d benefit to members to the audience. Once the speech is over it is the responsibility of each member of the audience to decide if they want to change behaviour.

Now here is the problem with that. We learn skills that help us to survive and prosper and “if it ain’t broke we don’t fix it.” No one sets aside the old way to seek the new until they personally feel the need t

A lot of trainers have aspirations to become professional speakers and are often misled into thinking that because both activities involve speaking to a group of people they are all basically the same activity. The truth is that there are probably more differences than similarities between training and speaking.

The most obvious difference of course is with numbers. Trainers tend to deal with smaller numbers from one to one to perhaps fifty. There are exceptions, but most training courses deal with small groups of people. Speakers tend to work with larger groups. Again there are exceptions but audiences from fifty to thousands are more common.

Another apparent similarity is that both training and speaking are concerned with changing behaviour, but again each discipline approaches this in a very different way.

A trainer usually works to a Training Gap. There is a gap between a person's actual and desired performance and the goal of the trainer is help the individual to correct that gap. That skill development may involve some significant changes in habits, knowledge and attitude. The trainer breaks the process into a number of simple steps – then they Show and Tell, Observe and Correct, Motivate and Supervise, until the new skill is mastered.

A speaker has a different challenge. The audience are not usually there because a specific training gap has been identified. The speaker is selected because there is a belief that learning about a specific topic will be of interest and benefit to members to the audience. Once the speech is over it is the responsibility of each member of the audience to decide if they want to change behaviour.

Now here is the problem with that. We learn skills that help us to survive and prosper and “if it ain’t broke we don’t fix it.” No one sets aside the old way to seek the new until they personally feel the need to

ers tend to deal with smaller numbers from one to one to perhaps fifty. There are exceptions, but most training courses deal with small groups of people. Speakers tend to work with larger groups. Again there are exceptions but audiences from fifty to thousands are more common.

Another apparent similarity is that both training and speaking are concerned with changing behaviour, but again each discipline approaches this in a very different way.

A trainer usually works to a Training Gap. There is a gap between a person's actual and desired performance and the goal of the trainer is help the individual to correct that gap. That skill development may involve some significant changes in habits, knowledge and attitude. The trainer breaks the process into a number of simple steps – then they Show and Tell, Observe and Correct, Motivate and Supervise, until the new skill is mastered.

A speaker has a different challenge. The audience are not usually there because a specific training gap has been identified. The speaker is selected because there is a belief that learning about a specific topic will be of interest and benefit to members to the audience. Once the speech is over it is the responsibility of each member of the audience to decide if they want to change behaviour.

Now here is the problem with that. We learn skills that help us to survive and prosper and “if it ain’t broke we don’t fix it.” No one sets aside the old way to seek the new until they personally feel the need t

aviour, but again each discipline approaches this in a very different way.

A trainer usually works to a Training Gap. There is a gap between a person's actual and desired performance and the goal of the trainer is help the individual to correct that gap. That skill development may involve some significant changes in habits, knowledge and attitude. The trainer breaks the process into a number of simple steps – then they Show and Tell, Observe and Correct, Motivate and Supervise, until the new skill is mastered.

A speaker has a different challenge. The audience are not usually there because a specific training gap has been identified. The speaker is selected because there is a belief that learning about a specific topic will be of interest and benefit to members to the audience. Once the speech is over it is the responsibility of each member of the audience to decide if they want to change behaviour.

Now here is the problem with that. We learn skills that help us to survive and prosper and “if it ain’t broke we don’t fix it.” No one sets aside the old way to seek the new until they personally feel the need t

ocess into a number of simple steps – then they Show and Tell, Observe and Correct, Motivate and Supervise, until the new skill is mastered.

A speaker has a different challenge. The audience are not usually there because a specific training gap has been identified. The speaker is selected because there is a belief that learning about a specific topic will be of interest and benefit to members to the audience. Once the speech is over it is the responsibility of each member of the audience to decide if they want to change behaviour.

Now here is the problem with that. We learn skills that help us to survive and prosper and “if it ain’t broke we don’t fix it.” No one sets aside the old way to seek the new until they personally feel the need t

d benefit to members to the audience. Once the speech is over it is the responsibility of each member of the audience to decide if they want to change behaviour.

Now here is the problem with that. We learn skills that help us to survive and prosper and “if it ain’t broke we don’t fix it.” No one sets aside the old way to seek the new until they personally feel the need to do so. The audience is only going to take action if the speaker has motivated them to do so. If they want someone to change their behaviour they have got to give them a reason so powerful that it gets them in motion – motivates them.

More importantly trying to motive someone to make two changes in behaviour is massively more difficult than to make one... and three changes, almost impossible. We can really only work on one change at a time. All the great keynote speeches I have remembered had one powerful memorable message that was repeated over and over again until I could not forget it. Compelling stories were told to inspire and motivate me to take action – facts and figures were converted into memorable image, jokes or metaphors.

The key to success as Professional Speaker is to “Specialise”. Speakers focus on a very small area of change and become the expert in that. And the more successful they become the more they specialise. A trainer on the other hand is often responsible for a wide area of skill development – in fact all the skills needed in an organizations. Sales, marketing, customer care, leadership, computer skills, presentation skills, interviewing, management, supervision, etc.

Because of this need to train on almost anything, most trainers rarely use original material. Trainers pick up ideas from other speakers and trainers and import them into their courses. Using other speakers' material without a license is against the code of conduct in speakers associations a