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Building Your Brand By Being A Motivational Speaker | Ted McGrath Q&A

FEATURE | Building Your Brand By Being A Motivational Speaker | Ted McGrath Q&A

Being a motivational speaker is one of the best ways you can try to successfully brand yourself, especially when starting your own business. Establishing your own brand as a motivational speaker is never easy. It is challenging to build a motivational speaking brand because the people behind them are compelled to be role models who walk their talk. Here, I will tell you how I created my personal brand. But first, you have to unleash the motivation in you by eagerly telling yourself, “I want to be a motivational speaker.” Hopefully, you can pick up some tips along the way to help you find your own brand identity through public speaking.

Branding Yourself | How to Create Your Personal Brand By Being A Motivational Speaker

In this article:

An Overview of the Ted McGrath Brands

An Overview of the Ted McGrath Brands | Building Your Brand By Being A Motivational Speaker | Ted McGrath Q&A

From my experience, I’ve had to go through my personal growth process before I became truly confident in this industry. And I’d like to share with you the story of my journey towards building my brand.

To give you an overview, I’ve created several brands that cater to motivational speaking and online businesses. We have Superstar Speaker, which is a motivational speaking brand. Then we also have Marketing to Millions and Product to Millions, which are all about growing an online business. Then my other brand is, of course, Message to Millions, which is about finding your life’s story and message. Here, I share how you can turn it into a real career where you can get paid by making a difference in other people’s lives.

How the Ted McGrath Brand Was Born

Diving into this industry, my first notion was I didn’t feel good enough to get my message out. I didn’t feel like my life story mattered. I’ve always been the kind of person who sees opportunities and would want to go after them, but I also had hindrances preventing me from getting the things I wanted.

For about two years, I had promoted other thought leaders, authors, and speakers before I even got into the industry. In fact, improving these influential people had been my business.

How I Knew I Was Making Progress

One day, as I was interviewing someone prominent in the industry and listening to his answer, I realized, “I could answer that.” I mean, I had nine years of experience as a sales professional and as a leader in a corporate organization. I also knew quite a bit about sales and business. So I really believed that I could also make it in this industry by being a motivational speaker.

Within minutes, I had sent out an email to my list, which at that time was only about a hundred people. Now, I have about a hundred thousand people on my email list. Within moments, my brand was born! I had to get on the phone and do a teleseminar and teleclass—it made me both nervous and excited because I was going to be on the forefront as a motivational speaker.

Personal Roadblocks

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What bothered me most was that I didn’t have a congruent life when I started my business. I was still in my habit of drinking (but it’s not that I have a problem with people who drink—I just have a problem with my drinking). After overdosing on drugs and alcohol when I was 21 years old, I stopped taking drugs but continued to drink. It was one of the most embarrassing phases of my life, and I’m glad I got out of it.

When I started my business of being a motivational speaker, I really believed that leaders should be role models who walk the talk. And at that time, I wasn’t ready for that kind of responsibility, so I had trepidation going into this industry. I didn’t feel good enough because my life was out of alignment.

Journey to Transformation

I actually desired to build my brand by being a motivational speaker, so I wanted to improve and align my life. I worked to overcome the challenges I had with my relationships, drinking, guilt, and shame.

Today, I have successfully turned my life around. I’m in a relationship with the love of my life, whom I’m blessed to have. I can now drink occasionally without going off the deep end like how I used to. Quite frankly, I don’t even have the desire anymore to have alcohol or any detrimental substances in my body because I just don’t need them.

The Vision


A lot has transformed and changed for me. Today, I just know that I’m going to go the distance and be the best in this industry. I have a very clear vision on that. Also, as a motivational speaker, I want my brands to be known globally as catalysts for change, and for myself to be known as someone who stands for the fulfillment of other people’s dreams and transformation. I want people to identify me as someone who can help them make a difference.

We need more people to stand firm in their dreams and aspirations in life. How often do we actually put “living the dream” out there? I went after my dream of doing my own theater show even though I had no acting experience. Pursuing your aspirations takes courage and willingness to take a risk. Branding yourself is all about pursuing a goal – that’s where your branding will revolve around. Personally, my branding is driven by how I want to keep on helping other people achieve their dreams just like I did.

How Life Has Changed

There are still moments when I cannot believe I’m actually fulfilling my goals in life. But there are also times when I feel that I’m stopping myself from pursuing what I want to do. The good thing is, now I know how I can overcome that. I have great tools for personal transformation and spiritual growth.

I believe that my spiritual growth needs to be always better than my business growth. As long as my spiritual growth is ahead, my business will always be okay, and my life will be amazing.

Finding Your Motivation

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If my motivation was to bring the story of how I changed my life to others across the globe, yours might differ. In truth, you may not even have motivation yet, but that’s okay. There’s no need to feel bad about not knowing what to do next – I was there too, not too long ago.

Finding your motivation in branding yourself starts with a singular goal. Mine was to share my story by being a motivational speaker, and this goal was born out of a desire to help. Branding yourself all boils down to the motivation behind it. It will help to have a singular goal that you can strive for. Your goal will be the driving force behind your efforts to work towards your brand. And after that, you can now tell yourself “I want to become a motivational speaker to motivate others the way I motivated myself.”

Figuring Out Your Personal Branding

Branding yourself is more than just motivation, however. You have to put in the work on figuring out how you present yourself to people. How you look is a huge part of your branding.

What I’ll recommend is that you look at the people you admire the most, and see how they’re branding themselves. How do they present themselves to people? What kind of clothes are they wearing? How does their body language look like? What mannerisms really stand out for them? Researching on how your idols conduct themselves in front of an audience is a way for you to see how your own personal brand could look like.

This does not mean, however, that you should just go ahead and copy what your idols do as the most effective tactic available (META.) After all, branding yourself means finding your own place in the world, a place where you can stand out. Originality plays a huge part in branding yourself. No amount of turtlenecks or hoodies will ever make you look like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg. Find your own style, and stick with it as your personal branding.

Identifying Your Audience

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Another thing to note is who your main audience is. How you present yourself should differ depending on who you’re talking to. Will your personal brand be servicing mostly millennials and Gen Z youngsters? Adopting a more casual look and feel can help you relate to them.

Are you talking to Gen X-ers or Baby Boomers? Putting on a suit and a more professional look works best, as it gives you the authority they look for in an influencer. All these factors come into play whenever you take the stage and present yourself. Make sure you spend a lot of time figuring out what you want to present yourself as.

 

Get more tips on how to create your brand story by being a motivational speaker from my video below:

Building a brand is not all business. The kind of character you put into it as a founder will also determine its success. In the construction of my own motivational speaking brand, I’ve learned the importance of aligning my life with the values I want for my business. Who you are will influence how you run your endeavors. And ultimately, your own character and attitude can make or break your business.

What are your thoughts on being a motivational speaker? Do you think this can also help you tell your brand’s story and build your business goals? Share your thoughts with me in the comments section below!

Up Next: We Can Change The World | What Inspired Me To Become A Life Coach

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on July 17, 2017, and has been updated for quality and relevancy. 

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