Want to do business networking better? Learn these tips to stretch your revenue as a paid speaker or get more clients by finding a perfect speaker. 

Our guest today is Jeff Klein, a Speaker, Speaker Coach, Booker, and Trainer. He is the author of 30 Seconds to Success: Generating Referrals with Your Elevator Pitch, and the upcoming Speaking As a Business Strategy: 9 Laws to Business Speaking Success. Following successful careers in Advertising, Marketing, and Production, Jeff’s individual and group programs assist professionals, who are responsible for generating revenue, to create great opportunities to sell. He continues to speak to trade associations, sales organizations, national conventions, and business groups.

Tune in as we get to learn Jeff Klein's advice and tips on how to earn big as a speaker by making wise and proper offers, then turning your audiences into clients. He shares all about teaching speakers the elevator pitch, how to network, and how to do business networking better. Jeff also talks about learning from your mistakes, as well as learning from others’ mistakes and making speaking never a practice but a real deal. Stay tuned as he shares his amazing collaboration and partnerships as he's growing his business.

Jeff's Website: https://speakercoop.com/

Book Recommendation: Free Publicity by Jeff Crilley

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Until next time, keep moving forward!

Chuck Anderson,

Affiliate Management Expert + Investor + Mentor

http://AffiliateManagementExpert.com/

You have to value yourself. And you have to make decisions, you know, and a lot of people, just that you just have to make it off the offer properly. And here's how I put it, I'm going to give your group value for 18 minutes, I guarantee I'm going to give value they can take away and use without paying anything. And by giving value for 18 minutes, I've earned the right to make a gentle offer for two minutes.

Hey, it's Chuck here, and I'm so glad that you're listening to this episode. And I just want to take this quick moment right now to let you know about our free collaborators toolkit. And this episode is all about partnership and collaboration. And our guests share many resources, tools, and the things that you can use to make collaboration and partnership easier in your business. So if you're looking for better ways to grow and scale your business, through collaborations, and strategic partnerships, this free collaborators toolkit is going to contain the best resources from our workshops, as well as contributions from our guests. And these tools could be the missing link that you've been looking for. And they're going to help you to solve everyday business challenges, and access, highly effective ideas that can help and grow your business exponentially. I know they've helped me and I know they're going to help you as well. And the best part about these tools is that they're completely free. And our gift to you for being a valued member of our community, and a subscriber to the show. So you can get access to all of the resources contained inside the collaborators toolkit today by visiting the website at WWW.collaboratorsunite.com/toolkit. That address again is www.collaboratorsunite.com/toolkit. Go ahead and register today get access to all the resources. And I'm gonna see you on the inside. Now. Here's the episode.

Hello, everybody. And welcome back to the show Chuck Anderson here. And I am thrilled to have another guest. And we've been looking at this guest on our show for a while. And finally the stars have aligned. And here we are. We are we have Mr. Jeff Klein with us today. And so Jeff, so thrilled to have you on the show.

Thanks, Chuck. I'm glad that we finally got to connect to

Yeah, it's been a while and a long time coming. So look, I'm not going to butcher your introduction, and try to tell your story. Like I'm some sort of smart guy, you tell your story. So let's start with who you are and what you do. And we'll take it from so.

So here's what's funny about that, Chuck, how I got started as a speaker was teaching people how to say what they do in a way that other people care. And I was because I was teaching the elevator pitch. And people just don't know how to say what they do. And so I That's my prime, my content was all about teaching the elevator pitch and teaching me how to how to network, how to do business networking better. And that led me to become a speaker, teacher of that. And then I because I spoke so much, I became an expert on speaking for business, and speaking Viet clients. So I'm that guy you want on your side telling helping you turn speaking into clients.

And turning speaking into clients, I think is so important. I mean, so many of our audience members are speakers, and podcasters. And a question we get speakers. I mean, if you're allowed to sell from stage, wonderful, but so many of the opportunities, you can't really do that anymore. And even list building is is challenging in with some of them. podcasters we hear all the time, like, Man, I really love doing this. I really love speaking I love publishing the show, but I'm not making any money doing this. And so, you know, let's, let's talk about that a little bit.

