Do you have an unusual life? Have you done things differently and managed to overcome long odds? Then why not become a motivational speaker? Doing so offers you a huge number of opportunities because there is a lot of money to be had.
Even if it doesn’t become a full-time job, it can still be nice sideline income. Even better, if you have some product that's related to what you do then these motivational speaking gigs and what you’re selling can dovetail nicely, with you being able to plug the latter during the former.
Of course, becoming a motivational speaker does take a bit of work. It’s not like you can just say one day ‘hey, I’m a motivational speaker now’ and be done with it. Here are some of the things you’ll want to make sure you’ve thought about before you make the plunge.
Are you any good at speaking?
Now, to be clear, you don’t have to be a hero right from the bat. You can learn a lot about how to speak well. You do, however, have to make sure that you actually like doing so at least a little bit. After all, if every time you have to get in front of an audience you feel like you’re going to die, well that’s not going to make things easy.
For that reason, do some soul searching to make sure you can actually do this on a regular basis. Just as importantly, make sure that you are one of those people who can summon (or fake) enthusiasm easily and effectively. After all, sometimes you won’t feel like speaking, but if clients are paying you a lot of money to do so you’ll still have to pull out all the stops and deliver. Otherwise, your career will be short-lived.
Are you well-known enough that people will reach out to you?
If you are, then great! All you need to do now is figure out is how much to charge them when they do. If, on the other hand, you’re not quite famous enough for that kind of thing, well then you’re going to have to start marketing yourself.
You’ll have to reach out to people who might be interested in hiring motivational speakers and then wowing them with your expertise and your insights.You might even have to start speaking for free at big events, simply to get noticed.
What are you going to talk about?
There are a lot of motivational speakers out there and if you’re going to be noticed you need to make sure you’re offering something more than they are. Really, that means you’ve got to have content. You’ve got to have a great story to tell and then figure out a way to apply that to the people in your audience so they actually feel motivated when it’s all done and dusted.
For that reason, make sure you’re actually constantly working on your message as well as its content. One of the best ways to do that before you start speaking publicly is to write a lot. If you think you can make a lot of mistakes than find the best writing service like Essay Catcher company that will check your written speech. It doesn’t matter if it’s books, articles online or if you write the best research papers. It will all contribute, as it all give you the opportunity to figure out what does and does not interest people. Even better, if you regularly make this content available online then it will also help you create recognition. And that, in turn, will help you with your efforts to attract speaking gigs when you’re just starting out.
That dovetail thing
To make speaking truly lucrative, make sure you don’t just do the speech, but that you also offer the people in your audience more material they can get their hands on. In this way, you’re not just doing the motivational speaking, but you’re also offering your audience the opportunity to give you yet more money by offering them those additional products.
So, if you’ve written books then you’ll want to plug those during your speech (And offer them for sale later on). If you’ve got workshops, be it in person or online, then you can plug these as well during your speech.
In that way, if they like what you’re saying on the stage, it doesn’t just stay at that. Instead, you’re creating the opportunity for them to follow you. Even better – as I outlined above – in the process of creating this stuff you’ll actually give yourself more content that you can use for your speeches. So it’s win-win!
Last words
The world of motivational speaking is not an easy one. There is a lot of competition out there and when you start out it’s probably not a good idea to invest full-throttle into doing this full time. Nonetheless, it can be very lucrative – particularly if you manage to get a bit of renown.
So don’t quit your day job. Instead, leverage it into making yourself an even better motivational speaker. In this way, you’ll be able to keep yourself afloat as your recognition grows. Until the day that it’s only an anchor and you can discard it forever more.
Angela Baker is a self-driven specialist who is currently working as a freelance writer and trying to improve herself in the blogging career. She is always seeking to discover new ways for personal and professional growth and is convinced that it’s always important to broaden horizons. That`s why Angela develops and improves her skills throughout the writing process to help and inspire people.