Dec 10, 2020
In today's episode Victor Antonio talk about How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Keynote Speaking.
A poor upbringing in one of the roughest areas of Chicago didn't stop Victor from going onto become of of the world’s most successful keynote speakers. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, an MBA, and becoming President of Global Sales and Marketing for a $420M company, Antonio now writes and speakers about sales and motivation. He has shared the stage with top business speakers: Rudy Giuliani, CEO of Intel Paul and FedEx Kinkos CEO John May. He's the author of 13 books on sales and motivation and recently launched the Sales Mastery Academy learning platform with 300+ videos. He latest book is called "Sales Ex Machina: How Artificial Intelligence is Changing the World of Selling”.
What we cover:
How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Keynote Speaking
Finding your speaking style
Generating passive income from online courses
Resources:
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Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/how-artificial-intelligence-is-changing-keynote-speaking-sl090/
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
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top speakers, then I've got a very special offer for you. Just go
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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 is James Taylor and I'm delighted today to welcome in Victor Antonio. Victor Antonio is incredible keynote speaker approved bringing in one of the roughest areas Chicago didn't stop him from going on to become one of the world's most successful keynote speakers. After earning a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and MBA and becoming president of global sales and marketing for $420 million company, Antonio now writes and speaks about sales and motivation. He shared the stage with top business speakers, Rudy Giuliani, the CEO of Intel, and also the FedEx kinkos CEO, john May. He's the author of 13 books on sales and motivation, and recently launched the sales mastery Academy learning platform which helps people in terms of selling and learning about selling, it's got over 300 videos in there. His latest book is called sales Ex Machina, how artificial intelligence is changing the world of selling. It's my great pleasure to have Victor join us today. So welcome, Victor
Victor Antonio
James, thank you for having me. My pleasure.
James Taylor
So share with everyone what's going on in your world just now.
Victor Antonio
going on in my world right now. Well, right now this month, you
know, I did three months of hard traveling. So international wise,
we're talking about that before the interview, you know, I did the
Philippines and i did was i Jordan. So I got to see the old city of
Petra while I was there. So that was very nice. So now I'm we're
going into the spring, summer months, so my schedule is slowing
down. So this is when I get back to writing and creating more
content online. So that's kind of the mode I'm in right now.
James Taylor
So you've had this very interesting journey. You come from
obviously a very strong sales background, large corporates as well.
When did the speaking part begin? How did you get into the speaking
world and Who were those early mentors for
Victor Antonio
you? You know, so my upbringing is very unusual. You're my family's
originally from Puerto Rico. So you know, my parents, when they
moved to the US, you know, didn't speak the language, so had to
learn language. So it's Spanish at home English in the streets. And
so one of the things that was instilled early on was obviously a
work ethic. But more importantly was, my mother was always like,
you gotta learn, you gotta learn, you gotta learn. Fast forward, I
go get an engineering degree, decide, I don't want to be an
engineer, I figured salespeople make more money. Let me go make
let's go do some selling. That's when I hit my pace. It was around
that time that I got a ticket. I was living in Minnesota,
Minneapolis, Minnesota, that's when I got this ticket to go see
these speakers every month. They bring in new speakers. So it was
around 90. I'm dating myself here, but I'm saying 97. Somewhere in
there. I saw Zig Ziglar for the first time like onstage. And James.
It's that moment people talk about, you know what I mean? You see
it you go, that's it. That's what I want to do. But still, you
know, I had a new family. So I still had to make money, right? And
but I remember having that image in my head being on a platform one
day. So I joined Toastmasters. I don't know if you're familiar with
the organization. Great organization join. Toastmasters became very
good at it was getting a lot of competitions. But it was always
back there. You know, I mean, so I'm selling in the b2b world
technology equipment. But in the back of my mind, I want to be a
speaker, I still have that Zig Ziglar thing in my head. And
somewhere around 2001, I just decided to say you know what, it's
time to do it. And I tell people, what developed in me was what I
call a quiet discontent. And a quiet discontent is that thing and
you know what I'm talking about jams, you know that, that's
something that says, you know, everything's going well, but I'm
just not on purpose. I'm not doing what I want. And it was just
sitting there humming for a long time. And I just couldn't ignore
the noise and the longer and so may 9 2001 3:48pm, to be exact, you
know, I made the call, I quit. I'm gonna go with, you know, write
books and become a speaker. I was that naive, I was like, I'm gonna
do it, you know, had a little money stored away in the bank. And
I'm like, you know, the kids are, you know, they're good, you know,
and so I decided to go for it. And so that was the beginning. So
2001 is when I first started getting into the speaking world. And
it's been, it's been quite the journey.
James Taylor
And what was it about seeing seems like I never saw Zig when he was
alive. And I never got a chance. But I actually had his audio
tapes. It can grow up probably about 1516. So he influenced me just
by listening even though I never got a chance to see him because we
didn't have like YouTube and things like that, that we have now.
But what was it about that that first experience of seeing a real
masterful public speaker like that, that really attracted you to
think, Okay, this is why I want to do with my life.
Victor Antonio
I think it was so it's a confluence of things right. The first one
was, it was around that time. I was I moved in the sales, I was on
this journey of trying to, you know how you know, you go to
college, you get the education, you go get the job, you start
working at the job. And you say, Please tell me, this is what life
is all about sitting in a cubicle for the rest of my life, right?
