091 - Empower Your Author Brand: Elevate Your Impact through Speaking with Jackie Lapin

[00:00:00] Writing a book can be the foundation for sharing your important message, but it won't

[00:00:07] work unless you are consistently marketing.

[00:00:10] This podcast is for those who have written a book to share their message with the world.

[00:00:15] I love talking all things authorpreneur and having guests join me to share their brilliance

[00:00:21] with you.

[00:00:26] Hello, authorpreneurs. It's Suzanne Tregenza Moore and I am so excited to have Jackie Lapin

[00:00:33] here with me today. Jackie's mission is to help leaders, entrepreneurs, coaches and authors

[00:00:39] like you find and secure their next clients by getting in front of more audiences faster.

[00:00:47] Her speaker tunity, the Speaker and Leader Resource Company has researched hundreds of

[00:00:53] thousands of speaker lead contacts and has curated them to meet your needs. Jackie's

[00:01:00] SpeakerTunity members only program provides leads for live and virtual events and meetings,

[00:01:08] conferences, podcasts, radio shows, video casts, virtual summits, TEDx events and more.

[00:01:16] SpeakerTunity is the ultimate speaker toolbox, one-stop shopping for the speaker. And for

[00:01:23] the past 12 years, Jackie's radio podcast tours have helped nearly 400 luminaries,

[00:01:30] leaders, filmmakers and authors grow their businesses, sell more books, create viewership

[00:01:37] and change more lives by introducing them to up to 9,000 radio shows and podcasts,

[00:01:43] including such clients as Don Miguel Ruiz, Dr. Joe Vitale, Marie Diamond, James Twyman,

[00:01:51] Ariel Ford, Hay House and more. She's booked more than 10,000 interviews and speaking

[00:01:58] engagements for her clients. And Jackie, welcome. I'm so glad to have you here.

[00:02:04] I'm delighted to be here Suzanne. Thank you for inviting me.

[00:02:08] Absolutely. Jackie, when I learned about you and all the resources you have for speakers,

[00:02:15] and of course, most of the people who listen to this podcast are authors who are looking to speak

[00:02:21] more, looking to get their message out there more. I just thought, well, who else could I have on

[00:02:27] this podcast that would be more valuable to the people who listen? So I'm so excited to talk

[00:02:34] about what you do for authors and speakers of all kinds. Well, you know, I'm an author myself.

[00:02:40] So I've been on both sides of the fence. I had two bestselling books, The Art of Conscious Creation,

[00:02:46] How You Can Transform the World and Practical Conscious Creation, Daily Techniques to Manifest

[00:02:51] Your Desires. The last book was the best spiritual book of the year at the International

[00:02:54] New Age Trade Show. So I was started out in all of this promoting my own books and realizing

[00:03:02] that I was putting together the very first list of shows that covered internet radio. In the old

[00:03:09] days, you know, when you're a publicist, which is what my background is, you would gather up just

[00:03:14] the broadcast radios, but internet radio was expanding like crazy. And I realized that if we

[00:03:20] could tap that audience, it really expanded my book sales. Well, of course it did. And then

[00:03:25] I realized that this would be something valuable for a bunch of other folks. And of course,

[00:03:31] podcasts started to come in. So then we started to really expand our podcast until, as you heard,

[00:03:38] we're now up to 9000 shows every single time we send it for a client. And so in serving myself,

[00:03:45] I realized that there was a need and we tried to fill that need. And that's,

[00:03:49] that's where we really started. We started with the radio podcast tours, which we obviously

[00:03:54] continue to still do. But 12, 14 years ago, I mean, about 10 years ago, some of the folks

[00:04:00] who are our clients said, can you book me for speaking gigs? And I said, I don't want to do

[00:04:04] that. But I know where they are. So that's how Speaker Trinity was born because I said,

[00:04:09] why don't I just tell you where they are? Right. And so that's when we started with our

[00:04:13] first subscription service to fill that void. So that's kind of the chronology as to how

[00:04:19] we got to where we are now. And you have team members that make sure that those lists of podcasts,

[00:04:26] those lists of online radio shows, whatever it might be, are all current, right? Because I'm sure

[00:04:32] that there are people listening who are like, oh yeah, I've bought lists before and they're crap.

