Over the years I’ve watched clients and friends become successful speakers and seen what makes for long-term happiness in the business and what doesn’t work so well.  Here, I’ve distilled a lot of observation into a few basic rules that might save you some agony along the way to your success.  And good luck.

1.Expect the journey to take a long time.  Success in the speaking business is usually measured in years, not months.  The absolute fastest I’ve seen a speaker go from zero to keynote hero is just over a year.  And that was a real phenom who was in a hurry.  Most people take two to five years to achieve the kind of lasting success you would want.  Don’t count on the instant career, even in the Internet era.  What blows up overnight can subside just as fast.  You’re better off building a strong base over time than trying to zip line your way to the main stage.

2.Question and renew your expertise constantly.  The half-life of knowledge has become astonishingly short in the twenty-first century.  Really in the last decade.  What we thought we knew in field after field has been overturned, modified, and refreshed.  Don’t rely on any science that’s more than a decade old, and less than that in fast-moving areas.

3.Change your mind.  Following on the previous rule, give yourself permission to change your beliefs, your approach, your style – everything except your essential fabric.  Do you use technology in presenting?  Try getting along without it.  Do you lecture to the audience?  Try interacting with them.  Do you mix humor in with your life-changing insights?  Try reaching for real emotional depth.  Allow yourself to be a work in progress. What works today might not work tomorrow.

4.Focus more on presence than productivity.  This is a tough pill to swallow.  Everyone in the speaking business, because it’s so competitive, feels like they need to be busy.  But I’ve learned the hard way that over-scheduling yourself is the fast track to burnout, not necessarily success.  Being fully present with every (slower) step of your journey will build much more lasting success in the long run.

5.Allow yourself to say no to gigs that feel wrong.  Especially early in your career you’re going to get offered speaking opportunities that are hard to resist because they pay, or they sound glamorous, or they seem to offer great marketing opportunities.  Every speech is a marketing opportunity, so let go of that one right now.  But beyond that, don’t take speaking opportunities for which your expertise isn’t the right fit.  You’ll find yourself uncomfortable on stage, and your audience will sense your discomfort, and your speech won’t win you any new fans.  Take on the right speeches with full commitment, and say no to the others, even if your bank balance is telling you that any work at all would be a good thing.

You want to be building a long-term success, not an instant one, because the instant ones can come and go in an Internet second.  Keep it organic and real, and you’ll find that you’re creating the conditions for the right kind of career.  And that’s the only one worth having.