my summits.
3. You want someone who will actually promote you before and/or after the event. For example, someone who will:
Whenever I have guests on the podcast, I always make sure their headshot is on the episode's image. I think that's only fair, right? It shouldn't just be my face and then their name. It should include their face too. Look for these things before you say "Yes" to an opportunity because you want to make sure it is a win-win. Key #2: Use the PSA Strategy 1. P stands for Prepare: "Prepare the questions you want to be asked." When you prepare these questions, the interviewer is more likely to read or ask them, giving you the best opportunity to present your top content to their audience. Again, it's part of the win-win approach. 2. S stands for Script: "Script what you're going to say." This doesn't mean you should read it word-for-word. Instead, have a script you practice or bullet points you refer to, so you are prepared, aware of what will be discussed, and know what points you want to convey. By scripting it out, you’ll be familiarized and intentional about what you want to say because you really want to script the right words so you can bring business back to you. Picture a boomerang going out and coming back to you. That’s what you want to do with your answers, send them out and when it comes back in, it brings you business. For example, leads want to come talk to you or you get invited to speak at another event. That's one of the key messages I get from one of my coaches James Malinchak. He says, “You always want to be bringing business back to you with the boomerang method.” I encourage people to do that as well. 3. A stands for Attract: "Attract with a lead magnet." Every time you speak somewhere, offer a free gift as a lead magnet. This gift can be a mini-course, a handout, a checklist, videos, or audio content, preferably something that doesn't cost you anything to provide. It may require a little time to create and send, but it should not involve sending physical products through the mail, as postage would increase your costs. Key #3: Do your part If you're going to be on someone’s stage, they've already put in all the effort to make that show, podcast, YouTube channel, event, or summit happen. Do your part. 1. Jump in early. Be the first to say yes to being a speaker. Then be proactive by being the first to announce your involvement and excitement for it. By promoting it early, the host will take notice of your enthusiasm and effort. They will appreciate your quick promotion and be more inclined to promote you more in return. (I hosted a summit last April 2023 called “Dynamic Women's Online Summit”. If you're like, “Bummer, I missed it and want the replays,” then reach out to [email protected].) Jump in early in your promotion of it, but also jump in early to the opportunity because you will be first on their promotion list. When we promote a summit or an event, we put out a “speaker announcement” post and we announce each speaker on all of our social platforms. We're obviously going to announce the people we have first rather than the people that come a week later. Also, that gives you the opportunity to not only be promoted now, but be promoted again because they want to continually run through their speakers. 2. Continue to promote your upcoming appearance. Share it on your social media platforms, website, or newsletter. This not only generates anticipation but also serves as social proof for other event hosts, podcast hosts, or YouTube channel owners who may come across your promotion. They might see your pre-promotion and be interested in having you on their show as well. 3. The last piece of “Do your part” is repurposing. You can repurpose what you put out there by editing it out for social media, YouTube, your podcast etc. It was probably an amazing interview. They usually are, and so why wouldn't you want to repurpose the information that you've been creating? What I actually do is I offer all of my guests the opportunity to repurpose what they've created with me with a Speaker’s Promo Package. An interview on video can then be turned into an audio, long-form video, short-form video, stories, reels, YouTube shorts, regular posts, audiogram. My virtual assistant team does all that. That's a really amazing opportunity because you now not only have this one amazing opportunity to share and promote yourself, you have so many and it doesn't take you any more time if you have someone else do it. Wrapping Up Those are the three keys for getting off to a fast start to grow your audience and build your income: find win-win opportunities, show up and shine with a PSA strategy, and then do your part. If you want to be on the Dynamic Women Podcast, part of one of our future Summits, or part of the Dynamic Women Secrets book series, then email [email protected] and my amazing Virtual Assistant Kristine will email you about those three opportunities. Read my other blogs here:
