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"I really train people to say something significant. … I teach people to go deeper and to really access their own brilliance and their own take on some of these topics."
Vickie Sullivan,
of Sullivan Speaker Services in Tempe.
Paul F. Gero/The Arizona Republic
AZ Republic article:
MONEY TALKS
It's easier to speak when spoken to by a pro
By Janet Perez
Special for the Republic
It takes a bit more than just imagining the audience in its underwear to make an effective public speaker.
Just ask Vickie Sullivan. She has been nurturing the careers of professional public speakers around the country for 10 years through her Tempe-based Sullivan Speaker Services.
"I really train people to say something significant," Sullivan said. "There’s a lot of material that’s being covered over and over again in the marketplace. I teach people to go deeper and to really access their own brilliance and their own take on some of these topics. That’s what will get them the bookings."
Sullivan helps fledgling public speakers craft their message and their content. She also helps them hone speaking skills by directing clients to speech coaches, comedy writers and the like.
"If their message isn’t market-able because they restate material that already has been stated over and over, then we refocus the material," she said. "If their delivery is weak, then we’ll help them with that."
Having the type of direction Sullivan supplies could be the crucial difference between making it as a public speaking in a crowded field.
Bill Webb, a Phoenix author and former college professor, had embarked on his career as a public speaker when he decided to seek additional guidance from Sullivan.
"She was the provider of a road map, with a little bit of crystal ball gazing," Webb said. "Half of the value she provided me was her absolutely prescient ability to look into my potential and see what I could do and how to do it better. She literally turned my life around."
With Sullivan’s help, Webb said he has managed to position his books and services into a solid moneymaking venture.
Along with helping public speakers reach their potential, Sullivan designs marketing plans that allow clients to create other sources of income, such as books, audiotapes and corporate workshops.
A successful public speaker, according to Sullivan, can make between six and seven figures annually.
Since turning to Sullivan, Webb said he has been making "buckets of money."
Although she can now claim a nationwide reputation for nurturing successful public speakers, Sullivan first entered the field as a way of making money until something better came along.
"I answered a trade-journal advertisement to promote a personal growth speaker for 10 hours a week," she said. "After working for a week with this personal-growth speaker, I realized I had found my calling."
Speakers in the Phoenix area soon knew her as the person who had tripled the fees of one speaker.
"So that set my reputation," Sullivan said. "When I decided to hang out my own shingle, I wrote 100 letters to speakers in the Phoenix area. My phone started ringing within 24 hours. Within a week or so, my schedule was completely booked. Within 90 days, my business turned a profit. It’s been growing pretty much by double digits ever since."
Before long, however, Sullivan had repositioned her company from one that promoted speakers, to one that shaped them.
"What I found was that a lot of speakers were not ready to be promoted," she said. "They need some work on their promotional material, their message, that kind of thing. So, I started helping them with that in order to get them ready for the market."
Although becoming a successful public speaker can be lucrative, getting there is expensive.
Promotional material, logos, speech coaches, writers and Sullivan’s own services can create a hefty up front cost for aspiring public speakers. But experience has taught Sullivan that a person ill-prepared to present himself into the highly competitive speaking field will spend even more money in the longrun.
Also, Sullivan won’t take on clients she thinks don’t have what it takes to be public speakers.
"I am known in the industry as being very realistic about someone’s chances in the market," she said. "I would rather tell them the bad news myself, rather than have them spend thousands of dollars trying to get into the speaking market and have the market ignore them."
What Sullivan looks for in a client is a person who has the whole package.
"I have met a lot of people who had a very natural sense of charisma, but there would be nothing inside as far as a message," Sullivan said. "I also have met people who have a very deep wonderful message but couldn’t speak their way out of a paper bag."
Not giving people false hope about their chances for success is very important to Sullivan.
"You’re really working with someone’s dream," she said. "This is their life’s calling.
For more information call Vickie Sullivan (602) 961-4318 Fax (602)961-4398 e-mail: info@SullivanSpeaker.com
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