The 21st Century Speaker's Journey

Everyone who creates personal success as a 21st century speaker-is a hero. We battle with dragons. We grapple with demons. With emotional and psychological monsters. Like Theseus embroiled in the maze on the island of Crete, millennia ago, wrestling with, and slaying the dreaded Minotaur. Like David facing Goliath armed with only a slingshot and 5 smooth stones. Like Hercules rescuing Theseus and Persephone from Hades.

In the last century, like Harry Truman, a sure loser according to every poll, bravely facing up to and defeating the powerful Thomas Dewey. Like Mahatma Gandhi, armed with only a loincloth and a relentless will, freeing the Indian subcontinent from British rule. And let's not forget the gallant Nelson Mandela who, battling from his bleak jail cell ultimately ended apartheid in South Africa, winning emancipation and equality for millions of his native people.

What about the speaker? What about the aspiring speaker...the lonely, aching one out in the cold, with nose pressed up against the store window, gazing wistfully at glowing success only a heartbeat away; what are this speaker's demons? What dragons, what Minatour, what swamps swarming with alligators, what precipices and crevasses wait to swallow up all the wanna-be's hopes and dreams? What else blocks the illusive path to success and abundance?

And, most important of all, how are all these monsters put to rest forever by the speaker moving from struggle and lack to success and abundance. I've been there, dead broke, flat on my assets, and those only in my unswerving imagination, sustained only by vision. Perhaps this glimpse of my journey may yield hope:

1. It started with implacable will, iron determination, bulldog blood, an inner spirit that was not going to surrender to defeat as long as there was breath in my body.

2. It proceeded with the awakening awareness that like all activities, the speaking business had rules of play, rules I had to discover and master.

3. It continued with relentless research. The fruit of this investigation was, for me, the insight that 80% of success in the business of speaking had nothing to do with platform performance. Beyond platform excellence, speaking success emerged from having a unique position, a burning desire, a mission so powerful that the mission had me, alluring promotion, magnetic marketing, a bit of wit and a colossal commitment, so huge that everything was surrendered in the service of the success yearned for.

4. Then, on top of all of that it took ceaseless work, unending hours engaging the wisdom I harvested. First to discover how to direct market my services, then to master indirect marketing, to experience the indescribable joy of hearing my phone ring. Imagine having decision-makers calling you to ask if you can speak for them! There's nothing like it.

5. After that, with bookings flowing in, I had to learn how to present programs much like the fabled Chinese meal. Programs that left audiences satisfied yet hungry for more, and then more again.

6. Let's not forget marketing graphics, appropriate for the fees at the time. These are to be updated and revised often as the level of programs evolves and as the letters of commendation are received.

7. Finally, and really first in importance, spirit, love, caring, acceptance of the mantle of power along with accountability for the judicious use of that power. The privilege of the platform is an awesome responsibility. We influence lives. We affect market penetration, sales and profits of companies, and the return their shareholders enjoy. We ease the way. We give people hope. We are light- bearers.

And when we surrender to our higher purpose, when we give ourselves to our intentions, we may just find ourselves living in a state of euphoria. We may find inner peace, a sense of rightness about how we are engaging our energy. We may even know we've found what the Buddhists call our right livelihood.