The 3 Tracks to Motivational Speaking

Speaking with TJ Walker, the show where we dissect how and what world class leaders communicate. Welcome to this mini episode of Speaking with TJ Walker. Gonna have some shorter episodes the next few days. Gonna be out of town, traveling some, then getting ready for a lot of training and traveling out of the country. Be in Europe for an awful lot of the next month, but we'll still be coming to you every day. Now, fully transparent, I have had some massive technical problems. I don't want to bore you with my tedious problems, but anytime you're dealing with audio and video, problems can ensue. I have a relatively sophisticated, I mean it's not that's it, we're not talking about NBC, but I do have a studio here that was originally set up for video. So I've got multiple sound cards on my main computer that I then plug in my mixer and microphones and digital recorders and all that. And for whatever reason, these extra, at least the theory goes, among the various engineering experts and podcast experts I brought in to exam this, there's something in my existing computer that's causing massive problems with my ability to record interviews using a mixer, using Skype, using Skype software. So we're trying to sort all that out. Now. I do like talking to you directly, and frankly, I like doing shows without guests too. But I listened to you. Most of you prefer my shows with guests. So long term, that is going to be the primary format. I'll certainly weigh in on communication issues from day to day, but most of it will be evergreen content with world renowned experts. And the goal of course is to really attract the most interesting, influential people in the world to find out what it is they talk about it and how they talk about it. So that is still the plan. But please bear with me as we try to get our studio set so that we can actually make this happen. Meanwhile, I'll be analyzing top news stories of the day, plus taking your questions on anything to do with communication, spoken communication, presentations, speaking, and speaking to the media. A question that I do get a little more frequently than other questions from my online students. And I by the way, I do have more than 100,000 enrollments in my online courses, more than 20,000 total individual students. Some are in multiple courses, but one of the questions I do get fairly frequently is TJ how do I get to be a motivational speaker? So many people love Anthony Robbins. They've perhaps watched him for decades. If they're of an older generation, they may even remember the Norman Vincent Peale's of the world or the zig ziglars of the world. Someone I had the privilege of seeing in person speak, oh, about 10 years ago, when he was nearly 80 then he's no longer with us. So there is a tradition around the world and in the US of the so called pure motivational speaker, someone who basically just speaks for a living, has uplifting messages, talks about goal setting, how to be happier, how to accomplish more. And a lot of people look at that and say, wow, what a great way to make a living. I'd love to travel around the world, be treated like a king or a queen, make lots of money and help people accomplish their goal. So I get it. I understand why it's attractive to people. Here's the thing though, it's just extremely difficult to break through that initial threshold of being credible to others. There was a time where you just spoke, you could tell people you're a speaker, speak for free for a while, and work your way up the circuit. And it just isn't done that easily anymore. Now, certainly not suggesting there are no more motivational speakers in the world. Certainly there are, but these days the path upwards is very different. The number one way to be a successful motivational speaker in 2016 and going into 2017 is to be really successful at something else totally unrelated to speaking. Now, some of you are scratching your head saying, well, teacher, how do I do that? Easier said than done. It is easier said than done, but here's the problem you face if you just want to call yourself a motivational speaker, you're competing against people like Gary Vaynerchuk. He's the guy who became famous from TV wine library, has since been an angel investor with lots of wildly successful tech startups, has hundreds and hundreds of people working in his tech company, written several New York Times best sellers, and has millions of followers on every kind of social media outlet. So he gets invited to give essentially motivational speeches at conventions, conferences all over the world, and he can talk about his own personal story. He, he was the guy who got D's in high school. He was the guy who was never good at school. He was the guy who worked the 18 hour days at his dad's unglamorous liquor store in New Jersey. So he's got that incredible backstory, which is essential if you want to be a great motivational speaker. He talks about how low he is and through hard work, through smarts, through savvy, through paying attention, through all the various things he attributes to his success. And a lot of successful people to harder work. He talks about how wildly successful he has become. That's what people are willing to pay for. And if you want to get in his pay range and he's, I've heard, 50, 80, 90, he may be getting six figures of speech now. If you want to be a motivational speaker at that level, you need to accomplish something else because you can't just say, hey, I've never really been successful at anything. Let me just start speaking and maybe I'll be successful in that and people will pay me. That is kind of how Anthony Robbins started. But that was 35 plus years ago, and it was a different world. And even Anthony Robbins, let's not forget he went to a gazillion other motivational speakers. He read every kind of motiv book, personal development book. He completely immersed him. He essentially, instead of going to college, he got a PhD in the motivational speaking world by just completely immersing himself in that. So it's not like he just did it on a lark one day. It is possible to be a motivational speaker and stay at the lower rungs. You know, put yourself out there as a speaker to middle school students, to the Rotary. I mean, there's a gazillion places where you can