Travel Smarter with the City Maximizer Method

The month of May was packed this year…

I had gigs in Orlando, Cleveland, and Oklahoma City… then Pittsburgh and Chicago… before heading back to home base in Boca Raton for two virtual gigs.

And right now, I’m sitting in a hotel room in the mile high city where I just spoke to some of the best marketing talent in the country at the Digital Summit Denver.

That’s the life of a keynote speaker, right?  

Frequent travel, tons of excitement, and lots of people. 

Gotta love it! 🥰

But when you’re on the road all the time, it’s hard to find any time to focus on one of the most important aspects of a sustainable speaking business… relationships.

It’s the connections you build with event organizers, business leaders, and other speakers that fuel your business and lead to new opportunities.  In fact, my buddy Michael Port and I teach in our Speaking Business Mastery course that “conversations lead to conversions.”  

That’s why I thought we’d spend this week looking at my City Maximizer Method.  It’s a technique I’ve developed to help you maximize your time in every new city… so you can have more conversations that lead to more conversions.

Geesh… that already sounds hard, doesn’t it?

It’s really not.  

First, here are four roadblocks that stop most speakers from maximizing their time.

Roadblock #1:
Lack of Awareness

You can’t implement a strategy you don’t know exists, can you? 

It’s possible you never gave much thought to how you can maximize your time with local contacts in a city you’re visiting. But this technique can actually make a huge difference.

That’s why you’ll want to include this deliberate strategy to build and strengthen relationships each time you touch down in a new destination.

Roadblock #2:
No Time or Energy

I’m traveling 175 days this year, so I understand this one really well.  (In fact, I could practically take a nap right now just writing this.)

Traveling for speaking gigs – even just a single gig – is exhausting.  Often you're operating on a tight schedule from the moment you land at an airport all the way through your departure.

You’ve got to get to the venue, prepare for your speech, do the tech check, get focused before your gig, actually deliver your speech, sit for the book signing, go to that cocktail hour, get packed up, and make it back to the airport in time for your next flight.

It’s hard to find the time and energy to fit in extra meetings and social events.  But when you schedule things well, it is possible to fit in some meetings with extra people.

Roadblock #3:
It’s Tough

Not much to say here… it can be a challenge to meet with other people on the road.  

You don’t know the city and you don’t want to travel too far from your gig venue.  It can be a challenge to find a good meeting place, a time that works, and still meet all of your regular obligations.

Roadblock #4:
You’re Not Sure It’s Worth the Trouble

It’s likely you underestimate the benefits that can be gained from even more in-person meetings or meet-ups.

But I’ll let you in on a little secret… even just the invitation can be a big benefit.  

It’s possible (and even likely) your contact won’t be able to meet.  But when you invite them, you’re signaling they are on your mind and this helps to strengthen the relationship.

Here’s an example…

I’m in Denver today, one of my speaking friends named Blaire reached out to me so we could meet up. After chatting through some options, we couldn’t make it work, but now that connection has been reinvigorated by the conversation we had.

That's why I used this trip to Denver to reach out to other people I knew in the area through LinkedIn.  Again, these people weren’t able to meet this time, but each of those relationships has now been strengthened through those conversations.

So, don’t be afraid to reach out to your connections just because you’re too tired or you don’t want to go through the trouble of planning a meet up.  Even the act of reaching out to say you’re thinking of them when you’re in the area can be a valuable relationship builder. 

Build Your City Maximizer Strategy

There are three main areas where I focus my energy each time I’m planning a trip to a new city.  I’ll share more details on each of these tomorrow, but here’s an overview of the technique: