One time I was hired to speak at a program in the eastern US. Our dates, fees, expenses, topics were all set. I showed up ready to work and discovered from the comments of the early arrivals that they had come to hear me speak on real estate finance - which is not a topic I know anything about. I asked the client about it and was told they had changed the announced topic "because we thought that would be a good topic to get people to come." In other words, no one came for what I do; everyone came for what I don’t do.

So I opened by welcoming the audience and telling them, "We’ve got a little problem here that I only found about maybe 30 minutes ago. I was hired to speak on sales, and was only told a few minutes ago that you are here for finance. That means I have a presentation for what I was hired to do, but not one for what you came to hear."

"So we have two options. One: I can give you the presentation on sales that I was hired for. It’s a great presentation, you will learn things you didn’t know, we’ll all laugh and have fun and you’ll be back on your way by noon. Or Two: We can just all turn around and go back home now. Either way is fine with me - I've already been paid. What would you like to do?"

About five people got up and left while another 80-85 stayed and had fun.

Lesson: Some things you can’t control. Just offer to do you best and go with whatever is best for the client and the audience.