speak these days if you're willing to speak for free or if you're willing to speak for a few hundred bucks or less than a thousand dollars. Here's the conclusion that I've seen many professional speakers reach. And I've had conversations with people at the National Speakers association about this very issue who said, TJ I finally concluded, why don't I just do the thing that I do best, Whatever topic that is, speak on that, consult on that, take on clients like that. And then the motivational speaking, I'll just do it as my charity, as my foundation. You look at any really wealthy person, successful person, quite often they have charities, they have foundations, they're asked to speak. Doesn't matter if you're Ted Turner or, or Bill Gates or Bill Clinton, as much as people like to talk about the Clintons making big money for payment for speaking. Bill Clinton especially, 9 out of 10 speeches he gives, he's doing it for free. So if you really have a passion for motivational speaking and you want to help people, I don't want to throw cold water on it, but it may be you're far better off maintaining a law practice or an accounting practice or. One guy I know, professional speaker, his whole niche was how luxury brands can market to the ultra wealthy. I mean, that was his niche. He consulted on it, he gave speeches on it, and he charged a fortune for that. But he also had a passion for helping kids, young people, disadvantaged. And rather than trying to make a whole business around it and constantly negotiate over his fees to speak to this high school group or youth group, he just said there's no charge. And that is one strategy you might want to try if you really aspire to be motivational speaker. Because there are a lot of speakers out in the world call themselves speakers, call themselves professional speakers, but they're only speaking once every couple of months. And even if you charge a lot of money, that's not really going to add up to a substantial income. Even if you are charging a decent fee for that one hour speech, if you're only doing two a month, it's not how much you charge per month, it's how much you make at the end of the month and the end of the year and how much you keep at the end of the month and the end of the year. People often lose sight of that when they hear about the big dollars associated with motivational speaking. So I really have two track advice on those who want to become motivational speakers. Number one, don't even bother until you're really successful at something and your life, a true example. And that the very story of your life, even if someone else says it, is motivating to people, it doesn't necessarily mean becoming Richard Branson and becoming a billionaire, although he's a motivational speaker now too. But it means doing something that the rest of the world really respects, whether it's building a business, creating a nonprofit that saves the lives of whatever it is, tremendous athletic success. You may have what it takes to be a fantastic motivational speaker, or build another business, make that your core identity, your core professional existence, and then just give motivational speeches as your hobby, as your charity, as something to give back to the community you care about. Both of those are perfectly reasonable models. The third model, which I'm not a fan of, is just trying to eke your way up the public speaking food chain. Charging a little, spending all of your time working on the mechanics, your showmanship, your stagecraft, you can do that. But I've just seen so many people try and burn out and either never get to the point where they're really even having a decent living, or they're maybe making a decent living, but they're having to travel seven different cities in seven different days and they never see their family or friends and they're so burnt out you really look at the number of hours they spend marketing, speaking and traveling and they're putting in 120 hours a week. And to do all that for something that is not going to get you in the top 1%. Money isn't everything, folks. But if you have no time for family life, community life, or anything other than work, and you're traveling constantly and not building much wealth, people just get tired of that. So I don't recommend that route. What questions do you have about public speaking? And I do realize I occasionally talk about those who want to become professional speakers, paid speakers. I do realize most of you are, are not in that camp. Most of you in this audience have jobs. You have businesses, you're in public life. You work for government agencies, United nations agencies, nonprofits. So speaking is about how you do the rest of your job. You're not looking for anyone to pay you a fee for a speech. And let's not forget, the most highly paid speakers in the world are never paid per speech. They're paid because it's a part of their job. Generally billionaires like Rupert Murdoch and, well, I won't mention his name because he's running for president, they're not paid per speech. They're paid because of other things they do in their business. And they have to then speak to promote their business. So ultimately, that's really where the greatest revenue is when it comes to so called professional speaking, not fee for service, although there's nothing wrong with that. And I get paid per speech too as well. So we'll talk about that occasionally here on this program. But this program is not primarily for those who want to become high paid professional speakers. That's not the focus of this show. The show is about how successful, influential and interesting people communicate what they're communicating, how they're communicating, and how the rest of us can learn from them. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me today. This program is brought to you, as always, by Media Training Worldwide. If you want to become a better speaker, a better trainer, a better media communicator, then go to mediatrainingworldwide.com or check in the show notes. Click on the link there and you can get our free online public speaking course or our free online media training course. Do that today and you'll be in much better shape for your next speaking or media opportunity. Thanks. See you tomorrow. Thanks for listening to speaking with T.J. walker.