How To Become A Motivational Speaker

Hello, my name is Michael Ronayne. I'm the director of the College of Public Speaking, and I'm going to be talking about different aspects of public speaking. To become a motivational speaker, you probably need three things.

Firstly, you need a message, you need something that you are passionate about, something that you feel you need to share with lots and lots of other people. It's something that has to come from inside you, because unless you are motivated by what you say, you are going to have a lot of difficulty getting other people motivated by what you say. The second thing I suppose you need is an element of credibility.

You know, it's very nice listening to stories about, say Oprah Winfrey and how she became successful or how many experiments that Edison did before he perfected the light bulb. But in the end, if you are listening to a speaker, you want some connection with them. There has to be something about you that makes what you talk about relevant.

So for instance, if you left school without any proper qualifications and you struggled but in the meantime, you've now been able to build up a very very successful business, well now, you have something that you can express to people about, you know, build on it, work on your potential, don't give up on yourself, keep going. So there has to be a degree of relevance and credibility about what you do. And the third thing, you've just got to get out and do it.

There is probably no primrose path to becoming a motivational speaker, it's a matter of just getting out and doing it. I remember speaking a few years ago to an American speaker who said he always wanted to be a motivational speaker. He said when he started, he knew he wasn't even a very good speaker, but he went out, he took every opportunity that there was.

There are speakers clubs, there are youth events you can go to, rotary clubs, there's plenty of people who need speakers. And he used to say that sometimes, he'd go at his own expense across the country, he'd come back late at night, sleep in his car for an hour or two, and go straight into work, which of course became part of his story because his message was if you've got a dream, go for it. So you need a passion, you need credibility, and you need to be willing to go out and do it. .