Sally Koering Zimney explains what separates professional speakers from trainers: they see themselves as thought leaders whose message shapes how people understand the world, and they monetize their influence through paid keynotes and free workshops that feed into paid programs.
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First characteristic of going pro is that this person takes the idea of themselves as a thought leader seriously, right? You don't just have a message, but you believe that that message can shape the world, that it has a role to play in the way people understand themselves, the world around them, each other. Like, you believe that you yourself have the ability to shape the way people understand themselves in the world. That is thought leadership. If you don't, you might just, you know, be a trainer, and that's awesome. But a pro speaker understands the power of their voice and they use it. The next thing is pretty simple. You get paid. You get paid. And you're leveraging the power of speaking in your business for leads and revenue. Both things, leads and revenue. The cool thing is I think it counts a lot if you are a lead generating speaker that ultimately where speaking is driving other parts of your business. For example, you do, you leverage speaking to do free workshops online that then pull people into your programs. Fantastic. You understand that what you're doing, your voice, your ideas are changing the way people understand themselves and the actions that they take. Hey, thought leadership check. And ultimately you're leveraging speaking to get paid. Most people think of a pro speaker as somebody who has to get paid on stage as a keynoter. That's awesome too, but there's a lot of different ways to do this.
