According to Ziprecruiter, as of Aug 5, 2022, the average annual pay for a “Motivational Speaker” in the United States is $68,271 a year. That works out to be approximately $32.82 an hour. Or the equivalent of $1,313/week or $5,689/month.
Want to be a public speaker? Here’s what to expect…
How Much Money Can You Really Make Speaking?
While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $148,000 and as low as $21,500, the majority of Motivational Speaker salaries currently range between $33,500 (25th percentile) to $118,000 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $145,500 annually across the United States.
The average pay range for a Motivational Speaker varies greatly (by as much as $84,500), which suggests there may be many opportunities for advancement and increased pay based on skill level, location and years of experience.
Newbie speakers will talk for free or for travel cost reimbursements. Meanwhile, celebrities and well known industry experts charge up to an profitable six figures per engagement.
But some speakers are making far from the average. Here’s why…
The Net Worth of These Motivational Speakers is Insane!
Here’s a look at how much the top motivational speakers are worth…
1. Brian Tracy – $15 million
2. Suze Orman – $75 million
3. Robert Kiyosaki – $100 million
4. Dave Ramsey – $200 million
5. Daymond John – $350 million
6. Tony Robbins – $600 million
7. Magic Johnson – $620 million
Some of the dollar amounts they charge per speech will surprise you. For example
Simon Sinek now charges $100k per speech. Gary Vee does too…
Sam Par breaks down the world of public speaking and the surprisingly lucrative amount of loot that can be made via the business model in HubSpot’s episode of The Hustle. Check it out.
In 2012, Jack Conte and his wife, Nataly Dawn, were known as the indie band called Pomplamoose. They were bringing in roughly $400,000 per year in revenue from tour dates, merch, and on ads viewed by their 1.5M followers on their YouTube channel.
But then a mental breakdown a few years ago changed all of that…
After spending three months producing an elaborate music video for their song “Pedals, (it’s pretty impressive for a self-production). But the production came at the heavy cost of maxing out all of Jack and Nataly’s credit cards.
The Conte’s sunk their life savings into making the video popular on YouTube. So far the video has 2.3M views, but the confused couple received almost nothing for their efforts from YouTube…
They spent $10,000 and three months to make just the 1 video go viral on YouTube. He soon realized that, even though he receives an average of one million viewers on his YouTube videos, he’d only make $160 in ad revenue. Kind of a shitty reward for the time and effort they were putting in.
Jack knew there had to be a better way…
So he came up with an idea for creators to get compensated directly from their fans and cut out the middle man.
That’s how he came up with the idea of launching Patreon. He sent a sketch of his idea to his former college roommate, an engineer, who started coding for it that night. They launched soon after, with Jack being Patreon’s first official creator. Within two weeks, he was making six figures…
Wait, What is Patreon?
Basically it’s a membership platform that helps creators to get paid. Creators perform an artistic service and return, their fans and supporters (aka patrons) use Patreon to support them by means of payments. This way, creators can spend more time creating content instead of looking for funding.
There’s a few business models that content creators can use on this crowdfunding/membership platform.
Patreon’s Business Model Enables Creators to Charge For:
Community (monthly memberships)
Educational subscriptions
Gated premium content
Pay-what-you-can donations
Jack founded Patreon in 2013, today they have 3 million monthly active patrons generating $100M+ per month on the platform.
At one point for example, author and psychologist Jordan Peterson, was said to be making over $70k per month on the platform just in donations alone.
Patreon currently takes between 5% and 12% of creator earnings (plus a payment processing fee). The pandemic helped increase revenue with over 30,000 creators flocking to the site within the first few weeks of the pandemic. Videos and podcasts are the biggest categories on the site.
Along with all their success, the company is facing an intense amount of competition coming from Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Only Fans, Substack, and Clubhouse (is that thing still alive?). It seems every platform these days is doing their best to lure creators by allowing everyone to make money versus just the big creatives.
But for now, Patreon has proven their business model helping participants in the creator economy to get paid more. The result of the couple’s efforts so far has resulted in an estimated $8 million in cash.
The companies’ market valuation is currently hovering at $4billion. Which is a pretty awesome accomplishment that a broken husband fed up YouTube created a rival platform that turned him into a millionaire.
Did you know 60% of professional athletes end up broke within 5 years of retiring? Not Shaq though. Far from it, his personal business investments are growing to Warren Buffet status.
