Professional speeches at the highest fee level are sold through speaking skill and subject credibility. Jack Welch speaks on leadership; his credibility comes from leading General Electric. Tony Robbins speaks on changing peoples lives, and he has a massive list of clients he’s helped change. Bill Gove spoke on succeeding in sales and his credibility came from winning America’s top salesman in 1953, where he beat out 14,000 other sales people for the title. How about you? Why should a company pay you thousands of dollars to speak on your subject? Watch this short video and I’ll look forward to your comments on this critical aspect of professional speaker marketing.
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I think this is a tough topic. I know how excited I was when I first started being a hypnotist and then moving into speaking. I wanted to share so many things in speaking that had nothing to do with hypnosis and that excitement was putting me on the path to throw away 12 years experience in my field to speak on something new.
It took a great deal of work, almost 18 months and multiple discussions with you Steve, and many others to finally marry my hypnosis experience with a topic that I could speak on and maintain my credibility.
That initial excitement I had wore off long before the 18 months, but focusing energy on a field I already had experience and credibility in was well worth it and gave me a topic that was sustainable in the long run.
I understand completely how tough it can be on a mike in front of a tough crowd. I responded recently to your call for speakers to tackle the national disaster concerning obesity and health issues such as diabetes as connected to diet issues.
I ruined my health traveling for Montgomery Ward over a territory covering the entire southern half of the U.S. At the time, my title was Regional Department Sales Manager, Dept 65 (Automotive). I earned that corporate position by running a tire center in Springfield, Missouri with a profit performance second to none in the nation with that company. The corporate assignment was to expose how I put Springfield’s profit performance together.
I traveled this job for three years before Montgomery Ward went under. During that time, I was diagnosed with diverticulitis AND Type II diabetes. Stress, job pressure, and a murderous travel schedule determined by the pressures on the company at the fatal time in its history burdened me with some serious health issues.
I took the Golden Handshake from Wards and used the money to buy a small business at Lake of the Ozarks in south central Missouri. I invested in real estate and ran several businesses in the area. One was a protrait studio and publishing business. The publishing business marketed calendars, promotional media for chambers, banks, real estate companies, etc. and focused on Missouri Tourism. I also wrote a self syndicated column that won awards at national, regional and state levels at various times. A huge investigative reporting issue regarding documented boats avoiding sales and personal taxes at point of sale due to manipulation through Missouri legislators and lobbyists earned a top award from the Missouri Press Association for exposing millions of unpaid tax dollars. The ensuing series of articles also earned two Pulitzer nominations from one of the papers that carried my column – the latter which I wrote 52-weeks a year for 13 years and never missed a deadline.
To sum up, I’ve been graced by God to experience some exciting high powered careers from a national corporate level that eventually led to businesses of my own and into a creative world that though semi retired now, I still cant stay away from the “office” so to speak. Nature and scenic photography efforts still feed my portfolio with Alamy, a stock photo agency in London. Writing efforts have switched to a current book project – which is water I haven’t swum in before and the jury is still out on how successful – or not – the latter will be.
At one point – back in the late 80s – a murderous travel schedule combined with a diet handicapped by virtually eating on the run all the time seriously damaged my health. A Texas doctor in Decatur diagnosed the diverticulitis after I was taken to Decatur’s ER bleeding nonstop from an internal rupture in my colon. He got in my face, and gave me two options: 1. Continue eating the way I was and he would hang a bag off my belt. 2. Pay attention to what he instructed me to follow for diet in the future.
That was it. I was so job oriented and driven to succeed at all the different directions I was charging all over the country trying to accomplish – and the diet I was eating doing it was killing me.
In the years since the late 80s, I developed diet disciplines that not only reversed Type II diabetes, those disciplines also stopped the IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) attacks and allowed the colon to heal from the lesions like the one that ruptured that embarrassing day in Texas and put me in ER. Also dropped almost 80-pounds in the process.
What I discovered working with physicians and reading every diet review the diabetic clinic at Carl Albert Diabetes Clinic, Ada Oklahoma could coach me to read, was not rocket science. It was a common sense head on approach to healthy eating no matter if you were on the road or at home. But the main revelation that surfaced was that foods I was eating indiscriminately on the run, such at fast food diners and common packaged foods bought off grocery shelves for home , were slowly but surely killing me.
