Articles by Julie Austin

Julie Austin is an award-winning author, inventor, futurist and innovation keynote speaker. Her patented product, swiggies, wrist water bottles, have been a NASDAQ product of the year semi finalist and are currently sold in 25 countries. Julie and her products have appeared on The Today Show, The Queen Latifa Show, HGTV, Lifetime, Inc.magazine, Fast Company, ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX News, along with dozens of TV shows, magazines and radio shows around the world. She's a "go-to" media expert in the fields of innovation & creativity, giving keynotes for Fortune 500 companies, and is featured in the books "Patently Female" and "Girls Think of Everything".

The speaking industry is global, which expands a speaker’s opportunities beyond their own country. International speaking can be quite lucrative, and at some point in your career you might want to think about taking that leap. But every country has their own culture, and written or unwritten rules every public speaker needs to know about.

Anthony “Ant” Williams has a unique perspective on the speaking industry, as both a speaker and a speaker bureau owner. If you think being a public speaker is scary and competitive, read on to see how Ant got his start:

Can you give us some info on your background?
I fell in to speaking as a way to support my fascination with extreme sports. Each year I would travel the globe competing in World Championship events in the sport of freediving, a sport where the sole purpose is to see who can reach the greatest depth in the ocean on a single breath of air. But doing a dangerous sport can be expensive. I trained up as a speaker to create a new source of income that would fit around the training and travel.
Where I sympathise the most with other speakers, is with our over-reliance on traditional speaking bureaux to find us speaking work. This is fraught with problems. How do you build a business as a speaker if you don’t build your relationships with event planners directly?

How is the speaking industry different in Australia than the U.S.?
There are two main differences. First, we seem to pay our speakers less in Australia. Our largest booking category is $3,000 – $5,000 and very few bookings come in over the $10,000 mark. In the U.S. top speakers would typically earn more per keynote. Second, we don’t have the same prevalence of speaker’s agents who source the work for speakers. Australian speakers tend to list with as many speakers’ bureaux as possible, create a website, and then wait for the work to come in.

Are there any cultural differences?
Australian audiences love U.S. speakers. We love your accent. We presume people who speak with an accent must be highly intelligent. But we Australians are a modest bunch. A quick way to alienate an Australian audience is to over-state your credentials or come across too flamboyant.

How do you suggest approaching speaker’s bureaus?
We aren’t currently supporting any offshore speakers. Hopefully, in the near future.

What should speakers know about working with a speaker bureau?
Speaker bureaus want to find you work, but you make it difficult! Rather than asking a bureau to find you more work, get busy and write a blog that the bureau can share. Do something interesting and share it on social media with links to your profile on the bureau website so people can find and book you. Content is king. If you want to get noticed by people who book speakers then start creating interesting content that people will share.

Who is your perfect client?
We have a guy on the other side of Australia who books a new speaker with us every month. From the comfort of his desk he selects a speaker for each event, then books them through our automated system. We have an Audience Response System that collects audience ratings and feedback for each speaker. He simply compares speaker feedback and choses the best speaker for his event, at the best price each time.

What is your favorite book on speaking?
That would still have to be “Speak and Grow Rich” by Walters & Walters. It’s an old book now but still has some of the best ever advice in it for a career in keynote speaking. What it lacks, because of its age, is the importance of building a social media presence.

Thanks to Ant for taking time to share his insights with Speaker Sponsor. You can check out his speaker bureau at www.speakerbook.com.au or check out his amazing free diving background at www.antwilliams.com.

Are there two different sides of the speaking industry? If you ask two different people to give you the definition of a professional speaker you may get two different answers. I always assumed it was someone who gets paid to speak. But the answer is a little more complicated than that. So I asked two professionals in different areas of the speaking industry for their thoughts on it.

