Professional Speakers

Sarah Taylor’s 5 Tips for Breaking Into Professional Speaking 

Besides suggesting Toastmasters membership, Sarah Taylor offers the following five tips to help you succeed as a professional speaker:

1.  Pick a really, really good niche. It’s hard to compete with established motivational speakers, but it’s easy if you’re the only pharmaceutical sales motivational speaker.

2.  Understand that as a professional speaker, your first priority will be to sell. You will be a salesperson first, and a speaker second. More people probably fail in getting their speaking business off the ground for this reason more than any other.

3.  Either be a world champion-level speaker or be a really good speaker with invaluable information. Most professional speakers wouldn’t make it to the regionals in Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking contest. That’s okay. A “good” speaker can still get by, as long as he or she has fabulous information that makes them highly sought after.

4.  Invest in high quality marketing materials. Nothing screams amateur like a homemade business card, brochure or Web site.

5.  Join an Advanced Toastmasters club. The level of feedback you’ll get at an Advanced Toastmasters club is unparalleled. Attend several advanced clubs in your area and pick the one that will challenge you the most.