Journey To Paid Speaking Gigs with Charles Clark
If you have a story to tell and are trying to find ways to make money sharing it, the Journey to Paid Speaking Gigs podcast is the answer. Listeners of the podcast are excited to discover how to find their voice to generate income and develop their speaking skills with Charles Clark. Charles and his Thrive Tribe team are among the world's leading coaches who are experts in helping speakers utilize their gift and get paid to do it but most importantly are passionate about helping the silent speak even if their voice shakes.
https://journeyspeakers.com
Journey To Paid Speaking Gigs with Charles Clark
Jay Baer - Creating a Lasting Impression as a Speaker
Jay Baer is a 7th generation entrepreneur who speaks about business strategy. He has written six books on marketing the customer experience and has founded five multi-million dollar companies. He started paid speaking around 40, which was relatively late in his working career, but after eight years, he got into the Professional Speakers Hall of Fame. He now spends most of his time working on speaking programs around the world and does a lot of brand ambassador work for software companies. Jay is also the second most popular tequila influencer and educates people all around the world.
Key Takeaways
- Jay didn't "need" to do speaking because he was a successful consultant, but he found that he really enjoyed giving presentations. Because of this, he decided to make a pivot: go from a consultant who does some speaking to a speaker who owns a consulting firm.
- Your experience in your given industry—whether that be consulting, technology, and more—can make you a great and highly sought after content-specific speaker.
- As a speaker, delivering great value is important, but you also have to be mindful about not overwhelming people. Oftentimes, a few simple talking points is much more effective than a long list all at once.
- Having "talk triggers" or signature elements as a speaker can help make you unique and memorable. Learn about what separates Jay from other speakers in this episode.
Memorable Quotes
- "It was just as much work pulling myself out of my other business as it was getting into the speaking business." - Jay Baer
- "If there is something you want to do, have the experience in doing it...Get out there. Get your feet wet. Fail a couple times." - Charles Clark
- "If you've got a signature bit or something that people really recognize as your essence, don't run away from it. Run towards it." - Jay Baer
- "You have to be brave enough to fully embrace who you are." - Charles Clark
- "Authenticity is better than perfection." - Charles Clark
- "The audience can smell inauthenticity." - Jay Baer
Episode Resources & Links
Jay Baer
Website: jaybaer.com | thebaerfacts.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaybaer/
Facebook + Instagram + Twitter: @jaybaer
Charles Clark
Website: https://thecharlesclark.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesclarkusa/
Instagram + Facebook: @thecharlesclark
To get access to all our episodes, visit our podcast page!
Enroll in our Journey to Paid Speaking Gigs program to find your voice and learn how to create your own speaking business.
00:00:02 Charles Clark
Welcome to the journey paid speaking gigs podcast.
00:00:04 Charles Clark
Here we bring on guests and the speaking world to uncover how to find your voice as a speaker, get paid speaking engagements, and develop your speaking skills.
00:00:13 Charles Clark
I'm your host.
00:00:13 Charles Clark
Charles Clark.
00:00:14 Charles Clark
Mental health and resilient speaker.
00:00:16 Charles Clark
And today I'm having a conversation with marketing speaker Jay Bear.
00:00:20 Charles Clark
If you like what you hear today, check out the journey to paid speaking gigs Academy on my website, thecharlesclark.com/apply.
00:00:29 Charles Clark
Where you going to learn everything that you need to know about how to create a successful speaking business?
00:00:34 Charles Clark
It's time to rise and thrive, alright?
00:00:36 Charles Clark
Let's welcome Jay to.
00:00:37 Charles Clark
The show.
00:00:37 Jay Baer
Thanks so much, Charles, great to.
00:00:38 Jay Baer
Be here.
00:00:40 Charles Clark
Absolutely, man, I'm.
00:00:42 Charles Clark
I'm excited to dive in.
00:00:44 Charles Clark
You know, when I.
00:00:46 Charles Clark
When I did the intention for season 2.
00:00:49 Charles Clark
I wanted to make sure it was.
00:00:51 Charles Clark
It was people who were who were serious about their craft, who made pivots in their career.
