Erick Rheam:
Hey, speakers. How you doing? My name is Erick Rheam. I’m a professional speaker author, but I’m also a facilitator here at the speaker lab. I was a student at the speaker lab in 2015. I never looked back. I’m going on my 10th year with a professional speaking business, building a seven-figure speaking business, and I’ve been doing this for a while now. It’s a fantastic way of life. We’re actually here at the speaker lab at a retreat.
That’s where we’re calling you from right now or talking to you from right now here in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s been fantastic so far. But anyway, I just want to give you a tip. Here’s my number one tip. If you want to be successful as a speaker, it’s very simple. And that is to show up every day and spend at least 1 hour every day prospecting. Rain or shine doesn’t matter. On vacation, whatever.
Five to six days a week, no breaks. Five to six days a week. You’ve got to prospect every single day. What does that mean? You’re reaching out to somebody you know that can get you to someone who’s a decision-maker. Reaching out to a decision-maker, doesn’t matter. You’re actively reaching out to folks, talking to them about how you can add value to their event, or finding someone who can get you to someone who will make that decision. You’ve got to do that every single day. It can’t be something you do every Tuesday, every now and then.
It’s got to be every single day. And you’ll be right on track. My name is Erick Rheam, a professional speaker. Shout out from the speaker lab at our retreat in 2024. Go out and make it your best year ever. We’ll talk to you soon.
Dan Irvin:
Hey, how are you doing? Dan Irvin here. I’m a professional speaker. I travel the country doing work that I love. And the question is, what is one piece of advice I might give someone in speaking? Well, I’ll share with you. One of the things that I probably do the best is that I have a systematic process for running my business, so nothing’s left up to chance. I don’t go into my week not knowing what to do, I don’t look into the future 612, 18 months from now, and wonder what my business is going to look like. I have a systematic approach and how I build every aspect of that. And that starts with actually in the speaker labs process in step four, which is acquiring paid speaking gigs. So, for me, where that starts is that you have a systematic way to find leads.
You turn those leads and how to actually connect with them in a contact strategy and then set up discovery calls and then get proposal emails out. So you’ve got to have a systematic way to build your business.
Nanette Hitchcock:
Hi. My name is Nanette Hitchcock. I’m one of the coaches here at the speaker lab. Thank you for joining me. If I had to say what one piece of advice I would have for speakers who are thinking about really making an impact with your messages, I would say develop this as a business. Think of it not as a presentation, but as a speaking business. Here at the speaker lab, what we do is we help you set up the foundational piece of what impact you’re making, and then the processes and systems that are going to fully support that business. It’s exciting to make this kind of impact, but we’ve got to think of it as a speaking business and go from there.
Grant Baldwin:
Hey, my name is Grant Baldwin. I’m the founder and CEO here at the Speaker Lab. We get asked all the time, if you want to get booked and pay this big, what are the things that you need to do? One of the top things that we always recommend is that you want to be the steakhouse and not the buffet. The steakhouse and not the buffet. What do we mean by it? Well, a lot of times when speakers come in, we talk to them about two specific questions that you got to answer. Who do you speak to, and what problem do you solve? And the challenge is a lot of speakers want to go extremely big, broad, vague, and so who do we speak to? We speak to people, we speak to humans, we speak to everybody.
And what do we speak about? Like, well, what do you want me to speak about? I can speak about anything, but that doesn’t work. And so when we talk about steakhouse versus buffet, imagine that we’re going to go to lunch, and we’re looking for a good steak. Like, we have a choice. We could go to a buffet where steak is one of 100 things that they offer, or we could go to a steakhouse where they do one thing and they do that one thing really, really well. And so you want to be that steakhouse where you say, I am the go to person on this. I solve one specific problem for one specific audience.
So, oddly enough, it’s counterintuitive, but the more specific, the more narrow, the more focused you are, the easier it is to attract not just gigs but the right type of gigs for you. So as you’re figuring out and getting clear on who you speak to, what problem you solve, again, remember, you want to be the steakhouse and not the buffet.
Michelle Onuorah:
Hey, guys. My name is Michelle Onuorah. I’m one of the speaker coaches here at the speaker lab. And my number one advice for speakers is to make sure that you maintain brand cohesion and brand integrity. So if you are speaking, for example, about growing in your faith, maybe you’re a faith based speaker. You don’t want to also have a book about training horses. So, you want to make sure that you stay in alignment with your core message and with your core audience. You can grow and expand, but your brand cohesion is incredibly important. So we never see Apple selling burgers and we never see Burger King selling ipods.
