World of Speakers E.10: Rahfeal Gordon | From local to global

So if you are looking to go to the next level as a speaker, as a writer, and we want to make sure that you're not only here for the now but here for the future — this is the interview for you.

So check it out, my man Ryan Foland, World of Speakers.

Ryan Foland: Welcome to another episode of the World of Speakers, where we find people who are speaking around the world to bring information to you about how you can do the same, how you can improve your speaking and presentation skills, and then the ultimate goal of figuring out how to monetize it.

Today we have a good friend of mine who I met in Portugal while we were speaking around the world. Ladies and gentlemen, Rahfeal Gordon.

RG: So glad to have me. So glad to be here.

RF: Well, I am glad that you're glad to have you and me too, right, that's all good.

RG: Absolutely.

RF: So Rahfeal, for people who do not have you on their radar, this is a good chance for them to meet you.

And I'm honest when I say you're one of the most humble and most inspirational people I've ever come across, and our conversations I always value.

So I'm excited for everybody listening here. Tell us where it all started, what is your story?

RG: Thank you. So, humble beginnings, I'm born and raised in north New Jersey, and I am the oldest out of four boys, no sisters.

I grew up knowing what it's like to have mom and dad in the household and things of that nature, but along the way my parents separated and my mom ended up having to take care of four boys on her own.

And in the midst of her doing that, we experienced being homeless. So we went from being in a household where you have three meals a day to literally just kind of sleeping from house to house, to shelters and even sometimes in the car.

And along the way as I got into high school, for me being the first of my immediate family to graduate from high school and go off to college.

It was a little bit difficult, but there were a lot of life lessons along the way.

But when I got to college it was a new experience and very life changing for me because I only knew specifically North New Jersey. I didn't travel so much, my first plane ride was at the age of twenty two.

But when I got to college, I kind of started to explore, but during my time of exploration as going into my twenties, I lost my brothers — one to the prison system, the other one lost his life, he was murdered, and then the other brother, he ended up leaving the state.

And so I was left by myself trying to figure out what should I do with myself, and I decided to kind of use entrepreneurship as a way to come out of poverty and to try to heal the wounds by creating this network of, not just business partners, but just also to attract people who will, along the way, become friends for a lifetime.

And so I kind of used all the lessons that I've accumulated from me going through experience as a young kid to a young adult, and try to share those lessons through entrepreneurship, and as well as being an orator around the world.

RF: Wow, it's a powerful story.

And the one thing I always tell people is that, the one thing you own is your story, and you have decided to take a positive direction and really use your experience to help influence and educate other people to pretty much avoid that or lift them up.

What is your main message of inspiration that you travel around sharing?

RG: Yes, so one of the quotes that I tell everyone is that "Your location is not your destination", and I firmly believe I use my life as the example or the embodiment of that quote.

Because it's true for anybody, it doesn't matter if you are coming from the most impoverished areas in the world to the most affluent community in the world — your location is not destination, and where you are today, you don't have to be there tomorrow, and you can make that decision.

And so my thing is to just look at everything and see where you could fill certain voids, and also where you could be the most amazing servant.

Because whether you are an orator or you are an entrepreneur, or a teacher, doctor, beautician, even a janitor, like you are a servant. You are here in this world helping someone or serving someone, whether it's do your life story or just do something that you created to put out in the market, as well as to tell a story or give a lesson on a public speaking platform.

RF: You are the embodiment of that quote, because your destination has been expanding.

Talk about your transition from your first flight in your early twenties to now.

Every time I see you, you're in a different country, speaking somewhere, it's kind of a big transition, how did that happen?

RG: Yeah, so my senior year in college, I had spent an extra two years in school. My friends always have this joke, they say you spent more time in your undergrad, you should have had your PhD by then.

So, we always laugh about that.

But my senior year, I had about four or five classes left. It was like one semester pretty much, and what would happen was all my friends were graduating, and one of my friends asked me, he says to me, "You know Rah, you're hosting all these amazing parties on the campus with your business, but you know, you got to graduate, you got to do something, you got to go to the next level."

And so there was something in me that was itching, and it was something like I wanted to see what was beyond where I've always seen as the normal, I wanted to go into the land of the unknown, and I just didn't know what that looked like, where that would be.

