Even though right now, the majority of our income is from our trainings for schools, we’ve always believed that speaking was only a piece of the bigger goal of solving student apathy. We speak, but we aren’t speakers. In fact, we think there are speakers out there like, Dave Coleman, who are hands down better speakers than us. He’s mastered the art.
We consider ourselves somewhat decent cooks with a great set of ingredients (our content) to work with. Schools seem to appreciate it as we’ve been named Speaker of the Year and rebooked many times by the same schools.
But we believe speaking alone doesn’t solve the issue. Thus we developed Red Rover**, The SA Blog, The (soon to be) SL Blog, The (Wiki) Kitchen**, and Integrated Partners** so we can work with schools on a deeper level throughout the year.
Those who’ve met us and talked with us know we are really committed and a one hour or one day training is only one piece of the solution.
I hope our work not only does good for schools, but I would like to see it have an impact on the whole college speaking market. I’ve heard too often from schools about a speaker they hired only to be disappointed. I know many speakers follow this blog so this is for you. What issue do you solve? What real value do you deliver? Why are you doing what you do? What is your bigger vision?
Sorry to be on my soapbox but school budgets are tight, speakers generally are the most expensive program they book, so let’s be honest with ourselves and make sure that what we deliver matches what we ask for.
