Travel Masters Podcast
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Travel Masters Podcast
Navigating Media Opportunities - Dr. Richard Kaye PART 2
Unlock the secrets to mastering pitching and publicity in the travel industry as I sit down with Dr. Richard Kaye, a savvy expert who shares his indispensable strategies for becoming a sought-after podcast guest and landing media coverage. Discover how being proactive, utilizing your LinkedIn profile, and crafting open-ended questions can transform your approach and elevate your visibility. Dr. Kaye emphasizes the importance of a seamless experience for both hosts and guests, ensuring alignment with audience interests while gracefully recognizing when things aren't the right fit. His insights provide practical guidance for any travel professional looking to enhance their presence and make meaningful connections.
Dive into the art of impactful sales with our focus on "closing with implied consent," a strategy that simplifies decision-making for your clients. Learn how to harness publicity and maintain top-of-mind awareness through speaking engagements and strategic use of platforms like LinkedIn. As we wrap up, Dr. Kaye shares actionable tips, encouraging you to implement at least one piece of advice to enrich your travel business. Join us for this episode packed with empowering strategies, practical advice, and a touch of humor.
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Welcome to the Travel Masters podcast. We're here to help travel advisors and travel agency owners get what they really want from their business. I'm Morris Sims and I'm going to be your host for our podcast. I'm an ex-chemical engineer turned life insurance agent. I got to tell you selling life insurance was a lot more fun for me than being an engineer. After a few years, they asked me to teach other people how to do what I was doing. And well, long story short, we wound up in New York City for 20 years. That was quite a change for a young Alabama boy.
Speaker 1:I retired after 20 years as the vice president and chief learning officer, where my team and I trained over 12,000 agents and their managers to be independent business owners and sales professionals. Now I'm not one to stop working, so I started my own business and I was blessed to find a sweet spot with travel professionals that I was able to help. Now I've got several travel agency consulting clients and I'm the co-founder of the Travel Masters Learning Community, where we provide opportunities for travel professionals to become more effective, efficient and to get what they want from their business. On this podcast, I'm going to be interviewing guests that I believe are going to have a message that can be of help to you. Our travel professional community and I'll do some solo episodes as well with some other stuff that I really think can help you in your business. So, with all that said, hey, let's get this party started with today's episode. What do you say?
Speaker 2:Welcome back. Let's rejoin Dr Richard Kay and Morris as they continue their conversation from last week. Thank you, so let's talk more about this pitching stuff. So you're going to pitch the producer. Find out who he or she is, send them a letter, send them an email, make a phone call. Hey Morris, this is Dr Richard Kay. Last week, I sent an email to you about the potential for me to be, whatever it is, your guest on your program. Don't ask did you get it? Don't ask what you think about it. I'm wondering what our next steps would be. Just be proactive. You're in the travel business. Do you want to go to Spain or do you want to go to Australia? Not, do you want to take a trip? Never ask a question that could be answered. No, by the way, always ask a question that is open-ended so your prospect can fill in the blanks. There's another whole program I teach on negotiation. By the way, make it easy for them.
Speaker 2:Do not send them every link you've got TikTok, linkedin, facebook and all these they're not going to look.
Speaker 1:Kevin Patton. I never look. I never look. Dr K. I get all kinds of stuff. It's got all these links to all the social media. I never click on any of that stuff. You're right, You're absolutely right.
Speaker 2:Make it easy. Give them a website. Oh, by the way, LinkedIn LinkedIn is valuable. When I teach this live or even in summits, I have a PowerPoint slide that shows someone's LinkedIn profile and I gray it out, of course, but just their name. If someone wants to do business with you, they're going to research you. They want to know that you're real, and one of the things we do with documentaries for very high end people and my wife referred someone to me. She's not a candidate, she's got 376 followers on her Facebook page and no LinkedIn profile when you are going to research.
Speaker 2:So the point here is make your LinkedIn profile. Again, I don't do this. I'm not selling you anything. Don't hire me because I won't do your LinkedIn stuff. I don't do this. I'm not selling you anything. Don't hire me because I won't do your LinkedIn stuff, but make your LinkedIn profile attractive so that it shows that you're a real person when you pitch. I'm going to go back to what I said. Your job is to make it easy for the host. Send them four questions that they can ask you. Now I sent four questions to Morris and Morris. I want to so acknowledge you because you didn't ask any of them and the brilliance is because Morris is following the thread of our conversation. So, but you want to make it easy for the host. You'd have to be an idiot, and a very special kind of idiot, if you can't answer the questions that you've written.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Isn't that the truth? And, Dr K, I've got to tell you I've got everything that you sent me right here in front of me and I did use it to know where I wanted the conversation to go. But yeah, you're right, you know I haven't necessarily read anything off of what you sent me, but it helped me and made it easy for me to be ready to do this podcast. It's amazing the difference that I feel doing a podcast when I'm prepared because the guest has shared with me what's important, what they can bring to the table, and the other way, where I haven't been able to even find the person on LinkedIn or anywhere else. And we get to this point and I find out that your subject matter is absolutely so far away from my audience that thanks, but no thanks and I'll shut it down.
