Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kansas) made the Democratic response to George Bush’s State of the Union Address last night. Sebelius looked professional, smooth, competent, and knowledgeable.

But…

She read from a Teleprompter, and the truth is, it’s darned hard to read form a Teleprompter without putting people to sleep. Why? Because when non=professionals read form a Teleprompter, they tend to speak at the same speed, the same tone, the same volume throughout. The result? Sameness, which means boredom.

I happened to be watching Sebuelius’ speech with people who supported her politics and agenda. But after five minutes, everyone in the room was complaining about how boring and how long the speech was.

If you are going to use a Teleprompter, just realize that it is harder to do than working from notes. It is crucial that you get comfortable not only with the words, but with where you will change your speed, volume, tempo and where you will insert pauses. If you don’t prepare and rehearse these, you will bore your audience to death.

I’m not weighing in on the politics of the day regarding Bill Clinton’s involvement with his wife’s presidential campaign. However, I am interested in his thought process regarding public speaking. I take as a given that no serious person doubts Bill Clinton’s prowess as a public speaker.

In today’s New York Times, we get a glimpse of exactly why:

“When former President Bill Clinton took to the podium on Friday at the Chapman Cultural Center in Spartanburg, he told the audience a story. He said he had just inadvertently walked into the adjacent auditorium and was mortified to see that all the seats were empty. Then, he recounted, he saw a ‘tech guy’ in the back of the room and said to himself, ‘well, I’ll give my best speech to one guy.’ He pounded his fist. ‘I’ll give my best speech if it’s the last thing I do today.’”

There reeally are no small speaking audiences, just small speakers. Bill Clinton may be many things to many people, but he is never an unenthusiastic speaker.

I feel for former President Bill Clinton. He is, by all accounts, an indefatigable campaigner, often getting by with less than four hours sleep. Well, apparently even Clinton gets tired. Below is a video clip of Clinton snoozing and attempting in vain to stay awake while on the stage behind a speaker. My cheap easy advice is for everyone to get at least 8 hours of sleep, not only on days when you are speaking, but also when you are going to be near any0one else who is speaking and might have a video camera pointed at him or her. If you need motivation to get a good night’s sleep, then you need to watch this.

http://www.nypost.com/video/?vxSiteId=0db7b365-a288-4708-857b-8bdb545cbd0f&vxChannel=NY%20Post&vxClipId=1458_227094&vxBitrate=700

In America, the fastest way to look like a rank amateur is to ask a TV producer what you will be paid for being interviewed. You don’t usually get any fee unless you have been on for free as a guest and now are being promoted to the level of an official commentator or expert for that show or network. But in England, for example, the rules are different. Check out this article for how things are done there.

I have written a lot about pausing in the past. Here are some additional insights about the pause as it relates to humor from well-know speaking expert Tom Antion.

“In joke telling, a pause just before and just after your punch line sets it apart from the setup of the joke and gives the audience a chance to laugh. Absolutely do not continue to talk when laughter is expected. Laughter is hard to get and easy to discourage. Hold eye contact a little bit longer than you think you should when delivering punch lines because time is hard to judge when you are pumped-up for a presentation.
The size of your audience will affect your timing. Your presentation will take less time to deliver to smaller audiences. Smaller audiences should mean quicker laughter. Conversely, presentations will take longer for extremely large crowds. Your pauses will be longer to compensate for the wave effect created because of the physical distance between you and the back row of the audience.” from Wake ‘em Up Business Presentations

As someone involved in the world of professional speaking, I see a lot of people who prey upon unsuspecting, gullible individuals with the notions of “Get rich quick!!! Be a professional speaker and make millions!!! Make $15,000 per hour!!!”

Like most things, there is a kernel of truth to this, and a mountain of but’s.

Here is the reality: there is a tiny handful of professional speakers who make seven figure incomes from speaking. There is a slightly bigger handful of people who make decent six figure incomes as speakers. And there are a ton of so-called professional speakers who make five figure incomes, often less than $50,000 per year.

Let’s look at some hard numbers:

National Speakers Association (the organization for professional speakers) 4,000 members

Toastmasters (organization for business people who happen to speak)   250,000 members.

Do you see a slight difference?

Even though I am a professional speaker and trainer and am the president of the National Speakers Association New York Chapter, I can’t in good conscience encourage most people to become professional speakers. The odds simply aren’t there.

The odds of become, say, a successful motivational speaker and making a seven figure income are, roughly 1 in a million.

The odds of being a financial planner or insurance agent who learns how to speak effectively at public financial seminars and achieving a seven figure income (or at least a high six figure income) are roughly 1 in 2.

Which set of odds do you prefer?

For most people, it is a much better strategy to become good at a real business (unrelated to speaking) and then to use public speaking as a marketing tool to differentiate themselves from competitors, acquire customers more cost-effectively etc.

So for many of you who have made New Year’s resolutions to start a new career and are thinking about becoming a professional speaker, please look at the hard numbers and make sure that speaking isn’t a better means to your ends rather than your ultimate end goal.

Because of all the types of speaking, motivational speaking, in the classic sense, is the easiest to devolve into meaningless clichés and useless abstractions. Personally, whenever I hear most motivational speakers, all I hear is Chris Farley’s absurd satire of a motivational speaker in his Matt Foley skit on Saturday Night Live. If you want three minutes of pure joy and a lifetime of future chuckles at other motivational speakers, then watch this Chris Farley video on youtube here.

This blog is more of a personal blog capturing my relfections on speaking. I also host a two daily shows on public speaking at The Speaking Channel. Please check in there from time to time to watch the latest Bully Pulpits segment or Speakcast shows.

I’m often asked by aspiring professional speakers “what is the easiest way to learn about and get started as a professional speaker?” If they are in New York City, I invite them to attend a meeting of the National Speakers Association New York Chapter. Especially since I am president of the New York Chapter, I try to extend an invitation to everyone. I also advise people to try to become a member of the National Speakers Association.

However, this does present a chicken and egg situation. You can’t become a member of NSA unless you can document a certain number of professionally paid speeches you have given. And lots of people can’t figure out how to get paid gigs without the knowledge provided by the NSA. So, where to start? I advise people who are exploring the professional speaking market to take a simple, easy and inexpensive start into the professional speaking market by simply subscribing to the NSA monthly magazine called Speaker (you don’t have to be a member to subscribe). The magazine only costs $49 a year and is full of practical business tips on entering and advancing in the world of paid speaking. In fact, back in the day, I subscribed to the magazine for several years before making the plunge and becoming a professional member of the NSA. I still read the magazine each month and recommend it to others.