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In this episode, I am joined by Jennifer Best, Vice President of Marketing at AAE Speakers Bureau. Under her leadership in 2022, AAE launched the inaugural Speaking Industry Benchmark Report, bringing transparency to the speaker booking process between both the meeting organizers who book them and the speakers who delight audiences. Top Takeaways: Public Speaking Benefits: Public speaking is a valuable skill for personal and professional development. It provides a platform to share expertise, educate, and inspire audiences. Starting Small: Begin with local opportunities like community events, schools, or Chamber of Commerce gatherings. Practice and build confidence gradually before aiming for larger conferences. Removing Filler Words, Use Pauses and Gestures: Focus on eliminating filler words like “um” and “so” to enhance the professionalism of your speech. Consider attending workshops or hiring a coach to refine your speaking skills. Integrate pauses strategically, allowing the audience to absorb information and enhancing overall communication. Think of pauses as logical breaks, creating a rhythm in your speech. Utilize gestures authentically to enhance your message. Pay attention to audience cues; adjust your approach based on their reactions. Finding Speaking Opportunities: Explore opportunities with local organizations, non-profits, or industry associations. Utilize a CRM to track and submit proposals for speaking engagements. Niche Topics and Speaker Coaches: Identify a niche topic to stand out in the speaking industry. Consider working with speaker coaches or organizations like the National Speakers Association (NSA). Working with a Speakers Bureau: Understand the role of a Speakers Bureau, which connects speakers with event organizers. Different Bureaus have varying business models, including exclusive representation. Remember, public speaking is a continuous learning journey, and each opportunity contributes to your growth. Whether you’re just starting or aiming for larger stages, the key is to be authentic, practice consistently, and embrace the journey of becoming a confident and impactful speaker. Download the latest Speaking Industry Benchmark Report and to be notified in January when the next survey launches, vist https://go.aaespeakers.com/speaking-industry-benchmark-report/ To learn more about AAE Speakers, visit https://www.allamericanspeakers.com. To submit a speaking profile for consideration on AAE’s website, go to https://aae.link/add-speaker Articles: 7 Speaking Topic Trends to Watch in 2024: https://www.allamericanspeakers.com/blog/7-speaking-topic-trends-to-watch-in-2024/ Impactful Communication: Jennifer Best Of AAE Speakers Bureau On 5 Essential Techniques for Becoming an Effective Communicator: https://medium.com/authority-magazine/impactful-communication-jennifer-best-of-aae-speakers-bureau-on-5-essential-techniques-for-a76b560a8cf0 Find AAE on the socials @aaespeakers Learn more about Kickbox and get 100 free validation credits: https://kickbox.com Video: https://youtu.be/2ljhkxbpCsY Audio:

In this episode, I speak with George Kocher about growing a business. Key takeaways: The importance of tracking and analyzing your marketing efforts to identify what is working and what isn’t. Cast a wide net and experiment with different marketing channels to determine the most effective ones. Create unique and authentic content to stand out in a crowded online landscape. The necessity of planning, executing, reflecting, and iterating in both business operations and marketing campaigns. Overcoming challenges and setbacks in entrepreneurship and staying persistent. Overall, this content provides insights into the mindset and strategies needed to successfully grow a business and improve marketing campaigns, emphasizing the importance of adaptability, analysis, and authenticity. George Kocher is a data-driven leader with experience building and managing high-performance sales and marketing teams. George serves as the CEO of Brand North digital marketing agency.  After graduating from Cornell University, George worked as an Analyst at Barclays Capital and VP of Business Development at Sunspire Health where he helped to grow the organization to 16 locations and an eventual sale to Kohlberg Private Equity.  After Sunspire Health, George took over as VP of Business Development for Lakeview Health, a portfolio company of The Riverside Company where he also helped within their healthcare fund. He currently serves as the Founder and CEO of Brand North, a digital marketing & growth consulting agency that focuses on applying sophisticated marketing strategies and technical solutions to local businesses and national businesses within behavioral healthcare.  In addition, George is also very active in crypto, web3, and NFTs as the Founder and CEO of 3zy Labs. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-kocher/ Bio: https://georgekocher.com/about/ Video: https://youtu.be/1ABeCkN4dsM Audio:

Karese Laguerre RDH, OMT. Myofunctional therapist and author joins me to talk about the importance of good health, wellness and sleep. Self care is the foundation in success in business and life.  Make sure to get a good night’s sleep. We discuss the myth of getting eight hours of sleep. Do you need eight hours? We then discus C.A.R.E: consistency, airway management, relax, and efficient. Listen to the episode to hear about this great method of getting a great night’s sleep! Karese mentions she really likes what she does because she  has an unexpected impact on others. We should all love our jobs so much that we affect others in a positive manner. Link to my LinkedIn post about my standing desk. About Karese: Karese, like many parents, suffered in silence while her children struggled with the symptoms of undiagnosed sleep and breathing issues. One visit to a pediatric dentist changed the trajectory of their lives. Already a Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH), Karese, trained with Sandra Holtzman, Lois Laynee and Sarah Hornsby to establish her orofacial myology knowledge. With this initial training and numerous others, in a few short years she has not only resolved all her children’s issues, but helped hundreds of patients, children and adults alike, discover how great life can be functioning on full. Her private practice, The Myo Spot is now a leader in the quest for myofunctional therapy awareness and public education. Her latest published book, Accomplished, delves into how to sleep better, eliminate burnout, and execute goals. Karese’s mission is to transform and positively impact as many households as possible through dynamic breath, brain and body work.  Accomplished: How to Sleep Better, Eliminate Burnout, and Execute Goals can be found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084F7HMK3# Website: www.themyospot.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_mt3CXqqNs

