I crossed the line today. I joined the National Speakers Association. I have decided that at least part of my future will be as a professional speaker. You know, the kind that actually gets paid to do it.
In our industry, it’s a bit of a strange idea. We seem to have people clamoring for the opportunity to speak – and so they’re willing to do it for free. People speak for different reasons. To increase their visibility. To help sell their products or services. For an ego boost.
But something interesting happens when you are getting paid to speak. The focus shifts from you to the audience. It’s no longer about you. It’s about giving your client and the audience what they paid for – inspiration, education, motivation, insight. Whatever it is, you need to deliver.
I have made the transition to being a paid speaker slowly. I have a total of five or six paid engagements this year. For most of the others, I have agreed to speak as long as they would cover my expenses. For the most part, it was because I felt that I needed the opportunity more than they needed me to speak. Perhaps at the beginning, this was true. But I’ve come to understand that I add a tremendous amount of value to the events at which I speak. In part, it is because whether I’m being paid or not, I invest in my presentation extensively. I treat every organizer and every audience like a client. For my average 45 minute speech, I probably invest a total of 40 hours in development and preparation. I believe that it shows. And I’ve come to understand that it’s worth something.
So my days of doing free speeches is probably coming to an end. But that’s not really why I’m writing this blog post. This isn’t about me exposing the underbelly of my decision making process. Something else occurred to me – and it’s something that I think every IT professional needs to understand.
Talk is never cheap. Talk should never be free.
Here’s what I mean. As IT professionals, we are often called upon to “talk”. Whether it is leading a conference call, making a presentation to your peers or reporting out to your management, let’s face it, we spend a lot of our professional lives “talking”. We often discount it as just something that we must do – that our real job is performing some technical or management function. But the ability to effectively communicate is one of the most fundamental things that separates those that truly affect change and have an impact from those that don’t.
I sit in a lot of meetings. I almost hate to admit it, but there are so many occasions that as soon as someone begins to speak, I just tune out. It is obvious that they don’t want to be there, that they are just going through the motions. Or that they just love to hear themselves talk – that it’s all about them and what’s important to them.
What if, instead, each of us treated every conference call and every presentation like it was a paid speaking engagement. In a way, I believe that it is.
When I am preparing for one of my presentations, I always begin with understanding what the organizer is trying to achieve. What do they hope to get out of it? Then I spend some time understanding my audience. Where are they coming from, what are they expecting? Finally, I look at my material and ask myself what I need to do to get my point across, to connect with the audience and to help the organizer get what they want.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if we went into each and every meeting and call with the same attitude? If we did, I think that two things would happen. First, our meetings would be much more productive and interesting. Second, because there would be so much preparation involved, we would stop scheduling and holding meaningless meetings. If every meeting demanded this much of our energy, we would be much more selective about when we gathered our “audience”.
I’m sure that this is a bit of a pipe dream, but I hope that you take some of it to heart. I think that if you begin to approach your day in this way, you will actually get a lot more done and have a much greater impact. And if we can actually reduce the number of meaningless meetings, well, that will be accomplishing something!
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Tag/s:Personal Development
