0435 | Bret Ridgway

Hi, I'm Brett Ridgeway@brettridgeway.com and you are listening to EA interviews.

EA interviews, episode 435, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week, join Mario Ficcini for today's expert authority effect interview. Expert Authority world. You know I love talking about publishing. You know I love helping people with it. You know I love speaking and you know, this is what I do and I've been doing it for a while. And to say I'm very excited for today's guest because I have known him over a decade. He has worked in the industry for over 15 years, 20 years. He's the one who is helping all the big names you've gone to see, that I went to see. And it's just so cool to be able to go, I'm bringing them to you. He we're gonna be talking about speaking on stage, the expert industry coaching what you can do to move your business forward, how to get on more stages and what you should be doing for back of the room sales. So I can't wait to bring up Brett Ridgeway right after we thank our sponsor. Every business needs a book, including yours. And that's why I'm launching my new book to help you, regardless of where you think you your current writing abilities are. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.com.

Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Brett Ridgway. Brett, how are you feeling today?

I'm feeling awesome, Mario and I so appreciate the chance to spend some time with you and reconnect after a few years.

Yeah, it's been a minute or two, but I was so excited to see that your application come through and everything. And I mean, you're what? Honestly, I didn't say it yet, but you were one of the people I always was looking up to when I got started. And I was like, man, if I can just get to that level where, you know, I can be working with him and doing all these different things because, you know, I'll let you share how you started out and all this came to be, you know, and I have some questions for you because I don't even know the whole story of how you started out, but I remember meeting you at multiple live events a decade ago and you know, I'm excited to learn myself, like what, what you've been up to and what you're transitioning into and just learn from you as, as I always have.

Well, I appreciate that, Mario. It's certainly been an interesting journey. I mean I. And it actually goes back more like, oh, 30, almost 30 years. So way back in the mid-90s, I actually put up the first portal website in the plant engineering and maintenance industry. So I was selling in those days VHS tapes and books. I know I'm dating myself there, but.

I loved VHS tapes. I know what those are.

But in that particular niche for planning engineers, maintenance techs, etc. And around the same time frame as that, I had a joint venture with a guy named Carl Gladdy. Now I don't know if you know Carl or not, Mario, but he, he and I did a joint venture where I took over his hard to find marketing book catalog back in night in about 1993 or 4. And then Carl decided he was going to do his first Internet marketing super conference in Las Vegas in 1999. And he actually called me up and asked me if I'd handle the backroom sales table for him. Well, honestly, I didn't even know what backroom sales was at that time, but I hadn't been to Las Vegas before, so it sounded good to me. So I went out and agreed to do that for Carl. And as you know, Mario, a lot of people who are speakers at these events are promoters in their own right. And so that first exposure to the back of the room where I managed that particular service for Carl's event led to me doing that over the course of the next 15 years at about 150 different events. So I would provide the crew, I provide the merchant account, and I would basically handle all the money that ran through the back of the room. So you're, you know, typically talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a three or four day event. And we'd pay the promoters, we'd pay the speakers. Well, I got to know as a result of that a lot of these speakers very well because we crossed path multiple times at events and one of them cornered me at an event, I think it was like in 2002 or three, and say, hey, I know you do. You're doing product fulfillment for yourself. Will you take over some of that for me? Because it's not really the best use of my time. And I've been thinking about it for a while because it was kind of a natural outgrowth of all the people I hadn't gotten to know in the, in the Internet and information marketing spaces. And so with another guy, founded a company called Speaker Fulfillment services back in 2003 and honestly have been truly blessed to work some of the biggest names in this speaking industry. I mean, we've done work for Russell Brunson and Brian Dice and Mike Koenigs and Mike Phil Same and Armin Morin and even, you know, the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort. So I, I've kind of had a unique position behind the scenes where either from the, the product fulfillment standpoint or from being in the actual back of the room. And I probably seen Mario, 2000 different speakers in person over that 15 year period.

Wow.

So I was able to see what they did well, what they didn't do so well. And so that's kind of led me to what is going to become my, my next great adventure, so to speak.

Now you're teasing us here with your next great adventure. I know a little bit about it, but why don't you tell us what that is? And I think it's exciting what you're doing, but also why it's important for everyone listening.

I was the front man for the Speaker Fulfillment Services for a number of years, but over the last couple years I've honestly been thinking about, man, Brett, you know so much about this industry, but you're really doing nothing to share any of that knowledge with people. And so for the first time, rather than doing everything on the. Under the auspices of Speaker Fulfillment Services, I'm actually branding Brett Ridgeway for the first time. And I'm working with aspiring speakers, maybe business owners who've had business success, but they want to launch speaking as a second career because they have a message they want to share with the world. Or maybe it's an energy healer or wellness coach who again has a powerful message that needs to be shared. Problem is they haven't a frickin clue how the speaking industry really works. And so that's the group that I'm going to work with to help hopefully shorten that learning curve for them and get them from novice speaker to stage ready pro so that they don't make the same kind of mistakes I've seen other people make. And this includes some big names. Mario. I mean, I could, you know, curl your hair with some stories about mistakes I've seen people make that literally have cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars. So it's all about shortening that learning curve and making sure people don't make those critical mistakes so they can build a profitable speaking business. And it's really about building a profitable speaking business. I Mean, there's a lot out about how. How to become a more effective communicator, and there's, you know, a pretty good amount of theory about how to get gigs. But the whole realm of building a business around your speaking and what you need to do and the piece you need to put in place is something that, in my opinion, is fairly lacking. And so I'm looking to fill that void and help those people that want to get into it get into it the right way and avoid those critical mistakes.

Well, I'm glad that you're doing it because you do have such a unique background and perspective on all of this. And there's a couple of things I to unpack here. One of them, you're teasing the heck out of me. I know you can't say their name live here. I might see if I can get away with it later in the show with a certain part or just ask you after. But.