And so what happened was I ended up leaving school. I left my last semester, I left school, and I had this idea about why isn't there any public speakers who are young but as cool as like Steve Jobs or Jay Z, or Bill Gates, and so I said, "Why not me?"

And so when I took my fight, I thought Los Angeles was that place to be.

So I flew out to LA, I was twenty two at the time, and when I got to LA, I just traveled. I drove the car all throughout Beverly Hills, and all in the Hills, everywhere.

And my cousin who lived out there, she was a choreographer, a background dancer for a lot of the musicians.

And so she gives me a key to her apartment, and she says to me, "From this point on, you're no longer local, you're going to be considered bicoastal."

And I said, "Bicoastal?" And she said that what that meant was, "You now have a place on two different coasts, and you don't have to be confined to one area, so now when you think of things, think of everything being on a national scale."

And that opened my mind up so much.

Because here I am as a kid from the inner city, who now took his first airplane around of the age of twenty two to Los Angeles, and I get a key to an apartment, and my cousin telling me I'm bicoastal.

And so I took that and I ran with it. I mean I literally ran with it, and ever since when I got back to New Jersey, everything changed for me. My mind shifted. I started to look for other books that was you know dealing with how can I expand my business to Los Angeles, so everything was always about LA and New York.

And that's what actually propelled me to push forward to start with the traveling. And then two years later, I decided to rent out the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which is actually this month of this year makes it exactly ten years ago that I rented out the theater, and I actually sold it out; and it was on September 21st, 2007.

And when I did my lecture, that was it, I knew based upon the people that were tearing up from me telling my story, to the people that was excited about going for their dreams.

I knew that this is what I wanted to do and I never looked back ever since.

RF: Wow, I love your mentality shift from a small area to automatically becoming bicoastal, and then it sounds like that spread to an international, and I know you've done work with the United Nations, we've met in Portugal.

How important is it to have that larger perspective when it comes to your potential reach for speakers that maybe have traction in their state, or their nation? Would you suggest that having this global mentality is a key part for anybody coming up in the speaking ranks?

RG: Absolutely. And the reason why I say that is because it's all about growth, and it's all about expansion. Your story has to transcend. I think that anyone that is able to influence a small group can have the capabilities and the potential to also inspire and influence a larger group.

And the more that you expand, the more that you go into a global perspective, the more your story and more of your content becomes much more valuable, and it also gets more in depth. Because going into other countries, you also get a chance to understand how well, how connected we are.

And in the beginning I didn't realize. I would always think that, “Well, if I go out to another country, they may not understand my story, they may not understand these lessons, because they didn't grow up in my community or maybe they're not embodying entrepreneurship or leadership the way that we do here.”

But I was totally wrong. Because my first flight, actually, my first flight was to Mexico to do a leadership conference for entrepreneurship, and I literally knocked it out the park, I mean like the response was so huge, that it even shocked me.

And so that was my A-HA moment, realizing that “Wait a minute, I can go beyond just the US, I can go into Latin America and I'm going to Europe and really make an imprint, I can leave my my fingerprints as well.”

So I think as an orator, as a speaker, it's important that you think globally, but also you want to lock down your local market, like you want to make sure that where you start at, that's home base, and home base has to always be taken care of.

Something I can share is that I had an opportunity to meet Jay Z indirectly, when he was president of Def Jam.

And this young kid who was waiting for Jay Z as well, outside, he beat me to the punch, and so Jay was talking to him about what it would take for him to be a great rapper.

And so while I'm sitting and listening, Jay told the young kid, "If you want to be successful, if you want to make an impression, you have to lock down, you got to make sure that your hometown is taken care of, because if you fail in a market, in an environment that is totally different and foreign from your own, at least you can always go back home and you can re-group and you can always get the support, because everyone there knows what you're trying to do."

And so I took that with me wherever I go, I know that I'm locally influencing, but I have to always think global because at some point it will all connect the dots.

And so now I realize how important it is to be global; and plus, reuse all global tools, all the social media, even the stuff that we use, all our apps, these are all global tools and global platforms, so it's like a no-brainer to think globally, even if you are starting off locally.

RF: So I get this, I'm hearing you say lock down your hometown — no wait, I thought that had a nice little Jay Z rhyme tune, right.

