Visit Las Vegas and You May Change Your Career Focus

I recently attended the Magic fashion tradeshow in Las Vegas, NV, and was hit with a rather prominent - and life-changing - realization.

For many years, my objective was to speak to corporations and associations given the potential impact of influencing large quantities of people while receiving a positive return on investment.

While in Las Vegas this past week, upon sharing my current book idea with a few new team members, I realized I have been blind for two years.

It's been two years since I've spoken to young audiences as a professional speaker. Upon finishing up my work with Monster.com during the summer of 2006, I had decided that I was no longer interested in speaking to that demographic. I felt that the experience was invaluable, the impact positive, and portfolio-building... nearly perfect.

The future, I believed, would be filled with opportunities to speak to corporate audiences and associations - sharing my messages, stories, and expertise. That was the plan.

While moving forward and building upon my career, I now find myself gearing up again to speak on behalf of OPEN from American Express four times over three days at a tradeshow in Baltimore, MD next month. While hosting another 12 business clinics, I will enjoy speaking to business owners and the like. Yes, I will like that.

What I would like more, it turns out - given my experience in Vegas, is that of all the people out there, I would most be interested, most be comfortable, most be passionate about speaking to college audiences.

Duh. My first book was a college guidebook to the University of Maryland. I've been president of the UM Alumni Club of San Diego for over three years. I'm the founding president of my high school alumni association. My #2 priority is education. The seven books I've written and the 13 I've revised are for young adults. I've spoken at UMaryland and Univ. of California several times.

This is a no-brainer. Talk about "fighting biology" - I've been secretly fighting with myself for two years. Secretly meaning I didn't know it until recently. And fighting meaning holding myself back from really doing what I would love doing.

For many years, I've battled with determining what my one topic would be as a professional speaker. I never gave thought to my target demographic, since I felt my messages, experience, and delivery would be universal.

I don't get excited about much and I'm happy to announce that I'm very excited about starting a new speaking business plan. I am currently a professional speaker who speaks to college audiences about developing creativity, marketing, and building relationships. Let's go back to school, kids.