The 7 MYTHS You've Been Led to Believe that are Costing You Speaking Opportunities (Part 3 of 4)6/14/2023 Have you ever wanted to be a speaker? Or are you already a speaker who desires more opportunities to speak on different stages? Well, there are a bunch of myths that you may have been led to believe, and these myths could be preventing you from securing the speaking engagements and achieving the business results you desire. It may be making you feel a little frustrated, like you're a spinning top or spinning your wheels. This is part three of a speaker series. The first blog is about three ways to speak without being a professional speaker. It's also beneficial for those of you who are professional speakers. It discusses different ways to speak, get your message out there, attract more clients, generate leads, gather testimonials, and find opportunities to speak in other places, among other benefits. The second blog is about the top 10 benefits of speaking on other people's platforms, which you may not have considered before. It shares those 10 ways, along with some bonus methods. Additionally, I offer opportunities for you to speak on my stages, so make sure to check those blogs. Myth #1: You need to host your own podcast or summit. I often hear this from clients, "Oh, I should do that. I should host one." Well, here's the fact: it's actually a lot of work. You don't have to do it. Instead, you can participate in other people's summits or podcasts. But why do I do it? Well, I believe that I've been blessed with a platform, a community, and a network. I already have a podcast. It makes sense for me to do a summit to be able to bring all of these women in my community together, including my female clients, and also to build more connections. There are benefits to it. However, I also have a team of two virtual assistants from the Philippines. They handle everything—social media messaging, speaker onboarding, promo material creation, scheduling, and providing back-end support on the day of the summit. I have the necessary tech support thanks to these two team members. If you don't have a team or all of that support, here's your solution: find summits, podcasts, and other opportunities that other people are organizing. The key thing is to ensure alignment. For example, in my last summit, the “Dynamic Women Online Summit 2023,” I sought female speakers who wanted to address mainly female business owners. When you're looking for podcasts or summits to be on, please ensure that your message aligns with what the host is looking for. You don't need to host them yourself. Instead, you can join other people's stages, virtual summits, and podcasts to reach more people. Myth #2: Just email that podcast host or summit host and they'll put you on their podcast. Here's the fact: They are bombarded with guest requests. How do I know? Because I receive two or three guest requests every single day. Now, the problem is that people reach out to me in a way that sounds like this: "Hey, I'm so amazing. You should put me on your podcast. I am an incredible speaker with a great topic that your audience will love." However, they don't mention anything about my podcast, or I can see that they've simply copied and pasted "Dynamic Women Podcast" in their email. There's no acknowledgement of my podcast or a genuine reason why they want to be on it, apart from thinking they're amazing. Here's the solution. I learned this from one of my coaches, James Malinchak. He says, "You need to lead with a napkin first." Many times, people approach others with a bib on, demanding to be served. When you email someone and say, "Hey, I'm amazing. Put me on your podcast or summit," you are leading with yourself. But in reality, you need to lead with a napkin and ask, "How can I serve you?" The best emails I receive start by saying, "Hey, I love what you're doing with the Dynamic Women Podcast for these reasons… I've listened to these episodes… and I really enjoy these aspects…" They may even go the extra mile and say, "I wrote you a review. Here's a screenshot of it." I absolutely love receiving those kinds of emails, where they also mention what they can do for me, how they will promote it, and other ways they can contribute. So, don't just say, "Hey, it's me. I'm amazing. You should put me on." Don't simply email them. Approach it strategically and with a giving mindset where you prioritize serving them first. This approach increases your chances of receiving a 'yes'. (If you want to be on the Dynamic Women Podcast, the Dynamic Women Trailblazers Secrets book, or be a summit speaker, just click those links.) Myth #3: You must be a speaker to speak. That's just a myth. The fact is, anyone can speak. However, the key here is to have a specific topic. You can't simply go on stage and blabber for 25 minutes or however long your speaking slot is. You need to have a well-defined topic, a message, or a story. You need to provide something of value. What I love, and most likely what other hosts would appreciate as well, is if you came to us with an amazing topic, a captivating title, and a compelling description that clearly outlines the benefits for our audience. It should be something different, fresh, and exciting. Don't make us work to figure out what you'll bring to the table. You don't have to tell me that you've spoken on 100 stages, but please don't approach me with a generic statement like, "I want to talk about marketing." Be specific. What aspect of marketing will you discuss? What's your description? What's the title of your talk? Put in the effort so that when you provide the material, the host can say, "Great, you're on." Don't make them work to extract the necessary details from you. Myth #4: You need an email list to be invited. Now, there are often instances where people say to me, "Oh, you can only be on our podcast or summit if you have a list of 10,000 people." I don't believe that is very inclusive to those who are still growing their business. The fact is, you don't always have to possess a large email list. However, when you do have one, it's essential to consider the mutually beneficial aspect: you are helping them, and they are helping you. That's a great arrangement. But the solution we're seeking is a win-win situation. We don't want to solely focus on building their lists while neglecting our own. I always strive for a win-win approach. If you don't have a substantial email list, think about what else you can offer. Do you have a significant following on social media? Do you have numerous connections where you can personally invite them? Podcasts and summits often have guest guidelines. For example, one of my summit guest guidelines is to have a minimum of 20 people register for a free ticket. I believe that's a fair requirement, don't you? If you adhere to their guidelines, you don't need a million people on your list. Maybe you only need a hundred people to get 20 registrations. It depends on the responsiveness of your list or connections. If your email list is small, you can make commitments like:
