We also covered a session on how to become a professional speaker for an established speaking company. In this post, we will cover a few step-by-step items that will help you create your own presentation company. If you want to be a professional public speaker, these practical tips can help you get started.
How to NOT Start a Speaking Business From Scratch
Before I get into the “how to’s” and best practices let me start with the “don’t” of the speaking industry.
Don’t Try to Become a Motivational Speaker.
For instance, here in Dallas, Roger Staubach was the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys for years. After he left the NFL, he started a commercial real estate company, and he became a gazillionaire again.
So, when he speaks at conventions, he charges in excess of $40,000 per hour. Most popular motivational speakers are politicians, athletes, or entertainers who made it big and who now want to inspire others. You will also find people who sailed around the world, climbed Mount Everest, survived a tragedy, and the like. For the most part, though, you find very few motivational speakers who weren’t famous before they became speakers. They use their success as their foundational topic.
This isn’t to say that these kinds of speakers don’t accomplish their goal- they do indeed motivate and inspire people. But, their speaking skills and chosen topics aren’t transferrable or not always relatable. [Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.]
Don’t Just Regurgitate Stuff You Read/Hear from Other Speakers.
“Okay, I’ve read, The Magic of Thinking Big, How to Win Friends and Influence People, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Personality Plus, Think and Grow Rich, and The Bible. I’ve listened to over 100 hours of Zig Ziglar, Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Will Smith, and Joel Osteen. Now, I’m ready to be a professional speaker!”
The only thing that really differentiates a great speaker from a poor speaker is that the great speaker has better stories. The success stories from real life are what build your credibility as a speaker. Successful public speakers create their personal brand from their own experiences and successes. If you are relying on re-telling other people’s success stories, you will never make it as a professional speaker.
Years ago, a woman hired me to speak at a convention. However, she asked me a very odd question just before I began to speak. “Where exactly did you get the material for this speech?”
It was strange. No one had ever asked me that before.
Apparently, her group absolutely loved last year’s speaker. They would have hired her again. However, one of her executives did research on the topic after the conference and came across another speaker with a similar background.
After a little more investigating, they realized that their speaker had plagiarized the entire speech. She had compelling content, but it wasn’t hers to tell. You can be an amazing speaker, but without your own experience to share, your speaking brand will quickly falter. (Everyone knows how to Google.)
You will end your career very quickly if you just plagiarize other people’s stuff.
Stay Away from General Topics.
I spent the first couple of years reaching out to thousands of corporate decision-makers. First, I’d let them know about the great leadership class that I had created. Because I worked so hard, I had a bunch of takers. However, the moment I stopped outwardly promoting the class, registrations decreased significantly. Because I created such a general topic, I had to spend a lot of time and money to promote the class.
However, I noticed something important during that process. A lot of folks coming through the leadership class told me that they were coming to reduce public speaking fear. Lightbulb! As a result, I created Fearless Presentations ®. Within two years, we were teaching over 300 classes each year.
After teaching classes like this for a couple of decades, now, though, I realized that if I had become even more specific on the topic, I’d likely have grown a lot faster. More on that later.
A Step-By-Step Way to Start Your Own Public Speaking Company from Scratch
1) Start with a Topic/Area of Expertise that Has a Specific and Defined Market.
You need to have all three, or you will spend a lot of time creating something that no one wants. The easiest way to come up with a good topic is to think about specific problems that the people in your audience might have and make your topic a way to solve them. The key here is not to try to create a topic that is helpful to EVERYONE.
When You Start a Public Speaking Company, Pick a Niche.
It is much easier to find a niche when you have a specific audience in mind. When I first started The Leader’s Institute ®, this really hit home.
I got a call from an engineering company in Houston that wanted help organizing “Short-List Meetings.” At the time, I had no idea what a Short-List Meeting was, so I asked a bunch of questions.
Turns out that when a company wants to fund a construction project, they send out requests for proposals. A committee will often sift through the proposals and eliminate many companies that don’t qualify. The committee will then create a “Short List” of companies that passed the first set of criteria.
At this point, they will then invite the Short-List Candidates to give a presentation. In some cases, this presentation is the final step to earn the job. In other cases, it is an additional weeding-out process. By the time I finished coaching this engineering firm, I knew the industry and the problem pretty well. So, I created a presentation class called “Getting Past the Short List.” Then, I promoted it throughout the engineering and construction industry.
Because it was such a niche within that industry, I had almost no competition. I conducted dozens of these speeches each year for about six years and made a tidy nest egg in the process.
2) Once You Have a Great Topic, Write About It.
“But, Doug, you don’t understand. I’m a good speaker. I’m not a writer. You see, I’m starting a public speaking company… not a writing company.”
