As a business expert, I have often searched inside myself to understand what people get from a professional speaker and how I, as a speaker, can increase that value – whatever it is.
Companies have been spending millions on consultancies to improve their business models, marketing to communicate their message, and training to hone their teams’ skills. As times got tough, did belt tightening threaten those budgets? Could a professional speaker really help and how could they do that?
We did tons of research on learning and communication and discovered that around one hour’s communicating was all the human frame could stand (just about the perfect length for a keynote speech.) The psychologists actually believe that any more than fifty minutes is a waste of time. If you think about all vital learning, the lessons rarely tend to be longer than one hour at a time – school lessons, flying lessons, driving lessons and even lectures for brain surgeons.
A good speaker should be able to do a number of things. Firstly they should uplift and entertain which is normally where it begins and ends, but we feel that solid, lasting, beneficial, takeaway messages can and should also be delivered. Complex subjects such as Quality, Lean Management, Change, Six Sigma, Disintermediation and Creating an Entrepreneurial Culture, for example, can be translated and explained and this is something that I dedicate myself to doing, to the point that someone kindly called me the Babel Fish for Business. In other words I take complex business messages and turn them into what appear to be light and easy to understand takeaways that are actually precisely tailored to the audience.
As a result of all this we have developed …
This will take the keynote speech, keep it fast-moving, funny and full of impact, but with the added goal of imparting vital messages and learning points. The goal must be that your investment in a good speaker is repaid a thousand fold in commercial progress with useful takeaways and tips to improve knowledge.
Companies may be considering having a conference with no outside speaker. How about turning that on its head and having a speaker with no conference and have a lightning strike seminar instead?
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