All we're looking for is for you to meet the guest requirements, so having a massive email list isn't always necessary. Myth #5: You should never pay to be a guest. As a paid professional speaker, I used to believe in this myth as well. The fact is, many podcasts, summits, events, and conferences offer opportunities with paid spots or refundable deposits. These can be great opportunities too. The solution for you is you need to see what's being offered and to see what you get with it to see if it's a match. We often do a refundable deposit because for so long, I was just trusting of people. When individuals have some "skin in the game," they are more likely to fulfill their commitments. A lot of the refundable deposits like we have for our summit, it's just like:
It's kind of a no-brainer. It's the things you should be doing anyway. See what is being offered. It's perfectly acceptable to pay for these opportunities if you believe the return on investment will be worth it. I have personally invested in being a guest at various events, whether virtual or in-person, but I always evaluate if it makes sense for me. Consider it this way: Have you ever attended a conference where sponsors were given the chance to speak on stage as part of their sponsorship benefits? This has been happening for decades. It's just being presented in a slightly different format now. Myth #6: You can't make money if you don't sell Well, that's a common misconception. In reality, selling is usually not allowed when you speak on someone's podcast, events, or summits. Some will allow you to offer, but they will take an affiliate commission. Instead, it's more effective to offer a gift or lead magnet, in exchange for someone's email address, allowing you to build a connection with the audience over time. This gift provides value and helps the audience get to know, like, and trust you. By nurturing them through your emails and providing valuable content, you can build a strong relationship with your audience. Eventually, if they remain on your email list, and you make an offer, you can generate revenue from these speaking engagements. It's important not to restrict your mindset and think that you can't make money. However, when you have a speaking slot of less than 45 minutes, it can be challenging to deliver a proper sales pitch within that time frame. I'm not suggesting that you can't sell at all, but rather emphasizing that it's not always necessary, and you can still generate revenue even without direct selling during your speaking engagements. Myth #7: Creating a lead magnet gift is a lot of work. Lead magnets can be a list, a quiz, a recipe, or a four-step process. There are very simple options that you can create in about an hour. I know with my virtual assistants, I can give them a Word doc with the text on it. They'll whip it up in Canva. Then they'll make it a fillable PDF. Now, I've got my checklists, my audit, and my formula that people can fill in. Other solutions for this are:
There are so many easy ways to do a lead magnet or a free gift. I encourage you not to do a free gift that costs money, like one of your books that you then also have to mail. Give lead magnets that are a little bit of a taste of what you do. It can be a mini course or a set of videos. You want them to have a quick win and be able to consume it in around 15 minutes and to be like, “Wow, that was good. I did it and I feel good about that.” Then be hungry for more. Bonus myth: All hosts will promote you. This is a key one I have learned as a speaker on podcasts, summits, and other events. This is something you really have to look out for. The fact is everyone has a different process. I was invited to be on someone's podcast. I wanted to send them my questions. They replied, “No, we have our own process.” I trusted it, “Okay, fine.” Then I did the show, and I provided my free gift and I provided all the links to my social. everything they requested. In the end, my free gift which I talked about was cut from the episode. None of my links were in the show notes. Even worse, not even my website or my social media links were included. That meant that no one was able to easily go and reach out to me. That's hard, right? Now the audience would miss my gift and have to google me to connect or have to type in my name and find me out on social media. That is not ideal. When you are going to one of these opportunities, please see that you will actually be promoted. It was kind of disappointing and I was very surprised. The solution is to listen to their show. Listen to previous summits or events. Check their show notes or the copy that gets put out. See what's happened with other guests or speakers. I was absolutely shocked because in my process for my podcast and summits, I allow the speaker or the guest to provide the title because I know they know their material really well. Their title is going to probably be more magnetic when they write it themselves. I also allow them to write their own description (if they want) and their questions. Now, why would I have them do the questions? I don't know all the content they want to share and that my audience would appreciate the most. When I allow them or give them the chance to write all the questions, then I know we're getting the best possible content for my audience. That's what I want. I don't want to frustrate my listeners either. I put in the show notes all of