Without giving away the names of who it was. Can you tell us what they did?

Sure. The big mistakes.

Yes. Let's start with those.

All right, so there's a couple of big ones that come to mind. And the first one is I was working the back room at an event a few years ago and.

And what was the event called?

The event was one of one of Armand Morris big seminars.

Oh, I was somewhat joking because I was trying to pin down who it was.

No, he wasn't the speaker. So we'll keep the speaker. Okay, we'll keep the speaker anonymous here. So.

Okay.

All right, so. But the speaker did a fabulous presentation on the stage and got what the.

Event promoter speaker always desire. A true table rush.

And in that particular instance, the speaker was selling the latest magic blue pill about building websites and, you know, some. Some tool, some Internet marketing tool. And over the course of the next 30 minutes, they sold like $375,000 worth of that product that they were selling from the stage.

That's pretty good.

Pretty good. Problem was that when, you know, when push comes to shove, they had some kind of bug in their software that they could never figure out. Every single penny of $375,000 had to be refunded. So you talk about major egg on the face of the speaker as well as a major pocket hit on the event promoter. I mean, it just was a collision of the worst kind and.

Could have been avoided. I mean, I honestly think that if you're a speaker, you should never sell stuff from the stage that hasn't been fully tested, especially if it's a software type Thing because invariably some bugs will happen. I had another scenario where another speaker, it was at an event up in Vancouver and it was a. It was a small event, but the speaker sold a program that they were in the process of developing and they were going to be ready in a week or two. Well, invariably, two weeks turned to three, turned into four, turned into six, and every penny again had to be refunded because they, they just could never meet their deadline. And it's one of those things where I, I think if you are, you know, if you're selling a live training that you're going to record as you go, that's fine, you know, but if you're selling a software product or something that needs more testing and development before it's out there, you're crazy to sell it from the platform until you know it's 100% ready to go.

And to be clear, you're not talking about, here's version one, we'll be releasing version two, three, six, nine months from now. You mean it's just wonky to begin with, no matter what version you're on.

Exactly. And I mean, I don't know how many people can afford $375,000 refunds, but that's, you know, that had to hurt massively. Second, one example was I had a client and this was a new product launch and it was in the forex market, foreign exchange currency, and opened up their shopping cart. One day, sales started to come in, and then midway, the first day, boom, shopping cart got shut off. The reason was that they had not communicated with their merchant account provider ahead of time, that they were doing a product launch and a simple phone call could have saved the whole thing. And, you know, it's one of those things where most people don't realize when you set up a merchant account, you're going to define an average ticket amount and the expected volume that you're going to do in a month. And when you go outside those parameters that you've set up with them, that raises all sorts of red flags with the merchant account provider. So they're trying to protect themselves, so they shut his account off. And I don't know exactly how much it cost him, but I can certainly estimate based on his previous launches, that he lost 3 to $400,000 simply because he didn't pick up the telephone and call his merchant account provider ahead of time. Wow.

I feel like you have another one in there you're holding back on.

Oh, gosh, okay. Yeah. Here's how you kill a list. So I was having a month ago. Okay, I was having lunch.

Great title.

I was having lunch with a colleague a few years ago and he had developed a fairly substantial list of like 55,000 people in the financial services space. And for whatever reason, I mean, he had been communicating with them three years. So he had a brand in their mind, a tone of communication that we're used to seeing from him. And he decided that he was going to bring in the Internet guru in to help him craft a new email campaign. Well, it turned out to be a very hard hitting, in your face campaign that his audience was totally unexpecting. And it started to happen immediately. Unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe. When all was said and done, a list that had been 55,000 people was a list of 5,000 people. So I mean, the lesson here to me is if you're going to bring somebody in to work as part of your brand, you need to educate them on how you've communicated with your list previously. And that could be the Internet guru, that could be a va, that could be a team member you've hired, no matter who it is. But they better understand your brand and what you've done in the past before they just totally go 180 degrees opposite and damage your reputation and your list.

Wow. You know, there's people that would love a 5,000 person list. But to lose.

What is that, like 92% of it?

Yep.

You know, because you were improving it.

Now, I mean, there will be those that say, well, those really were your, they weren't going to buy anyway if they unsubscribe. But you know, I think you need to transition over time to a high, a higher, harder hitting type message and mix it with content and all that. But just to immediately go from this to that, no warning, I think is a mistake 100%.

Because I'm already thinking of one workaround. Even if you said, you know what, I'm drawing a line in the sand, yadda yadda, whatever. First off, I would, if you took the time to build that list up, those are real people. And unless you took three to six months to do the pivot, I think you're doing them a disservice. Moreover, if you're gonna test it, why would you send it to the whole freaking list? Why wouldn't you send it to at most 10% and go, let's see what the sponsor response is and then tweak it?

Yeah, great point, great point.

I mean.

Okay, I'll behave.

Is That a first for you, Mario?

I can't get away with what I want because it's my show. But it's just like, how are you so stupid? Like, there's people that would love a 5,000 list. You have 55. And.

Even without knowing any more, I have a feeling it's that they may have lost focus on serving the audience versus pushing a product.

You know, bottom line is hard. Lesson learned. So.

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm love. I'm loving this. I'm sure you have dozens more of these. How about one more?

All right. So a few years ago I was working with a client, well known name in the industry, and.

They had a product that was a physical product. And the information market industry has changed drastically in the last 10 years. I mean, when Speaker Fulfillment Services was founded in 2003, it was all about the big box package. You know, the three manuals, the 10 CDs, the 10 DVDs.

It was all about thump value, man.

Absolutely.

That was the name of the game. Now the industry's drastically changed and you don't see very many big box packages anymore.

