Who do you speak to and what do you speak about?
I’m a pastor, so I speak in the faith-based space, and my two primary audiences are youth and men. So that would be like youth retreats, youth camps, and men’s conferences.
What was happening or NOT happening in your business that made you say yes to The Speaker Lab?
My speaking opportunities were a bit random and haphazard at that point. I got to this point where I started asking the question, “What if I put just a little bit more effort and brought a little bit more intentionality to finding speaking opportunities?”
There was a season in my life where I just assumed if I just sit back and get really good at what I do, people will come and find me, but that was not happening. Through a few relationships that I have, I would get asked on occasion to speak at different places, and continually heard feedback, “Hey, you’re good at this, you should do more of this.”
What were some of your aha moments and key takeaways from doing the SPEAK Framework?
When I started to work through that, I would say that the front end of the SPEAK Framework – selecting a problem, and then preparing your talk and establishing your expertise – I had all of that.
As a pastor, I speak weekly for my job, so I’ve really been able to hone in the speaking side of the business. The hard part for me was the big questions: How do I actually acquire gigs that pay? How do I actually find those? Where do I go? Who do I call?
It just felt like this big open void that I needed some guidance on. The Speaker Lab was wildly helpful and at the same time found that it was not that complicated, and again, I just needed to bring some intentionality to that work.
Totally. It’s simple, but that doesn’t make it easy. In light of applying everything you were learning in module 4, what were some of the results you were seeing or the highlights? We’d love to hear about any standout moments you’ve had as a speaker along the way.
I’ll never forget, the summer of 2023 was when I was working through this material, and we were on a trip as a family traveling from Milwaukee down to Atlanta and Florida to go visit friends. And I was just processing all of what I’d been learning. I was in Module 4 on how to acquire paid speaking gigs. And one of the things that I thought about, and I don’t remember where I heard this from in the course, but the idea of hacking your network, your own personal network is a great place to start.
My wife was driving and I was in the passenger seat and I just started emailing and texting everybody I knew. One of my hesitations in doing something like that is like, “I don’t wanna be salesy, I don’t wanna be sleazy and I don’t want people who know me and are friends with me to feel like I’m using them.” That was always a challenge. So being able to adopt the position and the posture of like, “Hey, I just wanna let you know what I’m doing and I just wanna see if there’s anything that I say to you that seems of interest, or you might know somebody who might benefit in talking to me.” It put me in a posture of serving people rather than using people, and that was wildly helpful.
On that drive, I have a friend who’s a Chick-fil-A operator in the south. And he and I go back to third grade. I was thinking about him for a different opportunity, like “Oh he might have connections in this space over here,” so I was just messaging him about that. He’s like, “I’ll try and connect you to somebody over there.”
A week later he comes back and he’s like, “Hey, so Chick-fil-A has this thing that they do on Monday mornings that you actually might be a really good fit for. Do you want me to connect you to them?” And I was like, “Absolutely, yes.” So that ended up turning into an opportunity to go down and speak at Chick-fil-A Headquarters earlier this year.
What was crazy about that moment was I lost my voice on my way to the gig. I have never stepped into a speaking engagement with such little voice. It was Sunday afternoon, I’m getting on a plane and I can tell my voice is going, I land in Atlanta and my voice is gone. Just absolutely gone. I’m whispering my dinner order at a kiosk at the airport thinking, “What in the world am I going to do tomorrow morning?” (because the speaking engagement is at 8:00am tomorrow morning.) I’m firing off text messages to my friend and contact at Chick-fil-A trying to figure out what I should do…Should I cancel? I’m already here.
They were super gracious and kind. They said, “Just come and we’ll figure it out.” I was able to get enough of my voice to work to get through the speaking engagement, but it made me think – and this is something I don’t think I would’ve thought of had I not gone through The Speaker Lab – was to turn that challenge into an opportunity, and say to the event organizer right afterwards was, “Hey, this was great. Thank you for being so gracious. Thank you for being so patient with me. I would love to come back when I’m at a hundred percent and do this again.”
They were quick to say, “You bet, absolutely. We would love to have you come back.”
Because of the Speaker Lab I was able to have a different mindset about the moment that enabled me to see it as a potential for a repeat gig. So now I’m in a conversation with him about hopefully coming back again in 2025.
I have one other story from that same drive if I can tell you that story too?
Please!
On that same drive, I’m just messaging everybody, and then I remember…I spoke at a youth event 10 years ago in West Virginia. And I don’t know why I had never thought between now and 10 years ago to reach back out to that event organizer and just say, “Hey, it’s been a while. Wondering if you are in need of any speakers in the near future.” On that same drive, I reached back out to that guy and he said, “I’m not in that job anymore, but this person is -” and he connected me with that woman and that turned into a gig. She then connected me to somebody in Indiana. Then that woman connected me to somebody in Nebraska. And I just had that Nebraska call yesterday, and that guy is asking me for the possibility of three repeat gigs over the course of three years.
So again, it wasn’t hard work, it just was about bringing a little intentionality and forethought and the idea of “Hey, here’s how you build relationships with people.” When I started to bring a relationship building mindset to the process of acquiring gigs, it totally changed my perspective.
It’s so awesome hearing that. When we have students do the 25 leads, we let them know these can be warm leads. Think about is who in your network could go on this list that you maybe didn’t realize before? So it sounds like you totally did that, which is awesome.
