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motivational speaker

 

We now present the fourth in a series of articles about:
How to work with your motivational keynote speaker to get the most from your conference investment

 

Selected Posts from Brad’s Past

We found a few posts, videos and stories from Brad’s past, and thought it would be fun to re-publish them here.  So pour yourself a cup of coffee, put on some classic rock, and check out this classic blog post from a decade (ish) ago.  

 

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

Brad Montgomery,

Motivational Speaker, Keynote Speaker, Loves to Multi-Task

Related Articles and Videos:
Getting more bang for your buck with Motivational Speaker Brad
Hear what happened when keynote speaker Brad Montgomery  multi-tasked in Wyoming

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For those folks who would rather read than watch, here is the video transcript:

Hey, it’s Brad Montgomery from bradmontgomery.com with another tip or suggestion on getting the most return on an investment from your motivational or inspirational speaker.  Well today the plan is find a speaker who can do more than one thing for you.  So that means can your speaker do multiple things for you at your single event?

So why is this important?  Well I think it’s important for two reasons.  One, I think it’s an easy way to get a huge increase in value with only a minimal increase in investment.  So what do I mean?  I’m talking about if you hire a speaker to do a keynote speech, what else can they do?  Are they an MC?  Can they be a Master of Ceremonies?  Can they do entertainment after dinner?

One of the things I do is a little energy boost, game show segments to help boost the energy throughout the day.  I’ve got a whole bunch of ideas about team building, doing lunches and dinners.  I’ve got a  million ideas because I’ve been at this so long, just kind of whole big back of tricks.  So some of my favorite clients are the ones that say, “Brad, we’ve got you here; how can we get more out of you?”  And the result is really fun.

So the first benefit is you save a lot of money ‘cause you’ve already got your speaker there, you’ve paid for the travel and the increase really is not that much.  So in other words, if you have one speaker do two things you’re not paying twice as much.  It’s like Costco.

Get The Most Out Of Brad While He’s Already At Your Event!

All right, but the other reason why this is such a great idea is once your motivational speaker or keynote speaker has connected with your audience and your audience has connected with them, it’s really cool to follow up with that connection and get the most out of that connection.

So what do I mean?  Let me give you an example.  If, for example, I work in the morning as your keynote speaker.  Then we laugh and we’re going to make that audience just crack up and they’re going to start to know me and they’ll know how I think and how I feel and they’ll start to understand my sense of humor.  Which means that if I come back an hour and a half later to introduce the next speaker or to head up some sort of team building experience or to even just do the like housekeeping notes, just deliver those boring items but in a really fun and upbeat way, what the audience thinks to themselves is, “Oh goodie, he’s back.  This guy’s funny,” and it raises the energy in the room.  And the reason the energy increase is important is ‘cause it makes sure that your people are ready to learn and ready to receive value from your meeting or your conference not just during the keynote speech, but all the way through.  Pretty cool idea, huh?

The other advantage to using one speaker for multiple events is it saves time and it’s sort of a complex thought, so stick with me.  As a motivational speaker one of the most important parts of my job is the first few minutes of any speech because that’s when the audience is sizing me up.  That’s when I really need to make sure that they understand me and get me.  And only after they understand me and trust me can I start to teach them.  And if you think about it, that appeals to your common sense.  It’s always that way no matter who you’re learning from.  First you have to trust your teacher, and only then do you start to learn.

Brad entertaining an audience in Las Vegas

Well once we have invested that time and energy to get your audience to know me and trust me and like me, that means each additional time I’m in front of that audience we get to start way ahead.  We don’t have to start back at the beginning; we can just start at the point after they already know me and trust me and they’re ready to laugh and learn.  So it’s a really cool way to get a little bit of extra time.  You get it?

So here’s a very specific example.  If I give a keynote speech, the first 10 or 15 minutes really is getting them to know me and like me and trust me.  But then if we follow it with a breakout session, we can start out the breakout session on minute one for some hard hitting, you know, techniques and ideas that they can implement right away ‘cause we don’t have to do that warm up.  We can just say, “Hey, it’s good to have you here.  I’m flattered that the room is full.  Lets start.”  And you can.  You don’t have to do the blah, blah, blah.  All right, I like the blah, blah, blah.  Because that’s where the jokes are usually.  But I know that you want return on your investment when you’re hiring a motivational speaker, and that’s why you’re looking at this video.

