278 - Creating a Compelling Speaker Page with Kathy Young

You know that speaker page that you've got on your website?

How is it?

Is it bringing in hordes of people? Is your speaker page converting?

Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

I gotta work on mine. I will tell you that. We all know we need a speaker page in order to be taken seriously, in order to bring in new leads, in order to help convert people who are interested in bringing us in. It's Important. So on the show today, I'm talking to a copywriter who's going to give us all the goods on an awesome speaker page.

Hey movers, it's Sally Koering Zimney with Be Moved. Let's go create some talks that will move this world. We're going to talk with amazing speakers, share tips, tricks, resources, and we are going to be moved so that our audience can be moved. This moved me. What is moving you? Hey everybody, welcome back to This Moved Me.

My name is Sally Koering Zimney. I am your speaker coach, and I'm so delighted to empower big-hearted entrepreneurs like you to leverage your authentic voice so you can finally Scale Your Impact. And today on the show, we are talking with Cathy Young. Now Cathy is this super talented copywriter who I've done some work with. She's truly phenomenal. She so quickly like got my voice, got what I was going for, and helped me with some of my social media stuff and copywriting needs. And she has been working on people's speaker pages and I was like, "Kathy, can we talk about it?" Let's talk about what you have been doing for other people and what do we need on our speaker page? What makes an awesome, compelling, convertible— that's not the right word— converting, a high-converting speaker page. What does it take? And we dig into it together. In fact, I want to share with you a fun little freebie that I'm going to offer you along with this episode. It's just just a quick PDF summarizing what is it that we need on our speaker page. So it summarizes everything that Kathy and I talk about today. So if you are curious about that, I want you to head over to the website. It's bemoved.com/speakerpage, and you can download this helpful little resource so that as you are working on your speaker page, you know what needs to be on there, what you don't have to worry about, and the kind of assets you need to start building towards as you are creating your speaker page. Now, before we get to the show, I do want to make sure that you are joining us over in the Emerging Speaker Society. My friends, there is such fun stuff happening over in this private Facebook group. Daily inspiration, weekly trainings, occasional monthly challenges, all to help you uplevel your speaking skills and impact. So if you are looking for a little deeper dive than what we get to here on the show, that is the place to be. I would love to see you over there. You can come join us at bemoved.com/ess, and we'll have lots of fun together over there. All right, now let's dive into the show with Kathy Young.

Well, and I think that is one of your strengths. I write like I talk, and some people have a really hard time when I'm working on their talks. I want everybody to write it down at one point, which is different. That can really get in the way for some people because as soon as they start writing, their voice changes and they use words that they would never use if they were speaking. So making that shift can be really hard, and that was one of the things I loved about working with you is you just have a really natural— I don't know, you captured my voice really easily, it felt like. And that was your approach, was it was just very friendly and conversational, and you captured— it felt like we were talking, like I could hear it in my head when I'm reading you, you know. And that is a gift because it's not academic writing. It isn't like I'm trying to really impress you. A lot of times we feel like as soon as we're writing, we're really trying to impress people. It was like, no, we just want it to feel familiar. We want people to feel connected. Is that, am I capturing your philosophy and approach okay?

Oh, absolutely. Definitely, like 100%, because I, I definitely come from a place of being— when I started my entrepreneurial, I, I, I started from a place of trying to come from tactics, marketing tactics, and thinking that that was going to grow my business. And although it's true that really good marketing tactics have a place in your business, coming from a place of connection first and being okay to be a little bit scrappy with it in the beginning has— when I made that I pivot and realized to kind of just share for the sake of sharing and connecting versus trying to share to reach an end goal or a metric or a KPI, whatever it is, that's when I really started to see growth. So I— you're 100%. That's definitely my philosophy on that. And I think that it's important to come from that place of connection, especially because, you know, given with COVID and everything, people are longing for connection. Even more now, especially when we're separated and not being able to interact as much as we used to, we long for that connection. So 100%, you were right on the head there.

And I think people can kind of sniff out strategy rather than a real sincere desire to really love you up, love up your audience, whoever that is, and show up with that intention in mind. So awesome. Well, One of the things I'm most excited about that I really wanna pick your brain on is the speaker page. You were helping somebody develop their speaker page and I was like, Kathy, we gotta talk about this because it's a question that comes up a lot with my speakers, you know, once they have a message. So I help people develop a signature talk, but even if you haven't developed that yet, but you're out and you wanna speak more, The speaker page is important, right? It's your, that's your own, what am I, real estate? Land?

