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What Professional Speakers Can Do For You!

By Craig Harrison
Past NSA/NC President

Many are the benefits of hiring professional speakers to address your group, association or corporation. By recognizing the myriad ways professional speakers can contribute to your morale, esprit de corps, and bottom line, you'll value the various ways of partner with speakers for successful programs and special events

What Is A Professional speaker?

Simply put, a professional speaker is a skilled practitioner of his or her craft, speaking, who is paid to speak to a given group. This professional brings value to each audience, leaving them more motivated, inspired, educated, entertained or some combination of the above, at presentation's end. Beyond the immediate "feel good" generated by a speaker at the time of the presentation, speaking pros regularly leave their audiences with a desire to change, the confidence to act and the proper tools to succeed.

Professional speakers come from many backgrounds, bring different expertise, have styles as diverse as the wines in a good wine cellar, and like a fine wine, have both a distinctive taste and memorable aftertaste

What We're Not!

Motivational speakers are often met with some degree of skepticism by companies when we call seeking engagements. People question the usefulness of bringing in a professional speaker to address their employees, association members or staff. Some perceive outside speakers as snake oil salesmen, glorified cheerleaders, or akin to the bizarre speaker character, Matt Foley, popularized by the late Chris Farley on Saturday Night Live. (It's OK, we laugh at that character too!)

The truth is, professional speakers offer great value to clients in a number of ways. Once you recognize their contributions you’ll be better able to pick one which fits your needs

Outside perspectives.

Too often companies are beset with groupthink, wherein everyone shares the prevailing opinions of their management, which leads to a tendency to ignore or downgrade alternative perspectives. A motivational speaker brings his or her own perspective, unencumbered by prevailing sentiment or corporate ethos. Their voice may be a breath of fresh air, or sound a clarion. Either way, their words are welcome and their perspective vital

Industry Experience.

Often a company's employees know' the company way, to the exclusion of alternative ways of doing things. Motivational speakers often bring years of industry experience from competitors or even pioneers in the field. For employees used to hearing about the industry from their own experiences within their own company, the outside perspective is valuable and often both eye-opening and mind opening.

The Tough Message.

There are times when the outsider can better deliver the tough message. They can come in, tell it like it is, rattle a few cages, and then disappear. The internal speaker bears the baggage of resentment, repercussions or reprisals. Often listeners take the message personally when it is delivered by an insider, whose existing relationships can't help but cloud the message and the way it is received.

Uniqueness.

Many motivational speakers are one of a kind. Their unique blend of skills and experience insures that their perspective is fresh and their presentation impactful. Consider the humorist who managed a comedy club, the singing keynoter, the bankruptcy expert who helps you succeed, the keynote speaker who skydives into your event to kick it off or even this article's author, who got his start as a humorist going door-to-door selling used jokes.

Availability.

If by now you see the value of hiring motivational speakers you're probably wondering where to shop for the right one for your company, association or event. I have an easy answer: your Northern California local chapter of the National Speakers Association (NSA). In fact, it's home to each of the aforementioned speakers. There are hundreds of other speakers to choose from in NSA/NC: speakers who are magicians, hypnotherapists, image consultants, coaches, recovering lawyers, Internet gurus and more.

The NSA Advantage.

By hiring a speaker, trainer or consultant who is a member of the National Speakers Association you are retaining a professional who adheres to a code of ethics, has demonstrated their professionalism and has received training in how to 'cater' to the needs of their clients needs, serving the audience what they seek, desire or need. NSA speakers can be scouted from their website: www.nsanc.org.

Just as fine wine can really accentuate a wonderful meal let an NSA speaker nourish your audience at the next conference, convention or special event you create. We're here to cater to your needs.

Professional speaker Craig Harrison is a past president of the National Speakers Association -- Northern California chapter. He uses humor to promote customer service, improve others' communication skills and enhance teambuilding.

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To schedule an engagement,
contact Craig by email: Craig@ExpressionsOfExcellence.com
or by phone: (510) 547-0664.

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