'Repackaging Your Content: Using New Media
for SEO, Thought Leadership and Sales'
Guest Expert: Albert Maruggi
The Program:
Speakers, consultants and trainers are constantly creating content. PowerPoint presentations, speeches, videos, demos. You're constantly sharing information online and off. But are you getting as much mileage as you can out of that content? This teleseminar will help you think about new ways to publish, share and promote your content, your ideas and yourself.
Social media tools are inherently search engine-friendly and help you reach more people. Learn how the power of the Web can highlight the value you provide and solidify your standing as a thought leader in your niche. What would you be able to accomplish with more eyes and ears on more of your content?
You will learn how to:
- Put your content in front of more eyeballs by making it "social," findable and shareable
- Use your content to squeeze out more "Google juice"
- Benefit from thinking like a journalist
- Get started on making valuable connections on the Web
- Find influencers and potential clients online
More about our guest expert:
Albert Maruggi has spent his 25-year career in communications working in broadcast journalism, national politics, corporate marketing, and venture capital, including a stint as press secretary for the Republican National Committee during the 1988 president election cycle. As the founder of social media marketing consultancy Provident Partners, Albert helps clients harness the power of the Web and learn how to turn their ideas into a position of thought leadership. Albert is also a senior fellow at the Society for New Communications Research, a non-profit think tank that studies the business uses and impact of new media.
www.providentpartners.net
'Increase Your Business NOW
by Dialing for Relationships'
Guest Expert: Jim Mathis, CSP
The Program:
Winners do what their competition won't. Few people like cold calling. But when business is down you have to do what you don't like to do to keep afloat. So you might as well learn to be great at it — and possibly learn to like it along the way.
Jim will show you simple, easy-to-follow steps to grow your business on the telephone. He'll include phone scripts, motivation to market, and voice mail tools. He'll share how to get past the gatekeeper (even if you don't know the meeting planner's name), what to say to meeting planners when you get them and how to use the telephone to increase your business in a challenging economy.
Even if you have someone else call for you, you need to have this information so you know how to help them do even better.
You will learn:
- 4 great sources for prospects
- a successful script with a killer opening line
- how to get past the gatekeeper almost every time
- what to do when the meeting planner is not in
- how to get hired on the phone
- how to motivate yourself to keep you booked in a challenging economy
- an industry that will pay you to advertise your speaking career
More about our guest expert:
Jim Mathis, CSP is a corporate re-invention strategist, Certified Speaking Professional and author. He has been using the telephone to market his speaking and training business since he became a full-time professional speaker in 2003. From the next year, Jim has made a six-figure income in the speaking business annually, almost solely based on telephoning prospects and clients. As a result his business has been increasing during the current recession. He makes an average of 20-30 marketing phone calls every day as does his office assistant.
Jim is president of The Mathis Group based in Atlanta, Georgia; a member of the National Speakers Association, the Global Speakers Federation, and the International Coach Federation; and author of Reaching Beyond Excellence.
www.jimmathis.com
'The Good and Bad of Selling
Your Audio Programs Online'
Guest Expert: Al McCree
The Program:
The iTunes store is the #1 seller of audio products in the world. Audible.com is the #1 seller of spoken-word recordings. Yet Nightingale-Conant is a highly recognized leader in recordings by experts. You want your recordings in their online catalogs, right?
Maybe. Maybe not.
A handful of spoken-word recording distributors dominate the market. Each has a different revenue and marketing model. Some will yield a steady stream of revenue for you and some will be a waste of time. If you're considering becoming a content provider — having them sell your recordings — what do you need to know?