All right, I hope that was helpful.  My name is Brad Montgomery, and I’d love to be part of your team and I’d love to be helping you to get a huge return on your speaker investment.  So give us a call.  You can find us at bradmontgomery.com.  Or funnymotivationalspeakers.com. You can click the links down there.  I don’t know where they are.  You’ll find them.   Have a great day.

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motivational speaker

 

What is a Certified Speaking Professional and why should you care?

 

Selected Posts from Brad’s Past

We found a few posts, videos and stories from Brad’s past, and thought it would be fun to re-publish them here.  So pour yourself a cup of coffee, put on some classic rock, and check out this classic blog post from a decade (ish) ago.  

 

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

Yours,

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Seminar Leader, Certified Speaking Professional (CSP)

For you folks who prefer to read, here’s the transcript to the video:

Alright so check that out. It’s my CSP medal. So what is a CSP? What is a Certified Speaking Professional and why do you care?

Alright, so here’s the short story. A CSP, again Certified Speaking Professional, comes from the organization of professional speakers called the National Speakers Association. I’m a member, I’m a proud member, I’ve been a member for years and they’re the ones who gave me, kapow, that thing, it’s a CSP.

So what it means, the short story is to get the CSP you have to have had a whole bunch of clients and the National Speakers Association checks up on that. You have to have earned a certain amount of money and not that money is the Holy Grail, but it proves that you’ve been working over a certain amount of time.

And by the way, this is over a long time. It’s over five or six years, so it’s not, you can’t have a short flash. They want to know you have a ton of speakers over five years and they want to know you made a significant amount of money over five years, proving that you’re in the game and then also, the coolest thing is they check up on your clients and make sure that your clients are happy with you.

So, and again, not the last month, not the last two clients, not the last clients over a year, we’re talking over a long period of time. And I don’t mind telling you, I think the standards are pretty low. You really don’t need that many jobs and you don’t really need to have made that much money as a speaker in order to be eligible for your CSP. And if you can’t round up a few clients who aren’t willing to vouch for you when the National Speakers Association calls you, you’re just not doing that well, which brings up the point, if it’s so easy to get a CSP, why don’t more speakers have them? Seriously, it’s just not that hard.

So you just have to do some paperwork and get it done. What’s that got to do with you?

Looking for a speaker? Ask if they have their CSP Medal.

When you’re looking to book a speaker, one of the things you ought to ask is, are you a Certified Speaking Professional and if not, why not? And then listen. And if the answer is a lot of excuses, well, because of this or it’s just not important or, you might ask them, I heard it was pretty easy to do, why can’t you just do the paperwork and do it if it’s so easy?

But what I think you’ll find is that there are tons of speakers who say they have the experience that don’t. There’s tons of speakers who say they have the expertise that don’t and most importantly, there’s tons of speakers who say they have the continual track record which for you, is your level of guarantee. That’s what’s going to guarantee that your speaker kills for you. If they don’t have that, you ought to really ask them why.

Alright, that’s my CSP. I’m pretty proud of it. Didn’t really change my life, but it was kind of fun and when we just set up the office, I hung it up because I thought it was kind of fun.

So check it out. Are you hiring a CSP? Good. If not, find out why not.

My name is Brad Montgomery. If you are looking for a motivational speaker who has earned their CSP, this is the highest earned designation from the National Speakers Association, if you want one of those, I’d love to be your guy.

Check out the preview video. It’s here somewhere. Click the link. Is it there? I don’t know. You’ll find it. Check out the preview video and if you have any questions, give us a call at bradmontgomery.com or funnymotivationalspeakers.com. Make it a great day!

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motivational speaker

 

Motivational speaker Brad Montgomery explains speaker fees and how you can maximize your conference investment and get the most value from your speaker

 

Selected Posts from Brad’s Past

We found a few posts, videos and stories from Brad’s past, and thought it would be fun to re-publish them here.  So pour yourself a cup of coffee, put on some classic rock, and check out this classic blog post from a decade (ish) ago.  

 

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

Yours,

Brad Montgomery

Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Seminar Leader

For you folks who prefer to read, here’s the transcript to the video:

Hey, it’s Brad Montgomery from  bradmontgomery.com.   We’re going to talk today about motivational speakers’ fees, what are they, how to think about it, how to do this. Alright, I’m on the road right now so I’m hiding in the coffee shop because it’s way more fun than the hotel and the drinks are better. But I just talked on my cell phone with two different clients and they both had the same confusion about motivational speakers’ fees and so I thought, let’s just put up a video real quick.