You won’t believe how many businesses he currently owns…
Shaquille O’Neal is one of the savviest businessmen in the North American sporting world who has managed to amassed an incredible $400 million net worth following the end of a successful 19-year NBA career.
Including over 150 car washes across the US…
Here’s a Breakdown of Shaq’s Investment Portfolio:
Shaq owns 10% of all Five Guys (that’s 155 locations)
Side note, Shaq is also the owner of one of the most pointless website on the internet…
Pettiness aside, here’s a video where Shaq breaks down his investment strategy:
WATCH:
How Much Does Shaq Make on Endorsements?
In addition his business portfolio, Shaq makes a killing monetizing his personal brand too.
Shaq has endorsements with VitaminWater, Pepsi, IcyHot, and Taco Bell. All combined nets him a cool $20 million a year.
But that isn’t where he makes his fortune…His real money he prints while he sleeps in the fleet of carwashes he owns. All 150 of them, where he makes a majority of his earnings.
Did you know that only 9% of b2b companies rate their digital promotional efforts as highly effective? So chances are that’s you (and me, and everyone else too for that matter)…
So than what do we do when our marketing isn’t working? When no one is clicking our stuff, liking our posts? Just crickets…
According to marketing expert Adam Erhart, 90% of businesses ARE NOTposting near enough content (what he calls the minimum effective dose to trigger the algorithms) for anyone to notice.
Don’t you skip this part, it’s way more important than you think.
Erhart explains that most businesses dabble in too many things and totally fail to find their sweet spot online.
Here’s why….
In a recent video, Adam Erhart breaks down where most businesses fail online and covers 7 effective strategies to finally take your online presence by storm in 2022 (or skim the full summary below for the highlights).
WATCH:
Adam Erhart’s 7 Effective Marketing Strategies for 2022
#1 Most Businesses Don’t Post the Minimum Effective Dose:
When competing online, you’re not simply competing against your competitors, or even simply inside your industry for that matter. Instead, you’re competing with Youtubers, Twitter, CNN, Fox, Disney, Pandora, and millions of other sources of content distractions all fighting for the same attention.
So like Adam mentioned, as simple as it sounds, 90% of b2b businesses simply aren’t creating enough content on one single platform to stand out from anything else. A couple posts a week isn’t going to cut it.
Not even close…
Most companies “try social” or will spend $100 on ads and won’t see any sales and thus conclude…”the platform doesn’t work.” Spoiler alert, it doesn’t work that way.
If you’re not standing out, it’s almost always the case that you haven’t created enough content or a minimum effective dose to stand out on a particular app (let alone all of them). This is where 90% simply fail.
#2 The Marketing Rule of 7
Okay, so then how much content and how many touch points does it take to stay in front of someone long enough to get them to buy?
Fair question…That’s where Adam’s “rule of 7” comes into place.
The rule of seven works roughly like this; if your product is inexpensive, say $1-$20. You will likely have to get someone to see your message 7 times before they will open their wallet to grab their credit card. Higher ticket item? Plan on 14 or 21 touch points.
The higher the ticket price the more times you will likely need to be in front of your prospect. Just like a sales person doesn’t close someone usually on the first call, it’s even harder for a marketing message to close a sale to cold traffic post.
The average digital touchpoint to close a sale online is typically between 17-29 touch points!
That’s why volume is so important and again why 90% of companies are not producing enough.
But it’s admittedly a bit more complicated than just social posts, you will most likely need to create a subscription to create what Adam calls the “Mere Exposure Effect”.
Here’s what that means…
#3 The Mere Exposure Effect Explained…
The mere exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon where people develop a preference for things that are more familiar to them than others. Repeated exposure increases familiarity.
In short, it’s the familiarity effect. The more often people are exposed to your brand the more they will trust you and willing to buy from you (or recommend you to others).
Post enough to reach a minimum effective dose.
Keep increasing the volume until you see results.
Implement the rule of seven until you discover how many touch points it takes to generate a lead.
The most effective way to get to the rule of seven is by getting your customer to join your communication list (email, newsletter, podcast, youtube).
Then finally continue to nurture them to create the Mere Exposure Effect.
#4 Go Deep on a Subject, Not Broad
Rule #4 is short and sweet. There’s billions of people on the planet, you can’t and don’t want to serve them all.
In fact, the broader your content, the easier it is to fail.
