How to become a presenter: 7 tips from an expert

My first blog posts were mainly about how you find your passion to inspire your audience and how you constantly take your enthusiasm to the next level.  

How do you become a successful presenter? – 7 tips from an expert

In this article, you will learn how I managed to become a successful presenter and how I ended up hosting top events like the matches for the national football team’s matches and the ATP tennis tournament in Vienna today as well as the warm up of a TV show like Dancing Stars.

Today you won’t get boring advice from me that won’t get you anywhere; I will give you 7 valuable tips that you should remember if you also want to become an aspiring presenter or host amazing events. They are suggestions that will drive you forwards if you have a burning desire for hosting events or shows on TV. 

As a mentor, I will show you how to do it. This contribution is also an invitation to you: 

Take the easier way and learn from my mistakes and of all those who, just like you, were at the beginning at some point.

1. Stay true to yourself and go your own way

It is important to stay true to yourself, especially at the beginning of your career. You certainly have an idea or a vision of yourself that drives you; stick to it and don’t let it unsettle you. I too have been tempted to change myself to make another leap up the career ladder, or even to take a supposed shortcut to earn money faster. It is important to resist these temptations and to remain true to your own course.

If you manage to remain authentic, to always be the best version of yourself, you will grow in people’s minds into a personality that will remain in their memory. And don’t forget: your audience will notice when you slip into a role that is not you. Authentic growth is personal branding in its purest form.

2. With determination you will achieve your goal

Setting your goal is an important step on your path to success. Define your goal, create a vision board, for example, and write “I am a successful host” in capital letters as if you had already achieved it. Always keep your goal in focus and set smaller milestones so that you don’t lose your motivation.

Many people fail because they don’t believe in the goals that they set for themselves. They oftentimes blindly chase their life’s goal like the donkey chases the carrot and do not realize that the path to the goal is equally important. On the way to success, they run out of breath. 

So that you do not lose focus on your big goal:

• train your discipline
• strengthen your will
• stay straight
• show some backbone.

Especially at the beginning of your career You have to stay on track and pursue your vision with one hundred percent focus, especially at the start of your career.

For example, in the early days of my career, determination in my goal of “I am a successful presenter” meant regularly picking up the phone and asking if I could present events.

Because let’s be honest: if you are at the beginning of your business, no matter which one, it is just as important to find a way to pay your bills in addition to the whole set-up.

But determination also means sticking to the decisions you have made, without any ifs and buts. The path is often not clear from the beginning, but the direction must be clear to you. I made an important decision from the beginning and I’ve stuck to this decision and pursued the goal until today: I have explicitly decided that I will be successful. 

3. Learn to deal with disappointments

An American proverb says “the road of success is paved with many failures”. In other words, there are often stones on your road to success. In order to grow and always stay true to yourself, you need to develop strategies to deal with disappointments. 

Whether you are a stadium announcer, a presenter or if you want to be successful in another profession, you will experience disappointments on your way to the top.

Disappointments will cross your path from time to time. 

My strategy for dealing with disappointments is not to ask “Why is this happening to me?” but to ask myself “What can that teach me?” Sharpen your eye for both situations and people. In time you will learn not to set your expectations too high, but to adapt them to reality.

4. Even a presenter learns from mistakes

“A wise man learns from his mistakes. A wiser man learns from the mistakes others made before him.”

JOHN C. MAXWELL

Learn from your mistakes. It is your mistakes and your way of dealing with them that makes your personality grow. Don’t let the mistakes you make damage your self-confidence. Mistakes are just part of it.

And even better: learn from the mistakes of others. Take a close look at why a successful entrepreneur in your network suddenly stumbles and see this as a chance to avoid making the same mistake yourself.

5. Build your network: anywhere and at any time

You have probably already heard that a good network is the key to success. Perhaps you have also heard that you should network. But what does that actually mean? For me, it means nothing more than chatting with others in a relaxed and friendly manner and, as they say in Vienna, “being a fool”. This special Viennese term, “Schmäh”, stands for a special kind of small talk. It has almost gone into my blood; no matter where I am, I always try to build up a relationship with the other person. Business goes through people! Get into the heads and memories of the people around you. Build relationships.

Be strategic in your network building. Write down which people can be valuable to you. Create your own “Dream 100“: a list of 100 people or companies that would be your dream network. Go there: to the events, to the restaurants, to clubs where there are people with similar or the same goals. Think carefully about where people who inspire you are. Always be present and either never or only rarely miss events that can take you further. 

At the same time, stay away from people who only waste your time, money and above all energy.

However, entrepreneurial or financial added-value should only be of secondary importance. Always think about what you can bring into your network as added value. You will see that the result of your efforts will not be long in coming and will come back to you.

6. If you want to be a successful presenter, invest in your stage presence

Always think carefully about your priorities and what goals or things you want to spend your money on. The investment in yourself and your stage presence should be at the top of your list. In order to be who I am today, I have invested a significant amount of money in my own development over the past years.

With my goal “to become a presenter” clearly in mind, I paid money right at the beginning for  professional training as a speaker. In addition, I have worked on my voice with voice training, taken singing lessons and even had sessions with a speech therapist. Acting lessons were also part of my program in the all-round stage package.

For 6 years I was a passionate competition dancer – I not only loved competition dancing, but it also improved my stage presence. 

It is still important to me to invest in my further education. This is an investment that pays off for me. 

For example, if you are also aiming for a career where you perform on public stages then I can only recommend for you to work on your presence.

Invest in something that will help you advance on stage or as a personality. 

My very personal tip: a coach or mentor may seem like a huge investment at first glance, but it pays off.

7. Stay down to earth

A sentence from one of my mentors Tony Robbins, who has accompanied me for the last two decades:

“Most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in 10 years”.

In most cases, success does not come overnight. The beginning is often marked by seemingly “empty miles”: meetings and conversations that lead to nothing measurable at that moment. Success comes to those who stay on track anyway. Even if success is achieved, it is important to stay down-to-earth and focused on the long term.

The first years mean for you:

• staying on track
• accepting and coping with with failures
• making mistakes
• investing in numerous different areas of your personal development
• remaining authentic while at the same time further developing yourself.

You can see it’s a lot to do. You’ll be amazed at what you can achieve if you follow a few of my tips. My tips are no guarantee for success, but with their help I am now a successful and regularly booked host.

My tips here are not only pointers for people who want to stand on stage and become a host, but also for everyone, not only for those at the beginning of their business or career. Gaining visibility and constantly working on one’s own personality are enormously important.

My tips in a nutshell, so that you can take a look at them from time to time on your way to success: Stay true to yourself and go your own way Consistency doesn’t mean boredom Learn to deal with disappointments Learn from your mistakes Build your network anytime and anyplace Invest in your stage presence Remain grounded

It’s cool that you have read the whole blog… please take a minute and leave me a comment: What can you take from it for yourself and put into action right away? What are the most important building blocks of success for you?

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