As a coach and agent to speakers I’ve worked with up to 50 speakers at a time, but now work with a much smaller group and enjoy it much more. We work together at a grass-roots level and get a lot accomplished.  I try to keep my finger on the pulse of the speaking industry so I can ‘give wise counsel’ and there’s so much crap out there leading professional orators astray I don’t often make recommendations. I especially avoid the ‘how to make big bucks…’ series of hype that we’ve all fallen victim to at least once at some level or another. I do, however, highly recommend SpeakerNet News.

The best thing I can say about this simple, straight-forward newsletter is that it’s largely written by speakers, coaches, consultants and other professionals who are, like many of us, running their own one-man show. That means that what I get from this organic newsletter is practical advice from people who are living in the speaker’s world every day. What I don’t get is a bunch of hype from the speaking industry pitchmen who saw me comin’ a mile away and labeled me ‘sucker!’

This active network of speakers shares advice, resources and experieces on just about all things being a speaker – from powering up the laptop in the morning to depositing the checks before closing. And let me say it again… “it’s practical, usable stuff with no sales pitch!” This weekly flag in my inbox has at one time or another saved me time and money, anwered a burning question, delivered hours of research to my fingertips, hooked me up with an awesome resource, made me think it through, showed me another perspective or just outright saved the day!

Yes. Their weekly enews contains some ads, but they’re unobtrusive and sometimes even worth the look. And in an effort at full disclusure, yes, they have an affiliate program (that I’m in) that may allow you to earn a few extra bucks. But even without that, there always manages to be a gold nugget of information in every issue and you’ll find it well worth the 15 minute it takes to read. I bet you’ll even find yourself passing it on.

Here’s to better speaking!

PEACE.
Rick

PS. For a growing list of valuable (or not so valuable) resources of all kinds, check out my RESOURCES PAGE…