Episode #456

How to Leverage Your Creative Gifts in a Speaking Career

With Mike Montague

It’s not every day that a game show host comes onto The Speaker Lab podcast. But this is your lucky day! For this episode, Mike Montague joins Grant for an exciting conversation about how he balances podcasting, speaking, game show hosting, and his job for a prominent sales and leadership training company. While some might have a specific vision of what it means to be a speaker, for Mike it means any time he’s behind a microphone. He knows how to bring the party to whatever kind of event he’s leading, whether it’s a corporate seminar for a multinational company or a keynote where he’s throwing water balloons at the audience.

Mike strikes an unusual balance for a speaker, as he has multiple ongoing employment contracts on top of his independent speaking business. As a result, this episode offers a great deal of insight into managing multiple streams of income. Most speakers scale and diversify their business at some point, so even if you’re not at that point yet, it can be really helpful to hear what that process is like for someone as multi-talented as Mike.

Deciding whether to go all-in on entrepreneurship is a tough decision with many factors. Family, finances, and prior commitments can all impact the decision. Whether you like the stability of having one employer or you enjoy juggling multiple jobs at once, Mike’s story will certainly have some insights for you.

You’ll also learn all about: 

  • Coping when your dream job isn’t everything you thought it would be.
  • How to create contracts with your employer that allow you freedom in your speaking business.
  • How to shake off imposter syndrome by getting comfortable in your niche.
  • When it’s time to take risks with your audience.
  • What it’s like to audition for game show gigs.
  • How to write a game show script.
  • …and so much more!

Want to know exactly how to find and book more paid speaking gigs?

Download our 18-page guide to the 6 proven steps you can use to book more paid speaking gigs in 2024!

About Mike Montague

Mike is a multi-hyphenate playful human at Sandler, where he hosts the popular How to Succeed podcast, Sandler Summit, and other live sales training events. He is also the author of LinkedIn The Sandler Way and numerous courses on sales and leadership for Sandler, HubSpot, Cornerstone, and more. He has performed in front of thousands of audiences from 1 to over 10,000 including opening for Billy Idol, Frankie Valli, and the Kansas City Chiefs as a DJ, hosting game shows for Meta, Google, Hanes, T-Mobile, Subway, and sales training for Uber, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and many more.

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