“You’re interested in this Business of Speaking? Great! Congratulations, and welcome to a multi-billion dollar industry!
Whether you want to:
• financially supplement your current professional income
• learn strategies to help you sell yourself more effectively - for everyone is in sales
• speak part time to augment your income
• speak full time
Your path to speaking success can start right here.
But you have questions. At this point, you may not even know the right questions to ask! So, let me help you.
I get questions about speaking and how the industry works daily. From “how do I find someone else to book me” to “how do I get paid for giving free speaking engagements to paid speaking?” Also, I am asked, how to get more engagements and how to charge a fee.
Here’s your first list of tasks to complete. They will get you moving in the right direction. Looking forward to helping you “grow” and “go” to the next level. Get started NOW!"
-Dr. Willie Jolley
The professional speaking industry is a collection of professionals, which include experts from a variety of industries and disciplines. They are educators, humorists, authors, administrative personnel, mothers, media personalities, entertainers, sports figures, etc.
The professional speaking business operates on several tracks: the celebrity track - immediately getting huge fees; and the regular professional track - those who “build their clientele” by learning how to market, provide excellent service and outstanding content.
But there’s an emerging third track – the hybrid speaker - a celebrity with content!
But, that second track, the regular professional, is the one most travelled, and can provide a lucrative career if you are willing to work hard at it.
The professional speaking industry is challenging to learn. Speaking is Art, Business and Science! It may appear easy, for the successful ones have mastered all three areas. Yet, thousands of hours of preparation go into the end result you see!
No one strategy works for everyone. There are many elements to building a sustainable speaking business. From…
• clarifying your core message (what problem you solve)
• identifying your primary audience
• branding yourself (what makes you different)
• developing your marketing approach
• funding your operation
Here are a few Speaking Success Tips to get you focused and started:
Join a Toastmasters Club.
It will give you the basics of crafting a speech and presenting in front of friendly audiences, who want you to succeed!
Purchase Dottie Walters’ book, Speak and Grow Rich.
This provides detail on the process of the speaking business.
Attend a Monthly Chapter Meeting of the National Speakers’ Association (NSA).
Toastmasters tells you how to speak. NSA teaches you how to make money at it! Visit www.nsaspeaker.org to find your local chapter.
Speak as often as you can…for free! That’s the only way to build your speaking craft…so that eventually you’ll get paid.