Starter Account. Your bio on espeakers feeds into our chapter website Find a Candidate Speaker Page

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1 NSA Mountain West Chapter Candidate Speakers How to Open Your Starter Account Your NSA Mountain West Candidate's "All-Access Pass" includes an espeakers Starter Account ($179 value). espeakers is the largest database of professional speakers in the world. Speakers Bureaus, Associations and Meeting Planners tap into espeakers every day to find and promote speakers. Your bio on espeakers feeds into our chapter website Find a Candidate Speaker Page INSTRUCTIONS Complete the following steps to initiate your account and create your profile: 1. Go to the espeakers website to register using this link: 2. Fill out your profile information. 3. On page three of the signup process (Review & Checkout) make sure the total due today = $0.00 (If you are asked for a Promo Code use NSUT) 4. Enter a credit card (espeakers billing system requires a credit card to create an account, but it can be removed after the account is created) 5. Agree to terms and click Activate. espeakers will send you a Username and Password via Once an account has already been created: a. Download and Login and Install espeakers App for your computer b. Complete your Speaker Profile b. In menu list on left side choose Profile & Marketing c. Once in Marketing, choose Your Profile. Complete all eight sections. DON T FORGET Send an to colette@tohirespeakers.com Let Colette know you are ready to have your profile posted on our NOTE espeakers updates its database at midnight Mountain Time each night. The day after you create your profile, check your bio on to see how it shows on the chapter website. To make edits, go back to your espeakers account.

2 The Secret to Staying on the Platform Attract, Promote, Sell Joe Heaps, espeakers Maximizing your online profile (espeakers Marketplace) 1. eseo espeakers SEO chart (last page) 2. PERSONAL PHOTO a. If you don t already have a professional headshot, it s time to get one. Just make sure your face shows clearly and fills at least 1/3 of the image (unless you have a signature pose that is part of your branding). b. File formats: JPG, GIF, or PNG. You can use any image editing software to save files in at least one of these formats. Free online editor can be found at: c. Your image should be 130 pixels wide by 180 pixels tall. If it s a different shape, the system will still take it, but it leaves space at the bottom or the right side. 3. ONE LINE BIO a. The one line bio is usually 2 sentences long and never more than 4 lines of text as seen on the profile. The one line bio is your lead in line, which might be thought of as a quick way of expressing your expertise, your story, to buyers who are quickly glancing at your profile. b. The one line bio should almost never include your name: it s always displayed right next to your name, so it s just wasting space. c. The one line bio should speak to the audience benefit, rather than just qualifications. i. Weak: Won the world wrestling championship (doesn t talk about audience benefit) ii. Strong: Wrestling champion teaches your team to take it to the mat for business success 4. TOPICS/EXPERTISE a. Meeting planners want to know what you re talking about in your presentations. You ll see six drop down lists on the left hand side. Each list contains the full list of topics. Use the first drop down list to choose your most important topic. b. We have over 150 topics a speaker can choose from in our list. Each speaker can choose up to 6 topics if they d like, but they could choose only 1 if that s what fit them. c. There is a slight advantage given to speakers with fewer topics when a buyer does a topic search, so you should resist the urge to fill up all 6 slots if you don t really need them. d. Your topics/expertise should match your messaging in your one line bio and your bio.

