Stuart’s Philosophies

I’ve seen a lot of different inspirational and motivational speakers all around the world. Some, like John Di Lemme, are really powerful speakers. Others are touts - they simply go around with little substance, attempting to glean the money from the markets they dive into.

I’ve been involved in inspirational speaking in Singapore for a long time - since 1994 to be precise. I didn’t start out to be that way, and in fact, I felt that inspirational speakers were kind of shallow. I mean, they were telling me what I already knew, isn’t it.

However, I realized something quite amazing. People actually WANT to be reminded. They don’t like new information. Most people enjoy feeling the sensation of being understood. It’s only then when they realize that it’s not about what they already know. It’s about what they DO with what they know.

When I realized that I need to model after inspirational speakers in Singapore, I realized that it wasn’t an easy task. Slowly, the skills built up. I had seen many people who had some competence in some areas, but not in most areas. They included:

• humor
• confidence
• charisma
• interaction
• constructing the presentation
• audience understanding
• vocal projection and quality
• gestures and facial expressions

There  are many other things about being an inspirational speaker, but I’ve just put the list up here for an initial view. The trouble is this - even if you wanted to be an inspirational speaker, you’d have to market yourself. This is probably the toughest part of the whole business. That’s why there are many small players in the market, and only a few well-known icons, especially in Asia.

My start up point was NLP. I learnt and devoured the skills in neurolinguistic programming and started modeling after great speakers, and the rest was history. Today, I’ve spoken to various institutions like Prudential, the 2007 SEA Games contingent, the SAF Singapore Shooting Contingent, Motorola, NTUC Income, the Malaysian Institute of Accountants at the National Accountants Congress, the Yellow Pages amongst others… and I can tell you it’s been quite an amazing journey!

Tags

My Training Events, NLPTeleseminars.com, Public Speaking, Teleseminars