align=center> face=Times>Are you Dabbling in the Four
Disciplines?

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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Our industry offers four different
professional roles to choose from -- and making the right choice is crucial to
your success.  In this article,
we’ll describe four types of private practices -- Speaking, Training, Consulting
and Coaching and explore the pros and cons -- and earnings potential -- for
each.  We’ll discuss the dangers of
dabbling and take a personal inventory of its impact on your future.

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align=center> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">“Dabblers are rarely DO-ers and DO-ers
are rarely dabblers.”

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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black">One of the things that
people in our industry have in common is that many of our business cards say
that we are a “Speaker, Trainer, Consultant, Coach”. Some may choose just two or
three of those identifiers, but more and more are putting ALL 4 or even MORE. In
addition to Speaker, Trainer, Consultant, and Coach we also have Author,
Facilitator, Counselor, Lecturer, Professor and a growing litany of others. style="mso-spacerun: yes">  It’s amazing the kind of creative labels
that some people have put on their cards, but the four basic disciplines in our
industry are Speaker, Trainer, Consultant and Coach.

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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black">Over the more than two
decades we’ve been working with human development professionals, we’ve
discovered that the people who achieve success in our industry are the people
who entered the profession with a very clear picture of who they are and what
they were trying to do.  We believe
it is such a critical factor to their success that it has become central to the
work we do with our instructors and instructor candidates. As someone progresses
through the pre-work for becoming certified in the MasterStream Method, we help
them explore the differences between the work styles of speakers, trainers,
consultants and coaches in vivid detail, and before their certification is over,
each newly-certified professional has to make a personal choice as to which one
of them he or she favors. Likewise, the success you will achieve and the speed
at which you will achieve it depends on you understanding the choices -- and
making the one that is best for you.

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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">So your first step -- whether you are
embarking on a new career or trying to take your existing business to a new
level -- is to distinguish between the various roles you can serve. Keep in mind
your background, skills, experience, and goals when making your evaluation. Your
choice will establish a basis on which you will focus your business strategy and
marketing plan. 

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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black">This chart presents some
of the basic differences between the four professional
roles:

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style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: right 1.25in center 2.0in 225.0pt 4.25in 5.5in left 7.75in"> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Role style="mso-tab-count: 1">                                 
 Speaker               
style="mso-tab-count: 1">Trainer              
Consultant                 
Coach       

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: right 1.25in center 2.0in 225.0pt 4.25in 5.5in left 7.75in"> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> style="mso-tab-count: 1">Range style="mso-tab-count: 1">                               National style="mso-tab-count: 1">              
Regional style="mso-tab-count: 1">            
Local style="mso-tab-count: 1">                     
Telephonic

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: right 1.25in center 2.0in 225.0pt 4.25in 5.5in"> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Travel style="mso-tab-count: 1">                              
Frequent style="mso-tab-count: 1">           
Occasional style="mso-tab-count: 1">           Infrequent style="mso-tab-count: 1">                  
Never

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: right 1.25in center 2.0in 225.0pt 4.25in 5.5in"> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Income/hour style="mso-tab-count: 1">                      $$$$ style="mso-tab-count: 1">                         
$$$ style="mso-tab-count: 1">                           
$$ style="mso-tab-count: 1">                           
$

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: right 1.25in center 2.0in 225.0pt 4.25in 5.5in"> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Audience Size style="mso-tab-count: 1">                  Large style="mso-tab-count: 1">                   
Medium style="mso-tab-count: 1">              Small style="mso-tab-count: 1">                       
Individual

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: right 1.25in center 2.0in 225.0pt 4.25in 5.5in"> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> face=Times>Audience style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Contact style="mso-tab-count: 1">            Minimal style="mso-tab-count: 1">             
Moderate style="mso-tab-count: 1">           
Continuous style="mso-tab-count: 1">            
Scheduled

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: right 1.25in center 2.0in 225.0pt 4.25in 5.5in"> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Program Duration style="mso-tab-count: 1">         
Hours style="mso-tab-count: 1">                   Days style="mso-tab-count: 1">                  
Weeks style="mso-tab-count: 1">                     
Ongoing

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: right 1.25in center 2.0in 225.0pt 4.25in 5.5in"> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Tone of the Program style="mso-tab-count: 1">      Upbeat style="mso-tab-count: 1">                
Practical style="mso-tab-count: 1">              Serious style="mso-tab-count: 1">                  
Supportive

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: right 1.25in center 2.0in 225.0pt 4.25in 5.5in"> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> face=Times>Repeat
Business  style="mso-tab-count: 1">             Low style="mso-tab-count: 1">                      
High style="mso-tab-count: 1">                       
Low style="mso-tab-count: 1">                    
Moderate

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: right 1.25in center 2.0in 225.0pt 4.25in 5.5in"> face=Times> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Economic Stability style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> style="mso-tab-count: 1">          
Low style="mso-tab-count: 1">                      
High style="mso-tab-count: 1">                      
High style="mso-tab-count: 1">                     
Low

style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: right 85.5pt center 2.0in 225.0pt 4.25in 5.5in"> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> style="mso-tab-count: 1">                               
style="mso-tab-count: 1">                             

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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black">Now, let’s take a closer look at
each of the professional roles and explore
some of their pro’s and con’s:

