Professional Keynote Speaker

As a conference keynote speaker it is super important to find you strengths and the strengths of the company you are speaking to. As a keynote speaker you have to know your strengths, and exploit them…find your weaknesses, and don’t devote much time correcting them or building them up. For some reason, we seem to do just the opposite. It is the job of the conference keynote speaker to also do the homework on the company you are speaking to and exploit and extol their strengths

Most of the time, we ignore our strengths and work overtime to improve our weaknesses.
I once worked for a Fortune 40 Company that graciously  allotted me a yearly educational stipend. I was then  encouraged to get training in an area of weakness. And
every year I politely declined and chose instead to focus  on my strength – speaking. Year after year I decided against instructional design, consultant skills, and process
improvement. Like a laser, I honed in on presentation skills. I finally left Corporate America at age 50. I was competent in only one area, and that was enough. An enlightening book has been written on this subject of
focusing on your strengths. Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton, has been on bestseller lists for months, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. In this book, the authors paint the following scenario: A child comes home from school with a report card…we check it out:

• Art   —- A
• English —-  A
• Science —-  A
• Algebra —- C

What’s the parent’s next comment going to be? And where’s the focus going to be over the next six months? Art?  English? Science? Probably not. Usually the attention goes to improving that
Algebra grade… “What can we do to raise that grade? We’ll hire an Algebra tutor for two hours every night.”
“But I don’t like Algebra, Dad.” “Doesn’t matter. You must get better at it. It’s your weakness.” What would happen if we brought in the tutor to help this young man further explore and develop his interest in Art,
English, or Science? Who knows what future Picasso or Dickenson remains undiscovered?
So, my friend, ignite your torch by exploiting and nourishing your strengths as conference speaker. Bask in your uniqueness..success will assuredly come and you will be in demand as conference keynote speaker!

Technorati Tags: conference keynote speaker, conference speaker, corporate motivational speaker, inspirational business speaker, keynote business speaker, Professional Business Speaker

As Professsional Business Speaker one skill and potential power you possess is the power of your subconscious. Overstatement? I don’t think so. Consider a few of the empowering thoughts found in my favorite book on the subconscious, Hidden Power: How to Unleash the Power of Your Subconscious Mind, by James K. Van Fleet:
• …[Your subconscious] is a source of energy stronger than electricity, more powerful than high speed explosives. Your subconscious mind is unlimited, infinite, and inexhaustible. It never
rests, for it keeps right on working for you even when you are asleep…
• …Of all the creatures on this earth, man is the only one who does not need to depend upon past experience to control his future. Another way of saying this is that man is the only one of God’s creations who is allowed to finish the act of Creation himself… …Your subconscious mind will react automatically to give you whatever you program into it, either real or imagined…
• …It is important to point out to you here that your subconscious
mind will not take the trouble to work for you if you do not believe in
it. Next, it is also highly important that in transmitting your message
to your subconscious mind, you should do so in the spirit that the
work has already been done.

Let’s apply these concepts to being a Professsional Business Speaker. To maximize your abilities, you must not just hope that one day you will be a better speaker, but already believe that you’re a
good conference keynote speaker. This is the key!
The vast majority of people I train and coach do not think this way. They come in with the belief that they’re not very good keynote speakers and are just hoping for some improvement. Of course, this belief is the opposite of what is needed to activate your subconscious mind to produce positive results. For most of my life, I’ve wanted to be a Professsional Business Speaker. Yet, I found that
when people would ask me what I did, I’d say something like — “Oh, you know…a little
of this and a little of that…oh yeah, I also enjoy speaking…maybe, one day, I’ll be a
professional speaker.” Even in the last five years, after having been a corporate motivational speaker in my company, I’d still tell people that I did training, worked for conferences, and sometimes
dabbled as a professional business speaker. But this past year, something phenomenal happened. I was on an airplane when a gentleman sitting next to me began talking with me.
“What do you do for a living?” For some reason, I looked directly at him and replied,
“I’m a professional business speaker.”
I amazed myself when I responded with those words. “professional business speaker”?!
Never before had I answered the question that way. And, even more amazingly,
my schedule soon started to shift. Fewer meetings, fewer trainings, more conference keynote
speaking. I had never done conference keynotes speech before, but that’s what I do all the time now.

Technorati Tags: conference keynote speaker, corporate motivational speaker, inspirational business speaker, keynote business speaker, Professional Business Speaker, Professional Keynote Speaker

A Professional in any arena is one who learns to embrace feedback.  A professional business speaker must seek it and yearn for it.  I believe the “ball and chain” that impedes our desire to learn from others is our ego. This is our number one enemy—our own EGO!  A professional business speaker once told me that he only listens to the feedback of a fellow professional speaker.  And I replied sadly, “I’m sorry to hear that.” I responded that way because when it comes to getting some worthwhile information after giving a speech or a training session, some of the best and most practical input you can ever receive is right there on the feedback sheets. And a lot of people don’t even read them.  Why?  I think it’s that ego. I once attended a three-day training session in San Diego.  Overall, it was quite impressive, but at the end of the third day, a participant in the class asked the instructor whether we would have a chance to evaluate the past three days.  The business speaker answered, “No, I don’t believe in evaluations or feedback because I think most times only negative things are said, and I’d rather not hear it.”  I was slapped by her response and a little insulted.  Did she not even care about our experience?  I realized that so many of the things that had upset people probably could have been avoided had that conference keynote speaker paid attention to feedback from prior training sessions.  So why no feedback?  That infernal ego?  I will say that you should not take to heart every criticism as a professional business speaker.

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