Cathleen Fillmore runs the speaker bureau Speakers Gold and has been in the speaking industry for many years. Here is her answer to that question:

“As a bureau owner, I’ve had great experience with all aspects of the speaking industry. One of my speakers, new to Canada, was often asked to speak free of charge until he said ‘No!’. He had young children to support and he knew if he kept accepting unpaid engagements, he would never get paid. So he said ‘No thanks’ and held his breath and soon he was getting full fee. Once he established his boundaries and insisted on the respect he was due, he got it. Full fee. There are times to accept unpaid engagements – for your favorite charity or to get in front of decision makers – but mainly it’s a trap that can damage your branding. After all, if you speak for one organization free of charge, others won’t want to pay you. Or they won’t want to pay your full fee. The decision is yours – don’t make it until you’ve explored the implications and the possible cost to you for accepting a free speaking engagement.”
Cathleen Fillmore, Bureau Owner and Marketing Consultant to Speakers
www.speakersgold.com
www.marketingmasteryforspeakers.com
cathleen@speakersgold.com
416-532-9886

Bryan Caplovitz is the founder of Speaker Match, an online speaker directory that connects speakers with paid and free speaking engagements. Here’s what Bryan had to say:

“The National Speakers Association, which is known for having professional speakers, has many speakers from an older generation who adhere to the notion that pros don’t pitch from the stage. There shouldn’t be any selling. You should deliver great, commercial-free content and a message that affects the audience. A lot of newer speakers do feel the need to sell from the stage, and encourage the audience to buy products or services. They like passing out evaluation forms with their contact info and lean heavily on their books and coaching.

There’s a third category that doesn’t care if they get paid or not. They deliver great content and the audience isn’t pitched to. Many Toastmasters and cause speakers fall into that category. They simply want to touch an audience with their words.

Then there is the big pitch speaker. The audience knows they’re being pitched to and it’s transparent upfront. These are the free presentations that are meant to sell very high ticket programs. They are great pitch people who get the audience members into a non-defensive mindset. They show the value of all of the many different pieces you need and build it up.”

And then of course there are speakers who focus on great content, but have sponsors footing the bill. I’ve come to realize that the speaking industry is very inclusive and isn’t just about one type of speaking. The speaking industry has changed a lot over the past few years and may still be changing. Who knows what the next business model will be? What do you think?

There are many reasons small businesses should sponsor speakers. The best reason is the fact that you’ll be reaching your target audience. In other words, you only get your message in front of the people who really want to hear it. As a speaker this is a good selling point when pitching your sponsorships to small businesses.

Sponsorship is a tax write-off

But another great reason to sponsor speakers is that sponsorship is a tax write-off. Here is what the IRS says about sponsorship tax deductions:

IRS Publication 535:

“You generally can deduct reasonable advertising expenses that are directly related to your business activities.

You can usually deduct as a business expense the cost of institutional or goodwill advertising to keep your name before the public if it relates to business you reasonably expect to gain in the future.”

The line between advertising, marketing, and charitable donations is a blurry one. So I asked the experts to help define how businesses can use sponsorship as a tax write off:

How businesses can use sponsorship as a tax write-off

“Sponsorship can most certainly be a tax write-off for small businesses as long as there is a clear connection between the sponsorship and your business.

For example if you are sponsoring a pee-wee baseball team and naming the team after your business or there is a listing of the business name in the program, then there is a clear connection between the sponsorship and the business. It is visible that the sponsorship is a promotional effort for the business. Thus, it would be written-off as an advertising expense.

However, if the sponsorship has no connectiusiness and the sponsee is a non-profit then that is classified as a charitable contribution and cannot be written off as a marketing expense because the sponsorship is not giving your business any public exposure.”
Anil Melwani, CPA

212 Tax & Accounting Services
370 Lexington Avenue, Suite 414
New York, NY 10017

P. 212-475-1040
F. 917-534-6310
www.212tax.com

Sponsorship as a business expense

“Sponsorship can be considered a business expense if the purpose is
advertising.
Advertising includes:
1) Messages containing qualitative or comparative language, price
information, or other indications of savings or value,
2) Endorsements, and
3) Inducements to purchase, sell, or use the products or services.

The use of promotional logos or slogans that are an established part of the
sponsor’s identity is not, by itself, advertising. In addition, mere
distribution or display of a sponsor’s product by the organization to the
public at a sponsored event, whether for free or for remuneration, is
considered use or acknowledgment of the product rather than advertising.

Sponsorship may qualify as a charitable deduction if there is no deemed
derived benefit from the sponsorship.”

Vincenzo Villamena, managing partner of the CPA firm, Online
Taxman. We are a boutique CPA firm specializing in
tax preparation for entreprenuers, US expats and other folks in special
situations.

Online Taxman | 347 Fifth Ave. Suite 1402-171 | New York, NY | 10016 |

vincenzo@onlinetaxman.com | (p) 646.400.0046 | (f) 815.550.8651 |

Legalities of sponsorship

“I’m a Boston-based tax lawyer (not an accountant) and I know a lot of tidbits about sponsorship expenses. For example, last year, the US Tax Court upheld the deductible expenses of a husband-and-wife small business that sponsored their own son’s motorcross racing activity. See Evans, TC Memo 2014-237.

