Jun 24, 2020
How To Get Video Testimonials From Clients and Audience Members
James Taylor interviews Jill Schiefelbein and they talk about exactly How To Get Video Testimonials From Clients and Audience Members.
In today's episode Jill Schiefelbein talks about Exactly How To Get Video Testimonials From Clients and Audience Members.
What we cover:
- Why you should join a Speakers Association
- How to ask for video testimonials
- Keynote speakers vs breakout speakers
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Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/sl068-public-speaking-career-tip-how-to-get-video-testimonials-from-clients-and-audience-members/
James Taylor
Hi, it's James Taylor, founder of SpeakersU. Today's episode was first aired as part of International Speakers Summit the world's largest online event for professional speakers. And if you'd like to access the full video version, as well as in depth sessions with over 150 top speakers, then I've got a very special offer for you. Just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com, where you'll be able to register for a free pass for the summit. Yep, that's right 150 of the world's top speakers sharing their insights, strategies and tactics on how to launch grow and build a successful speaking business. So just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com but not before you listen to today's episode.
Hey there, it's James Taylor, and I'm delighted today to be joined by Jill Schiefelbein. Jill is an award winning entrepreneur, dynamic keynote speaker best selling author and recovering academic before venturing into entrepreneurship. She taught Business Communication at Arizona State University for 11 years. Today, her business the dynamic communicator helps organization's navigate the digital communication space to track customers, increase sales and retain clients. Her latest book is called dynamic communication 27 strategies to grow, lead and manage your business. And she was also the co chair of the next influence conference which the National Speakers associations premiere event for professional speakers. my great pleasure to have Jayla join us today. So welcome, Jill.
Jill Schiefelbein
Thank you so much for having James. I'm excited to share.
James Taylor
Fantastic. So tell us what's what's going on in your world just now.
Jill Schiefelbein
There's a lot going on in my world, but a lot of what's been going on lately has actually been doing with virtual training, different virtual offerings, different, you know, annual programs, but they're dealing with, you know, a quarterly training program that now supplements things that I'm doing in person at conferences, so speaking not just on the stage, but to the screen as well. So how
James Taylor
does that that's quite a different medium in terms of being able to speak you know, you're so used to be on the stage of the biggest stage or your body movements that can be quite different as well, when you're in this little box, how do you have to change your communication style?
Jill Schiefelbein
You know, you do a lot. And what happens is most of the time, I find that speakers who are amazing onstage if they assume that they're just going to meet amazing in an online environment they tank, and it's because navigating the virtual communication space is very different than presenting on a stage. And it's not just about the eloquence in the execution, right? Yes, of course, those things are important. But one of the biggest problems that a lot of speakers have when going into the virtual space is that they're not eyeballs looking back at them. There's not body language that they can read, there's not energy that they can feed off of. And in essence, you have to manufacture all of that for yourself or find ways in the virtual environment to actually create that level of interaction and feedback that you seek in the face to face environments.
James Taylor
So what was if someone may the speakers out there that who primarily their their speaking and and or training To live audiences, if they want to get their toe in the water of learning how to use the media and also having to create their own online courses or online training, but just want to start getting getting used to what that medium could be and how they have to maybe present in a slightly different way, what's a good way for them to start
Jill Schiefelbein
the very first way is do your presentation alone in a room looking at a computer screen and record it via audio, just audio, and listen back to it. And if you're bored in certain parts, then you can expect your audience to be doubly bored in those parts. And it's really important not just to have you know, your energy coming through the enthusiasm, the para language, the ups and the downs of your voice. All of those things are important. But just understanding how people are listening through technology, by listening to yourself in those recordings is important because when you're listening to yourself, listen from the learner perspective that you're trying to actually learn information. So that's number one. Number two is test the platforms if you're doing doing it for a client, if you're doing in a corporation or an organization, and you're not the one choosing the software, you need to actually take time to practice in it and learn what tools you have available, for whatever reason, and it's infuriating to me on one hand, and on the other hand, it's great because I get way more business because the average webinar is kind of, at best. Yeah. And the average webinar is I'm going to speak and there's maybe going to be some PowerPoint slides, and we're going to have some q&a. And that's the norm. Well, if that's the norm, then what I do is way above that, so it's really easy to impress, but why would you as a speaker, why is anyone for that matter? Why would you want to settle for the norm? Figure out what tools are at your disposal and what tools for engagement and interactivity within the webinar or within the Virtual Training are open to you to use and then practice with those tools, get a test audience and practice
James Taylor
now. How did you get mentioned to you, you came from the world of academia and first at Arizona State University but where did The speaking the keynote speaking professional speaking site Have you begin? How did you all get started?