But do you know of anyone doing them? Because I kind of miss them. Because it's nice to. It's one thing to know you're going to learn something. There is also something to be said. And I take this into account when we're designing books and stuff, you know, for our clients, it's like, what is the presentation and experience your customer, client, partner is receiving? I loved seeing how it was designed, how it opened and how it was laid out. Is anyone doing it anymore?

You know, in terms of the big box of packages? No, I'm not seeing that anymore at all. Honestly. The information products in physical form have gone on a drastic diet. So you'll see maybe a manual or two, maybe a USB drive. But most people have been putting their content online and, you know, driving people to the digital world, which I honestly think, you know, I am. I'm honestly a little bit biased because I had a fulfillment company. But I mean, I think it's a huge mistake to dive into the digital only pond. Because the story I was going to share with you, Barrio, is that the client that I had that had a physical product that I believe she sold for $497 and she decided she was going to go digital. So she raised the price to 697, or let me say it, she changed to a digital version for 497. But she was smart. She offered a physical version as an upsell. If you still wanted it for 200 more. So you could get the digital version for 497 or the physical version still for 6.97. And a full 80% of her clients opted for the physical version. So still people still wanted that tangible. They still wanted something hold on to. I mean, it's one of those things where digital is so easily out of sight, out of mind. And so if you're an information marketer or a speaker or coach and you think you should do only digital, I think you're fooling yourself because it's important to have some offline touches with people too, so you remain front and center in their mind. I mean, a good friend of mine, Armand Morin, has marketing University, has hundreds of people who pay him for his marketing expert expertise. And certainly most of the content is digital in, in within a membership site. But he's also smart. He sends his followers a monthly magazine in physical form with some articles that, you know, continually remind him or remind them of the value that he's bringing to their table. So it's not just hoping they come back and see you online again. It's a matter of getting in front of them physically as a hard reminder of what it is that you're bringing to them. So, you know, I think digital only is a massive mistake. I mean, there was a newsletter guy a year ago, not a year ago, it's probably been five or 10 years. But point is, he had a physical newsletter, had thousands and thousands of subscribers, decided because it didn't cost anything to deliver, he would do digital only lost like 90% of his list because they were used to having a physical magazine or newsletter in their hands. And I mean, you got to weigh what's best for you, obviously. But.

It'S a dangerous game to play going digital only. From my perspective, I agree 100%.

I'm very excited about.

A lot of things. But physical books, I've always told my author clients to have them because again, to your point of digital only, why not ebook, why not this, why not whatever? How many successful people do you know talking about getting away from electronics, the blue light, digital, this, everything, taking a break, spending time with family. How are you going to take.

If you're taking a break from digital and you want to do something constructive, how in the world are you just going to. I mean, this is just common sense. And I will tell you all the big box packages you were talking about. I may have not listened to the CDs with the audio because there was also most of the ones I Have are and I have dozens. They were hybrid. It was like you could go through the online portal, but you better believe I was taking those manuals and those books. And I would literally walk away from everything and go, I can still learn, I can go eat, go on the boat, go whatever. But you still have something tangible to just shut off the world and focus on completely. Because for people that go, oh well, I got the digital version. Yeah. Because there's no distractions online ever, ever, never.

So I'm with you. I know they're not inexpensive. It's not the cheaper route. So you can make an argument for just like with books. Well, I get more profit on, yada, yada. But what does your audience want? At the very least, like you said, sell the digital for this if you want the upsell. Which I always did have the physical version.

Yeah, I think it's interesting. You know, I don't do Kindle, honestly. I mean, yeah, you could go buy a book for 99 cents and put it on Kindle, but I'm always going to buy the physical version because I don't want to read things off a computer screen. I get a PDF, I'm going to print it out. I'm not going to try to read a PDF online. I'm going to print the thing out in hard copy form so I can highlight it and underline it it and do whatever I need to do with it. And you know, maybe I'm a dinosaur Mario, but you know, that's just the way that I am.

That makes both of us then. And dinosaurs are awesome.

So, you know, it's, it's such an interesting business and it drastically has changed over the years, certainly. But you know, it's an exciting business and if you have information and knowledge to share with people, you're honestly doing them a disservice if you don't get out there in some way, shape or form and share what you have with others, whether it's in a physical format, a course or a membership site or whatever it may be. I mean, you have things to share. Get out there and share them, people.

Yeah, I agree 100%.

So I would, I feel like we could go for hours just you telling us all these awesome stories and all these things. And I would actually love to. And at the very least, I think you absolutely should make a list of 100 plus scenarios like this of what to consider. I do want to transition to. Okay, here's what not to do. I want to transition to maybe here's three to five things what you should do, because I want to articulate for our listener. You had talked about when you're starting the speaker business, you can learn how to speak better, you can learn how to articulate, communicate better, more effectively and do all these different things. But there's a difference from being a better speaker or presenter to knowing all the aspects of the business. So I'm excited that you're, you know, this is your new focus moving forward to train people on all the aspects of it. Because this is a little, this would be absolutely. From stage backroom sales and stuff. But then you have the coaching groups and then you have maybe one on one call. It's not just, you know, how do you say things more articulate with enunciation, you know, like we're doing in this episode. But let's dive into, you know, three to five things people should consider when they are starting up and then maybe give us some for people that are already a little bit underway going, hey, you're not a beginner, but here's some advanced stuff that you, you know, I'm gonna, I'll let you go. You know where I'm getting at with this? I'm gonna save that question.

Yeah, so the first one I would say, Mario, honestly is, and let's approach it from the standpoint of don't do this, do this type thing. But I mean, most speakers by and large are very weak at looking at the demographics of an audience that they're going to go and speak to beforehand. Really. So you've got to do your research and figure out if that stage is the right stage for you to be on. You know, do you have a message that's going to resonate with that crowd? I mean, you, are you talking to men or women? Are you. What age group are there? What education group are they? If you're going into a corporation, you know, who are the movers and shakers coming into that crowd? I mean, if you don't do your homework ahead of time, then your ability to craft your presentation to make it as on point as possible to truly address the pain points at that audience obviously are go way down. And so make sure that whether you're a new speaker or you're in the been in the business a long time that you do the homework to make sure that stage is right for you. Here's another sad story, Mario. So I was at an event a few years ago and it was.

