Dr. Meggin McIntosh was born in South Carolina, grew up in Tennessee and Kentucky, graduated from college and taught elementary school in Missouri, earned a master’s degree and taught elementary and high school in Texas, earned a Ph.D. in Texas while teaching high school and then undergraduate classes, taught undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Nevada, Reno (10 years), founded and directed the Excellence in Teaching Program at the University of Nevada, Reno (5 years), then entered the full-time speaker, author, entrepreneur portion of her life as of January 2004, and she is doing just fine.

You can find out where Meggin is speaking next through her website at:  www.Meggin.com

If you ended up here through the hyperlink in the digital version of Finding Speaking Success, please take a moment to sign out guest book and leave a comment below to let Meggin know what you thought of her interview!

Imagine for a moment that your worst speaker’s nightmare came true. Imagine that you took the stage to give a riveting speech… but forgot to put on pants that morning.

After the audience stopped laughing long enough to realize that you’re determined to deliver your speech, there would be a dramatic shift in the atmosphere of the room.

First, aversion would run rampant. The audience would probably not like you very much. Some might even get up and leave because you obviously can’t be taken seriously and are not worth their time.

Your audience will not trust you, because you clearly can’t even dress yourself in the morning… so what makes you such an expert?

Worst of all, they will be very distracted. Your message will be completely lost in lieu of the fact that you have no pants. You will be forever known as the Pantsless Speaker, not as the forerunner of your platform topic… which no one can seem to remember anyway, because you are the Pantsless Speaker.

Credibility is absolutely irreplaceable for the professional speaker. Without it, you may as well speak nekkid.

What is this credibility…

Being credible is simply defined as being believable. Most folks aren’t going to take a speaker without pants on very seriously, or believe much of what he has to say… just like they won’t take you seriously if you are unbelievable.

Less simply, credibility can be defined as the instinctual sense that an audience gets when they feel from the pit of their stomach that you are trustworthy. They are moved to listen to you because of your experience, your expertise, and the people who have validated your name.

Credibility also determines the size and dedication of your audience. As we just found out from your nightmare, people will simply not listen to someone they do not trust, cannot be trusted, or has done something fishy in the past.

In short, your credibility determines whether or not people will listen to you.

And if you plan on making a name for yourself in professional speaking, you’d better have people listening to you. So it follows that you absolutely, positively, 100% must be a credible speaker.

…and where can I get it?

Though modern politics may speak otherwise, true credibility cannot be bought and sold. It must be built. It must be worked for. Subsequently, it also must be maintained and cared for. It must have its wrinkles ironed out, be pressed, and perfectly kept. Like pants.

Take a lesson from Don Imus to see just how easy it is to lose your success just by losing your credibility.

Before Don Imus not-so-affectionately called the women’s basketball team at Rutger’s University “nappy-headed [gardening tools],” he had a nationally-syndicated morning radio show on MSNBC.

He lost all of his success in the moments it took to speak that sentence. He offended many, many people, even (then presidential candidate) Barack Obama, who said, “With a public platform comes a trust. As far as I’m concerned, he violated that trust.”

Straight from the president’s mouth. With public platform comes trust. If you’re going to be up on that stage, telling people what’s what about your topic, you’d better be believable, consistently and without fault.

Thankfully, it’s not difficult to start building, but there isn’t enough room to tell you the exact steps you can take to build your rock-solid credibility. Download your free interview with the former president of the National Speakers Association, a world renowned best-selling author who happens to be an amazing speaker… Mark Sanborn.

Brian Schwartz is the founder of 50 Interviews, the main source of high-quality publishing for speakers and entrepreneurs alike.

If you could interview a panel of successful speakers, what would you ask?

$24.95, 256 pages paperback (6×9) ISBN: 978-0-9822907-5-0

Whether you want to earn a six figure income as a speaking professional, or simply learn what the masters already know, Finding Speaking Success will reveal many of the answers you seek.

Some of their answers may surprise you.  Why do some speakers recommend lessons in acting, comedy, and improv? What are they doing now, that they wish they had started sooner?  Want to hear about their most humbling or embarrassing moments while speaking?  How is the profession changing with the proliferation of webinars and video conferencing?

We are extremely grateful to the 26 wonderful speakers who were so gracious with their time.  They can feel that the time was well spent because we have made their interviews available to anyone through Finding Speaking Success: Mentoring Tips from the Masters.

