It seems that the people who are successful in the speaking world have taken great advantage of coaches and mentors along the way. (I know this sounds self-serving, since I coach speakers, but I do believe it.)

There are no self-made men or women. We all have received help to get where we wanted to go.

This crazy business of speaking is almost an extreme example of this concept. There seems to be no road map to speaking success. For every piece of advice telling us to never do this thing there is an example of a very successful speaker who does exactly that. There seems to be a million gurus. The problem is maybe half of them are faking it.

But which half? And what advice is right for you? How do you find a coach for you?

Here’s my piece of advice: Keep looking. When you find a coach or mentor with your best interests at heart… who is not trying to first empty your pockets (especially online)… who wants to help you create your message and deliver it to your world… when you find one of them, it might be the right fit.

If not. Keep looking. Great coaches are out there waiting to help you become your very best. It’s worth the search.

An early question I had when I first became a speaker was trying to figure our how to present myself on stage. I am not an actor. I quickly learned that if I just stood up and spoke, it seemed lifeless and lecturing. And I knew that my speaker heroes had great energy and projected that energy to their audiences.

Then someone told me about the 110 Percent idea. It goes a little like this: You want to be yourself. You want to be genuine. But you want to amp yourself up a little — to about 110 percent of yourself.

I think what that really says is that we should push our comfort zone edges. Not a lot, but some. Don’t play small. Be who you are and test the margins at the same time. See if you can expand.

The stage or the front of the room can be intimidating and cause us to shrink back. We should compensate. Push your energy. Push your connections.

Try about 110 percent.

I saw it again at a Toastmaster’s meeting last night. A young, very talented speaker, who was very anxious to get all the techniques down and become a world-class speaker. I often mention, in a situation like this, that this speaking thing is a process. It is a lifelong education not a single AP Speaking course.

It is a marathon not a sprint.

But I think that is not nuanced enough. There are plenty of times we have to sprint in this business. We have deadlines. We have calendar commitments and actual gigs we have to practice for and deliver. Lots of time we have to run as fast as we can. We sprint.

But it is also a marathon. We have to keep the faith — in ourselves, our work, our long goals. We have to run this marathon every day when we get up, when things aren’t working right. We have to remind ourselves that this is also a long distance journey. If we want to get there we have to be in it for the long haul as well.

It’s a marathon of sprints.

Here’s a helpful tip to help you customize your next presentation.

We all search for good things, but we will do anything to avoid pain. Help your audience avoid the things that keep them awake at night and you will be a rock star.