Good day, speakers. Welcome to episode 45 of the profitable speaking podcast. In this episode, we're gonna look at navigating the logistics of conference speaking travel. Whether you're investing in your own resources or enjoying the hospitality of conference organizers, I'm here to guide you through the smart effective choices that should get you to the gig without breaking the bank. I'm discussing everything from making the most of your travel budget to optimizing your health and wellness on the go. Plus I'll share some insider tips on how to navigate local, national, and international journeys with ease. This episode is your go to guide for turning conference travel into an opportunity for growth, networking, and unforgettable experiences. Are you traveling on your own dime, or is the conference paying? There's 2 different sorts of ways to travel to conferences, obviously. The first one is self funded. Self funded, basically, as it easily says, is paying for yourself, and that brings up a couple of things. So first of all, what is the return on investment? If you're paying to go to speak at a conference, which means you're probably speaking for free, are you gonna make your money back? It's all very well to say, oh, I'm going to fly to Dubai and I'm going to speak at this conference for free. But to fly to Dubai and back and pay for accommodation, you're probably looking for 2 to $3,000 at least. So you need to know that you're gonna make that money back. So you need to understand what your return on investment is before you even say yes. So do your research and think about it. But if the return on investment is there, then it could be well worth your while to undertake self funding to fly and travel to a conference. The fact that you're getting exposure is not necessarily a good thing. As we all know, exposure is not hard to get these days. But If it's the right exposure, if it's to an audience that has money who would be willing to buy what it is that you're selling or talking about, etcetera, then it's worthwhile. So again, return on investment, great exposure but if there's no ROI there, why would you self fund yourself to go there? Do you have products or services to sell? Obviously, if you've gotta pay for it, you want it to add up to something that's worthwhile to cover the cost of your travel. At least try and cover the costs through something like book sales. I mean, I wrote my 1st book. I flew to a conference. I paid my own way. I spoke to a reasonably small room, but I was actually able to sell enough books to pay for my couple of $100 worth of flights because I flew down and back in the same day, so it was worthwhile. I got some exposure in front of the audience that I really wanted to be in front of, but I didn't necessarily make any big money. But the sales of the book covered my costs, and that's the most important thing in the end. When you're traveling and you're self funded, Do you really need a 5 star room? Now I grew up camping, so for me, 5 star is fantastic, but honestly, I'm happy with a 1 star budget motel as long as the rooms are clean and tidy, and it's relatively close to the conference center. The reason I like to be close to the conference center is because of all the functions that go on. It's easy enough to walk back and forth if you wanna go to a function at night or to go to an afternoon tea or even just to attend some sessions if you're not speaking until the next day. So don't always go for the top level of accommodation. I know we all like to be fancy, but let's be realistic here. This is an investment in a business. If you Running a business and you had someone going to speak at a conference for you, would you pay for them to stay in 5 star or would you put them in and say really nice 3 star accommodation? Realistically, you would put them in 3 star accommodation. Why should you be any different? If you got loads of money, do what you like. But if you're in business, Keeping an eye on the purse strings is a really important thing to do. So what if you're going to a conference and all your accommodation and flights are are funded by the conference organizers? A couple of things to think about here. 1st 1 is use your flight rewards card when you're flying. In other words, try and get the conference organizer to book your preferred airline if possible. Now it's not always possible because some companies actually have travel companies that do all their bookings and they only book through Qantas or Singapore Airlines or whoever it might be. But if you do have the option, it is worthwhile getting those flight points because you can then use them later on to go on a self funded trip and not have to pay for those flights. So get smart, get those points where you can. But if you're going to find flights for them to get you there, be fair. If you can fly at 8 AM in the morning and it's a $200 flight or you fly at 12 and it's a $500 flight. Please do the right thing by the conference organizers and take the $200 flight. It's really not asking that much to have to get up an hour earlier than you normally would get to the airport on time. So be fair and they will generally play along and happily book with with your preferred airline. Remember that anything over 3 hours in your contract should be business class. It's a pretty standard speaking rule and I think it's Fair one. The only time I think that maybe it doesn't apply is if you look at somewhere like Australia where you might be flying from Brisbane to Perth, which is across the country. Realistically, I I would take economy on that myself. If someone's willing to pay business class, I'm not gonna complain about a seat with a bit of leg room because I'm 6 foot 4, and that means that I'm not gonna be jammed in for 