Unlocking Speaker Fees: Learn How to Charge $/£/€10,000+ for Your Keynote Engagements

John: 00:00:00

If you're just getting started in speaking or maybe not charging much

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right now, how can you quickly rise to

charging ten thousand dollars, pounds,

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euros or more for your speaking?

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Well, this is a question that, once

answered, could be the difference

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between you struggling to get

paid as a speaker or being on the

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road to even higher speaking fees.

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Negotiations can feel tricky

until you get used to doing them.

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Asking for fees that you've never

dared to ask for before can take

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you way out of your comfort zone.

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So by the end of this episode, you'll be

ready to make the decision to be brave and

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ask for the speaker fees that you deserve.

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I'll also share with you where you

can go to get more help with this.

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Welcome to Present Influence the

show that helps coaches, speakers,

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and communication professionals

develop the skills to impact,

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influence, and inspire any audience.

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My name's John ball, keynote

coach, professional speaker,

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and your guide on the journey to

mastery level presentation skills.

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My mission is to provide professional

communicators like you with

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everything you need to maximize your

impact and present with influence.

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Follow the show on your favorite

podcast app for weekly episodes and

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interviews with influence experts

and join me on LinkedIn for the

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Present Influence weekly newsletter.

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On my solo episode last week, I talked

about the courage to be successful.

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Following on with the

conversation from from a previous

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interview with Lida Citröen.

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And this week I was inspired to talk

about how to particularly apply some

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of that in relation to your speaker

fees, having been working with

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somebody who was doing just that.

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So a previous client of

mine got in touch with me.

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Asking for some help and

advice around speaker fees.

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And we spent a little bit of time

work chatting, emailing back and

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forth, messaging on WhatsApp and there

was a simple chance to offer some

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advice and guidance on this topic.

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And as someone who had never asked for

a 10 K speaking fee before, She was

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understandably a little afraid when

she was placed in a situation of having

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an event that was interested in having

her come to speak, but not being sure

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what they would be willing to pay her.

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Now, at first, the first temptation

was to kind of play it small or just

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to see what they were prepared to pay.

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But since they were very clear that

they would like to try and meet her

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speaker fee, Then there was some

thinking to do because she hadn't

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really set a speaker fee to that kind

of level before as a keynote, someone

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who was more used to doing workshops

previously, she felt maybe she would be

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more comfortable around the five or six

thousand dollar mark for this event.

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She decided she wanted to be brave

and ask for 10k, knowing that

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that may well be rejected that the

people she was in negotiation with.

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However, there were already a lot

of good indications that they would

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have been open to negotiate whatever.

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And we worked together to discuss some of

the language that would allow her to be

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clear that she was somewhat open as well.

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Like if this was going to be beyond their

budget for the event that she would have.

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allow some flexibility

and negotiation as well.

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What happened, and please understand,

this is by no means something that was

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going to happen every single time that

you are in negotiation for a speaking

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event, but in this situation it did.

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She was brave.

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She gave them her just under 10, 000 fee

and they straight away agreed to pay that.

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Fantastic.

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Now, does that mean that

she's now a 10, 000 speaker?

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Well, yeah, kind of, but we

need to caveat that as well.

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So she's got 10k for that event.

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Hopefully that is going to give her

some confidence to be able to demand

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those kinds of fees again in the future.

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But there are some things to know

if you are on level for going to

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getting yourself to 10k as a speaker

or hopefully beyond that as well.

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That you need to be good at what you're

doing, you need to be a cut above

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the rest, you have to have confidence

in what you're delivering, you need

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to know that your keynote works.

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So you need to have delivered it a

number of times, there needs to be an

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impactful keynote, you need to have

that great balance between entertaining

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your audience and educating them,

not overpacking information into the

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keynote and making sure that you are

practiced enough in delivering this,

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that you are virtually flawless when

it comes to getting up on the stage

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and presenting it to a larger audience.

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Because if you don't have all those

things in place, and you get someone

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who agrees to pay you 10k for an event,

you may end up falling short of their

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expectations and your own for what you do.

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And I don't know about you,

but if I don't feel confident.

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that something that I'm delivering

is worth what's being paid for it, or

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that I've actually delivered it well,

I'm going to feel bad about that.

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So here's what I say, if you don't have

all those things in place, if you don't

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feel really practiced in your keynote

right now, if you don't feel that you're

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quite confident enough in it, that it's

worth 10k for a booking just at the

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moment, then I would certainly say For

anyone who's done work on their keynote,

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maybe had coaching around this, maybe been

in various program and had great guidance

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on it, done work on their delivery,

making sure there's a good level of

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entertainment and engagement in there as

well as valuable information that it's

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not overloaded with slides or anything

else that's going to put people to sleep.

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If you have all those things and you

feel confident that great go for it.

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But if you don't yet build up to it,

that doesn't mean you shouldn't be

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charging for your speaking gigs at all.

