Back to Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n John Jantsch: Want to quickly send amazing looking emails to your prospects and customers in just minutes? AWeber<\/a> is the market leader in making email marketing powerfully simple for a small business. Visit aweber.com for a 30-day free trial.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch and my guest today is Grant Baldwin. He\u2019s the creator of the Speaker Lab and Speaker Lab Podcast, which I think I\u2019m an alumnus stuff.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: You are. You are.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: I couldn\u2019t remember what show was. And the online course Booked and Paid to Speak and then a new book we\u2019re going to talk about today, The Successful Speaker: Five Steps for Booking Gigs, Getting Paid, and Building Your Platform. We\u2019re going to talk about speaking today. Grant, thanks for joining me.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: John, thanks for letting me hang out with you. All right, I was pulling those up here you are on kind of a compilation episode, episode 100, but then had you on recently on episode 261. Yeah, you have certainly been a repeat guest on the Speaker Lab Podcast.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: Well, and of course I thoroughly enjoyed our time together. I just couldn\u2019t remember if you had more than one podcast. I wasn\u2019t spacing it completely. But since we\u2019re going to talk about speaking, I think it\u2019s probably valid for me to ask you how did you become a speaker?<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Yeah. If we go way back in time, in high school I was really involved in my local church and my youth pastor had a really big impact in my life. I was like, \u201cI want to do that.\u201d That seems really cool. He was a phenomenal speaker as well, so one of my favorite speakers. That\u2019s kind of the path I was on. I eventually got a job as a youth pastor at a different church and that gave me a lot of at-bats. It gave me a lot of opportunities to speak on a weekly basis to high school and college students, and then from time to time we get to speak on the weekend and big church.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Speaking is one of those things I just really enjoyed, just one of those things that came naturally to me, and felt like I was decent at it, and I wanted to do more of it and found myself in a spot where a lot of listeners may be or people that are somewhere spotted just saying like, \u201cI want to do more, I don\u2019t know what to do next.\u201d And how do you find gigs, and who pays speakers, and what do they pay speakers to talk about, and how does this mysterious black box work?<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: I stalked a bunch of other speakers, and I\u2019m sure you\u2019re amongst that list, and just try to figure out anything I possibly could. Started booking a few gigs here and there and eventually got to the point where I was doing a 60, 70 gigs a year myself and really enjoyed it. Then had a lot of people asking me like, \u201cHey, I want to be a speaker. How do I do that?\u201d I felt like we have built really good systems and processes for how do you actually consistently find a book gigs without having the big platform or having a big name.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: I didn\u2019t have any big following or anything. I didn\u2019t have any crazy story. I hadn\u2019t won any medal in the Olympics, or been cured of cancer, or landed the plane on the Hudson. Just I\u2019m a white male from the Midwest and has had a pretty average life, so on paper there\u2019s nothing that qualifies me to be a speaker. But we figured out what worked and how to find a book gigs. I started teaching that. That\u2019s kind of the core of what we have inside the new book.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: Speaking is, maybe I\u2019m in a little bubble here, but it\u2019s a pretty hot topic amongst marketers. I mean, do you tell people everybody should be a speaker, everybody should learn to speak, should you just do it for money, are there other reasons to do it? I mean, let\u2019s kind of start with who we\u2019re talking to.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Yeah. Nice thing about speaking, as you well know, John, there\u2019s no right or wrong amount to speak. Both know speakers who do a hundred plus gigs a year. It\u2019s basically 100% of their income and revenue and their whole business model. And that\u2019s all they want to do. They don\u2019t do want to do any consulting or coaching or anything else. I just want to speak. That\u2019s fine. That\u2019s largely what my career was early on. Then there\u2019s other speakers who say, \u201cYou know what, I\u2019ve got other things going, but I wouldn\u2019t mind doing, I don\u2019t know, five gigs a year, 10 gigs a year. But again, I\u2019m just having trouble figuring out how to actually find those and how much do I charge, what do I speak about, how to put together a talk, how do I deliver?\u201d You know, those type of pieces and questions. There\u2019s really no right or wrong way.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: In addition, there are speakers who speak full time and they\u2019re kind of a traditional gun for hire. You and I both done a lot of that. You come in, you speak, you collect your check, and that\u2019s kind of the end of the transaction. That\u2019s all that they you\u2019re brought in for, and others to speak more for, let\u2019s say, lead generation, for some type of coaching, or consulting, or marketing, or some type of service based business that they\u2019re offering or operating on the back end. Yeah, it\u2019s one of my favorite things about speaking is there\u2019s, again, not a literally a no right or wrong way to do it, but there\u2019s also just a lot of format that speaking can be valuable for any entrepreneur.