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During this week’s episode of the Launch Your Business Podcast you’ll learn how to land paid speaking engagements. And if you’re wondering how much to charge, you’ll get the answer to that question and more.

Continuing with that theme, for today’s issue I’m going to share a few unexpected lessons I learned from speaking at a Berkshire Hathaway conference.

And by applying these lessons to your business you’ll be able to generate more revenue on your own terms.

Read time: 4 minutes

Advocate for Yourself

The Berkshire Hathaway conference took place this week in Las Vegas. Honestly, I’m not the biggest fan of Vegas since I’m married, I don’t drink and I don’t gamble. So it’s not quite the “adult playground” I’m looking for.

However, I had a pleasant surprise upon arriving at the airport in Vegas. I ran into a good friend from college, Anne Magur, who I haven’t seen in almost 10 years. We caught up for a few minutes before parting ways, I then hopped in a Lyft en route to my hotel.

That’s when I was hit with a not so pleasant surprise. While attempting to check in I was told my hotel room was no longer available.

Why? My hotel was booked (by the event organizers) from March 26-March 29th. I arrived on March 27th, so they gave my room away.

The front desk agent then proceeded to tell me the hotel was completely booked, but the Horseshoe hotel might have rooms available.

By now it’s after midnight and I’m tired after flying in from New York City. There’s no way I’m going to walk around Las Vegas hoping to find a hotel room when one was already booked for me.

I asked to speak to her manager about it. She said I couldn’t, but she would for me. Two minutes later she came back with the same response “There are no rooms available, try the Horseshoe”

I then told her that still wouldn’t be acceptable. I’m not the one who booked the room, and I’m not the one who canceled it, so I shouldn’t be the one walking around Vegas at midnight trying to score a hotel room.

I’m going to fast forward a bit. She went back and forth between me and her manager for 10 minutes before the manager suddenly found an open room for me at the hotel.

Was I annoyed? Yes, but the situation was resolved and venting wouldn’t help. Instead I just asked the manager a simple question.

“Why did this have to be so hard?”

And, I’m sure you’re going to have to ask yourself that same question in the very near future. Maybe it’s in regard to the service you receiver, a client taking forever to pay, or being disrespected during a meeting.

You’re going to want to give up. Don’t.

Instead, fiercely advocate for yourself and demand the respect you rightfully deserve.

Be Yourself

My friend, Kim Rittberg, was speaking at the same conference. She got in earlier that day and recorded a quick video from the event. I watched it as I was unpacking in the hotel room.

The video was great but here’s what stood out to me; all the guys were wearing blazers, most were wearing suits.

I was planning on wearing sneakers, Lululemon pants that kinda look like slacks and a hoodie. But once I saw all those guys in suits I started second guessing myself.

I was tempted to rush out and see if I could buy something that would help me fit in more. I even thought to myself “a lot of people unexpectedly get married in Vegas, there must be somewhere I can buy a suit in the middle of the night.”

And if you’re following along the answer is “yes”. That same guy who wouldn’t look for a hotel room at midnight suddenly felt compelled to go shopping at 1am.

But then it hit me. These people all paid to see me on stage. I’m a keynote speaker, I deserve to be here, and I can’t deliver the experience they’re looking for if I’m not comfortable.

Back to you.

There will be times when you feel like you have to change who you are to fit in. Maybe it’s the way you dress, do your hair or how you talk.

You’re going to want to conform. Don’t.

The best version of yourself is all you need to be, but you can’t do that if you’re pretending to be someone else.

Challenge Yourself

After my presentation this guy in a really nice suit walked over to me. He looked like the type of guy who would complain about the size of the ice cubes at a fancy restaurant.

I was immediately disarmed by what he said; “Nice shoes, I need to start wearing sneakers too. These events are great but my shoes are so uncomfortable I sometimes skip sessions because I don’t want to walk that far.”

I’ll pause now to acknowledge my hypocrisy. I didn’t want people to judge me based on how I looked, but I still judged others based on how they looked. So, I’m clearly a work in progress.

Back to this incredibly friendly guy in a nice suit.

He then told me how much he appreciated the session I led and was looking forward to sharing the key takeaways with his team.

Normally I would have just said something along the lines of “That’s so great to hear, I’m glad you found value in my session . . .”

But then I thought to myself; now is the perfect opportunity to pitch your LinkedIn training program. Just bring it up and see what happens.

I pitched him on my training program and he only had one question “Can you lead it remotely?”

That’s it. No questions about cost, references, none of that. I already proved my worth on stage and he was ready for more.

Your turn.

At times you’ll be afraid to pitch a prospect or partnership opportunity. Don’t let that hold you back.

If you ask, the answer will be yes or no. But if you don’t ask, the answer will definitely be no.

That’s it for today.

I hope you found this valuable (please let me know) and if you did please consider sharing it with a friend. They can sign up here.

Have a great weekend!

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