How are you?
I’m doing okay. I’m in that post TEDx like adrenaline drain and excitement.
I can’t wait to hear about it. This is perfect timing. Well, let’s give people a little bit of background on you, Jalene. Who do you speak to and what do you speak about?
I am a board certified health coach who helps busy professionals who feel overwhelmed and stressed take more control of their health and their life and ultimately improve their sleep.
I love that you’re sleep focused. That’s an interesting niche. What was happening or not happening in your speaking business that made you sign up for The Speaker Lab originally?
I always knew I wanted to be a speaker, but I didn’t know what that entailed and what the business side looked like.
I had no real speaking experience before I found The Speaker Lab. I was starting from zero. And here I am. What’s it been? Two years since I enrolled.
Time flies when you’re having fun – when you’re booking Tedx talks! So it was all brand new to you. Did you have fears or apprehensions going into it, making the investment that you did?
Absolutely. It was a big investment, and there were fears because you never know…even if it’s valuable to somebody else, is it going to be valuable to me? Is it going to resonate with me? Am I going to connect with the coaches?
I would say the biggest value was the coaching that we get, and that we could work with all different coaches to get a variety, which is what I did to make the most of it.
There are a lot of trainings during the week. I think the one-on-one coaching is what really helped me because I had an idea, but I didn’t really understand the format or flow.
It was also a great bonus that there’s some workshop experience in the coaching staff too, because workshops are really where my business grew first. That’s where I got more comfortable becoming a speaker.
So you focused on workshops at first, and then added keynotes?
Yeah, I currently have workshops lined up for this year. I don’t have any keynotes. I’ll admit my hurdle still is finding the time…I was using Pipedrive for a while, but it was just getting expensive and overwhelming.
I still have my list, but I haven’t reached out to everyone on the list. So that’s where my challenge is because I wanted to do it so that I go to their LinkedIn profile, I connect with them there, I find something about them that then in the email I can mention, but then not having Pipedrive anymore, I don’t really have a reminder system of where I’m at.
Has it been 2 weeks? Is it time to call them? So I’m still trying to figure out how to make that work. I honestly haven’t been very good about selling myself out there.
And yet you’re still booking workshops and a TEDx talk. We always talk about having that power hour and CRM – it’s so good for reminding you of all the people you’re trying to follow up with. It’s hard to just have it on a post it note, you know?
It is hard, yeah.
Learning a CRM is also a whole learning curve as well, but you’ll get there. It’s just the beginning! What were some of your aha moments and key takeaways from the SPEAK framework itself?
Because I kind of knew what I wanted to speak about, but then it was really about creating the framework and working with the coaches and finding a way to add in the great stories that I have.
And the website, I kind of already knew, but it was a great bonus to get a website, to get a video, and make my expertise more robust.
I remember working on your website with you.
Yeah, I’m going to need to do a new video.
Yes, you have some content to add. That’s wonderful. Gotta get that TEDx logo in there. You can totally circle back to our team. Well, what have been some of your results and highlights as a speaker?
I had a couple workshops last year. I already have a couple lined up this year. And then, I got the TEDx talk, which is the big caveat.
How did that all come about?
It was actually really funny–I was working with a business coach in January of 2024, and she asked me if I was interested in doing any TEDx events, which I was–it was on my bucket list.
I said, “Yeah,” and she said, “My sister just did one at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacology and Health Sciences. I can ask her if she’d be willing to connect you with the organizers.”
And once you’ve done a TEDx like that, there’s so much involvement with the organizers that you do develop a friendship and a relationship.
As you taught us at The Speaker Lab, this is all about relationships with other speakers as well, because they’ll open doors for you.
So her ability to go to them and say, “I know another speaker. Are you looking?” And they said, “Yes, have her apply.”
I auditioned and got it. The event was actually supposed to be spring last year, but they didn’t get their licensing in time from TEDx so they had to postpone it, but they kept three of the four speakers that were gonna do it last year, and we just stayed in touch.
Actually, honestly, my speech came out much better because it took a little longer. I got more comfortable doing it. I really honed it. Then they had the event this past March 2025 and I met the person who’s gonna be organizing it for next year, and she was like, “I need speakers.”
Wow, the more you speak, the more you speak.
Yeah. That’s one of the benefits also of The Speaker Lab is the community that you build with other speakers, because that will be your network also.
It sounds like you’re totally leveraging your warm network and thinking of those people you can connect with that can help direct you to awesome things like a TEDx talk. I know you’re kind of coming off the end of that gig. So how did it feel? Take us to being on that stage–doing a bucket list thing?! That’s amazing.
I actually worked with someone who specializes in TEDx; I’d gone through the SPEAK framework and that was a really good base, but I knew that this talk needed to be very specific to TEDx. There is a specific shape that they have, a tone and feel, so I worked with Neil Gordon who specializes in that and I got kind of my silver bullet which was: Good sleep is not the result of how we spend our nights, it’s the result of how we spend our days.
Then we kind of built everything around that and he just reaffirmed a lot of the things that I learned at The Speaker Lab – which is that we want to make you the expert, so I didn’t quote anyone else, I made sure to only use my own examples, and to cite specific research studies that showed that I am an authority, that I have done the research in this.