A multi speaker event in the Internet marketing space. And for whatever reason, the promoter seemed to be all about getting as many Big names on the stage as possible. Well, as it turned out, three of the speakers were talking about copywriting. Now, while copywriting is a very important subject, by the time they got to that third speaker about copywriting, the audience was tuned out. Been here, heard that, done that. And that guy's chances of selling anything from the back of the room were about zero. So if he had done his homework ahead of time and figured out, hey, the other speakers are talking about the same thing I'm doing, maybe this isn't the right stage for me or I can come up with a different topic or whatever it may be. But by not looking at the ahead of time, I mean, your research into an event is not only the crowd, but it's also who else is on the platform. What are they speaking about? What are they, what, what's their price point? Who am I speaking before or after? Because you, as you know, Mario, you can have some speakers that suck all the money out of the room, and if you fall directly after them, well, you know, tough on you. I mean, you do do have to pay your dues in this game. And you'll have to take the early morning time slots or the right after lunch time slot, you know, as you're, as you're paying your due, so to speak. But eventually, as you become more and more confident and start to get results for that event promoter, if you're a platform seller, then you'll get those more attractive slots. But again, studying the audience ahead of time and making sure that that stage is the right stage for you is so, so important, Would you say in.

Most instances that's the event promoter you want to be coordinating with and getting the demographic data from?

Yeah. And if it's an event that's been on for a long time, they ought to have that information that they can provide to you. Now maybe it needs to be anonymous in terms of who the other speakers are and what they've done and what they've sold and all that. But they should be able to tell you who's done well on their stage, what price points have worked best, who the demographics of their audience are. I mean, if it's a big, well known event, typically they're going to have sponsor packets and they'll share some demographic information in there because they're trying to attract sponsorship money for their event. But the bottom line is do as much homework as you can ahead of time to figure out how you can deliver the best possible pres. Presentation for that particular audience. You know, second thing I think is that you know, you got to figure out how you're going to monetize your message and whether that's selling from the platform or whether you're just brand building and you're hoping they'll come to you for whatever it is you had to offer. You know, you got to have a back end. I mean, keynote speaking is great and I honestly, I have no keynote speaking experience whatsoever. And if you can marry that with also the ability to sell from the platform, you get the best of both worlds. I know some people who are very successful juggling both of those balls, but you know, figure out which niche you fit into best initially, I think, and then you can master the others as you go, but you've got to figure out how you're going to monetize that message. And one of the things I see people really struggle with is, you know, they're all about one on one coaching and that frankly can wear you out in a hurry. You got to figure out how you can reach many rather than just one on one. And I've been involved with coaching programs before and many of them die a slow death because the head person.

So integrated themselves within all the deliverables that they just ran out of steam fairly quickly. And you know, the fact that they had to get on the phone, you know, three times a day with different people to talk about their thing and just day after day after day, you know, wore them out.

So you created a, your a job for yourself.

You have indeed created a job for yourself. And so you got to figure out how to go one to many and then, you know, do some type of group coaching or, or mastermind within a group versus doing one on one stuff. But bottom line is you got to figure out how you're going to monetize that message and do it in a way that doesn't tear yourself down and allows you to sustain your momentum for a longer period of time.

Yeah, I also think being congruent to your natural strengths too because I've been part of and seen others where they're trying to mimic something just because someone else is doing it, but it's their natural strength where for this person it's the exact opposite. And it's like maybe let's say the mastermind makes more sense for you versus the.

Doing a full on program for thousands and thousands of people or vice versa. Yeah, do all of it. Do both obviously, but I don't think there is a one size fits all either.

I agree with you, Mario. And it's interesting, you know, over the course of that 15 years I mentioned, I've seen a couple thousand different speakers in person. And I always find it interesting for the speaker who has a.

Great rapport with the crowd, and they build them up to, you know, a high or whatever, get them, get them up. And they usually sell pretty good in the back of the room. But when you get to analyzing what content did they really deliver, you find out, well, they, you know, they made me feel good, but there really wasn't much content there to speak of. And so I've seen people sell, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars in the back of the room and then have 60 or 70% of it refund because that temporary high went away. And people, you know, they couldn't sustain that momentum or whatever because it was a very temporary thing to get them to the back of the room, but they couldn't keep it going. They truly didn't deliver the goods when it all was said and done.

I've always known about refunds and all of that stuff, but I did not know it was 60, 70%. I would think 10 or 20% is high.

Well, I think it is high too, but like I said, I've seen 60% refunds on certain speakers because it was a temporary high at the best.

Wow. It's got me thinking about the list. Like your email list or any list. It's those open rates. Like, people go, yeah, we got 1% open rate. And others say we got 80. It's like, what are you doing?

Different.

Better subject lines for sure. But beyond that, who knows?

Yeah, I think it all comes down to knowing your audience, actually serving them, actually caring. And wow, that's. That's eye opening.

I mean, you got to truly come at this industry from a. What can I, you know, what can I do for you standpoint, Whether it's for the event promoter or whatever. I mean, if you come in as the what's in it for me, you're gonna fail. I mean, a few years ago, I was at an event and I. I stood. It was standing outside a hotel and I watched a friend of mine get carted away in an ambulance. And fortunately, he turned out to be all right.

That's good.

