Step Up to the Mic! #39 - "The Speaker's Playhouse," with Kimberly Crowe!!!

Kimberly Crowe  is the high-energy, broadcast personality of Speakers Playhouse and the creator of Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel.  She has spoken on over 5,000 stages and holds a wealth of knowledge on landing and leveraging speaking opportunities.  Originally from Southern California, she now lives virtually everywhere, traveling full-time as an inspirational speaker in locations around the world.  Her motto is, “If it’s not fun, it’s not worth doing!”  Today, she's peeling back the curtain to reveal how coaches, healers and entrepreneurs like you can instantly profit by speaking on four types of stages.  Get ready to be delighted, engaged and energized!  

Her website:  https://speakersplayhouse.com/

Welcome to Step Up the Mic!  The podcast for aspiring and current speakers to help you get on stage and get paid to speak!  This is a unique opportunity to actually PERFORM YOUR SIGNATURE SPEECH!!! 
I am your emcee for this event!  I will introduce you, set you up for a spectacular presentation and provide you with a link to share with speaker bureaus, potential booking agents and event planners!  
The best part... This is a totally free promotion for YOU! 
Are you ready?  Then it's time...

To Step Up to the MIC!!!

stepuptothemicpod@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Step Up to the Mic. This is the place for aspiring and established speakers to take the stage, deliver their talks, and bring them directly to you. Our featured speaker today is an absolute gem. She is an absolute diamond to be here on our stage today. She is the founder of Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel, and she is the co-host of the Speaker's Playhouse, which I bet we're going to hear more about. Please welcome to our stage, Kimberly Crow.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Hey Rory. Super glad to be here. All right, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Kimberly Crow. I'm delighted to be here with you today, and we're going to talk about the four types of stages every entrepreneur should be leveraging and how to profit from each one. I'm excited about this talk because I know there's a lot of entrepreneurs out there who are who have great ideas and really good content and they're ready to get it out there to the audience who needs it, but they're kind of stuck as to how to monetize or they're not making the money they were hoping to make when they got into this business. So just a little background on me. I started doing like many of you perhaps. I started my business by not having a business. I went to school and got a good job with health insurance. I worked my way up the corporate ladder, climbing up. I was at a Fortune 1000 company and started sort of at the bottom and climbed to the sort of the top where I was an executive director at this Fortune 1000 company. But and I was there for 17 years. The first 15 were pretty good. And the last two, not so much. Once I got to the sort of top of that ladder, I looked around and I saw that there were a lot of other people there at my level and above that I just didn't want to be. There were people who were that were overweight and angry and on their third heart attack. Many were divorced for the third time, and a lot, and not that there's anything wrong with any of that, just that it just didn't seem like a group of people that I wanted to be when I grew up. And so after a time, I decided that I wanted to resign. I tried to resign a couple of times, and the company kept trying to hire me back, doing different jobs, but eventually I realized we needed to part as friends. And I thought, I want to create my own business. I want to start a business where I'm making a million dollars. And I think that's a goal of a lot of entrepreneurs when they first start is to make a million dollars. Well, I I said about like talking to my friends and family, now that I'm ready to start an entrepreneurship full-time, what should I do? And they said, Well, you were so good at what you did at corporate, why don't you do that? And I thought, oh, great idea. I'll hang a shingle and I'll do the same thing. And when I was climbing the ladder of corporate, I was in sort of golden handcuffs. It was really hard to quit because I was making so much money, it didn't really make sense to quit, but I didn't love it anymore. I was just really unhappy. So when I decided to start my own business, I thought, this is it, this is fantastic, and I'm gonna make a million dollars in revenue. And after about 18 months, I had hired employees, I had new clients, I had contracts with those client clients, and I grew the business substantially. And in 18 months, I had hit that million dollars in revenue mark. And I was miserable. I was super unhappy and super unfulfilled. A weird phenomenon happened that I realized that I had already done this, I had already built that sort of business for many, many years, and now I was not in golden handcuffs anymore because I had my own business. I had now built a golden jail cell. I couldn't quit because I had companies that were counting on me. I had employees that were counting on me, I had contracts that I had to fulfill, and I was at a terrible impasse. And so one day I just called my employees, the person that ran my the head of my operations, and I said, I'm not coming in today. And I actually left and went and hiked a mountain. Climbed a mountain. Uh, I don't know if I thought that there might be a guru at the top of that mountain who was gonna tell me what to do. But as I climbed the mountain and got exhausted and got to the top of the mountain, the guru wasn't there. And so I slinked back down with no answers in sight. And I walked into my front door. And when I walked in, my son said, Oh mom, I'm glad you're here. I have a problem. And I thought, great, somebody else's problem to focus on for a change. Tell me what it is. I'd be glad to solve this problem, whatever this is. And I think that as a parent, you know, like your own problems seem super like a huge magnitude, but when your kids bring you a problem, like, let's solve that. So that's what I was feeling. And he said, I'm the wrong age. And I thought, oh, really? How is that, my dear? And he said, I'm too young to get a summer job this year because he was 15 and a half. And he said, and I'm too old to go back to summer camp because I'm 15 and a half, and that's boring and stupid now, because all 15 and a half year olds know everything already, right? So I said, Well, you know, what you're never too young or too old to do is be an entrepreneur. Why don't you and I create a business together just for fun? Just something that we could just enjoy doing for the summer. And his eyes got really big and he's like, Can we do that? And he's a little entrepreneur. So I knew that this would spark his interest. And he said, and he was all in. So, as any good parent would do, we went to Google and we put in all the things that he loved doing. Like he loved being on stage. Apple doesn't far fall from the tree. He loved doing improv. He loved reading books to uh to children. He loved reading children's books. He was at school reading books to children, he loved performing, he loved um, you know, acting out the voices. And as we put all that in, they said that what came out is why don't you become an audiobook narrator and voiceover artist? And his eyes got really big, and he's like, Can we get paid for that? Like, get paid to read stories? And I was like, I think so. So as a parent, we just went to uh to um to Amazon and we ordered a whole bunch of cool stuff: microphones and and uh pop filters and all kinds of things to be able to set up an in-home studio. And sure enough, that stuff came on the following Saturday. What would what did we do before Amazon two-day two-day delivery? I don't even know what we did, like look through pages in a book and try to buy stuff that was gonna come seven to eight weeks later. Anyway, I digress. So the stuff came on a Saturday, and it was a Saturday that we were at the beach. All day we were at the beach. We came back and I'm exhausted, he's exhausted, and we come back and we see the stuff on our porch. Thank goodness it hadn't been stolen. We grabbed