Jill Schiefelbein
Very funny story. It actually began when I was young when I was in high school in a small town in Kansas. My parents had told me at an early age, if I ever wanted to leave Kansas, I had to get what was called a full ride scholarship. And the nerd that I was I went and looked up what that meant in the library. And then everything I did from that day on was geared towards getting a full ride scholarship somewhere, which is how I ended up at Arizona State. And in doing so, I had the great fortune to be elected to some pretty visible leadership positions for community service and for like Student Government type leadership, and I traveled not only around the state of Kansas, but actually around the country, speaking to other students, and then adult organizations, about community service and about leadership and about engagement and I didn't realize it then. But that's when I fell in love with the power of words because, I mean, you're imagining this as a teenager, I'm standing here, I'm talking and then people are doing things. That's power. And I didn't know what it meant at the time. But when I went to college, my goal was to be and I still laugh and this is no joke. 18 year old Jill, I'm going to be a motivational speaker and Leadership Conference facilitator in Spanish speaking third world countries for you.
James Taylor
Well, you you had it done you were you there. That was I think, I think what I think when I was 18, I was just thinking about what nightclubs to go to so, so you were like, way ahead of way ahead of me.
Jill Schiefelbein
It was that focus that I went to ASU and they actually had very good communication department. So that's what I started to study. But as it turns out, two things happen. Number one, four years of high school Spanish that I got a pluses in you know, or A's and a pluses in Kansas does not even equal one real world year of Spanish in Arizona. So okay, so I wasn't as good at that is I thought I was and then number two, I took an organizational theory course. fell in love with the business side of communication. So when I went to grad school, that's what I focused in. That's what I taught. And then really turned it into Oh, so I can teach this. That's great. I fell in love with teaching, but I can also teach it through a corporate environment, which is quite impactful. And that's really where the business idea came about.
James Taylor
Now, there's lots of, obviously academics that try and make the move from lecture leaner than a traditional lecturing academic style, moving on to being more of keynote speakers on the stage. And some of them are successful at it, but a lot of them aren't quite as good because it's a definite different style going on there as well. I'm wondering for you, when you were making that transition, whether any mentors that you had around you that you could, you could get feedback on your speaking and you could get feedback on your keynote, your presentations, you know,
Jill Schiefelbein
I really didn't seek any of that. And maybe that's because I thought I was good enough to go as it was, for whatever reason my ego carried me through or it was just because I was so focused on like the business In the side and understanding all the business aspects that I didn't focus on the other, and I think that's really more of the truth. So I joined. Immediately I joined the Chamber of Commerce and I went into small business like group coaching programs. And I went in and just saw out any information that was available to me along business ownership around growing a business and went that way. So it was really through a collective effort of being active in my local Chamber of Commerce, which was at Gilbert, Arizona at the time, that I learned a lot and made many mistakes along the way. But that was my first step. My second step then once I decided that speaking, was going to be a big part of the business, not just coaching and training was I joined the National Speakers Association, which you mentioned earlier. I'm the volunteer co chair of their biggest event this coming summer. And that community really just it changed everything the community as a whole and then meeting certain people who then not really intentionally took me under their wing, but I could come to with questions question It was
James Taylor
a really powerful organization, have it have a good fortune we met recently in the winter conference. And my understanding is that, that that, that sharing that openness and wanting to share with with your, your tribe with your, your, your peers that kind of came about from the, from the founder from calvet, you know, the founder of the NSA and he was very strong, ready to start saying, you know, we, it's about growing a bigger pie. It's about giving back to your community. Once you once you're kind of on there, and you're starting to learn and you're starting to develop in your speaking career. You have to share and you have to help the people are coming up coming behind you as well. And I'm wondering as you were kind of going in that because one of the things I noticed was this really cool subgroups of of NSA, which I knew nothing about. So, my friend, mutual friend, Erin, Gargan, you know, she said Oh, he This is really cool group. It's called the the, the power woman of NSA and which I'd never heard. She was talking took me about this. And then I spoke to another friend of mine, Denise Jacobs. And she said, Well, actually there's even a sub sub group. There's the, the tall woman of NSA, which I think was at the influence influence conference as well. So, I mean, it's a big organization. So I'm imagining for you kind of just coming into how do you feel as a newbie member just kind of coming into the NSA, when there's obviously some very, very experienced speakers in that group.
