Why Being a Motivational Keynote Speaker Can Be Hard

Speaking from the stage as a keynote speaker requires you to be mainly positive. 

Audiences don't need more bad news.

I spend a lot of time trying to choose words that clarity. Often I find this hard and I think maybe this is a reason why.

👉🏼 Did you know that there are more negative words than positive words? 

We have specific words for negative things.

We have the verb “to lie,” “lying.” 

👉🏼 We do not have a verb for “to tell the truth.” We have a whole phrase.

Then there’s littering and murdering.

But what are the positive versions of those?

We have to take a whole sentence to explain it.

👉🏼 That’s because doing the right thing is expected of us and therefore we don’t have a word for it.

But doing a wrong thing is a deviation from the normal and that’s why we have specific words to describe them.

✍️ So I think it is easier to create negative talks and harder to create positive keynote talks.

Is it that the pool of words I have available to me is smaller?

I have struggled with finding single dynamic words for so many of the topics I speak on.

It took me years to come up with OWN UP WISE UP STEP UP as shortcuts for taking responsibility, expanding your mind and taking action.

It took me years to land upon CHANGEability to describe my ability to change. I had to make up the word.

Turns out that saying positive things is hard

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Note: These thoughts were triggered by the Freakonomics podcast episode: Why Is US Media So Negative

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I’m a motivational keynote speaker on Leadership and Change.

I show business leaders simple ways to give their people the skills and the confidence to get through not only this disruption, but the next, and the next, and next.

#change

#leadership

#communicationskills

#keynotespeaking