[00:04:38] Well, yes. Not from you, but in general. So we do address that in two ways. One,

[00:04:45] we've just updated all of our subscription services. So if you come in for our podcast or our summits,

[00:04:52] summits is always active. It's current, but our speaker leads, they'll be all updated

[00:04:59] at the beginning of each year. But our big regional directories, we do 75 regional directories

[00:05:05] in US and Canada that have all the meetings, venues and association meetings in your

[00:05:10] marketplace. It's all the evergreen speaking. And we also then have 60 niche specialty directories,

[00:05:16] which would be all the meetings all across North America in your niche or specialty like

[00:05:21] women's business meetings or parenting meetings or lawyers meetings. We have 60 different

[00:05:26] categories depending on where you really want to be talking. So those lists are updated

[00:05:31] annually. However, you're going to find stuff that's out of date in the interim because

[00:05:35] people are always changing. However, this is what we do about that. All you have to do

[00:05:40] is either red line your directory and send it back and we'll update it specifically or

[00:05:44] just pull the ones out that are outdated that you want, send an email to updates its

[00:05:48] speaker tuning and we'll get you the new stuff right away. We consider this a relationship.

[00:05:53] We don't want people ever to feel like they, like you said, oh my God, I bought a dead list.

[00:05:58] That doesn't work. We know there's going to be stuff in there that isn't current.

[00:06:02] Sure. Well, you can't stay on top of everything all the time,

[00:06:06] but you have teams who are doing their best at it. And I love the fact that you have

[00:06:12] that type of relationship with your clients where you say, oh listen, if something was wrong,

[00:06:18] we'll make it as right as we can for you. That's great. Absolutely. We have one speaker

[00:06:22] Booker who has bought 22 of our regional directories because it makes her life so much easier

[00:06:29] when she's booking a client because she doesn't have to do any of the research locally.

[00:06:34] Sure. So that kind of validation tells me that we're doing something right. There is real value here.

[00:06:41] Absolutely. I would say that if somebody's come back 22 times, they know they're getting

[00:06:45] something really good. And I want to point out because I know that I have lists of podcasts

[00:06:51] that I'm like, gee, I should really reach out to these folks all the time and get myself

[00:06:56] booked. And yet somehow it might not get done. You also have services that will book

[00:07:03] clients onto these podcasts. So not only can you provide them lists, but you can provide them

[00:07:10] that extra booking service, which as you said, wasn't what you wanted to do when you got this

[00:07:14] started, but I'm sure you've seen that there is a need and you've found people to support it.

[00:07:19] We've actually addressed that in three different ways. First, if you buy one of our products

[00:07:24] or subscribe to like, let's say that you subscribe to conference connections, there's 4300

[00:07:30] conferences in there every single month in about 20 different categories and 60 subcategories.

[00:07:35] So you can drill down exactly what you want, but let's say you don't want to fill in all those

[00:07:39] calls for speaker forms because there are so many of them. Or let's say you get your regional

[00:07:44] director or your niche directory and somebody needs to send out those emails. We have a virtual

[00:07:49] assistance service you can retain to do that work. Now, if you are at the stage

[00:07:56] that you are looking for higher level paid engagements, we've now addressed that in two ways.

