Professional speakers deliver presentations, speeches, or workshops to educate, inspire, or entertain audiences. They often specialize in specific topics and can speak at conferences, corporate events, or other gatherings.
Professional speakers’ working hours vary as they often travel to different cities or countries for events. They frequently work in conference centers, corporate offices, or virtual environments, adapting to diverse audiences and topics.
Exciting Parts of the Job:
Experiencing the adrenaline backstage or on the side of the stage before being introduced
Engaging with the audience during Q&A sessions
Meeting with people afterward who share personal stories and connections to the message
Having the opportunity to travel and explore new places
Challenging Parts of the Job:
Memorizing an hour of dialogue
Dealing with misconceptions that all speakers earn as much as high-profile figures like Tony Robbins
Balancing work-life aspects, such as working from home and managing tasks like emails
Having the pressure to deliver impactful and engaging presentations consistently
Education Requirements:
No formal degree is strictly required to become a professional speaker. Certifications may be beneficial, but not always necessary.
This is perfect for you if:
You are comfortable and enthusiastic about speaking in front of audiences
You are willing to travel to different places
You are self-motivated
If that sounds like you, definitely watch our interview with Scott Maloney to learn more about being a professional speaker here!
Day in the Life
Schedule:
Working hours vary. Professional speakers may work irregular hours depending on their travel schedule and speaking arrangements, which may include evenings and weekends for events.
Setting:
Most professional speakers work from their home offices for administrative tasks and often travel to different venues for speaking events, including conference halls, corporate offices, seminar rooms, and virtual platforms.
Tasks:
Preparing presentations, delivering talks, traveling, networking, marketing, and promoting.
Topics:
Public speaking techniques, industry trends, audience engagement, content creation, and marketing strategies.
Skills:
Experts in delivering engaging and impactful presentations, skilled in researching, writing, and structuring effective speeches, and managing personal branding.
Tools:
A laptop equipped with tools like PowerPoint, Zoom, MS Word, or Google Sheets.
Common Characteristics:
Natural Talents (strengths):
Professional speakers naturally possess charisma that captivates audiences, strong communication skills, a talent for compelling storytelling, confidence, and empathy.
Interests:
Influencing others, expressing themselves creatively, finding fulfillment in helping and teaching, and developing new content and ideas.
Personality:
Professional speakers typically have enterprising, artistic, social, and investigative personality types. They are persuasive, creative, outgoing, and analytical.
Values:
Audience engagement, authenticity, continuous improvement, knowledge sharing, and personal growth.
*Terms used to describe interests and personality are based on the Holland Framework.
How to Become a Professional Speaker
Education Requirements:
There are no strict educational requirements, but pursuing a bachelor’s degree and getting specialized training in public speaking, presentation skills, or coaching can be beneficial.
Preferred Majors
Pursuing majors in communications, business, psychology, or education, can be helpful.
Specialties and Similar Career Paths
Motivational Speaking
Corporate Training
Educational Speaking
Expert Commentary
Trainer or Educator
Consultant
Coach
Author
Broadcast Personality
Advice from Scott
Job hunt tips to set yourself apart:
Network with local organizations and offer low-cost engagements to build experience and credibility, then develop a strong online presence and portfolio showcasing your expertise and speaking skills.
Fastest way to get your foot in the door:
Leverage your existing network to secure initial speaking opportunities and actively market yourself through social media and speaking platforms.
Recommended resources:
Scott recommends reading his book Lean on Me, which is co-authored by his mother, Linda Maloney. In addition, enrolling in public speaking courses on Coursera, Udemy, or LinkedIn Learning can help.
