Your journey in learning the craft of professional speaking is likely to be filled with inspiration, introspection, and perhaps a good deal of aggravation. The speaker's journey is one where you seek not just to discover your voice, but also to understand the profound responsibility that comes with using it.
‍
Stirring the Pot: How a Chef's Journey Mirrors Your Path to Professional Speaking Success
‍
During one of many torrential downpours of late, Amy and I binged a TV show called Five Star Chef, where a group of chefs compete for the top job at one of England's most prestigious five-star restaurants. The show appraises chefs not only on their culinary skills, but also on their business acumen―assessing how praiseworthy, promotional, and profitable their concepts are, as well as their proficiency in managing a five-star restaurant business.
‍
The parallels between the work of a chef and a professional speaker are profound.
‍
Just as a chef meticulously combines ingredients to create a delightful culinary experience, a speaker harmoniously blends words, ideas, and emotions to craft a compelling narrative. Both strive for a reaction―an appreciative sigh, a round of applause, a changed perspective. Just like chefs need to understand their audience's palate to serve the most satisfying dishes, speakers must grasp their audience's interests, challenges, and aspirations to deliver truly impactful speeches. And in both professions, consistency, creativity, business acumen, relevance, and the ability to transform feedback into improvement are the hallmarks of excellence.
‍
Amateur vs. Professional: Where Do You Stand?
‍
There’s a big difference, however, between an amateur chef and a professional chef. The distinction lies in their objectives, level of skill refinement, and overall approach to their craft. An amateur chef typically cooks for the sheer joy of it, experimenting with flavors and ingredients, and their culinary creations are often shared with friends and family. They may join Facebook groups dedicated to their preferred styles of cooking or cuisines and draw "expertise" from social media chefs and Instagram influencers. They may indeed create delicious meals, but they are not usually driven by the rigorous standards, methodologies, or the commercial considerations that guide a professional chef.
‍
A professional chef, on the other hand, operates within the demanding environment of a commercial kitchen, where they are not only responsible for crafting exquisite dishes but also ensuring these dishes are promotable, profitable, and consistently reproduced at a high standard. Typically, they have undergone formal training, mastered various techniques, and developed a deep understanding of ingredients and cuisines. Beyond cooking, they must manage kitchen staff and cater to the tastes and dietary needs of a diverse and demanding clientele. They don't just cook; they create culinary experiences with the intention of making a livelihood from their craft.
‍
From Passion to Profession: Speaking as a Business
‍
For instance, an amateur cook might whip up a large batch of grandma’s legendary spaghetti for a family gathering, completely forgetting to check if there’s enough parmesan cheese. As they set the dish on the table, they realize their blunder. But what happens? A chuckle goes around the table, Uncle Joe cracks a joke about the 'cheese-less wonder', and life goes on. No harm done, right?
‍
However, imagine a professional chef in a five-star restaurant forgetting to order enough parmesan for the night’s service. The next thing you know, a disgruntled food critic with a forkful of 'cheese-less wonder' drafts a scathing review that could potentially sink the restaurant’s reputation. The chef's blunder, unlike our home cook, is no laughing matter―it's a potential career killer. And if it happens regularly, they may find themselves back in the amateur league, cooking up large batches of spaghetti for family and friends―assuming they can still stomach the 'cheese-less wonder.'
‍
A professional chef doesn't start as the head chef at a five-star restaurant. They often spend years, if not decades, receiving formal training from top-tier culinary institutes worldwide, followed by additional years proving their competency and working their way up the hierarchy in kitchens. The professional development and trajectory towards competency in the professional speaking industry mirrors that of a chef.
‍
Like a chef, a speaker can either be amateur or professional, both excellent in their own right but markedly different in their aspirations and their approach. An amateur speaker, much like an amateur chef, creates and speaks for the love of it. Their message might not be particularly refined, they may not always solve a problem, some of their stories won’t land, yet they are warmly received by their small audience because they are well intentioned and can be helpful (this is one of the reasons that aspiring professionals misjudge the quality and level of their work). But the amateur speaker’s work is not commercial. They don't depend on it for their livelihood―which is the key distinction. The work of a professional is to make a craft into a trade, or turn a passion into profit.
‍
The Professional Speaking Journey: Continuous Learning and Evolution
‍
Professional speakers, much like professional chefs, don't start off being top-notch. They often spend over a decade learning the ropes, trying to become professionals until they eventually figure it out. Others embark on focused, intentional, and diligent training early in their career to build proficiency, even mastery, right from the start. However, all professionals continue to hone their skills over time, refining their professionalism and accruing wisdom from their experiences. Just like chefs, professional speakers progress the fastest when they are mentored and taught by master teachers with extremely high expectations. There is simply no better way to become a professional than to be taught by the highest-level professionals in your field—people who have already been doing what you want to do for 20 or 30 years.
‍
Avoiding Common Mistakes in the Transition from Amateur to Professional
‍
An all too common mistake made by amateurs in the speaking world is the assumption that they can seamlessly transition from amateur to high-level professional without diligent and deep work, apprenticeship, or demonstration of competency. Simply having high-level corporate, military, political, entrepreneurial or academic experience does not necessarily equip one to shoulder the weight of a high-stakes event, such as a closing keynote for an audience of 1,000 or 5,000 attendees. Only first becoming proficient and then eventually achieving mastery in both speech creation and performance, along with the business of speaking, is what actually ensures you’re prepared. Under pressure, you don't rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training. Â
‍
Balancing Passion with Business Acumen in Professional Speaking
‍
If you aspire to turn your speaking skills into a business, I hope you understand that delivering a transformational and profitable speech is akin to cooking a sumptuous and profitable meal. It's not just about creating something pleasing to you; it's about creating something that solves a big problem or meets a compelling need for your audience―something that meeting planners will pay for.