All right, so I'll be I'll be completely open with you, Chuck. I don't do anything that doesn't have a revenue at the end of it. Now, now, I don't want to make I mean, I have philanthropy in my life and I have causes I believe in and I contribute to absolutely. Well when it comes to business stuff, everything I teach, speak to get paid. And we offer people a letter of agreement they can use to do that. So the letter of agreement includes a clause that says I will get all the the eye the speaker will get all the emails of the audience. And it also includes I will make an offer I will make a gentle offer.

And are you finding that that puts a lot of Ah house at ease when you when you present it that way?

Yeah, the only the only pushback I get is I don't know if I'm authorized to sign this. And I just say, well, for the last 16 years, every other rotary Lions Club, whatever, they've signed it, and if they are they had their President sign it, you know, whatever. But, you know, and it makes sure that the speaker gets their, their meal paid for, which, you know, is a little thing, but it's not that little really, when you think about it.

It's a it's a big thing. And I don't know if it was expected. I mean, there was there was certainly speaking engagements where it happened. I'm like, Oh, this is a cool part. But then other ones where they're like, Okay, that'll be that'll be $30 for a meal and

Holy crap. Yeah.

And like, really? Okay, here you go. We should have talked about that beforehand. But, but what I like what you're saying is be proactive, and have that in writing, and have those expectations there before you even start?

Oh, yeah. And, and if they're not willing to do those two, those three, well, maybe not all three, I might be willing to pay for my meal if it's a big enough group. But if they're not willing to do the email, and the and the, the offer, and there's there's workarounds, but at a minimum, you know, then I'm sorry, I'm not available unless you're paying something. Because that's the fee. Right? This is I'm doing this to build my business. I'm not doing this to entertain, right. And there's nothing wrong with that, you know, this is America, or Canada, or if you're listening, but, but the idea is that we're a capitalist country. And that's how we were built, and we're built on entrepreneurship and all that good stuff. So there's nothing wrong with wanting to make money and making it making a living. Right.

Absolutely. And, you know, it's interesting to see the attitude that is happening with some of the speaking opportunities, the stage hosts think they're the ones that are awesome in control. And the speakers, you know, they're providing the content and, you know, some amazing messages and stuff. And it's like, you know, can't we all just get along?

Right? Well, and the truth is, if somebody says, Well, I can't really have you make an offer from the stage, blah, blah, blah. So okay, well, can I have a table in the back of the room?

Hmm.

Right? Or can I have a, if it's an event, then you know, that's something I mean, I'm not paying for my own travel, if I have to go somewhere. But can I have a booth at your exhibit? If you're paying my travel, right, and some of these, it's amazing, some of these people will only pay for your attendance at an event the day of and not the whole event? I'm like, holy cow.

Right.

Yeah. And but, you know, again, who's, it's as you have to value yourself, and you have to make decisions, you know, and a lot of people just that, you just have to make it off the offer properly. And here's how I put it, I'm going to give your group value for 18 minutes, I guarantee, I'm going to give value they can take away and use without paying anything. And by giving value for 18 minutes, I've earned the right to make a gentle offer for two minutes.

Sounds like a win win to me and always has, sometimes we have to get a little creative in terms of how we're going to get the leads or how we're going to make that gentle offer.

Yeah, I've got gobs of testimonials. I don't have any complaints about it.

But somehow, like certain stage hosts, they're, they're like, We don't want you to sell. So then the question becomes like, Well, how do you sell? How do you kind of fly under the radar and sell without, you know, making them feel comfortable, right? Because they're like, oh, you can't sell to our audience. But at the same time, the speaker still gets paid. And, you know, we hopefully we're not scaring people away from speaking because you can definitely make money and Jeff and I both make money speaking so we want you to at least get that message. So, Jeff, like, for the listeners that are listening in and going, Okay, I'm speaking I want to make sure I make money from every speech like you guys are doing, you know, where does what's the first place they should start?

