3 Myths about Starting a Motivational Speaking Career and Business

Like in any industry, myths tend to precede real knowledge and it’s time to debunk some of those false ways of thinking and false bits of information.  Myths hurt any motivational speaking career because they often present themselves as barriers for a growing and thriving business. 

People often ask me the same kinds of questions over and over – how to make more money with motivational speaking or how to get bookings for motivational speaking.  What these people don’t realize is that the answers to all of these questions come when they deal with the three myths listed below.  

The first most common myth that people in a motivational speaking career have is that money is bad.  As a result, these people inherently pick low paying speaking engagements or worse yet work for free because it’s all they think they can attain.  These are often the same people asking me how to get bookings for motivational speaking.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not talking about the people who are using free speaking gigs as leverage to get their foot in the door or to build credibility and notoriety in their niche as an expert.  I’m talking about the people who seem to think that money will eventually come despite not ever being paid a dime!

Here’s what I learned.  When I got serious about learning how to make money with motivational speaking, I decided to get “myself” out of the way.  Once I got old ways of thinking and doing out of my motivational speaking career, I found that there were people who were willing to pay me a ton of money just to speak.  That’s the revelation I got and the revelation you need to receive today! 

The second most common myth in motivational speaking I hear is that motivation is all you need.  Wrong!  I have an acronym that I teach people about that kind of thinking – MDPYM (Motivation doesn’t pay your mortgage).  One of the things I learned early in my speaking career is that just because I was motivated didn’t mean I could pay my bills!

Now, I teach people to get rid of this kind of thinking because it simply doesn’t do much for them.  In fact, I teach the people I mentor to get motivated by finding different ways to get people to give them money.  As they learn how to make money with motivational speaking they essentially learn to start the cycle of earning to help more and more people.

The last motivational speaking myth I hear most often is that one must work harder in order to make more money.  Sorry folks!  That kind of thinking is again wrong!  My Dad was the hardest working man in my life but he never made more than $29,000 annually.  He was the model hard worker but did he have the kind of pay that matched his effort?

Then I learned about working smart which again, is only half of the picture.  The other half of the picture is working right.  The truth is that it doesn’t matter how smart you work.  If you’re not working right, you’re still off.  In this motivational speaking industry, people often beat themselves silly trying to fulfill their egos instead of filling their pocketbook.  I also often find people who don’t have a clue about the kinds of needs that their target niche market has and as a result, they don’t market themselves correctly in their niche.

Get your motivational speaking career off the ground by dealing with these three myths in your mind!