The Speaker Lab With Grant Baldwin // Public Speaking / Motivational Speaking / Entrepreneurship

Many speakers lean gradually into speaking. Still others stumble upon it unexpectedly. And still others find their passion and talent early on in life with the help of formative family members–like Shailesh Ghimire. Shailesh is our latest Student Highlight guest on The Speaker Lab podcast, and he shares his story on episode 459 with Maryalice Goldsmith, our director of student success. Today, Shailesh is a speaker, podcaster, and marketing expert with a background in physics. But years ago, he was a fourth grader preparing and delivering presentations for his dad, who loved and respected the fields of public speaking and debate. Thanks to those early years learning how to speak in front of an audience, Shailesh has never struggled with stage fright to this day.While Shailesh’s dad helped set him on the road to public speaking, it took him some time to move beyond treating speaking like a hobby on top of his successful marketing business. But ultimately, as he attests, everybody has the same 24 hours in a day–

As a speaker, it’s often hard to find the balance between telling your story, building your personal brand, and serving your audience. No matter what your story is, you have to connect it to solving your audience’s problems. Otherwise, you’re just talking about yourself–and that’s a surefire strategy for failure if your goal is making an impact. On Episode 458 of The Speaker Lab podcast, Grant Baldwin invited Bruce Van Horn, a speaker with a pretty extraordinary story, to help you walk that very fine line. Before Bruce was a speaker, he was a creative writing major who pivoted to a successful career in the software business. If you’re struggling to connect the dots between what you studied, where you work, and what you want to speak about, his path will inspire you to think outside the box and buck expectations. Bucking expectations is a big part of Bruce’s mission. On top of being a speaker, he is also a life coach, author, and podcast host. Through his various efforts to promote positive change us

Establishing your niche is one of the most important tasks of building your speaking business.Like all important tasks, this isn’t a one-step process–it is a long journey of discovery and refinement. Because this is such a hot topic among our TSL students, our latest coaches’ corner podcast naturally focuses on finding your niche. In Episode 457 of The Speaker Lab Podcast, TSL coaches Maryalice Goldsmith and Katie Campbell discuss how to figure out what your niche really is. If your niche is an onion, this episode is peeling back the layers so you can hone in on your target audience and book the gigs that are best suited to your expertise.The more you narrow your niche, the more you attract the attention of the right people. That’s how successful speakers build momentum, as Katie and Maryalice explain on the show. No matter how broad you think your message is, you can amplify it best by finding the specific audience out there whose needs intersect perfectly with what you bring to the table. At the same t

It’s not every day that a game show host comes onto The Speaker Lab podcast. But this is your lucky day! For this episode, Mike Montague joins Grant for an exciting conversation about how he balances podcasting, speaking, game show hosting, and his job for a prominent sales and leadership training company. While some might have a specific vision of what it means to be a speaker, for Mike it means any time he’s behind a microphone. He knows how to bring the party to whatever kind of event he’s leading, whether it’s a corporate seminar for a multinational company or a keynote where he’s throwing water balloons at the audience.Mike strikes an unusual balance for a speaker, as he has multiple ongoing employment contracts on top of his independent speaking business. As a result, this episode offers a great deal of insight into managing multiple streams of income. Most speakers scale and diversify their business at some point, so even if you’re not at that point yet, it can be really helpful to hear what that proce

A lot of coaches become speakers, and a lot of speakers become coaches. It’s not a simple 2+2=4 formula, but there’s a few reasons why these professions complement each other so well! One of our recent program alumni, Kyle Cofer, came onto episode 455 of The Speaker Lab podcast to discuss her path from life coaching to speaking. In this student highlight, Kyla shares how our program helped her amplify her message about overcoming burnout. Going from aspiring to professional speaker requires tailored guidance and mentorship. As Kyla testifies, even an expert at coaching other people can have trouble overcoming a few nagging insecurities. Kyla and our director of student success Maryalice Goldsmith discuss the trickle down effect she experienced from her experienced TSL mentors and the breakthroughs she achieved using our five-module SPEAK framework.Kyla is more than an entrepreneur and speaker–she’s also a devoted homeschooling mom. Juggling motherhood and the fast-paced speaker life is no joke and requir

