Quote: “It’s great that you love what you talk about, but here’s what you should love… You should love what it does for the end user, for the audience.” Victor Antonio
We talk about focus a lot at Speaker Launcher and how it helps to build your speaking business. But have you really given much thought to why and the results that being truly focused can bring? On this episode of The Wealthy Speaker Show, we’re thrilled to welcome Victor Antonio to share his ideas on how to stay focused for the duration of your speaking career and the benefits that will inevitably transpire.
Victor is one of the most dynamic speakers on the subject of sales influence and persuasion. He is the author of 14 books on sales and motivation. His most recent book “Mastering the Upsell“, focuses on how you can increase your revenues by selling more to prospects or existing clients. He is also the founder of the Sales Velocity Academy, an online sales training platform with over 60 courses.
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Jane Atkinson: Well, welcome everyone to the wealthy speaker. Podcast. We are thrilled. You are here listening today because we have a treat.
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Victor Antonio: Victor Antonio is here to talk about the power of focus, welcome to the podcast victor. I can't believe it's taking this long to to have you here. You have been around this business for a long time. Welcome to the show.
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Jane Atkinson: I have been hearing your name from people all over the years many, many times, and then the last time somebody said, Oh, yeah, he sent me to your book, or he told me, actually, I'm gonna I'm gonna get to this that that you told him what to do and how effective it was for him. But And then he told me to go and get your book, and
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Jane Atkinson: when when that happened, I was like, why have I not had Victor Antonio on the show already like? Come on, so thank you for being patient with me.
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Victor Antonio: We're here. Let's make it happen. Let's go.
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Jane Atkinson: I appreciate it now for those people who maybe don't know your story. Tell everybody about how you got into speaking.
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Victor Antonio: Okay, so here's here's the the thumbnail sketch. By the way, I I don't know if you know this, Jane, but I have a a documentary called the Motivator
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Victor Antonio: released in 2,008 free up. It's free on Youtube. If you type in Victor Antonio, the motivator, you can hear the full story, but here it is the Quick club. So my family's originally from Puerto Rico. My mother had like a fifth grade education. So they got. They moved to Chicago. They were poor, poor, poor food stamps, government cheese, powdered milk, the whole story. We live near the community, green housing projects. If you know what I mean? my mother was like. Learn the language, go to school, get the education, get to go.
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Victor Antonio: good job. So I have a background in my Bachelor of Science Electrical engineering and I have an Mba start out in corporate America as an engineer working for different like defense companies, telecommunication companies. Eventually, when in the sales. Why? Because I'm a capitalist. I like making money offering value. So that's who I am. And so eventually, one day I was present sales and marketing for a 420 million dollar company.
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Victor Antonio: and one day I called it quits May ninth, 2,001, 3, 48 Pm. To be exact, I told my boss I said, I'm out of here. I I didn't want to do it anymore. Jane. I wanted to like, do my thing, which is like, be a speaker, and I've had dreams for being a speaker. When I first saw Zig Ziggler Circa, 1993 he came to Minneapolis.
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Victor Antonio: and I saw him on my one day. I want to be that but I didn't do it right away, so I joined toast masters. and became very good at speaking, and believe it or not, I recommend toast masters to everybody. There's 2 things I tell people to do go join toast, masters, get through the 10 speeches and read Jane's book. I'm not joking. I'm I'm not joking, I said. Those 2 things do not pass. Go, do not collect your 200 bucks. Do you do that.
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Victor Antonio: and
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Victor Antonio: fast forward in 2,001. So 93 to 2,001 that was kind of traject. I kind of held that dream, so to speak, and then, you know, I was doing well, Jane, I was making great money.
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Victor Antonio: you know, in the company. But I just couldn't do it anymore. I said, I want I want to do the speaking thing, and I just jumped into it like an idiot. I jumped into it without knowing what the heck I was doing, which is where I found your book.
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Jane Atkinson: So you you had a a heck of a big job how many people were under your department?
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Victor Antonio: So let me see, I was first of all as Vp. Of international sales. So we actually lived in Argentina. I ran all of Latin America. We grew that business from 14 million to 98 million. And I had about maybe 60 people under my purview to grow that revenue. when I was present sales and marketing we had about I I remember the number, Jane. I'm guessing 40, 50 people under me, and we were just
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Victor Antonio: we're running efficiently, you know, because it was a lot of people's equipment. We just had to manage it. And so those are big jobs. I'm very proud of that background because a lot of speakers have not done the job
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Victor Antonio: in this case selling, and then became speakers. I've I've I've gone through it. I've carried the bag. I've been in the account executive position. I've been in the Vp. Position and the CEO position. I know the slings and arrows that they take, and so when I moved into sales, it was very natural.
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So for people who might be coming out of a big job into professional speaking.
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Jane Atkinson: What do they need to understand? What's the you know? Obviously, you don't have the big team around you to say, do this, do this, get the job done like, talk about your early days with it. You and one other person who was in your world. You want the you want the blood and guts, don't you? So I'm gonna give it to you because it was like this. So I quit my job right?
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Victor Antonio: Thinking, jumping into speaking is like turning on a switch in the room right no, so I hardly write. I hardly. You recommend. Do not do what I did. Do not follow my example, because I just burned the boats, and I mean I I should have thought about my burning. So what happened was, I quit.
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Victor Antonio: And then I realized I said, You know what if I had to go back and do it again, Jane, here's a tip I'd get to people who are in corporate America or have a job is that I would have. I jumped into like motivational speaking right away, because that was kind of the dream. What I should have done is I should have leveraged the contacts I had.
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Victor Antonio: and jumped into Mayor more like sales tech sales, you know, cause that's more of a natural kind of you know. a turn off instead of a radical jump over to motivational speaking. So if I had to go back and do it again, I would have just thought about it more. I would have build my content like I would have written my first book before I jumped.
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Victor Antonio: and really what my niche would be, do that first and then. Now you can then go back and market to these companies, because as long as it's not a competitive, in other words, don't leave a training company and then turn around and start selling to their training people. But if you come up with technology company, you know, going back and selling sales. Training is not a big deal, and I should have done that. I should have had my ducks in line. One I would have written a book to.
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Victor Antonio: I would have had a website at the time. Remember that. I would have had all my marketing collaterals done, I would have had toast masters done. I would have done some practice speaking for free.
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Victor Antonio: just to kind of polish my speech and my message, and then, when I felt comfortable, I would have jumped.
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Jane Atkinson: Yeah. And and that's actually what our recommendation, which I think in the wealthy speaker 3.0. It probably changed fairly, radically from the early version. I don't know what I recommended in the first version. It might have been burned the boat.
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Jane Atkinson: But we really have a lot of students and private coaching clients who we recommend that they have a keep their job
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Jane Atkinson: until it's just crushing them.
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Jane Atkinson: Yeah, yeah, it is. Yeah. And also until they have some income built up, because the stress of kind of earning back that income can really do something on your mindset every month. You're not making that big paycheck, and really do a number on your mindset. And I I want to emphasize that, because, man, when I saw my back our bank account just go down, down, down, down. It's not a good feeling.
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Jane Atkinson: it's not a good feeling, so your point. But I I want. I wonder what about putting aside? Hey, Victor? What about the idea of building up the marketing cushion? So let's say we have
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Victor Antonio: 20 or $30,000, just kind of set aside. And then when it's going down, down, down, you're not freaking out, because that is set aside specifically for that purpose. That might be, you know, even $10,000. That might be enough to get you started. But you didn't put that in your first book. You didn't put that. I did not. Thanks for that. I don't need that advice now. I need it back then, Jane. Not now.
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Victor Antonio: No better now, Victor. I do hope so. But yeah, better, Victor. I've gotten better. But I but I really want to emphasize the people that I and I, I said to you before you got started. But I really want people to know this, because this is not me just being here, being nice, you. I've always known your name since I've read your book back, and I think 2,003, 2,005 somewhere in there. And I read all the other books. I'm not putting all the other books down, but I think yours was. I don't think I know yours was the only book that felt like a strategy book.
