20 Mic Drops in 20 Minutes

20 Mic Drops in 20 Minutes

20 speakers. 60 seconds of advice. Infinite insight.

GUESTS + KEY INSIGHTS:

[2:41] - Suneel Gupta

Inner wellbeing & outer performance

“In order for people to feel something, you have to feel something. You have to be emotionally connected to your content. So don't just talk about topics that you know, talk about topics that truly make you come alive, and then let that aliveness, let that conviction shine through in every part of your speech.”

Suneel's Website

[3:25] - Alison Levine

Leading teams in extreme environments

“When you come off stage, where do you go? You go stand next to the most important person in the room on the client side so that they can hear all the audience members coming up to you telling you how much they enjoyed your speech.”

Alison's Website

[4:22] Rich Diviney

High-performing teams from a Navy SEAL’s perspective

“Think about those stories— personal, professional— those things that have happened to you, and think about how to effectively describe them…because people will immediately pay attention. They'll put down their phones, they'll listen up, and they'll be really engaged.”

Rich's Website

[5:23] - John Livesay

Tell stories, win sales

“When your client says they're going to record your upcoming keynote, ask them who else they like to work with and see if you can hire a second camera person to film closeups and audience reactions.”

John's Website

[6:02] - Paul Epstein

The power of playing offense

“Does your head think it's a good idea? Does your heart feel it's a good idea? If both are on board, green light, proceed with action. If only one is on board, yellow light, solve for the gap. If neither is on board, red light, no action.”

Paul's Website

[7:13] - Nina Sossamon-Pogue

Resilience speaker & performance expert

“When doing a virtual gig, you want to be able to have a tight enough shot where they can see your eyes and you can connect, but you want to also be able to bring the energy like you're standing on a stage. Instead of sitting down where you can lose some energy or standing up, where you may move around too much and lose that tight shot, plant one butt cheek on that stool and plant that opposite foot firmly on the ground.”

Nina's Website

[8:12] - John “Gucci” Foley

Becoming the Blue Angels of your industry

“What is the key message? More importantly, what's the story and the connection back to the audience? And that's where I spend most of my time, making the connection back to every single audience.”

John's Website

[9:07] - Urs Koenig

The five then-to-now leadership shifts

“The speaking business really is three distinct businesses. It's number one, being a promoter, number two, a thought leader, and number three, being a performer on stage. This very simple three-way framework helps me to structure my time and my energy. Everything I do, I ask myself, which one of these three businesses am I pushing?”

Urs' Website

[10:06] - Erik Qualman

Digital leadership in focus

“My top tip is to end early. Sounds very simple, but it certainly is not easy. You always want to end early. Do not go over your time. And you have to plan for this. If you're given 45 minutes, there's going to be time that's cut. So plan on that being 35 minutes.”

Erik's Website

[10:43] - Gabe Karp

Embracing healthy conflict to fuel success

“Nothing turns a client or potential client off like the word no. And sometimes we may be asked something we feel might be too much of an imposition, but building your brand as a speaker is more than just your topic. It's also about what it's like to do business with you. So if a client says, "Hey, can you modify your keynote to cover a current issue we're having in our organization?" The answer is, ‘Absolutely. What would you like me to cover?’”

Gabe's Website

[13:03] - April Hansen

Hypergrowth in business

“If you're navigating the same dance that I am, really breaking your personal brand away from your corporate brand, leverage the two together and define those synergies. Take advantage of as many stages as your corporate role or your day job gives you.”

April's Website

[14:01] - Greg Scheinman

Personal transformation

“To be truly successful as a speaker, you must differentiate yourself through authenticity, so you need to break the framework and really develop your speech in your own voice. Then you've got to make the framework by putting your message back into the proven model so that it's received in a way that works for bureaus and clients, and so that you can get yourself hired, get on stage, generate fees, and live your message.”

Greg's Website

[15:05] - Ben Nemtin

Making the impossible possible

“The most important tool as a speaker is to invest in your speaker reel. That is the ultimate sales tool for you. Anytime you get on a stage that is high production value, invest in a videographer that can capture it, get the footage from the client if you can, and just collect this footage as much as you can over time so that you can build up your reel, because the reel is the first thing that the clients are going to look at and it's the entry point into the conversation of booking you.”

Ben's Website

[16:27] - Erin Stafford

How leaders prevent and overcome burnout

“Be radically transparent and vulnerable. I think we can all get embarrassed and feel ashamed and feel like imposters so we don't want to be totally transparent, but the more vulnerable and more transparent you are, the more people can really connect to your message and feel seen and heard and understood.”

Erin's Website

[17:04] - Jim Davidson

Resilience speaker

“If your presentation includes using a laptop with video files or audio files, you need an AV emergency kit. Now we often have AV professionals that we can rely upon to make this work for us, but if you speak long enough, you'll wind up in a remote location, small hotel, or internal meeting where your laptop will just not connect to the house sound system. That's when you pull out your emergency kit.”

Jim's Website

[17:59] - Shep Hyken

Customer service and customer experience

“The job isn't doing the speech, it's getting the speech. He told me that writing my speech, practicing my speech, researching for my speech, that can all be done in the evening and on weekends. And if I were to spend 40 hours a week working on marketing and sales, at getting business, then I would probably be very successful. That's 40 hours, not two hours or three hours a day, but that's a full-out investment, and the effort of getting the speech, not doing the speech.”

Shep's Website

[18:47] - Trish Hunt

From stuck to unstoppable

“Make sure you do all the logistical pre-work that makes you feel as calm as you can prior to hitting the stage. Know your audience and engage them during your speech. And an easy way to remember this is through the acronym WIIFM, what's in it for me? So pay attention to that and you'll be sure to keep them coming back.”

Trish's Website

[19:38] - Eric Termuende

The future of work

“Show and don't tell. Anytime you have a chance to tell a story, make sure that you're putting yourself in the story, telling that story in a present tense. So you're not telling somebody what happened, but you're almost making it live, sharing that story as if they're with you experiencing that story for the first time.”

Eric's Website

[20:37] - Ann Sheu

Mindset shifts for a radically intentional life

“Do you want to be a $50K speaker with four engagements a month or a $25K speaker with one engagement a month? What does your target market client and audience look like? What is your ideal audience size? What types of events do you want to be speaking at? When you have clarity around your ideal life as a speaker and what it looks like, then you can grow your speaking business within your parameters, and that makes it easier to stay true to yourself and cultivate a life filled with time, purpose, and financial freedom.”

Ann's Website

[21:32] - Bob Marsh

Simple shifts to maximize growth and stay relevant

“First, don't overthink the possibilities, b