But I could see. I could see the event promoter standing over to the side with a true look of panic on his face because the person being carte away in the ambulance was scheduled to be the next speaker on his platform. So the event promoters over there, oh, my God, what am I going to do for 90 minutes? You know, I don't want to tap, you know, do a song and dance routine for 90 minutes. I have an obligation to my audience to deliver solid content or whatever. And that's where if you're a speaker and you're a true professional, you can be the, you know, the knight in shining armor there. I think you should always have what I call a back pocket speech handy so that on a moment's notice you can come in and give deliver a second talk to a crowd. So if you're the one that can step up for that event promoter and say, hey, I've got another talk I can do on this subject to fill that slot for you, would you like me to do that? Well, you're going to be the hero in the event promoter's eye so that when they do another event, you're likely going to be the one invited back to speak again. But also it gives you a lot more credibility with the crowd, a chance to build better reports because you're getting more FaceTime with them. So if you're going to be selling something from the platform in a separate session, you're far more likely to do well because you had that extra rapport. So I mean, maybe you'll never need that back pocket speech. But make sure you have it handy so that when that opportunity presents itself, you're the one prepared to take advantage of that opportunity.

Yeah, that's a good tip. It's reminded me a couple times. I actually did have to do that because someone, you know, thankfully no one was in an ambulance and I'm glad to hear they were okay. But something came up. I don't know if it was they were sick or whatever. I'm like, yeah, you know, I can.

But.

People don't show up for virtual summits or whatever. I mean, be prepared to be step in. Yeah.

Now I do want to say, I don't want anyone to think like have five or eight other topics that can be a jack of all trades. But you know, like you're saying, I think what we're talking about here more than anything is the human connection and the relationships. Like know enough of like what's going on. Don't just swoop in, give your talk and fly out. I've seen people do, you know, they're getting in two hours before they're talking. They fly the second there's no one left standing. If they fly out the second no one is stand left standing in line. It's like this is a five day event. That's pretty obvious. Even if it was a one day event, that's pretty obvious because most people are coming in, come early, stay late. They're there for the, I'll say, majority of the thing. I always went for the whole thing.

But I mean, truly, one of my biggest people.

People know what you're doing.

Yeah. Truly, one of my biggest pet peeves in the industry is the hit and run speaker. Like you say, the person who swoops in just before they speak and is out the door just as soon as they're done. I mean, there's no extra chance to build rapport with the audience. And what you should do on behalf of the event promoter, you have an obligation not only to the audience to deliver solid content, but you do have an obligation to that event promoter. Help them out and do the best job possible for them because you both benefit from that. And if you just swoop in and swoop out. Yeah, you don't have any of that. I mean, you have prima donna's in the industry. There's no question about it. I mean, the guy who has to have green M and Ms. Only in a bull on the stage, or, you know, or the lady that has to have a certain type of bottled water chilled to exactly 57.6 degrees, or the person who swoops in with their entourage, expect you to comp them all and give them prime seating in the front of the room because they're the name. I mean, you got to deal with prima donnas. And I think to truly be successful, don't be a prima donna. I mean, be somebody that's humble. Be somebody that the promoter enjoys working with so that you get asked back to that stage. Yeah, you may get around on some stages and do okay, but if you're a prima donna, word gets around in the industry. I mean, it's not that big of an industry. People talk and you'll have promoters say, yeah, he'll never be on my stage because he's just a big pain in the ass to deal with.

Yeah, that's ridiculous.

Green M&Ms, everyone knows it's Reese's Pieces.

No, I get. I get what you mean. I was actually going to ask you if you think there's any benefit whatsoever to having any attitude like that.

Well, I certainly think you need to have self confidence in what you're doing. But.

If you go in with the attitude of I'm better than everybody else and I'm gonna look down my nose at him and that'll come across in the. The way that you speak, I think the way you communicate.

Okay.

I mean, yeah, you have to have confidence, and you have to know what you're doing. And if you don't practice, practice, practice, you know, get. Get more comfortable with your content because you need to deliver the goods on stage. But, yeah, self confidence is great, but snobbery is not. I don't. I don't know how to say it.

No, I appreciate it because there's sometimes, you know, you talk to a speaker in the hall and they're super nice. They're, you know, kind of like, right now I'm really enjoying the conversation, and it's like. But then they get on stage and they feel, I guess, for lack of a better term, low energy. And I'm not saying be obnoxious and just, you know, put on a song and dance for the only the sake of putting on a song and dance. So I feel like you have to be at least 10, 20, maybe even 50% more energetic so it comes through the entire room. But I think that has more to do with the excitement and energy level versus just being demanding to begin with. Like, yeah, I'm bringing 50 people on my team. You're. You're comping them all.

That has nothing to do with how alert I am for the presentation.

Yeah, I, I agree with you, though. I'm a pretty naturally introverted person. And so when I get up on stage, I do have to step outside my normal level of enthusiasm or whatever to, you know, come across and get the message shared. But you also need to be your authentic self. And I mean, because I've seen speakers that come into event and they forget that your. Your presentation really starts as soon as you walk in that hotel, because people will be watching you. They know you're coming on stage. So if they see you being rude to a bellboy or whatever, they're gonna, you know, you're creating a barrier that you're gonna have to overcome when you get up on stage. I mean, I've seen speakers who are all nice and warm and fuzzy on stage, and then you hear them in the back room yelling at their staff because they didn't do something right on their sales or whatever. And it's just incongruent. So, yeah, I mean, be yourself, but be nice. I mean, what's so hard about being nice?

Yeah, it's. It's really the golden rule in common sense. And I want to be clear, the reason I smirked wasn't because you made the comment about being mean to the bellboy. It made me think of this scene in the movie real quick where he was ordering a Sandwich. And he said, no mustard. And he's like, look at this. What's this look like to you? And he goes, that's. He goes, mustard. And he took it and, like, slapped him with it.

And when you said being mean to the bellboy, I'm like, yeah, I've seen some people when I'm checking in and checking out of hotels, I'm speaking at or events, I'm speaking at the hotel. And yeah, I've seen all kinds of stuff and don't do it.

Well, maybe we'll have you share some more stories on my podcast sometime.

