Seminars Have The Power To Make Or Break A Consultant

Fortunately, nailing them is quite straightforward.

Have you ever glanced at meetup.com and wondered how you could get on their stage?

“How am I going convince them to elevate me?”

I had somewhat similar thinking three years ago.

I’d look at these meet-ups with hundreds of attendees and wonder how in the world I was going to get on their stage.

How can I approach the correct people to gain access to their stage and consulting clients?

This is the subject of my writing today.

I’m going to instruct you.

1. How I convinced dozens of meetup groups to spotlight me on their stage.

2. Describe how each of those meetups went. My consulting clients have paid me an average of $30,000.

These are just a few of the projects I completed in the second half of this year.

The process of organizing a successful meetup is rather straightforward.

However, I must warn you that this will not work if:

1. You are an introvert.

Obtaining a spot on another person’s stage requires that you develop a relationship with them.

Without a relationship, there is no gig.

Avoid becoming a cranky cat.

2. You wish to hire a VA (Virtual Assistant) to perform certain tasks for you.

This is a form of suicide. Without a doubt, you can hire someone to do the work for you. BUT… At first, always do it yourself. When you understand how to accomplish something, you can appropriately outsource it.

Alright… Ready?

What you will require:

1. A spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel

2. A Facebook profile

Step 1: Establish Your Meetup Niche

Which Meetups do you wish to address on stage?

For me, it was straightforward; I was a male dating consultant, and singles networks were PERFECT.

Not only did they have everything I could desire, but they were ALWAYS the LARGEST meetups available.

Attend private development groups if you are a life consultant.

Bear in mind that not all groupings are equal. Certain groups are completely uninterested in what you’re doing.

Thank you, Yoda, for the astute observation!

Allow them to be alone. Believe me on this one; the audience will not register for the talk, much less for your consultancy.

Step 2: Find Your Meetups

This step is crucial; you must locate your meetups.

However, you may be wondering, “How can I locate them?”

a. Make a list of all the big cities where you’d like to speak (or at least do webinars).

b. Navigate to meetup.com’s home page. Additionally, select within a 50-mile radius of (your target city)

 

c. Click in the ‘All Meetups’ box to bring up a drop-down menu.

d. Choose the appropriate genre for your niche.

Step 3: Keep a record of the best

Once you’ve identified your specialization, you’ll be presented with a comprehensive list of relevant meet-ups.

Awesome sauce!

Now it’s time to ‘Make a list of all the meetups you’d like to speak at.’

“What am I to write?” you inquire.

Well… Here is what I consider.

To begin, I consider,

a. How many people attend each of these meetups?

Anything with over 1,000 members is ideal.

It’s unlikely unless you’re talking about a hyper-targeted specialty.

What I’m asking is, let me find a meetup that says London Consultants Group.

You’ve got it.

There are 200 members in the organization, compared to 1000 required.

It’s PERFECT since this group is comprised of extremely motivated individuals. Even though it’s little, I’ve seen small organizations achieve phenomenal enrollment rates.

b. How many individuals sign up for their seminars regularly

Are you approaching the age of 50?

Anything less. Because the group probably has a small number of events, people tend to dismiss the signals that emanate from it.

Step 4: Follow The Owner

Remember how we said earlier that getting any conversation with a meetup group is all about the relationships you maintain with them?

So, consider this for a moment: what kind of people do meetup organizers prefer?

…

Did you manage to get it?

Well people that remind them of themselves!

This is when learning about the owner of your meetup group comes in handy.

It’s like going into a discussion knowing everything there is to know about the person you’re chatting with. You know their likes and dislikes, how they speak and what kind of style they use; you know everything about them.

Have you heard that small voice in your head yet? You know, the one where it says.

“Yeah, Sai… But I want things to flow and be natural. I don’t like to do all of the background checks ahead of time.”

In reality, this is something I didn’t want to do three years ago. I wanted the dialogue to flow naturally. I just wanted things to flow.

Here’s what I discovered over the years when attempting to convince meetup organizers to put me on their stages.

