Discover Your Coaching Niche

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”
– Zig Ziglar, Salesman & Motivational Speaker.

What is a Motivational Speaker?

A glance at a dictionary tells us “Motivational speakers are persons engaged in public speaking who help motivate others with their knowledge and real-life stories in public setting such as sales seminars and corporate meetings.”

But why should we care as coaches?  What benefit is there to us in motivational speaking? 

Three facts

Fact 1:  According to my research, the biggest challenge to coaches – by a long way – is getting new clients. 
Fact 2:  For coaches, giving presentations is a highly effective way to reach potential new clients. 
Fact 3:  A coach who is a motivational speaker can expect to attract many people to listen to them. 

Got your attention yet?  Want to know how to become a motivational speaker?  Good, then read on…

Firstly, let’s define our terms

According to the dictionary, motivation, an noun, is:
• the act, or an instance, of motivating.
• the state or condition of being motivated.
• something that motivates; an inducement; an incentive.

Problem: Motivation does not exist

But we have a problem.  Motivation, in NLP terms, is a nominalization – a verb or complex action which has been frozen into a noun.  Despite its linguistic appearances, it is not a thing.  We can’t touch it or hold it.  We can’t give it to anyone. 

To really understand it, we need to get back to the verb, and the associated verb is – to motivate. 

To motivate whom?

But “to motivate” does not exist on its own as a free entity, either. There must be a subject – a person – who will be motivated.  So, the question is, “Motivating for whom?”  Different people are motivated by different things.  So who are we talking about motivating? 

For coaches, the obvious people to motivate are our target market, as they’re the people who will potentially buy our services.

So let’s assume for the moment you’ll want to motivate your target market.

Motivate to do what?

Now, the next linguistic question arises, as “to motivate” is a multi-part predicate.  You must motivate someone to do something.  So the next question is “Motivate to do what, exactly?”

If you’re in the coaching business, this should be a no-brainer.  You want to motivate your target market to buy your coaching services.

The next parts of this Motivational Speaking article follow in subsequent postings.

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