Key Takeaways from our January Chapter Event

January started out on a high note with an information packed day for speakers to grow their businesses.

President, Sylvie Di Giusto  kicked off the first meeting of the year at Serendipity Labs, a new co-working space with large rooms and easy networking. As a bonus, Serendipity Labs offered all our members a free one week pass to try out this space.

Jeanne Stafford  was the emcee for this sold out event and welcomed the group. She brought up Heather Hansen who introduced the first speaker, Lou Diamond , a connector and Founder of ThriveLoud. Lou gave a high-content talk about How to Thrive as a Podcast Guest. As a regular podcast host, he revealed the 411 of what it takes to be an in-demand guest from his and other podcasters’ perspectives. Here are highlights from Lou’s practical 10 tips:

  1. Game Plan-Develop a “podcast specific” focus. Develop a specific message to deliver as a guest and identify your target buyers.
  2. Pipeline Conversion Strategy-Create landing pages specific to each audience. This will track who’s coming to your website and from where the audience originates.
  3. Find Your Ideal Podcast-Search for your targeted keywords on Itunes. Identify #of Itunes Podcast Reviews /#of Podcast Episodes. The number should be more than 25%. Aim to be a guest on shows with at least 50 episodes.
  4. Connect with the Host-Begin establishing rapport with the highest ranking podcasts. These will be the hardest to get on and will take some time. Reach out to other hosts on social media, follow them, and subscribe to their shows. Don’t forget to listen to their show before pitching them.
  5. Get Booked ASAP!-Create a spreadsheet to track each of your podcast interviews.  Some online scheduling calendars have reminders as to your recording times and the “go live” dates.
  6. “Sound” Spectacular-The sound quality will make or break the experience. So find a quiet place and use a professional microphone. Earbuds will not cut it.
  7. Be Spectacular-The episode should highlight your expertise, skills, and authentic self.
  8. Give -Away-For your interview to convert sales, offer a free “give away” The link should direct  listeners to a specific landing page for your offer. And newsletters are not a desirable giveaway.
  9. Promote, Promote, Promote- Promote when you schedule the podcast, right before the podcast, the day it goes live and then some. Post on every social media platform and your website. Promotion is on-going.
  10. Get Help-To maximize results you need a dedicated effort which may mean hiring someone who can make the connections you need. Success won’t happen immediately but over time anyone can grow their business as a podcast guest.

To receive Lou’s complete handout, Ten Tips from Lou Diamond to Thrive as a Podcast Guest, email him at info@thriveloud.com.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: President-Elect, JayTownsend  announced the first ever mobile-based NSA Auction.

Important dates:

  • 2/1 submission deadline.
  • 2/8 people can see what is for sale.
  • 2/16 Bidding opens
  • 2/25 Bidding closes.

Learn more….https://www.nsaspeaker.org/NsaAuction

Board member, Jill Schiefelbein  announced the Speaker Palooza Video Showcase on May 11th for 20 speakers.  Learn more….  https://nsanyc.org/event/showcase/

We were proud of our member, Eddie Turner , who flew in from Houston to talk about his new book, 140 Simple Message to Guide Emerging Leaders. Each member received a copy. Thank you, Eddie and congratulations!

Drew Tarvin introduced the upcoming Virtual Summit, VIRTUALLY! Additional information coming soon about the amazing speaker lineup and how to register for this March 23 special learning opportunity.

Guest Speaker Sam Richter -For Every Sales YES There is a KNOW

The featured guest speaker was Sam Richter  who shared industry insights, business trends, and practical tips and tricks to completely revolutionize your business. Sam began the meeting by saying “For every sales Yes there is a Know.” His main theme was that to stand-out in a crowded, competitive market, you need information about your prospect before you ever meet. This is not the typical visit to their website. It’s much deeper. Speakers spend too much time talking about themselves and their products and services and prospects don’t care. Prospects and clients are passionate about one thing- themselves. So Sam advised us to let the first words out of your mouth be about them.

His conversation sounds like this: “Before I meet with people I do a little homework. You’re busy and I don’t want to waste your time.  And guess what I found?  Can you tell me a little bit about that?”

The challenge is how to obtain information that will get the prospect’s attention. No problem according to Sam. He demonstrated how to use Google to get everything you need to know. He demonstrated by asking NSA Past President Ron Karr  to come to the front of the room. He then projected intelligence about Ron’s background, where he lives, his mother’s career trajectory, his family’s careers, and more, in specific detail.  It was like a background check without paying for it.

Sam then spent the rest of the program showing speakers how they can obtain valuable intelligence about their prospects and clients to gain a competitive edge and earn their business. And it starts with Google. He shared formulas that will narrow a search and reveal information faster and more easily.

Some examples include:

Use the + sign if you want two words in your search. Ex. Events +food.

Use OR (in caps) If you’re looking for more than one item.  Ex. Director OR manager

Use the – sign to exclude words from the search. If you’re researching the history of the Vikings, Google will most likely include the football team. To refine the search write out Vikings-football.  Sam’s mantra is  “A minus sign saves you time”.

You can also combine the formulas. Let’s say you want to find corporate meeting planners or event planners at Ernst and Young but you don’t want to see job openings.

Try “Ernst and Young” + “corporate meeting planners” OR “event planners” – jobs

These search tools can be used for finding word documents, PowerPoint, and Google images. You can also sort by color and usage rights.

To find upcoming leadership conferences for 2019 only, create more of a laser focus by using site:.

Ex. Site: leadership+conference+2019-2018

Sam stated that “Marketing gets you in the maybe file. The person you connect with is important. It’s the accumulation of little things that get you the big things.” So to create rapport and find some common ground, he recommended finding the interests of the prospect. Where do they donate? What are their favorite charities?  There are pdf lists of donors.

This was a search he conducted: “deb mallin” + Minneapolis + (donate OR donation) filetype:pdf

While Sam described Google as a “vacuum cleaner that sucks up information;” he startled us when he said that Google only gets to 2.4% of sites. The rest is invisible. Google can’t register for a website with a user name or password. 95% of Facebook is hidden to Google  He warned us to stay away from the dark web.

And speaking of social media, Sam showed us some workarounds when you can’t get the information you want. In addition to Google searches he provided other intelligence gatherings from the invisible web:

  • Political Contributions: www.opensecrets.org/donorlookup
  • Golf Handicap: www. ghin.com
  • People Search: www.truepeoplesearch.com
  • Address Search: www.411.com
  • Mobile Phone Search: www.spydialer.com
  • View a Home: www.zillow.com & Google Earth App
  • Public Documents: www.blackbooklonline.info

These techniques are not limited to sales intelligence. Just when our heads were full of data, Sam engaged our hearts. Our eyes started to well up with tears when he told the story of how he used these powerful tools to find his birth mother. This work is truly his passion.

Finally, he made a generous offer of a 50% discount on his Sales Intel Engine Speaker Edition.

Go to www.samrichter.com/speaker and enter the word SPEAKER in the coupon and get better information in less time to grow your business.

To receive his handouts from the meeting visit www.Sam1234.com

See you at the February Meeting,
Diana DiResta  
International Speaker | Executive Presence | Sales Presentations Skills Expert | Executive Speech Coach l Media Trainer
See all of the amazing pictures from this month’s meeting by John DeMato.