SNM214: Investing in Yourself Cannot Be Optional, It Has to Be Mandatory with Cheryl Wood

And they're willing to invest at a higher level, but not only financially, they're also willing to invest at a higher level in terms of time commitment.

And it's no different with the clients that I serve. They are literally willing to move things around because they're like, I put that investment in. I've gotta get a return on that investment. So, they show up they're at every session they do the work they're energized. I have two clients right now who are in a speaker coaching program with me. One is in Africa and one is in London and they are literally five hours ahead of me. So, when we're doing our training sessions, 1:00 AM in the morning,

Let's just and I only use one of them and think about it. I sometimes find people, even from corporate, I have someone who is generating million dollars in revenue a year. And she's oh, I do $15 an hour coaching calls. And I was like, why, who are you getting? So, how can people know they're worth and then demonstrate that they're worth a coaching price when they're first starting out when they don't have these clients?

And so, they have the ability to be able to invest at a high-ticket price. But we have to believe number one, that we're worth it, but then we have to have something to connect to that worth and that value. So, the question then becomes again, what is your messaging and who is it for? You cannot try to serve everyone. You, number one, you don't have the capacity to serve everyone. Number two, you don't have the industry expertise to serve everyone.

So, get very crystal clear on your specific messaging and who that's for. Number two, I would say you do have to develop increased levels of confidence, meaning you're always confidently coming to the front of the room. And when I say the front of the room, whether it's you being on social media, for me, that's still a stage. That's the front of the room, or it's at a workshop or a breakout session or a virtual conference or a webinar.

But you have to have the confidence to come to the front of the room and to speak up about what you're an expert in. And so many people are in the space of imposter syndrome and questioning whether or not they really are the authority that they lack the confidence that shines through to the person who's on the other end. And I don't know about you, but I'm not following someone who is not a confident leader.

If you're still questioning whether or not this is your expertise and you can help me then I certainly can't believe it. So, you've gotta have confidence to back up. And then I would say last but not least the third part of that would be really having a clear roadmap. What do I teach people? What end result do I help them to achieve? And then crafting some type of formula process system or methodology around that so that they can follow the steps.

Here's step one, here's step two, here's step three so that they can achieve at least some level of what you've achieved and accomplished, because that's what people want. When they see you walking in your brilliance and they're like, oh my God, I wanna do that too. That's normally what people will feel. I want that same level of success or some level of that. And so, you have to be able to say, make them believe that yeah, it's achievable for you.

Just like it was for me, if you follow this roadmap. So, a lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners, don't craft a very clear and concise roadmap that says I followed these steps and that's how I got here. And if you follow these steps and put in the same time, energy, effort and investments, then you're gonna be able to get at least some level of this type of success.

It seems like they just buy from confidence. Is there something else a part of it?

They've already done some of your free stuff and gotten the things that you have that allow them to test you, taste, test you and have sort of an appetizer. And it's simply are they the type of person who is ready to make a definitive decision? A lot of people are not clear decision makers. And so, they start to overthink and overanalyze and over process. And should I, if I spend this much, is it really gonna be worth it? And then let's be honest. Some people have also gotten burned.

Some people have invested at high levels and not gotten what the expectation was and because of that they're not even cautious, but they're afraid to invest at a high level again. So, I just, I think it goes to someone's mindset and the mindset of my growth is connected to how I invest in myself. My growth is, and my development and getting to who I know that I'm destined to be. That's always gonna be connected to what I'm putting in. And so, investing in myself cannot be optional.

It has to be mandatory. So, if that person is not in that mind frame and that mind state that my ongoing growth has to be mandatory. And even if I had a bad experience, I'm not gonna focus on that bad experience. I'm gonna take whatever I needed to learn from that experience and move to the next investment in me, cuz I'm worth it. Those are the people who typically like, oh, I gotta go pray about it. I gotta go talk to my husband about it. I gotta make sure, can you send me samples?

But people who know without a shadow of a doubt that their forward growth and movement and development is connected to what they put into themselves. They're the ones who are stroking the checks and swiping the credit card without, a whole lot of explanation necessary.