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Victor Antonio: and not a not a motivation of Who ha! A book like you can do it. You can have it no low sell financially. You didn't do any of that you're like I here's what you need to do. And I was like, this is a blueprint. And so when I started utilizing that the beginning it just changed everything for me.
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Jane Atkinson: That's really interesting for you to note, because we've actually, I think I've even gotten more
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Jane Atkinson: was somewhat motivational because of this mindset piece that we've added to the most recent one. I think that the mindset piece
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Jane Atkinson: is absolutely essential. So that brings me to a question that I didn't have on my list, because this is where this conversation is going, and I love it.
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Jane Atkinson: What mindset shift have you seen over the course of the time. So let's say, year one, you're looking at the bank account. You're going.
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Jane Atkinson: you know. You're having some thought that. Yeah, you're from Atlanta. That makes sense. And then there, talk about when when did your mindset shift into gear that I've got it? You know you know how an actor is always like, I'm always thinking about the next pay tech, because I never know when this one's going to go away. Type of thing. People get really nervous and scare.
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Jane Atkinson: and it's very easy to be afraid in the speaking industry. Talk about when you started to like feel comfortable.
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Victor Antonio: There were 2 things that happened the first one was I learned to speak with my authentic voice, like, I have a different presentation style. When you see my long format shows they're more entertainment, information, combination there of. And I just use my own style. That to me was like the first thing I had to change. Once I did that the response was different. But then the moment of all moments came when you talk about mindset shift. Here it is. I have a story for you, Jane. So I'm in Miami.
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Victor Antonio: and you're gonna know the speaker. By the way, I'm in Miami right. I'm struggling bank accounts just going down right. And all of a sudden I keep hearing about this guy named Randy Gage, right? And so, Randy gauge known in the network marketing business. Just you know, you know, a guru, and that's yeah. And so
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Victor Antonio: I said, Let me go. Let me go. Listen to this guy. Let me go pay my money. Listen to this guy, and I told I told myself. Jane, I said, during lunch I'll make sure I secure a spot next to this guy, so I'm watch him. So I'm where he sits on a sit right next to him. So I got it, sat right next to him, and then I start playing Randy my violin. How? How things you're not going right right now, if you don't know Randy Gage, just look him up, and Randy is probably the most
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Victor Antonio: brutally honest individual I've ever met. And speaking, this is no mercy. Keep up! Get dragged! It's. And so I was telling him, Hey, this and that that, and this is not working. I tried this. I tried that. I tried this, and then he just stopped me cold rudely. I might ask. And he said, Victor, let me ask you a question. I always tell people when someone says, Let me ask you a question. It's not going to go your way. Right so, he said. Let me ask you a question. To which I said what?
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Victor Antonio: He said, Victor, what business are you in? I go. That's an hot question the speaking business.
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Victor Antonio: He goes no like that. Just nasty. No. What business are you in? Okay? The the motivation business? No.
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Victor Antonio: no marketing business. No, I'm getting really mad here, Jane, my Chicago, my Chicago Puerto Rican side is coming out right. It's like coming out. I'm about to hit this guy right? And finally, I get there a test. Okay? Well, since I don't know, you tell me, tell me what business I'm in
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Victor Antonio: right. Here's what he says calmly.
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Victor Antonio: This changed everything, he said. You're in the marking business first, everything else second.
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Victor Antonio: Now. when I heard that
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Victor Antonio: my immediate reaction was like screw you, Randy gauge, but you know when you hear a truth
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Victor Antonio: and you go home, and it just sits there like a hob goblin in your mind, and it eats away at you, and when I, when he said that I go, I get it. If nobody knows you exist, doesn't matter how good your speech is, I have a lot of people coming to me. They got this great message, great speech, which I say I don't care because I learned this from Randy Gates. I don't care. What business are you in marketing? And that's when I got on Youtube.
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Victor Antonio: And so today, we have, I think, over 200,000 subs on Youtube, podcast I have blogs. let me see what else? And so we got the Youtube channel podcast blocks. Those are the biggest ones. And I just start really pumping out videos. I was on the cadence of 3 to 5 videos a week
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Victor Antonio: just to get my message out there because I knew there were bigger speakers out there in the space of selling.
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Victor Antonio: and I needed to do more than them. So I just worked hard at that.
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Jane Atkinson: Yes, yes, yes.
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Jane Atkinson: So okay. You mentioned your Puerto Rican
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Victor Antonio: I use when I started in the college market speaking right, I used to speak it. By the way, the college market is a great way to enter into the market. There's there! There's Naca, and then there's Aka. look@myithinknaka.org aka.com.
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Victor Antonio: And so I used to market myself as a Hispanic speaker. My my complete name is Victor Antonio Rivas Gonzales.
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Victor Antonio: Most of you know me. It's Victor. Consult. It's just the first to last right again in Kaboo. And so I would market myself as Hispanic speaker. Victor Gonzalez, right. Here's a problem, Jane.
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Victor Antonio: is that I would only get booked between September fifteenth and October fifteenth, because that was considered Hispanic month. Don't ask me why they did 15 to 15. Don't ask me that question, and for the rest of the year I'm struggling to get business. I had people actually tell me. It says, Well, your English is really good.
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Victor Antonio: I'm like, Yeah, I was born here. It should be good, right? I, you know. And so what was interesting. I am not making this up.
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Victor Antonio: I've been introduced as Victor Gomez. Victor Hernandez, Hector Gonzales, all common. Yes, yeah, I yeah, I know it's a jaw dropper. And the last time I was introduced literally here, my in in Atlant as Hector Rodriguez.
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Victor Antonio: and I remember I took the stage. I go well, Hector Rodriguez couldn't make it so. Victor Gonzales is here. And at that moment I told I remember coming home, and I told my wife, that's it.
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Victor Antonio: We're dropping the name, Gonzalez. We're just gonna use my middle name, Victor Antonio, and believe it or not, Jane, just by changing my name. My, the perception to the market change. He was no longer just a Hispanic speaker, because that's what they categorize me as when they see Gonzalez. It was like he's a speaker, and my business just began to grow.
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Jane Atkinson: And really you were 20 years ahead of time on that one. His real is really what it was, because right now I do believe that it's an advantage. And I believe that people are, you know, starting to make sure that there is representation. Okay, so, but I'm wondering if
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Jane Atkinson: along the same time period.
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Jane Atkinson: when did you choose sales as your lane? Because when I look out and research you on Youtube. it's about one thing, baby. It is sales all the way down to.
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Jane Atkinson: So good for you, number one for picking your lane, and and I don't think that motivation was ever a bad lane. I think you're right. Sales would have been the smart starting point, and then you can kind of always expand into motivation. I think that that's
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Jane Atkinson: everything that you do as a speaker in today's world needs to have some sort of a motivational undertone which you have.
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Jane Atkinson: talk about. What made you say, okay. they all
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Victor Antonio: right. So I'm in the college market, right? And I'm meeting all these wonderful motivational speakers, just just giants. I mean, we're still friends. 20 years later, you just just just real bad asses, right? But I realize that the motivational business is is, as I say, in the world of Mba or is, has a low barrier to entry.
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Victor Antonio: That means anybody can jump, you know. I stub my toe. They cut it off. I got a story. Let me share. Right? Yeah, everybody can be a motivational speaker, and I realize that that that's a commodity business.
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Victor Antonio: and it's a commodity business. And if I can do it. You're never going to get good dollar amounts for. So I I start seeing that this is always like, you know, you're fighting for market share or mind share out there in the market. And again, I I I just looked at the market goes. Okay, let's just kind of work through this like a business person.