their links, all of the things that were mentioned, their website, and their social. It's all in there because it's important the listener can easily go and get what they're wanting. I don't want you to have to work for it. Also, before my summits, I promote my speakers and then for the podcast, I promote them after. I promote so that my guests get traction to their episode and can build relationships with my audience because that's how business works. That's how the world works. If there are great people out there who can serve my audience, and my audience is looking for them, why wouldn’t I put them together? Wrapping Up If this has inspired you now to get over one of these myths, let me know which one. If you're thinking, “Oh, I need to be on a podcast or I need to be in a book”, great! I have three opportunities for you: the Dynamic Women Podcast, the Dynamic Women Trailblazers Secrets book, or be a summit speaker. Read my other blogs here:
Are you a professional speaker, but you're not getting on enough stages? Or are you wanting to be a professional speaker and you're looking for places to speak so you can grow your audience and your income? In this blog, I will talk about the top 10 benefits of speaking on other people's stages or platforms to grow your audience and your income. When I say other people's platforms, I mean their summit stages, event stages, podcasts, YouTube channels, or IG stories. It could be any place where you are going to be on their platform, and they are going to broadcast you out to their people. Now while I'm speaking about other people's platforms, I also want you to know that the top 10 benefits I will talk about can be done in any type of speaking – fee-paid speaking, free speaking and speak-to-offer (that's when you speak and then you offer your services or products). Anyone of them can give you these different benefits. But I want to focus on speaking on other people's platforms. Now, oftentimes I talk about this like, “Benefits of Being a Paid Speaker.” However, these are benefits of any type of speaking. (Check out my last blog where I shared the three ways to speak without being a professional speaker. Maybe if you are a professional speaker, you still want to tap into these other ways.) As I go through the 10 different benefits, I invite you to think about the following:
At the end, I'll ask you, “which is your absolute favorite benefit of being a speaker?” Benefit #1: You will be seen as an expert Who is an expert? An expert is someone who has comprehensive and authoritative knowledge. If you are an expert at what you do or on the topic in your industry, then people are more likely to go to you to hear about that topic. Once you start talking about it in different places, you're going to be seen as that authority. They're then going to hire you to do work with them on that topic if you’re the go to. Benefit #2: Credibility Credibility means you're trusted and you're believed in. This is especially helpful for people who are newer in their business because you want other people to feel like you are credible in the work that you're offering and the services or products you're offering. Credibility comes from being a speaker. If you can show up in different places, other people's platforms, and say, “Hey, I'm a speaker, and I speak on this topic”, that’s the expert piece. Then if someone is promoting you to their network, that gives you credibility to their network as well: “If this host believes in Speaker A, then I can believe in and trust Speaker A, too.” By being affiliated with someone in their summit, podcast etc., it will give you more credibility. Benefit #3: Connections This is such a benefit. Some people think the connection they're looking for when they're on other people’s stages is just the connection to the audience, attendees, or potential clients who are there as a form of revenue from them being a lead. However, the connections don't just stop there. There is connection also to the host and connections to the other speakers. Are you tapping into all these three types of benefits underneath this connection piece? When you speak on other people's platforms or stages, they've already curated a group of amazing speakers who are experts and who have credibility, and now you're one of them. By association, you're also going to increase your credibility with these other people. Benefit #4: Expanding your network When you speak on other people's platforms, then you have the opportunity to grow your audience and to grow your network. Again, it's with the host, the other speakers, past speakers, and guests, future speakers and guests, plus all the attendees. You have the option to grow or expand your following, your network, your email list, or whatever you want to call it. Benefit #5: Getting leads and clients While speaking doesn't guarantee you to get leads and clients, it definitely helps to get leads and clients. That comes in how you speak, what you speak on, what questions you give to the person who's interviewing you, and really positioning your product without being salesy. Especially when you're on another person's platform, unless they give you permission to be able to go and make an offer to their audience. As we move into the idea of leads and clients, it continues from the one before, which is expanding your network and connections. Because when you're expanding your network, you're expanding your email list. Therefore, you may have the opportunity to get leads and clients onto your list. Benefit #6: Sales Sometimes, on someone else’s platform, you can sell a program, book, product, or services you have. That's a great opportunity you have when you speak on other people's platforms. They bring the people to you. You're building connections, expanding your network, being credible, being an expert, getting leads and clients, and then hopefully, sales come from it. Hopefully. Key pieces for sales, always focus on providing value and nurture the people that stay connected with you. Benefit #7: Authority Speaking can make you an authority and/or an influencer. Now, you may be thinking, “I don't want to be an influencer like on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. However, when you have authority or you're an influencer, it's also a little bit like being an expert. However, with these, you have the ability to:
