219. 5 ways to stop AI stealing your speaking gig

AI is coming for your speaking gig! This episode outlines 5 ways to stop it.

1. Be Original. 

2. Step into Thought-Leadership. 

3. Lean into your Story.  

4. Create an audience Experience.

5. Master your Voice.

Hello hello, you might have seen on my socials I’ve been in BALI!

Partly to celebrate my 39th birthday and partly to attend the Global Speakers Summit.

That’s where I was at the Hilton in Nusa Dua, when a monkey jumped onto my balcony while I was out there and tried to get in the room. It was hissing at me and I thought it was going to jump on me… it didn’t luckily, but I discovered later you shouldn’t look in their little eyes because they take that as a sign of aggression – there was the problem. Would’ve been nice to know.

The power of information right.

How often do we do the best we can in a situation just because we don’t know any better.

At the Global Speakers Summit I took away a lot of information especially around AI.

As speakers we don’t want to be face to face with a monkey and hope for the best. We want to be equipped with the information to work with Artifical Intelligence and avoid being attacked.

AI is here. And one of the quotes from Dr Mark Van Rijmenam …. Was there will be 2 types of businesses in the future. Those that adopt AI and those that don’t exist.

And there were lots of great ideas shared around how to incorporate AI into your business, let me know if you’d like an episode on that. Maybe I can persuade Dr Mark to come on the show.

This episode is about positioning yourself as a speaker now and into the future.

AI is coming for your speaking gig – here are 5 ways to stop it.

All these came out of the Global Speakers Summit.

SO number ONE – You have to BE ORIGINAL.

You have to bring something that can’t be chat GPT’d.

Speakers who are just subject matter experts, information regurgitators won’t be needed. Using AI you can create an avatar to give a keynote on a particular topic in a fraction of the time and into the future a fraction of the cost. Without any room for human error, like illness or flight delays or mental blocks on the stage.

So HOW are you original?

Are your frameworks your own?

Do you have an original method?

And this leads to point 2 which is – step into THOUGHT LEADERSHIP.

What is your unique take on your topic? How do you move the content in your field forward? How do you bring various pieces of information together? What’s your OPINION?

If you just have information it’s not enough. You need to also have inspiration.

Pioneering the way.

The third way to stop AI stealing your speaking gig is to lean into your story.

NOBODY else should be able to do your speech because it contains experiences that are yours only and only yours to tell.

AI cannot replace the depths of your human story on stage.

And it’s important that they ARE YOUR story. There was an amazing speaker at the summit who shared a story about a little boy putting a puzzle together. It’s a great story, but he passed it off as being his own son, and that can be damaging for your credibility. The man next to me got up and walked out, and sure enough a quick google search showed dozens of hits “The little boy who put the world back together” you can search it if you’re interested.

Use personal stories that are real. That can only be told by you.

Number four – create an experience on stage.

The days of standing on stage and just speaking are numbered.

Audiences can get that virtually, companies can get that faster and cheaper. Keynote Speakers via Holograms are coming down in price. It’s true it’s possible to beam a person onto any stage in the world.

So what can you do to highlight the LIVE nature of your talk? What can you do that your hologram can’t?

There was a great example of this at the Global Speakers Summit with a speaker named DAVID GOMEZ. His talk was titled Be Different or Be Gone and he marched through the audience in a warrior costume wielding a sword. It was awesome. There was music, there was drama, it was an interactive 3d experience.

Some speakers used props on the tables, movement like dancing, of course in my talks there’s always some interactive voice exercises, and all these points have encouraged me to look at all these elements in my own speaking and coaching.

The stand on stage and speak speaker is on the way out.

HOW can you ignite the senses of your audience? What can they hear, taste, touch, see, so when they walk out they don’t remember hearing a speaker, they remember a visceral experience.

And finally number 5 - to stop AI stealing your speaking gig, you need to become the master of your VOICE.

Your voice is as unique as your fingerprint.

Can AI steal your voice? Is your voice your own? These are very good questions I answer in my own keynote.

Spoiler alert.

Your voice is the organ of your soul.

It is loaded and coded with intergenerational messages.

Your voice holds the song of your grandmother, the pain of your father, it’s auditory DNA that you have the power to heal and transform and gift to another.

Your voice holds codes AI will never have, because your voice is uniquely human.

So as a speaker you need to know how to access the range in your voice, you need to know how to use your voice as an energetic channel for the emotions to ride out on your words.

On October 21 I’m hosting a free masterclass called How to Channel your speaking magic and I’ll share some of these techniques. I’ll put the registration link in the show notes.

If your voice is robotic and disconnected and infantile AI will run rings around you. You do not want AI to generate a voice more compelling than your own. Hell no.

We need to hear human voices we need to connect with human stories we need to have human experiences. And if you deliver on that, with original thought-leadership content. Not only will you stave off AI stealing your speaking gig, you will become more in-demand and more valuable as a speaker.

And if this is something you’re serious about, join Soul Speakers or get in touch to apply for my 12 month Soul Speakers Advanced program.

Because there is no excuse to be like me on the balcony staring the AI monkey in the eyes, just waiting to be attacked. You now have the information. AI is coming whether you want it or not, are you ready?