Motivational Speakers and "wanna-be's": Just Follow These 3 Simple Rules to Success

When you say "motivational speaker" to me, I can't help but think of the late great Chris Farley's character "Matt Foley".

The mainstay and catch-phrase from Matt is "...living in a van down by the river" and of course the ironic humor is the motivational speakers' "you can do anything you put your mind to and succeed" message juxtaposed against the questionable success if you have to live in your van down by the river.

But caricatures aside, can you become a motivational speaker?

The answer is that anyone can be a motivational speaker. Many people who have overcome hardships or debilitating diseases go on to inspire others to do the same by speaking at schools or other venues.

If you want to become a motivational speaker, just follow these 3 simple rules:

1. Walk Your Talk:

You will have to be authentic and believable - you will have to have actually lived through and survived the exact challenges that you're inspiring others to cope with and overcome and be able to show others how to do the same.

2. Craft Your Speech:

Use my public speaking training articles on how to create a terrific speech.

3. Get Out There:

Call up schools and organizations that are related to your particular topic and let them know you're available to speak.

Now let's talk about money:

Can motivational speakers actually make money?

The short answer is yes and no (sorry to sound like an attorney, but that's the real answer).

Yes you can make money by charging a speaking fee. You should easily be able to charge $500 for a speaking fee.

There are other ways to make more and better money which I'll discuss in a moment.

The "no" part of the answer is being realistic about your income potential from motivational speaking and collecting speaking fees: unless you are somehow famous - and I'm talking household-name famous - you can forget about making very much money from speaking fees.

If you have a wife or husband or someone else that can support you financially while you go out speaking, that's going to be a realistic way of doing things.

But the way to really make money is "on the back-end".

What's the "back-end", you ask? Glad you asked.

Back-end means sales of your products or services at the end of your talk. In reality, speaking - and especially motivational speaking - should be clearly seen for what it truly is, which is a lead generation and conversion tool.

In other words, speaking is actually nothing more than a way to promote a product or service.

Summary:

If you don't mind speaking for free, you'll get a ton of bookings to speak.

Be realistic about your income potential from motivational speaking because you won't really earn that much money in speaking fees.

If you want to make money as a motivational speaker, you'll need to sell products and services on the back-end, that's where the real money will be earned.