And so I think I was going through some type of I'll say,
philosophical crisis at the time, what do I want to do? And sales
seemed like a good opportunity to make money, let's move in that
direction. Right. But still, there's something like not right, you
know what I mean? mentally, you're searching for some deeper
answers. And I think so. So for so I was open to listening to other
people's messages about, you know, their experiences, and so forth.
And then I watching Zig Ziglar, on stage, I think the way he
impacted the crowd, is something I said, Man, I love what he's
doing. I love that. I love his messaging, but not so and then when
you look at the messaging, but beyond that, it was his delivery
system. It's just how he did it. And I cut that's just masterful.
And so maybe, because I like talking a lot at the time. And I said,
Okay, this really combines a lot of what I love, which is, you
know, really understanding, I guess, human motivation, but being
able to deliver it in such a way that people go, Ah, I get it. And
he wasn't beating you over the head with philosophy or lessons. He
was just, I mean, just slipping it under the door, if you know what
I mean, your mental dorbz is kind of coming in, right under. And if
just as a small note, fast forward. I'm gonna say like, 10 years
later, loving years later, I spoke with Zig Ziglar on the same
stage, got to meet him and his wife the whole bit. It was it was
the best thing. It was great, man. It was great. So like, knowing
11 years later, so it was kind of cool.
James Taylor
So they said, they say you should never meet your heroes. I'm told
you never meet your heroes. But But what was it like? Did the the
the image that you had in your head and the person you met in real
life did? Did he reflect that?
Victor Antonio
Yeah, I mean, he did he, by the way. So when I met him, I met him
before he took the stage. Right? And so I was like, Man, I've never
been like Tongue Tied or nervous, you know, just like I've met, you
know, stars. But I've, you know, to him, it was like, you know, and
I remember I blathered on for like, I don't like what seemed like a
minute or two without stopping. And then finally, he says something
like, well, you know who I am, but who are you? And so, then he was
really, I don't know what I said, we talked and I remember, I
looked at him, this is almost embarrassing to admit, but I'm gonna
admit it to you. The I said, Can I just hug you? He says, Sure,
man. He just gave him a nice talk. And then his wife, who he refers
to as read was there. And he's and then after I hug him, he says,
He says, you know, my wife, Red's a hugger, too. Oh, my God. And
then I, you know, I saw him speak and obviously, because of, you
know, time and age, right, he was a little slower. But man, it was
still there, man. You know what I mean? The Magic was like, in that
you could see it in the eyes was still there. And the delivery was
great still. But the part I remember the most was after I did my
speech, which was later on in the day, I was back, I went back to
the hotel, and him and his wife were in the lobby. And they
literally, I mean, at their age Lily came over to me, like little
kids, and like Victor how to go, you know, I mean, they were like,
genuinely interested in wanting to hug. I'm like, it was surreal.
You know, I remember driving home from Mississippi, you can drive
like six, seven hour drive. Here to Atlanta, I was just smiling,
like a Cheshire Cat mouse, just like I met Zig Ziglar. So I don't
know about that thing about you should never meet your heroes. In
this case. I'm good with meeting my heroes. I was good. But
James Taylor
I always remember he said something once someone asked him for what
advice do you give, would you give to speakers, and I think it's
maybe Rory vaden, who told me this the story and roryd can studied
under him and been a protege of Zig as well. And he remember two
things he said, one is the mega loss every seven minutes, there is
so that we get that in there, that level of interaction. And the
other one, he said, always call, call your wife four times a day
when you're on the road. And that was his thing. And he used to do
this and it was kind of mind blowing, considering he was traveling
all over the world speaking. And this is before like Facebook and
things Skype and stuff. It was easy. So he was making those calls
back to back to the US all time. So as you as you start to kind of
develop your speaking you obviously had a bit of an unfair
advantage in that part of the the business part of speaking as
being a great, great sales. Great, great selling your speaking as
well. So when you kind of came into the speaking world, what were
some of the things that you took from you your understanding of
great sales, being a great, great salesperson and, and building
relationships with clients that you then apply to speaking?
Victor Antonio
You know, it's a great question, James. Here's why because I really
think I became a better salesperson after I left corporate America,
you know, and it's a very interesting perspective. So what happened
was, for those folks listening to this, I did a documentary it's on
youtube for free. It's called the motivator, just type in Victor
Antonio, the motivator and it tells the story even tells us Zig
Ziglar story and some other stuff. But, you know, one day you'll
one of the things one of the markets I decided to start in was the
college market. The High School in the college market. Because, you
know, I came from a very disadvantaged family. So I kind of wanted
to reach back into the neighborhood, if you know what I mean and
pull people up. And so I remember I was doing the college market
James and I wasn't getting booked a lot. I wasn't getting booked a
lot. I wasn't, you know, I just wasn't making a lot of money and I
wasn't having fun. You know. And I remember that I was driving to
Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. And I specifically remember
saying, you know, you have those contemplated moments you go, you
know, not having fun. It's not what I expected. Not having fun not
making money. But then I always go back to the What's it a Stephen
Covey's a circle of influence? What can you control? What can you
not control right? as well? What can I control, I can't control how
much money they're paying me. But I can't control how much fun I
have on the stage. And so it was at that time, I decided to almost
like not discard this. The thing is, I came from corporate America.
So I had that standard presentation, tell them what you're going to
tell him, tell them and then tell him what you just told them.
Right. And then I just kind of said, screw it. I remember that day
was like, there was this quiet panic right before I went on stage.
