1. Figure it out for yourself (difficult, time-consuming, and a high probability of failure/quitting)
2. Learn from experts on your own (Books, Videos, other “learn at home” courses)
3. Learn from the experts directly

The first method is the slow, painful, learn-from-every-single-mistake method that has made America great. You may choose to believe that there are no shortcuts in life, but this method is a certain long-cut – don’t kid yourself. Another misconception is the lower cost here. But, if you delay future earnings while you patiently (and painfully) get better, is it really saving you money, or costing you more down the road?

The second method uses books, audio lesson, teleseminars and such to reduce the learning curve while keeping costs low and flexibility high. The advantage here is:

1. You can learn from the best
2. On your own schedule
3. At a lower cost than other options

This can be a great first step to see if the expert’s style will suit you, and get you through the basics without the deeper investment. Plus, when you’re ready to make the call and work directly with the experts, you’ll get more out of the experience, and avoid paying a premium for basic information. Translation: you can jump into the more advanced content.

Recently, I had the privlige to work directly with Darren LaCroix and Craig Valentine. Both Darren and Craig are among the best in speaking, highly successful professionals and highly sought after as speech coaches. One of the programs they run is called, The Secrets of Storytelling Champ Camp. Something you already know: The call it a Champ Camp becasue they are both World Champions of Public Speaking.

The advantage here was since I had learned quite a bit from both Darren and Craig from their CD and DVD content, I was able to really get some valuable advanced training in a single weekend. We took an idea I had for a story – the day I was laid off in 2009 – and turn it into a complete story with the ability to reach my audience.

The important factor here was to start by developing the 5 C’s of great storytelling. Characters, Conflict, Cure, Change and Carryout. These give you the basic structure to a powerful story. Then we worked through some additional techniques and If you want to learn about this storytelling process, check here.

Which method have you chosen? Are you getting the results you hoped for? If not, maybe it’s time to make a change and move to the next level. You can see real impovement if you’re willing to do the work, practice, and learn from the best.

Stop wasting time with the long-cut.

Note: All links to the World Champions Edge are affiliate links. There’s no difference in cost to you, but if you’d rather not use the affiliate link, you can go directly to http://www.worldchampionsedge.com/.

The important question is how does this advice affect you?  Is this where your next speech comes from, where your next project comes from, where your next success comes from?

The notes from the Edge Summit are presented in chronological order. If you have some thoughts I missed, feel free to e-mail me at contact@robchristeson.com and I’ll include them here with attribution and a link (if you want). Please note that links to the Edge site are affiliate links.

Also, I’ve done my best to properly attribute information as I typed it in the session. Most of what you read here comes from World Champions Darren LaCroix, Ed Tate, Craig Valentine or Lance Miller from the Edge event. Mark Brown also participated remotely, and some material comes from the awesome Alan Weiss and the amazing Patricia Fripp. If you do spot any errors or omissions, they are unintentional and I’ll correct them immediately.

Here we go…
“Ya ain’t gonna learn any younger” – Lance Miller quoting advice he received from a story about learning to back up a semi trailer truck.

lightbulb moment – think chandelier moment – Maureen Zapalla

Three questions you should ask about your business
why you?
who will pay?
how will I reach them?

Topics members wanted to discuss (questions in bold)
coaching – developing a multi-session plan (this one didn’t get touched on) 

marketing a seminar - 3 months out – marketing blasts – touch multiple times – research says you can reach out to customers 220 times per year without annoying them – multiple items (e-mail, Facebook, twitter, etc.)

what 3 tips for the 73 people who didn’t make the finals - there were some thoughts later on the finals, read my notes here: http://robchristeson.com/toastmasters-why-you-wont-win-your-contest

Selling from the back of the room - selling without annoying people (SWAP) – sell another’s program before selling your own – Seeding (plant seeds) – weaving () – you aren’t selling products,you’re selling results
Lance – going from zero to moving – change from manipulating your client to helping them – 1. believe in the product, 2. care about the customer, 3. 
Craig – everybody has a story to tell, but rarely do they get to tell it, because (wait for it) everybody has a story to tell. Be the one to listen to other peoples stories.
#1 reason they buy – confidence in you – confidence comes from familiarity – familiarity comes from repeated exposure – sell the results (Craig’s car story) – put the result before the resource – not just for products, but in your speech too
Lance- present and ask for feedback – take the materials that work and use them to make your product

