Sep 10, 2020
How To Get Speaking Gigs In New Countries
James Taylor interviews Mike Handcock and they talk about How To Get Speaking Gigs In New Countries
In today's episode Mike Handcock they talk about on How To Get Speaking Gigs In New Countries.
Mike Handcock is an international award winning speaker who has
worked in over 100 cities and 46 countries with 250,000 people. He
was the 2011, 2014 & 2017 NZ Speaker of the Year and one of just 28
people globally to be awarded the speaking designation CSP Global.
Mike has written thirteen books on business and personal
development including international best sellers and an Amazon
#3.
Mike is a musician with eleven albums to his credit and has
produced and written for Radio & TV plus has directed a Feature
Film (Dreamcatchers). He has been mentioned by President Bill
Clinton for his philanthropic work and is a seeker of ancient
wisdom who when not speaking on stages can be found climbing
through dusty pyramids or researching the secrets of the past
diligently.
What we cover:
- Niching down as a speaker
- How To Get Speaking Gigs In New Countries
- The power brokers in the speaking business
Resources:
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Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/how-to-get-speaking-gigs-in-new-countries-sl079/
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 Mike Hancock. Mike Hancock is an international award winning speaker has worked in over 100 cities in 46 countries with 250,000 people. He was a 2011 2014 and 2017 Museum speaker of the year and one of just 28 people globally to be awarded this designation CSP global. Mike has written 13 books on business and personal development, including international bestsellers and Amazon number three bestseller. Mike is a musician like myself with 11 albums, to his credit has produced and written for radio and TV plus has directed a feature film called dream catchers. He's been mentored by President Bill Clinton for his philanthropic work, as a seeker of ancient wisdom, who were not speaking on stages can often be found claiming through dusty pyramids, or researching the secrets of the past and diligently and it's my great pleasure to have Mike with us today. So welcome, Mike.
Mike Hancock
Hi, James. long intro isn't
James Taylor
it? It's great. I mean, it's such a it's so varied, which is
awesome. I mean, from the, obviously the speaking side. One of the
things I didn't even mention that you got names, we went to top 10
coaches in Asia as well. So there's the coaching side, I know you
run a lot of retreats and a lot of events all over the globe. So a
lot of things going on, does this feel kind of overwhelming because
you have a lot of different things on the go, just now.
Mike Hancock
Occasionally, to be honest. But I took eight months off in 2015.
So, so that was good. But up until then, the 10 years before that
were pretty hectic. That's for sure.
James Taylor
So what's happening just now what's got your focus at the
moment?
Mike Hancock
The really the number one thing that's got my focus at the moment
is building a movement called the conscious leadership movement.
And it's something that we've literally just started as this is
going to hear, where we're in in ducting our founding members now
there's 43 of them, initial ones like the Congress, and then
there's going to be 432 founding members, which is a sacred number,
and then it's going to grow from there. And the concept behind it
is to invoke change in the way businesses done, and also were
making a difference is as important as making a profit.
James Taylor
So in terms of the ways in which you're kind of getting that
message, are they building that move? So you're, you're finding
those initial members to help kind of build that movement together?
What what are the vehicles for it? Is it going to be primarily
events kind of you've run a lot of events before is it going to be
you out on the road speaking and putting things together there and
talking to people about it or online courses or something
completely different?
Mike Hancock
Actually, it's going to be probably all of the above James, to be
honest, we've got we've got our inaugural event coming up for it,
which is a global summit that's going to be in Livingston in
Victoria Falls in Zambia in 2018. Beautiful, so we're sort of
packaging people together for that. But then there's going to be a
lot of online forums, discussions, webinars, because people are
going to be at all parts of the globe. And then as we tour we're
going to be talking about it as well. So it's certainly creating a
lot of traction. And I literally launched it 72 hours ago, so it's
fresh off the press. It's been it's been two years in the
making.
James Taylor
When it comes to Speaking so obviously, you're known as at your CSP
global spoken all over the world. And what was the introduction for
you into into the world of professional speaking? When did it start
for you?
Mike Hancock
Ah, it was 2002, I think or might have been 2003 or 2002. So a long
time ago now, and I was in corporate at that stage General Manager
sales and marketing for the largest financial institution in New
Zealand, which is where I was living at the time and where I still
live part of the time. And in that role, you get invited to do a
lot of talks and things like that. And, you know, I knew I was
pretty good at it when I heard some of the others speak from other
companies and things like that. And I got invited to speak at a
very large conference in Asia. So I trotted along to Asia,
Singapore, and I didn't really ask too much about the conference,
which is probably a good thing, because when I got there, there was
18,000 attendees. And, and there, I was, sort of doing my first
really prepared Paid speaking gig mainstage with 18,000 people, so,
so that was fantastic.
