Daily Inspiration: "Motivation is overrated in the face of better insight!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
"Are you a motivational speaker?"
Hell yes! But not really.
That's the question I always get when meeting new people and the topic comes around to what each of us do for a living. The question quite possibly could drive me nuts, because I think "motivational speakers" like Tony Robbins and others who encourage people to walk across the fire to discover their 'internal strength' are just a bunch of crackpots!
I know that I'm now headed into the season when I'll get asked the question a lot - with my golf season starting soon, I'll be meeting many new people out on the course. Sometimes, for the fun of it, I explain my career this way: "Well, I go out and talk to large groups of hungover people." To a degree, that's what I'm doing when I'm keynoting events in Las Vegas, Palm Springs, or New Orleans - the big convention cities where people head to their annual conferences and events. The fact is, speakers like me earn our pay with audiences like that -- yet can still change their world for the better if we can get through the haze of their misery!
But then I will patiently explain that I'm a 'futurist, trends & innovation expert," and outline a little bit of the work I do. Some folks still don't quite understand that after I spend a bit of time explaining what I do from the stage, and some I will finally give up and will admit that yes, I am somewhat like a motivational speaker - and that I'm pretty darn good at it!
