One of the many challenges to motivational speakers is that of making sure the message is conveyed to the audience as it was intended. A conference room filled with people listening to the same speaker does not automatically mean that every person in the room heard the same thing. Remember the old "telephone" game that was played with friends? Or how about the high school science class lecture about how to read the periodic table of elements? The driver examiner's directions when you went to get your first drivers license? The church minister's lengthy sermon on trust? These are but examples of situations when one person hears something different than the person who was speaking it or different than the person sitting next to them.

Expert motivational speakers know how to work with the act of hearing. First they tell their audiences what they are going to tell them, then they tell them and then they tell them what they told them! Motivational speaking is the art of getting the message out. Part storyteller, part teacher, part actor, the expert motivational speakers use not only language, but motion and voice to hold their listeners. Take away any of these skills and the results are usually less than desirable. Monotone speech, little or no movement and zero facial expression will lead the audience to certainly daydream and be anywhere except where they are! Listening is the act of hearing what has been said. There are no guarantees that audiences will actually hear the same message or focal point of any public presentation even though they listened to the same speaker because audiences come to a motivational presentation from so many different points of reference. They may have over slept and arrived late, they may be replaying the 14th birdie putt that they missed, they may be recovering from the late night theme party or they may be thinking about returning the call back to their home office. Wherever their minds are, the challenge faced by the expert motivational speakers is to bring their listeners back and hold them long enough to get the message heard.

We all can reflect back to a time when we have heard memorable speakers. Sometimes the memory is positive and sometimes it is remembered because it was so bad. People tend to remember the extremes and everything in the middle tends to get lost. Speaking to large groups or to a few individuals matters not. The same skills are used but in varying degrees and ranges. For the listener on the other hand, the ability to stay focused is what makes the difference in the hearing and listening experience. We all may be in the same place, listening to the same presentation but not hearing the same message. "Do you hear what I hear" is often decided after the presentation, when colleagues, associates and friends discuss the speaker and what they heard and felt.

    built a successful career as a teacher, coach, recreation director, principal and interim superintendent. As a respected expert in the field of education, thousands of students and adults were inspired and challenged by her. She was honored as the State of Maine Physical Education Teacher of the Year, named to the Governors Council and recognized Statewide for her contributions in adaptive education and in the area of women's sports. Jackie is currently the Wine Training Coordinator at the most visited winery in the country at Biltmore Estate as well as an expert motivational speaker.