I’m Madisen Harper and I just finished a Royal Caribbean - Sydney, Australia to Honolulu, United States cruise and thought I’d share my experience with you from a cruise newcomer perspective.
It was just 2 months from the time I joined Daniel’s coaching program to the time I got booked AND I got my first choice cruise. I got the good news on February 14th and sailed on April 13th. In my case it happened quickly, so I’ve got to say, I’m impressed with Daniel’s program.
I was booked on a 16 night cruise which encompassed 9 sea days so I had the opportunity to do 9 talks (5 destination and 4 general interest). 7 out of the 10 topics were aligned with my ‘platform’ which is self development, this included 2 of the destination talks which I focused on the spirituality of Hawaii. Daniel’s right, take what you know and look for opportunities to apply it, even for destination topics.
There were 3 other enrichment speakers on board. A gentleman who did all destination lectures and was in the main theater which meant his talks were videotaped and replayed on Royal Caribbean’s in-house TV system. Another woman focused on numerology, and her friend, who was also an enrichment lecturer, focused on psychology. They did a topic series eg Psychology of Money, Psychology of Parenting, Your Name and Numerology, Numerology and your Birthday etc.
I was excited to get in front of 9 audiences as well as record my talks which I plan to turn into products that I can sell, use for video marketing on YouTube and the like and build content on my website.
My sessions had between 40 – 100 attendees. As time went on and people got to know me, there were 80 – 100 people at each session.
I’ve put together a few observations and tips from my experience. I’ve been a speaker for almost a decade but the cruise process was slightly different to what I’m used to, so hopefully I can provide some insight.
** Before You Leave **
Listen to as many podcasts on Daniel’s Speakers Cruise Free member site as possible – especially the Dashboard videos he has put together. Everything he outlined in the Dashboard videos happened EXACTLY as he said.
Check out the cruise line’s website, it will answer a number of questions
For example, with Royal Caribbean I found out about my ship’s, Rhapsody of the Sea, meeting room equipment which allowed me to know what I had to bring.
I checked what visas I had to have for the various countries I was visiting.
Because I was bringing electrical equipment from both Australia and the U.S. I checked out the power on the ship.
I also wanted to access the Internet and learned about the ship’s WIFI access.
** Tools of the Trade **
The audio visual (AV) equipment on the ship doesn’t appear to be as comprehensive as when you speak at a hotel venue. So I prepared the following:
Laptop with PowerPoint and Printed Notes
I had all my presentations in PowerPoint and also did a printout – just in case.
Make sure your laptop is only a few years old as older laptops can be problematic when connecting to the ship’s video projector. In fact I had a Dell that was just over 2 years old and the projector connected but my presentation didn’t appear on my laptop’s screen, just the audience’s screen. I prefer to glance at the laptop every so often than turn my back on the audience and refer to the big screen. Thankfully we had my husband’s Dell as well which is less than a year old that worked perfectly.
Don’t rely on your presentation too much; I basically use mine to keep my flow. I was presenting in a large space and my audience often couldn’t see the screen clearly. So keep that in mind when designing your presentations – don’t jam pack slides with too many words.
Video Editing Software
I bought video editing software called PowerDirector 7 Ultra so I could edit my talks to turn them into products. I also did a course on how to use it before I left home. I chose this product because it was affordable (US$79 – I used a 20% off coupon from the review site) and the product reviews were excellent.
USB Presenter
I purchased a USB presenter so I could remotely change my PowerPoint slides, change the screen to black (so people listen to me and are not reading a slide), adjust the volume of music I had playing and had a discreet timer that vibrated to warn me when I was nearing the end of the presentation. I would highly recommend this – the ship did not have one and the AV guy said he was thinking of buying one for speakers.
Wireless Microphone
I also got a wireless microphone to improve the sound quality of my video recording. Fortunately, I was in a great, large space, so the AV guy hooked me up with the cruise ship’s wireless microphone. Don’t rely on this, it was the only one he had!!
Video Recorder
I already had a Sony Handycam, tapes, tripod and my husband to do the recording. I will probably buy another video camera that records directly to a hard drive in the near future. My video expert suggested a few models that I’ll look into purchasing.
Whiteboard Pens
I’ve presented a number of times where I’ve gone up to the whiteboard or flipchart only to discover there were no pens at all or they were as dry as the desert and virtually unusable.
