View video testimonials re the Speakers’ Summit http://ping.fm/ZKMtD May 1-3 LA, 18 fab speakers see program http://ping.fm/9QiX5 about 21 hours ago The team at Speaker Services has been working non-stop to organize the best Speakers’ Summit ever.  This is the fifth time we are offer the Summit and it gets better every year.  See the program http://ping.fm/9QiX5

The theme is SPEAKERS’ SUMMIT ’09 – THE PINNACLE
THE TIME HAS COME – May 1, 3 in Los Angeles

It is priced quite reasonably $297 for three days!

This is James Malinchak and me.  James talks about how to land speaking engagements in the college market.

This is Jack Barnard and me-sweet photo! Jack is our master media, branding and presentation coach extraordinaire and he will be talking about the Secret of Speaking and more at the Summit.

SPEAKERS:
Jack Barnard, Jean-Noel Bassior, Alex Carroll, Lisa Cherney, Colin Daymude, Daniel Hall, Linda Hollander, Bill Johnson, Susan Levin, James Malinchak, Nancy Marmolejo  Barbara Niven, Sheryl Roush,  Ellen Reid, Lisa Sasevich, Rob Schultz, Marilyn Snyder, Nancy Solari, Geoff Zimpfer

Regardless of profession, everyone is an expert in their field and Speakers’ Summit ‘09 is the Pinnacle Opportunity to turn that expertise into a successful business; to not only master step-by-step the game of speaking, but to navigate the latest technology, and learn exciting new strategies for producing active and passive income.

 THE PROMISE OF SPEAKERS’ SUMMIT ‘09

√  DESIGN dynamite Power Point presentations
√  MASTER the art of Social Networking  Article Writing,Teleseminars, Webinars and other online marketing tools that make profits
√  LEARN to automate and monetize your business
√  MEGA-MARKET yourself as a speaker
√  ATTRACT a torrent of traffic to your website
√  CRUISE FREE and make bunches of money
√  DEVELOP your material in any time frame
√  DOUBLE speaking fees and triple bookings as a guest on radio shows
√  UNCOVER what’s uniquely marketable about you and your mission
√  GET and attract corporate sponsorship
√  LAND lucrative speaking gigs in the college market
√  DON’T get branded, get command-branded
√  USE high impact customized sales-closing strategies
√  BECOME a great storyteller
√  CREATE dynamic, stand-out one-sheets and brochures.
√  LEARN the difference between self-publishing and mainstream publishing
√  KNOW that the secret of speaking has nothing to do with theme, time, style

I  invite you to view video testimonials re the Speakers’ Summit http://ping.fm/ZKMtD 

You may be aware that I launched the Speakers’ Community a membership site in early November. I offered 60 days for free until the end of Dec ’07 to give folks an opportunity to experience the value of the Community and if satisfied then $49 a month would be debited automatically from their account.

I worked hard to offer instant valuable bonuses as well as a Community Listing in the directory which is open to the public and to the members to find one another.

I invited guest experts each month onto the monthly teleclass and recorded the conversation to add to the library. Additionally the Inner Marketing Circle once a month has been inspiring and with lots of coaching happening and the replay is archived.

I thought I was giving great value for $49 a month. Afterall, a teleclass call charge might be $49-$99 and one on one coaching could be $250 an hour plus a listing in the Community Directory. At least that was my thinking.

And yesterday I heard a voice saying add more value. So here’s what I did. I added 13-14 audio/mp3 recordings all of which I had created in the past year and began the Audio/MP3 Library page for the members.

Here’s a partial list of the recordings in the Library.

- SUPER STRUCTURE and BRANDING, Jack Barnard

- COMMUNION, COMFORT & CONNECTION, Jack Barnard

- THE BUSINESS OF SPEAKING: CREATE A WINNING MARKETING STRATEGY, Susan Levin

- RUN YOUR BUSINESS WITH THE HELP OF A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT, Terry Green

- MARKETING: WEB 2.0 STYLE: Turn Your Intellectual Assets Into Internet Profits, Michelle Price

- INCREASE YOUR INCOME BY CREATING AND SELLING INFORMATION PRODUCTS, Susan Levin & Patsy Bellah

- PLUG and PLAY PROFITS: Convert Your Passion into Blockbuster Audio CDs Rob Schultz

- GET YOUR BOOK WRITTEN and PUBLISHED, Jean-Noel Bassior

- PRODUCE & PUBLISH STREAMING AUDIO & VIDEO USING AUDIOACROBAT, Dave Barrett, Owner of AudioAcrobat

- GET BOOKED AT COLLEGES, James Malinchak

- ONE SHEETS, Sheryl Roush

- SPEAK ON CRUISE SHIPS, Daniel Hall and here is the recording for you to listen to.

