I Speak Life Coaching Speaker Assessment

I Speak Life Coaching: Speaker Assessment Tool

Please answer these assessment questions. Your answers may be as long as you desire.

  • Initial Assessment Questions

  • (You might also call these your vision, or objectives. We are not concerned with the rules of “goal setting”. We are trying to understand better, where you want your speaking career to go.)

  • 36. Please answer each of the following questions only if you are comfortable.

  • Challenges, Background, Goals, Tactics and Concerns

    Please answer the following question as comfortably as you can.

  • Your Primary Goals in the Speaking Industry

  • What are your income goals? Both quantity and source (i.e., speaking vs. product)
  • What are your time goals? How much time each week on your business? How much time not on your business?
  • What topics do you wish to address as a speaker?
  • What effects do you want your work to achieve?

  • Five Major Challenges, Weaknesses or Concerns About Your Progress in the Speaking Industry

    List the major Challenge, Weakness or Concerns below and answer the follow-up questions per Challenge, Weakness or Concern.

  • Typical Support Components of a Speaker Business

  • 1. Structured Message

    Professional Speaking is not just talking. Highly successful speakers don’t just have a message, they have a structured message. The message’s parts all fit together as an infrastructure to support the primary point and theme.

    My process assists speakers by helping them to identify their unique message that only they can deliver. It helps them to structure their message to maximize its effect. This structured message is a message that audiences and organizations will pay for. Developing your unique structure is key.

    How structured is your message?

    (Rate on a  scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest)

  • 2. Branding

    Highly successful speakers have a defined and developed brand, either themselves or their message … or both. People know this brand and connect that brand to the speaker and to the message.

    For example, if we say “Dr. Phil” you immediately know we are talking about “Phil McGraw”. This is a personal brand.

    Similarly, if we say “Seven Habits”, we immediately know who we are talking about. This is a message brand.

    Frequently, professional speakers have branded their message using two or three words. This brands the message, the content. It creates a message brand. These two words uniquely identify their message within the market. “Seven Habits” and “Emotional Intelligence” are examples you probably know.

    Do you have a personal brand, a message brand or both, and what art they? How well is your message branding (as it applies to speaking)?

    (Rate on a  scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest)

  • 3. Digital Products

    Highly successful speakers who also conduct seminars and workshops have digital products that are integrated with and reinforce their message and their message’s structure.

    Such products not only assist the “classroom work”. They remain with the students after the classroom work is completed, serving not only as a content memory aid, but also as a long term marketing tool. Properly constructed they feature marketing that call attention to them, not just for the students, but for everyone who sees them. In addition, highly intentional speakers make sure that key decision makers also receive copies. For an in-company seminar, this could include attendee’s managers and HR.

    For pricing purposes, some speakers price seminars and workshops with a base price, plus an incremental “per-student” price that includes the digital materials. In some situations, this permits the client to spread the seminar costs into two different cost categories, making it easier to sell.


    Do you teach seminars or workshops? Do you provide digital content? If you do, how well developed is that content?

    (Rate on a  scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest)

  • 4. Books

    Highly successful speakers have either written a book or been a significant figure in the news. Since writing a book is the easier of the two, most highly successful speakers have written a book that relates to and reinforces their message.

    Unlike the educational market, such books do not need to be a totally comprehensive approach to a topic. In fact, many highly successful books are very short (at least, by text book standards). Today’s market is stretched for time and is looking for much shorter reads: shorter, faster to the point. (These are sometimes called “airplane reads”.)

    In addition, the possibility of high quality self publishing is a much bigger factor today. First, advances in printing technology allows the same book manufacturers used by the large publishing houses to working with small-quantity, self-publishing authors. Second, advances in typesetting technology allows desktop computers to prepare print-ready material.

    Have you written/published any books? How well do your books relate to your message?
    (Rate on a  scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest)

  • 5. Platform Skills

    One measure of a speaker is “platform skills”. These are the skills of presentation … the ability to use voice, gesture, and positioning on the stage … the skills of theatre.

    Regardless of what else you sell, your main product as a speaker is your platform performance. It is your ability to deliver the speech in a memorable way. As a speaker your speech is your product.

    Platform skills alone will not make a good speech. However, the lack of effective platform skills can destroy a speech, even a speech full of valuable content.

    How would you rate your platform skills?

    (Rate on a  scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest)

  • 6. Keynote Speech

    Another measure of a speaker is the overall impact of the keynote speech on the audience.

    The role of the keynote speaker is to create an experience. The speaker must feel the speech so the audience will also feel it.

