GAH GAH GAH. This is my fam, here. And you are so spot on. My coach and I were laughing this afternoon at “motivational speakers” who are trying out brand new material on their audiences — a faux pas of major proportion — and they think they are experts.

GAH.

How this came up: my coach, who is considered one of the country’s best sales trainers (he wrote and taught the Guerrilla Selling series, that sold gazillions of books in the 1980s) is also a hugely talented drummer. His band, the Flatirons Jazz Orchestra, is one of the best in the state if not THE best. He told me today that they have so many gigs they have no chance to rehearse. I joked that they could rehearse while on stage, to which we both laughed because you can’t, and then I said, a hell of a lot of speakers do.

That brought the house down.

I’ve done that too, brought an audience of nearly a thousand to their feet screaming. Took a shitload of work to build those skills.

And, to your point, Kris, we probably need to have a few legitimate life stories from which to draw to be a decent speaker. Or, you can do what rookie speakers do: steal other speakers’ material and call it their own. Even the late, great Robin Williams did that once in a while. He pilfered. However, I suspect that he made it a lot better, but then I’m prejudiced.

The old saw is that those who do not do, teach. Those who do not teach, write a book. Those who can’t write a book, develop an online course ( I am making this up as I go along) Those who can’t develop an online course become Linked In Consultants.

Okay I’m done for now.