Presenters Do Not Get Paid What They Are Worth, They Get Paid What They Ask For
A few years ago I found myself in Cairo Egypt. I was conducting a presentation skills training and a media training workshop for a number of executives over a period of days. Executives had worked for a major construction company.
My client was nice enough to hire me a tour guide and it was not just any tour guide. It was someone who was a trained Egyptologist. Latifah was her name and she really knew her stuff. So I had a driver and I had the Egyptologist telling me all the significant facts about major places. We went into the great pyramids. She was able to explain everything to me. “TJ this is what… and it was just amazing the detail. Latifah was able to explain to me. I really felt like it was an enriched cultural experience. Of course I did the touristy things too. Like getting up on the camel and getting my picture taken in front of the great pyramids. But I learned a lot too about a great ancient civilization went to the great museum. She was there with me guiding me through. It was a true educational process. It was clear she really knew her stuff. She had trained for years’ undergraduate graduate degree at some point.
I did feel compelled to ask I did not know how much the whole day had cost. But it came out that the day was about $300. I did ask her I am just curious you have to tell me. If you do not want to but how much do you get of this Latifah? She said “oh I get $15” well I kind of felt bad and almost embarrassed. Of course I did give a tip but I asked her. I was like why are you doing all this for some other company? Why do not you just market yourself? Get your own customers and charge $300. You will have a much more lucrative income. She told me I just never really thought about. Not much of a marketer did not have a business card. I said you have any videos of yourself because you explain things beautifully. Your voice is great, easy to understand for westerners. I do not know why you could not have a big thriving business.
So before you know it. I am pulling out my cell phone. I am capturing videos of her explaining this in part. Because I want to help her. Selfish reasons I just wanted more information for myself. But I told her you know what. I am gonna email you all these and you can start your own website. Start marketing yourself, make 20 times as much money. That way she was very excited about this. I wrote down her email captured the videos when I got home. I am ready to send her the video. Of course I am showing my wife family, friends, all my great videos. I am excited about sending these videos to her. Then I look at my own handwriting. I cannot make out what it was. I guess I try to send the email. It bounced back not an email address.
So I never got the videos to her. I did not help her at all. Unfortunately, she never reached out to me. I did give her my card and she did not reach out. If she had I would have sent her the videos right away.
What is the point of all this? She is a great presenter. She has tremendous knowledge, great animation engaging voice engaging, insights. She was making $15 a day. Now I am not trying to say that money is the only thing that matters or that somehow that makes her a bad person. My only point is the difference between 70 makes 15 dollars a day and 300 hours a day or even 15,000 dollars a day. Is not necessarily their education level? She has more formal education than I do. It is not necessarily how well they communicate or their voice or their looks quite often? It just comes down to: are you willing to market yourself? Are you willing to show people how well you speak? Are you willing to ask people for money?
so the reason I point this out? The reason I tell this story is I do think that whether you are an executive within a corporation or you’re someone aspiring to be a professional speaker or trainer? It is not enough to have the technical skills. You have to actually be aggressive at marketing yourself. Putting videos of yourself up. I might not be the best speaker in the world. I might not be the best trainer in the world but you’re gonna have a hard time going on YouTube. Finding more presentation skills, videos public speaking training videos, or media training videos from anyone in the entire world. You are not going to find anyone with more videos than I have. I am putting myself out there. You can go on this platform or any other and try to find someone who has more public speaking your presentation skills courses. You are not going to find anyone with more. So whatever flaws I have I am not afraid to put myself out there. If you want to be successful I believe you have to do the same.
A Masterclass in Storytelling
In this section of the course I practice what I preach. I tell stories to illustrate key points. Now there are a lot of stories here. In each story, each video you are going to see there is only one idea. I am trying to convey I would recommend that you look at the title carefully. Look at the point I am trying to convey if you feel like you have already got the point or you do not care about it. Do not watch it. Not everyone wants to see every single story in your life about what happened to you. I realize not all of you want to see every single story that is happened to me. These are all of the most interesting stories at least to me that have happened throughout my career. That I think are relevant to people who are trying to communicate more effectively. Now I am not just rambling on and on about my life. Telling you find interesting things that happen to me. All of these stories are about a point that I think are going to be important interesting or useful to people who are trying to build their communication skills. I state at the end of the story what the point was. I am hoping you got it before that but I tell you what the point was to drive it home further. If you are incredibly interested in me and the idea of being a public speaking trainer or media trainer, I think you will find this section particularly interesting. If you are not interested in b and that is okay. You are here just to get the basic skills. You need to be great at your presentation skills you might want to skip all of this. All I ask is make sure that when you are coming up with your own presentation. Do not skip the storytelling part. Because you have heard me say at many places throughout this course. The most important part of being a great presenter, the strongest presentation skill is the ability to illustrate key points with interesting memorable, relevant stories. So let’s hope in if you can join me go to the next video can. We go to the whole next section defended be my guest.