Three Secrets to Becoming a Professional Speaker

Dr. Gary Arnold's Book
How the Top 1% of Speakers and Coaches Do Internet Marketing
Paperback: ISBN:978-1-57867-041-3; eBook: ISBN:978-1-57867-043-7

You have honed your speaking skills and you have still found filling the room, with an audience that makes the speaking engagement profitable, unlikely. Sound familiar? Are you discouraged and wondering what it takes to make a living at professional speaking? If you want to become a professional speaker, you need to know how to deliver an engaging speech, develop your speaking organization, market your organization, and supplement your profits with backend sales.

Delivering an engaging speech is not enough. If you would like to have the profitable professional speaking career you dreamed of, there are secrets to building success. Here are the three most powerful ways to increase your earnings and deliver your message to thousands of people.

I use the term secrets because most professional speakers start their career with an emphasis on developing an engaging speech, and give little or no thought to anything else. Additionally, most speaking groups are the same. This is an outdated approach to successful professional speaking and leads to discouragement and failure.

Here are the three secrets that few speakers and speaking organizations reveal.

1. Plan and execute: Develop your professional speaking organization. Whether there are one or fifty people in your organization, you need a vision, plan, and method to measure your success.

2. Develop marketable talks and products: Market your professional speaking and associated products. Success depends on having people fill the room that are willing to pay for what you have to offer.

3. Leave them with an impression they can take home. This means develop your backend sales. This could include CDs, DVD's, courses, coaching programs, books, workbooks, tee shirts, and more.

Developing your organization is the first step to any successful organization. Why should your professional speaking career be any different? Without a business plan, you are doomed for failure. I have seen this too often.Don't let your enthusiasm short cut this part of your business. Write out your business plan and make it a living document, continually updating it with the details and changes your organization discovers in its evolution.

Marketing produces sales. Without sales you are just playing at a hobby. Today, marketing is changing at light speed. It used to be advertising in newspapers, TV, radio, magazines, etc. Now social networking and utilizing internet are changing how to market and get the most bang for your buck. Great web pages and successful search engine results are critical.

Backend sales supplement your speaking engagement income and can account for more than half your annual earnings. Do not underestimate the difference this can make. Successful professional speakers spend significant time developing their backend products. To become a six figure speaker you will need to utilize as many methods as you can to generate income. Backend sales such as books, tapes, CDs, DVD's, courses, tee shirts, games, pamphlets, and more are investments for future sales. Backend sales can continue to generate income after the speaking engagement.

As you can see, the three secrets to becoming a professional speaker are not so much really secrets, just under-utilized skills. However, they are not what most speakers think about when they start their professional speaking career. In addition, you can read the current literature on professional speaking and little if any of this is written about by speakers who are successful front line speakers themselves. If you want to become a professional speaker, you need to know how to deliver an engaging speech, develop your speaking organization, market your organization, and supplement your profits with backend sales.