Whatever it may be. You have the power (and responsibility). If you have a movement, a cause, mission or something you're passionate about, you have the ability to move your audience into action, in the right direction for them to succeed. That is such a great benefit, right? Because also, if they're being moved, oftentimes they will become clients or leads for you in the future, and sales will come from it. Benefit #8: Level up and bio depth Being a speaker on other people's platforms helps you to level up and gives you bio depth. I mean, biography depth – lots of things to share in your biography for a book, website, podcast, or wherever you put it. If you're not a speaker yet, then all you need to do is line up speaking on someone's stage, and then you can put in your bio that you are a speaker. Isn’t that great! This is a great option if you can’t lock in a paid speaking engagement yet. This also gives you the opportunity to even level up your speaking by getting on someone else's BIGGER stage. On your social media, you can share, “Wow, so excited to be invited to speak on so and so’s summit or so and so’s podcast”. By promoting it, people will notice, “Oh, cool, look at her doing great things or look at him doing great things.” Now in your bio, you can say,
This takes me to number nine. Benefit #9: More speaking requests The idea is if you speak in one place, you should be able to get another speaking engagement from that. If you haven't been able to do that yet, let's have a conversation. Feel free to email [email protected] and say, “I'd like to have a free chat with Diane.” They'll send you my booking link. You should get more speaking requests because as you speak in one place, they'll like what they see, and then they'll invite you. I've seen this happen by them being in the audience and sometimes it’s just from them seeing your info on the summit page or on social media. Here is some evidence: often, after I'm on a summit, I get this flood of requests for me to speak at other summits, on podcasts, at events, and for different opportunities. It's because they heard me, and they already see me as credible and an expert. They already know the host worked with me. They see my connections. They see how I've leveled up. They see how all this has happened. They feel confident saying, “Let's give Diane an invitation to speak at our event.” You have that opportunity. Maybe the first one isn't the greatest one, isn't the best, and doesn't give you the best results, but there's that benefit of opening doors for more speaking requests, maybe even paid ones. Benefit #10: Opportunities you never know You never know what it's going to do for you to be able to speak on someone's stage. You might have an opportunity to do more training for them or their clients. You might be invited in to be a guest speaker. You may be invited to do other cool joint ventures, affiliate deals, or collaborations based on you being on that summit or on that podcast. Maybe it's from a host. Maybe it's another speaker. Maybe it's even from one of the attendees. You never know, right? You could even have the opportunity of putting your book somewhere on someone's platform for sales, or someone being an affiliate to sell your program because they really like what they see. Wrapping Up Those are the ten benefits of speaking on someone else's platform. If you're already speaking and you want to speak on someone else's platform, then these are also benefits for you. You can ask yourself, “Are these things happening in my life?” I'm curious, write me a comment, send me an email at [email protected]. Let me know which of these 10 benefits you think is the biggest benefit for you that you would love to bring in. As I said, if you want to talk any of them through, please reach out to my team to book a call with me. If you've never spoken before, think about the places you could go and speak. A couple of opportunities that I'll let you know about are (1) the Dynamic Women Podcast. We have guests on some of our episodes. (2) We also have our different series of Dynamic Women Summits where you can apply to be a speaker. The key is, get out their and speak! Read my other blogs here:
Have you been thinking about being a professional speaker and growing your business? In this blog, I’m going to share three different ways that you can speak to…
Who is a professional speaker? I'm part of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. In the US, there's the National Speakers Association. There are also many other professional speaking organizations, including the Global Speakers. The key thing is, speakers are people who get paid to speak. Whether you are a keynoter, workshop leader, facilitator, group coach, professor, emcee, (and there are many more), you are a speaker. For CAPS, you have to have made $50,000 from speaking, minimum in the previous 12 months to be a member. Different organizations or associations have different criteria. Plus, ethically, you have to be a good speaker. Now, there still are professional speakers out there who are being paid to speak, who are amazing, who don't have a designation, who aren't part of an association, that's up to them. When you are part of an association, it does give you credibility. It also can