Successful public speaking is a combination of the right person, the right audience, and the right message.  Timeliness is essential.  Some speakers persist in presenting their messages in spite of missing the audience – and the times.  The result is almost always the same:  few bookings. 

Let’s look at three successful examples to see how this concept works in practice. 

David Meerman Scott (http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/) is an extraordinary speaker who has a message and a ready audience because of the timeliness of what he’s saying.  His two books, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, and World Wide Rave, both capture the essence of what you need to know about the new media and how it affects companies and individuals.  As the new media – blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and so on – surge in popularity, David is positioned perfectly to explain what’s going on to an audience understandably caught in culture whiplash by the speed of change.

But David offers something more important than that.  In these difficult economic times, he offers a way to take control over your media and your brand and ensure that the right things are being said about you – which will surely translate directly into sales and profits.  When life feels out of control, we need new ways to re-take control, and David’s message gives us a way to do that.

Tim Sanders (http://www.timsanders.com/) is another gifted speaker whose message, making the workplace – and the world – better and greener for the sake of humanity and the planet, is not only timely but essential.  In Tim’s three books to date, Love is the Killer App, The Likeability Factor, and Saving the World at Work, two of them New York Times bestsellers, he has consistently stood up for fair dealing, ethical behavior, and a ‘green’ attitude.  In this economic downturn, his message is more important than ever.  Why?  Because even if some are focused more on their own job safety than on the people or the planet around them, all the research shows that unethical behavior comes back to bite you.  When the economy starts to recover – and it will – customers, employees, and the public will remember sleazy dealing and exact revenge on the companies that have not acted well.  Call it Corporate Karma, or just call it the Golden Rule, it’s an iron law that brooks no exceptions.

Finally, Pam Slim’s message, Escape from Cubicle Nation, (http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/) has both timeliness and emotional appeal for workers who feel beset on all sides by demands to work harder in jobs that bring little satisfaction and less security.  Her book on the subject is due out soon, and companies with broader vision than merely the next quarter’s profits should jump to hire her to speak to their employees. 

Three speakers to watch and to emulate, speakers who combine the message, the audience, and the person into a compelling package that’s right for the times.