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: If somebody comes to you and says, \u201cI really want to get into this speaking business. I heard you teach people how to do it.\u201d What\u2019s the first thing you would tell them that they need to get figured out?<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Yeah. Inside the book, we walk through what we call the speaker success roadmap. It makes the acronyms speak, S-P-E-A-K. The first step is the most important step, the S, is select a problem to solve. Select a problem to solve. For a lot of people who are interested in speaking, John, you and I, we just enjoy speaking. Speaking is just fun, right? And so if we were given the choice of just like, well, who do you speak to? I don\u2019t know. I speak to people. I speak to humans. I speak to everyone, right? Or when someone asks a speaker what\u2019s the problem that you solve or what do you speak about?<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: And when speakers say, \u201cWell, what do you want me to speak about? I can speak about marketing, or sales, or advertising, or leadership, or consulting, or parenting, or sports.\u201d It\u2019s just like you may know something about all those things. You may be passionate about all those things, but you can\u2019t try to run a business speaking on all of those things. The best speakers on the planet say, \u201cNo, no. I speak to one specific audience and I solve the one specific problem,\u201d versus trying to be all things for all people. One of the things we talk about inside the book is that you want to be the steakhouse and not the buffet. The steak house, not the buffet.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Meaning, John, if you and I were going to go, we\u2019re looking for a good steak dinner, we could \u2026 Actually, you\u2019re up in the Kansas City area. I ate at a good barbecue place up there. Is it Q something?<\/p>\n John Jantsch: Q39, yeah.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Q39 okay. So if we\u2019re looking for like a good steak, good barbecue, we could go to a buffet where steak or barbecue is like one of a hundred different things that they offer or we could go to Q39 where they do one thing, but they do one thing really, really, really well. Right? You don\u2019t go there for tacos, you don\u2019t go there for lasagna, you don\u2019t go there for spaghetti. You go there because they do barbecue. They do steak. They do one thing really, really well. That\u2019s the thing that you want to try doing as a speaker is not trying to be all things for all people, because probably whoever the executive chef is at Q39 or whatever your favorite restaurant is, they could probably cook any number of things.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: But they say, \u201cNo, no. I\u2019m going to make a conscious decision that I\u2019m going to focus on this. I serve this audience in this way. I create this one type of product for this one type of audience. I create this one type of meal for this one type of person.\u201d There\u2019s people who are like,\u201d Oh, I\u2019m vegetarian so I\u2019m probably not going to go to the Q39,\u201d and that\u2019s okay. You don\u2019t need to go there. Right? That\u2019s what you want to try to do as a speaker is draw a line in the sand and say, \u201cNo, I solve this specific problem for this specific person,\u201d versus trying to be all things for all people.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: Well, and I think frankly, that\u2019s the message I give for marketing in general. I mean, people don\u2019t want our products and services, they want the problem solved. The company that gets that and can communicate that is probably the one that\u2019s going to stand out in a company.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Yeah. Because it\u2019s so much, I think, sometimes especially for speakers, I hear people who come to us and say, \u201cHey, I haven\u2019t really spoke before but I\u2019ve got a cool story. I was in a car accident, or I lost my job and now I\u2019m successful, or fill in the blank thing that has happened.\u201d I always try to politely say, \u201cListen, nobody cares.\u201d Like, \u201cThe audience doesn\u2019t care. You\u2019re in the problem solving business. You have to bring some type of solution.\u201d Your story, that\u2019s great, but the audience is always wondering how does that relate to me? You overcame cancer, you climbed yourself out of a hole, you overcame this crazy thing. But what does that have to do with my life, right? So, you always, again, being very solution-minded, what is the problem that you solve?<\/p>\n John Jantsch: Let\u2019s talk about style. Maybe this is kind of a personal bias on my part, but we\u2019ve all seen speakers that, I mean, they go there, and they educate, and they get a point crystal clear, and they simplified things. Then we all know speakers who are all over the map, but gosh, dang, they\u2019re funny and entertaining. Which one should we be?<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: I don\u2019t know that there\u2019s necessarily a right or wrong, but I will say that when you\u2019re creating a talk, you want to create it through the lens where the audience is always asking themselves two questions, so what and now what. So what and now what. Again, going back to what we just touched on, the audience is always wanting to know so what. That happened to you? That\u2019s great. So what? What does that have to do with me? And now what? What am I supposed to do as a result of this? So if the audience is like, they laughed a lot, but then they leave and they didn\u2019t do anything different, and there\u2019s nothing that was impactful, and they\u2019re kind of like \u2026 Again, I think speakers, audience members, we\u2019ve all left talks where you\u2019re like, \u201cIt was good, but I don\u2019t know. What am I supposed to do now? Or what was the point of that?