00:00:58 Charles Clark
You know what the adjustments from being in person to doing things virtually, and I and I just love your the platform that that you stand for and just your brand.
00:01:08 Charles Clark
So you know before we get started.
00:01:10 Charles Clark
Just let the through tribe know who is J.
00:01:13 Jay Baer
Yeah, you bet.
00:01:14 Jay Baer
I'm a 7th generation entrepreneur.
00:01:16 Jay Baer
I've written six books on marketing and customer experience.
00:01:19 Jay Baer
Founded 5 multi million dollar companies.
00:01:22 Jay Baer
I I came to speaking relatively late. I didn't give us paid speech till I was 40 years old. But at the age of 48 they put me in the Hall of Fame. So I went from.
00:01:32 Jay Baer
Never getting paid to do it to get into the Hall of Fame in eight years, which is a pretty quick, pretty quick turn in the business.
00:01:38 Jay Baer
So I spend most of my time now working on speaking programs around the world, and then I do a lot of brand ambassador work for software companies as well in my spare time, I like to be on the water.
00:01:50 Jay Baer
I have a boat and I.
00:01:52 Jay Baer
A very active tequila influencer, so I've got a tequila education.
00:01:56 Jay Baer
Tick Tock channel tequila education Instagram account.
00:01:59 Jay Baer
So tequila brand.
00:02:01 Jay Baer
Send me stuff to to taste and review and all that kind of stuff.
00:02:03 Jay Baer
So I'm from Arizona originally so.
00:02:05 Jay Baer
So that's how I got into the tequila game.
00:02:07 Jay Baer
And then on stage, as you may know, I only wear, I only wear Plaid suits.
00:02:11 Jay Baer
I have 14 different Plaid suits.
00:02:13 Jay Baer
And that's my my calling card.
00:02:16 Charles Clark
Hey I I love it, man.
00:02:17 Charles Clark
That's a lot of exciting things that are going on in your life and you know, I I think that gives a lot of hope for people too because, you know, a lot of times we think we got to have it all figured out by a certain age.
00:02:29 Charles Clark
But you know when you talk about in your late 30s and you, you're jumping into a new career, you know, what was that?
00:02:36 Charles Clark
Like what was that turning point like for you when you knew like speaking was in my cards?
00:02:41 Jay Baer
It wasn't really even on purpose.
00:02:43 Jay Baer
I wrote my first book, called the Now Revolution.
00:02:47 Jay Baer
And my co-author Amber Nasaan and I did a book tour after that book launched and we went to 20 cities or so and and did events for a couple 100 people, mostly marketing organizations, and they would buy books and would give a presentation and people would come up to me afterwards and say, man, that was that was a really good presentation you should do.
00:03:05 Jay Baer
More of that.
00:03:05 Jay Baer
Like should I now?
00:03:07 Jay Baer
That's not 100% the path, I mean. Even when I was a kid, like when I was in.
00:03:12 Jay Baer
School I was the always, always the one who would emcee the Pep assembly and, like host the talent show.
00:03:18 Jay Baer
Because I was never scared of the.
00:03:20 Jay Baer
At all and and as a young professional in my 20s, I would occasionally like twice a year, go do a 15 minute presentation to the Rotary Club on what is the Internet or whatever, you know.
00:03:31 Jay Baer
So it's not like I never had microphone, but I never really thought that it could be a business.
00:03:36 Jay Baer
And people said, hey, you should do more of this and then a fantastic.
00:03:39 Jay Baer
Speaker, her name is Kelly MacDonald.
00:03:41 Jay Baer
She's so super active on the circuit.
00:03:43 Jay Baer
She was doing some consulting work for a company I I worked at.
00:03:47 Jay Baer
And and she was really busy as a professional speaker and she kind of took me under her wing and said, hey, yeah, this can be an actual job.
00:03:53 Jay Baer
Like you can do this for a living and and she kind of taught me some of the INS and outs of the business and and.
00:03:59 Jay Baer
Then it kind of off to the races after that.
00:04:03 Charles Clark
Yeah, that, that, that's pretty.
