Make Marketing Suck Less for Expertise-Driven Solo Businesses

"Stand out or don't bother." This quotation from Sally Hogshead has always bothered me.   Although I believe 1,000 percent that standing out is critical to having a successful speaking business that makes a difference in the world, standing out is a process. You have to find that message that rises above the noise, and lucky for us, today we are talking to Marc Ensign.   Marc is a role model for h...

I'm sure you've been there. You're watching a speaker, taking notes, you're enjoying it, having an "Aha," moment or two, and then wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am, the sales pitch comes. And it feels awkward. You feel awkward, like you should buy even though you just met this person, and they want you to spend $1,295 for their latest and greatest program. And it feels icky for you, it feels high-pressured...

Confession. I fell for the speak-to-sell lie. When I was first starting my business and struggling to get my feet underneath me, my coach at the time recommended that I look into a certain speak-to-sell course. It was from one of the biggest names in the industry and it cost about a thousand bucks. At that time, I was not ready to make that type of investment, so my coach gave me a copy of her own...

Over the summer I’ve been working with speakers who want to use speaking to promote their business. They’ve been out there speaking. It's been fun, the audience loves them, the organizers who booked them to speak loved them. It all goes really well, and then nothing happens. No leads, no sales, maybe a few new opt-ins to their email list, but it feels like the audience forgot them as soon as they...

To make speaking work for your business, you’ve got to dedicate one very limited resource to it. TIME! With all of your millions of things to do, how do you fit speaking into the mix? How do you create time & focus to get the pitching, the writing and the practicing done? You start by listening to my guest, Jessica Abel, the author of the book Growing Gills: How to Find Creative Focus When You...

Having a message that matters to the audience and to the people who hire speakers is the reason why you get booked to speak. How well you're able to market your speaking depends on the message. How well your pitches are received, and responded to, depends on your message. How do you create a message that matters to the audience, and to the people who hire speakers? You start by speaking for impact...

A lot of attention is given to how to book speaking gigs. I've talked about it on the Rebel Speaker podcast and here on the blog. There are whole courses devoted to how to market yourself as a speaker. There are even people who will offer to do the marketing work for you. There's so much to do that it can make your head spin. It feels rather overwhelming. All that work and where should you begin?...

You've got an itch to make a difference to more people, to get your expertise, your message, your story in front of more people, and you know that speaking is one of the best ways to make it happen. And, bonus, you love it. There's just one tiny problem: getting speaking opportunities. You can't make your impact if you don't get on stage, right? You've done exactly what the experts have told you t...

To have a slide deck or to not have a slide deck? That is the question, or at least it is for many of the clients that I work with and many of the speakers in The Rebel Speaker Facebook group . Speakers write this great signature talk, and then they start wondering, "Should I have visuals?" Because they've been in that presentation where you're looking at the speaker and you're looking at the slid...

Whether someone is looking to hire you as a speaker or to hire you to do work for them, one of the first places they'll go is your website. When they land on your website, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to hire you. I've seen far too many speaker websites that don't include enough information for people to make a decision about taking the next step and contacting you to speak. Th...

I'm not one for following the rules. In fact, if everyone is following a trend, if everyone is telling me I should do something I am more likely to say, "No way," and buck the trend. For instance everyone in business is saying courses and memberships sites are the way to scale your business. Screw that. I'm doubling down on one-on-one work. It's what I love to do and what gets the best results for...

The promise is a big, fancy speaking career with your name in lights. You'll book gigs, paid speaking gigs, even if you don't have a clue who to contact or what to say. Buy this course, and you'll be on your way. And that all sounds amazing. It's the dream: Making a big difference in the world, being on stage, and getting paid to do it. But, there's one tiny problem. And a few weeks into the cours...

Have you ever scored a big speaking opportunity and went from elation to “OMG, what did I get myself into?” in less than an hour? Don’t worry. You’re not alone. Writing a speech is a creative process. A process that is full of excitement, panic, and wondering if it will ever come together. In today's, episode of The Rebel Speaker Podcast, we are going to discuss the creative process behind how to...

The key to being a successful speaker is running a successful business. That means you're not just a speaker on the stage. You are the CEO of your business. But what the heck does that mean? What does it look like to really step into that CEO role of your speaking business? I am super excited because we have Dana Corey on the podcast.  She takes business owners (and speakers) and transforms them i...

Do you have a feedback system in your speaking business? When I first started speaking, like many of you, I was in high school and I joined the speech and debate team because I wasn't naturally good at speaking at all. I joined the team because I sucked, and I knew that the only way that I could get better at speaking is if I got help and feedback.   And, boy, did I get a lot of feedback from my c...

Every day, I'm Googling to find out who is that actor on Twin Peaks and what have I seen him in before? Or, I want to find out how to prepare a spicy hot chili for dinner, or even to figure out what that thing is on my arm. We are always Googling, and information is at our fingertips, which means if you are an expert in your field and you're focused on the how to do something, then Google can easi...

Do you have a plan for how to make money with your speaking? Or are you hoping that someone will hear you speak and want to hire you right out of the gate? Or that someone will hear you speaking and give you your big break as a paid professional speaker? If you don’t have a plan for generating revenue, then you need to make one, big time On today’s show, we’ll discuss the two paths to revenue for...

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...

The number one question I get in my inbox or that comes up in strategy sessions with potential clients is: How do I book more speaking gigs? How do I find them? How do I book them? I totally get why. You want to do what you love, speaking. You want to change lives, start a movement with your message, and get paid for doing it. It totally makes sense to me. Are you too hung up on trying to book spe...

Share your soul stirring story. Your story? It's your legacy. You must share it on the stage. You are doing your audience a huge disservice if you don't share your story. Heck, the whole world wants to hear your story. Or, do they? Telling your story is very popular public speaking advice. However a friend of mine did an informal poll on Facebook asking, "What breaks your trust with a speaker?" Th...

Pop quiz, what is my least favorite TED Talk ever? If you've been hanging around these Rebel parts, you probably know the answer. If not, the answer might surprise you. My least favorite TED Talk of all time is Tony Robbins . Why? Why do I hate Tony Robbins' TED Talk so much? Because it’s 8-steps to this, 7 level of that, 14 ways to this other thing...all in 18-minutes! His talk is too much, it wa...

You know that I talk about making money with speaking in two different ways. There's paid speaking and then there's client attraction speeches. Client attraction speeches have nothing to do with selling from the stage. Instead you create a speech that's aligned with your business, you do a bang up job delivering it, and then you offer something completely free, so that people give you their email...

You hear the roar of applause and receive your standing ovation. Audience members say, "You did an awesome job! That was great!" The vast majority of your evaluations say you did a good or excellent job in your session. That's awesome. I want you to receive and celebrate that. When you're done with the celebration, ask yourself this question: Is it translating? Is the applause and the standing ova...

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...

How do you take your SFD speech, your shitty first draft, and transform it into something that audiences are persuaded by? That they are moved by? That they are moved so much that they stand up and applaud after you're done speaking? How do you transform that SFD into something that gets you referrals, and amazing testimonials, and more business from organizations? The key to that is in the editin...