Ed – retention after 48 hours – 10 percent; take notes – 50 percent; notes and discuss – 75 percent; notes, discuss, and teach – 82 percent after one year

Should you have a book first, DVD, or other product?
Craig – never create a product without teaching it several times first – your first product should be an audio CD

Details about being a small business
Ed – this is a business first, you speak second. If you don’t treat it as a business, you won’t get to do either. More will come in the 2-day Get Paid to Speak seminar.

Using YouTube, how much is too much - embrace the concept of abundance – answer the question – 2-3 minutes – give a next step (more below)

Craig – recommended a book – Launch by Michael Stelzner

Maleki (District 71) – Take the Talent to Training and the Treasure will come out – not about the price, it’s about the process

“Be careful not to keep your ego to close to your position, if you lose your position, your ego will go with it” – Colin Powell quoted by Ed

Ed – the word is receiving – 3rd place Scott Pritchard stayed on stage after speaking and saying “mister contest master” (at the finish) and smiled at the audience for about 10 seconds – what’s the word? receiving

Ed – number one job of a speaker is to make an impact – not to be liked

Ed – Talk in Tweets (talk in sound bytes) <–blog topic

Craig – speaking in sound bytes creates a memorable message – what is his focus? two words – touch lives – before you speak, say “please help me forget myself, remember my speech and touch my audience”

Lance – conviction – convict – what happened to become a convict – trial with evidence beyond a reasonable doubt – conviction is having a position you believe beyond a reasonable doubt 
- passion – in dictionary, passion came from ancient word for suffer. 
Practice to execution ratio (pro football)
Passion are those things that we do that we would suffer through without feeling like we are suffering
Sincere – means we have a clean, clear message
Do a raffle for your product- collect business cards and draw one to get a free copy of your product. Be clear “I’m going to email you with an option to opt in” so they know why you’re collecting the cards

Ed – Presentation variety- in order to maintain peoples attention, change your delivery method every 5- 10 minutes (I.e. You talking, asking questions, audience interactions, etc.)

Ed asked a few of us to run the 10 minute review after lunch
Take one minute and review your notes and write down your three favorite tweets or sound bytes of the morning. – you will learn…
Instruct online folks to tweet to hashtag Championsedge 
Take two minutes to turn to your neighbor and choose your best tweet
Next we go one group per row to give their top tweet
Maureen will write them down

general or specialist? – start with what you know – package/title it in what they want Book “how to earn more than a million dollars …”  

“the Psychology of Money” – became  ”the millionaire mindset”
“anatomy of an audience” – “connect with any audience”

Esteem
Do
Gain
Enjoy

Craig – touch all 4 categories to reach your audience
Darren – start with 3 topics, 2 specific and 1 general (or 1 and 2)
Craig – your audience is going to come up and tell you what you are speaking about – “never strike oil by digging an inch deep”
Ed – you can also specialize by delivery methods – be known as “the person who is known as…”

Make three colums – Experience     Delivery     Results

Experience
Specifics about your experience

Delivery
Speech          
Seminar
Book
Process CD

Results
increase profits
decrease costs
decrease turnover

Homework – flesh this list out for yourself

Mine – Experience
Teaching
PM Increase knowledge (anecdotal)
Military
Logistics
Supervision
Evaluations
Speaking
Blogging
Writing

My Delivery
Blog
Speaking
Seminars
Lunch ‘n learn

My Results
Increase productivity
Decrease turnover
hmmmmm….(homework)

 
Focus on results, not experience and delivery – discuss results, leave out experience and delivery – Craig, focus on the pain – ask questions and turn their pain into your promise

Social Media is a hot topic right now – Be careful about speaking about making money with social media when your aren’t making money yourself (credibility)