Because I was about to walk into a huge auditorium. And by the way,
we recorded that day. So I had the video. But I said, You know
what, I'm gonna let it fly my way. I'm just gonna have fun with
this thing, you know, let it fly my way, which is why it's
interesting. You said that Zig said you should act make them laugh
every seven minutes I've ever heard that. But that's kind of the
sequencing I use. And I just did it my way. And when I was done, it
was like, I felt different. The crowd reaction was totally
different. I was having fun, but still delivering great content.
The very next day, I had to fly here to Atlanta, we were living in
Miami at the time to speak to Bell, South big telephone company at
a time. And I said, Okay, now speaking to those college students
the day before, but now these are business people, these like
strictly b2b people. Do I do it? Do I regress back to my corporate
shelf? Should I do the new style, my style, the authentic Victor,
right. And there was like this, this back and forth fighting right,
just like this back and forth. And in finances, screw it, you know,
let's go for it. And so all I remember is I finished that
presentation. Standing ovation, never had never had one standing
ovation. I just couldn't believe it. Right. And it was at that
moment that I found my style. And so, you know, how does this tie
back to selling I guess, I learned to be more authentic. Because
now I control to see when you're working for a company. You know,
there's certain protocols, the unwritten rules, right. You know,
we're in business suits, you know, be respectful, do certain things
a certain way, you know, you know, ask key questions, you know,
building rapport, ask discovery questions, get ready for the
presentation, do the demo the dog and pony as tied down questions
after that and close the deal. And so I knew that. But in reality,
what people want is authenticity. Because I think that's where
people connect. You don't I mean, as much as we'd like to think
that we're logical beings, which we are to some extent, but there's
that there's that part of us that we, you know, we always talked
about this, right? If there's no connection, there's no
authenticity, people can smell that they can see it. And I wish I
could take some of that authenticity back to when I was in
corporate America, I think I would have sold even more. And so
that's why I said, I think I learned how to sell better afterwards,
because I was able to deliver it my style, but great content, and I
felt good about it. And my customers, the audience felt better
about it. So
James Taylor
how long in that process of going into being a becoming a speaker
leaving corporate america becoming a speaker? What was the gap then
between that moment? And then, you know, finding that speaking
style? Was it due to years? or months? or How long did it take
you
Victor Antonio
if going going off memory, memory is always, you know, a distorted
thing once in a while. But I think it was no more than two years,
no more than two years, I put it in that bag. On the outside three
years, I think it was no more than two years. And that was because
in my first year of speaking, I made like $17,000 like one seven,
so just make sure 70 it's one seven, right? And so just to give you
a I guess a relative reference point, my base salary on the job I
just walked away was 250,000 a year to $300,000 on top of that with
commissions plus all kinds of stock options and Benny's, so I went
from there all the way down here, you know what I mean?
James Taylor
On that point, that's I mean, that's a huge drop. So that meeting
that you had with your your accountant near the end of the tax year
and you can sit and go that is you know, can they look at the
numbers that that what
Victor Antonio
is my accountant,
James Taylor
your wife, okay, so sitting that moment was a point that you went
You know what, I just need to go back to that back to the old deal
day job is just it's just not cutting it and obviously you didn't
make a decision but on what made you not make that decision and
keep going?
Victor Antonio
No, no. So you you ask a question that I wish more people would ask
because that's the reality of the business right? And I don't want
anybody walk around with the impression that okay, Victor figured
it out. Boom, made it you know, he's 17 years into the game. Boom,
be strong, right? No, here's what happened and this is why I think
it's a great question and why you bring it up cuz I think People
need to hear this. So I make 17,000 the first year, right? I'm
like, Oh, damn, that wasn't the word I use, if you know what I
mean. So anyway, I said, Oh, damn. And so it was at that moment,
James, that I had this, this this awareness slash realization that
he right, I have an MBA, I have an engineering degree, I'm a decent
smart guy got all this experience. I mean, I grew businesses, you
know, I mean, one of the markets, we grew, we took it from 14 to
$98 million in two and a half years. And so I had all these skills.
But then, when I went into the world of entrepreneurship, solo, I
was like, I realized that within corporate America, you focus in on
what you're good at, which is selling, but you don't know how to
market. You don't I mean, if you don't know how to market, you're
screwed in this business. And that's one of the things I realized
that's the big nugget, you know, you're I had a guy, his name was
Randy gage. I know he's a speaker does a lot of network marketing,
speaking. And I remember I went to one of his events one time, we
sat down for lunch with a bunch of other people around table. And I
remember I was kind of lamenting, you know, the the growth, the
lack of growth in my business. He says, Victor would business you
in acid? It's not a trick question. He goes down, it's just asking
you a question, what business you in? So the speaking business, I
guess, he goes, No, I go, the training business. He goes, No. I
said, Okay, the motivation business goes down. And I can go on on
that. And if I say, Okay, tell me what business I'm in. Dammit. You
know, it's like, kind of like that upset. Just tell me what
business I'm in. He says, You're in the marketing business first.
And that was like, dude, I mean, it's like somebody just says that
the right moment. And then I realized how, and I mean this in a
kind way to myself, I don't mean to be pejorative, but I realized
how inept I was at growing my own business. So I'm good as part of
a cog, as a cog, as part of the big machinery. But when it came to
me, the individual I didn't know how to do it. I didn't know how to
market I didn't know how to, you know, because you got to be the
finance guy, you gotta be the marketing guy, you got to be the
technology guy, you got to be everybody. And that's when I, first
of all, my respect for entrepreneurs just went through the roof,
right? Because now I get I get them now. Now, there is no safety
net, the only safety net I have is my bank account, which is
getting depleted every month, right? Because the expenses are not
going away there I can smaller. And so I went through that moment.
