MoversLIVE - #AskSally: Do I need a Speaker Reel?

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Hello, hello everybody. So excited that you are here. Welcome to a Thursday Movers Live. For those of you joining me, I'm on 3 platforms right now all at the same time, which is so fun. In our Facebook group, the Move Your Audience Facebook group, hello aspiring speakers, I see you. We are also in LinkedIn. Hello all leaders of all stripes looking to use your voice and share your message with more clarity and confidence. Hello, I see you. And hello YouTube. Are you, is anyone watching on YouTube? That is the question. I don't spend a lot of time on YouTube, but maybe you're watching right now. We don't know. I'm so excited today to talk to you a little bit about the speaker reel. Okay, this comes up a lot because it's one of those things that sort of hangs out there around expectations. Speakers should have this. Should they? It's a great question. And someone asked me just last week, should I have a speaker reel? Do I need a speaker reel? And so I said, okay, we're going to talk about it on our live coming up this Thursday. And so here we are. We are going to— I'm going to use this as a teaching moment for all of us because the long and short of it is that no, you don't need a speaker reel. Unless, there's an unless. So let's dig in. Okay, I'm gonna pull up my iPad. Hello, let's look at this together. Right, so here we are. We're wondering, do I need a speaker reel, no or yes? Now if you have questions for me that come in as I'm talking, throw them in the comments. I will see them and I will follow up with you if I don't get to it while we are here live. Okay, now not everyone needs a speaker reel. Okay, it is expected when you're at a certain level. So let's think about it this way. You don't need your speaker reel if you don't want to leverage speaking for money. Okay, let's say you are only using speaking as what I call a lead generator. Okay, now sometimes, and this is my speaker funnel approach, sometimes as we're looking at the way that you want to use speaking and when you want to use speaking in your business, you just want to show up more on podcasts. Okay, this is at the top of the lead generation funnel. This is when you as a quote-unquote speaker, even if you don't think of yourself as one, are leveraging speaking to grow your business as a marketing tool in your business. And there is a ton that you can do here, and it's a worthwhile thing. You may not need a speaker reel if you are only showing up to do this kind of work right here at the very top of the funnel, and you're never looking to get paid in that moment as a speaker. Okay, now some of the things that you can do in this moment are, like I said, you might be on a podcast, or you might, um, you might do a live with someone. Maybe you are doing a workshop or, or you might be speaking at a conference, but you're not getting paid in that moment. You're looking at this as really a lead generation moment. If that's you, that's great because your ultimate goal is to bring somebody into a different part of your business where you get paid here, but you don't get paid up on the top of your speaking funnel. If that's you, you might not need a speaker reel. Okay. I would also say you don't need a speaker reel if you never want to be known as a speaker. Okay. You don't want to be known as a speaker. If that's you, if you're like, ah, I want to do more speaking, but I never want anybody to think of me as a speaker. It might not be worth your investment into a speaker reel. Okay? Now, some of the ways that you might know this, because I'm gonna put a big ol' like, mm, let's do this, a big ol' wah-wah-wah around this, is even some of my speakers who have invested in their development as a speaker, who want to speak on bigger stages, who want to really leverage the huge potential that we have as speakers don't think of themselves as speakers. So I really want you to be careful with this one right here because your fear might be getting in the way of you really investing in what is possible for you. So as long as fear is not the thing holding you back, as long as you are very clear about the role that speaking can play in your business, you might be over here where you do not need a speaker reel. I will tell you, I know some incredible speakers who make money speaking, who have built their speaking business to a very respectable place without a speaker reel. But if you don't have one, it will limit where you can apply, um, and it will limit the amount of money you can charge as a speaker. Because here's why. Over here is you want to make more money with your speaking. If you want to make more money with your speaking, you need a speaker reel. If you want to be on bigger stages, you need a speaker reel. Okay? If you want to be seen as a professional, I'm not talking about being the kind of professional where speaking is the only thing that you do. That is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about being seen as a— ooh, I'm having fun with my colors— be seen as— whoops— as an excellent, credible, authority. Okay, you don't need a speaker reel to be seen as an excellent credible authority, but there is an expectation when you get to asking for, let's say, upwards of $3,500 for your speaking gigs. There's an expectation in that exchange that they, they are going to see you and they want to see you and experience you as a speaker before they hand over that kind of money. That's fair. That's fair. Because ultimately what we are doing with the speaker reel is we are building this word right here. We are building trust. Hi Robin, it's really great to see you. We are building trust. Your speaker reel is the way that you exchange that level of trust and say, I know you've never seen me yourself, maybe you've heard some good things, maybe we had a great conversation, but before this person brings you in and hands you off to their 500 people in their audience, 100 people in their audience, 1,000 people in their audience, they want to know, are you for real? Can you