Motivating The Masses ‘Great Communicators’ Sell Power Of A Positive Outlook

Not sure you want to read this story? Stop for a moment and consider this: Isn’t it true that the only time you have ever really benefited from anything in your life has been when you said “Yes” instead of “No?”

If you’re still reading, you just fell for “power close” No. 6 from the arsenal of Tom Hopkins, motivational speaker and the author of “Low Profile Selling - Act Like a Lamb, Sell Like a Lion.”

Twenty-five years ago, Hopkins was a top-producing real estate agent in Simi Valley. He boasts that he went from being a Cal State Northridge dropout at age 19 to millionaire status by age 27. But his best year selling real estate brought him just a fraction of the riches he makes now as a professional speaker.

Hopkins is among an army of thousands who over the past 20 years have rushed into the speaking industry, offering themselves as answers to Americans’ growing appetite for motivation, self-esteem and ways to make more money.

Hopkins’ specialty is sales training, and he is among the better-known speakers in that arena. But for every Hopkins, there are hundreds of others trying to make names for themselves.

Lorna Riley, a Thousand Oaks-based motivational speaker, said she started speaking professionally eight years ago and now makes about $150,000 a year.

That’s nearly triple what she used to make selling advertising space for an interior-design publication. Professional speaking, she said, “doesn’t feel like a real job.”

Steven Power, a former marketing executive who lives in Ventura, launched his business as a consultant and professional speaker about six years ago. He said he now makes about $250,000 a year, one-third of that from speaking engagements. “People want to change their lives,” he said. “That’s why Jenny Craig is rich. That’s why Tony Robbins is rich.”

And that’s why Hopkins is rich. Last spring, more than 1,000 salespeople paid $130 apiece to participate in a Hopkins seminar at a Burbank hotel. He holds about 80 such seminars a year, collecting $12,500 for each appearance. The rest of the box-office take goes to the companies that arrange the events and sell the tickets.

Hopkins said that last year he made about $1 million in speaking fees and several million more from sales of his videotapes, audio tapes and books - products he hawks aggressively at his seminars, which feature all the clapping, shouting and fist-waving of a high school rally.

Muscle-bound Sam Mohamed, 31, who makes his living selling memberships to the Powerhouse Gym in Huntington Beach, said he attends at least two motivational seminars a year and routinely checks out Hopkins’ books and tapes.

“In sales, you get burned out, stressed out and you lose interest,” Mohamed said. “When you see Tom Hopkins, you leave the seminar motivated to set goals for yourself.” Mohamed said his productivity often jumps 20 percent after a motivational seminar. When his numbers start to slide again, he knows it’s time for another session.

Most speakers make names for themselves by stringing together gigs at chambers of commerce and Rotary clubs, but Riley entered the business by answering a help-wanted ad in the newspaper.

The notice, she said, was placed by Dan McBride, a motivational speaker based in Fountain Valley.

Riley’s job was to give free, half-hour presentations to sales groups across the San Fernando Valley, espousing the merits of McBride’s seminars. After the presentations, Riley would sell $125 tickets to upcoming McBride events. Riley would keep $45, and McBride would get the rest.

She soon became one of the top producers in McBride’s nationwide network of salespeople, and before long she was making plans to go solo. “I started to burn out saying the same thing over and over again,” she recalled. “And people started to say I was better than the guy I was (selling) for.”

Today, she charges about $3,500 per appearance and is frequently hired by Southern California companies, including Amgen, GTE and Mattel, to conduct seminars on sales techniques, time management and motivation.

In fact, most speakers who lack widespread name recognition depend heavily on corporate work from companies like GTE, which brings in motivational speakers several times a year. “I don’t see spikes” in performance after a seminar, said Pat Lewis, manager of GTE’s pay-phone sales unit. “But what I do see is people that are excited. We are convinced that happy, motivated or inspired employees translate into happier, more satisfied customers.”

Of course there are plenty of skeptics who see motivational speakers as nothing more than over-priced cheerleaders. Aware that the rah-rah side of the business is an easy target, Hopkins tries to distance himself from it.

“Motivational speaking’ has the connotation of a hype session,” he said.”I’d rather be known as an educator in the field of sales.”

But like any good salesman, Hopkins knows not to dwell on the unhappy customers. Cynics “are often turned off by a guy like me,” he said.

“Anybody who’s not excited about selling would say, ‘What a scam. He’s teaching people to sell and pushing things down their throats.’ But I could pile letters a foot thick over a 50-square-foot area from students who have thanked me for giving them tips to make more money.”