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Who else than Bill Clinton can earn more than $50 million in speaking fees?

GatsbyMag

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**Please feel free to move this thread if you feel I've posted this in the wrong place, apologies if I have!**

I've started reading TMF and in chapter 21 'The Real Law of Wealth' which discusses the Law of Effection which states that "the more lives you affect in an entity you control, in scale and/or magnitude, the richer you will become". Soon after we're given an example of how Bill Clinton sells his time for money speaking however he is an exception to the Slowlaner in that his intrinsic value allows that trade to be worth the money(correct me if I'm wrong on this).

I'm really interested in connecting with people on stage as a speaker, I was wondering if anyone has any good thoughts on what sort of subject that a young person like me could start learning so that later when I have built the credibility, I could possess the intrinsic value equivalent/close to that of Bill Clinton to be worth people's money and time when speaking?

I've considered motivational speaking but I cringe whenever I try it(nothing wrong with it, just doesn't feel right when I do it). I'm just wondering if anyone has any ideas on a subject that is significant in some way but is rarely understood/taught and needs someone that can articulate it well. Or perhaps this is a question only I can answer?

As always, harsh criticism, questions and any sort of feedback is welcomed and appreciated, thanks!
 
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Waspy

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I personally don't think you will ever be able to speak passionately about a subject you have learnt for the specific purpose of public speaking.

All the best public speakers speak about something important to them, with a lifetime worth of real world experience to back them up.

Anything less and people smell a rat.
 

GatsbyMag

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I personally don't think you will ever be able to speak passionately about a subject you have learnt for the specific purpose of public speaking.

All the best public speakers speak about something important to them, with a lifetime worth of real world experience to back them up.

Anything less and people smell a rat.
Yeh I've thought about this a lot as well, the thing is that I don't love public speaking for the sake of speaking, I love the experience of connecting with people through that medium. But your point remains.
 

Niptuck MD

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steve jobs probably could RIP

i think pretty soon Elon Musk will be able too... Perhaps trump even;

If george washington resurrected from the dead or even JFK they probably could too
 
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Azure

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Clinton certainly never spent his youth wondering what he could do to become a public speaker in 40+ years.

He spent that time crafting his skills and hardworking, so he could later run the largest entity in the history of the world, as well as writing books and running charities, and slamming a few chunky interns among god knows what else.

He delivered value to the world, and now he's paid to talk about his experiences and perceptions.

Create value first, then you can talk about it. What you're asking is basically chasing money, and you'll never get far with that mindset.

It can't be stressed enough; create value in someone's life and they'll give you a dollar, create value in 50 million people's lives and you know where that sentence ends.
 

TKDTyler

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You shouldn't look to speak publicly about something.

Experience the world. Experience life. Experience hardship.

When you become good at something, people are happy for you.

When you become great at something, people become jealous of you.

When you become the best at something, people want to be you. Become the best in a field that you are passionate about, and public speaking will come to you. People seeking answers is a byproduct of success. As you become more experienced and mature, you will find more people asking you for advice, rather than you wanting to tell people who don't want to listen.
 

fhs8

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Many billioniares could get $50 million in speaking fees if they wanted to. Buffett auctions a lunch for charity every year and gets millions for just one lunch.

There's also another issue where it seems like politicians are getting legally bribed.
 
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ChickenHawk

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His fees were greatly inflated on the expectation that he, as the spouse of the future president, would be wielding powerful influence that could greatly help those businesses or foreign countries that were paying him to speak. In short, it wasn't the speeches that were so highly valued, but rather the side benefits, particularly favorable treatment by the most powerful government in the world.

Those benefits just went up in flames. As such, his speaking fees are about to take a huge nosedive.
 

Niptuck MD

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GatsbyMag

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Brilliant feedback from everyone, I'll continue experimenting till I find something I love enough that I can use it to connect with people to meet their needs. Thank you @Azure @fhs8 @TKDTyler
 
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Azure

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His fees were greatly inflated on the expectation that he, as the spouse of the future president, would be wielding powerful influence that could greatly help those businesses or foreign countries that were paying him to speak. In short, it wasn't the speeches that were so highly valued, but rather the side benefits, particularly favorable treatment by the most powerful government in the world.

Those benefits just went up in flames. As such, his speaking fees are about to take a huge nosedive.
Perhaps you have access to information that I don't, but as far as I was aware, he's been doing speeches since the early 2000s, long before Hillary even became an also ran. Unless his fee has jumped dramatically since...say06-08, I don't think the change will be dramatically different.
 

ChickenHawk

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Perhaps you have access to information that I don't, but as far as I was aware, he's been doing speeches since the early 2000s, long before Hillary even became an also ran. Unless his fee has jumped dramatically since...say06-08, I don't think the change will be dramatically different.

