By Grant Baldwin
Want to learn how to get booked and paid to speak — consistently? The Speaker Lab podcast features business tactics, speaking tips, and insider strategies from Grant Baldwin, The Speaker Lab c
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The podcast currently has 556 episodes available.
"Two things have to be true: one, you have to offer enough value so that they're paying attention. And two, you've got to communicate that value in a believable way, either through a third party or somebody they trust or you directly."
It might be cliché, but it's still true: speaking is a relationships business. If you want to be a successful speaker, you have to invest in building relationships every single day — with event planners, with industry leaders, and with other speakers.
This week, Grant is sitting down with Mo Bunnell to talk about how to overcome some of the most common obstacles that speakers face in making connections — being "too busy," fearing rejection, and more.
Mo recently wrote a book called Give to Grow about how to invest in relationships to build your business and your career, and he has a lot of practical advice that will help you get out of your comfort zone and start building relationships like a pro.
If you're struggling to get traction in your speaking business and you're looking for a spark to get things going, this might be the episode you need to hear!
"I'll be really bold on this. If somebody is thinking 'I'm too busy to do the next piece of work,' that is a massive excuse and you just need to flush it."
Looking for the highlights?
Episode Resources:
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This week, we’re giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what coaching can do for speakers.
Erick Rheam is hosting live coaching sessions this week! These sessions feature TSL students and real problems that speakers face in their businesses.
This episode features Molly Kennedy and Theresa Skaar. Molly focuses on shifting her demographics and finding new income sources, while Theresa focuses on overcoming impostor syndrome and selling herself with confidence.
A few of their quotes that you might relate to:
“I just turned 50 this summer, and I feel like, personally, I'm kind of evolving and growing. I feel like my reach can expand beyond education, although I love teachers. Again, it's kind of an easy space for me, but I also feel like I want to challenge myself to have a broader reach as well." - Molly Kennedy
"I don't know if it feels audacious if it feels like so many people position themselves as an expert. And I'm like, you know, I don't know." - Theresa Skaar
Want to skim the session?
Episode Resources:
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“The key to any industry is not focusing or trying to sell to 98% of your market. You're only trying to sell to that very top percentage of people."
If you're a speaker looking to scale your business and add new streams of revenue, you might want to consider launching a high ticket offer. This week, Grant sat down with Bryan Harris to chat about the value a high-ticket offering can bring to your business, how to get started, and some tips on developing these offerings in your own business.
Thinking about what’s next for your business? A high-ticket offering just might be for you!
“Our mission is to make it almost impossible to fail at getting customers."
In this episode, they also cover:
Episode Resources:
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
"If you've got a working keynote that has structure that you've been honing for a while, you probably have the bones of a book." - Liz Morrow
"If you are someone who is highly entrepreneurial and you feel like you really value having a lot of creative control over the end product and you don't mind doing the hard, you know, kind of manual work of putting all of those systems in place and really championing your book yourself, then self publishing could be a great choice for you." - Ariel Curry
This week, Liz Morrow and Ariel Curry joined Grant to talk about the process of book writing for speakers. If you've ever thought about writing a book, this is the episode for you! Liz and Ariel have been at it as writers and editors for years, so they bring first-hand knowledge to the conversation about the process of writing and selling a book.
In this episode, Grant, Liz, and Ariel cover:
"And these are people who have multimillion dollar businesses. They have 4 million Instagram followers. They've got multiple six figures of email subscribers. I mean, these are people who think would have all the justification in the world that they have something worth sharing, and they still worry, am I good enough?" - Liz Morrow
"The quality of the idea matters because people want something that is surprising. People want something that is new, and it's really hard to define." - Ariel Curry
Episode Resources:
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“I'm really passionate about solving the same problem that they're passionate about solving. I have a unique ability that I'm willing to share."
How do you write your own story and become the speaker you've dreamed about being?
This week, Brittany Richmond and Jake White are answering that question and talking about when to scale your business, how to find your niche, and so much more.
“If you want to accelerate faster, then you need quality time with the people that buy what you offer. I need to partner with the perfect match, learn their language, how they're funded, what problems they have, whenever they book us, what are the hurdles they have to go through? And however it can make it so easy for them to bring us in, that's part of my learning curve."
During this episode, you'll hear about:
“If you build the community, then your people are going to continue using you because you are the hub and where to go."
Episode Resources:
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
"Just show up and provide value and get to know us."
If you’re like most speakers, you’re probably wondering about AI. How should you use it? Should you be using it at all? And how do you make sure your authentic brand and story doesn’t get lost in the process?
This week, Pat Flynn is answering all of those questions and ALSO diving into what it's like being an event planner. How do event planners look for speakers? How do they make final decisions? Check out the full conversation!