Marketing a seminar - sign up on edtate.com - special report 
Ed – make sure that you have enough time i.e. three months to market it
Delivery mechanism – e-mail, linkedin, postcards, newspaper, business journal,
Darren – web page – convert them – title – split test to find best conversion method
Shopping cart – all three of them use the same one speaker resources.com

6- minutes to a keynote
Craig – structure – you have 7 seconds before they decide if they like you, 30 seconds before they decide to check out. Open with a question or a story – then make a big promise. i.e “By the time you leave here today, you will have the tools… you will have ideas…etc.” Then the roadmap. “…and these come to you in the form of 4 R’s to remarkable results”
10-1 rule of thumb, 1 story/point to every 10 minutes
Phrase
Anchor – what’s loose is lost – Acronym, anecdote, analogy, activity
Reflection – Take your story and have them reflect on how it affects them
Technique – how do they practice it i.e. “write down your perfect day”
Sale – Push them into the Pull – Push away from what they want to avoid and pull them toward what they want
Use the PAR for newer speakers

Demo video - less than 10 minutes on site (have report, need to have a point, need solid audio) – less than 10 seconds on who you are
YouTube 2-3 minutes (1 minute if you can) – 1 video, 1 purpose, 1 next step. no more than 3 scenes (locations)

you must package your process in order to profit

Ed- what do you want people to Know Feel or Do

Darren – watch the first 5 minutes of a movie – notice how they are introducing characters through dialog
Time management from NSA
Focus day – product, speaking
Administrative day – mundane activities
Free day  - free of everything – phone, e-mail, etc. 
Same model for athletes and entertainers

Darren -every time you speak, build your list – then, touch your list – at least once a month
Do interviews
an a-ha moment is a letting-go of a previous belief 

Charles speech (coached on-site)

longer pause after first “so was I”
pauses

“do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Concluded twice 

too many I’s, My’s and Me’s

My homework:

Work on 52bloggingtips.com – finish creating the tips and start filming videos

Talk to the Human
New tagline – an IT guys perspective on communicating with real people

Affiliate link alert: World Champions EDGE. This link will take you to the Edge website, where you can see some free materials or sign up for just $1 for the first month.

Darren’s opening was fantastic – he started by wearing a bow in his “hair”. Actually in was a “fascinator” that he borrowed from International President Pat Johnson.

His opening story led us through his introduction into the Toastmasters experience, and how he came to the realization that it wasn’t about him, but it’s about the audience.

He asked the audience how many wanted to look good on stage. “Be honest.” Many hands went up. Probably most of the room.

“You can look good if you can let go of wanting to look good.”

Why did you come to Toastmasters?

“To learn”
“Nothing better to do”
“Be a better speaker”
“Learn how to sell”
“Make money”
“Didn’t have self confidence”
“Fear” (not beer)
“Speak Better”

“No one came to Toastmasters to be a better speaker AT Toastmasters.” <--I've said this many times, because I learned it from Darren.

When he hears someone say they can't speak at a TM meeting, he thinks "Shut Up".

This is the greatest place to screw up.

Don't try to climb your mountain (dream) alone. Follow the path of those before you, and build a better railing for those behind you.

Alan's three questions:
1. Why you?
2. Who will pay you?
3. How do you reach them?
(Alan Weiss)

Editor’s note: I had to leave during the Mark Brown story – before the conclusion If anyone has notes from the last 30 minutes, please let me know and I’ll update this blog and give you the credit.

Ed Tate likes to say “Review your Keepers”. This refers to the notes you’ve taken, and he says that if you review your notes every 24 hours for 7 days, your retention will be above 82%. In my experience, this works.

For me, that has been reviewing and editing my blog posts on the conference. If you wonder how/why I did this in the first place, read about the 37 second rule (I learned this from Ed Tate too, last year).

But here is a short list of key takeaways, and a few other thoughts, now that my brain has begun working again…

Take action – “Successful people do things that unsuccessful people are not willing to do.” – Ed Tate

Done is More Profitable than Perfect - This is from Darren LaCriox, although I’m not sure if he said it at the conference this time. (I did miss one of his breakout sessions).

