Get your speaker business ready for 2025 – don’t wait.
The speaking world is evolving fast, and staying relevant and impactful is crucial. As 2025 approaches, now it’s time to reflect, recalibrate, and prepare for the year ahead, don’t wait for 2025 to arrive to make these changes and updates.
With many years of experience in the industry, I’ve seen speaking trends come and go, but one thing remains true: preparation and adaptability are key to success. Remember, anyone can be successful as a speaker for a year, to be successful for decades, you have to do what others don’t do. And as I always say, eighty percent of your success as a speaker will come from what you do off the stage, so do it incredibly well.
Here are my top 10 key tasks to do right now to get your speaker business ready for 2025:
1. Refresh Your Core Message (and your primary target market)
It’s easy for our core messages to get a bit stale. Review what you’re speaking about – does it still resonate with today’s audiences? The world is changing rapidly, and so should our narratives. At the same time do you know who your primary target market is? Has it changed? Do you need to refine it for 2025? Being broad and vague will no longer cut it.
2. Upgrade Your Speaker Kit
Take a hard look at your speaker kit, your bio, website, videos, and testimonials. Are they up to date and compelling? Your kit needs to be impressive, contemporary and relevant to stand out in 2025. Don’t wait till January 2025 to update it – do it now. And if you just make it all about you, odds on it will be the same as every other speaker kit, which means it will be beige and lost in the crowd of same/same.
3. Invest in New Technology
The way we deliver presentations has evolved with tech advancements. From AI-powered tools to interactive platforms, make sure you’re familiar with the tech that can elevate your speaking engagements. This is particularly relevant for anyone doing virtual presentations – tech can help to make an average presentation deeply interactive and engaging.
4. Revisit Your Fees
Are you charging what you’re truly worth in your speaker business? As a speaker, your expertise and experience grow over time, so your fees should reflect that. Don’t be afraid to adjust your rates in line with your value.
5. Be Crystal Clear on Your Compelling Competitive Advantage
Every year more speakers are appearing out of the woodwork. It’s an appealing business but of course, this means that it’s also hugely competitive. If you can’t make a case for why someone should book you as opposed to your competitors, you probably won’t get booked. So what is your compelling competitive advantage going to be for prospective clients in 2025?
6. Create Extraordinary Content
Explore new ways to share your expertise beyond just the stage. Writing a book, creating online courses, or launching a podcast can help expand your influence and reach more people. We have to constantly look for ways to showcase what makes us different as opposed to what makes us the same when it comes to marketing ourselves as speakers.
7. Hone Your Storytelling Skills
Storytelling remains one of the most powerful tools in a speaker’s toolkit. Refine your stories and ensure they are aligned with today’s realities, inspiring your audience to take action. Even more importantly, master the craft of storytelling – something that is easy to say but in all likelihood will take a lifetime.
8. Build a Stronger Network
Relationships are everything in the speaking world. Make 2025 the year you strengthen your connections with event organisers, other speakers, and key players in your industry. What’s your plan to do this in the year ahead?
9. Prioritise Wellbeing
As speakers, we often focus on delivering for others but forget to look after ourselves. Ensure you’re physically, mentally, and emotionally prepared for the busy year ahead. A healthy speaker is an effective speaker.
10. Get Clear on Your Goals
Now I know I could have started with this, but I like it to go last here. Use it to stress test everything else. What do you want to achieve as a speaker in 2025? Whether it’s speaking on bigger stages, reaching new audiences, or mastering a specific aspect of your craft, having clear goals will guide your actions throughout the year.
Remember, eighty percent of your success as a speaker will come from the things you do off stage – so do these things better than anyone else and your speaker dance card will be bursting at the seams.
– Andrew Griffiths, Founder of Speaker School