Instead, focus on making better connections with fewer people. The easiest way to do that is to find people that see the world the same way as you and who have the same goals.
Find them by sharing your beliefs and values in your content. Share your story of how you overcame the gist hurtle your customer is experiencing (as it relates to your product or service).
Sharing is caring…
#5 Develop Your ICA (Ideal Customer Avatar)
Get clear on the demographics, geographics, and psychographics beliefs, values lifestyles that make them who they are. What are their fears and frustrations, goals and aspirations?
The easiest way to develop your core message is to write down the top 5 things your customer wants to achieve and the 3 things that are stopping them from achieving their goals. Choose the top obstacle to focus your story around.
That’s where you will identify your brand story. Adam refers to this as knowing your customer’s miracles and miseries…
#6 Know Your Customer’s Miracles and Miseries
Dean Graziosi always says; “customers don’t buy from you when they understand what you sell, they buy when they feel understood.”
The miracles are all the things the customer wants and desires. Their miseries are all the things stopping them from getting what they want (as it relates to your product or service).
Knowing what’s stopping your avatar from getting what they want will allow you to position your service as the bridge that can help them overcome the misery gap to achieve what they want and see you as the hero.
This is where conversions take place.
#7 Sell the Benefits – Not the Features
When it comes to marketing, it’s not about the features, it’s about how those features will get the customer what they want. The real value is in the benefit.
People don’t buy based on logic, but rather emotions. That’s why promoting features doesn’t work, it doesn’t engage people at an emotional level. But connecting the feature to the outcome will overcome that.
Follow these 7 steps to take your marketing to the next level in 2022.
The Billion dollar Patagonia brand was started by a bullied teenager living off fifty cents a day learning how to be, a falconer…
And the original source material for the products he made, came from the dumpsters he was diving in.
The Bizarre Beginning of the Patagonia Brand
From it’s very beginning, the brand never really cared about being cool or even making money. Instead, it focused on making gear for the sport they loved while being environmentally responsible. Today they’ve become a status symbol for the biggest and richest companies in the world.
Here’s the story of how the Patagonia company was born…
WATCH:
Patagonia’s Roots in Black Smithery, Falconry, and Rock-Climbing…
Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard was born in 1938 in Lisbon , Maine and raised in a French-Canadian community that spoke little English.
His father, a hard working blue collar man, moved the family to Burbank CA when Yvon was only 8 years old. An experience that turned out to be a pretty shitty one for little Yvon.
Shitty because Yvon was bullied at school for not being able to speak English. He was also the smallest kid in his class which didn’t help his position. Not knowing what to do, Yvon would just simply run away. He spent most of his time alone in the wilderness. Hunting and fishing by himself.
Then one day, Yvon discovered, of all things, falconry…
He joined a local falconry club where he made friends and learned how to train hawks and falcons. For the first time, Yvon belonged to something.
One of the members, Don Prentice, was a mountain climber who trained the club how to rappel down cliffs to in order to access falcon nest located high up on mountain rock ledges.
So What’s the Blacksmith Connection?
The club became obsessed with the sport. Traveling all over the country rappelling down America’s tallest cliffs. They did it for the most part, without any gear…
Eventually the group turned their attention from rappelling to climbing. Were they’re lack of equipment became problematic (opposed to repelling down, climbing up requires a lot more than a rope).
With only 200 mountain climbers in those days and no store to provide their climbing gear, the group was forced to make their own in the early days of the sport. One of those items were pitons (the stakes mountain climbers hammer into the rock face to clip onto for, “safety”).
“Hey Mountain Climbers, Clean Up Your Shit!”
The problem with the original pitons was they were permanent. Climbers would just leave the stakes poking out of the side of the mountain for others to use later on…It became an eyesore and Yvon wasn’t having it.
Yvon taught himself how to be a blacksmith (in a chicken coop in his parents backyard) where he invented the first sets of removable pitons, changing the sport forever. They even turned out to be stronger and more reliable than the permanent European pitons they originally used.
He didn’t even charge his friends for them in the beginning. He would just hand them to other climbers to help clean up the mountain side. They were an instant success.
From Climbing Gear to Clothing Icon…
Pategonia eventually got into the clothing business after Yvon took a climbing trip to Scotland where he bought a Rugby shirt because the material looked tough enough to climb a mountain in (and it looked cool). Plus he thought the collar would help keep the climbing ropes away from his neck.