Further, even when the sponsorship recipient is a tax-exempt organization, sponsors generally prefer to characterize their payments as marketing expenses rather than charitable contributions because of the multiple limitations and strings attached to the latter. This approach was upheld by the IRS itself in a case involving sponsorship of a charitable horse race. Of course, the tax exempt organizations themselves take the opposite view, always attempting to characterize revenue as “qualified sponsorship” income that is exempt of unrelated business income tax, rather than advertising income which is subject to tax.”
Travis L.L. Blais
BLAIS & HALPERT LLC
One International Place, 8th Floor
Boston, Massachusetts 02110

O: (617) 918-7081
M: (617) 460-4235
E: TBlais@BlaisTaxLaw.com<mailto:tblais@blaistaxlaw.com>
W: www.BlaisTaxLaw.com<http://www.blaistaxlaw.com/>

We’re happy to welcome Sue Falcone of Simply Sue Speaks to Speaker Sponsor. Sue knows both sides of the speaking industry and will be giving us some insight into what she looks for in a speaker to represent.

Here is the transcription:

Julie Austin: Hi, Sue.

Sue Falcone: Hi, Julie!

Julie Austin: Welcome to Speaker Sponsor.

Sue Falcone: Thank you so much for inviting me. Happy Tuesday!

Julie Austin: Same to you. We’re going to talk a little bit about your speaker bureau, “Simply” Sue Speaks. First of all, can you just give us a little bit of information about your background?

Sue Falcone: I’ll be glad to, Julie. My name is Sue Falcone, and I come from a varied background into what I do now. I’m a former AT&T executive, small business owner, published author and professional speaker, who then found out speakers out there needed some help. So this is why I established a different and unique form of a company for speakers, because I’m not your normal speakers bureau. I’m a global booking agency, which is a little different. We’ll get into that, but that’s where I’ve come from.I have over 40 years experience, and I love what I do and who I get to do it with.

Julie Austin: How has the speaking industry — how is it different today than when you first started?

Sue Falcone: Well, of course, I started in corporate America, but I was always this entrepreneur person. AT&T let me be that, but I remember what we really thought back then, even on serving our customers as a company, not just in the speaking realm, that we thought we knew what they needed, so that’s what we provided. Overally, generally, that’s how speakers and trainers and all did. We decided what you needed and how you needed to hear it, and we did it. (more…)

The speaking industry has similarities and differences in every country. Here is another great speakers bureau interview with J.J. Jackson of Performing Artistes, located in London:

1. Can you give us some info on your background and how Performing Artistes got started?
We started in 1992, initially putting on sporting dinners (where people buy tables and there are former sportsmen and women giving speeches after dinner). We quickly got asked to supply people for their own events, often non sport, and it went from there. That original experience of having put on events ourselves is incredibly useful when dealing with planners. We can honestly say we’ve been there!
2. How is the speaking industry different in Europe than the U.S.?
Bureaux in the States seems to be much more talent led. They are set up to push talent exclusive to them, while the European model is client/organiser led – most of us have a few exclusives, but the majority of our business is booking people independent of the bureau. We are answerable to the clients.
3. When should a speaker start approaching speakers bureaus and how would you like to be approached?
In theory, as soon as they like, however unless they have a TV profile they really need to have done a good few speeches (20 plus) to be taken seriously. Decent video footage of them speaking is also a must – it doesn’t need to be a full production, but more than a hand held camera at the back of a church hall.
4. What is the one thing you wish speakers knew about working with a speakers bureau?
That our job is to come up with ideas for speakers in the first place. Rarely do clients ring up asking for a specific person, they normally ask for a list of people who would be appropriate and take it from there, so by the time they end up booking the speaker we’ve already done a lot of work getting them to that stage. Same goes for agents, they often say “why did the company not come to us directly” to which the response is of course “because they didn’t know they wanted you until we explained why you/your client was ideal”.
5. Who is your perfect speaker client?
In terms of the talent, someone who engages with the client beforehand on a briefing call, turns up on time and is modest in their demands re staging, transport etc (accepting they want to deliver a good presentation and do require certain things). In terms of bookers/planners, someone you can develop a relationship with and starts to trust you…occasionally taking a leftfield choice because they know you haven’t let them down in the past. I always say I have never knowingly supplied a bad speaker, although that’s not to say we haven’t had to odd issue over the years!
6. Is there one book you would recommend all speakers read?
Now there is a question! It’s been around a while, but one of the original business books, How to Win Friends and Influence People takes some beating!
7. What do you see changing for speakers, meeting planners and speakers bureaus and how would you use innovation to improve the speaking industry?
The level of interactivity of audiences. The days of the passive audience are long gone, now a days the audience will be tweeting about the speech as it is happening, asking questions in real time etc. In terms of improving the industry, transparency is key. If a speaker has had a number of enquiries from rival bureaux for the same job, they should say; similarly meeting planners shouldn’t try and play us off against each other. By all means compare costs, but once you’ve decided which bureau to use, stick with them.

