Judy Carter doesn’t like to brag, but she did write the Bible. No joke, she’s the author of The Comedy Bible.
But it’s her book, The Message of You: Turn Your Life Story into a Money-Making Speaking Career, that teaches readers how to use speaking to increase their business and income. It is the best book I have ever read on the business of public speaking, bar none.
In a recent phone interview between paid speeches, Carter was generous with advice.
"Get people to love you within 17 seconds," says Carter. "An audience will judge you as a speaker within those 17 seconds. To win over a crowd, it is crucial you joke about something they could be judging you about such as your age, sex, weight, hair or lack thereof, or accent."
Carter helped a business executive with a thick Indian accent to open his talks with the phrase, "I have been in this country for 20 years, but I used to have an accent."
Carter began her career as a teacher, became a standup comic, became a high-paid speaker, and also branched into teaching comedy and professional speaking.
"I went from being a standup comic, getting heckled, and sharing a Motel 6 to being a paid speaker, speaking to an appreciative audience, and staying in fancy hotels with spa soap," says Carter. "In 2008, however, everything changed. When the recession hit, the motivational speaking market went downhill as companies could no longer justify hiring a pick-them-up, make-them-laugh speaker. Rather than entertainment, they needed someone with a message, someone who would deliver take-aways that improved efficiency, reduced sick days, and boosted their bottom line."
Seeing the writing on the podium, she switched from being a "lighten up humorist" to speaking on the topics of stress reduction and leadership. She continued to use her comedy material to keep the audience laughing, but added specific action steps to make her points create lasting results.
For years I have recommended Carter’s The Comedy Bible to speakers who want to get booked more. Do you need to be funny to speak? Only if you want people to hire you. In The Message of You Carter teaches readers you also need to develop a moneymaking message. The message also needs action steps for the audience.
"Developing these steps is essential if you want to have a moneymaking message as a motivational speaker," says Carter.
Here are some tips to help you find your action steps to be paid to speak. This is excerpted from Carter’s book The Message of You:
- Make a list of your successes.
- Next to each, note your starting point, i.e., bad health, living with your parents, directionless, whatever.
- Explain how you got from your "mess" to your "success."
- Find three things you did differently that worked.
- Give a name/label to those three things that got you to success as those are your action steps.
"I had a student who was a greeter at Banana Republic," says Carter. "Or, as she said, 'I'm just a greeter.' Don't we all do that? Poo-poo what we do because we are bored with our day jobs? But, I helped her reframe her occupation from being a greeter into a being a Customer Service Expert and Master of First Impressions. She did a 5-minute set about her observations of customers' behavior at a local Banana Republic meeting. She was not only funny but insightful. She was then asked to speak at their national meeting. Now, she is getting paid to speak on this topic."
