SURVIVING THE SLUMP
Actions and strategies you can use to ride out the economic storm plus Concepts that cause you to emerge stronger and better positioned for the better times ahead
© Burt Dubin
Speaking Success System
1 Speaking Success Road, Kingman AZ 86401 USA
http://www.SpeakingBizSuccess.com 928-753-7546

1. ENGAGE TODAY’S ECONOMIC CHAOS TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS

How to do it:
1. Stay a self-employed independent. When you must hire, go for independent contractors only. Pay for work performed as approved & delivered.

2. Remember: Lesser mortals are either retreating out of speaking/consulting or crawling into their shells, doing nothing, waiting for the storm to pass. Most competition evaporates leaving the field to the bold and tough . . . (meaning you).

3. Do not market speeches/seminars/workshops. Not now.
Instead market . . . and guarantee . . . outcomes. Outcomes are what decision-makers are eager to buy and pay top dollar for.

4. Go deeper. Ask your subconscious mind to come up with fresh concepts and strategies your market will welcome and pay for. And know you can do this. I have many times. I’m doing it now. So can you when you simply believe in yourself and say, “Yes I can!”

5. Decide you are now to prevail. Engage these tough times to move your speaking business up a notch or two. Quitters are giving up and getting out. This is your moment.

6. Target new markets in which you are a new face offering new hope. That’s what decision makers yearn for now . . . hope.

7. Be resolutely persistent. I remember 30+ years ago when I was in real estate sales. Every member of the 150 person sales force I was a part of was crying the blues. Not me, Charlie! I was doing better than ever, to the dismay of some of my peers. I told myself this: I carry my business climate around with me. (Think of your business climate as an invisible eggshell or aura . . . . a safe haven out of which you function in your universe.) This timeless principle works because it is based on universal laws.

8. As the great Joseph J. Charbonneau, (May his soul rest in peace,) said, “People are either the wind in your sails or an anchor on your tail.” Dump employees, vendors, partners who are not aligned with your spirit and your goals.

9. Watch the kale. (Translation: Squeeze every nickel until the buffalo yelps.) Conserve your funds. Honor obligations when due. Ask yourself before buying anything: Will this investment advance me toward my goals? If not, defer it.

10. Focus energy on closing bookings now. I don’t mean discount your fees. Instead, add value. An extra program the same day at no extra cost. ( I Learned this from the great Thom Winninger.) Host a private round table for senior executives. Chair a panel. MC the event. Go beyond what anyone else would do for them. Pile on the extras. Make your offer irresistible.

11. Offer proof of the outcomes you deliver. Over-deliver. Offer follow up phone coaching, after-program teleclasses they can record and use throughout their organization . . . or sell and they keep the proceeds.

12. Relentlessly pursue mastery of your craft. Enjoy every twist of the road before you. Let your inner knowing guide you to weave the shreds and tatters of the economy into a tapestry of triumph for you.
(I acknowledge my treasured friend, Perry Marshall, for some of the above words and recommendations.)

2. BOOTSTRAP YOUR WAY OUT OFTHE DOLDRUMS

“It was the best of times . . . it was the worst of times . . .” So starts a classic Charles Dickens novel.

“Whichever way the wind doth blow, some heart is glad to have it so”

You may be surprised, even shocked, to hear me say this is a fantastic time, a wonderful time, to be in the speaking business.

Well, it is!

Here is why:

Marginal wanna-be speakers are getting out of the game. There is less competition.

The Association market is, as you know, the surest market for experts who speak. According to the Meetings publications I read, this prime market, responding to the economic slowdown, is reducing by about 3% the number of meetings and conferences they host.

Due to belt-tightening, they have fewer dollars to invest in speakers. So they are bargaining harder, seeking more for their money.

Here are strategies and actions I used 21 years ago to increase my bookings. They are timeless. They worked then. They work now.
The Meeting Market was in a recession then. The Meeting Market is in a recession now.

You are about to capture the strategies and actions that kept my speaking business income at par. You can engage these models to keep your speaking business income at par.