[00:08:01] One, you can retain our partner agent and she will really pursue the higher level conferences,

[00:08:10] the corporate, the colleges and universities, the big associations. She'll pursue that for you

[00:08:17] and there's a fee for it and a 20% off the back end. Or let's say that you don't have

[00:08:23] the revenue to hire the booker, you can actually use our a meeting planner connect service,

[00:08:31] which means that you can send a direct email to 10,000 meeting planners with 100 word bio,

[00:08:38] 100 words on what you speak on a few other items and it has a 60% open rate. So we're hedging

[00:08:45] all of that. And of course with the radio podcast tour, it's either a done for you or

[00:08:49] done with you. And that's highly comprehensive. We guarantee 30 interviews in those programs

[00:08:55] and frequently get more. So wherever you are, we're trying to meet you with the level of

[00:09:02] speaker leads that you need, the better support staff you need service. And then on top of all

[00:09:07] that, there's another layer of things that people often need. And that's driven by graphic

[00:09:13] design. So we also created and again, this I have great team members do this a service or series of

[00:09:20] services that can do your speaker sheet, your podcast introductory sheet, your conference

[00:09:26] rollup banner, your branded slide deck, your branded virtual background book flyers. That's

[00:09:32] a good one that you should keep in mind if you're an author and speaker handouts. And we

[00:09:37] can do all of that for you very inexpensively because we start with a template that you select

[00:09:42] and then you choose your colors. And then you fill in the form, we tell you exactly what to give us.

[00:09:48] And then our designer will go and customize it and turn it back to you in three to five days.

[00:09:53] And we get rave reviews for that fact, we put a lot of those into a package that you can get

[00:09:59] all at once as well too when you go to the sun. So whether it's that whether it's training

[00:10:04] videos, if you're going to do your own booking, whether it's servicing supporting you, we've kind

[00:10:08] of got the whole landscape covered. What would you say? Because I'm sure there are a lot of people

[00:10:12] listening who are like, well, I may buy the list, but you know, I'm probably not in the position

[00:10:16] to pay for the booking service. If they are going to pursue their own booking, what would

[00:10:22] you say, and I'm asking this because I have people pursue being booked on my show and

[00:10:27] some do it very well and some don't. What would you say are the two to three biggest mistakes

[00:10:34] that people make when they are attempting to get themselves booked into a show, into a podcast,

[00:10:41] whatever the case may be? Well, there's not a market match or subject matter match. They're

[00:10:47] just sending out blanket emails. That's number one. That has to really be fit the show you're

[00:10:52] pitching. Most importantly, you need to have a really compelling, well-written pitch letter

[00:10:56] or podcast introductory sheet, something that really lays out what the hook, the subject matter

[00:11:04] is going to be that you're going to talk about why you, what makes you unique when different

[00:11:08] so that you send it out from everybody else. A pitch letter really should follow in the

[00:11:12] following things. The opening part of it should be what problem you solve in the

[00:11:17] world, what's unique, your hero's journey, why you, what you're bringing to this

[00:11:22] interview that is going to transform the lives of the listeners. The second part of it is all

[00:11:28] your background, your credentials, the things that validate why you are the person to deliver

[00:11:33] this information. Then a little bit more about what the takeaways are going to be.

[00:11:37] What is the audience going to learn from this particular interview? Then don't make

[00:11:42] the host chase you down. Make it really simple, phone number, email. If you absolutely insist

[00:11:48] that you'd rather be talking on Facebook Messenger or LinkedIn, then give them that contact

[00:11:54] information as well. That's the first thing. The second thing is you have to send it. If

[00:12:00] you're going to do a podcast introductory sheet, then you don't have to have an, as an

[00:12:04] extensive a letter. You can shorten up the letter in the introductory sheet,

[00:12:08] has your bio, couple of testimonials from other people who've booked you.

[00:12:12] Then it should really talk about three to five topics that you address.

[00:12:17] One or both of those tools need to be in the inbox. They need to look sharp. They need to

[00:12:23] be spelled grammatically correct. Then you want to do follow-up. I have a rule of

[00:12:31] thumb, and this goes for speaking as well as podcasts and radio shows. It's a rule of three.

[00:12:35] Two phone calls and one email, two emails and one phone call. Then go to LinkedIn

[00:12:40] or Facebook Messenger. If you can't get that person, they're not interested. It's time to call it quits.