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style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black">Speaker style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black"> -- A Speaker is someone who travels
frequently on a national or even international basis, stands in front of a large
audience for a relatively short period of time, delivers an upbeat message, and
gets paid a substantial amount of money for doing so. style="mso-spacerun: yes">  On the downside, as the audience gets
bigger, the chance for meaningful audience contact suffers -- and regardless of
the quality of work they do, when they step off stage they are generally
unemployed. That’s the nature of the beast for being a professional speaker. In
order for a speaker to fill 100 days of billable services over the course of a
year, he or she is going to need to have the better part of 100 different
clients. They may have the occasional client who will bring them back again, but
in all likely hood the intervals between those engagements is going to be
measured in months or years before someone will be brought back. To make matters
worse, the Speaking profession is the one most susceptible to changes in the
economy and, as the events of 9/11 clearly demonstrated, changes in the
marketplace’s willingness to travel to or sit in a large public venue. style="mso-spacerun: yes">  While speakers command a seemingly large
fee for their services, their total income divided by a 40-hour workweek
normalizes their actual earnings. 
For example, a speaker with two $5,000 engagements per week is actually
making about the same as a consultant billing themselves out at $300 per
hour.  Finally, to develop a
successful career as a speaker requires a very specific marketing plan, very
specific marketing tools, a very marketable “main stage” image – and a lot of
time “paying your dues” before your reputation earns you access to the bureaus
and meeting planners who in large part control the pool of potential
bookings.

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style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black">Trainer style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black"> -- A Trainer spends considerably less
time in airplanes and rental cars, and can build a very tidy practice while
staying relatively close to home. 
They spend more time with a smaller group of people and have an
opportunity to get to know their students more intimately as they share
practical information with their audiences. The goal of a trainer is to impart a
body of knowledge, and to make sure that knowledge has been absorbed to whatever
degree the client has asked them to attain. If the trainer does a good job, then
the likelihood of being asked to come back and do more training is very high.
Also, since trainers focus on longer programs than speakers -- routinely
conducting programs ranging from a full day to an entire week -- trainers tend
to be more content-rich.  If they
choose to focus on mission-critical topics like sales, leadership and customer
service, trainers have an even greater opportunity for repeat business with
their clients. When a corporate client finds a trainer they love and a training
program they love, then they are going to continue to use that program and that
trainer in whatever frequency they need it done. In addition, training
engagements generally feature far more billable hours in the customization
process prior to and the reinforcement program following the main training
program.  A trainer markets their
programs as much as they market themselves and building a successful training
practice requires a very different approach than the route taken by
speakers.

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style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black">Consultant style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black"> -- A Consultant is an individual with
very specific knowledge and skills, who is brought in to serve as an adjunct to
a client’s management team.  They
are contracted to work on a particular project, deal with a challenging issue,
serve in an advisory capacity, or complete a specific task, but one way or
another, consultants are brought in to DO something. Once that something is
done, the contract ends. While consultants may travel to a destination anywhere
on the planet, once they arrive, they are there for the duration of the
contract, so in their daily routine, they stay pretty local to where they
landed. The challenge with consulting (and coaching for that matter) is that you
are trading time for dollars. As a trainer or speaker you develop one program
and you can keep doing it over and over, but the work you do as a consultant is
unique to each specific client more often than not. But the biggest problem with
building a stable and successful consulting practice is that during the time the
consultant is working with a particular client, they don’t have or take the time
to continue marketing themselves. 
The longer the contract, the longer the period of unemployment that
follows.  Feast or famine is the
reality for most consultants.

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style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"> style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black">Coach style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black"> -- Coaches work primarily with
individuals on a one-on-one basis to pinpoint areas in which they might be in
need of attention and focus their energy on helping their clients take care of
whatever their issues happen to be. Within the realm of coaches, you will find a
broad range of levels of intensity and involvement from “life coach” to
“performance coach.”  Whether the
individual is trying to better understand themselves, to set meaningful goals,
to be held accountable or to develop greater skills, a coach could be the
perfect tool for the right client. In general terms, a coach is a professional
who is working with an individual to deal with specific areas of need. It is
certainly possible for a coach to do more of a group kind of thing, maybe a
small cluster of 3 or 4 people, but by and large what they are doing is just for
those specific people. As a result, the likelihood that these clients will
become large contracts is low because they are dealing with individuals. style="mso-spacerun: yes">  Coaches have very little need to travel
and can work very effectively with their clients over the telephone. style="mso-spacerun: yes">  But, while a coach’s goal is to build a
rather small pool of lifetime clients, the truth is that most people who seek
out the guidance of a coach do so for a much shorter period, generally a few
weeks to a few months.  Creating a
stable and consistent income stream proves to be the coach’s greatest challenge
since the hourly rate tends to be lower than that of any of the other three
professional roles and the coach must collect their fees from an individual
rather than an organization.

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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black">Perhaps the biggest
problem that people in our industry face is dabbling in these four roles and not
focusing on just one of them. If someone were to focus their energy on one of
these roles, they have a much greater chance of becoming successful in that
discipline. But if you start to spread your energy across multiple and very
different roles then you are also spreading out your marketing resources too
thin to have any real impact, and you are also confusing the market place as to
what it is that you do and what it is that that they can call on you for. By
putting your time and energy into just ONE of these four areas, you will find
that success is a much easier summit to reach.

T. Falcon Napier offers professional certification programs in the
MasterStream® Method for both individuals and corporations . Visit href="http://www.MasterStream.com">http://www.MasterStream.com for free articles and assessment tools for building your professional practice.