Why do these strategies and actions work:

Because they are based on the Immutable Laws of Human Nature. Like the Law of Gravity these Laws do not change.

In addition, you about to receive many other useful methods my peers, successful speakers all, are using now to get inbound cash flowing while lesser mortals are bitching and moaning.

Let’s begin with these:

1. Generate better outcome-generating audience experiences.
How do you do this? Use the power of your subconscious mind.
I show you how to do this in the most popular, most requested Report I ever wrote. It is called How To Be a Genius On the Platform. I will be happy to send you the PDF. Complimentary. Free. No cost. My gift to you. Send me your e-mail address, requesting this Report.

2. Be aware that momentous change is coming. My Inner Circle Graduate, Lee Glickstein, says it well: “I sense a liberation of possibilities like a silent lightning bolt zapping through the collective soul. The shift is now within each of us in our own way and it is up to each of us to listen to and flow with that change. We are living in a time where enlightened leadership skills are being modeled on the world stage . . .”

This means a new wave of consciousness and prosperity is soon to appear. Be patient. Breathe. This too shall pass. Breathe in. Hold 5 seconds. Breathe out s-l-o-w-l-y. Repeat daily.

3. Market relentlessly: Now is the time to negotiate, to bargain, to make yourself the irresistible expert. In negotiating, start by offering to present 2 programs on the same day for the price of 1. For example, they pay you to present the Keynote or General Session. (Or to present any session.)

You then do a second session at no further fee. The second session may be you chairing a panel, MC’ing the whole event, presenting a special limited access program for a unique group within the organization, a breakout session . . . or whatever. Use your imagination.

4. Next step, as needed: Offer an all-inclusive, delivered fee including your travel, incidentals, meals and sleeping room.

5. Again, whatever it takes may include all the above plus lowering your fee as far as you dare.

6. If there is a Trade Show in connection with this conference, offer to accept, as part of your fee a trade show booth, in which you can sell your products to attendees. Sweeten this, if needed, by offering to return to the organization a percentage of your profits.

7. Create / produce new programs and products drenched in value. Use techniques in the PDF I offered you in Par. #1 above.

8. As a last resort, and only when you are certain this is in your best interest because of the exposure and P.R., offer to speak for expenses only if you can offer product at your program. This means, if you are excellent on the platform and deliver solid value, you can harvest cash from product sales. One of the “products” you offer can be mentoring or consulting at an hourly fee you set. This may be in person during the conference or later by a series of teleclasses or individual telephone appointments. (in which you offer product!)

All above strategies are tested and proven in tough times in the crucible of the real world. All serve to get you gigs you would otherwise not get. And only the gigs you get bring home the cash. All are yours with my compliments.

If you are struggling, and if you choose to not engage any of he above or similar strategies to cause you to thrive in these troubled times, then it is time for you to get out of the speaking business.

3. PACKAGE AND MARKET YOUR EXPERTISE TO FEDERAL, STATE/PROVINCE, COUNTY, AND CITY GOVERNMENTS

What would you say if I told you there is a largely unrecognized market for speaking, consulting and training?

A market unrecognized by almost all paid experts who speak . . .

A market hungry for virtually all bread and butter topics . . . these include communication with vendors, with staff, with superiors, stress management, customer service, persuasion, managing people, working with difficult people, executive decision-making, negotiation, etc.

A market that budgets mega-dollars, make that mega-mega dollars, every fiscal year for education, training, a market that invests huge sums in consultants . . .

A market with a gargantuan budget, and . . . get this . . . a huge budget that must be spent each year on penalty of being taken out of the budget the following year if it is not spent . . .

Are you salivating yet?

Well I won’t keep you in suspense a millisecond longer:

This market Is the Federal government of the country in which you live. Plus your State/Province, County, City/township governments. All have budgets for education and training, plus consulting . . . budgets that must be spent. (or be taken away next fiscal year.)

Most speakers do not know how to tap these markets . . . how to crack the code. What the rules of the game are. I do. And now, you are to know, too.