"Short form video is like handing out Halloween candy, right? You have people coming to your house, you hand out candy, they move on to the next one. That's just people swiping, and when they move on to the next house, they kind of forgot about you already."
Grant and Pat also talked about:
"When I first started, there were gatekeepers, there were people like, what are you doing here? Why are you trying to do this? And, like, who are, who are you to even do this? And I just, you know, just kept going and kept, you know, hitting that hammer across the value wall, and eventually, it broke, and people saw what I was actually here for, which is amazing."
Episode Resources:
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“They used to be easy to spot, but they're getting better. They are getting more and more convincing at weaving their stories."
This week, Grant sat down with Lauren Sergy to talk about a new (and very) convincing speaker scam and, more importantly, how to avoid falling for it!
“No transactions are made, no contracts are signed. Unless you have a zoom, ideally a face to face Zoom call or a phone call. There must be a phone call. You have to make voice to voice contact."
Ready to jump into this episode? Here’s the layout:
“If you are in doubt, get a hold of the venue and double check with them and then understand how your payments work. If you want to be really safe with your payments, you could say, I will only accept payment by credit card."
Episode Resources:
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
"We always recommend that people do not memorize their presentations verbatim. That results in just acting a little bit too robotic. Your audience can tell, and that's just not the best way to go." - Eric Silverberg
This week, Grant sat down with Eli and Eric, some of our friends from Speaker Labs (not to be confused with The Speaker Lab). Eli and Eric help speakers master the four pillars of becoming a world class speaker — content, delivery, visuals, and mindset — so that they can become exceptional communicators.
"When you share your idea, even if it's a known idea in the world, but you share it your way through your stories, your experiences, your unique creative analogies and metaphors, and interesting ways to package that idea, the audience may not have heard it your way, and that allows you to feel confident, to show up and say, I may tell you something you already know, but I'm certainly going to tell it to you in a way that you haven't heard it before, because I'm telling it to you my unique way." - Eli Gladstone
In this episode we cover:
"Eli came up with an amazing analogy once that has to do with the GPS systems. You know, when you're in your car and you're using waze or Google Maps or whatever, and then there's a voice that speaks to you, and they tell you what to do. They tell you, in 400, you know, or in 4 miles, turn left, and in 3 miles, turn right. But here's what the GPS doesn't do. The GPS does not say, turn left, go straight, go straight, go straight, go straight, go straight, go straight, go straight, go straight, go straight, turn right, go straight, go straight, go straight, go straight. That's way too much, right?" - Eric Silverberg
"I try to get them to think about playing with the levels of altitude of that idea. You may not change your message, this is your message. But once you understand the most abstracted version of that idea, you now understand the language that could speak to the most people." - Eli Gladstone
Episode Resources:
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
"There is so much value in saying no because not every event is the right event for you."
This week, Brittany Richmond sat down with Nathan Wray, an inspirational speaker who speaks on teen mental health and substance misuse prevention. Together, Brittany and Nathan dig into dozens of practical topics including recovering from rough feedback, showing up for and supporting event planners, finding direction in your career as a speaker, and more!
"So I'm going to go as far as I can go to help an event organizer to make sure that they're successful. And if that includes setting up 300 chairs at 01:00 in the morning, then I'm gonna do it."
In this episode, Brittany and Nathan get into:
“I reshaped the whole thing, and then I went and delivered it at a school, and it was the first time that kids came up to me afterwards and were like, can I take a picture with you? Can I tell you what happened to me? Can I tell you my story? Can I ask you a question? And that's when I knew, like, okay, I don't have it where I want it, but I'm on the right path."
Episode Resources:
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“I feel like I've always been Reggie's administrative assistant with our life. So it was kind of a natural transition just to slide into that.” - Patrice Wright
This week, Grant sat down with not 1, but 2 lovely guests to chat about building a speaking business with your spouse! You may remember Dr. Reggie Wright from Episode 471 last fall, but this week, we’re hearing from him AND his better half, Patrice.
“My first year as a full time speaker, I wanted her to resign. I wanted her to retire the first year and come on board as my COO. And that was a little bit of some tension there, because she wanted to kind of wait and see how things would play out, and that kind of put some stress and strain on things." - Reggie Wright
Grant, Reggie, and Patrice get into:
“I would not be half of what I am right now if it wasn't for my wife." - Reggie Wright
"Knowing my own worth and value and knowing what I bring to the table helps me to never feel less than or never feel like, you know, he's up here and I'm down here. We're on an equal playing field." - Patrice Wright
Episode Resources:
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The podcast currently has 556 episodes available.