Why one great talk, delivered repeatedly, might be worth more than a dozen presentations you only give once.
I have some fascinating conversations with people who want to get into professional speaking.
Some have spent years presenting at conferences, industry events and corporate meetings. Others have incredible stories, specialist knowledge or decades of experience they believe could genuinely help people.
Some have PhDs. Some have built successful businesses. Some have overcome extraordinary challenges.
And some simply have something important they want to say.
What I find interesting is that regardless of their background, many of them arrive with surprisingly similar questions.
How do I get started?
What should I speak about?
How do I get booked?
How much should I charge?
Do I need a speaker reel?
Should I have several keynote topics?
All reasonable questions.
But after two particularly interesting coaching conversations recently, I found myself thinking about something.
Perhaps the most important question isn’t how to become a professional speaker.
It’s whether you’re approaching speaking like a series of presentations or something you’re deliberately building.
Because there’s a significant difference.
And understanding that difference early could save you an extraordinary amount of time, money and frustration.
The most expensive presentation you’ll ever give might be the one you only give once.
Imagine someone invites you to speak at their conference.
It’s a great opportunity. A room full of interesting people. A chance to establish yourself as an expert.
They have a topic in mind, and they’d love you to deliver a 45-minute presentation.
Fantastic.
So you get to work.
You research the audience, develop the content, create the slides, write your opening, find some stories, rehearse your delivery and eventually arrive at something you’re proud of.
Let’s say you’ve invested 50 hours.
You deliver the presentation. It goes well. People congratulate you. Perhaps you even receive a small speaking fee.
Brilliant.
Then you go home.
Three months later, someone else invites you to speak.
Different audience. Different topic. Different expectations.
And what do you do?
You start again.
Another 40 or 50 hours developing something new.
Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. Plenty of presentations are created for specific purposes, and sometimes the value of a single presentation justifies the investment.
I’ve worked with senior executives delivering incredibly important speeches that they’ll never give again.
The stakes were enormous. The investment was justified.
But that’s a very different proposition from someone trying to establish a professional speaking career.
If you’re spending 50 hours building a presentation you’ll probably only deliver once, for a modest speaking fee, that’s potentially a shit investment of your time.
Not because the presentation wasn’t good.
Because you haven’t built anything you can continue to benefit from.
You’ve completed a project.
You haven’t necessarily created an asset.
And that distinction matters.
What if you built one presentation worth delivering 100 times?
This is a conversation I regularly have with aspiring speakers.
Rather than developing five different keynote presentations, what if you concentrated on creating one exceptional talk?
One topic you’re passionate about.
One subject you genuinely understand.
One message that solves a meaningful problem for a particular audience.
Give it a compelling title.
Develop a clear description.
Understand who it’s for and what they’ll gain from listening to you.
Then build it.
Not something you throw together because you’ve been invited to speak next Thursday.
Something you deliberately develop with the intention of delivering it repeatedly.
Because here’s where things get interesting.
The first time you deliver it, you’ll learn something.
Perhaps a story doesn’t land quite as well as you expected.
Maybe an explanation is too complicated.
Perhaps there’s a moment where the audience really comes alive.
Excellent.
Now you know.
You make some changes.
You deliver it again.
You record yourself, review the footage and make further refinements.
You become more comfortable with the content.
Your timing improves.
Your transitions become smoother.
You discover where to pause, where to accelerate and where to let an idea settle.
You stop concentrating so much on remembering what comes next and start paying more attention to the people in front of you.
And something rather wonderful begins to happen.
You’re no longer simply repeating a presentation. You’re developing a performance.
One that becomes progressively more valuable every time you deliver it.
Now imagine you’ve delivered that talk 20 times.
Or 50.
Or 100.
Imagine the difference between that performance and the first version.
That’s the opportunity.
And it’s one that people who constantly create new presentations rarely get to experience.
You probably know more than you need to.
