Public speaking takes preparation

The career advice I am most often asked to provide is how to become a professional speaker.

At a corporate event, I usually share the bill with what we professionals call 'civilians', people from the company who are doing their bit to add to the gaiety of the day. Most people do a very good job, but 'civilian' speakers fall into two main categories.

First, there are those who, despite their strenuous efforts to appear otherwise, are actually petrified. These are very easy to spot; they are hiding behind dozens of PowerPoint slides and reveal their hand when they try to be funny and fail, lacking the most basic comic and timing skills.

They can also destroy their corporate careers in an instant by the use of inappropriate material which went down brilliantly in the bar the night before.

If I can get to these people before the event, I provide basic training to reduce their stress levels and the use of PowerPoint. An even better solution is for them to agree to let me interview them, in the style of Michael Parkinson.

I have all the conference material on my clip-board, so they do not have to remember anything in advance. We prepare the questions together.

I also ask them how they felt about the information they have just shared. If they were delighted by excellent profit figures or saddened by the unavoidable redundancies, then they come across as human and therefore much more credible and likeable.

Other 'civilian' speakers are complete naturals. They have no PowerPoint presentations, stroll casually on to the stage, tell a bunch of hilarious anecdotes, and leave the stage to tumultuous applause, often having totally upstaged the so-called 'professionals' like myself.

I lead the applause, acknowledge their brilliance, and refer back to them as much as possible. As moderator, the only challenge I have sometimes is getting them off the stage, especially if we are working to a tight agenda.

Afterwards, I tell them that they have what it takes to become a professional speaker. My first recommendation is to join the Professional Speakers' Association, where they can find all the help they need.

Then there is the hard part: sales. Their first question is always about approaching the speaker agencies, but I point out that agencies are already overloaded by hundreds of well-known speakers. Unless you are already famous, a speaker agency is very unlikely to take you seriously.

My advice to budding professional speakers is sell to your friends first. If they will not book you, then it is unlikely anyone else will.

Then there is the challenge of asking for money. The first fee is the hardest, but it never gets completely painless, so it is a very good idea to get an experienced salesperson or even your spouse of partner to do the negotiating on your behalf.

You need to speak at every possible opportunity. As a professional speaker you will be pitched into strange surroundings, sometimes with an incorrect brief, a poor sound system and a hostile audience; it can and will go horribly wrong, now and then. When it does, you need the working tools and self-belief to pick yourself up and start over.

But when it goes well it is glamorous, life-changing and rewarding.

The writer is a best-selling author, keynote speaker and entrepreneur mentor, co-founder of Beermat.biz, an online resource for entrepreneurs