Continuing Education Events

For years I have done classes at continuing education
centers. Many "sophisticated" speakers "pooh-pooh"
these events. How could I speak at these low end venues?
Easy, it makes a lot of sense for me to do so.

I think people who recommend against speaking at these
events are misguided.

You have a great opportunity to test new material, get
some new people into your database and to sell some
products.

To make sure that it's worthwhile for you to do events
at your local continuing ed center make sure that:

1. You can sell products
2. You can collect the names of those who attend
3. You try new material out on these groups
4. You record everything that you do at these events

Many of the better known continuing ed centers have
started getting instructors to kick them back a percentage
for sales they make at their events.

They should have been doing this for years.

I always suggested that should only have people who
teach for them who get great ratings and have good
sales numbers.

At the Learning Annex in NYC they give me 15% of
the gate and then they take 40% of the product sales.

A lot of money you say? If you're wiling to give people
50% as an affiliate of your products why would you
bitch about people wanting 40% of what you sell?

Answer: You shouldn't bitch! I'll speak anywhere that
people can put 100 qualified people in a room and
give them 40% all day long.

Have a gig for me? I'll be there. You should be too!

Stuff I Learned in Phoenix

Last week when I did the event with my friend and client
Chip Cummings. I learned a number of additional things
that I thought would be worth sharing with you.

Make sure and arrive early to set up for an important
event. We got into Phoenix a full day early. Since we
were doing a full blown video shoot for the first time
with new equipment, this was absolutely crucial.

Make sure that you have tested your equipment before
you get to an event and that you have back-up items
just in case something goes wrong.

We were doing a 3 camera shoot. We used one camera
as our main camera and that one was positioned head
on at the back of the room. The other two cameras were
unmanned and sat on either side.

I have a video switching device that allows me to go
back and forth between any of the cameras and one
feed going to the computer where someone might do
a PowerPoint presentation.

Seminar Expert's Weblog Note

If you find typographical or grammatical errors in
the weblog, they're here for a purpose. Some people
actually enjoy looking for them and we strive to
please as many people as possible.

If you want to use the content of this weblog on
your own site or for your own purposes, just
contact me at fredgleeck@mac.com. I'm always
happy to let you use some material as long as
I get a bounceback offer of some kind.

Attending Seminars

I not only promote a lot of events, I also attend a lot of
events. I not only go to events to learn what they
have to teach, but to see how they do the events as well.

For me, it's all about the content of an event. I always
tell clients and friends that people will always forgive
poor production, but they will NEVER forgive poor
content.

I go to many events where people spend an inordinate
amount of time trying to make the event "sexy." They
spend a lot of time and money trying to make an event
more like a Broadway show than a learning seminar.

It's great to make your seminar or event comfortable,
but don't go overboard and waste money on the
minutia. People who attend your event, if they are asked
years later, will remember whether or not you have
delivered on great content. NOT whether or not you
served Filet Mignon for one of the dinners.

Speaking of which, I think it is a mistake to feed people
at your events. You can spend tons of money feeding
people and none of that money will contribute to people's
long term view of how good the event was.

I suggest you omit the dinners and meals.

How do you make yourself the "star" of a seminar where
you're just an attendee? Simple. Make some amazingly
inciteful comments during the event. Make them short
and to the point.

At the Les Brown event I mentioned, I made a few choice
comments during the event. They must have been pretty
good because at the breaks, I was holding court.

You can do the same. Ask good questions. Make intelligent
comments. As Bill O'Reilly says: keep it pithy!

A lot of people who do seminars feel that they are too
intelligent to attend seminars. Nothing could be further
from the truth. Not only do I learn a lot by attending
events, I also find some great contacts for JVs and
possible coaching clients.

Blogging

This is not my specialty, but here's what I'm doing.

Along with all the information I come up with I'm also
going to start archiving my ideas from past emails
into a blog. Additionally, this will help with getting
better placement in the search engines, or so I hear.

I leave that one to my webmaster, Stanley(FilipinoWebmaster.com).

Start your own blog for free by going to:
www.Blogger.com.

That's what I did.

Speaking of Webmasters

Stanley is based in the Philippines. As many of you know
I grew up there and I have a half brother and half sister
who are 1/2 Filipino.

Wage rates are substantially lower in the Philippines
and you can get someone to help you out for a lot less
than someone over here.

My good friend, Phil Huff is more than a webmaster,
he's a THE marketing webmaster. Someone like him
is worth every penny you pay him.

Even Phil agrees that for common and mundane tasks
it makes send to either learn how to do it yourself or
if you have a lot of web work to get someone like
Stanley to help you.

You may not know that the Philippines is the 2nd
largest English Speaking country in the world. The
nice thing is that when you're asleep (if you're in the
US) they can be working on the tasks you assign
them.

We also communicate with Skype.

If you don't have it or know what it is, you need to
go to there site now to download the software.

www.Skype.com

It's free and allows you to communicate with both
text and voice for free over the web. It's a great tool
for talking business or pleasure with people in
different countries of here in he States. Assuming
you live here.

Giving Out All Your Info

People will sometimes ask me why I give away a lot
of good information in free emails like this one that
you're reading.

Good question. I like the idea of building a relationship
with people who are on your list. Convince them that
you are one knowledgeable dude (or dudette) and they
will buy from you when you present them with an offer
that meets their needs.

The other thing I get asked a lot is if I'm ever scared that
I will run out of material. As you can see, this email is
the single longest one I've ever done. Shouldn't I hold
back and give it out piecemeal.

My feeling is this. If I'm actually doing what it is I claim
to teach I'll find new material every single hour I'm awake.

My problem is always remembering it so I can include it
in these emails.

As I have said before, I now carry an mp3 voice recorder
to capture Ideas as they come to me. I don't know about
you but I tend to forget stuff pretty quickly. I don't think it's
my age, I think it's because of all the ideas that go through
my head in the course of a day.

Make sure you either write it down OR you record it onto
some kind of device like I do. This will really help in the
long run.

Four Upcoming Events

Please try and make it to any and all of the events that
I have coming up. You won't regret it. I have rarely
heard anyone say that it wasn't one of the best events
that they've ever attended.

Sorry to sound like I'm bragging, but it's true.

I just did a Learning Annex event in New York last
Saturday and got this feedback from many of the
participants.

In fact, the guy who runs things, Harry Javer, said
the evaluations were so good he thought I had
"paid people" to do them.

Here's the list:

www.InfoProductsSeminar.com
www.SeminarOnSeminars.com
InfoProductsSeminarUK.com
www.PublishingSeminar.com