JJ Jackson
Performing Artistes – London

www.performingartistes.co.uk
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/PerfArtistes

The recent IMEX America Conference in Las Vegas was a good glimpse into the future of the meetings industry. Meeting planners and executives from around the world shared their knowledge and inside information about where the meetings and events industry is headed for 2015.

Cvent and American Express co-sponsored a survey that was sent out to global meeting and event planners from all segments of the industry to get an idea of where they believed things were headed.

The bad news is that globally meetings are predicted to remain flat, and budgets are expected to decrease. I know this isn’t what speakers want to hear. But if you know where things stand, at least you can learn how to work around it. As a speaker you’ll need to start bringing even more value to meeting planners, since they will be working with lower budgets, yet still trying to get the best speakers possible.

The outlook for North America looks slightly more positive. Though spending will remain flat, the number of actual meetings is expected to go up very slightly. The bright spot in all of this is that training and development is expected to rise. This goes along with the added value you’ll need to bring to the table. Motivational speaking isn’t going out of style anytime soon, but it has to come with good, solid, actionable content that can be delivered in multiple ways.

The biggest increase in spending comes from Central and South America. Training and development and spending are both expected to increase. If you haven’t thought about expanding your speaking business into this area, now may be a good time to start connecting with planners who work in this region.

The number of local meetings, especially in large cities, is expected to become more popular. This is one reason small business micro-sponsorship is more important than ever. And it’s one reason local speakers with their own sponsors will have a competitive advantage over other speakers.

I was talking to a conference planner not long ago, pitching some of the Speaker Sponsor speakers, and he told me that if a speaker was any good they wouldn’t need to market themselves or get anyone to do it for them. Really? Well, I guess if you’re Hillary Clinton or Tony Robbins, you can basically just sit back and let the speaking jobs come to you, but for most speakers I strongly believe you need to get out and let people know who you are and what you do through speaker marketing.

Apparently, every speaker I talked to agreed, though everyone markets in a different way. Here are some of their responses to the question on speaker marketing and how they do it:

For sure speakers have to market themselves! Especially when you’re new to speaking on your own, without the exposure that comes from a corporate position or your book publisher, you’re unlikely to be “found” by conference or meeting planners. I’ve been speaking since I was in my 20s, when I began sponsoring marketing workshops in 1979 while finishing my MBA and writing a book on small business marketing. In that era before webinars, before Skype, before audio-conferencing (and before significant continuing education budget cuts at employers), it seemed easier to market yourself. Today, people have less time for events and less money for workshop registration or travel, and there’s more competition online from free or low-cost webinars. (more…)

I hear it every day. “I tried sponsorship and it didn’t work”. When I dig a little deeper, it becomes clear why. The very first thing most people think about is the big corporate sponsorships. As a non-celebrity speaker or artist who is just getting started, could you get a big corporate sponsor like Coca Cola or Red Bull to sponsor you? Sure. It’s just not very likely. And I’m not saying you shouldn’t go after the big guys. You should. But learn how to work with smaller sponsors first.

Speakers and artists sponsorship

I often hear artists say that they only want to be a film or TV star, and aren’t interested in bit parts. Or they only want to pursue the big corporate sponsors. There are only so many spaces at the top, but tons of opportunities if you’re willing to go off the beaten path.

I hear speakers say they only want to go after the high-paying speaking jobs and nothing else. Well, those jobs are great, but there is a ton of speaking work that isn’t in that category.

