Jul 10, 2020
The 3 Steps To Launching A Speaking Career
James Taylor interviews Jane Atkinson and they talk about The 3 Steps To Launching A Speaking Career.
In today's episode Jane Atkinson talks about The 3 Steps To Launching A Speaking Career.
Jane Atkinson has been helping speakers catapult their speaking careers for nearly 30 years. She is the author of The Wealthy Speaker 2.0 and The Epic Keynote. Prior to coaching, she worked as an agent for several speakers whose careers skyrocketed. Jane also served as Vice President of a Speakers Bureau here in Dallas where she represented several celebrities, best-selling authors, and business experts. Jane’s Wealthy Speaker University offers online and private coaching programs for speakers at all levels helping speakers position to gain those almighty HIGHER FEES.
What we cover:
- The umbrella model for launching a speaking career.
- Picking your lane as a speaker
- Mistakes speakers make when launching their speaking careers.
Resources:
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Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/the-3-steps-to-launching-a-speaking-career-sl070/
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's James Taylor. I'm delighted today to be joined by Jane Atkinson. Jane Atkinson has been helping speakers catapult their careers for nearly 30 years. She is the author of the wealthy speaker 2.0 and the epic keynote. Prior to coaching she worked as an agent for several speakers whose careers have skyrocketed. Jane also served as vice president of a speaker's We're in Dallas, Texas, where she represented several celebrities and best selling authors and business experts. Jane's wealthy speaker University offers online and private coaching programs for speakers at all levels, helping speakers positioned to gain those all mighty higher fees. It's my great pleasure to have Jane with us today. So welcome, Jane.
Jane Atkinson
Thank you, James. I'm thrilled to be here.
James Taylor
So share with us what's going on in your world just now.
Jane Atkinson
Oh, boy. Well, we're rolling into summer of course. And so for us,
that means cottage every weekend, we have a massive renovation
underway, we're trying to turn a will let's just say it's a fixer
upper. So that's what we've been busy doing and all kinds of
exciting things on the on the business front as well. So it's
pretty busy time, actually.
James Taylor
So how did you get into this interesting, crazy world of the
speaking business
Jane Atkinson
speaking? Well, I think I'm like almost Everybody else who just
kind of fell into it haphazardly, I mean, I don't think anybody
comes out of school and says, you know, that's it. I'm going to go
into the speaking business. It's kind of a, an odd thing how people
do it. But I was actually just kind of figuring out what I wanted
to do when I was 25 years old. And I saw Les Brown on PBS doing his
live your dreams presentation, which I recorded and watched over
and over again on VHS tape, by the way, which kind of dates me and
so that made me realize, oh, wow, this is a thing, motivational
speaker. And so I actually decided right then, I was going to go to
work for a motivational speaker, which I did, and kind of got
myself into a great situation as an agent, which then took me from,
you know, the first job, straight commission basement office, you
know, three years kind of a sink or swim situation and Then I got
recruited out to work with kind of a bigger speaker who was more
famous and went to from the basement office to the corner office.
And then I got recruited down to Dallas and worked under the roof
of the speaker's bureau for many years. And it just, it just all
came together so beautifully all these steps, so I had to pay my
dues at the beginning, but it's been worth it.
James Taylor
I was really enjoying your book I was listening to on the drive to
actually I was giving a keynote somewhere I'm gonna listen to it
was kind of a long drive. I thought let's let's listen to this. And
there was so many gems. This is the wealthy speaker. This is the
new version, the 2.0 version. There are so many gems in it. And
actually, there was one story that I thought was really great were
you asked to go and I think you were leaving your previous business
you're involved in to go and work directly with the top speaker.
And you can came in to start working with him. And quickly realized
that there was there wasn't the deal flow or the plan there that
you'd first envisioned and having to kind of just sit down with him
and basically set out, you know, I think there's a three year or
five year plan. And what was great about that is, and this was
someone who was, I think it was coming from another industry as
well, if you're coming from another area, and basically building
it, kind of you had a little bit of things happening in to really
kind of build it. But what was lovely about that, that section, the
book was you really kind of broke down a bit of a game plan for how
someone can can build their speaking career.