3 5. INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE a. Select industries you ve spoken in or have work experience in. This may be completely different from what you speak about. 6. FEES a. Obviously, an emerging presenter in the early stages of a career starts at a lower fee level. As you gain greater experience, you work toward charging a higher fee. Established or seasoned professionals and those with celebrity status are able to demand a higher fee for their presentations based on experience and/or content. b. Using a fee range is fine, but you should not exceed a maximum difference of $5,000 or a minimum difference of $500. Also, never charge clients more simply because you think they have more money to spend! c. You have two options when listing your fee on your profile. You can choose to offer either a fee range or a flat fee. To use a flat fee, just enter a fee in the low range and leave high empty. d. Adding fee line items is a great way to advertise what you do. It creates a menu that gives buyers ideas how to use you. Examples: i. keynote North America: $8,000 ii. keynote International: $12,000 iii. flat travel fee: $1,500 iv. half day workshop: $14,000 v. webinar: $6,000\ 7. VIDEO a. Video clips are the #1 tool on your profile that persuade buyers to hire you. Your videos give potential clients a live look at what they are purchasing: YOU! b. We know you probably have video on YouTube and you should have it there for search engines to pick up. YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine behind Google. But, we re finding that many companies are blocking YouTube because employees are spending too much time on it. So you need to have a reliable video solution that s never blocked and plays on all devices: (espeakers) c. Your PLUS account includes up to 30 minutes split across as many clips as you d like. We recommend 3 to 5 clips of 3 to 5 minutes each. d. Most of your clips, especially your primary one (the one first in the list) should show you on the stage or in front of your audience, rather than a montage about you. Meeting planners want to see you interact with the crowd and see your stage presence. e. Drag your best clip to the top of the video list this becomes your primary clip, the first one buyers see when they click the video button. f. TRENDING: Over the past few years we ve heard from meeting planners that they want a short and more personal video. i. We suggest you create a short second video of you explaining to the meeting planner what the audience will gain from sitting through your presentation, and what they ll walk away with to implement in their work or personal lives. We encourage you to create one of these short videos for

4 each of your topics or expertise. They don t have to be professional quality; they can be taken with a phone camera for example. An example of what you would say is as follows: 1. Hello, my name is Robert and I m an expert on Teambuilding. When I present to your audience, they will learn 3 reasons why team building is important, and they ll walk away with 5 ways to implement what they learned. 8. RIGHT HAND COLUMN of your profile a. FEE RANGE Set under fees b. RATING i. This comes from how many recommendations you have on the recommendations tab below. c. ASSOCIATIONS i. Your automatically added to the association directories as a member. You can also showcase your profile by selecting any of the appropriate designation and awards boxes like CSP, CSP Global. If you regularly use any of these credentials after your name, you should also type them in the credentials box in the Speaker Name section at the top of the form. d. CAREER i. Entering your years of experience on your profile shows here. e. LANGUAGES i. Select the languages you can speak and present in. f. WORKED IN i. This list comes from your calendar. Our system scans your calendar and displays any country you ve spoken in. ii. If in the past you ve spoken in countries that are not shown, the solution is to add a past date to the calendar with that location. 9. BIO a. Your bio is the first place a meeting planner will look to learn more about you and decide if you re a good fit for the event. Your bio is your opportunity to tell potential customers why they should choose YOU. b. Your bio should be several paragraphs long and take 2 3 minutes to read. c. Your opening paragraph is your value proposition. This is when you need to hook readers and convince them to keep reading. Buyers are shopping with an audience need in mind, so speak to that need. Your opening paragraph may contain some variation of your one line bio. d. If you don t grab their interest in the first few sentences, they ll quickly move to a speaker whose bio will. The person reading this is shopping with a purpose in mind, and you need to let that person know how their audience will be different, or their organization better, after they've heard you speak. e. After reading your opening paragraph, buyers should be thinking, I really want my audience to hear this. It sounds like this speaker will really deliver on the purpose

