By Susan Frew, CSP — Keynote Speaker, AI Strategist, and Author of RECODED: Upgrade Your Business DNA with AI

For a long time, the three things that made someone a successful professional speaker were talent, determination, and travel. You could make a living if you could get people to pay attention, keep booking gigs, and earn enough frequent-flyer miles. But the business of talking has changed. Your voice alone isn’t enough anymore. You need systems, a plan, and now AI.

This is the new DNA of the speaking business. To do well in a world driven by AI, it needs to be updated or recoded. The speakers who learn to work with technology instead of against it will be the most influential in the future.

The Need to Be Reprogrammed

The old way of running a speaking business is no longer useful. Too many talented speakers depend on word-of-mouth, only react to what happens, and don’t know how their business is doing. They don’t keep track of important numbers like how many gigs they get each month, how much money they make from each gig, or how many clients they have right now.

The Speaker Lab’s metrics framework says that the best speakers don’t just rely on their gut feelings to succeed; they also use systems to track, measure, and improve their performance. You need to combine AI with disciplined business tracking to improve your business DNA. It’s not about learning everything there is to know about technology; it’s about using better tools to make decisions faster.

Change the Way You Work

Every successful speaking business has to have good systems in place. AI can take care of the things that are the same, so you can focus on the things that are unique like your stage presence and your message.

You can use AI to automatically design slides, write summaries of client calls, look over contracts, and even write proposals. If you use the SMART method from SpeakerFlow’s Quarterly Planning Workbook to set goals every three months, you will have a system that works.

Picture this: you log into your AI dashboard and see that your leads are automatically updated, your proposals are tailored to each client, and your CRM is synced in real time. That’s not a story from science fiction. It’s what happens when you stop doing everything by hand and let AI do it for you.

Use Your Content Again

You know that one keynote can do a lot of heavy lifting if you’ve been on the speaking circuit long enough. But most speakers don’t take advantage of the content they already have. AI can help you turn your speech into a treasure trove of articles, newsletters, podcast scripts, and social media posts that all match your brand voice.

By tracking your “revenue per gig” and “gigs booked from gigs” numbers, you can see how content repurposing increases visibility and bookings. With just one AI-assisted transcript analysis, you can find common themes and turn your knowledge into content streams that can be scaled up to make money in the future.

At this point, AI stops being a way to get things done and starts being a way to make money.

Make Your Brand New

Every speaker sells two things: their ideas and their confidence. AI can now help make both of them better. You can use data analytics to see how your audience reacts to different topics, tones, and phrases. You can see what works, when people are most interested, and how to improve your marketing.

The way you set prices can change as well. According to research in the field, speaking fees carry a huge delta for beginners to more for experienced speakers. But data-backed brand positioning, which is based on AI insights, can explain why you should move up that scale. Your fee should match your message and your authority.

Do this now: go to: Google Gemini and use this EXACT prompt: Deep Research Prompt about YOU

Reinforce Realness

AI should never take the place of your voice; it should make it louder. A lot of speakers are afraid that AI will make them sound like a robot or a generic person. The truth is the other way around. If you use AI tools with a purpose, they can help you improve your original voice and give you more time to be more real on stage.

Set moral limits: always be honest about getting help from AI when it’s appropriate, protect your original work, and make sure that authenticity is not up for debate. People want to connect with others, not be perfect. Let AI handle the logistics so you can be human.

The RECODED Edge

When you are “RECODED,” you run your business like a CEO and create like an artist. It means understanding your numbers, automating your work, and using AI to make your influence stronger, not weaker. I am giving you a framework to create the RECODED Master Prompt that you can use to upload into your AI of choice so you can customize your experience AND get more consistent results. Here is the script to write your prompt. Once you have completed it, create a PDF and use this to customize your AI to get more authentically “you” results. RECODED: Master Prompt

I’m giving away access to two custom GPTs made just for professional speakers to help you get started:

Optimizer for Speaker Revenue GPT is a tool that helps you keep track of your gigs, figure out how much money you make per engagement, and handle your client pipeline using the same KPIs that top speakers use. Speaker: CFO GPT

Keynote Interactivity GPT: Keynote Interactivity Generator

These tools show the RECODED way of thinking: make things that are mechanical automatic and make things that are important more important.

Last Thought

Speakers are not being replaced by AI. It’s making the ones who know how to use it better. People who can combine data with stories, systems with soul, and technology with truth will have a bright future.You don’t have to be a tech genius to learn how to use AI; you just have to change the way you think.

Contact:
Susan — Keynote Speaker & Author
Website: www.susanfrewspeaks.com Email: susan@susanfrewspeaks.com

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