PSASA Johannesburg Chapter Meeting May 15th 2025
By Saul Rosenberg (Media Comms.)
The Joburg chapter Meeting took place on Thursday 15th May at the PSASA at The Wanderers Golf Club. This month we had expert advice on how to build your speaking business. Our line up included certified professional speaker Paul Du Toit and Gerold Joubert, Strategic Growth architect.
George kicked off the meeting, with an anecdote about respecting time. He mentioned Joni Peddie will be Vice president of the Global Speakers Federation. Fiona was the MC.
Gerold Joubert
Gerold is a strategic growth architect and Founder of Auxano 7. His focus has been on how to turn vison into sustainable business reality. 7 years of leadership. He is an entrepreneur. He introduced the 6-point framework for speakers.
Gerold spoke tools and equipment you need to build your speaking career. What is necessary in terms of gear for online speaking? You need it when you are doing podcasting or video content.
3 categories of equipment. Audio is important. Important that you sound good while you on air. Choosing a good microphone is important. ‘Sure’ microphones were endorsed.
For video for online courses, he didn’t recommend laptop video. If you need using it to generate direct ‘income’ then you should be happy with what you’ve got. Often you don’t need a better camera you just need better lighting. Multiple microphones need a mixer and interface. Most software you can get for free. The Mindset that gear is going to get me better business is false. The equipment is not the business.
- Things you can use to grow you’re your business.
Foundation- Our Mindset. Before you do all the processes you need the right mindset. - Strategy and leverage; The tools you have is useless if you don’t know where to use them. Where are we going, and what do we need to prepare.
- Internal Brand: How the company sees itself, and what is the message we have to communicate. What are our values.
- Systems and Operations: The software and systems. Clarity comes from systems
Business and Monetization
Paul Du Toit
Paul is a founding member of PSASA. He spoke about getting your CSP and gave some history of the PSASA.
Paul started with a bit of history. He used to sell training through Congruence consulting. Paul shared anecdotes about Metrorail and Volkswagen.
Paul started selling seminars. He got a call from Stef, and started having meetings once a month, he became the president after Stef.
Paul went overseas and took the president status quite seriously. He discovered something called the CSP- Certified speaking Professional. It is a huge thing in the states and Canada. He then started putting his qualifications together. Paul got a medal and obtained his CSP.
Paul was alone with no support, and still hosted the global speakers summit in Cape Town. CSP is a big deal. A few people in the group will be getting it soon. It does something wonderful for your speaking career.
A few things are available to speakers. Speaker factor. Stef Du Plessis founders Award. Paul then took comments from the audience.
For many of us speaking is only one of our streams of income. Speaker bureaus do give occasional gigs. As you get more and more known, eventually the bureaus come after you. In the meantime get known in the speaker community. Paul has gotten more business from speaker referrals.
Membership of PSASA is important for getting your CSP. Having a goal is important. Marketing and getting CSP are two separate things.
Paul is essentially a presentation skills coach.The evening was well-attended and new committee members enjoyed undertaking their new roles and welcoming first time attendees and attendees from Pretoria.
