Thom Singer does a lot of things right.
He’s author of a lot of books. He’s a professional and business speaker who is nichifying (I made that word up – it’s a luxury of being a blogger :p) himself as a CONFERENCE SPEAKER.
How brilliant is that. There are tons of speakers out there and the successful ones can easily identify and differentiate themselves. I’ve never heard of someone who specializes in making sure a conference goes well, and attendees really get a lot out of it.
Thom Singer is the guy who you need to speak at your conference… that’s the brand he’s creating.
Okay – now here’s the brilliant part. Seriously brilliant.
Thom can get up on the highest building in Austin and say “I’m your speaker – hire me!” He can do it on social media and other places… he’d be crazy to do so…
Why?
The message is ALL WRONG.
When people hire the speaker they aren’t just hiring the person who has the loudest voice… they need to hire THE EXPERT. Maybe even the THOUGH LEADER, if the thought leader isn’t a nut-job.
Here’s what Thom is doing that is crazy brilliant – he’s establishing his subject matter expertise and thought leadership in a series of 10 posts (you can write 10 posts, can’t you??) that is — and this is key — directly communicating to the meeting planner (think: hiring manager). This is the person who will make the decision on who to bring in.
In these ten posts Thom proves that he’s the guy…. not by saying how great he is, but by sharing his subject matter expertise and thought leadership.
After reading through these posts how could a meeting planner not realize that Thom is going to “get the job done!” That is, he’s going to bring excitement and success and empowerment to each attendee.
Here are the posts in the series:
Maximize Your Conference (Part 1 of 10) “Know Your Purpose“
Maximize Your Conference (Part 2 of 10) “Be Present“
Maximize Your Conference (Part 3 of 10) “Have A Plan“
Maximize Your Conference (Part 4 of 10) “Your Blackberry or iPhone is Not Your Friend“
Maximize Your Conference (Part 5 of 10) “Visit The Trade Show and Meet The Vendors“
Maximize Your Conference (Part 6 of 10) “Do Not Hang Out With Your Co-Workers“
Maximize Your Conference (Part 7 of 10) – “Use Social Media“
Maximize Your Conference (Part 8 of 10) “Give Feedback To The Organizers“
Maximize Your Conference (Part 9 of 10) – “Be A Connector“
Maximize Your Conference (Part 10 of 10) – “Know Before You Go”
I love it.
The lesson here is talk to your purchaser/influencer. Don’t tell them how great you are, show them.
These posts show more of Thom Singer’s breadth and depth as a conference speaker/expert. And clearly, if you bring him in to speak, he’s going to partner with you to make sure the audience gets tons of value out of the entire conference, not just a one our keynote.
How do you apply this to your situation? If you can’t figure it out, read the next two blog posts…
Great Post Jason and an excellent example as well in Thom Singer!