Business Speaker
A business speaker needs to do his/her homework before delivering a business keynote speech. This requires more work on the part of the business speaker but shouldn’t you expect that of every business speaker that you hire? The best speakers send out a questionnaire which starts the research process and fact gathering on a particular business. Some business speakers deliver the same keynote year after year with little or no
redesign. A professional business speaker gets to know not just about the company but the people in the company before they arrive. Let me ask you a question about your last business keynote speaker?
Did they ask permission to call some of your managers to briefly interview and ask profound questions in order to customize their keynote speech? Did they arrive 45 minutes to an hour before their scheduled speech to meet and greet the audience and then integrate those interactions into the business keynote speech? If not then make the choice to hire someone who will be that tuned in to your company so that it is not only a customized keynote but in the end you’ll say you hired a personalized business speaker.
The Humble Business Speaker
Now that I’m a Professional Keynote Speaker it is so important to be a humble business speaker. With so much praise and applause,business speakers can swell with pride and get a big head. Is there anything worse than having to listen to someone brag and boast about themselves in a business speech?
Here’s a fantastic and simple way to genuinely be unique as a speaker. Ready for this? Be a servant. That may mean something as simple as getting your spouse a cup of coffee or buying your co-worker a Coke. Don’t ask “How much will this inconvenience me?” Instead, ask “How important is it to them?”
One of my friends was having marriage difficulties. Separation seemed imminent. I asked, “What do you want from your marriage?”
He replied, “I want to make it work. What do you suggest I do?” I offered this most important question:
“What is the one thing you could do tonight that would absolutely shock her with glee?”
Without even a blink, he chimed, “Oh, probably cleaning the toilets.” I said, “Well, there it is, my friend. There’s the solution.”
With a disgruntled look, he complained, “What do you think I am – a servant?”
I mused, “Now you’re getting it.” He did not clean that toilet.
“It just didn’t ring true for me,” he later told me. By the way, they’re now divorced.
In my rather old and worn binder, that I take to all my speeches, is an index with the words
“who can I serve today?” as a reminder to me each time I arrive as the business speaker.
Perhaps there is no nobler position or title to describe us. Be a servant.
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy;
I awoke and saw that life was service;
I acted and behold, service was joy.”
– Rabindranath Tagore
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.