the stuff and we brought it inside. And it was really late. It was after dinner. We'd stopped for dinner on the way home, and I was exhausted, ready for bed, and he said, Our stuff is here, can we set it up? And I said, Well, let's set it up in the morning. And my 15 and a half year old said to me, Well, mom, if we set it up, where would we set it up? And I knew I was in trouble. And I said, Okay, we would probably set it up under the stairs in that coke closet, like Harry Potter style, because that way the baffling and the no noise and the no windows, like that would be a really good place to set it up. So I went to bed, and in the morning, my son had not only set up this new studio, he had already uh applied for and auditioned for three books that he wanted to uh to do. And of course, waking up on a Sunday, I was like, awesome, I gotta catch up with you. So I auditioned for a bunch of books, and we had so much fun auditioning, and so much fun creating, and so much fun creating these cool little voices for people that we ended up getting accepted by quite a few. And we started narrating them, and then we got accepted by a few more, and a few more, and a few more, and a few more, and eventually we had so much business we couldn't handle it all. Crazy, right? So we decided that what we would do is teach other people to be audiobook narrators and voiceover artists. We would teach a class, and so we went to the local adult school and we brought our microphone and our pop filter and all the things, and we taught people how they could become an audiobook narrator and voiceover artist so that we could offload some of this work we had and have other people deliver. We had so much fun teaching the class, and then we decided that we were going to teach it online. We had so much fun doing this that we were like, this is what it's all about. And I realized at that moment that it wasn't about creating a business that paid a million dollars or creating a business that was a grind, or creating a full-time business even. It was about creating a business that you loved doing, something that was fun, something that lit you up when you did it. And I realized if it's not fun, it's just not worth doing. And that became my motto. And so eventually I wound down my real business and decided that I would create only businesses that were fun, things that were fun to do. And what I love to be able to do is go on stage and teach. And I realized that many entrepreneurs who are looking for opportunities to sell their programs, product, or services also would love to be able to teach. They love to be able to share their message. If you have a message that you are very passionate about, there's a lot of opportunities to profit from those messages. And I'm gonna share with you four types of stages that entrepreneurs should be profiting from and how to leverage each one. While I do that, I will tell you that there's actually a secret fifth stage. And if you're awesome, which I know you are, I will also share with you the secret fifth stage. So if you're ready, here we go. Stage number one is a speak-to-sell stage. This one should be no surprise to you if you're an entrepreneur or a coach or an author or a speaker. This is a stage where you get on the stage with the intention of bringing people to a program, product, or service that you offer. A speak-to-sell stage is the one that you've probably heard of many times. Maybe you've seen people do it where a really uh dynamic speaker will get on the stage and they'll teach for a while and then they'll say, Come to my program and let me tell you about it. And then they put up a slideshow that says, buy this because it's this part is worth $10,000, and this other part is worth $10,000, and this other part is worth $100,000, and this other part is absolutely priceless, and I'm gonna bonus in this and I'm gonna bonus in that. And if you buy it all right now, now, now, you're gonna get it for the low, low price of $79.99 or whatever it is, right? We've all heard that pitch, and that is a speak-to-sell stage. The good news and the bad news of the speak-to-sell stage is the same news. The good news and the bad news of a speak-to-sell stage is it works. Speak-to-sell stages are very profitable for entrepreneurs, but it doesn't have to feel like that. It doesn't have to feel like a sleazy sales pitch. It can be an opportunity for people just to move forward. And this is what I teach as a speak-to-sell stage. A speak-to-sell stage is any stage where you lead people to the next natural step that they can take in the buying journey. So it might be buy my program that's you know $99.99, or it might be book a call with me, or grab my downloadable, or connect with me on LinkedIn, or come to a group call that I'm having next week. It could be a variety of things that you invite people to. It doesn't have to be buy my stuff right now. It could be, it could be something like uh grab my book in Amazon right now, or it could be uh if you're an in-person stage, it could be meet me in the back of the room. I have books for sale, and I'll sign yours directly if you would like to buy a book for me. Lots of different opportunities for people to take the next natural step after meeting you. Now, this gets people a little bit nervous because people are like, ooh, I don't want to make that call to action. But if you think about it as the next natural step that somebody can take, you can really relax into it. For example, if you read a book, just think of the last time you read a book that was amazing. And imagine to yourself, if you read the book and you were like, oh, I love the way this author writes. I love what it's all about. Now, if you're not a book reader, picture Netflix. Same difference these days. But if you if you watch the first Netflix episode and you love it, and you're like, oh my gosh, I love the characters, I love the rising action, I love the falling action, I love the setting, I love the way that they craft the story, I love the the way the characters interact. And then you get to the end, you get to the last few sentences, and you read the end or the closing credits come on, and you're ready for the next one. You want to buy the next one, you want to watch the next episode, but there's nothing. It's not available yet. There's nothing you can do. And you think, ah, how long do I have to wait for the next one? And maybe you'll forget about it before it comes out. Well, that is what you have done to your audience if you don't offer a natural next step at the end of your speak to sell stage. You have left them wanting more and haven't given them anything to do. So think of your call to action not as something that is for you, that you're making a sleazy sales pitch, but something that's for the audience, where they get a chance to come into you and learn more, that they opt in, that they choose to learn more about you. And maybe it's not your $25,000 coaching program, maybe it's just the natural next step for people to take. So the first stage is the speak to sell stage. The way to profit from that one is to have a natural next step for people to take after they've heard your talk. So that's stage number one. If you love stage number one, I hope you maximize this one. Write down stage one, a speak to sell stage, and put that in your diary that you're gonna do more of those. Ready for stage number two? Stage number two is a paid speaking gig. What? Yes, a paid speaking gig, an opportunity to get paid to share your juicy knowledge with an audience. And the paid to speaking gig most people think of is a keynote talk. Keynote talks are amazing! My current rate for a keynote talk is 12,500 as I'm recording this talk. Uh, and keynote talks are a lot of fun to do. Keynote talks, however, are not the only talk that you can do. And keynote talks is a small pond with a lot of fish in it. Lots of people want to get keynote talks, and you really have to have an extreme specialization in order to be able to get hired on a regular basis for keynotes. And you have to have a very niche audience who needs to have you as the speaker. Now, speak to uh paid speaking gigs are powerful and they're amazing, but one of the key things is you have to get paid to speak, to deliver the knowledge. You're not offering something at the