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Victor Antonio: It's it's what they call a red ocean strategy. Red ocean being there. So much competition. It's just bloodied water, right? For everybody's lowering their price. And that's what happened. Everybody was lowering their price, and I said, I need to go back to what I used to do. for 2 reasons. One, I feel comfortable doing sales, too. I felt like it was tangible value, like when I teach sales. I mean, it's tangible value, like, oh, I got something that I can use.
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Victor Antonio: And so in 2,008, very specifically 2,008, I released the motivator and say, that was the exclamation point
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Victor Antonio: on my, I I guess category. As a motivational speaker. I see.
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Victor Antonio: Exclamation point. Release the documentary. We're done with that. We're done with the college market, no more college market. I pivot the sales. And then
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Victor Antonio: I realized when I moved into sales it was. It was a different market. I chose sales. Because that's why I was. But here's what I did. J. It was around that time that Google bought Youtube.
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Victor Antonio: and it was around that time that Gary Vaynerchuk released his book called Crush it or Crushing it one of the 2 titles.
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Victor Antonio: And in there he talked about video videos, the future videos, the future. And so those 2 things my decision to say I now I actually, by the way, I actually wrote a contract with myself.
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Victor Antonio: I call it. It's called the sales influence contract, which is, say, from this point, for we only talk about sales and behavioral economics as it pertains to sales. I actually signed it on April first, at 12 or 3 Am.
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Victor Antonio: 2,008, I actually signed this one. I still have it. And I said from this boat, so when people ask me, do you do teamwork team building no customer service? No, I don't talk about that.
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Victor Antonio: I only talk about this. And so all those things just coalesce to say we just do sales
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Jane Atkinson: that's so cool. I love that, you know you know the day and the time that you find it I can't. You asked me, what year did you write the book? I don't even know. For years I have a poor memory for things like that.
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Jane Atkinson: for I should.
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Jane Atkinson: it's a sales influence contract is such a great idea. If someone wanted to take that and make their own contract with themselves.
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Jane Atkinson: what would be some of the things that you might put into that contract.
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Victor Antonio: I don't know what they would put in but you what I put in right. So I found I found my battle flag, my Battle flag. I read the book by Robert Sheldini years ago it around 30 years. Now I think the book called Influence.
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Victor Antonio: And I said, What if I take behavioral economics with sales? That's different. So I was looking for an angle and edge into the market? Right. So then I I bought the Domain sales influence. I had to pay a lot of money for it. It was taken and I really I I really pleaded with the guy. And I said, Okay, so now my banner is sales influence, like, I mean, just imagine going into battle. You got a flag. It's a sales influence, that's all it says.
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Victor Antonio: So that's your battle flag right? And I think if you're going to be a speaker, a successful speaker, you have to have a battle flag.
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Victor Antonio: What is the flag represent? And everybody has to look at the flag and go. I get it. I know who he is. I know who she is, because that's the thing. Too often I talk to speakers. I want to talk about leadership. I talk about customer service
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Victor Antonio: people don't hire a generalist.
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Victor Antonio: That's the motivational market. People hire specialists.
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Victor Antonio: pick something for me. And so that's what I focused in on. So it said, we will no longer talk about anything else. We'll talk about sales and influence, and if I can tie those 2 together, then we don't talk about them. It was that specific and everything in my verbiage and my
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Victor Antonio: my content was based on that. Sales plus behavioral economics slam together.
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Jane Atkinson: So you are really finding your authentic voice in this. And you're saying.
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Jane Atkinson: influence is the pathway to getting there, and more sales is the outcome. And when you get really, really clear on the outcome that you're providing. You know. I could almost say you're in the marketing of that business. You're in the. You're in the marketing of helping people make more sales through.
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Victor Antonio: Yeah, I mean, I I have to pitch down where people says, Well, you know, why do you do what you do? Because I I said, I help companies grow. I help to make money, and if they make money I should make them any 2 quid pro quo for that, and I think that is By the way, I always tell people, I said, should you love what you talk about?
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Victor Antonio: And people always answer, yes, I go. That's not a requirement. They go. What I said. Here's what's a requirement. It's great that you love what you talk about. But here's what you should love. You should love what it does for the end, user
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Victor Antonio: for the audience. Because if I love sales. great Victor, thank you for being a narcissist and thinking about yourself. But if I say I love sales because it helps people make more money grow. Their business become more profitable.
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Victor Antonio: That to me is like, you know the emotional. I guess staff under that banner that says that's why I do it to help companies grow. I love that.
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Victor Antonio: And I I don't like sales, too.
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Jane Atkinson: when you get really excited about the outcomes that you're providing. I mean over here. Speaker School. We help people build the lifestyle and the business of their dreams and seeing families
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Jane Atkinson: getting excited about that. So
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Jane Atkinson: talk about
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Jane Atkinson: I know you talked a little bit about the advice that you give to new speakers, and if you were going to go back and do things a little bit differently in the very, very early stages, what were some of the flash points that you had at times in your business where
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Jane Atkinson: you saw a significant. So I'm assuming that
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Jane Atkinson: I'm assuming that picking the lane of sales was definitely a flash point. Getting out of the education market. You got paid, maybe lower fees there than you did in sales. What were some of the flashpoint moments in your business.
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Victor Antonio: I think what I started thinking about again. This is going to sound so basic. And people always ask me for like Victor, how'd you do it? I'm like, okay, it's real simple it. By the way, the strategy is simple, the execution is the issue, the tough part, right? Because I said, Okay, so we're not going to do sales influence just very consistent. And, by the way, when your focus, something else happens, you do less work.
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Victor Antonio: By that. I mean, you're not all over the place. Your your presentations get real sharp.
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Jane Atkinson: Oh, I love that. That's so cool. Yeah, you just become. You become just a little lazier and speaking, and and I mean that in the positive sense, because once I knew I was all about sales and influence, I didn't look at anything else, Jane.
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Victor Antonio: I wasn't distracted. So then I said, Okay, what do people want to know about
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Victor Antonio: right? That I know.
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Victor Antonio: So then I go online and look for what other people are posting as far as videos. And then I saw the videos with the most views. I would study the titles.
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Victor Antonio: Well, how do they do the titles? What is the topic?
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Victor Antonio: So you and I can sit here and I do this with companies. You and I can sit here. And I said, Let's go over 52 things. The customers want to know that they have questions about it
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Victor Antonio: listed on, and we list that out. And then I said, No, let's create some videos around that and make sure that is fresh. Yeah. And so that was my, I mean, I had people say this to me, Jane Victor, you're given away your content for free. How could you do that? You're just giving away all this value? And I'm like you don't understand the game.
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Victor Antonio: No, I didn't want it to explain to you. You don't understand the game. It's not about trying to get people to pay for your information. That's great. I got an academy for that. But I'm taking marketing. Randy gauge, kick my ass enough to say it's marketing. So I want videos everywhere, I want articles written about these videos. I want that type of diffusion to the I'll say the Youtube sphere. Because when I ask my customers. How did you find me?
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Victor Antonio: 9 out of 10, Youtube
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Victor Antonio: and one out of 10 podcast that's it. That's how I get my business. And here's the here's the interesting thing. I barely spend anything on marketing today
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Victor Antonio: in terms of like paper click ads or something like that. I don't have. We have about
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Victor Antonio: 1,700, video, 16 or 1,700 videos just on Youtube.
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Victor Antonio: And people like, Well, how do you get away? And here's here's the answer to the question. This may be going too deep without you. Just tell me to pull back.
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Victor Antonio: Here's my philosophy on giving away content.
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Victor Antonio: We all have like right now you're at this beautiful cabin with a beautiful lake view right? And that house, I'm sure there's a puzzle. I'm sure there's a puzzle right? And let's say you got a you got a puzzle with 500 pieces right now imagine that.
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Victor Antonio: How do we? How do we actually assemble the puzzle? We take the what to cover off. Look at the picture and start assembling right now. I imagine that if I sold you that same box, that puzzle box, but without the picture. The pieces are in there
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Victor Antonio: right? You don't know where to assemble it.