Speaker 1:After 300 and some odd podcast episodes, I finally learned that it's okay to tell folks sorry, this isn't going to work, See you later. And I don't even record those shows anymore. I used to record them and leave them in the can, but I don't even record them anymore because they didn't make it easy for me. They didn't help me to do what I needed to do. I'm not saying a whole lot today, Dr K, because I'm too busy taking notes. Go right ahead on. I've got more blank pages here for you.
Speaker 2:Okay, thank you, no-transcript. If it ain't easy, it ain't going to work. By the way, if you want to get in touch with me, get on my calendar. Talk about publicity dot com. It's very easy. Talk about publicity dot com and I have a gift for you. Should have mentioned that up front, but stay around for a couple more minutes because I got something for you. Maybe I'll give you a couple of different things.
Speaker 2:I've been in this space for 20 years. I've got a lot of stuff. So here's what not to do when you pitch. Don't be a pain in the ass. Don't call them up next week and say, hey, did you get my stuff? What do you think about it? I never ask what someone thinks, and I'll tell you why. I'd rather know what you feel than what you think. You can change someone's mind. You can change their thinking. You can't change their feelings. That's real. And then you ask the proactive question how would you like to proceed? And when you're selling a vacation or a trip to someplace, how would you like to proceed? Do you want to go by cruise? Most of us, you business. You know the different cruise ships. I only know a few of the ones that I've been on. So if you tell me, do you want to go on the Princess or Carnival, I don't know. I'm the consumer. Make it easy for me.
Speaker 1:It does. It makes it so much easier, dr K, it's the way I teach I teach sales. It does. It makes it so much easier. Dr Cass, the way I teach sales, and that's exactly the way I teach it is. Here are two, three options. Which one do you think is best for you and your family? Richard, yes, that one's great. Well, in order to make sure you're going to get the room that you want, we need to put a little deposit down. What credit card do you want me to put that?
Speaker 2:on See. Ladies and gentlemen, what Morris does is brilliant, it's proactive and I said earlier, never ask a question that can be answered. No, would you like to put a deposit down now?
Speaker 1:Really, that's the question you want to ask. Yes, you're right.
Speaker 2:Which card do you want to use? Yeah, very good.
Speaker 1:We call it closing with implied consent, and it is the way that I was able to make a living as a salesperson when I finally learned. That's how you talk to people, by making it easy for them. It's much easier for me to say I like number two than to say, hmm, I see your proposal, I'm not sure what I like and what I don't like, and I've got to now think and research it or think about it. You've given me three options. Which one do I like? That's an easy choice. Which credit card do you want to put this on? That's an easy choice. Much easier than saying, yes, I want to go on this trip and I want to do that thing, and I want to do this, and here's the money to do it. Closing with implied consent has been basically what I have taught for years and what I used before that, because before I was taught that process, I was making it hard on people and they weren't doing as much business with me as when I made it easy on people, dr K.
Speaker 2:And again, ladies and gentlemen, listen to what Morris is saying. His words are different, the essence is the same. Make it easy. What was that credit card company so easy? A gorilla or an ape man or something can do it, whatever it was. By the way, what many salespeople do doesn't make a difference whether you're selling vacations or you know cars. Too many options. A confused mind does not buy. Amen. Make it so simple for someone to make a decision so that the only possible answer is yes.
Speaker 2:And again, talkaboutpublicitycom. Be glad to explore how I may be able to serve you. So I'm going to give you a couple of things. You're all in business, otherwise you're not listening to the show. This is not what you do, lying on the beach on vacation. We're all in business, morris is, I am. You're listening to this.
Speaker 2:Leverage any publicity that you've got, anything you've got, even if it's an article in a newspaper, even if it's a story in the local rotary, whatever it is. How do you leverage it? Richardkcom, r-i-c-h-a-r-d-k-a-y-ecom forward slash leverage. K-a-y-e dot com forward slash leverage. You're going to get a short video that tells you how to take anything you've got and use it.
