14 Steps to Become a Motivational Speaker
Do you dream of becoming a professional speaker? Do you want to motivate and inspire others with your messages? Lisa B. Marshall, aka The Public Speaker, explains steps you need to take to develop into a professional motivational speaker.
Perhaps one of the most common questions I get asked is this: “How do I become a professional motivational speaker?” Although It’s a difficult question to answer in a short article, today I’m going to cover 14 steps to becoming a motivational speaker. (I’ve written about the first three steps previously, so I’ll keep these brief.)
1. Ask for informational interviews with professionals speakers, both in your niche and out of it. You can learn a great deal from those that have already been down the same path, and I’ve found most professionals are happy to help others get started in the business.
2. Volunteer to speak at local events as a host, a panel member, or if possible, a featured speaker. Any speaking experience will help you get comfortable and be seen. Who knows, you may even be so inspirational someone in the audience asks you to speak to their organization!
3. Volunteer to become a speaker for a non-profit that you’re passionate about. You’ll learn how to be comfortable sharing your passion and that’s critical—especially for motivational speakers.
4. Join a Toastmasters club and begin speaking. Toastmasters can help you learn and practice the very basics of public speaking. It will give you a start and will also provide you a captured audience. You may even consider joining several Toastmaster meeting groups. The more speakers you interact with, the more skills and style you can gain. You may even find a speaker coach/mentor to help you refine your speaking skills. Also, join the National Speaker’s Association. Here’s where you’ll be able to find local people who are building careers as professional speakers. Also, you may find a business coach/mentor here.
5. Submit ideas to conferences on topics to speak about. Many conferences look to experts to present ideas. Submit a proposal for a session or offer to work with someone else to create a joint session. Try to team up with someone that already has a following. I sometimes get requests to speak that I can’t accomodate and, whenever possible, I pass along these opportunities to someone that may be still developing his or her career.
6. Create “evergreen” product content (audio/video/blog/courses/membership sites/books). This means content that is always relevant, and doesn’t go out of style or out of date. The idea is to answer the questions that your audience is most interested in. If you’re already working in the field as a professional, think about the questions that you get asked most often. Every day at the end of your day, take ten minutes to record (either video or audio) the answer to a question you already answered during your day. If you aren’t already an established professional, you can find the questions that are being asked by joining forums and reading blogs, or simply thinking about your own questions from when you started out in your field. For established professionals, the response shouldn’t take much preparation because you’ve likely answered that question many times. If you do this every day for a week, you’ll have accumulated about an hour’s worth of valuable content at the end of the week. If you are just starting out, it may take you longer to develop your responses, but the time invested helps you deepen your expertise.
7. Create your lead list from day one, knowing that lead generation and list-building are absolute priorities. To do this, create a lead magnet. Take your best material and give it away. The idea is to simply attract people that are interested in your content by giving them something valuable for free. Of course, not all of those people will want to pay for your products and services, but some of them will be hungry for more. When you eventually have products to sell, you will be ready with a list of people you know are already interested in your products and services.
Take your best material and give it away.
8. Build your platform via blogging/podcasting. In order for your content to be found, you need to have a home base. By blogging and/or podcasting, you’re creating a home for your content. If done correctly, your content will be easily found when someone is searching for information on your topic area. When they are ready for what you have to offer, they will easily be able to find you.
9. Find your target audience. Although you have a home for people to find, you will also need to reach out to your target demographic. Who exactly are they? Where do they spend time (in-person and online)? Where do they hang out? Where do they share ideas? You want to be there, too! You want to be there helping and advising as much as you can. You’ll want to give freely and, at the same time, gently point them back to your home base for more information.
10. Once you’ve established yourself as an expert in your niche, you’ll want to create some buzz in the media. Start with social media, and then move toward traditional media. Maybe even write a book. Develop an image as an expert by being interviewed on podcasts, writing posts for popular blogs, and providing fodder for traditional magazine articles and television interviews.
11. Do free events (webinars, in-person) with a plan of generating revenue from a “back-end” offering (directing people to buy your book, sign up for your newsletter, etc.).
12. Grow your following and expand your offerings based on customer requests. Don’t create products that you want; give your readers and listeners choices and then create what they want you to create. I have built many training programs specifically from customer requests. It by far the best way to build and expand your offerings.
13. In addition to learning how to speak, you need to start learning about the business aspects of your profession. You’ll need to learn a number of new things—some things technical, some things about making money, some things about the business process, and some things about marketing—all while you continue to master the craft of public and motivational speaking. Again, use resources from The National Speaker’s Association, an organization that can help you learn many of the business aspects of developing a speaking career.
14. Hire help (coach, assistant, marketer, etc.) BEFORE you think you can afford it! Bring in help in the areas that you are not good at.
What do all of these points have in common? They all involved taking action. I know it can be overwhelming, especially at the beginning, to figure out which steps to take first or what to concentrate on. But don’t worry about it, and just begin. Take action. The sooner you start speaking, the sooner you’ll have success—and the sooner you’ll make mistakes that you can learn from!
Good luck, and let me know how it goes!
You May Also Like…
About the Author
Lisa B. Marshall Lisa holds masters with duel degrees in interpersonal/intercultural communication and organizational communication. She’s the author of Smart Talk: The Public Speaker’s Guide to Success in Every Situation, as well as Ace Your Interview, Powerful Presenter, and Expert Presenter. Her work has been featured in CBS Money Watch, Ragan.com, Woman’s Day, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and many others. Her institutional clients include Johns Hopkins Medicine, Harvard University, NY Academy of Science, University of Pennsylvania, Genentech, and Roche.