Here's an article that explains some of the dynamics of these speeches and how they tie into government activity.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-wife-s-State-Department-took-2009-2013.html

Now, I realize this is a politics-free zone, so I'm just going to say in a neutral way that when reviewing any transaction, it's important to realize what exactly each party is selling/buying. It's also important to observe other dynamics, such as the fact that the Clintons were literally trying to give away speeches during the recent presidential bid, but ended up speaking to nearly empty rooms. As such, this indicates that the speeches themselves have a market value that is much lower than what these corporations and foreign governments were paying.

In contrast, consider some of the other examples mentioned in this thread (Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, and even Donald Trump). In those cases, the actual audience members were willing to pay, whether in time or money, for the benefit of hearing the speech. It's a different dynamic.
 

ChickenHawk

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I should add that I'm not trying to derail the thread. I'm only saying that if the goal is to be motivational speaker, it might be better to look for role models who can draw large audiences or command generous speaking fees unrelated to government activity.
 
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Fox

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I'm really interested in connecting with people on stage as a speaker, I was wondering if anyone has any good thoughts on what sort of subject that a young person like me could start learning so that later when I have built the credibility, I could possess the intrinsic value equivalent/close to that of Bill Clinton to be worth people's money and time when speaking?

Be married to the secretary of state and do political favors for those who pay for your speeches. That should up your rates a few %.
 

Utopia

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Clinton certainly never spent his youth wondering what he could do to become a public speaker in 40+ years.

He spent that time crafting his skills and hardworking, so he could later run the largest entity in the history of the world, as well as writing books and running charities, and slamming a few chunky interns among god knows what else.

He delivered value to the world, and now he's paid to talk about his experiences and perceptions.

Create value first, then you can talk about it. What you're asking is basically chasing money, and you'll never get far with that mindset.

It can't be stressed enough; create value in someone's life and they'll give you a dollar, create value in 50 million people's lives and you know where that sentence ends.
People miss the fact that actually giving a speech can be valuable to others. Having the ability to get in front of a group of people and talk about something is generally something that not a lot of people want to do. While it is of course, better to have experienced the world and have something to talk about, but I think there is a market for just being able to deliver a speech that someone else has.

More than anything though this is being thought of the wrong way. Clinton makes x amount doing speeches so let's find out how to do that. I think it's more beneficial to find what you are good at or what you like to do and capitalize on that. You won't know if you like public speaking or not until you have enough references at being able to do it (most people do not). Experience it all then find out how you can best serve others. Have you seen how fragile Clinton looks? Can't imagine he helps the world in such ways that he did when he was the president. A speaker is a great alternative for him.
 
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Azure

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Here's an article that explains some of the dynamics of these speeches and how they tie into government activity.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-wife-s-State-Department-took-2009-2013.html

Now, I realize this is a politics-free zone, so I'm just going to say in a neutral way that when reviewing any transaction, it's important to realize what exactly each party is selling/buying. It's also important to observe other dynamics, such as the fact that the Clintons were literally trying to give away speeches during the recent presidential bid, but ended up speaking to nearly empty rooms. As such, this indicates that the speeches themselves have a market value that is much lower than what these corporations and foreign governments were paying.

In contrast, consider some of the other examples mentioned in this thread (Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, and even Donald Trump). In those cases, the actual audience members were willing to pay, whether in time or money, for the benefit of hearing the speech. It's a different dynamic.
Forgive me if I came off negatively, I was merely interested in the subject and you clearly knew a bit more than I did.

Thank you for enlightening me
 

RHL

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@ChickenHawk Hit it out of the ballpark. Goldman et. al. weren't paying $50,000,000 for the ideas or inspiration they'd get from the Clintons. They were paying $50,000,000 for future conviviality with the controller of a mulititrillion-dollar globe-shaping economic/war machine. That isn't even political: It's just straight up objective transactional analysis. Again, as CH pointed out, if the value was in the words themselves, Clinton would have sold out the biggest sports stadiums in the country during her rallies every single night. Millions would want to hear something worth $250,000+/hr if it was given away for free.
 
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Dougema

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@GatsbyMag As everyone said, people usually give speeches about a life-long experience. Giving these kind of speeches are not usually their focus but teaching about something that was their focus for a very long time.

As said before, I believe that Bill Clinton is paid for his connections and not speech itself, here's an idea:

Find something you really like, research and talk about it! Video games? Golf? Self-help? Businesses? Whatever it is. When you love something you also love learning everything you can about it and talking about it. When you love and know enough about something, there will be people willing to listen to you. I've seen the other day, there is a convention for that game league of legends and they get thousands of people every year. Do you like that game? Be good at it and there will be thousands thinking you're more valuable than whatever Bill Clinton has to say!