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And I say for most speakers, if you

have your keynote pretty well put

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together and reasonably well rehearsed,

and you've got most of this going

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on, probably 2000 is a good place to

be hitting for getting started now.

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If your keynote at the moment is untested,

do a few freebies, get some experience

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under your belt, get some feedback from

that and deliver your keynote to various

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people and make sure you practice it.

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Rehearsal is so important and it's one

of the things that people tend to put

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aside and I hold my hands up to this.

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I've been guilty of it too.

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that we can't afford to do that.

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Your keynote has to be flawless

to be demanding 10, 000

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upwards for you to deliver it.

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And here's the thing.

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I mean, you may want to be wanting to

look beyond 10, 000 into the future.

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Great.

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But if you're not hitting that right now,

I say that's a good target to aim for.

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Get yourself up there

as quickly as possible.

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But once you've done maybe five, six gigs

at 2, 000, maybe 3, 000 up to 5, 000.

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US dollars or pounds or euros,

whatever you want to work in.

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But I would probably keep those fees

around those sorts of figures, whichever

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currency, they're not so vastly different.

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That once you're feeling comfortable

at that sort of level, and you've got

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those things in place, you're probably

ready to make that jump to start

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asking for 10, 000 for your events.

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It is just going to take that flip

in the mindset of being brave,

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finding the courage to be successful

with this and going for it.

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That doesn't mean.

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But the first time you ask,

you're going to get a yes, or

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it's going to be agreed to in this

particular case with this client.

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Great.

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She got that.

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And that certainly

makes life a lot easier.

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She's going to feel much more confident

to answer that again in the future.

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You may not do that.

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You may not get a yes straight away.

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But that doesn't mean

that you're not ready yet.

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And it doesn't mean the person who said

no to that isn't willing to negotiate.

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They might be working with

a specific tighter budget.

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They might not yet feel that you're

demonstrating that you have everything in

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place to hit 10 K as a speaker right now.

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So you need to get those things in place.

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And that's not so hard to do.

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I'll say this as well.

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One of the things that's going to help

to create that level of confidence in

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you that they feel comfortable saying yes

to your fees, is to make sure you have

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a damn good demo reel on your website.

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So if that's something you don't have

right now, you will not want to miss

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my next episode with Cam Beaudoin,

who is a specialist in demo videos and

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is helping speakers around the to be

able to create excellent high level

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demo reels that are casting them in

a in a very professional light and

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making them really stand out as well.

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Now a demo reel isn't the only thing

that you will really need here.

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And I will say this, there's no reason

why you couldn't have 10, 15 minutes

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or even the whole of your keynote.

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on your website as well

for people to watch.

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Because this is it.

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I know some people don't want to do

that because of intellectual property.

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Maybe you're willing to put 10 15 minutes

up there, but not the whole thing.

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But the thing is, no one is

really going to steal your talk.

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And if they are, they're not

the kind of people who are

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going to work with you anyway.

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No one is going to be able

to properly use your IP.

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No one's going to be able to

deliver it the way you can.

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Imagine taking someone else's TED talk

and trying to deliver that yourself.

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It's not your talk.

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You haven't written it.

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You're not going to be able to

deliver it probably nearly as well

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as the person who did create it.

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I would say, worry less about those IP

and protection issues and focus more on

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making sure that whoever is likely to

be booking you for events can see what

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they're going to get when they book you.

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That's going to give them

all the confidence they need.

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And if they don't yet see that you're a

10k plus speaker from that information,

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then there's just some work to do.

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And if there's work to do, if your keynote

needs some improvement, if your confidence

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to be able to ask for those things or

negotiate better, it needs a bit of

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work to your mindset needs some shifts.

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Maybe you need a bit more accountability

on the presentations, maybe some more

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feedback, maybe you're struggling

to add humor and make things more

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entertaining and not to put too,

maybe you're struggling with the whole

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idea or concept as I come across many

people who do struggle with trying

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to get the information levels and

data levels right in a presentation

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so that they're not just teaching.

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This is especially for people who come

from training and workshop backgrounds.

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I know it's very hard to let go

of the inner educator to that

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degree and turn on your inner

entertainer, but it's so essential.

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So if this is something you need

help with, come and connect with

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me, either reach out to me on

LinkedIn or visit presentinfluence.

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com and get in touch

with me through the site.

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And I would love to hear from

you and we can get together,

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we can have a little chat.

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It's not going to cost you anything

except a bit of time to see how I could

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help you to develop your presentation,

your keynote, your presentation

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style, your entertainment style,

your engagement, stepping outside of

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some of the ways that we generally

hold ourselves back as presenters.

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I would love to hear and connect with you.

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Join me next week with Cam Beaudoin

for some expert insights into demo

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reels, stuff that I didn't know

and Cam has certainly changed the

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things that I say to people now

in relation to their demo videos.

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So if you want to know whether

it's better to have a bad demo

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reel or no demo reel, you're going

to find out on the next episode.

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Join me for that.

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Have an amazing weekend.

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I'll see you soon.

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Take care.