Jill Schiefelbein
You know, it's really interesting. There's some very experienced speakers, but there's also a lot of very experienced speakers who have done maybe, let's say, keynoting for their business the entire time and are looking to learn the Virtual Training who are looking to learn these other skills. And so what's fascinating to me is when I hired someone, actually one this person at an auction who's one of the most arguably successful business consultants in the world, and we're sitting there during the day I hired him for and I needed a break and he said, but you know, do you mind if I ask you a question? And I was just like, Whoa, this person who I think is a mentor, who is I hired to work with me who whatever, asked me a question about some digital communication expertise that I have that he doesn't. And it was just a very clear moment for me that no matter where you're at, you will have something to learn, and you will have something to give. And it's just biding your time and waiting until it's the right time to input on either one of those things. And for me, it's been I've learned so much from so many different people, the spirit of Cabot, the spirit of giving, like, Listen, we don't need to compete with each other for gigs, there's a huge market out there. So let's all just be better together, which increases our fees, which increases our value, which is increases the credibility. It's just a win win win situation. And that mentality has really gotten me to devote a lot of a lot of time to serve the organization, but it's finding whatever communities within a bigger organization really fit you in it and like Aaron mentioned, you know, there's other communities to and I'm a part of a couple of other communities within NSA and it's finding your big tribe like the people that get it right like yes, they get what it's like to be in the green room and have the stress with the AV before you're going on or not know if you did well enough or you're traveling and you're a road warrior, not all people can empathize with that so it's nice to have that community and then it's nicer to even dig down deeper and find that circle of people that you just really connect with.
James Taylor
So I noticed that one of the things that you've talked and talked about before which is an area that regardless of where you are, as a speaker is pretty powerful to learn about which is idea of using video, especially when it comes to the testimonials so we've already probably all got you know those kind of written testimonials you get from clients or people that attend your events. But I know a lot of speakers myself included, I do a lot of video. I'm kind of a little bit rather than like okay, getting video at the end of my talk, someone comes up to me and says I really enjoyed this thing and and and I always think Good to myself, I should got video I should have, you know, but I'm never quite sure the best way of doing it. So what advice would you give to someone to ensuring that they getting video from those people that are coming up and having conversations with them maybe at the end or during the break? Or maybe after they've actually given their talk?
Jill Schiefelbein
Yeah, video, I mean, videos just keep we if you've been around marketing for the past, you know, month to year to five years, you know, that video is where it's at. and it converts better than almost anything else right now. But it's video done well. And so when it comes to asking for testimonials, number one, it's pretty awkward to do it yourself. This is where having a staff member and assistant would volunteer or maybe a meeting planner, you know, maybe an intern that they have, they're asking them and of course arranging it in advance that say, Hey, I would really like to capture footage so you make it a partnership effort, right? Especially if you don't have your own staff. Is there someone they can spare make it a partnership so that you give them three different questions that say can you describe the presentation that you just heard by James What's one thing that sticks out most in your mind? See, notice that you're not asking for Did you like James, what would you write this presentation or anything that quite frankly, doesn't matter? What matters is whether they liked you or not that they were actually able to learn something from what you said. Now, our egos want the five star reviews. But what really matters to me when I talk, I don't care if people write me a one star or a five star if they learned something that they can make their life better with. And so when you take your ego out of that equation, and really just focus on what what did you learn, and ask questions around that it's a little different. So you can ask for example, what did you learn from this presentation? What's your favorite takeaway? What's one thing that you can really imagine putting into action right away? And then I love the one words, can you describe James's presentation in one word, because what's great for that is imagine putting 20 of those together, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, times 20. Right, and you have a great, great piece of video that you can use as Mark You can put it at the beginning of your demo reel. And then if you really want to make meaning cleaner, happy, add one or two questions in there about the event as a whole. And then give that to them as a gift in your post editing. You want to make an impression on a meeting planner, give them that gift afterwards.
