Dear fellow entrepreneur,

It's been said that life is a "game". That explains why it's so tough to get ahead nowadays — how can you win when the rules keep changing?

Take professional speaking. When I joined the National Speakers Association back in the last millennium, the rules were straightforward — study hard and become an expert in your field, hone your platform skills to perfection, and give lots of free speeches to Chambers and Rotaries... until someone offers you money to give a speech for their organization. And then you're off and running.

And, once upon a time, that was probably the path to success as a professional speaker. But not any longer! "It’s a busted model that no longer works!" says Randy Gage in the Foreword to The Professional Speakers Mastery.

Randy continues "if you build your business on getting individual speeches, you will starve." And "if you want to be successful today, you have to build your business model around the concept of a professional practice."

And that's why I wrote The Professional Speaker's Mastery — to explain these new rules, and to show how you can succeed and prosper in this new age of social marketing, print-on-demand publishing, webinars, and e-commerce.

Take a look at all the "insider information" packed into The Mastery and you’ll quickly discover a wealth of essential insights to guide you through the labyrinth of confusion that threatens to scuttle the careers of many speaking professionals.

You’ll discover...

Every truly professional speaker knows that the real secret of a successful career does not occur on the platform — it takes place in the speaker's office. A successful speaking career is dependent on an efficiently-organized speaker's office.

Sure, you can delegate many of your administrative functions to an assistant — or, as is becoming increasingly popular, outsource to a virtual assistant. But what happens when your virtual assistant doesn't know beans about the speaking industry? I'll tell you what happens — you lose business!

From invoices and expense reports to detailed speaker's contracts, The Mastery shows you (or your assistant) how to organize your office and tame the speaker's dreaded enemy — paperwork. Want to avoid lawsuits? Get it in writing, using the right contract, customized just for you! (Learn more about how you can make more money by running your speaker's office more efficiently in The Power of Paperwork locus of The Mastery.)

You already know that the best thing you can do for your business is to develop a business plan. Unfortunately, the worst thing you can do for your business is to develop a business plan for a non-speaker's business. You need a step-by-step guide to developing a working business plan that's designed specifically to meet the unique challenges faced by speaking professionals.

Getting back to virtual assistants, a terrific way to introduce a new assistant to the unique challenges of the speaking industry is to give them your business plan. But it needs to be a speaker's business plan, not some cookie-cutter template-driven business plan that's written for "ordinary" businesses. Learn more about writing a business plan that truly reflects your one-of-a-kind speaker's business in Mind Your Own Business.)

What's worse than pricing your speeches too high? Pricing them too low, of course! This locus of The Mastery shows you how to determine the best fee or price for all your speeches, products, and services. You will also learn the awesome power of "running the numbers" so that you're never caught off-guard (or over-budget) by a runaway project again.

What's the one topic that's absolutely forbidden for someone to broach from the platform at NSA? Religion? Politics? Sex? If you attended the NSA convention in San Diego, you know that those previously- verboten topics are all fair game now. No, the one topic that NSA forbids anyone to discuss is setting the best fee. But The Mastery isn't an NSA publication, so I explore — at length — the art and science of determining the best fees and prices for your presentations, products, and services. THIS ONE SECTION IS EASILY WORTH THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO YOUR BUSINESS!

Mike McKinley, past president of the National Speakers Association, once declared about the speaking business — "It’s all marketing!" But which marketing? Are you marketing your business using the latest in cutting-edge capabilities, or are you hopelessly mired in the outdated marketing activities of the last century?

The Mastery explores some of the innovative marketing capabilities that you can use to promote your speaking career... without costing you an arm and a leg. (Learn more about doing million-dollar marketing on a penny-ante budget in Without Marketing, an Awful Thing Happens – Nothing!)

What’s better than making money by speaking? Making money by snoring, of course! OK, maybe people won’t pay to hear you snore. But they will pay you money — lots of it — while you snore... but only if you know the secret of creating a powerful passive income stream! (Learn more about multiplying your income without working harder in Making Money While You Sleep.)

Stand up for your rights! (Your copyrights, I mean.) Don’t lose your rights to your intellectual property because of carelessness, neglect, or ignorance.

From a simple rights-assignment contract to a contract granting your clients permission to video broadcast your program via satellite, The Mastery is sure to save your proverbial assets. (Learn more about protecting your copyrights in Covering Your (Intellectual) Assets.)

Let’s face it, we’re speakers. We do lots of other things too, but we’re known as speakers. So, when you’re on the platform, do you behave like a professional? Do you do everything possible — both before and after your engagement — to make your program a smashing success?

In this locus you’ll find the lists, checklists, documents and guides to make every speaking engagement a successful one. (Learn more about ensuring that you triumph on the platform in Speaking of Success.)

But that's not all. The Mastery also comes with a valuable bonus CD! You’ll discover lots of productivity aids on this bonus CD to make your life easier. For example, you’ll find all the contracts and agreements explored in The Mastery on this CD — in both pdf format (for quick, professional printing) and MS Word format (for easy customization).

You’ll also discover a variety of software productivity tools including the Open Office business productivity suite (this package alone can save you hundreds of dollars), the Audacity audio editing package (so you can record and edit your own audio files for CD production, podcasting, and so on), and other useful software applications.

But that's not all. You'll also discover essential room-traffic signs, as well as some easy-to-implement programming scripts that will make your websites more attractive, more secure, and easier to maintain. (Learn more about the powerful productivity tools that can save you time and money — packed onto the bonus CD!.)

And that's it! Now, I'll admit, The Mastery isn't for everyone —

• It's not for raw beginners in the speaking industry — unless you want to seriously shorten your learning curve and kickstart your career to profitability as quickly as possible.

• And it's not for established speakers who are already making a nice living as professional speakers — unless you have other people in your business (assistants, virtual assistants, marketing assistants, webmasters, etc.) who would do a better job for you if they understood what it is that professional speakers actually do.

The Mastery is for serious professional speakers (and their support staff) who understand the importance of investing in their career development.

What's your next step? Simple. Order your copy of The Mastery today, and you can immediately boost your speaking career to new levels of profitability.

I developed The Professional Speaker's Mastery to help professional speakers achieve unexpected levels of profitability, and I'm very proud of what I've produced. Take a look at it and see how The Mastery can help you.

As always, in all things, I wish you every success! Jim Barber

P.S. — I forgot to mention that your investment in The Mastery comes with a one-year guarantee of complete and total satisfaction. That's right. I'll give you twelve full months to explore all the great ideas and suggestions in The Mastery. I'm so sure you'll discover a wealth of essential tools, tips, techniques, guidance, and assistance, I'll give you your money back if you're not absolutely delighted — no questions asked. (Click the ribbon for full details.) So why wait? You've got nothing to lose... and a successful, profitable career as a 21st century speaking professional to gain! Order your copy today!

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