What's the?

Yeah? Anyway, that's a marker to people that you are speaking, that you wanna speak more. It's like if you don't have a speaker page on your website, you can't really expect people to know that you wanna speak and that you wanna speak more. So it's kind of like announcing it to the world in some way. And, you know, I have one and I've helped other people develop theirs, but I want to hear from somebody who is bringing a marketing copywriting lens to it. What is the best way for us to do this? So I just love to— if you could maybe tell us about that project and then some of the key things that you, uh, want to make sure are included in your speaker page and what you're looking for. And I'll ask more questions as go, but, but let's start with that.

Yeah, sure. This coach in particular, she, she's kind of going through a shift in her expertise and what she wants to be known for. And so she had a speaker page already and she's already a really like respected speaker in her industry, but she just really wanted to capture the essence of who she is and what she stands for on the speaker page and not just like like a, I guess, a vanilla biography of who she is and oh, here's where you book me kind of thing. So that, and so working with her on that helped. Usually I like to help, whether it's a speaker page or like any copywriting in general, I really like to start from understanding brand strategy. Like who do you really serve? What is, what do you do? What is the specific transformation that you want to help people? Achieve and/or that problem that you're solving for people, like all of those core kind of things that are the foundation of your business, your brand, and who you are. So whether it's a speaker page or whatever, that's usually what I like to start with, because that gives me a good indication of how I should approach your speaker page, because— or just your copywriting project in general. Um, because there are some— I'm assuming there might be some speakers who are more in, you know, the corporate setting versus some who are a little bit more kind of free-flowing, works with creatives, fun, personality-driven. And there's no wrong way to do it. It's just a matter of like knowing your audience. So that's kind of the, yeah. So that's kind of the framework I like to think of before starting any project, whether it's a speaker page or something else.

So, and I love that. It's just like another parallel to how we approach things as we develop our content as speakers. Is, you know, these two pieces that you brought up right away. It was like she wanted it to reflect who she is and what she stands for. Essentially, it's got to reflect her personality, but it also has to reflect like what's her point of view, what's her message. So she needs to be really present in that. Obviously, that's kind of a no-duh, but the filter that you use is around audience. Like, what do they need? What are they looking for? What's the transformation? Because you're right, a shift in audience would change very much the words that you use and how you approach that. Same thing with speaking. So once again, we're just doing the same thing, just different, different format, different medium.

Oh, I'm geeking out right now. But here's the cool thing too, is that when it comes to creating your speaker page, it's not all the time are you speaking on a stage. Like sometimes you're speaking like on a podcast exactly just like this, and sometimes you're speaking, more likely than not nowadays, on a virtual stage. Stage for a mastermind or for a summit or whatever it is. So yeah, absolutely being able to know your audience, know where, you know, the context of where you're speaking and what they need. So your speaker page can serve for all those types of like speaking engagements, not just the traditional being on a stage, but definitely in any type of way that you're sharing your expertise.

Yes. Such a good reminder that The stage isn't going away and virtual is not going away. The context, it's one of the things that I've realized over the last few months is actually at the beginning when this pandemic hit, I was like, "This speaking industry is about to just take it in the chin." And then I realized actually what has happened is it has opened up speaking to be more inclusive. I think some people were like, oh, speaking, that's like stage thing, and I can't do that. I'm not a performer. I'm not really a speaker. I'm just, you know, I just have this expertise that I share kind of thing. And now people are recognizing like, oh no, speaking is when you show up in front of your audience. It's getting on the podcast. It's doing the virtual summit. It's even your live videos or creating content where you're putting your message out into the world through your body. So yeah, so it's, it's such a good reminder that we cannot just speak to this traditional sense. We want to bring in all the different ways. And, and to underline this a little bit more, I think it should— for, for people who are like, well, I haven't spoke— I haven't had that like big opportunity yet, Well, you do bring with you all this other experience that is really relevant because if we are a solopreneur, an entrepreneur, you are likely working on showing up and being present and being visible, and all of that is relevant experience, especially in this virtual context. So don't forget about it, bring it in. I like that.

Right. Yeah, I know, exactly. So that's just kind of a preface to, you know, think about that and that the speaker page. And like you said, as you already know, speaking has just completely changed. And it is cool that people have more of an opportunity to share than before. They're not as limited to kind of a location anymore. So, but that's a whole other conversation.

