Episode 272
Your Topic Is Not Your Positioning: Why Good Speakers Stay Invisible
If you're a good speaker who isn't getting booked at the rate or fee you think you deserve, this episode is going to be uncomfortable in the right way.
The problem, in most cases, isn't your speaking. It's your positioning. And more specifically, it's the fact that most speakers build their positioning around what they want to say rather than what the market actually needs to hear.
In this episode, John works through six positioning mistakes that keep credible, capable speakers invisible -- with real client stories and examples that make each one land where it needs to.
Join us for the live speaker positioning event: https://present-influence.kit.com/products/a-position-of-authority-why-most-speak
What's covered:
The topic trap—why building your talk around your own expertise and interests, rather than your buyer's specific problem, is the fastest route to an empty pipeline. Including a story about a speaker whose health and productivity topic created a liability rather than a solution.
Information vs transformation -- why packing your keynote with everything you know is the reason you're not getting rebookings or workshop enquiries. The talk that impresses is not always the talk that converts.
The speak-on-anything problem -- both the unfocused speaker who hasn't chosen a lane, and the ego-driven speaker who believes intelligence alone equals credibility. With a real example from John's time at The Speaker Lab, and a look at what happened when Courtney Harding (episode 254) chased a hot topic without a clear problem to solve.
The corporate bottom-line test—particularly for speakers building a career in the UK and Europe, where the association circuit doesn't exist in the same way it does in the US. If you want to be well-paid, corporate is where you need to be -- and your topic must connect directly to making or saving money. Cross-references the episode with Jackson Ogunyemi on education speaking, and a forthcoming episode with Claire Young on the UK education speaker market.
Nice-to-have vs must-book -- why some topics will always sit in the soft column no matter how well you frame them, and what creates genuine urgency in a booking decision.
The person is positioning—ethos, logos, and pathos applied to the speaker's positioning. Why two speakers can deliver identical content and create entirely different results, why your ethos cannot be copied even when your content is, and what Maria Franzoni revealed about content theft on episode 256 of this show.
Referenced episodes:
Episode 254 -- Hot Market, Cold Inbox: Why Your Speaking Calendar Isn't Matching Your Credibility (Courtny Harding)
Episode 256 -- How Professional Speakers Get Hired: The Bookability Formula (Maria Franzoni)
Jackson Ogunyemi episode -- education speaking and why it rarely pays enough to build a career on
Coming soon -- Claire Young on the UK education speaker booking market
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FAQs
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What is speaker positioning, and why does it matter for getting booked?
Speaker positioning is how you define and communicate the specific value you deliver to a specific buyer with a specific problem. It goes beyond having a topic—it determines whether a buyer sees you as a must-book speaker or a nice-to-have. Most speakers who struggle to get booked consistently, or who aren't commanding the fees they want, have a positioning problem rather than a speaking problem. In this episode, speaking coach John Ball explains why positioning built around what a speaker wants to say, rather than what the market needs to hear, is the most common reason credible speakers stay invisible.
What is the difference between a topic and a positioning for a speaker?
A topic is a subject area —such as leadership, communication, resilience, or AI. A positioning is a specific claim about who you serve, what problem you solve, and why you are the credible choice to solve it. John Ball describes the topic as raw material and positioning as what you build from it that makes a buyer say yes. Speakers who position themselves around a topic category rather than a specific buyer problem are easy to overlook and difficult to justify to stakeholders.
What mistakes do speakers make when trying to break into the corporate market?
The most common mistakes speakers make when breaking into corporate include: building their talk around their own interests rather than a problem the business already knows it has, delivering information-heavy keynotes rather than creating genuine transformation, speaking on too many topics without a clear specialisation, and failing to connect their subject to the company's bottom line. Corporate buyers need to justify every fee to stakeholders, which means a speaker's topic must connect directly to making money, saving money, or reducing risk. John Ball covers all of these mistakes with real client examples in this episode.
Why do some speakers get lots of enquiries while others with equal talent don't?
Speakers who attract consistent enquiries are typically positioned at the intersection of a specific, urgent problem, a credible, differentiated solution, and demonstrable evidence that their work delivers results. John Ball describes this as the difference between a nice-to-have speaker and a must-book speaker. Topics that address immediate, high-stakes business pain points -- such as AI adoption, organisational communication failures, or leadership under pressure -- create urgency in the buyer that drives action. Softer topics, however well framed, tend to be deferred or cut when budgets tighten.