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Victor Antonio: See, those are my 16 to 1,700 videos. They're pieces. You still have to call me to help you assemble it. And people didn't get that mindset.
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Victor Antonio: Yeah, the contents out there, but they don't know how to assemble it, and so they would see it go. Well, okay. But we talked about this this. Can you come in and help us put this together with our stuff, our process. And that was the magic combination.
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Jane Atkinson: So that is, I love the visual on the puzzle that they still need. You and I I I
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Jane Atkinson: There was a gentleman that I worked for, named Peter Leg, in Vancouver, Canada. who I was, his his age. When I was first starting out I represented several people.
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Jane Atkinson: and Peter had a philosophy. He was a multi millionaire magazine magnet. and he had a philosophy. Decisions based in fear are typically wrong.
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Jane Atkinson: and when you don't give away your content for fear of them. Well, what if they don't book me because I've put this video out on Youtube? What if somebody copies my content, or that you know? What if? What if? What if there's a lot of what is decisions based in fear are typically wrong. So I made a decision
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Jane Atkinson: many, many moons ago. I have not trademarked the wealthy speaker. There's somebody else who does podcast called the well, be speaker and okay.
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Victor Antonio: sure
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Jane Atkinson: that you have the 1,700 videos. And so you're saying, 9 out of 10 pieces of business
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Jane Atkinson: comes
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Jane Atkinson: from The video from comes from Youtube. But it makes, if you, if you think about it, I get hired a lot to do a lot of keynote speeches. They want visual proof that I could deliver from stage.
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Victor Antonio: And that's what I told myself. I can. I can write. I can have the nicest glossies brochure website, you know, sizzle real whatever they go. No, no, send me one of you actually speaking. Live. I want to see that.
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Victor Antonio: And I'm like I got plenty of them.
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Victor Antonio: 1,600 plus on online, you'll check it back. And I've had. I've had people. I've had people like Rip off my content. But I don't care, because what happens is I'm always creating new content. And that was the other thing. If I if I can tell new speakers this, your job is to create content. And just because you created the content today doesn't mean you hold on that, I think, for the next 20 years and still spew the same content.
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Victor Antonio: You gotta reinvent yourself every year, if not every other month, you know, to come up with new content, new insight, something that makes people, I define insight as information beyond the obvious. Here's what I mean by that. When you can get a client to say huh! Or listener, audience member to go. Huh?
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Victor Antonio: Never looked at it that way. Huh! Never thought about that. Really. You can do that. That's inside. It's information beyond the obvious. Too many speakers provide information. They don't provide insight or the next level. There's information, I always say. Then there's inside like, huh didn't know that. But the third level, the magic level is impact.
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Victor Antonio: Here's how it can change your life. Here's how it could. I could help you increase your revenue, reduce your costs, expand your market share, and they'll go. Oh, I didn't think about it that way. You mean you can do that to get there. Yes, and they go. Oh, can you come in and speak to my team.
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Victor Antonio: Yeah, they have to get away from like I said, I see so many, Jane. Here's my, my, my complaint about the speaking industry
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Victor Antonio: about, I'm gonna say, about 80 of the speakers I listen to. I could almost finish
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Victor Antonio: their story
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Victor Antonio: or their content. I can.
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Victor Antonio: I? I even test myself. Okay, he's this person's going here here here, and then they'll probably say something like this. And sure enough they do.
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Victor Antonio: This is where I think the majority of speakers don't get any business because they sound like everybody else, are using everybody else's story. I saw a speaker
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Victor Antonio: not too long ago, so it's kind of embarrassing. So
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Victor Antonio: there was an author.
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Victor Antonio: The author has a story in his book. The author spoke about that story in the book. Unfortunately for the next speaker.
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Victor Antonio: That person didn't listen, or didn't know that the author was speaking before them. So she gets up there. She starts talking, and she says, Well, my mother told me this story.
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Victor Antonio: I she tells
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Victor Antonio: the speaker's story that was before her.
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Victor Antonio: It's like me. It's like your mother couldn't told you that because that boy just came up with that. You know what I mean. And it was so embarrassing. But that was a perfect example of using other people's contact when you show up for an event.
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Victor Antonio: The biggest fear a lot of new speakers have is that if there's 5 speakers up there are, they? Gonna say what I'm gonna say. because I've seen that happen.
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Victor Antonio: Oh, I've seen that happen so many times where they just duplicate content. So I I to you, if you want to be a speaker, you gotta come up with original content
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Victor Antonio: with your original twist, with your authentic self, and made people go. Ha! Never heard that like that like that. Nobody can duplicate that.
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Jane Atkinson: And I remember seeing. And I I've written this down somewhere in the book. Maybe I remember seeing a celebrity speaker one time. So this is for celebrities
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Jane Atkinson: kind of deliver like a book report of all of the motivational quotes they had, and I thought, Oh, my gosh! Why wouldn't you? You just went through something that was really traumatic. Why would you tell me about that like? How about your personal story. Nobody
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Jane Atkinson: can say that that you know. Nobody can mimic that. I think that is so fantastic. I got to tell you the story only because I'm bursting with this story because it just happened like 2 weeks ago.
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Victor Antonio: Speaker sends me his real, his his key as keynote. Right?
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Victor Antonio: And he says, only 15 min, Victor, will you please listen to it? I'm like, Oh, okay, right? And so he sends it to me. And in that 15 min speech
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Victor Antonio: he mentions. Let me see, I don't know Jim Rowan, Tony Robbins. He can do this that I said. And I so he goes. What's your feedback? I said, Dude. You had 15 people with you on stage but yourself.
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Victor Antonio: Yeah, you kept bringing up everybody's content, and I said everybody was on stage but you. He says you were missing, and that's exactly what happened with that person you're mentioning. It's like everybody else was there but you. So I always say, kick everybody else off the stage, and be you
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Jane Atkinson: so find your authentic voice
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Jane Atkinson: scary. By the way, it's scary, by the way, create content. Coming from that voice, I think figuring out the part of your brand is figuring out what you stand for as well, and finding out where your boundaries are going to be. And I think that that
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Jane Atkinson: the piece of advice to continually reinvent yourself under the same umbrella because this topic today is about focus. And you've given us. You've always come back to how this focus. You don't have
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Jane Atkinson: 1,700 videos without focus
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Jane Atkinson: and and talk about. So we say here at the school that there were only 2 things that are required to become a successful speaker. Number one. Is that all in mindset? You don't have to burn the boat. You can have a job at the same time as you're building this but to to be committed to the idea being all in is number one, and then number 2 is consistent action.
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Victor Antonio: And you you are the
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Jane Atkinson: yeah. I mean this, is it so? Thank you so much for sharing if people would like to connect with you, Victor.
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Jane Atkinson: Where would you suggest they go.
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Victor Antonio: Jane? I am so famous now because of your book that you, if you just type in Victor Antonio. You'll find me. I'm all on for A. So whether it's
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Victor Antonio: maybe this subscribe on Youtube might be the best.
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Victor Antonio: I was happy about that, and I just got, I guess, awarded, selected to be in the Selling Power Magazine's top sales, speakers for 20230, beautiful congratulations so well deserved. I've looked back at your history, and it has been like, I said, sales all the way down. Congratulations for that focus.
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Jane Atkinson: and congratulations for your success, and I apologize that it took me a long time to get you here. I'm happy you're here. We're gonna put links in the in the show notes to all of the places people can find. You. Thank you so much, Victor, for your time today, and thank you everyone for listening, and with that we'll say, see you zoom wealthy speakers, bye, for now everyone.
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Jane Atkinson: Well, welcome everyone to the wealthy speaker. Podcast. We are thrilled. You are here listening today because we have a treat.