One of the people I spoke with recently had a PhD, extensive research experience, some remarkable personal stories and several potential keynote topics.
There was no shortage of material.
Quite the opposite.
She had enough knowledge to develop several fascinating presentations.
And I could see how easy it would be to spend the next six months creating all of them.
But my advice was simple.
Start with one.
Get one signature talk working exceptionally well.
Then consider the others.
This can be surprisingly difficult for subject-matter experts.
When you’ve spent years researching, studying or working in a particular field, you know just how much there is to say.
You understand the nuances, the complexities and the exceptions.
You can see how one idea connects to another, which connects to another.
Before long, your 45-minute keynote has enough content for a three-day conference.
And because you’re passionate about the subject, everything feels important.
But here’s something worth remembering.
Your audience doesn’t need to know everything you know. They need to understand what matters to them.
That’s a very different objective.
A great keynote isn’t a demonstration of how knowledgeable you are.
It’s an opportunity to use your knowledge to change the way somebody else thinks, feels or behaves.
And sometimes the greatest challenge isn’t figuring out what to include.
It’s having the discipline to leave things out.
I often see people overprepare by adding more information.
More slides.
More research.
More examples.
More detail.
But more content doesn’t automatically create more value.
Sometimes it simply creates more work for the audience.
A compelling story that helps someone understand one important idea can be far more powerful than 20 slides explaining everything you know about it.
So before you start building your signature talk, ask yourself:
When someone walks out of the room, what do I want them to think, feel or do differently?
Start there.
Then work backwards.
Being an expert doesn’t automatically make you an engaging speaker.
This is another distinction worth understanding.
You might have an extraordinary amount of knowledge.
You might be internationally recognised in your field.
You might have written books, completed a PhD or built a multimillion-dollar business.
That’s wonderful.
It gives you something valuable to talk about.
But it doesn’t automatically mean you know how to communicate that value to an audience.
And that’s not a criticism.
They’re different skills.
One is about acquiring knowledge and experience.
The other is about transferring that knowledge and experience in a way people can understand, remember and act upon.
I’ve watched highly accomplished professionals deliver presentations that were almost impossible to follow.
Not because they lacked expertise.
Because they hadn’t learned how to turn their expertise into a compelling audience experience.
And I’ve watched people with relatively little speaking experience absolutely captivate a room because they understood how to tell a story, create curiosity and make their message relevant.
The good news?
These are learnable skills.
You can learn how to structure a presentation.
You can learn how to create an engaging opening.
You can learn how to use storytelling, vocal variation, gestures, movement and pauses.
You can learn how to build curiosity and maintain attention.
And perhaps most importantly, you can learn how to practise those skills deliberately.
Which brings me to something I think many aspiring speakers underestimate.
The difference between knowing your content and being able to perform it.
People often tell me they struggle with nerves.
Or they lose their train of thought.
Or they go off on tangents.
Or they feel uncomfortable standing in front of an audience.
And yes, sometimes there are genuine psychological barriers that need addressing.
But sometimes the problem is considerably simpler.
They haven’t practised enough.
For an important presentation, I often suggest allowing approximately one hour of content development for every minute you’re going to speak.
So a 10-minute presentation might require 10 hours of research, writing, structuring and developing the material.
Then there’s the performance preparation.
Working out how you’ll deliver it.
Where you’ll pause.
How you’ll use your voice.
Where you’ll move.
How you’ll gesture.
How you’ll transition between ideas.
For that, you might invest another 45 minutes for every minute of speaking time.
That’s approximately 17.5 hours preparing a 10-minute presentation.
Now, I’m not suggesting every presentation requires that level of investment.
But if you’re serious about developing a signature keynote, it’s worth considering.
Because the audience only sees the finished performance.
They don’t see the hours that went into making it look effortless.
And here’s another reason why building one repeatable presentation makes so much sense.
You make that significant preparation investment once, then continue benefiting from it every time you deliver the talk.
