Why are there so many speaker training programs? And how do I pick the right one?
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By Douglas Vermeeren 10X
Your Speaking Business
It seems that lately there are a gazillion and one people
popping out of the woodwork claiming to be able to teach you how to build you
speaking business. Some of these programs are good, some are terrible and a few
are just down right crap. I’m being honest here.
Just because someone is claiming to help you build a coveted career in the
speaking industry does not me that they can help you.
Like everything else in
life BUYER BEWARE!
Having taught the skills of speaking and the business of
speaking long before most of these hucksters arrived on the scene I want to
share a few things you should look for before you give away any hard earned
cash. Before I share what to look for let me tell you why there are so many
that have recently shown up…. ready for it…
cash.
Teaching people who want to be speakers, desperate to build a
business in the speaking career appears to be a relatively easy way for some
speakers with minimal experience to make a quick buck. Most of the so-called
speaker trainers in the marketplace today are out to prey on those who simply
don’t know any better.
Let’s fix that. Here are 3 things that you need to know before
you hire anyone to help you with your speaking business:
There is a difference between developing platform skills and
building a speaking business. Most of the people calling themselves
speaker trainers today have very little ability to build a speaking
business. Most of those in the marketplace today focus on platform skills.
Their efforts are primarily on helping you develop a nice presentation
or what is popularly known as a signature talk. There are a couple of
problems with this. Signatures talks don’t work in today's marketplace.
These monologue style presentations fell out of the
successful way of doing things in the mid-1990s. However because
they are the model often taught in groups like the National Speaker
Association, Toastmasters and a handful of other groups most people
still think they work in todays marketplace. They don’t. They worked
well when Speaking bureaus
ruled the industry and corporate clients where the primary source of
revenue for speakers. Times have changed. People expect more of a
connection and a higher
level of engagement than ever before. Audiences don’t want to be
talked to. They want to be included.
While
presentation skills are important to learn and there are lots of great programs
that teach that. (We do to.) What is really needed before understand what to
say is the business of saying it. If you get the business right the time on
stage becomes productive. We believe that until speakers think of the speaking
business as a speaking business it is very difficult to create lasting success.
Maybe that’s why most of the
speakers (or people who are trying to be speakers) are broke. A recent
statistic I read said that only 1 in 450 speakers actually earn enough to be
considered full time. (Kinda crazy for a group that is typically thought of as
teaching strategies for personal or business success.)
As I see
many of our competitors out there calling themselves speaker trainers I almost
cry. most of them are broke too. Most of them have never broken 6 or 7 figures
in their own businesses. They have never spoken internationally or in front of
large audiences. Most of them do not know how to fill their own rooms or sell
from the stage. Most don’t know how to joint venture with other speakers and do not
have relationship with any top speakers in the business. They are fooling
themselves.
Lesson: If you are going to find help with your speaking
career get someone that understands the business and is successful themselves.
2. This one is
pretty obvious.Effective speaking programs are focused on just teaching
speaking and the speaking business! I am startled when I see how many “speaker trainers” teach entrepreneurship, customer service, sales, book
publishing, social media AND SPEAKING.
The old saying Jack of all trades master of none pretty much lets you know how
effective these people will be for you.
There
are many speakers who have added speaker training to their suitcase full of
stuff they are trying to offer because again they see the cash. They think
because they’ve spoken for a while that they are now experts on teaching
others how to do. (And the funny thing is that even many well-known speakers
are trying to do this too.) There are two things that always result from this
warning sign regardless of where they are a big speaker or not.
1)You
will get a watered down version of speaker training.
2)The
training will make you a carbon copy of the presenter.
Who wants that?
If you
are going to invest the money to learn a skill wouldn’t you want a
teacher that is able to help you develop your gifts and enhance your natural
personality and gifts. (Apparently not for some people.) Our philosophy that i
believe makes us the top speaking
training company in the business today is this: Find YOUR VIBE and you will
find YOUR TRIBE.
I won’t mention any
names but recently I was at an event in Las Vegas and I had one speaker tell me
how they spent close to $50,000 to be in a certain speaker training program. I
know the person she was taking the training from. This speakers training
program came from a guy who teaches entrepreneurship, considers himself a top
business coach and is now involved in real estate training too. Where will this
stop. Needless to say this person was very disappointed because they paid for a
basic course that has not helped them to become better or make any money back.
NO RESULTS.
When I
probed further I found that it was really because this “Speaker Training” program was very unfocused. And through out the entire
process this “trainer” was trying to
cross pollinate everyone in his course to buying and attending everything he
could dream up. Again JACK of all trades, Master of none.
One of
the things I share with my students is to focus on one thing. Get good at it.
Become so good you become a master. Because MASTERY = MONOPOLY. If you become
an expert and known as the expert in that area you will never have to worry
about competitors.
Lesson: Find someone that only offers Speaker training.
Final point for this article:
#3 You need real
opportunities. Too many of these “speaker trainers” today put people
through their training and then kick them to the curb. well… ummm… that’s not going to
grow your business. If you are going to become a speaker you need opportunities
to speak and they shouldn’t occur after you’ve left the guidance of a proper trainer.
One of
the things we do with students in our program is to show them how to get gigs
and often times we have gigs for them to begin right away. And not just any old
events. Remember the old saying you are only as powerful as your network? We
have the network. This year we have had several events where our students have
shared the stage with olympians, celebrities and top speakers. Just last week I
was in London, UK where four of my students shared the stage with Dr. John
Demartini from the Secret. Before that we were in multiple cities in Canada
with Marie Diamond from The Secret. we did a cruise with Bob Doyle from The
Secret. (Yes, I’ve got a pretty good network to help my students grow.)
Good
speaker trainers should be able to give you opportunities to speak and also to
sell from the stage. The best learning isn’t just theory it is practice and improvement too. And that
practice should occur in front of real audiences. If you want to be a top
speaker it should be on stages with other top speakers.
Theory
proves nothing. Results are the evidence.
Anyways
that’s probably more
than enough of a rant today. No doubt I am going to get hate mail from my
competitors crying that they actually provide massive value and that I am
wrong. Maybe that’s why they are struggling. The marketplace (people like you)
have higher standards than “speaker trainers” with good
intentions and certainly you don’t want to work with multi-program cash grabbers. You demand a
higher level of support form someone who is focused and dedicated to creating
success for speakers just like you.
And by
the way if you want to see how I can help you send me an email and I’ve got some free
resources to help get you started doug@douglasvermeeren.com
Douglas
Vermeeren is the CEO of 10X your Speaking Business. His clients include
beginning speakers all the way to celebrities, athletes, top business leaders
and more. His focus is on helping them to develop high profit Speaking, coaching and training
businesses. He is the author of three books in the guerrilla marketing series
and filmmaker behind 3 of the most popular personal development films of all
time. www.DouglasVermeeren.com
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