“Because a plan that you make alone on the last night of the year is a wish. And a plan you build in a room with coaches looking at your numbers and speakers holding you to it. Now that is a commitment and commitments are what get you booked and paid to speak.”
Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! In this episode, Dan Irvin is flying solo with a big announcement — and a lesson that holds up long after the announcement does. The Speaker Lab Live, the first-ever Speaker Lab live event, is coming to Plywood Place in Atlanta’s West End on Thursday, December 10, 2026. Dan and Lead Coach Erick Rheam are leading a full day of live coaching, breakout sessions, and 2027 planning — a “momentum day” designed to close out the year with energy and a real plan. But if you’re hearing this after December 10, stick around. The reason behind the event is the episode.
Dan starts with the part of speaking nobody puts on a highlight reel: the drive home. The room was with you. People lined up afterward. And then you shut the car door and it’s quiet — no team high fives, no one to debrief with. The next morning you’re back at your desk writing outreach emails alone. Dan has talked with thousands of speakers, and that alone feeling comes up more than fees, more than niche. The speakers who grow fastest, he says, are typically the most connected — people who refer them, tell them the truth, and pass along gigs that fit. The ones who stall are often smart and hardworking, but they’re doing it all by themselves, guessing at their fees, second-guessing every proposal at 11 at night. The Speaker Lab has lived on video calls and community threads, and that works. But some things only happen in a room: the lunch conversation where a speaker you just met knows the planner you’ve been trying to reach for a year; honest feedback that a comment thread keeps polite; and energy from people who don’t look at you funny when you say you want to get paid to speak.
Dan shares the story of a speaker inside The Speaker Lab who spent 20 years in banking with a talk on leading teams through big change. She was smart, prepared, did every assignment — and told Dan, “I feel like I’m doing this on an island.” She worked from her kitchen table, sent emails, got silence, and started to wonder if it was her. The team nudged her to connect with other speakers in the community. She was nervous and almost didn’t, but she reached out to one. They traded outreach emails and pointed out what wasn’t landing. Then that speaker messaged her: a planner was looking for someone on change, and she’d given the planner her name. A few weeks later, it turned into a paid booking. Her line: “The gig was great… but the best part was realizing I was not alone.”
Whether you’re planning to be in Atlanta on December 10, building your speaking business from your kitchen table, or just tired of doing this whole thing alone, this episode makes the case for the thing most speakers skip: finding your people.
You’ll learn:
- Why the speakers who grow fastest are typically the most connected — not always the most talented or the most polished
- The part of speaking nobody talks about: the drive home, the quiet car, and the alone feeling that comes up more than fees or niche
- Three things that happen in a room that almost never happen on Zoom: referrals, honest feedback, and real energy
- How one lunch conversation can connect you to the planner you’ve been trying to reach for a year
- Why Dan chose December — and why a plan you make alone on the last night of the year is a wish
- What The Speaker Lab Live actually looks like: live coaching on real businesses, breakouts for newer and advanced speakers, and a 2027 plan built in the room
- Who The Speaker Lab Live is for (you don’t have to be a Speaker Lab student — if you’re building a speaking business, you belong in the room)
- The story of a speaker who went from working alone at her kitchen table to a paid booking after reaching out to one fellow speaker
- Dan’s homework, whether you come to Atlanta or not: write down the names of three speakers, reach out to one this week, and bring something real to the conversation
- Why “My spouse is supportive, but they don’t really get it” is a call Dan hears again and again — and what to do about it
And much, much more!
“In this business, one booking can pay for the trip many times over. I cannot promise you that booking. Nobody honestly can, but I can tell you where those bookings tend to start. They start with people. They start with people every single time.”
The Speaker Lab Live — Thursday, December 10, 2026 — Plywood Place, Atlanta. One full day of live coaching, breakouts, and building your 2027 plan in the room with Dan Irvin and Lead Coach Erick Rheam. The date, venue, nearby hotels, and how to grab your seat are all at thespeakerlab.com/live-event. Pricing goes up as seats fill.
Building your speaking business and doing most of it alone? Book a free Speaker Business Assessment — a 15-minute session where the team looks at where you are, where you want to go, and what a real system looks like from here.
