When I told my brother, with whom I run Louis Cars with, that I’d started Life Coaches Blog, he groaned something about another motivational speaker…grumble grumble.
But coaches aren’t motivational speakers! What’s the difference?
What’s a motivational speaker? Generally, picture someone speaking to a large group of people, hyping them up, giving them the low-down on how it is. That’s one to many. It’s got to be a pretty generalized message, for it to go over so many heads.
Now, imagine someone talking with you, face-to-face, asking you about your specific needs and wants, and outlining a personal strategy with you to get there. That’s one to one. It’s specific and tailor-made. That’s coaching.
Can a coaching session be motivational? Sure. But we’re more concerned with getting you to done than getting you to rah-rah let’s do it. Coaching understands that motivation is not a one-off thing; you do not inject motivation and it runs forever and ever. That kind of motivation is like a caffeine hit, you injest, get really hyper for a while, then hit the down and putter out.
Coaching is regular motivation, or rather regular reviewing, re-strategising and re-momentuming (yes, I just made up a word) that gets you motivated like a professional athelete does: she knows she can’t hit the gym once, run 10 miles and expect to be fit forever. Nope, it’s constant fine-tuning, regularly. Even if it’s just by small increments in performance each and every time, those small increments add up to a lot.
And that’s why a coach is not a motivational speaker.
January 26th, 2006 at 11:42 am
First of all, I’d like to clarify that your brother has prejudiced the term ‘motivational speaker’ through your description of the way he ‘groaned’. I suppose that brings to mind a far more interesting idea – are Motivational Speakers motivational?
Who in the world gave them the title anyway?
I mean I have people who claim they are motivational speakers, but they are not just drop dead boring, a number of them don’t understand the dynamics of what makes a good training. I recently came across a person commenting about a so-called trainer. This person says he reads about this trainer in press releases all the time, but was sorely disappointed when she met him because this trainer was not a speaker but an opportunistic salesman.
I didn’t expect this reaction so strongly, but I suppose she has her right to interpretation.
So, in short, the term ‘Motivational Speaker’ is probably a term I ought to avoid, huh.
Keep up with the great work, guys,
Stuart
August 20th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Hey!
Some people may say a “motivational speaker” comes with a lot of fluff, but no substance. Honestly, it depends on the speaker.
As in any field, you will have some who are outstanding at what they do. And others who are not, and you may wonder why they can call themselves whatever it is they do.
I’m a professional speaker. I’m also called a motivational speaker. And I’ve been called a great story teller.
My job is simple…I motivate, inspire, and educate people on why and how to succeed with their endeavors.
I do this with several emotions: excitement, enthusiasm, seriousness, humor, and whatever is relevant for that specific talk.
This is all based on my personal history. A story I share with lessons of failure and success, and how I went from a very disadvantaged life, becoming a high school dropout and breaking the law to becoming a CEO and having a master’s degree.
I believe that if I can do it, heck, ANYONE CAN!
Please remember these three things:
1. Motivation jump starts someone.
2. Inspiration keeps them going.
3. Education teaches the why’s and how’s.
Success is a Choice!
Education * Life * Career
-gbb
http://www.GlennBrandonBurke.com
August 21st, 2007 at 12:34 am
Good points Glenn
I haven’t checked out your site yet but it sounds like you have a heckava story to tell – especially since you started from a tough place and climbed up.
Thanks for sharing!
July 1st, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Well, for there is no big difference between the two since both are processes that need to be achieved by a person.
-Jan
July 17th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Interesting insight you got here. There is a fine line between coaching and motivational speaking.
October 2nd, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I think motivating is part of coaching. A coach won’t be an effective coach if he/she is not able to motivate the people he’s/she’s coaching. Why do we employing coaching in the first place..in order to get there..to reach our goals..and we are only able to do so if we have motivated. Motivation drives us..keeps us going.
October 7th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Life coach and motivational speaker are 2 different things, but somehow related. A coach motivates, somehow a motivational speaker touches on coaching but just very little. Motivational speaker talks about problems and solving it, in general, while a coach uses different approaches to every situation.
just my 2 cents.
regards,
Eve