TJ Walker tells aspiring speakers to build an audience online instead of cold-calling clubs. Post videos on YouTube or Facebook Live, promote them across platforms, and self-publish on Kindle to establish credibility. He offers monthly training in NYC, private coaching worldwide, and online courses.
Questions this video answers
1) Monthly public presentation training courses in New York City; 2) Private trainings for individuals and groups worldwide; 3) Online live video-based public speaking courses.
New York City.
Chapters
Question I get at least once a week, someone calls me up, an aspiring motivational speaker, says, tj, teach me how to be a motivational speaker. I want to get serious about it and I want to just get out there and start speaking. And my advice is, if you want to speak, the best way to start is not by speaking. Don't bang your hand on doors all over town begging to speak to the Rotary, Kiwanis, the optimist clubs, all fine organizations. Not saying you shouldn't say yes if someone asks you. But that's not the way you work your way up the public speaking food chain anymore. My advice is, you want to be a motivational speaker, you got to find an audience that actually finds you motivating. And you got to figure out the easiest way to get in front of an audience. If you're unknown, if you're not famous, if you haven't founded a billion dollar company or been to the moon and back or taken a team to the super bowl as its quarterback, chances are huge. National conventions with 50,000 people, their convention in Las Vegas are not going to hire you to be their keynote speaker, especially as your first speech or your first hundred speeches. So, chicken and egg, how do you get in front of audiences? How do you build a following if you're not speaking in front of audiences? My advice today, go where the audiences are. Go online. Now, depending on who you're trying to speak to, you've got to figure that out. For a lot of motivational speakers and aspiring motivational speakers, Facebook is still the best option. It is the number one social media site in the world, largest audience. But you may be different. You may have an audience just of teenagers. Instagram, Snapchat maybe, or Snap may be better. I'm showing my own age there. You've got to figure out where is the audience, how can you get in front of them. And for most people these days, that's not a function of doing a big direct mass market mailing. It's not a function of putting together a demo video and making 10,000 DVDs and mailing them to every meeting planner and speaker bureau. Tactics that never really work that well, but especially do not work in the year 2017 and 2018. So my recommendation, just start speaking online. Your own videos, whether you do it on YouTube, Facebook, as I do, promote it on Twitter, or you're using Snap or Instagram Pinterest, you've got to find where your audience is. You've got to get in front of them and attract millions of people to you. Over the course of the next year. Do that. Start writing books, self publishing books, selling Kindle books and letting people know you speak. That is far and away, I believe, the best strategy for aspiring motivational speakers today who are not already really famous from something else they've done in life. I'm TJ Walker. I help people speak their best. If you'd like to improve your own speaking skills, I've got three main options for you. Number one, public presentation training courses every month in New York City. Number two, private trainings, individuals and for groups all over the world. And finally, online live video based public speaking courses. You can start those well right now, from anywhere. Give us a call.