5 of our meeting to the audience. I also get the sense that they are different from other speakers in the same category and I want to know more. f. Your first paragraph has made the buyer want what you claimed you can do, and now it s time need to convince them you re capable of delivering. This is where you talk about your qualifications, life story, etc. What makes you unique? You need to convince the reader why you re the best speaker for your chosen topic(s). g. The bio editor section on your profile allows some simple formatting options like bold and bulleted lists. Use these sparingly, but use them. Don t leave your beautiful words lumped in one big (ugly) block of text. Use paragraphs to keep ideas separate. h. There are 2 bullet lists that are valuable. These are nice about halfway through your bio. Both of these lists contain information found elsewhere in your profile, so it s duplicate information but still good to reference here. Use only list 3 4 items per list: i. most requested programs, in this format: 1. Dodging the Ball: playground rules for the business world 2. Audiences learn what the rules of business are, and why breaking them can leave a big, red, welt where you got hit. 3. past clients include 4. Include a quote if you can, in this format: 5. "Tina was the best thing that's ever happened to our company." Rick Swenson, VP, Ford Motor Company 6. teach the shift enter trick in lists for starting a new line without making a new bullet. i. Bio Tips: j. Bio Score: bioscore@espeakers.com k. Copy editing/writing available 10. REVIEWS a. Recommendations from others are a powerful convincer. You probably have a file full of testimonials from past clients. We recommend at least a dozen recommendations, with your strongest at the top. b. Enter each recommendation by typing in the quote and information about the person who gave it. We only show initials on your profile, so you re not letting out any private information for the quoted person. c. For each recommendation, you have a chance to enter the person s address and get the recommendation verified by us. Verified recommendations are highlighted on your profile and carry more weight with buyers. d. we send the buyer a simple asking them to click a button to confirm the quote. e. when possible, use the person s business (@fordmotors.com) instead of a generic address The domain name part (only, never the whole ) is shown to let buyers know where the verification came from.

6 11. RESOURCES a. You can build an impressive electronic media kit by adding video, high res photos, audio/visual requirements, articles, introductions and one sheets, book & DVD covers, audio. Some items you should have: i. a selection of hi res photos that a buyer can use for programs. ii. sample contract iii. one sheet iv. introduction v. book jackets 12. PROGRAMS a. Include a bullet list of "most requested programs" and include a line about audience benefits, in this format: i. "Don't Break It If You Can't Fix it." ii. Delivered as a keynote, this 60 minute presentation will teach the audience the value of not breaking things they can't fix 13. AVAILABILITY CALENDAR a. A prominent theme in the feedback we receive from meeting planners is how helpful it is when speakers have an online calendar. It makes a client s job easier when you and your schedule are more accessible. b. Also, it s important to have an up to date calendar so when buyers are searching for a speaker on your topic on a particular date...that you come up in the results as available. c. Each profile includes the ability to add events to the calendar, so adding brief info about your upcoming events is easy. d. When speakers are first presented with the idea of publishing their speaking schedule online, three responses are common i. That s great! I m already updating my website by hand with my schedule and your system will automate it for me. ii. The second: I don t want anyone to see my schedule. It looks empty and clients will think I m not a good speaker. iii. Don t worry about showing a sparse calendar. Buyers realize professional presenters are often involved in many things that don t show up on their event calendar. A fairly open schedule doesn t necessarily give them a negative impression. iv. This is a decision you ll need to make for yourself, but in my experience, having your schedule available, even if it doesn t appear full, makes it easier to do business with you. And anything that makes it easier for meeting planners to book you for events is definitely worth doing. v. I don t want another place to have to enter my calendar. I keep it in (Google calendar, Mac calendar, Outlook, etc) vi. We don t believe in double entry, either! The system is designed so that your speaking calendar gets entered into espeakers first, and then you connect it to your normal calendar so that speaking engagements flow to

7 your (Google calendar, phone, tablet, Outlook, etc). No double entry, and you get the benefits of having your calendar in espeakers where we can help buyers find you, send you weather reports when you travel, and let you know about fellow speakers traveling to the same area when you re there. 14. SOCIAL MEDIA a. You can connect your Twitter and LinkedIN profiles to your espeakers profile. Facebook does not allow 3rd parties to connect to them any longer. b. This does two things i. shows your latest posts on your profile. Always live. ii. you can choose to turn on calendar push so that as you speak, the system automatically posts a message like, I m on stage in New Hampshire today!. You can customize the message. ATTRACTING CUSTOMERS QUESTIONS 1. Who are my ideal customers? (Buyers looking for an expert in...) 2. What do they care about? (expertise, fee range, added value at meeting, etc) 3. Where do they do their research on speakers? (social media, online, etc) 4. How do they engage and hire speakers who they re interested in? (social media, online, phone etc) 5. What would be attractive to them (what is the hidden gem they are looking for?) (additional education sessions, product, discounts on fees, etc) 6. How can I stand out online to potential customers who are interested in hiring me? (directories, social media, personal website, etc)

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