6 hours. That said, I fly to Singapore economy class, and I'm perfectly happily there. So see what works for you, but it is a normal contract thing to have over 3 hour flight business class. When it comes to the rooms and their booking rooms on-site, Generally, where the conference is being held, any room is good because you're not paying for it. If you wanna request something like nonsmoking, which pretty well every hotel is now, or away from the lift wells, Fair enough. I understand that. Don't really complain. Be happy they're giving you a room. One thing you can ask is food food included. And that's a common thing. You might not get a conference Breakfast, but you might get lunch while you're at the conference, and you might be invited to the conference dinner, in which case you can save money because you're not having to buy lunch. For me personally, when it comes to breakfast, When I travel a while, I often have McDonald's for breakfast because normally I have cereal, and so I prefer to have something a little different. And for 10 or $15, I can have McDonald's. And when you buy breakfast at the hotel, it's often 30, $40, and it's really not worth the money. You can always go to a cafe and get a croissant, whatever you want, but find out what the policy is before you fly there and assume that they're gonna pay for your food as well. One thing I've asked often is, can I add extra days at my own expense? So sometimes they'll want you to fly in, say, on a Friday so you're ready to speak on a Saturday and then fly out Saturday night. If I'm going to another city, some it's really nice to see another So I'll often say, look. Do you mind if I book an extra day and push my flights back to, say, Sunday afternoon or Monday morning or something like that? Most conference organizers are happy with that as long as you are picking up The cost of the accommodation for the extra days and they're happy whenever you take the flight as long as it's within reasonable time and reasonable cost, of course. Another thing is some speakers I know travel with their partners. So they pay for their partner's flight and the partner stays in the room with them because it doesn't cost any more to have 2 people in a room than it does one. So you can also do those sorts of things. Again, it's something you need to discuss with a conference organizer. When you're paying for it on your own dime, that's a different story. You can do whatever you like. And last but not least and probably, in my opinion, most important part about when they're paying is to remember that they're hiring you to work for them. You're not the king or queen. It's simple. You're going there to speak for them. You're not doing them an honor. They're doing you an honor by putting you in front of their people. So don't be the king or queen and expecting to be driven around and picked up in a limo and treated like a god. It's not acceptable behavior. It's Quite unbecoming and if you wanna get booked again, it's definitely not the way to go about it. Just remember, you're only part of the machine. You're part of the conference. You're not the whole conference. Be humble. Enjoy the opportunity you've been given. And if you do and you play the game and everybody has a good time and You do your thing and they enjoy it. You might get invited back and that's even more important because that gets business booked in the future plus other people We'll, you know, recommend you and you may pick up other gigs. So that's self funded versus, you know, conference organizer funded. What about health and wellness? The first thing is when you're traveling, Make sure you're eating properly. It's really important. We tend to eat little bits and pieces and all that sort of stuff, and you can get sick really quickly in another country if you're not careful about what you're eating or even within your own country, depending on what your diet's normally. Your body's used to eating a certain way when you go away, eat differently. It can affect how your body functions. There's no doubt about that. You also need to keep up your fluids because we get dehydrated more when we're traveling because we're living in air conditioning, which often we don't leave in air conditioning at home unless it's certain times of the year and also you're you're flying and things like that. So drinking plenty of water as well as eating properly is really important. Make sure that you find some places to exercise even if it's going for a long walk every day. You know, a 5 kilometer walk is a good thing. It keeps you healthy, keeps the blood moving, and it stops you just sitting still. I find sometimes when I'm away speaking, I spend a lot of time in hotel rooms or conference rooms, and it really throws my Circadian rhythm out as they say. I need to get outside. I need to have real air and real sunshine and things like that on me or rain. I don't mind. Make sure you look at what sort of things you can be seeing while you're in town. If you're going to another city and you've never been there before, go and have a look at the museum. Go and look at some famous places. Remember, life is an experience. It's about experiencing things. Just going there to speak and then getting back on the plane and coming back, I think it's a waste of a massive opportunity, so take the time even if it's a half an hour just to go out and look at something. I'm sure you'll be able to fit it in. No one's ever needed all the time at a conference. Don't start drinking when you're speaking at a conference. Number 1, you'll get dehydrated. That's never a good thing. Number 2, you do not want perchance to have a hangover when you've gotta go on stage. It just dulls your performance, and it's really not good to see or even worse if