"History doesn't repeat itself. It's just that humans tend to do the same thing in patterns even if 20 or 40 or 50 years ago they did the exact same thing when faced with the same inputs." This week on the podcast, Grant sat down with Dominique Luster, a TSL alum and a professional speaker in the DEI space. Dominique’s speaking career started somewhat naturally as she was on a mission to share the history of minorities through working in the museum/education space for years before she was asked ...
Oct 31, 2023•35 min•Ep. 470
"And it's interesting because our self talk starts at the very beginning of our day. So the minute you become conscious before, sometimes you even open your eyes, what's your first thought? Right? Is it something positive? Or is it like, oh, my back is killing me. Well, guess what? That is the underlying tone and theme for the rest of your day." Maryalice is back on the podcast with another one of our awesome coaches. This week, we’re welcoming Angie Besignano for her first time on the podcast. ...
Oct 24, 2023•44 min•Ep. 469
"The key to a great demo video is showcasing your best work and highlighting your strengths. It should effectively demonstrate your skills, talent, and unique qualities in a concise and captivating manner." Demo videos are mission-critical to getting booked and paid as a professional speaker. Today, Grant sat down with Shawn Hanks. Shawn is the CEO of the Premiere Speakers Bureau, and he knows a few things about speaker marketing, demo videos, and how to create a stand-out product. “A demo video...
Oct 17, 2023•37 min•Ep. 468
"There were two modules that were particularly helpful for me...The module about preparing your talk was really helpful...It helped me fill in stories where I needed to fill in a story and applications for real-life examples...And then the other part was the last module, Know When to Scale...That last module helped me really make sense of it all." Dr. Peggy DeLong joins Maryalice Goldsmith on the podcast this week to talk about her journey to The Speaker Lab and what she’s accomplished since beg...
Oct 10, 2023•39 min•Ep. 467
"AI enhances my creativity and helps me explore new ideas. From AI-generated music and artwork to machine learning algorithms that assist in brainstorming and content creation, it has become an invaluable tool in my creative process." Today, Grant sat down with Lauren Teague to chat about her speaking business and how she uses AI as a work partner to maximize her time, increase her creative output, and scale the amount of work she’s putting in to create great pieces of content. "It's like the mo...
Oct 03, 2023•37 min•Ep. 466
"It's kind of like setting up a table for dinner. You don't want to just be scrambling and hustle to the table and be sweating and be like, I don't even know where the forks are. So I think it's like, no, let's have a nice clean table. Lay it all out before yourself so you can kind of settle into it and know exactly where everything is and know you've set yourself up for success." We’re back with another episode in our Coaching Corner series! Today, Maryalice and Emily Arnold sit down to talk ab...
Sep 26, 2023•41 min•Ep. 465
"I think speakers are being called to be even more dynamic, more impactful, and a greater return on investment if they're addressing someone or having the pleasure of addressing someone in person and live." Joey Coleman joined us on the podcast this week to chat with Grant Baldwin about his journey of building a speaking business, leveraging books to create credibility, and learning how to eb with the ebbs and flow with the flows as the speaking world grows and changes to accommodate virtual and...
Sep 19, 2023•36 min•Ep. 464
"If you go through adversity and you don't learn anything from it, that it's a lost opportunity" This episode of the Speaker Lab Podcast is another excellent episode of our Student Highlight Series. Maryalice Goldsmith, Director of Student Success, sat down with Bruce Wawrzyniak to talk about his speaking business, the career he’s building, and his experience here at the Speaker Lab. "So which ones are you going to choose? Are you going to choose the negative thoughts and dwell on those, or are ...
Sep 12, 2023•33 min•Ep. 463
“Just because you’ve had success in other fields doesn’t mean that you get to skip rungs on the ladder.” Grant welcomes Jon Acuff back to the The Speaker Lab Podcast! Jon is a regular guest on our show, because he’s an active speaker, a well know New York Times bestselling author, and one of Grant’s good friends. "I think you could climb the ladder faster when you're an expert at something else already. Like, you and I have seen that, like, former athletes climb the ladder faster. People that ha...
Sep 05, 2023•38 min•Ep. 462
"We absolutely have the ability to cultivate a growth mindset, which will put us it makes us more resilient. It gives us the ability to see opportunities and connect more easily with people. We move through the world very differently, and it gives you a different energy to go about the task of building a business." The Speaker Lab Coach, Katherine Johnson is back on the podcast this week sharing her expertise on reprogramming your mindset so it’s a helpful tool in building the speaking busines o...
Aug 29, 2023•30 min•Ep. 461
"So there are definitely two main chapters to my life, and they both happened before age 22. So when I was very young, and they both involved aviation, and one was ultimately amazing, and one was obviously terrible.” Until age 22, Ryan’s life revolved around flying and aviation. Unfortunately, after an unexpected trip, he was put in a place where flying couldn’t be his #1 priority anymore. After some unexpected journeys as he was healing, he spent a lot of time reflecting on what he would do wit...
Aug 22, 2023•41 min•Ep. 460
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 w...
Aug 15, 2023•45 min•Ep. 459
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...
Aug 08, 2023•38 min•Ep. 458
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...
Aug 01, 2023•38 min•Ep. 457
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 le...
Jul 25, 2023•35 min•Ep. 456
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 tail...
Jul 18, 2023•48 min•Ep. 455
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 ...
Jul 11, 2023•46 min•Ep. 454
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 gr...
Jul 04, 2023•36 min•Ep. 453
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...
Jun 27, 2023•40 min•Ep. 452
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 ...
Jun 20, 2023•32 min•Ep. 451
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 ventu...
Jun 13, 2023•33 min•Ep. 450
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 a...
Jun 06, 2023•30 min•Ep. 449
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 rel...
May 30, 2023•52 min•Ep. 448
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 mo...
May 23, 2023•46 min•Ep. 447
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 t...
May 16, 2023•37 min•Ep. 446
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 realiz...
May 09, 2023•36 min•Ep. 445
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 learne...
May 02, 2023•39 min•Ep. 444
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...
Apr 25, 2023•36 min•Ep. 443
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’ Corn...
Apr 18, 2023•37 min•Ep. 442
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 episod...
Apr 11, 2023•35 min•Ep. 441
