Motivational speaking is a great skill, and it can have an enormous influence on other people. In fact, the whole point is to have a huge influence on others. And it must be said, there isn’t really much room for amateurs still on the learning curve.
The goal is to inspire people – often to do such fundamental things like turn their life around or succeed at something big – but nobody is going to be inspired unless they get the impression that the speaker really knows their stuff and exudes confidence.
However, everybody needs to start somewhere, and it is unlikely that anybody is going to be great at motivational speaking on their first try. It takes time, but luckily there are many tips, tricks, and advice out there to help you along the way.
Plurawl, a company out of New York producing a motivational podcast for the Latino community, say that there is no success unless the speaker can deliver a great motivational speech. That is definitely what it takes.
As mentioned, there is much advice here, but the goal is always one thing – to inspire. A good motivational speech needs to be pretty lean as well, for the simple reason that listeners need to go away with a crystal-clear idea in their heads of what it was all about.
Another fundamental is that it needs to spur people to action. If they simply think about the content of the speech, ponder it, even enjoy it, but then not make a move to change their life, then then the motivational speech has failed – it hasn’t motivated.
Tips for Successful Motivational Speaking
So, how can you make a move to improve your motivational speaking skills? Practice is absolutely essential, and there is no substitute for getting some experience, but these following tips can certainly help you along the way.
Study the Science
There is a lot of psychology that goes into successful motivational speaking, and you need to learn what that is. There is no substitute for underpinning your practice with some solid theory. A centerpiece of this theory is that motivation comes from within, and the motivational speaker’s job is simply to unlock that. There is much more too, so brush up first.
Practice Your Public Speaking Skills
The content of your speech could be excellent, but it needs to be delivered well too. Public speaking can be scary, but you need to get over this, keep your pace, and learn how to emphasize the correct points of the speech well. These are all practical tips which are completely necessary if the speech is going to have any effect at all.
Identify an Ideal Audience
A motivational speaker needs to be able to impress an audience, but not just any audience. Also, a motivation speaker is hardly going to be saying something that absolutely everybody wants to hear. You need to know precisely who you are targeting, and then build your speech around your ideas of that audience.
Create A Core Message
Touched on briefly above, the most important thing about motivational speaking is that the audience goes away with a clear idea of what the speech was about. That thing also needs to be able to be summarized in a clear core message. Without that – or with too many “core” messages – the speech will not have the desired effect and the audience will not be motivated.
As mentioned, motivational speaking is certainly not for everybody, and there are some who are simply not suited to it. For those who are, however, the craft still needs to be learned – and practiced.
