Motivational Speaker?

What is a Motivational Speaker?
All good speakers are motivational speakers.

I was recently standing in a line to buy a sandwich and talking with two men in front of me. They asked me what I did, and I said I consulted and gave speeches and training classes.
"Speeches? Are you a motivational speaker?" one of them asked incredulously.

I must admit I had never thought about it much – most of my speeches do not fit the traditional notion of "motivational speech." I never thought of myself as a motivational speaker. But all good speeches are motivational speeches and all good speakers need to be motivational speakers. What's the alternative? A bland or non-motivational speech?

There are speeches designed to be motivational to the masses, somewhat like the "Pep Rallys" you might remember from high school and college. There are speeches that are motivational to specific target audiences, and those tend to be the types of speeches I give.

A recent speech I gave on “Blogging for Business” must have been motivational because I got several emails afterwards from people who started blogs. I recently sat in a speech that discussed how some complex mathematical equations were solved that made a new type of antenna practical; I found it extremely motivational, but I doubt many of you would! I don't think that audience that found my blog speech motivational would have either.

All good speakers are motivational speakers. All good speeches are motivational speeches - for the right target audience.

See Ted’s Motivational Speeches