James Malinchak: Speak Your Way To Prosperity

Wes Schaeffer | September 18, 2017

Learn how to become a big money speaker

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Keynote Speaking Tips you'll learn in The Sales Podcast...

Played basketball in Hawaii
Moved to LA
Had no idea or plan to speak
Was making $7/hr working at a video store in L.A.
He listened to people who said, "just follow your passion," but it doesn't work unless you get booked
You need to bring business processes to your passion
Most speaker associations are a load of crap with advice like "cold call 100, and you'll get ten interested"
Did 2-3 talks, then 30-40 then he crushed it
You need to be a great marketer
The 8-ball of speaking is reaching the people who control the budgets. Nothing else matters.
Corporate speakers go after training coordinators, casino
Colleges have budgets (student activities, Greek life, residential coordinator, youth conferences)
You have the youth market (K-12), colleges, corporate: make your speaking material unique for each of those
He has one talk that fits three themes with different titles in Corporate
- Success/Motivation
- Sales
- Leadership
- This 3X's his chances of getting booked
He has five talks for colleges
- Incoming
- Out-going
- Leadership
- Success In College
- College athletes
- This 5X's
One talk for youth where he's paid as a keynote speaker
He does more direct mail than anyone
- Event coordinators don't go to Facebook to find a speaker
- No speaker shows up in the mailboxes of these decision-makers
- He'll validate their addresses
- He has zero competition because nobody mails
- He'll do 10,000 mail pieces
  - 1,000 will be interested
  - 100 will retain him for $20,000
  - Don't do postcards
  - His contacts tell him not to send little postcards
  - He sends a 6-page brochure in one big sheet
  - Rent the right list and drive them to a landing page where they can see a video of you as a speaker
  - Customize the mailout for the market
  - They'll call and book him
  - Coordinators worry if you can relate to their audience, not that you can speak well
- These are for fee-paid talks
Slides should enhance your presentation, not be your presentation
Your face and your hands should be your main tools
Planners will ask for local people to keep fees down
- Destination planners will give them a list of the local providers
- 20,000 conventions per year are held in Vegas
- Sales and Marketing coordinators of hotels—he got to know them and got listed as a preferred vendor (incentivize them)
15 years ago, he walked into the Portland Convention Center with a bunch of big names like Michael Jordan ($150k) vs. James's $5k, and he was the only one who got a standing ovation
To make more, package yourself better to be perceived as being worth more
When you're starting, you speak anywhere for any price
Everyone undervalues themselves
Ask for what you want
He started earning $20,000 when he decided to ask for $20,000

Listen To Previous Episodes of The Sales Podcast

Links Mentioned In The Sales Podcast

Visit James Malinchak's speaking home on the web
Follow James Malinchak on X

Sales Growth Tools Mentioned In The Sales Podcast

Hire The Best Speaker for your sales meeting or marketing conference
Take The CRM Quiz: get a free consultation with me
The Sales Agenda: take control of every sales opportunity like a pro.
Leadferno: Turn lurkers into leads
Founders Card: Get $20,000 in free processing from Stripe, save 15% on Bose, and save on hotels, travel, car rentals, you name it.
Send Drunk Emails: ...that get opened and get you paid!
Phone Burner: work the phone like a machine so you can be a human when you connect.
Apollo: Find targeted accounts and send cold email at scale to them and hit the inbox with Apollo