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Hard skills are those skills that are teachable, based in fact, and can be defined and measured. Some examples would include time management, sales training, social media, copywriting, and accounting.

Soft skills are less tangible, often associated with personal traits and character, and are harder to quantify. Some examples would include communication, leadership, teamwork, adaptability, and conflict resolution.

With more companies focused on the bottom line, I asked speakers, meeting planners and speaker bureaus if they were seeing more requests for hard skill topics or soft skill topics in the speaking industry today. Here are their answers:

“Soft skills is the most commonly requested presentation with content, content, content, content. If you have a dynamic, humorous way of presenting the content you will be chosen hands down over the trainer type with content. You want to be motivation with content versus a content motivator.”

Wilene Dunn

Global Speakers Agency

“Conferences in the digital marketing industry always state that they are

looking for experts on the given topic of an event, session or panel —

they say want people who have the hard skills and “know their stuff.” But

what they rarely state — and what they may not even realize consciously

that they want — is that they also want someone with the soft skills that

will enthrall the audience.

People attend conferences because they want to experience something amazing. They want to be star-struck when meeting the celebrities in their field. They want to reconnect with old friends. They want to leave talks with their mouths agape while thinking, “Oh. My. God.” If someone wants “just the facts,” then he or she can read a blog post or watch a webinar.

People go to conferences for the emotional high.The best speakers have both hard and soft skills. A great speaker without substance is fluff, and a renowned expert can be extremely boring.

Personally, this is where I have been seeing conferences going. Conferences

first check that a speaker is knowledgeable and credible and will be

presenting something original.

However, more and more conferences are also insisting on previewing videos or even traveling to see a prospective speaker give a presentation elsewhere. At any serious conference, hard skills and knowledge among the speakers are absolutely necessary first and foremost. But soft skills and the ability to amaze an audience are a very close second.”

Samuel Scott

SEO and Internet marketing speaker

http://www.samueljscott.com/speaking

“Actually, we’re experiencing just the opposite. More than ever companies realize that there’s a direct link from employees’ abilities to the bottom line and they seek us out to learn how to traverse that path. There are many studies and lots of data to support tangible results when hard and soft skills are addressed as a symbiotic relationship in successful organizations.

Marian Thier
Partner

Listening Impact

www.listeningimpact.com

So, it seems that both hard skills and soft skills are needed today, and the speakers who can integrate both, while delivering the information in an entertaining way, will be more in demand.

What do you think? Are you seeing more requests for hard skills or soft skills as a speaker, meeting planner, or speaker bureau?

The first job I had when I moved to L.A. was being a bartender at the comedy club The Laugh Factory. As I stood behind the safety of the bar I remember thinking “I’m glad I’m not the one having to deal with hecklers”. But now that I work as a speaker I’m getting a little taste of what it feels like. Though speakers don’t get heckled nearly as much as comedians do, it still happens, and it’s a good idea to be prepared if it does.

I asked comedians and speakers how to handle a heckler:

“There’s a guaranteed way to avoid heckling in the first place – be riveting.
So many comedians get up there and try new jokes at important shows. The
time to try new stuff is in front of drunks at 1 AM in comedy clubs, not at
big paid events.

I have never been heckled per se, but one time in India, a very drunk woman
was yelling out incoherent things after everything I said. I completely
ignored her, and just talked over her. It’s easy to do because the comedian
has the microphone.

After my set, however, I did a T-shirt giveaway and she yelled out “What
size is it?” and without missing a beat, I said “It’s too small for you”.”

Dan Nainan – Dan Nainan

Dan got his start by taking a comedy class to get over the nervousness of speaking on stage in his job as a demo engineer with Intel Corporation. After leaving Intel to pursue comedy, he has toured with Russell Peters and other notable comedians. Dan has appeared on network television including “Last Comic Standing” as well as in feature films, on radio and in an Apple commercial. He just completed a comedy tour of India.

