Having a speaker role model means having someone who we really look up to and admire as a speaker. We study everything about this person, learn from their skillset and put these capabilities into practice. All this so that we become world class in everything we do as a professional speaker.
Learning from your speaker role mode is probably not just while they’re on stage, but while they do everything else, how they conduct themselves, carry on their brand, and interact with everyone they do business with. I think it’s great to study someone at the top of their game in our industry so that we are able to model ourselves on their craft and abilities as a speaker.
Be authentic and improve your skills every day
Now, I don’t think you need to become a mini-me. For example, without a doubt, one of my speaking role models was Anthony Robbins. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone who’s able to engage 10,000 people like he can. It’s extraordinary. And it’s amazing. I know many people don’t like Anthony Robbins or whatever it might be. But I was fascinated to see how he engaged an audience, how he changed the energy in a room, his stagecraft etc. But, I don’t want to be an Anthony Robbins. I don’t want to be a mini-me version of Anthony Robbins. I’ll never be a mini-me version. It’s not who I am, and I have different skills and different goals and all the rest of it. However, as a role model, he has been great to learn from.
Find new role models as you evolve
Over time, we also change our role models, and we start to choose them from a skill set or a type of audience engagement. Let’s say you wanted to learn about presence, and drawing attention, the role model you choose may be Barack Obama. You may want to learn how to orate the way that he does, which is very low energy, but powerful and profound and it completely works for him.
On the other hand, perhaps you want to be more physical as a speaker. This means you would find a different speaker who has a great sense of physicality or a great sense of humour. You would study them, watch all their videos, take their course if you can and learn from them.
To have a speaker role model means finding an expert speaker to model ourselves on based on their skillset. This is a really good thing to do because it gives us something to aspire to, and we can constantly learn from that person.
At the same time, we can also adapt and evolve. We can change our role models and study a new speaker or a different type of speaker based on what we want to learn and the skill set we want to improve.
Who is your speaker role model?
So my question is, who is your speaker role model? How are you going to study them? Go to events that they’re doing. Watch their TED talk. Go to their website. Buy their course if they have one. If you have an opportunity to learn from them, learn from them. Overall make sure you have a speaker role model, it’s going to help you develop your skills and competitive advantage a lot quicker.