Over the years certain foods such as bran and oatmeal were coached as necessary regimens needed to reverse the damage a bad diet had inflicted on my body and to insure quality of life as I approached retirement. I reversed diabetes type II officially October 2008 when my family physician noted in my medical records he no longer considered me a diabetic. Quarterly checkups since then have confirmed that achievement every time. A colonoscopy surprised the attending physician when, after he gave me a glowing report about the procedure, I asked about the scarring from the diverticulitis lesions. He was taken aback because I had not told him I was once diagnosed with the latter diasease. On further review, he saw the pockets called diverticulosis (residual impact of the disease on the colon) but there were no lesions and no apparent damage from a disease a doctor once threatened to cut my gits out and hang a bag off my belt for however long I lasted after he did it.
Much more to this story. But I’ve darn near written a book here. I’ve stood in corporate monthly reviews with the head officers of a national company speaking to my sales and profit numbers for a large cross section of the country as well as justified the loans every day with the coin flowing through my own cash register trying to hold on to the key to the place at the end of the day that I used to open the doors that morning. I know beyond question the pressure that can force bad health on someone just trying to make a living while running life on a fast paced track between home and job. I know how easy it is to grab a Big Mac and eat it with one hand while driving to the next sale with the other hand. And – without question _ I know how that bad diet habit trait can rob your children and spouse of a parent.
The one glaring issue that surfaced sorting all this out over the years – and it is improving as people become more health orientated – mass food marketing in this country was killing us. The first thing the diabetic clinic taught me was to read – as in read the ingredient labels required by law on all foods marketed commercially to the public. If refined sugar exceeded more than 7-grams of sugar per serving – put the box back on the shelf.
When I understood what had almost killed me prematurely, I did better than put the damned box back on the shelf. I threw sugar out of the house. Salt came close to the same death sentence. And that was the start of the disciplines and diet regimens that led back to good health. It isn’t rocket science. But it does involve breaking addictions forced on all of us literally within moments after birth. It also forces us to rethink how we’ve taught our children what diet to eat.
I’ve addressed sales groups of approximately 1000 managers at a time on occasion. I know what it is to put your soul on the line in a presentation to such a group and handle the questions afterwards. I know what it is to write a controversial article on a subject that isn’t politically correct – and answer the questions later. I would feel driven to counsel how stressful careers steered me to improper eating habits that led to obesity, diverticulitis, diabetes, ad infinitum and in spite of the success enjoyed as an over achiever in those careers, enjoying the adrenaline surges virtually led down a path that was tantamount to suicide with a sandwich for a last meal.
Do I have a dietician/nutition degree? NO. All I did was reverse two major diseases, overcame obesity, and for an example, was approx 35-feet up a tree last November when I killed the first deer during season. The next day, I walked one up sneaking across Missouri Ozark ridge tops. I was camping solo. Drug them out and hung them by my tent – solo. I was 72 this June.
I have a story to tell. I’ve been in the saddle where virtually any corporate sales manager has sat. I’ve faced the anxiety of matching quotas to actual sales numbers and then had to equate that with monthly Profit or Loss statements in front of a reviewe board of flinty eyed corporate VPs trying to save their jobs. – at the expense of mine if necessary. And I know what it is to try and digest that Big Mac under such a stress load. I understand how such a regimen almost killed me too early while careening down life’s path. And I know how to coach someone, facing the same stresses and life challenges, how to manage their diet accordingly to promote long life and maximize quality of.
Sincerely,
Cliff Keeler
P.S. I apologize for the epistle. But it was the only way to explain the seriousness of the problem and what it takes to survive “life in the fast lane.”
Thanks for the dose of reality! Personally, I feel my age is also an important asset, certainly not trying to say young people are not wise and successful and have great experience to share but in general it takes time to get enough experience—failures as well as success– that would give us enough credibility to have people trust they can learn something meaningful from us. It only takes a moment to tell if someone is just blowing smoke so I think it best to make sure we are not being delusional in assessing the value in what we have to share.
Thank you Steve for this great dose of reality. Congruency is the key. Appreciate your insights and succinctness in these videos.
I concure n fully agree with you,it is of a great significance to understand that people interact easily with you when you engage with them through real experiences.it gives them a light and hope that you dont present philosophies,you showing up real possibilities.thank you very much MR Steve Siebold for keep on making my mind throught the knowelege you always supply,my understanding of puplic speaking is getting to the required standard.you are such a great person indeed.My bigest dream is to meat you personal.
Love it, Steve: congruency = credibility. Absolutely love it.
And a good check for me to run on myself.
Thanks for this nugget!
Wiz…
I know a middle-aged man who had accomplished much in business (for his age). He had it all going for him except…he couldn’t hold up a microphone in front of ten other people! One way he got to overcome his phobia was to restrict himself to topics wherein he was KNOWN to have credibility. He found it easier to comport himself and speak the way he wanted, without feeling the jitters.