The wonderful dearly departed comic Chris Farley had a character that was a professional motivational speaker.
That character was Matt Foley and he was an absolute mess.
His speaking style was painful and destructive and
he lived (say it with me) in a van down by the river. Well, as hilarious as that routine was, that characterization of professional
speakers is obviously for comedy purposes only.
If you have been given the gift of public speaking, there is every reason
to believe that you can make a very good living doing it for a living.
One way to view making your living as a
public speaker is to see it as a variation on the profession of professional author.
When you think about it,
a writer of informative books takes an area of expertise that they have excelled at and they used their skills in writing to lay that
out for people who need that knowledge.
And when people buy that knowledge, it's a fair exchange to pay that
person for that valuable knowledge and allow that author to continue writing.
You can also compare a professional
public speaker to the noble calling of teacher.A teacher, after all, is someone who does public speaking every day for his
or her students.
And that public speaking has a vital function in our society. Without it, our children would
not be educated and the way our culture functions would be in serious danger. So professional public speakers are important.
How to get your own career as a professional public speaker going is the challenge.You may be used to public speaking to help with your work or as part
of your membership in a church or other organization. So it may not be a big leap to think of taking that skill to the next
level and seek ways to get paid doing what you love to do, speaking to larger groups about your area of expertise.
As might happen if you took
your area of skill that you have the most knowledge an put that in a book form, that focus is your meal ticket to be successful
as a professional public speaker.
So to get the ball rolling, the first step is to add to the level of notoriety
you may have as a professional in your field of knowledge. The internet is a good starting place.
By building
a web site where you can showcase your knowledge and using the skills of internet marketers to get some traffic to that web
site, it is there you can begin to build an audience for your knowledge area and to keep them informed on times and places
where you will be speaking.
Once that web site is in place, it can be a foundation for your new public speaking
career. You can send people to it after each talk you give where they can learn more about how to use your talents for their
function and for their audience.
But don't just rest on the internet and expect it to do all the work. There
are lots of organizations that you can speak at either for free or for a small gratuity (sometimes just lunch). But the value
of these meetings is not the pay, its getting momentum and some buzz as a speaker.
From then on its just a matter
of networking.As members of those groups carry your business card with them, they refer you and you get more and more "gigs"
presenting your talk to bigger groups. Before long the gratuities turn into real pay. And when you are on your way and things
start to click, you will never look back on your decision to become a professional public speaker.
Do you have a message you’re passionate about and the desire to book speaking engagements so people
will hear your message, but you just can’t seem to secure the bookings? Many public speakers, including myself, have
been faced with this dilemma. So what’s the solution? It’s simple. Pick a market that will benefit from hearing
your message and focus your attention on marketing to that specific niche. A mistake that many public speakers make is marketing
to everyone. Generating real wealth and lasting success begins when you focus on a niche. Here are five tips to help you Grow
Rich in a Niche! You will need to adapt these examples to fit your niche.
1. Focus on a specific niche. It’s
pretty obvious that my book and presentation entitled, From College to the Real World,® are designed to benefit college students. It would not make sense for me to market this public speaking
topic to businesses. So my attention and energy is focused on getting my message out to coordinators who book public speakers
at colleges and universities. Ask yourself, “who wants to hear my message and which market would benefit most from my
message?”
2. Design promotional materials for that niche. All of your marketing materials should be designed
to relate to the public speaking niche you’re targeting. For example, since the information on my speaking brochure
is focused on helping students succeed in and out of college, listing one of my corporate programs on my college speaking
brochure would not be practical. Make sure that your marketing materials are designed for your targeted niche. Ask yourself,
“is everything listed on my marketing materials targeting the niche I have chosen?”
3. Find the decision-makers.
The fastest and most effective way to get booked for public speaking engagements is to find the decision-makers for your niche.
When I began marketing to colleges and universities, I sent my brochure to professors and quickly learned that professors
don’t book speakers for college events. Instead, college coordinators are in charge of booking public speakers. I located several college organizations whose members
include thousands of college coordinators who pay public speakers to speak at colleges. I then joined the organizations, got
the mailing lists, and mailed my speaking brochure to each coordinator. Immediately, my number of bookings increased. I am
now a member of over ten different organizations and have a database of over 10,000 decision-makers that could book me to
speak at colleges. Ask yourself, who are the decision makers for the public speaking niche I am targeting?
4. Write
articles for niche publications. Many public speakers run ads to market their services. I have a simple philosophy for running
ads versus writing articles. People perceive that if you run an ad you are trying to sell them something. People perceive
that if you have written an article you are an expert on your public speaking topic. I rarely read speaker advertisements.
However, I always read articles written by speakers. Instead of running ads, I write numerous articles for publications that
are read by the decision-makers in my niche, the college and university market. I get many bookings as a result of a college
coordinators reading an article I have written. The following three steps will help you market yourself: 1) Determine which
publications are read by the decision makers in your public speaking niche; 2) Write a few short articles that are appropriate
for their publication and make sure your bio and contact information is listed at the end of the article; 3) Send these articles
to the editors of the publications because editors are always looking for articles!
5. Have a three-year plan.
Most people fail within the first year of starting a new business. Why? Because they get so excited about their business and think it will quickly take off. In reality, starting a business always takes longer than we anticipate. When I decided to become a full-time public speaker, I didn’t immediately quit
my full-time job as a financial consultant. Instead, I created a plan to transition into a full-time speaking career. This
allowed me to not only save a large amount of money in case I needed it for expenses, but it also allowed me to integrate
myself into the public speaking market by attending conferences, planning regular mailings, and making telephone calls. My
name was consistently kept in front of event coordinators and decision-makers for several months, which allowed me to become
known in the lucrative college speaking niche. I highly suggest that you make a three-year plan.
By following these
five simple tips, you will find that your public speaking bookings will tremendously increase while you become a recognized
expert in your niche.