James Taylor
Wow, I can't even imagine going from zero to 18,000 people. that's
a that's a big, you know, communicating in that in that way. I'm
wondering your background as a musician, obviously, you're used to
being on stages that's kind of familiar to that can help prepare,
what were the things that you took along from across from that?
Mike Hancock
Yeah, absolutely. And as you know, being a musician, James,
sometimes you play to four people, and sometimes you're playing
with thousands of people, and it doesn't matter who you are.
everybody's done it. That's the shore. So this was just one of
those lucky breaks. And that sort of gave me work for the next
three years came out of that and but the work wasn't in New
Zealand, it was in Asia. So it really helped me launch my career.
But I learned a lot about speaking from that from that exact moment
then, because when I got there, and I started to understand the
complexity of this thing, because I thought it was going to be Big
but when I was thinking big I thought maybe seven 800 900 people
1000 people, I wasn't thinking, you know, 20 times that basically.
And I was looking forward to seeing one of the big American names
and I remember very clearly that when he came on, I just wasn't
getting his message. And it's all heartfelt and sob story, but I
wasn't getting it. And then at one point, he broke into tears. And
I thought, I'm just not getting this and I, I turned around to look
behind me at the masses of people in the stadium at Singapore
Convention Center, and across the balcony was the biggest autocue
I've ever seen. That said, cry now in brackets. No, he was reading
the whole damn thing. So at that stage, I'd been taught to write
little cheat notes on little cards, like these business cards, and
have those in my hand and at that point there I threw those away.
And ever since then, I've spoken from the heart, which is why when
we came into this as well, I thought, we're just See where this
went, rather than me putting too much structure around it, which
means it's not going to have a natural flow
James Taylor
yet, folks, you're watching this listening, there's no auto cue
going on, just now is is that is very much improvised here as well.
So in those, you mentioned that that speaker who was not obviously
a great example, but who were the who were the early inspirations
for you as a speaker, who was maybe some of the early mentors for
you.
Mike Hancock
I really didn't have any so my mentors were probably more musicians
than than speakers. My mentors were people like Paul Stanley from
kiss somebody who could grab an audience and take that audience on
a journey. My mentors would Bono from you to you know, somebody who
could basically bring that emotion out of their audience. I didn't
really have a zig ziglar or anybody like that, that I had. as a as
a as a mentor from a speaking perspective, and these days, even now
My mentors around the world aren't necessarily coming from the
industries in which they, they've been, you know, in. So if I look
at entrepreneurship, for instance, and I'm looking at leadership,
some of the toughest leaders in time have been some of the most
brutal like Kublai Khan, for instance. So I've studied all of what
he did. And he was a tremendous leader, although totally brutal in
the way he led. So, I tend to look at different mentors that way
and I tend to go the other way. So if I gave you the names of my
mentors, you'd go I've never heard of them. And that's because
nobody has because they're ordinary people who did amazing
things.
James Taylor
Yeah, I I sometimes do this this little thing where you mentioned
people from history and like, like, this may be similar to you, you
know, where I was kind of brought up was relatively remote. You
know, we did not have we were not the center of the earth in terms
of the official speaking business. But I'm so I'm a great reader,
you know, reader of history, like yourself. Love all To Barclays, I
always imagined having my own little mastermind of people from
history. And I kind of thought, Well, what would you know? What
advice would this person give? And I almost kind of imagined
because I got so familiar with their writing and, and their way of
looking at the world that there was going to provide my early
mentors and you mentioned something there about, you know, going to
often other industries and other other fields to get inspiration. I
know that a previous guest I've had on my podcast, Eric, wow, who's
who's not a visual artist in great keynote speaker as well. And
when I speak to him say, who yearns for him, he said, Bono, that
was it. He said, I want my shows I want my speaking I want it to
feel like it's a real gig I want there's a warm up music, there's
the energy into the way that it's done with productions done. And
that's obviously not right for everyone at all. But it's just that
you can kind of take ideas from other places and kind of relate
them to, to what you're doing. And you've you've obviously built
this this great career. I'm guessing that the travel you You
definitely have the travel bug you enjoy being in different parts
of world and experience. So how does the How does speaking allow
allow you to kind of indulge in your love of travel?