end of your talk, which means you can't necessarily do a speak to sell offer. So at the end of your talk, you have to just say thank you, but you can make a call to action. So on my keynote talks, I might do a keynote talk about uh the one that I did ages ago was on total quality management. It was about and I went to corporations and I talked about total quality management. Um, and we it was supposed to be the end-all and be-all of quality management. It wasn't, of course. Then there was Kaizen and a whole bunch of other ones. But at the time we said this is the end-all and be-all, it's gonna be total quality management. And I taught on it and I was hired to teach at corporations about total quality management. And at the end, I didn't have anything to sell them, but at the end of the talk, I wanted them to do something differently. So the next time they went about handling a quality issue, they needed to look at it completely differently. So it may be that your call to action from a keynote talk is simply do this differently in the future. Uh, when I was very young, I actually was in a speech competition and impromptu speaking, and that impromptu talk that they gave that they give you is given to you, and then you need to think up on the spot a talk to give. Well, the topic that they gave me was lima beans. Lima beans, can you imagine giving a five-minute talk on lima beans with only two minutes warning? So I gave a talk on lima beans, and at the end, my call to action was the next time you think of a lima bean, I hope you think about it a little differently. That's it. But you do need to have a call to action at the end of the talk so that the people know what they're supposed to do as they're marching orders at the end of their talk, right? From a speak to sell talk, it could be come to my LinkedIn, but on a paid speaking gig, it probably isn't a speak to sell, but you do still need to have a call to action. So stage number two is a paid speaking gig, a gig where you actually get paid to share knowledge with the audience and you have a call to action to do something differently. But the way to profit from that one is to get paid before you speak. You've got to get paid before you speak because if you actually speak and then hope to get paid, you've just invented a brand new entrepreneurship for yourself, and it's called collections, and it sucks. So I highly recommend making sure that you get paid before you speak. Now there are a lot of different uh uh opportunities to be getting to be able to get paid speaking gigs. It doesn't just have to be the keynote. I will share with you some of the other paid speaking gigs I've had, and maybe you can think of some that you've had. If any of you were ever teachers, if you've ever taught a class, um, if you've ever taught school, you were actually a paid speaker. You were paid to deliver knowledge to the audience and you didn't do a speak to sell at the end. If you've ever taught a six-week course and charged for it, if you charged on the way into the course, you were a paid speaker. You were paid to deliver knowledge to that audience. I'll tell you some of the other ones I've done. I was a paid actress, I was a paid murder, mystery, dinner, theater troupe member, which was super fun. Uh, it doesn't pay very well, but it is very high on the fun factor. I was a voiceover artist and, of course, an audiobook narrator. And I have been paid as an equestrian polo announcer to announce one of my favorite games to watch. So there are a lot of different ways you can get paid speaking gigs to be able to get paid to share knowledge with an audience. That's the paid speaking gig, and the way to profit from them is to get paid before you speak. That's stage number two. If you would love to be on stage number two, please write down in your diary or your notes. I want to be a paid speaker, and then make it come true in a variety of different ways. Stage number three is next. Stage number three is an authority stage, an authority stage, a stage that gives you authority just by being on it. If you were ever on Oprah or a news channel, or if you were ever on some sort of major TV show, that could be an authority stage. Like I had the authority of being able to be on this stage. Um, I had Colin Egglesfield on my stage, and he was in uh Days of Our Lives and a bunch of other uh shows. He was absolutely powerful. He'd been uh an actor, and then he came to speak to our audience. It the shows that he was on previously gave him authority by being on them, and then people knew of him as a Hollywood actor. So great opportunity to be able to leverage your uh your expertise or your authority by being on those other stages. But there are a lot of authority stages that you can apply for. The one that most people think of is TED X. TED X is an authority stage, uh, or TED stages are an authority stage. It gives you authority by speaking on that red dot. I had the privilege of speaking on a TEDx stage in Las Vegas as one of my 5,000 stages that I've spoken on. And I will tell you that it has 79,000 views. I have never spoken in front of 79,000 people, but my TEDx has an opportunity to have been witnessed by 79,000 humans, which is so awesome, right? It's a great way to be able to get out there and get seen and heard in a much bigger way. And by putting it in my bio, I'm leveraging that. That is the way that you profit from being on an authority stage. Maybe you weren't paid to be on Oprah, maybe you weren't paid to do your TEDx. As a matter of fact, from TEDx, you cannot do speak to sell, and you cannot get paid to be a TEDx speaker. You have to just have an idea worth sharing. That's how you get on a TEDx stage. Have an idea worth sharing, and then you cross through several gates. You get uh, you have to apply to be on the stage, and then they have to audition you, then you have to be able to perform, and then you have to submit your talk. It gets scrutinized, uh, revamped, and then you give the talk again. And over the course of time, then eventually you deliver the talk. The talk has to be fully memorized end to end. It can't just be sort of off the cuff, it needs to be approved word for word, and then you deliver this talk. So it's very, very powerful stage to be able to say, I did that, I accomplished that. So that's an authority stage, but nobody will have you know you of you as an authority unless you tell people about it. So the way to profit from that one is to make sure that the word gets out. How do you do that? You share it with your friends, family, fans, followers, and folks, and you ask them to share it with other people as well. When it goes viral and you get 78,000 views on it, then it gives you authority just by being on it. Now more people know about it. But it wouldn't give you authority unless people knew you were on that stage. So never hide it. Never uh never uh I know that lots of people have been on TEDx. Stages and it's nowhere to be found on their website. It's nowhere to be found on their email. Nobody knows about it. So it's not an authority stage. Maybe they did it a TEDx, but it only has a hundred or two hundred or a thousand views. You've got to be able to have it get out there and get viral. And so people will know about it. So there are other stages as well, much easier to get on. For example, a podcast like this. If you're on a podcast and you have the opportunity to get interviewed or be able to speak on somebody else's stage, that can be super powerful. When you get on somebody else's stage and they introduce you as an expert in some way, it can be super powerful to be able to up your game as a speaker, to be able to say, I was on this stage and it was, I went on step up to the mic and I was able to share that with my audience. After this is uh released live, I will definitely tell people about it. It's an incredible stage to be able to be on, to deliver a talk and do it presentation style is a very rare opportunity that is afforded to me by step up to the mic. All right, so that's the authority stage. That's stage number three. If you would like to do an authority stage in your future, write TEDx on your diary or your journal, or write authority stage, or write, I'm gonna get on more podcasts in the future. Put that on your to-do list because authority stages are