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Victor Antonio: Victor Antonio is here to talk about the power of focus, welcome to the podcast victor. I can't believe it's taking this long to to have you here. You have been around this business for a long time. Welcome to the show.
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Jane Atkinson: I have been hearing your name from people all over the years many, many times, and then the last time somebody said, Oh, yeah, he sent me to your book, or he told me, actually, I'm gonna I'm gonna get to this that that you told him what to do and how effective it was for him. But And then he told me to go and get your book, and
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Jane Atkinson: when when that happened, I was like, why have I not had Victor Antonio on the show already like? Come on, so thank you for being patient with me.
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Victor Antonio: We're here. Let's make it happen. Let's go.
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Jane Atkinson: I appreciate it now for those people who maybe don't know your story. Tell everybody about how you got into speaking.
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Victor Antonio: Okay, so here's here's the the thumbnail sketch. By the way, I I don't know if you know this, Jane, but I have a a documentary called the Motivator
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Victor Antonio: released in 2,008 free up. It's free on Youtube. If you type in Victor Antonio, the motivator, you can hear the full story, but here it is the Quick club. So my family's originally from Puerto Rico. My mother had like a fifth grade education. So they got. They moved to Chicago. They were poor, poor, poor food stamps, government cheese, powdered milk, the whole story. We live near the community, green housing projects. If you know what I mean? my mother was like. Learn the language, go to school, get the education, get to go.
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Victor Antonio: good job. So I have a background in my Bachelor of Science Electrical engineering and I have an Mba start out in corporate America as an engineer working for different like defense companies, telecommunication companies. Eventually, when in the sales. Why? Because I'm a capitalist. I like making money offering value. So that's who I am. And so eventually, one day I was present sales and marketing for a 420 million dollar company.
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Victor Antonio: and one day I called it quits May ninth, 2,001, 3, 48 Pm. To be exact, I told my boss I said, I'm out of here. I I didn't want to do it anymore. Jane. I wanted to like, do my thing, which is like, be a speaker, and I've had dreams for being a speaker. When I first saw Zig Ziggler Circa, 1993 he came to Minneapolis.
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Victor Antonio: and I saw him on my one day. I want to be that but I didn't do it right away, so I joined toast masters. and became very good at speaking, and believe it or not, I recommend toast masters to everybody. There's 2 things I tell people to do go join toast, masters, get through the 10 speeches and read Jane's book. I'm not joking. I'm I'm not joking, I said. Those 2 things do not pass. Go, do not collect your 200 bucks. Do you do that.
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Victor Antonio: and
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Victor Antonio: fast forward in 2,001. So 93 to 2,001 that was kind of traject. I kind of held that dream, so to speak, and then, you know, I was doing well, Jane, I was making great money.
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Victor Antonio: you know, in the company. But I just couldn't do it anymore. I said, I want I want to do the speaking thing, and I just jumped into it like an idiot. I jumped into it without knowing what the heck I was doing, which is where I found your book.
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Jane Atkinson: So you you had a a heck of a big job how many people were under your department?
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Victor Antonio: So let me see, I was first of all as Vp. Of international sales. So we actually lived in Argentina. I ran all of Latin America. We grew that business from 14 million to 98 million. And I had about maybe 60 people under my purview to grow that revenue. when I was present sales and marketing we had about I I remember the number, Jane. I'm guessing 40, 50 people under me, and we were just
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Victor Antonio: we're running efficiently, you know, because it was a lot of people's equipment. We just had to manage it. And so those are big jobs. I'm very proud of that background because a lot of speakers have not done the job
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Victor Antonio: in this case selling, and then became speakers. I've I've I've gone through it. I've carried the bag. I've been in the account executive position. I've been in the Vp. Position and the CEO position. I know the slings and arrows that they take, and so when I moved into sales, it was very natural.
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So for people who might be coming out of a big job into professional speaking.
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Jane Atkinson: What do they need to understand? What's the you know? Obviously, you don't have the big team around you to say, do this, do this, get the job done like, talk about your early days with it. You and one other person who was in your world. You want the you want the blood and guts, don't you? So I'm gonna give it to you because it was like this. So I quit my job right?
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Victor Antonio: Thinking, jumping into speaking is like turning on a switch in the room right no, so I hardly write. I hardly. You recommend. Do not do what I did. Do not follow my example, because I just burned the boats, and I mean I I should have thought about my burning. So what happened was, I quit.
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Victor Antonio: And then I realized I said, You know what if I had to go back and do it again, Jane, here's a tip I'd get to people who are in corporate America or have a job is that I would have. I jumped into like motivational speaking right away, because that was kind of the dream. What I should have done is I should have leveraged the contacts I had.
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Victor Antonio: and jumped into Mayor more like sales tech sales, you know, cause that's more of a natural kind of you know. a turn off instead of a radical jump over to motivational speaking. So if I had to go back and do it again, I would have just thought about it more. I would have build my content like I would have written my first book before I jumped.
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Victor Antonio: and really what my niche would be, do that first and then. Now you can then go back and market to these companies, because as long as it's not a competitive, in other words, don't leave a training company and then turn around and start selling to their training people. But if you come up with technology company, you know, going back and selling sales. Training is not a big deal, and I should have done that. I should have had my ducks in line. One I would have written a book to.
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Victor Antonio: I would have had a website at the time. Remember that. I would have had all my marketing collaterals done, I would have had toast masters done. I would have done some practice speaking for free.
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Victor Antonio: just to kind of polish my speech and my message, and then, when I felt comfortable, I would have jumped.
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Jane Atkinson: Yeah. And and that's actually what our recommendation, which I think in the wealthy speaker 3.0. It probably changed fairly, radically from the early version. I don't know what I recommended in the first version. It might have been burned the boat.
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Jane Atkinson: But we really have a lot of students and private coaching clients who we recommend that they have a keep their job
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Jane Atkinson: until it's just crushing them.
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Jane Atkinson: Yeah, yeah, it is. Yeah. And also until they have some income built up, because the stress of kind of earning back that income can really do something on your mindset every month. You're not making that big paycheck, and really do a number on your mindset. And I I want to emphasize that, because, man, when I saw my back our bank account just go down, down, down, down. It's not a good feeling.
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Jane Atkinson: it's not a good feeling, so your point. But I I want. I wonder what about putting aside? Hey, Victor? What about the idea of building up the marketing cushion? So let's say we have
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Victor Antonio: 20 or $30,000, just kind of set aside. And then when it's going down, down, down, you're not freaking out, because that is set aside specifically for that purpose. That might be, you know, even $10,000. That might be enough to get you started. But you didn't put that in your first book. You didn't put that. I did not. Thanks for that. I don't need that advice now. I need it back then, Jane. Not now.
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Victor Antonio: No better now, Victor. I do hope so. But yeah, better, Victor. I've gotten better. But I but I really want to emphasize the people that I and I, I said to you before you got started. But I really want people to know this, because this is not me just being here, being nice, you. I've always known your name since I've read your book back, and I think 2,003, 2,005 somewhere in there. And I read all the other books. I'm not putting all the other books down, but I think yours was. I don't think I know yours was the only book that felt like a strategy book.
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Victor Antonio: and not a not a motivation of Who ha! A book like you can do it. You can have it no low sell financially. You didn't do any of that you're like I here's what you need to do. And I was like, this is a blueprint. And so when I started utilizing that the beginning it just changed everything for me.
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Jane Atkinson: That's really interesting for you to note, because we've actually, I think I've even gotten more
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Jane Atkinson: was somewhat motivational because of this mindset piece that we've added to the most recent one. I think that the mindset piece
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Jane Atkinson: is absolutely essential. So that brings me to a question that I didn't have on my list, because this is where this conversation is going, and I love it.
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Jane Atkinson: What mindset shift have you seen over the course of the time. So let's say, year one, you're looking at the bank account. You're going.
