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  • Program Overview
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  • Module 2: Booked Solid Business Mastery
  • Module 3: Booked Solid Passive Revenue Mastery
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By Michael Port

The Book Yourself Solid Speaking Strategy can be used by virtually any service professional to get in front of potential ideal clients.

The wonderful thing about sharing your knowledge is that it’s rewarding for both you and your audience. They will leave your presentation or event a little smarter, thinking bigger, and with an action plan that will help them implement what you’ve taught them. You will benefit because you’ll know you’ve helped others, which is the reason you do what you do. And at the same time, you’ll increase awareness for your services and products and get booked solid.

One of the easiest and fastest way to get in front of your target market is to invite them to something that is going to help them solve their problems and move them toward their compelling desires. Events that you produce—not necessarily big workshops or conferences but simple, community-building, meaningful, enlightening events at which you can shine, show off your products and services, and build your reputation and credibility in your marketplace are what I call—the always-have-something-to-invite-people-to offer. Here are some examples.

Conference Calls

Start a monthly or weekly call for clients to learn the benefits of working with you. Prepare a new, timely, and relevant topic every time. Pick up a magazine in your industry and use one of the articles to inspire your topic, invite guests to discuss their area of expertise, and ask your clients to tell you what they’d most like to hear about. The rest of the call will naturally flow into a Q&A session. Here are a few ideas to get you started and to spark your inspiration and creativity for your own unique ideas:

• Any service professional can offer a monthly or weekly Q&A on his or her area of expertise. No planning necessary—just show up and shine.
• Accountants can offer quarterly conference calls on updates on tax law along with planning strategies for decreasing tax liability, for example.
• Financial planners can offer weekly conference calls on the best strategies for building wealth using the products they sell.
• Internet marketing consultants can offer web conferences giving updates on search engine optimization and other web traffic generation strategies.
• Personal coaches can offer conference calls on their area of expertise: reducing anxiety, increasing focus, setting boundaries.

If you’re doing a conference call, or teleseminar, as it’s often called, it won’t cost you a dime. There are 100’s of companies that provide these types of services for free, like FreeConference.com and NoCostconference.com, and others that charge nominal fees, but provide additional features, like MaestroConference.com. Record each call and link to it from your website—all these services have conference recording built in. Those who can’t  make the actual call will still have the opportunity to listen to it and benefit from it. Archiving the calls on your web site or blog is also a wonderful way of immediately establishing trust and credibility with new web visitors.

Demonstrations and Educational Events

These opportunities are similar to conference calls except they’re conducted in person. Demonstrations and educational events are an excellent way to reach potential ideal clients if your services are physical or location-based or if the people you serve are all located in the same town or city. This approach is also a great alternative if you feel that a conference call doesn’t speak to your strengths. This format is another opportunity to get creative and express yourself.

For example, you could create some excitement with an open house or outdoor demo at the park or at any other venue. Don’t just invite your potential clients but also your current clients, friends, or colleagues who know the value of your services and are willing to talk about their experiences.

• Fitness professionals can offer a weekly physical challenge for clients and potential clients. Ask clients to bring a new friend every week. Each week a new type of workout would be planned with a social event afterwards.
• Real estate agents can offer weekly real estate investor tours where they fill a van or tour bus with active real estate investors and scour the neighborhood hotspots.
• Professional organizers can offer a monthly makeover where they go to a potential or new client’s office or home, along with a small group of 10 or 15 people (it’s not bad to have a waiting list for these types of offerings), and the professional organizer reorganizes the space and teaches the guests the basics of how to be more productive and effective through an organized office.
• A hair stylist can do something similar with the monthly makeover concept. She could even offer a contest or raffle each month, and the winner would get the makeover.
• Any service professional can host a no-cost or low-cost morning retreat. Be playful and adventurous. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just creative. Allow clients to get to know you and meet other people with similar interests and goals. Make it as simple as serving tea, whole fresh fruit, and scones—and share your wealth of knowledge.
• Start a niche club. Consider cool stuff clients would enjoy. Think about activities that you love. Start a creative brainstorming club, weekly play group, or fun family outing.
• Start a product review club. People love sampling products and trying out new solutions. Give clients a taste of your work and introduce them to fun product overviews that will get them connected to your services. Invite other like-minded professionals to join you if you want to add dimension to the event.

Introduce these offerings at the end of your Book Yourself Solid Dialogue. Add, “I’d like to invite you to ______________”or “Why don’t you join me and my clients for a fun, playful _____________.” Try out different venues and topics until you discover the one that works for you. Re­member, the difference between the typical client-snagging mentality and the Book Yourself Solid way is that the typical client-snagging mentality plays it safe so as not to look foolish. The Book Yourself Solid way asks, “How can I be unconventional and risky so as to create interest and excitement for my services?”

You will never be at a loss for different things to try or experiences to create for your clients and potential clients. You want to invite as many people as possible to these events for three important reasons:

1. You want to leverage your time so you’re connecting with as many potential clients as possible in the shortest amount of time.
2. You want to leverage the power of communities. When you bring people together, they create far more energy and excitement than you can on your own. Your guests will also see other people interested in what you have to offer, and that’s the best way to build credibility.
3. You’ll be viewed as a generous connector. If you’re known in your marketplace as someone who brings people together, it will help you build your reputation and increase your likeability.

Written Exercise: Create three ways that you can instantly add value to your potential and current clients by way of an invitation.

By Michael Port

STARTS JUNE 30 – BOOKED SOLID BUSINESS MASTERY
Systems, Operations, Better Business Models

STARTS JULY 2 – CERTIFIED BOOK YOURSELF SOLID COACH TRAINING
THIS TRAINING IS OVER THE PHONE!
If you’re outside of the US or just can’t travel this is your chance.

