Becoming A Motivational Speaker

History is rife with examples of orators who have altered its course, and inspired the lives of zillions, with their inspiring, outstanding, and electrifying oratory. And we aren’t just talking about Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, Martin Luther King, Jr. here. Rather it’s the orators like Anthony Robbins, Dr. Deepak Chopra, Dan Millman, and Dr. Wayne Dyer, who have inspired an entire generation with their go-getting oratory. Motivational speakers exert a great deal of influence on their audience’s life. They drive you towards excellence, help you overcome your setbacks, and transform you into a different person altogether. They help you to be successful in business, improve your relationships, develop a positive attitude, become healthy, achieve financial prosperity, and enjoy life. Motivational speakers provide a sense of hope, belief, energy and empowerment to the audience. However, standing on the podium and murmuring a few words will not make you a good speaker. For that, you need to understand your audience and attract their attention. It is not a cakewalk, but it is not quantum physics either. With a little hard work and enthusiasm, you too can get into the hearts of people. 

How To Be A Motivational Speaker 

Assess The Message Which You Need To Convey
Evaluate what you have to say which is of value to others. To be successful as a speaker, your message must be connected to the needs and aspirations of your audience. Unless you can motivate others by your speech or convey your message successfully, you are a failure as a speaker. 

Create A Sketch Of Your Presentation
Getting a blueprint of your presentation will serve as a framework for your speech that can be used as marketing piece for potential clients. Moreover, people can grasp and learn things from visual media than a spoken one, as visual learning is more appealing and effective than any other method. 

Know Your Target Audience
You cannot really force everyone to pay heed to your words. Instead of fuming, it’s important to choose your target audience carefully. Depending on your niche, set your target audience based on age, gender, geographical location, interests, etc. If you know your target audience well, you can target your efforts directly to that group. 

Get Your Story Straight
While giving a speech, make sure that you do not lie. You must tell the truth because if you lie, the whole world will see through it. Some speakers exaggerate their shortcomings. Always remember that you need not have a notorious background to help young people; you can talk about the right choices you made in life. The cue is to be clear, concise and positive. 

Be Creative And Chose A Niche
Be creative when finding your niche. You can brainstorm ideas based on combinations of education and experience. You will become popular as a motivational speaker much quicker if you offer people something, which they cannot get from elsewhere. People will not take you seriously if you tell them that your speeches will solve all their problems and give them all they are aspiring for—get rich, lose weight, get healthy, be happy and so on. Instead, you can pick niche, as people always have great regard for experts. 

Take Part In Courses
You can get yourself trained in college courses and become a business motivational speaker. You must be well versed in business topics as well. It is essential to understand what you are speaking about. The best speaker will know his stuff inside out and will be able to project his message with confidence, well-timed pauses and suitable body language. 

Appearance Matters A Lot
Appearance is a key factor in becoming a motivational speaker. You shouldn’t dress up in a similar way when speaking to someone on how to achieve inner peace through meditation and on conducting a business seminar on how to get business referrals from your customers. Colourful dresses are suitable for inner peace session, but not for a business seminar. 

Keep It Interesting
When delivering a speech, ensure not to stand up and babble, as it is unlikely of a motivational speaker. If you are speaking about coaching, pick up a favourite coaching process and build your presentation on that. You can also include personal stories and relate experiences you have had with clients. 

Prepare The Speech
Even if you have the knowledge and appearance of a motivational speaker, unless you prepare your speech and draft it well, you cannot succeed. You can either write the text yourself or can hire a speechwriter. A speechwriter will be able to take your notes and outlines to create a specific speech for you to deliver. 

Practice The Skills
Once you have the speech ready, you can practice it in front of a video camera and watch yourself in action. You can view that video after a gap of 1 week. Once you see the video with fresh eyes, you can assess your performance. You can check:

• Did you make eye contact?
• Did your voice have a pleasing modulation?
• Did you speak in a monotone?
• Did you stumble over the words?
• What were your hand gestures?
• Did you sound confident or forced? 

Ask For Feedback
It is said that feedback is the breakfast of champions. You must make sure that you ask for feedback if you are confident that you have nailed the presentation well. You can either ask the audience to fill-up a standard form or ask them to drop a note at a bowl on a side table. There are chances that you will be a better motivational speaker if you develop this habit. Positive feedback will motivate you while negative feedback will drive you to do better. 

It is not easy to be successful in speaking business. However, if you are able to love what you hear, the skill will come naturally to you and people might want to hear your story.  So, be yourself and do not try to imitate what others say as far as the content goes. Picking a niche and putting yourself there will make you comfortable and confident.