The World's Highest Paid Profession

Yes, a lot of people prefer the anonymity, although when you get
into higher priced products, you need the one-on-one interaction.
That's why prospects for higher priced programs are often driven to
phone banks.

Willie

I *love* speaking in public!!

I'm a bit weird when it comes to 'winging it'. If I try to prep more than just a tiny bit, *that* is when I freeze and it sucks. I've been doing instrument improv for an eternity and got out all my stage fright doing that. Speeches are like doing improv.

With improv, you pick a key and a motif and go until the song stops.

With speeches, you pick your topic and plan your motif and then go until the speech stops.

My current big fear is that I have a place to go do speeches at, but I'm a bit scared they won't take me seriously... >_<

No jitters, but I made the mistake of running from the back of the
room, upfront, and onto the stage. It took me a few minutes before
I didn't sound like I was out of breath :-)

I like public speaking and would like to do more of it. Any recommendations on how to get started?

As someone else observed, it's often more comfortable
speaking in front of HUGE groups than smaller groups. I
personally focus on individual faces as I scan my
audience anyway, reading body language, etc., so I
only really see those near the front of the room clearly
anyway.... and those are who I interact with.

Willie

Copywriting can be harder work for many but when you get really
good at it, and can write fast, it can make you millions per year.

I know platform speakers who make that kind of money though. One
is a good friend that I'm thinking about spending a few days mentoring
under even though I'm a graduate of John Childers' $30,000 Speaker
Training.

In the IM space it generally depends upon how good a closer you are...
which incidentally is a criteria many seminar hosts look at in inviting
speakers.

Willie

I used to speak to very large groups, but they always ended up being very small groups before I finished.

I'd be willing to take that pay cut in average hourly
earnings

I've been in front of groups of about 1500... military formations.

There is something special about "podium power!"

Willie

It's funny how you mention being "required" to speak publicly. Perhaps it's my military mindset of simply being thrown into something, and being expected to meet the challenge...and excel. Public speaking was just something I HAD to do. I was really given no other alternative but to succeed. If anyone has ever heard of Sun Tzu--he's one of my favorites and you'll see some of his work mentioned in some of my posts here--I'm a firm believer that he'd be all about just throwing people into otherwise challenging positions. Perhaps "war" is a little extreme in relation to "public speaking", but his approach was embodied quite well in the landing and invasion of Normandy.

Thousands of Soldiers were placed in a position where they must either rise to the occasion, or die. There was no alternative.

Of course, as a leader, I do think it would be gravely irresponsible not to provide people with at least the tools necessary to succeed.

For me it depends on the mix of people. I've seen so many teachers of art doing platform lectures. And they all have their own ways of talking. None of them are pro speakers, and usually talk like their talking to their friends, but hey they have everyone hanging on their word, so a lame joke doesn't come across as so lame lol.

In my guitar performing days, I've done stage performances in front of about 1000 before, mostly 700-800 otherwise. The stage has annoying obstacles, the 'red head' spot lights alone makes you sweat so bad lol, that made me nervous more than anything else.

Joe Satriania, one of my idols says he wears shades to overcome nerves since he can't see audience very well, making it less scary.

I'm short-sighted so I would just not wear glasses or lenses.

It differs depending upon the niche or circuit that you want
to speak on.

In the internet marketing space, where I speak most often, you
get invited, or you ask someone to put you on stage, because
you have unique knowledge that they want to present to their
audience.

However, since the seminars are also an engine for selling
information products, you also need a product that you can
offer at the end of your presentation, and split the sales
proceeds with the event host.

For that reason, many seminar hosts are very interested
in how well you CLOSE from stage. They want to know that
if they put you in a room with a certain number of attendees,
that a certain percentage will end up buying. So, it's not
uncommon to be asked for your closing rate.

Seminar hosts, such as my good friend Armand Morin, use
to also want to know that you had been professionally
trained. I trained under John Childers BECAUSE Armand had
also trained under him,and recommended John. John's training
did increase my sales substantially, and also made me a bit
of an expert at some aspects of NLP.

John taught me how to roll a sales presentation into a
seminar presentation, that often didn't feel like I was
selling

If you are not professionally trained then you are more of a
risk, because seminar hosts, such as my friend Ken McArthur,
host of JV Alert, will get DOZENS of requests to speak at
some of his events. He has to say no to most, including close
friends, because he can only fit so many onto the schedule.

In saying yes to one speaker, he is usually saying no to several
alternatives. So, he's depending upon you to deliver tremendous
perceived value, and at the same time, be able to sell from
stage.

So, having professional training, or a track record that you
can point to, is how you get invited to speak at a LOT of these
events. I get invited to speak a dozens of events each
year... some by people who have never hosted an event,
which always scares me unless they have studied under an
expert at hosting events

Willie

Yes, you do need to grab and hold their attention.

You need to be able to educate, entertain, fascinate them,
and of course gain their trust. The trust part is easy if you really
know your topic, and if you don't audiences can usually sense
that.

Willie

Pretty much the way that I'd describe the experience...
especially if you start gathering groupies