Sep 3, 2020
The Entrepreneurial Speaker
James Taylor interviews Gil Petersil and they talk about The Entrepreneurial Speaker.
In today's episode Gil Petersil they talk about The Entrepreneurial Speaker.
Gil Petersil, Communication & Strategic Networking Expert. Over 20 years of business experience as a serial entrepreneur and a business coach for 200+ companies spanning across diverse business industries around the world. More information about Gil's activities: Leading Strategic Networking expert in Europe, Middle East and Asia. Invited professor and business coach in the top business schools Serial entrepreneur of 15 businesses across Europe Trainer on Strategic Networking for leading global corporations Lived and developed businesses in Israel, Canada, USA, England, Russia and Singapore Shared the stage with such world-class speakers as Brian Tracy, Michael Roach, Keith Ferrazzi, Allan Pease, David Allan, Robert Cialdini and Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street) * Speaker in 200+ events for over 35,000 people all over the world.
What we cover:
- Why Gil set up a speakers bureau
- The Entrepreneurial Speaker
- Partnering with Tony Robbins
Resources:
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Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/the-entrepreneurial-speaker-sl78/
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, it's James Taylor and I'm delighted today to be joined by my good friend and an incredible speaker Gil Petersil. Gil is a speaker communication and strategic networking expert and is the leading networking specialist in Russia and cis. He is the founder and co owner of 15 businesses visiting professor at skolkovo startup Academy. a business coach, and a consultant for over 200 startups in different fields. After gaining extensive experience of living, studying and working in Israel, Canada, Great Britain, USA, Singapore and Russia, Gil uses his vast knowledge in the sphere of effective communication to raise entrepreneurs and companies to new heights by using the art of strategic networking. He is the exclusive partner for Tony Robbins in Russia, and this year became the number one promoter for Tony Robbins in the world. Amazing. In addition to his work with Tony Gil has appeared on stages with such legends as Brian Tracy Alan Pease, Keith Razi, Robert Cialdini, David Allen, Michael wrote and Wolf of Wall Street's own Jordan Belfort and Gil and I hung out at the start of the year in Singapore, and he's an incredible entrepreneur, credible speaker so I'm really happy to have him on the summit today. So welcome.
Gil Petersil
Hello, hello. Happy to be here. James. Thank you for inviting
me.
James Taylor
So here are the attendees what's going on in your world? What have
you been up to recently?
Gil Petersil
Well, you know, it's been a really big beginning of the year
because last During the summer I was blessed with a beautiful baby
daughter. And which really transformed a lot of my life. A lot of
people said, Oh, you know, your life is gonna change and some
people said Your life is not gonna change. But that that step in
our life to becoming parents really helped me understand a lot more
than I need to become a much better business owner and have a lot
less operational activities. And as a speaker, I decided that I
want to have a lot more freedom, and I wanted to be able to travel
more but travel with my family. And because of our businesses that
have been flourishing in England and in Russia for the last few
years, we decided to come to Singapore and lived here for a little
while with the weather is better and much better environment for
kids and babies. And it's been an incredible beginning of the year
so far being completely welcomed by the Singapore community,
joining the professionals association of Singapore as well and just
you know, giving back to the community
James Taylor
is amazing in Singapore. I it was only the start this year that I
was over there. apss Asia professional speaker Singapore and we met
up with Fredrik hire, and Andrew, Brian, some incredible speakers,
many of them are on the summit here as well. And the thing that
struck me about the association there is how collaborative it is.
Not to see that the other ones aren't collaborative, but it's just
really strongly of people are there helping each other, you know,
giving, you know, suggestions of things. It's just it's a, it's a,
it's very unique, I would say in terms of the speaking world.
