How to Get Paid As a Motivational Speaker

You could motivate countless people with your words.

For as long as you can remember, you've been full of inspiration and hope. You've overcome adversity, come up in the company from the bottom rung, helped change the economic climate in the poorest of nations. You have stories that could bring tears to the eyes of cynics and encourage the most hopeless to take heart and, better yet, take action. Now all you need to do is figure out how to grab your speaking ability and turn it into profit.

Things You'll Need

• Appropriate clothing
• Mode of transportation

Instructions

1. Create marketing materials. It is your job to promote yourself. To do it right, create brochures, audio recordings of yourself in action and a website. Each should focus on your strengths and the reasons your potential clients will benefit from your services.

2. Hunt for clients. Don't expect to make money just because you have a great message delivered to motivational perfection. To cash in on your motivational abilities, find people willing to pay you to speak. Provide your marketing materials to people in charge of conferences and other private and public events, and follow up with them to close the deal.

3. Act and appear professional. No matter how powerful your message, you'll never get hired if you don't present yourself properly. Dress appropriately for your client and the audience, always practice good dental and personal hygiene and do everything you can to be on time or early to your speaking engagement and client meetings.

4. Gain experience. You may have to settle for applause as payment for your first few speaking gigs. To build a solid base of satisfied clients and to hone your motivational skills, give a few motivational speeches for free. Once you have quotes from satisfied clients, you'll be better able to attract paying clients.

5. Learn your value. Instead of guessing what you're worth, find out what speakers of your experience and caliber earn. Your fee may begin at $100. If you build up enough steam over time, though, you could wind up making $2,000 or more for a single speaking engagement.

Tips & Warnings

• When motivating a crowd, stay on point. Cut off rabbit trails that don't build to key motivational points to keep your crowd's attention and maximize your effect.

• Approach your motivational speeches in a new way to improve your likelihood to attract clients.

• The motivational speaking market is saturated with decent speakers. It takes a lot of work to be a great motivator and to market yourself properly.

References

• Al Duncan: The Millennial Mentor: How to Become a Motivational Speaker

Resources

• Brooks International: Public Speakers Bureau