Is this the year you break out as a speaker?  And what would that look like for you?  Are you looking to level up?  Do you want to excel at the keynote level, in hot demand at $40K per speech, all over the world? Or do you want to have constant invitations to give your free speech about your thought leadership on leadership, building great connections and potential clients everywhere? Those are just two possibilities among many; your career as a thought leader need follow no particular prescription; your journey is your own.

To begin the year with some clarity, here are three questions that I have found will help guide you however you mean to proceed.

1. What Journey Will You Take the Audience on?

A keynote speech is not simply an hour’s entertainment.  You are going to make the audience aware of a need or a problem that they were not fully aware of before and lead them on a journey through an understanding of the need to a path forward, a solution that, if they choose to embrace it, can improve their lives significantly.

Nor is a keynote speech an information dump.  We humans have a low tolerance for information dumping, a tolerance that is exceeded every minute of every day somewhere in the world by an earnest colleague with a PowerPoint deck. On the other hand, we love stories. So throw out that pile of information and look for the story in your thought leadership. Where’s the drama, the struggle, the interesting characters? And how can you get better, simpler, and cleaner at telling that dramatic story? The more you know your subject, the clearer you should be able to make it for everyone else.

2. How Will You Demonstrate Your Expertise?

From the conference organizer’s point of view, an expert is someone who has proved her expertise through writing a book, or orbiting the atmosphere, or running faster than any other human alive.  Some form of proof like that gives you bragging rights, and the organizer security in her choice.  They don’t like to hire people who only have a personal story to tell, though a personal story can form the basis of the expertise in question – and should.  And if the personal story is powerful, or unusual, or harrowing enough, it may stand on its own.  That depends on the conference and the story.

The key is to think long term about how you can document your expertise in a way that is easily confirmable by the conference organizer.  A book, a documentary, a tangible piece of storytelling that is part of the public discourse.  You can get pretty far these days on YouTube videos and social media, not to mention traditional media, but you can’t sustain a speaking career with those things.

3. How Will You Start a Conversation About Your Expertise?

The most persuasive way a conference organizer will hear about you is through the news channels and social media that she regularly peruses.  A speaker bureau rep is the same.  They want to see buzz about you, so how are you going to start those conversations?  There has never been a better time to get heated conversations going about your topic, because the world is absorbing more information every second.  On the other hand, that’s a problem because we are all information overloaded.  So how are you going to stand out amidst all the noise?

Answer these three questions powerfully and this will be your year.  It’s the year of the dragon, which means challenges and opportunities, but when was it otherwise?  Some of the biggest, most successful companies have been start in recessions.  Out of adversity comes gold and steel.  May this be your year!