“To handle hecklers, I’ve found a couple of techniques that seem to work:

* During the Q&A session, I make a point of saying, “Any questions
related to the topic we just discussed?” as opposed to saying, “Any
questions?” Now when the heckler wants to take center stage and bring up
another topic, I can respond by saying, “Glad to discuss this offline at the
end. However, right now we are focused on [topic at hand].” (more…)

Remember when we used to say “women doctors” or “women attorneys”? So why do we still say “women speakers”? In looking up male dominated jobs, I found truck drivers, train conductors, airline pilots, and race car drivers. Are you seeing a pattern here? All involve driving large, heavy vehicles. But there’s no reason women can’t do any of those. I work in 3 male dominated industries, manufacturing, inventing, and public speaking. Yes, public speaking is considered a male dominated industry. Yet it involves no large machinery or heavy lifting. So why is it that only 20-30% of paid speaking jobs go to women?

In 2013 at TED Global, Executive producer of TED Media, June Cohen, spoke about why there are so few women speakers at TED. Here’s what she said “Women speakers are harder to find, are more likely to say no, and are more likely to cancel”. She went on to say that the ratio of speaker bureaus are about 80% male speakers and 20% female speakers. I couldn’t get exact statistics, but the numbers are definitely not in women’s favor. I added up the percentage of male to female speakers on Speaker Sponsor. It’s 62% women speakers.

In 2014, the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative Conference had a whopping total of one woman speaker. In 2015, they had none. All men. Conference organizer, Eric Bradlow, said “we absolutely thought about lack of gender and other forms of diversity on speaker lineup, but in the end decided to stick with our original policy of choosing speakers based on merit.” He also said “We’re committed to diversity”. Yep, it sounds like it. So, was he saying that there weren’t any qualified women speakers? Seems hard to believe.

I dug deeper and found other conference organizers who had commented on the reasons for the lack of women speakers. “Not enough qualified women speakers, women only talk about woman stuff, there are no women speakers who are big enough names, and attendees want to hear people who are like themselves.”

I wanted to find out from the people who hire speakers exactly where the breakdown is. Are there really so few women speakers at bureaus? If so, why? Do the bureaus pitch women, but the clients tend to hire men? Do clients specifically ask for a male or female speaker? Here are some of the answers I got:
Brittany Kreutzer of The Speaker Exchange Agency had this to say:

“I think companies jump at the chance to have a female present for their conferences, but at the end of the day it still has to be the right fit. A client will not just book a speaker because they are female. We are slowly seeing an increase in female speakers, but the challenge we find is that a lot of strong females price themselves very high. We still see the need for strong females in the $7,500-$12,500 range. At the end of the day I do see companies wanting more females, but they won’t just book a female to book one, it still has to be the right fit and the speaker must still provide the takeaway value in order to be booked. There is a lot of room for growth in market share for female speakers in the speaking industry, but don’t expect to just get booked because you are a female. If you don’t have the energy, charisma, content and drive you won’t get booked-male or female!”

James Marshall Reilly of The Guild Agency speakers bureau, echoed something I believe to be true, and that’s that there’s still gender bias in general that’s leftover from decades of male dominated thinking. It’s deeply engrained and is slow to change, including women’s pay. According to James, women speakers tend to make less than their male counterparts.

That’s why The Guild Agency doesn’t post speaker fees, and other things besides money are negotiated. That puts male and female speakers on a more level playing field. He says that speaker bureaus have a lot of power and can submit as many women speakers as they want. Ultimately it’s still up to the client to decide. Says James, “Sometimes they need names to sell tickets, and there tend to be more well known men than women.”

Shirley Hogsett of Destiny Speakers Bureau had this to say:

“I do see more women in male dominated industries stepping up to become speakers. There tend to be fewer female speakers because there are simply fewer women in those fields to begin with. Meeting planners often say that it’s hard to find women speakers in those industries and there’s some truth to that. A lot of women I come in contact with position themselves to speak to only women. Many times people of color also want to speak to audiences of other people of color. So part of the problem is how speakers position themselves. The solution, from a speaker’s point of view, would be to start positioning yourself, not from a gender perspective, but from a knowledge perspective.”

What is your opinion on the topic, as either a meeting planner, speaker bureau or speaker?

The speaking industry is global, which expands a speaker’s opportunities beyond their own country. International speaking can be quite lucrative, and at some point in your career you might want to think about taking that leap. But every country has their own culture, and written or unwritten rules every public speaker needs to know about.