I have presented programs for the USA Internal Revenue Service from coast-to-coast. At least one of these was recorded for continuing internal use.

I have presented programs for the United States Navy.

These are a minor part of my quarter-century international speaking and consulting experience. Admittedly, I did not pursue this market because more lucrative markets were at hand for me.

And I discovered the rules of the game. Now you are to know these rules. Before I tell you how to penetrate this cash-cow of a recurring market, let me share how the game is played.

This is empirical wisdom. Rooted in my experience. Your experience may be different:

1. U.S.A. Government agencies and departments like to do business with organizations, not with individuals. So create a DBA. (Doing Business As) Your DBA is an alter ego. There are no tax or reporting changes involved. You are wise to allow your DBA to imply a benefit and a promise relative to your specialty.

I.E. My “Speaking Success System.” This name implies the presence of a benefit and a promise relative to the service I deliver.

Do the same as you conceive a name for your organization.
(If I recall right, Thomas Watson, one man working out of his home garage at the time, coined the name, “International Business Machines.” His company is now colloquially known as IBM.)

2. These government entities do not pay one cent in front. And they do not pay any of your expenses. You name a “delivered” fee for what you do. Then you show up and do it. You invoice them for the agreed fee. In the USA, they pay your organization in full within 30 days. This prompt payment is mandated by the USA Congress and overseen by GSA. (USA General Services Administration.)

3. They will write you letters of commendation on their letterhead (if you ask,) when you do a fine job. And they will refer you. (I was referred to IRS offices in other parts of the United States.)

How to access the USA Federal Government market:

1. This information is a start. It is all I know. It is enough to get you started . . .

2. Contact the USA General Services Administration. Tell them of your company name and what you do. Say you want to be approved as a GSA vendor. Say you offer solutions to real challenges. Say you want to have your name placed on the RFP List. (RFP – Request For Proposal.) This gets you in the gate with GSA. In due course, when there is a need for something like what you offer, you receive an RFP. You then respond in the fashion they prescribe.

However GSA is responsible for hardly 10% of Government purchases of training, consulting, and education. Therefore . . .

3. Contact the Department of Commerce. Do as it says in Paragraph 2, immediately above. Rinse and repeat.

4. Contact every Cabinet Department. (The President’s Cabinet.) Each is its own bureaucracy with its own huge budget and its own unique requirements. Rinse and repeat.

5. Contact each branch of the armed services (Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guards.) Rinse and repeat.

Overseas subscribers, translate my findings to your country and to the equivalent Departments and Agencies in your country.

6. Remember Governments are all bureaucracies . . .with the backbiting, the jealousies, the turf defense, the infighting indigenous to virtually all large organizations. This is the real world and we might as well accept it as it is. (I worked for 4 Fortune 500 corporations for 20 years . . . lived with and experienced these harsh realities . . . quit every one of these organizations to better myself, ultimately started to work for myself.)

7. I made myself a self-employed independent contractor. Became an expert who speaks and consults. I promise you that when you build a following in this business you have the finest of all lifetime annuities.

Today I serve clients worldwide. You can do it too, if you set this as an objective and then dedicate your energy and your resources to creating this outcome . . . with resolute tenacity, bulldog blood, and a never-say-die attitude.

Of course, hard times, a tanked economy, affect us all. And those of us who do not throw in the towel . . . those who use every available strategy to continue growing their business . . . do survive.

Better than that, we prepare ourselves for the next boom. Historically tough times do not last. (Tough people do.) The world economy turns around in time. It always does. Now is the time to plant seeds, to continue marketing while the faint-at-heart fade away. To stay in the game and continue adding value for those we serve.

If you choose to survive and then to thrive, additional resources await you on the following pages . . . at an outrageously reduced cost, possibly no cost except for a small donation to my favorite charity.