Dan Irvin was laid off of his C-suite position just as COVID started taking off. He took it as a sign to start the speaking career he had long been considering. Between pandemic-induced chaos and his own inexperience with the speaking industry, his first efforts were, in his own words, “dismal.” Fortunately, he discovered The Speaker Lab, which helped him systematize his business to the point where he is now speaking over 50 times a year on top of working as a member of the TSL team. Dan joined us for episode 454 of the TSL podcast to discuss the step-by-step processes that help him succeed.To really succeed as a speaker, you need a plan. Having a plan will get your family and friends in your corner when you first launch your business as well as showing future clients that you are serious about what you do. Dan has used careful strategy and repeatable systems to turn his speaking business into a well-oiled machine. From time management to email followups, putting systems in place will set you apart from

Brittany Richmond is an experienced volleyball coach and counselor. She’s also an uplifting speaker and influencer who inspires teens to manage their anxiety and overcome stigma around mental illness. Our favorite part? She’s a coach for us here at The Speaker Lab. This week on Episode 453 of The Speaker Lab podcast, she shares how she speaks about incredibly vulnerable topics in a relatable and sensitive way.Brittany already had a lot of experience working with students, so her story offers great insight into knowing when you can make a more impact as a speaker than one-on-one. Her own experience as a youth with crippling anxiety that was invisible to even her closest loved ones informs her message about proactively evolving through mental illness to live a thriving and fulfilled life. While she normally shares her message with teens, today she’s sharing it with you too–if you’re an aspiring speaker who struggles with anxiety, Brittany’s story is sure to give you a confidence boost.Speaking to the youth mark

Our system here at The Speaker Lab includes establishing non-negotiable elements of a successful speaking business early. Once you establish these fundamentals, you get to move on to the “fun” stuff like preparing your talk and creating snazzy marketing materials. While our coaches can only personally guide you through creating these steps in our coaching programs, they also come on the podcast to introduce some of the most important pieces of the great puzzle that is your speaking business. One of those fundamental pieces is your Expert Positioning Statement (EPS). This week, TSL coach Michelle Onuorah joined our director of student success Maryalice Goldsmith for Episode 452 of The Speaker Lab Podcast to dig into what an EPS is and why it’s so important. If your speaking business is a pyramid, your EPS is the foundation. If that sounds like a big deal, it is! At the core of every good speaking platform is solving a problem for a particular audience. In your EPS, the solutions you offer, the people you

Some entrepreneurs spend their whole lives hustling, allowing burnout to gradually erode their overall quality of life. Others prioritize work-life harmony early on, allowing them to pursue their passions, keep creating, and enjoy life.That’s what Tina Wells has done, with her signature “Elevation Approach,” a system for entrepreneurs which lies at the heart of her book, online course, and upcoming podcast. On Episode 451 of The Speaker Lab podcast, Tina shared the wisdom she has learned along a journey that has led her from market research, to brand strategy, to content and product creation. The core of her mission is helping other entrepreneurs put their energy into activities and initiatives that make the most sense for where they want to be in life. No more hustling and grinding just because everybody else is doing it–get ready to elevate your approach!Tina started her entrepreneurship journey at age 16 researching youth and fashion trends. Despite the many evolutions of her professional career, she hasn’

You can’t solve all your audience’s problems with one short keynote — often, you barely scratch the surface. So how do you offer your audience the next steps toward solutions? That’s what our very own coaches Maryalice Goldsmith and Jeremy Rochford cover on Episode 450 of The Speaker Lab podcast. Building your talk out into a coaching program is an incredible way to add streams of income and diversify your speaking business. Our TSL coaches have helped thousands of speakers succeed in this venture without burning out or losing sight of their core message, and today they’re helping you do the same. On the show, Maryalice and Jeremy go through the process of adding a coaching branch to your business with copious examples to help you get started designing your very first coaching program. Your signature keynote probably leaves your audience inspired with solutions, but unsure how to implement them beyond the first few action items. A coaching program expands on the substance of your talk in a structured set

