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How to Start a Speaking Business Talking to Teens

Blog, Speaker Business Coach, Speaker Business Development, Speaking Business Coach, Speaking Business Development

How to Start a Speaking Business Talking to Teens

Teens today – more than ever – need to hear and experience passionate and positive messages from people who truly care about them and their future success. When you love to stand in front of young people and speak to them about their choices, awareness, and prevention and capturing their goals and greatness — you are making a difference in the preparation of tomorrow’s leaders.

To start a speaking business talking to teens comes with a cheap startup cost. As a professional speaker for teens, you will invest time in researching topics, needs and honing a good presentation. You will also have to inject the aspect of entertainment and constant engagement in order to succeed in this business.

Here are a few tips and strategies to consider as you move forward on your quest to start a speaking business talking to teens:

Recognize Your Field of Expertise

You should consider your education, interest, and background. What do you bring to the table that will relate to and inspire young people to believe in themselves and work hard for a brighter future? And more importantly, why should teens listen to you? What makes you different from all of the other people in a teenager’s life who’s trying to inspire them to do and be the best?

It all starts with your field of expertise. What life has taught and shown you? You can bring formal knowledge and education to the table and/or you can bring real- life and world experiences to the table. You will definitely have to have the unique ability to engage, inspire, connect with, and create a fun while learning attention-grabbing presentation for TEENS.

Speak to Them, NOT at Them

You have to develop a special message that is relevant and significant to today’s teenagers. For instance, spend more time talking about the world they currently live in and not your entire presentation talking about how things were when you were growing up 10, 20 or 30+ years ago. Use icons and personal stories they can relate to and find solutions in.

When speaking to young people — always be honest and uplifting. Do not spend your entire speech tearing down a teen audience by berating them and telling them all the negative things you see teens doing wrong today. Believe it or not, there are many more teens in the world today that are doing positive and great things than there are those that are doing negative and criminal type things.

Training and Coaching

You should consider obtaining some training and coaching from a top professional speaker who currently speaks to teens regularly, someone who’s been speaking to teens for at least 10 years or more.

You can also seek training and guidance on public speaking skills and business development by taking classes at a local community college. The National Speakers Association (NSA) provides an academy to help good teen speakers transition to the world of funded speaking engagements.

Participate in a Speaking Association

You should join and be part of an association for speakers. The advantages of membership involve a network of like-minded professionals who deliberate and share concerns and a listing within the membership directory. Some of the organizations that you should check out are the Professional Speaking Association, the National Speakers Association, and Toastmasters International.

Market your availability to offer presentations and to make keynote addresses or speeches to teen groups. You can approach and ask for help from the schools, colleges, clubs, camps, community youth centers, and other non-profit organizations that work with teens. Create and hand out business cards and a speaker brochure (Speaker One Sheet). You can also join the network groups. Have a website developer to create and launch for you a website that has your in-depth background details, video clips of you speaking to teen groups, and testimonials from your previous presentations.

BONUS: How to Be a Good Motivational Speaker at Schools

There are a lot of motivational speakers for teens who find schools as the best place to concentrate and market their services. If you are seriously thinking of being a motivational speaker for teens, be sure that you also follow these tips:

• Get into the teenager’s world.
• Imagine your personal experiences as a teen.
• Avoid talking down to young people.
• You need to be genuine and honest with young people.
• Talk to the school ahead of time regarding what is happening on the campus.
• Advertise yourself and your services to the special activities directors, school counselors, school principals,
/////PTSA (Parent Teacher Student Association), and to the advisors for the student council.
• Name your price for the marketplace; do not price yourself out of the marketplace.
• Coordinate with some other speakers who regularly speak to teens.
• Attempt to schedule 2 schools on the same day.
• Help schools through getting sponsors.
• You can also offer to present a program for the parents.
• Do a few local schools non-fee (for free), so you can obtain video footage, experience, and testimonials.
• Get recommendations for other schools.

