The Workshop Leader's Resource

Are you looking to expand your speaking business by creating products you can sell on the web and in the back of the room?  If so, then you need to check out www.Fiverr.com.  It’s a website filled with things people will do for just $5.00.  And if you put “Product covers” in the search box on the right, you’ll find a long list of people willing to create a brand new custom-designed product cover for your product for just $5.00.  That’s right – ready to go for $5.00.  Now about 4 years ago, I paid to have a designer redesign my website and product covers.  It cost me $5900 for a website and 14 product covers.  Today, I could get that work done for under $500.

So, what are you waiting for?  Get that product on the market!

(Need some help figuring out how to take your information and turn it into a product?  Call me!  This is what I help people do!  508-243-6257)

We’re rapidly approaching the Valentine’s Day time frame and I’m in a bit of a quandry.  Every year I go through this.  Do I or don’t I?  You see, I don’t send holiday cards to my clients.  I figure people get so many of them that any message I send would get lost in the mix.  Instead, I send a Valentine’s Day greeting.  I mean, how great is it to get a Valentine when you’re not getting any – even if it is from a business contact?  And each year I get about a dozen people responding with how much they loved my note and really love and appreciate me as well.  But each year, I also get a bunch of people who unsubscribe from my newsletter.  And occasionally, those unsubscribes come with a nasty note attached.

How Can You Love Me?
The first year I sent out these Valentines, I sent one that said that I wanted to tell people how much I loved and appreciated them and how I really valued them as clients and readers.  I got positive and negative responses.  What were the negative ones you ask?  Well, they said “how can you possibly say you love me, you don’t even know me”.  Which was true for my newsletter subscribers, but what is the problem with saying “I love you?”  I mean, really.

So the next year, I decided to be a little different.  I wrote:

“Did you know that the Ancient Greeks had three words for love?

Eros – romantic love
Filios – the love of a family member
Agape – universal love of your fellow man

In the spirit of agape, I’d like to tell you how much I love you and really appreciate you taking the time to read my newsletter and participate in my world.”

Pretty clear, right?  Wrong.  I got the same number of positive responses and the same number of unsubscribes, only this time, one woman called me a whore.  Really?  A whore?  For what?  Expressing universal love for my fellow wo/man?

Cleaning My List
So I’m telling myself as I prep for this year’s note, that this is a good thing.  I don’t really want to be doing business with people who would call someone a whore for simply making an honest statement of love.  But I’m also steeling myself.  Who knows what will come flying at me this time.  But this warrior for love is going to do battle again.  Wish me luck.

This podcast is a little different than what we’ve done in the past.  This time, we’re doing a website review of Ruth E. Thaler-Carter’s website.  Ruth was one of the people I interviewed a few weeks ago and during the course of my research on her, I realized she could use my help on her website.  She was kind enough to allow me to post the recording of that session so that you could get the benefit of what I told her and so you could get a feel for what a website review is all about.

A website review is one of the services I offer as part of my work with speakers, trainers and coaches.  It’s 90 minutes long and it goes into detail on your website and how you can improve it for usability, search engine optimization (SEO), and lead conversion.  The depth to which we talk about your site is dependent upon how much work your site needs.  Ruth E. Thaler-Carter was kind enough to let me record her review and post it here.

What Does A Website Review Cover?
Ruth had some basic core issues that needed to be addressed on her site, so we stuck to the basics on this call.  Your site may be a little further along in development in which case we’d talk about fine-tuning using your existing statics, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising and social media integration.  It’s a custom review for each person.  It’s designed to give you a manageable amount of work to be done on your site.  When you’re ready for the next step, we do it again.  I start with the things that will make the most improvement and then we fine tune from there.  Cost is $350 for 90 minutes and includes a recording of the conversation so that you can go back and review it later.

To schedule your own website review:

Click Here To Download Podcast

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I’ve been surfing a lot of speakers’ and coaches’ websites recently and there is one thing that I am seeing consistently.  There’s no clear direction for your viewers to take on your site.  There is no way for them to know what they are to do and, in a horrifyingly large number of sites, no way for a potential client to contact the person whose site they are on.  I have been to multiple sites in the last month that literally had no way to contact the person other than going through a social media site like LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.  Not good.

What’s the Goal?
When I coach speakers, trainers and coaches about their sites, one of the first things we talk about is “what is the goal?”  I always get a blank stare at that question and that’s because in transitioning from the world of paper to the virtual realm many people have confused websites with brochures.  They’ve been told that they no longer need a brochure because they have a website and so they see their website as a glorified brochure serving the same passive purpose.  But this misses all of the best opportunities in an online presence.  A website isn’t just a place to tell people about your services, it’s a place to get into relationship with your prospect and get them to contact you.

It Shouldn’t Be All About You
In fact, it shouldn’t be about you at all until the prospect knows that it’s about them.  You have 2.3 seconds to catch a prospect’s attention when they are surfing.  If you don’t put, front and center, exactly what it is that they are looking for, then you won’t get a chance to tell them anything else.  This is the ultimate form of the “me” generation.  If they don’t see what they want, they’re gone.  So your landing pages should be all about the prospect initially.  It is when they stay a little longer that they get to learn about you.