very, very powerful and you can profit just by being on them. Next stage is may surprise you. The next stage may really surprise you. It's called a rehearsal stage, a practice stage. That's right, a practice stage, a stage just to get practice speaking. Because the way to get good at publicly speaking is here's a surprise, to publicly speak. You need to get on a lot of different stages to be able to get practice. And I will tell you that the way to profit from a uh a rehearsal stage is actually by the feedback. Now, when you practice, you may actually make your call to action. Somebody may actually buy it. If you're practicing a stage and you're getting feedback on it, the person giving you feedback might actually purchase it as well. But the real profit of speaking on a rehearsal stage is to get that feedback, to get feedback from the audience, to get feedback from the person listening to the talk. So here's what a practice stage is not your bathroom mirror or practicing in front of your pets because they can't give you feedback. I mean, if your pets are really clever, maybe they'll nod along or growl or smile or something like that. I don't know. But really, folks, it's not. Your rehearsal stages need to be in front of human beings. And when they listen to your talk, they can give you feedback on what you did well, what they liked about your talk. You can see them nodding along with you. Maybe they ask a question, maybe they raise their hand and say, I don't understand that point. Or can you explain this a little further? That feedback is super valuable because you now you can improve your talk because the next time you give it, you can deliver that in a different way. One time I gave this talk and somebody raised their hand and they said, Hey, I'm not ready to speak yet because I don't have a one sheet. Can you tell me like where I can get a one sheet done or how what a one sheet is? And I said, you know what? You don't need a one sheet. I'm telling you that you just need to get on stages, you need to ask, you need to step up to the mic. There are mics being offered to you, and you just need to tell yourself that the next time you're offered a mic, you need to step up to it and you need to say yes. There are a lot of opportunities to speak. I've been on over 5,000 stages. I've never had a one sheet. So it hasn't blocked me. Has it blocked me from getting on one or two stages, or maybe even 10 or 20? Maybe, but I've never had the opportunity rise where they said, I won't hire you or I won't put you on the stage until you give me a one sheet. So don't let that stop you. And I just moved on. But the question wasn't answered. And so people in the chat, because we were on Zoom, typed in, what's a one sheet? Is she going to tell us a one where a one sheet is? How do I get a one sheet? Is there somebody who creates one sheets? Do we create a one sheet ourselves? And I realized that I had not answered the question. So that I realized the next time I ever talked about this or said the word one sheet, I needed to explain what a one sheet is. So here's what a one sheet is. A one sheet is sort of an old school resume for for speakers where they would mail or hand out a PDF printed out that had two sides, and on the front it had their uh headshot and their contact information and their bio. And maybe on somewhere on it it had testimonials and their talk titles and a little bit about their talks and maybe some references, and of course, again, their contact information. So that's a one sheet. It's basically a speaker resume that would be on one sheet of paper if it was printed out. And again, you don't need a one sheet to start speaking. Lots of stages out there that are there for you, and don't let anything stop you from getting on the mic. Anyway, a rehearsal stage is a way that you can practice and learn what the audience needs to learn. Because I thought everybody knew what a one sheet was, but it turns out that not everybody does. So now that's something that I teach as part of my talk. So those are the four stages. Stage number one is a speak to sell stage. The way you profit from that one is to make an effective call to action for the natural next step people to take, for people to take after your talk. Stage number two is a paid speaking gig. And the way to profit from that one is to get paid before you speak. Stage number three is an authority stage that gives you authority just by being on it. And the way to profit from that one is to make sure everybody knows about it. And stage number four is a rehearsal stage, a practice stage. And the way to profit from that is to make sure you're listening to the feedback. But I did tell you that there was a secret fifth stage. So all of you have been amazing listening to this. And you got here with me. So I'm gonna share with you what the secret fifth stage is, and it's the most powerful of all. The secret fifth stage is your own stage. Your own stage, a stage that gives you an opportunity to do any of the four types of stages. It can be a speak to sell stage, it can be a paid speaking gig. It can be an opportunity to be able to get paid to speak. It can be your an authority stage by bringing other experts on. And then you sort of have that Oprah effect by bringing other amazing speakers onto your stage. It can be a practice stage where you just decide that you're going to go on stage every Monday at one or Tuesday at two or Wednesday at three and decide that you are going to do a regular show. And when you do that, maybe it's on Facebook, or maybe it's a podcast that you're building, or maybe it's a variety of stages that you decide that you're going to do. If you do something regularly, every week or every month at the same time that people can follow, it becomes a show that you get to be on, that you get to be able to leverage. That stage is very powerful. Now, the thing about being on your very own stage is that you get to make the rules. The rules might be that you speak for a longer period of time or a shorter period of time. You might be able to make an offer. When you get on somebody else's stage, they make the rules. They're the ones that decide how long you can speak. They get to decide what you can offer at the end. They get to decide whether they're going to pay you or not. But when you have your own stage, you get to decide. You get to decide whether you're going to make an offer at the end. You get to decide whether you're going to have guests on it or not. You get to decide how long you're going to be. You get to decide what you're going to do at the end for your call to action. You can make it a paid speaking gig by charging people to come to it. You can make it an authority stage by inviting other experts on it. You can just make it a practice stage by going on Facebook every once in a while and making sure that you show up on a regular basis. So the secret fifth stage is your own stage, and you get a chance to leverage it any way you like. All right, ladies and gentlemen, if you decided that you're gonna create your own stage, please put, I'm gonna create my own stage down in your journal notes, that you're gonna be able to leverage that and you're gonna be able to make other people hear a little bit more about who you are and how you show up in the world by creating your own stage. All right, ladies and gentlemen, this has been a lot of fun. I hope you've had fun as well. I've really enjoyed being on Step Up to the Mic. Again, my name is Kimberly Crow. It's been a pleasure being with you. I'll see you next time. Cheers.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Kimberly Crow, everybody. Kimberly, that was absolutely fantastic. Uh I just enjoyed being a part of it, being able to sit here and listen to it all. So uh we do have a couple of questions for you, if that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Absolutely, Rory. I'm super excited to be here with you.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Wonderful. All right, thanks so much. Uh, I'm just gonna start with the secret stage because we just talked about that. It's fresh in everybody's mind. So um, the secret stage, you talked a lot about what it could be. I'm curious, I'm sure a lot of our listeners are too. What was your secret stage and how did you utilize that?

