The professional speaking industry allows you to show off your expertise on a subject and be paid to share what you know. Presenting to a live audience, in a video or while being interviewed, provides opportunities to market you, your books, and even other services (i.e. if you offer consulting or freelance services). Speaking can also bring in extra money. Some professional speakers receive high fees, going up to the thousands of dollars for a single engagement. When you first get started you’ll likely secure and coordinate your own speaking engagements. But as you grow in popularity and name recognition, consider retaining the services of a professional speaker’s bureau.
You’ll find popular speakers on the road, traveling around the globe, speaking at corporate and civic events, convention centers, conferences, colleges, and more. With the continued growth of digital communications, many speakers are doing live chat room talks and Skype presentations. This allows people access to you and your content in brand new ways.
As you get started with speaking engagements, consider working in groups. Find others who want to speak on the same topics as you and do joint engagements or even join a panel discussion at a conference or writing event. Additionally, look for people who are already going this and ask for help While you can use social media to broadcast out about your speaking engagements and build a following… you can also use it to find others in the speaking arena. Search LinkedIn groups, twitter, and facebook and you’ll quickly connect to a large number of people doing exactly what you want to do. Then you can learn from them.
The job of professional speaking is not always easy. It takes specific skills (creating and delivering presentations, speaking patterns, communication skills), a high comfort speaking to an audience of people you often do not know, a willingness to travel, and an ability to be engaging and interesting on queue. Having said that, it is a popular arena for many people looking to expand their personal brand, drive awareness and recognition, and perhaps earn extra income from speaking or from driving people toward other services (consulting) and products (your book). To help you learn more about this arena start attending speaking engagements to see how it’s done. Research the topic, required skills, and venues. And the…get out there and try it yourself!