How to Get Started As a Professional Speaker

If you are thinking of becoming a professional speaker and you want to know where to start, then I offer you the same advice that helped me launch my speaking business many years ago.

The speaking business is not a get rich quick scheme. There are exceptions. If you are a past president of the United States, a recent Olympic Gold Medalist or an airline pilot who just landed your plane on the Hudson River then you can grab some quick and ready cash as a professional speaker. But, beware that your cache might fade quickly.

Here are the four nuggets of advice that I was told and followed to get started into the professional speaking business. My early benefactor of advice and encouragement was Fraser McAllan.

Don't quit your day job yet

If you still have a job - keep it for awhile. Positive cash flow reduces stress and helps you make better business decisions. Cash on hand makes it easier for you to make the strategic investments in yourself and your business. Starting a new business usually means going through a period or two of negative cash flow. A successful entrepreneur who made the transition from the corporate world gave me similar advice. She said, "When you go solo have enough money in the bank to live for the first year."

I started and operated my speaking business part time for two years while working at my corporate job. Evenings, weekends and vacations were for building the business. When I left the corporate world my business was generating enough revenue to be viable.

Get good at the craft of speaking

If you want to be a speaker you must learn how to present well. It might be a great insight, story or experience that gets you started. But if you want it to last at some point your paying audiences will expect you to get better.

Public speaking is a skill - not a talent. Don't rely on talent. Don't wing it. Learn the principles of presenting, practice your presentations and get coaching. You might take a course or seminar on presentation skills to start.

Toastmasters offers an effective low cost alternative to developing your presentation skills. Toastmasters is the largest and longest running non-profit organization that develops presentation skills for its members.

At some point you will need to work directly with one or more presentation coaches.

Read everything you can find on presentation skills. Watch TV, movies and theatre from the perspective of observing the presentation skills of the actors. Study them from the point of what works and why.

Speak as often as you can

Speak - speak - speak. If you want to be a paid professional speaker you will need to speak a lot - even if it is for free. Why? Two reasons. One, you need the experience and two, people need to see you to appreciate you.

While speaking you might discover that material you thought was wonderful didn't go over so well with that audience. Don't throw it out. Instead ask why that didn't work so well. What might you do to adapt it?

In the beginning you might need to beg for opportunities to speak. Start with the groups that you know or who know you. Volunteer to speak for the associations that you are or have been a member of. It might be the monthly chapter meetings or the annual conference. Accept anything in the beginning. And always deliver your best presentation.

Offer to speak more at your job and in your volunteer work. Get known as "the speaker". Offer to introduce other speakers, chair a meeting or MC a panel discussion.

There are thousands of associations that meet every month that need a guest speaker. That could be you. For example, Rotary groups meet every week and need a speaker every time. They often invite guest speakers. I spoke to many Rotary groups while developing my speaking business.

Ask for referrals and testimonials from every presentation you deliver.

Become known as an expert

Speakers are a dime a dozen. Lots of people are willing to speak for no money. Some of them are even fairly good at speaking. If you want to make real money as a speaker you must be known as an expert.

Perhaps you already know what that expertise is. Perhaps you need to do some research. If you want to be a professional paid speaker then your expertise must be something that the market is willing to pay for.

And it's not enough to be an expert. You must be known and valued as an expert by your target market.

There are three strategies to boost your reputation as an expert:

- Speak on the topic of your expertise
- Write and publish
- Appear in the media

You can make these strategies work if you follow a focused system for each. Do all three. Each is important.

That's the advice I received when I started in the speaking business and I offer it to you here freely.

Good luck in your speaking business.

George Torok is a professional speaker. Become a Professional Speaker For more free tips visit http://www.torok.com/become/index.html For media interviews call

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Good Speaking Techniques Are Basically the Same As Good Singing Techniques

A well-known radio personality emailed me this past week to ask my advice on keeping their speaking voice healthy and dependable. One of the questions asked was "Would it help for me to warm up with vocal exercises before I go on the air? I'm not a singer, so singing exercises are out. Are there vocal exercises available for non-singers?"

Sure, there are many vocal exercises available for non-singers, but in order for them to work, most of them must be sung.

So a better question would be "are there vocal exercises out there for someone who sings badly, but needs to improve their speaking voice?"

Speaking is singing is speaking is singing. They both use the same vocal cords, diaphragm, throat, mouth, teeth and tongue. The process is the same for both speaking and singing. So what are the differences?