That doesn't mean I can't serve or help people outside of that scope of my ideal client. But my specialty, my time, my energy, my effort, my marketing is focused on a niche audience. So yeah, I have amazing men who come through my programs and I think that's what a lot of entrepreneurs also fail to realize is just because you niche down does not mean that you cannot serve people outside of the niche. I don't primarily target corporations. I don't target federal government agencies.

I don't target nonprofits. And yet I get hired from all of those different types of organizations. And it's because I am amazing in a certain lane. And when you are amazing in a certain lane and you truly take ownership of that being your lane of brilliance. Other people will notice. And other people outside of your ideal client will spend their dollars with you.

Can you tell me a little bit about the difference between the two of them, for someone who's thinking about becoming a speaker and how they decide, which is the right path for them?

It's in our budget. We do the contract, they write the check, I go and perform. And it is what it is. But then there are a lot of engagements that are outside of that scope of paid. And I have to come in and I have to earn my speaker fee. I don't mind doing that because oftentimes to be very honest, I can earn more when I have a speak to sell opportunity than when somebody pays me my full speaker fee.

So, I just imagine I'm in front of an audience of 200 people and typically most speakers are closing somewhere on a lower end of 10 to 20% of the room. So, let's say I close 20% of the room and I have a product that's, a thousand bucks. I always keep my trusted calculator here. And if I close 20% of the room, that mean that's 40 people who are gonna say yes to my thousand dollars product or offer. If that's 40 grand, that's much larger than my actual paid speaker fee.

So, for me, I don't box myself into one or the other. I allow myself the range of being able to do whatever fits for that event. So, if it's a conference, which I get booked for a lot of conferences, and maybe they're only able to offer me an honorarium, which is just a small portion of my speaker fee. But they also allow me to come in and sell what I'm gonna sell from the front of the room then. Yeah. If it's the right audience, then that can certainly be a viable opportunity for me.

So, don't shut yourself out of potential revenue because you only wanna play in one of those faces, do both.

We speak the things that end up manifesting in our lives. So, you're willing to wave your fee. You have, you should have a set speaker fee. And you should let people know, inform people of what that speaker fee is now, whether they're able to pay the fee or not, whether you're willing to negotiate the fee or waive the fee. That's a different conversation. All right. Number two. How do I find my first speaking engagement? Number one, you've gotta have certain assets in place. I believe.

That say I'm a speaker. So, do you have marketing that says I can come and I can share my expert advice with your audience. Do you have a speaker, one sheet? Do you have a bio that references you as being an expert who will come in and speak for organizations? Do you have any type of footage of you actually speaking? Now, if this is your first speaking engagement, maybe you're saying how would I have footage if I've never spoken on stage before? Even though you've never spoken on stage before.

The importance in getting your first gig is by being able to show people and demonstrate to people, how you speak and what your delivery style is. So, you should at a minimum, have a customized YouTube channel where every week at a minimum, once a week, you are doing a presentation to an audience. Whoever you say your ideal audience is, and it could be a two minute to a three-minute video.

But what that does is it gives you something to be able to send to a meeting planner, an event planner, or someone who's gonna be hiring the speaker to say, yes, I can clearly articulate myself and articulate a message. Yes, I am this type of energy. I'm monotone or I'm high energy. Yes. I'm able to enunciate and pronunciate. So, someone who's gonna hire you to speak on their stage has to have some vision of what you're going to deliver. So, you must have those basic assets in place.

In addition to let me add two more things to that, a digital footprint, you've gotta have some type of website. If you don't have a website to send me to, I really don't believe that you are a professional and that's anything speaking or outside of speaking. And number two, you must have a professional head shoot. Because those are the first things that anyone who's gonna hire you to speak are gonna ask for.

Can you please send us over your professional headshot, your bio, your website, and most times a media kit or a speaker one sheet as well as a real, a demo or a real of you speaking. And again, if you don't have that demo or real, because you've never spoken in front of a live audience, send them directly the link directly to your YouTube, your customized YouTube channel of you articulating a clear message and then to actually find it. You've gotta be inquisitive.

So, you need to be on something as simple as going to Google and typing in where you wanna speak. So, we use the words call for speakers. Those three words are what we use to cert for speaking opportunities, call for speakers. And then you can add to the end of that, if there's something specific, a specific industry for tech conferences, for financial trade shows, whatever you might be looking for. And what Google will do is it will do a search and pull up.

