Speak in Front of your Ideal Audience - 3 Key Tips

Hey folks, I'm Kimberly Crow, the creator of Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel and the co host of Speakers Playhouse. And I'm coming to you from virtually everywhere. Today I am in Denver, Colorado in a hotel room. But this is a really important video, so I wanted to record it. A lot of speakers stop the process of getting on stages because they get spooked at some point in the application process. So think about what is preventing you from actually getting on stages that you want to get on. All right, so we're going to talk about that, but the first thing I want to do is talk about how to find a stage that suits you best. So what you want to do is you want to actually find the stages that are in front of the audience of your target market. All right, so if you are targeting entrepreneurs, you want to get on stages in front of entrepreneurs. All right, that could be a variety of stages. It could be a podcast, radio show, TV show, web summit, webinar, web series. It could be Facebook Live group that you're in that's on entrepreneurs. It could be a YouTube show that's for entrepreneurs. It could be a live stage in front of entrepreneurs, teaching entrepreneurs about entrepreneurship. Those are the kinds of stages that you want to get on. Same thing with healthcare workers or whatever your target market is. You want to get on stages in front of that market. So those are the stages you should be actively pursuing. Now, if somebody hands you a mic, what do you say? You say yes. If somebody hands you a mic, you say yes. So if somebody hands you a mic on a podcast, that's out of your realm. Maybe it's in front of healthcare workers and you speak to entrepreneurs. No big deal. Go ahead ahead and say yes and you would be happy to speak on that stage and then tailor your talk for that particular audience. Because you never know if the person that's on the stage or that's in the audience is listening and they have a brother or a spouse or a cousin or a best friend who is in your target market. So if you're given an opportunity to speak and share who you are and what you do in the world, absolutely you say yes. But if you're targeting a specific and looking for specific stages to speak on, you're going to want to speak on the stages that speak primarily to your tribe, to your group. Alright? So the number one thing to do when looking for a stage to speak on is find somebody that's in front of your target audience. All right? Now the thing that, that stops most people from getting on stages is completing the application. All right, so if you have an application that needs to be completed, that is for a podcast that you want to get on, go ahead and complete the application. It doesn't have to be perfect. I'm going to say that again. It doesn't have to be perfect. It does have to be complete, but it doesn't have to be perfect. All right, so if somebody's asking for a headshot, go ahead and send a picture of yourself. It could be. The headshot that I actually send on when I apply for speaking gigs is an iPhone shot from the audience from one of my friends who took a picture of me when I was on stage with a microphone in my hand. Now, it's a little bit grainy and it's not a high quality headshot, but it does show that I'm a speaker and I've landed lots of speaking gigs with that particular headshot. It's not a professional shot. It wasn't done in a studio. It was done live and it on the go, but it definitely works. Now, if somebody reaches out to me after I've gotten accepted for a speaking gig and they're like, hey, do you have a better quality headshot? Do you have a higher quality headshot? I absolutely do. I can definitely provide you with that. It doesn't have a microphone in my hand, but yes, we do have a higher quality headshot for that. So it doesn't have to be perfect, but it does have to be complete. If they ask for a 100 word bio, go ahead and cut and paste your 500 word bio in there and paste and then just move forward. Of course, you can edit it if you have the time, but you don't have to. They're just looking for you to be able to fill out the blanks and get a little bit of information on you. All right, It'll only take the first hundred words of it or 100 characters or whatever it is, and then it just won't like take the rest of it. It's totally fine. If you get stuck in a loop where you can't do something, just try to fill in all of the blanks and have it be done and click submit if you have. If they're asking for three learning points, go ahead and fill that out. What will they learn from you in. In hearing your talk? It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be done. If they're asking for your downloadable or your freebie or your lead magnet or what course you're going to be offering, what. What offer you're going to make what call to action you're going to take. Go ahead and put something in that box and then as the event plan to you and says, okay, great, we definitely want that, wonderful. If they want something else, they will let you know. So here's the secret behind the scenes thing from us as event planners. Because I put speakers on stages all the time, we want you to fill out the application. Once you've filled out the application, we can work with you to make all of the stuff that we need perfect for our shows. All right? So even if you have a talk title that's kind of, you know, stuck together and it's not perfect, go ahead and put your top title in there. Have it be at least target your target market like it's the entrepreneurs keys to X, Y and Z. All right? If you can put a number in there, that can be really powerful. If, if you don't have a number, it's okay. Just fill out the form, go through the completion and submit now. What if there is a fee associated with it? So if there's a large fee, like a couple thousand dollars and you haven't done free podcasts or radio shows or TV shows yet, go ahead and do some of those free ones first before you spend $2,000 to get on stage. Once you have an offer that's converting really well and you're doing really well as a speaker and making money from it, either as a paid speaker or to, or to get to do sales while you're on the stage, then by all means, absolutely pay for it. And you should. If you have an offer that is somewhere in between and you're like, I've got an offer now and I'm looking to get on stages, but I don't want to spend two or three or ten thousand dollars for it. Absolutely. Get on a stage like the Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel Web Summit, which costs 25 bucks to get on that stage. And then you have to pay a deposit that makes sure that you follow the rules. That's $300, but it's refundable as long as you follow the rules. Which brings us to our last point. If you are getting on stages, the way to get booked on other stages is stages. Create stages. Event hosts, talk to each other. If we have somebody on our stage that did really, really well and somebody asks us about them, absolutely, we're going to say yes, they did really well. My audience loved them, they showed up professionally, they followed the rules. That's aw. We will definitely talk about that to other Stage hosts, here's the secret. As wonderful as your content is and amazing as it is, because it is amazing, you guys have amazing, wonderful content. One of the things that we care most about is will you follow the rules we give you for our stage? If we are handing you a mic and letting you talk to our audience, we want for you to follow the rules. Those rules might include making sure that you post on social media that you will be speaking because we want attention to our show. Right? One of the rules might be that you can only speak for a certain amount of time. Be sure that you follow those rules. One of the rules might be you cannot make an offer, or you can make an offer, but it has to be an affiliate link. Just follow those rules. The show hosts love your content and they're going to put you on their stage because you have great content. But they're going to rebook you because you followed the rules. You ended on time, you showed up when you were supposed to show up. You did the things you promised to do, and you were a great show guest. All right, so those are my secrets from behind the scenes. At any event where we are booking guest speakers. So to be a great guest speaker, just follow those rules. Make sure that you target your ideal audience, make sure that you hit submit and actually go through the process. Even if it's not perfect. Make sure you get all the way through to done and submit so that you actually finish applying and make sure that you follow the show host rules when you get on their stage. All right, folks, I'm Kimberly Crowe with Entrepreneurs Speaker Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel and the Speaker Speakers Playhouse. And I am excited that you guys took a few minutes out of your day to listen to this video. If you have comments, please put them below. Also, please subscribe. It helps me out. And if you want to share this video with your friends, I would love for you to do that. All right, folks, I am Kimberly Crowe with entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel and the Speakers Playhouse. And I look forward to speaking with you. Cheers.