1. Singing requires us to use more pitches than speaking. So what is a pitch? Say "I am going to town" using a monotone. Don't use any inflection. Say it very slowly and drawn out. You are actually "singing" those words on one pitch or tone. Have a musician friend find that pitch on the piano or guitar. It will be a specific pitch. (A or B or C#, etc) You are actually singing.

Now, say the word "I", holding it out for 8 seconds. You are singing on a specific pitch (unless you wobble it all around. Keep it steady.)

Now, start with that long spoken "I", hold it 4 seconds, then say "am" on a higher pitch.Hold that for 4 seconds then say "go" using the first pitch you used for "I". You get the routine. Speak very slowly through the whole sentence, holding on to each syllable for 4 seconds, changing notes or pitches for each one.You have just sung a little song. It doesn't need to sound good. You're not trying to become a singer (are you?).

Once you accept the fact that you can actually sing a melody you are ready for some vocal exercises to improve your speaking voice..

There are many simple and effective exercise programs available on the web. Type in "voice exercises", singing exercises", "vocal warmups", and you'll find some terrific ones, including my own.

Speaking is singing is speaking is singing. Understand that truth and you will improve your speaking voice.

Want to learn more easy techniques to improve your singing and speaking? Download my powerful new FREE ebook: "TIPS & TOOLS FOR ALL SINGERS" at: http://vocalvision.com/ad1.php

Al Koehn is a nationally recognized voice teacher, known for achieving amazing results with simple techniques. http://vocalvision.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Al_Koehn

5 Things that Will Help You to Get Better at Public Speaking

Public speaking is a fear in every country around the world and especially in the U.S. According to a survey is it the number one fear in America with death following as number two.

But speaking in public isn't that bad or hard either. There are just a few things you need to know about it.

Practice is the Key

As with mostly everything in life, practice is the key. You need to practice speaking in public to get better at it. You can't expect to be a good public speaker naturally.

If you have a chance to speak in front of an audience then do so. It will be worth it even though you might not see that in that point of time.
Try to use every opportunity to get better at it and after a while you will start to see results.

Preparation is Essential

Nobody is going to be able to hold a great speech without any preparation. Not even people who have perfected the art. Quite the opposite is the case. Experts of public speaking know that you need to prepare yourself for a speech. Without preparation you won't have the confidence you usually would have if you held a presentation.

Before you decide to speak in public, take some time to think about the kind of preparation a speech like that would need. Obviously a speech you are holding at a friend's birthday is not going to need as much preparation as a presentation in front of your boss.

Please Fail

As with everything in life we only learn through failing. The more you fail the better you are going to get. It's a rule of nature. You learn from your mistakes.

It of course also applies to public speaking. The more often you practice and the more often you fail the better you are going to get. Of course it isn't always easy to keep yourself doing it over and over again but you should try to.

Help from Other People

The people around you might be your friends or your family, it doesn't really matter. These people can help you a lot when you want to improve your public speaking skills. Hold a presentation in front of them and ask them what you need to change or what you shouldn't do.

Also ask more experienced people than yourself. What do they think should you change about the way you present things?

That leads me to my last point

Feedback

Getting feedback is crucial if you want to get better. It is hard to find mistakes in your presentation yourself and other people might be easily able to identify some of these mistakes. So ask for feedback from friends. And I know this touches on the point I made previously but I wanted to emphasize it.

Also note that to get feedback you don't necessarily need friends. You can also just video tape yourself or simply record your voice. Then after the presentation go over it and analyze what you have done wrong or what you could do better.

Public speaking is important and there is nothing more important than learning from someone who has the experience and skills necessary to deliver a dazzling presentation.

If you want to improve public speaking skills then be sure to visit my website. Ultimately it will help you to become a better public speaker.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Julius_Kuhn-Regnier

3 Tips for Delivering a Dazzeling Presentation

Public speaking is the biggest fear in the U.S. today. Only after that comes fear of death.

Everyone has to speak in public at some point in his life. And everyone has to learn how to do it. So let me present some tips to you here that might make it easier for you to speak in public.

Research Your Audience

One of the biggest mistake I have seen people make is to not research your audience. The same applies to a web site. If you don't know what people are interested in then you might grab some people's attention with your web site but you can't really focus on the things they care most about.

That's why you need to do some research. Where are the people from? Do they have well payed jobs? What do they have in common? What do they value most?

Make Use of Visual Elements

Visual elements are very important in every presentation. Without it people will have a hard time following you. If you use them too often though you might end up losing your audience's attention due to them being more interested in your visual graphics.
Try to find a balance for the use of visual elements. Don't use too few and don't use too many. Try to limit yourself to only presenting visual material if it helps explain what you are saying.

What else would you like to know about how you can improve your public speaking skills?