Who do you speak to and what do you speak about?
The audience I gravitate to is self-improvement. Throughout my history, I had a passion for helping others. When I started my podcast business and speaking business, I started with just health. Then I realized it’s not just about health – self-improvement has more than one component.
You have your mental health. If you don’t have good mental health, then your physical health will be affected. 70% of stress alone causes illness. You really have to have good mental health and physical health. Then, that goes into spiritual growth.
We all have spirituality within us. We all have our gut, our heart that leads us, and our brain that tells us messages about what we should and shouldn’t do. You really have to have a good connection with your spiritual growth.
If you don’t have those three components, it’s very hard to do well in business because your focus and clarity will be off. You’ll bring that home to your family because if you’re not doing well at work and all those components are off, you’re going home stressed and unhappy.
That really causes issues at home. It’s like a circle of alignment – you have to make sure everything is in alignment. I base my podcast and speaking events on self-help, covering all those aspects.
Do you have a specific audience you’ve been seeking out?
Right now, I speak to people from a lot of categories. I have doctors, coaches, and mental health experts who come on my shows. They all share about mental health and different ways to improve it naturally.
I have people who talk about health and fitness, educating about nutrition and how it plays a vital role in our lives. Then, I have people into spiritual growth. We have doctors who talk about the three brains – your brain, heart, and gut, and how they all have the same matter and need to be aligned.
I have business people who come on because they realize we get burnt out in any business. They share different tools, strategies, and things they do to become successful, elevate to a higher level, and avoid burnout in the process. In any business, we get burnt out.
They have a lot of different tools, strategies, and things in their own business that they do in order to become successful, elevate to a higher level, and also not get burned out in the process.
As far as you joining The Speaker Lab, what was happening in your business at the time that made you say, “I need what the Speaker Lab is offering.”
I worked for many years in my own business, and I had a lot of clients. I was working really hard. I was doing a lot of writing, and I was doing a lot of speaking. Also, I was on many radio shows and talk shows, and I’ve written 20 books. Most of them were bestsellers. But at the end of the year, I’d look at my income and wonder, “How did I only bring in this much?”
It was frustrating because as much as I was so happy to help others, I wasn’t being compensated for what I was doing. As you know, with inflation and living costs, you need to be compensated for what you do. Everybody does.
I was also getting to a point where, one day, I just woke up and wasn’t happy where I was. I felt like I was ready for the next step in life but really wasn’t sure what that was. I knew that one of the things I always loved to do was speak in front of groups.
When I would speak, the room would get quiet, people would gravitate to what I had to say. I even spoke in front of Congress and helped get the Disabilities Act passed – a congressman started to cry, and he came over to me and shook my hand afterward.
I really loved speaking. I really loved motivating people and giving people inspiration so I needed to understand how to turn that into a business. Before I came to you, I didn’t realize that I could turn speaking into a business, and it had to be treated like a business. I was doing it, but I wasn’t doing it the right way.
What were some of the key takeaways for you or major aha moments for you from the SPEAK framework?
I had Erick Rheam as my VIP Facilitator and I met with a bunch of your other great coaches, too. We had a lot of group sessions, and I learned a lot; the first main thing was about my niche. When you come in, I think one of the biggest things that everybody dealt with was that you have knowledge in all these different areas, but what is the main purpose? What’s your focus? What are you gonna really speak about? So, I learned what my niche was and what I really needed to focus on.
From there on, I learned how to tweak my speaking skills and how to take those speaking skills and also make it a business. I learned a lot of business tools and strategies. Step by step, you had all the things that I needed, and you did it in such a profound way that it was easy to absorb, and it really was inspiring. I learned a lot and really valued everything I learned.
What have been your results since doing the program?
When I started speaking, I was speaking nationwide for a while, but then I got into a slight accident, and I lost mobility in my arms. So, for four years, I wasn’t able to really move my arms well. At that point, I had to put speaking on a stage aside, so I didn’t really know what to do.
A friend of mine who was a podcaster interviewed rock and rollers from the sixties to the nineties.
He’s like, “Stacey, let your voice be heard. Go and do a podcast.” And I’m like, “Well, I don’t know…it’s a lot of work, I’ve heard.” But he would not get off my case. He just kept pounding me about it. And so, finally, I did it, and in three months, I booked out for a year.
