Ever Made This Mistake?
July 21st, 2022 by Diane Conklin under Business - General, Business Strategy. No Comments.
We all make mistakes.
We all have lapses in judgement.
We all sometimes justify things and do things we don’t usually do…
We all do things we know better than.
I don’t know about you but when I justify and do something I typically don’t, it means I have to relearn a lesson again.
In other words, it doesn’t turn out the way I wanted it too.
It happened recently and I colleague, and friend gently reminded me that I knew better.
Thank goodness for good friends – in business and outside of it.
The short version is I agreed to speak for a new organization at an event in Atlanta and after getting approval for the topic, I submitted everything they asked for well in advance.
My slide deck for the presentation was submitted more than a month prior to the date and 2 full weeks before the deadline.
I was scheduled to speak at 2:50pm in downtown Atlanta on a Friday.
I had showered, dressed, and put my make-up and was almost ready to head downtown when I looked at my email to see a message from the event coordinator at 11am that said…
“I am giving you as early notice as I can. We have had a fantastic conference of Advanced Marketing topics for our audience of Senior Marketing Professionals.
As your presentation is not quite a fit, we have decided that unfortunately, you are unable to speak today at our Atlanta event. We have sorted an alternative session for the Agenda as a Implementation Commitment Session in our Wrap-Up.
If you do show up onsite, you are certainly welcome to join complimentary as an Attendee.
We sincerely apologize for the convenience and short notice.
Thanks for your understanding for our decision.”
That’s right…
Four hours before I’m scheduled to speak, they cancelled me.
They approved my topic (which was Direct Response Marketing Strategies – a topic I can fit for Any audience at Any level) and then decided it wasn’t a fit. It was all very baffling to me.
In fairness to them I must tell you they did call the office the night before (at like 8:30pm) but didn’t leave a voicemail. And they didn’t call my cell (which they had).
Who checks their caller ID on their office phone if there isn’t a voicemail? Nobody I know…
Here are the lessons learned…
- Paid speaking gigs or speak to sell only. No unpaid speaking!
(Even if the event is in your hometown and you think there might be other opportunities or business in the room.) - There always has to be a written agreement of some kind.
- If you’re speaking for a new organization, you don’t know anything about, do some research and due diligence.
- And… just for fun! Don’t be surprised by Anything Anymore!
If you’ve read this far and you’re saying to yourself something doesn’t add up here… this doesn’t make sense, I agree.
I’ve been speaking for 30 years. I’ve been asked back to speak for companies who never have a speaker back more than once. I’m always one of the top 3 speakers at events that ask for speaker reviews.
I’ve never seen anything like this or experienced anything like this before.
I could go on and on, but I won’t.
Do you have a crazy speaker story?
To Your Success –