connect you with the right bureaus, the right opportunities, and you're professionally part of a group of your people, your peers, or your colleagues. I'm sharing this so if anyone does want to go that route, there's that option. Also, if you're wanting to practice your speaking and you're new, I do suggest you go and join Toastmasters. That is something I did in order to refine my speaking ability, to be able to practice, and to get feedback in a professional setting. But that doesn't necessarily teach you how to grow a speaking business. The 3 ways to speak without being a Professional Speaker How can you be brought in to speak even if you are not a professional speaker? I have already shared with you about fee-paid speaking, where you would get paid to speak. Now I’m going to share more about speak-to-offer, where you don't necessarily get paid to speak, or you get an honorarium or you don't get your full fee, but you get to make an offer. There are also many opportunities where you speak and talk about yourself, promote yourself by providing education, answering questions, and maybe a presentation. Some of them are free and some of them have an investment by you to speak, but you get to make an offer or promote yourself and capture emails with a lead magnet. Think of these 3 different opportunities as marketing and sales opportunities. When people come to my free online community, Dynamic Women Global Community on Facebook, I ask them, “What's something you want to learn about?” A lot of times, people are saying marketing, so speaking is one really amazing way to do marketing for your business. As I go through these opportunities, I will also share some really conservative results that I got. I've had way bigger results, but I'm going to keep it super duper small so that you can think about what is realistic for you. I'm not guaranteeing these numbers, but they are possible. They are showing the reality that even if you don’t have a very big audience, there are many opportunities and really great results you can get from other people’s audiences. #1: Speak at events Sometimes, there are networking groups who will invite someone to come in and speak for 5-12 minutes about themselves. It might even be lunch with a speaker, but the speaker is going to be actually giving a proper talk for 45 minutes to 90 minutes. For those, you’ll want to prepare and practice, so you can build some confidence and some experience in speaking. At these events, you can definitely have the smaller speaking spots. I'll speak about the virtual world, but know that these can definitely be done in-person. This way, if you're thinking virtually, that expands the number of people you can speak to. It also expands the number of opportunities that you have. Here’s an example of me being given a 10-minute speaking spot: I was talking about life balance. At the end of it, I said that I'm giving away a free audit of what you need in order to be balanced in life. There were only 10 guests at this event. One of them was the host. One of them was me, so there were only eight guests. I had two of those people (that's 20%) ask for audits with me. Out of those two, one of them became a sale. One of them bought a program for $997. Me going and speaking at that event got me one client at $997. That's pretty good, right? Of the 10, 20% came to connect with me. One of those, so 10% of the people, I was able to turn into a client from the lead. (Remember this was a poor result compared to numbers I have done.) If you could make $997 from 10 minutes of your time, would you grab the mic? Events are great because I also got to know the host better. The other cool thing is one of the people there reached out to me later about speaking to her group. It's not always about marketing to a client, it could be marketing to another host of another event, or to another opportunity. Plus, it’s relationship building with the event host. The key thing is you want to do your best to educate them in that 10-25 minutes. You're not going to pitch to them. You're going to give them something like a gift, which is your lead magnet. It could be a report, checklist, audit, blueprint, templates, etc. Listen to this Podcast episode to learn more about Lead Magnets. #2 Summits Summits can be a day, two days, or it could be longer. Think of it more like a conference where there are multiple speakers. Some of these are going to be interview style or some of these will be you taking the stage to talk about your topic. If you're not a professional speaker, it's really great when these are interviews as it takes the pressure off of you preparing a talk. Those are going to be ones to look for. When they're interviews, you also want to look for ones where you get to provide the questions so it takes the conversation to a place you want to go and can help you to prepare better. You're not going to read your answers, but you’ll know what will be asked and what you want to share. It’s going to give the audience the best content. For me as a host, I want my guests to be able to provide the questions so I can ask the best ones to make them look good, and my audience gets the best content. Here’s an example of when I spoke at a summit: In the audience for my talk (because there were multiple talks happening at the same time) there were only six guests listening to my interview. At first, I was disappointed because there were supposed to be hundreds, if not 1000s of people on the summit because every speaker was supposed to promote it and so I shared the summit info with my list. I tried not to be discouraged by this. I gave away a lead magnet at the end, I don't remember which one it was. But from that, I had two leads. Those two leads became two clients, each of them purchasing something for about $1250, so the total profit