“Think about: Who is the person that I want to impact? Not so much how many people do I want to impact? Or what area of my area of expertise do I want to impact? But who is the exact person that I want to leave my message with and know that they're going to go and step out and make an impact with it?"

This week, Maryalice Goldsmith and Eve Gilmore are on the podcast talking about how to find better leads! Sure, Rick’s episode from a couple of weeks ago was great, but you can’t work leads well if you aren’t even trying to get to know the right people!

"When I am creating a lead list for a student, I can really tell the difference between a student who knows their audience and knows their voice versus a student that doesn't, because everyone wants to get booked by an event planner or a conference manager."

We brought in our Lead Manager, Eve, to talk about how she helps students dig into their expert positioning statements to find the best leads possible.

“In particular, we ask our students, hey, provide your expert positioning statement when they submit for leads, and the difference it makes when a student really has a clear vision and a really clarified voice in their expert positioning statement…It's the difference between someone saying, I cultivate leaders in the corporate world. That's a great expert positioning statement. But what a great expert positioning statement would look like to pull leads for is I cultivate leadership in HR directors at marketing firms in order to cultivate a greater work environment that gives you way more information because anyone can speak in leadership but what kind of leadership and who are you wanting to influence with that leadership? So I would say it makes such a huge difference. The more specific the better, especially when it comes to something as broad as leadership or confidence or resilience.”

Eve and Maryalice dig into:

03:22 Why you have to understand the nuance in your target marketing and the importance of having specific audience examples before you start finding contacts and trying to book gigs.

07:40 Reframing your focus from how many people you want to impact to thinking about WHO the specific person is that your story/message will resonate with to solve a problem or create a transformation.

10:30 How to walk through the mindset exercise of understanding the clarity that comes with a defined audience verses using broad terms to describe your people.

13:05 People often want leads across all industries, but here’s why that doesn’t work.

16:17 Expanding your ideas and options past event planners and yearly conferences can help you book steady gigs in other industries that have more money to spend on bringing in speakers. Let’s get creative!

20:07 Getting scrappy with Google to find unique titles for people booking speakers in unconventional places, ie, business retreats, schools, etc.

24:50 How to embrace the “no”s so you can find a yes. Tips and tricks for being approachable and sticking with the process when it’s discouraging.

28:25 Practical questions you can reflect on to find clarity in who your leads are and what kind of impact you’re making before you go out there and start spamming inboxes!

29:50 A pep talk for consistency and approaching your prospecting with tenacity.

Episode Resources:

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Chapter 42: Miguel de Cervantes, featuring Horatio Sanz