Yeah. It’s paying off, which is great.
Congrats to you, and way to put yourself out there because it isn’t always easy to reach out to the people that you do know. There’s an art to figuring out how to channel the mindset of “I have something to offer these people that I want to give them.” I think it’s common to feel apprehension, and fortunately I feel like our coaches help with that and talk to people about that.
I’d like to share one other thing around the idea of apprehension…You probably don’t remember this because you interact with a whole lot of students, but I started in the spring of 2023, and I was going through the first couple modules, even though like I said, the beginning part of this wasn’t all that hard for me, there was a moment where I was in my backyard sitting around my firepit and I had this panic attack around the idea of moving forward. “I don’t think I can do this. This feels too scary, this feels too overwhelming to put myself out there to go for this.”
I was about a week into the program and I emailed you and I asked for a refund. I asked to back out of it like, I don’t think I can do this. And you said, Hey, sorry we don’t give refunds. We’ll be super gracious with you. We will extend your time limit. We’ll put it on pause.”
So for me it was like, okay, like I’ve made this investment. I guess I have to just do it. And it took me about a week to resettle myself and recenter myself. Once I did, I was able to go through the rest of the course feeling really encouraged.
I mean, it’s hard work. It’s not a walk in the park, but it was encouraging to be in a community with other people trying to figure this out. I was so grateful you guys didn’t let me back out because I would’ve missed an incredible opportunity that I’m so thankful that I have now.
I’m so glad you shared that. I do recall that, and it’s so nice when someone who was wanting a refund or wanting to back out on the program ends up being a success story. I think it’s common to have some of that like buyer’s remorse right at the beginning and be like, “What did I just do?” when the imposter syndrome kicks in. But how we see our refund policy is a service to students. We think, “Hey, there’s something that made you say yes. And so we want you to light that fire and keep going.” You’re an example of doing that, so that’s great.
We would love to know – if you think about who that person was back then and then you think of your life now, what is your new normal looking like as a speaker? How has your life changed since working the SPEAK Framework?
In one year’s time, I went from being haphazard to intentional with my speaking business. I doubled the number of gigs that I got and doubled the amount of revenue I earned as well. That was wildly encouraging.
For me, because I have a demanding job in leading a local church, I’ve been able to work through the question – what’s the right amount for where I’m at right now with my stage of life? What’s the right amount of opportunities that can be sustainable that can slowly grow as my life grows?”
So right now I’m looking for about one opportunity a month, maybe two, depending on what day of the week it falls on. So 1-2 a month. And also because we have kids in school, I don’t take gigs in December or May. Those are the two months that just life feels so full and I feel like I need to be present for my family.
Then for me, right now one day a week that I dedicate to my speaking business, usually Thursday. I start at 8am and try and go to about 3pm. Even something as simple as putting one day a week towards it has definitely paid off.
Wow. It’s so important to set aside that time and commit to it, so I’m glad that’s what you’ve implemented. That brings us to our last question, which is who would you recommend to The Speaker Lab and why?
I would recommend anybody who feels like that they have some measure of speaking ability. I had a buddy who traveled with me on one of my gigs and we were just talking – and he’s done zero speaking, but was like, “I think I might be good at that.” And I said, yeah, absolutely. Ben is his name. I said, “Ben, you could probably do it. It’s gonna take work and intention, but you could do it.”
So anybody who has the feeling that they have something to say, this course in this program really helps you hone in all the details – not just from the content side of things, but from the business side of things.
What I told myself, when I got beyond my panic attack moment, was “Okay, there was an initial financial investment. I’m gonna put my hand at this until I make that investment back, and then I’m just see where my life is at, and then I’ll make a decision from there as to whether or not I should keep pursuing this,” or I’ll be like, “Hey, I did it, I tried it, I made my money back. No big deal.”
I made my money back within the first quarter of one year of scheduling gigs.
So I would say anybody who has the desire and drive to share a message, it’s very worth it. I don’t wanna say you have nothing to lose because there’s always risk involved, but at some level, what do you have to lose at the end of the day?
I heard this from somebody somewhere along the way – money is just a tool to help you do the things you need to do. And there’s gonna be times in life when you lose your money, but you can always make more money. So don’t let that be a stopping point or a hurdle to do it.
If you have time and resources and a passion to speak and you know your audience, I’m confident you can find the places where you can do this.
So well said. Anything else you’d like to share as we kind of wrap up our time together?
I’m just grateful. I was listening to The Speaker Lab podcast for a couple of years off and on before I jumped into it, and I just think it’s a great company, a great resource, a great program.
Also, the coaches were fantastic. There were moments when it was hard and challenging and you gotta overcome some challenges, but if you love to speak, it’s so worth it.
Out of curiosity, were you working with all the coaches or a specific coach?
Yeah, Nanette was probably the one that I spent the majority of my time with and she was wildly encouraging to me. It’s like she understood exactly some of what was happening internally and I didn’t even have to explain it to her. She’s just like, “Yep, I get it.”
It’s so good to have those people. Well, thanks Bryan. This was all very encouraging to listen to and I feel like yours is gonna be one of the standout interviews. Thank you so much for jumping on with me.
You’re welcome. It was my pleasure.