It's such a big problem out here. Some years back, I felt a need to write a paper titled "I am a Self-Development Educator and NOT a Motivational Speaker ", when I discovered that I was getting introduced as/called a Motivational Speaker in many places I went or had to speak.

Looking back at the time, I came to the conclusion that people were able to inflict this "injury" (of mislabeling) on me because I had broken a cardinal rule meant to guide serious self-marketing professional speakers - which is NEVER to let anyone introduce you without using YOUR personally written introduction.

In other words, you must write an introduction for yourself, which you will always insist anyone introducing you follows exclusively. This is important because a speaker who "knows her onions", and has a clear vision of where she is going, will recognize the need to DEFINE and DIFFERENTIATE herself to create a unique identity.

I had assumed that simply stating what I believed differentiated me from Motivational Speakers would be adequate to clear up any misconceptions about it.

What I failed to consider was the fact that a large majority of people in Nigeria did (and still do) not necessarily have the background knowledge that any distinctions exist between various kinds of speakers - talk less of knowing what those distinctions are. One reason is probably the proliferation of people today parading themselves as Motivational Speakers.

In America and other developed societies, there are Speakers' Bureaus, National Associations of Professional/Public Speakers etc. In these groups, you find individuals who give public speeches on certain areas of specialization for which they are known and recognized or respected (or hope to be if just starting).

There are even individual business persons or self-marketing professionals (like me) who use Public Speaking as a marketing tool, to promote awareness about themselves/their businesses so as to secure new clients/customers.

In fact Public Speaking is used in America by many business owners/entrepreneurs as a cheaper yet highly effective alternative (or complement) to advertising. Its main benefit is its targeted nature that allows the speaker direct physical access to large numbers of prospects all at once.

"Whether you're selling (products), services or yourself, Public Speaking is a great way to market yourself to a lot of potential clients at once...(and) drum up new business" - Robert Dickman (Hollywood Performance Consultant, once asked in 2000, by Time Magazine to rate the public speaking abilities of America's Presidential candidates at the time)

There are people who are speaker-educators (consultants/service providers) in fields like Change Management, Best Practice, Organizational Planning and Workplace Organization etc. These people go around and give talks to groups and organizations at annual meetings, management conferences, conventions and other formal meeting or gatherings.

In the process, they sometimes get engaged by the groups/organizations where they've spoken to organize training sessions, workshops etc on their areas of specialty (which would often have been one of the speaker-educator's objectives in the first place).

In America for instance, decision makers of groups and organizations are always looking for (new) people with new/different ideas and perspectives to help them reinvent their businesses and better pursue their goals.

New ideas to move their businesses forward are often generated following such events where an outside expert with a different outlook challenges them via a keynote speech/talk or lecture to view their business from a new/different perspective. That's something their Nigerian decision making counterparts in companies need to do more often.

Now, here is an example of an introduction that I currently prefer to use for myself:
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Self-Development/Performance Enhancement Specialist – Tayo Solagbade- works as a Multipreneur, helping individuals/businesses develop and implement strategies to achieve their goals, faster and more profitably.

Depending on his availability, Tayo accepts invitations to deliver customisable talks and keynote speeches (on Self-Development Education, Career Development, Best Practice Systems Development for Businesses, Workplace Performance Improvement, Getting Maximum Benefits From Excel Spreadsheets, Cost-Saving Farm Business Ideas, How To Make Nigerian Websites Work, and Entrepreneuring) for an affordable fee. Click http://www.spontaneousdevelopment.com/invite_tayo.htm to learn more about how you can invite Tayo to speak to your group or organisation's members at your next meeting or retreat.
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The above byline - derived over the years from constant revisions - is what I currently use to describe myself (in my email signature, as well as my articles, reports and books). If I have to speak, most of what will be used in the introduction about me, will likely be taken from this byline.

If you are a business owner or self-employed professional, you may want to consider crafting a suitable "description" of yourself (sometimes called an 'elevator speech"), especially if you intend to employ public speaking as a business marketing tool.

If you are not, the information provided here will hopefully have at least made you better informed about the types of public speakers available - especially the fact that many business professionals who engage in public speaking will NOT necessarily be Motivational Speakers!

SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Built-In Excel Solutions Development

Are Your Employees Happy & Satisfied With Their Jobs?(A Ten Item Quiz That Can Help You Find Out)

This article explains why - I believe - decision makers need to work hard to measure (possibly using a short Employee Morale Gauge quiz like the one I developed) and nurture the morale of their employees IF the ...organisation is to progress. http://spontaneousdevelopment.com/articles/employee_morale_guage.htm

BOOK PUBLISHED : "Employee Morale: Concepts and Cases" - It would interest you to know that after getting permission from me, India's ICFAI University included my above mentioned article, in a book they published titled "Employee Morale: Concepts and Cases" - now on sale for Rs 425 at http://www.infibeam.com/Books/info/sangeetha-k/employee-morale-concepts-cases/9788131419953.html

Why This Website Was Offline For 18 Days In May 2010!

My website - www.spontaneousdevelopment.com - came back online on May 21st 2010, 18 days after being taken offline (on 3rd May 2010) by my US based host of 6 years (Aplus.net), due to problems I had making renewal payment from here in Lagos. It's important to have clients who value you. For instance it was Dr. Kunle Shonaike, of Automedics Limited, who was (and still is at the time of writing this) in the USA, who saved the day by helping me make payment using his credit card. I built the Automedics website (www.automedicsngonline.com) & Facebook page(www.facebook.com/automedicsnigeria) in Feb. 2010

Web www.spontaneousdevelopment.com

Click here to view other recommended resources

Yours in Self-Development!

Tayo K. Solagbade
Self-Development/Performance Enhancement Specialist