Student Success Stories: Justin Banks

Here at The Speaker Lab, our goal is to help you get Booked and Paid to Speak. Our Student Success Stories share first hand experiences from our students of how they’ve booked paid speaking gigs and grown their businesses by applying the concepts they learned in our courses.

WHY TSL?

I have been speaking sporadically, might be once a year, every couple of months or something would just pop up. I love motivating people and helping them believe in themselves. I knew I wanted to branch out into a specific topic around anxiety and mental health but I needed the help in understanding how. I needed the knowledge of how to build the business of professional speaking. That’s where The Speaker Lab came in.

Today, I help people overcome anxiety so they can confidently fulfill their life’s purpose. I believe when people can overcome their anxiety and find their light, they find their power which then allows them to finally start living the way they’re supposed to be.

HOW HAS THE SPEAK FRAMEWORK MADE AN IMPACT ON YOU AND YOUR SPEAKING BUSINESS?

I’ve always been a diligent hard worker, but a strong work ethic with no strategy will most likely get you nowhere. The SPEAK Framework helped me put my hard work in the right areas so that I could have great results. From knowing when to scale, acquiring paid gigs, branding and marketing, talk creation, and so much more. The knowledge is abundant but then there’s a strategy for each piece of content, which I really found great value in.

The Talk Template in module 2 I found super helpful. At first I just did a massive brain dump around what I want to talk about. Then the next question comes out helping me break down all this information I have in my head and now on paper. I really appreciate the template helping me organize my passion. I guess that’s the best way I could say it, because how do I find the statistics or how can I back up living on purpose and with passion?

TSL helps you organize your stories and makes your talk engaging. As speakers we want to make an impact but if you don’t have a strategy to organize, edit, and revise your content, you might fall short. Being able to go through my talk and see what works and what doesn’t really helped boost my confidence. And then hearing Grant’s own speeches and seeing his development and the development of the other coaches was really helpful.

The coaching around the talk was powerful as well. The advice like, take your time where you’re talking about this topic or this is where you want to bring the energy. This is where you want to bring the funny, and it really becomes a refined skill that will make an impact and people will love. I wouldn’t have got that trying to do this on my own.

WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF THE RESULTS YOU ARE EXPERIENCING?

I applied to quite a few conferences and so far I know I got accepted into two that are actually in my industry. And they’re national gigs. I will be doing a breakout session to people from all over the Country, which is really cool.

Additionally, and I think once you complete TSL’s program you will understand this, I now am a professional speaker! This is important to distinguish because there’s a difference to who I was when I signed up to who I am now. The more I worked the modules the more confidence I gained. I felt myself changing and believing I CAN DO THIS! Which is so important.

At the end of this program you want to feel like you can step out onto that stage confidently and know you have a message to share and impact to make. TSL combined with my hard work has definitely done that for me.

WHO WOULD YOU RECCOMEND TO TSL?

You have to be passionate about it. It takes work to really build this, and if you are passionate enough and you actually have a WHY that will help you to keep you going… DO IT! Not only will you work hard but you’ll enjoy learning so much about the speaking industry.

You also need to have passion for your industry. Of course, you come to TSL to build a business, but without the passion for the work you are doing and the people you are doing it for, it will feel more like work rather than impact.

People pick up on this, so if event planners don’t feel like you are giving your all, it will be very challenging to build a successful speaking business. One thing TSL teaches is that one gig can often lead to more gigs. This is where it’s so important to bring the passion for what you do.

What you give forth will be reciprocated. So, really want it for yourself, but also want it for your audience. Never forget why you got started in the first place.

Connect With Justin Banks

Want to know exactly what to say to finally land paid speaking gigs?

We’ll send you the exact three emails you can send to conference planners and event organizers that lead to Grant Baldwin (our founder) booking over $2M in speaking gigs. 

Practical Advice and Strategies for Building Your Speaking Business

Training, case studies, and our best tips and tricks to help you find and book more paid speaking gigs than ever before.

How to Win at Work by Winning at Home First with Cory Carlson
Grant Baldwin Hey, Grant Baldwin here. Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast. Good to have you here with us. Today we are chatting with my buddy Cory Carlson, and we are going to talk...
The Power of Executive Presence with Katherine Johnson [Coaches Corner]
Maryalice Goldsmith I'm so excited today to welcome Katherine Johnson to the Coaches Corner Podcast. How are you doing today, Katherine? Katherine Johnson Yeah, I'm doing well. I'm happy to be here with you, Maryalice....
Silence the Inner Critic with Kindra Hall
Grant Baldwin Last time we had talked, which has been over a year now, it was toward the beginning of the pandemic. Things were just starting to take shape and not in a necessarily good...
3 Lessons From Sara Murray on Building Successful Habits as a Speaker
As Sara Murray transitioned from a sales career to entrepreneurship, she found her focus shifting from the bottom line to the impact she was creating. She learned to bridge the gap between herself and potential...
How to Follow the Speaker Success Road Map
Grant Baldwin: Hey, what's up my friend Graham Baldwin here. Welcome back to the Speaker Lab podcast. Today we're to be getting questions from Clayton Watson, asking all about the next steps for booking. In...
How to Set and Meet Goals for your Speaking Business
Introduction There’s no simple method for how to set and meet goals for your speaking business. It’s a multi-faceted challenge that requires a lot of upfront work when you launch your speaking career and consistent...
Speech Breakdown of Toastmasters Champion Ramona Smith
Grant Baldwin: Welcome back to the Speaker Lab. Recently we started a YouTube channel where we are doing a lot of what we're calling speech breakdowns, where we are taking popular TED talks and speeches...
How to get Booked to Speak at Colleges
Question: How Do You Start Speaking at Colleges? All right, so today we've got a listener question coming in from Eric Moss. And Eric is asking all about speaking at colleges, how do you get...
How to Make it in Marketing with Chris Seo
Grant Baldwin Hey, what's up friends? Grant Baldwin here. Welcome back to The Speaker Lab podcast. Today we are joined by an in-house guy. We're joined by Mr. Chris Seo, who is our Director of...
The State of the Speaking Industry in 2023 With Erick Rheam
Grant Baldwin Hey friends, Grant Baldwin here. Thanks for joining us today. We're also joined by my good friend and co-host, Mr. Erick Ream. Erick and I like to get together. We've actually done a...