Amy Porterfield describes herself as an “ex-corporate girl turned accidental entrepreneur.” It’s hard to believe it was an accident! Amy runs an incredibly successful business teaching other entrepreneurs how to grow their following online. She is an author, podcaster, and occasional speaker with a special knack for building email lists and creating online courses. With that in mind, her appearance on Episode 449 of The Speaker Lab podcast is full of tips for integrating lead magnets into your and other methods for springboarding off of your speaking engagements to maximize your personal brand. Whether you’re looking for your first gig or a seasoned speaker already, every potential gig is either an opportunity for furthering your mission or a waste of time. As she explains on the show, Amy doesn’t particularly enjoy speaking–even though it’s an important part of any online entrepreneur’s brand. With that in mind, she takes the process of deciding which gigs to take and which to pass up on very seriously.

One of the best feelings as a coach at The Speaker Lab is seeing our students turn their visions into reality. In episode 448 of The Speaker Lab podcast, TSL director of Student Success Maryalice Goldsmith is joined by Sara Murray from our VIP cohort. Sara came into our program with a successful sales career under her belt and a vision for her platform: “prospecting on purpose.” Sara’s mission is to introduce salespeople to a mindset shift that helps them exude confidence and build authentic relationships with their prospects. All of this comes down to prioritizing human connection–something unfortunately lost to many sales teams today. Sara is an incredibly visionary person and as she entered the world of speaking and entrepreneurship, she knew she needed accountability to help her accomplish her big dreams. That’s why she came to The Speaker Lab, where as she shares with Maryalice, she found accountability for all areas of building her speaking business. She also shares the creative methods she discove

Shane Sams is a man who has taken control of his life. After a scary experience with a supervisor that got in the way of caring for his family, he struck out into entrepreneurship with his wife so they could quit their 9-5s and be more fully present with their kids. The best part is, they have dedicated their lives to helping others do the same thing through their business, Flipped Lifestyle. While Shane started out with podcasting and online courses, his speaking business has gained a lot of momentum recently. Shane is a rare bird in the speaking industry–he delivers both multi-day workshops and 30 minute keynotes. That kind of flexibility requires an incredibly systematized process behind the scenes so In Episode 447 of The Speaker Lab podcast, Shane shares the systems that help him prepare incredible talks for any occasion. Before he became an entrepreneur Shane was a teacher, so he came on the show ready to educate. His framework for structuring the overarching story of your keynote will help you kee

Speaking is full of surprises. Even if you’re equipped with the best business plan, vision, and work ethic, things don’t always go as planned. Knowing how to handle tricky situations is something that comes with experience, but there are many steps you can take to shore up your speaking business against pitfalls. While there’s no reason to dwell on worst case scenarios, it’s valuable to have a game plan or safety net when it comes to potential problems. Fortunately, our TSL coaches have guided thousands of speakers through these strategies. For episode 446 of The Speaker Lab podcast, our director of student success Maryalice Goldsmith and coach Rick Clemons share how to avert–or at least ameliorate–potential disasters in your speaking business. Clients are perhaps the most typical yet unpredictable source of tricky situations. Whether it’s a misunderstanding about the speaking topic, payment timeline, event schedule, or intellectual property, even the most well-meaning client can cause a miscommunication

Every week, our Speaker Lab podcast guests surprise us with all the exciting twists and turns of their journey to the stage. This week’s guest, Taurea Vision Avant, is no exception — listen in to episode 445 to hear her adventures from computer science, to network marketing, to authorship, coaching and beyond. In fact, Taurea never even saw herself as a professional speaker or entrepreneur at the beginning of her career! In this episode, she admits speaking was “never her thing” until she realized how powerful and impactful she felt speaking for even just a small room full of people. Now, she’s a successful entrepreneur and author of over 15 books. Her story is an incredible testament to how no matter what educational background you come from, you can challenge expectations and make an impact as a speaker.As a network marketer, Taurea often found herself speaking to smaller groups. As she invested in her skills, she became a speaker on behalf of the entire company! Despite her experience and success selling f

