How to Start a Public Speaking Career

A public speaking career can earn you $2500 to $50,000 per speaking engagement, plus expenses. You often travel around the country, and sometimes the continent. Many people who have had previous careers such as teaching, sports, political involvement, sales and marketing and authors find that a public speaking career can be very lucrative while simultaneously allowing them to be paid to promote their cause or products. But even if you're currently a "nobody," this eHow article shows you how to have a public speaking career of your own.

Instructions

1. Choose your category. Depending on your life experience, past training and/or passion, decide which of the following categories of speakers you'd like your public speaking career to fall into. Most entities that are seeking speakers look for speakers in one of these categories: Authors, celebrities, executives, keynote speakers, media, political, motivational and spiritual/religious. Keynote speakers are usually experts of some kind in a field, such as aviation, science, child-raising, and so on, and are the first, or major, speaker of an event, focusing on a targeted subject.

2. "Become" somebody if you're not one already. If you want a public speaking career and you aren't already an expert or an author or one of the other types of public speakers listed, work towards becoming one. There have been "nobodies" who desperately loved public speaking and wanted to make that their paid career, so they found ways to publish books to become authors, or taught small-town workshops until they built up their resume and reputation to go to the nearest big city, then regional, then national to where they were then an "expert" in their field. Though motivational speakers are sometimes people who've experienced exotic travel or lived and triumphed through disasters (and we're not suggesting you go out and find yourself a disaster as fodder for a public speaking career!), they can simply be people who see the world in an unusually inspiring way and have a knack for making the ordinary seem magical and hopeful.

3. Get speaking training. Start with local Toastmasters clubs and community college speaking classes and workshops. There are also online courses that can supplement or replace these.

4. Practice. As your public speaking career evolves, you may find yourself becoming so smooth and able to think on your feet, that you don't need to practice as much anymore. But at first, practice in front of friends, speech club members, and if that isn't available, speak with pets in the room and a tape recorder on. The latter two sound silly but you won't believe how well they add a form of tension and need to speak while also being aware of others in the room without distraction. Also, practice fake disasters so you'll radiate confidence when you go up to speak. Have a good friend or family member pretend to be a heckler, and get to the point where you're never unnerved or distracted by this.

5. Start your public speaking career small and local and work your way up. To kick off your public speaking career, offer to speak at charities, churches, clubs and other small groups pro bono, get pictures and testimonials from your speeches. Then start speaking for expenses paid only, again, for charities, good causes, or on a one-time-but-never-for-free-again basis for a start-up group or company. Then move up to higher fees, going up the ladder until you're at least at $2000 per presentation.

6. Market your public speaking career. Sometimes, just your first speeches or talks given to, say, the local writers' club or a big city Unity church will be enough to start word-of-mouth promotion. But if you need to do more marketing to get your public speaking career higher up on the pay scale, go to your public library and check out books on marketing your own public speaking career. Get the latest editions possible, and if your library doesn't have them, ask them to get them via inter library loan. You need the latest methods possible which can tell you exactly how to make brochures, choose references, get professional looking photos, and possibly create a YouTube speech demonstration link, all packaged together to send out to corporations, businesses, colleges, universities, and other large entities.

7. Boost income with products. "Back-of-the-room" products are not always allowed, but in some cases, actually encouraged. Try to create CD recordings, booklets unless you're already an author, prints, T-shirts, motivational magnets - anything in good taste and quality that can be sold at a table by you or your assistant after your speech. If you offer something free at these tables, such as bookmarks, small refrigerator magnets, or just inexpensive print-outs of written information for larger crowds, you'll attract even more people to come by the table, and perhaps purchase when they wouldn't have otherwise.

8. Become managed. Once you reach at least $2000 per presentation (plus expenses), consider applying to a speaker's bureau. These people will manage your engagements and get your public speaking career rolling with many gigs. After this, if you start reaching up into the five digit fee structures and become very well-known, you may want to eliminate the speaker's bureau and hire a personal manager who takes care of the details. This allows you more say in where and when you speak. At this point, you're getting more per speaking engagement and can have more free time to spend your money.

Tips & Warnings

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