\u201d You know? You always want to connect the dots of so what and now.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: I think humor can be very, very effective, but it also kind of depends on the context. You know, if you\u2019re hired to more like an in depth training, technical type of talk, then humor can break it up a little bit, but you\u2019re probably need to be a little bit err more on the education side. Versus again, there\u2019s other times where they want more of a lighthearted motivational inspirational type message, and so you may be able to use more humor. Some of it just kind of depends on the context of which you are hired in the group that you\u2019re speaking to.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: If you\u2019re not Magic Johnson, for example, what would you advise somebody? I mean, what\u2019s a way, or what\u2019s the path, or the type of talk, or the type of groups to talk where people get paid the most?<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Yeah, so there\u2019s seven different speaking industries that we talk about inside the book. You have corporations, associations, faith-based in churches, non-profits, government and military, colleges and universities, and education, K through 12, so elementary, middle school, and high school. Now, they\u2019re each going to have different fee levels and they\u2019re also going to have different supply and demand. There\u2019s absolutely going to be some, especially like corporations associations, where typically you can charge more than others.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: But a mistake that I see some speakers make is they look at it purely through that lens, and it\u2019s absolutely a factor, but it\u2019s not the only factor. If a speaker just says, \u201cAll right, I want to be a speaker. Where can I make the most that?\u201d In the same way that if you know, a college student says, \u201cAll right, I\u2019m picking out a career. Which career pays the best?\u201d That\u2019s a horrible approach. Versus saying like, \u201cNo, no, I\u2019m really passionate about this. Now that I have determined that and I\u2019ve determined there\u2019s a problem here and I\u2019m an audience I can speak to, let\u2019s absolutely maximize that and figure out how can I generate the most bang for the buck?\u201d But it has to be more than just here\u2019s the industry that I can make more in, so I\u2019m going to pursue that.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: With more than 20 years of proven success, helping more than one million small businesses around the world, AWeber\u2019s powerfully simple email marketing solutions make it easy for you to connect with people and build your business. Quickly and easily build lists of contacts, create amazing looking emails with a drag and drop editor. Send an automated email sequences and newsletters and analyze your email performance with AWeber. Start growing your business through email marketing today by starting a 30 day free trial aweber.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: Let\u2019s go back to the let\u2019s call it free speaking for leads. What\u2019s a way for somebody to maximize that? There are plenty of places you can go speak for free, so how do you make sure that, and again, not selling product from the stage or coming off salesy. I mean, how do you maximize that?<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Yeah. I absolutely think there\u2019s a misconception that speaking for free is a bad thing. And so, what I would say to that is that if you\u2019re going to speak for free, you need to know why you\u2019re doing it. As a speaker, you are providing something of value and so you need to receive something of value in exchange. Now, ideally that isn\u2019t in the form of a check, but let\u2019s talk about some of the other different ways that you can receive value otherwise. Right? You mentioned if you have some type of service, and so not even necessarily a pitch from stage or a sell from the stage type of thing, but I can think of certain events where \u2026 In fact, I had this past week, there was a friend of mine that had like a small little local mastermind.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: There was like a dozen people there. Is a small little thing. I went and did a little session on some of what we\u2019re talking about here. The guy who\u2019s putting it on, he bought a book for everyone there, so that generated a little bit of revenue. But then also, there were people there that have already reached out about working with us for coaching, or consulting, or something like that. It didn\u2019t pitch anything. I didn\u2019t do any sell from stage. Same with like this right now, you and I, there\u2019s no financial transaction between us, but there\u2019ll be people who will listen that will probably start following some of our stuff or maybe reach out about inquiring about working together in some capacity, right? There\u2019s certain lead generation that can happen that may not have come actually from pitching or offering anything from stage. That\u2019s one route.