Make Marketing Suck Less for Expertise-Driven Solo Businesses

Did you know that Dr. Seuss's editor challenged him to write a book using only 50 words? He accepted and rose to that challenge. Oh, yes, he did, and that book became one of the most beloved Dr. Seuss books of all time, Green Eggs and Ham. Now, I'm a rebel. I'm also a nerd who likes structure, so my motto is always rebel and do it with structure and a plan. A rebellion without structure is a riot....

Rebel truth time. It's hard to figure out your message. If you have been struggling to find the right words, know that there's nothing wrong with you and it's just a difficult process. Because we want to get it right and we hold onto finding that message so tightly that we can't see the right words in front of our face most of the time. Mark Twain once said, "The difference between the almost righ...

William Faulkner once said about writing that you have to “kill your darlings.” Stephen King took it one step further in his book on writing and said, "Kill your darlings. Kill your darlings. Even when it breaks, your egocentric little scribbler's heart, kill your darlings." As business owners, speakers, and change makers, we get very attached to our ideas, especially the ideas that have been a pa...

Trying to find your message. Describing what you want to be known for. Finding what the right words, where the right people say, "Heck yes, count me in. I want to follow you to the ends of the earth." It's hard, it sucks, and it's frustrating. There's so much trial and error that it feels like you'll never get it right. One minute you think “By George, I’ve discovered it.” The next moment you say...

When you think about doing video for your speaking business. You most likely think all you need is a sizzle reel. A three minute trailer that captures who they are, what their message is, and how they deliver it on the stage. However, if you think that the only video you need in your speaking business is your sizzle reel you're missing out on a huge opportunity to be seen, to be known. I'm not jus...

You know that have to be visible in order to make a difference in the world. A movement was never started by hiding out behind your computer. A speaking career is never launched by posting on Facebook and Instagram alone. People must know about you and your message in order to grow network and build relationships that grow your speaking platform. You need the help of other people. Specifically, yo...

Are you hiding out? Worried about how much of your speech you should share online? Because what if you share too much and no one wants to hire you to speak? What if someone steals your whole speech? If you do a Facebook Live on a portion of your speech, does it devalue what you deliver on stage? The answer: All these questions are keeping you playing small. They keep you hiding out. These question...

There is one aspect of speaking that I absolutely cannot help speakers with. That's the speaking contract. I am not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV, so I am not comfortable at all consulting with you on what your speaking contract looks like. However, I know that a speaking contract is an essential piece of your speaking business, so while I'm not an attorney, my guest today is. Today we are luck...

I know that a lot of you are onboard with rebelling against the status quo and creating for your audience and your industry a big change. But there might be this little tiny voice in your head, a voice of reason, wondering, "Can I actually earn a living doing this?" In the past, I have talked so much about getting paid to speak (because it’s 1000% important). You might be wondering if going this d...

Every movement and every speech must be moving people away from something, away from something that's in the status quo and towards something else. We have talked about what you're rebelling against in the status quo of your industry. What do you want to shake up? What do you want to change? What are you rebelling against? But rebelling isn't enough. Pointing out that something needs to change isn...

It's so easy to look at other people's endings and compare those to your beginning or even your middle. I think speakers do that a lot especially when they are trying to create something bigger than themselves. I admit that I do this! When I first started my business I was following a speech coach who had been in business for 20-years, and beating myself up for reaching her level of success. Not g...

For the past two weeks, we've been talking about building something much bigger than a speaking business. Something with much more impact. Something that has the potential to change lives or even society or culture. And I've been calling you to step into something huge, something that you are at the epicenter of. Where you're the catalyst, you're the change maker, and you're that speaker making it...

“How do I book speaking gigs?” I get this question all the time. I know why. It’s frustrating to figure out. You’re on the book of Face and see a friend post “I just booked my first speaking gig of 2018! Huzzah!” You wonder how did she do that? But that’s the wrong question to ask. She booked the gig because people KNOW her. How do you get people to know you? How do you get them to see you as an e...

