Women around the world, we have some work to do!
The other day I was watching a video interview with three bookers: one from Germany, the other from the UK and the third one from France, and they were discussing the current market for the speaking business, and guess what? Every single one of them agreed that there is a lack of women speakers out there!!! 🙄
I’ve been hitting this key, I mean, preaching that we need more women speakers, for the past 6 years, since I started with the AWE Summit in Zurich in 2014.
As a consequence of the AWE Summit I started training women to find their voices so they can own ANY stage. (in case you haven't been in any of our AWE Summit events, you can check them here)
I had the privilege to see many of “my ladies” shinning on stage, but not only that, thriving in their businesses and careers because, once they found their voices, once they learned how to get their message across they also learned how to exude more confidence, and position themselves as experts in their fields, moving their personal and professional lives to a next level.
Back to the interview with the bookers (by the way, if you don’t know what a “booker" is, in other words s/he is a person who books/hires speakers for events and companies trainings). 🌹
There were some serious golden nuggets that they shared that are worth mentioning.
For instance, Maria Franzoni, the booker from the UK, said blatantly, “… the problem is that speakers position themselves as speakers (only)…"
And she added, “…who needs a keynote right now? Nobody! … We need solutions, we need experts…(who can) help businesses to keep going to get out of this (Covid19 related) situation…”
And I LOVED hearing that because to me, being a Keynote speaker is fun, massage the speaker's ego (as s/he is the star of the event), has its purpose, however, to me, it has always been more important to get out there (on stage) not only with a message to impact, but, most importantly, with an executable call to action.
I leave you with this: “inspiration alone doesn’t move people into action!”
Every time you go in front of people to share something with them, in a way you are there telling (persuading) them that they “should trust you and embrace” what you are presenting. Therefore, as a speaker, presenter, trainer, what you really need to focus on is how you will influence (persuade) your audience to follow your thoughts and take action! Get it? 🌹
And THAT ladies and gentlemen, the market, the speaking market, all companies are IN NEED specially right now! They need people who can come to talk to their employees, to motivate them, to inspire them, but, above all, help them to take action towards a better place, whatever that place is within their context.
So, we have some work to do!
Every single one of the bookers agreed that there is not enough women out there doing the job. They also said that "unfortunately many women still believe they don't have something of value to say..." (jaw dropping here 😱 )
To conclude, let me give you some motivation, here are some facts:
Marketdata analysts project that the value of the professional speaking industry will grow at a 4.1% average annual pace, reaching $2.30 billion by 2025!!! 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱
Are you in?
I’ll give you a couple of days to digest. Let’s continue this conversation by then.
Tulia 🌹