Jane Atkinson
And it really took us three years, you know, that was a situation
this was Vince Pesenti, who I think you're referencing, and he was
an Olympic athlete, actually. And so he had gone down to Dallas. He
was a speed skater and so there wasn't a big call for Olympic speed
scares in Dallas, Texas at that time. However, he was Good speaker.
And so he went to work on actually being a great speaker. And I
went to work on the marketing for him. And back in those days, it
was really this old fashioned call sign call process where you'd
call somebody up, do you have a need? Great, we'll send you some
materials, and then you'd follow up. So we do that all via
technology today. But it was just persistent. Head down seed
planting. And it took three years, and that was for two people. So
I think that that's a really nice eye opener for people who thinks
it might happen really quickly for them. So
James Taylor
this is actually a line in the book as well. He said, you know, in
your early days of representing speakers, you discovered it took an
average of 40 to 50 calls per day, five days per week to make a
goal of 80 bookings per year. So obviously, you seem like with
technology is changing and in email and LinkedIn and other things.
Did it still require that same number of, you know, outbound or
inbound calls? Or you know how things changed in that way?
Jane Atkinson
Well, first what's changed James is I've learned that 80
engagements a year is incredible. You have to imagine that you're
going to be gone for three days. For every one of those. You have
no life and 80 engagements a year. I know there are people who talk
about doing numbers in the hundreds, and I just think, oh, oh,
that's, that's really not all that desirable. So my goal now with
my clients is to get them up to 25, you know, 20 or $25,000 per
speech, and maybe just doing for a month. I think that that's a
really reasonable amount. So that's something that's certainly
evolved from my perspective. So I'd go for a lower amount. And I
would say that the seed planting still has to be done in terms of
numbers. I have one client, who I think might actually end up being
on your side. Samak Kendra, and she is she put out 600 emails, that
was her kind of big start was 600 emails, 600 seeds being planted,
which actually got her career rolling quite swimmingly. And she'll
continue to, you know, plant in the field, you know, she didn't
just stop at that. So it's kind of an ongoing numbers game for her.
So think of it like a big blank farmer's field. And you just have
to start, you know, planting. And then of course, we want to go
back and fertilize for relationships that we're building in aren't
quite there yet.
James Taylor
Now, one of the other things that the model you described in the
book is this umbrella model years. So can you talk us through
through that model because I think that also relates to this idea
of not necessarily having to be speaking at you know, times a year
and having a more diverse kind of portfolio. All obviously blinking
to topic but Suki talked about what that that model is
Jane Atkinson
Well, the business model the umbrella, the umbrella is the business
model. And the idea is that at the top of the business model,
you're saying, here's what I'm known for. And ideally, it could be
one word like leadership or team building or something like that.
You want to be known for one thing, and we'll circle back to
picking a lane here shortly. But then in the middle of the
umbrella, we write down the topics that we speak on. And then what
comes off of the umbrella kind of like raindrops falling off the
sides is your revenue streams. And there's often one or two
rainmakers that will allow those revenue streams to occur for me in
my, in my world, all roads lead to the book, and then the book
leads to the other revenue streams. And so you might have keynote
speaking, you might have workshops, you might do day or two day
long seminars. You might bring people to you and do public events.
You might have consulting, coaching, webinars, I mean, the list
goes on and on of the things that you could do to drive revenue.
And every one of those streams, though, is like kind of starting up
a new business, let's say you sit, you put on your business model,
I would like to write a book or develop, you know, a whole product
line. Well, that's like starting a whole business. If you've
written a book, you'll know that it takes a lot of energy and
focus. So the goal is that we're not trying to develop and launch
all of the revenue stream is at the same time, but we kind of do
one at a time. So for me, I started as a coach. So I got my
coaching revenue stream going quite well. And then I added a book
and then I added other books and then I added, you know, online
courses and other things like that.
James Taylor
So I'm guessing when one of the good things about but I think By
the umbrella mode, having these different revenue, she's been
gradually kind of building them up improves kind of resilience.