There is no one secret to success - everyone is looking for the silver bullet. Realize that in Marketing or anything, you have to have multiple actions in work to see success. It takes Time, Energy and Imagination to be successful.

The story is told in the reactions – Darren LaCoix. The exercise where he showed this was worth the trip.

If I said it, you spread it – Craig Valentine, when I asked him how he felt about me blogging my notes and thoughts from the sessions.

Don’t motivate…inspire – Mark Brown said “I’m not a motivational speaker, I’m an inspirational speaker.” He says you can’t motivate others, motivation comes from within. I agree with that, and I see people get stuck on this point. Does it really matter if I motivate you, or if I inspire you to motivate yourself? Are the semantics that important? If the term is important to you, okay. Just remember that there can be many similarities between what people define as motivating someone and inspiring someone to motivate themselves. Of course, you need to understand motivation to be successful. Read Drive by Daniel Pink for some fantasic insights into motivation.

During the conference, I learned that Darren’s least favorite Toastmaster word was gestures. He prefers body language, because gestures implies something artificial and usually just using your hands. I agree that body language is a better word choice, but I may slip and say stuff…I mean gestures…from time-to-time.

My least favorite Toastmasters line is ”Don’t thank the audience, they should thank you.” I heard someone say this at one of the breakouts and I wanted to react. This is such a poor cliche, since both parts of it are wrong. I do agree about not thanking a Toastmasters audience, and I understand why we teach “don’t conclude with thank you”. It’s not that you shouldn’t do it, it’s how to do it right.

Check out the Edge Site. If you are someone who needs to speak in front of an audience, the experience will be invaluable for you. 

Affiliate link alert: World Champions EDGE. This link will take you to the Edge website, where you can see some free materials or sign up for just $1 for the first month.

That’s how I feel, and I bet that’s how many people would say they feel. And not a negative spent, but a “wow” feeling.

If I could summarize this weekend in just one sentence…I’d charge you big bucks for that sentence.

Okay, seriously – here’s the takeaway:

Discover. Design. Do.

Disclaimer: I stole that. A new friend of mine, Pam Weatherford, has a company called D3 Seminars. Her tag line is Discover. Design. Do. When I read that on her business card, I was instantly jealous.

Discover new things – I heard so many people say that this happened for them this weekend.

Design them into your life – This is the next step. Start today!

Do something about it! – Without this step, the rest is a waste of your time.

I could post more, but you get it…

The story is told in the reactions

It’s not just reactions, it’s pre-actions

Darren showed some video from his world championship speech when he gave it at the NSA. He did an effect where he romped a 10-second part with his change in facial expression. Without that facial work, it totally changed the presentation.

I wrote the best speech I could write… …at that point.

“Isn’t it more peaceful and wonderful to watch others struggle?” – Darren LaCroix, when telling those of us who have been through his sessions before to stay quiet when he asks the audience to answer some questions – since we probably (!) remember the answers from before.

If the emotions of one character don’t change, there is no story!

Triangle of WOW – Material, Delivery, and Setting
- Material
- Delivery
- Setting – Very important, Darren spoke about the example of speaking outside in a tent. He said that the tent had to have sides, to reduce distractions and to allow sound waves (from laughter) to stay in the room. You have to pay attention to your setting.

Darren is not a fan of the word “gestures”. They shouldn’t be “added” – they should be natural. I even got chastised (made fun of…a bit) about using the word in a response to him. I’m over it…

Darren had an exercise with three members – they had to say just a specific phrase and covey a certain emotion.

“I’ll be right there” – anger

“Excuse me” – know it all
“Excuse me” – anticipation
“Excuse me” – mischievous

Darren then diid one from the audience
“Sorry” – be hesitant
Darren took time to set up his body language before and after the line, instead of delivering it all at once like the volunteers did. He took time to slowly approach the front of the audience, and his body language showed the hesitance, before he rather quietly said the line…”Sorry”…and then back away slowly. Take the time in your speeches to convey the emotions with more than just words.

Many Toastmasters write a 9 minute speech and try to deliver it in 7. Ed Tate wrote a 5 minute speech and delivered it in 7.

