How to Set Your First Speaking Fee

This ranks among the most popular questions for new and emerging professional speakers, and the best answer is probably not what you think. The speaking business is comprised of tens of thousands how people trying to break in, yet only hundreds that are successful. The breakdown ocurrs when people assume that the speaking business is...

How to Become a Professional Speaker

How do you become a professional speaker? Don’t believe everything you read or watch about this online. There’s a lot of money in selling people how to get rich quick in professional speaking. From ‘just tell your story’ to ‘just get on as many stages as possible’ to ‘get discovered as the next big motivational...

Professional Speaker Concierge Service

How would you like a concierge to escort you into the richest segment in the professional speaking industry? (Fortune 100) Or would prefer to cold call? In 1997, Bill Gove and Larry Wilson ushered me into the corporate market as a speaker. They showed me how to break into the biggest companies, build a massive...

Speakers Boycotting Television Losing Millions

If you’re professional speaker, and you’re not leveraging traditional television interviews, it’s literally costing you a fortune. Social media is all the rage, and most likely the television of the future, but the major creators, purveyors and pundits of social media skew heavily in the under 40 demographic, which is NOT the demographic that hires...

Going Onstage with Les Brown at UCLA

500 million people watched the hit movie, The Secret. I missed the casting call, but Bob Proctor assured me that if they ever made a sequel, I’d be in it. Sure enough, in 2009, both of us got the call for “Beyond the Secret”. The movie turned out to be a flop, but we had...

July 17, 1998: Bob Proctor’s Best Night in Speaking

It was July 17, 1998, the speech that changed my life, and the night Bob Proctor would call the best of his speaking career. It’s a story Bob was too humble to tell, but it’s the single greatest speaking story I’ve ever heard. Bob Proctor was my mentor and close friend for 25 years. We...

The Difference Between 6 & 7 Figure Professional Speakers

Why do so few non-celebrity professional speakers ever quailify for the National Speakers Association’s Million-Dollar Speakers Group? I’ve been a member of this group since it’s inception, (2009) and its always been a tiny percentage of NSA’s membership. The year I was chairman, we had 39 speakers out of 5,000 qualify…worldwide! So what are these...

The BIG LIE in Professional Speaking

Back in 1996, my first year as a full-time Professional Speaker, the BIG LIE was everywhere, and I bought into it. Thats why I lost $50,000 my first year. In 1997, I attended the Bill Gove Speech Workshop, and Bill Gove told me the truth. He gently explained that I had been duped by marketing...

How to Become a Million-Dollar Speaker

Becoming a million-dollar speaker is parallel to becoming a million-dollar actor, comedian, singer, dancer or musician. It happens, but it’s rare. That said, if you’re crafty, hardworking and you have excellent mentorship, you have a shot. You just can’t approach it like you’re applying for a job at Home Depot. There’s more to it than...

Speaker’s Apprentice Opportunity

If you’re an emerging or aspiring fee-paid professional speaker, or a professional speaker ready to level up your fees, the Speaker’s Apprentice Opportunity may be for you. The $15 billion/year personal development industry is starving for new talent, yet only 1 in 10,000 new speakers ever hit the $100K mark. Watch this short video that...