What are ethos, logos and pathos, and how do they apply to speaker positioning?
Ethos, logos, and pathos are the three modes of persuasion identified by Aristotle. In the context of speaker positioning, logos refers to the intellectual substance of a speaker's content—their frameworks, research, and arguments. Pathos refers to the emotional resonance they create—their delivery, humour, and ability to move an audience. Ethos refers to their credibility and earned authority to speak on a subject—their track record, lived experience, and body of work. John Ball argues that ethos is the most powerful and least copyable element of a speaker's positioning, and that speakers who rely solely on logos—listing credentials and frameworks—leave the most important part of their positioning invisible.
Can other speakers copy your talk and damage your positioning?
Content theft is more common in the speaking industry than most people acknowledge. Talks get transcribed, frameworks get lifted, and stories get repurposed by other speakers. However, John Ball argues that what makes a talk genuinely powerful -- the speaker's ethos, their lived experience, and their earned authority -- cannot be copied. Two speakers can deliver identical content and create entirely different results because audiences respond to the person carrying the ideas, not just the ideas themselves. Speaker agent Maria Franzoni addressed this directly on episode 256 of Professional Speaking: Known. Booked. Paid.
Is corporate speaking the only viable route for well-paid speakers in the UK and Europe?
For speakers building a career in the UK and Europe, corporate speaking is the most reliable route to sustainable, well-paid work. The association speaking circuit that sustains many American speakers does not exist in the same form in the UK and Europe, and associations that do exist largely do not pay competitive fees. Education speaking can be rewarding but rarely pays enough to build a primary income on -- explored in depth in the episode with Jackson Ogunyemi. Faith speaking does not pay at meaningful levels except for established public figures. After-dinner speaking, conference speaking, and stand-up comedy can be lucrative but require distinct skill sets. A forthcoming episode with Claire Young, who runs a UK education speaker booking agency, will explore the education market in more detail.
Ready to do the actual work on your positioning? John is running a live event -- A Position of Authority: Why Most Speakers Are Invisible (And What To Do About It) -- where we go beyond the theory and build a position that is specific, credible, and unmistakably yours.
Registration link: https://present-influence.kit.com/products/a-position-of-authority-why-most-speak
Visit https://strategic-speaker.scoreapp.com to take the 2-minute Strategic Speaking Business Audit and find out what's blocking you from getting more bookings, re-bookings, referrals and bigger fees. There's a special surprise gift for everyone who completes the quiz.
Want to get coached for free on the show? Fill in the form https://forms.gle/mo4xYkEiCjqtz9yP6, and if we think your challenge could help others, we'll invite you on.
For speaking enquiries or to connect with me, you can email john@presentinfluence.com or find me on LinkedIn
You can find all our clips, episodes and more on the Present Influence YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PresentInfluence
Thanks for listening. Rating the show 5* on Spotify helps their algo recommend the show, so please take a moment to follow the show and leave a rating.
Mentioned in this episode:
Speaker Fee Audit
Find out in less than a minute if you're undercharging for your speaking and where you need to look to fix any leaks with the Speaker Fee Audit. It's free to take and find out if you're missing out on money.
Transcript
There's a version of your speaking business that feels completely
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:logical from the inside and is almost
completely invisible from the outside.
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:You've got a topic you believe
in, you know your stuff.
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:You're a decent speaker, maybe even a
great one, and yet the bookings aren't
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:coming, or they're not coming at the rate
or the fee that you think you deserve.
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:Here's what I want to offer you today.
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:The problem probably isn't your
speaking, it's your positioning, and
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:more specifically is the fact that
your positioning was built around what
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:you want to say rather than what the
market actually wants or needs to hear.
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:So stay with me on this because by the
end of this episode, I'm going to give
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:you a framework for diagnosing exactly
where your positioning is leaking.
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:And I'm going to be doing a live
event on this very topic that you
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:are going to want to know about.
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:So more on that later.
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:Welcome to Professional Speaking, the
show for people who are serious about
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:speaking and being known, booked and paid.
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:My name's John Ball, professional speaker,
coach, keynote speaker, standup comedian,
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:sci-fi nerd, and your guide on the
journey to a thriving speaking business.
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:Let me start today with a story that
I think is gonna make a few of you
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:uncomfortable, not because it's about
you, but because it's so close to you
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:that you'll likely recognize the thinking.
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:I came across a speaker who
wanted to take a weight loss
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:topic into the corporate market.