Anthony “Ant” Williams has a unique perspective on the speaking industry, as both a speaker and a speaker bureau owner. If you think being a public speaker is scary and competitive, read on to see how Ant got his start:

Can you give us some info on your background?
I fell in to speaking as a way to support my fascination with extreme sports. Each year I would travel the globe competing in World Championship events in the sport of freediving, a sport where the sole purpose is to see who can reach the greatest depth in the ocean on a single breath of air. But doing a dangerous sport can be expensive. I trained up as a speaker to create a new source of income that would fit around the training and travel.
Where I sympathise the most with other speakers, is with our over-reliance on traditional speaking bureaux to find us speaking work. This is fraught with problems. How do you build a business as a speaker if you don’t build your relationships with event planners directly?

How is the speaking industry different in Australia than the U.S.?
There are two main differences. First, we seem to pay our speakers less in Australia. Our largest booking category is $3,000 – $5,000 and very few bookings come in over the $10,000 mark. In the U.S. top speakers would typically earn more per keynote. Second, we don’t have the same prevalence of speaker’s agents who source the work for speakers. Australian speakers tend to list with as many speakers’ bureaux as possible, create a website, and then wait for the work to come in.

Are there any cultural differences?
Australian audiences love U.S. speakers. We love your accent. We presume people who speak with an accent must be highly intelligent. But we Australians are a modest bunch. A quick way to alienate an Australian audience is to over-state your credentials or come across too flamboyant.

How do you suggest approaching speaker’s bureaus?
We aren’t currently supporting any offshore speakers. Hopefully, in the near future.

What should speakers know about working with a speaker bureau?
Speaker bureaus want to find you work, but you make it difficult! Rather than asking a bureau to find you more work, get busy and write a blog that the bureau can share. Do something interesting and share it on social media with links to your profile on the bureau website so people can find and book you. Content is king. If you want to get noticed by people who book speakers then start creating interesting content that people will share.

Who is your perfect client?
We have a guy on the other side of Australia who books a new speaker with us every month. From the comfort of his desk he selects a speaker for each event, then books them through our automated system. We have an Audience Response System that collects audience ratings and feedback for each speaker. He simply compares speaker feedback and choses the best speaker for his event, at the best price each time.

What is your favorite book on speaking?
That would still have to be “Speak and Grow Rich” by Walters & Walters. It’s an old book now but still has some of the best ever advice in it for a career in keynote speaking. What it lacks, because of its age, is the importance of building a social media presence.

Thanks to Ant for taking time to share his insights with Speaker Sponsor. You can check out his speaker bureau at www.speakerbook.com.au or check out his amazing free diving background at www.antwilliams.com.

Are there two different sides of the speaking industry? If you ask two different people to give you the definition of a professional speaker you may get two different answers. I always assumed it was someone who gets paid to speak. But the answer is a little more complicated than that. So I asked two professionals in different areas of the speaking industry for their thoughts on it.

Cathleen Fillmore runs the speaker bureau Speakers Gold and has been in the speaking industry for many years. Here is her answer to that question:

“As a bureau owner, I’ve had great experience with all aspects of the speaking industry. One of my speakers, new to Canada, was often asked to speak free of charge until he said ‘No!’. He had young children to support and he knew if he kept accepting unpaid engagements, he would never get paid. So he said ‘No thanks’ and held his breath and soon he was getting full fee. Once he established his boundaries and insisted on the respect he was due, he got it. Full fee. There are times to accept unpaid engagements – for your favorite charity or to get in front of decision makers – but mainly it’s a trap that can damage your branding. After all, if you speak for one organization free of charge, others won’t want to pay you. Or they won’t want to pay your full fee. The decision is yours – don’t make it until you’ve explored the implications and the possible cost to you for accepting a free speaking engagement.”
Cathleen Fillmore, Bureau Owner and Marketing Consultant to Speakers
www.speakersgold.com
www.marketingmasteryforspeakers.com
cathleen@speakersgold.com
416-532-9886

Bryan Caplovitz is the founder of Speaker Match, an online speaker directory that connects speakers with paid and free speaking engagements. Here’s what Bryan had to say:

“The National Speakers Association, which is known for having professional speakers, has many speakers from an older generation who adhere to the notion that pros don’t pitch from the stage. There shouldn’t be any selling. You should deliver great, commercial-free content and a message that affects the audience. A lot of newer speakers do feel the need to sell from the stage, and encourage the audience to buy products or services. They like passing out evaluation forms with their contact info and lean heavily on their books and coaching.

