Ryan Foland speaks with Colin Sprake, a multi-million dollar business owner turned consultant and speaker, who has has taught thousands of entrepreneurs how to build profitable, sustainable business with soul— businesses that make a positive impact.
Ryan and Colin talk about what is means to grow a speaking business with soul, and why having a message that created a positive impact on both your audiences and the world is the key to success.
Listen to this podcast to find out:
If you enjoy this interview we’d be honoured if you reviewed us on iTunes. Just follow this link.
Colin Sprake: Hi, it's Colin Sprake and I'm super excited because I've just done an amazing show with Ryan and you know what— when you hear what's on the show coming up, you'll be amazed.
There are the nuggets you've probably never heard before.
If you're a speaker, make sure you listen in, because it is going to be super, super awesome.
Ryan Foland: Alright, we are back. I'm super excited because we have Colin Sprake from Make Your Mark Training & Consulting.
I've had a short conversation with Colin, I got him on the World of Speakers podcast so that everyone could meet him and learn what he's doing, because it's amazing.
Colin, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending on when people are listening.
How are you doing today?
CS: I am doing awesome.
It's my pleasure to be on this show and to serve and share what I can share today, just to help our listeners out there and help your audience.
RF: That's really what it's all about, it's serving. I know that's a big, core part of what you're doing, which is great.
Before we really get into how you serve, let's talk about why you're serving, and where this all started.
Tell us a little bit about your backstory, so people can understand where you're coming from.
CS: Absolutely.
I think a lot of people don't realize that— they always see that you are successful and they go: "You must have always been that way?"
I share this with people all the time, I'm a "14-year overnight success story— it's just been a very long night."
My whole background very simply is— I was severely bullied as a child and as a young teen: from having severe problems with my feet, and walking with special boots.
I got severely bullied because of that, and I decided at age of 14 that my life needed to change.
I attempted to take my life twice at the age of 12, and thank god I wasn't successful in ending my life, I am really happy I was not successful at that.
I was down, and in a really sad situation, and I thought there was never a way out of it.
And then I met a gentleman by the name of John Kehoe, super nice guy, an international bestselling author. I got to meet him in South Africa and when I met John, I just saw an opportunity.
He was teaching mindset training and I thought:
"I need to get myself sorted out, because these people are in control of my happiness, and if I am letting people control me, then I'm going to live how they want me to live."
I decided at the age of 14 to really go on a journey.
I never believed I'd be where I am today, training, and helping other people do the same.
The big thing for me was— I was down and out and I decided that it was time to make a difference in my own life, get myself on track.
Later, I got into owning my own business, went on to doing amazing things, started another business when I was 18, and sold that when I was 21.
I really got myself on track, and it was a mind-shift change that got me there.
At the same time, I've lived this philosophy ever since I was born: When you serve others, the universe gives you so much more abundance.
I went out and I said, "How do I serve other people?"
Every business I've ever run has been in service to my clients: to make their lives more complete with whatever product or service that I am delivering.
I am on this planet to help them achieving more, more abundance, more in their relationships at home.
I live by the statement, "When you focus on money, you'll have dollars to count; when you focus on people, you will have countless dollars."
That is what it all comes back to: it is focusing on people and being of service.
For the listeners out there: life will really becomes meaningful when you do this.
When you go out and serve others to your highest level, not thinking about how to make a whole bunch of profit today, when think about how many people are you going to serve today— the money comes.
RF: That's very much “a mission before the commission” kind of mindset.
CS: 100%. I think a lot of people don't think that way.
If you look at the biggest corporations in the world right now, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, to and Google, mention a few of them: they all started out with a purpose and then they monetized.
Facebook simply started as a means to make communication on campus easier between students, they didn't think, "How do we become a billion dollar company?" Everything started out with a purpose, and then they monetized.
Sadly, I find for most speakers, most small business owners, and most entrepreneurs, is their number one thing is when they go out of the bed in the morning is, "How do I make more money?"
That's not being in service to people, that's really being focused on, "How do I get more money out of people," rather than, "How do I really serve these people?"
Because, the money becomes abundant thereafter, I can tell you that.
RF: Do you think it's a cultural phenomenon where people are seeing the success of people and they're not realizing it's a 14-year road to success?