Do you think some careers just aren’t a good fit for speaking? Think again! This week, we invited a world champion salsa dancer on the podcast. Not only is he a professional dancer, but also a veteran firefighter–we’re talking about Alex Lee, one of our Booked and Paid to Speak program alumni featured in our latest Student Highlight. In Episode 444, he shares the twists and turns of his professional career with our director of student success Maryalice Goldsmith, as well as the lessons he learned and applied from our coaching program. His message focuses on teaching the language of leadership through the paradigm of three pillars: credibility, humility, and loyalty. This message is applicable to a wide variety of audiences, and equally so to the speaking world. It’s a helpful paradigm to keep in mind when acknowledging the reality that there’s no “shortcut” to gaining momentum as a speaker. While our Booked and Paid to Speak program has equipped Alex and thousands of other speakers to launch sustainable,

Bobby Umar is a speaker who does it all. He writes books. He runs coaching programs. He’s amassed hundreds of thousands of followers in his social media communities. He’s done multiple TEDx talks. And most importantly, he’s a self-described doting dad. If you’re wondering how he manages to juggle so many balls alongside his speaking engagements, so are we — so he joined our founder Grant Baldwin for Episode 443 of the TSL podcast to discuss his speaking journey. Many aspiring speakers want to be like Bobby. All kinds of people in all sorts of industries look to him as a branding and networking expert. But he didn’t start out that way! Over time, he has both expanded and refined his speaking platform so he only speaks on topics he is best at to audiences who are the perfect fit. On the show, he shares how he started with a well-defined niche that allowed him to become a thought leader with a simple, compelling message: discover your personal brand (DYPB). One part of Bobby’s platform that we don’t of

Our coaches at The Speaker Lab are equipped to guide you through your speaking journey, no matter what kind of speaker you want to be. Which means if you prefer a side room with a dozen or so people around a table to a massive auditorium, we’re here to help. Delivering motivational keynotes might look like the most glamorous choice, but many speakers build incredible careers and make huge impacts through other communication channels such as workshops. With that in mind, this week’s Coaches’ Corner on The Speaker Lab show is dedicated to everything workshops–how to create them, how to build a business around them, and how to actually make an impact. On Episode 442, our director of student success Maryalice Goldsmith is joined by Nanette Hitchcock from our TSL coaching team. Nanette loves nothing better than running a great workshop, and she knows how to create a collaborative atmosphere that helps her audience solve their problems. If you’ve ever wanted a heart to heart chat with our speaking coaches abou

Speaking can be pretty intimidating for introverts. In fact, you might be under the impression that all successful professional speakers are extroverts. After all, isn’t getting up on a stage the ultimate example of being a “people person”? As a matter of fact, introverts can be great public speakers–and they often bring something unique to the stage. This week, the Speaker Lab founder Grant Baldwin (who is actually an introvert!) sat down with Dr. Mike Bechtle (another introvert!) for an episode dedicated entirely to introverts and public speaking.Dr. Bechtle’s career spans many fields: ministry, teaching college, writing books, and decades of work for a renowned coaching company. Now retired, he’s focusing on growing his platform as an author and speaker. You’ve probably seen his name in the “inspirational books'' section, where his best-selling works on communication, and interpersonal relationships reside. In a few months, you’ll be able to read his upcoming book about how introverts can succeed in the wo

Balancing your work with your personal and family life is a challenge for any ambitious professional, but it can be especially taxing for speakers. Scaling your speaker business to the point where you can make a living takes time, and in those early “lean years” you might be traveling to every gig you can land at the expense of time with your family. Before you know it, you find yourself burnt out in all areas, adrift in the chaos, and not sure what to prioritize. Fortunately, speaker and coach Cory Carlson has some solutions for you. Cory is the author of Win at Home First, an inspirational book that teaches you how to prioritize your personal life so you can then succeed in your professional life. He joined our founder Grant Baldwin for Episode 440 of The Speaker Lab podcast to share lessons from his own experience with a perfect storm of professional and personal burnout, overwhelm, and exhaustion. Cory had an incredibly successful rise to the C-suite in his first career, but he was constantly stresse