Mike Hancock
I'll look at any kid who ever wanted to be a rock star. If you
can't make it in music just become a speaker. It's the same thing
to be quite honest with you. Look, the beautiful thing about
speaking is that you can speak anywhere in the world. Now remember,
I was speaking to a group of up and coming speakers A number of
years ago things about 2007. And this one guy in the audience said,
Mike, how do I become an international speaker? And I said to him,
his name was Kevin, I said, Kevin, basically, you get on a plane
and you go and speak internationally. Anyway, hahaha. And he said,
Well, who's gonna? Who's gonna listen to me? I said, Well,
immigration for stop, they have to write. And he's like, Nah,
that's very funny. And I said, Well, that's what you do. And About
three months after that, he said to me, I'm going to take your
advice. And he was in New Zealand. So I thought for him
international would be Australia. So what are you doing? He said,
I'm going to go to India. Now strangely enough, I've done trek 20
speaking trips to India. And I know the Indian market very well. I
was just there a couple of weeks ago. And, but he never asked me
for any leads or anything like that. I just went, congratulations,
good on you. Let's see what happens. That guy built a business that
got into and influence 10,000 educational institutions in India
over the next four years, it was amazing the amount of product he
sold and what he did there, so just phenomenal. So I think the key
there is that speaking gives you the ability to go where you've
always wanted to go and build a business around that. And I'm all
for building a business around your life, not a life around your
business, which I think some mistake that a lot of people make and
you might be interested in Number one mentor is quite vigorous.
James Taylor
Pi sagaris. I will never. So what what is the linkage between pi
sagaris and speaking
Mike Hancock
he was a philosopher and he definitely was a speaker as well. Yeah,
he ran the Python gorean Academy. And basically he coached and
mentored two groups of people, the acoustic air in the Mathematica
the mathematical way I should say they studied mass the acoustic
has studied music, and music and philosophy was a lot more what
Pythagoras was about, then then mass, most people just knowing for
mass, but actually, he invented all the modern scales of music and
brought out some very, very interesting philosophies on the music
of the spheres which science has since proved to be correct. Even
got the notes of the planets correct and how he did that so totally
for another phone call. So
James Taylor
So as you're going out there, speak How did you kind of start
building you mentioned that first 18,000 And you've got speaking
gigs from there. But once none of that happened, what what were
some of the things that you started kind of putting in place,
especially to start breaking into some of these new territories
that you wanted to go to?
Mike Hancock
Okay, well, let me tell you exactly how we do it. So let's say we
wanted to do do some talks in Ireland, because we want to go and
drink some Guinness, for instance. Okay. So therefore, what I will
do is I'll look at who already has my audience, because somebody
already got my audience. Now, it might be another speaker, but it's
more likely to be sitting in association. And I work a lot with
entrepreneurs. So I work in the personal development space. I work
in the entrepreneur space, and I work in the ancient wisdom space.
So Ireland, for instance, has a really, really vibrant
entrepreneur, printer community. So we get our researchers to
research all those people, make connections, build lots of
associations. through LinkedIn, etc, etc, build story and
credibility through means a couple of months before we about to
launch our Ireland campaign. Then we launch it, we bring all of
these people in, we give them some special deals to shake the tree,
firstly, and we just jump on a plane and go and there we are in
Ireland, and we've got events and it just works out that way. And
then you meet people and then people want you to do this and that
and then one thing leads to another as it always does in life and,
and in some of those countries like India, you end up going back 20
times and in others, you've had a nice holiday and made some money
along the way.
James Taylor
So let's talk about the breakdown. There's two parts to the pre
launch part before you actually start running the island campaign.
So the initial prospecting and reaching out what is what is that?
Those first kind of LinkedIn communications all those first
communications look like?
Mike Hancock
I'm doing one now actually, because I'm going to be in the US soon
so and I've been invited to Denver to do a talk Just a small talk.
So I thought let's run a public event there at the moment. So we've
been listed, I think, at the moment, we build a list of about 800
entrepreneurs in the Denver area. And we just have a LinkedIn
message that goes out from me saying, Hey, I hear Denver is one of
the best places in the US to live. Is that right? And people are
coming back and communicating and telling me that I love the
Rockies and this and that, and Mama's apple pie and everything like
that. And so then I just find a way to communicate with them all
very nice. And then just say, Hey, listen, if you're an
entrepreneur, here's a free copy of my book. I don't need anything
back from me. I just thought I'd offer this because you know, we're
chatting. And people say, Gee, thanks. And then just leave them
alone for a bit and then pop them a note back to three weeks later.
