Peter Winick explains which metrics actually matter for speakers and thought leaders. Most track the wrong KPIs: he shows why speaking more isn't the goal, and what to measure instead—fee growth, business relationships, audience quality, and how long people engage with your content.
Hi, this is Peter Winick. I'm the founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage. You've probably heard this tired business expression passed around the conference table time and time again: if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. It's an old maxim, but it's getting a lot of play in our data-driven, analytics-obsessed world. But here's the real challenge for thought leaders, keynote speakers, and authors. You must measure the right thing or you'll manage the wrong thing. In our experience, there are 2 types of speakers: those who want to speak more and those who want to speak less. The 2 have a lot more in common than you might think. Both want to run successful businesses, both want to be profitable, and both want to be satisfied with their work. But they differ on one important scale: the one they're using to measure success. If you fall into the first camp, You want more opportunities to speak, you want more engagements, and more opportunities to share your content. Your key performance indicators, KPIs, are easy to define: how many events you speak at or how rapidly your fees are growing. But there are other less obvious KPIs that you'll need to evaluate. Are you growing important business relationships? Have you broken into the Fortune 500? Are you recognized in the media? Are you speaking to the right audience? It's essential to evaluate all of these things frequently. Take a moment and give yourself a grade on your recent performance. Be honest. Are you an A student? Is your website traffic growing? Are you pulling higher in search results? Is your follower base growing across multiple social media platforms? If you're in the second bracket of thought leaders, you want to speak less. You're tired of constant travel and you're looking for a way to run a successful business without it relying solely on your presence. If that's you, then you have to face a tougher challenge. Maybe you've historically delivered a workshop or a training seminar or offered in-person coaching solutions. Your business growth is bottlenecked by your time. You're the product and there's only one you. No matter where you are as a speaker, your KPIs can be measured. What's the quality of each customer interaction with your content? How much time do they spend interacting? Does that help recruit a larger customer base for your training solutions? These are all critical metrics for growth and continued success, and if it can be measured, it can be managed. Maybe your next step is a transition to digital products. Those can be easily accessed by new customers as well as your existing clients. Creating a video series or digital training platform can diversify your product offering and keep your business growing. Maybe it's time to license your content to a wider audience and spread your reach. Whatever your needs, Thought Leadership Leverage has the expertise to take you and your content to the next level and manage it for success.
