Speak your book, sell your message, and eliminate distribution fees – because your words are your most powerful assets. In this episode, we have AmondaRose Igoe to talk about how to bypass distribution fees and elevate your book marketing game. She shares her 18-year journey, revealing how she transformed from a nervous novice to a sought-after speaker. But there’s more to her story than just speaking; it’s about connecting, engaging, and profiting. From blurry readers to quirky methods of making mundane topics exciting, AmondaRose has been there too. She also drops gems on event promotion and networking, making your audience part of your marketing team, and expanding your reach exponentially. Tune in now and learn how to turn your book into a powerful platform.

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Eliminating Distribution Fees With Speaking Strategies

As we have been for the last couple of weeks, we are interviewing our 2024 contributors for Breakthrough Author Magazine. If you don’t have your free subscription already, you can run over to BreakthroughAuthorMagazine.com and grab your free subscription. It drops into your mailbox on the first of every month. Our guest is AmondaRose Igoe. She’s a Speaking Success Strategist and award-winning speaker expert and bestselling author. She’s taught thousands of step-by-step speaker training systems. These speakers are able to masterfully book speaking engagements, magnetize their audience, monetize their message, and make an impact.

She’s been featured on CBS, NBC, Fox, and the number one bestselling book series Chicken Soup for the Soul. AmondaRose is the author of Pain-Free Public Speaking and Share Your Story. The power of what AmondaRose teaches has helped her clients from over twenty countries overcome their biggest speaking challenges and skyrocket their presentation results. I’m excited to have AmondaRose. I have known her for quite a while now from CEO Space. I hope you guys will go over and grab the magazine because our goal in 2024 is to ditch the middle man and give you strategies to bypass the book distribution fees. Speaking is one of the great ways to do that. Stand by for our interview with AmondaRose.

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AmondaRose, welcome to the show. I’m so excited to have you.

I’m super excited to be here.

You folks probably don’t know this, but AmondaRose and I met many years ago now at CEO Space. We are bringing her to the magazine in 2024 because our theme is Ditching the Middleman: Strategies to Bypass the Book Distributor Fees. Nowhere is a better place to sell than when you’re out speaking because you get to ditch those fees, sign the books, connect with people, and start to build a relationship. AmondaRose, how did you get into this? You’ve been doing this for quite a while now.

I will tell you and your readers that I never saw myself as a speaker, trainer, and coach as something that I would do in my lifetime. I was a social worker. Many years ago, I took a job with a non-profit and they didn’t tell me I’d have to speak in front of hundreds of people. I had no speaking experience. None whatsoever. I was a horrible communicator. I had a nervous laughter.

When I started to get into it and learn the art of speaking, it was the first time in my life I was home in my career. I knew that this was what I was here to do. I had fun creating interesting and unique content. I got accolades from the company and I was ready to quit the job when they told me I had to do this. I was like, “I’m not supposed to do this. This isn’t what I’m here to do.” It opened up a whole new path. Many years ago, I walked away from that job and started my own business.

That is so cool. I was similar. I was an advertising and I was like, “What? I have to pitch?” It was the same thing. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this. The first six months, because I was out giving talks and pitching to clients, I wore readers because I could look around the room. Seeing them look back, they were blurry. One day, I forgot my readers and it went very smoothly. I was like, “I don’t need those anymore,” but I don’t think anybody ever knew that I was wearing them because I was scared.

You were wearing them so the audience looked blurry to you?

Yes.

I’m going to borrow that one for some of my clients.

I did. I was very conscious of, “I have to look in different directions because you need to engage.” I was afraid. They were smaller audiences back then because you’re pitching a client. It’s maybe half a dozen people in the room, but there are also those people who are part of your agency. You’re like, “I don’t want to make an ass out of myself. I’ll just hide.”

I think this is a great example to people who are reading because authors sometimes can be very private. They like to write and spend time alone. They like to read. Here we are two very outgoing people who had the same challenges that many authors have and not being comfortable in those situations. It shows you if we could do it, they all can do it too.

I don’t know if they still make you, but in college, you were required to take a Public Speaking class. I don’t remember anything from it. It wasn’t like preparing a sales pitch like we do when we have a book or expertise. It was more like an oral book report like, “We’re going to see your eye contact and all those things.” I don’t even know if that can prepare you because when you put this together, you’re putting together a sales pitch with it as well.

It’s true because when you’re speaking and you have the intention of selling books, during your talk, everything you’re doing is leading to those book sales, even something as simple as when they have a book in their hand and they want to highlight something in the book. Hold the book towards your face because that’s going to drop people’s attention. It’s also going to help them connect with you with the book. Sometimes people hold the books down. Hold it up towards your face.

