What words come to mind when you think or hear, “Professional Speaker?” Are they, motivation, entertaining, famous or wealthy? Did the words, sacrifice, work, service or even love come to mind? As a latecomer to this profession and just getting my training wheels off I thought I would share a few insights from the inside even though my vision may be somewhat limited.

In January I volunteered to drive our NSA President to the Salt Lake City airport for her very, very early morning flight to New York. She had presented to our group the night before along with a speaking and meeting panel. The meeting didn’t get out until almost 10pm. Many were still there when I left. One panel member still there was, Chad Hymas. Chad’s a member of our chapter, a well known and in-demand professional speaker. He’s also a quadriplegic, which means there are demands on his body that others don’t know or understand unless they’re a quad. Though he’s extremely busy, somehow he always seems to make time to share with us his knowledge and experience and I guess most of us just take it for granted because, well, we don’t live Chad’s life.

However, it gave me pause; the next morning after I had dropped NSA President Laura Stack at Concourse B and was approaching C Concourse, there was Chad being pushed by someone into the airport. Here’s a guy who lives at least an hour from downtown SLC, got out of a meeting late last night and is up extremely early to catch a flight to who knows where. My point is this: Chad doesn’t know it, but he showed me that real professional speakers make some tremendous sacrifices to support their fellow speakers. Thanks Chad!

Craig Hulet is an experienced sales/marketing/advertising and media guy. He’s been involved all of his life in personal development and is a professional speaker. In addition to speaking, he is a marketing consultant, is working on a book, loves golf, movies and fly fishing. His best friend is his wife and his family his bliss.