you go on stage when you've had a drink. There is no excuse for that. K? Stick to soft drinks, the water or nonalcoholic drinks, whatever it is, while you're away on the conference. Once you finish speaking, if you wanna have something to drink, That's fine. Your obligation's finished there, but please do the right thing. Remember, this is a business. You're a business person. You need to act professional. And lastly, when it comes to local travel, one of the things I'm sorry. Travel full stop is, obviously, COVID and flus, and I always mention this. But Every time I talk to friends that have gone on a plane lately, they keep getting sick. So be aware of it. Make sure you keep your flu shots and all those sorts of things up to date and and stay healthy as possible. So there's different types of travel for speaking, and I I feel they fall in the 3 main categories. The first is local travel. Local travel is where it's within an hour or 2 of your house. K. You can drive there. You can grab public transport. It's up to you. Things to think about, you need to allow for traffic, so don't leave it too late. Better to arrive early than late. You can always open up your laptop and do some work in the back room. Make sure you pack a can of deodorant if you're buying by public transport because unlike in a car where you can control the air conditioning, it could get quite hot and sweaty, and you do not wanna come off smelling like a wet dog or something. Make sure you pack water so you've got water to drink. Again, dehydration is a bad thing for any human. And lastly, if where you are is really hot, You may be using Uber rather than walking from say the bus station to the conference center or or a cab, whatever there happens to be around. For example, in Singapore, it is very hot. Even walking 4 or 5 blocks in a suit is enough to take someone who doesn't live there and make them dripping away. So not a good thing. So with local travel, remember, you you're working within distance of home, but There's other things to think about there. National travel. If you're traveling nationally, I recommend when you're booking flights to use the flight carrier's website. So if I'm flying Virgin, which I generally do, then I use Virgin's website to book all my bookings underneath my flight rewards. Okay? I use booking.com personally for my accommodation because I found them to be reliable and they have some pretty good deals. I'm sure there's other websites that you use as well, but find the one that works for you and then stick with it because they all have reward port points attached to it for loyalty and you can take advantage of those so that when you do need to take a free trip, you can get cheap accommodation and get free flights and that sort of stuff. When I talk about getting flight points, the reason why I impress this is because literally traveling to Perth for a conference in a month's time and the flights to Perth cost me $55 each why? Because I was able to use flight points for 90% of the flight. Now I know you're not gonna fly to Perth for $55 generally, but because I've got the points, It's there. Absolutely worth looking into how you set up your flight rewards card. So, for example, with Virgin Australia, you can link flybys. And as I have a Coles supermarket nearby and I do most of my shopping there, every time I go to Coles and I buy food, I swipe my flybuys. Now I know some Some people aren't into the tracking side of it. Quite frankly, I don't care because those fly by points I'm getting is what paid for my flights to Perth. Why not take advantage of the system when it's there for you. As you fly more and you use the same company, you move up in your class. So you move up to silver class or a gold class or a platinum class, and that brings with it rewards. So being gold class means, obviously, you can go into the lounges and things like that anytime, and that makes a big difference. Rather than having to sit in the airport with everyone else, you can go into the lounge. It's quiet. They've got food there. You can have a drink. They make fresh coffee, all those sorts of things. It does make traveling just that little bit easier, and some of the facilities have showers and all sorts of stuff. It is worthwhile being loyal to an airline that you generally use. Another thing I would say about airlines, but is to know which carriers never leave, and it's a well known fact that some carriers seem to cancel their flights a lot more. Now I'm not gonna name the airline that I would normally say, but most Australian speakers would not fly this particular airline because they have a habit of canceling early morning flights. So you go to the airport and you find out your flight's canceled. Now going to a conference, that's a really bad thing to have happen, and, yeah, be careful which airlines you fly with. Some of them do have a reputation for canceling early morning flights. So even though overall, the statistics look like they only cancel, say, 20% of flights like every other airline, The 20% they cancel is every single morning almost. Check your stats. Talk with other speakers. You'll find out who they are pretty quickly. Always make sure you stay close to the event, but not at the venue unless it's paid for by the organizer. Why? Because conference venue overcharge for accommodation always. It's almost invariably higher than the hotel that's 1 block away, and yet the rooms are no better. There's pretty well a standard quality in Australia I know personally that no matter what, whether you're in 3, 4, or 5, there's no real difference between the rooms. So they might have a few more thread counts in the sheet. Most people can't feel that. They might have nicer cleaning things so to me and so on and so forth. So