So make sure that you stay in alignment with your brand so that the audience, your market, knows what your message is and what you’re going for. Hope that helps.
Jim Kukral:
Hi, my name is Jim. I’m the sales manager, one of them here at the speaker lab. Listen, my best piece of advice for an aspiring speaker is to have a point of view. The last thing that a meeting planner wants, or event coordinator, or even somebody who hires you from a small business, is for you to come on stage and not have a take.
Okay?
So whatever it is that you’re doing, leadership or motivation, inspiration, or you’re talking about science or pizza boxes, have some type of point of view. If you go on a news channel and somebody says, hey, what do you think about what’s happening in the world? And you’re the guest, and you say, well, I’m not really sure. They’re never going to bring you back to that news channel. So when you get on stage, you have to communicate a significant point of view to that audience that’s going to provide some entertainment and information that’s going to help you feel good. It’s going to help the meeting planner say, yeah, this is a person that really contributed to this event. So that’s my advice.
Katherine Johnson:
Hey, my name is Katherine Johnson, and I’m one of the coaches on the student success team. And the number one piece of advice I have for you as a speaker is to be aware that as you’re building an external business, there’s a huge component that’s your inner mindset and knowing that there’s going to be a ton of growth and there’s going to be new areas. And that requires you to have a growth mindset so that you don’t get stuck. Because anytime we want to move forward and grow, we need new tools. We need to be open. We need to be aware of the things that we don’t know, that we don’t know, we don’t know. And so when you join a community to learn, your mindset is going to be a huge part of how you step into the person you’re becoming as a speaker. So let’s start with that mindset so that all the external pieces can flow forward.
Sam Hill:
Hey, my name is Sam Hill. I’m the director of sales and strategy at the speaker lab. My biggest piece of advice for speakers is to take massive action. And not to sound cliche for a second, but there’s a lot of speakers who have been dreaming about it and thinking about it, aspiring toward it for a long time, and they don’t need a website or an amazing video or an amazing keynote. What they need is confidence to take that first step and move toward their goals. There’s a lack of action, typically, not a lack of information. And so I want to challenge you. If you’re thinking through things and going, how can I get to where I want to go as a speaker? The X Factor is action, just putting 1ft in front of the others.
One of our facilitators, Erick Rheam, booked over $50,000 in gigs without a website, without a Venmo video, with no experience, just by taking action or reaching out to people. So take your passion for your niche and let that push you to just take one step. You don’t have to take ten steps. Just take one step and begin your journey.
Katie Campbell:
Hey, I’m Katie. I am the lead concierge at the speaker lab. And as you are stepping into the speaking industry, you really need to define your values and your personal brand and stick to those. You’re going to have a lot of outside influences and other speakers and social media and everything you’re seeing around you, but you really need to stand strong in your values because that really helps you share your impact and your message on the stage.
Chris Seo:
Hi, my name is Chris. I am the director of marketing at the speaker lab. If I had to give one piece of advice to speakers, it would be relentless consistency. Playing the speaking game business. Like anything, it’s a long game and if you can do it consistently over a long period of time, you will be successful. But if you expect to find a few leads, do two follow ups, you’re probably not going to do so well. So just relentless consistency over a long period of time. Be my number one thing.
Dan Alia:
Hi, I’m Dan Alia, chief operating officer here at the speaker lab. One piece of advice that we talk about here is that you really have to figure out a problem to solve. Until you figure out what the problem that you solve for the audience that you serve is, it really doesn’t matter what you’re talking about. So it’s super important to really select that problem so you know what to market yourself. A lot of times, people think that they can talk to anybody and everybody, and while that could be true, you can’t market yourself to everybody. So it’s really important to figure out what is the problem I solve for the audience that I want to serve.
Ron Smith:
Hi, my name is Ron and my top speaking advice for you is three things. Make sure that you have an appointment before and immediately after any time that you speak. Set the appointment before to find out exactly what your audience is looking for and what they want to hear from you. And what about your background? It was unique that made them pick you as the speaker so you can apply your message right to that audience. Also, have an appointment already set before the event or immediately after the event to contact that decision maker to find out other people know where your message would apply the best because they know other people who need to hear your message as well. So make sure you connect before and after every event that you do. You’ll have referrals and you’ll have success as a result.
Jake Thompson:
My name is Jake Thompson. I’m one of the vip accelerator coaches and my number one piece of speaking advice. Play the long game. Most people have no idea the amount of time and reps it takes to truly build a speaking business. And they give up at the first time of discomfort. They give up at the first time of rejection. They give up when it doesn’t happen after a week. And so if you want to be successful, if you have a message that you are empowered to give to the world, you got to play the long game and be willing to be okay with the long game.
