If you want to make a living as a professional speaker, you must speak to groups that gather and will pay to hear your message. Many aspiring speakers waste years trying to sell a speech no one will pay for. Determine the market for your speech and create your strategy accordingly. Watch this short video I taped on this important subject and I’ll look forward to your comments.
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Good message this morning Steve, I have been hanging around the fringes dipping my toes in the water for opportunities to establish a speaking business and have come to realize that you are absolutely correct, no one will pay for what I might personally believe to be a message that I think is of great value. It has to be something that resonates with the buyer’s audience and/or is timely. Observing what has been transpiring in our town, Calgary, Alberta over the past week or so with the flooding and subsequent devastation, I think that there would be many people who would qualify for being included in a book that I am trying to write on a theme based on what I describe as The Unbreakable Inner Thread.
Steve –
When I first began looking at the speaking business, I really wanted to be an inspirational speaker. However, I soon realized that my story just wasn’t strong enough.
However, my expertise as a military leader, helicopter pilot, and wartime veteran have given me a lot to speak about in the corporate market. Never saw myself as a corporate speaker in the beginning, but that’s where my future is taking me.
Thanks for this reminder, Steve!
Wiz…
Dear Steve
Thank you for highlighting “who will pay for your speech” its a great point but not everyone is aware how to do this …….some speakers may need some serious private coaching on how to pull together what is important and relevant and how to best present it professionally.
After all everyone has had a unique life/experiences and may need special coaching to hone their unique experiences/expertise into an effective motivational presentation for different audiences….
What about the personality speaker can they speak on multiple topics and have people pay? I know everyone isn’t going to be a personality speaker but i was just asking. I don’t want to fall in the box of just becoming a commodity speaker
Thanks for the message Steve. I am an active member of Toastmasters here in Brampton, ON since November, 2012 and have recently taken on the role as VP of Membership. Although I am new to the Toastmasters arena, I decided to take on this role in hopes of providing one to one mentoring and coaching to new and existing members. I first joined to find my area of play and develop my own identity of a speaker and found myself gearing more towards self development and effectiveness in the workplace. As much as I enjoyed motivational speaking for self development and growth, I also realized that there is a huge market for this in the corporate field in terms of incorporating the self development within a strong team whether building and maintaining a good customer service team or an effective sales team. I am 38 years old and have been in the corporate environment for pretty much most of my life, in different areas and realized that the same problems occur regardless of what industry. My passion lies both in writing and speaking and would like to make it a business. I am currently using Toastmasters as my practicing stage and dream of eventually hitting a bigger stage and making this my career. I was in a car accident last year which kept me out of work (and being a part-time caregiver to my elderly mom). Even though it’s kind of left me in a tough financial bind, I really thought hard about what it is I want to do for the rest of my life and I thought to myself……. “do I really want to get back in to the corporate tangle and be in a job that I totally hate and lack the important skills to be effective?” it probably won’t even be the job so much but rather, the lack of an effective work environment, strong team, open door management, shared vision etc. Too many times I see companies failing because they lack very crucial skills when it comes to having a strong and effective team building the business. They lose the valuable employees while not recognizing what it takes to retain them so the company goes through constant turnover. What would you recommend?