A lot was happening and NOT happening in my business when I joined The Speaker Lab in August 2020. I had been pastoring a church and as you can imagine I loved the community and the work I was doing. I found myself wanting to grow beyond the church. After being invited to speak at a variety of events, I thought, okay, this is amazing. This is a taste of what’s possible. How do I replicate this? And how do I create more of this?
I wanted to do more speaking and more workshops helping leaders and teams be more relational and intentional. I knew I could grind for years to make it happen but I wanted to know what I could lean into so that I could move exponentially into this new territory. That’s when I joined The Speaker Lab to help put those pieces of the speaking business together so I could take it to the next level.
I learned the hard way that in order to run a successful speaking business you actually need systems and tools. I remember sending a confirmation email to the CEO of a company that I was contracted to do a speaking-coaching experience with. In that email, I said something like, “Just bring the check to our meeting.” He replied (I’m sure laughing at me), “I can’t just bring a check, you have to invoice the company.” The Booked and Paid To Speak Elite program teaches you about this and such things as speaking agreements and speaker reels – all the things that make up the backdrop of a speaking business and it’s so valuable.
Another takeaway for me was knowing there are some proven principles of how it works and some things that are built into the industry, but also knowing that I have a unique way of showing up and that my message and how I show up need to be congruent. Being aware of who I am so that I apply the tools as me not just a rinse and repeat formula.
I also realized the deeper you go into business the further you grow, the more support you need. What got you here, won’t get you there. So the support of The Speaker Lab has been a game-changer. We don’t know what we don’t know, so having the support of Erick and all the coaches – well, I doubled down on that. Between the one-on-one coaching calls, the questions to Erick on voxer, and his immediate response, and of course the community of like-minded speakers, was all great.
Here’s an example of how TSL goes above and beyond. I was in Palm Springs speaking and one of the coaches on the team was on vacation. The morning that I was about to give my keynote, I received a text from them at six in the morning just saying: “thinking about you. I want to know how it goes. You’re going to kill it today.”
That meant so much to me… but that’s just what happens with the speaker lab.
My new normal is I LOVE THIS! I am currently speaking to you from a hotel room as I am speaking at an event. I just got off the phone with my wife and we were speaking about how much I used to travel and be away from the family and only make $800-$1000 dollars. Which, by the way, there is nothing wrong with that, it just wasn’t scalable for a family of 5. She said, “I could handle you going away for a couple of days and coming home with $8,000!” With her and my boys’ blessing, I will keep going.
I love the people I get to meet. I love to be on the road. I love to have a big world that I’m a part of. I don’t do well in my small little town of 10,000. So I love all the connections that happen, all the experiences and other people you meet.
Another new normal is I play to my strengths and I delegate the rest. For me, systems and operations are not one of my strengths. I have a virtual admin that handles that. This frees me up to connect with people, support them, and pay attention to what they need. If that leads to speaking and or coaching, great. Separating building relationships versus managing the operations of the business was an important step for me. As business owners we have to know where we should be spending our time in order to nurture and grow the business, everything else needs to be delegated.
I would recommend The Speaker Lab to anyone who doesn’t want to be in it alone and doesn’t know what you don’t know. The Speaker Lab provides encouragement, support, wisdom, insight, and guidance. You’re not in this alone. You have a powerful team of coaches. You have amazing content through the student dashboard. You have all the community engagement of people that are either a step ahead of you, a step behind you, or right alongside you, trying to figure it out.
The Speaker Lab team shows up and when you show up, it really does work!