Through all the contacts I made, through all the people that I met, word of mouth referrals, I booked for a whole year. And then, we grew our podcast to 1.3 million listeners. And we’re now on iHeart Radio and speakers sponsor us. We’re going into SiriusXM too. We’ve turned it into a really great business.
It’s wonderful because people come on and share their messages, and I’ve gotten so much positive feedback about the podcast. People have said that it really changed their life and helped them. Also, it’s ranked one of the top in the nation! It helps me and helps so many other people.
Plus, we’re doing really great monetarily. It’s outstanding! And I’m doing what I love, which is helping people.
Amazing! At this point, is your speaking business primarily focused on the podcast? Or do you do speaking gigs as well?
Well, what happened was the podcast grew so big that I had to hire a team of people to help me, so it became a full-time job. So, I occasionally do speaking events, and I love doing speaking events, but my time is mostly focused on podcasting. And now I actually produce, I create, and market podcasts for people. People come to me and they wanna start a podcast, and I help them. We create the podcast for them, help them do it, and market it.
We have over a hundred thousand followers. Just on YouTube alone, we have 38,400 followers and 7 million views. We have over 1.3 million people listening to it on all the distribution channels. It’s become so big that now people call me and ask me to please fit them in because our schedule is so booked, but I fit them in somehow. And we just keep growing and get to help people who’ve plateaued in their podcast and business – people who want to grow, but are kind of stuck.
We also help people who just don’t have the time; there are a lot of people who have really busy schedules who’ve always wanted to do podcasts. So we help them create it and make it very easy for them so they can just show up and have a discussion, and we put it out to all the channels worldwide.
Congratulations on all the success you’re finding. Was that the direction you thought you’d go or did the podcast become this amazing thing you decided to lean into?
I had no idea I was gonna go into podcasts. If you asked me if I was gonna go into podcasts, I probably would’ve laughed at you. I just thought I was going to completely go into the speaking business, but this fell into my lap.
The opportunity was there, and I just ran with it. And it became such a success. Before I did The Speaker Lab, I probably was bringing in…I don’t even wanna say how much I was bringing in, but I brought in very little. Then I went to six figures. It was an amazing jump.
The Speaker Lab taught me so much and I learned so much from you; it really was all very helpful. And to top it off, the way I found my business coach, was listening to your podcast. He was on your podcast and had graduated four or five years prior to me. He was talking about how he initially came to you for speaking help but then started to coach, and that’s where he made all his money – through coaching.
And there was something about it. Something kept saying, “Call him.” So I paused the podcast, and I called him, and he became my coach and helped me 10 x my business in less than 10 months. That was Mark Feinberg.
I told him where I was at. I told him what I wanted to do. I told him what my goals were, and he was doing a lot of Fortune 500 companies he was working with but was like, “I like your charisma. I like you. I’m gonna help you.” And we started a great relationship from there.
That’s awesome. I keep thinking of Module 5 of the SPEAK Framework – Know When to Scale. You two sound like great stories of how when we have a speaking business, it can become so many other things as well. And it all feeds into each other. For example, if you’re an author a podcaster, I’m sure people see your podcast as evidence of your credibility. And there, you’ve been gaining more experience speaking and gaining knowledge from all your guests, so when you come to their stage, part of your brand is to have all these different legs of the business.
Yes, I actually teach people now how to scale because that was one of the things that I was really confused about because I was underpricing myself. A lot of times what happens to people is that they’re scared that if they charge what they’re worth, then no one’s going to book them.
They don’t really realize how much their knowledge is really worth. So you have to look at what you’re putting in and what people are getting from you, and then build your brand and charge what you’re worth. You’ve got to have some self-confidence.
I always say, look at your business and make believe you’re a million-dollar business. If you were a million-dollar business, how would you present yourself? How would you show yourself? With everything you do, you should think in your head, “I’m a million-dollar business, so how am I gonna look? How am I gonna dress? How am I gonna talk and present myself? That really makes a difference.
What’s your new normal as a speaker? How has your life changed since doing The Speaker Lab?
My life today as a speaker, well, I speak with multiple people every day. I do like at least three bookings a day. My confidence level has been boosted since I’ve done The Speaker Lab. I’ve really learned a lot about business. I learned how to scale.
