What do a business professional, an obstetrician and a sanitary solutions man have in common?

They all shared a platform last night with motivational speaker Les Brown.

Before becoming a motivational speaker, Erika McKay was a manager in corporate America and later a financial planner, but through it all she discovered that her passion was to help people in all capacities.

"I am able to draw upon all my different experiences to help people to the next level," she said. "I help people figure out how to win the money game and use their money wisely so that they don't have to wait until they are 50 or 60 before they think about how am I going to live.

"They need to start planning along the way and 25 to 65 is a nice span. And if they utilise that time wisely they can really do very well.

"My aim it to help people achieve success no matter where they are in their lives."

Bermudian Anthony Foster, of Bermuda Sanitation Services, says as a father he has been a motivational speaker for the last 20 years.

"My aim is to encourage people to see the value that they have within," he said. "Once people see that they have value they treat themselves and others better. I want people to see that they can move from a playing field of competition to a platform of creativity, because when you understand creativity you see that there is an abundance and there is enough for us all."

Frequent Bermuda visitor Dr. Marcia Harris started her career as a speech and drama student. She later moved onto medicine and became an obstetrician/gynaecologist after first specialising in internal medicine.

Her message is concise: "If you don't take care of yourself, you can't take care of anybody else.

"A lot of us run around doing everything for everybody and neglecting ourselves. You have to start with you no matter what is happening. Whether it is exercising, eating right, whatever. Charity begins at home. Period!"