7 Speaker Video Tips

I had quite the adventure yesterday when we lost power in a rainstorm about 6:30am for most of the day and I had a Facebook Live (done fireside from my iPhone before it lost all its juice) plus our Speaker Profit Formula weekly call (done from The Hot One's building on the campus of Bryn Mawr College where I had to "borrow" an office and commandeer some WiFi!) and the third installment of our Keynotes That Convert mentorship that I was finally able to do from home once the power came back on about 2:30pm.

Today should be a walk in the park by comparison Easy peasy!

Here are 7 quick tips for you about speaker video if you want to create a KILLER video marketing asset for your speaking-driven business.

And you're also invited to get the behind-the-scenes inside scoop on what it takes to create a video marketing asset that SELLS in next Tuesday's FREE Speaker Video Training Masterclass.

Let's get those tips for ya...

1. No video is better than a bad video: Don't have crappy video out there on the interwebs that prospects will find and use to DISqualify you.

2. The context in which they SEE you is the context in which they SET you: If you want to do seminars, your video should be in a seminar room. If you want to be hired to be on bigger stages, your video should show you on a BIG stage.

3. No preamble, no lead-up: Your video should open with you onstage IN ACTION. Don't waste a prospect's time with a fancy intro with music, flashy titles, or anything else. The video showcases YOU. Period.

4. Make sure the content aligns with your REAL speech: Do not include superfluous or "off-message" sound bites, stories, or examples. Showcase only your flagship material that you want to be hired for.

5. Old video is not going to sell your new content: If you have a great video from a couple years back, but your content has changed (new topic, new book, new niche), you need a NEW video. Don't kid yourself otherwise. Seasoned speakers collect new video assets ALL the time and create a completely new video reel every 1-2 years.

6. A video of your TedX Talk is not going to cut it: First, TedX has a strong anti-professional speaker bias. Second, they've coached you specifically NOT to give your "usual" content and to create something special just for them. For both those reasons (and see #4 above), it's not a good substitute for a top-notch video demo.

7. Don't create a video demo, create a video primer: A video demo is a once-and-done finished product. A video primer is a more flexible, valuable asset because it's designed from the start for you to ADD new clips whenever you want. These could be new testimonials, new speech snippets, new venues (like that upcoming gig with you in front of 2,000 raving fans). Make sure you ALWAYS get the edit files, raw source video, and digital masters from your videographer (fair warning: many won't hand these over because they want you coming back to them for all edits. This means you need a new videographer. Sorry.)

That's it for now. While you're on this post, go ahead and take advantage of our free deep-dive training on how to create a killer video asset -- PLUS the biggest mistakes speakers make with video & how to use video to grow your speaking business.

This Speaker Video Training masterclass is absolutely free and details are on the registration page.

Tags: expert marketing

David Newman: Speaker Video

"If you want to accelerate and boost your sales, the best thing you can do is show your clients and prospects. Don't tell what you can help them with. Show them."

Thought leadership marketing. What is that?

Well, I have good news and I have bad news. Really, that's the only kind of marketing that's left. Everything that we used to call marketing and sales, spray and pray, batch and blast - most of my clients hate doing that kind of marketing. In fact, the consistent theme that I hear is "David, I love my work. I love my clients. I just don't like the marketing and sales part."

Well, I have great news. If that's you, you can replace the words 'marketing' and 'sales' with four new words. The four new words are 'offer value' and 'invite engagement'.

We work with speakers, consultants, coaches, and experts who want to speak more profitably. Marketing today is about being a trusted advisor. It's really about serving before selling. It's about helping before pitching. Everything that you do to prove to your client that you are the right choice.

When I started my business, I made every mistake in the book. I made the good ones twice.

I wanted to work with speakers and experts and thought leaders who are in a similar position to me when I started my speaking driven business, to help them shortcut the mistakes, avoid the potholes, not hit the same brick walls and the same dead ends that I did, so that everything that we do is really about coaching them, mentoring them, and helping them shave years off their learning curve.

Marketing needs to be easy, effortless, and enjoyable because that's the only way it's going to be effective.

If you do marketing tasks that you hate, you're never going to end up doing the right kind of marketing. So if you love writing strategies, use writing. If you love speaking strategies, use speaking. If you love tech, use tech. If you love networking, shaking hands and kissing babies, please use networking strategies.