I learned how to have a CRM – I was totally new to that. I didn’t even know what that was until Erick taught me that. I listened to his Master Your Speaking Pipeline course and he helped me through it. I use that today. Everything that I’ve learned in The Speaker Lab, I applied to my business today, and that really helped me out a tremendous amount.
It’s a really great course to take.
The coaches were great, and I loved Erick to death. Erick was so fun because Erick would answer my questions so readily; if I reached out to him via voice note, I would go on and on like he was actually in the room, and he would just laugh about it.
He said, “I listen to you when I’m jogging.”
It was like a podcast!
Yeah, and he would answer them all. It’s evident you have a lot of people who really care in your company.
I’ve grown a lot since then, and now I know how to run a business. I’m confident about running a business. I know how to interact with people. I know how to negotiate. I understand how to scale. I understand when it’s a good deal or a bad deal. I know how to close a deal. I know how to open a deal.
These are things that a lot of people don’t know how to do; they’re often afraid to even ask for money. Like when you do a speaking event, some people are too intimidated to ask for what they’re worth. So I’m grateful that now I know what I’m worth.
I know how to pitch myself to others and speak to others. And it shines when you have confidence, and you know what you’re doing; it’s a totally different game.
A hundred percent. Knowing your worth is such a crucial part of the process. If someone doesn’t book you, someone else will, so you have to keep that abundance mindset and keep prospecting, remembering that not everything is hanging on this one opportunity.
That’s a great point because one of the biggest things is that people sometimes have thin skin. But if someone says no to you, don’t take that personally. That person might not be a good fit for you. That might not be a good speaking gig for you. So you just move on and know there are more speaking gigs out there. Keep looking.
The same thing goes with podcasting. Not everybody’s a perfect fit or a perfect client, and you just don’t take it personally. You move on and grow your audience, and you want to grow the right audience around you.
Who would you recommend to The Speaker Lab and why?
I recommend a lot of people to the Speaker Lab. I’ve actually had people that reached out to me and asked me about The Speaker Lab because I put it on my LinkedIn page, I have it there because it made such a huge impact.
I’d say anyone that has an interest in being a speaker!
I had speaking skills before I came to The Speaker Lab; I’ve done many speaking gigs before, but I wanted to tweak it up because, for me learning is never over; you always have room to learn more. You always wanna find people that are above you that have gone to a higher level. Those are the people that you want to be your mentors.
So for someone who’s really serious about speaking, who doesn’t want it to be a hobby but would like to make it a career, go for it. People who want to make it a career can make a really good income.
There might be people who just wanna do it just to get their message out there and not necessarily make it a career, that’s great too. I think it’s a great place for those people also. It’s good for a lot of different types of people.
Something we aim to do is empower everyone to run their own speaking business, and that looks different for everyone. So it’s cool to see how different people take it and run with it and make it their own. That’s a big part of the process. Well, any last thoughts for the interview?
I want to just tell people not to give up. Sometimes, people get frustrated because they try a lot of different outlets. I was at a point where I felt like I was on a highway with six lanes and I didn’t know where to turn, but don’t give up.
And don’t doubt yourself. Anybody could be a speaker. Even some of the best speakers feel they suck at speaking, but their message is outstanding. They get on stage. They know what they’re talking about. Maybe they’re not big and bubbly, but they have an important message and valuable information that will take audiences to a higher level.
So don’t worry if your personality seems like it’s not the “standard.” If you feel “I’m a little shy,” or other apprehensions, if you have a dream, go after it. You can do anything if you put your mind to it. Any dream could become a reality.
For me, I knew I was at that point where I needed change. I started speaking, ran into some problems, and podcasting came my way and became my full-time career. And it’s been a great journey so far. And I’ve been blessed by that, and ultimately, it’s the same thing – I’m speaking, and I’m getting my message across. There are lots of ways to be a speaker.
There are people who are radio hosts, people speaking on stage, people who are doing podcasts, so if you wanna get your message across – because everybody has a message – do it. Everybody has a message, and everybody’s important; your message could save someone else’s life, so don’t be afraid to share it with the world. Even for me, I got an email that said, “I read your story, I read your book, and I want to just say thank you because I was on the verge of taking my own life, and you saved my life.”
The Speaker Lab is a great place to get the confidence to share it. Whether they’re simple words of wisdom, whether you put it to paper, verbalize it, speak on a podcast, on the radio, or on a stage, everybody has a message, so share yours.
Totally beautifully said.