If you want to be the best – take an acting class and an improv class.

If you want to learn the game, play the game. You’ll learn faster than if you just watch and ask questions.

Affiliate link alert: World Champions EDGE. This link will take you to the Edge website, where you can see some free materials or sign up for just $1 for the first month.

Darren has over 350 video’s on YouTube. If you didn’t know it, YouTube has emerged as the number 2 search engine (behind Google). I think I heard him say that this is the best advertising method he currently has.

This program is available in his CD “YouTube it!” (Buy it…I did)
Darren’s Site

#2 – Problem Solving = PROFIT!
- create YouTube clips from questions
(i.e. askdarrenlacroix.com and aksdarren.com)
How to sell a whole lot more than $1,000,000 in products (Lant)
- Solve a problem or give people an aspiration

#4 – What tools will you need?
“The most powerful tool that you have is the one that you use?” – Darren LaCroix
- you need a YouTube Channel – remember your name is your BRAND
- one channel per e-mail address
- tripod with a “bubble” level
- lighting – main, fill, and backlight

#5 – One Video – One Purpose – ONE NEXT STEP!
- you answering a question
- you doing a direct sales pitch
- testimonials
- conversion video – give the content to convert them into buyers
- educational

#6 What do you say?
- depends on your purpose
- then, now and how
- “but that’s not how it always was” — “it got worse”
- selling your process – “that’s what you’ll learn in my home study course”

#7 – Shooting your Video
- Turn the power on (Darren said to write this down)
- Press Record (bug red button on the Flip)
- Speak
- Press Stop (same button!)

#8 – Editing your Video
- Insert the USB into the computer USB Port (have your computer on)
- Open your software
- Find the Flip (it will show like a hard drive)
- Import

You missed it!: Darren walked us through the creation of a promo video. In just about 2 minutes, he had a promo for a random audience member, with text along the bottom, the URL at the end of the video an background music built in. BAM!

#9 – Uploading your Video – Darren walked us through this

#10 – Crucial Language – editing the words on YouTube (once the video is uploaded)
- Title: Have some keywords that can be found by people looking to solve the problems you solve
- Description – in the beginning of that description – use a hotlink (with http:// in the URL) for the next step. (“Make it easy for the buyer to buy” – Alan Weiss)
- Tags – for search engines

#10.5 – Insight! YouTube provides fantastic statistics for your videos. Wow!

Affiliate link alert: World Champions EDGE. This link will take you to the Edge website, where you can see some free materials or sign up for just $1 for the first month.

After lunch … I mean Lunch in Vega$, the champs started the afternoon session with a session on storytelling with Craig Valentine and Mark Brown. To be honest, I was watching this section without taking any notes…oops.

Next – Darren, Craig, Mark and Ed gave some interesting tips for competing. This isn’t something that is currently on my radar, but here’s what they said:
Mark said to do your research – understand the judges ballot

How do you deal with giving the same speech at different levels without coming off like it’s memorized?
Ed said to do that, he chose to re-live it instead of re-tell it. One example was mentioned about how the 2010 World Champion, David Henderson, had clearly re-lived his story when he won the 2010 contest.

What is the difference between a contest speech and speaking in the real world? Craig said he felt the difference that he needed to be perfect. But the bigger difference is the contest is more like a monolog than a dialog. Mark mentioned that this is probably because of the short time of the contest speech (<7:30 min). Real speaking is less rigid. Darren says in real speaking, you have more to work with since you are there for a specific audience.

Name one thing you do to get better
Craig mentioned his Wednesday workout – every Wednesday he listens to one of his speeches in full and take notes on it.
Darren says you get three times the growth when you record yourself – the more you tell your stories, the more they will evolve.
Mark told us to be a student – access that myriad resources out there. You can always learn something from someome. If you stop learning, you stop living.
Ed talked about how success is based on inconvenience. Successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. He has a garage sale every year on some of his beliefs. That means he get’s rid of those beliefs that are no longer valid. He also mentioned the 100-day challenge (google it). It includes daily 5-minute lessons and challenges you to complete your goals.

