Make $500+ an Hour Talking About What You Love
- WEALTHY: Turn your gift for gab into extra income (Paul Lawrence)
- HEALTHY: Are you sabotaging your weight-loss efforts? (Jon Herring)
- WISE: Ruth Gordon on giving speeches
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- The secret your top competitor knows (MaryEllen Tribby)
- A good first impression - and now what? (Michael Masterson)
- It’s Fun to Know… about buying property on the moon
- Add "ennui" to your vocabulary
Nine Ways To Explode Your Profits
This week my colleague Jay Abraham is practically giving away a revolutionary business growth system for pennies-on-the dollar.
Jay will send you a comprehensive business growth system, containing some of his best money-making ideas, methods and concepts to study, apply and prosper from… and he will only charge you a modest processing fee to get it produced, packed and shipped off to you.
Jay receives $5,000 per hour for his consulting… and that’s when you can get him. A full day would run you $40,000! His tape sets alone normally sell from $500 to $2,000, and live training programs range from $5,000 to as much as $25,000 for a single event.
If you want to start making a ton more money and have a clear, direct path to real prosperity and business wealth, you owe it to yourself to look into this program!
"The very best impromptu speeches are the ones written well in advance."
Ruth Gordon
Make $500+ an Hour Talking About What You Love
By Paul Lawrence
It was a pleasant hour. I stood in front of a small audience and told them what I knew about a subject that fascinated me. The best part? I walked out of the auditorium with a check for $500.
And I’ve done pretty much the same thing more than 100 times over the past few years - earning a nice little chunk of money by sharing my expertise in various subjects that I enjoy talking about.
Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not a "big shot" professional speaker. In fact, I haven’t had any training at all. But I’ve discovered that if you have knowledge about a subject that other people want to learn about, you don’t need any formal training to earn money by giving speeches.
And you need almost no capital to get started. Plus, it’s something you can do on a part-time basis. You can do it locally or, if you want, you can make presentations all over the country (while making a profit). Next month, for example, I’ll be speaking on two different subjects at the famed Learning Annex in Los Angeles. One night I’ll be talking about copywriting, and the next night about how to start a business by producing and selling your own line of videos.
Another great thing about public speaking: Whatever area of expertise you have, it’s likely that there are people who would like to hear what you have to say. If you’re a relationship expert, for example, there are many women’s groups that would be interested in your ideas on how to have a successful marriage. If you’re a gourmet chef, you’ll have no trouble finding cooking schools that would love to have you share your secrets with their students.
Public speaking is something you can do on the side, in addition to your regular job. (That’s what I’ve always done.) But there are many people who speak on a more regular basis - like Tom Antion, who gets $17,500 per appearance and earns a substantial six-figure income.
Even if you aren’t very comfortable speaking in public right now, you can turn speaking into a nice stream of extra income. Almost nobody is comfortable speaking to an audience … at first. But if you know your subject and practice your presentation, it really isn’t that hard.
And in addition to getting fees for the speeches themselves, there’s the potential of earning even more money by selling instructional materials to audience members. I have personally seen speakers pull in $30,000 in product sales after a seminar.
As you can see, there are many opportunities to earn money by speaking about something you love.
To get started, this is what you need to do:
1. Choose a subject.
There’s an almost unlimited number of subjects that you can choose to speak about. Information about motivational and wealth-building topics is always popular with audiences - but so is information about many hobbies (like cooking, martial arts, and exercise, to name a few) and self-improvement skills (like parenting and coping with illness).
Choose something that you’re passionate about. Your enthusiasm will come across to your audience and make your speech exciting. And make sure you know enough about your subject to not only provide useful information but also to answer any questions your audience might have.
2. Create your curriculum.
Each one of my sessions at the Learning Annex will be three hours long, so I will need to cover a lot of material. But your presentations will probably be a lot shorter when you’re just starting out - maybe a series of half-hour "lunch" talks to small groups of businessmen.
Whatever the length of your presentation, divide it into three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Your beginning is your introduction - your opportunity to hook the attention of your listeners. Your middle presents the information. And, finally, you sum up what you said. If you’re going to be selling additional "back-end" products to your audience, this third leg of your talk is the time to do it.
3. Create your marketing plan.
There are many ways to market yourself as a speaker. For openers, you can market yourself directly to the organizations that might hire you. For example, if you have a wealth of knowledge about fishing, there are many fishing clubs that you could approach with a proposal to speak at one or more of their events. Virtually all trade associations hire speakers to make presentations to their members. And, if you have information that could benefit their employees, lots of companies will be interested.
Additionally, there are speakers’ bureaus that can procure speaking engagements for you. While many of these bureaus specialize in celebrity speakers, there are others that will book you as long as you are well-qualified to do a presentation. A search on a major Internet search engine with a keyword phrase like "speakers bureau" is a good way to start.
When you have more experience, you could also hold your own seminars and market them to the public. You would either rent a facility or partner with someone or some group that already has space. To promote the event, you can use traditional advertising methods (like newspapers and radio) - or, if you have an identifiable target audience, direct mail. (Have you ever been to a seminar on something that you saw advertised in the paper? I’ve been to a few, and they’ve always been packed with hundreds of people.)
I’ve personally proven that speaking can be a fun and easy way to make money. If you have an area of expertise and would like to earn additional income with a business that has virtually no start-up costs, this could be the perfect side business for you.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a produced screenwriter, direct-mail copywriter, and business author. He is also the creator of the Quick and Easy Microbusiness System, ETR’s program for starting a business for under $100.
Learn more about the business of public speaking here.]
Can You Take A Simple Photograph?