But you have to do marketing, rain or shine, happy or sad, feel like it or not because that's what's going to help you ring the cash register.

The most common symptoms of the folks that we work with is they've noticed some fee stagnation, they're not as successful as they would like to be or they're not as successful as they would like to be as quickly as they would like to be.

For some of our folks, it's often not their first rodeo, so they've hired other coaches, they've hired other mentors, they've bought other courses and programs, and they come to us a little bit jaded, a little bit burned out, a little disappointed, wondering is this really gonna work this time? And those are the folks that when they commit, when they do the work, they get amazing, incredible results.

Let me tell you a story about my client, Nancy. Nancy lives up in Buffalo, New York. She's a brilliant speaker. She was complaining to me one day, David, I can't get out of Buffalo. All I'm getting is these low fee and no fee gigs. I'm down at the chamber for $300, I'm down at the ladies auxiliary for $200, I'm in the church basement for $250. I told her, I said, "Nancy, the fact that all you're finding is these low fee and no fee gigs, that's not the problem. The problem is that you're taking them."

Never let anyone's budget determine your value or your fee.

The three primary reasons that folks work with us:

They want to raise their visibility
They want to raise their credibility
They want to raise their buy-ability and get more and better checks in the door as fast as possible.

If you want to accelerate and boost your sales, the best thing you can do is show your clients and prospects. Don't tell what you can help them with. Show them.

If you want to maximize profits, you have to position your products and services so that they will shorten the path and accelerate the speed to get your clients the outcomes they already know they want. We are no longer in the convincing and persuading business. We are in the filtering and sorting business.

"Everything he says, I want to write it all down and I bring so much back with me to work on. I could stay busy working on his stuff forever."

"David was fantastic, a whole new way of thinking about marketing. I need to go back and rethink my business."

"David is a seasoned speaker, he's unbelievable. He's very passionate about what he does. He truly wants you to be better. At the same time, he's going to hold you accountable."

"David has a great insight, energy, passion around marketing like I haven't seen anybody else ever have."

"David is amazing and I'll tell you, he's got so many great stories that are applicable and you're so excited, you want to immediately go home and apply them."

So no matter what, it's really about reaching the next level of professional success and getting premium checks from premium clients.

Marketing today is about 3PR - personalized, professional public relations. Those are three components. It is speaking to build your visibility. It is publishing to build your credibility and it is digital marketing to build your share-ability. If you nail those three things, you've got more visibility, credibility, and share-ability. You win.

At Do It! Marketing, we help speakers, consultants, and experts to simplify their speaking-driven business, boost their impact and increase their income by $15K-$25K per month (or more) faster than they ever thought possible.

If that’s something you’re interested in, reach out and schedule a free speaker strategy call with our team at www.doitmarketing.com/call

On the call, we'll help you get total clarity on the business model, speaking model, and revenue model you really want, how to create it by reaching the exact clients and audiences who matter, and how to fix what's not working right now with your positioning, packaging, marketing, prospecting, outreach, and sales so that you improve your results FAST.

Go to www.doitmarketing.com/call and we'll craft a plan to help you speak more profitably.

Tags: expert marketing

17 vital differences between a market and an audience

As a speaker, consultant, thought-leading executive or entrepreneur, you may have heard about the importance of building an audience for your work... Sounds great.

But it's nowhere as important as developing a market for your expertise.

Here are 17 vital differences between a market and an audience.

You can spend YEARS attracting and serving an audience that is NOT your market. And that's just sad, painful, and frustrating.

These are as pernicious as they are deceptive.

WHICH of these has been holding you back - confusing you - or set you to wondering how come you're not making more money?

Let's go down the list...

An audience listens - A market pays attention
An audience wants entertainment - A market wants to solve problems
An audience values an experience - A market values expertise
An audience wants to watch - A market wants to act
An audience wants information - A market wants implementation
An audience reacts - A market responds
An audience wants their questions answered - A market wants their answers questioned
An audience wants you to be popular - A market wants you to be right
An audience asks “What can you do?” - A market asks “What’s next?” and “What else?”
An audience says, “Great show!” - A market says, “Great job!”
An audience tells their friends - A market tells their boss
An audience buys your book - A market reads your book
An audience likes your ideas - A market implements your ideas
An audience wants your autograph - A market wants to give you their signature
An audience applauds - A market refers
An audience says, “Thank you” - A market says, “Thank goodness!”

and finally - most important of all - read this next one as often as you need to...

