Speaking not so freely.

• Author: CALEY, NORA
• Position: Brooks International Speakers Bureau - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

CORPORATIONS DON'T HIRE MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKERS BECAUSE THEY WANT employees to chuckle at a lunch. The highly paid experts are supposed to inspire workers to become more efficient, productive, and, well ... motivated.

Getting the speaker up for the speech, however, is the job of the Brooks International Speakers and Entertainment Bureau.

Brooks, a company started by two Denver women entrepreneurs, finds motivational speakers, celebrities, and humorists to stand at a podium and change the way their audiences think or work.

But finding the right speaker isn't Brooks' only challenge, said Jim Phillips, vice president of sales and marketing. The company's 10 employees often find themselves fielding phone calls from people who want to hire baseball star Sammy Sosa to speak at an event for $1,500. And they frequently have to deflect, "I've always wanted to be a public speaker."

It's a challenge because Sammy Sosa actually charges $60,000 per appearance. And not everyone who ever made a clever toast at a wedding can make a living as a public speaker.

"We've all heard bad speakers," said Phillips. "There's a difference between a speaker who is dependent on the energy of the room to make him good, and a speaker who gives a room energy and has a symbiotic relationship back and forth."

Phillips helps clients choose from a roster of 150 speakers. Fees range from $3,500 for a local comedian to $50,000 to $100,000 for a Washington D.C. politician, he said. The client seeking a speaker pays Brooks International, which pays the fee minus a commission.

Maureen Brooks, then a stay-at-home mom, founded the agency with partner Susan Miller in the early 1980s, although the two didn't...