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Another thing may be the way that you get better as a speaker is you speak. The way that you get better as a writer is that you write. The way you get better as there anything as you do the thing. But in order to become better as a speaker, you typically need audiences, right? One of the ways that you could use speaking for free is just to get the practice, just to get the at-bats. Because when you\u2019re creating a talk, you\u2019re creating an educated guess until you get up in front of an audience. I think this is funny, I think this will resonate, I think this will make sense, but I don\u2019t really know until I get up and speak, so speaking for free, just for the practice can make sense.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Speaking for free and certain industry events where, let\u2019s say there\u2019s other event planners that may be there who may be looking for speakers like you. I know that there\u2019s events that I have done knowing that if I do a great job, and I know that there\u2019s the right people in the audience, that this is probably going to lead to additional speaking engagements.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Then one other one I would mention to you would be for travel. I\u2019ll give you an example. There is a friend of mine who doesn\u2019t do a lot of speaking, but he got invited to speak at something in Europe. He\u2019s like, \u201cHow much do I charge? How do I figure this out?\u201d We we\u2019re kind of talking that through. They invited him to come speak over there and I think it was in Spain. They had a lower budget than what he would have liked. I said, \u201cLet\u2019s talk through how you can turn this into a European vacation.\u201d<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: And so, long story short, they paid him, but then also paid for his wife to come along, paid for her airfare, his airfare, covered several additional nights in hotel there in the area. He\u2019s like, \u201cAll right, I was able to make a little bit financially, but I was also able to get a European vacation with my wife out of it.\u201d Right? There\u2019s something of value versus saying like, \u201cOh, they didn\u2019t have enough, so, oh well I\u2019m just going to go ahead and do it.\u201d He received value in a couple of different ways there.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: I don\u2019t think it\u2019s black and white versus like you got to check or you didn\u2019t get a check. Always look for ways that you can receive value beyond just the check itself.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: Yeah. When I was first getting started and I would do what I called speaking for leads, when somebody would ask me to speak at an event, I had a price. It was $2,500, let\u2019s say. But because you\u2019re a nonprofit agency, and I\u2019m local, and I want to give back to the community, I\u2019m going to discount it to zero, but here\u2019s what I want in return. Quite often, that conversation went, \u201cWell, I got the list at the end or I got to make like just a little pitch at the end to say, here\u2019s what I do if you want to find out more.\u201d I think that that sometimes people forget to negotiate, like as you said at the outset, because you are delivering value.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Right? Right. No, absolutely. You have to kind of pick and choose when makes the most sense. I wouldn\u2019t recommend like speaking for free, and they\u2019re not going to cover any travel, and I just need to practice and I have to fly halfway across the country to do it. No, but if you have an opportunity there locally at a Toastmasters, or chamber of commerce, or rotary club, or something like that. I\u2019m just like, \u201cI\u2019m just going to try and get an at-bat, then yeah, it may make sense for you to do that there locally.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: Let\u2019s talk a little bit, and of course you have a whole section in the book that covers this, but let\u2019s talk about the actual talk itself and what makes one talk better than another. Is there a formula? How do I know that I\u2019ve got the message delivered? I mean, what\u2019s the process for that?<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Yeah, so again, it can be intimidating when you are staring at a blank screen going,\u201d I have some idea of what the talk\u2019s going to be around, but I don\u2019t know. Where do I begin? Where do I go?\u201d And there\u2019s not just this end all be all one way to do a talk. It\u2019s not like, \u201cI have to have an intro, and then I have to have three points, then I have to have a conclusion.\u201d You know? You can certainly do that, but there are a lot of ways to go about that. Again, one of the things that we touched on there is always thinking through the so what now what, but also really beginning with the end in mind. You don\u2019t want to get to the end of a talk and again be a have the audience be like, \u201cI don\u2019t really understand what was the point of that or where it was going.\u201d<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Think of it like a road trip or some type of travel experience. You want to pick everybody up at the same origination point and you want to drop everybody off at the same destination, right? So thinking through where do I want to take them and what is the best logical path to get them from point A to point B. So, by the end of this, am I trying to get them to think differently, or feel differently, or act differently? I would say within this, one of the simplest things that any speaker can do is to tell a lot of stories. Stories are incredibly powerful, incredibly relatable, memorable, impactful. One of the simplest things you can do that has a lot of impact is to tell a lot of stories.