James Taylor
Those are Grameen those are really fantastic and actionable things. That I mean, anyone that's watching this just now can kind of go into that. I'm wondering, I know a lot in some of the written testimonials, like one of the best testimonials you can get is when a client is able to say, we put into practice what Jill said and it increased our revenues by x or improved retention by y. How can you use video to get those because often you won't necessarily have that, that feedback until a little bit later on. Or maybe they'll write to you or you'll reach out to them say, Hey, how are you getting on with that? And they'll they'll email back Oh, getting with a sales rep by this amount. How can you then ask that potential client or that previous client to give you something in return? Video form.
Jill Schiefelbein
You know what's really interesting about that is if you got video of them initially right, and then you were following up with them after the fact, then you just add that as a text layer annotation on top of the video, right? So it's still coming from the person, you have the right to say it. You can, of course, ask them if they're willing to record a video interview testimonial, but that's hard. Like that's really, really difficult. But what you can do is if you can mutually come with them and do an interview, much like we're doing now, right, where you actually interview them about how your stuff is working in their context. Of course, that's not how you frame it. Right? Like, so let's say your topic is leadership. Right? So James, I would like to, you know, interview you about strategies for high impact leaders. Right, and then you ask them questions that you know, they learned from you, and you're getting that stuff back in the interview, and then it serves two purposes, right. It's a testimony to your work, but it's also great value that you can add to your community.
James Taylor
That's great. That's a really useful thing. I think people are really Pay attention to that, because that's something you can start using straightaway as well. So let's kind of switch a little bit more to you. I mean, you're built up this this career as a speaker. I'm wondering when it comes to let's talk about the craft part first. And whether when you were starting to develop was there was a particular lightbulb moment for you as a speaker where you can thought, Okay, this is what this is how I need to be thinking about the crafting of my keynotes, or is this something you maybe heard from another speaker and you went, Oh, okay, I understand now I need to really implement this in in how I design my keynotes and present my keynotes.
Jill Schiefelbein
So when I think of myself as a speaker, I do I would say more breakouts than keynotes what may be different about me than others and some people are following this models. I don't care what type of speak speech I'm doing. It's the same price like I have a half day right and I have a full day rate you get me there and I will rock anything out of the park. Whether you want me to do a keynote and a breakout, or a keynote and three breakouts. I don't really care if it's 100 They are full day. It's one rate on there and I deliver that value. I end up doing a lot more breakouts and keynotes and I'm okay with that. Because I do not feel that my strength is in the huge, eloquent storytelling.