And here's what happened. Year, 115 $1,000. A year 250 $6,000. Not
bad, right? 1756, we're going good. It was in that third year, that
an opportunity appeared, I said, You know what, I need to go back
to work a little bit, and replenish my funds. So I went to work for
this seminar company. And I did a lot of training for them. And I
worked for them with them for about a year, maybe a little over a
year, stock some money away, and boom, we're back out in the market
again, let's do it again. Right. And sure enough, a year went by
money's going down. But you know, this, it's picking up though, you
know, we're hitting six figures now, wherever you're close to
100,000. Little bit over that, right? But not enough, you know what
I mean, for what I wanted, and this opportunity showed up? And I
was like, ooh, do I stay on the stay the course? Or do I go back, I
took the sissy way out, I went back, right. And I became CEO of a
technology company. And that lasted for a year, year and a half,
made great money. So I can't complain. And experience was
wonderful, because it gave me CEO level experience, which I had not
had within a technology company. And so that was 2007. Eight. And
then since then, I haven't gone back. And we've been doing
exceptionally well,
James Taylor
I guess like, like going into a CEO role as well. You described it,
okay. It was a mistake. And but it was good in terms of
financially. But now because you're primarily going and you're
speaking to CEOs, that is your that is your decision maker most
most the time that you do so many big corporate events. So you have
that you can have that conversation of someone that's been in
there, you weren't just a cog in the wheel, you know, Vice
President of Sales, you were the actual, it was on you everything.
You know that pain.
Victor Antonio
Yep. Yep. I think that was the decision we had to make, you know,
so what we're doing well, I think we're on I said, we're finally on
track, I think. But then I said how often you get to be CEO of a
technology company. And the goal was to basically pump up their
sales, and then we're going to sell the company, which is exactly
what we did. And so the experience has been great, because now when
I meet other CEOs, I'm like, so what I was a co2, you know, it's
like this, this, you know, and as you say, the dialogue is
different. Now, the conversations are different. And when I'm when
I'm when I'm in front of a crowd, spend a large crowd, big b2b
crowd, but it's a large technology company or not. As soon as I
insert that little piece, CEO with technology company, here's kind
of what we did. They're like, Okay, this guy's just not another
speaker. Yeah. And so that benefited me in the long run. But I
wanted people to know that I had to go back twice to replenish my
funds. You know, that not every not it's not a straight line.
No,
James Taylor
no, it's not. It's, it's, you know, the, the, the, the, the graph
is gradually is going up, but you have those, it goes down, goes up
and down, up and down, up or down. So one of the things I also
noticed you, you speak, you write about this idea of how artificial
intelligence is changing the world of selling. So this is something
we share in common I, I, I speak about artificial intelligence
related to creativity and innovation in companies, you speak about
in terms of how it's changing selling. I, you know, the things that
can be applied to that in terms of us as speakers, maybe as
trainers, these things coming down, or maybe already there with
artificial intelligence that we can start to use,
Victor Antonio
I think what's going to happen? I mean, if you look at where let me
step back, one of the reasons I started doing what the reason I did
a book on artificial intelligence was, is that I spoke for a
company, just a two minute digression. And I'll come back, and I
think it's important point. And this company, it's a big healthcare
company. And what we're doing JJ is fascinating. They have, let's
say, 200 people in the call center, right? And they would call out
each one made, let's say, 100 calls a day, just using some round
numbers here. And let's say they close 20% of those calls, right?
selling insurance products over the phone. That means there's 80
left, right. Now you take 80 times 200. That's 16,000 calls. All
right. The question is for each of those individuals who didn't
close the ad, who do you call back? And what order Do you call
back? While they have to go off memory instinct, you know, whatever
notes they wrote in, right, it's very, it's true that I'll say that
that confirmation bias filter of theirs. And so what this company
did was, they would record our conversation, I'm selling you over
the phone right there, record our conversation, they would split
the audio tracks, they'll take your track your audio track, the
listener, the consumer potential buyer, and they could analyze
words that you use keywords, keyword phrases, tone velocity, and
they could make a determination the machine would make a
determination whether you wanted a call back or not, whether
there's a high probability of closing or not. So in other words,
they were able to prioritize leads for these telemarketers
James Taylor
based on antigens like mine. Yeah,
Victor Antonio
yeah. Because you look at intent sentiment the whole bit, right.
And so then on my side, they took my track, now I'm calling you,
right? Instead of using, you know, little scripts, or posted notes
on the side to say certain things, the machine would actually
listen to the conversation and would pop up scripts, that was one
thing, but it would also analyze my voice and yours together and
says, you know, Victor, you need more training, because when James
says this, you really should have responded with this, we need you
to go back to module number five, and really studying that again.
And just sitting there going, are you kidding me? Are you kidding
me? And that was like the, I think, when I went to see the company,
Gartner came in on if you're familiar with the company, well,
Gartner came in, and they started talking about the hype cycle, you
know, that this type of you know, artificial intelligence went
through it, you know, you know, you know, it's nuclear winter. Now,
it's, it's spring again, right? I said, I need to dig into this.
