Speaking to an audience can imply lots of things. You’re assumed to be a seasoned professional speaker with much knowledge worth hearing by the attending audience. Your resume was most likely reviewed by the search committee or speakers bureau and presented to the membership for their endorsement or rejection before an invitation was issued by the executive secretary.

Maybe you should give an opening introduction to the audience sharing a few supporting credentials for their perusal. Seeing a person for the first time at the podium causes many questions. Who is this person that’s going to speak to us today? Why? What’s his/her expertise and primary message? Let them know you’re an active member/director of Toastmasters International, a member of the NSB ~ the National Speakers Bureau ~ credentialed with other top professionals like Ty Boyd, Bill Gove and 100’s of others possibly known from past engagements at your firm.

Talented entrepreneurs do a lot of speaking engagements for good reason. It enables them to enlist the wisdom of their audiences with questions peppered strategically throughout their presentation. At times it’s a huge risk for the speaker unless a true professional. Speakers are challenged by their audiences to keep them interested or get tuned out. Group thinking and open participation can be mutually encouraging and beneficial to the entire audience or turn into a bad situation for both.

Making presentations to business executives is part of your usual week and weekends. Some groups are very large and then you often speak at smaller sessions with 10 or 15 top gurus of an industry. Money is the same whether large or small as fees do not waver based on size. It’s the message that’s expected and the value it will ultimately bring to your audience.

Some speakers are in high demand and their standard fees are paid promptly in advance. An old and famous cliche is “you get what you pay for” which is usually a truism but not always. Some speakers are great at marketing themselves but their speaking skills are limited. Sometimes, not very often, you can turn a good audience into hostile, rebellious, unkind responders. Not a normal situation but speakers sometimes bring the negative response on themselves and deserve the rejection.

Proper training is missing or something tangible has caused a negative reaction. Audiences are usually very quiet and courteous to their speakers but not always. Most of us play the business game with integrity and honest dealings but sometimes our spirits move in the opposite direction if we feel taken advantage of by a scam artist or an unprofessional guest speaker.

Authentic, real, and a reliable role model is what we expect from everyone in our firm or anyone from the outside asking to make a presentation to our executive officers and staff. Profit is our motive and we have no time to waste with losers. Times are tough for most companies and their families. Too much greed and bad blood has caused the marketplace to be skeptical. Trust has vanished from the scene. Bankers have turned away from their fiduciary roll. Rates for credit loans are not acceptable even if funds are now available. Bankruptcy faces many unprofitable businesses causing much concern and questions about the future.

Patience and empathy for the speaker is our usual response out of courtesy. However, if a guest speaker brings an unacceptable idea or shady proposal then he/she can expect a full load of unleashed frustrations to land in their lap without remorse. Deserve it and you’ll get it from most audiences in a world of high unemployment, little if any profits and few orders to change the landscape.