Love it. Okay, so speaker, bringing the speaker present, keeping the audience is a powerful filter. What else do you think about as your prepping for a speaker page?

Yeah. So I, it's really important to know your, and I'm sure you already know this as well, but like your, there's a few kind of things that are really important, but one of them being your topics, like having your topics forward and front and also explaining. And something that I think could be helpful to make your speaker page different than others is being able to explain almost a blurb of like what that topic is about and maybe even adding context as to this topic is really good for this type of audience. So whether it's for a smaller intimate audience in like a workshop group setting or like a larger, bigger stage and/or virtual summit, kind of adding context that way people know, oh, okay, I really want this type of, you know, I have this type of audience. So this topic might be good for me to, you know, have her speak on. So yeah, that's another thing as well.

Great. Okay. So making sure your topics are really clear. Are there, is there any kind of like, you know, the basic checklist in mind of like every speaker page needs, um, what would you say? You're like, at the very least people, you need this stuff.

Yeah. No. Definitely including those topics, whether it's bullet points or kind of more fleshed out, but definitely you need to include your topics. I think it's also good to share if you've spoken on different places before, whether that is, again, like what we talked about back in our conversation, whether that is virtual summits or whether that is on a traditional stage or even on podcasts, like sharing, like, this is where I've spoken before. To kind of build that credibility for people. This is more of like a more logistical thing, but having high-resolution photos on your speaker page/media kit, that way people can immediately go to your page, download them, and not have to worry about, "Hey, can you email me your headshot?" kind of thing. It's just an easier way for people to reach out and know that they have most of the information they need. I think the biggest thing is trying to give people as much information as they need. So, they can promote you well, right? So something else too that's really important are including testimonials. You almost want to think of your speaker page as a sales page in a sense, because you're selling your expertise. So if you're able to share testimonials from people who have specifically heard you speak, and even if you don't have that, like, from a traditional stage setting, you can even ask people, like, if you're on podcasts a lot, you can ask the host, hey, can you just write a few words for me explaining like my, you know, expertise because that's, you know, you're essentially getting kind of exposure that way and sharing your expertise through a podcast. So if you don't have testimonials quite yet, and that's kind of a way that you can start gathering them. But I think testimonials is really important too because people want to know how, how your message is translated to audiences.

Yeah.

So that's really crucial. And, and the last thing of course is there's probably a few more add-ons that are kind of nice to have, but including your bios. So your, your professional short bio or like a longer bio depending on, again, the audience. So, um, that way people can have a quick excerpt of like, okay, this is exactly what this person does. This is how I'm gonna present.

Right, right. Totally. So interestingly, And we kind of brought this up, but sometimes the speaker page is, is like the first introduction. So you're selling to the HR manager who then is selling it to their boss kind of thing, right? So it's like, I just, I want this person and I need my boss, I need to know they're like, they meet the credibility standards, AKA this person knows what they're talking about, they are actually a speaker, they are, people have liked what they do, like they're just looking for that basic threshold so that when somebody's advocating for you, there's some proof there, in other words, right? But sometimes it is more of a general public sort of sales page, right? So, and I think there's a slight difference there. So like when you, and I'd love to hear you talk a little bit more about this distinction. You know, there's a media kit. Does the media kit, maybe talk about what a media kit is first of all. And then does the media kit live on the sales page or is that a different page? I'm curious about that.

Yeah, so I think that the way that I've approached it specifically for like the project that I was working on, The media kit served as the speaker page. So you can do that. There's, you can kind of combine them so that it's kind of killing two birds with one stone kind of thing. And so that's an option, or you can have them separate. So where the media kit has more of those like specific, like the high resolution photo thing I was talking about and like those long short bio things. And then maybe your traditional speaker page that lives on your website, that's more client, um, like user-facing has more of the like generic outline. So like your topics, your including like what your expertise is on, sharing, you know, where you come from, like your titles, stuff like that. So there's, I don't think that there's necessarily like a wrong way to approach it. I guess it depends on what you prefer.

Yeah.

But yeah, it is interesting because there is like this difference between the media kit and like a potential sales page. You can combine them or you can keep them separate.