What is the value now? Priceless!

Here’s the point of my sharing this with you. I had all of this information already created in various places ie: my file cabinet, on various web pages and you probably do too.

In thinking back to this past May when we did the Speakers’ Summit I visioned doing a blog and a membership site and a TeleSummit based on the Speakers’ Summit all realized now. However, I remember thinking how I could repurpose and reprogram much of the material and I did it yesterday.

Here’s the good news I still have lots more to repackage including videos mp4′s and I will be adding that to the Speakers’ Community Library.

After the New Year we are offering 30 days for free for the Speakers’ Community however, once you join you have access to the library, the live teleclasses and the Inner Marketing Circle with me and a guest each month plus you can post your own profile in the Community Directory.

BTW: In January TJ Walker will be my guest for the monthly teleclass interview and he will be talking about how content is the king/queen and how you can repackage and reprogram your content into books, tips for your blog and so much more.

You can be on the call if you sign up for the Speakers’ Community!

Hey and if you don’t get the added value you can cancel your subscription.

I would enjoy hearing your comments. Please offer them.

Speak on Cruise Ships (Keyes review)

AUTHOR: Daniel Hall Daniel Hall, $97 (USD); $105 (CAD) online e-book, 137 pp order here HOW to order info

If you download this book, you should know that it is a pdf file — which is 632Kb. reviewed by John T.D. Keyes

How would you like to work a single hour per day on a cruise ship, with no demands on your time during ports of call, enjoying the ship’s lavish meals and entertainment, all without paying a penny? In this downloadable e-book, Daniel Hall, an enthusiastic veteran “enrichment lecturer,” as shipboard speakers are called in the cruise business, outlines in precise detail the way in which he got started, and how you can get started, too.

Hall, a Texan who trained as a nurse then turned lawyer and then became a financial and real estate adviser (read: modern day self-employed Renaissance man), has been an onboard enrichment lecturer for the past three years. His recommendations for those who want to emulate his enviable lifestyle are summarized in Speak On Cruise Ships: Eight Easy Steps to a Lifetime of Free Cruises by Sharing Your Passions and Interests as an Onboard lecturer (Even if You’re Petrified of Public Speaking. At press time, he had taken seven free cruises and had three more scheduled for the coming year.

The book’s tone is not unlike that of an onboard recreation director trying to sleepy crowd of passengers to engage in aerobic exercise at 7:00 in the morning, but once you get past a certain level of forced narrative cutesiness, there’s no doubt that this book really does deliver what its title promises.

Hall explains how you can identify areas of interest in your own life that can be fleshed out into viable speaking topics. There’s a difference between expertise, which you may not have, and interest, which you may have and which is sufficient for the purpose of becoming an enrichment lecturer. There are three main topic areas that appeal to those in a position to hire you: destination-driven topics, arts and crafts, and general interest. Each area gets thoroughly amplified, with lots of examples, all of which sound quite do-able. The most attractive pitch is a “perfect trifecta” that has one speech topic in each category.

He goes on to explain how to approach cruise ship companies or agencies that handle booking of speakers for some of the lines; how to sell yourself during that ever-important first phone call; how to prepare for an audition speech (whereby you pay for your first cruise but get the cruise company to let you audition as a speaker for future cruises during the voyage); how to then structure your speech (this is a very lengthy and vital section of the book), how to rehearse; and then how to actually deliver it once on-board. Another section covers how to prepare an audiovisual package, which some entertainment directors would prefer you send them before they make a decision. These sections have great little nuggets, such as why Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to make that call to the cruise line.

Being an e-book, there are links to meta-search engines and online libraries (for any necessary research into your speech topics), links to cruise lines (where you can research each company and entertainment requirements), and a concluding chapter that allows you to download extensive interviews with principals at the speakers’ bureaus serving the industry. (The book is also available on CD-ROM, which comes complete with the interviews.) There are also some very basic instructions on how to do research online, and even how to cut and paste material on a computer (not that Hall is recommending plagiarism, of course).