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Yeah, the first one I actually ever really monetized from and leveraged in this particular business. I mean, I guess my own stage was my audiobook business before that. Before that, I was an actress, so a lot of stages there. But the creation of my own stage was really a web summit, the very first one that I created where I brought on, and it was all the things. So I it was an opportunity to get a lot of speakers on a virtual stage. We did a Zoom and I had back-to-back speakers speaking. So it was an authority stage because I was bringing on other experts to share their expertise. It was a practice stage because it was the first time I'd ever done it, and I had to practice and I had to get feedback. It was a speak to sell stage because I uh promoted my program at the end of the talk, at the end of my talk and at the end of the program. And it was a paid speaking gig because I charged people not admission to be able to watch, but an opportunity to upgrade to VIP, and VIPs were going to get the recordings of the event. So a lot of people paid to actually be VIP at the event. And so I was a paid speaker, I was doing speak to sell. It was an authority stage, and it was a practice stage, and it was my own stage.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

I love that. I mean, just the creativity that went into that is astounding, really. So um one of the messages it seems like we're getting from you is that anything is possible if you just sort of think of it. Am I getting that right?

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Well, I I feel like anything's possible because I'm a big manifesting uh fan. Um, and really anything that you dream of is the thought first, and then the word and then the do, right? Um, and it's really just a matter of making sure that you execute all the way through. Um, but yes, uh dreams can come true. Uh I don't think that I could be an Olympic uh champion at ice skating at this point. I don't think I could be an Olympic winner. Uh I'm not very good at ice skating. Uh so I don't know if anything's possible, but I suppose if I worked really hard and manifested that, maybe, but I might be a little too old for that.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

