Make Marketing Suck Less

The Pro Speakers Secret Weapon

Every successful speaker that I've ever chatted with has had a secret weapon.

The secret weapon won't be mentioned on stage or receive applause or accolades.

But behind the scenes, this secret weapon has helped the speaker on their journey.

It has helped the speaker go from an unknown to making $10K, $20K or $30K per speaking engagement.

So what is that secret weapon and why should you have one?

To be honest,  this secret weapon, it's not so secret.

It's hiring a coach to take you through the process of writing your speech as your next best-selling product and helping you understand the speaking business.

Now, if you think about it, high achievers and high performers always have coaches.

Michael Jordan, one of the best basketball players that ever lived, he had a coach. Julianne Moore has an acting coach. Ewan McGregor has a voice coach. Top dancers have coaches.

Why do even high achievers need coaches? The same reason you do – a coach helps achievers to get better and better and improve their craft.

When you get so good that they can't ignore you as Steve Martin would say, that benefits your business.

[Tweet “Speakers! Your mission is to get so good that they can't ignore you.”]

So why should you want to hire someone like me or me?

Let's face it. I have been coaching you now for a while.

You're listening to this podcast (or reading the blog) and I love that you're listening to me.

If you're applying the tips that I'm telling you, then you've had a coach in your ear.

But think what would it be like to have me all up in your business working on that speech with you so that you could double your fees or 4X the number of clients that you're getting from speaking?

What would that mean to you and your business?

Here are five reasons why you should hire a speech coach.

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Where are You Leaving Money on the Table

First, where are you leaving money on the table in your speaking business?

Finding out where is part of my job. When you get on a call with me for a strategy session, I am looking for the leaky spots in your speaking.

It might be the speech. It might the systems to get gigs. It might be follow up systems – but there is somewhere in your speaking where you're not maximizing your profit.

Part of my job is to make sure that you have a speech that works for your business, that gets you booked, and that gets you repeat business or clients and customers.

From positioning to pitching and everything in between, I can take that 10,000-foot view of your speaking business and your speech.

I can do this in a way that you can't when you're so close to the material when you yourself are the speaker.

Looking for those opportunities in your speaking business to increase your revenue and also increase your audience’s enjoyment of your speech is my sweet spot. It’s my expertise.

Separate the Wheat from the Chaff

The second big reason you need me is that you can vomit all your information on me and not your audience.

My clients are experts and I am guessing you are an expert, too.  This means you have so much to say, so much to share that people can benefit from that it's hard to know where to start. It’s hard to know how to package that wisdom in a way that the audience wants it, needs it and craves more of it from you.

That's where I come in. I'm talented at listening to a whole bunch of information and being able to structure it in a way that makes sense for the audience, as well as the organizations that hire you.

I can help you pick out the nuggets that are going to be the most important and the most valuable for your listeners. So you get to be the expert and I get to help you polish it so that the audience knows how valuable it is.

Built in Audience

Which brings me to the third reason: I'm playing the role of your audience.

I am a passionate advocate for your audience in the speech writing process. I know that everything we do as speakers, we do for our audience.

That means we have to start at the right place for them, meet that audience as they come in the door and help them realize some type of transformation and do it in the most efficient and entertaining way possible.

When you have someone who is advocating for your audience, they're always thinking about how is the audience processing this story, how is the audience processing this information, how it is going to be accepted.

Someone who will help you see if there is some resistance that can help you craft a better message that resonates more. Being an advocate for your audience makes you do your job better.

Someone in Your Corner

A coach will always bring out your best, your most confident, powerful and persuasive self. There is a lot of public speaking advice out there and trust me, it is not one-size fits all. So many people treat public speaking like a checklist:  you have to have vocal variety and good gestures and start with a joke and picture your audience naked and all of these pieces of advice, whether they are good or bad or otherwise.

These checklists don't get to the core of who you are and what you do best on stage.  They don’t help you discover your strength as a speaker and how do we build on that so that the audience is truly fascinated by you.

That is one of the things I start with when I work with speakers. I've used Sally Hogshead's How to Fascinate Assessment for the past three years now, and  I am one of her certified advisers. Using that assessment helps me understand what I need to bring out of you to make you fascinating and irresistible to that audience.

Ass Kick AKA Accountability

Finally, ass kicking, AKA accountability. Oh, my speakers, my clients. I love them so much. I also love to check in on them and see how they're doing.

Recently I emailed one of my brilliant clients, and asked, “Hey, where are you speaking? How's pitching going? Anything that I can help you with?”

He wrote me back a lovely email telling me all the marketing he's been doing. He's been working on his website and speaker one sheet. He's getting his video together and it's all very exciting.

But he hasn't been pitching. He hadn't been sending out asks for speaking gigs which mean he wasn't speaking.

My job for him, and for you, is to kick your butt and keep you accountable in this process to make sure that you are pitching for speaking gigs, that you are getting your message out there, that you are promoting yourself because that is where it can get a little scary. I'm there as the support system.

I'm very bossy and that is a good thing.

Those are five different reasons why bringing in a speech coach like ME can help accelerate the results of your speaking business.

From finding where you're leaving money on the table to creating a message that audiences want and organizations are going to pay top dollar for to being that amazing speaker who is sought after and getting speaking gigs.

Those are just a few of the things that I routinely help my clients with. So if you're interested in learning more about how you and I can accelerate your speaking business, go to drmichellemazur.com/speak and apply for a strategy session.

It's totally complimentary. You will definitely walk away with an actionable tip or two and we can see how we can collaborate to make your speaking goals happen.

While you can do this speaking thing alone, you'll never get to the level that you truly aspire to if you go it alone. So hire me as your speech coach, but realize that it is time to invest in your speaking if you want to get to that next level.
[Tweet “Invest in your speaking to get to the next level!”]