So I, I like it being included on the speaker page, maybe like as its own section kind of thing. But, but I— it sounds, it sounds dumb, but when you're like, here's my media kit, you're like, wow, fancy, this person has a media kit. Here are, here are my high-res photos that you can download, and here here's the person to contact about booking, even if, even if it's you. But I think that those are some things that you can include that help set, set you up for what's next for you. Like, I'm always pushing people to set yourself up for the, for the, the next level so that you're not approaching it as like, well, I'm only speaking a little bit right now, and it's like, well, don't set up your speaker page with that attitude. It's like, set up the speaker page for what you want it to be, for how you want to be taken seriously, and, and you start to grow into that as you build it. But if you don't build that, it really won't happen. And so I, I think having— integrating those two things together is really powerful. Plus then when, you know, somebody when you're sending somebody to your media kit, they're also going— they're also seeing all of the, like, the full breadth of what you can do when you're, when you're speaking and how you show up. So, and then I wanted to say too, when you— like, the— there's testimonials and then there are— there's the, like, as seen on pieces and You definitely want both, you know. You, you want to make sure that you're hearing from the words of the audience. And I say that, you know, when I, when I have talked with speaker marketers and people, event planners, when an event planner is bringing in a speaker, if they don't personally know that speaker or if they haven't had another Speaker, another trusted person say, she's great, she'll be awesome. There is— it's a huge risk to bring somebody in. And so hearing from the audience, words from the audience, is like the most important thing that you can have. And I think it's even more important than a speaker reel, which we haven't talked about, but I do think, you know, an element— so we've talked about making sure you've got your topics on there The, like, where else you have been highlighted or where you've spoken, kind of the as seen on parts, the media kit stuff, like high-res photos, descriptions you can download. So for somebody to, to bring to somebody else or to leverage if they are promoting you, testimonials, bio stuff. And then I think they need to see you in action if at all possible.

Yeah, yeah. I think that's— I think that that's something that like is really— it can seem like— because I wasn't sure if I should mention that or not because I wasn't sure if that was like a nice-to-have thing or if it was like an integral thing. But I think it is important that people can see you in action. And so I'm glad that you brought that up. And so I think when it comes to, you know, in the virtual setting, it can be kind of hard to show that a little bit. But at the same time, It might be a little bit easier because you can easily get recordings of your conversations, right? And so being able to show video of you actually speaking and like showing your, the inflection of your voice and how you're animated, how you move, even if you're sitting down, like how you move your body. Yeah.

Yeah.

So I'm glad that you brought that up. And I think that that's because people don't really know how you speak until you speak.

They want to see you. They want to see what does this really look like? And even if it's virtual, And people don't expect it to like be from a professional studio necessarily, right? Unless they're paying you a lot of money, and then you might want to do that. But, but I think the whole— people just want to see what you're like in action. And a photo is fine, but a video is better. Now I'm not saying— and you were kind of saying this— like, it, it is ultimately a nice-to-have thing. Don't let it keep you from building your speaker page. But it doesn't have to be a professionally produced speaker reel, and I think people get caught up in that. Like, just show a clip of, of you speak, and that, that is better than nothing.

Yeah.

I'm just curious if there was conversation as you were building the speaker page. Did you talk about sharing your pricing? Or sharing your range of what you charge or anything like that.

Yeah, that's so interesting. As I was working on this project and looking on some other pages, I didn't see indication of showing pricing. However, you wanna give people the breadth of what it feels like to kind of work with you from all types of angles. I, I specialize in web copy, and so for me, showing your pricing is absolutely crucial because that either attracts or repels people. So I am curious if like, you know, as a speaker coach, if you do encourage people to put the price on the speaker page.

It depends on what stage of speaking they're in. So if you're in the stage where you want the gig more than you care about the exact price, then I would say don't. Then you can make that decision in the conversation. But once you have established yourself as a paid, I mean, I call it a pro speaker, even if you're not like, I'm on the circuit or anything, I'm not talking that, but when you speak, you are getting paid well, like in the thousands every time, then I think it's worth saying my pricing starts at blank. And then I would, because it will, if you're not willing to do it for less, then put it on your page. If you are still in a negotiating phase of speaking, because a lot depends. It's like, well, is it all day? Is it an hour? Am I traveling? Is it— are there 20 people in the audience? Are there 500 people in the— like, all those things do shift the equation a little bit. So if you are open to negotiating don't put it on your page yet. That's what I would say.

Yeah. That's good to know. And something else that I kind of forgot to mention too, is that it's good to kind of share like the kind of breadth of titles and like keywords as well. So like if you're— obviously not a lot of people are just speakers, they're either, you know, industry-specific educators or I don't know, podcast host, workshop facilitator. Having those key keywords as well so people know, okay, so she does this in addition to speaking. So that— or if it's just speaking, then that's totally fine.

