Interesting post in Tony Blake's forum about people wanting to go into the speaking circuit. I added a comment with something one of my speaking mentors once told me many years ago when I was trying to penetrate the speaking circuit:

"Dont be a speaker. Be an expert who speaks. Don't be an author. Be an expert who writes. Don't be a consultant. Be an expert who consults."

When I started earning my chops in my field, speaking opportunities opened up for me ... Almost as a natural byproduct. And the greater the expertise, the greater the ability to command higher fees, too.

So, my 2 cents: Don't focus on speaking or on how speakers are compensated ... Yet ... But focus on your field of expertise and becoming known as an expert. Once you do, you will magnetically attract speaking opportunities -- and more favorable compensation levels, too.

Now, how does this relate to copywriting?

In copywriting, I think it's the same. I try not to be a copywriter per se. I'd rather be a person who's an expert on copywriting. Above all, a person who knows how to sell. "An expert on selling who writes copy," to paraphrase my mentor.

What do you think?

Interestingly, a subsequent post talked about "experts" who speak, who turned out to be less than sterling -- where their expertise was outdated, or less than expected after touting themselves to be experts in order to attract an audience at the presentation.

To me, I think the same rules apply. One should focus on what they ARE before what they DO.

I've come across so many speakers who were touting themselves to be experts, which may or may not be the case. And that's different than being an expert who speaks. To me, being an expert is first. And that requires constant improvement (self-improvement, too), adaptation and innovation.

For example, being a expert once doesn't mean you are an expert now. But being an expert now may mean that you are a new expert, are constantly renewing yourself as an expert in your field (or improving upon your expertise), or are an expert in the minds of a new, untapped audience/market.

You must constantly improve upon your expertise in order to maintain that position... Or else you will saturate your market, lose credibility or be "leapfrogged" by others.

I know of some "experts" whose expertise may have been based on a one-time deal, a one-time success or a book published way back when. But once they saturated their market, they then started to seek other avenues to "milk" the clout they once had ... Such as the speaking circuit.

You don't necessarily need to embrace the new in order to maintain your position. But as you said, Tedaldi, you do need to adapt, update and renew, or at the very least relate how your expertise fits with the new.

Case in point.

Dan Kennedy spoke at the last System Seminar in Cleveland. Dan's a diehard technophobe (he tells the story of when he first wanted to throw this new thing called an 'electronic typewriter', and then 'fax machine', out the window when he first got them). So, how can Dan speak to an audience of Internet marketers on a subject for which he has a distaste?

Brilliantly, Dan expertly (!) related the power of direct, offline marketing with online marketing. He made the case that the Internet is not a process but a medium, and that traditonal, fundamental principles of direct marketing apply on the web as well... And how one needs to "marry" the two for maximum effectiveness.