Gil Petersil
I completely agree. And I think it's because that Singapore is very
much a melting pot of people that have come in from different parts
of the world. And they ended up in this tiny little country that
surrounded by big giants around it. And this tiny little country
they used to be just the city has flourished so much, and these
speakers that have been coming in from all over the world, they've
learned that the best way to succeed and flourish and grow their
own business to achieve really, you know, financial freedom,
prosperity is the to collaborate is to refer each other to the
clients is to support each other by sharing experience, because at
the end of the day, if you have an abundance mindset, so much more
work comes towards you. And I've learned this as a business owner,
the more we've given out, the more we've shared with our
competitors, we've managed to not be able to even, you know, take
in all the business that's come in, which is really how we became
the number one promoter for Tony Robbins this year just, we just
gave out a lot of his books, and we gave out a lot of support to
people who couldn't afford it. And this year, we brought 1200
PEOPLE TO HIS EVENT without really putting that much effort into
it.
James Taylor
1200 people and these were Russians from all over the all over the
globe that came to London.
Gil Petersil
These were Russian speaking people from 27 different countries
around the world that came into this event with us somehow
magnetically attracting all of them. And
James Taylor
because of that, obviously, you're the number one promoter for for
Tony Roma's Because of that as well, but you know, so you have that
part of your business and but you also now have the speaking side
have mentioned you've spoken on stages you've done a lot of kind of
global speaking you're speaking here there and everywhere just now
I'm interested in this point in your in your life, because we are
we're kind of similar ages young family, you know, what, what was
the thing about speaking at this point in your life? And really,
because you'd be obviously speaking before that, but you've
obviously decided to Okay, take take things up a level.
Gil Petersil
Yeah. So it was really about three and a half years ago when I when
I needed to make some big life decisions because our business was
just like starting to make some money. And, you know, my wife and I
were real like, hands on entrepreneurs in the office every single
day struggling with recruiting struggling with what do we do and
I've always had this passion for motivating others. I've always had
this need for mentoring and coaching and it's something I've always
dabbled into. But three and a half years ago, we went to a training
seminar again by the famous Miss Tony. And it was a business one
specifically where we learned a lot about the key tools that we
have to use it to become business owners. And the reason I chose to
do that, because I realized that speaking is what woke me up in the
morning, speaking is what got me up would energize getting in front
of the audience, not having to think about money, I didn't need to
charge everyone just sharing my own life experience sharing my
successful failures. I've failed a lot in business and I love being
able to share with people that and I realized that the ability that
I have in this passion that I have had to step up, but in order to
do that, I had to bring in my business skills up as well. So first,
I'm an entrepreneur and then I'm a speaker so for me speaking is
not about I need to speak to make money for me speaking is my
businesses are making money. And if I speak, I could generate more
leads my business. When I speak, I get energized I can give that to
my clients know my employees. When I speak, I can just share the
message with people that are somehow potentially going to trickle
down to one of my companies, you know, speaking for me, became very
natural at a later stage of my life. Because at an early stage, I
was very much of an introvert, not being comfortable with people
not knowing how to network or connect with others. But speaking
became very much and kind of second nature to me, because I
traveled so much in my life. And I've lived in so many countries,
and I've been through the struggles of not knowing how to talk to
people or having to get up and do a presentation in front of my
team. And I've done it so many times that, you know, everyone says,
practice makes perfect, that really, really does. And I got to a
point today where I can come to a new country like Singapore, use
my networking abilities to connect with the right people, the right
leaders, and very quickly get on the right stages, to build the
right relationships to build a brand for myself in a completely new
country.