There’s a third category that doesn’t care if they get paid or not. They deliver great content and the audience isn’t pitched to. Many Toastmasters and cause speakers fall into that category. They simply want to touch an audience with their words.

Then there is the big pitch speaker. The audience knows they’re being pitched to and it’s transparent upfront. These are the free presentations that are meant to sell very high ticket programs. They are great pitch people who get the audience members into a non-defensive mindset. They show the value of all of the many different pieces you need and build it up.”

And then of course there are speakers who focus on great content, but have sponsors footing the bill. I’ve come to realize that the speaking industry is very inclusive and isn’t just about one type of speaking. The speaking industry has changed a lot over the past few years and may still be changing. Who knows what the next business model will be? What do you think?

We’re happy to welcome Sue Falcone of Simply Sue Speaks to Speaker Sponsor. Sue knows both sides of the speaking industry and will be giving us some insight into what she looks for in a speaker to represent.

Here is the transcription:

Julie Austin: Hi, Sue.

Sue Falcone: Hi, Julie!

Julie Austin: Welcome to Speaker Sponsor.

Sue Falcone: Thank you so much for inviting me. Happy Tuesday!

Julie Austin: Same to you. We’re going to talk a little bit about your speaker bureau, “Simply” Sue Speaks. First of all, can you just give us a little bit of information about your background?

Sue Falcone: I’ll be glad to, Julie. My name is Sue Falcone, and I come from a varied background into what I do now. I’m a former AT&T executive, small business owner, published author and professional speaker, who then found out speakers out there needed some help. So this is why I established a different and unique form of a company for speakers, because I’m not your normal speakers bureau. I’m a global booking agency, which is a little different. We’ll get into that, but that’s where I’ve come from.I have over 40 years experience, and I love what I do and who I get to do it with.

Julie Austin: How has the speaking industry — how is it different today than when you first started?

Sue Falcone: Well, of course, I started in corporate America, but I was always this entrepreneur person. AT&T let me be that, but I remember what we really thought back then, even on serving our customers as a company, not just in the speaking realm, that we thought we knew what they needed, so that’s what we provided. Overally, generally, that’s how speakers and trainers and all did. We decided what you needed and how you needed to hear it, and we did it. (more…)

The speaking industry has similarities and differences in every country. Here is another great speakers bureau interview with J.J. Jackson of Performing Artistes, located in London:

1. Can you give us some info on your background and how Performing Artistes got started?
We started in 1992, initially putting on sporting dinners (where people buy tables and there are former sportsmen and women giving speeches after dinner). We quickly got asked to supply people for their own events, often non sport, and it went from there. That original experience of having put on events ourselves is incredibly useful when dealing with planners. We can honestly say we’ve been there!
2. How is the speaking industry different in Europe than the U.S.?
Bureaux in the States seems to be much more talent led. They are set up to push talent exclusive to them, while the European model is client/organiser led – most of us have a few exclusives, but the majority of our business is booking people independent of the bureau. We are answerable to the clients.
3. When should a speaker start approaching speakers bureaus and how would you like to be approached?
In theory, as soon as they like, however unless they have a TV profile they really need to have done a good few speeches (20 plus) to be taken seriously. Decent video footage of them speaking is also a must – it doesn’t need to be a full production, but more than a hand held camera at the back of a church hall.
4. What is the one thing you wish speakers knew about working with a speakers bureau?
That our job is to come up with ideas for speakers in the first place. Rarely do clients ring up asking for a specific person, they normally ask for a list of people who would be appropriate and take it from there, so by the time they end up booking the speaker we’ve already done a lot of work getting them to that stage. Same goes for agents, they often say “why did the company not come to us directly” to which the response is of course “because they didn’t know they wanted you until we explained why you/your client was ideal”.
5. Who is your perfect speaker client?
In terms of the talent, someone who engages with the client beforehand on a briefing call, turns up on time and is modest in their demands re staging, transport etc (accepting they want to deliver a good presentation and do require certain things). In terms of bookers/planners, someone you can develop a relationship with and starts to trust you…occasionally taking a leftfield choice because they know you haven’t let them down in the past. I always say I have never knowingly supplied a bad speaker, although that’s not to say we haven’t had to odd issue over the years!
6. Is there one book you would recommend all speakers read?
Now there is a question! It’s been around a while, but one of the original business books, How to Win Friends and Influence People takes some beating!
7. What do you see changing for speakers, meeting planners and speakers bureaus and how would you use innovation to improve the speaking industry?
The level of interactivity of audiences. The days of the passive audience are long gone, now a days the audience will be tweeting about the speech as it is happening, asking questions in real time etc. In terms of improving the industry, transparency is key. If a speaker has had a number of enquiries from rival bureaux for the same job, they should say; similarly meeting planners shouldn’t try and play us off against each other. By all means compare costs, but once you’ve decided which bureau to use, stick with them.

