Troy Moritz

Troy Moritz What it takes to be a professional speaker

To be a professional speaker you need to first have confidence. It does not matter what you are speaking about: only that you are confident when you talk. What it takes to be a professional speaker is to be confident when you talk to the audience.

If you are nervous speaking in groups then you need to start off talking to small groups and the build up to larger crowds, eventually you can speak to huge crowds like a pro. To build up you confidence and speaking ability it helps to actually do some public speaking. Start off by speaking at any and every event you can. Speak to audiences for free about your specialty and gain confidence, experience and a following. You can charge for your public speaking skills in the future, but unless you are famous you will be speaking for free until you build up a following and market yourself properly.

What it takes to be a professional speaker is that you are confident, knowledgeable about your topic, can keep the audience’s attention, and you are able to adapt. You may only be scheduled for a short introductory speech but if a last minute cancellation occurs by the primary speaker then you may be asked to do a full speech. You may not be prepared to do a long speech, but if you are knowledgeable and passionate about your topic then you can overcome this and still make a great speech.

When you build up your speaking style you need to keep yourself honest. Don’t lie to the audience because they will pick up on that. Instead do the opposite and be completely honest. If you are a former alcoholic then talk about how alcoholism almost ruined your life but you overcame it, and then encourage your audience to overcome it to by sharing valuable tips on how you were able to do it.

Taper you conversation towards the audience. If you are speaking to community members about starting a petition to start a bike path, then it would not make sense to talk about your former alcohol problem. Taper the message to the audience, but remain true to yourself by being honest in everything you talk about in your speech.