Career
Core Values Yield Consummate Performanceby Burt Dubin
Every great speaker was once a neophyte. Nido Qubein got off the boat without a word of English. Bill Gove hustled product for 3M corporation. Rosita Perez was a social worker. How did they, and hundreds of other successful experts who speak, rise from obscurity to significance?
I don’t pretend to share their real-world history. And, based on the principles of
human nature, here’s my guesstimate of the nature of their evolution from zip to magnificence as a person as a person first and then as an expert who speaks.
Core value #1: Openness and generosity.
This one was inspired by NSAs founder, Cavett Robert. Don’t be greedy for your share of the pie. Instead, make it a bigger pie. Be willing to offer words of guidance to newer speakers. Great speakers do this.
Core value #2: Resolute determination to succeed in your speaking business.
This includes recognition that speaking is not a profession. Speaking is a business. Succeeding as an expert who speaks takes your making intelligent business decisions. This inevitably leads to nose-to-the-grindstone activities, midnight oil, never giving up despite formidable challenges and road blocks.
Core Value #3: Energy, all-but-endless energy.
Readiness to drive all night through a raging storm to present bright and early next morning in weather so bad all planes are grounded. Many of us have done that. Willingness to consistently do more that is expected, more than is required, more than anyone in their right mind would do to serve the client.
Core value #4: Diligence. Careful attention to the details.
Every possible detail that turns an engagement from unexciting to unforgettable. My guess is there are well over 200 details every one of which matters to make each booking successful for all the constituents. These include the decision-maker who hires you, the client who pays you, and the audience before which you are privileged to speak.
Core value #5: Presence.
That quality of beingness which magnetizes eyes to you before you say a word. This comes from a certain sureness on your part, a sureness that you’ve researched thoroughly, prepared well, and that you’re emotionally, psychologically, and physically primed to deliver a stellar program. It seeps up from your spirit, emanates from your essence, soars from your soul, and manifests from the marrow of your bones. It rises as a glow from inside you, a glow that people can see in your stance, a glow that’s visible in your glance and palpable in your poise.
Core value #6: Intuition.
Your inner knowing, your sensing in the moment as you stand there waiting to be introduced, the mood in the room, the feelings of your audience, the attitudes of the top brass, the desires of the decision-maker regarding the outcomes of your program. Your inner wisdom relative to deleting this story, adding that one, shortening or lengthening your presentation to suit the right now needs of the meeting planner.
Core value #7: Balance.
I mean retaining balance in your life. Putting first things first. This surely includes your spiritual life, quality time with your significant other and your children, all first. This means placing your loved ones ahead of your speaking business, being devoted to their happiness before your career. And maintaining peak personal health, too. Balancing the rigors of travel, fast food, missed meals, finding where and when to exercise.
All of this is not easy. One way is to book time for these values on your calendar first. Some top speakers book whole weeks and months away with their loved ones. Rudyard Kipling's classic poem “If” comes to mind. I do not offer answers to these challenges. I simply place them before as puzzles to be solved on the way to your making yourself a consummate speaker.
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Burt Dubin, a 20 year veteran of the business of speaking, coaches and mentors speakers and wanna-be’s world-wide. Burt works with people who want to be speakers and with speakers who want to be masters. The words of his clients, the admiration and respec