do this? Is it— are you worth it? And so your speaker reel builds trust, and it's very, very important. Okay, now like I said, if you're over here on this side and you're like, you know what, I don't actually need to be paid a ton for my speaking, but I do want to leverage it, and I just want to focus on lead generation in my business, then you may not need this. But my hope is that you don't get stuck in this space where you're like, "Eh, mm, I'm not worried about it." Okay, it is Women's History Month, and so what I'm trying to do is help more of you step into this space right here where you are allowing yourself the possibility, the potential of a bigger impact. You have to invest in that development in order for people to invest in you. That is the reality. Now let's just talk for a minute while we're here about the level of speaker reels. Okay. Is on the whole, and then there's a little caveat with this, but on the whole, having some kind of video of you is better than nothing. Okay, now generally, um, especially if you are not yet asking for a lot of money, that's going to be okay. Okay, so like all things in speaking, I want you to think of your speaker reel as iterate— iteration. I want you to iterate this process. Okay, we start with something, right? Something is better than nothing. And then we're going to improve and improve and improve and improve and improve. It just keeps going around and around and around. Okay, but this initial place right here, the starting place, okay, this is— it's gonna track right along here with how much money you make. Okay. So this moment is here. This moment is here. This moment is here. And so on and so forth, right? As you are speaking more, as you get more footage, as you get more testimonials, as you get more experience, as you get paid more and you can invest that back into your speaking business, you can then do, do, do, charge more and more money. Now, if you're someone who's like, I can't wait, whatever, how much time this takes to make more money to invest in a better speaker reel. Okay. I don't want, I don't have the time for that. I just want to be excellent at it. Now, if you have the money to invest in good footage, right, good editing, then you can, you can, you can sort of leapfrog this whole experience up here, right? You can, you can have, instead of starting here, you could just start right here, right, with something really good, okay? But we need good footage and good editing. Now, getting good footage is a challenge. It is absolutely a challenge. So I just want to own that, uh, right, uh, and be really honest and clear about that. Even when you have experience, it's difficult to get good footage. It's difficult to get shots of you on a big stage. For the last few years, Stages have taken a back seat to virtual, but if you want to be seen as a stage speaker, then you need footage that represents that, because otherwise there's a lack of trust. Has this person done this before? Can they do it? Will they be great? So we need to show them that so they can imagine you there and say, yes, this is someone I want to bring in to do this. Okay, so getting your Footage can be a challenge, but it's really, really important. And then finding people you trust that can edit it well. Now, I have a few options for you that I just want you to think about if this is something that you wanna do. Okay, I am doing a Speaker Reel Summit in May. The goal with this summit is to get you good footage, okay? Good footage. And specifically, what we're gonna be doing together for this good footage is we are going to be on stage and we're going to do interviews. Great reels have both. It's not just showing you randomly on stage, but it's also good to hear from you a little bit more. Kind of, this is the story part as we like to think about it. Okay. Um, and what we're going to be doing together in the Speaker Reel Summit is I've got a limited capacity to do this, and I'm so excited, is I'm bringing in an incredible team, Emmy Award-winning videographers, to get this good footage. So it's not some random person, it's not you on your iPhone, it's not pulling it from Zoom. It is beautiful, high-quality footage of you on stage. I've been doing this with my Movers Lab for the last few years, and it was requested People were like, I want that, how can I get that? So I said, okay, I'm gonna create an opportunity for more of you without having to step into the Movers Lab to get your footage for your speaker reel. So that's what we're doing. So we'll get great footage and then we're gonna do some prep work around the editing. Okay, the editing is not necessarily, it's not a part of the Speaker Reel Summit, but you will be introduced to some amazing editors and we're gonna prep We're gonna prep for your editing. We're gonna be really intentional about how we build and structure your speaker reel. I want you to have a clear vision of what you need with your time on stage. Are you getting the angles that you want? What do you want this to look and feel like? If you can be intentional from the get-go, we'll make sure that while we're there, you're gonna get the footage that you need and want up here so that when it comes to editing time, you're handing a package over to whatever editor you choose, and it's very clear to them. I will tell you, some of my speakers, we've got the footage, but they haven't been as intentional about what they want editing-wise, and you end up having to go back and forth, and it's time-consuming, it's frustrating, it's challenging for your editors.. And we want to smooth that process a little bit. Okay. So those are the two big pieces that we are going to be doing together at this Speaker Reel Summit. So here's what I want you to do. If you can join us for the Speaker's Reel Summit, if you identify yourself right here as the yes, I want to make more money with my speaking. I want to speak and step onto bigger stages. I want to be seen as an authority. I want this to be at a professional level. Then, and you want to make at least that much speaking, okay? And I'm talking, this is