4. ADDITIONAL LOW COST RESOURCES

Robert Schiller said it: “Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.” Here are 3 ways you can prove you are a tough person:

1. HARVEST DOLLARS BY PARTNERING IN PROMOTION

In 1987, depressed times for the meeting market, I devised a strategy that yielded me tens of thousands of US dollars. This money came thundering and hurtling, crashing over my threshold as decision makers found themselves unable to resist this risk-free way to get me to speak. Here’s how you can hook into and profit from my survival-in-tough-times speaking business success strategy:

I produced an 8 page Report sharing the exact model I created. It is a paint-by-numbers, step-by-step Action Plan.

Picture this: You discover how you can show decision-makers how to deliver concepts and methods (available only from you,) to their Members without risking anything except promotional actions. If too few people commit to attend, decision maker is off the hook and does not invest a penny.

On the other hand, if the break-even point is reached (as it usually is,) then you are paid in addition to your travel, lodging and meals, an agreed percentage of proceeds. The organization keeps the rest.

The real kicker is this: Nobody can lose. You may receive more than your regular fee, plus all your expenses. And whatever you receive, above your expenses, at least you’re staying in the game, making some money while delivering memorable value to the organization. (As well as enhancing your reputation and fame.)

There are 3 ways for you to get your hands on this special strategy. Details are at the end of this message.

2. TURN LEMONS INTO LEMONADE.

This is a 3 page Report. That’s 3 full letter size pages of strategies, actions, and concepts. (In 12 point type.) Way more than I could include here. You get 17 more easy-to-implement, street-smart actions you can take to turn slow times into great times. Details are at the end of this piece.

3. MAGNETIZE DECISION-MAKERS 23 POWERFUL WAYS

Another 3 page Report. You get 23 additional ways to cause decision makers to lust for your services, yearn for your services, hunger to get you to speak. Details are at the end of this message.

These 3 Reports, packaged, regularly sell for $99. Until I change my mind which could be anytime, even tonight, you may have all 3 for $49, delivered to your door. US$49 delivered worldwide. That’s 50% off an already bargain investment. Fax me your CC# including the security numbers on the back of your card. Include your complete postal address because I will mail these to you. These are not on my shopping cart and there is no money back guarantee. And this offer may never be made again. Fax 925-793-3316

Include your phone number in case of a question.

If you prefer, mail me a check for $49:

Burt Dubin
1 Speaking Success Road
Kingman AZ 86402

Look, I have a heart. Here’s proof: If you are struggling and $49 is a stretch, slip a US$20 bill in an envelope and mail it to me with your complete mailing address.

When your envelope arrives here I will send you the whole works, all 3 Reports delivered worldwide, $99 worth of Speaking Business Success Strategies to get your speaking business into orbit, for hardly more than the cost of a nice lunch.

(And you know exactly where that lunch goes within a day . . .) Is all this strategic wisdom worth more than a nice lunch? Will it stay with you longer than that lunch? If you think not, check your values.

And if $20 strains your resources and you still gotta have these 3 Reports, send me a check or Money Order drawn to my favorite charity, the USA Salvation Army. (Make it at least $10.) After your tax-deductible Salvation Army donation arrives here, I mail you, postpaid worldwide, these 3 Reports, $99 of powerful Speaking Business Success Strategies, absolutely free.
With kindest regards,

Burt Dubin

P.S. On top of all this, you are credited, (whether $49 or $20,) in full toward your next investment in speaking business success products.

P.P.S. Order now while this is on your mind. You snooze, you lose.

P.P.P.S. Ordering information is just below.

HOW TO ORDER YOURS:
1. Avoid my shopping cart. This package is available only direct from me.

2. Use this address:

Burt Dubin
1 Speaking Success Road
Kingman AZ 86402 USA

But wait . . . there’s more:

Would you like to receive at no cost, my 7 part course on success in the speaking business?

Plus you also get a complimentary subscription to my monthly Speaking Biz Strategies Letter.

Retail Value: $77. Complimentary to you today.

Discover the seven secrets to becoming a six-figure speaker now:

http://www.burtdubin.com/bonus.html

This won’t last forever. Get it while you can:

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