Being a Professional Trainer and Speaker

As a professional trainer and speaker, I travel around and speak to an approximate number of 500 to 1,000 audiences in a month. From time to time, I get emails asking questions on how I began my journey and how I achieve what I achieved with my team. I have repeatedly reply to these emails and now I thought, might as well share it with all, in the form of a note like this.

In NLP, we teach a technique called Strategy Elicitation for Modeling Success. NLP began as a modeling technique so practitioners in NLP can model the strategies of successful individuals and organizations, so that they too, can enjoy successful results, learning from successful people.

In this spirit, an NLP Master Practitioner from Holland, whom I have had the privilege to meet, wrote an email and asked me these questions:

Question: How did you get started and the processes you took to get where you are now?

Answer: I got started in training because my construction business failed, with me owing personal debts of several hundreds of thousands of dollars.. With S$100 in the pocket, I started the training business as a proprietorship, because it is easy to start and getting a job ain’t going to help me repay the massive debts. It took me 7 months before I got my first paid sales training contract with a lap top retailer in Singapore. That was my first S$800 training paid job. From the start, I am always looking out for opportunities to speak in front of crowds, offering my services for free and still, had people rejecting me. Purposes of which are to get myself known to others and showcase my capabilities as well as hoping that someone in the crowd will like what I did and offer me a training contract. The other purpose is to get myself in front of crowd so I can learn training delivery and hone my skills, which I did not have any prior formal training in. Now, this is the main reason for my team and I offering the MasterClass Train-The-Trainer so that we can help short-cut the learning curve of aspiring trainers and professional trainers who can do better, to help them double their income as a professional trainer, coach and speaker. At the ninth month, 2 ladies in a crowd I was speaking at one evening came up to me after my speech and asked me for a meeting. Turned out they worked for a US MNC and they booked me twice a month for an entire year, and with traveling exposure to the region. That really got me started.

Question: At the beginning did you already know what you wanted to do or was that something that became evident as you did all the trainings?

Answer: I went into training because the economy was really down at that time and job interviews got me no where. The people who were interviewing me seemed more afraid that I will take over their job at a lower salary, since I was desperate. I just figured that I have a good heart with the right intention and I should be blessed. Of course, I use my knowledge and learning in NLP to elicit my values (the driving forces within me) and discovered that my values are aligned with the profession of training and motivational speaking.

English was a problem too, I was one of the students teachers would rather not have in their class, as I would drag the grade of the entire class down in terms of performance. As I began delivering training and speeches, I realized that I enjoyed it. Let’s face it, if doing work that benefits and impact people does not make one satisfied, I really cannot think of anything else that is as meaningful as training. One of life’s greatest moment is when your name appears in someone else’s testimonial. This, is what I kept in mind whenever I faced challenges and there were plenty – the months of tightening my belt (I could go on just rice and a slice of meat daily for months), the money required in the family and my own expenses, etc etc… I didn’t even have a printer to print proposals.

I started because I had very limited options and I remembered in one of my earlier jobs, that my Deputy General Manager told me that I had tremendous ability to motivate others and have others listened to me when I speak.

Therefore, I started by ‘accident’ and grew to love training.

Question: When you started at the beginning, did learning NLP make you hungry for more knowledge of NLP?

Answer: NLP is a wonder tool so I was attracted to the results it produced right from the start. This is further fortified whenever I run an NLP Practitioner Certification Training as part of our Live By Design program. This year, we ran 3 programs already with the last one coming up in October 2012 in Singapore. And we are also running the NLP Master Practitioner in November 2912 in KL, Malaysia. We’ve had people who are addicts for years, suicidal, relationship problems and burdened by loads of negative emotions… And during the class of 5 short days, we’ve successfully helped them rid of all these negativities and move on with their life with hope, possibilities and positiveness.

Hence, my pursue of NLP and Time Line Therapy(R) to a very deep level. Call this a success strategy, I will only do things to the best of my ability and nothing short of being significance, excellence is easy. Therefore, when I do something, I want to make sure I am doing it at the level of absolute best, nothing short of it.

Question: Do you “love” your work or it is something you do just to make money or maintain a lifestyle that you want?

Answer: I absolutely love what I do! the money was a ‘by-the-way’. It took me years to earn ‘good’ money in the business. Let’s face it, businesses must be profit-driven and so, its a balancing act.

Basically, my team and I will not do anything that does not benefit our clients and in exchange, they pay for our services.

When you are good at what you do, you earn good money. When you are excellent, you earn excellent income.

The act of giving already begins the process of receiving! The more you give, the more you receive. The lifestyle is a ‘given’ when you become excellent at what you do. So, enjoy your success, pamper and reward yourself, I believe this is fair.

When doing coaching and mentoring with aspiring trainers and my graduates of the MasterClass Train-The-Trainer, I have the following questions and recommendations:

a. Passion – Do your values elicitation on career. If they are aligned, you have passion for it within you and it is easier to set your sail according to the wind.

b. Power – Do a skills inventory, if you have the knowledge, skills and abilities, you have Power. If you have Passion in the profession but is lacking in power, know that skills, knowledge and abilities can be developed and you must act now.

c. Profit – Do an industry check, if there’s demand in the market, you’ll have profit potential. It is then about doing the right things right.

Yes, there will always be the good, the bad and the ugly. behind the scenes, there are lots of hard work, late nights, lack of sleep and sacrifices. And, no amount of what I share will give you an accurate picture unless you get your feet wet and that is why my graduates took on our mentorship packages to travel with us, assist us in training programs, basically camping with us to learn the inside-out.

Do you have the Passion, Power and Profit Potential?

I will be running the MasterClass Train the Trainer program from 19 to 23 September 2012 in Kuala Lumpur and it may be the last one for a while, or maybe even forever. Therefore if you have ever wanted to become a trainer or would like to improve your training skills, then come and find out my tips and techniques that I will happily share with you during the program.

For more information about our programs, do visit www.BillyKueek.com or drop us an email to Office@BillyKueek.com.