|
Jeff Rendel on
How Burt Dubin Helped Him
Jumpstart His Speaking Business
 If
I hadn’t worked with Burt Dubin, I would not be where I am
today. I wouldn't be speaking 75 times a year. I promise you
that.
Solely because I wouldn’t have the material I send to the email boxes of the individuals who are looking to hire me. And who call me back and say, "Impressive. It's succinct. It's to the point. It tells us the benefits we can expect. It lets us know a little bit about you as a professional - something about you as a human being also."
I was a part time professional speaker. I was with a trade association and had been dilly dallying a little bit with a gig or two a month. I found out about Burt from an advertisement in the Professional Speaker Magazine. I gave Burt a call and picked his brain and then I did my research for about a month. He gave me a lot of references to call. I just grilled the people and said, "All right -- I'm willing to invest some money, but I have to know there's going to be some return." And every person (and I contacted about 20) said, "Look, part of the success of my business is because of Burt's guidance and suggestions. You'd be well served to invest some money and take some guidance from him."
We went through crafting the mission, crafting who you are and what you want to get across, how you will appeal to decision makers. And quite honestly, where I give him the greatest credit is he taught me the secret to being successful.
I'll give you an example, I sent him something recently that I wanted to update and -- Burt and I are both very straight shooters -- And he sent it back to me and he said "No, we can't do it this way." He said it in some much more intelligent prose than I would have said it. I let it squeeze my heart a little bit, but then I realized, OK, Burt's got a pulse on what today's decision maker is interested in and what appeals to them. I need to listen and I need to let him take the red pen to my work, if you will, and bounce some ideas back and forth until I've got something I can use.
Burt helped me get focused on what's important. He helped me understand that decision makers are very busy and they need to know how you stand out from the world of other professional speakers and all the calls and materials they receive on their desk
Yes, in fact every single piece of language that goes on my website and, by the way, that's the only type of marketing I do. I don't print anything. I don't have hard videos, nothing like that at all. I find that 1) it's too expensive - you have to do everything in bulk 2) it's going to find its way onto the pile on someone's desk and 3) I can just attach a web link to an email to a meeting planner and let them peruse it over a cup of coffee when they're ready.
I thank Burt for teaching me the reality of the business end of professional speaking.
|
