Grant Baldwin Book – The Successful Speaker
What does it mean to be a successful speaker?
Is it defined by accolades or a substantial honorarium? Is it measured by how an audience reacts to your eloquent words and fine-tuned phraseology? Beyond the definition of successful speaking at its core, what are the key strategies that a successful speaker utilizes? Specifically, how do Christian leaders become great, successful speakers?
In his brand-new book, The Successful Speaker: 5 Steps for Booking Gigs, Getting Paid, and Building your Platform, author Grant Baldwin displays an expertise when it comes to answering the practical questions that church leaders have concerning vocational speaking. Grant is the creator of a platform called, The Speaker Lab. Its goal is to give speakers clarity, confidence, and a clear path to make an impact. He is an exceptional example of what successful speaking is.
Purpose of the Book
The Successful Speaker takes the reader through an in-depth crash course pertaining to the specifics of becoming the best speaker they can be. This is done by breaking the topic up into two key areas: the business side and the speaking delivery side.
On the business side, this book does a great job at explaining fundamental topics for vocational speaking. These topics include contracts, travel, getting gigs, and managing the platform that you build for yourself. Additionally, a successful speaker must be good at speaking! While this may seem pretty straight-forward, effective speaking is very multi-faceted, and it takes a great level of intentionality. With this in mind, I was pleased to find out that Grant addresses this area as well. This book is the go-to for speakers wanting to learn the components for preparing a talk.
This book is the key to remaining cool and collected, instead of overwhelmed, when it comes to successful vocational speaking. As you read through it, you will be blessed and encouraged, while obtaining crucial insight for successful speaking.
The Intentionality Behind Speaking as a Christian Leader
During our interview, one helpful piece of application explained by Grant was the concept of “so what” and “now what.” Two questions the congregation is mentally asking the pastor are, “Why does this matter to me?” and “What do we do now?”
If you take a look at the interview, you’ll find that Grant does a great job at explaining the pastor/speaker’s role of intentionality pertaining to these questions. When the vocational speaker considers these questions, they are on the road to successful speaking. I am personally inspired to utilize the tactics that were discussed within the interview.
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“I want to start speaking, how do I do it?”
Have you ever had a dream that took seed form, but never sprouted? Perhaps this was because time got away from you or your life got too hectic. Or maybe it was because you had a fear of failure. Oftentimes, the catalyst for preventing the seed to sprout is no more complicated than a lack of knowledge.
One of the highlights of our interview was when Grant passionately declared his ambition to help church leaders. As a former youth pastor, he understands that church leadership is not for the faint of heart. It is evident that his heart for this book is to aid the church and the pastors that lead them. So, you can read the book understanding that it is designed with you in mind.
During our interview, I asked Grant about how a pastor should start when they want to speak full time. His insight was incredible!
Grant spoke on the importance of understanding your place as a speaker and focusing on an area of expertise. Oftentimes, pastors develop the mindset of believing they can just speak on anything at any time. This is a bad approach. When you take time to watch the interview, you will be impressed with Grant’s insight on this. He talks about the questions that pastors have as they figure out where to start with vocational speaking.
Getting Paid
Now that we’ve discussed Grant’s heart for ministry and how his new book will encourage you, there is one issue. Some pastors, church leaders, and just Christians in general can be uncomfortable when it comes to getting paid to speak.
With this reality, I asked Grant how this should be managed from a Christian perspective. Of course, his take on this is incredible. He explains, the reality is, we all have to eat and live indoors. This cannot happen without money. It’s plain and simple.
In addition to this, the speaker’s first responsibility is to their family. When you travel to different places, that church, organization or wherever you are speaking, is paying for your time. Utilizing your speaking as a way to fund your ministry and care for your family is perfectly justified. In fact, it is necessary in most cases.
What are you waiting for?
We encourage you to go ahead and jump into this interview. You will be blessed as we were. Grant Baldwin and the team at Leaders.Church are pulling for you, your preaching and your speaking career. We believe that God uses people to speak truth to others!
After watching the interview, don’t stop there! Grab a copy of Grant’s incredible book, The Successful Speaker: 5 Steps for Booking Gigs, Getting Paid, and Building your Platform. You will be encouraged and informed from an author who is an expert on the topic.
So, we hope this resource has helped you!
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