I felt really good about the content and honing, but then it came down to rehearsing and memorizing because as part of a TEDx you have to have it memorized. I opted to not go with any visuals because I thought that would be a little bit of a distraction and I didn’t feel they really added to my story and what I was talking about.
So a week before, I was rehearsing with a Stage Director that I worked with many years ago, who has been a mentor to me. I was kind of flailing and it was a week out and I was really questioning my decision like, “Oh my gosh, am I ready? Am I going to have this all memorized? How am I going to do this?
One thing I did was I learned from Jim Quick – a memorization specialist. He says in order to memorize the order of something, equate it to the order of something you already know.
So I equated it to the house I grew up in. The garage was one thing, the kitchen was one thing, the living room, etc. and I knew by the time I got to my front door, that’s where I cited the studies.
That was my guardrail to memorize everything.
So this coach was like, “You’re kind of flailing like you’re grasping, and here’s what I recommend: go rehearse in front of senior citizens, because they’re always looking for speakers and for topics.”
So that’s what I did. I got in front of people the week before and rehearsed it live again and again and again so that I could feel more confident in that and even the day before I was still like, “I don’t really feel like I’ve nailed the ending and my call to action,” but I just tried to do what I needed, created boundaries the day before so that I was on my own in my quiet space the morning, I had laid everything out the night before the morning of, I got up and did my normal routine, my meditation, and my yoga. And I had nerves the week before…I was really nervous about the nerves because I was afraid they would also make a memory impact.
But the morning of, I was super calm. It was really interesting.
Anytime I got a little nervous, I kept hearing this voice–trust. Trust the process. Trust your knowledge. Trust that you know this. Even if you get a little off the route, you know everything that you want to say.
I was able to rehearse though–I got there early. I didn’t mention this before, but when they canceled the TEDx last year, I had already gotten my airfare and my hotel, because it was in Boston, and I live in Colorado, but my partner suggested I go anyway and offer a free workshop to the students. So I had already been in the room. I’d already met all of them face to face.
I got there early and I had someone do my makeup because it was going to be recorded, got my hair done, so all that was really fun, and then I got to rehearse the whole thing that morning and that’s when I kind of was like, “All right. I got this.”
That’s awesome.
Yeah, it’s weird like when people find out–they’re super impressed and excited for me. Like, the other day, I was ending a call with someone and they were like, “Congratulations on your TEDx!” And I was like, “I have a TEDx!”
It’s definitely a credential.
That’s really special. What’s your new normal looking like? How has your life changed?
There’s definitely a confidence that comes because it had been a goal to be a speaker. Now I feel like I can say I am a speaker and a workshop host.
So there’s definitely confidence as I’m reaching out to people. I think it’s probably a different energy that they’re perceiving from as well.
And I’m just trying to pursue that more and more.
I love that you mentioned confidence because that’s one of the things we want our students to leave with–clarity and confidence and a clear path. Well, my last question is who would you recommend to The Speaker Lab and why?
I would recommend The Speaker Lab for anyone that is interested in becoming a speaker for sure. It’s a really great zero to hero framework.
They embrace you wherever you’re at. I met people who were further on the journey, people who were just starting like me, and it’s a very welcoming community.
It’s a great place to start.
If you’re on the fence, because it is a huge investment, I would just say, if this is something that you want and you believe in yourself, you’re going to get the money back eventually because of the way speaking gigs are paid.
This is just a really great place to build that confidence, to get clearer in your message and to network.
Totally. Also, I love that you mentioned that you made some friends along the way?
For sure. I have two friends that I still stay in touch with from The Speaker Lab.
That’s so cool. And they understand the speaking lifestyle, too.
Absolutely. And like I said, I went back to both of them and I’m like, “TEDx is looking for speakers for next year. If this is something you want to do, let me know.”
Helping each other out! Amazing.
One thing that I wanted to say–if there’s a place for me to pop into a workshop or a call or something and say to people, “If you’re interested, contact me,” and I can kind of vet a little bit before I send them on to the organizer.
Totally! And you could definitely post in our community anytime. A lot of people have been doing that lately. We had someone looking for DISC speakers recently. And people who get an opportunity, but they can’t do it because they already have a booking or something.
You can always post it in there and people will definitely drop their name and they’ll be excited.
I guess that’s where I feel I need a little more guidance is as an alumni now. What are the resources and where can I continue to be involved in the community?
Our circle community is constantly evolving and we’re adding new things. We have our Gig Getters Club currently and the way you get into that is just by getting booked and paid to speak three times or more.
We launched that in February and there are about 40 people in there right now. It’s nice because you’re in this different group of people who are actually in the flow of it now. They’ve applied everything in the SPEAK Framework, and aren’t necessarily at the beginning. It’s just an extra space, too so the good news is those Gig Getters are still in the broader community and can post things like their wins, like your TEDx talk. That way, all the people in the S Module, at the beginning, would see those wins so the Gig Getters can have a presence in all the different spaces.
There’s also a couple alumni groups who still meet. I’d be happy to connect you with those people.
Great question. We would love for all of our alum to stay connected. It’s fun to see your journeys unfold.
It’s great because there are people in our community and they stick around. And then I get to be like, “I remember doing orientation for you and now you’re posting your $5,000 check in the Wins space and you do this monthly?! It’s so awesome.
Well, is there anything else you want to ask us about your experience with speaking?
I think your questions were great so I can’t add anything.