Good luck
 

GatsbyMag

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@GatsbyMag As everyone said, people usually give speeches about a life-long experience. Giving these kind of speeches are not usually their focus but teaching about something that was their focus for a very long time.

As said before, I believe that Bill Clinton is paid for his connections and not speech itself, here's an idea:

Find something you really like, research and talk about it! Video games? Golf? Self-help? Businesses? Whatever it is. When you love something you also love learning everything you can about it and talking about it. When you love and know enough about something, there will be people willing to listen to you. I've seen the other day, there is a convention for that game league of legends and they get thousands of people every year. Do you like that game? Be good at it and there will be thousands thinking you're more valuable than whatever Bill Clinton has to say!

Good luck
I love this and I think I've seen a huge mistake that everyone else has kind of referenced to.

I've broken the 1st Commandment/fundamental principle of business. I'm focusing too much on how I can meet my desire to connect on stage rather than how I can get myself to start giving. I'm not sure how to explain it but when I realized that I've been too self-absorbed in finding a way to make money through my passion it brought me a lot of pain.

When I started to think of other people and their interests as suggested by the above answers which reminded me of bringing value, I felt more free and in a better state to answer my own question. All I need to do is focus on helping others and things will sort themselves out for me. I know it sounds very metaphysical and 'law of attractiony' but that's how I can best describe it.

Thank you again TFM Community!
 

Digamma

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Trump already did make around 1-1.5 millions for his speeches. That's the value of branding yourself for 50 years.

I think it's worth mentioning that the other side of "selling experience" is high level consulting.

I would bet that if you are a world-class authority in a subject that can make people a lot of money (persuasion, marketing, design) a day of your advice might be worth even more than speaking fees.
 
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G-Man

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So, I have to agree with RHL and CH that the speaking fees were essentially a form of money for influence disguised as payment for services.

What they do is a great example of the law of effection. These people have risen to a position of incredible wealth and power by effecting small groups of people immensely (Goldman types), and effecting huge groups of people in small ways (gubment gonna pay may bills!) It is essentially hyper-leverage: They get millions of people to trade votes for transfer payments or favors, then they pay off their voters with money from others.

You can say whatever you want about the morality or respectability of it, but it's definitely fastlane.... or maybe a better term would be the Fastlane Dark Side.

(Insert graphic of Hillary in her Mao suit and a Vader helmet)
 

MidwestLandlord

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All I need to do is focus on helping others and things will sort themselves out for me. I know it sounds very metaphysical and 'law of attractiony' but that's how I can best describe it.

It does sound 'law of attractiony' haha.

The Law of Attraction says if I affirm in my mirror every morning that "I will be a billionaire" then one day I will be. Uh...no. Positive thinking has it's place for sure, but that's not how life works.

But having the wrong mindset won't make you rich anymore than positive thinking will. Now, having the right mindset AND taking action to provide value to people? That's the ticket right there, and that's what I understood you to mean in your comment.

Bill Clinton isn't a "public speaker". Public speaking is a product he sells, and he is able to sell it for big money because the business of "Bill Clinton" has tremendous impact through magnitude.

Big difference between "I want to be a public speaker" and "I sell public speaking because people find value in what I have to say"

(In Clinton's case because he's an ex two-term president, the Clinton Foundation, etc)

Edit:

Clinton giving speeches to sway votes, or line the pockets of the uber wealthy, or to influence policy or whatever is still providing value to those that are paying his fees. Immoral? Sure. Unethical? Of course. But still value to those that pay him. Impact though magnitude at the highest level.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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I'm really interested in connecting with people on stage as a speaker, I was wondering if anyone has any good thoughts on what sort of subject that a young person like me could start learning so that later when I have built the credibility, I could possess the intrinsic value equivalent/close to that of Bill Clinton to be worth people's money and time when speaking?

Become a former president who can sell access in lieu of "speaking?"

Sorry but I couldn't resist ... I also wrote TMF nearly 10 years ago so some things have changed since I wrote that TMF entry.

Bottomline, regardless of the political overtones, you have to become someone who is viewed as valuable (info/entertainment/whatever) to a larger group.

I'm sure former President Obama, even without the executive branch no longer under his thumb, will begin making a killing "speaking".
 
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GatsbyMag

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Become a former president who can sell access in lieu of "speaking?"

Sorry but I couldn't resist ... I also wrote TMF nearly 10 years ago so some things have changed since I wrote that TMF entry.

Bottomline, regardless of the political overtones, you have to become someone who is viewed as valuable (info/entertainment/whatever) to a larger group.

I'm sure former President Obama, even without the executive branch no longer under his thumb, will begin making a killing "speaking".
Thank you for your book DeMarco!
 

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