Amputate the Need to Follow the Crowd: Building Authentic Networks for Speaking Success

Thanks again, Tom.

You know, I think the two things I would say, the two tips is a strong network of speakers or masterminders or NSAers that can help you in the tough times.

And then secondly, is get back to the basics.

Stay on the wall.

Don't go chasing after squirrels.

Yes, absolutely.

So let's look at that first tip.

Let's dive in here.

And of course, you're talking to me.

That's my topic, right? I talk about the fact that human interaction, what I call HI, is what we need more than ever right now.

So you're saying have a strong network with speakers, with clients, with people in industry, et cetera.

So we all know that, right? We're a social group, us professional speakers.

But sometimes people forget.

We get up in our own head.

We're And we don't cultivate those relationships.

So what do you mean when you say, hey, have a great network? What are you talking about when you say that?

When I say that, I'm really talking about this world that has elevated us and quickened us so fast that we're holding on in this AI gen world.

And so people are beginning to phone it in.

We have speak that's out there that is now AI centric and everybody sounds the same because we're all using the same prompts to get the thing done that we should be doing ourselves.

And so we have this generic that's out there in the marketplace.

And I believe that we, the more AI we go, the more authentic I have to become or What is it? You know, in a, what's, what's that movie? The Will Smith, I robot, right? So the more analog I have to become, because I don't want to be lumped in all of that flop that's out there.

And the conversations that I'm having right now with either Speaker Bureau agents or planners or production folks is they're really looking for that individual who is not phoning it in because they can tell on stage.

They can tell that they're a mile wide and inch deep because they got their information on chat or Claude or something and then try to – piece it together with their content.

And that's what I mean by it.

We need to get back to, you know, a strong network of speakers to help us elevate our conversations.