Business Speaker in the Now
To be a powerful business speaker you must be present and live in the now. Zen masters use the word satori to describe a flash of insight, a moment of total presence. I have been fortunate to have experienced this when I was quiet and alone, surrounded by nature. I often prepare my business speeches outside on my patio at my Los Angeles home. The great Zen Master Rinzai asks: “What, at this moment,is lacking?” A similar question in the Zen tradition: “If not now, when? In The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle delves deeply into this subject.
The Buddhists tell a story of a man running from a ferocious tiger. While the man is fleeing the tiger, he falls off a very steep cliff. Just beyond the edge of the cliff, he grabs onto a single vine. Dangling dangerously, just moments from his death, he looks up and sees a tiger above him. He looks down and sees the jagged rocks, hundreds of feet below. At that very instant he also notices a big, juicy, ripe strawberry
growing from the vine he’s holding. He grabs the strawberry, begins eating it, and smiles…as he falls.
Guest Speaker
The great thing about hiring a guest speaker is that you get a fresh perspective from the outside. A guest speaker that you’ve not heard before can be a risk because it is an unknown. But hiring the right guest speaker can change your life. I hired a guest speaker, well not really but close….it was a personal life coach. I have an extraordinary coach named Tamara Keefe. It wasn’t easy for me to hire her, though. When I first considered it, I kept asking myself…a coach? Just a personal coach? To help…in life? And my friends kept saying, “James, you don’t need a coach!” It’s interesting that no one ever said that to me when I was
learning to play football or the trumpet. The educational system certainly believes in coaching. Likewise, the corporate world believes that we’ll benefit from direction and advice. We have spreadsheets for projects at work – we have handouts and timelines – and a whole team of people to support a project’s goals.
But what about the project called “life”? It’s only in this area of our personal lives that people doubt
the need for a coach. People are looking for answers and meaning – trying to improve themselves – and they’re all attempting this alone! No direction; no support. When I was debating whether or not to be life-coached, I remember questioning Tamara, “Are you sure you’re worth
it?” Of course what I was really asking was, “Am I worth it?” Of course I am. And you are worth it, too! Ok here comes another shameless plug….I want to be your next guest speaker. This could be the beginning of a whole new journey for your company.
Funny Public Keynote Speaker
You’ve got to be having fun in your public speaking job. Do you love to laugh? Do you love to make other people laugh? I love to watch comedy on T.V, film and live. I study comedians because we share a similar profession as public speakers- we are entertainers.They say it’s harder to make people laugh than it is to make them cry. So, whenever I get a chance, I visit the local comedy clubs. My purpose is not so much to
steal jokes (though I confess to having “borrowed” a few), or even to have some good laughs (though have them I usually do). I’m there to study how a comedian makes an audience laugh or, if he fails, to discover why he fails. I want to observe how he develops rapport and how he establishes mood and intimacy with the audience. I’m even interested in what they do after a joke bombs. I think of Rodney Dangerfield’s, “It’s
murder up here, I tell ya’.” Special attention is focused on their techniques: hand
gestures, facial gestures, volume shifts and, most of all, timing.