1. Chris Cox, Amplitude, LLC
2. Jim Davidson, Speaking of Adventure
3. Ava Diamond, The Diamond Success Group
4. Jep Enck, Enck Resources
5. Carol Frank, Birdseye Consulting
6. Patricia Fripp, President, Fripp and Associates
7. Steve Gilliland, Steve Gilliland Inc.
8. Cheri S. Hill, Sage International, Inc.
9. Larry Kendall, Ninja Selling
10. Jill Lublin, Promising Promotion
11. Mark McIntosh, The Comeback Coach
12. Meggin McIntosh, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc.
13. Barbara McVicker, Stuck in the Middle
14. Terri Norvell, Further Performance Group
15. Brian O’Malley, Spirit of Adventure
16. Charles Phoenix, God Bless Americana
17. Katy Piotrowski, Career Solutions Group
18. Joe Sabah, Sabah and Company
19. Mark Sanborn, Sanborn and Associates, Inc.
20. Gina Schreck, Synapse 3Di
21. John Sileo, ThinkLikeASpy.com
22. Dave Taylor, Intuitive Systems/AskDaveTaylor.com
23. Dr. Jerry Teplitz, Jerry Teplitz Enterprises, Inc.
24. Leanne Thieman, Speaker Hall of Fame/Author/Nurse
25. Robert W. Wendover, Center for Generational Studies
26. Kim Wolinski, MSW, Dr. DeClutter

Prefer to read it now as an eBook?

Click to buy the eBook for only $17 (Instant Download)

The questions we asked:

• How much time do you spend trying to get booked as a speaker? What about developing new content and rehearsing?  What are your primary sources of revenue?
• What do you attribute your success to? Did you have a mentor?
• Are you now, or were you ever, involved in NSA or Toastmasters? If so, how have those organizations benefited  you? Any other recommended resources?
• What are you doing now in your speaking business you should have started doing sooner?
• How has the internet helped you? Do you tap into social media (ie. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), and how are you using it to be more successful?
• What are the biggest mistakes you see new speakers make?
• What is the most difficult aspect of your career to keep under control? How do you stay balanced?
• What do you hope your audience takes away from your talks?
• How are you able to keep your content ‘fresh and new’? And do you typically book repeat engagements w/the same organization?
• Biggest challenges you face as someone making a full time career out of speaking? How have you overcome those challenges?
• Your most embarrassing or humbling moment (while speaking)?
• What have been the most rewarding aspects of your speaking career?
• What would it say on your tombstone?
• Is there anything else you want to share? Anything I didn’t ask that you think an aspiring speaker should know about this business?

Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. If for any reason you are not satisfied with your purchase,  contact us within 60 days for a full refund… promise!

When Jerry Teplitz was an attorney in the early 1970’s, he was peer-pressured into taking a Hatha yoga class. His plan was to use his legal skills to prove to his friends that Hatha didn’t work. The only problem, it did. In fact, Jerry was so impressed that he went on to become a master teacher of yoga and later earned graduate degrees in wholistic health sciences. He also studied Shiatsu, a form of Japanese massage that he honed to cure headaches, migraines, and even hangovers in just minutes.

Jerry turned to a career in professional speaking in order to share what he had learned with the world. Dr. Teplitz has also been honored as a Certified Speaking Professional by the NSA and selected as Top Rated Speaker by the International Platform Association and. Most recently, he was chosen Best in Class Speaker by the Professional Convention Management Association. He is the author of four books, including Switched-On Living and Brain Gym for Business.

The excerpt below is from Finding Speaking Success, a collection of over 25 interviews with public speakers who have achieved a full time income from speaking.

We also work hard to customize our offerings to each particular niche or market. If you go on my website at Teplitz.com, you’ll see programs and keynotes for about 20 different industries. When you click on one, you can see what I have done specifically within that industry. When you build a niche in one industry and go deep, the benefit is you become very well known in that industry.

When you run across economic difficulties – like we are going through right now – you can end up well-known in an industry that’s not booking anybody. Having niches in multiple markets has allowed me to survived four recessions.

Attention readers! Got a question or comment for Dr. Teplitz? Just enter it into the comment below and we’ll route it to him for a response.