You know, have you had a look at the book, maybe you could give me
a testimonial if you wanted to, or tell me what you thought or
something like that. But by that stage, then there's some
engagement. So it's just been On that engagement and
James Taylor
of those people, you're reaching out to LinkedIn, are they
primarily, you know, in your case on the entrepreneur side, or the
entrepreneurs themselves? Or the or the associations representing
entrepreneurs? Who are they
Mike Hancock
both? Both? Both? Yeah, so we'll, we'll go for anybody who's might
be running an incubator or a startup setup or something like that.
There's many of those around the world. We will be going for any
entrepreneur associations, any sort of private equity companies,
those sort of things, and to the entrepreneurs, directly anybody
with the word founder, CEO, entrepreneur or something like that in
their title, and just using something as simple as Sales Navigator
on LinkedIn to to make the connections initially. So it's not
rocket science. There's a little bit of work involved in it, but
that work can be outsourced as well. So, you know, I just start
with two or three standard, very simple approaches like hey, James,
I've been looking at the weather in Scotland today, and I'm glad
I'm not there. That type of modules probably lovely isn't enough.
It's nice in Cape Town as well. So, so yeah, so that's, that's sort
of the starting point for the approach and, and then it just goes
from there and then just give give them some sort of give something
of value. You know, I've got a lot of international best selling
books and so one of those that's relevant to I'll normally give to
somebody, just the the Kindle version or whatever and, and people
tend to like that they really appreciate it, especially if you
don't put put a hook in place straightaway. And it could be four
weeks or six weeks before they get an invite to some
James Taylor
so you use that you know, the classic thing of obviously
reciprocity there of giving, giving value giving value first, and
then when you actually start to come into the launch campaign
proper, what what kind of happens and how do you start shifting
gears?
Mike Hancock
We just shift gears with an email say, Hey, listen, you know, we've
we've been we've hearing so much about Denver, we're actually we've
put it on our itinerary for next us towards the first time we've
come, maybe you guys can help us maybe you want to show up, this is
what it's about, here's the link for different people, you could be
an affiliate for it. For other people who might be centers of
influence, he's a really nice thing to do, hey, the tickets are
worth this. But listen, if you're prepared to tweet, it will give
you a ticket for nothing.
James Taylor
So and that that event, so this is a public, a public event that
you put on when you when you're not actually based there in Denver.
So you have to do this from where you are in the world. Are there
any kind of good tips of confining those locations to run these
initial events just to that market entry to get those kind of
venues?
Mike Hancock
Yeah, I think what you've got to do is that what works really,
really well around the world now is is sort of the the micro events
or the mini events, that's not trying to put you know, 400 people
in a room. It's trying to get 30 to 40 great people in a room and
from those people And listing their engagement to take it to the
next level. We've actually found recently, we've been limiting some
of our rooms in some areas to just 10 people for a really short,
smart session. And in fact, we've made more money in those areas
and having 100 or 200 people in the room.
James Taylor
So these are they more workshop styles that you tend to go into or
master class style, rather than like speaking from the stage in
that way.
Mike Hancock
Yep, absolutely. That that comes later. Yeah, yep.
James Taylor
So the more workshop so that people have coming in there you
getting like 1030, maybe 50 really good quality, you can have folks
in that room, you're delivering great value at that event. We as
next what's the next kind of call to action Next, please see the
next part of the journey for them.
Mike Hancock
And this comes to the next question that if anybody's in speaking,
they've got to pay attention to it. And that's product ization. And
you have to have products at all levels of you know, value from
free to three to maybe 100 200. $300,000 So, you know, because some
people want to have that go on that journey with you. I mean, we've
got clients that have been with us and bought amazing products year
in year out for over 10 years now. So I mean, we love them, they're
a friends, they turn up to everything and you know, and they just,
they they actually say to us, can you guys develop a new product so
that we can buy it off you?
James Taylor
It's pretty funny. ask people what they want and then make Yeah, so
it sounds like you don't have like a really hard and fast
differentiation between between kind of keynote speaking like the
kind of thing you're getting up front, there's 18,000 people being
paid to go out there. And also putting together your own events,
especially in terms of thinking about market entry and potentially
having products and what some people might call as like Platform
Style selling or seminar style selling. It sounds like you're you
can you can move between those two different places.
Mike Hancock
Yeah, I very much can I guess it's because I started as a Doing
keynote, so I'm very familiar with that space. And I did very well
at it. But these days, you know, it's so much more fun and so much
more financially viable to do free keynotes. So it was really came
from when the global financial crisis happened, James, particularly
in New Zealand, all my friends were speakers saying, Man, the fees
are getting driven down. And we're asking, being asked to have our
price and all of that sort of stuff. And, and that sort of thing.
