Speaker - July/August 2007

Getting
to the Four growth experts explain
LE^NV^EE^X^TLhow they’ve expanded
their business profile

How is your weight? No, that isn’t a typo. These are highly competitive times and to stand out from the crowd, you must do extraordinary work to experience some girth in your business. What can you do to shine in a tight and expert crowd and assure your business is expanding? I recently talked with four successful speakers, Paul Huff, Jr, CSP, Karel Murray, Carol Weisman, CSP, and Bob Furniss, who shed some weight on the subject of growth—and getting to the next level.—Lois Creamer, Speaker Editorial Advisory Board Member

Lois Creamer: In your opinion, what are
the “must do” items to move a business
to the next level?

Paul Huff, Jr, CSP: You have to believe that you belong at the next level. You have to have a self-worth that enables you to believe that you need to be at the next level. Whatever that next level is for you, whether it’s getting more business or raising your fee. That’s the must for me.

Karel Murray: The very first thing that came into my mind is that I think you need to deliver. If I’m going to say I’m easy to work with, I’m going to meet the goals and objectives of the people that hire me, and that I’m going to be able to help people walk out with life-changing ideas, then I better be able to deliver it every single time.

Carol Weisman, CSP: I think you have to know if you really want to get to the next level and what it looks like. A lot of people think the next level is going to be one thing, but it’s actually totally different. I speak on governance, not a real sexy topic. I had to decide whether I wanted to stay in non-profit governance or corporate governance since it’s gotten so complex with Sarbanes-Oxley. I had to

make a decision about what I was going to have to learn to get to that next level, and really doing the research to decide, “Is this the ledge I want to hang on to?”

Bob Furniss: For me, I think the biggest positive for my business is seeking out counsel from people who have already been where it is I think I want to go. There are so many people who have been through the steps that I find myself in and being able to find the right person at the right time to say, this is where I am in my business. And ask, what is the next step?

Weisman: Sometimes it’s just getting a dumb, lucky break. I’ve had two extraordinary lucky breaks. One is when I went to speak for Points of Light. I was a brand new speaker, I had paid my own way, and I got a discount on the day, and my room was set for 150. Another woman had a room set at 150. I had four people and she had none, and I did the best I could and made a lot of jokes about it and it was being recorded, and I said, “I’m going to do something that no speaker has ever done nor do I think will do, I’m going to invite the entire audience to lunch.” It was the one and only

time I closed 100 percent of my audience! One of the gals was there from PBS and I got a five-year PBS Special out of it.

Creamer: What resources do you recom-
mend for driving new business?

Huff: I have a handout that I ask people to fill out at the end of each program, which asks: What did you think about the program? What did you get out of it? What are your “to do’s”? But more than that, would you like to get my e-newsletter twice a month? And now I’ve got 23,000 subscribers to that newsletter. But I also ask, are you interested in knowing about all the other things that I do? And a final question, do you know of anyone else who might be interested in my services? I can tell you, I get at least five to six people who refer me to somebody completely different. And, I would say, maybe a fourth of the audience is interested in something else that I do. So when I call them back it’s not a cold call, they’ve asked for more information. That’s one of the ways that’s been really good for me to drive my business.