[00:12:48] Those would be the guidelines that I would recommend. Suzanne, do you have other

[00:12:54] suggestions based on what you receive? Well, I can tell you this. I appreciate all of those.

[00:13:00] I think the biggest thing that I receive and get frustrated with is pitches for people

[00:13:07] that clearly have nothing to do with my market. It's such an annoyance. I read them and I think

[00:13:14] and you obviously have never listened to my show and have no idea what it's about.

[00:13:20] Click, delete. That is my biggest frustration. The other thing is that once I've booked someone

[00:13:28] and I ask them for a quote short bio, they send me something that is would take me five

[00:13:36] minutes to read aloud. Nobody wants to listen to a five minute long bio and it's not my job

[00:13:43] to cut your bio down. That's a good point. We recommend that you do a media kit. Yes.

[00:13:49] And the media kit has the following things. The opening release talks about whatever you're

[00:13:55] speaking about, the subject matter, then a full bio and then an on-air introduction that's no more

[00:14:01] than four paragraphs or less. And then 20 questions you want to be asked in the order you want to

[00:14:06] be asked them, which by the way is the roadmap that helps you monetize your interviews.

[00:14:12] And lastly is what we call the Learn More page. And that is in bullet point,

[00:14:16] how the public can engage with you. And that'll be if you have a book, if you have a

[00:14:22] pre-gift, a program that you're offering, a coaching program and then your social media

[00:14:28] and your website. And if you can put that together for a booker, that's all they're going

[00:14:33] to need. They're not going to be coming back to you and say, well, can you send me this?

[00:14:36] Can you send me this? Can you send me this? That in the photograph will do the trick.

[00:14:40] Absolutely. Right. And anyone who is looking to have themselves be interviewed or to be out

[00:14:47] speaking, whatever it is they might be looking to do really needs to have their resources ready to go

[00:14:55] for the platform that they're looking to speak on. Because again, getting 1,000 word bio from

[00:15:03] someone, I'm not going to read that. And it's not my job to cut it down for you. So yeah,

[00:15:09] that would be my word of advice for anyone. Well, and there's a couple other tools that

[00:15:14] you need for speaking. Yes. If you're going to go for speaking, you want a speaker one sheet

[00:15:19] that's a two-pager. Besides your bio and a couple of testimonials from people who preferably booked

[00:15:24] you in the speaking world. Yes. But you can use your coaches, your coaching students and your

[00:15:30] people have heard you kind of as placeholders. But on the back, you want three presentations

[00:15:36] because if you only have one arrow in your quiver, it had better be a bullseye.

[00:15:40] Right. When you give people choice, they're more likely to book you. Now,

[00:15:44] it could be the same presentation repurposed in different ways for different audience. It could

[00:15:48] be three entirely different topics in your expertise. It could be different skill levels,

[00:15:54] but you really want to have that beautifully done and designed when you're passing yourself off

[00:16:00] because you're going to need a proposal letter, which is going to be shorter than a podcast pitch

[00:16:04] letter. It's only going to be about five to seven paragraphs because you don't want to put all

[00:16:08] your bio and information in that you leave that for the speaker sheet. But you're going

[00:16:13] to mention in that letter, I've got a speaker sheet and here is my video. And that video should be

[00:16:18] you performing on a stage somewhere now. We've been living in a virtual world for a very long time,

[00:16:24] but live is back big time. And what they really want to see is if you're going to get on a

[00:16:28] live stage, they want to see you performing on a live stage. So go out and get that video

[00:16:33] if you don't already have it. Get booked on the event that is recording already,

[00:16:38] offer to pay for that video if they won't give it to you. Be at an event, hire your own

[00:16:42] videographer. Just don't do it on your cell phone. There's also speaker showcases that you can do

[00:16:47] that actually are set up so that a bunch of speakers can come together and everybody gets

[00:16:52] their video at the same day. You can also rent a hotel room, get all your friends,

[00:16:57] get a videographer and get it done that way. But give them powerful video of what you look