Obviously, we're relatively good time in the economy just now but
it's always gonna be like that.
Jane Atkinson
We don't know when something's gonna happen and, you know, we don't
want to go back to. But back in 911 there were a lot of people who
had their calendars wiped out. I was very fortunate. I worked at
the speaker's bureau at the time, and all of the bookings that I
had, and I was able to rebook them, but some people lost an entire
book of business in one day, and it was tragic on so many fronts,
but that business level took it took it really deep for a lot of
people. So we want to try to balance out our revenue streams and
not have everything in the speaking basket if we can avoid
that.
James Taylor
So what you'll learn for it, especially on the on the training, and
the coaching side is I mean, you've had incredible kind of clients
profile clients, but you're also really known as helping people
launch their speaking career. So whether they've come from the
corporate world and launching that way, or they have a book or
whatever, they're whatever, they're kind of coming into it. So can
you talk us about through what what are some of the keys to
actually launching yourself as a speaker where someone that's
listening, watching this just now, who's just getting kind of
started in their career as a speaker? What should they be having in
their heads?
Jane Atkinson
Well, so I have this process that maps is mapped out in the wealthy
speaker 2.0 it's called Ready, aim fire. And in the ready stage, we
want to get crystal clear on what we're selling. This is where we
want need to pick a lane. In some situations, some people will wait
a few years to pick a lane and that's okay too. And we developed
some language that really allows the buyer to understand what it is
the value that we bring to the table that's called a promise
statement. So that's in the ready stage, and we can check that box
and then We move over to aim and that's where we want to make sure
that the marketing materials IE website, reflect that clarity so
that when I come to your website, I'm going to understand
immediately how you're going to help me and solve my problems. And
then and only then do we fire it out to our target markets. So fire
is kind of the ongoing roll out. So I would have some clients who
have been in fire for five years but they're circling back to ready
to reinvent and go through the process again. And I think it really
helps people just understanding Oh, well wait a second. I shouldn't
be calling picking up the phone and calling clients yet because I'm
still in ready I'm still trying to figure it out. If I do pick up
the call the phone prematurely, then I may be confusing my my
prospects.
James Taylor
So one of the things you mentioned that read the ready stage was
this pick your lane was What do you mean when you say pick your
lane
Jane Atkinson
So when I say pick a lane, this is a term that I got from Joe
Callaway, he gave it to me for the wealthy speaker. I really mean
topic. Okay, so some people will narrow it down to industry as
well. But I'm not really suggesting that right out of the chute.
The goal is and a great question to ask yourself is what do I want
to be known for five years from now. And if you have four or five
different topic lanes, then really you're a training company. And
it's difficult for us to get you to that expertise level, a
training company, the reason why we may not want to stick with
that, and this is what some people will discover is that they will
start to hit their head on the ceiling in terms of fees. They can
get up to maybe 5000 or 7500 with the training dollars, but if they
offer too many topics, they'll be kind of seen more as a commodity.
Then in it as an expert, and we want to elevate people up to
experts, so that the expert can charge whatever the expert wants to
charge. And that's what I've seen a lot of my speakers who have
gone from zero to a million very, very quickly. They're great,
great on the platform, and they've picked a lane and people kind of
know them for one thing.
James Taylor
And when you're kind of getting stuck, so you pick your lane, you
pick your topic, you start to work out what those kind of themes
are, the things you're gonna be speaking about are as well. It also
feels like like today, there's so many options, so many different
opportunities you mentioned, you know, obviously keynoting
workshops, coaching, webinars, everything books, on courses, online
membership programs, any advice that you give to someone starting
out so they have these, I want to speak on leadership as an
example. I want to speak on leadership. This is my unique thing I
want to have about leadership. I have this Background and this is I
want to pull in this background and delete it to some businesses
can understand how they can use that in terms of their own
leadership. But I've not i'm not sure which of these options to go
for. Right? What advice would you give to them?
