"It's not like I ever make money from speaking at summits." Have you ever found yourself saying that? I have heard it from speaker after speaker over the years, and I'm here to tell you: it's not true!

If you do it right, you CAN make money from summits as an affiliate, among other options. With this snippet from her Sell With a Summit: Speaker Edition session, Dama's here sharing some of her strategies for how to succeed as a speaker-affiliate, and it may just change the game for you.

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Want to learn more about booking more summit speaking engagements and making more money from them? Get access to the rest of Dama's session - and more! - so you can up your summit speaking success at https://sellwithasummit.com/speakeredition/

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Mentioned in this episode:

Summit Speaker Strategy Audio Training

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Speaker Audio Training

Welcome to Virtual Summit Success.

I'm Jenn, founder of Virtual Summit Search, and you're in the right place

if you want to make the most of your virtual summit experience, whether

you're a host or virtual summit speaker.

Let's get going with your next step to virtual summit success.

"It's not like I ever make money from speaking at summits."

Have you ever found yourself saying that?

I have heard it from speaker after speaker over the years, and I'm

it's not true!

If you do it right, you CAN make money from summits as an

affiliate, among other options.

With this snippet from her Sell With a Summit: Speaker Edition session, Dama's

here sharing some of her strategies for how to succeed as a speaker-affiliate,

and it may just change the game for you.

Want to be a star summit speaker who gets invited back referred to other

hosts, accompanied by rave reviews and makes money from summit speaking?

If you're ready to crush it as a summit speaker and affiliate, then

get ready, because this session is going to show you how to be a

successful affiliate as a speaker.

I'm Jenn, host of Sell With a Summit:

Speaker Edition, and I'm so excited to

I'm Jenn, host of Sell With a Summit:

introduce you to the amazing Dama Jue, a certified funnel strategist and summit pro

I'm Jenn, host of Sell With a Summit:

who has helped her clients go from zero to six figures, which is crazy awesome.

I'm Jenn, host of Sell With a Summit:

Thank you so much for being here, Dama.

Hey, I am so excited to partner with you and thank you for having me.

This is an honor.

Yeah, when you suggested this topic, I was so excited because it's a question

I get from a lot of summit speakers.

So before we dive into the details of being a successful speaker-affiliate,

can you give us a quick overview of how you approach this?

Yeah, sure.

So a big part of being a speaker is what you want...

you know, getting your message out there, but there's another part of it and it says

supporting your host as a speaker with promoting, and then also earning for you,

because most hosts are going to make sure that there's an affiliate opportunity.

And in case you're not familiar with the way that works, it means you earn a small

percentage or a commission of every sale.

And the commission can range, but, it's always nice to get those

little notifications, like you've referred a sale- it's always fun.

So just in terms of like, an overview, there are some kind

of essentials that you...

that are so important that a lot of times I think people overlook.

make it relatable.

This is huge.

We often think a lot about what I'm getting out of this as a speaker,

but what's in it for my audience?

Why do they care?

Why should they care?

And we'll talk a little bit more about this in this presentation,

but make it relatable.

Make the effort.

If you're going to send only one email or do one social media posts, make sure

you relate the summit and the promise of the summit to your specific audience.

That's huge.

And then another thing that I see is you the best promoters and speaker

affiliates, they start early and actually schedule in the time for promoting.

'Cause we often think, "okay, the summit is October 5-7.

Cool, I'll just make sure I'm there for that," but actually that's way too

late to be thinking about promoting.

You're supposed to promote earlier.

You want to get people on the registration page early so they can

block the time off, be excited, all those things, and that you can earn.

So make the schedule.

And I'm going to give you guys like, a legit - get your pen out, we have homework

- I'm gonna give you guys a schedule.

So start that early.

The minute you accept a speaking agreement, make sure you're putting

that on your schedule, on your calendar, not only when the summit is going to

be, but when you need to be promoting, because that's a very easy to overlook

and you can get it done early.

And then the next thing is big is a big key is to be efficient and kind of

direct your blows or put your energy behind where it's going to have the most

bang for the buck, energy and time-wise.

Because I don't know a single entrepreneur speaker who's

like, "I just have so much time!

I can just spend a million, you know, I have...

I'm just rolling deep in time."

We're all super busy and pulled in a million directions.

Being a business owner is wearing many, many hats, so be efficient.

Think about...

think about where your audience is most active - not just numbers, like

well, I have the biggest following over here, but then my engagement rate

is low here, or I have this massive 5,000 person Facebook group, but

nobody's posted in there in forever.