minimum. If you're— if you want to make this much, you need to start gathering footage to do that, okay? Most of my speakers right now are working on moving from here upwards to $10,000 per engagement. Okay, from there, the sky's the limit. This is not, this is not the cap, but, but that's, that's the goal for all of my speakers, is for them to be in that arena. And you need a speaker reel to do that. Okay, so if you can join us, and it would be helpful for you to get your footage and join us, what I want you to do is I want you to just comment below and say, curious, interested, tell me more, put Reels in the comment, I will follow up with you and we can chat more about it. Okay, because it's a, it's an investment in your future as an authority out on stages. And if that's what you want, then, then this is one of the ways that you can do that. If you're like, I don't have time for that, or I don't have the money to invest in that right now, here's what I want you to do. Okay, if you, if you can't yet step into that space. And what I want you to do is I want you to focus on gathering footage, okay? And think creatively about all the things that you can do, okay? Um, you might have some virtual stuff, right? Maybe you have, uh, some social media that you can pull where you've gone live with someone else, where you've been interviewed. Maybe you have some stage video. Alright, if you don't have video, maybe you've got some photos of you on stage. I want you to pull together as much as you can. Think broadly of it, okay, because it all can help build a picture for you. I want you to really focus on gathering all of that, and then I want you to focus on gathering testimonials. This is the other really important piece that you need to help round out and build your speaker reel. Okay? And if you cannot hire another editor, guess what? There are some amazing programs out there where you could start to pull something together so that you can start iterating. And maybe it's just right there right now. That's okay. Something, as long as it is not harming your brand, something is better than nothing. Okay, some people disagree with me on that, but I will tell you that as long as you are— your, your look and feel aligns with what you're charging, it's okay. Okay, if you are charging a lot of money, you better have a great reel. Because that will be the expectation that people have. It will feel like a disconnect if you're asking for $7,500 for you to come in and speak and you don't have a $7,500-looking reel, right? If you have questions about that, please reach out so we can talk a little bit more. Okay, um, so we're gathering footage, we're gathering testimonials, and then we're gonna We're going to check out some awesome editing tools that do not require a professional. My favorite right now is a tool called Descript. I use it all the time. It's really easy to use, and especially when you're doing something where there's talking and you want to pull a lot of different things together, it's an amazing way to quickly edit because it uses a transcript and you can— I spell that right? Yeah. And you can edit right in the transcript. It's so cool. It's so cool. Okay, so Descript is amazing. I just want to highly recommend that. But I have, uh, some speakers who have just done a beautiful job editing their own speaker reel because they were not able to invest in an editor yet. In, um, oh, what's it called? It's the Apple editing tool. I can't remember, but just the one on your computer, right? Whatever you've got. Descript is— I think I pay $15 a month to do that. All right, but whatever tool is available to you, you can use. Okay. Now there's more, there's more about speaker reels, but I want to end here because this has gone— iMovie. Thank you. Thank you to whoever just told me that. It's called iMovie. My brain.

Okay.

Yeah. iMovie will do the trick. And I love Apple products, me personally, because they make it much more user-friendly than —things you sometimes find on PCs. But whatever you have can do the trick for you. I also want to encourage you to just start paying attention. Watch other reels. Pay attention. Watch others, especially if you have your eye on maybe a competitor in your niche or someone who you admire. Go watch their speaker reels and get a feel for it. What did you like? What don't you like? Start to build the vision for yourself so that when it comes time, you are ready to pull it together. You're ready to take advantage of whatever opportunities you have. Okay, but my hope is that for those of you who are ready, who are like, yes, this is something that I need because I want to be seen as an authority, I want to get paid more money for my engagements, I want to look like an authority, a professional, so that I can charge more, and you don't have what you need in terms of footage, you don't have an editing plan for yourself, then my hope is that you will comment below. We'll follow up, we'll chat about the Speaker Reels Summit that's happening May 4th and 5th. I have limited number of spots for this. It will be here locally in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hopefully by then the snow will be gone. It's a beautiful theater, a beautiful spot, and, uh, we will take care of you for 2 days so that you can get what you need and walk away with a clear plan and all of the footage that you need for your speaker reel. So reach out if you want more info. Thank you so much for being here, everybody. I don't see Mr. Helper. Oh, Andy Helper, thank you, so good to see you. Uh, I appreciate it. Uh, Mr. Helper, do you have your speaker reel? That's my question for you. Okay team, um, I am so glad that you were here. I hope this was helpful. If you have further questions, just drop them in the comments. And I will follow up. And if you're curious about the Speaker Reel Summit, let me know in the comments below. Bye everybody. Have an awesome rest of your day. I'm looking for my music. Where did my music go? Here we go. Ready? There we go. Okay, everyone. Thanks for being here. Have a great rest of the day. Bye-bye.