Lock down your hometown.

RG: That's right.

RF: Well, the other thing I think is inspiring about what you've done is, not only you've traveled and spoken, but you're transcribing — not literally transcribing, but you're also translating your thoughts and opinions into books.

And when I met you and asked for a business card, you were like, "Hey bro, a bookmark is a new business card."

Wait, wait, you said you said the book is your new business card, and the business card is a new bookmark?

And I'm like, “There we go,” I think even I think I've been drew that one on my Instagram figures.

So tell us quickly about that, how many books have you written out?

RG: Fourteen, I got fourteen books, and I already got one done sitting in there waiting to come out.

RF: Awesome, and so how is that I guess added to your story, right? Because now you're a speaker, but you're also an author, and we can talk sort of in the third segment about how that's helped to monetize.

But just from building your brand and the value that being an author has also created, how did you decide to do that, did somebody encourage you to, was it just a natural transition?

RG: I didn't think of ever being an author. I always thought that writing a book was just too much, it was a lot of work, and a lot of time — it was time consuming. So I kind of just left it in the back of my head.

I had a TV show deal and I ended up losing it because I got injured.

But before the time of me losing this TV show deal, I was always going back and forth to Los Angeles.

And so there was a young woman by the name of Tova who said to me, "You got an amazing story, and I think that because you can't do this TV show, this may be the great opportunity for you to speak, but not only speak, but also to complement it with a book."  

So I was like, "I don't know, this book thing, I've thought about it but it seems too hard."

And so her thing was, "Just write a page a day, and just think of different things and topics that will be inspiring to other individuals."

And so I would do that and that was like my first book.

And because the way that I wanted to be marketed, she didn't have the financial capability, so she showed me how to actually start my own publishing company, which I did back in 2006- 2007.

And from there, every year pretty much, I've been publishing a book.

And it's been interesting because I always would assume that this is my last book, and every time I say that, a couple of months later I got an idea, because I traveled to a particular country or this particular conversation is inspiring me, I'm like, "Wait a minute, there's no book on this? We got to do a book on this."  

And I'm always writing. I love writing. I always have a journal. I write in my journal almost every day, or when I have the opportunity to.

So writing for me is so beneficial because when you are out and about and someone asks you for a business card and you give them the book, it's something about the book, it's the content that's in it, it's showing like the work and the effort put in.

Something about getting a good book, like one of my favorite books is like Good to Great by Jim Collins. Imagine meeting Jim, and he's giving you like, "Hey, here is my book," you're not getting just his contact, but you're getting this knowledge and this information that sometimes schools don't even provide for you, or are you getting someone's experience that you can actually use and knowledge that you can use to help you get to the next level.

So for you to share your information along with you contact.

So sharing your content and your contacts, it's being a great servant, it's being a great orator because there is nothing like the written word, and the written word will never go out of style, it's something that has always documented generations.

And as an orator, as a speaker, you have to be aware that when you leave out of a room, you leave, but your word should be still there; and sometimes the book can be that representation for you even when you're not there.

RF: I love it, that's great.

Let's transition into the part of the show where we get your tips and tricks for speaking.

I love how you say "an orator" — is oration a word?

RG: I think we can make it one.

RF: If you had a chance to meet with somebody, and they were looking for advice on how to better share their message from a mechanics standpoint, right — what are some of the best tips you have?

Maybe the top three that we can work through, that you feel are high impact, at most any level of speaking?

Or are there little nuances that you help people to really revolutionize the way they share their message?

RG: Absolutely.

Having a book is one way to do that, because based upon the topic, I think it's important to know what you are good at, what you're good at speaking about.

If your topic is leadership, pinpoint is it going to be global leadership, is it going to be executive leadership, whatever it may be, you need to own it.

Whether you are one creating a blog that literally talks about that, so maybe twice out the week, you're sharing some updates or some great resources and references to that particular topic. You may be sharing your thoughts about it and then also kind of backing that up with some solid references.

So that's one way of doing it: blogging.

You may want to have your own website and it has your own blog there, using your social media to kind of share your bits and pieces with your friends on social media, whether that be Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter.

Another thing is also with your book.

Books are really good in terms of also attracting clients and people to bring you to conferences, because people get the chance to actually see what you're about.

