I once knew a chap who had on his business card the phrase ‘and spectacle wearer’. I asked him why he had included this in his self description. He told me it was because it was a true

and accurate fact. Looking up at his face I noticed he was correct.

Are we, as ‘speakers’ guilty of a similar thing if describing ourselves on our marketing materials as a ‘professional speaker’? Do we waste time by pointing out the obvious or irrelevant? Do we even need to use the word ‘professional’? Shouldn’t clients be able to assume that we are professional (in both senses that we meet an accepted standard of quality AND are able to make money from it)?

Should we describe ourselves as ‘speakers’ at all? On a recent blog by in demand US speaker Scott McKain (The Ultimate Customer Experience), Randy Gage (The Millionaire Messiah) added this comment:

"Billing yourself as an expert in a particular area will ultimately get you more business and higher fees. Speaker puts you in the category with toastmasters and the chiropractor doing free speeches on spinal health. Experts are always in demand, in

any economy.”

So should we be billing ourselves as an ‘expert’ then? There’s a danger here too. What is an expert? Is it someone who knows a topic in depth? Possibly. But I know a lot about cleaning my teeth. I’ve been doing it successfully for decades. So am I an expert? To be a teeth cleaning expert I would need to have my expertise independently verified, then I’d be a dentist (I’m not). If there’s no body to independently bestow the award of ‘expert’ on your topic, what social proof have you got that backs it up? 

So let’s say you have a topic that is something that so few people are knowledgeable about but they do want to know it, are willing to pay for it and believe you can do it. Then we have the next problem. Is being an expert enough? Perhaps contrary to what Randy says, is there a risk, if you’re not a ‘celebrity’, that if we don’t say what the client can actually buy from us (e.g. a speech) then they may pass over our expertise. We have to market that expertise as accessible. Do we want to risk having our potential clients having to bridge the gap themselves of how we might fit in with their businesses?

There’s also the problem of marketing ourselves solely as information conduits. If that’s all we are there’s a risk the client could just get a book, buy a packaged course or worst of all, and I can hardly bring myself to say it, book a trainer.

Rod Sloane (UK’s leading authority on Sales and Marketing Alignment) told me that he went to a lot of effort to find out exactly what ‘free industry speakers’ and low level trainers said and did when they presented material similar to his topic. He came to the conclusion that he dare not, and must not do what they do. If they use PowerPoint, he cannot. If they use certain examples, he cannot. For him to position himself as ‘a leading authority’, then ‘Europe’s leading authority’ and eventually ‘the World’s leading authority’ he has to market what he does differently to the others. If there’s no perceivable difference then the client might as well go for the ‘free’ and rightly so.

If Scott McKain is right in his article that the middle ground (where many well established speakers operate) is shrinking, there may be only two areas left to position ourselves in: free or high fee. Which we choose is down to how we position what we do. If we choose to make a living from actual speaking fees, rather than using talks as a lead generation tool for other offerings, we have to highlight what we do that IS unique. 

And that’s likely not to include, sadly, the phrase ‘professional speaker’.

"How many non-distinct, low fee speakers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? 

None. They’re screwed already” - Scott McKain

Happy times and places,

Ayd Instone

(Britain’s top creativity speaker... and singer)

Good news! I've just found out that the Crown Plaza Marlow, home to this years convention, has a sauna, steam and spa!

I've come up with some of my best ideas in steam rooms. The reason it works is that it provides a different pace and a warm and relaxed atmosphere. That's very important to me and how I work, to be able to take in new information, combine it with what I already know and then let the magic happen to produce a great new idea. 

It could be to increase speaking opportunities, a new product, ideas for blogs or books or whatever. For this magic to happen we need to have a variety of tonal experiences and atmospheres. This is what I love about the PSA conventions.

This will be my fifth convention. The first one I went to, I was told was 'the not very good one', but it still seemed like a great enough event to me. That said, each year seems to have been getting better and better. objectively, perhaps they don't really get better. What gets better is my use of, and engagement with them.

There are secrets to be found hiding in all corners of a convention. They are not always found in the locations you are told to look either. Certainly you're going to get value from just turning up and attending every main session, but 

to find the secrets you need to realise that it's actually an 

interactive experience. There are choices to make, all of which colour your experience and learning.

This year, the hotel is quite compact. Most of the rooms we'll be using are all together. They'll be no getting lost on the way to a workshop. Meeting and catching up with friends and colleagues will be easier.  

If speakers are good at one thing (other than speaking) it's friendly networking. Most of us get a large proportion of tangible paying referrals from other speakers. The event is built around this idea. There'll be informal networking going on all over the place, in the upstairs bar, the main bar downstairs, at breakfast, lunch, pre-dinner drinks and in the steam room. There are plenty of gaps over the weekend to actually plan scheduled meetings with people you've been wanting to nab for ages. Use the opportunity to set these meetings up. 

In the main sessions watch and listen closely. Have the speakers decided to deliver shortnened versions of their keynotes or to talk about their keynotes? Ask yourself how you think they performed. See how their introduction worked and how they closed. If they used props or slides, notice how they used them. Did it work? The biggest secrets are perhaps not what a speaker says, but how they say it and what they didn't say. This 'reading between the lines' is in my opinion where the secret value is hidden.

Make notes on what you notice and whatever thoughts whatever is happening on stage trigger in your mind. You'll be given a notebook in your delegate bag - do use it to record these new secrets. Don't ever think you'll remember them. Kenny Harris once told me that the difference between a great comedian and an average one is the notebook. Both are capable of thinking of the same quality of funny gags. The great comedian has a notebook on him/her at all times and writes them down. The average comedian forgets to. This is the same difference between a genius and a dull wannabe: write your ideas down as you think of them. 

