Section 8: Giving Lectures and Speeches: How to get paid for speaking (for free) around town!

Another marketing technique that just about anyone can start using is "public speaking." You may think I have a typo in my heading. How can you get paid for speaking for free? Well, most clubs and organizations don't have a budget to pay guest speakers, but they really need them. In fact, weekly, in hundreds of clubs in your city, guest speakers are spending 15-30 minutes discussing their area of expertise. In dozens more places, professional platform speakers are raking in fees of $1,500 - $30,000 per lecture for trade shows, conventions, and meetings. (You had better be a four star general -Colin Powell- or an ex-president of the U.S. -Reagan- to demand over $30K). The only thing separating you from all those "club circuit" speakers ... is a little practice and the knowledge of how to get clubs and organizations to invite you to speak. And hey, with a little practice, you could move up to the "big league" and have your own Speaker's Bureau represent you.

Did you know that "public speaking" is ranked higher than "death" as things that Americans fear the most? If you fall into that category, then this is a great opportunity for some personal growth! Really, a lecture is a glorified version of a one-on-one analysis with a longer introduction and explanation. Imagine the thrill of a standing ovation after a lecture! You can do it.

What's even better than the recognition and respect is the slew of new business you get after each lecture. When you speak in public, you will almost always get new business. I average about $150-$250 in sales after I give a lecture, depending on the affluence of the audience. My friend and mentor Phyllis Mattingly averages about the same from each speech. This doesn't include the really big money that comes from referrals and audience members calling you up a few weeks later to do an analysis for their company on an ongoing basis. That figure is what marketing experts call the "Lifetime Value of a Customer," which could exceed $2,000- $3,000 over a ten year career. This is why your fifth year in business requires less marketing than your first ... referrals and repeat business.

Sources of income from live lectures:

Live Analysis at the end of the lecture (about $10 each)
Written Analysis from the audience (about $10-$25 each). You pass out coupons or take the money and handwriting sample on the spot.
Sales of products (books, tapes, Grapho-Decks, etc.). As students, you get wholesale on my entire catalog of handwriting products
Enrollments into future seminars.
Corporate business and referrals ($100 per hour) comes after seminar with follow-up.

Giving lectures has so many benefits that Phyllis Mattingly has been using public speaking for over thirty years promoting her handwriting business. I gave my first live presentation on handwriting analysis when I was just 14 years old! Then, when I was just fifteen, I taught a two-hour class to my high school classmates. Since then, I have accepted just about every invitation to speak ... and it always pays.

In the beginning, most of your speaking engagements will not be paid gigs. In fact, most organizations won't have a budget ... but you can still make anywhere from $50-$300 from just a small group for your one hour of time spent. As an example, last year, I agreed to speak to a group of high school sophomores at their school when I was in Tampa, Florida. I honestly figured it would just be my good deed for the day ... thinking that high school students didn't have any money.
I had a great time, and I think I made a difference in many of their lives. When I got finished speaking, they hoarded me to buy Grapho-Decks and books! I think I walked out of there with over $140 cash ... from high school students. But wait ... it gets better. A few weeks later, two parents called to get "written analyses" of themselves and their kids. And, about a year later, one student, Dustin, called me to enroll in our Correspondence Course on Handwriting Analysis. So, the speech took me an hour to deliver, one hour drive time, and it netted me hundreds of dollars over the course of time. Every speech you give will make you money. And ... it is fun.

I will mention one more quick example of how you can be hired by corporations for both entertainment and education as a speaker. Recently, I was touring Houston, Texas, doing morning radio shows. After a particularly good show at The Buzz rock station, I was introduced to the newly hired station manager whom I had analyzed to a "t" on-the-air while she was driving to work that day. Although a little embarrassed at having her true self exposed to the world (and her staff) she was extremely impressed. She invited me to come back and speak to the whole staff and analyze each of their handwriting. Her company has an event each month called "First Friday" where the entire staff does something together to build rapport, teamwork, or just have fun!