Let me tell you how speakers do not think about fees. What we don’t think about is time. I don’t charge by the hour. I don’t work at Wal-Mart. I don’t punch the clock. I’m not a plumber. I don’t charge like, okay, the first two hours are, I don’t do that. I’m much more interested in charging for value. Value, so I want you to think when you’re hiring a speaker and you’re computing what you want to invest in your speaker, what would be the return on that investment for you if your speaker rocked and really made a huge difference for your organization, for your team?

So in my case, I’m a motivational speaker. If we’re able to motivate them to do the things they are not doing, what would that be worth to you? So for example, if you’re in sales and we’re able to increase sales, let’s just think small, just to make the point. If we’re able to increase your sales team’s sales by 1% for one week, which is pretty crappy, right? We ought to be able to do more than that. But just 1% for one week, what would that do? You’d be able to compute that and then you start thinking about, well is that a good investment or not? And for most of you, that’s a great investment, so why wouldn’t you want to do it?

And then two, why wouldn’t you, if you really want return on your speaker investment and you’re thinking value, then that’s when you might really think, well spending a little bit more for a guaranteed motivational speaker, somebody who you know can deliver because they’ve got the credentials, they’ve got the testimonials, they’ve got the long client list, they’ve got the experience, really seems like a good value.

So you notice I’m talking about value. I’m not talking about time. I’m talking about value.

Let me tell you another way we think about fees and pricing, just to help you see into our brain and our office. So Eric and Renee and I do not think about minutes. My keynotes are priced, my events are priced for under 90 minutes. It’s like my keynote is generally 90 minutes and under, 90 minutes and above, seminars for a half day, full day, whatever.

That means if you call and say, well it’s only 25 minutes after lunch. Well, I’m happy to do that and do that all the time, but for me, it doesn’t matter if it’s 25 minutes or it’s an hour and 25 minutes because my costs are fixed.

What costs do I have? I have limited number of dates I can sell, 365 days in a year, but I’m only going to be a keynote speaker on X number of days. We only schedule me out a certain number of days per year and then because of that, if I work for you, I can’t work for somebody else, right? Because I’ve sold the date. That means it doesn’t matter to me really if I work for you for five minutes or for five hours and five minutes because I can’t sell that date to somebody else so it’s going to take a minimum just to arrange that. So I’m not going to be thinking, oh it’s only five minutes. Even though you might be thinking about that, that’s not the way we think about it.

And then the other thing that’s important for us is I have to prepare every day because I do customized keynotes and I know you want that. You don’t want just somebody to come in off the street. You want someone who knows you so I should prepare about the same amount of time for a half day seminar as I do for a 45 minute keynote.

So preparation and then finally the travel and problems of getting there. It doesn’t matter if I’m crossing town or if I’m getting on a plane and crossing the country or crossing the world, I got to get there, right? So once you’re there and you’re in the hotel and you’ve done all the travel and the security and the TSA and have bothered to put on a clean shirt, which comes with it, what the heck, again, that helps you see that it doesn’t matter to me whether or not I’m working for 15 or 20 minutes or all day long because those prices are fixed. That expense is done.

Hire a speaker who can help make the changes you need in your organization

So next time you’re thinking about keynote speakers, I want you to not think about fees as like a per minute or per hour thing. I want you to think about it as what value are you getting, what level of guarantee are you getting and then can the speaker help you make the changes you need? I’m guessing you’re hiring a speaker because you need some changes in your organization. You need your people to be doing something differently now than they were doing before. Well, if you feel like a motivational speaker or inspirational speaker can help you get there, what’s the value in there for you? You ought to be able to calculate that. Or at least guess and if you need help on that, call us. We do that all the time. That’s the way we think. Alright, hope that is helpful to you.

I guess one final thought. Often, I get people who call me in to say, well what is your fee, Brad, to do one keynote speech? Well, what I do varies so much based on what my clients need so there are some price ranges we could give you, but more what we like to do mostly is then not give you one set price, but instead to ask you, what is it you need, what value are you after, what changes are you after, how can we best help you get your organization from point A to point B and then based on that conversation, we kind of look through my toolbox of all the things I could do and then what I’ll usually do is send you a proposal with a few choices on there and then you can choose. So that’s why it’s not really like a loaf of bread. They’re making some heavy coffee over there. It’s not like a loaf of bread or a set of headphone speakers where you can just look it up online and find out how much it costs. Instead, it’s a process. We’re going to deliver something very customized just for you, just for your organization, just for your people, just for your audience and that’s why the pricing is based on value, not time.

