Winners: Best Speaker Video Contest

A powerful performance is your #1 form of marketing. 

Capturing that on video will allow your clients to see your talent and the value of the content that you provide.

We had 59 entries for this contest!  It takes a certain amount of bravery just to post your video, so kudos to all the entrants!

To review the contest entries and criteria again, click here.  http://ow.ly/36ds6

THE WINNER OF THE BEST SPEAKER VIDEO CONTEST IS:

JOHN YOUNG
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfbDgKHFfs0

What the judges appreciated about John’s video:  great energy, solid content, unique, relevant, high production quality, positions as an expert.

Congratulations John!

RUNNERS UP ARE:

Simon Bailey (commands the stage brilliantly)
http://www.youtube.com/brilliance777#p/a/u/0/veREsqHhUHg

Bill Stainton (Fun, unique, great energy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdUdKjzX2NY

Steve Shapiro (pulls us in)
http://www.vimeo.com/15265556

Michelle Ray (energy, audience engagement)
http://www.michelleray.com/demo.html

Kris Belcher (great funny stories, she’s real)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7UqrBYt4QY

Congratulations Runner’s Up!

And special thanks goes out to the panel, Joe Calloway and Robin Creasman, for their wisdom and expertise!

And, if you wonder why your video wasn’t selected, this post called “Video: You Might Lose Me If” might help. http://ow.ly/36WMI

Winners of the Connection Contest

Choosing the winners of this connection contest was no easy task!

There were alot of really terrific ideas. Really! And if you didn’t see all 42 of them, I would encourage you to take another look.

http://ow.ly/27zmA

The point of the contest?

It was to help people think more about the audience, become more “them” focused.

Based on the responses, someone reading this post will have a lot of great ideas to learn from.

The winners of the book with the top 5 ideas are:

Steve Hughes
Rhonda Scharf
Amanda Gore
Gary Minor
Marion Grobb Finklestein

Congratulations!

How Well Do you Connect? (+ Connection Contest)

In John Maxwell’s new book “Everyone Communicates, Few Connect”, John says…..

“Whether you are communicating one-on-one or with a large audience, asking questions creates a connection between you and your listeners that is vital to releasing energy and raising their interest levels. Because my audiences are often so varied, when I begin speaking…. I pose a question related to the topic I’ll be speaking on. I’m simply trying to get people to engage right away.”

How do you engage your audience?

Are you connecting with them in the first 30 seconds?

One of THE most difficult things for a speaker to accomplish is the “audience flip”. Making it about them (the audience) rather than about yourself.

Art Berg, a speaker who died way before his time, told me that he saw his career change when he caught onto this. It wasn’t easy to make his story “about them” as he was a parapalegic who had suffered a horrible accident. But he did it. Art’s theme was “while the difficult takes time, the impossible just takes a little longer”. Once he turned his speech around and made it about them he saw a major surge in his career.

CONTEST:

During your presentations, how do you connect with your audience?

I’d like to see your ideas posted below by July 1st.  The top 5 ideas will win a copy of John Maxwell’s new book “Everyone Communicates, Few Connect”. (Be sure to leave your e-mail address with your comments so I can connect with the winners).

PS: Someone who is famous for connecting with their audience is Joe Calloway. Joe and I produced “Diary of a Killer Keynote” DVD which includes one of Joe’s most talked about NSA speeches. Right now, we’re offering them at a special sell off price (save $30). Check it out. http://speakerlauncher.com/tools.html

So, what’s a great website really look like?

After launching The Best Speaking-Expert Website Contest last week, I was thrilled with the response – more than 65 entries and counting!

After reviewing some sites, I realized something…. Some people are confused about what makes a great website.

I’m not saying there weren’t a few good ones, and you’ll see them in the finals. But several led me to think….

“Really? This is THE BEST speaker website you’ve seen?”

Here are some of the criteria that were outlined by myself and the expert judging panel. For the sake of this tip, I’ll give you the expanded version of a few:

1. PROMISE: First and foremost, the website must demonstrate a clear promise for your customer. If your web visitors come and have to dig around to find out how you can help them, you’ve missed the boat.

If you are a musician or entertainer, you might have a challenge putting ROI (return on investment) to your work. Many speakers struggle to come up with a promise that really works, so don’t think you are alone. It’s a process.

For more on Promise Statements, refer to Chapter 4 of The Wealthy Speaker.

2. OUTCOME: The website speaks to the outcome for the buyer – rather than focusing on you! There are some really beautiful submissions that are cool to look at but are focused solely on the speaker rather than the client. These would need what I call a “Marketing Flip Flop” to highlight client outcomes first, speaker second.

Here’s a tip I wrote awhile back on Flip Flops. http://tiny.cc/flip489

3, EXPERT FIRST: Position as an expert first and a speaker second. This is really an add on to #2. For most of you, speaking is just one way of distributing your knowledge. You may also write books, consult, etc.

Brian Palmer of National Speakers Bureau says “clients no longer want to hire speakers, they want to hire smart people who happen to speak”.

When a website says “book me, I’m a speaker”, clients may not view you as the expert that they are seeking and may go on to find someone else.

***

Now there are some other important criteria like: having a topic that is desirable, decision maker friendly and has great video. But if you are missing the mark on your positioning, then chances are you do not have the best speaking-expert website.

To view the criteria again, here’s the link to the post.

ps: Feel free to e-mail me directly if you’d like to change your submission. And if you need a step-by-step on creating a great website, check out the Wealthy Speaker http://www.speakerlauncher.com/tools.html