They showed an interest in what I valued if I showed an interest in what ‘THEY valued.’

And. (here’s the critical thing).

The owners of the largest meetup groups had the most time. So until I knew what they valued IMMEDIATELY and expressed an interest in it, I’d never had time to flow freely.

This is how I accomplished it:

I performed my homework on the owner of each meetup where I intended to speak:

1. On their meetup page, look to the left for the “Organisers name.”

Copy and paste that name into Facebook to discover someone with a similar profile picture.

2. Connect with them on Facebook (for use later on).

They’ll credit you back 90% of the time.

3. Examine their profile.

Discover more
a. What they enjoy
b. What they do not like
c. What they’re on about
d. What matters to them.

Make a note of everything. It will come in handy while making the first approach.

Step 5: Make First Contact With Them on Facebook

Remember that these guys are ‘celebrities’ in their own right on Meetup. Everyone contacts them through Meetup, and as a result, they have almost no headspace to take any more people there.

But, for some reason, I’ve discovered beyond email, beyond contacting them on meetup.com, I’ve located them on Facebook. When I message them on Facebook, I always get a response.

Here’s the special message I delivered to London’s entrepreneurs:

Did you notice something here? I’m not going to sell him. I’m not saying, “PLEASE choose me as one of your speakers.”

Why?

Because that is what everyone else would do, you’ll become lost in the din.

As Warren Buffet puts it:

“Do not follow the crowd.”

Let’s try something different.

It’s what I call the two-tone approach.

The first section is all about establishing him as the meetup’s organizer.

Remember that these people, for the most part, seek recognition from their audience, which is why they do what they do; they do it more for validation than anything else. And here I am, confirming them. It immediately makes them more responsive before I ask the ‘BIG question.’

Here’s his response:

Take note of how I used a “two-part” strategy.

This happened a while ago, but as a result, we’ve done five different gigs together in the previous year. And we’re planning on doing two more in the coming month.

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Step 6: Get on Skype

This is the last stage before closing the agreement. And it would help if you did it correctly.

Remember how we said earlier that you should learn everything you can about your meetup’s organizer?

This is where it is useful.

In the dozens of phone calls, I’ve had with meetup group organizers. I’ll tell you something.

If they are fond of you,

You’re all in.

That is your primary emphasis on Skype. Make them like you.

You’re looking for a ninja trick for this.

OK… Perhaps not that Ninja…

But it comes close.

Ready?

You must be interested in them to be intriguing to them.

Remember that the topics you discuss should be based on what you know they will enjoy.

I am spending a good 50 to 70% of the call demonstrating that interest.

If you’ve scheduled a 30-minute call, spend roughly 20 minutes building rapport. Show an interest in them and the topics you know they’ll enjoy.

Transition within the final ten minutes.

“I realize you have to leave in the next ten minutes but are you willing to go over a prospective talk I could give to add value to your group?”

My emphasis here is on adding value to the group.

Getting a YES shouldn’t be too difficult if you’ve already done extensive study on this organization. You are writing about an entirely relevant topic to their mission.

What they’ll require of you,

Dates that could work.

The subject you’ll be discussing,

Why would that be of interest to them?

Are you planning to sell anything?

If so, what exactly are you selling?

Will they be paid a commission?

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Step 7: Getting a repeat GIG with the same person.

The first time you speak at any meetup is the most difficult to obtain.

The second, third, and fourth times are straightforward.

As a result, I make certain that I receive high-end consulting clients every time I perform a speaking engagement.

I always negotiate a 10% commission, in which I give the meetup owner 10% of the money I get from consulting clients I get by presenting at their group.

Then I’ll catch them off guard. Furthermore, let us say

“Here’s an extra 5% as a thank you for taking me on for the first time.”

I always offer them more than they expected and NEVER screw with them the first time.

This is because if they receive more than they expected, they would always prefer you over others in the future.

I always surprise them, whether it’s with a bottle of pricey champagne or by bringing them out to dinner.

It’s very unexpected to build up that amount of “Every time I see him/her, something pleasant happens.”

Set low expectations with the meetup’s organizer, then break them.

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