Are you willing to work hard for modest money? Would you like a speaking/ seminar business education available no other way? This is the best way I know to become a national or international speaker faster. I did it for five years in the early 1980s. Speak for public seminar companies!

This work is difficult, challenging, exciting, fun—and exhausting. When you do 8 to 10 full-day seminars in a 2-week period, each in a different city, taking as many as 3 flights in an evening between cities, you attain a deeper understanding of the word exhausting. If you want to learn the speaking/seminar business and be paid to do it, this is the place.

Who might hire you? The best way to find out is to have your friends save all the seminar brochures they receive—and give them to you. What will they pay you? From a low of $200-$250 a day to $1000 or more a day if you are good at hustling product from the back of the room. With some companies more than half of your income is commission on product sales. And if you don’t move enough product, you’re history.

What qualifications do you need? First, be already good at handling and teaching audiences of from 25 to 300. And have the proof in hand. A 2 hour uninterrupted video of you live is a fine start. I mean you addressing and holding the interest of a real, bona-fide audience.

It helps a lot if you’re already an expert at platform mechanics. It’s great if you’re an expert at a topic. And if you can speak with minimum notes for a 6 hour day. Public Seminar companies tend to have already developed topic titles and seminar manuals, ready-to-go.

Yes, as a rule you present their seminars, not yours. In time, after you prove your skills, you might be able to present your own stuff if they want it. They may pay you a low 4-figure fee for the program you write. Then, they want to own that program. And they may want other presenters to facilitate it if it proves to be popular. Capping that, expect them to want to own the copyright to the Program Manual you wrote. Welcome to the real world.

They may pay you an extra $100 per program when you present your own material. And maybe something extra when others present your program.

They want high-energy seminar leaders with style and wit. People who learn fast and who can delight all kinds of audiences all over North America and, often, overseas, too.

You’re expected to show up without fail no matter what the weather or which flights are canceled. Many of us have driven a rental car all night between cities through the worst storms. Then, on no sleep, showered and presented. Fun, huh?

As for expenses, they generally (not always) send you your air tickets and pay your hotel sleeping room bills direct. (Room and tax only) Incidentals are on your bill. Expect a per diem of around $40-$50 to cover all your meals and incidentals including transportation to and from the airport.

If any seminar company asks you to pay your own travel costs and then be reimbursed, watch out. They’re waving a red flag. I’ve gone in the hole $15K to $20K with Visa and Mastercard for air travel I paid in front, then waited 90 days for reimbursement. And if the company you speak for goes belly up, you may never get your travel costs reimbursed. This has happened with friends of mine who proceeded to lose their houses. A word to the wise: Do not front your travel costs.

Here’s the real reward: The adventure, the experience, the pure joy of being a seminar speaker, yield a matchless high. The thrill of mastering each day’s challenges brings out the best in you. The high caliber friendships you form with men and women of quality and accomplishment are priceless.

Topping all of this, after a couple of years of being good enough to hold on to such a job, you are a true national speaker. You’re poised to go on to your own independent practice. And—you know what you’re worth, too.

When you feel the sap rising, when you sense that you’re on the threshold of going out on your own, fresh challenges surface. Be prepared for the realities of being an entrepreneurial speaker. Speaking skills are not enough, not nearly enough. You need more, a lot more.

Now, before you launch yourself as an independent, you need new expertise. You need to make yourself a true expert. And you can develop your expertise, you can create your unique niche while holding down your seminar company job.

Speaking Strategy Report #1, “Positioning Magic,” available at my web site, reveals the basic steps you take to make yourself a unique, special, and valuable niche master, an in-demand expert

I recommend that you invest in this. It may be the smartest $37 you ever invested in your personal future. (There’s no risk: you get a 5-year unconditional money-back guarantee with this or any other of my printed products.)

You can make yourself a topic expert, the master of a body of wisdom about something finite, something many organizations desire and will pay for. For example, in the early 21st century, managing diverse cultures is a significant concern for almost all manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and professionals. Balancing the perceived entitlements, work ethics, and expectations of employees born on foreign shores requires unique wisdom, understanding and empathy.

Other hot training topics now include computer applications, communication skills, management skills, customer service, personal growth, and sales skills. Or, you can make yourself an industry expert with broad and deep understanding of the special problems and challenges, opportunities and possibilities within a single industry.

You’ve got some thinking to do and some decisions to make. A fine way to address these decisions is to take a look at what you have experienced in your life up to now. Many experts who speak limit their practice to the one field in which they possess in-depth know-how. Auto sales, insurance sales, health care are examples. You may have past experience in an industry. Consider exploiting expertise and experience you already have. In the classic words of Bill Gove, NSA’s first President, “Go with what brung ya’.” ____________________________________________________