And if I dug into it, the more I said, Okay, I can see how this
would work. I've given too much thought, how would help speakers,
because a lot of what this machine learning does is you will know,
it's based on a lot of interactions and patterns, right? So for
having a lot of interaction patterns, we can measure something, how
speakers could use it, I have to get some more thought James, you
know, I got some general ideas of, you know, I was studying one
yesterday it was an application actually look at it can look at
documents, like RFPs. And using, you know, different types of
algorithms, it can actually pluck out all the objects in everything
from the tables, the graphs and everything, and then interpret
those graphs and tables and so forth. And so I was thinking about,
you know, the prospectus, you know, when they, when they issue a 10
K, at the end of the year, large corporation issues, the big
prospectus? Well, what they're doing now, and this is Bloomberg,
they're running it through an algorithm. And these algorithms
basically tell you how they believe the company is doing based on
the data table to extract because they can't do it manually. Now,
imagine if we have speakers with maybe we can record our
conversation, I'm talking to you your perspective, you know,
company wants to book me, and it may be based on that conversation,
I can actually why figure out transcribe it, right? And all of a
sudden, I can figure out whether this is a go or no go, what should
I follow up on? In my book, I talk about an application called
phrasing. And phrasing, this is something we can use right away, is
basically a plug into Google. And as you're writing, it's like an
equalizer on the side. It talks about sentiment good, positive
negative, like they'll tell you basically, you don't want to send
that out, you need to add more positive spin on it. And so it's
called phrase phrase with an extra e at the end, check it out. So
this will allow at, you know, for speakers, if you're responding to
somebody for an inquiry, based on what they've asked, you can type
out your response and it will give you a rating and it basically
gives you the green light to go ahead and send it
James Taylor
very cool. Very cool. I was speaking an event recently and I've
actually been signed to run my keynotes through IBM Watson. And so
what I do is essentially I'll run the order Audience data in terms
of like, Twitter accounts and other things, other points. And it
gives me a visual representation of the audience. This is this kind
of audience and basically basically using personality insights. And
then what I can do now is you can basically run your, the text of
your keynote through that. And it will then give you the same
reference. And you can overlay these two things on each other. And
I've been doing it for a number of speeches, it doesn't tell you it
doesn't make you didn't teach how to craft your speech. But what it
does do is it very quickly goes, Oh, okay, I'm speaking to a b2b
marketing says b2b marketers. I'm a little bit off here because
these are more analytical type of Barker's and I need to be putting
a little bit more detail because that's, that's down on my keynote.
So you can start to start to adjust. And actually, as I was at that
conference, and there was someone else speaking from a chemical
Converse occur, and very good, I didn't have in the book. Oh,
great, very interesting, because it's conversational AI. And
actually, one of our sponsors here, this called bom, bom, I know is
a is a user of that of that service. And so where I saw the
opportunity for speakers there is, is warming up the conversation,
you know, some of those email conversations that go back and forth
between your assistant and the prospective client. So when you as a
speaker, if you're doing discovery calls, or getting on those calls
to discuss if you're the right fit, or the cause or ending up
coming through on that, a much warmer course they're they're much
you there's this, you're much further down, and then much more kind
of segmented as well. And I was talking to folks from Converse
again, and they're getting a 2,000% ROI from the NSA, people are
just saying, keep sending me I mean, they're going through 100
1000s of leads every month. Now
Victor Antonio
think about that, James, that's, that's really interesting. So
James Taylor
unfortunately, it's not quite as is the pricing point, just now is
a little bit more for larger companies. But as we know, with
technology, because things are coming down all the time, and I can
completely See, in maybe less than 12 months, you'll start seeing
AI assistance for speakers that are doing a lot of those things as
well. So just keep you keep your eye there. If anyone's watching,
maybe, maybe there's someone you're watching just now maybe you've
already starting to experiment with this, let us know, right?
Victor Antonio
I love that. But probably one if I could add one more thing,
there's something called x, I think it's x.ai. That it's almost
like a you know, conversific a stripped down, but it's conversa.
And the calendly applications put together. What it does, if you
call me, right, we're trying to set up a meeting. And I'll just
say, a James, my assistant, Camille will be following up. So we can
set a meeting because maybe we'll have to go back and forth. And it
will actually do the back and forth with you. Yeah, it's all
automated. It's just it is the coolest thing. And that's another
way of actually setting up meetings without having, you know,
nobody wants to sometimes just go to a website and just plug
something in this way actually have the conversation and post it to
your calendar. And I mean, it's really fascinating stuff.
James Taylor
After a while you kind of start to get into conversation with with
these AI and you do have to stop yourself every so often say I am
talking to rashidiya this is you can think that
Victor Antonio
happened to me.
James Taylor
I go to write this in case I hurt their feelings. This is a
machine
Victor Antonio
emotion with this AI machine. That's amazing. That's cool. That's
cool. What do you want to change ebooks? Man, I'd love to read your
material. Yeah,
James Taylor
so one of the other things that you kind of came on. And this is
obviously becoming a much bigger part of what speakers are doing
now is you added an online learning component online training
component to what you do as well. So first of all, what was what
was your purpose? What was the reasoning behind doing that? And
how's that going for you?
Victor Antonio
The so I was well the biggest reason was I wanted to generate
passive income. I think that's an obvious one, right? generate
passive income online. And so before that, I was doing downloads,
right if you bought a package, you get the whole thing downloaded.
