I have noticed with the AI-ificiation of everything, there’s actually a really lovely re-emphasis on live events. And despite the mildly clickbaity title, I’ve received three speaking requests in the last week. In this post, I’m going to share three ways that you can better position your work to actually get hired as a speaker or facilitator.
Why Listen to Anything I Say
15 years ago, I was invited to give a TEDx talk that started my journey toward being one of the top speakers on connection. I have worked all around the world with some of the smartest leaders and educators, companies, and organizations on the planet. After speaking to hundreds of thousands of people over the last year as a professional speaker and facilitator, I’m going to share what I believe event organizers really want, and what I think everybody will very soon want in the near future.
Stop Pitching. Start Asking for Transformation
I was just on a call with somebody who’s coordinating a conference for 1500 professionals in healthcare. As soon as we got on the call, they were like, “Okay, what are you going to talk about? What are your ideas?”
Before I answered, I verbatim said, “actually, as a bit of connection before content, you’re putting a whole bunch of puzzle pieces together for this event. What do you really hope the transformation is? When people walk out the door, what’s shifted for them?”
End result and outcome matters more to an organizer than any one speaker decision. They care about does their event actually accomplish something. Do people have an experience that leaves them wanting to come back?
Do the Math on the Expertise in the Room
One really great way to calculate whether you’ve tapped into the full potential of people in a room or not is to do a pinch of math.
What I did live on the call with these organizers was say, “Okay, you’ve got me on stage with a microphone, big screen behind me, and 1500 healthcare professionals with a minimum average of, let’s say, 10 years of experience.” So on the other side of the stage there is 15,000 years of experience. If I’m the only one talking, you have not nearly tapped into what’s possible in that room. What I do is turn that 15,000 years into a usable exchange.
More and more, we live in an age where information is infinite, very personalized, hyper-specific, and most often accurate, sitting in our pocket, one prompt away. If we continue down the model of just presenting information to people, there will not be an emphasis on live events.
People do not come back to watch a presentation they could have watched on 2x speed on YouTube. But what they will come back for is all the connections that happen in between that content.
Think about the events that have been really transformative for you. Oftentimes it was some person you met in the hallway who was doing the exact thing that you were doing, and you found so much camaraderie, similarity. They had solved the problem you had. It was that one five minute chat that actually changed everything. It wasn’t slide 47 of the keynote.
Flip the Podium Around: The Words Per Minute Problem
The second way of better positioning is flipping this podium around, putting the audience in the position of their own expertise.
Here’s one other quick math problem, and then we’ll leave math aside. The average person speaks at about 150 to 180 words per minute. I tend to talk a little fast, so I’m on the 180 end of things.
If it’s me and 1500 people for an hour, I’m speaking at 180 words a minute. That’s how many words will be exchanged if I talk the entire time.
But the moment I ask a question that allows people to connect to why they’re there, to connect to each other, and to learn something from each other, I literally take the word count and times it by 1500. The amount that’s generated is 1,500 times more content than your one keynote.
It’s a heap lower effort to crowdsource all of that wisdom sharing and expertise to the group rather than relying on one person to do a really good job at the front of the room.
That’s actually a bit more of a risk as an organizer. When you put a stranger up on stage, that’s a flight risk. But when you invite people to connect with each other, the people that they came to connect with, you derisk that stage completely. You give people something that they will never ever be able to type into AI and access.
Want to try this with your team? Download my free printable cards, book excerpts, and more here.
Stop Presenting and Start Inviting
If you fit into the category of speaker or facilitator, and you don’t want to fall into the trap of not getting hired, here is my invite to you. Stop presenting and start inviting.
Take all of your energy, attention, and focus, and when you’re planning with a group, focus on what you’re going to invite them to do, not what you are going to say.
Last year I did the opening keynote for the National Speakers Association. A room full of professional speakers. I talked for about 30% of the time and I got a standing ovation at the end.
I don’t share that to brag. I share that to say if you want a standing ovation, consider talking 70% less. Stop focusing on what you are presenting. Start thinking about what experience you’re going to invite the group into, one that is not replicable outside of that room.
If you want to see a really cool example of this, that TEDx talk I mentioned 15 years ago, look up the video titled five smart ways to end a meeting or event. You’ll actually be able to watch the way that I closed that TEDx talk in a way that no other TEDx talk on Earth has ever wrapped up.
Go Deeper
Want to go deeper? Register your interest for the Connectors Summit this December, a live experience where facilitators, trainers, and leaders come together to practice, connect, and reset.
I’m Chad Littlefield. If you like this, you’ll love the rest. Consider subscribing to my newsletter. Have an awesome day.
