Public Speakers: Ignore The New Rules Of Speaking At Your Peril
Saturday, October 31st, 2009The major trade association for public speakers, the National Speakers Association published a major survey about the public speaking industry in 2007.
One of their conclusions was that “NSA speakers are involved in many types of speaking engagements” including: Seminars, Training Events, Breakout sessions, Keynotes, Consulting
The top two audience types for their work was corporations and associations.
Then like a perfectly thrown bowling ball, the economy tanked and took out every pin in the public speaking industry. The reason for that, in my view, is that professional public speakers ignored the new rules.
What do I mean by that? Well simply put, when the economy was fine, speakers sought speaking engagements, showed up and delivered their message to whomever was in attendance. Some then offered their books or other products to the audience and others tried to position themselves for consulting or training work with the companies in attendance.
They spent little time thinking about building relationships with those attendees who were passionate for the topic being presented, instead they focused on the companies that were there. They never considered that if the companies or associations budgets were cut and speaking opportunities reduced significantly that they would need a different way to sell their products and services.
For the speakers who have really struggled in the last year or so, following the new rules of public speaking may have been a major help.
The new rules tell us that speaking is merely a way to distribute content to those people who are hungry for information on the topic we speak on. In that sense, we’re not speakers, we’re publishers.
Some great news is that through the Internet, we can find and attract a perfectly targeted audience anywhere in the world. We’re not likely to ever speak in all of countries where we have followers and fans, but they’ll read our information, buy our products and hire us to deliver our services.
While the market for speaking engagements is sharply reduced and may never return to what was, there is a hunger for information that is stronger than ever. So take on the role of publisher, seek and build relationships with those who are passionate about your topic and offer them information (content) in multi-media formats.
You can start by having a video shot and then turn your new video into an audio, transcribed and printed as a book, offered as a series of articles, posted to your blog and more. If you want help with this, contact me and let me know what your needs are. My professional speaker training may be all you need or perhaps you will want to access some one-on-one help.
Professional Speaking Mentor Scott A Dennison is exploringthe future of Professional Speaker Training at his website. You are also welcome to claim a copy of his newest report “Public Speaking is Dead!” and a series of Public Speaking Tips for free.