[00:17:03] like on stage. Those are the three things that you need. The letter, the speaker sheet,

[00:17:08] and the video no more than three to five minutes when you're pitching yourself. You don't need a

[00:17:12] fancy sizzle, Riesel. Riegel, they just want to see how good you are on stage and how will

[00:17:16] you engage with the audience? So those are the really critical tools. I'm going to make one

[00:17:21] other point for those people because we're talking to an audience of authors. If you think

[00:17:26] that podcasts hosts are only interested in getting your digital version of your book

[00:17:32] and you're dead wrong, at least 50% of them will want a hardback copy of your, I mean,

[00:17:37] or softcover copy of your book. So don't get stuck with five around the house when you're

[00:17:43] doing a campaign and everybody wants a copy. So make sure that you have enough copies that

[00:17:49] you've ordered from your publisher, from Amazon, whatever it is that you can actually use to

[00:17:54] send out when you're doing a campaign. Love it. Excellent advice. Okay, I know that Jackie

[00:18:00] has a couple of free gifts that she would love to offer the audience. So get ready for more good

[00:18:08] advice. Jackie, do you want to share what you have with the audience? And by the way, we will

[00:18:13] have links to each of these in our show notes so you'll be able to head to our website and get

[00:18:18] them. Well, the first thing that I want to say is that when you are out on any type of stage

[00:18:27] with the exception of a TEDx, which we can talk about separately, the most important thing you

[00:18:31] can do besides of in people introduce people to your book is leave a free gift just like we're

[00:18:36] talking about right here because you want to get people into your opt-in they may not buy your

[00:18:41] book immediately or your coaching program or whatever it is that your book is a leader for

[00:18:46] but you want to start that relationship with them. So it's critical that you have a lead

[00:18:49] magnet but if you think that an ebook and or a free consultation are the only things you

[00:18:55] can offer, you are way behind the times. I'm going to give you 44 ways to seduce your clients from

[00:19:02] stage podcast radio shows, virtual summits and virtual networking. This great tool is going to

[00:19:08] open your eyes as to all the different things that you can creatively offer that is going to

[00:19:13] get people to feel like it's irresistible. Yes. Now, the second one now if you're starting

[00:19:19] on your speaker journey, you're somewhere in the, you know, moving forward in it,

[00:19:23] you know, sometimes you either don't know what comes next or you've skipped a step or two and

[00:19:28] things fall apart. So this is the definitive speaker checklist to make sure that as you are

[00:19:35] strategizing and building and creating the opportunities for you to be on stages,

[00:19:40] this is going to make sure that you do not miss a step. It's designed to make sure

[00:19:45] that your speaking is a successful vehicle for the launch or the introduction of you,

[00:19:53] your book or your programs to any community. Love it. Okay. And again, links to each of those

[00:19:59] are going to be in the show notes right where you found this podcast. So Jackie, there are a few

[00:20:06] questions I ask everyone who comes on and I want to get those in before we run out of time here.

[00:20:12] So the first is you said you've authored a couple of books. Do you think you'll write

[00:20:16] another book? Oh, I've probably got three or four. Okay. I have been asked numerous times to write my

[00:20:23] biography, which is kind of, I've led a kind of interesting life. Starting as one of the first

[00:20:28] women sportswriters in America making national television at 20. So that's one of the things.

[00:20:34] And I've got at least one book about it and personal energy in me and vibration,

[00:20:40] one of those coming. And there's a book on speaking that's half written that I haven't taken

[00:20:45] advantage of yet. So there's more books coming. Excellent. Well, we will look forward to them

[00:20:50] because I bet they're all going to be amazing. Okay. Next question I ask everyone you have said

[00:20:55] you've been a business owner for many years at this point. What is one recommendation of

[00:21:01] something that you think every entrepreneur needs to do or have in order to be successful?

