Hey there Modern Authors,

Last week, I was workshopping keynote ideas with one of our authors.

She'd clearly put in the work.
The slides looked polished.
The stories were good.
The structure made sense.

About twenty minutes in, I stopped her.

"Who's buying this talk?"

She looked at me for a second and said...
​"Well... leaders."

I smiled.
"Which leaders?"

Another pause.
"Companies?"

"Which companies?"
Silence.

Here's what struck me.

She didn't have a speaking problem.
She had a bookability problem.

And I think that's where most aspiring speakers get stuck.

They spend months perfecting a keynote before they've answered a much simpler question:

Why would someone book this in the first place?

That's a completely different problem.

And honestly...
It's the more important one.

Stop Trying to Become a Better Speaker

This might sound strange coming from someone who works with so many authors who eventually become speakers.

But I don't think your first goal should be becoming a better speaker.

I think your goal should be becoming easier to book.

Those aren't the same thing.

Most people imagine speaking works like this:

Become a better speaker.

↓

Get booked more often.

↓

Create more opportunities.

I actually think it works the other way around.

Become easier to book.

↓

Get on more stages.

↓

Become a much better speaker.

↓

Create more opportunities.

You don't become a great keynote speaker sitting in your office polishing slides.

You become one because you keep getting invited back.

The stage teaches you things rehearsal never can.

But first...
You have to earn the invitation.

Most Authors Are Building the Wrong Talk

Every week I hear some version of this:

"My keynote is about leadership."
"My keynote is about resilience."
"My keynote is about communication."
"My keynote is about AI."

That's fine.

So are 10,000 other keynotes.

The problem isn't that those topics aren't important.

The problem is that they're impossible to buy.

Conference organizers don't wake up saying,
​"We need another resilience speaker."

They're thinking:

"Attendance is down."
"Our managers are burning out."
"Our sales kickoff needs energy."
"We have to help our leaders navigate change."

They're buying solutions.

Not subjects.

That's why I encourage every author to stop asking:

And start asking:

That one shift changes everything.

Your Talk Needs a Buyer, Not Just an Audience

One of the biggest mistakes I see is confusing the audience with the buyer.

Your audience might be physicians.
Your buyer might be the hospital system.

Your audience might be sales managers.
Your buyer might be the VP of Sales.

Your audience might be entrepreneurs.
Your buyer might be the chamber of commerce.

Those are very different people.

One listens.
One writes the check.

The strongest talks make both people feel like they won.

I Use Five Tests Before We Ever Talk About Slides

When an author shares a keynote idea with me, I honestly don't care about the slides.

Not yet.

First I run it through five filters.

1. The "Ooh" Test

When I hear the title...

Do I instinctively think,

"Ooh... I'd go hear that."

Not...
"That sounds important."

Those are different reactions.

"Building Resilient Organizations."
Important.

"The Hidden Reason Your Attempts to Build Resilience Are Burning Out Your Team."
Now I'm curious.

Curiosity gets booked.

2. The Buyer Test

Can I immediately picture someone saying,

"Our people need to hear this."

If I can't imagine the buyer...

The keynote probably isn't ready.

3. The Specificity Test

Who exactly is this for?

"Leaders."

No.

First-time managers?
Healthcare executives?
Founders scaling past fifty employees?
Senior HR leaders?

Specificity doesn't shrink your market.

It makes people recognize themselves.

4. The Memory Test

What's the one sentence people tell their spouse tonight?

That's your keynote.

Not Slide 42.

Not your biography.

The sentence.

If people leave saying,

"Eric said this fascinating thing about..."

You win.

5. The Expansion Test

Does this naturally make people want more?

The book.
The newsletter.
The workshop.
The assessment.
The consulting.

A keynote shouldn't be a dead end.

It should be the first chapter in a much longer relationship.

The Goal Isn't to Teach Everything You Know

This is probably the biggest shift I've made over the past few years.

When I first started speaking, I wanted people to leave thinking,

"Wow... he knows a lot."

Now I want something completely different.

I want them thinking,

"I need more of this."

Those are not the same outcome.

You're not trying to demonstrate everything you know.

You're trying to make people desperately interested in what you know.

Leave them wanting the book.
Wanting the workshop.
Wanting the conversation.
Wanting to keep learning.

That's a much more powerful keynote.

Build a Foot-in-the-Door Talk

Here's another idea I've been thinking about.

I don't actually want you to build a signature keynote.

Not yet.

I want you to build a foot-in-the-door talk.

A talk that's easy to say yes to.
A talk that gets you invited into organizations.
A talk that creates testimonials.
Creates clips.
Creates referrals.
Creates confidence.
Creates opportunities to refine your framework.

Your first keynote isn't supposed to make you $20,000.

It's supposed to get you invited back.

Because something interesting happens after you've delivered the same talk twenty times.

The stories get better.

The framework gets sharper.

The audience teaches you what they care about.

That's when the talk starts becoming your signature.

Your signature keynote isn't designed in isolation.

It's discovered through repetition.

One Talk Can Build an Entire Business

This is why I love speaking so much for Modern Authors.

One great keynote doesn't just create one event.

It creates an ecosystem.

Keynote.

↓

Book.

↓

Newsletter.

↓

Assessment.

↓

Workshop.

↓

Consulting.

↓

Advisory work.

The keynote isn't the product.

It's the front door.

That's why we've spent the past several weeks building your Modern Author Identity.

Identity.
Category.
Framework.
Assessment.
Consulting.

Now the keynote becomes the live expression of all of it.

Everything starts reinforcing everything else.

That's leverage.

Don't Chase More Talks

Build One Better Talk

I know it's tempting.

The first keynote goes well.

Someone asks what else you speak about.

So you build another presentation.
And another.
And another.

Pretty soon you have six average talks.

I'd rather you have one unforgettable one.

Keep improving it.

Keep sharpening the framework.

Keep replacing good stories with better ones.

Keep discovering where audiences lean in.

Because recognition isn't built through variety.

It's built through consistency.

People remember the person associated with one unforgettable idea.

Not twelve pretty good ones.

One Question

Before you open PowerPoint...

Before you redesign another slide...

Before you create another keynote...

Ask yourself this:

If someone heard my talk today...

What would they tell their spouse about it tonight?

Because talks don't spread.

Ideas do.

And the authors creating the biggest opportunities aren't necessarily the best speakers.

They're the easiest speakers to book...

Because they've made one great idea impossible to ignore.

Happy writing, my friends.

And here's to building a talk that opens doors long before you walk through them.

Eric