James Taylor
So that that ability To network is something that you're known for
I've seen it in person, you train about it, you speak about it, you
teach about it as well. You've obviously been in lots of rooms lots
of conferences, events, where there's been other speakers there was
some of the maybe the things that you see them not doing that you
think just you know, a couple of just add these couple of things,
these couple of ingredients to your to your recipe for for meeting
people for networking, and you're gonna see, you know, real
exponential results, maybe just give us maybe one or two here, just
Sure,
Gil Petersil
sure. So for me as speaker is a freelancer, he's an entrepreneur,
as Speaker for me is someone who is selling his time, his selling
his knowledge, his experience, which is just like a consultant or a
coach. Now, there are some speakers that can get up in front of
keynote and do an amazing job in front of 10,000 people in the
corporation just pays them a big chunk of money and they could do
it twice a month and they're very happy. But the average speaker in
the world must be a proper entrepreneur. They must hustle. They
know Get the leads, they must build a CRM system, they must follow
up with the leads, and they must get clients regularly in order to
have a good life in order to become famous in order to achieve any
of their goals. What I see happens with a lot of speakers, they
lose that entrepreneurship spirit, they, they maybe feel some time,
maybe it's an ego boost. Maybe it's a, you know, they've had a
couple of really big clients and they paid them a lot of money. So
now they expect all clients to pay them a lot of money. Or maybe
they had a couple of amazing months, where clients were coming in
from everywhere and the like, whoa, whoa, this is great. And
suddenly, they stopped calling leads, and they stopped following up
with people and they got a good business card from someone but they
said, You know what? He should follow up with me. Why should I
follow up with him? I'm the speaker, he should follow up with me.
If he wants me he should pay me money. And suddenly, it became I'm
not an entrepreneur. I'm a celebrity that's always in demand. Which
is not true. Even celebrity Have either an entrepreneurial spirit
or they have an agent working for them, you know, and you have kind
of you get to play either one or both sides of the coin and all
times. You know, for myself personally, when I started off my
speaking career in Russia, I understood very quickly that in order
to become a speaker, you've got to hustle. You got to put yourself
out there. But culturally in Russia, if you push yourself as a
speaker, for example, your rate cannot be that high, because
psychologically means maybe you're not in enough demand. Maybe you
need business. What I did, I said, I set up a speaker's bureau, I
set up my own company, my own agency that basically was able to
sell me and sell other speakers at the same time, which was
awesome, because when they sold me, I made money. And when they
sold someone else, I still made money. So it was a win, win win all
around. So I think as speakers you pick Got the business card, you
hustle and connect with people, you see people all around you build
relationships with them, don't try to sell yourself, try to
understand what the opportunity is what kind of, you know, weak
points they might have in the company where you are maybe one of
the other speakers, you know, could fulfill that pain. Currently
the company has. So I think isn't a speaker, be an entrepreneur,
and don't think as one but think as many because you have a
community of other speakers around you.
James Taylor
But that was such a smart move, setting up that speaking speaker
bureau as well. Because as you were kind of going there building,
building that business, obviously there was people coming in for
you looking to book you as a speaker. But you know, so many times
people come in, and frankly, you're not right for them, you know,
it's not the right match. And, you know, what most speakers will do
is they'll say, Oh, you know, speak to sue or Joe and I think they
would be a good match for you. So it's an informal relationship in
that way. But what you are able to do by setting up a bureau is you
can form Realize that at the same time, you provide a great service
for the the event planner, the organizer, you also provide a great
service for, for the speakers as well, because, you know, many of
them, you mentioned that those two roles there, you know, the, the
speaker and in the person that the manager, I personally found,
where my background being in the music industry, the most
successful music artists, I've found. The they actually have that
entrepreneurial thing within them. Yeah, yeah. And that's kind of
got them to that first step. And then once they've been at that
step where they've been brought in a manager or an agent, then they
can handle a lot of those rains. But that never leaves them.