Climbing in his Rugby shirt back in the states, Yvonn stuck out like a sore thumb in his flamboyant colored shirt. In a good way. Other climbers asked where they could get a “fancy colorful climbing shirt”.
Here’s a review of some of the original 1980s rugby shirts they launched with:
WATCH:
So Yvon licensed a series of durable and colorful rugby (I mean climbing) shirts. They sold like hot cakes…
But while the clothing brand famously went through many ups and downs over the years, Patagonia today is one of the most recognized clothing brands on the planet.
All thanks to a badass little kid who climbed his way up in life on his own terms.
Somewhere in remote Montana, right now, there’s a guy getting paid to shoot an assault rifle at any bird that lands on his pond. In order to save their lives…
He’s a hero. In order to understand why, you need to know about the Berkeley Copper Mine.
It’s a cocktail of death, especially for un-expecting waterfowl.
The levels of copper are high enough in the water table that Montana Resources has mined copper directly from the water itself!
But the Berkley Pit is a Graveyard for Waterfowl…
In 1995, a flock of migrating geese landed in the Berkeley Pit and died. A total of 342 carcasses were recovered.
After inspecting the corpses, scientists discovered their insides were lined with burns and festering sores from exposure to high concentrations of copper, cadmium, and arsenic.
The water burned them alive…
On November 28, 2016, several thousand snow geese died after a large flock landed in the pit’s water to avoid a snowstorm. Immediately after the event, officials made efforts to scare birds away and prevent more from landing in the area.
Now, in order to protect any waterfowl from dying a very painful death, this man gets paid to protect them. By shooting at them…
Don’t worry, he doesn’t hurt them, he only scares them away for their own protection. Crazy job…
Toshiba is a brand that’s been drowning in scandals for years. Including a recent one that involved overstating it’s profits to shareholders by $1.2 billion which resulted in the resignation of their CEO.
The company was once one of the most innovative businesses on the planet, they produced one of the first laptops. They were credited as being the first company to mass produce one. Chances are you owned one…
They were sued and settled to pay $1billion in a class action lawsuit for faulty equipment.
Despite being such an innovative company, Toshiba has experienced some massive setbacks over the years that have resulted from a combination of both poor business decisions and public scandals.
This video y Company Man highlights the most notable ones. Here’s a video that highlights the history of Toshiba’s insane series of scandals.
WATCH:
The Surprising History of Toshiba
Toshiba traces its history in Japan to 1875. The company rode the post-war Japanese manufacturing boom in the late 1950s to high growth portfolio of unique and innovative products. Toshiba began selling products in foreign markets during this period and continued to expand its businesses across the globe during the following decades.
Today, the conglomerate operates business units on a worldwide scale in a variety of diverse industries, including semiconductors, personal electronics, infrastructure, home appliances, and medical equipment.
Toshiba reported net worldwide sales of more than 3.38 trillion Japanese yen or $31 billion for the 2020 fiscal year. The company employs more than 125,648 people worldwide.
Airbnb was the stupidest idea for a business. The idea was to rent an air mattress in someone else’s occupied apartment. A Literal air bed and breakfast. I mean, who would pay to sleep on the floor of the apartment of a complete stranger?
Turns out quite a few actually. While no longer air mattresses, today Airbnb has over 150 million hosts who’s properties accommodate more than a half a billion guests a year
You Won’t Believe How airbnb Got Started!
Today, Airbnb is one of the most successful short-term rental businesses in the world today. Since its formation in 2008, it has experienced massive growth, starting out with just a few friends renting extra space in their home to an international multibillion-dollar corporation.
Here is the insane inside story of how 3 guys turned that into a $31 billion company.
The story is crazier than the idea. Watch founder, Brian Chesky explain the crazy story of how 3 college kids created one of the world’s largest companies on the stupidest for a business to LinkedIn Founder, Reed Hastings, at a Y Combinator event.
“All my life I’ve seen murders and robberies. I came from that world where everything was dog-eat-dog. If you had money or jewelry, if you couldn’t defend it or protect it, you’re going to loose it.”
– Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson was first arrested at 10 years old. 38 more times by age 13.
Needless to say, he grew up in a rough neighborhood in Brooklyn. If you couldn’t protect yourself, you got taken advantage of. Mike was in over 400 fights in his life.