JJ Jackson
Performing Artistes – London

www.performingartistes.co.uk
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/PerfArtistes

The recent IMEX America Conference in Las Vegas was a good glimpse into the future of the meetings industry. Meeting planners and executives from around the world shared their knowledge and inside information about where the meetings and events industry is headed for 2015.

Cvent and American Express co-sponsored a survey that was sent out to global meeting and event planners from all segments of the industry to get an idea of where they believed things were headed.

The bad news is that globally meetings are predicted to remain flat, and budgets are expected to decrease. I know this isn’t what speakers want to hear. But if you know where things stand, at least you can learn how to work around it. As a speaker you’ll need to start bringing even more value to meeting planners, since they will be working with lower budgets, yet still trying to get the best speakers possible.

The outlook for North America looks slightly more positive. Though spending will remain flat, the number of actual meetings is expected to go up very slightly. The bright spot in all of this is that training and development is expected to rise. This goes along with the added value you’ll need to bring to the table. Motivational speaking isn’t going out of style anytime soon, but it has to come with good, solid, actionable content that can be delivered in multiple ways.

The biggest increase in spending comes from Central and South America. Training and development and spending are both expected to increase. If you haven’t thought about expanding your speaking business into this area, now may be a good time to start connecting with planners who work in this region.

The number of local meetings, especially in large cities, is expected to become more popular. This is one reason small business micro-sponsorship is more important than ever. And it’s one reason local speakers with their own sponsors will have a competitive advantage over other speakers.

I was talking to a conference planner not long ago, pitching some of the Speaker Sponsor speakers, and he told me that if a speaker was any good they wouldn’t need to market themselves or get anyone to do it for them. Really? Well, I guess if you’re Hillary Clinton or Tony Robbins, you can basically just sit back and let the speaking jobs come to you, but for most speakers I strongly believe you need to get out and let people know who you are and what you do through speaker marketing.

Apparently, every speaker I talked to agreed, though everyone markets in a different way. Here are some of their responses to the question on speaker marketing and how they do it:

For sure speakers have to market themselves! Especially when you’re new to speaking on your own, without the exposure that comes from a corporate position or your book publisher, you’re unlikely to be “found” by conference or meeting planners. I’ve been speaking since I was in my 20s, when I began sponsoring marketing workshops in 1979 while finishing my MBA and writing a book on small business marketing. In that era before webinars, before Skype, before audio-conferencing (and before significant continuing education budget cuts at employers), it seemed easier to market yourself. Today, people have less time for events and less money for workshop registration or travel, and there’s more competition online from free or low-cost webinars. (more…)

A speaker showcase is usually a half day or full day event where a small group of speakers showcase a few minutes of their best material to a room of meeting planners or other event organizers. The purpose of a speaker showcase is to give the meeting planners a wide variety of speaker styles and topics under one roof to choose from as they plan their events for the upcoming year.

Speaker showcases are put on by convention and visitors bureaus, speaker bureaus, association organizations, etc. The speakers pay their own travel and expenses, and sometime even pay a fee to participate. So, are they worth the time and money? We asked a few speakers what they thought. (more…)

General

Public Speaking – Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills

How to Handle a Heckler

How Heavy is a Microphone?

Interview With a Speakers Bureau – Speaker Book

Are There Two Different Sides of the Speaking Industry?

SS 001 – Speaker Bureau Interview – Simply Sue Speaks

Interview With a Speakers Bureau – Performing Artistes

What the 2015 Global Meetings Trend Means for Speakers

Do Speakers Need to Market Themselves?

Speaker Showcase – Good Idea or a Waste of Time?