This Shark Tank culture which highlights super young entrepreneurs and highlights the people to make it— do you think it's a real cultural shift that has happened that we're facing right now?
CS: I'm not sure if it's a cultural shift that's happening.
I love watching Shark Tank, but I'm not a big fan of some of the stuff that happens on Shark Tank: the way some people get treated, how they get told that their idea is not going to do well, or that their the idea is going to fall over, or that they should just give it up and go back and get a job or whatever it is.
I'm not a big fan of the way they treat people on Shark Tank, I enjoy the show, and I enjoy the success that some people get from the show.
I think that it's interesting to watch on TV, but for me, I watch the success of the people from the show, and really, only the ones that are heart-centered go on to do a lot of great work.
I am not saying the other ones aren't successful, they wouldn't be on the show if they weren't successful.
The challenging part for me is that I think the world is shifting hugely towards more conscious-based businesses.
I've just been invited this past week to join what they call the “B Team” with Sir Richard Branson. It's all conscious-based business owners who are doing things differently around the world.
They invited me to be on the managing committee for the “B Team”, and “B Team” means— “Plan A” is profits before people, “Plan B” is doing it differently, putting people before profits in every way and form.
That's what the “B Team” is all about, looking for a “Plan B” in this world instead of being so focused on this “Plan A” of, "How can I make more money over the people."
RF: Wow, congratulations on that.
In your path, from being bullied and having that bring you to the lowest low, then you found somebody to help you with a new mindset.
I was bullied as well, and a lot of who I am today is a result of overcoming that, and I think a lot of people experience that.
Was that process a determining factor in this mentality you have about "service first", and did that tie in with the company you started at 18?
I'm curious to know, maybe a short story, of that business you started and then sold a few years later.
CS: I've always been this way.
I started a business at the age of 9 as well, and I got into that, it was a small little business and it's just been who I am as a human being!
I always liked to do good for people, I always liked people to benefit from what I'm doing and if they benefit, I'll benefit. I've always looked at that as being a huge part of service.
When I got into my own business at the age of 18, I remember doing crazy stuff at the age of 18, I was running a cabinet making company, I am a qualified carpenter.
I went out and I started this cabinet making company, and I had these local workers in South Africa working for me. I was paying them $15 a day, theses were the wages in South Africa.
We were making cabinets for one of our big chain stores in South Africa, these big stereo cabinets, and if they made zero errors on the manufacturing line that day, (in terms of not having to do the re-work,) then I would double their wage for the day, I would pay them $30 for that day.
I’ll never forget my dad saying to me, "Son, you cannot do that, just screwing up the wage market."
I said to him, "No, I'm raising the standards of the wage market to be more focused on ownership and quality than focused on, 'Let me just get this job done, it doesn't matter how I get the job done.'"
These workers, they were so loyal to me, they were so amazed, they were like, "Colin, you treat us with respect." And I would say, "Every human being needs to be treated with respect."
I don't care if you're the person that's lying on the street with the hat out because you've had some unfortunate stuff going on in your life, or you're a CEO of another company.
For me, every person should be treated with respect and sadly, I don't see that a lot in the world in many ways.
For me, when I got in that business, all the stuff going through my head was, "How can I be respectful in every way to the workers that worked for me, and the laborers that have worked for me."
And you know what— I've lived this every part of my life.
Even in my current company, if someone's car breaks down and I kind of know that they're living from paycheck to paycheck in some ways, then I'll just buy them a new transmission, or buy them a new engine for their car.
Do good thing for people. It's not about how much money do you have, it's about how many great things you did today
When I put my head the pillow at night, I think: "What great things did I do for people today?"
Not from a place of ego, but because it just feels so darn good as you go to sleep to think about the lives you've touched that day.
And sometimes, it's just giving someone a smile.
RF: Yeah, that's awesome.
Mad respect to that, and I think we can all smile more. The clarification for it not coming from an ego perspective, but coming from really just a genuine want to help people.
One of the things that I see as a common thread through speakers or people who want to get out there and share their message is at the core of this service mentality— how for you has your ability to publicly speak and communicate been a tool for creating that value and creating that service?
How much have you leveraged your ability to be on stage and communicate as part of this journey that you're going on?
CS: Yeah, I think every person listening to this should be a speaker, in some way or form.
We're on stages every single day, whether you're sitting across the table in a coffee shop from somebody or you're standing in a boardroom, doing a presentation.