They've got that in their mind, they're always thinking that and is
important, because then they can have those conversations with
other managers, the other people in the business with a bit more of
a turned on. So I think there's a danger sometimes if we think even
as speakers that, Oh, well, I'll just leave that. You know, I'll
just kind of mentally park that to someone else. When actually this
is kind of this is part of what your job is. Yeah. You're doing So,
so who were those who those in those early days for you, as you
were kind of starting to build up your career as a speaker in
Russia, and also during kind of globally? Who were those key
mentors for you apart from obviously, Tony,
Gil Petersil
you know, so it's interesting because when I was starting off what
I didn't want to do, I looked at people like Tony and Brian Tracy
and Blair singer, I look at all these guys that have been following
for a while Les Brown. I've listened to him so many mornings, you
know, and what I didn't want to do. I didn't want to climb the slow
way. I didn't want to slowly slowly slowly climbed like most other
speakers do. I didn't want to be a struggling speaker because
again, I had my entrepreneurial mind hat on, and I had the hat of,
Okay, if I'm already building an agency, what I'm actually doing is
I'm building a persona I'm creating, I'm creating a perception in
customer's eyes that they don't call me they call My agency you
know, they call a team that represents me. So very quickly I was
able to go into the tear beat of speakers and and charge a lot more
than most of the other speakers around me that have been talking
for 1015 years. Very quickly. I jumped at that level one. I was a
foreigner I was a businessman. Many maybe I had a competitive edge
as well, but I started looking at speakers who were business people
so you know someone like Brian Tracy I've been a huge fan of his
for so many years but what I've learned with some of them that you
know, I'm not losing respect to any of them of course, but when
they don't speak they don't really make that much money. Yeah, and
what I started looking at for as mentors I start looking for
mentors who are making money when they don't speak and I looked
started looking at people who are you know, first business people
and then speakers and I've noticed that you know, you you you
brought in a few people that I've recommended Ted McGrath you know,
a good friend, right? also brought into the the summit. I think
that's very, very smart. And then waldschmidt, you know, someone
again, I highly, highly recommend people to check out. Both of
these guys, I see them as business people, especially Dan, who's
built a very successful consulting businesses and a lifestyle
business as well. And then suddenly decided to be a speaker. And he
went directly to that to a of a speaker. So for me, my mentor is
continuously changed. But to be honest, my mentors have always been
business people. And then mentors have been people who I just
looked up to as speakers. It's more about, you know, what can I
learn from them to do but it's more about what can I learn from not
to do? You know, I don't want to mention the names of speakers
where there's a lot of speakers in the world that have made
ridiculous amounts of money. And today, they're completely broke
the speakers in the world that had been preaching one thing for
their whole life, and suddenly today, they're talking about
something completely difference. So, there's a lot of, you know,
unauthentic sort of communication out there. So I, for me, I almost
took, what not to do, where were the bumps on the roads are how it
shouldn't be me on stage making money. It should be me offstage
sleeping, making money. So I had to think about how to reverse
engineer the whole thing,
James Taylor
that idea of kind of velocity as well as something that people use
Sergei Brin, obviously from Google talks about where to okay rather
have a five five year plan, how can you do it in six months? You
know, and it makes you think in a very different way, because it's
not the conventional way of doing things you know, there's there's
set ways of doing things you go and do this then you do this and
then that and I'm like you I'm always thinking well, you know, why
should we go the conventional way all the time. Let's let's have
some fun. There's not I mean, there are there are rules, but rules
are there to be broken and and to have you know, have fun a bit and
to be flexible with as well. And I definitely saw What you said
about this idea of building productizing and building other revenue
streams yourself is very important when I can go into the speaking
so because I saw it happen so much in the music industry where many
I worked with some of them many can be successful rock bands or
touring artists, they could only make money when they were on the
road when they were up there on in speaking or performing in front
of audiences. And when that was going, it was great. But if
something happened, maybe an album and the speaker's kit book
didn't work quite as well, or they just kind of fell out of favor
or they got sick. For example, it was over you know, it was a real
problem and so I was I kept buying into all the arts I represent we
need to have multiple streams of income, we need to have
subscription, you know, recurring renewal subscription, we need to
have other events, our own stages, our own events. So when I came
to speaking, just like you, I went, Okay, the speaking is the tip
of the iceberg is a bit that often people see but with this is
intact. There's all these other things going on. Dan is obviously
great for that in the consulting Ted, he has his events as well.
Who are some the other people, the other speakers that you're
seeing around just now that you're going? They've got it. And maybe
speakers are coming onto the scene relatively recently as well.