Whether you are giving a speech or writing a blog post, you are communicating with a specific audience. The methods may be slightly different, but not as much as you might think. Your creative ideas by speech or through writing will flow in the same manner.
When I design a speech, I think about a problem that my audience experiences. Then, I come up with an audience-focused title, three to five concepts/steps that will help the audience solve that problem, and lots of proof (stories, analogies, examples, quotes, data, etc.) for each concept.
When I write a blog post… Well… I think about a problem that my audience has, I come up with an audience-focused title, I identify three to five concepts or steps that will help the audience solve that problem, and then I identify lots of proof (stories, analogies, examples, quotes, data, etc.) for each concept.
This formula or thought process creates many of my signature talks or posts. It also catches your audience’s attention by giving them the steps and know-how to solve their issue.
A blog post is just a speech that is written on a WordPress website.
Make your blog posts range between 1000 and 2500 words. This part is critical to helping you clarify the wants and needs of your audience. The process also helps you constantly refresh and redesign your ideas and beliefs. Next, level your content by adding more detail and explanation- make your content the one-stop shop.
If you sit down and write at least a single 1000-word blog post every week, for ten weeks, by the time that you complete the 10th post, your understanding of your topic will have become more precise and more clear. The reason this occurs is that you stop relying on your past beliefs, and you focus more on new research from outside sources.
Every time I write a new blog post, I increase my expertise in my topic exponentially. I’m constantly growing and learning. You have to constantly grow and learn as well. By the way, writing down your content helps you promote your public speaking company as well. (More on this in Inbound Marketing Strategies for Professional Speakers.)
3) Compile Your Posts into a Book.
You will always have more credibility as a speaker if you are a published author. (Who knew?)
You also have an additional revenue stream. In some cases, an audience may only be able to pay you a small honorarium to speak. However, you can offer to give one of your books to each person in attendance. The group may not have fees to pay the speakers, but they will often add $10 or $20 to the fee for attending if the attendees will receive a book for that value.
So, instead of getting $200 or $500 as an honorarium to speak to 100 people, adding a $20 book will increase your fee by $2000. If the group can’t agree to paying for a book for everyone, you might still be able to set up a table at the back of the room to sell copies of your book.
By the way, once you have the 10 posts and one book completed, don’t stop. There are 52 weeks in a year. If you just continue the same process, you can write four or five books every year.
4) Start a Podcast.
You will be amazed at how much more fluid and confident you will become as a speaker after you record 15 to 20 podcasts. Your message will be sharper. Your delivery will be more precise. In addition, you will become a better speaker. Your communication skills will improve drastically.
I’m not going to spend a lot of time here talking about the mechanics of how to record a podcast. For time sake, now, though, spend a few hundred dollars on a professional microphone on Amazon. Invest a few more dollars on a “pop filter.” Then, use an audio editor like Audacity to make the recording.
Try to record the entire podcast episode in a single take. If you start and stop once, you will constantly keep starting and stopping. You will waste a lot of time. Give yourself grace, the first episode won’t be great, but it’s a start.
If you are wondering where to get your content for each podcast, well, by this point, you should have at least 20 well-written blog posts. Each one should take you 30 minutes to one hour to record. I’d suggest not reading them word-for-word. Instead, make an outline of the major points and practice delivering the content as you would if someone hired you for a public speaking opportunity on that topic.
5) After Recording the Audio of Each Podcast, Try Creating Live Videos to Promote Your Public Speaking Company.
Video is always much more difficult than audio. With audio, all you need is a good microphone, a pop filter, a laptop, and a quiet room. The video throws a few more challenges into the works. 
An easy way to create the content for these videos is to deliver just one of your main concepts (bullet points) from each of your blog posts (podcast episodes). If you had five concepts in each blog post, you can do one of these a day — each week — if you want. The point is that if you want to be hired as a professional speaker, people have to be able to find great videos of you. If they can’t, you won’t even be considered.
Videos allow a better visual of what your audience will see. What I mean is that, during a podcast, your voice may sound great. That is until you see visually how hunched over you are, so pay attention to the details. Your body language and effective communication on the topic matter.
When you get good at the live videos, then you can invest in better equipment and professional help to create good YouTube videos.
Once You Get this Background Completed You are Ready to Start Your Public Speaking Company
Following these steps will not only prepare you to create your business, but you’ll attain a booked speaking schedule, too. Your routine will fill up between blog posts, podcasts, and videos.
I know it seems like a lot of work. It is. One of the best ways to begin is just to get started. Because once you have 20 plus blog posts written and podcast episodes recorded, 40 or 50 videos, and at least one book published and ready to sell, you are ready to start promoting yourself. I will give you a few steps to do the promotion next week!
