Grace
Businesses worldwide hire talented motivational speakers to help their businesses grow or turn challenges into opportunities. Whether by boosting employee morale and helping them find work-life balance or reinvigorating a company’s goals, these experts are the “fresh breath of air” that a company needs to replace complexity with a more straightforward approach. They don’t just offer inspiration but also invaluable advice depending on the specific needs of an enterprise.
These are some of the main reasons why this profession sees increased demand:
Improved customer service by addressing customer service more directly, offering the secret to building a better relationship with customers to retain them
Offering advice on building a more cohesive team, branching out into a new field, or launching a new venture
Inspiring the team to be more productive and excited to help the company grow
Identifying and maintaining the company’s culture as the business expands.
If you value your work autonomy and want to build your brand, keep reading to discover if you have the qualities required to become a successful motivational speaker.
Experience
Motivational speakers build successful careers by sharing information from their own professional and personal experiences with others. They use narrative to communicate powerful ideas that inspire and drive others who want to have a similar life experience. To do so effectively, you must choose a niche, which is essential for many reasons.
For starters, it enables you to sell yourself successfully to potential consumers. Plus, it encourages you to focus on a particular topic, which is the key to becoming an expert in your field over time and an essential aspect of building trust with your clientele.
When you’ve identified your niche, you must choose what you want to talk about. Create original content for use at events and as advertising materials. While some people are natural speakers and can tell fascinating stories without preparation, try preparing ahead of time if you’re a novice speaker.
Introspection
There’s one thing that excellent motivational speakers have in common, and that’s a great story where they were the protagonist and overcame a challenge. They’re now teaching the audience the things they’ve learned and inspiring them to find the fighter within themselves, reflect on their lives, and tackle challenges.
However, this means you’ll dedicate a lot of time to introspection. If you tend to analyze past experiences and draw conclusions, being true to where you made a mistake and what you could’ve done better, you have what it takes to put yourself out there and give a voice to those who share similar stories.
Expertise
A good motivational speaker can provide insights that people can hardly come by alone. A speaker’s expertise draws employees in, providing real value they can apply later in real-life situations.
As some motivational female speakers show, the power to inspire others sometimes comes with experience and a high skill level. By looking up to a speaker who has previously transformed audiences and had results in educating people, you can understand what others want to see in you.
Dedication
You have to take things one day at a time and invest some time and money into crafting your ideas and messages, just like any other motivational speaker does at the beginning of their journey.
Practice makes perfect, so focus on perfecting your delivery and marketing techniques before finding clients. Motivational workers usually work for themselves, meaning you’re a freelancer controlling your career.
Confidence
Let’s face it; an insecure person can hardly convince you of anything. Great motivational speakers exude a fantastic level of confidence and conviction. Otherwise, listeners will get bored and won’t believe in them; they won’t be motivated towards change.
You can build this skill with consistent practice if you don’t have it. Good storytelling, natural body language, and a rehearsed flow can take months or years of preparation, but they lead to that seamless confidence that empowers you.
Eloquence
Successful motivational speakers have stellar writing skills and are eloquent. These skills can be accomplished through long hours of rehearsal or by being naturally fluent and persuasive. The ability to communicate a clear and powerful message is also attributed to the speaker’s great organizing and drafting skills.
Unclear messages, clumsy phrases and repetition can get in the way of your objectives.
Willingness to work for free
Working for free allows you to practice your public speaking talents and exposes you to potential clients because events provide natural networking opportunities. Use these opportunities to raise company recognition, develop connections, and take bookings for premium events.
How to become a motivational speaker
If you’ve checked the boxes above or feel like it’s just a matter of time and practice until you can be the motivational speaker you look up to, let’s see the natural steps to becoming one.
First, you’ll pick a topic based on your expertise and passions. After you find a niche, you can create a list of topics that interest you, and the target audience you want to focus on will be easy to select.
As a motivational speaker, you’ll have to work on your public speaking skills to deliver speeches effectively, regardless of the size of your audience. You can achieve this skill by joining a public speaking society or taking classes. Some organizations provide certifications that improve your resume, but many other free or paid online resources also exist.
You’re an entry-level, so starting with small professional events is a good start. Speak at various events and focus on delivering quality speeches consistently.
Last words
When taking over the stage and connecting with your audience feels like what you were born to do, start investing in marketing your brand. The strength of your career depends on how many people you can reach, and social media is the perfect tool for that. Excellent sources for content on your social media channels can be snippets from your speeches.
Establishing a career as a motivational speaker is like starting a business, so even if you have career freedom, the responsibility of building and sustaining your brand is also in your hands.
