Moving Your Speaking Business Forward: Part 1

With everything going on in our world these days, it probably feels like an emotional roller coaster. If you're like me, the weeks are flying by and Monday's seem to blink into Fridays.

Assuming you're reading this because you have a strong desire to build a successful speaking business, you're likely doubting if now is a good time to pursue speaking and wondering what the heck is going on.

The first 2-3 months of covid-19 DID HALT practically everything. It forced every speaker to listen, adapt, shift and reinvent both content and delivery. Events were canceled, postponed and budgets were cut. Trainings, conferences and workshops became overshadowed by companies and associations wondering if they could even survive. The future was uncertain.

That was THEN though. That dust settled weeks ago. There's been a breakthrough and you need to know about it in order to do something with it.

NOW is the time to know how to adapt and then apply strategies to push through and land speaking engagements even amidst covid-19 and the economy. Other speakers are doing it, so why not you?

I just got booked for a national conference in September to keynote in-person. They'll be offering their event in a hybrid format.

So fellow speakers, wherever you are at in your speaking, NOW is the time to know how to take your speaking business to the next level. NOW is the time to move your speaking business forward.

But how? What to do? Where to start?

Good news is that I'm launching a series of informative blog posts sharing various strategies to help you move your speaking business forward despite the uncertainty, regardless of economic conditions, and despite wherever you might be in your speaking.

Whether I'm your 1:1 coach or you're just reading my content from afar, it's all good. I want to help you any way I can.

Also, whether you're just starting out or if you're consistently landing several $2,500-$5,500 speaking engagements per month - or anywhere in between - these strategies will help you prepare to be successful in your speaking. "It's not what you know; it's what you apply."

Since March, I've been quietly observing, studying, and compiling what's working for speakers and what's not working. I've watched dozens and dozens of boring webinars disguised as "virtual keynotes." I've been taking copious notes on Q&A sessions from the National Speakers Association. And I'd been talking with meeting planners and bureaus who book speakers.

My speaking business has already picked back up and I want to help you do the same.

Most speakers have either been doing it wrong, or they've not been doing anything at all.

Well, there are three types of people ... people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people who wonder, "What just happened?"

If you're serious about moving your speaking business forward, see Part I below.

If you're serious about taking your speaking business to the next level, see Part I below.

You might feel that it's impossible to move forward right now and now's not a good time to push through.

Well, now is THE time to push through. Now is the time to differentiate.

It's unfortunate, but most speakers will blame the virus for ruining their 2020 speaking business. They'll blame the economy and everything else outside their control. They just never shifted the right way. They never adapted.

The reality is that from this point forward, things are in YOUR CONTROL. We have the power to turn any situation into an opportunity for growth, even if it requires a steep learning curve and even if it demands feeling uncomfortable. This is what professional speakers are doing right now. I believe there is an incredible opportunity in front of us right now as speakers.

"Moving Your Speaking Business Forward: Part 1" is all about knowing the current reality of the meetings and events industry.

If you don't know what meeting planners, association executives, and conference organizers are thinking and doing, then you're throwing darts in the dark at targets that don't even exist!

Instead, read these outstanding, and short(!), articles below by industry leaders in the events and speaking industry. Once you understand the reality of the current environment, I'll share in Part II how to "pivot" successfully and prepare accordingly.

The Comeback Of Conferences And Meetings