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: I remember when I first got started, I was guilty of trying to pack too much into my talks because I was afraid. An hour? How can I talk for a whole hour? I put everything I knew into a talk, and about 30 minutes into it, everybody was exhausted. You certainly do learn that over time, don\u2019t you, that you\u2019ve got to actually give the audience the chance to breathe?<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Yeah, absolutely. You\u2019ve got to kind of have some ebb and flow to it, so think about if you\u2019re watching a movie, or a Netflix series, or something, you may have some intense heavy drama scenes that I got to really lock in and pay attention here. But after that, I need a minute just to catch my breath and to slow down. That\u2019s where humor can work really well to just kind of break things up.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: In the same way, like in a typical TV show where they\u2019re going to do several minutes of something, and they may have some different scene changes, but then they\u2019re going to go to commercial, and part of it is from a financial ads perspective, and part of it is just to give the audience a mental break. Like, \u201cOoh, that was heavier, that was intense.\u201d Or that was, \u201cI just got to process that.\u201d Right? Just you just said something that was really good. Just let me chew on that for a second. So yeah, learning to kind of add that the ebb and flow to the talk.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: Let\u2019s talk about the performance part of it, so when you\u2019re up there on stage delivering, I mean, there certainly are practices and techniques that help you get across a message, or let\u2019s face it, make you less distracting while you\u2019re delivering the message. How do you suggest that people get better at that? I\u2019m not sure if you\u2019d even use the word performance, but that\u2019s what I would call it.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Yeah. One of the best things that any speaker can do at any level is to practice. The best speakers on the planet that you look up to, you admire, you respect, you think, \u201cOh, they just scribble down some ideas on a napkin, they hopped up there, and they just wing it, and it\u2019s just perfect.\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cNope. Doesn\u2019t work like that.\u201d They spent hours, and hours, and hours practicing, preparing, rehearsing, going over their talk time, and time, and time again. So by the time they get up there, it does look like it\u2019s just off the cuff. It looks like it\u2019s just natural. But it\u2019s because of the amount of time that they spent behind the scenes. That\u2019s something that you don\u2019t have to have any special talent or ability, you just have to be willing to commit to practicing.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: A way to think about this is if you think back to middle school, or high school, or college, or university and you remember taking a test or a quiz of some kind. You could show up and just kind of like, \u201cAh, I didn\u2019t really study. I\u2019m just going to wing it and hope it all works out,\u201d And typically it doesn\u2019t. Versus I\u2019m going to spend the time going over my notes and reviewing and practicing and preparing. And so when I show up, not only does it typically go better, but I just feel more comfortable. I feel more confident because I\u2019ve done the work going into it, versus again, just getting up there and hoping it all magically works out.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: How about getting training? Obviously, this is a layup for you I\u2019m about to serve up. I mean, because again, practice is great, but in some cases practice will only take you so far, right? I mean, if you don\u2019t have proper form shooting free throws, it doesn\u2019t matter how many thousands you shoot. How should somebody go about getting training, or looking for training, or again, is that something everybody should invest?<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Yeah, so a big thing that what we do, our company\u2019s called the Speaker Lab and everything we do is over thespeakerlab.com, but the core of what we do is on the business side. Because to your point, if you\u2019re a phenomenal speaker and yet nobody knows you exist, it\u2019s really hard to build a business that way. Speaking is very much a momentum business. Your best product, your best marketing is a great talk. The best speakers on the planet and those that are booked a lot isn\u2019t just because they\u2019re great marketers and isn\u2019t just because they pay attention to it, it\u2019s because they do a great job on stage. There\u2019s absolutely two sides of the equation. But again, if you\u2019re the world\u2019s greatest speaker and nobody knows you exist, you\u2019re out of business, and so you have to be able to communicate clearly who it is that you serve, who it is that you help, what\u2019s the problem that you solve for them, and have a plan to actively be able to find a booked gig.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: The problem that a lot of speakers have is like, \u201cOkay, I know who I speak to. I know what the promise that I solve. I\u2019ve got a website, maybe I have a demo video. And now I just sit back and I wait for the phone to ring. I wait for some things to fall in my lap or wait for an email or an inquiry to come in.\u201d It just doesn\u2019t work like that. You have to be proactive and continually work at it over time.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: John, you\u2019ve been in the speaking industry for a long time. It is certainly easier for you to get gigs today than it was years ago, but my guess is it still requires effort, it still requires work, and if you turn off the work and effort, and eventually those leads and those calls on those bookings are going to dry up. You have to continually to beat that drum, but having a system in place of knowing what to do and how to consistently do it is what\u2019s really important there.