Speak and Grow Rich

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Summary: Chosen as the most valuable book ever written for speakers
Review: "Speak and Grow Rich" (Prentice-Hall Simon Schuster) - Book by Lilly and Dottie Walters, considered the Handbook of the Professional Speaking Business. In 1996 this book was selected in an industry wide survey - by over 200% - as THE most valuable book ever written for professional speakers. This book has launched thousands of careers

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Summary: Speak And Grow Rich
Review: "This is a must book for any speaker! I had the older version and I just got the new one for two reasons: The old one was dogeared and had alot of notes in the margins, plus the updated one has the new stuff in it!

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Summary: This Book Will Not Help You Become A Better Speaker . . .
Review: . . . but it will help you get booked. If you are looking for a book on professional speaking techniques, this is not the book for you.

Speak & Grow Rich is about the business of speaking: How to get booked, what to charge, why you need a book, how to become an expert, how to work with agents and bureaus and much more. It is absolutely essential if you are entering the paid-speaking business.

No one gives more than Dottie and Lilly Walters. These great speakers are the most generous people in the business. [e-mail].

Rating:
Summary: This Book Will Not Help You Become A Better Speaker . . .
Review: . . . but it will help you get booked. If you are looking for a book on professional speaking techniques, this is not the book for you.

Speak & Grow Rich is about the business of speaking: How to get booked, what to charge, why you need a book, how to become an expert, how to work with agents and bureaus and much more. It is absolutely essential if you are entering the paid-speaking business.

No one gives more than Dottie and Lilly Walters. These great speakers are the most generous people in the business. [e-mail].

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Summary: To Dottie & Lilly: You two are terrific!
Review: A week or so ago, I received Speak and Grow Rich, from Amazon.com and just today used the authors' feedback form ideas, including the gift, and got excellent comments that didn't just go off into the ether as verbal feedback does. The fact that the resulting feedback is from most of the audience and are in writing give them "staying power" for later use. It also got members of the audience thinking about and giving me their suggestions, in writing with the audience member's name and contact information, on what other groups to which I should be speaking. The other ideas in the book are impressive also, but this experience with the concrete results from the use of their suggestions for the feedback form had a strong, and tangible impact on me. I very much appreciate the time and effort they gave in writing their book. The feedback form ideas alone are worth the cost of the book.

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Summary: The Definitive Guide to Speaking FOR MONEY NOT FREE
Review: Are you a great speaker? Do you shine at Toastmasters or when you do a corporate presentation. Do you have a life-story to share or a cause that you believe in enough to want to influence other people with your thoughts? Then you may be a candidate for being a public speaker. Dottie is the BEST. I took her workshop several years ago and within days got my first $$$ speaking engagement. Why speak for free when you can get money for sharing your stories? Don't need the $$$ -- then give it to a charity or start a nonprofit foundation. What's so great is that Dottie and Lillet (her daughter) are in the trenches day after day helping and guiding some of the top speakers in the world create a business, not just a speech. She shows you contracts, forms, and reference material necessary to being an 'infopreneur' in the 21st Century. Attend one of her regional workshops if you wish. ......

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Summary: "The Best Public Speaking Guide For Proactive Promotion"
Review: Dottie Walters and her daughter Lilly are the gurus of the public speaking business and they have created a wonderful book; and I dare say it is the best book on how to promote yourself as a public speaker. Public Speaking is a profession of tremendous integrity, so who better to write about it than Dottie. Dottie is one of my success mentors and this book has played a huge role in helping me to be a successful speaker and consultant. Because of her I am a better PROMOTER of myself.

Dottie Walters has been a proactive promoter of the Speakers Bureau Business and was the founder of Association of Speaker Bureau Owners. Dottie covers every aspect of the speaking business as a proactive thinker, using smart thinking, system thinking, futuristic thinking, and positive thinking. Dottie is the hallmark of a proactive thinker because she is highly motivated, achieve her dreams, recognizes opportunities, overcomes failures, has exceptional values, and promots good change. If you are truly seeking the kind of success and abundance that makes your life 100% livable - you must get this book. Some of the ideas she promotes are found in SUCCESS BOUND, another book built on learning how to live a proactive life by eliminating the fear of failure.

I recommend that you get Speak and Grow Rich, even if Public Speaking is just a spark of an idea in your mind. It will begin to give you the ability to see that with the right topic and the enthusiasm that comes with a definite major purpose, that you can be a confident public speaker too.

