Transcript:
When it comes to getting booked as a speaker, there’s one thing that’s going to get you the gigs faster than everything else and it’s something that puts people into the right psychology when they’re visiting your website and checking you out.
Most speakers create the wrong state of mind inside the mind of someone hiring them.
I don’t mean that speakers come across as not being likable, what I mean is that speakers don’t create the right mindset that gets them hired.
If you take a look at most speakers marketing materials then you’ll see that they’re coming from the standpoint of, “Please hire me as a speaker.”
All their marketing materials revolve around the concept of asking someone to hire them. They say things like, “If you want to hire John Doe then send us an email.”
What this does is it indirectly suggests that you’re not one of the top speakers.
You’re basically saying, “Hey, can I be invited to your party?”
But the smart speakers do the opposite. They don’t ask if they can be invited to your party, they’re basically saying, “Hey, here’s your invitation to my party.”
Do you see the difference?
The first speaker is begging for the gig. The second speaker is saying that he’s so busy he might not be available to do your event.
How do you think people approach Bill Clinton when they want him to speak at their event? What mindset do you think they’re in? The mindset they’re in is, “Man, I hope he’s even available to come to our event.”
They’re not thinking about the price tag. It’s like Bill Clinton is doing them a favor for letting them book him.
There are two different mindsets that you can put clients in when they’re booking you as a speaker.
The first mindset is, “We need a speaker…yeah, lets bring him in.”
And the second mindset is, “Whoa! Is this speaker even available for our event?”
I really hope you see the difference because this is going to lead to the single most important thing that’s going to get you speaking gigs.
One of the problems I used to have when I started out was that people would approach me and ask ‘how much do I charge’…those were the first words out their mouth. What this implies is that they’re not really interested in you, they’re more interested in the price tag.
What I wanted to do was get people to go from ‘how much do you charge’ to ‘are you available for this date?’
The difference in psychology is huge because the first question suggests they’re doing you a favor by hiring you. The second question suggests that they realize you have options, they realize you’re getting booked and you’re the one who says yes or no.
That’s why even little things on your website like changing, “Contact us to hire John Doe” need to be changed to something like, “To check John Doe’s availability, contact….”
It’s the psychology that’s important. It’s how they approach you that’s important.
And this leads me to the one thing that you need to have to create this psychology.
It’s your reviews. More specifically, video testimonials.
Social proof is the number one thing that’s going to get you hired as a speaker and it’s the number one thing that’s going to create the right psychology inside the mind of clients. And there are tons of ways to create social proof but the one I want to talk about are your video testimonials.
I used to send out an email to speakers on my list for gigs that I couldn’t do. I would basically say, “Hey, here’s a corporate gig for $7,500 for 45 minutes. They need a motivational speaker. Send me your website if you can do it.”
And of course most speakers responded.
But when I started looking at speaker’s websites, something HUGE surprised me.
Almost every speaker didn’t have any video footage or any video testimonials.
It was crazy.
These were speakers who said they were great, they said they could do the gig, but none of them had any video testimonials.
And the ones who did have video footage usually just had one video.
What video testimonials do better than any other footage is it creates massive proof that what you do actually works.
Think about what happens when you buy a book on Amazon.
You look at the reviews and if you see that a book have 1,000 reviews and 4.5 out of 5 stars then you’re more likely to buy it. But if you see a book has 7 reviews and 2 out of 5 stars then you’re guaranteed not to buy it.
So what do you think happens when a client looks at your website and see’s a whole lot of reviews? I’m talking about so many that they can’t watch them all…there just wouldn’t be time.
What you’re basically doing is your creating a thought inside their head and what happens is they get overwhelmed. They see all the reviews and say, “Wow, if this many people are talking about him then he must be good.”
That’s what you do with reviews on Amazon.
You don’t sit down and read all 1,000 reviews, there isn’t enough time. So you might look at a few and then think, “Well if this many people like it then it has to be a good book.”
I’m going to include several of my reviews below this video so you can see what reviews you like and get those for your website.
Some video testimonials are obviously better than others because some people might be more expressive, they might be the CEO of a well known company, things like that. If you have a video testimonial from Donald Trump then it holds more weight than a testimonial from an unknown person.
Video testimonials are the most powerful social proof in your arsenal because you can use them for several things.
First, you can create that powerful overwhelming impression when someone visits your site. They see all the reviews and think, “Damn! Everyone loves this speaker.”
And you can also use them for video marketing. You can include the right keywords in the headline and description so you’re more likely to get found on the internet and then you can book more gigs.
I remember a guy who specifically said, “We were going to go with this other guy and when we came across your website, it was all the videos you had of people raving about you that really convinced us.”
One thing I tell speakers is to always get the video testimonials because you can use those for so much more than a written testimonial.
With a video testimonial, you can just transcribe it and put the written version on your website if you wanted.
That’s what I did with Fox.
I was on Fox, they reacted and the anchor talked about how amazing it was, and I just put the text on my website. I also did that with Remax. They were recorded on video but I just took what they said and wrote it out in a quote.
But you reverse it if you just have them write a letter to you.
You can’t take that written letter and now make it a video.
The video also has the benefit of the YouTube marketing I mentioned earlier with creating the right headline and descriptions for SEO purposes. And of course the video testimonials express emotions…that’s something a written testimonial can never do.
What’s going to happen is that these videos will create the right psychology inside a client’s mind.
Here’s the thing that speakers don’t get…
Every single client…every one of them…is scared of hiring the wrong speaker. They’re scared that they’re going to spend $10,000 and the speaker is going to suck.
Or maybe the speaker won’t be horrible, but they just won’t be worth what they paid.
Every single client is scared that this is going to happen to them.
The purpose of your video testimonials is to remove this fear. If the client sees a gang load of other clients just raving about you, and I mean a ton of people, then you immediately remove that fear.
If you have only one or two video testimonials then it’s not going to remove the fear. After all, the client could just think that you had one of your friends say it.
But if they see so many that they can’t watch them all, and they get overwhelmed with the amount you have, then you instantly remove that fear. They know you’re good because how on earth could you have so many people talking about you?
In fact, what’s really funny is that I recently got a testimonial from Furniture First where the President says on camera, “I don’t normally say this about people but boy…he was worth every penny.”
They had me on stage for 30 minutes and they paid a lot of money for a 30 minute presentation.
I didn’t have any connections with them. Nobody recommended me to them. Nothing. They just found me on the internet.
And when you find a speaker on the internet, nobody knows if this speaker is good or not. But when they see the videos and the testimonials, they’re lead to just one logical conclusion, you have to be great with so many reviews.
Now I want to make it clear that you have to overcome the psychology of the client where they’re scared of hiring the wrong speaker and not only that, but you have to get them into the psychology where they’re hoping you’re available for their event.
It has to go from, “We’re inviting this speaker to out event” to “What do we have to do to get this speaker?”
When I was doing the event in Finland, I asked the client how he found me and he told me but then he said, “We watched your videos and we knew we had to hurry up and snatch you up or you wouldn’t be available.”
Those are the clients you want because those are always the best clients.
Those are the clients who ask you if there’s anything else you need instead of asking you to pay for your own food. Those are the clients who really help you succeed versus just hiring you and never talking to you again.
It’s the psychology that you want to create and the video testimonials help you create that psychology.
Now in the next video we’re going to talk about why having great content and having a great speech isn’t the thing that gets you hired.
Lots of speakers think that just because their presentation is great and just because they have great content then that’s the thing that’s going to get them hired. But that’s not the case.
So in the next video I’m going to show you why having a great presentation isn’t the thing that initially gets you booked as a keynote speaker.