17. An audience will HEAR you - A market will PAY you (well, often, and gladly)

Expert marketers not only build an audience - they develop a market for their value, ideas, products, services, and programs.

Want to apply for your Speaker Strategy Call to see how you can IMPLEMENT some of these concepts right away? Apply for your call here.

Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing for coaches, consultant marketing, consulting firm marketing, thought leadership marketing, marketing professional services, professional services marketing, trusted advisor marketing, marketing expert, marketing for trainers, marketing professional services firms, marketing coaching, expert marketing, professional speaker marketing, motivational speaker marketing, marketing consultant, marketing for authors, marketing for consultants, thought leadership, inbound marketing, professional services selling, lead generation, recognized authority, market vs. audience

Marketing for Experts: The Real Deal

Marketing expert marketing speaker og ad The ad above first appeared in Business Week in 1958 – 56 years ago!

The moral of the ad’s story was relevant then and it is even more relevant today: establish expertise and build relationships before you try to sell.

The good news is that experts win on value and generalists die on price.

The bad news is that we live in far more cynical times than the sellers of the 1950’s; but more good news is that YOU have so many more tools available to help you address the problem.

If you're investing in "Expert Marketing" (it goes by several other names like inbound marketing, thought-leadership marketing, and content marketing)... then you've probably asked yourself:

How (and when) will this generate a sale?

And that is completely the WRONG question.

By the time you're done reading this article/ rant/ manifesto, you'll see exactly why - AND you'll be able to ask (and answer) much better questions for your business right away.

Asking when expert marketing will lead to a sale is like filling up your car's gas tank and asking, "Why aren't we there yet?"

Answer: Because filling your car with gas is a NECESSARY but NOT SUFFICIENT step to getting you to your destination (a new customer or client).

Do you have a chance of arriving now that your gas tank is full? You bet.

Did you have a chance of getting there with your tank on empty? No way.

Let's move on...

Insight #1 You need to sell the same way that YOU buy.

Look at your email spam or bulk email folder. Yes, you. Yes, right now. I'll wait...

tap... tap... tap... tap... You're back. Excellent.

Did you see that spam email from the toner cartridge company? Did you catch the pitch from the SEO firm that filled out your website's "contact us" form? Did you respond to that great deal on vacation cruises? NO?

OK now pop over to your paper mail pile on your desk. Did you check out the latest "triple play" offer from Comcast (or whatever hellacious Cable Satan runs in your neck of the woods)? How about that compelling cell phone offer from Verizon? The Wall Street Journal subscription offer under that postcard? Or how about that postcard - you know, the one from the home heating oil company? NO?

When's the last time you gave your credit card number over to a cold caller who interrupted your family dinner? NEVER??

I'm shocked...

Because you seem pretty excited about YOUR cold calls - and sending out YOUR spam - YOUR offers - YOUR postcards - YOUR sales messages.

The problem with doing it this way? In four words...

Zero. Value. For. Prospects.

And hello? YOU don't BUY this way. What in the world makes you think your prospects DO?

Look once more at the ad above - and answer one simple question:

Question #1: What VALUE have I ADDED to my prospect's world in order to EARN the RIGHT to INVITE them to a conversation and OFFER my solutions to their urgent, pervasive, expensive problems?

Insight #2 Referrals are great - but they are neither deaf, dumb, nor blind

Next, you'll say that you don't NEED "expert marketing" because 99% of your business is repeat and referral business and it's always been that way and you don't see how this "newfangled marketing" is going to move the needle in closing more sales.

Do you seriously think that referrals don't check you out online before picking up the phone?

What messages are you sending to your valued referrals with...

a. Your outdated website (articles from 2008 are outdated, friends. And from 2003 even more so. And design aesthetic from 1997 most of all.)

b. Your sporadically updated blog that you leave dormant for 2 (or 4 or 6) months at a clip.

c. Your abandoned Twitter account you set up because someone said "you had to" and that now has 37 followers while your competitors have 3,000 (or a whole lot more.)

d. Your sketchy, bare bones LinkedIn profile that has 300 connections but only 2 recommendations (From 2005. From people with the same last name as you.)

e. Your "glory days" articles and TV clips and PR placements from 20 (yes I'm serious), 10, or even 5 years ago. Nothing screams "has-been" like old media.