Charles Forest:
I’m Charles. I’m an enrollment advisor here at the speaker lab. And my best piece of advice for you is to simply make the decision to build your speaking business and take your dream and turn it into your reality. Commit and take action.
Eve Gilmore:
Hi, everyone. I’m Eve, and I am an elite concierge and the lead manager here at the speaker lab. One piece of speaking advice I have for our speakers is to speak about something that you’re passionate about or you really want to make an impact. Don’t worry about what’s popular or trending. Speak from the heart, and you will have so much success.
Clinton Young:
My name is Clinton Young, and I’m an EA at the speaker lab. And my best advice for new speakers and aspiring speakers is to quite literally go out and speak. Because when you go out and speak, clarity happens. One of my mentors used to always tell me, when you speak, clarity happens. And that is so important to have clarity when you’re getting started. Sometimes when you’re sitting behind your desk, though, and you’re writing, you can get to a level of clarity. But it’s not until you go out and actually speak and actually connect with people in the audience and see their faces and get the feedback after the speech. That is where the real clarity happens, in my opinion.
So, absolutely, get clarity up front and just go out and speak. Because two things actually happen when you speak. When you speak, clarity happens. And when you speak, business happens. When you speak, business happens. So don’t be afraid to go out and speak for free. Speak at Rotary, speak at toastmasters, speak at Kiwanis clubs, Lions Club, anywhere that you can go and get your message and get what I like to call a repetition in. It’s like going to the gym, right? Treat these places like your gymnasium.
Go in, get the reps in, and as you speak, clarity is going to happen. And as you speak, business is going to happen. So go out and take some action and go speak for free.
Rick Clemons:
Hey, there. I’m Rick Clemens. I’m the lead coach here at the speaker lab. And as a speaker myself, one of the things that I had to learn the most was about being authentically who you are as a speaker. And that starts from, number one, realizing, if somebody tells you you’re a great speaker, that doesn’t make you authentically a great speaker.
You have to authentically realize that you have an authentic message, that you authentically have to run a business, and you have to authentically show up and deliver that message. And do it as a good speaker and a good business owner. So remember, you are a speaker, a business owner, and you’re always authentically who you are.
Brittany Richmond:
What’s up, y’all? Brittany Richmond here. And y’all know me, so this isn’t the first time you’re hearing me, but this is my one piece of speaking advice that I feel like is so underrated. But you need to call yourself a professional speaker. You need to embody it. I still have conversations today, and people are like, what do you do? And I’m like, yes, I’m a professional speaker. So start to live that out. And when you start to put that narrative out there into the world, you will also believe it. It’s a mindset shift, right? So I want to encourage you today to do me a favor and go to your Facebook profile or your Instagram profile or your LinkedIn profile.
And I want you to put professional speaker in the bio and start to live that out every single day. Go be great friends.
John Ball:
Hello, my name is John Ball, and I am one of the coaches on the student success team here at the speaker lab. And I’d like to share with you some of my best speaker advice that I received from one of my own speaking mentors. This is something that could really help make the difference between you standing out as a professional speaker or not. And that is to recall when you are creating your content and especially when you are delivering it, that the most important conversation going on is the conversation inside your audience member’s head. This means allowing some time for pauses, ideally strategic and planned pauses to give your audience members a little time to think about things. Especially if you’ve just said something that’s really profound or maybe have said something that’s quite funny that might take a moment for people to get. Give them the space. You might need to allow a little extra time in your talk creation for that, but certainly allow that time when you are on stage and I promise you it will make you stand out as an exceptional speaker.
I look forward to seeing what you do with it.
Emily Arnold:
Hi, I’m Emily. I’m the elite concierge and community manager here at the speaker lab. And my speaking advice would be get really clear on your message and why you’re giving it. Speak from a place of passion and practice, practice, practice. You know, it’s wonderful to want to be a speaker, but it’s even more important to make sure you have something to say. You want to make sure you have something to say and make sure you know why you’re wanting to tell people. I think that’s the best thing we can do, get really clear on our message, be really passionate about it, and be connected to why we’re giving it. You want to feel so determined to get that message out to the folks who need it that you’re so well practiced and so passionate that it’s contagious.
And of course, you want to know that message inside and out. Be so practiced you could give this talk in your sleep. You’ll need to believe in your message if you’re going to rally an audience to believe in it as well. So that is my speaking advice. Thanks for listening.