And I thought about I thought, I'm going to try something. So I
just went back to a few of the people that are I'd worked with
before and said, you know, obviously, you need a speaker and you're
struggling to get good speakers for what you can pay because of the
GFC. And they said, Yes, that's true. And I said, Well, you can
have me for free. Just pay my expenses. They said, what's the
catch? And I said, Well, I have to make some money somehow. So can
I pitch your audience something? Let's ensure
James Taylor
so that that what you just described there? I can I can I can
almost hear the in taking a breath by baby some keynote speakers
out there going. That's no, that's terrible. No, they can
destroying our business, our business model as well. So from from
the perspective of actually, rather than just from the perspective
of the event planner or the organizer, talk to me about talk to us
about what that actually gives you as a speaker. Because the
numbers do they're very different that there's an because my
understanding is that the many people that do the keynote speaking
just the keynote speaking where they get the 10,000 or 15,000, it
can often top out in terms of their earning potential, a certain
amount that what you're talking about, has it worked in a very
different way financially.
Mike Hancock
Absolutely. Firstly, I'm not a threat to any of those guys, because
these days 98% of my business is direct to the public and people
pay to come and see us so I don't really have time in my schedule,
nor am I really Please, well, I'm not marketing myself as a keynote
speaker for corporations. These days, I do keynotes as part of big
events and things like that, but not necessarily for corporations.
Secondly is, you know, if you're speaking to a room of 100 people,
and your your speakers fee is 10,000, that's $100 a head that
you've got to get out of that room. So, I mean, if you can learn
some basics, sales skills, and if you're confident at it, you can
definitely make some money in that in that room. So as I said, I
wasn't doing it for any other reason than the market had tightened
up. All of my friends was suddenly getting paid half of what they
used to get paid six months before that. I didn't want to go
through the whole I have to pitch myself and then go into an
introduction with you and go into negotiation. Oh, no, I can only
pay you half what I used to. So I said, Well, why don't you help me
for free just pay my expenses. But the catch is that I have to
pitch something The first
James Taylor
time I did that I doubled my feet. And so when you when you're on
that pitching, you're maybe doing your 45 minutes of your style
keynote, and then you're pivoting to like the last 15 minutes.
Actually, this and if you want to take journey further, you know,
this is this is where you go is information to back the room or,
you know, have you do it from there as well. And I'm wondering if
that approach also works very well, because your audience you
mentioned can entrepreneurship personal development audience, where
you know, many in that in those audiences, it's, it's then they're
paying for their additional training themselves and their own
credit card. Unlike more on the corporate side, where I've had a
number of bureaus actually say to me before, actually, we don't
like speaking about the entrepreneurship thing, because we're kind
of worried in case the client thinks all of his stuff, his or her
staff are going to go and start building building businesses. And I
think that's changing. I was just booked to one bureau the other
day, who said actually want more people talk about entrepreneurship
in these big organizations because they want to, it's more that
mindset thing, rather than The job description. So is that Do you
think that's part of the secret of your success is because you've
niching down within that kind of entrepreneurship, we have another
couple of niches, that that style of printing and speaking and
advance works very well for that audience.
Mike Hancock
Definitely, but I was doing with culprits, too, but you just you
pick the flavor. And you say, you know, it could be sales training,
for instance. And if somebody and the way you would pitch it is,
you know, hands up, who here earns a bonus on the number of sales
they make? Right? So then you ask us, how much bonus did you make
last year? How much did you make last year? Would you like to
double it this year? Right? For your investment of X amount of
dollars, you can double up, right? You just have to go through this
and this and this. And I'm personally going to coach your trainee
or whatever. That's not my pitch, that can be a pitch for somebody
who's listening. One of the other things that I know you've talked
about before is this idea of brokers or power brokers within the
industry. So the people that have maybe didn't know that term or
haven't really At 10 described as relates to speaking, the speaking
business, what does that mean? Um, well, very simply, in the
speaking business, you've got people who have massive influence.
Some of them are in the internet marketing space, I mean, you would
probably be considered one of those people, you have a large reach.
I mean, you're putting on a summit at the moment. So you've got
reached to all of the speakers like me, who were in there. So you
definitely are a person of influence. So therefore, those type of
people are located everywhere in every city around the world. And
they are the best people to get to know because even if what you're
offering is not for them, they generally can push you in the
direction of who may be interested if they believe in you.
