Now I get to speak at the conference, this is the most fun part.
You of course have to have high value content, solve problems and be a good presenter. I absolutely respect my audiences, love my audiences and actually solve problems for them. It’s truly an honor to speak to them and I assume you feel the same way right? If not, could you do me a favor and stop reading this and leave now. I truly don’t want to help scum bags succeed. I want to help speakers who actually care about our industry do well. Good people only.
So you have to speak and do a good job and have a good heart… and as Alexander Hamilton said, “I’m not throwing away my shot” ok fine, yes that’s a dated quote but still applicable!
When I spoke at the FSAE Annual Conference I didn’t want to mess up the opportunity to get more speaking opportunities and impact more people while growing my speaking business.
As speakers our best chance to get more speaking engagements is to leverage one speaking engagement to beget another.
But, If I tried to sell from the stage in ANY WAY, I would get black balled from the network and never be invited to speak anywhere within this particular industry again. There is a STRONG aversion to anyone selling from the stage in this space. So I definitely want to grow my speaking business but I don’t want to do something to get in trouble, ever been in a spot like this?
Normally when we do a good job speaking, maybe a few people will walk up to us afterwards and give us their card, but maybe they don’t even though they do want to book you.
People are busy, if there is a crowd of people surrounding you after your talk, there is no physical way to have a conversation with everyone who wants to speak with you. Meaning you are leaving A LOT of opportunities on the table.
Event hosts are also no longer giving away a contact list of people who attended to protect the privacy of their attendees.
So how did I get the 51 speaking leads plus get 237 added to my email list without selling from the stage?