Last year, Christine Armstrong was invited to speak to 400 of the most powerful police women in the UK.

And she shared a clip last week that told me everything I needed to know about her thought leadership strategy. Go the extra mile. Why? Because…

But there’s a problem…

Hyper-personalised talks require a LOT of extra work.

Especially when the dream of selling a ‘signature talk’ (plug and play presentations designed to be repeatedly delivered across different events and audiences) is so alluring.

I’ve always struggled with the idea of them. There’s something about prioritising speaker convenience over audience value that has never sat right with me.

And then I stumbled on this post from Christine (follow her - you won’t regret it)…🍿

Now, I should note at this point that Christine’s actual take on signature talks is more nuanced than mine - she wrote this comment on my LinkedIn post this morning promoting this article:

But what I love, is a thought leader that goes the extra mile (and I’m willing to bet event bookers do too).

Which begs the question… how?! Specifically…

How can we go the extra mile for our speaking engagements in a way that is sustainable?

Now I can’t speak for Christine’s system (I’m just a fan boy and she has no idea that I’m writing this article - I hope she likes it 🫣!), but I can speak for the system we have inside MicDrop.

How to create world-class keynotes and workshops (without burning out)

1. Build your Content Palette of talk material 🎨
   A content palette is a system for storing all your ideas, stories, frameworks etc. When you have one of these, you will never have to create a talk from scratch again.

   
   [From September, every member will have their own personal content archive built for them and ready to use from day one. We’re calling it MicDrop Memory 🧠.]
   

2. Design your talk (80%) 🧱 
   With your content palette in place, most of your talk prep becomes picking dim sum from a menu 🥟🥢. Select the insights, frameworks and stories that directly address your audience’s challenges and then arrange them into a logical flow.

   
   [Members can use our Talk Designer GPT. It picks the right structure for the occasion and with MicDrop memory, can build a talk that’s yours around the audience’s mindset and motivations in minutes.]
   

3. Research and tailoring (20%) 🔬
   With the heavy lifting done, you can focus your energy where it counts - on going the extra mile.
   
   ⚡️ Researching audience specific examples
   ↳ Company announcements, industry news, case studies etc.
   
   ⚡️ Not just sharing, but applying your frameworks for them
   ↳ “Here’s what this could sound like for you.”
   
   ⚡️ Framing every point through their lens, not yours
   ↳ Answering the question “why are you telling me this.”
   
   [Working on it! This is what we’re hoping our Talk Designer GPT will be able to do by the time our new members join in October.]

I hope this gives you some food for thought.

Not just about how to prepare talks, but about what it really means to be a sought-after speaker.

With the right system in place, you unlock the ability to go the extra mile and that is what we help our members do inside MicDrop.

If you’re considering joining us in October, click here to join the waitlist.

Alex

P.s Found this article useful? It would mean the world if you’d give us a one-liner testimonial.