Why Expert Keynotes Stall (and Visionary Ones Soar)

Do you know a really good speaker… who is stuck? 

Perhaps it’s you?

You’ve got the experience, you’ve got the expertise, and you have solid delivery.  Truth be told, you’re getting booked for gigs… even keynotes!  Yet, there’s still resistance when you try to raise your fee.  And you’re not getting repeat gigs or referrals like you would hope.

You’re stuck.

To be honest, this is what is currently happening to our Year of Transformation subject, Dan Gingiss.  He’s extremely successful with his main speech, while also engaging in a lot of outbound marketing; however, he’s not building the momentum he needs to grow past his current plateau.

So, why is this?  Why are speakers stuck?

In my experience, it’s the visionary keynotes who grow their fees the fastest, while it’s the expert keynotes who eventually hit a ceiling.

That’s our topic for this week, my friend!

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SpeakingGigs.ProAndrew Davis

The Four Speaker Archetypes Organizers Crave

To understand the difference, let’s refer back to a concept that was covered in depth in the book I co-wrote with Michael Port, The Referable Speaker.  We describe the four main types of speakers event organizers try to curate to give their audience a variety of content.

• Actors, Athletes, and Astronauts – These are the celebrity speakers who fill seats just because of their name.  Think Serena Williams and Michelle Obama.
• A-List Alternates – These speakers have really big achievements or brands backing up their name.  (Wow!! The blind guy who climbed Mt. Everest!)
• Industry Icons – These folks are respected leaders within a smaller industry or sector that the audience knows well.  Within the world of convenience stores, Emily Sheetz is a rockstar!
• Surprise and Delight – These are speakers with original ideas that transform the way the audience thinks.

If you’re not famous or iconic, your best path towards earning more keynotes is by delivering a visionary Surprise and Delight transformational speech.

To find out if you are on the right path, consider the Visionary Quest Matrix below.  

Two Towns, Four Quadrants, One Big Choice

The matrix below shows two “towns.” 

Expertville is crowded and it’s hard to stand out. The ideas shared in Expertville are generally well-accepted and feature “how-to” information.  

Visionary Town, on the other hand, is like an exclusive luxury resort where only the best speakers can stay to play.  The content in these speeches tells people “how to think” and it features subject matter that challenges the conventional norms.

Expertville is filled with tactical, practical, and proven solutions.  But it’s a very crowded market.  Those speeches are a dime a dozen.  And you can often find a local speaker to speak for a thousand bucks on any of these topics.

In short, Expertville is like a Motel 6… cheap, crowded, and forgettable. Visionary Town? That’s the Ritz-Carlton, baby.

Don’t forget, there are two other quadrants worth mentioning…  

In the Obsolete quadrant, you’ve got conventional wisdom that is long past its prime.  You’re teaching something that people have already solved.  No one cares anymore.

In the Confusing quadrant, you have a vague idea of a new way to think, but no real application on how to get there.  Speakers often end up in this quadrant by accident when they are developing their speech and trying to get to Visionary Town.

Why “Expertville” Keeps You Stuck

A lot of speakers are stuck in Expertville and don’t even know it.  Sure, you can book keynotes with expert level content, but you’re bound to reach a ceiling – and that ceiling gets lower and lower the more prevalent your concept is.

So, what happens in Expertville?

Well, you’re competing in a totally saturated market of lookalike sessions.  Multiple speeches from separate speakers look nearly identical.

You may have great slides, but they do too.  You probably need to customize endlessly to stay competitive – resulting in a ton of time spent on each industry.  It might feel like you are winning, but you’re still maxing out your fees at $5,000, $7,500, or maybe even $15,000.  

Ultimately, you’re easier to forget than to refer.

Expert keynotes are bought, but visionary keynotes are remembered… then rebooked.  And that’s the difference.  

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SpeakingGigs.ProAndrew Davis

Why Visionary Ideas Stick, Spread, and Sell

Was that last section a wake-up call?  Maybe you’re suddenly realizing you are actually stuck in Expertville. 

It’s okay.  It’s possible to escape!  

(No passport required… though you will need to ditch the ‘10 Steps to Productivity’ slides.)

In fact, that’s going to be the main topic in tomorrow’s Part 2 article for Premium Subscribers.

But first, let’s look at why those visionary keynotes make such a lasting impact on audiences and clients.

And this is evident from the very beginning when you submit your session description to a prospect.

As an example, I have a speech called The Laws of Attraction that hasn’t been booked in quite some time.  I recently revisited the session description and realized it fell squarely in Expertville.

(I actually built a tool in my GiGS CRM platform that helps me analyze session descriptions… more on that tomorrow!) 

In part 2, I’m going to show you exactly how I edited the Laws of Attraction session description to move it into the Visionary Town quadrant.

When you make these changes, it lets your session description gain organizational traction.  A CEO can read the description and see the relevance of that topic across all silos of their organization.  That’s a keynote they want to book.

Audiences like to talk about ideas, not just your slides, the data, or your performance.  They discuss concepts and new ways of thinking.  And the best way to make those new ideas stick is to use a contextual model.

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SpeakingGigs.ProRachael Kraft