Yeah, that would be fun. I. But, yeah, I realized I'm like, yeah, you're talking about hurting people. And I'm sitting here smiling like, this is weird. Wasn't because of that.

So with that being said, what to do, what not to do, what would you tell someone that says, I'm looking to get started right now? Where do you think I should start? Should I have a book? Should I start speaking? Should I do a podcast? Should I do all three? What would you say is the biggest leverage point to go out there? And if it's none of those, I'm just giving out examples. Where would you say someone should start in the first things they could. Should consider in the first three to six months, maybe year?

I mean, I think, without question, the first thing is to get a book that you've authored. I mean, I know some people do collaboration books initially, but I'm not a big fan of those, honestly. I think you need a book under your own name because that's your greatest business card. That will open more doors for you to become a recognized authority. And so people should talk to you about your book publishing program if they don't have a book, because that's their first step, in my opinion. I mean, yeah, I think it's great to start a podcast and, you know, start working various networking events because it is about relationships, as we've talked about. And there's a lot of great networking events out there for speakers, you know, like Speakers Playhouse and, you know, Speaker Connection and all that, to put on networking events where you can start to get to know people and they can get to know you. But book number one, probably podcast number two, in conjunction with just networking the hell out of the thing.

So I was trying not to smirk because I'm not trying to be biased, but that was awesome. I agree with the book number one, not because I own a publishing company, but because if you were to say the time investment in leverage.

Video, podcast, and speaking are always ongoing. Once the book is done, it's always done. You can print 1,000 or 10,000 more copies.

You are saying podcast number two, though?

Well.

I put podcast and networking right there together. Networking is equally important, but you can start networking immediately. So true. You know, you can start that before your book is done. So don't hesitate thinking you can't do that until you have a book. By all means, you know, start getting out there and being seen. I mean, I think, honestly, people need to attend virtual summits, Mario, Even if they're not a speaker on that summit, to be seen to, you know, people are going to recognize that, hey, they're out there, they're participating. You know, maybe there's somebody I should know. I mean, I've met a number of people on various virtual summits and on. On other networking events that have become people I've interviewed for my show, people who I've done interviews for their particular show. I mean, being seen is important. It's all about relationships. I mean, several years ago, one of the books I wrote was called Mistakes Authors make, and we kind of went out on the limb with that one. I. I co authored it with Rick Fishman and my business partner, Brian Haynes. I now, it was done for marketing purposes to have multiple names on there, which was fine. I did all the writing, so I'm going to take credit for that. But it was, you know, had multiple authors on. On the front of the book. But we decided that we were going to launch that live at Author 101 University because we wanted to see if we could drive it to Amazon number one bestseller. And so we were like, oh, this is either going to be a lot of mud on our face or we're going to succeed. And we were successful because of the relationships that each of us had in the industry. I mean, people that I know for 10 or 12 years who I'd never ask anything of, were more than happy to promote the book because of the relationship that I have with them. So nurture those relationships and keep in touch with people. And coming again with the standpoint of what can I do for you? Type thing so that when you need that reciprocation, that they're more than happy to do so because you truly have a relationship with them.

You had mentioned. So congrats, and I think it's great. And everything has its place. When people say, should I do softcover, hardcover, ebook, audiobook? It's like, yes, but you have to know why you're doing it. You made the Comment earlier about don't have a book with multiple people.

Can you elaborate more on that? Because I understand 100% why you did it. You just said specifically what you were trying to accomplish with your business partners. And I think there is a time and place for that. Same thing with a forward. Same thing with having others collaborate for the launch and your launch team and all this. So all of this makes sense. But could you elaborate on why you said have your own book to start?

Well, when I was speaking of a collaboration book, I'm talking more about the book that has 15 or 20 different authors and each person contributes a chapter to it type thing. So you're just one name amongst a mist of a bunch of people. The. The book that I co author with three people, I still consider book under my name because, you know, it was. It's three authors and everybody contributed to the entire book, not just one chapter within the book. So I'm not a big fan of the collaboration book where you're one chapter in a book. I think it's a fine place to start if that's what you need to do to get, you know, comfortable writing and contributing something. But I don't think that's the best way to go about it. I think you need your own book sooner rather than later.

You don't have the same credibility and authority.

With 24 other people.

Well, and I think people recognize now that it's a collaboration book. And it just.

I mean, I don't know. I just don't think people probably read a modesty, Mario.

They know it's a marketing piece at that point.

Yeah, I mean, pros and cons to anything.

But here's what's interesting about it, because I've had a lot of people approach me for pretty much everything over the years, and I'm usually in the middle of a project and I'm just staying focused. Or maybe I don't think it makes sense. But I'm just going back to simple logic. I'm a simple man. If you're doing something for the marketing, but then no one wants to read it or get it out there or you don't have the effect it you thought it would. Is it really that good of a marketing piece.

If you say click on here to sign up for my email list, but it doesn't convert the page doesn't work, and you have such a horrible offer for joining and I'm talking a free email list now that no one's doing it. Is it really still a marketing piece at that point? Or is it a test?

Well, I mean, everything's a continual test, obviously in marketing. But I mean, I certainly understand your point. I mean, if something's not working, it's really not a marketing pillar that you can bank on. So you need to try something different. But I mean, I think you need to remember, Mario, that anything you do, whether it's a marketing piece or whether it's a book you've written or a course you've developed, or a membership site or whatever, it's all about consumability. I mean, if you write a book, you better do everything that you can to make that book consumable for your audience. If I go into a bookstore and I like to go into, browse the marketing books or whatever, if I pick up a book and I look at it and the first chapter is 25 or 30 pages long and say, oh my God, too much work just to read one chapter. So I'm probably not going to buy that book. So if you're an author, think about how you're going to maybe break that into seven page chapters or whatever to make it more consumable. I mean, who's the master of the consumable book? James Patterson. I mean, his chapters are two or three pages at the most. So I read two or three pages. I could read three more. I could read three more. Next thing you know, you read the whole damn book because it was in bite sized chunks. So I mean, think about any product you're creating. How are you going to make it more consumable for the audience? Because obviously if you can't even get them to read your book, the chances of them coming back to you for another product or service goes way, way down. So how do you make it consumable?