True story: The Rebel Speaker Podcast almost became a thing of the past. As I wrapped up recording the last episode of the podcast in November, the question “what the heck am I going to talk about next year?” popped into my head. And then I remembered WHY I started this business in the first and WHY I got my Ph. D. and WHY I’ve been learning and practicing the craft of speaking and coaching speake...

You've decided to be a speaker and build your speaking business. Now the universe is going to test you on how badly you want it. You send out a pitch and get a "thanks but no thanks", or you send out a pitch and you hear crickets. You're in the middle of a negotiation for your speaking fee and they say "Sorry, we don't have any budget to pay you". They're going to be times where you need to have t...

Every successful speaker that I've ever chatted with has had a secret weapon. The secret weapon won't be mentioned on stage or receive applause or accolades. But behind the scenes, this secret weapon has helped the speaker on their journey. It has helped the speaker go from an unknown to making $10K, $20K or $30K per speaking engagement. So what is that secret weapon and why should you have one? F...

Many of you know that corporate speaking is the direction that you want to go in your speaking business, but you haven't quite cracked that nut yet. How do you break in? How do you know if your message is going to appeal to the corporate crowd? We are lucky today because we have Simon T. Bailey as our guest, and he is one of America's top 10 most-booked corporate and association speakers on change...

One of the things I do with speakers to help them find the message that they want to be known for is a free writing exercise where I give them the prompt: I believe ... They write a manifesto of sorts of what they believe about their area of expertise, their industry, the audience they serve. Sometimes it goes into about life itself when they are really on a roll. I've realized after 83 episodes o...

What do you want to achieve with your speaking? What kind of impact do you want to make? What business are you building? This is the time of year where my coaching practice gets full of people who are envisioning what their next year will look like.  They begin to imagine how speaking fits into that year in order to  take their message to a wider audience, make an even bigger impact and get paid t...

I’ve been staring into my crystal ball (aka reading meeting planning trends report) to find out what 2018 has in store for speaker. The speaking industry is ever changing and ever evolving, and you've got to stay on top of it in order to make your speaking grow. Once upon a time, as a speaker, you needed to have a buffet of topics listed on your website. If you could talk about leadership and goal...

Does it ever feel like your mind is working against you, like your mind isn't your best friend? For instance, you're about to step onstage and your brain all of a sudden starts saying to you, "Who are you to be up here? You've got to be kidding me!" Or the moment before you hit send on a big pitch, your brain says, "Oh, you should really stop kidding yourself. They would never want you as a speake...

Being seen. We speakers crave it. And yet, at the same time, we are a bit terrified by it as well. If we get on stage, Facebook Live, a webinar, or a podcast and tell our story and share our expertise, we wonder what will they think? Then we worry that they won't show up to hear us speak anyway, and if they do, they will criticize us for sharing our truth. Sharing what we're deeply passionate abou...

Comparison. In this online world. it is so easy to compare ourselves to others. We've all seen that Instagram post of a speaker onstage taking a selfie with the cheering audience right behind him. Or the Facebook humble brag post about being upgraded to first class “because I travel so much for speaking #speakerslife.” These posts are enough to send you on a downward spiral into the jaws of the co...

Desire, it's a yearning. It's a strong feeling that we just wish something would happen. As a speaker, you most likely desire being seen and heard, making a difference for people, and getting paid to do it. But have you thought about what your audience desires, what each member of that collective group wants to have happen. What they're yearning for? If you haven't, you should, because desire is t...

Happy Halloween, rebel speakers. Today, on the most haunted day of the year, we are going to travel to one of the most frightening places on the planet. It is a spooky place where you spend a lot of your time. It's your own mind. Specifically what your mind is saying to you and how that is actually holding you back from speaking more. What we say to ourselves is stopping us from trusting ourselves...