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Jane Atkinson: you know. You're having some thought that. Yeah, you're from Atlanta. That makes sense. And then there, talk about when when did your mindset shift into gear that I've got it? You know you know how an actor is always like, I'm always thinking about the next pay tech, because I never know when this one's going to go away. Type of thing. People get really nervous and scare.
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Jane Atkinson: and it's very easy to be afraid in the speaking industry. Talk about when you started to like feel comfortable.
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Victor Antonio: There were 2 things that happened the first one was I learned to speak with my authentic voice, like, I have a different presentation style. When you see my long format shows they're more entertainment, information, combination there of. And I just use my own style. That to me was like the first thing I had to change. Once I did that the response was different. But then the moment of all moments came when you talk about mindset shift. Here it is. I have a story for you, Jane. So I'm in Miami.
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Victor Antonio: and you're gonna know the speaker. By the way, I'm in Miami right. I'm struggling bank accounts just going down right. And all of a sudden I keep hearing about this guy named Randy Gage, right? And so, Randy gauge known in the network marketing business. Just you know, you know, a guru, and that's yeah. And so
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Victor Antonio: I said, Let me go. Let me go. Listen to this guy. Let me go pay my money. Listen to this guy, and I told I told myself. Jane, I said, during lunch I'll make sure I secure a spot next to this guy, so I'm watch him. So I'm where he sits on a sit right next to him. So I got it, sat right next to him, and then I start playing Randy my violin. How? How things you're not going right right now, if you don't know Randy Gage, just look him up, and Randy is probably the most
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Victor Antonio: brutally honest individual I've ever met. And speaking, this is no mercy. Keep up! Get dragged! It's. And so I was telling him, Hey, this and that that, and this is not working. I tried this. I tried that. I tried this, and then he just stopped me cold rudely. I might ask. And he said, Victor, let me ask you a question. I always tell people when someone says, Let me ask you a question. It's not going to go your way. Right so, he said. Let me ask you a question. To which I said what?
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Victor Antonio: He said, Victor, what business are you in? I go. That's an hot question the speaking business.
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Victor Antonio: He goes no like that. Just nasty. No. What business are you in? Okay? The the motivation business? No.
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Victor Antonio: no marketing business. No, I'm getting really mad here, Jane, my Chicago, my Chicago Puerto Rican side is coming out right. It's like coming out. I'm about to hit this guy right? And finally, I get there a test. Okay? Well, since I don't know, you tell me, tell me what business I'm in
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Victor Antonio: right. Here's what he says calmly.
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Victor Antonio: This changed everything, he said. You're in the marking business first, everything else second.
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Victor Antonio: Now. when I heard that
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Victor Antonio: my immediate reaction was like screw you, Randy gauge, but you know when you hear a truth
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Victor Antonio: and you go home, and it just sits there like a hob goblin in your mind, and it eats away at you, and when I, when he said that I go, I get it. If nobody knows you exist, doesn't matter how good your speech is, I have a lot of people coming to me. They got this great message, great speech, which I say I don't care because I learned this from Randy Gates. I don't care. What business are you in marketing? And that's when I got on Youtube.
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Victor Antonio: And so today, we have, I think, over 200,000 subs on Youtube, podcast I have blogs. let me see what else? And so we got the Youtube channel podcast blocks. Those are the biggest ones. And I just start really pumping out videos. I was on the cadence of 3 to 5 videos a week
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Victor Antonio: just to get my message out there because I knew there were bigger speakers out there in the space of selling.
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Victor Antonio: and I needed to do more than them. So I just worked hard at that.
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Jane Atkinson: Yes, yes, yes.
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Jane Atkinson: So okay. You mentioned your Puerto Rican
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Victor Antonio: I use when I started in the college market speaking right, I used to speak it. By the way, the college market is a great way to enter into the market. There's there! There's Naca, and then there's Aka. look@myithinknaka.org aka.com.
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Victor Antonio: And so I used to market myself as a Hispanic speaker. My my complete name is Victor Antonio Rivas Gonzales.
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Victor Antonio: Most of you know me. It's Victor. Consult. It's just the first to last right again in Kaboo. And so I would market myself as Hispanic speaker. Victor Gonzalez, right. Here's a problem, Jane.
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Victor Antonio: is that I would only get booked between September fifteenth and October fifteenth, because that was considered Hispanic month. Don't ask me why they did 15 to 15. Don't ask me that question, and for the rest of the year I'm struggling to get business. I had people actually tell me. It says, Well, your English is really good.
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Victor Antonio: I'm like, Yeah, I was born here. It should be good, right? I, you know. And so what was interesting. I am not making this up.
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Victor Antonio: I've been introduced as Victor Gomez. Victor Hernandez, Hector Gonzales, all common. Yes, yeah, I yeah, I know it's a jaw dropper. And the last time I was introduced literally here, my in in Atlant as Hector Rodriguez.
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Victor Antonio: and I remember I took the stage. I go well, Hector Rodriguez couldn't make it so. Victor Gonzales is here. And at that moment I told I remember coming home, and I told my wife, that's it.
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Victor Antonio: We're dropping the name, Gonzalez. We're just gonna use my middle name, Victor Antonio, and believe it or not, Jane, just by changing my name. My, the perception to the market change. He was no longer just a Hispanic speaker, because that's what they categorize me as when they see Gonzalez. It was like he's a speaker, and my business just began to grow.
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Jane Atkinson: And really you were 20 years ahead of time on that one. His real is really what it was, because right now I do believe that it's an advantage. And I believe that people are, you know, starting to make sure that there is representation. Okay, so, but I'm wondering if
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Jane Atkinson: along the same time period.
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Jane Atkinson: when did you choose sales as your lane? Because when I look out and research you on Youtube. it's about one thing, baby. It is sales all the way down to.
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Jane Atkinson: So good for you, number one for picking your lane, and and I don't think that motivation was ever a bad lane. I think you're right. Sales would have been the smart starting point, and then you can kind of always expand into motivation. I think that that's
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Jane Atkinson: everything that you do as a speaker in today's world needs to have some sort of a motivational undertone which you have.
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Jane Atkinson: talk about. What made you say, okay. they all
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Victor Antonio: right. So I'm in the college market, right? And I'm meeting all these wonderful motivational speakers, just just giants. I mean, we're still friends. 20 years later, you just just just real bad asses, right? But I realize that the motivational business is is, as I say, in the world of Mba or is, has a low barrier to entry.
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Victor Antonio: That means anybody can jump, you know. I stub my toe. They cut it off. I got a story. Let me share. Right? Yeah, everybody can be a motivational speaker, and I realize that that that's a commodity business.
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Victor Antonio: and it's a commodity business. And if I can do it. You're never going to get good dollar amounts for. So I I start seeing that this is always like, you know, you're fighting for market share or mind share out there in the market. And again, I I I just looked at the market goes. Okay, let's just kind of work through this like a business person.
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Victor Antonio: It's it's what they call a red ocean strategy. Red ocean being there. So much competition. It's just bloodied water, right? For everybody's lowering their price. And that's what happened. Everybody was lowering their price, and I said, I need to go back to what I used to do. for 2 reasons. One, I feel comfortable doing sales, too. I felt like it was tangible value, like when I teach sales. I mean, it's tangible value, like, oh, I got something that I can use.
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Victor Antonio: And so in 2,008, very specifically 2,008, I released the motivator and say, that was the exclamation point
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Victor Antonio: on my, I I guess category. As a motivational speaker. I see.
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Victor Antonio: Exclamation point. Release the documentary. We're done with that. We're done with the college market, no more college market. I pivot the sales. And then
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Victor Antonio: I realized when I moved into sales it was. It was a different market. I chose sales. Because that's why I was. But here's what I did. J. It was around that time that Google bought Youtube.
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Victor Antonio: and it was around that time that Gary Vaynerchuk released his book called Crush it or Crushing it one of the 2 titles.