I appreciate the the realism at the end there. No, but uh I I love your attitude towards it all. Um you talked a little bit in your uh your number three talking about the TEDx or uh your TEDx stage, uh the authority stage. I have a lot of folks talk to me regularly through this show and whatnot about being being on a TEDx stage, and I think it's something everybody thinks they want to be a part of because it's like, oh I got I have to be on a TEDx. Um you did a really good job of answering one of the questions I get, which is what's the benefit to it since I don't get paid. I appreciate you going into that. That was awesome. But one thing I get a lot of, and maybe you can help people with this, is can you give anybody some tips on how to successfully navigate getting through the process and actually getting on the stage? Because that's where I think a lot of people get hung up.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Yes, well, actually, um sadly, it's easier than you think to be able to land and get approved for a TEDx stage. You do actually have to go through the process, you have to find the uh the owner of the stage. Uh, they're called a coordinator, I believe, and you reach out to the coordinator, you have to apply, and so you have to go through that process. Um, you have to and really applying to like go out and get and and find all the stages and apply to multiples, and eventually you'll get one. But I don't actually recommend that approach. I really think that this needs to be more of a flag that you plant in the ground. So if I went out and just applied to a bunch of different stages, I might get TEDx uh Venezuela or I might get TEDx in the Philippines or something, right? And then I would fly and do my TEDx there just to check that box. But I don't know that I really want to be um, you know, a TEDx Manila speaker. I don't know that I want to do that, right? So you really want to think about it a little bit more carefully and really um and and and and spend time on it because this will be a flag that you plant in the ground, something that you're very proud of. And Rory, I often liken this with my insider group, and I'll bring you into that inside. I will say it's sort of like a marriage. You want to have one, maybe two in your lifetime, but you don't want to just knock out a bunch of them. You don't want to just knock it out to say you did, right? You want to really spend some time on it. You want to think about what it's gonna look like in the end. This is not something that you just want to get done. This is something that you really wanna wanna consider and think about and have be part of your life and have be part of who you are in the world. And since it's not something that you can do as speak to sell, like I can't promote, I didn't promote anything in my TEDx about speaking or entrepreneurship. My TEDx was about something I was passionate about, which is the inability to change your mind. Um, when people get very narrow-minded, it's um it's called cognitive bias, where you keep believing what you already believe and you stack evidence on top of it to just keep believing it to make you feel feel safe, and you ignore all the evidence to the contrary. And it's really a problem in our society and the world, I suppose, is that narrow-mindedness. So I spoke about the cognitive bias and I spoke about how to get out of it, and I spoke about my journey getting through it, and it was something that is very powerful for me. The um the TEDx that you give might be completely different from what you sell. It's an opportunity, though, to get on a very powerful stage and be able to leverage that. So, what will you be very proud of in the future that will last through your lifetime? Maybe today you're a coach that helps people with their email, but tomorrow you might be something completely different. Does your TEDx align with who you are or just who you were in the moment? Does that help?