Business Cards and Notepad
I carry a notepad to collect people’s details and write down what they wanted from me e.g. a list of resources emailed to them, notification of when my book comes out, to be added to my email list.
** My Top Tips **
1. Ensure your lecture titles sell because they are all the Cruise Compass lists (Royal Caribbean’s daily newsletter that tells passengers what’s on the following day). One of my titles was: “eBook Evolution – how to research, write, publish and promote your own eBook”. In the Compass it was just listed as “eBook Evolution” which doesn’t outline the benefit of the session, so in future, I’d probably be less ‘creative’ with the title and just get to the point.
2. Invite people to interact with you. At the end of each session, after the question period, I’d say something like, “Feel free to chat to me if you see me around the ship or if you have any questions. If you’d like my details just come up and I’ll give you my card.” I had dozens of people take me up on my offer. A number of audience members would say to my husband, “Your wife’s message is fascinating. I’d love some time with her.” Attendees are often embarrassed to ask you directly for your time. So encourage them to talk to you. And if your ‘plus one’ (the lucky ‘freeloader’ who gets to travel with you J) is like my husband, the ultimate networker, he was great at promoting my talk and connecting people with me. During excursions and at meal times, I told people about my talks to get them interested in coming. I’d say 95% of the people I talked to about my sessions ended up attending. You don’t have to say much, just tell them you’re the enrichment speaker and they’ll automatically ask you what you’re talking on.
3. Have a product available for sale. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to organize anything before I left. There were sales opportunities in most of my personal development sessions as audience members would ask if I had a book. So they were keen to buy. My book isn’t out for another couple of months, but I could have easily developed an information product and put it on DVD if I’d had time (don’t forget to get any products approved by your cruise contact before you step on the ship).
4. Video tape your sessions. I’ll now use what I’ve taped for SEO (search engine optimization) on my site. I will also turn one into a ‘bonus’ for a course I’m developing and sell the other talks as products. Plus I now have samples of my work which can be used to get future speaking engagements (corporate clients often aren’t keen to provide you with the sessions they tape when they hire you).
I also had audience members ask me if my sessions were being taped by the cruise line which then appear on Royal Caribbean’s in-house television. They weren’t, but I told them that segments would be available on my site and if they gave me their details I would let them know and also gave them my business card.
5. Promote your next session. At the end of each session, I’d let the audience know what my next topic was, “Tomorrow, you’ll learn why I think goal setting gets in the way of your success and happiness and my strategy to having it all, now!” As time went on, my audiences got bigger and bigger – up to 100 people. I think this is an advantage of doing a cruise with a lot of sea days, people get to know you and you develop a following.
6. Let the audience know what you do in the ‘real world’. Throughout my talk I’d say things like, “I was working with a corporate client helping them to…”, “I did a podcast on the subject of…” I definitely didn’t push my services, but simply used examples to build awareness around my capabilities. In fact, I had one woman say she would like me to speak at her hospital and she was going to discuss it with the administrators – so fingers crossed. I also told them about some of my free resources on my website, for example, I was discussing the importance of values and told them about my free values identification and prioritization tool – people love that.
7. Gifts go a long way. Be it free resources you can give to your audience or the gift to your cruise contact. I didn’t know whether my on board contact was male or female and I couldn’t think of what to take. So on my last destination which was Lahaina, Hawaii, I bought a gift box of cookies from the Honolulu Cookie Company and left a note and my business card for the Cruise Co-ordinator and Cruise Director. They left a message on my stateroom phone and were grateful for the gesture; I could hear the genuine excitement and thankfulness in their voice.
Freebies for the audience allow you to connect with them well after the cruise is over – remember to get their permission for on-going communication so you’re not SPAMming.
I met a lot of great people doing what I love doing and also achieving one of my ‘life’s ticks’ which was visiting Tahiti.
Hope the above is helpful and happy cruising!
Cheers
Madisen
www.MadisenHarper.com
www.BecomeaManagerNow.com
Note From Daniel: Madisen did a wonderful job speaking and, as I think we can all agree, a wonderful job on this post (thanks Madisen!) .
My question for you is: Are you ready to start cruising?
Let's make it happen in your life and remember once you're approved in an enrichment program generally speaking you are approved for the rest of your life.
So let's get you started.... http://www.speakerscruisefree.com/cruise-free.html
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