What working with a speaker coach says about you

I was utterly surprised. So much so that I didn’t even object to what she’d just said. 

I’d been coaching some speakers for an event and the coordinator said the committee planned to acknowledge me at the event but that they’d decided not to mention how I’d been involved. They didn’t want the speakers to be embarrassed that they’d had a coach. 

Is working with a speaker coach embarrassing? 

The implications of the event committee’s decision are that

• Needing (or just wanting!) help with public speaking is shameful
• We’re supposed to be good at public speaking even if we don’t do it very often
• Our achievements (the things we are good at) are degraded when we don’t also speak about them with polished delivery

I don’t take offense at the committee’s decision because my chief objective in all coaching scenarios is to serve my clients; I don’t do it for the recognition. When my speakers feel good about their presentation, I find fulfillment in having been their partner in the effort. 

Yet if embarrassment is keeping someone from improving their communication skills through coaching, I’m here to debunk that mindset. 

Here are four things working with a speaker coach says about you:

1. You care about the people you’re serving with your message. So much so that you’re willing to invest time and money into serving them more effectively through your words.
   
2. You are humble. You have enough self-awareness to know there’s room for improvement in your public speaking and you are able to vulnerably open yourself to learning and feedback.
   
3. You know that even experts have coaches. And that they might have a reputation for excellence at least partly because they had coaching of some kind. Would Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Hugh Jackman, Michael Phelps, Scott Hamilton (and nearly every famous athlete) be embarrassed because they have (or have had) a business, life, acting, or sport coach? I doubt it. In fact, I suspect they’d credit some of their success to having coaches alongside them. Some folks who’ve had speaker coaching specifically:
   
   • Diana, Princess of Wales
   • Adam Grant, Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
   • Donald Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Blue Like Jazz, CEO of Storybrand
   • James Clear, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Atomic Habits
   • Ian Morgan Cron, bestselling author, psychotherapist, Enneagram teacher, Episcopal priest
   • Amy Porterfield, marketing expert and CEO
     
4. You know the benefit of having external expertise. While a good friend can tell you what they like about your presentation (or if you’ve got spinach in your teeth), a communications expert can tell you whether you’re being effective (and compelling)—and, perhaps more importantly, how to course-correct if you’re not. 

There are legitimate obstacles to working with a speaker coach—but pride shouldn’t be one of them.

Follow in the footsteps of some of the successful leaders mentioned above and schedule a consultation so we can discuss your communication goals and how we can work together to meet them. I want to see you succeed!

---