So think about where your audience is most engaged and then focus on...

focus your attention on there.

And you can always throw a little post up in that Facebook group later, but

focus more on where your people are at and where you see the most click and

forward and share and the most activity.

And then this is the last, the kind of the basic of being an affiliate

is be persistent but not pushy.

And that's tricky.

A lot of people are like, "oh, I told them about the summit, but I don't want to...

I don't want to be pushy.

I don't want to come off salesy."

Well, this is like a whole 'nother thing, but sales is a service.

They might desperately need what that summit is about.

That might be the unstuck moment or the get moving or the take action or

the light bulb moment that changes the entire trajectory of their business.

And here you are like, bogarting it over here?

Like, "oh, I'm speaking at a summit, but don't...

I don't want to push it to hard!"

Tell them what it's about and why they're going to benefit from it.

And don't be afraid to remind them.

slap a little PS in your next weekly email.

How about a catchy hook and say, "I got you.

You can't miss the five steps I laid out to be an effective summits

speaker-affiliate, including one that is going to blow your

mind that so many people have heard," or something like that.

Make it...

I mean, it's sales copy.

You want them to be excited and compelled.

And the role of selling is not just the host's.

You as a speaker, you only benefit the more successful the summit is - that's

more reach, that's more eyes on your content, that's more people knowing

your name and be like, "oh, I know her.

I've heard of Jenn Zellers I've heard her speak at a summit before."

You want that, and that's a big part of being a good speaker and

the perks that you get as a speaker, but you need to do your part too and

get people, get eyes on the page.

So don't be afraid to remind them.

And I'm going to give you, in my little summit affiliate promo plan, a

couple of ways that you can do that.

So I think those are the four tenets: be relatable, start early,

be efficient, and be persistent.

Those are fantastic tenets.

That is a really great way to approach it.

And it makes it feel really doable.

So you already covered some of the reasons why it's important for summit speakers

to create an affiliate strategy in the last question, but are there any other

things that you think are important as to why they should create that affiliate

strategy to get a bigger return from their summit speaking experience?

Yeah, absolutely.

If you don't make a plan, it's not going to get done and/or it's

either not going to get done and you're not going to promote it all.

You'll be embarrassed and be like, "sorry, host, thank you so much for including me.

I told you I was amped to promote and then I didn't."

Or you'll be embarrassed and you'll do it at the last second, it will

be totally half-baked and everyone - including your audience and the

host - everyone's going to know.

So yeah, you don't want to leave it to the last second or just hope and

pray or willy nilly because it's either going to be half-baked or not at

all, and that's not good for anybody.

Yeah.

I fully agree.

I always try if I'm planning to do a big push with an affiliate or, well, a

promotion as a summit speaker, I guess I should say, I always try to make sure

to plan it ahead 'cause personally I...

when I do put it off to the last minute, it just doesn't happen.

And like you said, I'm like, oh, I kind of let that speaker down.

So that kind of leads to...

And you feel terrible about it.

Not that...

it's not a reflection on the summit or the host and...

or even the quality of the swipe copy they gave you.

It's just time, you know, crazy busy-ness and ah, I'm going to

get to it, I'm going to get to.

And yeah, that...

we always end up - I always end up feeling disappointed in myself when

I let down, when I drop the ball and I don't do what I can or I do at

super last minute, like, I'll just get a slap up this Instagram post and

hope she sees that I did, you know?

Yeah.

And that kind of leads into my next question, which is what are some

of the biggest ways that you tend to see summit speakers go wrong and

sabotage their affiliate success?

Yeah.

One, of course, is wait till the last minute.

Don't wait to last minute, y'all, like, just factor in some time.

The ROI on being a speaker is huge for so many reasons.

And I know that's going to be covered at the summit, but for me,

I love getting my name out there.

I love teaching.

I love connecting with people.

I love the energy of a live event, but it also relates back to sales,

subscribers, and clients, if you're done-for-you providers.

So show up and be authentic and deliver, but you don't reap all the benefits if

you don't promote, because you don't promote and she doesn't promote and he

doesn't promote and the summit doesn't get as much attention as it deserves.

And summits are a huge labor of love.

And so if we don't do our parts as speakers, you probably aren't

ever going to be invited back.