just remember, don't have to be in the venue as long as you're close by so that you can move back and forth easy. And thirdly, of course, brings us to international travel. I'm really strong when it comes to traveling internationally. I use a travel agent to book my travel if I'm paying for it. The reason being is that problems happen when you travel internationally. And when you use a travel agent, travel agents have access to computer systems, which allow them to get good deals, but also allow them to solve problems that you as a person who might have organized the flight travel yourself may not be able to do. And there's nothing worse than being stuck on another country on your own when things start to come apart. If you've got a partner, as in a travel agent, then that's Someone else there to help you. They can dig around. They can spend a couple of hours if necessary sorting out the problems for you because you're gonna go back to them again and again. It's worth their trouble. I have friends that own a travel agency, and I always use them. And yet I know I'm fully capable of booking these flights online, but I don't. If I go international, I go to them. It's simple. It's not a big deal for them. Sometimes they're only, you know, small deals when it comes to, you know, percentage wise in their pocket, but then when family wants to go on a holiday to Europe or something, I know I still will be using them. So I recommend you you do that. When you do book all those things, make sure you give them all your your rewards card numbers. And if you they can't get you onto your regular airline, make sure you sign up for the rewards card for the airline they can get you on. And remember, there's airlines that work together. So if you get, say, Chris Flyer rewards, that might work with 4 or 5 different airlines. So Look at what you need to do. Again, you can sign up for all these reward cards generally free, so it's it's not really a hassle. Make sure you're getting insured when you travel internationally, and this is super, super important. And make sure you add a couple of days at the end of when you're due back. Don't just book to the day you due back. Invariably, people and I've heard so many horror stories of this, not so much with speakers, but just general travel. With people who booked to say Friday because they're flying back Friday, and then the plane doesn't leave and they've gotta stay another 24 hours and they have an accident and something really drastic happens and they end up in hospital. And their insurance ran out on the Friday, and they had the accident on the Saturday. So suddenly they're in big financial trouble. Please don't put yourself That position pay for a couple extra days. It's only 10 or $15, whatever it happens to be. It's not worth having something really bad happen to you. Okay? The worst you'd probably be stuck there is 48 hours, so 2 days should cover it, but it's up to you to decide that. But when you travel, most, international travel, you're allowed 23 kilos when you're traveling. Some of the budget airlines, but only add 20 kilos that you're allowed to have, that can make a big difference. Three kilos doesn't sound like a lot, but when I recently traveled to Singapore, I only had 20 kilos because I was traveling on a budget airline. Then when I went to come back, I realized that I'd gone with almost 20 kilos. So bringing back, like, souvenirs and lots of stuff actually would put me over the limit. I actually what's limited in what I could bring home. So just be aware, you do have limits you can take. You may have to pay for an extra bag. So if you got resources and things like that, Find out how much extra it is to take a a second bag or up to 20 kilos as a second bag and pay for it upfront. Do not go to the airport With the extra bag or with being overweight, make sure you weigh your bag at home because if you book it up front, it's cheap. If you pay for it at the airport, it's very expensive normally. When you get to the other country, make sure, and most airports have this, there's counters where you can get a SIM card for your phone. Go and buy a local SIM card. I think I got one in Singapore. It was 30 days with a 100 gig of data for $14, which is insane. A 100 gig for $14 are so cheap. And these days, 90% of what we do is not through phone calls. We tend to use, say, Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp or something like that. So we're actually using data to chat to people. So having access to data is more important than actually having a phone number, especially in In the Asian countries, in my experience, they're very much into using WhatsApp. Get a SIM card, and then when you get home, pop it out, put your original one in and go on with your life because after 30 days, they die. Try and avoid any late night flights or early mornings due to time differences. So there's a couple of things here. First of all, late night flights, I personally hate them. I can't sleep on a plane, but It can mean you're kicked out of your hotel at 10 o'clock in the morning, and you've gotta entertain yourself until 10 PM at night. And unless you've got friends in the country or you've got some place to be or something, that can be very hard work to do nothing. Even trying to do some work, That's 12 hours you've gotta fill in, and I personally find that sometimes that can be really difficult. Okay? But think Think about it. Think about what you need, and your body's different to mine, so you might be better at that sort of stuff. But I find because my time zone's out, Then I'm awake when I should be asleep, and I'm trying to entertain myself, and it just doesn't come together. It's not pretty. I recommend if you can also when you're traveling, make sure you