Spin a yarn, collect a check

American companies are giving their people a good talking to. For qualified talkers, that can make for a career opportunity.

The same workaday challenges that are the bane of the modern corporation - issues such as struggling sales forces, spotty leadership, intense global competition, and flagging morale - are a boon for thousands of professional speakers nationwide.

Using their gift of gab, they impart knowledge, hope, motivation, big-picture thinking and, occasionally, a few laughs to audiences at conventions, company powwows, trade shows, and association meetings.

Eric Wahl is one such beneficiary of corporate America's hand-wringing. For the past three years, the San Diego-based lecturer and artist has toted paints and an easel around the country for a presentation titled "The Art of Vision." At each stop, he literally draws parallels between the creativity that drives great artists and that which fuels the world's most successful entrepreneurs, underscoring his most memorable points and examples by painting quick portraits of visionaries such as Albert Einstein or Abraham Lincoln.

Mr. Wahl's "think outside the box" message and high-energy delivery have brought him a steady stream of lucrative appearances. He says that by year's end, he'll have logged 100 speaking appearances at his going rate of between $6,500 and $9,500 apiece. "I'm truly blessed," he says. "In this business, you can't assume that just because you have a great presentation that you'll be booked all over the country."

Wahl's success story, by his own admission, is something of an aberration. Still in his late 20s, he hasn't published a bestselling management book. He isn't a household name or a corner- office veteran with a trove of great war stories. And he hasn't rebounded from personal tragedy to lead a last-place team to a world championship.

Wahl, who majored in art and business at the University of San Diego, took a job at Speak Inc., a San Diego company that books speaking talent for corporate clients. He ultimately became a partner before deciding to head out on his own.

What Wahl does have, says Rich Gibbons, the firm's president, are the three elements a successful speaker needs in today's marketplace: relevance, uniqueness, and, most of all, passion. "An audience can tell when a speaker is truly committed, versus someone who's doing something by rote and reciting professional platitudes," Mr. Gibbons says.

It's virtually impossible to pinpoint the exact number of speakers working the lecture circuit in the United States today, and it's equally difficult to generalize about the fees those speakers command. While the National Speakers Association, a trade group based in Tempe, Ariz., includes roughly 3,500 speaking professionals, the NSA's membership doesn't include, for instance, most of the celebrities, high-profile pundits, athletes, authors, chief executive officers, former CEOs, politicians and ex-politicians who often make the scene as keynote speakers at major social and business functions.

And, while more than 60 percent of respondents who participated in a recent NSA member survey reported earning anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 for a major engagement, it costs a great deal more to bag a big name, even one who's been a big name for only a short while.

Charles Moose, the former Montgomery County, Md., police chief who headed last fall's Washington, D.C., sniper manhunt, now asks up to $30,000 per appearance. Frank Abagnale, the con man who was the subject of last year's Steven Spielberg hit "Catch Me if You Can," is in the same range. After-dinner addresses from the likes of former President Bill Clinton or former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani have been reported to fetch $100,000 or more.

John Truran, director of marketing for Keppler Associates, which represents Mr. Moose, says the former chief's defection to the greener pastures of the lecture circuit was a logical byproduct of the case's drama and Moose's instant-hero status. "This is a celebrity culture. Moose was the lead guy in the investigation; he's African-American, which makes him a great diversity speaker; and he was a memorable figure in the media," Truran says.

Page: 1 | 2