You will learn:
- How to garner the information to decide which distributor(s) would work for you
- How to determine if their markets are a fit for your recordings
- What are the most common and the most advantageous revenue splits
- What type of recordings really sell well and why
- What you need to do to support the recordings' sales
More about our guest expert:
Al McCree is a professional speaker, songwriter, entrepreneur. He is the president and owner of Musical Concepts Inc. and Al McCree Entertainment. His companies are actively involved in promotion and distribution of entertainment artists and products.
www.almccree.com
'Using Music in Your Speech
Legally, Ethically, and Effectively'
Guest Expert: Al McCree
Additional resources for this seminar:
Handout-- (PDF, 90K)
The Program:
You want people excited coming into your presentation, so you plan to have the "Rocky" theme blaring as they enter. But wait, can you do that? After all you bought the CD, so no problem, right? Wrong!
You play soft, soothing music during participants' work time in your seminar. Enya is perfect, and you have the MP3 on your computer and your external speakers hooked up. Just hit "play," right? Wrong.
Or you have a great, poignant moment in your talk where the lyrics from "Imagine" would be perfect. You don't want to mess with licenses, so you decide to recite the lyrics, or have them on a slide so the audience can read along. No problem, right? Wrong.
You know music can shift the mood of an audience. The right song at the right time can inspire and motivate in ways beyond mere spoken words. But you want to use music effectively in your presentation — and do it legally.
You will learn to:
- enhance your presentation by employing Al's techniques and ideas for using music
- understand how anyone, musical or not, can use music to enhance his/her presentation
- follow Al's guide for the legal and ethical use of music in paid presentations
- understand the process of having original music created for your presentation
More about our guest expert:
Al McCree is a professional speaker and a musical entrepreneur. As the latter, he owns and operates Musical Concepts Inc., a musical production company and Altissimo!, an independent recording label.
www.almccree.com, www.altissimodistribution.com
'Creating Distinction in the Speaking Industry:
How to Make the Marketplace Irrelevant'
Guest Expert: Scott McKain, CSP, CPAE
The Details:
Date: Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Time: 7:00 pm Eastern (6 pm Central, 5 pm Mountain, 4 pm Pacific)
Length: 60 minutes
Cost: $25
The Program:
What if you could find a way to make the fluctuations in the economy have a less-than-significant impact on your speaking business? What if there was a way that you could stand out and move up, even while others are facing difficult times? What does it take to differentiate yourself, so you become a "movie star" of speakers, rather than merely one of the pack?
We'll look at the three "Destroyers of Differentiation" and the three levels of recognition and why you want to avoid the first two.
Scott McKain, CSP, CPAE has been studying what makes some professionals stand out — while others are adrift on a "sea of sameness." He'll take the findings from his new Amazon.com and 800-CEO-READ bestseller, Collapse of Distinction: Stand Out & Move Up While Your Competition Fails and apply it directly and specifically to speakers. Add this to the fact that Scott was the first speaker to center his business on using the entertainment industry as the metaphor for every profession — his "ALL Business is Show Business" dates back to the early-1980s! — and you will discover what it takes to attain a level of distinction beyond your current position.
You will learn:
- the Three Destroyers of Differentiation — the dangerous elements common in every speaker's business that pull you back to the undifferentiated pack like a magnet.
- why Level One is the WORST place for any speaker to be — constant fee pressure, difficult clients, endless prospecting — and how to escape.
- why Level Two is where many speakers settle — a lot better than lower; infinitely less rewarding than the top.
- how Level One speakers transcend transaction and build lasting careers. Ever wonder why the same speakers are the "superstars" at NSA? Here's the answer...
- the four steps you MUST take — and take in a specific order — that will make you stand out and move up, even during a challenging economy and a difficult time in the meetings industry.
- how to create a place for yourself at the absolute top of the profession!
More about our guest expert:
Scott McKain's calling is business — but his passion is the platform. His unique presentations clearly demonstrate he brings something to the platform that isn't often found in business speakers: personal experience in building and leading companies and dealing with customers and employees.
