The further you go with your creative work as an author, the more the importance of having great public speaking skills will become clear to you. Whether it’s at festivals, conferences, training sessions or public events, the more your work becomes respected and revered, the more you’ll be expected to speak eloquently and openly in front of a rapt audience.

As a creative, you can use your public speaking skills to increase your income, get free goodies and travel with all expenses paid. You can grow your audience, your brand, and sell your work wherever you go. It’s great work, if you can get it. While there are certainly financial incentives for improving your public speaking skills, it can often go beyond getting the dollar.

Simply sharing your message can be incredibly powerful. The more passionate and connected you are to your topic, and the better you communicate it, the more power you have to touch and move individuals. This can often happen when you least expect it. The ability to shift somebody’s mindset, or introduce them to a new way of thinking is an emotional one, and is an intense connection that money simply can’t buy.

Crafting a speech can transform you. When you go to create a talk to deliver to an audience - whether they are novices or experts - you create a set of parameters for yourself and a standard you have to live up to. It’s not as simple as dumping all the knowledge you have out into the world. It’s about creating a coherent, engaging narrative that entertains, informs, and persuades.

The act of crafting this will make you think about what you already know in a new way, and will create new connections in your work that weren’t apparent to you before.

It can also change how you see yourself. If you feel that you’re introverted or quiet, or ‘too shy,’ developing this kind of skill can help you see yourself in a more positive way, and teach you about your ability to step up to a challenge and surprise yourself.