motivational speaker

 

Who Wants To Be A Motivational Speaker?

Two years I wrote about the topic of becoming a motivational speaker. A number of executives had told me they were looking to the future and thought that “life after the C-suite” could mean making a living as a paid/professional speaker. As the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on business and life, I’ve been asked more than ever before what it takes to get into this field. With that in mind, I’m revisiting the topic.

Trading in the corporate world of being responsible for potentially tens of thousands of employees and having to report shareholders in exchange for a life of independence in the speaking profession might seem appealing. You’re traveling to major convention cities, staying in luxury suites and stepping on a stage to share wisdom with an audience of thousands. Sounds glamorous, doesn’t it?

As a customer service expert and speaker, I’ve been hired as a keynote speaker and have experienced some of that great life, but that’s actually a small percentage of the time. Sure, many of those conferences are held in great cities and the hotels are luxurious. The audiences have been as small as a half-dozen and as large as 20,000. But it ain’t all glamour.

Before you get to those events, be prepared for a lot of hard work. The speech is the end product, but not the process. That product looks “sexy,” but the reality is that it is a tiny part of the entire experience.

First, as a leader in the C-suite, you put years—probably decades—into a career to get you set up to just be considered as a speaker at a major conference or industry event. Maybe, unsolicited, you got asked to speak a few times. You heard about the big fees speakers were getting. How about $25,000 for that one-hour presentation? What about $50,000—or even $75,000? You deserve it, right? After all, you spent years proving you can build a company, lead an organization and make a lot of money for shareholders. Doesn’t that qualify you for the high fee? Maybe it does. Or maybe it doesn’t.