Capturing the ideas that formed one of America's "fastest-growing companies" (according to a nationally-respected business publication), Scott has authored two bestselling business books. ALL Business is Show Business reached the #1 spot on Amazon.com's list of business bestsellers and was released globally in several languages. What Customers REALLY Want is Scott's personal bestselling work and received rave reviews and top charts rankings. Its groundbreaking examination of the "Six Major Disconnections between Customers and Organizations" has made a significant impact in the manner in which companies approach their client and prospect bases.
Scott has appeared on multiple occasions as a commentator and analyst on FOX News Channel. His platform presentations have run the gamut from the White House lawn with the President in the audience carried live on CNN and NBC's "Today" show...to a remote outpost near the Amazon...all 50 states, seven Canadian provinces...and from Singapore to Sweden...Mexico to Morocco.
www.ScottMcKain.com
'Repositioning Your Speaking Business'
Guest Expert: Scott McKain, CSP, CPAE
The Program:
It's tough enough to position your speaking business for success, but what if you need to RE-position to take your career to a higher level? For well over a decade, Scott was a "motivational humorist" — one good enough to earn the CPAE. However, in the past few years, he has strategically repositioned himself as a "businessperson who speaks" to attain significantly higher fees, land a major book contract and sign six-figure consulting contracts — not to mention becoming the vice chairman of one of America's fastest-growing public companies.
You will learn:
- How to know when it is time to reposition
- The steps for repositioning
- The role of products, promotion and publicity in repositioning
- The value of truly becoming an "expert who speaks"
- Why authorship is so vital to repositioning
- The greatest difficulties and stumbling blocks to repositioning
- How to know when you should not reposition
- ... and more!
More about our guest expert:
Scott McKain's calling is business — but his passion is the platform. His unique presentations clearly demonstrate he brings something to the platform that isn't often found in business speakers: personal experience in building and leading companies and dealing with customers and employees.
Capturing the ideas that formed one of America's "fastest-growing companies" (according to a nationally-respected business publication), Scott has authored two bestselling business books. ALL Business is Show Business reached the #1 spot on Amazon.com's list of business bestsellers and was released globally in several languages. What Customers REALLY Want is Scott's personal bestselling work and received rave reviews and top charts rankings. Its groundbreaking examination of the "Six Major Disconnections between Customers and Organizations" has made a significant impact in the manner in which companies approach their client and prospect bases.
In Collapse of Distinction: Stand Out & Move Up While Your Competition Fails, Scott takes a revolutionary approach in clearly showing how organizations and individual professionals create differentiation in the market — vital in securing customers and growing market share.
Scott has appeared on multiple occasions as a commentator and analyst on FOX News Channel. His platform presentations have run the gamut from the White House lawn with the President in the audience carried live on CNN and NBC's "Today" show...to a remote outpost near the Amazon...all 50 states, seven Canadian provinces...and from Singapore to Sweden...Mexico to Morocco.
www.ScottMcKain.com
To Purchase 'The Recording' For $9, Click The Secure Paypal Button Below:
'Create a "Get-Hired" One-Sheet:
Design and Writing Tips to Give You "Buy" Appeal'
Guest Expert: Barbara McNichol and Karen Saunders
Additional resources for this seminar:
Karen and Barbara provided an attractive and detailed handout showing many examples of one-sheets, and tips for creating an effective one. When you purchase the CD or MP3, we will email you a link for downloading the handout.
The Program:
Whether it appears in print or PDF form, you want your one-sheet to convey your services and talents with maximum appeal. How do you accomplish that in a single page or two? Two experts who have created lots of stand-out one-sheets will share their techniques so you can better craft a one-sheet that gets you noticed.
Karen and Barbara work together to create "get-hired" one-sheets for speakers and entrepreneurs. Karen had her own graphic design firm in the Denver area since 1990, and Barbara has offered editorial services since 1994, but their professional association goes back to the mid-1980s. They both specialize in making books, one-sheets, and other marketing materials the best they can be. You'll receive handouts from this session that come from Karen's book Turn Eye Appeal into Buy Appeal -- How to Easily Transform Your Marketing Pieces into Dazzling, Persuasive Sales Tools!