Have a Plan
Once you have a prospect’s attention, you had better have a plan for what you want to do with it.  Have a funnel that you take them through, a series of places you want them to go to learn more, go deeper, and get connected with you.  Think of it like a blind date.  First, you want to make a good first impression (let them know they are in the right place on your landing page), then get them to smile (get them to look around and read more about you), then maybe flirt with you a little (sign up for a white paper, newsletter or autoresponder program).  Eventually, you’re hoping for a second date and perhaps even a goodnight kiss (and their phone number).

Be Personable and Interesting – Not Arrogant and Self-Centered
The way you get these things on a date is to take an interest in the other person and show them the parts of yourself that you think they might find attractive.  Instead, what most people are doing on their sites is being the boorish date who talks incessantly about themselves and says how great they are.  No one wants to date that person – or hire them.

To Buy Or To Engage?
And I’m going to come back to the goal again.  Are you someone that people need to talk to before they exchange money with you (like speakers for hire)?  Or are people buying programs on the web in CD, ebook, teleseminar, or download form?  If it’s the former, then your goal is to get a phone call or a request that you call them.  If the latter, then your goal is the sale.  Your site should be set up with those things in mind.  People should know what is expected of them to take the relationship to the next level and your call to action should be clear.  Simply putting your phone number on your site doesn’t say “Call me” (but it does help, people!)  You have to ask for the sale or ask for the call if you want to get it.

Creating Relationships On The Web
The best way to move a prospect forward is to create a relationship with them.  To learn more about this process, join my class that’s running on April 12,13, & 14 “Creating Relationships On The Web – How to Dive Deep With People You’ve Never Met“.  The course normally runs for $299.00, but for my readers here, save $100 and get it for only $199.00 by following the link above.

One of the best ways to build any business is by speaking for free at targeted events in your marketplace.  This is what Ruth E. Thaler-Carter has done to build her business over the years.  She is experienced with the “speak to sell” model.  In this hour-long podcast interview, she gives you the insights you need to build your business by speaking.

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In this information-packed podcast, Roger Harrop shares with us his insights on speaking to CEOs of corporations about branding, opening new speaking markets overseas, getting the focus you need to create a successful speaking business, resources to help you be the best speaker you can be and branding yourself.  You will absolutely love this episode.

Roger Harrop - The CEO Expert

Speaker Bio
Roger is an International Speaker who inspires and entertains his audiences with his acclaimed Staying in the Helicopter® series. Over 10000 CEOs, Business Leaders and managers have achieved transformational change
through his thought provoking and entertaining talks laced with real-life stories, anecdotes and humour.

Roger is also an Author, Non-Executive Director, Business Advisor, Mentor and Consultant focused on business success.

He has extensive experience across a broad spectrum of businesses – from small start-ups to large multinational corporations; from high tech manufactured products through basic commodities, to people based services
businesses.

Roger spent seven years as Group Chief Executive of a fully quoted, high tech Industrial Instrumentation Group with 12 operations over four continents. The company was listed in the UK Government’s ‘Competitiveness’ White Paper and gained a reference in the US Forbes magazine as one of the top 100 overseas companies and has been used as a
benchmark case study by two business schools on Culture Change and Business Re-Engineering.

He has run businesses for major multi-national corporations and has been a tutor with one of the leading Leadership and Teambuilding programmes for over 25 years.

Roger is a Fellow, Member of the Board and Past President of the Professional Speakers Association, a former Vice-President of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and a Liveryman with The Worshipful Company of
Marketors.

He is a Speaker of the Year with The Academy for Chief Executives, an accredited SME business advisor and a trained Assessor and Coach.

For more information about Roger, visit his website at:  www.RogerHarrop.com

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I recently received an email from a trainer in the real estate industry looking to branch into training in some of the smaller offices locally.  She didn’t give me a lot of information to go on, only that she was trying to figure out what to charge.

I spent a fair amount of time giving her a detailed answer that I thought might be useful for others out there as well. (I think it’s good to share what you know on the web. The more access we have to a global source of knowledge, the better – from the simple, but useful Credit Card Comparison to Wikipedia – my personal favorite for beginnings of research.)  Keep in mind that you’ll make a lot less speaking in the real estate industry than in pretty much any other industry I know of, so don’t take the actual price I quoted literally unless you’re also a real estate speaker.  Here is the answer I sent:

It’s hard to say how to charge for brokers. Each one is very different. The question you have to ask yourself is what are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to bring new people into your training business where you can sell the agents individually into coaching or additional training or products? If so, then the program should be free to the broker with a strong sell close at the end for the agents.

If you are just looking to get paid for your training, then I would highly encourage you to get certified to give CE credits in your state. You will get many more, higher-paying gigs if you can offer CE credits with them. Also, you can get certified to teach GRI, ABR, etc. These aren’t great paying gigs, but they establish you as a professional in training and open doors for other speaking events, plus they build your mailing list which is key if you hope to develop products and agent-centric training sales later. (Which is where the real money is in this business – that’s why I keep coming back to it.)

If you just want to do a little training on the side, then charging anywhere from $100-$250/hr for a training that takes you no longer than half an hour to travel to would be appropriate depending on your experience level. If it takes longer than that, then you should charge for travel time as well.

I run a consulting business teaching speakers and trainers how to develop their businesses. If you’re serious about growing your business, then give me a shout. I’m happy to help.

Chellie Campbell, author of The Wealthy Spirit: Daily Affirmations for Financial Stress Reduction and Zero to Zillionaire has been leading high-end workshops for many years.  She has a unique model where she runs classes from home and never has to travel.  She’ll talk to us about the business of being a workshop leader and the choices we make about how we create our business models.

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