Speaker 2:Give people reasons to remember your name. It's called top of mind awareness. Morris, you and I don't have this budget and I seriously doubt anyone listening does. Coca-cola is the most widely consumed beverage soft drink beverage on the planet Two years ago. Their average is $5 billion a year in advertising. Don't believe it? It's called top of mind awareness, so you want your name out there without being obnoxious. And again, we talked about not pestering the hosts and keep in touch with your cohort Regular newsletters. Ask them if you can send them newsletters. You want them to just and don't bombard them every day. I'm trying to remember, and I I can't pull it out, but something like a trillion emails never get opened every single year I believe that and yeah, and the reason?
Speaker 2:you look at the subject line, you say no interest to me. There's another gift for you, richardkcom1000. These are a thousand proven, effective email subject lines. You're going to look at some and say, well, that sucks. And you're going to look at some and say, wow. And you'll look at some and say, I'm going to change a word or two, make it your own. And there's nothing for sale. You've got nothing to sell you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you want publicity and you want to reach out, we can talk about getting you in the newspapers, getting you a book, getting you on live stages, and that's all leverage. In March I'll be speaking on another live stage. Remember those? We used to do those things. If you reach out to me, I also have something else, I just don't remember the URL. If you want to get out and speak, you want to be on summits, you want to be on programs, I created a one sheet called the top 10 reasons people listen to Dr Richard Kay worksheet called the top 10 reasons people listen to dr richard k. I don't, I don't even remember I sent that to you, mars. Now why top 10? David letterman popularized that a couple of decades ago on his television program.
Speaker 1:People would tune in just to hear the top 10 yeah, and see who was going to do it that night and see who's gonna do it.
Speaker 2:Do it. And you may say, hey, I'm fairly new at this, I've only got four things. Well, make the top four reasons and then I turn that into a video. And again, I just don't remember the URL for that at the moment, but if you reach out to me I'll get it to you. It's an example of how to say I'm the real deal, I'm out here, I'm speaking, and, morris, a few moments ago you said your potential guests. You look at their LinkedIn and they're just not there. You want people to know that you're real. If you can do it yourself, do it. You can't hire me to do it, you know, or hire someone else to do it.
Speaker 2:Let people know that you have influence, what you want and this is what we help people with and we call it ICE influence, credibility and exposure. You must be out there. I was working with a woman from the UK a month ago. She says I don't do anything differently than anybody else. Uk a month ago. She says I don't do anything differently than anybody else. Well, janet, we've got to change your perspective. So people say I choose you. Travel business is crowded, probably more crowded than the chiropractic space. Why does someone want to choose you? Talk shows, radio television, summits, newspaper articles, best-selling book stand out from the crowd. Marth, have you got any questions? Anything that you want to know that I haven't covered? Dr K, I have three large pages of notes K.
Speaker 1:I have three large pages of notes.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:I learn more from doing these podcasts than I ever give in doing these things, but I've got to tell you I've never had a guest where I took three large pages of notes, thank you. Thank you so much for being on the Travel Masters podcast. It's been a pleasure to meet you and a pleasure to interview you and chat with you about this very important subject, because I've seen so many new salespeople and, especially in the travel business, so many new travel advisors, that they come into this business and say, well, look, morris, I don't want to be a salesperson, I don't want to be salesy. And I have to explain that we're not being salesy, we're simply helping people get what they want.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:They want a great trip, they want a wonderful trip, they want an experience. And our job is to help them get what they want. It's not to push or pull or manipulate anybody, it's simply to help people get what they want. But you don't even get that opportunity unless you get out there and meet people. And these are great ways to get out there and meet people. Again, dr K, you've done a great job here today, brother. Thank you so much for being with us and I hope you'll come back again sometime.
Speaker 2:Let me know, mara. It's been a pleasure. Ladies and gentlemen, listen to this guy. He knows what he's talking about and I want to amplify something that you said. Buddy of mine from decades ago, zig zigler, said if you help, you can get anything you want. If you help enough, other people get what they want. Show up and serve, amen.
Speaker 1:Just show up and serve amen, amen, brother zig had it together, didn't he? Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. Dr k, again, thank you so much for being on the travel masters podcast. Have a wonderful day and I'll see you again, because we're going to do this more than once. Thank you, morris, thank you dr k, take care, bye-bye, and everybody else out there. You guys, hey, take one thing, take two things that you heard from Dr K today and make a commitment to implement it. Make a commitment to do something, because you can listen to all of this great bumping of gums that we do here on podcasts and it's fun while you listen. But if you don't take it and go implement something and, folks, I got to tell you this particular show was so rich with things for you to go take and implement that are easy for you to do I'm excited if you can't tell. Have a great week. I'll see you again next time right here on the Travel Masters Podcast.