But yeah, yeah, that is such a good point, Kathy. Yeah, that—

the—

it's certainly not my expertise is thinking like a search engine, not at all. And that is so important. And what's interesting from a marketing perspective as a speaker coach, it's been a challenge because people have very strong ideas about what speaking is. And many people I work with are like, I'm not really a speaker. I am a facilitator. I am a teacher. I am a— all those other pieces. Or like, I'm just an entrepreneur. I'm just, you know, and So I, I think that that is a really interesting piece. But if you're at the point where you're building your speaker page, I think it's time that you start really owning that title.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like all things entrepreneur though, it's an internal process as much as it is an external process. Very true. To be quite honest, right?

Very much of an internal process of like owning, like, okay, I am this, like, I embrace that I'm this, whether that is a speaker or like whatever that is for you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, because it's such a vulnerable thing, this work that we are doing. We're putting ourselves out there, we're sharing our stories, we are we are stepping into these identities that oftentimes we're like, can I?

Do I really?

Like, am I really? I want to be, I think I am. What will other people think about this? It's just, whew, it's a rollercoaster.

Yeah, and I'm glad that you brought up the stories thing because I think the most important part of the speaker page, any piece of copy is like, including your personality and sharing your brand story. So I really enjoyed working on the speaker page that I just did because she's really just a spunky person. And so being able to work on, you know, what are her core values, but also like, what are her personality traits? You know, like, what are some things that, whether it's her favorite drink or her, you know, what does she enjoy doing on the weekends or kind of including that narrative, letting people know like, this is the experience you get when you get me. So people are prepared for the type of like energy that you're gonna bring on stage.

Totally, yeah. You're exactly right. They wanna know what's this gonna be like? And we clue them in on that by what you include on your speaker page or don't, of course, right? So, oh, I love that. That's such a powerful reminder. I was just gonna ask you, And I'm gonna ask it again in case there's another thought that you have around this. But it's as we wrap this up, is there anything that you're like, okay, if anything, make sure that you do this with your speaker page. Like, you know, and you just said, bring your personality, bring your brand story, bring your full self into it.

Yeah. And I think that is, I think it's really easy to kind of say that, like share your brand story and people might not know exactly what that means. So I will say to kind of encourage you and to make the process a little bit easier is maybe you can just include a few paragraphs in the beginning of your speaker page before you get into the breadth of your topics, where you've spoken, you know, showing your speaker reel, your short bios, your long bios, your high-res photos, whatever that is. But just including a few paragraphs in the beginning to set the scene and explain, you know, how— what is your approach, uh, to speaking? What is your approach to the industry? What makes you different? So just to make it a little bit more tactical, that way people know, okay, where do I include that? You can include it whether in the beginning, and of course you, you can include like personality quips like in between too as you're explaining your kind of topics or you know, if you have a little bit more of a spunky topic, like using fun personality or whatever that is. But, and of course there's different ways to set up speaker pages as far as like the order or whatever it is. So don't feel like you have to follow an exact model, but as long as you somehow, somewhere give some type of breadth to your approach, how you approach the industry, your speaking, your brand values, then I think that that's That's the most important thing.

So good. Oh my gosh, Kathy, this had tons of good stuff in here. I just wrote a million notes because of course on my list this year is redo my speaker page. I think this is going to be helpful for a lot of people because a reminder what Kathy just said, which is you don't have— there's no one way to do this. You don't have to have everything, but you want to start creating a presence for yourself a place where you can build up your, your home, your home base for your speaking requests. Make sure there's a way for people to get to connect with you and get a feel for who you are and what you do, and that, and that it's good. Exactly.

Yeah, exactly. As long as you have that, you'll be all set.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay, well, Kathy, you were fabulous. Where can people find out more about you and what you what you do, and in case they want some copywriting help, because she's awesome.

Ah, yeah, thank you. So again, I'm, um, Kathy with Rekindle Communications. So you can find me at rekindlecommunications.com, or you can connect with me on Instagram with rekindle_communications. That's my Instagram. And you can find me on Clubhouse, which is @rekindle_com.

Thank you for joining me. I so appreciate it.

It's been really interesting just all together.

So yeah, it definitely has been interesting. Yeah, yeah, I, I have