James Taylor
There's differences. Someone who hasn't made me this was new to speaking. And they've heard keynote, they haven't really heard that breakout. What's the difference between those two types of ways of speaking,
Jill Schiefelbein
a keynote is typically mainstage. You're in front of being higher conference and your keynote delivers one key note, right, like one key idea, one key experience for the attendees, whereas a breakout, maybe the workshops, right that people go into, they break out into different rooms afterward. And depending on the conference, I mean, I've had breakouts that have been 1000 people which are bigger than a lot of conferences, keynotes are right, it just depends at the conference. But you typically in a breakout or a workshop, you expect a lot more content and you expect a little more entertainment out of a keynote. And that's that's general now this is evolving. There are no hard and fast rules. And when people ask me to do a keynote, I am very clear like, I am a content. Heavy speaker. I think I add humor. I think I add stories. But I am not going to entertain and your audience isn't going to be rolling, laughing. They won't walk away, like inspire necessarily either. But they will walk away with things that they can put into action immediately that will make tangible results in their business. And if that's what you're looking for, I'm very clear on the value that I bring. And I have those conversations with people. That's not everyone's style, right? But that's where I know I can shine. The other thing is for me, once I embraced that I didn't have to follow any certain keynote format that I could create my own and it worked for me. It was so much better, because you try to model after what people have done that successful right? But I am never going to be a comedian. As much as I like to think my humor is great. It's kind of sarcastic and dry and not ever One always gets it. So I just need to own what I'm good at. So if I go up, and I set the audience's expectation, and that's the second thing I've learned is not to fall into anyone else's mold be my own. But then to set the audience expectations, expectations for listening, that the beginning of a keynote, I say, you know, today, I am here to make sure that you walk away with a single idea that is going to change how you fundamentally communicate with your customers in a way that will get them to refer you more business, or in a way that will have them using your product more frequently, or whatever the end goal may be that the meeting planner, and I agree on, if I am crystal clear with that at the beginning, and I'll accept back and say, well, in fact, I hope I leave you with many more than one. But all I'm asking you for is this. If you sit with me for the next 30 minutes and you walk away with one thing that you promised to implement, I can guarantee you that this will be an incredibly valuable use of your time, right. So you set the stage for what you want them to do. Because if they're just sitting there trying to scratch down notes, they're not going to implement anything. But the whole time that they can listen to me and know one thing that they're going to take away, then that's going to be more valuable for them in the end. And what's great as a speaker is, then once they implement that, and it's successful, they're going to realize, Wow, we need to follow up with her, maybe bring her in to talk about some of those other things because that one we focused on really wrong. And
James Taylor
I think it's an interesting thing about you know, because we talk about these different types, keynotes breakout, what I've seen is the keynote ones bringing many more the elements of what you would think of as a breakout. I think what I'm good friend of mine is a great speaker on similar topic, I speak on creativity and she speaks on creativity as well. And she is an amazing she comes from the world of training. So initially, she you know, you would have thought that she would the natural place vertigo would be a bit more of a breakout speaker but she said Actually, no, because I because I have big ideas but the same time the way I'm going to deliver them is very actionable thing. I want to be very interactive with the audience. And if you're like that The good news is that's the way that events are going. Because, you know, I think, vast majority that even the keynotes I do now I when I'm asking like what kind of blend you want between entertainment, you know, and the kind of content heavy and all we want lots of interaction, we want to and that was never traditionally the way for for keynote. And so I think if you are that person that you really like to do more of the kind of almost a little bit more of the training the you think about more than the kind of breakout style. That's not assuming that that's not going to work for keynotes because it seems to be that's where the that's where the direction of movement is kind of going for a lot of keynotes, obviously, you still get the celebrity stars and, and all those kind of people and you still get those incredibly inspiring people that you just come away with that one idea and it's a really powerful idea. But maybe that's not necessarily the the majority I would say well what's now being asked to as a keynote speaker now
Jill Schiefelbein
Yeah, I think the beauty of it is is now that we are expected So many different types of speakers and speeches and outcomes. meeting planners are looking for diversity in their attendees experiences, right? I mean, if you had motivational speaker after motivational speaker after motivational speaker, it's like, I'm motivated already Now give me something to do with it. I, I can only sit there and be like, Yay for so long and, and I'm not making fun of those speakers or speeches whatsoever because they all serve a purpose that I am not capable of serving in an audience like we all blend together. But I think the real thing is, is if I had advice to anyone, whether you want to be the traditional keynote, the motivational, inspirational, the content, heavy, whatever it is, really, really get clear on your area of expertise and obsess over it. I know too many people starting out and I did this starting out. Hey, Gil, we trust you with this. Can you also speak on leadership? No, I'm not a leadership expert. Now. Am I an expert in how leaders can communicate for this type of result? Yes. But instead I would say sure I can speak on leadership and then try to spend all this time crap. To talk around something where, you know what I can't quote studies, statistics research, I can't quote a lot of things. You know, and I can't say it from my personal experience. So really focus in on that area and just own it as much as you can and know when it's best to say, you know what, no, I can't speak on that. Here's what I could speak on in that realm. Or I can refer you to someone who can.