James Taylor
So RM, r them. Let me think about speak of yours. A speaker Bureau
is just a type of broker when we think about the online market will
have lists, email lists, or social media lists as well. So, Brooke,
Speaker bureaus are just another type of broker but I'm because my
as you know, my background, especially with online marketing, one
of the things I love about online is how trackable everything is.
Yeah. And, and we're both working in the space of the music where
you have agents and, and I love agents as well. But you know, it's
not trackable, it's not in that same way that online you know, if I
put an X amount of effort, this amount of dollars in ad spend or
whatever the thing is, I will get back this this in return. So,
when we think about those brokers, who are the others you
mentioned, like influences when people with lists, we spoke with
bureaus, who may be the other key influence the key brokers in this
space.
Mike Hancock
One of the main ones is other speakers. So, you know, you look at
some great speakers that you may know if you're speaking on
leadership, and they're speaking on sales, you're two different
things, but their companies are going to be looking for a sales
speaker at some stage in your company is going to be looking for a
leadership speaker at some stage. Yeah, awesome. So they great
brokers for you if you can do those deals and, and I've probably
done more of those deals for other people than then I've done for
myself as well. Other ones I would say, definitely heads of
associations. Anybody who's running an association is a really,
really, the movers and shakers and I might not have much money, but
they've got reach. So if you can imagine the retailer's association
or the accountants Association, or even the Manufacturers
Association, depending on what you're speaking about, they have
some massive reach those people and they're in semi government and
all sorts of things so and they're connected, and the other one is
Chambers of Commerce. And I've never looked past chambers of
commerce as well because they tend the guys or girls who are
hitting those up tend to get involved in lots of different things.
But the one that's sitting right in front of most of us, and a
buddy of mine in Australia, who's a very well known speaker, they
use Is this one all the time, he a puts a note on his Facebook
saying, I've got some availability in October this year. As you
know, I normally pay my speaking Agent 30% happy to give any of you
who can get me a speaking gig, the same 30% refer me into your
companies or refer me to a friend of yours who works for a big
company. And if I get the deal and money's yours, and he feels a
lot,
James Taylor
sorry, just through that. That's because I mean that that friends,
and I know one of the other speakers we've had on here, and he
speaks a lot of different countries and he'll often isn't, I really
want to go to Azerbaijan, and he will just put our thing on his
social media saying, I'm planning on speaking as about China
looking to speak in Asbury, who has contacted Azerbaijan. And he
said, I'm always always amazed at the response. He gets, oh, well,
my brother is running the insurance company and this thing year and
then this, and he said just by kind of asking the world, one of our
previous guests, I had it on a podcast with Amanda Palmer into the
pack. Power of asking. And sometimes you, you kind of have to ask,
you have to kind of put it out there. This is what I'm looking for.
I'm interested on the on the referral side of the friends and
family. And I've referred a lot of speaking gigs to other speakers.
Because if, like you said, if you get booked to speak in one year,
then often the event planner will come back to you say, they're
unlikely to book you again for next year. So they'll see, you know,
who's good to speak on leadership or, etc, whatever, sorry. And
I'll say, Well, she has an amazing year, check her out or check him
out. I've always done that on just I've never taken like a
commission or anything. I've just said, No, just go to this. But I
do know that many speakers do take a commission on that. So what's
your take on Have you heard, you know, is there is a kind of norm
happening in the business in terms of referral fees from other
speakers?
Mike Hancock
No, there's no there's no norm James in that I'm aware of. I've
never taken a commission on any of those things either. Some of my
friends do. Take commissions. others don't. But the smart ones
formalize it. So they'll go and meet with five or six speakers. And
they'll say, the minute you've got off stage and the minute you've
got your check, just say to the first the organizer, hey, listen,
by the way, I know you really enjoyed me, can I recommend somebody
for you for next year? And at that point, they have the connections
made. And that can work really, really well. And I agree with you.
I mean, I've spoken in 46 countries, and some of them are because
I've reached out on Facebook or LinkedIn and said, Hey, I'm heading
to Norway. Does anybody know anybody there that I could connect
with etc, etc. and born something goes to something goes to
something.
James Taylor
So talking about connections, an event that you're putting together
next year is a very cool event. So tell for all this audiences on
here today for this summit. Tell them about this because I think
this is going to be of huge interest and I When you told me about
it, I'm like, Okay, I need to get on the next flight, the flight to
this, I need to book that flight. So tell us about it.
