IT’S YOUR BUSINESS
Advice for enterprising speakers
Supporting Roles
Ask 10 speakers for the job descriptions of their support staff, and you’ll ikely get 10 different answers. Some of us are part time; some are full
time. Some are employees, and others
are independent contractors. We may
telecommute as virtual assistants, or we
may work in the office or home of the
speaker we support. We have many different titles and duties. But regardless of
these differences, we all have one thing
in common: Our purpose is to give our
speakers the time and focus they need to
work on what they do best—speak!
When people learn where I work,
I’m often asked what I do in that
role. I answer, “It depends on the
day. Actually, no … It depends on the
moment in the day.” Because of the
nature of the business, speaker support
personnel often wear many hats on any
given day. We could be on the phone
pitching our speaker to a prospective
client one minute, updating marketing
materials another, and picking up the
dry cleaning the next.
Even though we all have vastly different job descriptions, there are some
fairly universal principles to follow. I
try to keep three main things in mind
to ensure my speaker, Laura Stack,
has what she needs. I call these focus
areas the 3 Cs: Communication,
Concentration and Consistency.
Concentration
Concentration is the ability
to focus on the task at hand.
Because you’ve communicated
with your speaker, you know
what you should be working
on. Now you must stick with
the task until it’s done. Certain tasks
don’t take a tremendous amount of
focus to complete, but much of what
we do requires absolute concentration to ensure accuracy. Without focus,
incorrect information could be entered
into eSpeakers, for example, and suddenly we’ve sent our speaker 20 miles
in the wrong direction on the way to a
speaking engagement. Set aside specific
times when you can truly focus to complete important, detailed tasks.
Communication
Communication always comes first in
our office. Without it, there is simply no
way to know what your priorities should
be. Depending on what’s happening right
Consistency
Consistency is creating and following
procedures for anything you do on a
regular basis. In our office, we have a
white notebook that contains written
instructions for frequent tasks. Having
consistent processes cuts down on mis-
takes and stress. Written procedures
also make it easy for another person to
jump in when someone takes a vacation
or leaves the office. Start creating a ref-
erence manual by making notes about
everything you do throughout the day
