The Referable Speaker: Your Guide to Building a Sustainable Speaking Career—No Fame Required

Stageside leads are a clear indicator of future success.

“When I program an event, I’m really looking for three anchor speakers. Speakers I can build the entire event around,” says event organizer Carol Walden. “I need one at the beginning, one at the end, and one somewhere in the middle,” she adds as we chat on the phone.

leads from people who’ve seen you speak are a clear sign you are delivering a referable speech.

Nothing is a better gauge of your future speaking success than the volume, quality, and consistent flow of stageside leads.

hires to fill seats.

Event organizers love to deliver an experience. They dream of surprising and delighting their audience, and their CEO, with an unexpected home run.

if you don’t need to read their bio or even their title to know who they are, they are worldly famous.

Before you’re famous, meeting planners buy your speech, your ideas, and then you—in that order. When you become famous, the inverse is true: event organizers buy you, your ideas, and then your speech.

when you make a speech entertaining, it becomes a performance.