Production goals – this is a dollar goal – you don’t have 100% contol over this
Process goals – put a newsletter out every tuesday – these you have total control over
Ed uses Income Producing Activities (IPA goals)

One of the next topics was on the World Champions Edge website. We had a walkthrough of all of the features and information available on the member website.

After that Ed Tate covered how to integrate exercises into your presentations.

Change it up every 5-6 minutes – we have been conditioned (by the magic that is TeeVee) to expect change about every 6 minutes (i.e. commercial breaks).

Ed used an example of one of his exercises about Fear Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD)…don’t let the FUD get to you.

He touched on his 3-dimensional speech process (http://robchristeson.com/3-dimensional-winner) as he did these examples.

Ed talked about think, share, and pair as a method to get the audience interacting. Think on your own, Pair with a neighbor, and then Share with the group.

How do you go about creating your exercises? Ed says that there are many exercises already out there, but he has the most fun creating his own exercises. His main goal is to hit all of the learning modalities (VAKs) – Visual – Auditory – Kinesthetic

Another source is Thiagi (www.thiagi.com).

After this, Patricia Fripp did one of her celebrity interviews with Dan Maddux, the Executive Director of the American Payroll Association. I think that this interview (at least the audio) will be available on the Edge website.

Last discussion is about the Edge membership
Begin with what is working:
Edge Summit
Discount on events and products
Affiliate program
CDs
Weekly Lessons
Recorded topics
Patricai Fripp’s interview series

What could be better:
Switch up the call times
Make the CD an audio download option

There was also some discussion on other options for Edge membership, and there was some interesting discussion about Mentors, Mastermind Groups and Accountability Partners.

With the evening wrapped up, it’s time for Dinner in Vega$, baby!

More tomorrow!

Affiliate link alert: World Champions EDGE. This link will take you to the Edge website, where you can see some free materials or sign up for just $1 for the first month.

The day started with Ed Tate leading his customary “Follow the Leader” opening that involved some dancing, along with whatever it is that I do that is like dancing. Yes, yes, there is video evidence…

Leading today’s session were Patricia Fripp, Mark Brown, Craig Valentine, Ed Tate, and Darren LaCroix. There are about 75 EDGE members in attendance at the session. 

Darren’s opening including the story of how his idea for the World Champions Edge started, and gave us two words to consider: Campaign and Momentum
For all of your endeavors (i.e. products or services), you must campaign for yourself. You have to be your own best advocate. Darren and Craig’s first WC Edge event had just 3 people, but they built momentum.

Craig told us to ABC – Always Be Creative. You can’t keep getting called back if your material is always the same. He also talked about how he gained a client (spokenadvantage.com) through his actions, not his words.

What you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Patricia Fripp reminded us to set long term goals, but use short term decisions to get there.

Advanced Questions:
When giving an inspiration speech, what are the most powerful conclusions that motivate life change
Mark said that motivation comes from within, and that is why he is an inspirational speaker (not a motivational speaker). He also mentioned that you have to know your audience. You have to connect with their heart. Remember, it’s not about you and your expertise, it’s about them and their needs.

When telling a story, a speaker might add a little acting or a lot of acting. How much is the right amount?
Craig says – Take the word “add” out of the speakers vocabulary. It’s just like humor, don’t add anything – uncover it
Don’t be over the top, be under the influence…of your own emotions

What are the key elements to include in your 30-second elevator speech. Darren says your whole goal is to get them to ask “how do you do that?”
He reminded us that everyone knows 100 people. When you are in front of 20 people, you are in front of 2,000. Will those 20 pass your information on to some of their 100 contacts?
Ed added – prior to the 30 second commercial is the verbal business card. “I help you breathe life into business presentations”. Get them to ask you for more. If they don’t care, then you don’t have to waste your time.

What is the value of being a member of a professional speakers association?
Patricia said the value of belonging to an organization like NSA is a lot like the advantage of WC Edge – access to people.