They get the chance to read through whether it's you telling your story, or if it's you giving advice and certain methods and tips for that. So a book is one, blogging is one.

Also just being a guest writer on a lot of other platforms, or being a guest speaker at other events, that will be able to highlight you to an audience, because as a speaker, the most powerful marketing tool is word of mouth.

You can have the most amazing marketing tools, such as flyers., You can have the most amazing website, whatever the case may be, but when you go on that stage and you speak, there is always between three to five potential bookings there, and if you're not hitting it out of the park, no matter how awesome the images look, you will not get booked.

So it's important to make sure that you know your content, know it well, and share your time. I always say give ten percent of your time.

So for me, I do at least one to two engagements pro bono for particular platforms that I know that probably don't have the financial means to book me to speak, but I know that their audience will benefit from it.

I know that there may be individuals in that audience that may be able to book me the way that I deserve, at whatever the price is in the near future.

RF: Okay, so that's was a lot of awesome stuff.

I love that we're asking a speaking tip and you are first transitioning to writing, and what I'm hearing is that by deciding what a book is that you'd write, or blogging, or creating consistent content, really it's helping you focus on what you want to be speaking about.

RG: Correct.

RF: And I love that, because oftentimes, you think like, "Well, what am I going to speak about", and if you don't translate it to paper, it's hard to share via social media, talking points, right?

Because in your head, so you're taking these talking points, putting them into actual blogs or writing that gives you a chance to get feedback from your target audience.

It really is a foundation of leaving more value as a servant when you're speaking.

And I think listening back to how you were intimidated by a book, I believe most people are intimidated by a book, but this idea of a little bit every day can make the book monster go away, right?

RG: Yes, absolutely.

You want to also think about, like I'm always big on filming yourself as a speaking tip, like you definitely want to make sure that wherever you speak, that you are getting recorded.

Just like any athlete, when you are done speaking and you're home, you want to critique yourself, you want to make sure that your body language is proper, you want to make sure that you know when you are — they always say that it's one thing to speak but your body is the exclamation point to your sentences. If you are speaking, how your body reacts is the icing on the cake.

You want to make sure that your appearance is proper.

You want to make sure that the way you give eye contact and how you interact with the crowd, that you are observing that.

Each time that you speak, you want to be better than your last keynote.

And that's very, very important. You want to be able to highlight those tips. When you have like a video blog, if you're not good at writing then do a video blog. Do a two minute or under video blog about your content and you can transcribe it and have the text on your video as well.

But you want to be able to speak to your audience the way that they can consume it properly.

You want to make sure that you're sharp with your speaking, because image is also important with your speaking.

RF: All right, and again I love this how the speaking tip is to watch yourself speak, which gives you the ability to polish, and it's not saying that you're good or bad, it's saying how can you strive to be better.

And I think that's huge, because when it comes to speaking, it's one of those skills that gets better each time you do it, and the conundrum is that you've got to do more of it to get better at it, but a way to accelerate it, you're saying, is to videotape yourself and actually sit there. Get some popcorn and watch it.

RG: Absolutely. Watch the movie happen.

RF: You are the star of your own movie.

And when it comes to writing, some people aren't comfortable with writing, and they are maybe thinking, "Well, I want to speak". Perfect example of an easy low hanging fruit is to do some sort of a video blog with your thoughts, two minutes or less, and the market will validate whether they like that.

And that's a great thing about sharing on social, and I've seen you do a really good job with this where you're sharing snippets, or sharing ideas, and you get feedback, and then that feedback creates better content for you when it comes to it.

RG: Absolutely, I'm big on that.

At the end of the day, it's not about me, it's about what my followers, my customers want, and so I just want to make sure that I presented in the best package possible.

So I'm always big about, I would take thirty people and send them like the title of my next seminar or my next book, and say, "Hey guys, what's the top three that you guys like?"

Whatever the majority is that leans towards whatever the title, or the cover, or the color, I go with that.

Because again, it's not about me.

It's about how can I serve them better with the content that I have.

Because it's all about this packaging, like you know the content well, as a speaker you know what you are going to talk about, no one knows your story better than you, no one knows your content better than you.

When it comes to how are they going to consume it, it's better to know; do they like milk shakes? Do they like soda?