JULY 23 – NEW YORK CITY – FREE SMALL BUSINESS CONFERENCE
Book Yourself Solid Keynote for Infusionsoft Revolution Tour 2010

AUGUST 12 & 13 – MICHAEL PORT’S HOUSE. YOUR BUSINESS. THIS IS BIG.
Small Group Mentoring. Only 8 People Accepted. 3 Spots Left.

SEPT. 30 & OCT. 1 – MICHAEL PORT’S HOUSE. YOUR BUSINESS. JUST AS BIG.
Small Group Mentoring. Only 8 People Accepted. 4 Spots Left.

OCT 5 – LONG BEACH, CA – FREE WINNING STRATEGIES FOR BUSINESS CONFERENCE
Sessions by Michael Port, Ivan Misner and more. Brought to you by Entrepreneur Magazine.

By Michael Port

It’s simple.

1.     You’ll create awareness for the products and services you offer using the 7 Core Self-Promotion Strategies (Module Four in Book Yourself Solid).

2.     Once you create awareness for what you offer, potential new clients will check out your foundation for stability and security (Module One in Book Yourself Solid).

3.     If they like what they see, they’ll give you the opportunity to earn their trust over time (Module Two in Book Yourself Solid).

4.     When the circumstances are right, potential clients will either raise their hand and ask you to have a sales conversation or they’ll accept one of your compelling offers and you’ll book the business (Module Three in Book Yourself Solid).

By Michael Port

1. Long after people forget what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel. – Carl W. Buechner
2. When you’re fully self-expressed, fully demonstrating your values and your views, you’ll naturally attract and draw to yourself those you’re best suited to work with, and you’ll push away those you’re not meant to work with.
3. Marketing and sales isn’t about trying to convince, coerce, or manipulate people into buying your services. It’s about putting yourself out in front of, and offering your services to, those whom you are meant to serve — people who already need and are looking for your services.
4. You must offer what your potential clients want to buy, not what you want to sell or think they should want to buy. You must be able to look at your services from your client’s perspective—their urgent needs and compelling desires.
5. The greatest strategy for personal and business development on the planet is bold self-expression.
6. If you don’t want to make a difference, consider making y our living as something other than a service professional. The operative word is service.
7. We hear the question, “What do you do for a living?” all the time. Your professional category alone is the wrong answer.
8. When you’re passionate and excited about what you do and you let it show, it’s incredibly attractive. Real passion can’t be faked and there’s nothing more appealing and convincing than knowing someone is speaking from the heart.
9. Begin to think of and refer to yourself as a category authority—an expert in your field.
10. You are in the business of serving other people as you stand in the service of your destiny and express yourself through your work.
11. If you’ve been feeling like you can’t, or shouldn’t, be paid to do what you love, you must let that limiting belief go if you’re to be booked solid.
12. A connection with another human being means that you’re in sync with, and relevant to each other. Let that be our definition of networking.
13. If you feel called to share a message, it’s because there are people in the world who are waiting to hear it.
14. There are certain people you’re meant to serve and others you’re not. If you can help other professionals attract business through you, you’re creating more abundance for everyone involved.

By Michael Port

As a business owner, you’ll need to proactively reach out to potential clients to make offers and to marketing partners and other decision makers to create business opportunities.

The most important direct outreach you do might well be to other service professionals, businesses, and professional associations to network, cross-promote, and build referral relationships.

But so many of us struggle with this. The idea of reaching out to someone that we don’t know…Yikes! You might be getting queasy just thinking about it. How do you do it (without nausea)?

With the BYS List of 20, of course. Don’t have one? Really? Ok, let’s make one…

The Book Yourself Solid List of 20

Make a List of 20 people within your industry with whom you’d like to develop professional relationships.

These are people whom you do not yet know — influencers within your target market who can help you get booked solid. This is your BYS List of 20.

The list never leaves your side. It sits on your desk. Lives on your computer. And, travels with you when you’re on the road.

Why twenty and why must you keep it with you at all times?

• Since your success is, in large part, determined by the people within your industry who are willing to refer to you or to put you in front of your ideal clients or endorse you, you need to keep these people top of mind. Keeping this list by your side will ensure that you’re thinking of them and, if you do, you’ll begin to notice opportunities to connect with them and get to know them.
• And, twenty, because it’s a large enough number to keep your focus expansive but narrow enough that you won’t be overwhelmed.

Written Exercise: Identify a minimum of three, and a maximum of twenty, people you’d like to reach out to directly and personally. (These may be prospective clients, decision makers at an organization or association, or the press.) At this moment, you might not think you can fill out your List of 20, but now that you know what you need to do, you’ll start to take notice of the people you should add to this list.

Here’s what you do with your list:

• Each day, reach out to the person at the top of the list.
• After you’ve reached out to this person, place this person at the bottom of the list.
• Now that this person has been moved to the end of the list, the person who was number 2 on the list becomes number 1 and each other person moves up one spot. This way your List of 20 always stays at twenty.

You’ll reach out to each person approximately every twenty business days which is about once per month.

This direct outreach activity occurs every day. This is critical. Dedicated, disciplined and determined action is key to your direct outreach success.

Remember, the BYS List of 20 is your wish list. You’re list of 20 people that could have a significant impact on your business through their referrals, introductions and advice. Do this daily and you’ll be booked solid in no time flat.

Booked Solid Action Step: Reach out to the first person on your list of 20 by sending a card or email of appreciation. Or maybe congratulate them on an accomplishment. Simple.

Using the Book Yourself Solid Direct Outreach Strategy is all about making personal connections. Reach out to others from the heart, in a way that is genuine and authentic for you.

Take it one step at a time and you’ll do fine.

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