Gil Petersil
So, you know, these days because I have made this transition to
Singapore, I'm following a lot of the local guys. You know, you've
mentioned Frederick Heron and Tom Abbott, you know, who's the
president now, the apss and Andrew Bryan, people like that, you
know, Jerome Joseph, an incredible guy. I like following these
guys, because I see what they've built here locally. And because
they've moved countries so many times in my lives, and whenever
I've moved the country, I've had to learn how to set up a business
and that culture and my mindset when I network, it's always a How
can I help you mindset I love serving communities. I love serving
people. What I do for a living right now is because I know I got
it. I want to share it and because I'm sharing it, I know I'm
learning more Because I'm still a student today. So by looking at
some of these leaders of the apss here, I see guys that I could
learn so much from but when I see what I can learn from them first,
I see what I could teach them. I see what added value I can offer
them. Why would someone agreed to teach me unless I can
continuously add value to them? Why can I expect for someone to sit
for lunch with me to share some insight knowledge to make a
recommendation to me to give me some tips on how can I expedite my
growth and in this country being completely new to the culture, if
I don't certainly know how I can add tremendous value to them right
now. And when I go into meetings with some of these speakers, the
same thing like Tony, Tony is one of the top speakers in the world
in my opinion, if not the number one speaker and when I meet him
now, it's different. You know, when I met him a couple of years ago
was completely nervous, not understanding how can I add value to
this person, but then when I started promoting isn't And teaching
people around, you know, the Russian speaking countries who Tony is
and what his message is. I understood that by just taking this
action by building a business around it, I was adding value to him.
And I would not fully understand until something like two weeks ago
Why now he wants to add value to me why he wants to spend time with
me why he wants to mentor me. And I think it's the best way to
really build relation with these speakers is look for other
speakers around the world that you can collaborate with, maybe do a
joint venture with maybe do have a strategic partnership with share
a stage with speakers is something that I've taken on board is a
very serious strategy in order to grow quickly. You know, I looked
for someone like Brian Tracy, who I've loved for almost 20 years of
my life and when I made those decisions to become a top speaker in
Russia, I had to find the biggest speakers that are respected by
Russians were international and try to get on their stages as
well.
James Taylor
So very smart. And what you're talking about here is also very
strategic. At the same time, you know, this is not, oh, I need to
send this one sheet to someone I need to know for you, there's a
there's a lot of thought that's gone into this a lot of kind of
planning is very strategic at that level. And I'm wondering, now,
as you start going to building out all this, you know, we often
hear this this distinction between the keynote speakers people that
just going to get that 10 K to go or 15 k whatever the figure is to
go and speak at that event. And what we sometimes call platform
speakers, of course, like a Tony Robbins Is that who, yes, he will
occasionally go and speak for a big organization, but most of time,
it's his, his his stages that he's doing. And you're you're dealing
with both of these types of speakers through your, your, your
Bureau, and you know, many of these types of speakers. It sounds to
me like you're very much kind of thinking for you as you build your
speakers on the platform side. For anyone that is kind of
relatively new to this distinction between the keynote just go
straight forward keynote Speaker and a platform speaker, you know,
where's the money? You know, for someone is just thinking, What's
going to give me the biggest opportunity to to grow, you know, as
quickly because I know some people just there's that laser like
focus of just focusing on keynotes and people can do really well,
and doing that. But then there's this other thing which milken
entrepreneurial speaker you're talking about.
Gil Petersil
Yeah. So I really think it comes down to what do you want out of
life and what kind of priorities you have if you got four kids at
home, and you can necessarily depend on the one ad hoc, you know,
keynote speaking here and there, then you build a business around
then you sell as a keynote and then you have a back end that maybe
it's a three day training seminar inside of a company. It really
depends if what people actually want for themselves. I know some
speakers who like working approximately three months out of every
year and then they go and they relax and they sit in another home.