Your thing is to kind of make sure that you put that content in the right cup possible, so that the majority can take it down as quick as possible.

RF: I love that visual of an actual cup that a consumer has, and before pouring in whatever you came to serve, asking what they want first, go back in the kitchen, make it, bring it back out on stage and serve it up!

RG: There you go. That's all you got to do.

RF: Alright, one thing I want to share with everyone, and I want you to elaborate on how it fits into your brand, in your success, is the fact that you are probably one of the most stylish speakers up there!

You look so sleek. You rock in a three piece suit, everything shined to the buff every time I see you when you're on stage, and and I've seen you up on stage!

Maybe we'll be in our regular clothes, we'll be hanging out and all of a sudden, you come out of like there's smoke behind you, and the lights dim and then it comes on, and everybody turns around and like “Who is it, no, what is that, oh my god,” and you're just like...you got your swag suit and you're just like everybody's like, “damn.”

It shows in all your pictures online, and the ones that are you in front of all these amazing places, people in cars and things; but talk to me about your conscious choice for your image when it comes to speaking?

RG: I have this thing.

I love Bruce Wayne, and I love James Bond, and I love this whole superhero thing about being Batman.

I think that it's important to know that your attire is your uniform, so for me, I love feeling like Bruce Wayne as an entrepreneur, but when I speak and when I present to the crowd, I'm Batman because my power is my content, it's my voice, it's the way that I connect with people.

And so I just love it, I just love feeling, it's all about, will you feel comfortable and what makes your swag sharp?

There could be moments where some people may love wearing Converse blue jeans and a t- shirt, and that's their swag, and that's their style; but it has to make sure that it brings — for me, it's like it is all about what makes you so confident that even if you trip up, it doesn't even matter, it's not even going to hold you back.

I love that way of me saying okay “I'm about to be James Bond, when I go on the stage, I'm going to lay it down, I'm going to lay down right, I am going to make sure people walk out of here inspired and ready to go all the way in.”

So the uniform is what gets me so ready, so that when I go on that stage, I don't even want to say anything, you can feel it.

Uniforms are very important.

If you think about a lot of the speakers, you can take for example, I am back again on entrepreneurship, but Steve Jobs.

His uniform was simple sneakers, blue jeans and he had the black shirt.

It was that simple, but that was his swag, that was him.

You knew that he was comfortable that way, and when he presented to the crowd, he knew what he was presenting, it was awesome.

But it's all about what makes you comfortable and what makes you feel like you're a superhero on the stage, and that's my thing, because at the end of the day, it's how do you serve and what do you serve them in.

RF: Yeah, that's right, because you can have the same message delivered from a standpoint of confidence, versus lack of confidence.

Or what you're saying is get out there and put your actual superhero outfit on, whatever that may be, and it just is one less thing to distract from your performance and one thing to leverage.

You realize you’re onstage, and we've all had those moments where you're “I'm here,” and you're like almost conscious of that moment, but it's like you look down and all of a sudden you're a three piece suit and you have that superpower, the speaking superpower hero uniform.

RG: Oh yeah, oh yeah.

RF: It really ties back into that brand, and when somebody sees you speak, there's just inspirational message about humble beginnings, but visually from someone who is just straight up pimped out classy James Bond style. I really think it elevates the way people perceive and receive that message.

RG: Yeah, and you got to remember to that especially visually.

Two things, it's just human nature that people tend to prejudge because first thing they see is not words, they see clothing, they see facial structure, they see hair, they see all these different colors.

So one thing is for sure, it's that when people look at pictures, pictures are worth a thousand words, so it's important to know that when pictures are being taken of you, and they're being shared through social media.

You want your image, you want your visuals to reflect the content or the position which you hold, that you're trying to one: get booked for, or two: you want the crowd to already know what you're about before you even say a word.

Because again, eighty percent of communication is nonverbal, so when people look at pictures, look at videos, and they even may put your video on mute, can they tell that you are really confident in what you're saying?

Can they see that the crowd is enjoying your high fives, and you're pointing the fingers at them, and you guys are smiling?

Even when you may have the coolest Star Wars or Harry Potter shirt, and it's like, "That's cool he gives a speech," There's got to be things that connect with your brand.

Again, I look at myself as a superhero.