Jane Atkinson
Oh boy, and it can be so confusing James all the shoulds in our
industry, oh, you should do this, oh, you should do that. I just
want people to understand that they don't have to do it all today,
you know, just really perfect kind of one area of it before you
move into the next area. So let's say that you do decide that it's
leadership, I would say okay, well, what's your brand of
leadership? What are the specific outcomes? Maybe you go a little
deeper and say, okay, it's leadership communication, and this is
the outcome that I provide. So now we have that clarity. Once you
go and really perfect that on the platform, then You might, it
might be time to start to branch into other ways of delivering it.
And the best way to know if your platform is there is when you're
getting on average, two to three spin off engagements from each
engagement. So you go out into an audience, you if let's say it's
an association audience, which is amazing, then you might have 50
different buyers from 50 different companies in that audience. If
you get several spin off from that, then you'll know that the
presentation is there that you're really really nailing it. And my
goal is that people are not reinventing the wheel every time they
go out and speak that they have kind of some core elements that
they can take into every speech and that's those are the pieces
that will start to make it epic.
James Taylor
Yeah, that that two or three referral part, I think that's so
powerful. I know we had Frederick haar and one of the other
speakers on this from Singapore and he said he Did you know this
happening, you know is happening for us to speak in terms of
quality rental? When at the end of that talk, at least two people
come up to you and say to you, can I can I book you for this thing?
And I remember when it happening for me, I was like you're trying
things that's not working and every late nights and you're going
and speaking to different groups and things. And I remember that
feeling. I remember actually messaging when it happens, it feels
like it started to happen now. But it yes, it took, you know, it
took a physical while just finding that can knowing your topic,
there's a bit of knowing your topic, and kind of knowing what units
they want to speak about and all the other stuff until you can find
what is what resonates with an audience and what sells well,
Jane Atkinson
that's a huge Flashpoint when all the pieces of the puzzle come
together for the presentation and then you start to get those spin
offs. That's really your number one form of marketing which I think
we promised in the outline of this. Your number One form your best
form of marketing is a great presentation. It's, that's, that's the
best thing that you can do for yourself. And that's why we don't
want to reinvent the wheel every time because if you do one, that's
epic, you want to say, Okay, well, what did I do there? And if you
can record everything, then you're able to say, Oh, now I see why
they responded to that the way that they did. And I've had clients
who have even gone so far as to change their jokes in very subtle
ways. Because that joke lands one way with an audience of 100. And
this way with an audience of 1000. And so you start to understand
even the little nuances and that's what crafting a presentation and
getting it to that point is all about is the subtle little
differences that you've learned along the way.
James Taylor
What you mentioned like this thing, and I think I found this
initially when I got started of being from a marketing background
spanning five years previously. Building online courses online
programs and that was my channel first and then coming into keynote
so I kind of took it the other way around. And my friend said and I
and it's that thing you miss that you choose your thing and and you
know for me books wasn't a particularly strong I didn't have a
feeling wasn't something I just felt I actually had to do. You
know, and for me online programs I love online. I love online
membership courses and membership programs. And I love keynoting
and speaking, but the books thing wasn't as strong for me. However,
I did find it I made that one of those classic mistakes you made.
You said the way you said that sometimes speakers when they get
started, they try and move into the aim part too quickly in the
process, and I think I was a mistake I definitely made say I was
trying to get and I had to kind of stop and kind of go back to the
ready stage.
Jane Atkinson
Even when even when you're going to write a book James, you have to
follow the three parts. Because if you don't know what that book
wants to be when it grows up, you're in trouble in terms of writing
the book. So I'm kind of trying to get my fourth book off the
ground right now. And I'm still processing what this book needs to
look like. And until it gets clear, I cannot even begin. Yeah. And
so that any one of those revenue streams will be exactly the same.
You have to really understand and I love that you went about it in
a completely different way. I said backwards, but really, anyway
goes because there is no one way to do any of this ever. Everything
I tell you, there's gonna be an opposite way to do it, and it's
gonna be effective to so this is just one way.
James Taylor
Yeah, absolutely. I think it's just a gut feeling that sensation
that you feel like does this feel right to you? And, and kind of
going with that because i think i think there is one danger that I
see and I speak everything as a marketer as well saying this, but
as marketers, we're terrible at doing the bright shiny thing.