get a late checkout. That way if you are stuck there, you can get a check out to 2 o'clock or something like that. At least you're not entertaining yourself from 10 o'clock in the morning. That's 4 hours less that you don't have to actually find somewhere to be while you're waiting at an airport or something like that. So there's a couple of other areas that I also feel are worth covering when it comes to traveling as a speaker. First 1 is taking resources and products with you, and the 2nd one's post conference. So firstly, electronic resources are really very light, so they're good to take with you because you can carry them on your phone. Books can weigh a lot, but it is worthwhile having books depending on what you wanna use them for. Taking a suitcase full of books can be very heavy. You may find it better to actually have a box of books shipped from Amazon directly if you print yourself or from your, printer and have them sent straight to the airport. Sorry. Not to the airport, to the conference, and pick them up at the conference. Now if you got any left over, give them one of those business cards. Have some there, and then if sometimes it might be a box of a 100, you might have 20 left. Well, throw them in your suitcase and bring them home. Just depends on how many you get sent and, you know, what you need them for. But, again, sometimes it's easier to have them shipped there than it is to try and carry them there. If worthwhile, you can get posters or banners printed locally, and then you can bin them afterwards. So you know what? Those pull up banners, they can be done for $50 these days. And if you've got a Friend in country who's a local contact basically for you, they'll be able to tell you where you can get that done. It's just a matter of sending the artwork, and then if you ask them nicely, they might Call in and pick them up for you. Otherwise, you might be able to get a call in and and your travels before you speak. So you don't have to have your banners that you do and take with you everywhere if they're too heavy. One time thing is worthwhile as long as you're covering your costs. If you're paying to take something, make sure you sell it before you bring it home. Hey. Don't bring stuff home if you can avoid it. Sell it. Get rid of it. It doesn't matter. In the end, if if you're selling a book for $20 and you're paying$5 for them and And you got 10 leftover. Get rid of them at $10 each. Get them out. It's better to have them out in public and have people reading your stuff than it is to be bringing those books home because you're you're missing out on $10 profit. K. You're still in front. It's still $5 in front. Get rid of it. Don't bring it home. And also remember that a conference venue or conference organizer Maybe I will to preprint your workbooks and things like that for you locally. They'll charge you for that, but they could probably have it done for you. You just gotta ask. Again, Ask questions to find out what they can do. So post conference, make sure you do your thank you's. K? It's very important in some cultures. In fact, it's pretty important in every culture, but very important certain cultures. Make sure you stay healthy when you get home. Don't just let everything go. Make sure you're eating properly and all those sorts of things when you come home as well. Take a day off to recover because jet lag is a real thing. Some people don't get it at all. It just depends which way you're flying around the world, I'm told. One way you get it worse than the other, but either way, you're gonna be a little bit out of sorts because you've been moving from time zone to time zone. Taking a day off Doesn't hurt unless you absolutely have to be somewhere. Make sure you follow-up with people at the conference. If you need to send out emails or you need to send out information or whatever. Get that going and make some posts to promote the conference. Obviously, you can do social media posts and things like that when you're there, but make one afterwards going, oh, I had a fantastic time and talk up the conference. Not just talk up yourself, talk up the conference title and the people that are running it. K? Doesn't hurt to tag people and They may be trying to grow the conference, so any publicity you can put through for them is a good thing. And then finally, of course, is reflect on what you've learned. Think about your travel. Think about what you discovered, what went well, what went not so well, what could you do better next time. K? Debrief after you've been away. And you'll only get better at doing it the more you do it, so you wanna streamline it as much as possible so you get maximum effect when you're speaking, whether that be traveling locally, nationally, or internationally. In the end, this is all about getting your message out, growing your business, making an income, making a lifestyle for yourself. So make sure you debrief what you've done. That about wraps up today's episode. Thank you for tuning in to my little exploration of conference speaking and the travel involved in that. I hope that you're walking away with some actionable insights that maybe make your next trip smoother, more enjoyable, and hopefully incredibly Profitable. If this episode sparked new ideas or helped clarify his travel strategies, please like, share, and subscribe. And remember, you can also catch this on video on YouTube for more engaging, viewing, if you wanna watch me. Your support means the world to me, and it's what keeps these conversations going. So hit that subscribe button, Share your support and your thoughts in the comments, and let's continue to navigate the exciting world of professionals speaking together. Safe travels, and I look forward to joining you in the next episode.