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Victor Antonio: And in there he talked about video videos, the future videos, the future. And so those 2 things my decision to say I now I actually, by the way, I actually wrote a contract with myself.
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Victor Antonio: I call it. It's called the sales influence contract, which is, say, from this point, for we only talk about sales and behavioral economics as it pertains to sales. I actually signed it on April first, at 12 or 3 Am.
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Victor Antonio: 2,008, I actually signed this one. I still have it. And I said from this boat, so when people ask me, do you do teamwork team building no customer service? No, I don't talk about that.
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Victor Antonio: I only talk about this. And so all those things just coalesce to say we just do sales
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Jane Atkinson: that's so cool. I love that, you know you know the day and the time that you find it I can't. You asked me, what year did you write the book? I don't even know. For years I have a poor memory for things like that.
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Jane Atkinson: for I should.
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Jane Atkinson: it's a sales influence contract is such a great idea. If someone wanted to take that and make their own contract with themselves.
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Jane Atkinson: what would be some of the things that you might put into that contract.
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Victor Antonio: I don't know what they would put in but you what I put in right. So I found I found my battle flag, my Battle flag. I read the book by Robert Sheldini years ago it around 30 years. Now I think the book called Influence.
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Victor Antonio: And I said, What if I take behavioral economics with sales? That's different. So I was looking for an angle and edge into the market? Right. So then I I bought the Domain sales influence. I had to pay a lot of money for it. It was taken and I really I I really pleaded with the guy. And I said, Okay, so now my banner is sales influence, like, I mean, just imagine going into battle. You got a flag. It's a sales influence, that's all it says.
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Victor Antonio: So that's your battle flag right? And I think if you're going to be a speaker, a successful speaker, you have to have a battle flag.
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Victor Antonio: What is the flag represent? And everybody has to look at the flag and go. I get it. I know who he is. I know who she is, because that's the thing. Too often I talk to speakers. I want to talk about leadership. I talk about customer service
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Victor Antonio: people don't hire a generalist.
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Victor Antonio: That's the motivational market. People hire specialists.
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Victor Antonio: pick something for me. And so that's what I focused in on. So it said, we will no longer talk about anything else. We'll talk about sales and influence, and if I can tie those 2 together, then we don't talk about them. It was that specific and everything in my verbiage and my
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Victor Antonio: my content was based on that. Sales plus behavioral economics slam together.
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Jane Atkinson: So you are really finding your authentic voice in this. And you're saying.
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Jane Atkinson: influence is the pathway to getting there, and more sales is the outcome. And when you get really, really clear on the outcome that you're providing. You know. I could almost say you're in the marketing of that business. You're in the. You're in the marketing of helping people make more sales through.
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Victor Antonio: Yeah, I mean, I I have to pitch down where people says, Well, you know, why do you do what you do? Because I I said, I help companies grow. I help to make money, and if they make money I should make them any 2 quid pro quo for that, and I think that is By the way, I always tell people, I said, should you love what you talk about?
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Victor Antonio: And people always answer, yes, I go. That's not a requirement. They go. What I said. Here's what's a requirement. It's great that you love what you talk about. But here's what you should love. You should love what it does for the end, user
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Victor Antonio: for the audience. Because if I love sales. great Victor, thank you for being a narcissist and thinking about yourself. But if I say I love sales because it helps people make more money grow. Their business become more profitable.
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Victor Antonio: That to me is like, you know the emotional. I guess staff under that banner that says that's why I do it to help companies grow. I love that.
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Victor Antonio: And I I don't like sales, too.
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Jane Atkinson: when you get really excited about the outcomes that you're providing. I mean over here. Speaker School. We help people build the lifestyle and the business of their dreams and seeing families
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Jane Atkinson: getting excited about that. So
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Jane Atkinson: talk about
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Jane Atkinson: I know you talked a little bit about the advice that you give to new speakers, and if you were going to go back and do things a little bit differently in the very, very early stages, what were some of the flash points that you had at times in your business where
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Jane Atkinson: you saw a significant. So I'm assuming that
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Jane Atkinson: I'm assuming that picking the lane of sales was definitely a flash point. Getting out of the education market. You got paid, maybe lower fees there than you did in sales. What were some of the flashpoint moments in your business.
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Victor Antonio: I think what I started thinking about again. This is going to sound so basic. And people always ask me for like Victor, how'd you do it? I'm like, okay, it's real simple it. By the way, the strategy is simple, the execution is the issue, the tough part, right? Because I said, Okay, so we're not going to do sales influence just very consistent. And, by the way, when your focus, something else happens, you do less work.
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Victor Antonio: By that. I mean, you're not all over the place. Your your presentations get real sharp.
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Jane Atkinson: Oh, I love that. That's so cool. Yeah, you just become. You become just a little lazier and speaking, and and I mean that in the positive sense, because once I knew I was all about sales and influence, I didn't look at anything else, Jane.
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Victor Antonio: I wasn't distracted. So then I said, Okay, what do people want to know about
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Victor Antonio: right? That I know.
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Victor Antonio: So then I go online and look for what other people are posting as far as videos. And then I saw the videos with the most views. I would study the titles.
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Victor Antonio: Well, how do they do the titles? What is the topic?
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Victor Antonio: So you and I can sit here and I do this with companies. You and I can sit here. And I said, Let's go over 52 things. The customers want to know that they have questions about it
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Victor Antonio: listed on, and we list that out. And then I said, No, let's create some videos around that and make sure that is fresh. Yeah. And so that was my, I mean, I had people say this to me, Jane Victor, you're given away your content for free. How could you do that? You're just giving away all this value? And I'm like you don't understand the game.
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Victor Antonio: No, I didn't want it to explain to you. You don't understand the game. It's not about trying to get people to pay for your information. That's great. I got an academy for that. But I'm taking marketing. Randy gauge, kick my ass enough to say it's marketing. So I want videos everywhere, I want articles written about these videos. I want that type of diffusion to the I'll say the Youtube sphere. Because when I ask my customers. How did you find me?
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Victor Antonio: 9 out of 10, Youtube
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Victor Antonio: and one out of 10 podcast that's it. That's how I get my business. And here's the here's the interesting thing. I barely spend anything on marketing today
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Victor Antonio: in terms of like paper click ads or something like that. I don't have. We have about
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Victor Antonio: 1,700, video, 16 or 1,700 videos just on Youtube.
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Victor Antonio: And people like, Well, how do you get away? And here's here's the answer to the question. This may be going too deep without you. Just tell me to pull back.
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Victor Antonio: Here's my philosophy on giving away content.
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Victor Antonio: We all have like right now you're at this beautiful cabin with a beautiful lake view right? And that house, I'm sure there's a puzzle. I'm sure there's a puzzle right? And let's say you got a you got a puzzle with 500 pieces right now imagine that.
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Victor Antonio: How do we? How do we actually assemble the puzzle? We take the what to cover off. Look at the picture and start assembling right now. I imagine that if I sold you that same box, that puzzle box, but without the picture. The pieces are in there
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Victor Antonio: right? You don't know where to assemble it.
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Victor Antonio: See, those are my 16 to 1,700 videos. They're pieces. You still have to call me to help you assemble it. And people didn't get that mindset.
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Victor Antonio: Yeah, the contents out there, but they don't know how to assemble it, and so they would see it go. Well, okay. But we talked about this this. Can you come in and help us put this together with our stuff, our process. And that was the magic combination.
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Jane Atkinson: So that is, I love the visual on the puzzle that they still need. You and I I I
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Jane Atkinson: There was a gentleman that I worked for, named Peter Leg, in Vancouver, Canada. who I was, his his age. When I was first starting out I represented several people.
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Jane Atkinson: and Peter had a philosophy. He was a multi millionaire magazine magnet. and he had a philosophy. Decisions based in fear are typically wrong.