Putting the brakes on anything in front of people. And and it's a
feeling of an industry that I come from. And as a result, we
confuse people by saying to me and I think what's great about you
know, coaches like you any great coach or mentor or guide, one of
the things they tell you is okay, there's all these things, but
this is what you should be focusing on. Ignore that just now that
will come. It's not at this stage, you know, eautiful. Yeah. And
it's going to getting rid of a lot of that noise I find really
powerful, having, you know, coaching mentors myself.
Jane Atkinson
Yeah. And if you try to listen to all of the noise, you just end up
getting really, really confused. It's very nice. I have a coach
that I go to, because that helps me clear out that noise of what I
should be doing. And you know, they've been with me for five years.
And so I know what our path is. And the strategy is and it's great
to have somebody in your ear saying, wait, wait, wait, that's not a
part of our strategy. Let's let's stick to the plan, shall we? And
you know, you You just don't know sometimes when you're in the
middle of it,
James Taylor
so what you finding now is really work. You mentioned the calls,
outbound calls, research that you had to do when you got started.
What are you finding is really working now in terms of identifying
opportunities. And in terms of the whole process of it, the initial
kind of reach out and and building those relationships?
Jane Atkinson
Well, I think what takes the most time is that kind of list
building aspect. And so I'll have people identify two or three
industries that they would like to become known in. And that gives
you some focus. So you might choose health care, because you know
that your messages risk that healthcare is really responsive to it,
that they have the money that they can pay for it, etc. And so if
all of your outbound efforts go into health care associations for
interest, for instance, Then that will help you move into more
corporate work on the other end. Now, that doesn't mean that what
comes to you if it's outside of healthcare that you won't take it,
that's a decision you may make someday to just only do your
business in one market. But most of us, we'll take whatever comes
in, but have a very, very strategic approach going out. So that's
kind of one of the things that that's really working. I think in
terms of other ideas, so call send call. I don't think that's
working anymore. I've heard meeting planners say that they just
don't even answer the phone. everything just goes into voicemail,
and you'd have to be pretty compelling and in the right time in the
right place, in order to get a call back. However, maybe you leave
after hours, voicemails, and say, Hey, I know you're busy. I just
want to let you know hear my voice and I'm This is the topic that I
speak on, I'm calling about this specific event. And the reason why
I think I'm a good fit for it is this, I'll shoot you an email. And
then you would do kind of a one two punch. I think that's very
effective. We really just have to understand that the people who
book meetings are inundated, the decision makers are inundated with
people coming in and trying to sell to them. So we have to be
creative about how we go about it. If you have a book or something,
I think it's very, very helpful to send the the leader or the
decision maker, a copy of the book that says, hey, you know, I
think this might be a good read for you. Here's why I think it
would be great fit and so on. But the more specific we can be about
what we know about those clients, the better it will be in a lot of
times now I'm seeing relationships starting on LinkedIn, or
Twitter, and then they're crossing over into email. Other ways and
the goal is ultimately to get the client on the phone but just know
that nowadays that might be tricky on the on the front end.
James Taylor
And essentially I booked a speaking gig the other day in the Middle
East. And I going back and forth it was all done by email and we
actually had a campaign some of it was automated and some of it was
was wasn't automated. And the final thing we also looking to get
someone's get them on the phone to do to do the pre you know, event
talk about right fit and everything. And it was interesting kind of
going through that process and it was actually a lot of email
communication happening beforehand. And when I eventually got on
the call with the the event organizer, it was I mean, I'm kind of
on the edge I'm just after the millennial sign was that Gen X or
something so yes, so my I think my generation were still like
pretty fine by doing phone calls and stuff like that. You know,
we're kind of used to that. But I'm definitely find a lot of people
I work with in millennials will do anything. Can't avoid going
on
Jane Atkinson
avoid the phone. They text. You could have a whole conversation on
text for you to have a phone call.
James Taylor
I've had bookings from WhatsApp invite. I spoke to someone the
other day and we would vacation for booking. You or we were using
WhatsApp for it. So yeah, isn't it? So you're speaking to brokers,
are you finding is this going going on for you as well, you see
this.