Of course, you’ll keep practising and refining.
But you’re no longer starting from scratch.
Your preparation begins to compound.
And so does your confidence.
Every speaking opportunity should give you something back.
Here’s where I think aspiring professional speakers need to start thinking a little differently.
When someone invites you to speak, it’s tempting to focus on one question.
How much are they paying?
Fair enough.
If you’re building a business, revenue matters.
But the speaking fee is only one possible return on your investment.
Imagine you’re invited to deliver your signature talk at an industry conference.
Perhaps the fee isn’t particularly impressive.
But what else might you gain?
You could arrange for the presentation to be professionally recorded.
You might get some excellent photographs.
You could collect audience feedback and testimonials.
You could create short videos for your website and social media.
You might meet potential clients.
You might be introduced to conference organisers who book speakers for other events.
You might generate enquiries for your workshops, consulting or coaching.
And regardless of everything else, you’ve had another opportunity to refine your signature talk.
Suddenly, that speaking engagement has considerably more value than the fee alone.
I’ve experienced this myself.
A presentation that might initially look like a modest commercial opportunity can generate workshop registrations, coaching enquiries, useful content and future business.
But you need to think about those opportunities before you walk onto the stage.
For example, if your presentation genuinely helps people recognise a problem they want to solve, is there a useful next step you can offer them?
Perhaps a complimentary assessment.
A practical resource.
A guide.
Something they can access through a QR code.
Not a desperate sales pitch.
Something that extends the value of your presentation and gives interested people a way to continue learning from you.
Because if your audience loved what you shared but has absolutely no idea how to engage with you afterwards, you’ve potentially missed an opportunity.
A professional speaking career isn’t built entirely on what happens during the presentation.
It’s also built on what happens before and after it.
Don’t wait until everything is perfect.
This came up in another recent conversation.
Someone already had considerable speaking experience, some excellent testimonials, video footage and a fascinating subject.
They were thinking about their website, speaker reel, positioning and how everything should fit together.
All sensible considerations.
But I found myself asking a simple question.
Could trying to get all of this perfect actually slow you down?
Because there’s a trap here.
You want the perfect keynote before you build your speaker page.
You want the perfect speaker page before you approach event organisers.
You want the perfect speaker reel before you contact a bureau.
And you want more speaking experience before you feel comfortable charging.
So you wait.
And wait.
And keep refining things nobody has seen.
Meanwhile, other speakers are out there building their careers.
Not necessarily because they’re more talented.
But because they’re doing the work.
They’re getting on stages.
They’re recording themselves.
They’re collecting testimonials.
They’re learning from their mistakes.
They’re improving.
And they’re becoming more visible.
Your speaker website doesn’t need to be perfect before it goes live.
Your first speaker reel doesn’t need to look like a Hollywood production.
And your first keynote doesn’t need to be the best presentation you’ll ever deliver.
In fact, I sincerely hope it isn’t.
Because if you’re approaching this properly, your best presentation should still be ahead of you.
Build something good. Put it into the world. Learn from it. Make it better.
Then repeat.
Your next speaking engagement might already be in front of you.
One of the simplest pieces of advice I gave recently was to start recording existing speaking opportunities.
If you’re already presenting at work, teaching students, running workshops or speaking at industry events, you’ve got opportunities to practise.
Use them.
Set up a tripod.
Record yourself.
Watch the footage.
Yes, watching yourself on video can be uncomfortable.
I understand.
But it’s one of the most useful things you can do.
You might discover you’re speaking much faster than you realised.
Perhaps you’re pacing unnecessarily.
Maybe your gestures aren’t reinforcing your message.
Or you might notice that a story you thought was particularly compelling isn’t quite working.
Wonderful.
Now you’ve got something specific to improve.
And while you’re developing your skills, you’re also building a library of footage that could eventually contribute to your speaker reel, website or social media content.
One activity.
Multiple benefits.