Yeah, that's a good point. I'm smirking now because I may have broke my own rule and what you just mentioned with my new book on book publishing.

But yeah, when you have it, and it's because I've done that where I'm reading and it's like, oh man, I got to get back to whatever, you know, if it's a shorter burst, not like I'm just.

Lounging around like some Parisian vacation. And it's like, I'm gonna stop now and go back, but then I'll always look. And I'm like, oh, it ends in a page and a half or two. Yeah, I can finish that. And now you. Plus it's easier to remember, oh, now I'm on chapter two. Now I'm on chapter seven. Now I'm on chapter. I will say if you have 50 chapters in the book, you know, if it's a 60 page book with 50 chapters, maybe make them three to five. But you know, that's another thing when there's just so, so many. It's like, is it really a full chapter when it's the same?

I mean, the first book I wrote Mario was called view from the 101 tips for event promoters who want to dramatically increase Backroom Sales. No chapter was longer than two pages.

Okay, well that two is closer to three.

But it was a tips book, so I meant for bite sized tips.

Yeah. One of my favorite books to read in school is Reader's Digest.

Oh yeah.

Because you could like get through something, feel good about it, but I didn't have to get annoyed, like time was up. Yeah, it's like you dive into a book that's clearly going to be an hour read to like get some grip on it and you got 12 minutes. It's like crap. Well, I don't want to finish waiting at the dentist, doctor, salon, whatever.

Like I said, a lot of people like to read before they go to bed. If I pick up the book and see the next chapter is longer than I want to consume, I'll put it down and I'll even start it.

So I fell asleep on a highlighter once.

I was reading. Real astute. Woke up, it's like all over my face.

Crap. I just washed the sheets yesterday. Gotta wash them again. Bleach.

Yeah, I was real into it. I've always loved books. I used to read. The three books I got, I was just thinking about, I got a children's bible when I was younger. Love it. A real cool. I'm very visual, an encyclopedia of the world. And I used to have dictionaries in every room of the house. So that way even if I was playing video games with my friends, I could look up words so I knew. Knew what they were.

So what book are you reading currently? What's your most recent read?

Vivid Vision by Cameron Herald. Yeah, real good book.

Not familiar with that one. I just finished Joe Polish's new book on, you know, what's in it for them.

So yeah, I got, I got that.

Right here about relationship building and all that. So I just finished that one. So yep.

You'Ll, you'll like vivid vision for sure one, especially with what you're doing, like for 100%, I'm going to.

Have to write that down before I forget it.

And I'll make sure that's in the show notes, for anyone listening, you will absolutely love it, but especially with your timing and right now.

Yeah, it's on my list, man. It's on my list.

So.

I got so much more I want to ask you. We got to do the Wheel of whatever and a few other things.

Is there anything else you want to add about what you're doing and how you're helping people? Because you've covered so much, and I've learned a lot myself. But is there anything you would say to the speaker looking to get on more stages, backroom sales? We talked about starting with a book, which I didn't even tell you to do, which is another reason I was speaking. So for anyone listening, I. We had no conversation beforehand. I legit was trying to keep a straight face and just ask you to see, because some people, you know, like I said, they say, start with the podcast, start with speaking, start with this. And I've thought about it for years. Years. Ever since I started my show. And as successful as it is and thankful as I am.

The books I did 10 years ago are still paying royalties. People are still reading them, and I haven't done, like, jack work in years on them. That's cool. The show, I still do videos. I still do speaking you clearly still have to do. But speaking is extremely powerful, and you should be doing it. But they're all ongoing things.

Yeah. The biggest lesson I would impart to somebody, I think, Mario, is find a mentor for whatever direction you want to go. I mean, you have people that have been down the path before you, and they can shorten that learning curve for you. And I think it's important to have skin in the game. I mean, because of the people I know in the industry, I literally have access to any training I want. But I decided to pay a guy to be a coach for me because good for you. It made me put skin in the game, so to speak. So I was more inclined to push forward and do the things that needed to be done because I had invested in the process. Even though I could get. Go grab all this other free training or whatever, having skin in the game, I think is important. And so find whoever resonates with you as a mentor and don't be. Don't be afraid to pay them to help you get down the path that you want to go down, because you can waste a hell of a lot of time and money trying to do things yourself, and it's a mistake, and you just can't go that route if you want to succeed sooner rather than Later.

I honestly don't think you could have given a better answer. I agree wholeheartedly. That was awesome. That's a great note to transition on. So.

I don't know if I'll be able to get away with it with you, but yellow or black?

Oh, gosh.

Yellow.

There we go. Yellow. So this is the wheel of whatever, and it's basically I get to ask you whatever the heck I want, and I don't think you're going to answer even if I were to ask. So can you name someone? But.

What are you most excited about over the next three years?

You know, I've been behind the scenes in the speaking industry for a lot of years, and, you know, I'm most excited, Mario, about honestly proving to myself that the. The wisdom that I've gained and the knowledge I've gained over the last 20 years is something that I need to share with other people. And so, you know, getting out from behind the curtain, so to speak, and getting up front and delivering the goods to people that can benefit from those goods. And so, I mean, I'm old enough to retire and all that, but the thought of getting up every day and saying, all right, what the hell am I going to do today? Sounds so totally unappealing to me. You know, it's about what the next great adventure is. And my next great adventure is branding Brett Ridgeway and going out and helping people succeed as a speaker.