They sit in one of the islands they they have a great time they
spend time with their family in a little Love that. But personally,
myself, I love working. I don't really call it work. Last weekend I
was in Vietnam and next week I'm traveling again. And for me, I
love combining business and pleasure I currently I'm, you know, I
feel blessed that I have a wife that loves traveling with me,
because she's a part of the business, of course, and she runs two
of our companies, and I have a young daughter who's very easy to
travel with, I think in, you know, 510 years, I'll be in a
different position with many kids and being just a keynote might be
something I would want to do at that stage of my life, because I'd
have more freedom to spend time with my kids and go pick them up
from school and I can't necessarily commit to five days in China
and three days in India, because I know speakers like that and
they're away from home 80% of the year, and I don't want to do
that. And that's for me my personal lifestyle choice because I've
been there and done that. I've been traveling on the road a lot and
back then I didn't have a family. So I did that. But now that I
have a family, I wouldn't want to do that. Now. Money is in both To
be honest, as a keynote, you can make two to $5,000. You can make
10 to 30. You can make 100 Plus I know speakers will make 100 Plus,
but it's not enough to them. They want to charge a lot more. Ilan
Musk, like didn't accept a speech a speaking opportunity for
500,000. I know guys like Steven Seagal once 120 Okay, what is he
going to talk about? I'm not sure, but that's what he wants,
because he doesn't have a back end where you can actually train in
a structured manner. Some other speakers that I've met here, the
keynote that they do is not as good as a one day in the office
group coaching, proper training, you know, everyone has their
gifts. So I think it's really being open with yourself maybe
speaking some of your mentors and understanding what is my gift and
do I want to do that? 20 minutes, one hour motivation, really a lot
of detail information, or do I want to actually prolong it over a
one day period work with people do I love people that much?
James Taylor
I think that's what's been fun about At the summit all the
different guests yourself and Minaj and Jerome and some Tom Piller
who you mentioned, there's such a variance of the kind of, and it
really, some of them, it takes them a while to kind of find what
their thing is, and where some people more like doing the keynoting
or the platform building businesses, others it just like it's just
instinctually I know, this is kind of where I want to be. But what
was nice about it is this, you know, just choose your lane, choose
your path and and just go for it and find a great mentor, you know,
in that path, serve as a platform, reach out and be some like Gil
or, or, you know, someone like Dan for example, and and kind of
form those connections because because they they have a game plan
for that they've built their strategies around that. And I'm
interested in your work. You've been on stages and you've worked
alongside you've also represented through the through the Bureau,
so many great speakers, but what's the best piece of advice that
you've ever received about speaking?
Gil Petersil
I think when I there was really I could look at him two different
sides. were nice Started one of the advisor mentor gave me said
Listen, you want to speak, stop talking about it go and speak. And
this is something I'm now giving the exact same advice of a
mastermind for speakers in Russia treaty training people how to get
on stages and I'm that's exactly what I'm telling. Don't wait for
only the paying gigs if you're just starting off right now or if
you're, you know, getting things going, don't wait for someone to
come to you go to universities, go to charity organization, go to
different Chamber of Commerce's, you know, go to old people homes
and just talk. You know, practice makes perfect. And for me, I got
to say it when that advice came to me, I didn't think it was
something but I actually went to high schools. In a one stage, I
became a coach for the director of the high school and actually
paid me good money, but just offering myself to speak in front of
the students was energizing. It was fun. I had to prepare, I got my
content to be better. So that's one practice truly makes perfect
and the more you speak The more you kind of refine the content that
you truly want to speak about, and on the other side where I am
today, it's more making sure that you have authentic stories behind
your content. So today, I don't just speak about my content, I live
it. I don't speak about strategic networking. I am a strategic
networker. It's how I do my business. Every business I have runs on
it today, my corporate clients, when I come into them, like guys,
I'm not going to train you how to do something hypothetical, I'm
going to walk you through step by step on how to use the what I
call the new code of networking, to get what you want to achieve
your goals, to get more clients to have more freedom, whatever it
is that you want. It's all basically a co creation that we have
with others. And today, that's what I tell. The best advice I give
to speakers is don't be a loner, connect with strangers. partner up
with the speakers. Don't see competitors in anyone else. around
you. Because if you thinking competition, you don't think there's
enough clients to go around. So think about abundance and just see
every single person you meet, not as a potential client, but as a
potential future friend who might recommend me to someone one day,
so treat people with respect, give them free content, and just
enjoy your life.
