Careers in Public Speaking

One tip I want to pass on to anyone considering a motivational speaking career is this-Take Risks.Taking risks ensures originality.  Taking risks also ensures some fear.  The following poem stirs me to take risks.  It encourages me to play my own symphony in the performance hall of life.

Risk
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk exposing our true self.
To place your ideas and dreams before the crowd is to risk loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try at all is to risk failure.
But to risk we must!
Because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing—
The man and woman who risks nothing,  has nothing, does nothing,  is nothing. Author-Unknown

When I was first hired by AchieveGlobal, they flew me to Las Vegas for a five day certification program. The first three days were instructional.  The last two were spent actually doing a couple of forty-minute public speaking jobs in front of the leader and the group. While preparing for my Thursday presentation on Wednesday night, instead of simply doing my assignment, I risked it.

Wanting to impress everyone with my creativity, I went way out of bounds and came up with some wild exercises that I hoped would dazzle them all.  The next day, during my public speaking opportunity, I proudly unveiled my elaborate, intricate, complex exercise to the group!  Knighthood would not be far away!  And…It bombed! I’ll spare you the details (and spare myself the painful memories of dazed expressions, empty stares, and total silence)……It bombed! Never in my life had I been so humiliated.  Never had my ego been so blistered.  My boss, Kelli Lynn, quickly called for a break.  During that break, alone with Kelli Lynn, I did something I hadn’t done in years… I cried…just sat there…and cried. Turning to my manager, I began mumbling. “I blew it.  I was trying something new, and it bombed.  You’re probably regretting ever hiring me…” She interrupted my confession by handing me a brightly colored paper.  On it, written in bold neon letters were the words: Keep  on Taking Risks in your motivational speaking career!!!

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The Primary reason I take motivational speaking jobs is that I want to impact people’s lives.I once saw a bumper sticker that read: “Make a living, not a difference.” Now, I know it was intended to be humorous, but I thought, how sadly true. It’s just what so many people are doing.

I think it’s so important that we search for the “worthwhileness” of our our speaking careers –and don’t become a motivational speaker until we find it. Beforehand, if I cannot think of the statement in my speech that will make the difference, that motivational speech is not yet ready to give.

Ask yourself this Motivational Speaking Question

After every speech, I ask myself, “Did I make a difference?”  After every day, I ask myself, “Did I make a difference?” There are days when I answer…“No.”  I then think of situations where I could have handled things better.  Could I have been more creative and innovative — perhaps more compassionate or patient?  What else could I have done to make a difference? There’s a definite connection between worthwhileness and passion. You can see one brick mason at work and ask what he’s doing. “I’m building a wall,” he replies.  You see another brick mason and ask the same question. “I’m building a home,” he answers.  Each is performing the same task, but they have different perspectives, different philosophies. Perhaps, too, a different quality of work.  One probably finds it much easier to “call in sick.”  After all, he only has bricks waiting for him, while the other has a family depending on him.   In our public speaking jobs, are we building walls or homes?  If we’ve shown love,  if we’ve played our music,  then we’ve made a difference. After public speaking opportunities, when I ask myself if I’ve made a difference, one of the criteria I consider is whether or not I’ve empowered my audience? Have I shown them that they are important? Have I proven that each of them makes a unique difference?    This is the most fulfilling part of my motivational speaking career.

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