James Taylor
And that last bit the referring I mean, that seems to be the largest part of a lot of people speakers have their business comes into them as being referred either by someone that attended the event or by buying other speakers. Well, so I guess that then gives you an opportunity if I mean, I get asked to speak a lot about innovation. I'm not really an innovation speaker. I speak about creativity, but I know amazing innovation speakers, I usually can say if you want more of an innovation, this is the person here to to kind of go with as well. And I'm guessing then by having that, I mean quite defined as to what you speak about and putting out to your fellow speakers what you speak about as well. There's there's more options for for kind of reform. referrals as well, which kind of brings me to the, the business side. So you've, you've built up this business. I mean, there's so much opportunity out there especially you mentioned the, you know that they kind of break out say every conference you go to, they'll have maybe they'll have opening and closing keynote, maybe the keynote by the CEO. And then you'll have 20 plus maybe breakout sessions. There's lots of opportunity. How do you decide what to pursue? How do you kind of like put some way of if you're just getting into that world of speaking, you say, I want to be that kind of speaker to speak and the more they can a breakout session? How do you start to narrow down the target clients? Do you want to speak focuses? It's gonna sofa whelming?
Jill Schiefelbein
It is. I mean, the question is, who can you serve? Best? Right, who can you serve best? One of the things that I rallied against when I started my business, because I came from the academic space, because I didn't want to work in that space, because I left it right. But in reality, because I was in it. My unique perspectives of being in it were very different than anyone who would come in from it not having experienced it like, Well, yeah, that may work, but they don't understand what it's like here. Well, no, I actually do understand what it's like, there I lived it. And so a lot of times we escape one job or profession and run away from it, when in essence, that could actually be the best audience that we serve. So don't count that out immediately. Don't make the mistake I did I actually do more, not more now than I used to that because that's an obvious statement. But I do, I would say maybe 15 to 20% of my business every year comes from higher ed in some way, shape, or form. Wow. And that's, to me, that's really interesting. And it's now it's manifested in different ways. Because once you get I was online education and helping faculty be more innovative, and then it turned into talking to administrators about how to retain people like me who have left and it became fascinating now it's not like I have this huge market in this. I don't advertise it. That's All word of mouth but it was a case in point that that's where my network was built up already. So why did I not first look in my existing network? And it's because I was trying to run away from it so unless you really hate the space that you're in before you start don't make the same mistake I did you know look internally first your existing connections
James Taylor
that's great advice. What about in your you're heading out to your next speaking engagement what is in your speaker bag? What is in that bag of things you never leave the office or home without to take with you to your next speaking engagement? Well,
Jill Schiefelbein
you know, my laptop the adapters for projectors, power cords, all of that stuff. And for me, it's two different things. And I actually have show and tell because show and tell is fun. I love live streaming on the live stream hosts for Entrepreneur Magazine, in the US and globally. And I you know, that's one of the fun things I get to do in my random world of events, but I always look for opportunity for video. If I'm going to look for opportunities for video, I don't want to have acid, I want it to actually be decent quality. It doesn't mean the production value has to be high. But there are two things and video aside from the content, obviously, that are important. People will forgive poor lighting, they will not forgive poor audio. Yeah. And so you really need to focus on the audio, then make sure the lighting is good. And then of course, rock the content, right. But if your content is amazing, and your audio is crap, people are not going to listen. So you really need to focus on it. So I travel with two things. This handheld mic. It's an iRig HD, and it's actually for iPhone, it goes straight into the lightning port out of there. It's amazing. So if I'm going to do interviews, that's my favorite one because it transitions back and forth really nicely. I mean, I've done interviews with this on top of Time Square where the giant ball is right before New Year's when it's really windy. And this worked beautifully, no audio issues whatsoever. The other one that I do if I'm doing either just one person interviews or I want to do commentary This is the best investment I ever made. And at first you're like $200 for a mic, why would you spend that sit best? The sun Sennheiser and it's a clip on lavalier mic again for iPhone, it goes right to the lightning port. If anyone wants to see my whole list of tools, if you go to bi t.ly forward slash my video tools, you can actually see a whole list with pictures and links and a video of me describing each and every tool that I bring. And then I also bring a mini tripod with me everywhere because there is no excuse for holding up and doing video like this. And unless it's one of those split second I have to do this now and capture at moments or it will never exist again. If you have 30 seconds to spare. You have time to set up a tripod and make it stable and I'm talking a mini one that fits in your pocket.
