Sometimes you wonder why a motivational speaker gets paid $50,000 or $25,000 for an hour’s speech or presentation. Very likely you look at the figure from the prism of your monthly pay. Very likely you earn below $1,000 or about $1,250 per month. You secretly wish you could be that “lucky” to earn that much per hour. You wonder what motivational speaking is all about. First, I must tell you, it has nothing to do with luck. Indeed motivational speaking is the skill you need if you want to be taken seriously as an influencer. Being a motivational speaker does not come easy.

It was Proust who said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Indeed you need new eyes to break new molds. You need new eyes to see things in a brand new light. You need new eyes to make new connections you never knew existed. Indeed you need new eyes if you are to make progress in this vital area of your live.

Years back I made a startling discovery that transformed my world. It was the beginning of my transformation from an industry-following caterpillar to a market-leading butterfly. I discovered the closely guarded secret of the world’s greatest presenters. We call them motivational speakers. In this blog post I share with you how you can join the ranks of motivational speakers.

Every year organizations such as Rotary Club, Lions Club, Association for Talent Development), Society for Human Resources Management, Institute of Financial Services, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management, to mention a few scour the globe in search of the best of the best speakers to keynote their conferences.
Some organizations approach motivational speakers directly while others go through prestigious Speakers’ Bureaus. The speakers have the powers not only to persuade, but to motivate and inspire their listeners or audience. Using just words the top flight speakers elevate the spirits, rekindle the heart and engender hope. They give succor to the weary, strength to the weak, and direction to the vagrant using just stories. What is their secret? What did they do to ascend such lofty heights of flawless performance?

About the year 2005, I happened upon an article I considered at the time one of the best of all time. It was on the subject of personal excellence. Towards the end of that article, the writer remarked with an air of finality ”if you wish to write and speak as phenomenally as I do, join Toastmasters.” I shrugged my shoulders and thought to myself, sure he is talking about a special class of comedians.

A year later, I attended a seminar organized by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria at Hilton Hotel, Abuja. A total of 12 CEOs made presentations. Of the lot, one was head and shoulders above the rest. His presentation was electric. He presented with class and panache. The whole presentation was enriched with multimedia, with video and audio clips. I was curious. As you would expect, I chatted him up in the course of the conference. You know what he told me? He proclaimed with pride gleaming in his eyes, if you want to present the way I presented, join Toastmasters. It was then that I connected the dots.

Toastmasters International is a global movement where speakers and leaders are literally minted all over the world. There are Toastmasters Clubs in every corner of the world. At the last count clubs numbered about 15,550. It’s at clubs meetings that members learn communication and leadership, the top skills that set apart the best from the rest. William Blake it was that said, “on one side there are things that are known, on the other side there are things that are unknown, in between them are always doors.” Toastmasters International is the secret door you need to move your act to world-class. There are no professors, teachers or tutors in the clubs, every member learns by doing, that is, by speaking. Through a system of evaluations, and systematic member hand-holding, members move progressively from amateurs to world champions.

Though Toastmasters is an amateur club, as I indicated earlier, by following their proven approach, begun in 1924 by its founder, Dr. Ralph C. Smedley, you begin making the transformation from an industry-following caterpillar to a market-leading butterfly. You learn and begin speaking with panache, aplomb, and polish, the hallmark of motivational speakers. In the club meetings you learn the very rudiments of professional speaking. You learn how to speak with clarity, the use of body language and how to inspire with stories.

As Christiana Baldwin once said, “words are how we think, stories are how we link.” Members have witnessed extraordinary transformations in speech delivery, self-confidence and platform dexterity within six months after joining the club. From the Toastmasters amateur learning platform, you can join the truly professional ranks, such as the National Speakers Association, Global Speakers Federation, and others if you want to take your game a notch higher. But begin from the beginning. Why should you join Toastmasters, you may ask? My answer, because there are no prizes for average performance.