Speaker - December 2017

SPE A K IN G?

Start by Asking Future-Focused Questions

nowing the future in ancient times was pretty straightforward. You traveled to the Delphic shrine on Mount Parnassus, made an offering, and waited to hear your fate from the mysterious Pythia, the High Priestess of Apollo. The equivalent today might be a visit to a psychic who spreads out a deck of tarot cards on the table before you.

Either way, the accuracy of the predictions are
… well, chancy at best. “Why bother thinking about
tomorrow?” you might say. “Take life one day at a
time. Nobody knows what the future will bring.”
Unfortunately, as professional speakers and
entrepreneurs, we don’t have the option of sitting
back and letting the future come to us. What worked
in our industry 20 years ago is not working now. And
what’s working now won’t cut it tomorrow. It’s our
responsibility to understand, as much as possible,
what is coming next. Otherwise, we risk playing
catch-up again and again.

Take two tradition-bound industries that have been rocked by change in the past decade.

¢ In higher education, the rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has enabled students around the world to take ownership of their own learning, and opened the entrepreneurial door to professors who can successfully adapt to this new kind of delivery.

¢ In 2006, the Metropolitan Opera introduced live high-definition broadcasts in theaters across the country. Singers and directors who embraced the dramatic camera shots and close-ups of HD have flourished and discovered new ways of sharing their art.

ARE YOU FUTURE-FOCUSED?

Professional speakers shift to future-focused by paying attention to three critical relationships:

1. Clients: How is their world changing? What worries them, and where do they see opportunity? Do you know who their bleeding-edge thinkers are? What are they talking about?

2. Buyers: Who is going to buy our expertise in the future? What kind of relationship will professional

When they’re not organizing Winter Conference 2018, S YLVIE DI GIUSTO and BEN WOLFF are leaders of the NSA-New York City chapter as president-elect and immediate past-president.

More than anything else, they love their city and will happily take you to their favorite places (New York Harbor and Central Park) when you visit. Learn more about them at executive-image-consulting.com and bwolff.com.