[00:21:08] That's a very good question. My highest value is integrity. And that means that I always do

[00:21:17] exactly what I say I'm going to do. I also strive for a win-win at all times. And even if it's a

[00:21:25] difficult situation, I don't stick my head in the stand. I wade into it after thinking,

[00:21:32] how do I want this outcome to be? What should I say? What should I do that's going to bring this

[00:21:39] to a good resolution for everybody? I've stepped forward with courage rather than hide from it.

[00:21:46] And I expect those people that I am dealing with to have the same kind of integrity.

[00:21:52] And if they do not, they are shortly off my list of partners, collaborators or clients.

[00:21:58] I really believe that if you can't be honest with people and they cannot trust you,

[00:22:03] then your business will fail. And so you have to have the highest integrity in order to make sure

[00:22:09] that you are living the life that attracts clients' support. I mean, I couldn't do what I

[00:22:18] do without the amazing support of my team. And it engenders the kind of love that I believe

[00:22:24] is what the world really is made of. I love it. I absolutely love that. That is a great way to look

[00:22:31] at business and focused on integrity. But I love what you said about that you're always focused

[00:22:38] on creating a win-win situation, even when it's very difficult. Love that. Last question

[00:22:43] I'm going to ask you is, what is your favorite book? Well, let's just say that I am a,

[00:22:52] aside from business, I am a historic novel maniac. I love historic novels and it's part of some of the

[00:23:01] things that I may be doing going forward. And my favorite book is by a guy who is long gone now,

[00:23:08] his name is Gary Jennings, and it's called Raptor. And it's the most fascinating book about a

[00:23:15] hermaphrodite who spies using whatever gender is appropriate at the time during the Visigoth period

[00:23:26] as Rome is declining. Wow, okay. It's very, very cool and very creative. So that to me was so much

[00:23:34] fun. It immersed me in a part of the world and time that I knew nothing about, you know,

[00:23:39] that usually is not covered by history or historic novels. Right.

[00:23:43] With a character that was just unforgettable. Amazing, amazing. I love historical fiction

[00:23:49] as well. And I have never heard of that book. So you know that it's going to make it right on

[00:23:54] my list. It sounds fascinating. Well, thank you for all of what you have shared. I think this

[00:24:01] is going to be a really informative and helpful episode of the podcast. And is there anything

[00:24:08] you would like to share before we wrap up? Yes. If you think that your bookings are going to show

[00:24:16] up in your email box and you're going to just, you know, magically have time to do your bookings,

[00:24:23] you're sadly mistaken. Most of us get way too busy with other things to actually work on

[00:24:29] getting booked. So here's the thing. You have to book three hours of time in your schedule

[00:24:35] every week, put it in a sense of meeting with somebody else to actually implement your speaking

[00:24:41] work. And when I say speaking, I mean podcast, whatever it is you're going to do,

[00:24:44] to send the pitches, to do the follow up. And if you're not going to do it yourself,

[00:24:50] to supervise someone that is doing it for you, to make sure that they're delivering it the way

[00:24:56] that you want and again have them practice to you, make sure that they have a great script,

[00:25:01] make sure that the materials they're sending are solid, make sure that who they're sending it to

[00:25:06] is the right audience. Find out if things aren't working, what might necessarily need changing.

[00:25:11] You can't just hope and wish for speaking opportunities. You have to have an orchestrated

[00:25:17] strategy to make it happen. And here's my key. If you don't make the time, you can't earn

[00:25:23] the dime. I love it. I love it. Well, Jackie Lappin, I really appreciate the time you put

[00:25:30] into sharing your wisdom with us and all of what I know it will do for those listening.

[00:25:37] Thank you so much. It was a pleasure to be here, Suzanne. And for all those listening,

[00:25:42] I hope that you have enjoyed it. I look forward to bringing you another episode

[00:25:47] of All Things Authorpreneur soon. Thank you for listening to All Things Authorpreneur.

[00:25:53] Head to allthingsauthorpreneur.com and get your free guide, Seven Success Principles,

[00:26:00] to shift from author to thought leader.