Every single person is on stage. We're on stage every day. When we wake up and go out of our bedroom, we're on stage. Even when we look at ourselves in the mirror, we're on stage.
When I first launched the current business I am in, I was doing so much one-on-one work and I was like, "I really want to change this world."
One of my greatest goals in life is to reduce the divorce rate in the world. I want everyone to have similar relationship like I have with my wife, and so I said,
"Well, you know what, if I really want to change the world and reduce the divorce rate and reduce the number of failing businesses, doing one-on-one just is not the best way of doing things."
I created my own stage, created my own model for business. I got on that stage, and you know what— it's been the best thing for me we.
We change thousands and thousands of lives if not tens of thousands of lives every single year. My goal is eventually to change a million lives a year within the next 10 years.
For all those people listening to the show, it's important to understand that, yes, you can do it one-on-one, you might love doing one-on-one.
But when you get out there and you really serve people and you say, "I really want to help more people," it doesn't matter if you're doing it one-on-one on one-on-many, or if you have people working on your team with you.
I have a very good friend who is a practitioner, a massage therapist and he was like, "Colin, I want to always do the massages, I want to help people through massage therapy."
And he really did, but one day he said, "I realized when I have more massage therapists working for me, all of a sudden, instead of me working one-on-one, I have now 40 massage therapists working for me."
"And guess what— throughout the course of a week instead of me maybe seeing 5 patients a day or 25 patients a week, now between our whole team, we're seeing close to a 100 patients a week."
That's where things really, really change.
He said, "Now I'm serving a 1000 people a week. Now I am doing what I want to do, I am living to my passion of serving more people. I don't have to do it all myself"
Similarly, speaking means so much to me, because now we serve hundreds and hundreds of people every single month.
Where, if I was doing this all one-on-one— yeah, I could have other coaches working for me and they could be working one-on-one as well, yeah, but to get to million people, we would probably need to have 250,000 coaches to do that.
I just love the model of being on stage and being of service to people and using leverage and it really is to me the greatest form of leverage.
And people think, "But don't you lose the quality of what you do?"
I don't think you lose the quality, I think it depends on how devoted you are to being of service to people, and not just thinking about how to make more money from it
RF: The concept of using the stage as an amplification tool for whatever you're doing to just create that much more impact.
I want to get into some of the ways that you help impact people and I'm assuming that you're helping them to hone in on their own ability to serve.
For this point of conversation, really specifically, how would you give advice or tactics or specific modes for people to take what they want to serve and spread it on stage?
Give us some tactical ways that you help people improve their ability to amplify their message on stage?
What kind of advice would you give people?
CS: A lot of people have said to me, "You know Colin, it's about being authentic on stage."
I'm not a fan of the word "authentic", because I think that trying to be authentic can be inauthentic. The two keywords I live by are: be real and be vulnerable.
When you are real and vulnerable and it's not scripted, not so rigid and structured, you can just be yourself on stage, that's where that leverage truly shows up.
Yes, I have some structure, some outlines in what I do, for the different events that I do.
But the key thing is in between that structure, there is a certain amount of fluidity that you can just flow with everything, be real, be vulnerable, really do things on stage to serve people.
When I am on stage, I never stop thinking about the people in the seats:
"What are they thinking about right now, is this message dropping in the way it should drop in, are they getting clear on what I'm saying, are they with me?"
I never stopped thinking about that on stage and if I feel that they are not with me or they have lost the message or whatever, then I rewind a little bit and I go back and I keep on saying,
"How do I just make sure these people get the message?"
Because once they get this, and it lands correctly, that is when you get amazing results.
I've seen from many, many audiences (even ones I've been in myself,) that people have this script that they have to go through, and whether people keep up or not in the audience, they don't really care. This is sad.
They just focus on getting the message out. I'd rather get across two or three phenomenal points in absolute detail, strategies or processes in absolute detail that people go, "Wow, that's amazing, thank you Colin."
As opposed to going through 10 or 20 points that are just non-stop and people don't get any depth in anything other than just a surface or a superficial look at things.
I'm a big fan of digging deep into stuff, but making sure it really lands for the audience.
When giving a talk the key things for me are:
RF: I love the fact that you are steering away from the buzz word of “authentic” and “authenticity” because that is thrown around a lot.
