While the scare of corporate meetings aren’t the cause of the economic slowdown, Ben illustrates how the trickle down effect has really hurt everyone in the travel industry.

Along the drive down beautiful Highway 101, I passed a big truck and had to snap this picture!  Talk about ALL BENEFITS!

Think about how successful Target is and then look at how they push benefits over tricky phrases, poetic language, or filler of any kind.

Four Words.  2 Sentences.  All benefits.

Let’s all learn a little lesson from Target

Maybe you won’t book the career-changing-killer corporate date through them but what the heck – for the price ($69 for six months!) it would pay for itself many, many times over with one local gig – and I’m thinking that’s what you could book with Gig Salad – local stuff.  I can’t see getting on a flight for a gig booked through Gig Salad, but who knows?!?

A couple of benefits I like right off the bat:

• It gives you some great templates for setting up an online press kit – this is extremely valuable in and of itself.  And let me tell you, that would cost way more than $69 bucks.  It’s upload and go… no programming.
• They are doing some good advertising on the web and I imagine you’d be getting some queries soon after joining.

Is anyone a member and had good/bad experiences with them?  I’m really curious.  If you can’t tell from my voice, I’m impressed.

After looking around the site and reading a few things about it online, I can’t imagine it would be a bad investment.

Barry

And – it only gets better the more you do it.

If you do it once, think it’s lame, and never do it again let me know. I want to come over and kick your butt.

You can listen to it with the player below or you can download the MP3 (Right Click | Save As) and put it on your favorite device – here’s mine and it goes on every walk, hike or run I take. I pack it with brain food but I hear they work for music as well

Barry

You can listen right here:

Or grab the MP3 (Use Right-Click | Save As) to put on your player and go do what you like to do.

On this call I announced that the membership site goes live on Monday 1/13/09 and there are three levels of membership available.

Silver: Cool Stuff

Gold: Cooler Stuff

Platinum: The Coolest Stuff plus Private Coaching

Keep an eye on your email for specifics.  If you landed here by accident and aren’t on the list, please get on it by sending a blank email to corporategigs@aweber.com and then check your email for the confirmation letter.

Enjoy the replay and I’m looking forward to working with you to get more corporate gigs.

Barry

I got a lot of questions about what to charge corporate clients.  And while I addressed this pretty heavily in lesson 5 of the 7-Day Training Course, when it comes time for the rubber to meet the road it’s nice to see what people are actually using for a demo reel, electronic press kit, and what they are charging.

So here are a few website that you can research what is currently offered to corporate clients:

International Speakers Bureau

Premiere Speakers

PM Productions

Blue Moon Talent

Funny Business

This will get you started.

But let me give you a bit of advice (pretty much a theme here on the blog, right!?), don’t get hung up on looking at what other people are doing.  Spend 5 or 10 minutes and then put that information away in your brain and get to work on YOUR career.

It’s so easy to look at sites like these and watch the critic blow in the door and start with the “you can’t do that”, “you’ll never make that much”, “yep – success belongs to other people” – it’s all a load of doo.

Nobody working corporate entertainment today was born doing it.  Everyone started with a first gig, a less-than-perfect demo reel, and no connections.  I don’t know where you are right now in your career but you can be listed on any of these sites once you have a package that gives clients enough reasons (benefits) to use you.

Stick around.  Put in your time and do something every single day to move closer to your goals in corporate entertainment.

Don’t look at sites like the ones listed above and let any part of you think it’s out of reach.  It way easier to quit before you start, but then you’ll never really know what it’s like to succeed.

We just finished a one-hour teleseminar and had a great turn out!  I want to thank everyone that showed up to hear it live.

I’ll send out the MP3 link soon and tomorrow I’ll post some of the stuff Randy put me on the spot to do!

If you were on the call, chime in and let me know what you thought.  We covered about 1/4 of the questions that were submitted and we’ll be doing this again soon.

Barry

Save On Airfares Secrets Manual

Fantastic information and fun to read… this guy gets down and dirty about the seamy underbelly of airlines and as a career traveler, I couldn’t put it down!

If this $25 book doesn’t pay for itself a couple times over on my next flight I’ll be very confused.

It comes with a few other books and I’ll read those on my flight to New York on Sunday.  This guy is a great writer and he has a bone to pick and that really drives the text.  In fact, I’m looking forward to actually reading it ON an airplane

I haven’t tried the techniques he suggests but they make total sense.  I really can’t wait to try the one sentence that ‘knocks $100 off your ticket – instantly’.

Why not, right?  I get an airfare buyout of $1,000 on all my contracts so the cheaper my ticket, the more left over!

Creatively written and a gripping read – pick up Save On Airfares Secrets Manual before you book another flight… let me know how it goes… I can’t wait to try some of these tricks!

I wake up at 4:50 AM three days a week. This time of year the temperature up here near Lake Tahoe is usually below 20 degrees.

At 5:30 AM I dive into an outdoor swimming pool (heated to 80 degrees) and spend the next 90 minutes working out real hard with 8 other swimmers. We do just over 2 miles each morning. I have been doing it since 2004 and I am addicted. I hate missing a day when I’m on the road and always look forward to the next swim.

What does this have to do with getting corporate gigs? I’m getting there…

Well this morning the 2 people that swim at my level were missing. It’s very strange for one of our group to not show up without telling someone. It was me, a few older women who take it real easy, and 4 of the faster group that go the distance I do, but everything happens a bit faster.

So I did my normal warm up the whole time thinking, “Am I going to work out alone today or should I push myself and join the faster group?”

I hadn’t ever done a full workout with the faster group but I decided to go for it.

It was fantastic. I didn’t miss a single lap and I surprised myself because there I was, in the group that I usually watch from a few lanes away, and I was running with the big dogs. My heart was pounding and my fears were transforming to power. If I were female I’d probably have been humming “I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR”.

We did some drills that I really didn’t know if I’d be able to do but I took them one flip turn at a time and never fell behind.

It was scary and I didn’t think I could do it, but I challenged myself and I came through like a champ.

You see where I’m leading with this?

I want you to challenge yourself. With the stuff that you are learning in this 7-Day course and with the creative ideas in your head that seem just out of reach.

I didn’t know that I was going to workout with the faster group today but I jumped into it and succeeded.

I want to hear your story of success. Will you share it on the blog? Was there a time in your show, or in your business when you were challenged and you rose to meet it? Have you tried something during these 7 days that you didn’t think you could do? You will never get to the next stage in your career without being scared on some level.

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
Theodore Roosevelt