Mike Hancock
You definitely should be there. And so should many of the listeners
and And the beautiful thing about this is this is voluntary. I'm
not even making any income out of this or anything but through the
associations around the world, which is the global speakers
Federation, in 2005, they started the global speakers summit. And
this summit has been on every couple of years, although it hasn't
run for five years. And the reason it hasn't run for five years is
because it's incredibly difficult to put on takes a lot of work and
big teams involved etc. and myself and a couple of others been
really rallying New Zealand to to put in a bid to see if they could
get the summit. Well, the minute we sort of shocked the tree, two
or three other countries wanted to put in a bid as well. So we had
a bidding war and it's a bit like the Olympics. I think the New
Zealand document was 53 pages put together by Auckland tourism And
the New Zealand conventions Bureau and the New Zealand speaking
Association and New Zealand one. So from the 23rd to the 26th of
February next year, we have the global speakers summit in Auckland
in New Zealand, a fantastic venue sky city, iconic place in
Auckland. We have great room rights there. On our pre pre launch,
we sold nearly 50% of the tickets. So it was just amazing. So we're
really on track day one of the four days is actually a corporate
day. So you can apply to speak anybody who's listening can apply to
speak there. You should come along it's very reasonable in terms of
international money as well. It's around the thousand dollars Kiwi
which is under 700 bucks us to come along and be part of it. And
the website is je s s for global speakers summit 2018 dot com. So
genius fest 20 eighteen.com. up the top right hand corner of the
site, you'll see a little button there where you can apply to
speak. And there are many, many topics that you can speak on. And I
was given the job of chairing the summit, which is putting the
whole thing together, probably because I put over 1500 events
together at different places around the world as a fairly natural
choice and, and we have an amazing series of events lined up over
those days very different to any other of the speaker summits
that's being put on, because most of them have asked for speakers
to apply chains with their topic. And then like selected topics, we
haven't done that I've written the whole program from front to
back, and we're looking for the right speakers to slot into the
right spots, so that we have the best of the best practice from
around the world. So we've already got speakers coming from from
Canada and from India and from parts of Asia, South Africa. The UK,
even Sweden. So it's going to be amazing. You know, who's there.
And I can tell you when I went to the first one of these in 2005,
in Singapore, and then the follow up one in 2007 in Dubai, that
definitely really helped me launch my international speaking
business through the connections that I made there. And I've done
many collaborations with people that I've met through those events.
So it's a really fantastic event for people to get involved in je
ss 20 eighteen.com great. I'll put that link here as well. It looks
like a really cool event. So I'm looking forward to getting there
bringing my wife along and and also seeing New Zealand be a country
I haven't spoken in before. And everyone tells me it's a beautiful
place. So that's, and I think, I mean, you're probably talking
about what a 300 plus of the world's best speakers are going to be
there. So even someone just just watching this just now who are
just getting started in the journey as a speaker.
James Taylor
This is like going to be a supercharged where of connecting, and
also getting inspired and hearing from some of the world's best
speakers. So highly, highly recommended. And we'll put that link
there as well. And I'm interested to know as well. What is in your
speaker bag? What is it that thing that you carry to all your
speaking gigs that you can never leave home without?
Mike Hancock
Lots of frickin wires? I'll tell you. I always carry a projector.
Yep, I always carry one. I can't tell you how many venues I've been
to where the project is a crapple or don't really work properly, or
don't integrate well with the Mac and really try to reconfigure it,
particularly when you start speaking in in countries like India and
China and those places there. You know, you're probably not going
to have it happen in San Francisco or London. But in those places,
you're definitely going to be up against it. So I do carry a
projector. I always have hard disks. You know, I've been arrested
as a spy in Cuba. So for all the amount of hard disks and things
that I had with me. So with different, you know, backups of
different things on there in the cloud, but I keep hard copies as
well. And the other thing I probably always have in my speaker bag,
which is never far from me, and not even far from me right here, is
I always have my latest journal, as well. So I'm a big journaler
you get a lot of ideas on the road. And this is where you build
products. This is where you come up with your best ideas. So that
baby's in my bag. And there's nothing really weird in there except
for good topics, because I often get invited to play when I'm going
somewhere. So carrying a few of your own guitar picks is really
useful.
James Taylor
I'm wondering now is is there a Is there a global speaker
Federation band or a global speaker sir is there I was gonna I was
gonna ask that because if there is, they will be live on stage on
the last night of the summer. So there you go. If any of our
speakers out there maybe also musicians and interested in kind of
getting involved in that there might be a potential chance to sit
in there with the band at the summit? A final kind of cover cover
questions do you have any online resources or tools? Or absolutely,
they're really you find invaluable to yourself as a speaker.