And so then I started looking at and it was because a friend of
mine, Grant Cardone know if you know Grant Cardone so Grant Cardone
is using a learning management system. We use a platform called
lightspeed vt, good company, good people, man. They they're very
responsive. And I looked at a lot of there's a lot of different
ones out there. I mean, that's just the one we chose, because I
think it has the I hate to say it this way, but it has this the sex
appeal. It's just graphically it's more just visually appealing.
And so one of my goals is, you know, as speakers when we first
start out, we talked about this for the interview, you know, we're
all excited about traveling, right? We love traveling all over the
place, right? It's just great. It's exciting. But when you've done
it for at least 20 years minimum, you know, you get to the point
where you know, I think I want to slow down, stay home more. And so
part of the strategy was wanting to do passive income, but really
because I want to stay home more. But second, I also saw that
that's where the market is going. Yeah, people don't want to read
books. You know what I mean? And so what we're seeing is this whole
video market, you know, you look at the millennial generation, they
just want it seems like their attention spans getting shorter, and
I think so is ours, not just them. I think ours is also and so I
see a market where people just want snackable video content So I've
been creating videos for the last, I don't know, six, seven years.
And it's all snackable content, I call it, which means if I do a
full course, or break it down, chunk it down into small court, you
know, chunks. And I think people been very receptive to that. So my
goal is simply extra revenue. And if I can generate enough revenue,
then I'm back my speaking fee. Yeah, yeah, I don't care if I get or
not. I mean, that's kind of fun.
James Taylor
But here's the other point about that is because I heard a stat the
other day, which kind of blew my mind, Peter Diamandis was saying
that this idea of the raising billions in the next I mean, in here
in the West, we think everyone's online, but that's not the case.
And in the next, two to three, next 24 months or so, around 3
billion people will be coming online for the very first time. So
that's 3 billion people who have never bought, uploaded, uploaded,
sold anything online before. So that's a huge market from Asia and
South America, and Africa. So that's the markets and they're all
going to go online first. Because that's that in terms of terms of
learning, so you've got this giant market, and there is no way you
can speak on stages to all those people. So if you're passionate
about your subject, whatever your topic is, and you want to meet,
have that to get to the most number of people, then it makes
complete sense that you'd be kind of going online and almost having
an online first approach. And I think it's interesting, we're
seeing a lot in the newest speakers coming through, because they've
come from the digital natives. And that way, they're, they're
coming with this idea about video, video video. And thinking in
that way, which is probably very different from our
Victor Antonio
concept is mind blowing down 3 billion people. And yeah, that's
amazing. You know, two things. One is I love the fact that you talk
about how you know, the new speakers are coming on board, as you
say, digital natives were seven, eight years ago when I started
doing this people like Why are you giving your content away or
putting it online. But the other thing I want to point out is that
my 30% of my revenues come from international. And my peak point
selling international is around two or three in the morning,
Eastern time. That's where we see the peaks. So Tuesdays are always
good. And two or three in the morning is even better. You know,
it's just the weirdest thing. And I think it's if you can find the
right price points because against other countries simply don't
have the money like we do here in the US. So I think that's also a
tricky part also is finding the right price points
James Taylor
that he hasn't he's a really nice kicker to this. So in someone's
watching this just now maybe a new speaker, thinking Well, that's
all very well, Victor, you've got a great profile, you know, people
know who you are in the speaking world. These 3 billion people are
coming online now. You, me, jack Canfield, Tony Robbins, we're all
as equally as unknown to this organs. So it gives you a little bit
of confidence to be able to go, Hey, this is a brand new audience.
This is this is virgin territory we're talking about. So you can
you can really have have a lot of fun with that. So so I'm loving
seeing how you're doing and how many other speakers are doing the
online side?
Victor Antonio
Oh, you're making me think because I think I think something has
changed in the market. James, I don't know what it is. You know, I,
I was talking to a friend of mine this the other day was about a
month ago, I met him in California, I'm doing an event he wants to
see me speak live, right? And I said, I said watch. I mentioned Zig
Ziglar. Nobody knows who he is. and So sure enough, he's in there
watching me and I go, by the way, how many folks have heard of Zig
Ziglar 200 people in the audience, at least 200 people, maybe three
or four raise their hands. And now like, and I looked at I go see
what I mean. And that's it. And to your point is that, you know, I
think memories are short, I think you know, the days of the icons,
I gotta be I think they're gone. I mean, you're gonna have one or
two that break through the noise, right, the signal to noise ratio,
but the rest of us are going to be in the morass, the noise, but I
think what people are looking for is, Who can I relate to Who can I
follow? And so if you're a new speaker starting out, you know, you
as you say, you can just start from zero and build a basis very
quickly, because it isn't so much reputation management anymore, is
the content you're delivering. And I think the quality of the
content is the greatest equalizer. Yeah, I don't care. You could
have been in the business 15 years. But if my content is better,
I'm killing you online. And I think that's what they need to keep
in mind.
James Taylor
So let's go to some final quickfire questions here as well. What is
in your speaker bag, what is in that bag that you take with you to
all of your speaking engagements you never leave home without
Victor Antonio
never leave home without a extra pair of glasses, to use glasses.
