Why TSL?
I’ve been in the restaurant business for a long time, and I have been considering public speaking for about 14 years. In 2012, I joined Toastmasters locally just so that I could understand the art of speaking. I did that for quite some time. In 2023, I realized that I needed to understand the business. I wasn’t advertising about my speaking I was simply working on my presentation skills, but then I knew if I wanted to make it a business I needed to work on that just the same. That’s when I found The Speaker Lab. It’s been an accelerated yet controlled process.
Today, I help close the gap between customer expectations and operator execution. I speak to medium-sized restaurant businesses and others in the hospitality industry. I’ve been in the hospitality industry for 30 years, started out washing dishes and have worked all the way up to even a franchise operations coach, and I’ve worked for 6 of the top 100 restaurant brands in the U.S
How Did The SPEAK Framework and The VIP Cohort Help You Build Your Business?
Well, first of all, Ravi Rajani, my cohort coach, helped me understand the power of storytelling. I use his wisdom all the time now when I am speaking and networking.
Additionally, I’d say that the true takeaway is solving problems. You can’t just speak just to speak. Technically, you can, but you won’t be helpful unless you’re helping to solve a problem. When I look at where my background came from, that’s what we do. Whether it be a restaurant manager, multi-unit manager, operator, or executive… we solve problems.
But the thing is that when there’s a problem, typically there are a lot of people having the same issue. The question is, how can you take the same thing that you’ve heard over and over again and put it into something that is problem-solving, actionable, and repeatable?
That was a key takeaway from The Speaker Lab – solve a problem. Don’t speak just to speak; be a problem-solver and make it actionable and repeatable. Also, don’t be surprised when other industries come to you because they too are having the same problem.
When you put it all out there and define the problem and the solution, more people will want your help even though they are outside of your chosen industry.
What kind of results have you seen?
I started The Speaker Lab at the end of June, early July 2023, and the momentum was first doing the courses, getting to learn the people, getting to understand the SPEAK framework, and fighting my resistance that restaurant people, we will always fix anything with duct tape, bandaid, and a sharpie. I had to work on not investing in the restaurant mindset and go through the framework with an open mind.
When I signed up, I was simultaneously writing my book, so a lot was going on. Thanks to my wife’s encouragement, I went for it. I finished the program in November 2023, and my goal was to finish my book by the end of December.
I have committed to what I call the Power 2-hour Power Hour – one hour for working on my business and one hour dedicated to prospecting. This helped me to gain momentum in writing the book and creating a strong pipeline of potential gigs.
I took the email templates and put them into my words, and I ended up with a 27 percent response rate. Which I was really happy with.
I tracked all of that to understand what worked and what didn’t. I used that same framework when it came to booking a podcast for the book launch. As I also heard on The Speaker Lab podcast, that podcasts are a good way for you to get more gigs by showing your expertise. I put all of those pieces together the templates, the framework, and the understanding of how to use the advantages of podcasting to gain momentum.
With the book launch and me landing my dream gig at The Bar and Restaurant Expo, which I spoke at last week. I have checked off a lot of goals from my list.
When I did The Expo, my goal was to walk away from this event with 30 leads. Because I knew how to write a talk that sounded well, thanks to The Speaker Lab, they gave me the largest room which sat 200 people, 233 showed up, 33 were standing or sitting on the floor. The other speakers averaged 80. So I’m like, okay, I need to go check and see how my TalkAbout surveys did. To my pleasant surprise, of the 233 – 206 people filled out the survey.
My goal was 30 leads and I ended up getting 47 viable leads. The book launch went great as well. It’s been a lot of great things, but I do not want to say it has also been a lot of work. Listen to the help, put the work in and absolutely the things that you put your effort into, it can happen.
As of this morning, I have sent out $47,000 worth of proposals for speaking gigs and workshops!! So, it is possible, but you have to do the work and follow the program.
That’s what I mean by it’s been a controlled yet accelerated ride. You get to do it at the rate at which you want.
Who would you recommend to The Speaker Lab?
I would say that for anyone in any industry who is managing or supervising multiple businesses within multiple cities, this is for you. The reason why I say that is if you have to manage multiple businesses in multiple cities, you are on stage, you are having to research that business, whether you’re running 10 restaurants or 10 Sephora’s or 10 Belks, you’re having to know about them, understand what’s going with them, know what the problem is, and ask the right questions.
When you’re walking in, you’re on stage, you have a script. You have the specific things you want to cover, the order in which you want to cover it in. And so if you are a multi unit person it would be wonderful fo you to sign up for The Speaker Lab, because you’re already on stage, just get paid even more to do it.