I want to be one of the greatest superheroes in the world, and my power, again, is me speaking.

When I go around the world, I want to be able to make sure that what I wear connects to that culture and lets them know that I'm a part of them just as much as they are a part of me, and know that I love what I do and my uniform reflects that.

RF: Yeah, and it's respecting the audience by respecting yourself, and it really shows.

Alright, so this third part of the show, I always like to find out what you know and what your experience has been making money.

One thing that I really like that you just said is your willingness to give back no matter what, that ten percent of the time, because you have to be realistic that not everybody has the money to afford paying anybody.

If you have that hard line, you might come across as a little harsh, but this idea of no matter what, even if you're trying to get paid, always dedicate some time back to organizations that have individuals who can really have an impact from your message.

I'm going to say that's a precursor to this, because the idea of monetizing your message — sure I'm all for it, but I think that it's always about the mission, before the commission.

I think that you exemplify that.

For those people that are just chasing the dollar, I think people are going to smell you.

I'm curious: your tips or some of your personal experience of how you've gotten from not being known to now people reaching out to you, requesting your speeches all over the world, and actually having them pay for the travel, honorarium, all that kind of stuff.

What can you share with us?

RG: One thing I can share is that if you want to donate your time to an organization or a small business or a group of individuals, I think it's important that if you do it pro bono that you get as many testimonials from the audience, as well as a letter from either the coordinator or the director, because it is important.

If your content is really good there should be many, many people that will be able to vouch for that, and it's better for other people to talk about you rather than you talk about yourself.

If you have a website, if you got a social media blog, you take those individuals who submit it, their testimony whether it be online or they send it to you or email.

You post it up. Like you highlight what they got out of your content, out of your speech.

What is also good is that the individuals who brought you in that probably couldn't pay for your honorarium, but I'll always say if I do do something pro bono, I always ask if they will be willing to just cover my travel.

That way I can get to and from, because your time is valuable so even if they are not able to pay for your fees, but they are able to take care of your travel expenses.

Another thing is that it's always good, again because I said it before, like the word of mouth.

It's important to also when you are responding back and someone sends you an email saying “Thank you for coming out, it really inspired the group,” you should always ask for referrals, are there two or three people who may benefit from what you have?

Because a lot of times birds with feather flock together.

There are directors of various organizations that are connected to each other. If they are organizations that are getting funded by corporations, that may be a connection to your corporate engagement, which will help you get to whatever, it gets you to what you are trying to do.

That's important, and you want to always, always stay connected, I'm a firm believer in keeping the relationships open.

Once a year I do a recognition event or mixer for all my clients, so everyone that has booked me for the year of 2017, I invite all the leaders out to come out for brunch with me, just to say ”thank you” and let them know what the vision is for 2018.

That way they know what you're doing and how they've been a big help to your development and your growth.

Because again, relationships are very important, no matter if it's speaking or not.

But you want your crowds to grow, and you take them along with you.

For example, I'm doing Carnegie Hall and the reason why it's filled up and pretty much sold out is because all these individuals who I have been connected to for over the past twelve years, are still with me.

A lot of those individuals who were in high school and college are now running organizations that I couldn't get to when I first started and they're now the directors of it, which is crazy.

So now that they've been connected with me. They now have been coming like, "Oh well, I work for such and such at Wall Street, I can actually give you access and be able to pay your fee, and I remember you when you came to my college, my freshman year," and it's like, "Wow!  And you're now an executive".

These are things that people have to be aware of, to nurture your followers, be able to constantly share content and develop them, so that they can grow with you, and you can grow with them.

RF: Wow, that's super powerful.

That idea of a once a year recognition, and not only thanking them, but letting them know the vision for 2018, I think that's very key.

One of the things I'll always remember about our first conversation in Portugal was your passion for the concept of time.

This idea that, "Look, we have a limited time here, so we've got x amount of months until next calendar year, that means there's x amount of days; take out the weekends, take out this, that means this—", so now, you've got me thinking towards like, "Oh my gosh, there's an actual countdown."

But that consciousness of the fact that there is only a certain amount of time left, has really helped me to think of things in buckets, "Right, what is left in 2017? And what is coming for 2018?"

I love that idea of verbalizing  “Here is my plan for 2018”.

