e-Patient Dave

Power to the Patient!

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Speaker Academy #5: Knock it out of the park

Kent Bottles
Kent Bottles MD (from ConventionConnection.com)

If you’re new to this series of advice to speakers, read the initial post, and it’ll help if you follow the chain.

It’s been three weeks since this series went on hiatus. This post is the fourth to come from notes taken by Randi Redmond Oster. And this post springs from advice given to me by Kent Bottles MD, whom I mentioned yesterday on pricing. (That’s him speechifying, at right.)

In addition to counseling me about price integrity, Kent’s the one who taught me that it’s my responsibility to find out what’s on the organizer’s mind – which often involves helping with the exploration. As I said in #2, “two thirds of good speaking is good listening.”

The consultative approach

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Prices must have integrity

Yesterday in A turning point for patient voices I said that the market for patient voices is maturing, leading to a need for two new initiatives:

I said today I’d present the pricing policy, but first I need to establish a foundation:

Prices must have integrity

I’m no student of formal pricing theory, but I do know this: Some list prices are real, and some are cheesy – fake prices that nobody actually pays:

  • Some list prices are inflated so the real price can be advertised as “40% off!!”
  • Some list prices are a starting point for negotiation (e.g. car sales)
  • etc.

Why do some marketers play these games? Because consumers tend to like thinking they got a discount. That’s fine with me, but it’s not my approach. I prefer to deliver value and charge accordingly. Prices must have integrity, and discounts must be based on rules that you actually enforce.

Why it matters

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A turning point for patient voices

Patients Included badge

In February I announced that after three years of struggle I’d reached breakeven. This has made new things possible – for instance, an office outside the home. It also makes possible a new policy for pricing my speeches.

This is a significant moment, so I’m breaking this into two posts: today the background, tomorrow the new policy.

Prologue

It’s been an uphill climb. Like many before me I’ve had many requests to donate my time: “We’d love to have you speak, but we don’t have any money” (or hardly any).

I’ve had to insist on being businesslike so I wouldn’t go out of business. This led to some interesting discussions, e.g. my most-commented post ever, on this site: “Should consumers be regulated?”

I want to do everything I can to foster the growth of this movement, both by changing the business climate and by helping others step in. So there have been issues to think about and manage, both on the business dimension and in the progress of the “movement,” if I can call it that.

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Speaker Academy #4: Cognitive dissonance

Aesop's Fox and Grapes from WikipediaNext in the series Speaker Academy, which started here.

After a day off for Trevor Torres’s Q&A on selling, we resume with the third of Randi Oster’s takeaways from our phone conversation.

Randi’s an experienced business person with speaking experience, so her #3 observation is not necessarily what a newbie would prioritize. But it’s an important point, as you’ll see. I’ve heavily edited Randi’s notes. Randi, thank you for your work; your words per se aren’t here, but this lesson exists because of your work:

Competent patients can cause cognitive dissonance. The speaker must deal with it.

“Cognitive dissonance” is a geeky psychological term; all you really need to know is this:

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Speaker Academy #3: Q&A on selling (Trevor Torres)

Trevor Torres
“Diabetes Evangelist” Trevor Torres

Lessons one and two were about understanding the world into which you want to speak, using text written by Randi Oster. We’ll continue with her tips #3-5 tomorrow but today I’ll step off that theme to answer some questions posed in a comment on Lesson 1 by Trevor Torres, a 17 year old hotshot “Diabetes Evangelist” who’s just started doing speeches. (See his first speech video* on his site.)

Here’s Trevor’s comment, with my answers embedded:
_________

The main thing I’m interested in right now is getting more speaking gigs! To that end, some questions:

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Speaker Academy, #2: Understanding the industry

Straw island on Lake Titicaca, from http://www.oocities.org/mr_rev2001/titicaca.htm
From http://www.oocities.org/mr_rev2001/titicaca.htm

Yesterday’s post closed with “no matter how compelling your story, it ain’t about you, and it ain’t about me: it’s about understanding your audience and their concerns. That means there’s work to do. Take along a lunch.”

Soon we’ll get into specifics of how to present yourself to your market (the people who might hire you). But first, it’s essential to understand the world those people live in. This post continues the notes Randi Oster took from our call last week.

Again, my comments are indented italics, like this. (The picture at right is explained below.)

Lesson #2: The healthcare “ocean” is huge and diverse. Learn what matters to each audience.

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