About the Author: Ty Howard,
Founder, Chairman and CEO of Ty Howard Seminars^TM

Ty Howard is an internationally recognized keynote motivational speaker, organizational development consultant, executive and leadership development coach, and a national best-selling author. He is a leading authority on organizational and managerial practices that optimize leadership and employee performance and success. Ty Howard is the creator and lead facilitator of the trademarked “Untie the Knots®” Optimal Performance Process, and the author of Untie the Knots®: Freeing Yourself from Toxic Habits, Choices, People, and Relationships, as well as dozens of published articles on how to successfully plan, start, develop and grow a profitable speaking business. For more information on his intensive coaching programs and services for motivational speakers, and speaker and trainer business development, visit: http://tyhowardseminars.com/coaching_services/. Business Office Phone: (443) 982-7582.

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Five Pitfalls to Avoid When Starting a Speaking Business

Blog, Speaker Business Coach, Speaker Business Development, Speaking Business Coach, Speaking Business Development

Five Pitfalls to Avoid When Starting a Speaking Business

Being a motivational speaker is one of the popular career options for many these days and a lot of people are enticed to pursue this career mainly because of the surprising amount of money they can make if they start to work as a motivational speaker. When it comes to starting up a speaking business, it is very important to ensure that you know the biggest pitfalls that you need to avoid when establishing this kind of business. One of the things you need to keep in mind is that this kind of business is not the right choice for you if you are not really passionate in standing and talking in front of people.

The following are the leading five pitfalls that you have to avoid – every step of the way – when you choose to work as a motivational or professional speaker:

Unclear Thinking

If you find it hard to describe what you’re talking about in just one sentence, you might be guilty of having a fuzzy focus or attempting to cover a lot of topics in one speech. The listeners might be confused too and their attention would wander soon. Whether you’re improving your presentations or you are helping somebody else to come up with a good speech, begin your creative process by writing down a summary with just one sentence.

No Clear and Understandable Structure

You have to make it simple for the audience to follow what you’re saying. They would remember the words you said better and you would as well since you deliver your ideas and information in a clear and understandable structured format. When you waffle, ramble or failed to get to the point, your listeners will soon tune you out. Think of structure as if you’ve created and are now communicating a sound process through your carefully prepared special message.

No Notable Stories

People seldom remember the exact words that you utter. Rather, they recall those mental images which were inspired by the words you mentioned. Support your key points with relevant and vivid stories. You have to help your audience to “create the film” within their heads through the use of some memorable characters, dialogue, exciting situations, lessons learned, humor, perseverance, and suspense.

No Emotional Bond

The most powerful communication is the one that combines both emotional and intellectual connections. Intellectual means attractive to educated self-interest with reasoned and data arguments. Emotions are coming from engaging the imaginations of the listeners and getting them involved within your own illustrative stories through frequent usage of the “you” word and responding to the unspoken question “What is in this for me?”. Use a high I/you fraction. You need to put your listener into the story.

Mistaken Level of Abstraction

Are you giving the huge picture and generalities if the listeners are hungry for facts, details, and how-tos? Or, will you drown them in data if they have to position themselves with the overview then find out why they must care. Get on a similar wavelength with the listeners. Fat words are those which define the large picture, ideals, goals, and outcomes. Skinny words are the minute details and specific what, who, how and when. Generally, senior management requires fat words and the middle management needs the middle words. Technical consumer and staff hotline users are all hungry for the skinny words. Research, practice, master, and learn to confidently deliver to each audience exactly what they need.

As you now see, pitfalls can be extremely costly to your speaking business, try your best to avoid these. If you brush them off, then you may find yourself out of the speaking business sooner than you think. The more you can improve yourself, by learning from your mistakes and avoiding the pitfalls of this business, the more you can show your speaking and business success potential.

About the Author: Ty Howard,
Founder, Chairman and CEO of Ty Howard Seminars^TM

How to Start a Speaking Business Talking to Teens

Five Pitfalls to Avoid When Starting a Speaking Business

5 Easy Steps to Creating a Dynamic Motivational Speech

How to Start a Speaking Business Talking to Teens

Five Pitfalls to Avoid When Starting a Speaking Business

How to Become a Successful Motivational Speaker