Join me in this fun, high-energy interview as Theo Androus asks me about productivity strategies for speakers. This interview is filled with ideas for anyone running their own business.
Pay special attention to the way Theo listens to the responses of his guests and creates questions based on their answers, a great demonstration of powerful listening techniques.
Voices of Experience (VOE) is an audio program for professional speakers produced by the National Speakers Association. Theo was the chair in 2013 and it remains my favorite year. The combination of his brilliant mind, great interviewing style, and clever questions always allows his guests to shine as they share their expertise.
In our fast and fun discussion we chat about:
- The difference between productivity strategies and time management
- The biggest time wasters for speakers
- Why it’s important to focus on business development while we travel
- How to make time in time for business development activities to grow your speaking practice
- Why we need to stop wasting time and spend time focusing on growing the business
- Techniques for speakers to be productive while travelling
- How to segment travel so you can focus on personal and professional development
- Reading materials to take on the road i.e. Speaker Magazine, books, journals.
- How to make time in time
- Tools for speakers to increase productivity
- Apps to keep you productive in your speaking business
- The power of analogue systems in a digital world
- Why it’s powerful to always carry a pen and paper in your pocket
- How to identify your top three not-negotiable priorities every day
- How to keep your to-do list organized
- How to avoid adding the wrong things to your to-do list
- Why we procrastinate and how to overcome it
- Why perfection kills productivity
- 15 minutes as the key to productivity
- Why you need a procrastination pal (not someone you procrastinate with!)
- Developing accountability partnerships
- How to write a book in just 15 minutes a day
- What to do in your down-time
- Why we need to schedule recovery and re-energizing time
- Ideas on how speakers can be more efficient in managing social media
- Why social media is a thought leadership strategy
- How to do a social media drive by
- Getting help with social media management without losing authenticity
- Surprise yourself by restricting social media time to a 15-minute drive by daily (no, not 15 hours… 15 minutes)
- Where do speakers need to delegate and what areas do they need to focus on themselves?
- Thought leaders have three focus areas: think, sell and deliver – outside of this is running our practice
- Ideas to outsource to a virtual assistant or business manager
- Why virtual assistants are a key for speaker’s productivity
- The importance of investing time to save time
- Leverage everything – do it once, sell it often. Explain it once, do it often
- How systems create freedom and make you feel more productive
- Systemize and templatize…everything
- Create an operations manual for your speaking practice and use Dropbox to share with your team
To listen to his other interviews from 2013, search by name and click here.