James Taylor
I'm just lost Mike you've got where that can be really powerful for is. I've made a mistake in early videoing of me on stage and then you can put a fixed camera at the back you know little camcorder or something and the video looks absolutely Fine, but it's using the audio from that camera, which is the opposite end of the room and I'm like, oh, how can I How can I get the audio for where I'm actually that and I started going to take my iPhone and and stick it close the front of the stage and all these kind of things and that wasn't very good. So that's then you can just put that on, on your, on your lapel, whatever. And just put that into your into your pocket it can be recording that really good audio which you can sync up with the with the video
Jill Schiefelbein
it could and if you are a person who just heard all that and it's like, well that's a lot of work and I don't have the money to hire someone because I'm early on in this game. What you can do is invest in this. I'm just full of cool tools is called the Hey Mike. It is the world's first Bluetooth mic. And you open it up and it's this little clip on thing right here and you can also make it with a magnet. It's really cool. And it clips on and I think it has a range of like 50 feets you could actually have your phone back. It has an app so you have to record through the app. But then you have the audio and video synced in one So you have no editing to do afterwards. And this is also on the link I gave him bi t.ly slash my videos.
James Taylor
Very cool. And I actually think on this summit we're going to have Julie Holmes is one of our speakers who is the founders event. She is a speaker. And I think she would you know, scratch your own itch sometimes when you create a product and and she was one of the CO creators of that product, I believe as well. And I haven't got it myself. I've heard amazing things from those speakers about it.
Jill Schiefelbein
Yeah, for me, and I mean, unbridled review here, if I'm just going to be in an enclosed environment or in a place where I can reach with my lavalier mic, the quality will be so much superior with the lavalier mic, and even though there's a cord attached, but if you're in a place where you need audio from a distance, there is no better alternative out there.
James Taylor
And what about other online resources or mobile apps or tools? Are there any that you find very useful for yourself as a speaker
Jill Schiefelbein
Oh, for for quick video editing. If I want to do some very quick video editing in a form that could be used for Instagram or social media I use in shot it's ap IN sH o t, I really like it. It's simple. It's easy to use, it's very cheap. And it just makes editing things simple because sometimes you may be in a place or I may be in an event where I shoot a video, or maybe I uploaded, uploaded, Facebook Live, then I take that video and I can parse out whatever chunk I want and then put it into Instagram, do it all on my phone. And it makes it incredibly easy. It's good for when you're at the airports or on the shuttles or anything like that.
James Taylor
I've seen a lot of those Instagram videos, they show videos, I was wondering what people were using to be able to because they're really really good. I like that look as well. What about a book if you do recommend one book, it could be on speaking or it could be on on communication more broadly as well. What would that book be?
Jill Schiefelbein
In all seriousness, one of the best books I've read that helped change the game for me was by Alan Weiss, and it's called million dollar proposals. And he also has a book million dollar consulting if you want to get in this space, but million dollar proposals was so huge for me because I would no longer quote just as keynote, or just, you know, a one byte tip, I will always give a proposal that has multiple options, unless they are very clear, like, Hey, this is all we need you for it, right? So that will be it. But it really taught me how to frame proposals, how to look at them, and how to get way more money out of a single engagement. And it's worked. It's it's really worked. So if you're serious about doing this, and you want to find ways to extend your expertise from beyond the stage, you gotta get it.