Also, you can find Jerry online:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DrJerryTeplitz

LinkedIN: http://www.linkedin.com/in/teplitz

Twitter: http://twitter.com/JerryTeplitz

Kim is one of the 26 professional speakers featured in Finding Speaking Success: Mentoring Tips from The Masters which is a wealth of information from those who have managed to turn public speaking into a full time career.

Mark McIntosh is one of the 26 professional speakers featured in Vol. 1 of Finding Speaking Success.

In February of 1976, Mark McIntosh was living every teenage athlete’s dream. A three sport high school All-American, Mark had just signed his letter of intent to play football at the University of Missouri and was projected to be drafted in the first round.

Then the unthinkable happened.  In a bloody accident on the basketball court, Mark suffered a severe brain injury, a torn rotator cuff, and deafness in one ear.

Mark McIntosh’s career as a professional athlete was over. After challenging endeavors in sales, sports broadcasting, and marriage, it’s safe to say Mark knows a little something about adversity. But adversity is something that Mark has always found the strength to come back from.

For the last five years, he has been channeling his immense energy into encouraging others to overcome life’s challenges. He has written three books, including Run to Daylight, and is speaking about once a week as ‘The Comeback Coach’.

Additional Beyond The Book protected content is available if you have purchased the book (if you are not already registered, please register here.)

• Link to Mark’s entire interview online
• Mark on Facebook
• Mark on LinkedIn
• Mark on Twitter

Larry Kendall was not a natural-born speaker. As a five-year-old growing up in a small Kansas town, Larry slipped into a coma brought on by the inflammation of the brain called encephalitis – also known as the sleeping sickness. When he awoke, he had slurred speech and paralysis in one leg. These challenges might stop most people from ever considering a career in public speaking, but Larry Kendall faced them head-on.

Since his first compensated speaking engagement in 1985, Kendall has spoken over 3,000 times and he is now speaking 75 to 100 times a year. His style, which he calls the Socratic Method, emphasizes asking questions and engaging directly with his audience. With 33 years of experience in real estate – including being one of the founding partners of The Group, Inc. – Kendall now devotes much of his time to Ninja Selling, his sales training program.

Below is an excerpt from our exclusive interview with Larry. The rest of his interview is featured in volume 1 of Finding Speaking Success: Mentoring Tips from the Masters, along with 25 other insightful interviews with highly successful professional speakers.

Q. What are the biggest mistakes you see new speakers make?
A. I prefer the Socratic style, so I think one of the biggest mistakes is talking too much, and telling instead of asking and sharing. The research shows that if you stay in the telling mode, or command mode, then you have about two minutes before people start to check out. You need to mix it up, ask a question, tell a story – just do something to keep them engaged. A lot of new speakers have great content, but they get caught up wanting to share their content when they could be a lot more effective if they asked more questions.

Socrates believed the student had the answers, and you just needed to ask the right questions to draw those out. Many times you will have a much richer workshop, if you can draw those out, but a lot of times you have to be willing to accept what is drawn out. If you call on somebody or you ask a question and somebody pipes up with an answer, you never know quite what you are going to get. You need to be skilled enough to handle that.

In sales, we always assume that to be a successful salesman, you had to be a strong closer. But modern research shows it’s not about the closing, but the opening. It’s all about the first two minutes. That’s when a person decides if they like you and trust you. The same thing is true with your audience. If you can get through the first two minutes, and make those powerful and connected, then everything else will go great.

• Larry’s website: http://www.ninjaselling.com/

Coming soon… Video excerpt of our interview with Larry!

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Everything changed for Steve Gilliland in 1999. After spending 11 years working in sales and marketing for a major greeting card company, Steve launched his career as a speaker and founded Steve Gilliland, Inc. at the turn of the millennium. Within a year, speaking became his primary source of income.

Steve was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, lives in Mocksville, North Carolina, and travels the world. His appeal transcends barriers of age, culture, and occupation. He believes if you continually learn more about your company, your industry, your customer, and yourself, you will always be a leader. You will be purpose-driven rather than process-driven and you will make a difference. He speaks to more than 250,000 people a year and influences the lives of millions through his keynote speeches, books, CD’s, and DVD’s.

Below is an excerpt from our exclusive interview with Steve. The rest of his interview is featured in volume 1 of Finding Speaking Success: Mentoring Tips from the Masters, along with 25 other insightful interviews with highly successful professional speakers.

