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The World According to Vickie
(Quotable Quotes You Can Use)
About professional speaking:
“If becoming a high-fee speaker were cheap and easy, everyone would be doing it.”
“Too many experts are doomed before they ever start their speaking businesses. They focus on producing tools such as demo videos before determining their most profitable path. This is called putting the cart before the horse.”
“The marketplace is leaving behind those veteran speakers who won’t let go of their old material and repackage their expertise. Instead of redesigning their careers, they claim there is nothing new under the sun and lose engagements to newer speakers who are seen as cutting edge.”
“There’s a difference between taking conventional wisdom to a new level and making excuses for intellectual laziness.”
“The biggest reason why speakers don’t get what they deserve is that they don’t know where their messages have the most value. Applying those messages in the appropriate places is the most important challenge.”
“Speakers who want more than $7500 for a speech need to focus on media vehicles and visibility rather than cool demo videos.”
About experts who speak to sell™:
“Too many experts expect their speeches to drive all of the lead generation for their product sales. Instead, the speech should be a focal point for other marketing activities.”
“You can spot ‘free experts’ at 50 paces: They begin their speeches with logistics, tell rambling stories with no point, and have no rousing close that creates a call to action.”
“Experts should ‘just say no’ to half of the speaking engagements they accept. Before going to the trouble of completing an RFP (Request For Proposal), they need to find out if attendees can pay for their products and services. There is no point marketing to organizations that can’t afford the investment.”
“Leveraging a speech is not as time-consuming as many experts think. It shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to put a plan on paper and write down a ‘to do’ list. Making it complicated is the #1 reason why leveraging never happens.”
About executives who speak:
“Too many PR firms book speaking engagements that don’t fit the strategy of their executive clients. Instead, they tend to sell the executives on doing speeches they can book easily.”
“Executives who depend too much on speechwriters don’t create a distinctive ‘voice.’ Yet this voice is one of the biggest brand-building tools speaking gives them.”
“The #1 reason why many corporate speakers bureaus are not effective is the lack of knowledge in how to get speaking engagements.”
“Conference organizers love CEOs because they lend a certain cachet to the event. But smart executives won’t accept all speaking invitations. Up front, they ask potential hosts to make a business case for why they should speak at the event.”
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