Alright, if you want a motivational speaker, I’d love to be your guy. Give us a call. You can contact us at bradmontgomery.com or funnymotivationalspeakers.com.

But in particular, if you want some help thinking through this value proposition and pricing, I’d love to further explain it and then of course, make it relevant for you because I know of course I understand that budgets are an issue and you want to work it out but that’s what we’re here for, which okay, one more thought. I’m going to do one more thought.

One of the ways to think about it when you’re talking to a speaker is to tell them what your budget is. So in my case, I like to know what sort of fee family you’re in. Are you in this family or this family this family because if you’re in this lower family, there are some ideas that I might be able to help you with that can still fit in your budget or most of my clients might fit here, but a few of my clients, they really want to invest in change and lasting change and so we really can pull out the whole show for them. So that means my proposal can vary depending on your fee family, so when you call a speaker and they say, well what’s your budget, can you give me an idea of what you’re working with? In our case anyway, in our office, it’s not a negotiation tactic. In our case, it’s an effort to narrow it down so we can help give you some ideas that fit with you and fit within your budget.

Alright, hope that helps. Come visit bradmontgomery.com .   So glad for your time. Gosh, I’d love to be part of your team, but if I’m not the guy, make sure that whoever you’re hiring delivers value, delivers a guarantee and fits within your budget in a way that afterwards, you can really be feeling like that was the best investment we made to make the best meeting or conference we possibly could have had. Have a great day! Thanks.

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Booking Colorado Speaker Brad Montgomery IN Colorado is a good return on your conference investment

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

Yours,
Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Seminar Leader, Proud to call Colorado home

For you folks who prefer to read, here’s the transcript to the video:

Hi, this is Brad Montgomery. I’m a Colorado speaker and I wanted to talk to you about what that means and why should you care.

Well, in my case, I happen to be a national speaker. I speak everywhere. I’ve spoken in all 50 states. I’ve spoken on four continents and I’d love to speak for you no matter where you are, no matter where your event is being held. Having said that, I happen to live in the very fine state of Colorado where it’s snowing outside, by the way, and if you’re planning an event in Colorado, well I really hope you consider me especially hard for that event. Yeah, no matter where you are, I’m interested, but if your event’s in Colorado, I’m double-interested.

Two Great Reasons To Hire A Motivational Speaker That Lives In Colorado

And how does that help you? There are two reasons if you’re having your event in Denver or in Vail or one of the resorts in the Rocky Mountains. If you’re having your event in Colorado, there’s two reasons to hire a Colorado speaker.

Number one, it saves you some money. Right off the top, you’re saving all the travel expenses and not always, but usually, the hotel expenses.

I just bought a ticket to Florida. I bought with plenty of advance notice, it wasn’t first class, it was nearly $1,000. Alright, so that’s just crazy expensive, I know. I know your conference is wildly expensive, but wouldn’t it be nice to save nearly $1,000 on the airline ticket? Sure.

But the other savings you’ll have is anxiety because I’ve learned, depending on your personality type, if you’re like most of my meeting planners, there’s always a tiny bit of anxiety that that speaker won’t make it because of some travel dilemma, some weather dilemma or something that’s outside of your control and then you’re looking at a blank stage, having to explain to your audience of 12 to 12,000 people why you don’t have a keynote speaker.

So when you’re booking somebody who doesn’t have to go through the airlines and just has to, you know my car can break and I could take a cab, I guess, right? I can get to your event if it’s here in Colorado. So one, saves money. Two, saves anxiety.

Alright, hope that’s helpful to you. If you’re looking for a Colorado speaker, I’d love to be your guy. If you’re looking for a motivational speaker who’s funny, who’s relevant, who can connect lightheartedness and humor to your bottom line, I’d love to be your guy no matter where you are. But if you’re in Colorado, I really hope you’ll give us a call.

Alright, bradmontgomery.com, you can learn more at funnymotivationalspeakers.com. Would love to chat with you. Give me a call and we’ll figure out how to make your event a rocking success.

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