How the best speakers get better

An interview with Peter Urs Bender, CSP;
by George Torok

Originally published in ‘So To Speak’, the national newsletter of CAPS, The Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. www.CanadianSpeakers.org

Torok: What three things had significant impact on your growth as a speaker?

Bender: NSA conventions; NSA workshops; NSA colleagues.
My first book, “Secrets of Power Presentations” is so good because of everything I learned about speaking from NSA.
(ED note: Before CAPS there was only NSA)

Torok: What three things had significant impact on the growth of your business?

Bender: My belief and zealous follow-through of these three principles:
Associating with the right people.
Persistent Marketing.
Under promising and over delivering.

Torok: Who are the right people?

Bender: On three levels they are; Clients, Suppliers and Personal.

In general the right people are those with integrity, knowledge and are a leader in their field. Now lets examine each for specifics

My clients must have the money, be growing, and want to be number one. Sell to the greedy not the needy.

I expect my suppliers to have expertise. I want to work with the best. I want a good price not the cheapest. It is a waste of time to shop everywhere to shave pennies. I want suppliers I can depend on. I also expect them to make a profit so they last in business.

On the personal level hang around with people who enrich your life. Avoid the whiners and complainers.

Torok: After the many years in the business and hundreds of presentations how do you still get yourself ‘up’ to perform.

Bender: When you are green you grow, when you are ripe you rot. I am still green. I read that Norman Vincent Peal and Mary Kay Ash suggest that it is good to have an inferiority feeling. Not inferior, but a feeling that you are less than perfect so you keep trying and challenging yourself.

You do not deliver a good speech for money. You do it because you want to do a good speech. Motivation is fueled by unfulfilled needs – the need to be a better speaker then you were last time.

Torok: What did you do in the past year to challenge yourself to grow?

Bender: Last year I bought and learned how to ride a motorcycle. I did that because I had always feared motorcycles. Now I feel free when I get away for a short spin. Just recently I bought an unicycle – a one wheeler. I always wanted one. I read that it takes about 13 hours to learn how to ride it. In fact it takes about three hours just to be able to sit on it without falling.

As a speaker I presented more in German. To my surprise, some of my standard humour I use in English did not work. Boy did I feel unfulfilled.

Torok: Anything else you want to add?

Bender: As a speaker you must grow on multiple levels – physical, mental, spiritual, skill development, personal, relationships etc.

A good speaker should not be one dimensional. You could say that learning to ride the unicycle is my pursuit for balance. Riding the motorcycle is facing one of my fears. I learned to fly to overcome that fear. A good speaker is an expert in their area, has faced some of their fears and continues to grow. Then they have earned the right to speak to audiences and call themselves a professional speaker.

Peter Urs Bender is the author of three best-selling books and has just released his fourth, “Secrets of Face to Face Communication”. Find him at www.PeterUrsBender.com or 416-491-6690

George Torok is co-author with Bender of “Secrets of Power Marketing” Find him at www.Torok.com or 905-335-1997