How far are you willing to go for your speaking success?

The dream of becoming a professional speaker took hold many years ago. I was working for a small radio station in Santa Rosa, California. My primary job was to sell airtime. Yup! I sold air. Because the station was so small, it was easy to wear many hats. Within a very short period of time I realized that I could more fully serve my clients by not only selling them the air time, but also to write and voice their commercials.
The year was 1989. Two years prior I had a completely different life. Prior to this period I was nearly broke, couch surfing and had no job. I would read and listen to virtually anything I could get my hands on that would help me achieve a success mindset and deepen my spiritual wellbeing. Most everything I read or listened to was obtained from garage sales or the Goodwill. Scraping by from day to day required I get very creative in how I fed my voracious appetite for knowledge. The kind of knowledge that could get me out of the desperate way of life I had ended up in. Out of all of the books in my personal library, my favorite was The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino. I read it morning and night without fail.
It was during this time one of my top clients, Scott, introduced me to the works of Tony Robbins. Scott owned a full service gas station with nearly 40 employees. On a beautiful winter day, I stopped by to drop off the cassette that contained Scott’s most current ad spot. He and his office manager Mary, took me into their office to listen to the demo tape. After we were done with the usual business, Mary asked me if I had ever heard of Tony Robbins. I hadn’t.
They were very excited to introduce me to his work. Putting the full set of tapes for Unlimited Power in my hands, Mary said, “Take these home and listen to one tape each morning and then again at night. If you listen for the full 30 days your life will never be the same. After the 30 days we want you to present to our entire team about what you learned. We host an annual company meeting and this year, we want you to be the speaker. We’ll pay you for your time.”
“But I’m not a speaker.” The words came out of mouth as if they had a mind of their own. “What we love about you, Kathleen, is how positive you are. Our staff needs to find out how you got from where you were, to where you are now. With your own life experience and what we know you’ll get from Tony’s tapes, you will do great!”
For the next 30 days I listened religiously. I noticed my thoughts (and actions) shifting in a really amazing way. I became aware of things I hadn’t paid that much attention to like my daily habits, my thoughts, my focus on what was going on in my head and my willingness to take risks. I stayed the course for the full 30 days, all the while knowing I would be sharing my perception and point of view with Scott’s staff.
When the evening for my presentation arrived, I was fully prepared. I had so much fun with the preparation for the evening, I wondered what it would take to become a full time speaker; the kind of speaker who could impact people around the globe. After all, Tony Robbins had turned his life around and was impacting men and women around the world and making a great living doing so.
The evening went off without a hitch. I did great! The group loved my presentation and Scott couldn’t have been happier. As I was preparing to leave a silver haired gentleman approached me. “I’m Scott’s father. I really liked what you had to say,” he smiled and extended his hand to shake mine. “I have a group of people I would like you to speak to tomorrow night. You can do the same presentation. I don’t have a budget, but this will give you more experience.”
I suppose I should have realized I wasn’t as good as I thought if he was giving me the opportunity for “more experience.” But I ignored this fact, beaming with excitement. Wow! Here I had given only one talk and already I was being asked to speak to another group. I knew I had arrived. Without asking anything about the group, I jumped at the chance.
The following day dragged on, raining nonstop. I anxiously counted the minutes before I would once again be doing what I was destined to do, motivate an audience by getting on the platform with my inspiring message. At the appointed time, I arrived at the facility, dressed in a smart black business suit, heels and carrying my briefcase. I was somewhat taken aback to walk into a room of hundreds of tow truck drivers and their spouses.
It was apparent the drivers had not had time to go home to shower and change. I was witness to several beer chugging contests. It didn’t take but a few minutes for my judgments to set in. Barely two years clean and sober, a part of me wanted to turn and hightail it out of the huge room.
“With risk comes reward,” rang a small voice in my head. “With risk comes reward.” I decided to tough it out even when a few audience members made it abundantly clear they had no desire to listen to me. Trying not to let this impact me, I dove headfirst into my presentation. The more I spoke, the louder a few of the drunk audience members booed. “Get that woman out of here,” could be heard from a couple people around the room. I was devastated. How could I have ever thought I could be a speaker? Feeling knocked down emotionally, I swore I would never, ever, ever get in front of an audience from this point forward.
Fast forward nearly three decades and I have hundreds of presentations under my belt. Not only do I know the formula for making six figures in revenue from self-hosted events, I’ve been a featured keynote speaker at dozens of industry conferences. Meeting planners reach out to me. I’ve sat on expert panels and generate multiple six figures annually in my business. It’s a good thing I changed my point of view on speaking on the platform!
I’ve spoken in almost every state in the union, as well as speaking in Canada and Europe. I’ve heard the applause of highly inspired audiences, autographed my books for those who wanted to “take me home” with them and dealt with some of the craziest unexpected events a speaker can experience.
Today, I love the platform and I know that regardless of what is going on with the economy, I have ample opportunity to generate revenue, great revenue at that! I’ve also discovered the power of knowing how to host my own events to enroll high-end clients. I’ve learned the benefits of celebrity within a market to sell books and home study programs to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars in a matter of hours, and the importance of not giving up.
If you are an expert who...
 Wants to increase your client base
 Desires to get in front of more of your ideal clients
 Is ready to cut the sales process exponentially
 Wants to be viewed as the “go-to” authority
 Dreams of closing more business
 Knows you can make more money
 Is ready to enjoy the process
Then you are in the right place at the right time. Now it’s up to you what you are willing to do to get in front of those who you are meant to impact.
The world needs your message. And you need a platform to share your message. Join me on this incredible journey called speaking. A journey that can reward you financially like virtually nothing else.