Later that month, I flew to Houston, gave a 45 minute lecture about how to use handwriting in their lives and then spent about ten minutes each analyzing everyone individually. It was lots of fun for me ... and she paid me $500 plus airfare. I could have charged them more, but they gave me an hour of free advertising on-the-air and will again next time I appear as a guest on the show. (That air time is worth thousands of dollars). Think about how many companies are looking for something unique, fun, and educational to sponsor for their employees. This could be you.

The secret to cashing in on public speaking can be summarized in
three sentences:

• Be entertaining ... never be boring
• Always discuss the benefits of handwriting analysis (not just the features); i.e.: happiness, self-improvement, better relationships, avoid bad hiring decisions, etc.
• Tell your audience how to get the benefits. (What you are selling and how they can buy it).

Even if you have never given a speech before, you can succeed at being a public speaker. One of my first "Certification Students" Sylvia Tooker took the plunge for a group of U.S. Veterans at one of their conferences. She agreed to speak for free and she told me she was very nervous. Before she started attending my seminars and studying with me, she was very shy and very self-conscious, therefore giving a lecture was a real milestone in her personal growth journey. She simply told the audience how she got interested, how it had affected her life, and did a few live analysis of the audience. When she finished she sold all twelve Grapho-Decks she had brought to sell! She was impressed, and it was fun. She has since received three referral speaking engagements from members of that audience.

Local appearances are a sure fire way to build a solid local reputation and increase your cash-flow tremendously. In the Marketing System, Phyllis Mattingly and I show you every detail to booking yourself at lectures around town. We walk you through finding out which clubs need speakers, who to contact, what to say, and even give you dozens of examples of flyers and topics all relating to handwriting analysis. You see, Phyllis and I have been doing this for a combined 44 years.

How valuable would it be to peruse our files for flyers, brochures, speech outlines, and even the actual handouts we give out at each lecture?

Yes, that would save you months of work. You can copy our "positioning and marketing techniques" and go out and get speeches tomorrow. Just copy what works! Well, that's the idea ... to get you started making money as soon as possible. Everything we know about lectures, seminars, and public speeches are included in the Marketing System Home Study Course. We literally dumped our files, organized them, and photocopied them for you to use as your own.
There are many factors to locating places to speak and making sure your time is well spent so that your audience is pleased and you make enough money to justify your time.

In my comprehensive "Marketing Course," I reveal detailed instructions about how to really turn giving live lectures into a finely-honed, moneymaking system that includes:

What is the first step to booking a lecture?

What do you title your lecture?

How to design a flyer. (Samples and templates included).

What to say? (Speech outlines included).

How to use your Fax machine to get lectures while you sleep!

How to find places to speak that fit into your current working schedule!

How to teach classes from 1 hour to 10 weeks!

When to charge, how much to charge, and what else to sell.

What it takes to earn $3,000 per lecture.

Let's face it, isn't it more logical to explain the benefits of handwriting analysis to 30 people than just one person at a time? Of course. The secret to big success at marketing is to get your message to as many qualified people as possible. Many of my appearances on radio shows (reaching thousands of people per minute) are identical as many of my speeches to just twenty people in the back room of a Denny's!

It may be hard to believe, but often I make more sales off of the twenty people than a radio show. Why? The first reason is that the Denny's audience chose to be there ... they have some level of interest or they would have stayed home. But most importantly, the people I am lecturing to get to interact with me face to face; look in my eyes, feel the compassion, hear the sincerity in my voice. This quality and personalization are difficult to duplicate on radio or TV, but totally impossible if you can't do it in front of a small crowd. Therefore, the quickest way to nail down your "message" and "sales pitch" to prospective clients is by giving speeches. They will ask you tons of questions and get you polished for the big league!

"Lack of money is the root of all evil."
- George Bernard Shaw