Everyone, please welcome back to the Speak to Scale Podcast…Arel Moodie! Arel joined me on the podcast way back in Episode 59, where we talked about how a mentor can help you become a successful speaker. With Arel as my own mentor, I can attest to that.

He’s built several 7-figure businesses based on speaking and spoken to over 750,000 people all over the world. Arel returned to the podcast today to talk about his newest venture that helps speakers market themselves with data: Talkadot.

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RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Three marketing problems speakers face

If it feels like a nightmare to collect testimonials, grab feedback, and pinpoint leads from your speaking audience after a presentation…that’s because it is. You’re only one person, and there’s only so much time you and your audience members have after your talk.

Problem #1: Connecting with valuable leads after a talk

Imagine you’re done with your talk, and once you step off the stage, you have a crowd of people waiting to talk to you. Which is great, because you know your talk resonated with them! But it’s not so great when you get a long-winded audience member who keeps you from meeting everyone else. Including a high-quality lead who’s ready to book you.

It would be great if we could organize that crowd of people, moving people who want to book us to the front of the line, right? Not to say that everyone else isn’t worthy of your conversation, but you don’t want to miss out on leads because you were unavailable!

Problem #2: Proving your worth as a speaker

There are two categories of speakers: celebrity speakers and content experts. With celebrity speakers, the fact that they’re on stage in front of an audience is what’s important. What they’re saying in their talk? Not so much.

If you’re a content expert like me or Arel (and you most likely are), your messaging is what separates you from everyone else. But how do you prove to others that you’re worth their investment, since you don’t have star power to back you up?

Problem #3: Using an email list to your advantage

If you happen to be an email marketing genius, more power to ya. But for many speakers, and especially new speakers, building a successful email list is not in our wheelhouse. Which is a waste, because it’s a valuable tool for sales growth.

After every successful presentation you deliver, you stand before an audience that knows, likes, and trusts you. They’re willing to hear more from you. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could get them to subscribe to your email list right then and there?

How Talkadot works

These three problems that Arel spoke about in our interview — that I’m sure you have experienced before, too — led him to co-found Talkadot. Talkadot is a speaking tool that not only helps you capture important data from your speaking audience, but also lets you use that data to market yourself and book more speaking opportunities.

Here’s how it works. With Talkadot, you get a QR code to add to your speaker slide right before the end of your presentation. (Arel recommends sharing it right before so you can end your talk on a more impactful high note!)

Audience members are taken to a feedback form so that they can leave a quick testimonial while you’re still on stage and while your talk is still fresh in their minds. And if you’re thinking, “What the heck do I do while people are typing on their phones?” then now’s a good time to make notes on your talk or chat with the host for a couple of minutes.

After filling out the form, audience members are presented with CTAs, which are dependent on their responses. If they mentioned wanting to do business with you, they can book a meeting or call. You can even link a freebie and direct them to follow you on social media.

Talkadot solves these problems for speakers:

Getting testimonials from audience members
Getting information from audience members who are ready to book you
Collecting email addresses
Collecting marketing materials to book more engagements

What Talkadot data can do for speaker marketing

You’re done collecting all that precious information from your audience with Talkadot. What now? Talkadot helps you use that data to market yourself and get booked.

Lay out the facts with speaker reports

Talkadot generates a report every time you speak, which is so helpful! The first thing Arel does himself with these reports? Share it with the event host or organizer. He uses the data to show the results of his presentation (and their investment) so that, hopefully, they’ll book him again.

You can also use these reports to pitch yourself to other hosts or organizers. Your report is proof that you had an impact on your audience. Not just quantitative proof, like “100% of people in the audience found this talk valuable,” but qualitative proof in the form of your attendee testimonials.

These testimonials are also great for sharing on social media, too. How many times have you gotten a wonderful testimonial but didn’t have the time or energy to turn it into a pretty shareable graphic? Talkadot does it for you.

Oh, and don’t worry. Your audience members’ personal information is kept confidential in reports. Only their kind words are shared!

Get important feedback from your audience

Finally, data you collect with Talkadot can help you improve as a speaker.

Quick story: When I first started speaking at schools in 2006, I was old school with feedback forms. Like, I passed out paper and pen. Years later when I was still speaking at schools, I noticed my presentation about my best friend just wasn’t landing with my audience. I didn’t know why.

Until a kid asked at the end of my talk, “Um…why didn’t you just call an Uber?”

Aha. These high school kids didn’t understand that I had a flip phone, not a mini computer in my pocket. There was no Uber. If there was, everything would have been different! I wasn’t setting the scene properly for them, and that’s why the story wasn’t resonating.

The kicker? I had stopped asking for feedback. And because of that, I had no idea that I was missing the mark. No matter how far along in your speaker journey you are, no matter how close to perfect you know your presentation is — never stop asking for feedback. Talkadot makes it easy, so you have no excuse, my friend.

What Talkadot data can do for speaker marketing

Shout out to Arel for coming back to the podcast! It was a pleasure talking to him about Talkadot, data, and speaking. Make sure you tune in to the entire episode to hear it all. Oh, and take a second to fill out Arel’s own Talkadot and let him know how he did on the podcast!