Speaker

It’s speaking.

If you’re comfortable (or can learn to be comfortable) speaking in front of others, you could earn thousands of dollars per hour.

It sounds too good to be true… but most people would rather get a root canal than speak in front of others. Therein lies your opportunity.

As a rule, the more specialized the topic, the higher the speaking fee you can charge. (We know an experienced chemical engineer who makes over $5,000 an hour giving talks on designing hydrocarbon distillation towers.)

But you won’t get there overnight.

In the piece below, PBRG friend and colleague Bob Bly shares his tips and tricks on public speaking. Bob’s a part-time professional speaker who’s earned $10,000 for an hour of speaking. Mastering his recommendations below can put you in high demand in your local—or even national or international—speaking circuit…

Bob Bly

From Bob Bly in the Extra Income Project: Mark Ford has four suggestions for becoming a better public speaker:

  1. Speak about what you know.
  2. Stick to one big idea in your talk.
  3. Memorize the first and last sentences of your speech.
  4. Look at people—individual people—as you speak.

This is good advice… and No. 4 is key. Most people are intimidated by the idea of speaking to a group. When they look out over the audience, they get butterflies.

The solution: Pick a few people in the audience. Look directly at them. Start with one audience member. After several seconds, shift your gaze to another attendee.

When you do this, you’ll feel like you’re having a one-on-one conversation rather than “giving a speech.” It’s an instant anxiety reducer.

Here are some more tips:

  • Prepare twice as much material as you think you’ll need. Beginning speakers often fret about whether they’ll have enough content to fill their time slots. Having extra material on hand eliminates that worry.
  • Take the pressure off yourself. During lengthy seminars, show a short training film on your topic. The video should be brief—no more than 10-20 minutes.
  • Give yourself a breather. Have attendees break into small groups to do an exercise.
  • The only ways to become a good speaker are by (1) giving a lot of talks and (2) listening to a lot of talks by other people. I’m shocked at the number of aspiring speakers I meet who admit they never go to conferences to hear other speakers.
  • Toastmasters International is an inexpensive way to learn public speaking. While I don’t agree with some of their recommendations on how to speak, the experience you’ll get in front of a live audience is invaluable. And it can prepare you to enter the world of paid speaking.

If you’ve mastered a topic—related to work, a hobby, parenting, sports, or more—this is an easy way to convert that wisdom into thousands of dollars an hour in extra income.

Learn to become a public speaker. You can find out the details of this extra income opportunity right here.

Reeves’ Note: If you don’t think public speaking is for you, Mark and his team detail 29 other ways to make extra income… 100% outside Wall Street. We call it the Extra Income Project. It’s one of seven distinct programs inside the Palm Beach Wealth Builders Club… where Mark teaches you the exact methods he used to generate his eight-figure net worth.