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:Now, her reasoning was completely logical.
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:Health affects productivity.
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:Productivity affects the bottom line.
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:Therefore, companies should care
about helping their employees to
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:become healthier and lose weight.
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:Sound argument, right?
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:Pretty solid.
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:Here's what the market heard.
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:They heard a speaker who would
stand in front of a room full of
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:employees and deliver a talk where
it would be immediately visually
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:obvious who the talk was aimed at.
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:You can't make a room full of people feel
included in a weight loss conversation
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:when some of those people are going to
feel singled out, othered, and frankly.
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:Humiliated, embarrassed at the
least by being in that room.
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:Corporate HR teams, legal teams,
leadership teams would not touch it.
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:Not because health doesn't matter,
but because the framing created a
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:liability rather than a solution.
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:Now, that speaker wasn't wrong about
health and productivity being connected.
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:She was wrong about the market
though, and what the market
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:would actually buy and why.
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:She built her positioning
from the inside out.
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:From what she wanted to say rather
than from the outside in, from
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:what the buyer could actually use.
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:This is the topic trap, and it
catches a lot of speakers who
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:are smart, well intentioned, and
genuinely expert in what they do.
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:The question that you need to
be asking isn't, what do I know
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:that I can take to the market?
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:It's more what do buyers need?
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:What are the problems that they have
that I'm in a position to solve?
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:Those are very different questions.
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:The first one is about you.
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:The second one is about the
transactions that get you booked.
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:The topic itself is not your positioning.
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:The topic is the raw material.
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:Positioning is what you build from
it that makes a buyer say yes.
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:Lovely, lovely client.
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:She had written a book, genuinely
good book, packed with research
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:frameworks, practical tools.
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:Honestly, great, great book.
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:And then she started speaking and
she did what felt completely natural.
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:She took the book and she crammed
it all into a keynote, all of it.
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:The result was a talk that was, by any
measure, impressive, dense, thorough,
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:intellectually rigorous, and it was
absolutely blasting out the brains of
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:every audience she stood in front of.
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:She wasn't getting enough referrals.
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:She wasn't getting asked back.
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:No one was booking her workshops, which if
you think about it, makes perfect sense.
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:Like I spent.
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:Two minutes looking at the outline
for her keynote, and I could
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:see the problem straight away.
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:Would you pay for a workshop when
you've already been given all
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:the information in a keynote?
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:The talk itself was a genuine strain
on the cognitive load of the audience.
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:It wasn't a transformation.
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:It was more of an more
of an endurance test.
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:People left feeling overwhelmed, more
than moved, informed rather than changed.
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:Here's the thing that a lot of
speakers struggle to accept.
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:Buyers are not paying
for knowledge transfer.
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:If an audience wanted an information,
they could read the book, they could
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:watch a YouTube video, they can
hop onto their favorite AI tool.
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:What they can't get from any of those
things is the experience of being in
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:a room with somebody who shifts how
they think, or challenges a belief
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:that they've held for years or sends
them back to their desk on Monday
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:morning doing something differently.
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:The most valuable thing a speaker
can deliver is not information.
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:It's change transformation in how the
audience thinks, believes, acts or speaks.
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:That's the product.
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:Information is just
the vehicle or part of.
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:If your keynote is more of a
lecture, you're not really in
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:the keynote speaking business,
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:you're more in the teaching and
lecturing business and teaching, I'm
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:sorry to say, generally pays less and
books less because it positions you as
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:a resource rather than an experience.
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:ask yourself this, what does somebody
walk away from your talk being able to do,
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:feel or believe that they didn't before?
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:If the answer to that is they'll know
more about X than you've got work to do.
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:In In fact, one of the things that
you'll hear very commonly said in the
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:speaking world now is that the age
of the information speaker is over.
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:You're definitely gonna hear that in an
episode I've got coming up next week.
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:ask any speaker, coach, and I mean
any speaker, coach anywhere, and
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:they will have met this client.
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:I'm gonna describe for you now the
speaker who sits down in a session
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:or gets onto a prospecting call and
says some variation of these words.
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:I can speak on pretty much anything.
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:Just point me to where the money.
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:Now there are two versions of this person.
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:The first is someone who genuinely hasn't
done the work of deciding what they stand
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:for yet.
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:They have real expertise somewhere,
but they're hedging, listing every
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:angle, hoping that the coach will
hand them a shortcut to a successful
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:speaking business with lots of bookings.