That’s a much smarter use of your time.
And you don’t necessarily need to wait for someone to invite you onto a prestigious stage.
Start where you are.
A team meeting.
A professional association.
A community event.
An industry gathering.
Anywhere you have an opportunity to deliver something meaningful to an audience.
The important thing is that you’re practising the right material and learning from the experience.
Stop Creating More Content. Start Getting More Value From What You’ve Already Created.
Here’s something I wish I’d understood much earlier in my own speaking career.
You don’t necessarily need more material. You might simply need to find more ways to use the material you’ve already developed.
Let me explain what I mean by sharing how my own business evolved.
During COVID, when the world suddenly had a lot more time on its hands, I started developing an online learning programme called The Ultimate Guide to Speaking.
It was an opportunity to take years of experience, research and practical knowledge about public speaking and turn it into something people could learn from at their own pace.
It was a significant undertaking.
I had to think carefully about how to structure the information, explain the concepts, demonstrate the techniques and help people develop their skills without me physically standing in front of them.
And in doing so, I began organising a considerable amount of intellectual property into something tangible.
From there, I developed my full-day StorySelling workshop.
StorySelling brings together storytelling, presentation structure, performance techniques and the 12 Charismatic Leadership Tactics to help people become more confident, clear and compelling communicators.
It’s an intensive, highly interactive programme where participants don’t just learn the techniques. They practise them, receive feedback and develop their ability to communicate with greater impact.
And this is where things started getting particularly interesting.
Because I deliver that workshop regularly.
Again and again.
Different organisations. Different industries. Different personalities. Different levels of speaking experience.
But the underlying content remains largely consistent.
And every time I deliver it, I learn something.
I discover which stories connect most strongly.
Which explanations make complicated ideas suddenly seem simple.
Which exercises create those wonderful moments when someone realises they can do something they previously thought was beyond them.
And which parts of the workshop consistently generate the greatest engagement.
Over time, something became very clear.
I had a full day of content, but some of the most valuable ideas could stand on their own.
So when opportunities came along to deliver a 45-minute keynote, I didn’t need to sit down and invent something entirely new.
I already had the material.
I simply needed to select the most relevant, interesting and impactful elements from the workshop and structure them into a compelling keynote experience.
The stories were already tested.
The concepts had already been explained hundreds of times.
I knew which demonstrations worked.
I knew where audiences tended to laugh, reflect or become particularly engaged.
And I knew how to bring those elements together into something that could work on stage.
Now, that doesn’t mean a keynote is simply a shortened workshop.
It isn’t.
A keynote has a different purpose, structure and performance dynamic.
But the underlying intellectual property was already there.
I wasn’t starting from scratch. I was repackaging something I already knew worked.
Then came the webinar.
Again, I didn’t need to invent an entirely new subject.
I took selected elements from the same body of work and adapted them into a format that could be delivered online.
Different experience.
Different level of interaction.
Different duration.
But the same underlying expertise.
And here’s where the real commercial opportunity becomes apparent.
One body of knowledge. Multiple ways for people to work with you.
Today, organisations can engage with me in several different ways.
They might bring me in to deliver a keynote presentation.
That’s an opportunity to introduce the subject, challenge people’s thinking, share some powerful insights and demonstrate what’s possible.
For some audiences, that might be all they need.
But for others, the keynote creates curiosity.
People start thinking, That was really interesting. How do we get our team doing some of this?
Now there’s another opportunity.
They might bring me in to deliver a full-day StorySelling workshop, where a smaller group can go much deeper, practise the techniques and receive individual feedback.
Or perhaps they’re organising a conference.
They could have me deliver a keynote to the entire audience, followed by a more intensive workshop for a selected group of participants.
Same underlying expertise.
Two different experiences.
Two different levels of engagement.
Alternatively, they might be a large organisation with employees spread across multiple countries.
Bringing everyone together for an in-person workshop might be impractical.
