Every summer I head north to be a part of something called the Veteran Speakers Retreat, held this year in Hagerstown, Maryland.

A group of old geezers, about 65 strong, get together to tell lies about the way things are in the professional speaking business.

VSR got its start when Bill Gove, Ira Hayes and Dave Yoho and others decided that organizations like the National Speakers Association had grown too big and impersonal. I remain an NSA member and have served on their Board of Directors, but like my fellow VSR attendees, I'm just not enamored with attending their conventions where thousands show up.

NSA has several events each year and I attend one or two of them. Lately, I've been more inclined to go to their Winter Conferences which are much smaller and a bit more intimate. My favorites are the CPAE Retreats where an intimate group of folks who have earned the Council of Peers Award of Excellence honor get together to lie about how many speaking engagements they're turning down because they are so busy.

The BS notwithstanding, it is still a great opportunity to compare notes with peers that have faced the same challenges that you face in your business. Unlike many of my peers in the speaking profession, I have never considered myself a full time speaker. On the contrary, I'm a businessman who happens to be called on to speak on topics I deal with every day of my life in my real world.

Too many people in the speaking business are running around giving book reports. They speak on leadership and they've never led anything. They talk about sales and the only things they have sold are their car and their furniture to pay their rent.

I exaggerate of course. Dizzy Dean, the great baseball pitcher, used to say "When you've done done it, it ain't braggin." If I want to learn about sales, I want to ask a guy who has excelled at it. If I want to learn about management, I want to consult with a person who actually manages and leads people, not someone who read about it in a book and is now reporting his findings.

In other words, go meet a payroll and tell me how you did it… and I'll listen. Go qualify for the Million Dollar Round Table and I'll be at your feet begging you for details on how you accomplished it. Go win a war and I'll study your every move to learn your strategy.

Go spend three and a half decades building an insurance practice and then you have the right to speak about that. Well sports fans…that is what I've done and those things, not my oratorical skills, are what gives me the right to stand on a platform and share knowledge.

Yes, I won the World Championship of Public Speaking for Toastmasters in 1978. Yes, I earned the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation from the National Speakers Association in 1983. Yes, I was honored with the Council of Peers Award of Excellence (CPAE) Speaker Hall of Fame award in 2000. Only the late Cavett Robert, founder of the National Speakers Association and I have done all three. But all of the honors combined don't amount to a hill of beans unless you've done the things you talk about on the platform.

We once had bank robber Eldridge Clever speak at NSA. At least he stuck with what brought him there. On another occasion we had Frank Abagnale, Jr. come and speak. His book, "Catch Me If You Can" was the source of inspiration for the 2002 movie by the same title starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken. He spoke on how to rip people off.

Despite the fact that both of these guys broke the law to gain prominence, at least they spoke about stuff they had actually done, albeit illegal acts. I'm not suggesting that you go out and rob a bank to gain material for your speech, but don't come telling me you know something about customer service and you've never had a customer.

I think failures and criminals ought to be teaching seminars. At least they know how "not" to do it.