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:That's a positioning problem,
and that's fixable, very fixable.
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:The second version is a
little harder to work with.
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:I encountered this during
my time at the speaker lab.
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:Uh, a speaker came to me with an enormous
amount of confidence, I would even say,
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:uh, somewhat over inflated ego, not the
grounded kind, the kind that we knew all
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:the kind that doesn't leave much room
for anyone else in the conversation.
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:So he wanted to know where the
money in the speaking industry was,
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:and that's what he would speak on.
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:So when I pushed back on his credibility
in the AI topic, that he was eyeing
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:up a topic he was interested in
primarily because it was trending.
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:He didn't take it at all.
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:Well, the challenge wasn't welcome.
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:The idea that enthusiasm and intelligence
and being a great generalist alone
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:doesn't constitute authority in a
subject, doesn't constitute credibility.
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:And these were things that, let's
just say he didn't come to me to hear.
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:And this is the thing about the ego
led speak on anything speaker, the
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:logic feels all right from the inside.
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:Like, I'm highly intelligent.
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:I research quickly, I speak
well, I present well, therefore
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:I can speak credibly on anything.
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:And in a lecture hall, maybe.
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:In a keynote context, in front of
a paying corporate buyer who has
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:done their due diligence on you, no.
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:Because credibility isn't
about how smart you are.
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:It's about whether your audience
and your buyer believe you have
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:earned the right to stand on stage
and say these particular things.
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:That belief comes from your track record,
your lived experience, your body of work,
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:your qualifications, potentially as well.
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:It cannot be substituted with
confidence, however abundant
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:you may be in that resource.
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:The market itself is also less
forgiving of topic hopping
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:than speakers tend to assume.
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:I want to give you a real world example
of how this plays out more subtly.
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:I worked recently with a speaker
called Courtny Harding, and if you've
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:been listening for a while, you may
recognize that name from episode 254
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:it is called Hot Market Cold Inbox.
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:Well worth a re-listen if
this is landing for you today.
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:Now, Courtney.
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:Speaks in the AI space.
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:A genuinely hot topic has been
for a while, probably still
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:will be for a while to come.
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:Real credibility in the space as well
with her experience and background in AI.
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:And yet the bookings
weren't matching the moment.
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:Part of what we uncovered was that her
website listed so many different keynote
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:options that no could quickly understand
what problem she actually solved or
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:what she specifically spoke about.
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:She wasn't positioned as the
person for a specific urgent need.
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:She was positioned more as somebody
who knows a lot about ai, which she is.
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:It is a category, though.
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:It is not a position.
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:And then came more of a
pivot towards wearables.
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:Now an interesting space, genuinely
relevant in the tech sector for product
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:education, but again, not anchored
to a valuable problem that a business
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:buyer would feel in their budget.
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:Now this potentially is another topic
in search of an audience rather than
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:a solution in search of a problem.
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:Every time you pivot to chase market
trends, you start the credibility
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:conversation from scratch.
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:New content, new case studies,
new positioning, new outreach.
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:The speakers who build sustainable
businesses pick a lane and they go deep.
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:They may evolve into new topics.
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:They may develop on top of what they
have, but the ones who chase trends
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:will spend their careers rebuilding.
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:Versatility is a feature,
vagueness is a liability.
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:And confidence, however, impressive
is not a substitute for authority.
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:Now, if you're building a speaking
career in the UK or Europe, it is
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:worth being clear-eyed about the
landscape because it does look quite
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:different from what you might see
when you look across the Atlantic.
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:Now the association speaking circuit
that sustains a lot of American
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:speakers simply doesn't exist
here in Europe in the same way.
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:The associations that do exist
largely don't pay or or don't pay
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:enough to build a business on.
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:Now you can hear more about the education
space with my episode with Jackson
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:Ogunyemi, another live coaching session,
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:and the education space can be
very rewarding, but it rarely pays
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:well enough to make a sustainable
or successful, comfortable living.
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:We'll be going deeper into the
education speaking market in an
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:upcoming episode with Claire Young,
who runs a booking agency specifically.
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:For education speakers in the
uk so watch out for that one.
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:Especially if you're a
fan of the UK Apprentice.
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:She was one of the
runners up in season four
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:. Speaking in the faith sector doesn't
really pay any meaningful level
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:except at the very top of one known
figures with established platforms.
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:There is after dinner speaking.
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:Conference speaking is more for big names.
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:They get harder to break into standup
comedy even is professional speaking.