But a webinar could introduce the concepts to hundreds of people simultaneously, without the travel, accommodation and logistical challenges.
Then there are organisations that want ongoing development.
That’s where group coaching becomes valuable.
Rather than delivering a single learning experience, I can work with a group over time, helping them apply the techniques to their actual presentations, pitches and leadership communication challenges.
And for individuals who want more personalised support, there’s one-to-one coaching.
Perhaps they’re preparing an important keynote, a major pitch or a high-stakes presentation.
Now we’re working at a completely different level of depth and individual attention.
And sitting behind all of this is The Ultimate Guide to Speaking, my online learning platform.
That provides another entry point entirely.
Someone who isn’t ready to invest in personal coaching or attend a full-day workshop can still access the knowledge and start developing their skills independently.
It also creates the opportunity for revenue that isn’t directly tied to me standing in front of an audience.
Now look at what we’ve created.
A keynote. A webinar. A full-day workshop. A keynote and workshop combination. Group coaching. One-to-one coaching. An online learning programme.
Seven different ways for people to engage with the same underlying body of expertise.
And they don’t operate independently.
They feed into one another.
Someone attends a keynote and books a workshop.
Someone completes the online programme and decides they want individual coaching.
An organisation runs a webinar and discovers there’s enough interest to justify a more intensive development programme.
A workshop participant recommends me to their leadership team.
And so on.
I’m not marketing seven completely different subjects. I’m creating seven different ways for people to access the value of one area of expertise.
That’s a very different business model from constantly trying to develop the next presentation.
So what have you already got?
Now, here’s where I’d encourage you to think about your own situation.
Perhaps you’re already running a half-day training workshop.
You’ve developed the material. You’ve tested it with participants. You know which parts work particularly well.
Could you take three of the strongest ideas and develop a 45-minute webinar?
Of course you could.
And if that webinar proves popular, could you develop those same ideas into a keynote presentation?
Absolutely.
Perhaps you’re already delivering presentations at industry conferences.
You’ve noticed that one particular topic consistently generates questions, conversations and requests for more information.
Could that become a more substantial workshop?
Could you create an online programme that teaches the underlying principles?
Could you offer consulting or coaching to help organisations implement what you’ve been talking about?
Possibly.
Or perhaps you’ve spent years working in a particular profession and have developed a methodology that produces excellent results.
You’ve never considered yourself a speaker.
But could that methodology become the foundation for a keynote?
A workshop?
A book?
An online programme?
You might already be sitting on something considerably more valuable than you realise.
And I know how easy it is to overlook that.
I have ADHD, and one of the things I’ve had to become increasingly conscious of is my tendency to get excited about the next great idea.
The next project.
The next opportunity.
The next thing I could create.
And don’t get me wrong, I love creating things.
But there’s a difference between creating something new because there’s a genuine opportunity and creating something new simply because it’s exciting.
Sometimes the smarter question isn’t:
What else could I create?
It’s:
What have I already created that’s really good, and how could I make it valuable to more people?
That question has the potential to change the way you approach your speaking career.
Because once you’ve developed a strong body of intellectual property, you can start thinking about how to deliver it at different levels.
A keynote might introduce the ideas.
A webinar might make them accessible to a larger audience.
A workshop might help people practise and apply them.
Group coaching might support implementation over time.
One-to-one coaching might address individual challenges.
And an online programme might allow people to learn independently, wherever they happen to be.
Different formats.
Different audiences.
Different price points.
Different levels of commitment.
But one consistent area of expertise that you’re becoming increasingly well known for.
And here’s the beautiful part.
Every time you deliver one of those experiences, you’re reinforcing your knowledge of the others.
The questions people ask during workshops help you improve your keynote.
The reactions you receive during keynotes help you understand which ideas deserve more attention.
The challenges you encounter during coaching give you new stories and examples.
The feedback from your online learners helps you identify where your explanations could be clearer.
