Speaking for Fun or Money ??
Most people have one of two reasons for wanting to become a better speaker. Either they want to improve themselves (also for a number of reasons), Or they are interested in becoming paid public speaker. The path to becoming a better speaker is exactly the same in either case, until, the speaker comes to a fork in the road. One fork leads the speaker toward career in speaking,the other toward more of same self improvement in speaking.
Practicing speaking at organizations like Toastmasters is an excellent way to develop skills, build confidence and gain an understanding of the craft, but at some point there is no better teacher than actually getting out in front of a live audience and delivering your stuff!
So where to speakers find “gigs”? Well, just like anything else, you need to get out there and make an effort to find them yourself. Many speakers want to know where they can get themselves listed so they can start getting more exposure. Locate Speakers www.locatespeaker.com is one such website that will list speakers for a small fee. These lists are then available to meeting planners, clubs and other organizations who are looking for speakers.
It doesn’t really matter what fork you take in the path when the time comes because many speakers find themselves switching paths along their journey. They decide for various reasons that earlier goals have changed and now they have new ideas and goals. What they always retain is the skills they have learned along the way … skills they can always come back to or choose in invoke.