“The Speaking Business Laid Naked”

You want the truth . . . here is the truth . . . my perceived truth   after 27 years on the National and International speaking stage.   And you’re getting it unclothed.  Naked as a Jaybird.  Not a stitch.  In your face.   Not watered down.  Not blown up.   Are you ready . . .  Here goes . . .

1. The Dark Side . . . The speaking business is a tough go . . .

Most people who dream of becoming a paid expert who speaks do not succeed.   I mean 97% do not make it.  They go back to their day job.   Because they fail to recognize the requisites for success.

(I don’t say this to discourage you.  I want you to see reality.)

Where do I get that 97%?   From the seat of my pants.  From 26 years as a member of the USA National Speakers Association.  I’ve  met thousands of aspiring speakers.   Watched most not survive.  I see the paid speaking business as a superb business for the few who understand the rules of the game.  And it’s a revolving door for those who do not understand, accept, and engage implacable rules  . . .

2.    Why do aspirants not succeed . . .

Because of lack of character.  Lack of talent.  Lack of bulldog blood.  Failure to understand the harsh realities of the speaking business.   They gripe and moan, squirm and writhe . . . because they refuse to accept the reality that a paid speaker is, first of all, a marketer. Do you see what I mean?

As John Wayne’s character often said in his movies, “Get this and get it good…”

You first make yourself a competent marketer of your speaking services.   Only then do you get to deliver your speaking services.  So you get to figure out who to call,  when is the best time to call, what you are to say, whether you fit this company, their purpose this year, the theme of this years conference . . . it goes on and on.   (And it is not easy . . .  unless you are in my Inner Circle!)

3.    But wait, there’s more . . .

Let’s say you develop your marketing muscles.  Now you get to develop a new set of skills:  your presentation skills.   Stagecraft, timing, audience involvement, showmanship, story telling, pacing and a whole lot more.

You shape and mold and massage every aspect of your audience’s experience of you.  This usually means years (and tears) as you slowly master each element of your platform persona.   (Unless . . .)

4.    And another requisite then rears its head . . .

If you are to be original, sparkling and different, there’s another requisite:   You gotta make yourself a competent researcher.  A researcher of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing the industry, the organizations, the people and the markets you impact.

You see your world through your own eyes.  And your perceptions are what you share. You are to be a visionary seeing around the corners and beyond the horizons of the universe you serve.  Think of Franklin, Edison, Ford, Marconi.   This is exactly what each of these people did.  They saw around corners.  They changed their world and yours.

Let’s not leave out, in recent years, Tim Berners-Lee, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and others.   Why not you?   You have everything it takes to be next . . .

5.    What about the prism through which you speak . . .

Whatever your specialty may be, whatever your past experience, you see the world subjectively. You see everything outside of you through a unique prism:   Yours.

Then if you are to be authentic, when you speak you share your personal vision of the realities you observe . . .  You share your perceptions, your values, your philosophy, your findings, your understanding of what life is about . . . and your prescriptions to improve matters for those in your universe . . .

6.   The bright side . . .

If you feel you have the intelligence, the experience, the passionate desire to make a difference, the ideas and strategies to add values for those you serve . . . plus the stamina, the energy, and the willingness to wear the hats of marketer, researcher, and content-rich presenter, then you may enter a whole new realm of life experience . . .

(I, a high school dropout, have lived this life for over 26 years. The coastline view from my Malibu home, private schools for my sons.)

Four and five star hotels, upgrades, white tablecloth dining rooms with no need for you to glance at the right side of the menu . . . Breaking bread with company presidents, eager to pick your brain . . . Suites and mini-suites, honors and deference, flying in the front cabin at least some of the time.  (Did you know the airlines pump more oxygen into the first Class Cabin?)

And as for your lifestyle, you’re in charge.  A nicer home, on the water or  the hillside or the golf course (maybe all!) if you like.  Private  schools for your children . . . lots of time with your loved ones. . . fabulous vacations . . .

7.   Actions for you to take now . . .

Most readers of this piece will proceed to say, “That’s nice”.  They do nothing.  They settle for the dream.  They lack the courage.  They lack the sense of self, the energy, the ability to accept this truth . . . that the seeds of greatness are within them right now.  They persist in living their lives in the mire of mediocrity.

They do not engage Ralph Waldo Emerson’s wisdom:

“The power that is in you is new in nature.  And none

but you know what that is which you can do.  Nor do

you know until you try . . .”

Do you resonate to this? Do you recognize and accept that the seeds of greatness are within you right now?    Do you feel in your heart of hearts, in your bones, in your guts, ready to justify the space you take up and the resources you consume during your brief transit here?  Are you ready to shatter perceived limits?  To step out of the ordinary, out of the mundane, out of the mire?  Then do this now:

Review your options.   Ask yourself whether you own the personal qualities, the talent, the bulldog blood and the persistence to defy your demons and to pay the price in time, effort and sacrifice to actualize your potential and make the difference you know you can make for the market you choose to serve.

Then roll up your sleeves and, with iron resolve, take appropriate actions.   Commit yourself to “pay any price, bear any burden” until you are in orbit as a paid expert who speaks.  Do this now, do it right now:

7.1 Return to my home page   <  http://burtdubin.com >   Go to “Mentoring.”  Review your options.  Review your Guarantees.  See how I take all the risk when you invest in my Speaking Success System.   (Or in my Home Study Courses.)

7.2 Review all the Testimonials. Contact a few of the people who are grateful for the outcomes they generated for themselves with my guidance.

7.3 Then call me to arrange a complimentary, personal, 20 minute Breaking Into Public Speaking consultation.  I only offer 5 of these each month.  We look at where you are now, where you want to be, and your options to get there.   Reach me at 800-321-1225 or +928-753-5315.  This consultation costs you nothing.  You have nothing to lose . . . and a whole new life to win. Do it right now . . . while it is on your mind.

P.S.  Why?   Because “On the plains of hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions who, at the dawn of victory, sat down to wait . . . and, waiting, died.”   You can have speaking business success you yearn for.   And you’ve got to want it enough to have it.

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