Well quit using the word sell. Because, unfortunately, everybody in your audience is in sales. The unfortunately as sales has a bad rep. I mean, Zig Ziglar spent his whole life telling people that not to be ashamed of being a salesman, right? But just I'm going to make an offer. Now, I'm going to make an offer about how people can work with me. If you have to say more than make an offer. What kind of offer Well, I'm going to offer people to how they can learn more about working with me

And seems to make sense and when you say it like that. I mean I get it like cells come It sounds like I'm going to sell you something, I'm going to convince you of something that you may or may not be interested in, but I'm going to make an offer. It's really up to you whether you say yes, or no to that, because it's an offer. Which, Jeff, would you like a bite of the sandwich? No, I don't. Okay, no problem. I'll eat it myself.

Yeah, I'm gonna offer my book, I'm gonna offer my a webinar, I'm gonna, you know, and I teach folks offer three things at different prices, you know, as part of it, and is there's a psychology. And if you don't make an offer, you're just a free resource for information. Does the audience the audience doesn't know you haven't been paid? And that's the other thing. The first thing, Chuck is to say, what's your budget for speakers? And they'll say, Oh, well, we're nonprofit, we don't have a budget. Now. Those are not mutually exclusive. By the way. Lots of nonprofits pay for speakers. But your answer should be? Well, tell me about your group. Because sometimes I waive my fee for the right in the right situation. Now, immediately, you set a value on what you're doing. And if they say, Oh, we absolutely cute, absolutely can't sell from the steak. Like, well, I've heard that a lot. I've heard that there's a lot of speakers who have ruined that for the rest of us, or we, you know, whatever. But I have a reputation of making an offer that nobody is offended by. And people want to work with me and, or whatever. And if they Well, they stick to their guns, you just say thank you, I'm not available.

And I think it's really staying true to that intention. Like if you have the intention that you're going to be paid as a speaker, to look for those opportunities that are welcoming to you, or at least open to that. And I love. I love what you just described, as you know how to kind of get around that because by default, it's so much. So often now there's like, Oh, this is no pitch and, you know, none of this and none of that. And I think you've got a really great way of like turning that conversation and reopening that door, because I think so many speakers assume that that they read it in print, that door is closed. And you and I both know that that's not true.

Yeah. When they'll say no pitch and that you say, Can I bring my books? And they'll go Oh, sure.

Right. But I can sell my book, but you don't want me to Pitch Anything else? Okay. No problem.

Yeah, yeah. It's like, yeah. And then you say, Well, can I offer my webinar? Well, maybe I mean, again, depends on the conversation. But you know, but in the fallback is a table in the room? Or, well, if you're if I can't, if I can't make an offer, can you? Will you buy five books or guarantee that I sell five books? And if nobody buys one, that means you got to buy? And there's ways and I've done this before? I've said, which, you know, can you get somebody to sponsor five books? But there's also a tweak there? Because I said, Well, why don't you know if you can get somebody to sponsor 10 books, and then you can give away as door prizes? Well, the caveat I missed was, they came all the way at the same meeting. So nobody bought a book about me.

Yeah, so just killed on the book sale. Yeah, right. Yeah. So

And what I wanted them to do was get two or three away at every meeting for the next few meetings.

Yeah, and it's advertising for you and getting the word out about your book. So

Yes.

So I mean, it really speaks to, you know, on this entrepreneurial journey is the learning from our successes, but learning even more from our mistakes. It's like, I tried to this thing, it didn't work. It's not I'll never do that again. But what can I learn from this and adopt and do it differently next time? And that's really what I hear you saying?

Yeah, that's the premise of all my education. Chuck mom and dad said, Learn from your mistakes. How about learn from somebody else's mistakes, it's a lot less painful. I mean, I got the road rash, I cried the tears. You know, let me take five, six years off your journey, because I live them and you don't have to.

Well completely make sense. And, you know, in the world of speaking right now and getting paid to speak it's unnecessary for someone to blaze the trail that that trail blazed and and it's you've made it your business to teach them how to monetize, which is great.