I want to unpack these two things, the “being real” and the “being vulnerable”.
From a tactical standpoint, it seems counter-intuitive that there would be tactics to “be real”.
What are maybe the top three pieces of advice for people to tap into what is their own reality?
Some actual things, whether it's before the stage, on stage, to tap into being real and staying away from the scripted?
How would you guide people through that process?
CS: That's a really interesting question.
Number one, just be you.
In terms of, yes you can go and learn how to be great on stage, you can go and do some trainer courses or whatever is out there, there are lots of them out there, I run my own program as well.
I run a program purely on vulnerability, realness and putting people into presentations.
The key thing is I think just being yourself to start off with, and when you get training from other people, don't become indoctrinated with the way they say you should be to be on stage to be successful.
I don't do sell from the stage, I heat sell, not hard sell from the stage.
When I first got into this industry, people said to me, "Colin, there is only one certain way to do things, you have to create real urgency and people have to run to the back of the room and people have to sign up immediately."
"If you don't put a 5-minute time slot on it, if you let people take their time, they won't sign up, and you'll never get the conversions that you want to get."
And I was like, "That doesn't suit me, I just don't like doing that to people."
I believe, and for the listeners out there to understand this, that people buy you in the first 5 or 10 minutes of being on stage.
As you continue to go, some people buy you in the first 10 minutes, so do you have to sell hard, do you have to do things— yes, you have to create some urgency around pricin,g or what have you, to get the conversions you want.
But you don't have to do this crazy 10-minute run to the back of the room, if you don't get to the back of the room in the next 10 minutes you're not going to get this or that.
I don't agree with that, so I decided to change everything in my business from all the stuff I learned.
So my number one thing is being real.
If you want to be real, be real to yourself first. If you're not real to yourself or vulnerable with yourself, how can you be real and vulnerable on stage?
That's a really big one for me. I really looked at what I was doing, I went on and restructured my program and I said,
"If I really believe that people buy me in the first five or ten minutes, then I'm just going to keep on going. Allow people, if they want to, to join my program. They can take a registration form home, come back the next day, chat about it."
And people were like, "You're crazy, you probably don't get the conversions, you probably don't get the sales you're looking for." And I'm like, "No. In fact, I get sales that stick."
That's what fascinates me, peakers create this urgency, and 50% of the audiences run to the back of the room to make a purchase.
But afterwards, half the people drop out of the programs, because they just got caught up the urgency and crazy excitement.
I don't want that, I want people to make the right decision when they become part of a program.
That's my one tactic of really being real, it's being real to yourself, and then be real on stage.
Any other tactics I have— I've been like this all my life, I just get up on stage and I just do what I need to do.
RF: The problem is, not everybody's is as natural at that maybe as you.
What do you do before you take the stage? I think that's something where people are really missing that gap.
What is your ritual before you get on, do you do breathing exercises, do you do jumping jacks, a handstand, do you spin around in circles?
What does that look like for you to kind of prepare you for that first five minutes which is the most important?
CS: It starts up in my room, in a hotel where I am going to go on stage that morning. If I am local, then I'll be in my own home.
I do a visualization. I lie in bed, I visualize myself on stage, I feel in my heart that I am there to serve.
So I just do this visualization, I can see the audience in front of me, I can see them fully engaged.
I can visualize myself on stage serving them, I can feel my absolute connection between myself and them.
And then, as I do that vitalization, I maybe spend five or ten minutes just doing that when I first wake up in the morning. And if I'm in a three-day event, I'll do that all three days.
Then I go to the event and at the event, I will set intentions with our team, so the people that are there to maybe volunteer or our team from the office that are with me, we'll stand in a circle and we'll set intentions for the students in the audience that day.
And that's about half an hour before we open the doors for the event, and we all set intentions, the team sets intentions as well.
And then, before the event actually starts, five minutes before going on stage, I just take it really calmly.
I go back to my visualization that I did that morning in bed, and I'll just go back to it, and I go, "I'm here to serve."
And for me, that was God's guidance to make sure that I do what is required to make sure that these people that are coming in today, that are putting their trust in me, that they're going to get what they're looking for.
5- minutes prior to going on stage I am very calm and quiet. I do not want talk to anyone, and I don’t let anyone have discussions with me.
