There are many reasons that drive people to want to become a published author. Perhaps it’s sharing their wisdom, leaving a legacy, or demonstrating credibility in their field. One common purpose that we’ve seen authors share over and over is the desire to become a public speaker.
Becoming a motivational public speaker can be its own type of reward for authors who are looking to step into the fray. While a best-selling book can create an impression and capture an audience’s attention, we’ve found that the retention of that audience is greatly increased by becoming a sought-after public speaker.
In this article, I’d like to teach you how to become a motivational speaker or a public speaker able to earn additional income by hosting speaking events and increase the power of your own brand’s audience and reach.
How to Start a Public Speaking Career
Knowing how to start a public speaking career is best defined by determining what you want to get out of your journey.
If you’re looking solely to increase your cash flow, this might not be the best article for you. Not because we won’t be able to help teach you that, but because this article is focused on how to build a lasting foundation as a public speaker that improves your status as an influential figure in your industry of choice.
Other techniques may offer a fast-track to get booked for speaking gigs, but the results may be fleeting in the long-term.
This is an article for those who already understand the importance of building a legacy and a dedicated following.
The 6 Key Items for a Public Speaking Career
There are a few ducks you’re going to want to have in a row before you’re ready to become a renowned public speaker.
1. Knowing your area of expertise
It’s been said before that “everybody is a genius at something.”
What field are you an expert in? If you know where you have the largest amount of value to offer, you won’t have to worry about whether or not you’re putting your best foot forward.
Maybe you have a unique perspective that others don’t. Perhaps you have something that ISN’T unique, but you’re exceptionally passionate about!
You can choose a niche topic or one with a broad reach. You’ll just want to consider what kind of value you have to offer to your prospective audience. That’s going to be important in the next step.
2. Identifying your target persona and audience
To become a public speaker, you need to have an audience. Otherwise, you might as well be talking to yourself in the mirror! (Which, of course, is OK to do for practice.)
With your area of expertise determined, you’ll need to spend some time thinking about how to package that information for your ideal audience.
Key things to figure out would be:
- What age are the people who you want to reach?
- What kind of profession are they engaged in?
- What part of the world are they located?
- What kinds of problems do they encounter?
- What kinds of things are they interested in?
Those last two are exceptionally important. Knowing how to provide meaningful and effective solutions to your audience will be essential to keeping their interest and winning them over for life.
3. Write a book on your area of expertise
Writing and publishing a book is going to be the most VITAL step for you to get the notoriety that you need in order to become a public speaker.
When recruiters are looking for public speakers to book for their event, they’re going to be considering people that already have had some media exposure.
If you work with a publishing company to get your book published, you’ll already have experienced plenty of PR that’s gotten your message out to the right people.
At this point, you’ll have three things that you need:
- A proven audience who have already purchased your book
- A demographic of event planners who are familiar with your work
- An AMAZING outline for what your public speaking topics should be
In case you need a jump-start on your writing, we have put together an awesome guide for anybody who needs to learn how to outline a non-fiction book. Definitely check that out.
4. Hone your public speaking skills
You’ll already have a leg up on the journey of becoming a public speaker by having a book that you can source your speaking topics from.
But it’s all too common to find authors that captivate their audience in the pages yet fail to ensnare them in a live setting.
Considering a public speaking class isn’t a bad idea to hone and improve some of your communication skills. It can also be a tremendous confidence booster that will get you over any mental hangups you have around public speaking.
Even if you’re already a proficient public speaker (and many authors are!), there is always something to learn and get better at.
Just make sure you get plenty of practice!
5. Organize your speaking material
Simply regurgitating content from your book likely won’t be enough for the audience to really feel like they’re walking away with something unique.
You’ll want to take some extra time to organize your speaking material into a cohesive narrative that will fill your allotted time. Your audience will thank you for it!
6. Build your following online
When you DO get booked for your speaking events, you’re going to need a way to get the information out for your audience online.
In fact, with more and more virtual or hybrid events being hosted, you are in luck if you want to become a public speaker. You’ll no longer be restricted to a physical audience–live attendees can become as big a fan as your in-person following.
Having activity on networks like LinkedIn and Twitter will be important for you to have a clear line to your audience when there are events that they can attend.
Booking your First Public Speaking Event
Let’s say that you’ve already completed the above steps, and you’re ready to book your first event. How do you go about it?
One thing to consider is to team up with a dedicated team with a proven track record in securing ongoing public speaking events for speakers and authors, like Made for Success.
Our team has lived the experience of writing a book and having booked speaking events.
Working together with our team means that you’ll be getting set up with everything that you need to truly be MADE for success.
If you’d like to learn more about how to become a successful public speaker or published author, then click here to get in touch with us. We’re here to help you touch the stars.