Eliminating Distribution Fees: When you’re speaking and you have the intention of selling books, you are selling during your talk. Everything you’re doing is leading to those books.

For people like me, I usually have it on a slide. I don’t even hold it up. There are a lot of different ways to do it. I love that you said that because it directly reflects you and the book with it. We know how you got into this. What made you go out and say, “I’m doing this sales pitch?” Was that part of what you were doing for the company? Were you selling their services at the same time?

I went from being a social worker to a job with a nonprofit. I was focused on charitable gifts and annuities, the most boring subject in the entire world. For me, there’s a fun part of my personality and I opened up a creativity that I didn’t even realize I had. I was like, “How can I make this interesting?” This is many years ago, but at the time, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire was a very popular show. I made it into Who Wants to Be a Chocolateire? I would be teaching them, they’d respond. They would win chocolate. They’re all excited. They’re talking about this presentation and how great this organization is. I was selling them on the concepts but making it fun at the same time.

For me, anything with chocolate, I’m all in even if I have to buy it. Does this sound like I had to invest to get it? I don’t know.

All you had to do was answer the questions, but the goal was for them to want to donate more to the organization. Gifts annuities are like talking about an annuities. It’s not a very exciting topic. You have the organization that’s supporting but you also have a very boring financial part of the conversation. I made it fun and board members came to me and said, “You need to teach everyone to present as you present.” This is interesting.

You are like me where I started in 2010 and digital marketing wasn’t a thing. We had a very strong learning curve that went with all of this. You not only teach people how to put the presentation together, but you also teach them how to get booked.

Correct.

Can you talk a little bit about that? That’s what people find difficult.

There are two aspects they find difficult, which is putting talk together because they have so much information to share. They don’t know, like, “I’ve got all those things I want to talk about. Do I share this with my book? Do I share that?” One aspect of it is having a solid signature talk, and then the booking side. It is complicated in the essence of, “How do I find those gigs? Once I find them, what am I saying to them? What if they want to pay me to speak? What do I do about that?”

There are all those little nuances. One thing I’ll share a tip around is if they have a paid opportunity and somebody says to them, “How much do you charge?” I want you to go ahead and bring it back to them and say, “May I ask what your budget is?” You might say it’s $1,000, but their budget might be $5,000 and you just lost $4,000.

We have a couple of authors who have very niche books and when they negotiate, they will negotiate that the company has to buy a quantity of books as well. I know in Silicon Valley, one of our guys who’s a cybersecurity expert has to buy 100 books. It’s part of the speaking gig. There’s that other financial piece as well of getting your book out and not just being paid for the talk but being paid for the book as well.

They can even include the book. They might have a talk of a price point that only includes the talk and the second level might include the book. It might include the talk and autograph copies of the book of a certain number. They can increase the number of the second presentation or the second level and make more money. They only have so much cost of the book, so now they can add another 1,000 or even more to that second level other of their presentations.

Let’s say that you’re teaching how to book and they have a book. Do you teach them how to incorporate that into that talk and into that booking process?

It has to be included in it in the sense because it’s a big part of them. Being an author creates incredible credibility because how many people write a book? There are more people nowadays that do it, but there’s still such a small number of them. Now you’re setting yourself apart from the other speakers. You want to include the inside of your talk, but you also want to include it in your marketing. If you’re an author, a bestselling author, or whatever level it is, you’ve written a book. Right there, it says you’re an expert.

That is so true. I know with us, a lot of the programs that we put together or when we put a book together and someone’s working with us on their author traffic school piece, we ask them to not only design a speaker sheet but design a book one sheet as well so people know they have the book, they know it’s available and where to buy it, and things like that.

That’s important too. That lets them know you have a book and you speak on a variety of topics. Let’s get around to the marketing piece on this because let’s say that I booked myself an event. Do you encourage your students to look at the marketing materials for the event? A lot of times, they expected to promote the event alongside of people who were hosting. They need an audience for that. How do you get them through that piece of it?

Getting the audience part of it?

Understanding that it’s not all about them and the speaking. It’s about they are out there and they have to promote the event as well. A lot of people think, “They invited me to speak and I don’t need to do anything to show up.”

You were so right. You do not want to have that idea that, “I just need to show up. I don’t want to make any effort.” You want to promote it. Get as many people as you can. I’ve spoken at events and people said, “The audience doubled since our last speaker. Do you know why? It’s because AmondaRose promoted it too.” They’re monitoring as far as how many tickets and how much space they have. You have more book sales if you are using your book as a platform. Also, sell your coaching, then you have more opportunities for coaching clients if you help build that room as well.

Eliminating Distribution Fees: If you are using your book as a platform and also selling your coaching, then you have more opportunities for coaching clients.