    This is one of the key factors which meeting planners look for. They want content for sure. But content is not enough. They want high value content, delivered with an energy that resonates with the audience for effect.

    Do you have a keynote speech? If you do, how would you rate your keynote speech?
    (Rate on a  scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest)

  • 7. Physical Products

    Many speakers sell products in addition to their speaking. A few speakers actually speak for free and generate all their revenue through product sales.

    Products … whether or not to sell them … what to sell… and how to sell are critical decisions for today’s speaker.

    Products can be bundled with the speech to help close the sale? They can also be sold individually after the presentation. Whether bundled or sold separately they provide a way for the audience to take you home, to continue the experience of your speech. They provide a way to enhance the effect of the speech, for example by adding additional information or by presenting it in a different modality. And they provide a way to substitute for the speech for individuals who cannot hear you speak, perhaps just because of scheduling conflicts. Sometimes called “money in the mailbox” product sales which occur separate from events provide a true second-line of income.

    Do you have a products strategy? What products do you currently sell, and why? And what products would you like to sell, and why?
    (Rate on a  scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest)

  • 8. Marketing Plan & System

    Most highly successful speakers don’t just market. Their marketing is not ad-hoc. They have an intentional marketing plan and a defined, operational marketing system.

    There are exceptions. Past presidents. Instagram Stars. Athletes. Inventors of revolutionary products. But the others intentionally market.

    In addition to such proactive marketing action, these speakers are also in continual reevaluation of their plans. While their speeches may be about universal truths, their marketing approaches must adapt and adjust to the changing market conditions. Such plans and systems continually evolve.

    How would you rate your marketing plan and marketing system?
    (Rate on a  scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest)

  • 9. Demo Videos


    More advanced markets and higher fee venues typically require a demo video.

    What many speakers do not realize is that such videos are used as much to disqualify speakers as to qualify them. Meeting planners look for the behaviors, styles and temperaments which disqualify a speaker for their audience as a way of winnowing the possibilities, in order to select the speaker(s) actually desired. For this reason it is important that a demo video show energy immediately.


    Also, while “online” video is frequently used to identify possible speakers, and can be a very valuable addition to a speaker’s website, seasoned meeting planners will frequently request the video, not to watch the marketing front-end, but to select and watch random samples of a full speech. As one meeting planner explained at an NSA Convention, some videos are like well crafted movie promos. These videos show the entire 3 minutes of value from the speech … there is nothing else. Random sampling of the whole speech allows them to avoid this.


    Do you have a demo video? How would you rate your demo video?
    (Rate on a  scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest)

  • 10. Printed Marketing Collateral

    Although the internet is a great tool for marketing, speakers still need printed marketing materials.

    Even though meeting planners use websites to identify potential speakers, actual decisions are frequently made by committees. Simple logistics means that reviewing paper in hand is more effective than trying to huddle around a terminal, particularly in group meetings.

    Given that paper in hand is a requirement, one highly effective way of leveraging this is to use tools like PDF files which allow control, not just of content, but also of exact format. This double-duty approach allows online review for convenience, but also replication of the look and feel.

    Finally, the use of “printable” files eliminates the need to print and stock paper copies. Instead, such copies can be printed on demand, either by the speaker for mailing, or by the potential customer for self-use.

    How would you rate your printed marketing collateral?
    (Rate on a  scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest)

  • 11. Website

    Speakers today must have a website. This website must show them as a dynamic presenter who can impact an audience.


    Before the Internet, limited printed material served to introduce the speaker. The introduction of the Internet, together with the widespread adoption of individual desktop computers, has changed the requirements.

    It is similar to the situation that existed 10 years ago: a professional without a fax number on his business card wasn’t viewed as “real”. Today, a speaker without a website is not viewed as “real”.


    In addition to just having a website, the website must reflect certain “best practices”. For example, it needs excellent navigation to enable the visitor to easily find what he is looking for. There must be excellent photos, maybe even a “gallery” of photos which both show the speaker and also provide the meeting planner photos to use on promotional materials. There must be “requirement” information. For example, if you require a piano for your speeches, this is important for organizations to know. 


    Finally, if you already have an existing website, you may need a “separate”, but cross-linked, website for your speaking to allow you to most effectively display your speaking.

    How would you rate your website as it relates to your speaking business?
    (Rate on a  scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest)

  • Final Steps

  • The currently available dates on Dr. Jason’s calendar. Deposits are required to hold these dates. Dates are booked in priority of deposits received.

  • Proposal and Next Telephone Appointment

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