Q. What are you doing now in your speaking business that you should have started doing sooner?
A. I now print an eight-page, full color newsletter that is sent out to previous clients and various other specific targets. The newsletter is distributed electronically and also via the mail. I make sure that my name is in front of them repeatedly so when they are thinking about hiring a speaker for their next meeting, Steve Gilliland comes to their mind. The key is to make the newsletter in a format that makes them want to read it and pass it on to someone else. I write an interesting article for the front page of the newsletter then sprinkle items throughout the pages that make you want to save them and share them with other people. The more your newsletter is shared with other people the more chances you have of being contacted by one of them. I always ask myself, what is in this newsletter that will make a person say, “I need to give this to…”

• Steve’s website: http://www.stevegilliland.com/
• Books by Steve: Enjoy The Ride & Mum’s The Word

When Jep Enck was teaching life skills to students at Fort Collins High School, he realized that Fort Collins, Colorado was the largest city in the United States without a community youth center for students. So, in 1986, Jep founded and managed the Activities Youth Center of Fort Collins. This was the first step on a path that led him to be honored with the Outstanding Community Service Award by President Ronald Reagan.

Jep Enck’s success in the non-profit realm has made him a highly sought-after trainer and speaker in topics that focus on the human element – ranging from stress management to leadership and from communication to conflict resolution. Today, Jep still makes his home in Fort Collins and speaks about 60 times a year.

Below is an excerpt from our exclusive interview with hard to nail down Jep. The rest of his interview is featured in volume 1 of Finding Speaking Success: Mentoring Tips from the Masters, along with 25 other insightful interviews with highly successful professional speakers.

Q. What are you doing right now in your speaking business that you should have started doing sooner?
A. Social marketing. I actually have a consultant that’s helping, so I’m on LinkedIn and Facebook but I am not actually the person doing any of it. There was a group in Chicago this year with all these young and up-and-coming leaders who told me that if I had Facebook right now, they would be putting reviews on for me right away. It’s great marketing and I wasn’t even on there. They essentially said, “Wake up and smell the 21st century.” My fan base is getting younger because everyone else that’s my age is ten years from retirement.

Q. How else has the internet helped you?
A. The internet has been huge. For a long time, our inquiries were only phone calls. My primary source of inquiries now is e-mail. It makes you more available.

We developed the balancing survey, a tool to help you assess your own state of balance and the level of stress in your life. It’s just been added to my website. It’s just getting up, but I have surveys from Alaska to Alabama. I’m going to compile that data into a book and the working title is Know Thyself: American Search for Balance.

• Jep’s Website: http://www.enckresources.com/
• Jep on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jep.enck
• Jep on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/enckresources

Coming soon… A video excerpt from our interview with Jep!

Ava’s unique style combines wisdom, humor, warmth, and a passion for results. To drive home her points, she uses stories and examples people relate to—she has an uncommon ability to connect with her audiences. People describe her as genuine, funny, thought provoking, passionate, and refreshing. They love her combination of practical information and high-energy delivery. Ava inspires action!

Ava speaks from over 20 years experience as a Fortune 100 manager, executive director of a not-for-profit agency, successful entrepreneur, and organizational consultant. She distills this experience into powerful lessons that inspire immediate action and get results. She has a huge passion for helping women be more successful.

As the President of The Diamond Success Group and Feisty Woman Productions, Ava helps organizations get their people aligned, focused and motivated, to increase productivity and decrease turnover.

Below is an excerpt from our exclusive interview with Ava. The rest of her interview is featured in volume 1 of Finding Speaking Success: Mentoring Tips from the Masters, along with 25 other insightful interviews with highly successful professional speakers.

Q. What would it say on your tombstone?
A. “She squeezed the juice out of life. She gave it all she had. She stepped out, tried new things, lived boldly and loved deeply. She had an amazing journey.”

Q. Anything Else?
A. A wise man asked me several weeks ago, “What are you so passionate about, that you would be willing to get up an hour earlier every day to pursue?” My answer was very clear to me. No doubts at all.

This leads me to my best advice for aspiring speakers. Find your passion. Share it with other people. Enjoy the success that results from that. Although there’s a lot that goes into each of those three things, that’s really the essence of it.

• Ava on Twitter: http://twitter.com/feistywoman
• Ava on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/avadiamond
• Ava on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/avadiamond