Public Speaking Definitions
As a motivational speaker, I use terms that may need clarification. For easy reference, I have included the definitions of some of them here.
Motivational Speaker
Motivational Speaker was a difficult title to give myself. Whenever I heard that term, Motivational Speaker, I couldn't help but think of the line spoken by Chris Farley's character, Matt Foley, from Saturday Night Live - "My name is Matt Foley and I am a motivational speaker. And I live in a van down by the river." In 2002, when I started in the speaking business as a professional keynote speaker, I had my topic narrowed down to simply "fraud." I thought that my experience as a co-conspirator in a white collar fraud conspiracy was really all I had to offer. I did indeed know about fraud. In fact, while I served my 21 month prison sentence, I thought about fraud a lot. As it turned out, my stories and experiences motivated and inspired my audiences to be better people and employees. They came to believe that if I could overcome the challenges that I'd faced in my life, so could they. Perhaps more specifically, this is inspirational in that it encourages the audience, by hearing my life experiences, to overcome obstacles. But ultimately, the audience is motivated into action and compelled to do better and be better at what they do.
Keynote
The keynote speaker at a conference or convention is typically the presenter who lays down or supports an underlying theme in a general session of the event - where all the attendees of the event are present. This speaker is typically someone with an intriguing story or has some notoriety in his or her field which will hopefully raise enthusiasm and entice potential attendees to go to the event. The terms Keynote Speech, Keynote Address or Keynote Presentation are sometimes used interchangeably.
more to come...