Yeah. And I'm so sick and tired of hearing people say, well practice stages. There aren't. You know, there's a we've got access to a wonderful practice stage. There's some mutual people we joint venture with. And those are practice stages because you're speaking to other speakers, and we're critiquing each other and it's wonderful. But if you're in front of an audience, that is not a practice stage. If you're that's a professional appearance, and you're in it doesn't mean you have to be. It doesn't mean you don't get better every time you speak because you do. But it's not a rehearsal. It's the real deal. So forget saying, You need to be I am. I've been hearing this lately, and I'm really, every time I hear about her, but I can't, you know, you need to be on 50 stages, you need to be on 100 stages before you get good. And it's like, whatever. Okay? You every time you're in front of an audience, yes, you use that to get better. But it's a real deal. It's not practice. It's not rehearsal. It's the deal. And it's the latest speech. So it's your best.

Right, and the next one can be better, and the next quarter better, and the next one could be better. And I completely with you. And that's how I got started. When I look back, I think my first one sucked. But did the audience get something great out of it? Of course they did. They loved it. And I thought really like but and but I looked at things like okay, what parts worked, what parts didn't work, reset, make a new plan. Do the next one. And the next one. And the next.

Yeah,

Right.

Yeah. And that's how I created my system, because I did 250 talks over a three year period. And, you know, once a week, and then twice a week for three years. And I figured a bunch of stuff out, because by doing but again, not a single one of those that I think of as practice.

Right? Yeah, I totally agree with you. I mean, the practice is you're doing you're on right. And so it's just experience, everyone has a first time and a second time and a third time. And it's

all actors work. It's how stand up comedians work. It's never practice. It's working.

Yeah, you're on. Right. Let's go, right. So I love all of that. And, you know, the big takeaway there is, you know, put yourself out there, but learn from it. And, you know, if it's not working for you, and you again, you don't have to blaze the trail, you can get help. And, you know, help is right here. And we're gonna make sure that we connect you with Jeff, you know, at the end of this episode, one of the themes of our show, Jeff, is I always want to ask is about partnership and collaboration, because I know, nobody really does anything alone. And speaking is a collaboration between speaker and co host and promoters, and just all of that. And so, you know, what's your experience been with partnerships and collaborations. And

Let me tell you the short, short version of how I figured out that started, because I had an ad agency and I had done this speaking. And this was before I did the 250 gigs. But I had been doing one or two a month. And I had, I've started meeting other people who were doing, who were speaking in for different reasons. And I call I called I asked some folks to come to it to have a coffee. And we're sitting around talking about ways to get in front of more audiences. And I said, Well, why don't we start a lunch? Why don't we have a networking group for people who speak, you know, not NSA, where they teach you about the business of speaking, but a networking group for people who speak? And they want a great idea, Jeff, why don't you start a group and we'll support you? And the truth is, that's what happened. I mean, I started it, and they supported me. And if they hadn't, it wouldn't work. And that was the biggest collaboration. And, and we had we went so we, somebody found the venue. And I got us on evite, and you know, all this stuff. And we showed up at the first meeting, and 50 people were there. Wow, holy cow, right. And then we started doing this, and we and we it was then it was first it was just little showcasing each other, right. And then as the time went on once a month, third, Friday, third Friday, every month where you know, and it grew. And then after a few years, I shut down the ad agency and I, I turned speaker cop into my business. And, you know, and I, and always, of course, believing in joint venture. But that's how we started even though I really didn't even wasn't sure I knew the term but at that point, but that's how it all started was these five other people asking me, you know, they people they knew. And then we discovered meetup a couple of years later, but with eBUY as you know, you can only invite people you know, you can only invite people you know, yeah. Evite you have to have somebody's email address.

Okay, right.

Yeah. Because he might was built for parties and stuff. And meetup didn't exist yet or it may happen we didn't know

Right

so like two years in we switched to meet up and we grew you know, we grew to now we're at like 1800 or something but

Rright, sure. So now you can get out to like a bigger audience but you know, creative way to use evite right because that you're right. That's not what it was designed for but it sure got adopted.

Yeah. Yeah. And the beauty of Meetup is people who don't know, you can find

Exactly what, which is kind of the point of putting yourself out there as a speaker, as well as get your message out there, the people who've never heard of you before,

Right. And since Now, thankfully, they adopted the whole virtual thing. And now we've got members from all over the world on our website.

