Public speaking in a global world

We are making speaking a global league. You are welcome to join.

Is what the CEO told me when we first met. He runs speakers bureaus in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, The UK, The Netherlands, and the US.

What all those countries have in common is one thing: speakers have a tough job. They are alone most of the time. They research alone, they go to their jobs alone and they handle much contact through emails. They also ask for help, that the bureaus are often not able to give them. There is a good reason for that. The reason is based in - not laziness but statistics. It is a bad business case. In a later blog post we’ll get into why.

What is dumb, he explained is that all these people share the same issues. How should they negotiate, how can they get on stage in the first place, and what is the market even looking for these days?

“But they don’t talk to each other. Maybe we can change that,” the CEO suggested.

And the need for some advice and help is real. We surveyed speakers to get a clearer picture, and this number seems very high:

But there is a fox in the hen house - or as one American speaker called - it “snake oil salesmen” out there. How do you know that you get value for money when you pay a speaker often exorbitant amounts for their assistance? You don’t unless your network helps you find the good ones. That is only possible when you, like the American speakers, are well-organized in organizations like the oddly named NSA (National Speakers Association), who are doing a fantastic job.

However, as the world grows smaller, and speakers get on stage all over the planet, we should transcend the national boundaries.

That ties directly to another challenge, the CEO saw in the distance. There is an inherent loneliness in the job.

So how are we going to do this?

Well, we have something that most don’t. We have real sales data from a lot of speakers that we hope to put to good use. We’ll get smarter; we’ll include you in our findings and work towards a world of large paychecks and standing ovations.