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:These can be lucrative, but they
often require different skill sets.
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:They can be harder to break into,
especially as primary income streams.
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:Which leaves corporate and for
most speakers who want to be
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:well paid and build something
sustainable in this market,
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:corporate is where you'll need to look,
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:so if that's the goal, there is
one question your positioning has
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:to answer clearly and quickly.
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:Does this talk affect
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:the bottom line, not adjacent to
the bottom line, not philosophically
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:connected to the bottom line?
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:Actually demonstrably specifically
connected to either making the company
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:money or saving the company money.
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:Ideally both.
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:Why not?
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:Let me give you some examples
so this isn't more abstract.
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:Speaking on sales.
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:Clear, it's very clear.
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:More revenue in.
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:Less revenue, lost to poor technique.
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:Speaking on communication.
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:What is the cost of miscommunication or
poor communication in an organization?
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:Wasted time, failed projects, legal risks,
talent leaving because they feel unheard.
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:That's a bottom line conversation.
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:Now speaking of motivation and energy
is fine, often still in demand in sales
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:sector particularly, but other places too.
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:But you have to run the line in
corporate for people, feel more
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:energized to people, perform better.
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:To that performance shows up in
output, retention, and results.
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:You have to do that work.
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:The buyer is not gonna do it for you.
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:Breaking into corporate requires
a topic that addresses a problem
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:the company already knows it
has, or at a minimum, a problem.
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:That leadership and event, because
would recognize the moment you name it.
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:You don't have the luxury of
educating buyers about why they
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:should care about your subject.
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:If they don't already feel the
pain, you are not solving a problem,
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:maybe even creating one for them
or creating a new subject for them.
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:Now, the transformation piece
really matters here as well.
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:Something must be different for the
audience by the end of your talk.
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:Not slightly different.
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:Meaningfully different.
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:How they think, how they believe,
how they act, how they communicate.
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:At least one of those things has to shift.
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:And if you can't articulate what
that is and why it matters to the
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:business, you are a nice to have.
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:And we'll talk about what
that costs you in a moment.
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:But here's something the speaking
industry doesn't say clearly enough
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:nice to have, can still get you booked.
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:I don't want to pretend otherwise,
but nice to have, will always
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:take second place to need to
have, especially when budgets are
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:tight, which they frequently are.
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:Now nice to have, will get
cut first every single time.
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:Lemme give you something a little more
concrete about this as an example.
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:So gratitude.
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:There are speakers who talk about
gratitude in corporate settings and
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:they frame it in terms of culture
and wellbeing and team morale.
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:Great.
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:And look, I'm not dismissing those things,
but in the mind of a corporate buyer
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:with a finite budget and a room full of
stakeholders to justify their decision to,
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:gratitude is a soft topic.
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:That doesn't mean you can't get booked on.
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:It just means it's a harder job.
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:There's only so much
work that framing can do.
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:Some topics, no matter how skillfully
you position them, will always
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:sit more in the nice to have
column in the corporate world.
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:Now, contrast that with the
speaker addressing what happens
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:to your organization if you get
left behind in the AI revolution.
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:That's a bit more immediate,
visceral, board level pain point.
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:It creates urgency, and urgency
is one of the most powerful
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:forces in a buying decision.
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:So when a buyer thinks we need to
address this and we need to address
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:this now, the conversation about
budget becomes a very different one.
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:So rather than do we
have the budget for it.
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:It becomes, can we find the budget for it?
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:We need this must book speakers are
positioned at the intersection of
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:three things, a specific and urgent
problem, a credible and differentiated
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:solution, and proof that it works.
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:Remove any one of those and you slide
back towards the nice to have area.
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:So ask yourself this.
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:If a company had to choose between
booking you and not booking you,
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:what would they actually lose?
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:If the answer is vague here or soft or
hard to quantify, that's your positioning
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:work that you need to do right there.
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:Now I want to add something here that
does often get left out of positioning
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:conversations because positioning is
usually discussed as if it's purely
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:about topic and market and messaging,
and it is about those things, but
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:it's not only about those things.
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:You are part of your positioning, you,
your background, your qualifications, your
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:experience, your story, or your stories.
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:These are not just color
on top of your topic.
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:They are a core component of why
someone should choose to work with
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:you over other speakers in your space.
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:Now, here's a way of thinking
about it that I find clarifying.
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:Aristotle in ancient Greece, and
identified three modes of persuasion
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:that between them, cover everything that
makes your communication compelling.
