About Motivational Speakers

Football teams, schools and corporations hire motivational speakers to carry inspirational messages to impressionable groups. While coaches and managers can deliver motivational speeches and quotes, professional speakers have developed practical methods of improving the lives of their listeners. Motivational speakers like Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer and Yossi Ghinsberg use different methods to turn dispirited listeners into confident individuals. If you want to become a motivational speaker, you need to use your personal experiences and charisma to attract audiences.

Function

The primary purpose of a motivational speaker is applying positive ideas to everyday situations. This process requires a compelling story and effective visuals to represent blockades in the user's way. Joe Simpson is a British mountain climber who uses personal anecdotes about climbing in the Himalayas and the Peruvian Andes to encourage listeners to pursue difficult feats. Tony Robbins uses firewalking during his workshops to show that every person can overcome daily obstacles with courage and determination.

Considerations

Every motivational speaker should get comfortable in front of audiences before setting out on a long tour. Young professionals who are interested in motivational speaking can take public speaking courses and accept temporary positions that require extensive speaking skills. An aspiring speaker can refine his skills by working telemarketing and sales jobs that require a friendly personality and good presentation skills. Once a motivational speaker gets a following in his community, a public relations specialist can help the speaker reach the next level. PR firms can book motivational speakers at new venues, handle promotion of a speaker's book and schedule appearances with local media outlets.

Benefits

Motivational speakers realize several benefits outside of healthy appearance fees and flexible schedules. A motivational speaker has the opportunity to help thousands of people each year by crafting inspirational messages to individual circumstances at workshops. The regional, national and international schedule of a motivational speaker allows for sight seeing and eye-opening experiences in new places. The greatest benefit of giving inspirational speeches to the presenter is sharing a heartwarming or harrowing personal story to new audiences each year.

Types

Motivational speakers are categorized by their audiences, presentation styles and subject material. Some motivational speakers offer themselves to audiences of all types while other speakers focus on schools, corporate events and sports teams. The stereotypical style of a motivational speaker is a half-day or day workshop where attendees can practice motivational techniques in groups. This style has given way to shorter meetings, speeches and multi-session events that accommodate busy professionals. Speakers' bureaus like Brooks International have lists of motivational speakers covering specific topics like business management, artistic inspiration and employee training.

Size

Successful motivational speakers can expand their influence by using different media to reach diverse audiences. Tony Robbins makes a salary of nearly $30 million each year because of a motivational empire built on workshops, speeches and books after struggling early in his career. Your career as a motivational speaker starts by negotiating the right appearance fee for your level of expertise and booking as many appearances as possible. After a speaker builds up a local and regional audience for his work, he can command upward of $5,000 per appearance while selling accompanying books and CDs.

Resources

• Brooks International Speakers Bureau
• American Speakers Bureau