For every actor or model who is making millions, there are tens of thousands of them that make a decent living at it. And for every speaker making 20 grand, there are speakers everywhere who make a living doing it. Sponsorship is kind of like that. Just because you’re not making big money in the big league doesn’t mean you can’t do very well.

Here are some reasons speakers and artists give up too quickly and how you can change that:

Timing

The average corporate sponsorship can take between a year to two years to finalize. It takes a huge amount of patience to wait that long. Micro-sponsorship ™ , or small business sponsorship can take less time, but still takes several months. I’ve found that even working with small mom and pop companies, they want as much time as possible to promote the event. Even if they’re only spending a few hundred dollars, they still want to maximize that investment. It’s actually good for you too, because you both can stretch out the promotion exposure.

Wrong opportunity

I believe that there is a buyer out there for every seller. That said, you can’t please everybody. I’ve seen speakers and artists who had the most amazing sponsorship opportunities who had a hard time getting a sponsor, and ones who had much weaker opportunities who secured more than one sponsor easily. I could never figure it out. The only thing to do is to make sure you’re consistently in the game. It only takes a few sponsors who believe in you and make money with you to make a good living as a speaker or artist.

Return on investment

If you make money for your sponsors, there’s no reason they won’t keep sponsoring you. This is why you really need to learn how to work with them to give them the most exposure possible. Now is when you take off your creative hat and put on your business hat. Look at every single thing you do from a sponsor’s perspective. If you were a brand and were going to invest hard-earned money in a sponsorship, would you sponsor you? What do you have to offer that will make a sponsor more money? Can you expose their brand to the audience they want to get in front of?

Sponsorship of speakers and artists is one of the best marketing tools out there for small businesses. When the right partnerships come together it can be magic for both parties.

There are dozens of ways speakers and artists can find more sponsors, and work more effectively with them to create better ROI. Schedule a sponsorship coaching session to learn the inside secrets for getting more sponsorships. (For speakers and artists)

A speaker showcase is usually a half day or full day event where a small group of speakers showcase a few minutes of their best material to a room of meeting planners or other event organizers. The purpose of a speaker showcase is to give the meeting planners a wide variety of speaker styles and topics under one roof to choose from as they plan their events for the upcoming year.

Speaker showcases are put on by convention and visitors bureaus, speaker bureaus, association organizations, etc. The speakers pay their own travel and expenses, and sometime even pay a fee to participate. So, are they worth the time and money? We asked a few speakers what they thought. (more…)

It’s the word that sends chills down the spines of professional speakers…exposure. Well, apparently it’s not just speakers who are being asked to pay for play, but now the NFL is asking their half-time artists to pay for exposure too. The multi-million dollar entity hasn’t paid half-time performers up to this point, but now they are actually even asking them to pay for the opportunity to perform, stating that the exposure the artists get is worth cold hard cash, and they want a piece of it.

It’s known that the NFL doesn’t pay performers, but now they say that they want to profit from the post Super Bowl tours the artists go on after appearing on the most watched sporting event in America. This is drawing a chilly response from Katy Perry, Coldplay, and Rihanna, the three artists who have been contacted. It isn’t known whether the NFL will go outside of those picks and find an artist willing to agree to the terms.

Professional speakers have been going through a similar situation in the past few years. I recently spoke to a meeting planner who said, not only did they not pay speakers, but the speakers had to come up with brand new material just for the conference, then they had to spend time working to customize it, pay all of their own expenses, pay for the registration for the conference, no selling from the stage, no book selling, no sponsorship, and no networking. I thought it was a joke.

Not only was I told that it wasn’t a joke, but that they have professional speakers lined up to agree to whatever terms they lay out, including sweeping the floor after their speech. Okay, so it didn’t go that far. But where does it end? It looks like as long as speakers and artists are willing to pay to play that the trend will continue.

Have you been asked to pay to speak, and what are your thoughts on the topic?

Articles by Julie Austin

Interview With a Speakers Bureau – Speaker Book

Are There Two Different Sides of the Speaking Industry?

SS 001 – Speaker Bureau Interview – Simply Sue Speaks

Interview With a Speakers Bureau – Performing Artistes

What the 2015 Global Meetings Trend Means for Speakers

Do Speakers Need to Market Themselves?

3 Reasons Speakers and Artists Give Up On Sponsorship Too Quickly

Speakers and artists sponsorship

Timing

Wrong opportunity

Return on investment

Speaker Showcase – Good Idea or a Waste of Time?

Professional Speakers Asked to Pay For Play