And I don't want to scare anybody, but yeah, like what Jenn mentioned

at the beginning of the interview:

speakers talk and they refer each other.

at the beginning of the interview:

A lot of my speaking engagements now come from, "I heard you're

at the beginning of the interview:

awesome, so-and-so recommended you."

at the beginning of the interview:

And then I, you know, like, so if you don't do your part, you're not gonna

at the beginning of the interview:

get a lot more speaking invitations.

at the beginning of the interview:

And it's all invitation-only you can't just randomly email people

at the beginning of the interview:

and be like, "if you're ever thinking of doing a summit, please

at the beginning of the interview:

include me" - that doesn't work.

at the beginning of the interview:

It's all about either your content or your reputation or preferably both.

at the beginning of the interview:

So yeah, it's important.

at the beginning of the interview:

Don't wait till the last minute, be a good speaker.

at the beginning of the interview:

A couple other things is using copy - the swipe copy.

at the beginning of the interview:

'Cause a lot of hosts provide swipe copy, and that is awesome.

at the beginning of the interview:

Y'all, don't use it word for word.

at the beginning of the interview:

Like, just don't don't just copy and paste and dump it in.

at the beginning of the interview:

I like to look at it as a jumping off point or as an inspiration place,

at the beginning of the interview:

because more often than not, most people will see a blank Google Doc, and

at the beginning of the interview:

like, "oh God, I gotta write this now.

at the beginning of the interview:

I don't know what to say!"

at the beginning of the interview:

You know, we get paralyzed by a blank screen, but when we read a

at the beginning of the interview:

swipe copy, we think of, you know, be looking for ways you can customize it.

at the beginning of the interview:

You can go ahead and copy the details of the event.

at the beginning of the interview:

Like these are the dates, these are the presentations I'm

at the beginning of the interview:

excited for - that kind of stuff.

at the beginning of the interview:

Go ahead and copy that word for word; that's why the host put it there.

at the beginning of the interview:

But the intro to your email, the exact copy for your Instagram

at the beginning of the interview:

posts, other people might do the same and you don't want to be

at the beginning of the interview:

posting the same thing as Sally.

at the beginning of the interview:

Like it's just awkward.

at the beginning of the interview:

So don't use it word for word, use the whole email or

at the beginning of the interview:

Instagram posts word for word.

at the beginning of the interview:

Just use that information on parts about the event and always add your own intro.

at the beginning of the interview:

And then the last thing I see that can really make a difference is

at the beginning of the interview:

not having a multi-pronged plan.

at the beginning of the interview:

Like we talked about, they'll just send one quick email, but email...

at the beginning of the interview:

you know, I love email marketing, but not everybody opens your emails.

at the beginning of the interview:

Not everybody, not everything lands in Inbox.

at the beginning of the interview:

Most of it lands in Promotion and a lot lately going to spam because Gmail

at the beginning of the interview:

has been a little bit funny about that.

at the beginning of the interview:

So a lot of your audience might also follow you on Instagram or be in

at the beginning of the interview:

your Facebook group or follow you on Clubhouse or whatever you're doing.

at the beginning of the interview:

So think about where they're at and promote at least two places.

So, yeah, I fully agree with the swipe copy.

That is something that always kind of bugs me a little bit when I am on

the list of multiple people who are speaking at the same summit and I

get the exact same email from them.

So if you're struggling with figuring out how to customize your swipe copy

and make sure to watch Paul's session on that, too, and definitely put it

out on multiple places, whether it's Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest or...

and definitely your email list.

'Cause that's...

always...

you want to do at least one email, but that's something that I think

a lot of folks are like, "I'll just throw up a post on Instagram, awesome;

that one email" and call it done.

And that's not going to get you very far as a speaker-affiliate.

Yeah, totally agree with that.

All right.

So we...

I know we covered a lot and I'm so glad that you came on and

shared all this with us, Dama, so thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me.

This was so much fun.

I love nerding out on all things.

Me too.

So if you haven't already, go and grab the Summit Buzz Builder Kit down

below this video, and don't forget to schedule those emails to yourself

about the promotion period for your next summit that you're speaking at.

That could really be a game changer in terms of actually getting affiliate

income from the summits that you speak at.

And if you have any questions for Dama, go ahead and head over to the community.

I'm sure she would be happy to answer them over there for you!

Yep.

You got it.

Bye guys.

See you soon.

We didn't have time to get into all of the strategies we talked about during

the full session - we covered things like why it's important to figure out

what's in it for your audience, boosting your summit graphics, email segmentation

for someone's success, and more.

Honestly, you can apply a lot of what we talked about to business in general, too!

Grab the full session and so much more at sellwithasummit.com/speakeredition.

Thanks for listening to Virtual Summit Success.

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takeaways from this episode.

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summits there are, the more tips we'll have to share with you.

For show notes, links, and other resources, go to virtualsummitsuccess.live