For Speakers and Coaches

As I travel from city to city speaking to various audiences I am often approached after my speeches by people from the audience who are interested in learning how to enter the speaking or coaching business. For the dedicated individual either profession, or both, can be very rewarding.

There is quite a difference between speaking and coaching. But if you are an expert at what you do you can share your expertise either to the masses as a speaker or individually as a coach. The corporate world has hired speakers who are expert in their respective fields to educate numerous employees at a time in a seminar environment. It is a multibillion dollar industry.

During the past two decades coaching has become a modern method of specialized training and accountability on a one to one basis. Both corporations and individuals have found that gleaning from an expert eliminates years worth of errors and thousands of dollars worth of wasted expense. Although it is more economical to hire an expert to train many employees at a time there are companies that have budgets for coaches to work directly with key employees.

Speakers and coaches have enjoyed the varying satisfactions that each profession provides. There is a certain satisfaction one gets from delivering a dynamic speech from the platform while there is an entirely different satisfaction from working with individuals one to one, helping them personally achieve their goals.

If you want to learn about the speaking profession from top to bottom and get specific guidance as to how to build your own highly profitable speaker's practice, then check out the knowledge base I created with Bill Brooks and Tom Antion. It is called The Professional Speaker System and it has, on CDs and DVDs, the most comprehensive information about making it in this business that can be found anywhere. The website is: http://www.professionalspeaker.com

For serious emerging speakers I would recommend a speakers coach, Patricia Fripp from San Francisco. She can help a speaker shave months or years off of the pitfalls of going it alone. Her website is http://fripp.com/speakingschool.html

For those that would desire to enter the coaching business, I would recommend Excellence Quest, out of Las Vegas. They are experts in training sales people on how to become professional sales coaches. The Sales Coaching opportunity is explained in detail at http://www.becomeasalescoach.com/index_files/Tour036JC.htm.

Whether it’s speaking or coaching you can find a very rewarding future in the professional world.

Younger Next Year

I recently read the book "younger next year" by Crowley & Lodge. It is a winner. There's a men's and a women's version. The basic premise is that once you reach age 50, you have a new job - exercising vigorously every day for the rest of your life.
Works for me! I started following their advice of at least 45 minutes of intense exercise at least six days a week, and I've removed 23 pounds of weight, 8% body fat and I'm feeling and looking as good as I ever did, at least for a guy in his late fifties.
Seriously, when I decided to take their advice literally and created the new habit of working out daily for almost an hour, I got into better shape than I was in when I was an avid jogger in my thirties. Everywhere I go people comment on how good I look (compared, no doubt, to how I looked last year.)
Anyway, I recommend that you read the book no matter how old you are. It is profound and also a fun book to read. They go into specific detail as to how your body functions and you will understand things about health and fitness that you may have never heard before. Plus you'll have some good laughs. If you'd like to never have to "diet" again, then read and follow their advice.
You can become "younger" and stay that way well into your nineties and beyond.
BTW, take up hiking too.
I've been part of a local hiking group here in California for a few years now. Every Wednesday and Sunday we meet at 7am for a 3.5 mile hike to the top of one of the local mountains. About 8 to 16 of us show up on a typical day. The seven mile round trip takes us just under two hours.
We do what might be called "Speed Hiking". We have a hiking pole in each hand, set our watches at the trail head and hike non-stop (not even pausing) to the mountain top. Each of us goes for a personal best time, and of course, we compete with whoever is nearest us on the hike. It is great fun, enormously strenuous, and it uses virtually every tendon and muscle in your body.
Want great legs? Take up hiking. Want to improve your balance, again go hiking. The uneven surfaces, the up and down hills, the beauty and fresh air, all make for a great exercise. Don't stop for the views until your return trip. Buy some good poles and shoes, dress appropriately for the weather and find some friends to hike with.
See you on the trails.
Jim
PS Please read my "state of the union" blog if you haven't already.