My favorite tool is a typical Logitech PowerPoint pointer that has
a timer on it. Because I never like to be over my time. And this is
the one that you can program it to vibrate like 15 minutes before
you're done. And so I always know you know when I'm supposed to end
my speech so I always end on time. I always have an extra USB plug
with me in case somebody my my computer dies or theirs dies or
something weird happens and I have it stored up in the cloud. I've
started to use now flip charts. And my remark is and
James Taylor
this is interesting because I noticed on your your your your A
website as well, you make a big play of that which a lot of
speakers don't, you know, there, there's usually them in a big room
and things but you up, that's obviously a key part of what you're
trying to do on stage. I just added
Victor Antonio
that within the last year and a half, two, and here are the
advantages. One, it's a great pattern interrupt, you know that try
to make them laugh every five to seven minutes, we'll also try to
change the the the medium of what they're what they're seeing, or
listening every five to seven minutes. So by going to the chart, I
go, now watch this. Let me draw this. It's a pattern interrupt,
what's it going to draw? Right. The other thing is that sometimes,
you know, as a speaker, sometimes your message isn't vibing. You
know what I mean? Yeah, with the audience. And in your brain. If
you're a professional speaker, you go, you know what? This is not
the right track. Let me You know what, let me go. Let me go to the
flip chart. And what I've noticed is that the interaction, the
engagement just shot through the roof, man. Yeah, the response has
been so much better. It's more organic. And I think I love it more.
Because I mean, I know what I have, I think in models. So I always
have these models, right? So I wrote a book called sales models,
which has, like 50 different business slash sales models. So I can
just talk about whatever you want to talk about. You want to talk
about entering new markets here, check out this model, check out
these numbers. And so that allows me that flexibility to throw
something in if I need to hook you back in Yeah, because I'm my
slides are losing you. This isn't really what you want to hear
right now. So I'm, you know, I didn't have Watson with me, right?
It didn't align me it didn't lie. Right. So maybe I'm just like one
degree off center, whatever may be. The flip chart allows me to
close that gap. Yeah. By inserting something I already know.
James Taylor
And actually, that's the you know, is that thing where stories make
people listen, the visuals make them remember. And I can think of a
lot of speakers who I don't really remember too much for the see.
But I really remember the visual that they drew, I mean, Simon
Sinek is a perfect example of that. We start with y with his his
circles, you remember that, you know, you can hold on to it. And
actually you mentioned something about AI like happening live.
There is actually now I recently ran an event with with speaking
the law of events, professionals, then the new tags are now making
for people in terms of their wristbands for coming into events
instead of the ones here. They're also doing wristbands for them,
which is taking biometric data as they're in the room, which is
then being fed back to the event organizer, and also to the
speaker. So they can see, hey, 18 minutes here, people start like
this, this, this connecting. And so that's a little bit. I don't
really know if I want that information live. But I think after it
would be very useful to have that so you can like tweak and change
things. It's
Victor Antonio
almost like that little you know, that little knob when they're
like they're watching a political ad. Yeah. And they can rate them
by turning the knob. Exactly. I guess this is more honest. Yeah.
Cuz you're not consciously thinking about turning the knob. That's
very fascinating. Yeah, yeah, that's cool.
James Taylor
I don't we have to do this like old school version of if you see
lots of faces lighting up because they're on their mobile phones
and lights coming up, you know, you probably lose like them. So we
get that's the middle stage that we're at the moment. And what
about online tools? Or you mentioned a couple of great online tools
and resources here already. But is there one tool you find really
useful for yourself as a speaker
Victor Antonio
we're using, we started using Click Funnels. I don't know if you
know what Click Funnels is. We
James Taylor
sat down with Russell Brunson. Great.
Victor Antonio
Yeah. And so I spoke with Russell Brunson on stage last year, and
he just killed it on stage. I mean, just murdered with this
application. I mean, just crazy numbers from the stage. But you
know, so we've been using Click Funnels, we've tried to find other
alternatives, and other alternatives turned out that's out there,
that's about a 10th of the price of something called builder all.
And but I think this company a year from now is gonna be very good.
We tried their product. So as a couple of bugs, but it does
everything. Click funnel does even has a few more bells and
whistles. But there's a couple of features in terms of the email
list and stuff like that there's still need to be worked out. But
I'm putting that on your radar for a year from now. It's called
builder, all because, as opposed to paying 297 a month, which is
what I paid for Click Funnels, it's only like $29 a month, like 30
bucks. So big difference in price. So even though I'm paying 300
bucks a month, we're seeing the return on investment with Click
Funnels. I think that's our biggest tool. The simple tool that we
use, anybody can use is we use buffer a lot buffers, like almost
like Hootsuite to blast out our graphics and everything on social
media. I think those are the real those are the main tools I use. I
try not to you know, my whole thing is YouTube is my channel,
LinkedIn, but YouTube is my channel every time I talk to someone,
how did you find me? YouTube? And so if you're a speaker, I think
this is key that we live in a visual medium people want to see us
speak. great article. Love your book, but can you talk I think
YouTube is one of those channels that every speaker should
leverage
James Taylor
and as it is it because it's it uses a different SEO in terms of
algorithms. You can often be maybe let's say if you're if your
topic if you're a College leadership speak, I'm just gonna make
something out college leadership speaker, there's, there's lots of
those. And you can it can take a while to get track, you know, get
that listing get on that first page on Google, for example. But
with YouTube, they use a different algorithm that's going on. And,
you know, a little tip here that you can do is if you interview
lots of other let's say, college leadership experts, and put those
in a video, you could do like this and put that up onto YouTube.
