Warning About Speaker Coaches for Professional Speakers

When you are working as a public speaker, or you are in training to be a public  speaker, be careful and watchful of those who claim to be speaker coaches. A speaker coach will come up to you, give you a lot of hype that he/she can take you to your next level and get you to the point where you can make a lot more money. This is fine and good if they do it. However, this is not always the case.

Speaker coaching involves finding people who are actively involved in public speaking,. or are just entering the trade and go after them . So basically, speaker coaching involved coaching speakers. They teach speakers how to be better speakers. There is one problem with this. If the speaker coach does not have any formal training as a public speaker, or has never given a speech, how are they going to train you to be better speakers.

Public speaking coaches should not only be trained to give speeches, but they also should have experience as public speakers. Don't get me wrong. Public speaking coaching can be very lucrative, if the public speaking coach has the backing of what they say, to prove they can coach. It is like playing basketball or baseball. The only way a baseball coach can guide his team to victory is if he knows the rules of the game. The same with basketball, if the coach doesn't know how the game is played, he can't possibly be a good coach and guide his team to victory. He may have some knowledge of the game, but if he doesn't know the rules and know how to motivate his team to play to their optimum best, he won't make it. It takes a special skill to be a coach.

It takes leadership ability and a great deal of knowledge of the game to be a coach, no matter what sport it is. This is the same with speaking coaching. If you don't know the craft of speaking, and have never done it yourself, how can you get others to do it. So if you run into a speaking coach, and this person tries to get you to sign up for his/her program, ask questions. Find out if the person has experience as a speaker. Find out how many speaking engagements the speaking coach has had. If the answer is zero, stay away.  Don't get involved. Because how can they teach you if they don't know the rules themselves.