After the opening general sessions on the Friday, it's time to choose from the workshops available. There are three sets of three, running at the same time in different rooms. How do you decide which three to attend and which six not to? The answer is to have devoured the A5 programme that came in your delegate bag. I didn't spend ages filling it full of important data just so it would pad out to twenty odd pages and look nice. That information is your clue to who is worth seeing and who is perhaps not, right now, at 

this time in your business. Don't tell me you just walked into the nearest room or just followed Roger Harrop around. Other speakers will have different agendas. Work yours out in advance. What information would suit your business today? What secrets do you need for your future?

It looks like Meet the Pros has been expanded this year. Even more Pros and more chances to meet them. As you can imagine, organising this is a logistical nightmare, the earlier you book the better the event flows, and you'll be more likely get to chat to who you need to.

On the Saturday night, just before the evening's entertainment, the new 'theme' for next year will be unveiled. The idea of a theme is a useful one. It allows you to ponder your connection to it and the speaking business, to help create, or remind you to create, a mission for your own business for the coming year. 

It's best to arrive early and stay late. Although the event finishes at lunchtime on Sunday, try to keep Monday clear for reflection and followups. Go through those notes and turn them into action plans to get more speaking. We're not the Professional Notetakers Association.

Remember: it's your convention and its successes will be in part dictated by the choices you make, on who to talk to and who to listen to. Enjoy it, live it, do it.

At 42 pages the latest Speakeasy was the biggest issue yet. By a long, long way.

So how do we follow that? 

The answer is by you submitting your blogs and articles as soon as you have any ready to go.

This is what one reader said this week:

To maintain that sort of value we're going to need your help. Whether you've written in before or if this will be your first submission - have a think on what you could contribute that will help others as well as showcasing your expertise and promoting your skills. 

To give you something to think about, there's a theme to each issue. For the next issue is about:

The deadline is 19th October. But to make it a lot easier for me I'd really appreciate you sending in your material as soon as you can so I can start laying it out before the deadline so the publication can be timely. It took me SO long to layout those 42 pages!

How many words?

A half page is 350 words and a full page is 750 words. I'd love to have a few more half-page articles. I feel they really showcase a speakers ability to come straight to the point and add value in a compact way. I think brevity suits the medium quite well.

One and a half and two pages are acceptable but I'm being stricter next time: to have more than a page, the topic must warrant the extra space and it must come with images of some description. Just ask yourself, 'is this relevant to speakers?'. If it is, let's have it. Notice that I strip out biographical data (that should exist on your profile on the PSA website) and we allow up to two web address as contact details (can be twitter, linkedin or anything).

Having a photo, even for a shorter article is a must. If I have to exclude any piece it will likely be because there was no photo. The best article with the best images may make it as the cover story....

If you're a speaker at the convention, why not give us a short preview article for the next issue to whet our appetites?

As a reminder, the deadlines for the next issues are: Autumn: 19th October (out November)  Winter: 19th December (out January)  Spring: 19th March (out April)  Summer: 19th June (out July).

Until then,

Happy Times and Places,

Ayd

ayd@aydinstone.com

01865 779944

You may have noticed that a few things have changed around here. We’ve all got shiny new badges with a new logo (if you haven't, ask your chapter president for yours), the PSA website thanks to Graham Jones has become more useable and tidier, Rod Sloane has taken over the PSA podcast, Moving Voices and finally the magazine looks a lot different. These are the changes on the surface which reflect the even bigger evolution of the Association that's been going on this past year and is continuing. Roger Harrop, the President for the year discusses some of these changes on the following page.

When I was asked to take over Speakeasy the first question I asked was, do we actually need it? With the website, individual speaker blogs and Moving Voices, what is the point of it? Last year it was decided that to print and post it was not economically (or environmentally) justifiable when it could exist just as happily as a pdf download. This led me to realise that as a pdf we're not restricted to a certain page count. That means we can publish as many (or as few) contributions as we like. 

That's why you can now contribute a half page (350 words) a full page (750 words) or even a four page spread (3000 words) if the topic warrants it. 

So Speakeasy takes on a slightly different form. It's a forum to share your expertise, experience and insights with other speakers that perhaps doesn’t fit within other delivery media quite so well. If you’re using a new piece of technology or find yourself at the North Pole, take a picture of it - we have the space. If your article has a worksheet element with bits to fill in - we can include it. If you have any other ideas that are better than that, just let me know. 

Fortunately for the Spring 2009 issue I had enough interesting articles, but be warned, if you don't contribute for the next issue it will be filled with my own ramblings on topics such as the cars of British Leyland and the fall of British manufacturing, the origin of human consciousness in the bicameral age or the music of Syd Barrett. And I'll be able to shoehorn a message about the speaking industry into each and every article. To prevent that, let me know what you’ve noticed about your area of expertise recently. Polish up a blog that didn't get the attention it deserved. Offer some advice that might help us all out. Share some photos or interesting things. But most important of all: use it to show off how clever and successful you are (as long as you tell us how you did it) and get better and better at plugging your stuff without it looking like you’re plugging

your stuff. 

One theme I want to see covered next issue is 'How to find and meet people who might book you'. So let's explore clever networking skills. Let's figure out if online social networking works or wastes time. Let's discuss how we can help each other connect with each other, share resources, techniques, technology and projects (yes - even if they are our own) that help solve the big problems we face every day to make this weird way of earning a living earn more than just a living.

Happy Times and Places,

Ayd