It all feeds back into the same body of work.
You rinse, repeat and refine.
And over time, the entire offering becomes stronger.
The ultimate value stack: When one plus one equals considerably more than two.
Now, here’s where things can get particularly interesting.
Once you’ve developed several ways for people to access your expertise, you can start combining those offerings to create something considerably more valuable.
Let me give you a real example.
I’ve been working with Barfoot & Thompson, one of New Zealand’s largest real estate companies, on an immersive leadership communication development programme.
Rather than simply bringing me in to deliver a workshop, we developed a programme that combines several elements of my business into one extended learning experience.
And here’s how it works.
We began with a full-day, in-person StorySelling workshop.
That gave participants the foundational knowledge, frameworks and practical experience they needed to start developing their communication skills.
But rather than finishing the workshop, collecting their certificates and heading back to work, that was just the beginning.
Next came five months of structured online learning.
Participants were given access to my online learning platform, The Ultimate Guide to Speaking, where they worked through five stages of development.
Each month, they completed a section of the programme and then recorded a video summarising what they’d learned.
Those videos were shared with the group.
Now, this is important.
They weren’t simply watching videos and absorbing information.
They were being challenged to demonstrate their learning, articulate their ideas and practise communicating on camera.
Month after month.
And in some cases, we pushed them further.
Rather than recording themselves in the comfort of their office or home, they were encouraged to get outside and record in public places.
Why?
Because speaking confidently when nobody is watching is one thing.
Speaking confidently when strangers are walking past, potentially watching and wondering what you’re doing, is something else entirely.
It’s a wonderful way to start stretching someone’s comfort zone.
Then came the monthly group coaching sessions.
After completing each stage of online learning, we’d come together online to discuss their progress.
What had they learned?
What were they finding challenging?
How were they applying the techniques?
And how was their own presentation developing?
Because throughout the programme, participants weren’t just learning how to become better communicators.
They were working towards something tangible.
Each participant was developing their own presentation to deliver in front of a live audience.
Something meaningful to them.
Something they could continue using in their professional lives.
Perhaps at a future industry conference, a leadership event or another speaking opportunity.
And because everyone develops at a different pace, the programme also included individual one-to-one coaching sessions.
That allowed me to work with participants on their specific challenges.
For some, it might be presentation structure.
For others, storytelling, confidence, body language, vocal delivery or learning how to connect more effectively with an audience.
The individual coaching complemented the group learning, allowing people to focus on the areas where they needed the most support.
And then everything comes together in the final presentation.
After months of learning, practising, recording, receiving feedback and refining their presentations, participants get the opportunity to deliver their talks on stage in front of a live audience.
With a professional videographer and photographer capturing the experience.
Now think about what that gives them.
They’ve developed their communication skills.
They’ve become more comfortable presenting both in person and on camera.
They’ve learned how to structure and deliver a compelling talk.
They’ve had months of opportunities to practise and receive feedback.
And at the end, they walk away with a presentation they can continue refining and delivering, along with professional footage and photography they can use to support future speaking opportunities.
That’s a considerably different outcome from attending a one-day workshop.
And here’s why I’m sharing this.
Look at the components of that programme.
A full-day workshop.
An online learning platform.
Monthly group coaching.
Individual one-to-one coaching.
Practical assignments.
And a final live presentation.
Every major learning component already existed within my business.
We didn’t have to invent an entirely new subject or develop a completely different body of intellectual property.
We took the elements we’d already created, considered the client’s objectives and brought them together into a comprehensive development experience.
And in doing so, we created something considerably more valuable than any individual component could offer on its own.
For Barfoot & Thompson, the value isn’t simply that their people have attended a workshop or completed an online course.
It’s that they’re developing more confident, capable and compelling communicators who can apply those skills in their everyday professional lives.
In client conversations.
In sales presentations.
In leadership communication.
On camera.
And on stage.