I imagine a lot of people just blend together, it's summer- winter- fall- spring, but I commend that, and I can feel that element in having an actual yearly event to thank everyone who's already had you on stage.

RG: Yeah, it's important.

Again, like I said before, even like with leadership, we can all claim ourselves to be leaders, but you can't be a leader without followers.

It's very important, you can't be a speaker unless there is an audience.

You have to always appreciate the individuals that took their valuable time to come to a room, or come to a camp, or come to a classroom to hear our story or hear about our concert, and write notes and take value, and says, "You know what, you are my teacher, you are my orator for this moment."

And so just to be able to stay connected to them and you say, "Hey, how are you doing, I see you are implementing this particular method that I shared with you."

It's so amazing, it's beautiful, and it's important.

Because when you do that, you know your audience, your followers, your tribe, they will realize that you're being authentic and you really genuinely want to help them.

So to see someone who started off in high school or college, and then for the orators and speakers they have actually got someone that's like the next prime minister or president of their country to be, was once a young kid in their seminar.

In twenty years you will be like, "Wait a minute, they're using the quote that I gave them",

and they're quoting you, you that's a beautiful thing to be excited to see.

Kind of have a great imagination. Say “What if my seminar actually sparked the imagination of a president, a prime minister, of an olympian.”

And so that's super awesome to think about and knowing that we have the capability to do that as speakers.

RF: And I love, love, love, that's three loves, the fact that this is such a long term view.

You're using words like ten years down the line, twenty years down the line.

I really think that if you're in the speaking game, and you're trying to rush through this, or you're trying to just get paid now — it's not a realistic goal.

It's the power of being in front of someone who is in high school or college now, to then build that relationship over the next twenty years. I think your audience realizes that you are there for the long haul.

And that kind of attitude helps you to get these larger honorariums or be sought out for it, because you're not going anywhere.

RG: Absolutely, and that's the thing, because it doesn't come overnight, but once you get there, you're there.

RF: Talk to me about any advice on landing international gigs.

I believe a lot of people still think “that's a bucket list”, but there might be a lot of mystique or mystery around it. Are there any tips of how to start really seeking international speaking gigs?

Because that helps to take speakers to the next level, when someone is willing to bring you very very far from your home base.

Are there any things that you found have worked, or that you helped share with people to get them more stage time internationally?

RG: Yeah, so for one, there are tons of international organizations that cater to a particular topic.

Whether it's leadership, entrepreneurship, whether it's, you know, marketing, business, United Nations, anything with global influence, whatever your topic is, you should literally just research and I mean constantly do research.

Pick a country.

Like for me I remember one thing that I did was, and this is funny, people do not use Facebook in all of its full capability.

You can go on Facebook and literally just search international leadership conferences, and just make a list. Just list them all out and find out who their coordinators are and send out your press kits, just send out your information and see who is willing to take a leap on what you have.

For me, that's all I do.

I'm all about the research, so I pick a country that I haven't been to, and I do my research.

I try to find individuals who I can connect with through social media, we start conversations, we start Skype meetings.

Then I ask them are there certain organizations that aren't really present on social media online, that are really a dynamic and would like to bring me out for whatever reason.

Literally the dialogue starts there; it's really that simple.

It may take time, but if everything is right, it's unbelievable.

Two years ago was one of my biggest years of traveling, and the majority of it was because we did research for two months for the holiday season, November and December.

All we did was just find all the countries that we wanted to go to, the organizations that dealt with leadership, and we just kind of pitched to them, we got all the information.

A lot of them already had their speakers, but they were like “Oh, we'll look for you for the next year, the following year.”

Then the next year, it was just a lot of invites, and to some we had to say we can't do it because we were already booked for a whole two weeks in Spain, and then we had to go back to Norway, and then we went off to Germany to do a film.

It's all about researching.

Know exactly a topic, find organizations, connect with universities and colleges, schools that are within that particular area, and if they are your core audience, then reach out to them directly.

But you got to know who your audience is, what's the age, demographic, what's the topic, and then see if there are any international organizations that are connected within your country.

Whether it's the US, and see that same organization has chapters in other countries, and so that way you can tour with one cut, with one organization and do all their chapters in other countries.

So you don't even have to really worry about finding the organization, the five companies.

