Lesson Two
Within the role of a speaker, some of the pros are definitely getting paid for your expertise! The value you give is a solution, which is why you can charge a premium rate to businesses based on the facilitation you are providing to the group. So, you are now earning a good income from an expertise you already hold and have a great sense of insight and mastery to share.
You also have the chance of meeting some truly fantastic individuals, and great clients that you can build an amazing working relationship over time. This leads to continued business, building a brand work, and great friendships. This is also a space that allows you to deliver your work at scale, with one talk you can capture an audience of hundreds or even thousands. The key is to then find a method to leverage that power of impact across the scope of the audience you have.
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Public speaking gives an illusion and trap of trading time for money, which often leads to the significant issue of needing to give up a lot of your time and presence as you scale. If this remains your business model, then ultimately you end up with a cap on your earning potential as your time is always limited. This does however give the opportunity to think about your route to scale and figure out the ways in which you can remove yourself from the solution you are offering.
Trying to build a profession within the speaking world, the audience, and customers you have will always associate you as an individual with the offering at hand. This is difficult to navigate as you then grow out of this role and attempt to build a bigger value proposition within the space – So the customer can no longer see the value on offer if you are not a part of the delivery.
The public expects you to have a celebrity status when you are a professional speaker and assume this is a limiting factor for who gets selected. This is a misconception as some speakers are provided a platform due to their growing status, but the key to any speaker getting selected comes from your understanding of what it is your positioning and solution.
80% of the work a public speaker needs to do is around networking, creating relationship and managing your impact space and building an audience. This then leaves your 20% as time in the room delivering on your actual speaking ability to show value and quality of impact.
So therefore, the struggles of a professional speaker often comes from the misunderstanding that the majority of work is not actually just being on stage speaking but needs to be aimed at growing your network of relationships.
Which element of your speaking business takes up around 80% of your time?