Then I get up on stage and it's not like all of a sudden this new person comes out and I'm jumping up and down and going crazy and dancing or whatever.
I go up, I am super calm, I get the audience engaged and I start to serve.
And those words go through my head, I don't know how many times throughout a course of a day. Every time I am there, "Am I here to serve?"
That's my ritual, it's not a very complex ritual, I don't do jumping jacks or run around the room and high five 50 people.
This works for me and I like to be super grounded when I hit the stage so that the people there can feel how grounded I am and that I'm truly there wanting the best for them.
Not wanting the best for me, but wanting the best for them, when they get what they want I know that I'm serving and that's when everything becomes awesome.
RF: Yeah, I think that's great. Alright, let's unpack for a few minutes vulnerability.
And again, it sounds counterintuitive to help people with tactics on how to be vulnerable.
What are some guidelines or how do you help people understand to go through that process?
Because for someone who just hears, "Be vulnerable on stage," that could mean a number of things.
How would you classify or define that for someone who is basically saying, "Yeah, I understand being vulnerable is good, but how do I do it?"
CS: It's a great question. I watch other people out there, and I say, "Be vulnerable," and they are like, "What does it mean?"
I say, "Get up on stage and really let people know some of your stories." And not the rags-to-riches, there are so many rags-to-riches stories out there, that drives me crazy.
All these people that are like, "I was so broke, and then I became super wealthy by being a speaker." Most people are so sick and tired of those presentations, and they worked for some.
For me, that vulnerability is getting up on stage and letting people know that you've messed up as you've grown.
I've said to people, "I have had businesses I had to shut down that didn't work out."
If I'm a business coach and I'm telling you everything I've ever done is absolutely successful, I'm a liar and I expect you to run from me.
The biggest learning we have is doing some of the most challenging times, so it's good for people to know that you've been through challenging times.
I get up on stage, I read out my story, I actually read out my WHY, why I do what I do.
And if you understand my WHY, I love watching the underdog succeed in all situations, why— because of my bullying.
When I get up on stage and there are so many small business owners, just working their butts off just to make a few bucks, just to get their business off the ground, I love to watch them suddenly go from zero to hero, where all of the sudden, they are making $100,000 a month and then never, ever thought that was possible.
They thought just having $100,000 a year business would be great, and then suddenly now they are making $100,000 a month.
That vulnerability comes from telling your story, when I get up on the stage too, I will tell stories, yeah, that's what I say, it's being real.
I have an event coming in January, where I get up on stage and I will just then open up and tell people about stuff that's been happening.
I’ll tell them about some challenges I might have had, some great successes I've had with clients. Even a challenge with a client that we had and what came from it. That is the vulnerability.
I think it's also transparency, people want you to be transparent, tell them that you have messed up, you do have challenges, you are just as human as they are, that you have experienced some life growing stuff, you might have had a lawsuit against you.
Sometimes they want to put you on the stage and see you as this king or god or whatever. I think that is slowly going away and people just want to know that you are human.
People just want to know that you are prepared to share stories with them because you know that those stories help them because they give them hope.
For me, when people walk into my events and they see 300, 400 people sitting in a room, they are like, "Wow, this guy is so super successful."
I tell the story, I say, "Let me tell you, when I first started out doing seminars, I had four people in the room."
And they are like, "What?" I said, "Absolutely, you have to start somewhere."
And I go, "Those four people paid $99 each, and my room rental for the day was $500."
And they are like, "Well, you were negative $100." I said, "That's the whole thing, I was negative $100 before I started."
But you know what? I knew, and I went out and I served those people, I had fun with those people, we laughed, we did whatever.
All the people I have around me now, I was doing all their jobs because it was a small event.
But I knew my purpose was to keep on building, and I knew from there I would get to 50 people, 100, 150, and keep on growing.
And, that realness, that vulnerability of letting people know that it wasn't always this way.
When you are on stage and you want to take people on a journey with you to the promised land, you have to let them know that to get to that promised land wasn't easy for you.
Because otherwise, they think it's impossible, they think, "I'll never be like this guy, I'll never be like him on stage, I'll never be successful like he or she is."
No, just let them know what it took you to get there, where your challenges were, all that kind of stuff and that's where life changes. So just be you, be open.
I was just with Richard Branson on his private island in the British Virgin Islands, I came bask and I used some of the stories from there, on stage immediately.