SPEAKER_00 36:57

Yeah, love that actually. All right, another wonderful answer. Um, I I have to ask this only because it's uh a lot of people have asked me this question. Uh the paid speaking gig, immediately you you brought that up uh, you know, hey, you don't want to get into collections. So once you've given the speech, it's not like you can go take it back.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

It's very hard to repossess your talk.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

Yeah, repo it, right, exactly. Um what sort of issues have you had with that kind of thing? And maybe what kind of tips do you have for people to sort of preemptively go in and say, hey, I need to be paid up front, you know, this way, so on.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

Absolutely. The best way to do that is in your contract. If you're doing a $12,500 keynote, you need to have a contract in place for that. And your contract needs to say, in my case, it says I get paid 50% to reserve the date, to reserve the date. Because uh, as we're recording this, it is June. Actually, we just moved into June as we're recording this. Um, if I have a uh keynote, it's probably going to be for January or February that it gets booked. People book keynotes way in advance. And the problem with that is I don't really know what I'm gonna be doing in January or February of next year, right? So if I'm going to reserve the date for you, I need 50% up front. Now I've put that date in cement on my calendar. Now, if something awesome comes up and I have the opportunity to do speak to sell where I could earn six figures, I have to turn it down because I've already booked that gig and it's on my calendar in cement. Now, if they move the date, then I've lost out on that opportunity to be able to do a speak to sell where I could have earned six figures instead of five figures. And so I've lost out on that opportunity. So the 50% is for me to reserve the date. The second 50% happens is delivered before I get on the microphone. Now it can be delivered right on at the event, or it can be delivered, you know, six weeks before. It doesn't matter to me, but we do want to make sure that we collect before we get on the microphone. And if you don't, you make that mistake once, maybe twice, and then you stop making that mistake. It is in your contract, so they have signed off on it that they will pay on that. So certainly you can go to a collections group after and go get them. But if you ever want them to hire you back, you want to make sure that your relationship that with them is really amazing. Now, I did mention that it's to reserve the date. I have had people move the date after, and because I definitely want to book a gig with them again, I will make accommodation for that and I'll give them the opportunity to move it to another date that's convenient for me if I can make it. And then they can use that credit for up to a year after that because they've already paid for it and I want to continue the relationship. That part is entirely up to me, and it's entirely up to you as well when you book the gig. You could just say, nope, I booked the gig, I missed out on a million dollar opportunity. So that is missed out, but I'd love for you to hire me again. I don't do that. I don't know. Maybe I should in the future, but I do not.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

One of the things I gotta follow up on that. One of the things that I've had people ask me is, well, what if they don't actually pay the second part of it? Am I actually gonna not do the speech?

