 My name is Alan Stein, Jr. Corporate keynote speaker, author and performance coach. Here are the seven steps I took to become a full-time professional speaker. Step one, I decided. I didn't tiptoe when I didn't waffle. I made the decision and I went all in. Step two, I met with several of my mentors in the corporate space to find out their needs and to drill down on what topics and themes they valued most. Step three, I acknowledged that becoming a full-time professional keynote speaker had three primary pillars. Content, delivery and the business of speaking. I made sure to research, study and hire coaches in all three areas. I invested in books and online courses as well as in-person seminars and conferences that taught the fundamentals of being a world-class speaker. I devoured videos and listened to podcasts of and about highly acclaimed speakers. Lastly, I reached out to as many professional speakers as I could to learn directly from them. Step four, I went back to all the concepts, ideas and lessons I had learned as a basketball performance coach and organized my notes. I organized them into type, stories, stats, lists, and I organized them by topics – leadership, teamwork, communication, culture. I used this as an a la carte menu to assemble the framework and outline of my very first keynote, which was in Jamaica for a massive fitness brand in the summer of 2016. Step five, I delivered a dozen free keynotes before I ever asked for a dime. I offered my speaking services at no charge to anyone I felt had an audience that would benefit from my message. I did this to hone my material and to get in quality reps. I filmed every talk so I could see what worked and what didn't. I was constantly tweaking and I always will be. Step six, I immediately invested in a website and a speaker reel and shifted my social media post to target my new audience. Step seven, I created a spreadsheet of everyone I knew that could potentially be an asset and I brainstormed ways I could add value to them. Then I leaned heavily on personal and professional relationships to get my first wave of initial speaking gigs. My first official paid corporate gig was in March of 2017. Since that day I've delivered hundreds of paid speaking engagements all over the world to brands such as Pepsi, Starbucks, American Express, UG, Charles Schwab, and Orange Theory Fitness. I've learned a lot and I've had so much fun. I've accepted an embrace that I will always be under construction and that being a professional keynote speaker is an ongoing process, not an outcome or a destination. To this day I've continued to repeat and level up these seven steps as I pursue a sense of mastery of the speaking craft.