Jane Atkinson
So actually, my job is really coaching clients and coaching
speakers. So I don't have those. The information that I get about
decision makers and what they're doing all comes from my clients.
So well, this happened and this happened and this happened. But
guess what, I booked this and it was all based on this so so I
don't have that kind of main thing myself because I don't do
outbound sales calls or anything like that. It's just marketing and
it comes in. But I do believe that things are really changing and
they're only going to change more As it goes on, a lot of my
clients would love to have my cell number and text me questions.
But I set up boundaries, very clear boundaries, and it's just not
something that I want to do. But it may be something that I have to
do as more and more of my clients, who are millennials come in. I
really think though hearing the voice at the other end of the line,
there's something to that. And in ensuring that you have a
conversation about their needs, and especially James, if I was
traveling overseas, I would want to do way more research than I
normally would have and make sure that this is all legitimate
because yeah, we take a few more precautions on those fronts.
James Taylor
Yeah, I think my conversation on that particular call was actually
talking not just making sure that it was it was the right fit in
between what I was, I speak about and, and the event and the
conference itself. But then also once you I quickly got to Are you
this is definitely the right fit. It was kind of moving into some
of the more details things about getting an idea, like who was in
the room, the, you know, different decision makers that were in the
room, you know, their back, you know, background of this was in the
Middle East. So there was some cultural things, you have to be a
little bit more conscious of as well. Yes, there was some things
that I knew that I couldn't use in the presentation that I would
normally use if I were speaking in North America or Europe as well.
Yes, one of the things that you also work with is you in addition
to new speakers, you also work with maybe those those speakers have
been speaking for a while, who just kind of need a bit of a restart
or refresh they, they are fine in the business. Maybe they've got a
nice speaking and consulting thing happening or coaching thing
happening. But it's not where they should be. It's not where they
where they want to be. So for those speakers, where do you tend to
kind of start the conversation.
Jane Atkinson
The refresh is always going back To the ready stage, and we will
decide if it's the same lane, then we'll be moving right into what
is the brand going to be and what is the promise going to be. And
sometimes that gets people really, really excited. I'm often
helping people narrow and start to let go of some of the low
paycheck items so that they can get to this higher, higher place.
And letting go is really hard for somebody who's been doing it for
10 or 20 years. It's very difficult, but Well, I've had that client
for so long. But guess what they don't pay, they pay you one third
of the other things. And so I often have to map it out for them on
paper to show them that if they'd free up their calendar for the
high paycheck items, then they would actually not be so harried in
their lives. So you know, carving out the time To build the next
version of your empire, and starting to really take those hard
looks at where all your revenue is coming from, and what do you
need to let go of this is an old Joe Callaway phrase, what do you
need to let go of in order to go to that next level, you're going
to lose some clients when you raise your fees, but you're going to
gain some better clients at the top and there is some anxiousness
and some fear that goes along with that. But I really encourage
people to do it.
James Taylor
No, I mean, when I when I was an agent and manager within the music
industry, we would do that on a pretty regular basis with our
artist we would record you know, editing your clients. And you
would, you would just kind of go through and you said like do like
an 8020 rule finding out where where things were coming from. Just
looking ahead during that five year going back to that kind of
ready and looking to you know, to kind of reinvent from there as
well. One of the things you when you're coaching clients, I hear
these different phrases all time you hear Obviously speak of agents
and you've come from that world as an as an agent often within
bureaus and then I hear this more and more of speaker managers. So
what are the difference? Because I know from music entry level
agent magic, very different roles. And in fact one is, is very
heavily governed in terms of what you can do and the other one less
right. So when it comes to speaking business, what others do when
you hear this speaker, agent, Speaker manager, well, there's two
different roles.
Jane Atkinson
Really, I think speaker agencies and and speaker management
companies are often the same in our world. A lot of people would
like to solve the problem of not getting enough bookings by hiring
an agent or hiring a business manager. And it's the toughest hire.
You'll have read in the last part of the wealthy speaker 2.0 We put
a lot down about hiring and staff and who needs to be on your team.