You will learn:
- Who your messages should be directed to
- What written and graphic elements to include
- How to make your one-sheet stand out above the rest
- Three ways to avoid the most common mistakes
- How to "get over yourself" and start crafting a powerful one-sheet
More about our guest expert:
Barbara McNichol excels at working with authors, speakers, and experts to put their passion on paper and make a difference in the world. With Barbara McNichol Editorial, authors get more than scoping out grammar gremlins and word trippers. Their message becomes more polished, persuasive, and effective.
Before starting her own business in 1994, Barbara gained expertise as a corporate communicator for 15 years. Since then, she has provided wordsmithing and ghostwriting services for entrepreneurs, and has more than 100 books she's edited on her trophy shelf. Barbara shows how persuasive writing opens doors to opportunities. Sign up for her ezine "The Door Opener" at:
www.barbaramcnichol.com
In 1990, Karen Saunders founded MacGraphics Services, a graphic design firm in Aurora, Colorado. Her firm services small businesses nationwide with ads, logos, one-sheets, book covers and interiors, corporate identity, audio and video packaging, and much more. Karen has designed the covers of 18 books that have become best-sellers or won awards, including the 2005 Writer's Digest "Grand Prize" winner for the best self-published book in America. Karen is a Colorado Independent Publishers Association (CIPA) board member and program director. She wrote the "Desktop Coach" column for CIPA's newsletter for three years and is the author of Turn Eye Appeal into Buy Appeal -- How to Easily Transform Your Marketing Pieces into Dazzling, Persuasive Sales Tools! Sign up for her monthly ezine at:
http://www.macgraphics.net/
'Getting Your Web Site to the Top of the Search Engines'
Guest Expert: Steve Mertz
Additional resources for this seminar:
Steve's Handout-- (PDF, 80K)
The Program:
You can dramatically increase your cash flow if you could just improve how people find your products and services. Your website copy and design are key, yet how do prospects find your site? Through search engines. Knowing how to get your site in a Google search top 10 — search engine optimization (SEO) — is essential. Then knowing how your site can close the deal is critical. Steve tells you how, as well as pointing out the most common mistakes and how to prevent them. He tells you how to track where your visitors come from, where they enter your site and where they leave, so you can plug up holes that make them leave before buying.
Steve speaks in English, not techno-babble, so you won't be overwhelmed with terms you don't know. However, he does encourage — and wishes he could insist — that your webmaster listen as well. But you listen too, as you need to know how to create the strategy and make sure your webmaster is doing what will propel your business to the top Google search results.
You will learn:
- How to determine if your webmaster has any idea about SEO.
- How to figure out what categories you want to dominate.
- To use the best tools for cracking into the top 10 of a Google search for your topic.
- How your page can be optimized to put more money in your pocket.
- What tools you need to monitor your results.
- What is page ranking, why should you care, and how can you raise yours.
More about our guest expert:
Steve says this about himself: "After falling asleep doing a Google search for my website, I decided to learn how to optimize my chances for search engines' actually finding my sites. I am not a propeller-head, and am actually quite intimidated by all the code needed for a successful site, but I have found individuals who love code as much as I love search engine optimization. My sites are in the top 10 for Google searches, with one being #1. I share step-by-step strategies for you to dominate your category, and, more importantly, generate cash flow for you!"
www.stevemertz.com
'Attracting and Retaining Corporate Sponsorship'
Guest Expert: Nancy Michaels
The Program:
Learn the steps needed to develop innovative and mutually beneficial sponsorship relationships. Nancy Michaels divulges the simple 10-step process that she used to gain over $200,000 in sponsorships in one year.