He quite literally fought his way through life and still is to this day…
WATCH:
How Mike Tyson Blew a $600 Million Fortune
By the age of twenty Tyson was one of the most famous figures on the planet. Namely for being the most talented boxers of all time. And for biting off Evander Holyfield’s ear off during one of the most televised matches in boxing history.
Here’s that throwback…
During his boxing career he amassed over $685 million and he accomplished to spending all of it. Every last penny…
He not only managed to blow through a half billion in cash, he then eventually owed over $50 million in debts, including another $13.4 million to the IRS.
So What Did Mike Tyson Spend $685 Million On Exactly?
Mike routinely traveled with an entourage so large it rivaled the size of a small country.
He owned Siberian tigers and spent hundreds of thousands/year to care for them.
He bought over $400k worth of pigeons too…it’s a long story
He had fleets of luxury vehicles, a posse of prostitutes, and a 21-bedroom mansion.
He was known to spend over $240k month for entertainment and another $100k/month for Jewelry and clothes.
During his lifetime, Tyson reached the peaks of fame and fortune most of us mere mortals will never know or experience. He climbed from the gutter to the height of success. But even at the top of the world by the age of 20, he still had a darkness inside of him…
Watch Mike explain his incredible life story and lessons of gratitude from his personal experiences literally fighting for his life.
Taco Bell is the largest Mexican restaurant on the planet by volume. Here’s how they did it…
Taco Bell has been dominating Mexican fast food since the 1960s. They own over 7,000 locations consistently generating over $10 billion dollars in annual sales.
Watch the full story how or read the summary below.
First and foremost, Taco Bell wouldn’t be a thing without it’s founder, who knew how to spot a potential opportunity when he saw one.
A cook who served in WW2, Bell returned home to start a restaurant in San Bernardino CA. Inspired by the McDonald’s franchise, Bell copied the model. Literally, Taco Bell used to be called Bell’s Hamburgers, they originally sold cheeseburgers and hot dogs.
Until one day Glen added tacos to the menu, altering the course of taco history…
2. Taco Bell Single Handedly Introduced the World to Tacos
The second reason for Taco Bell’s now icon status, was their role in introducing tacos the American market.
After 14 years in the restaurant business and having gone through 5 different restaurants and concepts, Glen launch Taco Bell in March 21, 1962 in Downey CA.
At the time, most Americans had no clue what a taco was. When ordering, most customers asked for a “tay-ko”, simply because they simply had never heard of a taco. Kind of like the whole gyro “guyroh” thing…
And they obviously fell in love with them. Putting Taco Bell on the map.
“I always smile when I hear people say that they never had a taco until Taco Bell came to town”. – Glen Bell
3. Pepsi Gave Them a Shit Load of Money
Another reason for their success was their partnership deal with Pepsi.
In the 1970s Pepsi was expanding and looking to invest in new markets. They bought Pizza Hut for $315 million, giving them access to sell their sodas to customers dinning in the largest Pizza Chain on the planet up until that time. Pepsi wanted to saturate the Taco consumer market too. So they gave Glen a handsome $125 million for the right to sell Pepsi products at every Taco Bell.
Pepsi’s infusion of cash enabled the franchise to massively scale. They went from just under 1,000 locations in 1978 to nearly 7,000 by 1998. Meaning, almost every Taco Bell you’ve ever visited was started between the 80’s-90s Pepsi infused growth period.
4. Absolutely Bat-Shit Crazy But Catchy Menu Items…
While declaring to serve Mexican food, no one buys into that claim when it comes to Taco Bell. That’s because they have become famous for coming up with bat-shit crazy menu items.
The fourth key to the mega taco franchise model was their dedication to marketing. Especially standing out in crowded markets through their off the wall menu item.
Items like the Cheesy Gordita Crunch, the Mtn Dew Baja Taco Blast, their most successful product launch; the Crunch Wrap Supreme, and most recently the Doritos Locos Tacos. Or finally the rather nachos fries.
5. Taco Bell Excels at Marketing to Drunk People too…
Despite how much you want to hate them, Taco Bell continues to stay relevant across generations. They have a consistent track record of being customer focused and keeping their cost low. Something they have been promoting in their ads for decades…
One of their most successful marketing campaigns was “the forth meal of the day” commercials. After noticing a high influx in sales late at night (wink wink), the Bell starting promoting a “4th meal of the day”.
WATCH:
On a more serious note though, probably the biggest reason Taco Bell has been so success over the years has been their commitment to their original mission; “thinking outside the bun”. Mission accomplished…
