"And so I'm sending out the emails, I'm doing the work, I'm following the process, and I'm not really getting any responses. And so by the end of the day, I'm like, well, am I doing this right? Or, you know, imposter syndrome kind of sets in, you know, am I really built for this?" Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! In this Alumni Spotlight, Dan Irvin sits down with Marcus Dove — a performance mindset coach based in Tulsa who helps coaches and programs turn talented athletes into consistent performers under pressure. Marcus played basketball for 30 years, earned Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year two years in a row at Oklahoma State, then spent 16 years playing professionally overseas across six countries. He knows what it takes to perform when it counts. Now he's building a speaking business around that expertise — and in this episode, he's just signed his first paid gig. Here's what makes this conversation worth your time: Marcus did not have some easy path to that first booking. He was doing the work. Sending the cold emails. Following the process. And hearing nothing back. By the end of the day he'd be down on himself, questioning whether he was built for this at all. Then his TSL coach Corinne made one suggestion — stop reaching out to coaches, start reaching out to athletic directors. Two days later, an athletic director responded. Five to seven days after that, the gig was locked in. Marcus also walks through the tools that made the difference day to day: the CRM that replaced running outreach off memory (he calls it a lifesaver), the speaking agreement negotiation that nearly sent him spiraling when the buyer countered, and his game film method — recording himself giving the speech 30 to 40 times at home and watching it back, the way an athlete watches tape. Whether you're in the stretch where nothing is coming back and imposter syndrome is creeping in, or you're past the first booking and trying to figure out how to actually prepare for the stage, this is a conversation with someone standing exactly where a lot of listeners are standing right now. You'll learn: How one pivot in Marcus's outreach strategy — from coaches to athletic directors — booked his first paid gig in under a week What the stretch of silence and non-responses actually felt like day to day, and how imposter syndrome set in Why Corinne's suggestion worked so fast, and what Marcus wants every student in the program to hear about it How switching from memory-based outreach to a CRM gave him a clear plan every morning for his power hour The moment a buyer countered his speaking proposal — why he thought the deal was dead, and why it closed within 24 hours His game film method: recording himself giving the speech 30 to 40 times at home and watching the playback to find what to add and cut Why he does a couple of free gigs at local high schools before a paid stage How comparison hit hardest in group sessions — seeing other students further along with their websites already built The reframe that got him past it: everyone's on their own journey, and their progress is information, not a verdict Why a mindset speaker has to practice what he preaches — and Dan's point that what we speak on is often the medicine we need His pre-stage nervous voice, what it says, and the counter-script he runs against it His answer to "a no from a client really means…" — and why reframing it as "not right now" changes how you carry the rejection And much, much more! "Growth comes in uncomfortability, right? If you don't step outside your comfort zone, if you don't step outside your norm, growth doesn't happen. And so try to do something different. Try to push yourself to a limit you haven't been pushed to." Stuck in the stretch where you're doing the work but nothing is coming back? Take the free Speaker Business Assessment at thespeakerlab.com/SBA and find out exactly where you are in your speaking journey and what to do next. Episode Resources: Speaker Business Assessment Marcus Dove MySpeakerFee Apple Podcasts Spotify See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
