The February meeting of the National Speakers Association’s Las Vegas Chapter is now in the history books. Our new location at The Wildhorse Golf Club was perfect… though I saw no horses… certainly none playing golf.
We began the morning with a charades-esque exercise led by our president, John Polish. Directions weren’t followed exactly and it didn’t go so well. That’s okay, folks. As our incoming president, Guy Burns said, “We aren’t the National Listener’s Association.”
Once we’d given up on that, it was time for the CSP Accelerator segment where we discussed best practices in regard to One Sheets. Here are a few of the ideas you missed:
- Judi said she uses them mostly for speaker’s bureaus (so leave room at the bottom for their contact information) and has replaced the names of past clients with their logos.
- Mark SA Smith showed us a coaching One Sheet and reminded us that our main goal is to lessen the risk that the company takes by hiring us.
- Guy encouraged us to speak the language of our clients.
- Marvelless Mark showed us how to embed a video in our One Sheet.
Reach out to Jim Root if you’d like to sign up for the One Sheet work session on Thursday the 20 th .
While February is often thought of as 27 days to either purchase a Valentine’s Day gift or to make up for forgetting to purchase one, it also houses another important holiday… President’s Day. We had 9 past presidents in the audience to share the history of this club and how it’s changed over the past 38 years.
Judi Moreo gave us a recap of how the chapter began. Apparently, the first year had quite the slate of guest speakers with names like Zig Ziglar and Brian Tracy sharing their knowledge. We also learned that our chapter pretty much pioneered the concept of Speaker Showcases. Who knew?
The past presidents were given gold name badges to honor their service and to melt down for money in case of another recession.
Speaking of money, our guest speaker for the day was Joel Block and he talked moola with his presentation “Stop Hustling Gigs and Start Building a Business.”
He blew our minds right out of the gate which an all-important question: “Why do some people make so much more than others?”
Hmm… Blackmail? Illegal drug sales?
Nope, none of those. Money isn’t where we think, and to get rich, we have to focus on the big picture, not the minutiae. (Of course if you have some blackmail photos, that doesn’t hurt.) Joel said that there are 3 aspects to making money:
- Delayed gratification (and yes, I too have Veruca Salt in my head screaming “I want it nooooooow!”)
- Taking risks
- Structure
You see, money is a tool. And businesses don’t actually have problems, they have expenses. In order to help businesses you must solve “problems” in exchange for money. Our job is to get the businesses to say yes. How do we tackle this responsibility? First, figure out what problems you solve. Then, find out who has those problems, where they are, and how you will monetize the solution.
Simple, right?
In our never ending desire to spread positivity and warm fuzzies throughout the world, we tend to forget one thing: People spend 10x more on pain pills than they do on vitamins. In order to help a business, you have to point out what ails them. The bigger the pain, the higher the price tag they’ll pay for relief.
We reviewed some general business models, but then we got into the nitty gritty of the speaking world. There are 4 main ways to generate money from speaking. These include:
- Fee speaking
- Selling from the platform
- Owning the gate (putting on your own events)
- Promotional speaking for other purposes.
At this point, I had to leave. It wasn’t something Joel said; I had to perform a wedding. The next section of this recap was written by Guy. If you don’t like it, blame him.
*****
Joel wrapped up the morning session with a lesson on card counting, hey we are in Vegas. It was a good lesson about having a system to win both at the tables and in business – at least that was his excuse for doing the exercise. He wrapped up with an auction to raise money for the chapter. Five people invested in getting coached by him for an hour, Marvelless Mark was incensed that more people didn’t sign up for the mastermind group, he even referenced one of Joel quotes from earlier in the day. “Rich people dig for gold – Poor people complain about the price of the shovel.”
Just before lunch, John Polish put out a special offer for all the guests to join the chapter for the rest of the year at a reduced rate if they acted now. We had 7 guests; two which live in other states, all 5 people that live in NV joined the chapter.
After Lunch, Joel did a quick review by asking for people’s takeaways. It was a great way to reinforce what we heard and to hear different perspectives. To one of the takeaway, Joel responded “I didn’t actually say that, but it’s a great point.”
Sometimes, when we open our audiences’ mind, they hear what they need to hear, or unfortunately, sometimes what they want to hear. This a reminder to be as clear and uplifting as possible because like Yogi Berra said, “I really didn’t say everything I said.”
After that Joel put on his Grill Master hat, well figuratively anyway. Attached here is a photo of a hat his LA chapter got him since he is known as the Grill Master in their chapter.
Here’s his 10-1-10 principle, we have 10 seconds to share 1 idea that makes people want to give us 10 minutes. We must be so clear that if the person is a potential client they will say “How? or Tell me more.” If they are not a potential client they will not show interest.
Three people that invested in his coaching offer volunteered to sit in the hot seat and get “grilled.” The volunteers were Katrina Burrus, Joyce Rice and Stormie Andrews.
Lovingly, sort of, Joel disassembled each of their statements and pointed out why there were not as clear or powerful as they should be. One of the “grillees” got a little exasperated and said “that’s why I’m getting coached by you! ”It was all in good fun and everyone learned a lot.
*****
Thank you, Guy! I’ll take it from here.
If you missed this meeting, you should be sad. But don’t wallow for too long. Michelle Villalobos will be joining us on March 14 th to discuss Retreats to Riches: How to Profit from Small Events. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to track Joel down so he can teach me how to count cards.
About the Author
Sheryl Green is a storytelling expert, Cause Marketer, and animal rescuing badass. Having penned three novels, she now brings her penchant for storytelling to non-fiction and content writing, working with businesses and individuals who want to position themselves as experts in their field and make a difference in their community. She leverages the power of story through speaking engagements, website content and book coaching. She is the author of “Surviving to Thriving: How to Overcome Setbacks and Rock Your Life,” “Once Upon a Bottom Line: Harnessing the Power of Story for Sales,” and “Book Writing for Busy People.” Her latest book, “Do Good to Do Better: The Small Business Guide to Growing Your Business by Helping Nonprofits” is now available. Visit www.dogoodtodobetter.com to download the first chapter free.
She also serves as the Director of Communications and Cuddling for Hearts Alive Village and is a firm believer that everything looks better covered in pet fur. Learn more at www.sherylgreenspeaks.com.