World Monitor Magazine WM_Energy_ 2019_web | Page 51

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stories, talk about business strategies, and tell you how what
you said affected them.
After collecting your hotel points, you’re whisked to the airport,
you fly home (racking up airline miles), and then you return to your
daily commute to your couch — because you work for yourself,
and that means working wherever and however you want.
When not traveling, you’re free to nest at home, connect with
friends and family, or use your points and miles to travel the world,
where you meet even more new people, interview the world’s top
experts to gather cutting-edge information and research, read
case studies and books, and collect new stories to put into your
next book or talk. Oh, and everything you do, with the exception of
half your house payment and groceries, is tax deductible.
The hard part
Speaking gigs are not easy to get. It’s a very tough business. In
fact, 80 percent of my gigs come from someone who saw me in
person. So, in order to start speaking, you have to start speaking
— and how the heck do you do that?
First of all, you have to be a rock-solid subject matter expert with
real credentials, and you have to keep your knowledge up-to-date.
You also have to be able to take your expertise and use storytelling
skills to develop it into a great, engaging talk (or talks). And you
have to have this elusive thing called presence: a combination of
how you carry yourself and use body language, how you project
your voice, and other intangible qualities. Without presence, no
matter how great your content, you won’t get a call for another talk.
Getting the word out is your next most important job. In my
experience, unless you’re famous, speaker bureaus are mostly
useless. I’m listed with at least 30, but less than 5 percent of
my business comes through them. Instead, you’ll have to play a
networking sport full of potential rejection. It is socially exhausting.
You have to work every room from the moment you arrive until you
leave. You can never bow out early, and you must offer to speak
privately to every sponsor or executive the organizing committee
wants you to meet. You have to be “on” the whole time. And
rejection abounds. Someone will see you talk and tell you how great
it was and that they want to bring you to their company or event,
but oftentimes you’ll never hear from them again. After back-to-
back gigs, I sometimes sleep like the dead for 12 hours or more.
To properly market yourself as a speaker, you’ll also need a
website (updated regularly with fresh content), maybe a semi-
monthly newsletter, and possibly a customer-relationship
management strategy and the software to execute it. You might
even need to hire someone to help you with all of this.
Also, know that your communication trail will be never-ending.
Each gig requires dozens of touch points, from your first call, to
working out logistics, to payment and follow-up. Email will feel
like a full-time job, even if you have help.
Oh, and have you written a book? Or two, or three? Because you
really should. Books, while not necessarily a great source of direct
revenue, create instant credibility.
Given the overwhelming number of touch points involved with
landing a high-paying gig, and the number of dead-ends along
the way, you might always feel a few steps behind on your to-do
list. But if you think this is the life for you, find a TEDx event near
you and pitch your idea — that’s how I got started.
The balance
Your schedule is (mostly) your own. You could coast and work a
very light schedule (and likely see your speaking pipeline dry up).
Or, you could work very long hours for weeks or months on end
(and miss the opportunities that being your own boss provides).
The good news is that it’s your choice to figure out how you want
to balance your time. There are natural off-peak periods around
major holidays and at other times, so you can plan travel or time
away from work to coincide with those dates. Or, if you want
to up and go to Jamaica for the weekend, you can do that, too.
Bookings can be erratic and unpredictable — feast or famine. If
you can’t handle this kind of uncertainty, this may not be for you.
However, once you build the snowball, it can gain momentum. For
the past couple of years, I’ve had north of 60 paid gigs a year,
and I do my share of complimentary keynotes, too, for nonprofits,
schools, and other institutions.
Time isn’t the only thing you’ll need to balance. The people who
loved your talk are usually the only ones who approach you to
offer feedback. And if that’s the only feedback you listen to, your
ego and hubris can explode. To hone your craft (and keep your
ego in check), you’ll need to regularly solicit constructive feedback.
So, should you be a keynote speaker? I think the answer is yes
(unless you don’t like leaving home). Public speaking offers an
amazing lifestyle with freedom and perks that few other jobs
provide. If you feel the urge to share your story, have great
presence, and are a great storyteller, and if you have deep
expertise in something useful to a business, then public speaking
could be your next career path.
Source: by Strategy&
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