Mike Hancock
The ones that I'm really enjoying at the moment is I'm enjoying
capsule we use capsule for our for inner circle of members. And so
there are clients that we deal the most with and that I like that
because it's it's basically free and you can program it to it's a
CRM package that you can program. I wouldn't use it for thousands
of people but to keep tabs on you know, when you're bumping into
somebody and you want to know what the latest thing they've done is
that's that's fantastic. In terms of apps, probably I'm everybody's
using WhatsApp these days. I don't tend to use a lot or I don't use
my phone. My phone is a camera disguised as a phone so I don't take
phone calls. So that would be something even though it's here but
it's been on the whole time that I was here let me have a look and
tell you one other one that I live here I've got my all my rental
car apps and my booking.com apps and and things like that is
probably definitely the ones that are used. And the other one that
I'm really liking at the moment is well there's two actually I'll
tell you this one. This is all I want to tell you this one this is
a no no because it's a great app to actually get rid of people you
don't like so I tell you that case anybody gets rid of your eye,
but the one I actually like is I like scanner for me. Because when
you're on the road a lot you you know you got to sign a lot of
documents and everything like that. This allows you to do it all I
can have it sent to my PC, I can scan the doc off my PC with the
scanner app, I can add my signature to it and send it back. So I
don't need printers and, you know, trying to get printers in hotels
at work and things like that is a real pain so I really like that
app but I try and keep it pretty lean. So that Netflix is the other
app that I use quite a lot what not to travel
James Taylor
and what about if you could recommend just one book and also one
record one album to our listeners a slightly unusual choice but I
think is very apt for yourself as a as a musician as well. What
would that book and what would that record be?
Mike Hancock
Um, the book would probably be probably be the alchemist Paulo
Coelho. It's a phenomenal book that that will inspire people. And
the album, I think is probably going to be wishy washy here, Pink
Floyd. Right. Because it's cross generational. You can chill out to
it on a plane but you can also really get into it as well. So so
that would be it. Although I use All sorts of different music from,
you know, hardcore Drum and Bass to country in western in what I
do. And a final question for you, Mike, let's imagine you woke up
tomorrow morning in South Africa or New Zealand or wherever you
are,
James Taylor
wherever you'd like to be, and you have no contacts. No one knows
who you are. You don't know anyone, but you have all the skills and
you have all the the chops and experience you've acquired as a
speaker, but you have to restart, what would you do? How would you
restart things?
Mike Hancock
I think it'd be in some ways, fantastic. I mean, the beautiful
thing is you have all your experience. So all of those products and
books and things that you created that you think are really my
start date that so you don't have that problem anymore. So you'd
start what I would do is I would sit down number one, and refocus
on my values. What are my values? Number two is I'd look at the
areas of my real passion, that map matched my values, and then I
would super micro niche in an area my real passion, and I build a
platform and I do one or two pre prop free products, then I build a
couple of funnels for those. And I'd start some stimulation going,
and then I'd start conversing with some of those people. And I'd
take medium term view on that, to build the type of business that I
really wanted to build. I think so many speakers end up speaking
about topics that they really aren't that interested in. And it's
because they, you know, maybe they were a sales and marketing
manager in their job, so to speak on sales and marketing, but it
actually doesn't interest them. So I
James Taylor
go right back to my values. That's where I'd start. And you very
kindly offered all of our attendees here at the summit, our free
report that you've put together and I was just reading before we
came on earlier, it's great report. It's called the 11 secrets to
being a successful speaker. And we've kind of we've just kind of
covered a little bit of one like two of them the bridges of
productizing and the powerbrokers bit, goes over all the others and
goes much more in depth as well. So we're going to have a link here
on this page to that so people will be able to Get that as well.
We'll also have a link here for the the global speakers summit in
New Zealand so people can book their tickets and maybe put forward
for them to themselves to speak at that event as well. What other
ways that people, good places for people to connect with you, Mike
and to learn more about all your different products and programs
you have happening?
Mike Hancock
The best place James is our website, which is dub dub dub dot rock
your life, our o ck your y o u our life.net in at? Ok awesome.com
has been owned by a rock shop somewhere in Colorado. The last thing
is got it before me but dotnet rocky life dotnet and everything's
on there and you can connect with me there and see where we are and
everything like that and hopefully bump into some of the people on
this call at some stage. It'd be lovely.
James Taylor
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