Make no mistake: Getting repeat and referral business is great. But don't kid yourself that this absolves you from having a top-notch web presence, social media platform, and body of knowledge that is ultra-current, super-relevant, and obviously abundant.

In fact, you are leaving yourself open for EMBARRASSMENT if your advocates hear back from their referrals and find themselves in the awkward position of having to DEFEND you to them because your web presence has fallen behind and now casts your professional expertise into doubt.

Question #2: Does my overall web presence REASSURE and REINFORCE the referrals I earn with the most current, credible and relevant expert marketing messages, positioning, content, resources, and value that will make my advocates LOOK BETTER - not worse - for referring me?

Insight #3 Expert Marketing is a 4-layer enchilada (aka You don't get to eat the delicious golden-brown cheese without first layering on the meat!!)

trusted advisor marketing DOIT

The first layer - at the core of the matter - is your Reputation. Your work. Your track record. If you stop there, you'll have a VERY hard time attracting NEW leads and prospects to your doorstep. "My work should speak for itself" is what a lot of very smart people say - smart people who have a hard time making their mortgage payments.

The second layer is Amplification. Ways to make your "expert signal" stronger. Enter social media marketing, niche PR, article marketing, blogging, keyword research and search engine optimization. This is the key to spreading your ideas and broadcasting your expertise.

The third layer is Leverage. This is where you begin to capitalize on your "expert marketing" assets such as articles, blogs, videos, podcasts, interviews, white papers, special reports, book excerpts, and other value-first marketing tools. You can now reach out to high-probability prospects both individually (on LinkedIn for example) and collectively (on your blog for example). This is where your job becomes putting the right bait on the right hooks in the right lakes to catch the right fish.

The fourth layer is Gravity. Just like Jim Collins talks about the "flywheel" concept in Good to Great (it takes a long time to get it spinning but then is very hard to stop because of the power of momentum) - this is where you start to see payoffs. More leads, better prospects, bigger opportunities, more conversations, higher profile alliances, more invitations to speak, publish, guest post, contribute, teach, and (drum roll please...) more invitations to do great work at premium fees for great clients who NOW know you, like you, and trust you enough to hand over 5- and 6-figure checks because their level of confidence in your expertise is pretty damn close to 100%.

Question #3: Do you want to make more sales to strangers? (Good luck with that). Or do you really want more people to recognize, respect, and request YOU by name when they have a need, project, or problem that they instantly see has "your name written all over it"? If that's your goal, then expert marketing is for you.

Re-read the McGraw-Hill ad above and let's do a 21st century spin on it together...

I don't know who you are.
I don't read your blog.
I don't subscribe to your newsletter.
I don't see your name in my industry's publications.
I don't hear my peers spreading your ideas.
I don't come across your content in Google searches.
I don't connect your solutions to my problems.
I don't feel the gravity of your credibility or credentials.
I don't have any tangible way to gauge your expertise or experience.
Now -- what was it you wanted to sell me?

So here's the ultimate (and most important) question for YOU:

How can you realistically expect to SELL anything by NOT setting the necessary pre-conditions for ANY sale with Expert Marketing?

The answer is as simple as it is obvious: you can't. Just like you can't drive your car from Denver to Sheboygan just by filling up your gas tank. You need to get behind the wheel, plan your route, use your GPS, add more fuel along the way (and probably some beef jerky and Sno-Balls and root beer) AND put in the hours and the miles to get you to your destination.

Nobody -- and I mean N-O-B-O-D-Y -- hires speakers, consultants or professional services firms sight unseen. You wouldn't. I wouldn't either.

And the facts prove out that today's buyers are just like YOU and ME.

Expert marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. And as any marathoner will tell you - the best (and only) way to run a marathon is one mile at a time.

What do you think? Please post YOUR COMMENTS below and...

trusted advisor marketing for speakers, consultants, experts

Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing for coaches, consultant marketing, thought leadership marketing, professional services marketing, marketing expert, marketing for trainers, expert marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for consultants, content marketing, inbound marketing, professional services selling, lead generation

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