Is the “NSA Way” Killing Your Business?

For the last 50 years, speakers have been told there’s only one way to build a successful business.

It’s the advice you’ve likely heard from the National Speakers Association (NSA) over and over again…

Make more calls…

Send more emails…

Network harder…

And never let up.

It’s a model based mainly on two things – volume and hustle.

This playbook has been passed down so often in the NSA and through professional speakers that it’s practically become dogma.  You hear about it at meetings, read about it in articles, and even listen to this advice on podcasts.

Today, I want to present to you a sort of manifesto outlining a different strategy – one that doesn’t rely on hardcore marketing, cold outreach, and “hustle.”  

(Ugh… that word.)

At the end of this week’s series, I’m going to challenge you with a choice that could impact the success of your speaking business for years to come.

Heads-up, this is a long article... so here's the TL;DR summary:

Trash Talking the NSA?  Really, Andrew?

Okay… no.  That’s not our intent.  

It’s just that this advice has been promoted for so long through the National Speakers Association, it feels like the best way to describe it.  We could also call it “conventional wisdom”, the “old way”, the “traditional way”... whatever.  

I’m going to stick to calling it the “NSA way.”

With this method, all of your power to earn gigs comes from your marketing… dialing phone numbers, sending emails, making appearances, writing books, and building a brand.

There’s another option… one that I’ve used for more than a decade with great success. It’s one that gains leverage not from your marketing but from your message. It positions your speech as your best strategy to earn new gigs.

The NSA option builds noise… 

This other strategy builds momentum…

Making the decision to follow this other strategy is one that every speaker will need to face at some point in their careers.  I want to challenge you to choose wisely and understand the differences between the two approaches before going all in on a method that might work against you.

So, what is this other method of doing business?

I’m going to call it the “Referable Speaker way.”  

And yes, this is largely based on the ideas I developed with my pal Michael Port as part of our book The Referable Speaker.  

Here’s a breakdown of the differences in some of the key business categories.

Marketing vs. Momentum

With the NSA way, your marketing is your engine, and consistency wins.  You’re always encouraged to do just one more post on social media, one more call, or one more pitch.

With each effort, your visibility increases, creating opportunities that could potentially lead to a new paid gig.

With the Referable Speaker way, your speech is your engine.  It is the thing that powers your ability to win more gigs. 

If no one talks about your speech after you step off stage, it’s not an indication that you need to do more marketing, but rather that you need to work more on your speech. No amount of marketing is ever going to build a sustainable business – especially if your speech is not strong.

There’s also a difference in the number of gigs you are working towards.  With the NSA way, you are focused on getting that ONE next gig.  With the Referable Speaker way, you are trying to create a spark of interest that leads to multiple gigs that keep feeding into more and more speaking opportunities.

Empty Calendar? Don’t Hit Send. Rebuild Your Speech.

Each week, I tune in to the NSA podcast to hear about the latest news and advice for speakers.  This recent episode talked about what to do if you have an empty calendar.

The advice was simple...

“It’s time to crank up your outreach!”

The host told listeners to email and call all of their old clients.  They should go to networking events, attend another conference, meet new people, and work towards finding that next ONE gig to put onto their schedule.

The Referable Speaker advice would have been much different…

For me, an empty calendar – not including the slow speaking season for your industry – is a reflection of your speech.  It’s a sign you need to rebuild your content, focus on iteration, and refine your session description.

When your speech is strong, demand will naturally follow.

Sure, a speaker following my methods can still use some of the NSA methods to get those first gigs.  But, with a good speech, those first gigs will generate more and more stageside leads leading to a consistently full pipeline.

See?  Sustainable!

Don’t Count Calls. Count Stageside Leads.

When it comes to tracking your efforts, the NSA method wants you to keep count of how many calls you make, how many DMs you send, how many emails you write, and how many followers you have.  It asks if you are putting in enough hustle to build your personal brand.

We’ve actually been through these numbers before.  If you need a refresher, check out this article from the archive that talks about the truth behind cold calling.

Ugh… Cold Calling… Is It Even Worth Your Time?

Let’s break down the numbers to see if this is a numbers game you can actually win.

SpeakingGigs.ProAndrew Davis

Short version… it’s a rough and exhausting route to travel.

The Referable Speaker way would ask you to simply measure the number of stageside leads you get after each speech.  This is a very strong indicator of whether your speech is hitting or not.

Not sure what counts as a stageside lead?  No prob.  Just count up the number of people who approach you within 72 hours of delivering your session.  Often, they meet you literally at the side of the stage with a business card in hand asking if you’re available to speak at their conference.

That’s your scorecard for the quality of your speech.

There are other things you could (and should) measure with the Referable Speaker method that have nothing to do with your volume of outreach.  But those other items have more to do with your strategy to consistently grow your fees.

Want to Grow? Forget “More.” Think “Momentum.”

When it comes to growing your speaking business, the NSA way again promotes a numbers game…

More emails means more first gigs.  More followers means more visibility.  These mean a bigger list so you can run those email campaigns to ask people to book you.

More, more, more!

The Referable Speaker way says that growth is just a compounding effect.  In other words, one killer speech will lead to three more speeches, which lead to five more after that, which lead to ten more after that.  And with each one, your fee can be raised higher and higher.

That’s not just scale, that’s exponential growth.  The weight your speech holds is building your business.

Your Fee Isn’t About Your Résumé

The NSA way is for your fee to reflect your credentials, your experience, your expertise, and what the market says you’re worth. Your expertise is judged on things like whether you’ve written a book and how many people you’ve spoken to. 

I’m actually not sure of their exact fee raising strategy.  Perhaps it’s just to slowly raise your fee every year.

The Referable Speaker way says that your fee is reflected in the demand for your speech.

So, if your inbox goes crazy with requests after you speak, then your rate goes up.  It’s that simple. If it’s a slow time of the year, your fee goes down.  You use ebb pricing to raise and lower your fee throughout the year to help you increase demand and refine your newer speeches.

Stop Rewriting Your Speech Every Time

I’ve been talking a lot about building a strong speech, so let’s take a gander at how those approaches differ…

With the NSA way, you are encouraged to customize every single talk you give.  Tailor it to every audience.  Keep it current.  Make it relevant.  Keep it working.

This essentially means that no two speeches that you give are ever exactly the same.  Or, another way to look at it… you are ALWAYS delivering a certain version of your speech for the very first time.

Yikes!