Even if you end up deciding that cruise-ship speaking isn’t for you, there are a lot of useful tools in this book that would help anyone whose job or life circumstances call for speaking in public, or in any way selling oneself to a crowd, or combining entertainment and education in a teaching session. But the fact that Hall has made this work for him, and given how easily he breaks the whole process down, you’ll want to give it a shot. Bon voyage!

Order the book

I sent out an e mail this morning to my 4,000 plus e-mail list and mentioned that they might want to look at my blog. When I checked my stats on this blog I found to my amazement that 90 people checked me out in less then an hour.

Next week from the 9th thru the 12th I will be in San Diego for the National Speakers’ Association Convention. If you are there please stop by and say hello. Jack Barnard and I will be in booth 200 and we’ll be very happy to see you in person.

Yesterday I bought myself a new digital camera-a Cannon, PowerShot and I will be taking photos at the NSA Convention and send them to you along with updates on my blog.

As mentioned in my e-zine earlier here’s some information on how to speak on cruise ships.

Did you know that you can cruise all over the world for free? Yes, you can cruise free by simply speaking about information you already know. There is a simple eight step process by which you can get started on a lifetime of free cruises.

All you have to do is share information on your hobby, passion or interest, and it is easy to learn how you can do it..

Meet my recommended resource Daniel Hall. His book Speak on Cruise Ships will provide you with a step-by-step process to get your foot in the door on how to cruise free.

Attorney and author Daniel Hall has cruised for free using the simple method outlined in his book and he will show you exactly how to do it in his Speak on Cruise Ships: Eight Easy Steps to a Lifetime of Free Cruises by Sharing Your Passions and Interests as an Onboard Lecturer.

To learn more and order Daniel’s book Speak on Cruise Ships.

The 6 Fatal Mistakes That Will Prevent You From Cruising FREE As An Approved Onboard Speaker

By Daniel Hall © 2005

Being an approved cruise enrichment lecturer is the greatest gig on the seven seas. The deal is simple: you furnish the cruise lines three or four 1-hour lectures on subjects you love and you get a free cruise for yourself and a companion. The best part is the lectures are usually scheduled on sea days so you’ll have every port day totally free to explore. Further, you cruise as a passenger (not a crew member) so you’ll get every other passenger perk, too.

Although it is relatively easy for anyone willing to try there are some pitfalls to becoming an approved cruise lecturer.

Here are the things you should watch out for:

You don’t do your homework. Learn which cruise lines have enrichment lecturer programs and what topics they generally seek. The cruise lines will know if you aren’t asking intelligent questions. You’ll only be able to sound intelligent about their programs if you’ve done your homework. Being labeled as an amateur because you have not done the required up front work will be the kiss of death to your application.

You don’t pick “good fit” topics. The lecture topics you pick must succeed on two fronts. First, they must fit what the cruiselines seek. Second, you must be passionate and knowledgeable about them. This is easier than at first it may sound. From your homework you’ll learn what types of lecture programs the cruise lines like to have onboard. Once you have done that, find topics within your personal knowledge base that match what’s popular on the cruise lines. You may have to make a list but EVERYONE has at least two or three topic areas in which they have proficiency, if not expertise. However, if your topics are all wrong, you’ll fail before you start.

You don’t’ make a professional, cogent presentation to the cruise lines. You’ll need to sell yourself and your lectures to the cruise line. Take the time to do it right. Be prepared to talk about how the lecture(s) fit within the cruise line’s format. Why passengers will like the lectures and why you’re qualified to talk about it. Get to the point. If you botch this initial communication with the cruise line they won’t have much faith that you can communicate in front of an audience of their passengers. Consequently, you may not get the chance.

You send an unpersuasive “lecture packet.” If you have done a good job with the initial contact, the cruise line will want you to follow-up with more information about yourself and your lecture. Think about this information as a mini-press kit that may contain a video or audio of your lecture. Your lecture packet must continue-the-sale that you started with the initial contact. if it doesn’t you’re in trouble.

You’re not flexible. You are trying to get your foot in the door. It will pay to be as flexible as possible with the cruise line about when you can cruise. Remember, you are there to help the cruise line entertain/ educate its guests. If you limit the time you can cruise to a specific week of the year, you may never set sail. Show as much flexibility as your schedule will allow and you’ll dramatically increase yours odds of getting approved.

You don’t educate yourself in the process of getting approved. Learn all you can about how to be approved as a lecturer. Not only will it streamline and take the guesswork out of the process but also dramatically increase your odds of success.

I will be interviewing Daniel Hall on September 26. It is a complimentary teleclass.

Listen to the replay of the teleclass