Probably the reason why the relationship doesn't always work is
because if the speaker is new to the industry and doesn't actually
know how to get the bookings, then they're handing it off to
somebody else who maybe doesn't have any experience and it's the
blind leading the blind. So you end up having two people who don't
actually know exactly what to do. And it's hard to find somebody
who has experience but there are management companies, they
typically will take on more than one speaker. And then there are
individuals who basically were kind of like I was to Vince and to
Peter leg and to Betsy, who was my first speaker, I was their agent
really, or their marketing director or whatever you want to call
it. It's a tough hire, but it's something that can be done if
you're able to really train them on how you do business. And the
goal is that they will grow with you as your business grows and
it's something I have actually some of my clients, they'll bring
their team on with me on the line and we'll walk through systems
and processes and things that are going to allow them to have a
well oiled machine have a better running business and and and keep
that path open so that they can focus more of their time on
sales.
James Taylor
Awesome. I noticed that in the book. One thing that you didn't you
don't seem to be a big fan of maybe it'd be nice to know your
reasoning is the speaker one sheet so you hear all times speaker
one sheets is like everyone's speak on cheese. What is the thing
with Speaker one cheese? Why do you not believe in them?
Jane Atkinson
I think we need to save the trees James. First of all, paper, you
know anything that you can say on a speaker one sheet you can say
on your website. So why do we need this if this is just one of
these, we We've always done it this way things. And the paradigm
shifted several years ago actually, I've asked bureaus on several
occasions Do you guys ever use one sheets anymore? No, we do not.
And so I think that we just need to get with the program and
realize that this whole thing, if you had something available for
people on a PDF, that if they were going to a meeting, they might
want to have a piece of paper in their hand, fine. But really,
everything should be on your website that you need to have there.
And if you're going to do something that's printed, have a really
specific purpose for it. You know, really know how you're going to
use that. And I will say that there are some industries who are
still using one sheets, but yeah, I've been Pooh poohing them for a
long time.
James Taylor
Sorry about No, no, it's good. It's great. Because I've, I have
speaker one sheets, but that might be a very much for the actual
keynote and individual keynote. I don't have Like a really broad
over into the website is for that. And I tend to find what I do
often with the key I have that the printed thing or actually don't
print them my PDFs or find a printing thing is I actually put it on
its side and I'll do a series of videos breaking down each of the
component parts of that in terms of just thinking from from from a
marketing campaign, because I'm just always conscious that people
get so much you know, you're trying to people can only kind of
focus on one thing at a time. And I'm trying to build up because
often, you know, someone might not book you in that first occasion,
the chances the vast transit, obviously they're not going to book
you on that that first thing, but least they want to have build up
the relationship, maybe the second or the third or the fourth
opportunity that they're in there. So I I kind of agree with you
under speaker one sheet and I think that's, that's the direction of
travel.
Jane Atkinson
Good, good. Okay, we're on the same page.
James Taylor
So I just wanna say, Jane, the book if people anyone who does I
have the book already the wealthy speaker 2.0 You must get it
doesn't matter if you're, you know, new to speaking or you've been
speaking for, for a while.
Jane Atkinson
And let's just say for international buyers, there was an E book
out there on most of the Amazon's that they can pick it up from a
Kindle book or an E book. We we don't ship a lot to overseas, but
yeah, I think that's probably the best way to go. Yeah,
James Taylor
I actually like the audiobook personally. Yeah, that's me. I listen
to the book. Is there anywhere else that people should go you think
to if they you know, they're at the point where they said, yes, you
know, Jane, I need your services. We're on the way should they
go?
Jane Atkinson
Sure. Just reach out to me at speaker launcher.com. If you're a
new speaker, we have a first steps audit that will kind of give you
a pathway. And if you've been around for a while, just drop me an
email from there. We'll be good to go.
James Taylor
Awesome. Well, Jane, thank you so much. I look forward to meeting
up with you at some event somewhere in the world. And thanks so
much for coming on to the summit.
Jane Atkinson
Thank you. My pleasure.
James Taylor
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