James Taylor
COMM my question for you, first of all, what is what is that that
mobile app or that online resource of that tool that you don't
think you could now probably live without as a speaker?
Gil Petersil
I would save that for me today. LinkedIn is really it. You know,
having LinkedIn is really helped me transform my speaking career.
But really, again, I'm looking at it from an entrepreneurial point
of view. It's helped me transform the way I I run businesses, the
way I recruit the way I attract customers. Today, I actually have a
full time girl in my office, just helping me manage my LinkedIn
account because there's so many requests and so many new business
cards that I pick up and when I tell speakers You meet people
always enter that business card into some sort of a database. What
I do today, I enter you into into LinkedIn and I connect with you
and I send you a little message. And also I enter you my CRM, and
today, everyone's got a mobile phone, it doesn't really matter what
you have, make sure that your CRM system is backed up connected to
your computer connected to some sort of an in the cloud system. And
there's so many out there and make sure that you you have a way to
just follow up with people, whether it's weekly or monthly, just
have a way that you can reconnect and reconnect. And for me,
LinkedIn is number one, not just social network. It's a tool that I
use to maintain these connections.
James Taylor
And I think I've got an app on my phone. I can't remember what it's
called now Munch card Munch or something, where you can just take
the take a photo of the card, and it automatically do the
connection within LinkedIn is connect to your LinkedIn account. So
there's I know there's a couple of cool apps.
Gil Petersil
There's a lot there's a lot of apps out there. I didn't know there
was one that automatically connects you with the LinkedIn Want to
know that by what the recommendation I would give you be careful
what a lot of these apps because the connection that they send
people is a template connection. And I think that's a mistake that
a lot of people do because you're just sending them Hello, I would
like to add into my professional network. Don't do that. If you're
connecting with people, especially as a speaker, what you want to
do is you want to personalize it a little bit. Now, you can keep it
as a semi template, but it could be, you know, hello, James, it was
really great to meet you at the apss event last week, I really, you
know, enjoyed our conversation to see synergies and potential
future discussions. Just to remind you, this is the sort of topics
I love speaking about. If there's anything I can ever do to help
you out, please reach out to me But either way, I love to stay in
touch. So I'll follow up with you in the next few weeks. You know,
awesome, that sort of follow up that's personalized, that's telling
them where you met. It's telling them what you do, and it's telling
them that you come in peace.
James Taylor
What about what is in your speaker bag, what is in that bag that
you take to all You're speaking gigs that you never leave home
without, you know, you have all your your gadgets and your things
what was in that bag?
Gil Petersil
That's a funny one. So I'm gonna say the obvious ones that I think
most speakers have. It's the clicker. It's I have my own headset
microphone. I always go to events with it because I don't do events
where I do a handheld and you know, my microphone is good at suits
me. I have my USB stick just in case they lost my presentation.
It's always good to come with it. I have my it's funny, but I have
a little bell with some of my events. Because when you want to
interact with the audience, depending on the time you have, you
need to get them to stop talking, I have a little bell actually
gets people's attention. It's amazing. And one extra thing that I
always have is actually have little mint boxes, little Tic Tac
boxes, not the big ones, the little ones, which I give people who
are openly engaging with me. One I give it to them as a reward for
openly engaging with me a partner in an audience. And two, it's a
really good you know, networking. little tool. People need mints in
their pockets and the network's they just fit with a lot of the
topics that I cover.
James Taylor
Awesome, great. And we'll put we'll put some links here as well.
I'll find out what clicker you use and things and we'll we can add
some of those here as well. Let's if you can only recommend one
book in relation to speaking, or actually just relation to, you
know, entrepreneurship. So because you have these, you blend on the
speaker and the entrepreneurship thing. What would that book be?
What would the book recommendation be?
Gil Petersil
Why not? Can I give three quick ones?
James Taylor
We open we have some time. Let's go for it. Give me give us those
three.