Hmm. Amazing. Well, we're gonna make sure that we, we connect the dots between our audience and you. And, you know, if you want to make money as a speaker, we're going to connect you with Jeff. But before we do that, Jeff, I just want a couple of things that we have as part of our show, because part of this entrepreneurial journey is, you know, learning in our business and learning and growing ourselves as well. And for me, there's been some amazing leaders and mentors and thought, you know, people that I've learned a lot from book authors, etc. You know, who's been the most influential for you? Or, or even one that you would recommend that our listeners check?

Yeah. I'm glad you asked that question, because I don't get asked that much. And usually, and the truth is, Chuck, I don't really have a primary mentor, truthfully, except maybe my dad, but a rest. But this guy was one of those five people. And, you know, we became buddies. And his book was influential on me as far as using a book to speak and make money and all these other things. But his name is Jeff Crilley. And he's a former TV reporter. And the book is called lol. But Jeff, so Jeff showed me that speaking could be really influential. And he showed me how to beat you how to use your expertise from the front of the room to build a following. He built a huge following. And it's funny. We're on Podapalooza today because Jeff had a monthly event that drag brought in about 200 people. And the joke was we call it Crilley Palooza. As a joke, we kind of adopted that name for it, but it was Yeah. And the but But Jeff would, he would like to have people standing to volunteer. And he would teach them how to use PR, free media to promote their business. So somebody would say, Well, I do this, and I don't know how to do that. And he would go Okay, how about this, you try this and that and that? And they would go? Oh, my God, that's a great idea. And then they would go off and and get on the news.

Wow, amazing. And so now, we talked beforehand that we're going to ask everyone for a book recommendation. So book by the same?

Yeah. Jeff Crilley. His book is called Free Publicity.

Free Publicity.

Yeah. And he sold 1000s of these books, just from speaking. And it's, you know, it's a thick book, but it's got some amazing strategies to get yourself on this. And this was pre podcast, this was you know, 15 years ago, was 17, you know, and I've used some of the ideas to get clients on the news when I was doing the advertising thing. And it really, really works.

Well. Paying for advertising is expensive. But if you can get the news interested in you, then you get Free Publicity. And, you know, there are some very big name people in the world, we don't need to mention who they are, we're very, very skilled at creating situations where the news is going to plaster their name over every

Yeah. This is all positive, supposedly,

In a positive way, not as Yeah, you know, we're gonna turn the whole world upside down sort of way.

Right.

So, Jeff, thank you so much for that recommendation. And, you know, you know, as we kind of bring this to a close, let everyone know about Speakers Coop, and where they can where they can find you and connect with you.

Sure. So, Speakercoop.com is the website. It is a online directory of speakers. So meeting planners can find them. And we get several 100 meeting planners a month, coming to the site to find speakers for their events. And those are both the old fashioned get paid to speak. And the even older fashion, Rotary lunch, chamber lunch, where they're never going to pay the speaker. But you have an opportunity to make a lot of money without getting paid up front.

And to learn how to do it, right, no better person to learn it from than us. So make sure you connect with Jeff, get yourself into that directory if you're looking to speak and make money from it. Jeff, thank you so much for everything that you've shared with us. And we're gonna make sure that we have all your links down below this video and in the show notes and all of that. And so as we kind of bring this to a close if you're going to leave our audience with just one final word of wisdom or tip or a piece of advice, what would you tell them?

I got it Just steal Nikes logo Chuck and just say just do it. Quit waiting, quit trying to perfect everything. perfect is the enemy of great. Just go out there and do it.

Exactly right, just do it. And and like we shared earlier you learn from each experience and each experience builds on the on the rest. There's no practice, there's only you're on. Right, you're live, right. So I think great takeaway for our audience today. So please go check out Jeff. If you're looking to get paid from your speaking, then go ahead and connect with Jeff. We've got all the links there. And make sure you tune in for our next episode, we'll have other amazing tips and tricks and guests for you all of that and make sure you keep moving forward, keep being awesome in your pursuit of your dreams and your business and getting your message out there in a big, big way, making a positive impact in the world. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, our audience. We'll see you on the next one.