Not only that. You’re building your audience as well. It’s not just about getting people to lead and capture from their audience. Now, they are lead capturing from yours and, more than likely, you’ll be asked back if you’re someone who can generate more business and audience for the speakers as well. I know there’s a group out there called Clarity and Confidence where they do that well. If you’re a speaker, you have to sell 25 tickets to the event. They have a pretty big list now because they put on this event every three months, so it’s pretty incredible.

Also, if you’re promoting it, you’re now getting the place that you’re speaking at that you are a speaker in front of more people. Let’s say you put it on social. You’re saying you’re speaking here and the tickets are available. Now, Thomas reads it and thinks, “We were looking for a speaker for our next event.” You now open the door for more opportunities as well.

Especially when you’re part of those big events and you meet new people. I was in one where I was invited because they saw me speak someplace else. It’s always a possibility. Also, why you should network at the event, too. We used to have a client who would fly in and fly out for paid speaking gigs. We put a quiz together and invited her.

They invited the people to take the quiz in advance and she stayed and met with the high-commitment people. She admitted that she got a lot of business from it. In the past, she was the keynote and she flew in and flew out like a prima donna. It pays to get out there and network at the event too. You might find some great power partners as part of that as well.

You can even include that in your proposal that you’ll attend the networking event. Now you’ve gotten paid for that time as well. It can be a win-win for you all the way around.

Those launches they have at some of those events, participate in that as well. I know that I’ve gotten a lot of good clients. It’s all about that canoodling with them, building trust, spending time, and talking to people when it comes down to them choosing who they’re publisher or who they’re speaking coach is. It’s like, “AmondaRose took the time to sit down and talk to me about some of these topics.” This will be out in December 2023, so in January 2024, you are our first training of the year. Can you tell us a little bit about what you’re going to be training at our first live event of the year?

It’s called Speaking for Impact and Income. We’re going to look at aspects of your speaking. We’re going to take a deep dive into having a captivating stage presence and also making irresistible offers. Meaning that when you make an offer at the end, what’s something that you can do that will secure you better results? We also talk about messaging. Many times, people want to share something, but they don’t know how to share it in a way that gets their audience to go, “I need to be here now.”

That’s exciting because, for a lot of authors, and I noticed that a lot of you guys because I work with you, your messaging is all over the place. I joke that I’m the message broker in the book because I work with the press release people and all the vendors that are part of it. Otherwise, if I let you guys go on your own, it’s the shiny object of the day. All the messaging has to be in alignment.

I’m excited that you’re going to talk about that because that messaging has to be in alignment with the book that you’re talking about. You can’t randomly give away a lead magnet that doesn’t apply to the book, to the talk, and to the sales that you’re going to generate at the end. I’m excited to have you on. All of you who are not subscribed to the magazine, go over and get your free subscription. If you’re interested in all of this, AmondaRose is going to be a contributor in 2024. You’ll have something to speak about every single month. I don’t know how you come up with all these topics on speaking.

The audience will think, “I learned so much from her 45-minute talk.” They don’t realize there are many years of experience in this head. There’s so much I can share with all of you.

I know. Sometimes, it’s hard to cut it down into that 40 minutes like it’s hard to cut it down into that 200 pages when people are writing a book. They want to go on and on. AmondaRose, where can we find you? Do you have anything you’d like to share, download, or anything that people can go over and grab and get on your list?

If you go to AmondaRose.com, you can go to my website and check me out. Also, you can access my Speaker Personality Quiz, so you can discover what type of speaker you are. It’s cool. Some people are like, “I knew that’s what I was,” and some people are like, “I didn’t even know. It makes me feel more confident as a speaker knowing I have that speaker personality.”

Thank you so much for being on and you. Guys, I can’t wait to see you at the beginning of January when she gives her first training.

Important Links

• BreakthroughAuthorMagazine.com
• AmondaRose Igoe
• Chicken Soup for the Soul
• Pain-Free Public Speaking
• Share Your Story
• CEO Space
• Clarity and Confidence
• Speaker Personality Quiz

About AmondaRose Igoe

AmondaRose Igoe is the “Speaking Success Strategist,” an Award-Winning Speaker Expert and Best-Selling Author. She has taught thousands her step-by-step speaker training systems. These speakers are able to masterfully book speaking engagements, magnetize their audience, monetize their message, and make an impact. She has been featured on CBS, NBC, FOX and in the # 1 Best Selling Book Series, Chicken Soup for the Soul. AmondaRose is the author of “Pain-Free Public Speaking” and “Share Your Story.” The power of what AmondaRose teaches has helped her clients from over 20 countries overcome their biggest speaking challenges and skyrocket their presentation results.

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