I know that it has been a while since I have created an episode. This is because I have been traveling internationally. I either had some time or technology challenges that hindered me from pushing out some content. Today, I would like to share a few tips on working while traveling. 1. Check internet speeds prior to arrival for hotels, Air BNBs and Gites 2. Research co-working spaces for hours, rates, and internet speeds 3. Learn about cell phone plans, costs, coverages, and miscellaneous fees 4. Bring the right adapters or converter as well as multi-port/plug blocks Make sure to check out my new podcast on iContact located at www.icontact.com/podcast Read my latest blog about co-working in France at www.hankhoffmeier.com/blog [youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd9UI3qleqI[/youtube] Audio:

In this short episode, I cover reaching your customer first and lifestyle marketing. When it comes to reaching your customer first, before your competition, make that you provide value through blogging, customer service, and social media. This can be knowledge, information or tips. You can provide information about a product or service. Create engagement and trust for when someone is ready to buy, they would want to buy from you. Use automation to get in front of your audience first. Use information and data to help trigger messages at the right time. Take advantage of your customers’ emotion or even time of day to help convince people to buy from you. You can also trigger a message when someone visits your website. This might mean that they are interested in working with you our wanting to buy a product. With customer service, greet people right away, use proper etiquette, and provide helpful and valuable information. If you use a chat, look into chatbots to help improve response rate and help save you time. If you interact with customers quickly and make life easier for them, you will set yourself apart from your competition. It is hard to find companies that put customer service first these days. With lifestyle marking, you want to appeal to people and how they live. It is the things they like and how they want to be treated. Solve a pain. Develop personas, which is identifying the “type” of person that buys from you. One persona may be a male 30-40 years old that likes exercising expensive meals. Another may be a 20-25-year-old female that is into yoga and is also into milkshakes. Make life easy for your customers by catering to there lifestyle. Do not make them go through numerous steps to learn something or buy from you. Appeal to the emotions of your personas and that you understand them. Help them make a decision. Use lifestyle marketing to appeal to your audience and make sure that you are the first to reach your customer! [youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOD4M_uTMnk[/youtube]   Audio:  

I recently viewed an ad from someone looking to promote a workshop on chatbots and how they are going to be an email marketing killer. I signed up because I wanted to see how this person was using chatbots. First, I needed to provide my email address to sign up for the workshop. That shows you that email marketing is still powerful. Next, I started to receive a lot of bot messages and at times, I felt like it was interrupting my day. I needed to keep going back to Facebook Messenger to interact with the bot. For me, I do not think that chatbots are ready for prime time. Messenger is really meant for friends and family and at times, to speak with businesses, if you initiate a conversation. What I experienced was different. I received messages every couple of days. You can use a chatbot on your site or on your Facebook Business Page to help answer FAQs, but I would hold off on using it to nurture prospects until it is ready for prime time. I have been using ChatFuel for a while and also know Larry Kim, CEO of MobileMonkey, through my work at iContact. You should check them out! Email Marketing is still the best channel for marketing. iContact discount code: HMBT for $30 off Book: The ABCs of the Customer Journey: A Beginner’s Guide to Automation, Branding, and Customer Service [youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ch47rWyxO4[/youtube] *Edited to include MobileMonkey

If you are using email marketing to promote your business, you need to clean your list every six months to a year. You do not have to just remove subscribers from your list, you can send them a series of about three emails to try to win them back. You can use a subject line of say “Are we breaking up?” for the first email to try to get them to open the email and engage with it. Ask your subscribers if they want to continue to receive your emails. You can then send them two more emails in an attempt to salvage them. The most important reason that you want to have a clean list, is that it will help you with your email deliverability. More of your emails will get into the inbox. Email providers like Gmail and Yahoo are looking at what your subscribers are doing with your emails and if they are engaging with them. If they are engaging in a positive manner, they will send more of your emails to the inbox. If they engage in a negative manner, it will lessen your chance. Forms of engagement would be opening, clicking, forwarding, starring, marking as important and also removing your email from the spam folder, marking as “not spam”. Negative engagement would be ignoring, unsubscribing, deleting marking as spam and bouncing. This type of engagement hurt your inbox placement. Identify people who have not opened your email in a while (six months to a year) and run a re-engagement campaign. Remove the subscribers that do not show they still want your emails. You can always add them back later when they show interest. If you would like to talk about best practices for list hygiene, let me know. [youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujJvI5c1f_Y[/youtube]   Audio:

Eric Megert, a comedian, talks about how to use comedy when you are a business owner. Maybe while selling or just going about your day. What does it take to become a successful comedian? Eric said perseverance and the ability to fail (bomb) is important. I mentioned that I discussed failure in a previous episode. Don’t be afraid to fail. Also, look at your verbiage and how you talk. You need to get to the point as soon as possible. When selling, in comedy, and when speaking to an audience, it is about them and not you. Your communication needs to be valuable and you need to get to the point as soon as possible. We then discussed improv and using it to help make improvements in sales. Eric said that he talks about his family and relationships when on stage. He shared a quick joke with us. I asked Eric about one thing that he learned from comedy. He said to be introspective and do not believe the hype. He mentions someone he knows that opened for Dave Chappelle one night and then went back to his job the next day washing cars.  There is always going to be someone better than you, but you still need to get out there and do your thing and age does not matter. You are never too old to learn and improve. Keep reading. Make sure to keep your brain stimulated. I mention an article about doing things that you are not used to doing, like brushing your teeth with your opposite hand that you normally use. This forces your brain to adapt and think. It will help with keeping your brain stimulated and responsive. Eric said to check out the NC Comedy Festival in February if you are in the area. You can follow Eric on Twitter: @no_research For a $30 account credit with iContact, use code HMBT.   [youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3NJZt2jkqs[/youtube]   Audio: