Margaret Watts Romney here. Let me give you a little picture of my world:
My company, MasterSpeaker Lab, is where I show up professionally for my clients and teams, tieing up my nice shoes and buttoning up my structured jacket.
BUT: This Speakership Collective is where I put on my beanie and a hoodie and show up to talk with everyone about the messy process of communicating our everyday leadership—our speakership. It's a place to gather, talk, and grow our speakership together.
Starting in 2023, this is the gathering place for my book, "Speakership is Leadership."
My inspiration for the book was imagining writing letters to "Sudden Leaders" like you: people who may not have wanted a spotlight but now need to use their voice to guide the communities and projects around them.
Here, I'll give you quotes from my book and others that inspire me. We'll have monthly events focusing on the topics of each chapter. We also hear from you about your own speakership.
To be honest, I've been told by many marketing minds that I should charge more and put up bigger paywalls here.
But I want a place where people can easily access speakership tools: courses, quotes, events, a library of past webinars, and a community to support all of us with our speakership in the world.
Speakership moments arrive in conversations, presentations, meetings, keynotes, or even from the kitchen table. All of it is part of YOUR Speakership.
We believe that we all have the opportunity and even the responsibility to ask ourselves and understand...
What's the world that I want to build?
What are the gifts I give my listeners?
How do I connect impactfully with my stakeholders?
What steps can I take right now to move my community forward?
When you are speaking, you are a leader. If you are leading, you need to speak.
So, what are the next skills you need?
The traits that bode well for powerful speakership are:
Humility. We believe Speakership is an ongoing practice and that interacting with a wide range of people gives us valuable information that we couldn't receive on our own.
Generosity. We aim to find ourselves saying, "I want to make my listeners' lives better," and "Wow, look what I learned from being with others developing their Speakership too."
Curiosity. We hope to approach each startling idea or setback with an attitude of "Interesting! What is there for me to learn here?
Never share your info
Allow you complete control over your notifications
Be human: no infinite scroll. no algorithms
Strive for a celebratory and generous culture welcoming all
Accept you no matter your stage of speakership or leadership
You have a direction. An idea. A vision of where you want to go and what you want to build.
Now, when you look around, you see that people are watching you. Maybe even waiting for you to step up.
A community that needs you.
A community you want to serve.