If yes, you could make $200 - $2,000 a week taking snap shots in your own backyard… on your family vacations… or anywhere in the world you care to travel.
You don’t need fancy equipment. And you don’t need to know a thing about photography to get started. Turns out all you need are the few simple secrets behind taking the kinds of photos that sell best. They’re easy to learn. And you can make $150… $400… even $800 per sale…
Here’s everything you need to know about this fun and lucrative business:
Business-Building Case Study: Recognizing When It’s Time for a Radical Change
By MaryEllen Tribby, ETR’s Publisher
If your business is functioning but not profitable … maybe you’re just missing "the secret."
Take, for example, the case of Michael Masterson’s friend Andy …
Several years ago, Andy, started his own business to try to break out of the life of a salesman on commission. He became moderately successful at his new venture, but soon saw it stall.
After two years of effort, Andy was working harder than ever - but, bottom line, not doing much better than he had been doing in his previous career. He realized he was running a business that was only making him a living, not generating passive income or building equity.
Andy surveyed the market and started experimenting with everything he could find that seemed to be working well for his competitors. He tried products that were selling successfully for them. No change. He modified his offers. Nothing. He just couldn’t seem to turn the corner.
Finally, he asked Michael for help.
"Let me ask you this," Michael said, "Do any of your competitors make much more than you?"
"A few of them do," Andy said.
"Give me their names," Michael said. Andy did.
Michael then suggested a radical idea.
"Every industry has secrets that only the most successful businesses know," he told Andy. "Whatever it takes, you have to find out what those secrets are. So I’m going to find a partner for you. I’m going to get in touch with your top competitors and see if I can find one who - in exchange for 20 percent of your business - will give you advice on how to make it work."
Reluctantly, Andy agreed.
Andy’s new partner spent about one hour looking at his business, and quickly put his finger on what was wrong. (It had to do with Andy’s sales copy.)
Andy changed his approach, and his sales and profits started growing. A year later, his business had doubled. And since then, it’s jumped up to a far higher level - $10 million in annual sales.
Today, Andy has a business that gives him a million-dollar income. Just as important, it allows him to come into the office late, leave early, and take three-day weekends and long vacations. Quite a change from his days as a struggling salesman.
[Ed. Note: Sometimes, like Andy, you have to make a bold leap or you’ll waste years floundering. Take that leap by joining the small group of businesspeople Michael will be leading through an intense 5-day business-building program in April. You’ll discover what needs to be fixed in order to dramatically increase your profitability… and then learn exactly how to do it.]
2 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism and Start Burning Fat
By Jon Herring
This past weekend, I met a man at a dinner party who shared with me the difficulty he is having losing weight. He said that he has not always been overweight, but he gained about 40 pounds in the last several years when his career and lifestyle became more sedentary. He said he was frustrated, because he was "doing everything right" but the fat just wouldn’t come off.
Here’s what he meant by "doing everything right": He was eating a lot less, he was eating less frequently, and he was eating a "low-fat" diet. In other words, he was sabotaging his efforts to lose weight by slowing down his metabolism.
If you want to maximize your fat-burning potential, you’ve got to crank up your metabolism. Here are two ways to do it:
- Don’t starve yourself. Cutting too many calories is a sure way to slow down your metabolic rate. It will also ensure that you are more likely to lose muscle rather than fat. Instead, focus on eating MORE foods that are protein-rich and nutrient-dense.
- Eat more frequently. By eating five to seven small meals and healthy snacks throughout the day, you will ramp up your metabolism and be less likely to overeat. This will also help to maintain stable blood sugar levels, which also contributes to fat loss.
Notes From Michael Masterson’s Blog: The Odyssey Bookshop Starts Strong
P & J gave me a year’s worth of first editions as a gift. Every month, I get a book from the Odyssey Bookshop - some first edition work of fiction that has been recommended by critics and the club staff.
I don’t know the Odyssey Bookshop, but so far I like the way they do business. My first first edition came wrapped nicely in a package with a card attached that told me who was responsible for my gift subscription and informed me that each month they would send me another book and an e-mail about their "next selections." They also attached a handsome brochure which explained how the club works and made the Odyssey Bookshop sound (and look) like something I’d like to belong to.
They’ve made a good first impression on me, and I am looking forward to getting those books. If they know their e-mail marketing at all, they should be selling lots of things to me before long. We’ll see.
- Michael Masterson
[Ed. Note: To read more of Michael’s unedited, uncensored (and sometimes unexpected) ruminations, check out his blog here.
It’s Fun to Know: About Buying Property on the Moon
A 1967 United Nations treaty outlawed ownership of extraterrestrial property by governments. Several companies, however, citing a lack of language banning ownership by individuals or businesses, claim to own all or portions of the Moon, as well as planets and other bodies in our solar system and beyond. These companies are busy selling the lunar land to fellow Earthlings, while their lawyers defend the practice.
(Source: Space.com)
Do You Need To Start Out Small?
If you don’t have an Internet business yet, or if your company is smaller than $1 million then you need something different… something that lets you start off small.
One man I know turned $10 into over $500,000. How’s that for starting small!
Let me show you how to get a similar Internet income stream running for almost nothing.
- Patrick Coffey
Word to the Wise: Ennui
"Ennui" (on-WEE) - from the French for "to annoy" - is the feeling of being bored by something tedious and uninteresting.
Example (as I used it in Monday’s main ETR article: "I realized that if I allowed myself to give in to my ennui, only she would know. And because Marcella is a resilient person and seems to like working with me, she probably would be willing to cut me some slack."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker … build your self-confidence and intellect … increase your attractiveness to others … just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007