Afterwards— Jack Canfield, the next thing I am chatting with Jack about a certain situation, and I bring that story back to the main stage.
People are like, "Colin, you share stuff from the stage, that is so meaningful and so real."
It's not that you should only keep certain stories from the stage, I use stories all the time, from what happened in my life, my business, my fitness, my health, everything.
RF: Hearing all of that really makes me think about what you said earlier, which really sums up I think your speaking tips, it's not selling hard but selling heart.
I think you said, "I'm not hard selling, I'm heart selling." Is that correct?
CS: 100%. I am selling with heart, just doing good for people.
RF: There's this amazing ability to help people and to create this goodness and to serve.
But at the same time, you've got to go from -100 to filling the room with 300 to 400 people, to be able to amplify the message, and continue to scale for you to get up to a million people a year.
Let's transition to some tactics on how people can fill the room with 300 to 400 people, how they can monetize the message so that they can focus on the mission as well as receiving the commission.
How do you personally monetize your message? It sounds like through workshops and business growth in your business.
For someone who has a startup or has a vision— how do you help them monetize it so that they can focus on the mission and not just be so stuck on the commission side of things?
CS: Absolutely. I think that's the key thing.
When I first started out, I was selling individual courses, I had different ways to do things and sell individual programs.
And then I realized, "You know what, I need to create an amazing system."
So, I created a system of courses and programs that people come in and they join me either for 12, 18 or 24 months, and that system is very structured, very organized. I know that system where people plug into especially for the two years, they plug in, they come out way more successful after the two years.
So that's when I looked at it and I said, "You know what, let me create a system", and that's one thing I would recommend for all the speakers out there and entrepreneurs as well: if you don't sell a system then what are you selling?
Most people are so busy selling the journey, you sell the outcome and then you take people on a journey with you.
That is the most important thing for me. So for those speakers out there, whatever journey are you taking people on, remember, always sell the outcome first.
And of course, do I sell from the stage— I do, I love selling from the stage, I love helping people from the stage.
Like I said earlier, it doesn't matter what stage you're on, whether you're sitting across the table from someone in the office, or on the stage in front of 1000 people, it's still selling.
And a lot of people think that selling from the stage, there’s something wrong with it. I don't think there is anything wrong with it when you know what you are selling is doing amazing, good for people.
Some people see the audiences as credit cards and that's all they see. They see people sitting there as credit cards.
Even when I talk about events, we don't put "butts in seats", we put "hearts in seats". I think "butts in seats" is so derogatory.
We think about it differently. You asked the question of how do we fill our events.
You can use Facebook, I use Facebook, I spend whatever million to million and a half dollars a year just on Facebook ads.
That's one way of doing it and some of your listeners right now may be going, "Oh my goodness, I haven't got a million and a half dollars."
I started by getting rid of my Starbucks habit where you're spending $5 a day on buying that Starbucks coffee, or some habit that you have every day that doesn't really return your investment.
The key thing is I said, "Let me get rid of that." And I started spending like $150 bucks a month on Facebook ads. And then I started getting the results, and I just kept on growing it.
I kept putting more and more money in, and now if I had my way, I would probably spend five million dollars a year on Facebook ads. I just have a finance department that holds me back from spending more, but there is so much opportunity.
That's one way of doing it. That's a paid way of doing it.
The unpaid way of doing it is, look at your database of clients that you really have. That's my favorite thing to do.
You look at your database of clients and you figure out what industries are those clients in, especially the entrepreneurs and business owners.
The only thing you have to ask yourself is what organizations they belong to, what associations they belong to, what networking groups they belong to, what professional groups they belong to, whatever it is.
And you ask your clients to refer you to speak on the association stage. That's one my favorite thing to do.
Then they do an introduction to the association or organization, so you can speak on their stage.
I have so many of those happen at an event, when I do a three-day event I get about maybe 20 different associations referred by new students coming on board.
Those associations that come on board, it's awesome because what happens is once you have a database of clients, then you should know your top 10 markets.
Some of my top 10 clients across the board are realtors, mortgage brokers, practitioners, like massage therapists, chiropractors.
I look at my database, and then I find clients in those industries and ask them to refer us to the association.