And for me, it demonstrates something important about the commercial possibilities of building a speaking business around a consistent body of expertise.
Sometimes the greatest opportunity isn’t creating another product. It’s finding a more valuable way to combine the products you’ve already created.
Think about that in the context of your own work.
Perhaps you already deliver a workshop.
Could you support participants with an online programme afterwards?
Could you introduce monthly group coaching to help them implement what they’ve learned?
Could you offer individual coaching for people who need additional support?
Could you create a practical challenge or final project that gives participants something tangible to work towards?
And could you combine those elements into a development programme that delivers a significantly greater outcome for your clients?
Because now you’re no longer simply selling a presentation, a workshop or a coaching session.
You’re creating a pathway from where someone is today to where they want to be.
And that’s where the real value lies.
Build the expertise. Then build the opportunities around it.
Now, I want to make one thing clear.
I’m not suggesting you should rush out and create seven different products tomorrow.
Quite the opposite.
Start with what you’ve already got.
If you’ve already developed a workshop, perhaps your next step is creating a webinar or keynote from the strongest material.
If you’ve already got a compelling keynote, perhaps there’s an opportunity to develop a workshop that helps people put the ideas into practice.
If you’ve spent years developing specialist knowledge but haven’t yet created anything for an audience, perhaps your first step is building one excellent presentation.
You don’t need to build the entire business at once.
You need to identify where the value already exists and start developing opportunities around it.
Because the goal isn’t to become someone who can speak about absolutely anything.
It’s to become someone who is exceptionally good at communicating something valuable, in a variety of ways that suit the people who need it.
And that’s how a presentation can become something much bigger.
That’s how you begin building a speaking business.
So, where should you begin?
If you’ve been thinking about getting into professional speaking, I’d encourage you to consider a slightly different starting point.
Don’t begin by asking how many keynote topics you need.
Don’t begin by worrying about what a speakers bureau might think of you.
And don’t begin by spending months building the perfect website.
Start with the value you can offer.
What do you know, understand or believe that could genuinely benefit an audience?
Who would benefit most from hearing it?
What problem could you help them solve?
What might they think, feel or do differently after listening to you?
And could you develop that into one compelling presentation you’d be happy to deliver repeatedly?
If the answer is yes, you’ve got somewhere to begin.
Give it a title.
Define the audience.
Clarify the outcome.
Build the presentation.
Practise it.
Deliver it.
Record it.
Refine it.
And then do it again.
Along the way, start collecting the assets that help people understand what you offer.
Footage.
Photographs.
Testimonials.
Audience feedback.
Evidence that your message makes a difference.
Over time, you’ll have something far more valuable than a collection of presentations.
You’ll have a signature talk, a growing reputation, evidence of your ability and a clear offering that people can actually book.
And perhaps most importantly, you’ll have a process for continuing to improve.
Because here’s something I think is worth remembering.
Being invited to speak doesn’t automatically make you a professional speaker.
It’s what you build around those opportunities that begins to turn speaking into a profession.
And if you’re serious about getting into this industry, that’s where I’d encourage you to invest your time.
Stop starting from scratch every time someone hands you a microphone.
Build something worth repeating.
Then keep making it better.
⸻
Ready to Build Your Own Speaking Business?
If you’ve got knowledge, experience or expertise worth sharing, I’ve created a practical resource to help you take the next step.
The Speaking Business Blueprint walks you through three stages:
1. Develop your intellectual property.
Identify what you know, what you’ve already created and how to turn that expertise into something valuable.
2. Create different ways for people to access your expertise.
Explore how your knowledge could become keynotes, webinars, workshops, coaching, online learning and other commercial opportunities.
3. Combine those offerings to create greater outcomes.
Discover how individual products and services can work together to create more comprehensive experiences for your clients.
With practical exercises and real-world examples, it’ll help you identify what you’ve already got and start mapping out what’s possible.
Download The Speaking Business Blueprint