Organizations, conferences, events that are coming up that are looking for speakers. And there's usually a page that you have to click on that provides all of the qualifications if you will, of someone who's gonna speak and whether or not they're offering payment, whether or not they're gonna cover your airfare, your hotel, you're around transportation, et cetera, et cetera. So, at a minimum start.

I got the opportunity, but I wonder about that. And also. Especially for corporate events. Is it actually the person whose name is on everything that's in charge or is it like their secretary or an intern who's actually doing most of the decision making when they decide what to bring to that person?

I don't have 45 minutes to watch your full presentation. Just give me a good minute and a half to two minutes where I can see how you engage. And also let me say this. Another mistake that I find that a lot of speakers make with their reel. Is, they do almost like these these still photos, but it's never, I never hear you actually speaking on the photos.

So, it's someone doing a voice over top of still photos shots that photos that they've inserted into the video that doesn't share the experience with me of what you're gonna bring to my audience. I need to hear at some point, even if you have those still photos with a voiceover, and then at some point in the video it stops. And it actually is a real live clip of you speaking. And I can hear you speaking.

That is acceptable, but it's very hard for me to make a determination if there is, I never get to hear you speak on the video. So, keep it brief, keep it short because people live busy lives. Decision makers, live busy lives, and they don't have time to watch your 20 minutes, 30 minute, 40 minute presentation next as it relates to corporations. So, again, that's really not. I don't submit directly to corporations to be very honest. Most times they find me, I've spoken for NASA.

I've spoken for capital one, their cybersecurity team. I've spoken for Verizon about six times, but the beautiful thing is. They're able to find me because I'm amazing in my lane of brilliance, which is communication. So even though I don't pitch them, I don't target them. They're able to find me because there is what I call a splatter effect. Like almost when you paint a wall, I could paint this wall behind me. I could put down the little tarp. And I don't care how cautious I am.

I promise you, I'm going to find a splatter of paint on another wall or a splatter of paint on my chair that I'm gonna have to clean off. So, when you are amazing and focused in one lane, there will always be a splatter effect of other people who will see your brilliance, who will see your bright light and say, oh my God. We've gotta get her or gotta get him into our audience so that she can bring that same energy or that same, whatever the topic might be.

But for me, every time I am contacted, I've never been contacted by anybody's assistant. I am always contacted by either the person who is doing the final decision making, or I am contacted by that person's right-hand person, which normally is not necessarily a secretary or assistant, but it might be the director of X, Y, Z, who works closely with them and is helping them to plan out that event.

Even when I had just closed a deal for speaking with a big company last week and the person who was able to get me to the decision maker is someone who has been to events where I've spoken before, not corporate events, entrepreneurial events, because this person happens to have a business on the side of their full-time gig. So, you just never know who's in the room. You don't know what big companies they work for. Even when you're serving outside of a space of Corporate.

And so, this person works directly with the decision maker who is hiring for this big company's annual event. And sure enough, we signed the contract and I'll be their keynote speaker on February 22nd.

Yeah. Because when I send people, my demo reel, I wrote a really successful biography of someone who's not my race about growing up 80 years ago, very challenging for me. I had to do a lot of research and I was like, you would ask me about that because it was the hardest thing I did. The son hired me that was the scaredest I've ever been. Cuz when you're writing someone's legacy of their father, it's so important to get it right.

And it was a really great project, but no one ever asked me, that's why I know they don't check my reel. They never check my demo. I was like, you would ask about that because it's so different to write something totally different than my experience. So, I'm wondering. It's more about having and not people are so worried most of the time when people ask me, they go, do you have samples? I go, yes, they go. Okay. And they don't even ask for 'em.

They just wanna, during that process where it's your confidence more than anything else that matters. When people are hiring you, or when you're in that process, what are the things people check or ask about that? They're really just seeing what your answer is more than anything else and the things you need to have in place, like having a headshot. Whereas if someone's never been a speaker before, they don't know that question and they get asked, they don't know what to do.

What are some of the critical things people should know about, that's part of the hiring or decision-making process?