You can find one organization that has twenty chapters in twenty different countries, and see about creating a tour for that.

Or figure out if they would be willing to do a promo tour, and they can take care of your travel and expenses, so that you can at least do the groundwork.

Be there for a year and just kind of figure out what the lay of the land is, what the culture is like and how they receive you, so that the following year you can now go back and pitch yourself the pricing or with a fee.

RF: Yeah, and what I love about that is it's accessible to anybody who wants to spend the time and effort in doing the research, right?

RG: Correct. It definitely is.

RF: I always like to say that successful people, they don't do what everybody else cannot do, successful people do what everyone can do, but not everybody does. And this is a great example of that, and successful people being successful international speakers.

RG: Yes, agreed. And it's the same line, it's like what you just said is what I always keep in mind is that the great ones took advantage of what people took for granted.

And so you look at what you want to achieve and you ask yourself where am I, and what do I need to achieve? So it's like literally looking at the last step, the final step, like it was step ten, and work your way back.

If I wanted to do twenty countries, “Ok. How do I get the twenty countries?”

What twenty countries? Name them.

What platforms I want to speak on? Name them.

What organizations? The companies actually that are focused on that particular platform. Name them.

Who are the individuals who are leading those particular conferences and events? Name them.

What are their contacts? Name them.

And so it's all about the details.

Once you have that all laid out, the next thing is to take your EPK, take your press kit, take your videos, your blogs and you condense it to one simple, effective package, and you send it out to everyone at the same time.

Then what will be will be.

So whatever comes back to you — and that's where you start off, you say, "Oh I've pitched to ten, but only two responded," then you make sure you intensify your work and your access with those two, and you work it from there.

But it's all about knowing your platform and pitching to them.

You'd be surprised, there are so many tech companies, tech conferences, platforms for everything, and being in a global generation, global community, it's so much easier to go out.

It's so exciting for someone, no matter what country you're from, to be invited to another country.

Because what's being foreign is exciting. When I go to another country from the US, they're like, "Oh my god, I love when you speak English because the American accent is amazing,” so I think that it's beautiful because you get to exchange stuff.

So definitely research, definitely have a condensed, very simple but effective package and you send those out.

I do think that it’s important to have videos because when you are speaking, when people are pitching about wanting to be a presenter, the first thing an event planner is going to ask is, "Do you have any videos?"

You want to make sure that your videos are solid. It doesn't have to be extra fancy, they want to see what how you speak and how you present what you're speaking about.

And it's that simple, every time you are speaking have a camera on you, and you chop up that video into two minute pieces and post them, title them something, Five Tips for Leadership, Seven Wisdoms for Entrepreneurs.

You just put them out there.

Then you tag all the entrepreneurship organizations from other countries and magazines, and if it is some good content with a good video, it will be shared, and somewhere down the line someone will actually reach out to you and request you to come out to their country.

RF: Rahfeal, this is a bunch of audio golden — just gold piling out of a bag, this is amazing.

RG: Yeah, I am just dropping jewels.

RF: Yeah, jewel dropping, dropping like it's hot. For people who want to learn more about you, watch your videos, bring you to speak to their organizations, where is the best way to contact you?

RG: So best thing to do is go to my website, which is rahgor.com, and all of my social media is at Rah Gor, so again it’s at R-A-H-G-O-R, and you'll find all my tour dates, you'll see my videos, you'll see the tour schedule, how to contact me, and all the different projects that will be coming up and about in the next couple of months, and into the new year.

RF: Awesome, well I don't have to tell you to sit down and be humble, because you are. Keep inspiring, I'm always excited to keep following your story and I hope to see you again soon and keep making a difference, man because you are teaching the next president, you are teaching the next thought leader and your message is super inspiring.

Don't be the chicken, be the hawk.

RG: I appreciate you, thank you.

RF: Alright, we'll talk to you soon buddy.

All right, and that's a wrap, we'll see you at the next World of Speakers podcast!

 

A bit about World of Speakers

World of Speakers is a weekly podcast that helps people find their own voice, and teaches them how to use their voice to develop a speaking business.

We cover topics like: what works versus what doesn't, ideas on how to give memorable presentations, speaking tips, and ideas on how to build a speaking business.

Connect with Rahfeal Gordon:

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