SPEAKER_01 40:06

That's entirely up to you. Right. Um, and really it's just a matter of deciding. Like, if if they're a good client and you want to do it, that's fine. You could you have every right to refuse. It's in your contract. And then it's just a matter of relationship. Do you want to be like, oh, I'm not showing up unless you do, unless you pay me. Now, what I would recommend, if you're gonna be a speaker like this, is to remind them multiple times beforehand, hey, I do want to make sure that I can collect this. How are you going to pay me? And then have them tell you if it's gonna be a check or if it's going to be a Venmo or if it's gonna be Square or if it's gonna be whatever. Like you need to be able to accept money in a variety of different ways. I don't care if they hand me a bag of cash. Well, that's never happened, and I hope it never does. But if they hand, I mean, you've got to be able to accept the remuneration in a variety of different ways. So be open to the possibility that it might be it might be a check, and you might be like, I don't even know how to cash a check, but you gotta be able to figure that out.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

I love that. I'm Italian, so we have no problems with bags of cash. Everything works out really fine. So, all right. I appreciate those answers. Let me make sure I cover these though. You're the founder of Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

So, Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel is the first company that I ever created, and Speakers Playhouse is actually simply an a factor of that. I have many different programs, products, and services, but they all fall under Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel. I also do a cruise that's called the Influencers Cruise, Authority at Sea, or Speakers Making Waves. We go on a seven-day trip, and that's uh branded in and of itself. I have another one called Podapalooza, which is a one-day event where speakers and podcasters uh connect and they actually conduct interviews during the event with our podcasters in a special room called the Podatorium. And we put uh speakers and podcasters together. It's sort of like speed dating meets podcasting. Super fun day. Um, I also have many other offerings, but they all fall under my LLC, pardon me, which is Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel. So my company is Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel, and all the other things are products underneath it.

SPEAKER_00 42:13

Love it. All right, I have one more question for you. Before I hit that, though, I want to make sure I get this. What's your contact information? How can people find out more about you? How can they interact with you, et cetera, et cetera?

SPEAKER_01 42:22

Absolutely. The best way is probably to go to speakers playhouse. Go to speakersplayhouse.com. It's free, and it's every single Thursday from 10 30 a.m. to noon Pacific. That's 10 30 a.m. to noon Pacific. You go to speakersplayhouse.com and it is free any Thursday of the day, week, no, any Thursday of the week, month, or year. I got that right. Um, we would love to see you. Um, it's a great opportunity to meet podcasters, or if you are a podcaster, to brag about your show and tell people what kinds of guests you have on it. And if you're a speaker, you might find podcasts, radio shows, TV shows, web summits, webinars, or real live in-person stages that will pay you to speak. So come to speakers playhouse at speakersplayhouse.com.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

Love it. All right, last question. We have uh a lot of uh speakers who listen to the show, of course, but we have a ton of aspiring speakers who listen to the show as well. So for the aspiring speaker who's sitting at home, they're listening to you, they're getting completely jazzed up, they're they're ready to like run out the door and do something, but they absolutely have no idea where to start. What's the best advice you can give them to maybe start taking some steps towards becoming uh a professional speaker?

SPEAKER_01 43:33

The best way to get good at publicly speaking is to publicly speak. So you just want to start out uh by actually speaking in front of a group. If you speak in front of two people, you have done public speaking. So maybe it's just a group that's around you, a group that you uh collect that's in person. Maybe it's a podcast that you get on where you're just speaking to one other person right now, but it goes out to a variety of people afterwards. Maybe it is A TV show that you happen to get on. It could be any number of things, but you do want to make sure that you get out there. Because if you're not getting, if you're not getting out there, if you're not getting seen, you're being overlooked. If you're not getting heard, your message isn't getting out there. And if you're not regularly getting out on stages, then it's not going to have the contribution that you want it to have before you leave the planet.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

Love that. All right. Wonderful advice. Kimberly Crow, everybody. Kimberly, you've been absolutely electric on our stage today. Thank you so much for coming here, doing what you did, and for giving out uh everything that you have and for what you continue to do. You were amazing. Thanks for being here today.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

Rory Piquette, super glad to be here. You're a doll. I loved being on it, and uh what a privilege to be able to be on your stage.

SPEAKER_00 44:48

Thank you so much, folks. This has been another awesome, spectacular episode of Step Up to the Mic. If you're an aspiring or current speaker and you want to bring your talk to the messes, message us today. Never, ever stop talking, and let us help you to step up to the mic.