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Being a good speaker opens a lot of doors, but sometimes there is a problem with finding a stable way to make money. Maybe you can find work as a conference presenter or be invited to a company to teach sales reps to be better speakers, but what else can you do to open up new opportunities?
This article will help you understand how to build several revenue streams that allow you to grow professionally while being able to pay the bills.
Creating an online course is becoming more and more popular as a main or additional way for expert speakers to make money.
If you have a skill set that is in demand and you know how to package and sell it, you should be good with this option.
An example is the Mindvalley platform where courses on motivation, self-growth, and improving life quality can be found. As an example, there is a course by Liza Nichole, called Speak And Inspire where she shows how to use your voice effectively, how to create value with your speeches, how to create a soul-stirring story, etc. You can create a similar course and sell it here or on a platform of your choice.
You need to start with good research. Take a few courses to get an idea of a good course structure, what would be good for you and what is better to avoid, etc. Also, collect common questions about public speaking. You can do this on discussion boards like Quora or by going through comments under Youtube videos by public speakers with large audiences.
Next, build the structure of your course. Decide on what you need to cover (e.g. using voice, as Liza Nichole does), start with the topics of the highest level (categories and subcategories), and only then, go to separate lesson topics.
The next important thing to consider is which e-learning platform to use. You can choose among platforms like Kajabi or Thinkific, Udemy, etc.
Another good way to have a stable (although only small at the beginning) source of income is Youtube. People from different backgrounds have found their place under the sun here and make decent money from their channels.
You can use Youtube to talk about speaking skills like how to persuade others or how to build an effective speech as well as more general topics like self-esteem, fear of public speaking, etc. Alternatively, if you have expertise in a particular field like business operations, you can dedicate your channel to business-related topics and use your skills as a speaker to create engaging videos.
Then, you can monetize your channel with in-built tools offered by Youtube like automatically included advertising or integrating advertising in your video yourself. For example, you can create a video on how to make an effective speech for a multicultural audience and mention some online language schools.
Once you have a following you should create a Patreon account so that your followers are able to support you.
You probably like to speak before a large audience but you can also use your skills to help a single person reach their goals by providing coaching or consulting services.
Being a personal coach is a good way to earn additional income between bigger speaking gigs.
What is a personal coach? A coach’s task is to help their client identify their natural strengths and real-life priorities, and help them set better goals, be more effective and reach more people, while also making better decisions.
Who might need such services? There are a lot of potential clients who need such support. Among them can be top managers and business owners who need to improve their life quality or grow their business by improving their skills. But your client can generally be anyone who can benefit from your knowledge in order to attain career growth or reach personal goals.
A good way to start this kind of consulting service is by sharing your intent via Linkedin. You can add this information to your summary, job title, and as a part of your present experience. Alternatively, you can test paid tools by Linkedin and invest in paid promotion to offer your coaching services to a wider list of people.
If you have your personal website, you should add this information to your “About me” information and your job title.
The first example that comes to mind in this case, is Dale Carnegie. He was a lecturer who became famous as a writer of a number of books like “How to Win Friends and Influence People” (1936), “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” (1948), “The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking” (1962), etc. With the help of his public speaking background, he met hundreds of people and used their stories to create his books. Dale utilized his public speaking experience to write a number of books that are not only compelling but also helpful for plenty of people throughout many decades.
There is no guarantee that you can duplicate his level of success, but at least you can try. You can use your experience and your expertise as well as the stories of the people that surround you and wrap them up in a book. This path will be good for those who feel that they are not only good at speaking but at writing as well. If you feel that you can create a truly useful book but do not enjoy writing, you can hire a ghostwriter or editor and then, use your personal branding to promote the book.
Alternatively, you can share your stories by using blogs and magazines and becoming a regular contributor to relevant ones. This way, you will get paid for writing pieces that are based on your experience. Pitch a few magazines with relevant topics to test your writing skills.
As you see you can create many income sources as a speaker. Do your research to figure out which of them can work out for you. Opportunities to grow professionally and financially are out there, the rest is up to you.
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