Suddenly, as soon as someone types in college leadership expert,
you're going to be right, you know, right there at the top. And so
it's you know, there's the you can definitely play I think YouTube
is an amazing resource for speakers is totally overlooked low
design here, here, here's
Victor Antonio
here's an inside secret, because got to give it we got to give your
fans really, I can do that. A lot of people when they record a
video, they simply upload their video, right? They put the
headline, put a nice description, put some tags, that's okay, all
well and good. Keep in mind that searching is just a spider, just
an algorithm, it can't see visuals can't see pictures. And so one
of the things I do that I think helps with my rankings, is that
before you upload the file, rename the file with the keywords, most
people don't do that. So in other words, if my video is on sales
velocity, and I know people look for sales velocity, I just I don't
load up a file that says 593 sv for sales velocity.mo v. Now I got
sales underscore velocity dot m o v. And that gives you a couple of
extra brownie points. But even better, before you upload the video,
after you rename it, if you right click it, you can actually load
tags into the actual video. Like which, okay, if you load your
keywords, push you up on the search engine.
James Taylor
So that Yeah, I like that. That is some cool. That's some cool
stuff. There some some ninja techniques, if anyone's watching this
just now as well.
Victor Antonio
Yeah, that'd be perfect for them. Okay, which works?
James Taylor
Well, by going a bit old school again, about a book. Is there one
particular book that you'd recommend to our attendees?
Victor Antonio
For?
James Taylor
It could be king, it could be on sales more generally,
Victor Antonio
I think, you know, I just I read a book about I'll say six months
ago, it's called unknown, or known rather known, sorry, it's how to
become known. I don't know, the guy's you know, I don't remember
his name. But it's kind of cool. Just to look for known. It looks
like a bunch of Hollywood lights, you know, hitting the word known.
It's a, it's a great book. It's one of those books you wish you
read. Before you started, you know, years ago, when I first started
on social media, everything. This book is just great. I mean, it
just, it's like a three day seminar in a book. I mean, it's one of
the best books I've written. I've I've read in terms of selling.
You know, I still say the the challenger sale is one of the best
books out there still, the challenger sale came out in 2012, even
though it's got a few years out, and I haven't read anything in
sales better than that, in my opinion, is based on research real,
you know, experiential data, experimental data, rather. And I think
those are two books in philosophy while I'm an iron Rand fan. So if
you haven't read it, yeah, you guys read Atlas Shrugged The
Fountainhead. So
James Taylor
those are my recommendations. And a final question, which kind of
leads a little bit to what you just said, there. Let's imagine you
woke up tomorrow morning, and you had to start from scratch. So you
have all the skills that you've acquired over the years, all the
tools, but no one knows you, you know, no one you have to restart.
What would you do? How would you restart? When I first started
out?
Victor Antonio
I wasn't as focused and narrow as I am today. So when people ask
me, What are you talking about? I go sales. I mean, the motivation
part kicks in because people want to be motivated when they sell
right? But it's really sales. And so years ago, what I didn't do is
I didn't start in sales. I did a lot of motive. I emphasize
motivation more. The problem with that is that everybody's a
motivational speaker. Right? And so motivational speakers are a
commodity, right and a few again, will rise above the noise. If If
I were to start again today, I would have cut out maybe two or
three years on I'm off my path. I'm close to three years I
struggled at the beginning. Yeah, I would have been more focused on
being a sales dude, which is where I came from. So I think you have
to pick a lane and then just you know, to use, you know, you want
to dominate that lane. You want to be the best in that lane. You
know, when I started my sales thing. The guy that was the king of
sales was Jeffrey Gitomer, right Little Red Book of selling Jeffrey
Gitomer. And I'm like, I read all Jeffrey Gitomer stuff. And then I
held whether Brian Tracy, whoever had a book on selling, I read the
book on selling, so I got one of the biggest libraries on selling.
And so I try to read everybody on selling. And so if you want to
start today, if I do it all over again, I would just focus on it
and just commit to be the best at that niche. So simple strategy,
you know, but it's funny how it's so simple and easy, but yet we
don't do it because we think we we focus in on a niche, we're going
to miss out on other opportunities or business where what happens
is when you focus in on a niche, you begin to see these these
subtleties, these nuances, these pieces permutations within that
market that actually have more opportunities. Yeah, and I think
that's what people don't get.
James Taylor
So someone said the analogy of difference between what a general
practitioner or an MD will earn as opposed to a top consultant who
specializes in this particular thing is, I mean, they both have a
large they both had a lot of money, but like a top surgeon in a
specialist field will will make a lot more than the general general
kind of doctor for example. So that's great. So going down and
really focusing and if people want to start reaching out to you
maybe it's to learn about your your sales programs that you have
that we've been speaking about sales machine Academy, or the book
the sales Ex Machina, or just to learn about you as a speaker.
where's the best place to go and do that
Victor Antonio
I'll just one place Victor Antonio, calm. You know, there, you'll
see the books, I have written 13 books. You'll also see the sales
mastery Academy there. But that's where you'll find the book and
just search Victor Antonio, you'll find me online. Well, you
know.
James Taylor
So we'll have all these links here for everyone so they can they
can check all these different things when we speak about fixed it's
been a pleasure speaking to you today is great. We could have gone
on and on. I'm sure we could exchange lots of ideas,
Victor Antonio
kindred spirits and spirits. Thank you. Well,
James Taylor
I wish you all the best of your speaking and I look forward to
catching up in person soon.
Victor Antonio
Great. Thank you again.
James Taylor
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