Public speaking is great for many reasons, the nicest of which is being rewarded by making money in a variety of ways. Start by charging a fee that compensates you not only for your time but also including the materials you bring with you to be sold at the back of the room. Pre-selling materials to be delivered at speaking engagements is another valuable step. To have a successful motivational speaking career you have to learn how to become a master marketer. The best thing you can do for yourself is to stop thinking like a speaker and start thinking like a marketer!

As a motivational speaking marketer, I want you to start thinking out of the box and start looking at your speaking engagements as an opportunity for your store to be open. What can you sell besides yourself and your time as a speaker? Can you write a book or get a book written about a topic in your niche that sells? What will it take to record some audios or videos of your public speaking jobs and package them for sale? Get all your marketing materials ready so you can focus on three easy ways to expand your income in public speaking.

Your speaking fee is the first area to be looked at when expanding your public speaking income. One of the first guidelines I give you for your public speaking career is to not be nervous about asking for the money you deserve. When people aren’t making any money doing public speaking they often ask me how they can get booked instead of the more direct question of how to make the money. There is a simple answer behind why most people don’t make any money doing motivational speaking, and that is they are working for a low fee or no fee at all. The mental hurdle that must be beaten down is that you shouldn’t ask for $10,000 as opposed to $5,000. Only this stops you from reaching your full professional speaking potential!

A second area to look at to expand your income lies within pre-selling your products. Books, CDs, DVDs, and training systems are all ways to market your knowledge. Speak to the meeting planner about getting copies of your books for every person in attendance without it costing the planner a penny. Simply add an extra $10 to the registration charge and have the meeting planner send it to you after the conference has ended. I was able to pre-sell my book to every single person attending - making an additional $10 per person plus my regular speaking fee.

The third area of income expansion is through the back of the room sales. Again, I don’t want you thinking like a motivational speaker. I want you to think like a motivational marketer. You can boost your sales by making your audience hungry for more of the information you’re sharing with them. Give them nuggets from your book or CD / DVD sets and then super charge your sales by making irresistible offers. A couple of offer strategies include: discount pricing for today only or promoting your training program as ‘power packs’.

Work these extra fields of income and you will see your motivational speaking career take off!