I might ask five of the chiropractic's that are part of Make Your Mark program, and I'll say, "Can you refer us to the chiropractic college for the annual convention, we would love to speak on their stage."
And all five of them absolutely would love to do that, so they are all going to approach their college. Now the college goes, "Well, Colin Sprake must be someone noteworthy because five of our people have come in asked us."
I've asked them to do it for me, and even if they say, "No, we are not interested," whatever, then what I do is I get that five chiropractors and plus a few more, I shoot a video with them in my office, and we direct the video directly to that person at the association or the college.
And when have them endorse me and they say, "I'd love to be on your stage, I'm here with five or eight of your chiropractors that are part of your college and part of your membership, I'd love to come out and serve you."
And the key thing when you're looking at associations and you want to work with the association, the only two things associations care about are, "How do I get new members," and, "How do I keep the members I have."
And if you want to speak on association stages, address their problem right up front
So with any association I go to I always say, "How would you like to get more members coming in?" They say, "Oh, I would love that Colin."
"Great, how would you also like to keep the members you have by giving then some really good and value-based education and training?"
They are like, "I would love to do that."
"That's exactly what I do for associations." And they go, "Wow, how do we get you involved?"
Those are some of the key things and of course, when I'm at the association, I speak on their stage, I then drive that traffic of those people back to my big three-day event and that's where people become our clients.
I don't sell from association stages, so some of you might be going, "Oh Colin, do you sell?" No, I give them my three-day event.
When you make a gift from an association stage or an organization stage, they allow you to give gifts but they won't allow you to sell.
Now tell me, what the difference between a gift and selling? There is no difference, a gift has immense value, it has a price tag to it but you give it away.
When you sell, something has a price tag, immense value, but you sell it. There is no difference between the gift and selling.
I'm fortunate in the sense that when I speak in organizations and associations, I give away my three-day event. I know my conversion rates in my three-day event— the amazing hearts are coming to our business after that.
I used to charge $10,000, $15,000 to speak on stages.
This is for many of you listening, you should know your numbers inside out.
I know my backend so well that I can take that, instead of taking a $15,000 speaker fee, I know that over the next year when those people come into our program from that event, I will probably make between a quarter of a million to half a million dollars from that one event.
RF: Wow, I love the strategy of using your own members to get in front of these associations.
But when you're doing that pitch, because you know the monetization on the backend, are you doing these organizational association talks for free?
CS: 100%. I don't charge any fee. I'll say to them, "Can you pay my travel costs, my first class?"
I have a team that supports me when I am on the road as well. If I need one or two people to come with me, I ask them to pay the air fee, they pay for the hotel, but no speaker fee.
And it's amazing something like, "What is the speaker fee?"
"Yeah, I just want to give a gift." If there is no chance of giving a gift, then I charge a speaker fee. And that has worked wonders for me.
RF: I can see how that is super appealing to those associations, especially if you are addressing their issues of new members and of keeping members, and if you get more and more associations you can probably start to cross-pollinate those members of the associations, which actually delivers what they want.
CS: Exactly.
I have one student who is Onsite Wastewater Management Association, and he was actually the president for a while, and his name is Brent, he said, "Colin, I'd love you to come speak at our association." I said, "I'd love to do that."
So I go speak for his association, for these Onsite Wastewater Management Association people they are all entrepreneurs, ideal clients for us, they are all contractors.
And I go speak, while I'm there, I say to him, "Brent, truly this is a British Columbia association, there must be one in Alberta or there must be one in Ontario."
He said, "Colin, in fact, the Alberta and Ontario presidents are all here, let me introduce you."
So I got to speak on Alberta stage, on the Ontario stage and then the three of them said, "Colin, be sure to be at our annual convention and speak on the main national stage." So I got to speak on the national stage.
When I am on the national stage and I met with the three presidents of the different provinces, I said, "Guys, surely you must have a sister association that you know?"
"Oh yes, we do, we have the Environmental Control Association, you should speak on that stage." Guess what, they are here, they introduce me and then this becomes viral.
When you do great work and people get immense value, they will just keep on referring you, and we get more and more associations every single day.
In fact, we even turned some away because I just don't have the time to do them.
RF: And the topics that you're speaking on— is it all business development or empowerment for the members to basically do better work and do more business?
CS: Oh that's a great topic and I know we might be running out of time here.