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: Let\u2019s transition to all right, so we got our talk down. We\u2019ve found somebody who wants to hire us. Once we get the gig, are there some things that that more professional speakers do to, again, make sure that they\u2019re prepared, make sure that the whoever booked them is communicated with that maybe they follow up afterwards? I mean, what are some of the best practices for making sure that hiring you was a good experience as well?<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Yeah, that\u2019s a great question. Think about it like if we went to a restaurant, right? Let\u2019s go back to like a Q39 or some nice restaurant. Part of what you\u2019re paying for when you go to that restaurant is the food, right? Absolutely, the food may be the star of the show, but part of what you\u2019re also paying for is just the experience. So if you go to a nice restaurant and the food\u2019s amazing, but the service sucks, and everything is slow, and the atmosphere is kind of, \u201cEh,\u201d and just shady, and it\u2019s just like everything else about it just lacks, it\u2019s the same thing as a speaker who shows up who is amazing on stage, but they drop the ball in every other area. Part of what an event planner is hiring you to do is to be great on stage, but part of what they\u2019re hiring you to do is to be really good to work with.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: And by really good, I don\u2019t mean you\u2019re a prima donna, or you\u2019re this diva, or you need the jar of red Skittles, or you need this European imported water at a certain temperature. I just mean that you make their life easy. You look at it from an event planners perspective, and as a speaker, you\u2019re an important part, sure, but you are one of hundreds if not thousands of moving pieces that an event planner is trying to think through. The easier you can make their life, the easier you can make their job, the more you can just really stay out of their way, the more likely they\u2019re going to want to be to work with you, to refer you, to recommend you to others.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: As a quick example, when I was doing 60, 70 gigs a year, one thing we were always really diligent about was asking for testimonials and recommendations from clients that we worked with. I had a lady at the time that was helping me, her name was Lisa. Basically, I would work to book the gig and I would pass the Baton to Lisa and she\u2019d handle contracts, and logistics, and travel, and yada, yada, yada. We\u2019d get these testimonials and recommendations after the events, like, \u201cGrant did awesome from the stage, Grant was worked great to work with, but man, we loved Lisa and Lisa was so good, and Lisa took care of everything, yada, yada, yada.\u201d List and I always kind of have this joke of like, \u201cHey, if you\u2019re great interacting with them and working with them, I don\u2019t even have to be that great on stage, because you\u2019ve made their life easy.\u201d<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: And sure, of course I\u2019m going to do my best on stage to deliver, but part of what they loved was working with Lisa and the customer and the client experience that made it great. Part of what goes into that is just simple things, like whenever they send you an email with a question, that they don\u2019t have to follow up a few days later, or they send you the contract, that you get that right back to them, and whenever they say, \u201cHey, please be here at 8:00 AM for an AV tech walkthrough,\u201d that you\u2019re not showing up at 8:15 with your Starbucks. You know? That you do what you say you\u2019re going to do, that you are on time, that you\u2019re punctual, that you\u2019re professional, and that you\u2019re just a good person to work with. That makes such a huge difference.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: Yeah. It\u2019s just not that hard to stand out, is it?<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: It isn\u2019t it.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: Grant, tell people where they can find out more about the Successful Speaker and the work you\u2019re doing at the Speaker Lab.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Yeah. Like I said, everything\u2019s at thespeakerlab.com<\/a>. We have a podcast by the same, like we mentioned, that you have been a guest on. The new book is called The Successful Speaker: Five Steps for Booking Gigs, Getting Paid, and Building Your Platform<\/a>. Like we said, anybody who\u2019s interested in speaking at any level, whether that be full time or you just want to do a couple of gigs here and there, would definitely encourage you to pick up the book. The book is on Amazon, and Barnes & Nobles, and wherever you buy your books. Yeah, go check it out. The Successful Speaker.<\/p>\n John Jantsch: Awesome, Grant. Thanks for stopping by and hopefully we\u2019ll see you soon out there on the road.<\/p>\n Grant Baldwin: Thanks, John.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Free eBook\u00a0 “This training from Duct Tape Marketing has exceeded my expectations and I couldn’t be happier” ~\u00a0<\/em><\/span>Brooke Patterson, VanderMedia<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/149350408.v2.pressablecdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/AWeber_logo_blue-300x63.png\"){kind=logo}
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<\/span>7 Steps to Scale Your Consulting Practice Without Adding Overhead<\/span><\/p>\n