was $2497. If there were six guests there, that was a close rate of 33%. Now, they both didn't happen at the same time. One happened pretty soon after, and then a while later another happened, which was a great surprise. (Again, remember this was a low result compared to numbers I have done.) If you could make $2497 from a 30-min interview would you do it? The other benefit of summits is all the other people there speaking. You can connect with them, you can go and see where they have spoken at, and you can then potentially go and speak at the summit for the next year of this talk if it goes really well. You might also have the opportunity in summits to provide a VIP gift. Now, the VIP gift is usually something you will normally charge for, but you're going to give it for free to the VIPs. The VIPs at the summits are the people who have paid to be there and paid to get the recordings, or paid to be able to get extra bonuses. These are really great people to be offering to because the VIPs are already comfortable paying for things. These are the people you want to give a VIP gift to. If you're asked at a summit if you can provide a regular gift plus a VIP gift, say yes, and figure out what to give them. I encourage you to give something that is going to be passive for you. For example, a mini course, a group session, a recording, or something really good that would position you as an expert. #3: Podcast Guesting The third opportunity is to be on someone's podcast and usually it’s interview style. Here’s an example of when I was a guest on a podcast: Since no one was there live with us, I had no idea how many guests, or how many people would listen to it, and how many potential buyers there were. No idea. Absolutely no idea. However, I gave a gift - another lead magnet. I had a bunch of people sign up for the gift. As time went on, more people have been signing up for the gift because a podcast lives on (it’s evergreen). An event is only for the people who are there. A summit is for the people that are there and the people that paid for the recordings or are getting the recordings. But a podcast lives on and lives on. The even better podcasts are the ones that also promote it on their YouTube channel. For example, every time I do one of my Dynamic Women podcast episodes, it also goes on my YouTube channel, Diane Rolston YouTube channel. That gives you two opportunities to be heard. If you're going to be interviewed on a podcast, wouldn't it not be amazing if you could be on both platforms, as a podcast and on YouTube? Now just like the summits where I talked about being interviewed, that's the common way to do it, podcasts also have interviews. Now, if the podcaster has some sort of special way they do it, you want to be listening to a bunch of episodes to see:
Providing your questions for a podcast host is really beneficial. When I have people as guests on my podcast, I ask them, “What questions do you want me to ask you?” For a 25-minute podcast, think about offering maybe five-seven questions. It also depends on how long your answers are. You want it to feel like a tennis match back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. They'll ask you the question, you give an answer, but don't drone on for 10 minutes because they're not going to be able to ask you all the questions, and the audience will get bored. Let’s get back to my example. (Reminder: These are all super minimum examples, not my best results. I'm giving you almost the worst results so that you can just see what the opportunities are.) Again, one of the podcasts I was on, I had no clue how many people were listening to it or have listened to it. I received one phone call from someone who left me a message and said, “Diane, I just heard your podcast episode with so and so. I'd like to talk to you about coaching.” Great. We jumped on a phone call so that was just an investment of my time. Then they signed up for one of my coaching packages. That was a value of $8,820. Would you say yes to a podcast, then a sales call so you could make almost $9000? I’m guessing yes! Wrapping Up When we add this up, I did three separate talks, which you can easily do even without being a professional speaker, other than an outline or some basic questions. I did not practice them. I did not create a PowerPoint slideshow or a presentation of any fashion, no handout, nothing. I was able to bring in about $14,000, from let's say, an average of 90 minutes of being either interviewed or speaking. There are ways to be more professional or to do a better job for sure, but I was not a fee paid speaker in this case. I made money on the back end by marketing myself very wisely in these opportunities. I have some speaking opportunities where I’ve made $80k on the back end. What do you think? Do you think you could take on one of these opportunities? Could you go and look for events to speak at? Could you look for summits to speak at? Could you look for podcasts to speak on? You totally can, and I encourage you to do so. If you want to be a guest on the Dynamic Women Podcast, just go to this link and apply. Now, if you want to be a speaker at one of our future events, you can apply here. So what's the next step for you? Is it to reach out to me and my team and to be part of these opportunities? Is it to go out into the world and see what else is out there for you? I hope so because one amazing way to market your business is through speaking. Watch out for my next blogs! I will talk more about the benefits of speaking on other people’s platforms, the myths you’ve been led to believe that are costing you speaking opportunities, and the keys for you getting off to a fast start to grow your business and build your income with speaking. Read my other blogs:
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