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Summary: The Ultimate Book on the Speaking Industry
Review: IF YOU ARE NOT FAMOUS: Assuming you have a passion about speaking for money. Take speech classes. Join Toastmasters Int'l. If you think the prime goal is to develop high skill on the podium. You have fallen into a serious trap. Your message or unrivaled expertise is the critical ingredient. Don't look for this book to define your subject if you found it by reading this book it would be mundane and shallow. The authors don't know what is going to be hot until it sells then they will help you sell it through their speakers bureau. After you have developed a message and some good skill it is time to find service groups and speak as much as you can for free. After giving meaningful speeches for free about 50 to a 100 times, you may be ready to start charging a modest fee. After you are speaking about as much as you can handle then you can start looking at raising your fees. After you have given about a 100 speeches for a fee of $2000 or more per hour, then a speakers bureau such as the authors' might consider working with you. The ethics of a speakers bureau is clearly at or below that of an executive search firm. Normally, successful speakers work with several speaker bureaus. If one bureau lies to a client to capture a fee or commission from a speaker or from another speaker bureau, the author expects you to stay out of it in all circumstances. One bureau will do anything to kill a deal if they are not involved-much like an executive search firm. The goal is to open up a slot where it can then offer an alternative and earn a fee.

Given the authors expertise it seems likely that the speaker is well ahead if they knuckles under to the speakers bureau. Even at that, there is considerable risk if you surrender to the wrong speakers bureau. A contract with a speakers bureau is complex and full of pitfalls if you use more than one bureau-as is the case for most speakers. Despite all the problems, you need to understand the speakers bureau and work honestly with them.

The book is full of how to run the business of being a speaker from you first serious non-fee speech to your ultimate level of success-high or low. This book is very valuable for carefully evaluating what you are getting into by going into the speaker business.

It should be obvious that an hour of quality speaking material that will be competitive involves hundreds of hours of work and potentially a long gestation period. This investment requires a topic that can be recycled over and over to many audiences.

IF YOU ARE FAMOUS: If you are famous and your life finds you with available time, you really should consider speaking for good money. If you are famous you don't have to be particularly good on initial speeches but you do have to promptly develop speaking skills and commitment. Once you have made the rounds the repeat engagements have to be sharply better. The following comments about three famous people are my own (not the authors). A lot of people thought Ronald Reagan (prior to his political career) was washed up because acting was no longer going to be a significant part of his life. He found that he had a message about America and the world and began a speaking campaign. He was getting paid big money, many assumed it was for the money. It was also about love of country and humanity and he went on to very positively change the world. Gen. Colin Powell did not see speaking for big money as degrading but saw it is chance to get to know Americans better and sharpen his thinking. His future-facilitated by public speaking-is exceedingly bright. One comedic actor between television series, put it this way. "As long as people are holding big checks for me all over the country , I think I should go pick them up."

As a famous person you have the upper hand over the speakers bureaus and may even use an exclusive agent-not speaker bureaus (except as brokers). Even at that just using the speakers bureaus, may be the smarter move. You will need to know a lot about the business of speaking even if you hire help as well as a good agent. This looks like a very valuable book for that starting point. It is the book's highest calling.

FOR THE CASUAL READER: This book will teach you how the fast growing speaker business is growing in leaps and bounds and how it may be changing with technology. The book is well organized and easy to read. One can not help but wonder why these very successful authors tolerate so many misspelled words. The words that are real words but in the wrong spot and can't be caught by a spell checker are easy to chuckle about and then forget. But why the many that are not a word under any circumstances? Is the book just a little business tool and not that important to the author?

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Summary: An Absolute Must-Have for Your Professional Library
Review: Kudos to Dottie and Lilly for producing such a fantastic book! The text of this second edition is so rich, filled with real-life examples you can refer to time and time again. I was in the process of producing some new marketing materials for my training firm when I received the new edition. By reading the book right away, I escaped making some costly mistakes. This book is my speaking coach on paper...Kimberly Stansell, entrepreneurial trainer & author of "Bootstrapper's Success Secrets: 151 Tactics for Building Your Business on a Shoesring Budget" (Career Press).

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Summary: Exceptionally complete and helpful to both beginner and pro
Review: Not always is a suggestion from a friend to read a book received with enthusiasm. But "Speak and Grow Rich" was everything promised. An inciteful and relatively complete primer for both experienced and beginners in the professional speaking arena. The book laundry lists helpful hints when, where, how, why, who, and what to do if you want to be the featured speaker on any diaz whether free or for fee. From photos to press kit -- tapes to training -- "Speak and Grow Rich" has prepared me to enter the race to be considered for your next speaker. A glossary, index, and list of vendors adds to its value