The great recession/correction of 2008-2010 marks the end of an era for professional speakers. The days of thousands of motivational speakers regurgitating think and grow rich are over. Thousands of speakers have been forced out the business in the last two years because companies are demanding tens time the value they were 24 months ago. They are bleeding red ink and desparate for answers, which creates a HUGE opportunity for speakers with solutions while simultaneously marking the end of the road for platitude-pumping, shoulder-rubbing, philospher quoting, feel good presenters. This doesn’t mean the end for all of these speakers, but certainly for the majority. The best of the bunch will make a comeback after the recession ends, but it will never be the same as the pre-recession days. The good news is the high content, solution-oriented personality speaker will be in higher demand than ever. Fess for these speakers will continue to rise, and the future is limitless. Listen to this post and give us your take. Steve Siebold
Professional Speakers Beware: End of an Era
Published By steve
Steve Siebold, CSP My name is Steve Siebold. I’m an author with 1.4 million books in print, and a professional speaker and consultant to Fortune 500 sales teams on how to increase sales and retention rates through mental toughness training. My corporate clients include Johnson & Johnson, Toyota, Harrah’s Entertainment, Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Ingersoll Rand, etc.
Steve:
Thanks for this message. I completely agree with you. Rather than go the ‘motivational speaker’ route, I’ve branded myself as a Change Agent. I still deliver keynotes, BUT, the difference is they are inherent with Change Technology.
The ‘hype’ anchor wares off quickly as you noted, and so shifting the audience at core levels is necessary for the keynote to have a lasting effect.
In terms of the content, indeed, it must be solution based content that is a few steps ahead of the curve, of where people are now, so it shines a light on “HOW” to create the change that is appropriate to their challenges.
Love your work, keep the blogs coming!
Highest Regards,
Deborah
Companies today are really crying for “value” employees, who would be both public speakers and “idea men”. However, I don’t agree that the main reason for this demand is recession/correction of 2008-2010. Globalization and IT era are the key reasons.
Due to the technological progress people today have excess to a vast amount of information. Never before we had so many opportunities to read and explore about what is going somewhere else. In turn, globalization let people travel and have business not only within one town, city or country but around the world.
Those people who keep up with the time are very educated, open-minded, and fast. People like that are multitask-oriented; and can be both bright speakers and “idea men”. They are the ones who will be hired today! Those who don’t “grow” professionally and can’t be multitask-oriented should seriously think about their future career. It’s time for those who can compete in the new era of IT and globalization!