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:Ethos is your credibility, your character,
your authority to speak on the subject.
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:Logos is the logical rigor of your
argument, your frameworks, your evidence,
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:pathos, the emotional resonance you
create, the connection that you build,
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:the feeling you leave the audience with.
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:Now, here's the uncomfortable truth
for anyone who thinks that their
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:positioning is purely about their content.
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:I have seen speakers have their
talks transcribed word for word.
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:I watched people essentially do that and
lift a whole talk framework, stories,
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:everything, and go on to deliver them
as their own, and it happens more
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:than the industry would like to admit.
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:Now, former bureau owner and speaker
coach Maria Fran, spoke about this
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:on episode 256 of this show, how
Professional Speakers Get Hired.
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:The Book Ability Formula and the
reality that talks get transcribed
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:and repurposed by other speakers
is an open secret in the industry.
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:And yet the speakers doing the
lifting always end up with a pale
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:imitation, no matter how good they are.
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:Because what made the original
talk work wasn't the words,
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:it was the person behind them.
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:But here's what they can never take.
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:The ethos.
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:They can reproduce your logos, your
frameworks, your data, your arguments.
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:They can attempt your pathos, your
delivery, your emotional beats, your
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:humor, but your credibility, your lived
experience, the specific combination of
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:what you've done, and who you've been,
and what you've earned the right to say.
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:That cannot be copied.
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:It isn't in the transcript, it's in you.
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:The speakers who get booked
consistently and at serious fees
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:tend to be strong across all three.
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:Their ethos is clear.
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:You understand immediately why this
person has the right to stand on
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:the stage and say these things.
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:The logos is solid.
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:The substance behind the style frameworks
that hold up evidence that convinces.
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:And their pathos is real.
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:They make you feel something,
not just think something.
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:If your positioning is purely
logical, here's my topic, here's my
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:framework, here's my credibility.
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:You're leaving the pathos on the table.
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:And pathos is often what closes the deal.
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:We talked about this a lot with
Beth Sherman last time about
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:connection with the audience.
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:People book speakers, they
feel something about and then
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:justify it with logic afterwards.
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:So as you think about your
positioning, think about all 3.
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:What makes you credible here specifically?
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:Not generally.
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:What is the intellectual substance
of what you are offering, and what
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:does someone feel when they encounter
you, your content or your story.
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:Now, the market doesn't just buy topics.
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:It buys people with the right topics
delivered in a way that moves them,
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:and that combination, your ethos,
logos, and ethos is yours alone.
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:Nobody else can be positioned as you.
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:Not yet, at least, we'll maybe see what
happens with robotics in the future.
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:But at least at the
moment, that is the case.
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:so let me bring this all together.
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:The speakers who struggle with
positioning the most are almost always
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:making one or more of these mistakes.
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:They're speaking to a market
that they've imagined rather
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:than one they've researched.
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:They're delivering information.
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:When the buyer wants
transformation, they're positioning
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:themselves as versatile.
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:When the market rewards specificity,
they can't connect their topic to a
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:business outcome that corporate buyers
would lose sleepover and they're sitting
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:in the nice to have column when they
should be building toward must book.
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:And this as well.
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:They're forgetting that the person, their
story, their credibility, their ability
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:to create emotional resonance is as much
a part of the positioning topic itself,
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:regardless of what that little voice of
imposter syndrome might be telling you.
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:Now I'm running a live event
on exactly this subject.
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:It's called a position of
authority, why most speakers are
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:invisible, and what to do about it.
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:And if this episode has made you
think about where your positioning
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:might be letting you down,
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:this is where we're gonna go deeper.
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:We're going to do the actual work,
not the theory, the work on what it
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:takes to move from being a speaker
with a topic to being a speaker with a
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:position of authority in your market.
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:Now the registration link is in the
show notes and by LinkedIn profile, so
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:you can go and register there and if
you're coming, I'll see you there live.
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:On Wednesday the 27th of May,
it's gonna be:
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:That's 1:30 PM Central European time.
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:If you can't make it live because
of time zones or whatever, register
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:anyway and you'll get the replay.
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:But if you can, you'll get the
chance to sit in the hot seat
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:and punch up your positioning.
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:For now, go and do something worth
talking about and I'll be back next
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:week with an episode that will blow your
mind with the fantastic David Newman.
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:Now, if you're not following the show.
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:You might miss it, so
hit that follow button.
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:I'll see you next time.