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Jane Atkinson: and when you don't give away your content for fear of them. Well, what if they don't book me because I've put this video out on Youtube? What if somebody copies my content, or that you know? What if? What if? What if there's a lot of what is decisions based in fear are typically wrong. So I made a decision
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Jane Atkinson: many, many moons ago. I have not trademarked the wealthy speaker. There's somebody else who does podcast called the well, be speaker and okay.
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Victor Antonio: sure
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Jane Atkinson: that you have the 1,700 videos. And so you're saying, 9 out of 10 pieces of business
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Jane Atkinson: comes
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Jane Atkinson: from The video from comes from Youtube. But it makes, if you, if you think about it, I get hired a lot to do a lot of keynote speeches. They want visual proof that I could deliver from stage.
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Victor Antonio: And that's what I told myself. I can. I can write. I can have the nicest glossies brochure website, you know, sizzle real whatever they go. No, no, send me one of you actually speaking. Live. I want to see that.
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Victor Antonio: And I'm like I got plenty of them.
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Victor Antonio: 1,600 plus on online, you'll check it back. And I've had. I've had people. I've had people like Rip off my content. But I don't care, because what happens is I'm always creating new content. And that was the other thing. If I if I can tell new speakers this, your job is to create content. And just because you created the content today doesn't mean you hold on that, I think, for the next 20 years and still spew the same content.
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Victor Antonio: You gotta reinvent yourself every year, if not every other month, you know, to come up with new content, new insight, something that makes people, I define insight as information beyond the obvious. Here's what I mean by that. When you can get a client to say huh! Or listener, audience member to go. Huh?
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Victor Antonio: Never looked at it that way. Huh! Never thought about that. Really. You can do that. That's inside. It's information beyond the obvious. Too many speakers provide information. They don't provide insight or the next level. There's information, I always say. Then there's inside like, huh didn't know that. But the third level, the magic level is impact.
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Victor Antonio: Here's how it can change your life. Here's how it could. I could help you increase your revenue, reduce your costs, expand your market share, and they'll go. Oh, I didn't think about it that way. You mean you can do that to get there. Yes, and they go. Oh, can you come in and speak to my team.
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Victor Antonio: Yeah, they have to get away from like I said, I see so many, Jane. Here's my, my, my complaint about the speaking industry
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Victor Antonio: about, I'm gonna say, about 80 of the speakers I listen to. I could almost finish
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Victor Antonio: their story
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Victor Antonio: or their content. I can.
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Victor Antonio: I? I even test myself. Okay, he's this person's going here here here, and then they'll probably say something like this. And sure enough they do.
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Victor Antonio: This is where I think the majority of speakers don't get any business because they sound like everybody else, are using everybody else's story. I saw a speaker
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Victor Antonio: not too long ago, so it's kind of embarrassing. So
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Victor Antonio: there was an author.
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Victor Antonio: The author has a story in his book. The author spoke about that story in the book. Unfortunately for the next speaker.
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Victor Antonio: That person didn't listen, or didn't know that the author was speaking before them. So she gets up there. She starts talking, and she says, Well, my mother told me this story.
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Victor Antonio: I she tells
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Victor Antonio: the speaker's story that was before her.
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Victor Antonio: It's like me. It's like your mother couldn't told you that because that boy just came up with that. You know what I mean. And it was so embarrassing. But that was a perfect example of using other people's contact when you show up for an event.
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Victor Antonio: The biggest fear a lot of new speakers have is that if there's 5 speakers up there are, they? Gonna say what I'm gonna say. because I've seen that happen.
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Victor Antonio: Oh, I've seen that happen so many times where they just duplicate content. So I I to you, if you want to be a speaker, you gotta come up with original content
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Victor Antonio: with your original twist, with your authentic self, and made people go. Ha! Never heard that like that like that. Nobody can duplicate that.
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Jane Atkinson: And I remember seeing. And I I've written this down somewhere in the book. Maybe I remember seeing a celebrity speaker one time. So this is for celebrities
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Jane Atkinson: kind of deliver like a book report of all of the motivational quotes they had, and I thought, Oh, my gosh! Why wouldn't you? You just went through something that was really traumatic. Why would you tell me about that like? How about your personal story. Nobody
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Jane Atkinson: can say that that you know. Nobody can mimic that. I think that is so fantastic. I got to tell you the story only because I'm bursting with this story because it just happened like 2 weeks ago.
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Victor Antonio: Speaker sends me his real, his his key as keynote. Right?
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Victor Antonio: And he says, only 15 min, Victor, will you please listen to it? I'm like, Oh, okay, right? And so he sends it to me. And in that 15 min speech
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Victor Antonio: he mentions. Let me see, I don't know Jim Rowan, Tony Robbins. He can do this that I said. And I so he goes. What's your feedback? I said, Dude. You had 15 people with you on stage but yourself.
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Victor Antonio: Yeah, you kept bringing up everybody's content, and I said everybody was on stage but you. He says you were missing, and that's exactly what happened with that person you're mentioning. It's like everybody else was there but you. So I always say, kick everybody else off the stage, and be you
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Jane Atkinson: so find your authentic voice
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Jane Atkinson: scary. By the way, it's scary, by the way, create content. Coming from that voice, I think figuring out the part of your brand is figuring out what you stand for as well, and finding out where your boundaries are going to be. And I think that that
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Jane Atkinson: the piece of advice to continually reinvent yourself under the same umbrella because this topic today is about focus. And you've given us. You've always come back to how this focus. You don't have
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Jane Atkinson: 1,700 videos without focus
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Jane Atkinson: and and talk about. So we say here at the school that there were only 2 things that are required to become a successful speaker. Number one. Is that all in mindset? You don't have to burn the boat. You can have a job at the same time as you're building this but to to be committed to the idea being all in is number one, and then number 2 is consistent action.
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Victor Antonio: And you you are the
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Jane Atkinson: yeah. I mean this, is it so? Thank you so much for sharing if people would like to connect with you, Victor.
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Jane Atkinson: Where would you suggest they go.
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Victor Antonio: Jane? I am so famous now because of your book that you, if you just type in Victor Antonio. You'll find me. I'm all on for A. So whether it's
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Victor Antonio: maybe this subscribe on Youtube might be the best.
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Victor Antonio: I was happy about that, and I just got, I guess, awarded, selected to be in the Selling Power Magazine's top sales, speakers for 20230, beautiful congratulations so well deserved. I've looked back at your history, and it has been like, I said, sales all the way down. Congratulations for that focus.
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Jane Atkinson: and congratulations for your success, and I apologize that it took me a long time to get you here. I'm happy you're here. We're gonna put links in the in the show notes to all of the places people can find. You. Thank you so much, Victor, for your time today, and thank you everyone for listening, and with that we'll say, see you zoom wealthy speakers, bye, for now everyone.
Highlights you won’t want to miss:
- Victor’s path to speaking. [1:30]
- The dos and don’ts of getting started. [4:30]
- A shift in mindset. [10:00]
- A name change made a huge difference. [13:30]
- What’s your battle flag? [19:00]
- Early flash points. [22:30]
- Creating content in your voice. [28:00]
Victor earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, an MBA, built a 20-year career as a top sales executive, and became CEO of a high-tech company. Prior to being CEO, he was President of Global Sales and Marketing for a $420M company. As Vice President of International Sales in a Fortune 500 $3B corporation at the time, he was selected from over 500 sales managers to join the President’s Advisory Council for Excellence in Sales and Management. Victor has conducted business in Europe, Asia, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Latin America, the Middle East, China, United Arab Emirates, and South Africa.
If you would like to hear how being focused can help build a successful speaking business, and what it takes to get you there, you simply can’t afford to miss this episode.
I hope you’ll listen and learn.
Links:
Victor’s website
Victor’s podcast
Randy Gage
Toastmasters
NAMCA
Victor’s YouTube channel
Victor’s LinkedIn profile
Jane’s LinkedIn profile
The Wealthy Speaker 3.0
The Wealthy Speaker School