You will learn:
- Generate a fabulous idea sponsors will embrace
- Identify and ensure that the corporate vision and goals are in alignment with what your idea accomplishes
- Introduce this idea to the highest-level person within the corporation
- Present an outstanding proposal/offer
- Under-promise and over-deliver
- Always be willing to increase your value by offering sound advice -- even when it's not to your advantage
- Be prepared to pounce when you hit the mark
- Treat the sponsor as a valued client
Additional resources for this seminar:
Handout-- (PDF, 100K)
More about our guest expert:
Nancy Michaels ...
-Is the author of five books on marketing for small businesses, including Perfecting Your Pitch (Career Press 2005), Off The Wall Marketing Ideas (Adams Media 2000), How To Be A Big Fish In Any Pond, Media Madness, and A to Z to Visibility.
-Is the Small Business Editor at US News & World Report, and the Small Business Marketing Expert for Entrepreneur Magazine, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Small Business (FSB), Success Magazine, The New York Post, Franchising Magazine, among numerous other publications
-Has spoken in 42 states to more than 30,000 entrepreneurs on behalf of such clients as Office Depot, Merrill Lynch, Fleet Bank, Indoor Tanning Salon Association, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, among many others
Is the first recipient to win the Tom Peters WOW! Project Personified Award (2002) that hails individuals who take on WOW! projects. The WOW! Project was a cover story for Fast Company magazine
-Acts as Lead Consultant of Office Depot.com's Web Cafe Series of online seminars geared toward small business owners
And her speaker team, have conducted more than 600 seminars in three years on behalf of a national retailer where sales increased 200 to 300 percent on the days of these events
-Was a nationally syndicated newspaper small business columnist for Scripps-Howard News Service (1999-2000)
-Also was the publicist for Matt Lauer (currently co-host of the Today show)
-Is president of her marketing company, Impression Impact, which she launched in 1990.
-Is Founder and President of the Grow Your Business Network.
www.impressionimpact.com
'InfoGuru Marketing: Leveraging What You Know
to Attract All the Clients You Can Handle'
Guest Expert: Robert Middleton
Additional resources for this seminar:
Book chapter -- (PDF, 64K)
The Program:
Marketing often feels like a struggle. You are always trying to convince someone that you are the right person for the job. You are trying to GET clients. The problem is, trying to GET clients is a strategy that is ultimately doomed to failure. Your prospects don't want to be GOTTEN. That's why you may experience so much resistance and rejection.
Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing urges his clients to give up GETTING and start GIVING in a strategy he calls "InfoGuru Marketing." The InfoGuru Marketing Principle is based on the idea that we, as experts or "gurus" in our given fields, can leverage what we know by giving away information as our primary marketing strategy. InfoGurus have mastered the art of sharing just enough of what they know to entice prospective clients to ask and pay for more.
In this teleseminar you'll learn the core principles of being an InfoGuru Marketer and start attracting all the clients you can handle. Everyone who signs up for this teleseminar will receive the first chapter from Robert's new online book, The InfoGuru Marketing Manual.
You will learn:
- What information you can give away absolutely free
- How much you can give away and what you must hold back
- How to create a huge qualified list of products by giving away one simple thing
- When to end the giving and start the selling (without their noticing)
- How to recruit others who will gladly help you give your information away
- How to tap into the principles of Selfishness, Familiarity, Resonance and Reciprocity
- The fundamentals of the "Perpetual Marketing Machine"
More about our guest expert:
From Robert's bio:
I've been self employed most of my working life. Helping people market their businesses didn't come as an academic calling but as a strategy for survival. In 1984 I started to teach what I'd learned to small businesses to help them survive as well. In the past 14 years I've had some great success stories.
I've always tried to stick to one key principal: emphasize practical strategies and tactics that people can actually use to attract new clients. I also do my best to practice what I preach. My marketing efforts bring me all the business I can handle. My goal is to show you how you can do that as well (without spending a fortune).
About half of my business is consulting/coaching and the other half is designing service business web sites. I concentrate on the area I really know: service business marketing.
www.actionplan.com