I am often asked by people through my website and Facbeook page how they can go about becoming speakers and writers. Here’s my short response to one of them:

”I would say if that’s what you want then start where you are. What opportunities do you have to speak – at church? in schools? at work? Start using those. Practice. Practice and more practice! Get going. Find what you are passionate about speaking about and start doing it. You will gain confidence along the way and build a following.

Learn how to speak. Join a Toastmasters club: http://www.toastmasters.org/

Read widely around your chosen topic. Learn as much as you can about it. Become a guru on it. People want to listen to substance, not waffling. Get to know your stuff. Ideas to write will come easier if you have read around the subject. You may be able to identify gaps that you can fill or subjects you can expand on or take another perspective on.

Lastly – get writing. The only way to know how to write is to do it! Don’t wait for the perfect moment – write when inspiration hits you. Don’t worry about writing a book. Just start. Write short articles. Write short paragraphs. Perfect it over time. A valuable resource for learning how to write, though it was written for web writing is ”Make Your Content Pre-sell”:

Make Yoru Content Presell

I still use much of its principles in my writing. Read it and apply it.

All the best and I am happy to help you further on your journey. I look forward to listening to you speak one of these days.

You can do it!