One recent Friday afternoon the ballroom at the east end of Navy Pier was filled with 1,600 people who were dancing and waving their arms to the song “Born To Be Wild.”
Each had paid $199 to be there and each was energized. The man on stage leading the frenzy was not a rock star, but Tony Robbins, a 35-year-old millionaire in red suspenders and a blue shirt.
“Can you feel the passion?” Tony asked.
“Yes,” screamed the men in casual business attire and the women in pantsuits.
“That’s not loud enough. Can you feel it now?”
“YES!” they shouted even louder.
Welcome to the world of motivational speakers. Each year scores of motivational and corporate speakers such as Robbins, Brian Tracy and Jim Rohn hold public seminars at Navy Pier, Rosemont Horizon and other locations in the Chicago area. Admission fees range from $79 for a half-day program to $199 for 12 hours with Tony.
Although their presentations vary from flamboyant to buttoned-down, the speakers’ messages all promise success and empowerment through enhanced personal development.
Are such seminars worth the price of admission?
“People are asking too much if they think their lives will change just by listening to a motivational speaker for a few hours,” cautions Brian Palmer, vice president of the National Speakers Bureau, a Lake Forest company that books speakers on a smaller scale for corporations and associations.
“You can’t believe all the hype. But you can get something worthwhile out of a session if you find a speaker who is attuned to your business situation or lifestyle.”
One of the Navy Pier arm-wavers, Nick De George, agrees.
De George, vice president of Principal Financial Securities, Inc., of Oak Brook, says: “There’s a lot of duplication in the presentations of the top speakers I’ve seen, but it’s a message I need to hear every few months to get me out of my day-to-day groove. Everyone in sales knows what he has to do to be a good salesperson, but we don’t always do what we should. Attending a motivational seminar gives me a new mind-set.”
Bob Hill, director of sales development for Moore Business Forms and Systems Division in Lake Forest and a fan of sales guru Zig Ziglar, says motivational seminars pay off in two ways.
“Whenever I send my staff to a seminar, there’s a tangible reward, in the number of increased sales calls they make afterward. But there’s also an intangible benefit when you apply the principles of someone like Ziglar to your life and you take on a more positive attitude.”
Other attendees are less positive about the seminar scene. While most of the Robbins crowd in the Navy Pier ballrom bounced to the beat, Sally, a Chicago sales representative, stood in the back of the room with her arms folded.
“Tony has a lot of good ideas, but I probably won’t remember most of them,” she said. “I feel the seminar was just a teaser to get us in here to dump another $500 on his tapes.”
Every motivational seminar features a product area, where attendees can purchase the speaker’s videocassettes, audiotapes, books and, in some cases, even posters and T-shirts.
At the Robbins seminar, one could buy all of Tony’s “Strategic Influence,” “Unlimited Power” and “Personal Power” tapes and books for $569, or a single program for $195.
John V. Reints, the owner of an Addision construction company, avoided the sales area because he already owns Robbins’ audio programs.
“I’ve been listening to Tony’s tapes since the first time I saw him, about three years ago,” Reints said. “I came back today as a kind of refresher course, and I’m amazed at how many patterns of my success I’ve learned from him.”
Hill, too, says listening to a speaker’s tapes is necessary to reinforce what you hear at a seminar. “When you attend a seminar for the first time, be open to the speaker’s ideas, but don’t let your expectations get too high. You won’t walk away with all the answers. But if you listen to his tapes, the speaker’s principles will eventually become your habits.”
Other advice for getting the most out of a motivational seminar includes:
– Don’t go to a seminar just because the speaker is well known. There are almost 60 nationally known motivators; find the one who’s right for you.
Catalogs of videos and audiotapes by the top motivators are available through Nightingale-Conant of Niles (800-525-9000) and Creative Achievement Worldwide in Brookfield (708-485-0555). Jim Zawiski, president of Creative Achievement, also will send you a list of upcoming motivational events.
Bill McMullen, vice president of marketing for SuccessClub of West Michigan in Grand Rapids, has seen most of the industry’s heavy hitters and suggests: “Tony Robbins and Jim Rohn are both generalists and talk about enhancing your quality of life, but Tony’s entertaining and charismatic while Jim’s more straightforward.
“Mike Wickett’s presentations are geared to sales people, and Ken Blanchard, the author of the `One Minute Manager,’ talks to sales managers. Tom Peters speaks directly to corporate managers.”
Other popular motivators include Stephen Covey, author of “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”; Wayne Dyer of “Your Erroneous Zones” fame; Brian Tracy and his “Psychology of Achievement”; and retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who has hit the seminar trail to talk about leadership.
– Pay for at least part of the admission fee yourself. Attendees at the Tony Robbins seminar said they pay more attention to speakers when their own money is at stake. Many area companies put up half the cost of a motivational seminar, with their employees paying the rest.
Brian Augustine, a loan officer with First United Financial in Schaumburg, said he felt the day with Robbins was worth the $100 he spent himself, but he was glad he hadn’t spent any more. “If I had to pay the entire $200, the value would become more marginal,” he said.
– Attend with a colleague or a friend. What you forget, your partner may remember. You can then work together to put the motivator’s rules into practice.
– If you can’t attend with a friend, take notes. You’ll tend to remember more and you’ll have something to refer back to when your motivation level drops.
– Leave your inhibitions at home. The role-playing, shouting, arm-waving and even the dancing are integral parts of some motivators’ programs. According to Robbins, such activities reinforce his points. But, Augustine says, “motivators like Tony Robbins aren’t for everyone. If you’re not ready to get into it and dance in the aisles, don’t go at all.”
