By Rhonda Campbell

Public speaking has been around for centuries. What has changed over the years, however, is the amount of money that public speakers earn. Establish yourself as an “expert” in a field you love and you can increase your speaker’s fee significantly.

Top Paid Public Speakers

In the May 25, 2011 “The Highest-Paid Public Speakers” Huffington Post article Nathaniel Hindman reports that amongst the top paid public speakers were former President Bill Clinton, Sarah Palin, Tony Blair, Richard Branson and Rudy Guiliani. Many of these people are former heads of governments, people millions of creative business leaders admire and want to hear from. In large part, these creative leaders command top speaking fees because people think they know something from experience that they (the audience members) don’t know. Audience members think these creative leaders know secrets that will help them improve their lives, fulfill their dreams, help them reach their loftiest goals.

Former President Bill Clinton commands between $150,000 and $450,000 per public speaking engagement.  Tony Blair, Great Britain’s former Prime Minister earned $573,400 to deliver two half-hour speeches to a corporation operating in the telecommunications industry. Rudy Guiliani made $9.2 million from 2006 through February 2007 on speaking fees alone, representing $270,000 per speaking engagement.  Sarah Palin was paid $100,000 for her public speaking engagements. Richard Branson, Virgin Group’s creative business leader, earned $100,000 per speaking engagement.

Action Steps You Can Take to Increase Your Income as a Public Speaker

Until you gain the work and life experiences to command top public speaker fees, there are other action steps you can take to increase your income as a public speaker. As with other types of work, you can increase your income by creating multiple streams of income. Following are a few easy ways you can increase your income as a public speaker:

• Put key quotes from your speaking engagements on mugs and sale them on your website, at the end of future public speaking engagements
• Create e-books based on information you share during your speeches
• Create and sell audiotapes of your speeches
• Take material in your speeches and create written courses that you can sell
• Include quotes from your speeches in print interviews (always include your website URL in print interviews)
• Develop three to four word blurbs or quotes from your speeches, design them on t-shirts
• Teach public speaking courses at schools for a fee

Business and personal benefits gained from public speaking include:

• Satisfaction of creating and growing professional business platforms
• Opportunities to teach and share valuable life and business lessons you’ve learned with others
• Joy in watching others succeed as they apply advice and guidance you share with them in their own personal and business lives
• Ability to distinguish yourself as an expert in one or more business fields
• Improved self-confidence
• Expanding appreciation for communicating and connecting with others
• Improved active listening skills as you field questions from audience members
• Greater appreciation for others as you learn from questions raised during Q&A
• Opportunities to travel the country or world as you attend various public speaking events that pay you a speaker’s fee

There may very well be a countless number of ways that you can increase your income as a public speaker. Benefits and rewards associated with public speaking are numerous. The limit to what you do is up to you, depends on how much you allow your imagination, your creative ideas, to stretch and expand. You can start to by taking one new action step today.

If you enjoyed or benefitted from this article, share it with others by clicking the Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Share buttons below. You bet!  We appreciate it!  

Get Your Copy of Spiral at https://www.ebookit.com/books/0000000841/Spiral.html