What is the number one thing we can do today to grow our business?
Ed talked about how everyone wants to speak, but no one wants to market. His answer is to Market Relentlessly. He also said you have to market first and speak second. If you get that order mixed up you won’t be doing either for long.

An Entrepenuer is just a person that solves problems for people at a profit. – T. Harv Ecker

Speaking about the power of YouTube, Darren mentioned that he heard from a member that looked up “Public Speaking” on the Internet and came across Darren’s videos, and, as he told it, “had breakfast with Darren every day” watching his YouTube videos on speaking.

The next mini-seminar sessions were from the list of topics created by the audience:
Moving from Free to Fee – and negotiating your rate
Darren and Ed spoke about some ideas, and Ed told us about the 100 Marketing Weapons from their session tomorrow. I can’t repost those here, since it’s copy written material. Suffice it to say that these are awesome ideas for marketing your business.

Creating product – Darren talked about the power of having product. He asked members who had created their first CD about what the gained, and he was looking for answers in terms of $$s. What he found is that creating that first product gave those speakers belief in their own credibility.

Ed played a game where he quoted prices for the SuperBowl, and we were supposed to tell him where we would be sitting. The point was that fee = perception of value.

Raise your fee every 18 months.

Change the negotiaion technique to switch from showing your qualifications to pre-qualifying the customer.
How did you find out about me?
Why do you think i would be a good fit?
Who is making the decision? – Let’s talk to them.
I charge $x.xx – do you have that amount of money?
Then send the contract they have already agreed to.

If you don’t go through the process, you won’t grow through the process

Particia Fripp answered a question about how to customize your presentations for different audiences.
She talked about how she became an expert in certain markets, like the cemetery and funeral home market. She was speaking on some specific customer service/sales topics, but because of her attention to their market, she is seen (and PAID) as an expert in that market.
How? By reading industry magazines – looking for connections with her own experiences. She sits in on industry seminars and
Sell by doing…don’t sell by telling.

On coaching executives, she said working with a speech coach is not like worrying with a psychatrist, although you do have to be just as comfortable.
See the speech from last year
Make friends with the Admin – “What would you tell him if you were the speech coach?”

When negotiating fee with the customer, don’t do the math yourself. For her sales clients, she tells them with the amount of money you’re losing, her fee is inconsequential. She uses this to switch the conversation from “should we use her” to “how do we use her”.

I assume you are talking to other companies or coaches. “Can you tell me which of my friends are you talking to?” I’m willing to do a 10-minute coaching call, with one of the decision makers listening.

2 key aspects to getting business:
Be willing to walk away
Give a sample of what they will be getting

Technology Discussion
What are Lumens? Lumens is a definition of brightness in projectors. The average today is 2,500 – 3,000 for corporate speaking.

Microphones: There was discussion about different microphone types.

The morning wrapped up with a mini-coaching session for two Edge members. Patricia, Mark and Craig all gave feedback for the first speaker.

One interesting note on the second speaker, Craig said to be sure not to tell the audience about their experience, but to ask them. Instead of saying “We all have such-and-such happen in our lives”, you should ask “have you ever had such-and-such happen to you?” When you get the audience to respond with the head nods, then you can later refer back to this and the audience bought in to it.
Mark made some wonderful points about adding specificity to the story. Including the name of characters, specifics about the environment and showing appropriate reactions.

Off to lunch…in Vegas!

Affiliate link alert: World Champions EDGE. This link will take you to the Edge website, where you can see some free materials or sign up for just $1 for the first month.

One of the cool things we did as an icebreaker was “2 Truths and a Lie.” How you play is everyone tells 3 interesting things about themselves, and the group tries to figure out which of the 3 is not true. For me, I plugged my new website, SpeakerBlogger.com, mentioned the fact that I have climbed Mount Fuji to the top and also that I once climbed on the Hollywood letters on that hill here in California. Turns out I do have a new website, I have climbed that hill and onto those letters, and I have climbed Mount Fuji…just not to the top.

If you haven’t checked out World Champions Edge, (affiliate link) it is a great resource for speakers. Check it out, right after you surf over to http://www.SpeakerBlogger.com.

Next…on to the Accredited Speaker Program.