‍
But it's not enough to just deliver a meaningful message. You’ll also need to create a product that produces word of mouth marketing and consistently receives new inquiries to speak at your quoted fee. Once you turn pro, your work is no longer just about you and your passions. You’re now the owner of a business that must consistently produce profitable speeches for years to come.
‍
The Importance of Flexibility and Feedback in Professional Speaking
‍
Furthermore, it’s imperative—table stakes, really—to master the art of delivery, understand how to build business relationships, and ensure you can consistently replicate success. Much like a chef whose menu is finely tuned to the tastes of their customers, you must tailor your speeches to the needs of your audience. And just like the chef who needs to adjust on the fly when there’s an issue with preparation or service, you need to be flexible. You need to be capable of adjusting the length of your speech in the moment to suit the circumstances of the event you’re speaking at.
‍
And then there’s feedback. The chef hears from their customers, you hear from your audiences and colleagues. The feedback might not always be pleasant, and it’s not always going to be accurate. But just like the chef, you must know how to filter, analyze, and act (or not) on this feedback to continuously refine your product and make it more appealing to buyers.
‍
Evolving from Amature to Professional Speaker
‍
My message to you: if you want to stay an amateur speaker, do so with pride and enjoy it. It’s certainly much easier than becoming a professional. However, if you wish to truly become a professional speaker, really learn to be one. Don’t just tire kick and dabble around the edges of the profession. Aspire to be more than just an amateur who speaks for the love of it. Strive to be someone who understands how a speech is valued.
‍
When you embarked on your journey as a speaker, perhaps your ambitions didn't go beyond delivering a few amateur speeches each year. At the time, you might have been inclined towards sharing your personal story or pursuing a passion project, with the thought of profit taking a back seat. However, as you progressed, your aspirations may have evolved. Maybe you've realized that you have significant potential to not only earn a substantial income as a professional speaker but also to impact lives, one speech at a time.
‍
Being a Pro Might Mean Some of Your Old Stuff Has to Go
‍
This shift in your objectives might necessitate a corresponding change in your strategy, both in the design and delivery of the speech and the way you understand and approach the business of speaking. By revising your approach, you can align your content, sales, and positioning choices more effectively with your newly discovered professional aspirations. Even your session descriptions need to be written differently. Certainly don’t underestimate the importance of the title. When you’re a professional, all of your creative choices must be filtered through a commercial strainer.
‍
If you’re worried that you have to start all over, you probably needn’t be. (You’re never actually starting all over, but that’s a lesson for another day.) But, okay, let’s just say that you do need to start over to make your speech work on the professional circuit. Fine. You’re not lazy or entitled. You understand that if you want extraordinary results and experiences in your life, you’ve got to give extraordinary attention and time to the pursuit of your goals. I don’t have to tell you that resilience and persistence are the hallmarks of any highly competent, in-demand professional—including the professional speaker. Â
‍
Striving for Consistency and Excellence in Speaking
‍
Just like a five-star chef doesn’t wing a dinner service, making up the menu as she goes expecting to get rave reviews and repeat customers, a professional speaker iterates and improves their work regularly. A five-star chef doesn’t cook a dish once and then immediately add it to their menu. They perfect and pressure test it over time in their test kitchens. They prepare the dish for focus groups until they feel they can produce it at the highest quality, the same exact way, every single time. In fact, they do this with hundreds, if not thousands of dishes over the course of a career. They’ll experiment, test, tweak, sometimes throw it in the trash, only to start all over again. And again. And again. Each iteration of the dish takes them closer to the level expected from a professional for a paying customer. The same is true for the professional speaker.
‍
Fortunately, as a professional speaker, you don’t have to produce thousands of speeches, you can keep working on one until it’s a referable speech that you can deliver successfully and profitably for years to come. Each time you deliver it, a handful of people will come up to you and say, “Your speech is perfect for my audience! We have an event coming up on April 17 of next year. Are you available and what’s your fee?” To turn this lead into a sale, you’ll need to know exactly how to handle it. What to say and do. How to secure a contract on that inquiry and the 25 other steps that you’ll need to take to service that client as a professional speaker.
‍
Finally: Becoming a Successful Professional Speaker
‍
There’s an old adage that says most people won’t hear what you’re saying until you're sick of saying it. I can relate. But that’s the job of an educator, so I’m quite happy to continue to remind you that if you want to have a substantial and sustainable career as a professional speaker, it’s likely that you need to get better—a lot better—as a speechwriter, stage performer, business professional, and creator of sticky intellectual property. If you don’t hear me today, maybe you’ll hear me tomorrow or next month or next year. Assuming you keep listening, I’ll keep saying it until you hear it. My hope is that I can replace your comfort with Facebook groups and one-day workshops with the meaningful discomfort of doing long-term, deep work on both the creative and business aspects of your career.
‍
If you aspire to become a professional speaker, consider undergoing comprehensive training. This should include the creative aspect to enhance your speech-writing and performance skills, and the business component to evolve into a savvy industry professional who understands the uniqueness and idiosyncrasies of the speaking industry. This dual focus will effectively equip you with an equivalent of both an MFA and MBA in professional speaking, ostensibly earning you a Masters of Professional Speaking (MPS). You can do it with us.
.jpg)
.jpg)