So, it's really about being ready so you don't have to get ready. So, even if you've never been on stage before, get the marketing assets in place now go and get the professional headshot that speaks to whoever you authentically are and who you want to magnetize. So, have those professional headshot have a website in place that speaks to what it is that you actually deliver to that audience. Now here's where a lot of new and emerging speakers sometimes are challenged.

You might have someone who they really wanna become a corporate speaker, but everything about their current website says I am a faith based speaker. If your website says faith-based speaker, the corporate company is not going to hire you. So, if you are gonna do both of those things, you have the faith-based speaking. That's great. But you wanna do corporate speaking because you have something of value to add into that industry.

Then make sure you have a separate website to send them to so that they're not looking at your, oh God and amen and hallelujah stuff that has nothing to do with what corporate wants.

But if you're gonna teach corporate, because maybe you have some specialty in communication or team building or peak performance or attitude or whatever it is, diversity has something completely separate, a completely separate website where they never have to see the faith based website and make sure that all of your marketing assets speak to who you want to hire you.

If you want corporate to hire you, you should have a corporate headshot, not the headshot with you with the big cross, that's going to be a disconnect for them. So, it really does work that way, but the things that primarily they're gonna always look for and look at the headshot, they're gonna look at the website. And they're gonna want that bio and they want it right away. Sometimes you can get away with not having a speaker one sheet.

I don't always have a company ask me for that, but they always ask me for my bio, my headshot and my website. And they always look at it because then they come back and say, oh, we looked at your website. Oh. And we noticed this thing. So, even though, so I just had the company that just hired me last week. One of their questions was for the final decision maker who was gonna write the check was well, I noticed on your website, you specify that you specialize in teaching and training women.

Are you able to still incorporate your message for men and women. So, they definitely go for the sites and they will look at your videos that they will look at too, because they wanna get some idea of what your delivery style is. So, just make sure all that stuff is already prepared and ready before you even get the first opportunity. Don't wait until you get it. And now you're trying to rush and scramble and get it together because by then they're gonna pass the opportunity onto somebody else.

They're gonna look at any videos that you might have posted and your topics, whatever you say that your most frequently requested topics are. They're gonna look at those. Outside of that. They're not spending 40 minutes looking at your website. They're not going through tab by tab and looking at they're not doing that cause they don't have the time to do it. Just like they don't have the time to look at your whole 40-minute speech.

It's not really leading the audience anywhere and it almost becomes rambling. But when you speak, speaking is a skill, just like any other skill that you would have to develop and you wanna master that skill so, that you are able to deliver the best value to every audience that you get to speak to. So, if you wanna master the skill of speaking, which includes what are the assets and what should be in my speaker one sheet. Hire someone who is an expert. Now I can just ramble quickly to you.

Some of the things that you wanna make sure that you have in your speaker one sheet, you wanna make sure you have a free bio. You wanna make sure that you have some frequently requested topics or your topics that you prefer to present. If you don't wanna call it most frequently requested, cuz maybe you've never spoken on stage before you wanna make sure.

If you have spoken on stage before that you have at least two or three testimonials from someone at a high level in that organization who can speak to the value that you delivered to their organization. You wanna have a, some type of photo, whether it's a headshot or a full body shot, preferably a full body shot because they already have your headshot. That's gonna go into their marketing materials for the event. And then of course you wanna have the information on how they book you.

If you happen to have a book and that book should connect to what is that you specialize in. I would encourage you having some graphic of that book as a part of your speaker one sheet, because oftentimes you can leverage that book number one, to get booked and hired, to speak, but also that organization might wanna get copies of that book as a continuing education component. For as a part of your speaking. So, I'll give an example.

When I spoke for NASA just last year, not only did they hire me as their keynote for a training session that they did, but also, they invested in 125 copies of my book that would support it, support the presentation as a continuing education piece of material or resouce. So, if you have a book that connects you. So, if you speak on leadership, have a book on leadership. If you speak on communication, have a book on communication.

If you, whatever the thing is that you speak on, you need to be the authority. As you mentioned earlier, by having a book that the company can also pay for and invest in for either all the attendees or even if it's just for their VIPs. But a lot of organizations will do that.