James Taylor
That's a great recommendation. I think. I think I've read his consulting his consulting Bible, which is a fantastic book, and I know that he's be the guest speaker as well. So a final question for you. Let's imagine you had to start again, you woke up tomorrow morning, you've suddenly lost you don't have any context. No one knows you as a speaker, you know, no one, you have to restart. What would you do? How would you restart things?
Jill Schiefelbein
Number one, I would not stress about my brand at all, because a lot of people when they start like oh, I need a good business name and a slogan and all that No, no. You need a good product, and you need to hit the ground and get it out there. So free speech is free speech is free speech, whatever it is, but targeted right? Be smart about the audience's that you pick. Don't focus so much about the country more, if you will, of what's going on around your business, focus on your craft and your expertise. The rest of it, you can figure out or you can hire someone, once you figure it out the expertise, get clear on that. Number two is really get focused in on who you want to serve. And don't waste time doing social media blasts and random posts and everything if you're not clear on who you want to serve. Doing that makes us feel like we're doing something but it's really not strategic at all. It's really not. And if you get focused in on who you want to serve, you're going to be better off targeting and spending time calling them writing them reaching out to them on social now there's a way to use it right? Not just standard posts, but get really clear on that early on. And then number three is really know that there's not one right way to do this business. I guess there are legal things you have to do. But they're like, oh, you're a speaker and you don't have a book? Well, I know seven figure speakers who don't have a book, don't care to have a book. And that's never part of their game plan. I also know speakers who can't get booked who have 20 books. So it's really not about that it's really about what's going to work for you. But if you start with your expertise first and your craft, the rest will follow. Wonderful. I'm
James Taylor
interested to how does it feel we were together the the winter conference was a great conference, and Sylvie did used to and Ben will put that together. But I could see at the end, the sheer exhaustion or their faces are at the end. So I'm wondering for someone that has to being a speaker, so you used to speak on them, but then when going from the other side and actually putting on a big event and it's the biggest event probably in the speaker calendar, the professional speakers calendar. How is it How are you approaching it, how you feeling about It
Jill Schiefelbein
it's overwhelming. I mean, the sheer amount of work and volunteer hours that go into it, it's insane. But I know that for me in 2013, when I attended my first one of these events is influence. as cliche as it sounds, it's 100% true, it literally changed my life, I would not be in the position I'm in, I want to be living in New York City, having my own studio in midtown Manhattan, like, this would not be my life, if it weren't for the people I've met along the way, and what I've learned at that organization, so if you're just getting into this, come, it is worth the investment. You'll spend about $3,000, after travel hotel and the registration, but if you if you're a person who actually follows through and takes action on things, which I hope you are, if you are that person, you will make that back within your first month after attending influence. I mean, and if you don't make it back in the year, at least 10 to 20 fold, then you're I mean, in my opinion, you're not implementing enough because it's it's it's just so overwhelmingly amazing and then you meet cool people And what
James Taylor
if someone is listening to this just now watching this and there may be a speaker and the they're getting asked Oh, we're looking for the speakers I think Joshi be a great speaker, what's the best way for them to connect with you find out more about the kind of programs that you offer.
Jill Schiefelbein
Oh, well, thanks for that. I'm everyone on social at dynamic Jill My last name is a pain in the butt. So just dynamic Jill to keep it simple, but you can also visit my website at the dynamic communicator.com and I'm Jill at the dynamic communicator.com and I'd be happy to answer any questions.
James Taylor
Well Joe, thank you so much for coming on today. I'm I'm definitely gonna be filming my testimonial videos totally definitely. Now after speaking to us thank you for for sharing that and I wish you all the best in creating influence is going to be an amazing event. I know so many of my friends are going to go so. So I wish you all the best for that event.
Jill Schiefelbein
Thank you so much for having me, James. I'm happy to be a part of your event here.
James Taylor
Today's episode was sponsored by speakers you the online community for speakers and if you're serious about your speaking career then you can join us because you membership program. I'll speak as you members receive private one on one coaching with me hundreds of hours of training content access to a global community to help them launch and build a profitable business around their speaking message and expertise. So just head over to SpeakersU.com to learn more.
Website: The Dynamic Communicator
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