The key thing is yes it is, so what I do is, we have a process when we get in an association that says they would like me to speak.
We have a check sheet that we go through and on their check sheet, there's one question that says, "Tell us what your three biggest challenges are of your membership?"
And we find those three biggest challenges and then I tailor a presentation. It could be business, knowledge, it could be personal growth, personal development.
Also, depending on the length of the talk whether it's 45 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half, maybe two hours, I will then tailor my presentation for that association.
That's why I would like many of the speakers out there to listen to us, most people are like, "I just want to do my cookie-cutter same keynote address that I've done all the time."
I understand that, but I can tell you one thing— when you start to really address things differently and look at what people's pain points are, and their challenges in an association or organization, and you address those in front of them, you will have people absolutely enthralled by what you do.
That's what I love.
I'm not a big fan of going out and being highly motivational from the stage and do a motivational presentation, people leave and they are like, "That was interesting, that was very exciting."
Because I know, a few weeks later the can't even remember the presentation never mind my name.
So I'm a big fan of them leaving with tools that they can use immediately from any presentational keynote that I do. Does that make sense?
RF: Yeah, absolutely, it's speaking to their pain points and you're not just trying to charge money for your one trick pony show.
I think that's a great way of looking at it. And it's really true to your core value, which is serving, you're serving those associations for what they need the most.
CS: Absolutely, and that's why they love to deal with us.
For me, it's been a great journey and I just cannot stress it enough.
It sounds so cliché as we get towards the end here, but I know if you go with the intention of serving, being vulnerable, being real with all your stories, about what's happening in your life and in your business and what's happened before, your health, fitness, whatever— people will gravitate towards you.
I think a lot of people nowadays, they can see through the BS, they can see through all the nonsense. Just be real every single day.
The two things I live life by— number one, always tell the truth because you never have to remember what you said; and number two, you never have to take back the unspoken word.
Once you say something or you do something from the stage and go like, "I wish I hadn't done that," now you have to overcome that.
Just remember, you never have to take back the unspoken word and I live my life by those two principles and that's what makes my life.
I live that whole vulnerability and realness part of my life, it's just who I am, I just love doing that.
For me, this is the biggest part of who I am and what I've done in my business and how we continue to grow.
I can tell you, even as I continue to grow, my biggest challenge finding people that feel the same way as me that truly love vulnerability and realness.
RF: Yeah, great sum-up.
I'm inspired to continue to serve and I am sure everybody got a ton of value out of this. really quickly before we go, you also have a podcast— tell us quickly about that and where we can find that podcast. Because, I want to start listening as well.
CS: Absolutely, thank you for that opportunity.
My podcast is called my MYM Your Business, Make Your Mark, MYM Your Business, the brutal truth of Colin Sprake.
And the podcast, of course, can be found on iTunes, it can be found on Stitcher, it has gained a lot of traction, I bring on some of my own personal mentors who are mentoring me because I believe so much that if I want to mentor others that I should practice what I preach and have my own personal mentors.
I bring my own personal mentors onto the podcast as well as I do some solo podcasts on mindset and getting your head into the game whether you are a speaker, an entrepreneur, it doesn't matter what it is
We also bring on very successful entrepreneurs who come and tell the story of their biggest challenges in life.
And what they've gone through in life in order to get where they are today. Some really tragic stories and I have all these people on.
I do one podcast a week, it comes out every Wednesday and just all that to serve people and to serve the global community, so they can really understand what it takes to be successful, whether it's in your life, your career your business, fitness, health, whatever it is, we can all be more successful in some way or form.
RF: Well everybody, exactly what he said, that was a better recap than I could have ever done.
Colin, this has been a pleasure, I'm excited to get to know you more. Maybe I'll pop in on one of these seminars and definitely, we'll see online and maybe share the stage sometime.
CS: Ryan, it has been my privilege, thank you for the opportunity.
RF: Alright, we'll see you soon.
CS: Thank you very much, Ryan.
A bit about World of Speakers
World of Speakers is a bi-weekly podcast that helps people find their own voice, and teaches them how to use their voice to develop a speaking business.
We cover topics like: what works versus what doesn't, ideas on how to give memorable presentations, speaking tips, and ideas on how to build a speaking business.
Did you enjoy the show? We’d love to know! Leave us a review on iTunes by following this link.
Popular Categories