Gil Petersil
I'll give three quick ones. I'm not going to go into details. So
not in any specific order. But again, we spoke about Tony so awaken
the giant within by Tony, I believe that every single speaker out
there is a celebrity that's waiting to launch themselves. Every
celebrity is a star. And every speaker has the opportunity to be
that star. They just need to awaken that person within them. Number
two, I would say is karmic. management by gesha Michael Roach
really awesome men new mentor in my life, someone who I've had the,
the, you know the honor to share the stage with multiple times,
karmic management's just something that I think every person on
earth needs to know. But as a speaker, you need to understand
what's going on. Because when you're sharing that much with so many
people, karma does work. So think about what you're sharing, think
about what you're giving them and think about what you're expecting
back. And the third one, I would say, is a little bit on the
spiritual side, but it's also something quite important to me. It's
the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolly. And again, from a business point
of view, from a networking point of view, the power of now is just
being able to be in the present moment. And when I network with
someone when I'm on stage with people, I'm here with you, I'm here
with you as an audience. I'm not anywhere else. I'm not thinking
about my business. I'm nothing but my wife. I'm not thinking about
my my phone. What I need to do next, I'm not thinking about money.
I'm thinking about delivering an amazing right now show a content
for you, whatever it is, my objective is, I'm right here now with
you. And Eckhart totally redid that for me. He taught me a lot
about the power of now. And again, I've had the honor to meet him a
few times and even more blessed. He's accepted my invitation to
come to Russia this September 1 time ever in Russia. He's accepted
an invitation is going to be in Russia when we are hosting his
event. So I'll get to share the stage with one more of my
heroes.
James Taylor
One incredibly influential writer and an speaker as well. Yes. One
I know a couple of people have spoken on this stage as well.
Incredible, incredible person. So we'll put those links there as
well. And a final question. If you woke up tomorrow morning and had
to start from scratch, what would you do if you had to wake up
tomorrow morning, you had no contacts, no one knew who you were.
But you've had all the tools of your trade and all the knowledge
you've acquired as a speaker as an entrepreneur. What would you do?
How would you restart things?
Gil Petersil
So you know, I'm gonna speak from real practical, you know, advice
right here. I came to Singapore, I didn't know anyone, I had to
start from scratch. So I'm talking as someone who's moved countries
about every 10 years, I came here not knowing anyone. First thing I
did is I looked up what events are happening and who the speakers
are. And I started reaching out to the event organizers, I started
trying to reach out to the speakers to see if I can just meet up
with them. I looked at different networking events to try to
understand from the local community, the strengths and weaknesses
of the local community, what are people missing? What are people
needing, I wasn't selling myself, I wasn't talking too much about
who I am. It was more about asking them, who they are, what they're
doing, where the pain is, and the local society where you are. And
that really helped me to build relationship with it. The event
organizer got me on a couple of stages when people say you know
what, wow, like we don't need a speaker right now. But we Do I need
a host and I became a host last week, there was a massive event
here called Green is the New Black, which is all about lifestyle
and organic industry and being a being a having a, you know, a kind
of a healthy life and which is an industry that I love. And, you
know, coincidentally actually used to be in that business itself.
But they said, We don't need to speak about it. But if you want to
host the whole event, you could. And I'm not a host, but why not?
Because in between every speaker, I was able to engage the
audience, get them to network, and basically build a brand for
myself. And I did that for free one, because I didn't have anything
else to do that weekend. It was a fun event, too. I managed to
represent myself in front of 2000 people three, why not? It's a
great way to give back and connect with the right people.
James Taylor
Gil, thank you so much for coming on. Today's been an absolute
pleasure. And Kira speaking to you today and hopefully we'll get a
chance to hang out in Singapore or London or somewhere in the
world. Once again. Thank you. It's always a pleasure speaking to
you. I always get learned So many things and I look forward to
catching up with you soon.
Gil Petersil
Thank you very much James guys connect with Love Live with passion
and enjoy speaking with others. Take care bye bye. Today's
episode
James Taylor
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