Good for you. Congratulations. I'm excited you're doing it. Please let me know personally anything you're doing, because I know you're a wealth of wisdom. It's one reason I wanted to bring you to the audience and reconnect with you personally. But I hope to God you do everything, book, podcast, speaking, all of this training course, all of it, because there's very few people that do have your perspective and have the experience. So even if they've done back of the room, I mean, I could say I've done back of the room sales, but from your position on all sides of it, like, I see you as dominating the industry in this sector. So please pursue it, go nuts with it. And I'm very excited that you are.

So thank you for your well wishes.

You're very welcome. I mean it. Because some people, I'm like, you're doing all that, like, what are you selling? And they have no clue. But you have so much you can offer. It doesn't matter what you touch. Honestly, it's going to be gold. So.

What do I do here? I'm so excited with what you're doing. I'm thinking of all the stuff you could do. Okay. I have to thank the sponsor. We'll be back with the invite imperfect action round. And if not, well, that's what this episode will be. You've heard me say every business needs a book, including yours, and it's true. And that's why I'm launching my new book@eapublishingmethodbook.com so you can learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. But you know what, don't take my word for it. Take it from a few of my authors like Lori, I went from having an idea and a possibility to actually getting my book published. Or Catherine, thank you for making my.

Mom number one best selling author.

Or Mary Alice, what he got done for me in three days regarding my book launch.

Unmanageable John Cody I've worked.

With Mario over the phone and online.

And he's been very helpful in getting.

Me where I needed to go with promoting my books. Rosie, there's no way in the world I would have been able to do this with somebody else again. I've attempted it in the past. It didn't serve me. As a matter of fact, I ended up more frustrated than anything. So this has been a very seamless process.

Adele, if you're looking for an amazing business coach, I highly recommend Mario Ficini or Bill Benner.

I can't make a higher recommendation for than to work with Mario Ficini. He has been great for me and right now I won't work with anybody else except for Mario.

Hey, their words, not mine. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get your copy and I look forward to hearing your transformation as our next video success story. Once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.com and we are back with the imperfect action round. Brett, are you ready to take imperfect action?

Action is great and imperfect action is better than no action at all.

Absolutely. So I got three questions for you, rapid fire. First one is what is the fastest path to the let's go with profits this time.

Fastest path to profits is establish yourself as the expert in your industry. So even if you're a local businessman, chiropractor, plumber, whatever, you're the logical choice for people because you've gotten up and shared knowledge and wisdom with them.

You know, I'm not going to refute that answer. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for Them to fix it.

Touched on it already, thinking they can do it themselves and not go on the route of finding a mentor to help them down the path.

Awesome. Number three, my favorite question, that'll always be here because everyone says, wow, that's a great question. What is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Best way to maximize customer lifetime value. You know the biggest.

Thing that all the speakers I've spoken to over the years, their biggest regret, Mario, honestly, has been that they did not develop some type of recurring revenue model sooner. They would speak from the stage and sell them, but they didn't have any back end membership side or coaching program or whatever. That's their biggest regret. So if you're a speaker, figure out how you could develop recurring revenue into your model sooner rather than later, because otherwise you will have the same regret that some of the biggest names in the industry have had.

That's a real good point and I'm glad you brought it up. It's been a minute since I've talked about it on here and I'm smirking again because the beauty with the book is you turn the word chapter into module.

It's very similar content. It's not rocket science. And yeah, the back end is huge for it.

Repurposing is critical, man. You got to figure out how you can reuse the content you've already created on multiple platforms in multiple ways. Because sitting down with a blank piece of paper every time and starting from scratch totally sucks.

Yeah, very draining. And I could do a whole talk on that on content marketing and all this stuff. And it's like, you haven't done a book, but you've done 5,000 blogs.

You have a book. You just got to repurpose what you have.

Yeah, I'll behave. Once again, what do I ask you next? It's dealing with books. We've talked about a few great ones. What books would you recommend to Expert Authority World?

Oh, good gosh. Yeah, Some of the old.

I gotta laugh because there's a bookshelf behind you and you're like, oh man, what should I mention? What should I mention?

I mean, pushing on camera three.

All right, my. My recent readings is because the pod. Pod world is fairly new to us is the two pod Batch directory books.

Oh, Alex's books.

So Alex's books. Those were recently on my reading list.

Yeah, I got those too. Alex, a good friend of mine, Alex, we got more promo material you'll be seeing soon.

Lisa Reed gets speaking gigs now and you mentioned it and showed it the Joe Polish book. And I'm always looking at the Dan Kennedy books again here and there. I mean just to refresh on some of the things. And he's got so many good ones out there, honestly. So if you haven't ever studied, study Dan Kennedy, pick up some of his stuff because he knows what the hell he's talking about.

Excellent. Great recommendations. Where would you like people to learn more?

Sure. The the primary website is Brettridgeway.com and I assume the address will be down in the show notes below. But if not, of course one team Brett and no Ian Ridgeway. And then if they want to be notified when my new book's coming out in 2023, which is called how to Build a Profitable speaking business, then that is buildaprofitablespeakingbusiness.com and they can just sign up there so that when that book launches, I'll be happy to let them know.

All right. Well, I have thoroughly enjoyed this. Thank you very much and it's been a pleasure having you.

It's my pleasure to be on your show today. Thank you so much.

All right, Expert Authority World, we have another great episode here today. I'll see you on the next one. Have a great day. God bless. You're already the expert, but have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate qualified leads while increasing profit for you 247 and if so, how well are you promoting it? With my new book, the Expert Authority Effect Publishing Method, I take you through my process step by step. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get started now. Once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.Com thanks for listening to today's episode. I would love to know what you enjoyed most from it. If you haven't done so already. I invite you to connect with me on my new LinkedIn. You can go to it directly at eainterviews.com LinkedIn Once again, that's eainterviews.com link LinkedIn. Lastly, check out the full eainterviews.com site for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I'll see you on the next one.