00:04:04 Charles Clark
That's pretty dope for me.
00:04:07 Charles Clark
I I know.
00:04:08 Charles Clark
I didn't know.
00:04:09 Charles Clark
You can actually get paid for it.
00:04:11 Charles Clark
I'm like, you know when when the organization had asked me, like, how much you charge?
00:04:14 Charles Clark
Like what?
00:04:14 Charles Clark
You mean how much you charge?
00:04:15 Charles Clark
Like I thought.
00:04:16 Jay Baer
About 1/2, yeah.
00:04:17 Charles Clark
This was just something.
00:04:17 Charles Clark
That you.
00:04:19 Charles Clark
Yeah, yeah, just, you know, a little.
00:04:21 Charles Clark
Thank you.
00:04:21 Charles Clark
Be nice.
00:04:23 Charles Clark
Well, they're like, not now.
00:04:24 Charles Clark
How would you charge like so?
00:04:26 Charles Clark
So what was your first check?
00:04:27 Charles Clark
Like, you know, when you said this is this is my speaker fee.
00:04:31 Jay Baer
Yeah. First gig was 1500. That was the first first number I put out there. Now it was different because I already had a really successful consulting company and and have been in business, you know for.
00:04:44 Jay Baer
Or 18 or.
00:04:46 Jay Baer
Well, yeah, like 18 years.
00:04:48 Jay Baer
Right.
00:04:48 Jay Baer
And and.
00:04:49 Jay Baer
And I was working with like major brands as a consultant and, you know, had a whole a whole business.
00:04:55 Jay Baer
So I wasn't, and because I didn't set out to make it my career, I wasn't like, well, hey, you know, I'll just do whatever to have stage time, you know.
00:05:05 Jay Baer
It had to make sense for me to not do consulting and instead do speaking.
00:05:09 Jay Baer
So my relationship with, with fees and kind of opportunities and which ones you take, we're.
00:05:14 Jay Baer
A little different.
00:05:15 Jay Baer
Because I didn't need to do it.
00:05:16 Jay Baer
You know what I mean?
00:05:17 Jay Baer
Like it was.
00:05:18 Jay Baer
But then pretty quickly, I said, hey, I really like this the best.
00:05:22 Jay Baer
Of all the things I do, I like speaking the best and so that I went to my my vice president.
00:05:28 Jay Baer
After about a year.
00:05:30 Jay Baer
Of being out there a little bit and I said, look, here's what I want to do.
00:05:33 Jay Baer
I want to go from a consultant who does some speaking to a speaker who owns a consulting firm and it's going to take us five years to to turn that battleship for for people to not ask for me when they come in for consulting that they realize as a whole team.
00:05:49 Jay Baer
Here to give me the time to be out there more and it did.
00:05:52 Jay Baer
It took.
00:05:52 Jay Baer
Five years and we put together a whole plan of exactly how to do it, how to make it about us, not me and etcetera, etcetera.
00:05:58 Charles Clark
Right.
00:05:59 Jay Baer
And we did it and and and and then we spent, you know, the next eight years kind of running that business, right.
00:06:04 Jay Baer
So I was out there doing, mostly speaking, consulting firm, doing consulting.
00:06:08 Jay Baer
Yeah, so it it it was, it was just as much work kind of.
00:06:13 Jay Baer
Pulling myself out of my other.
00:06:14 Jay Baer
Business as it was.
00:06:15 Jay Baer
To get into the speaking business, if you.
00:06:17 Jay Baer
Know what I mean?
00:06:17 Jay Baer
And and so did.
00:06:18 Charles Clark
You ever see like?
00:06:21 Charles Clark
A kind of.
00:06:22 Charles Clark
A crossing between your speaking engagements and the consultant.
00:06:27 Charles Clark
That did you.
00:06:27 Charles Clark
Try to yeah.
00:06:29 Jay Baer
Yeah, I mean, look, the reason that I'm a a a busy speaker is not that I'm a great speaker like I'm pretty good, but there's tons of people who are better than me.
00:06:39 Jay Baer
Lots of my friends are.
00:06:41 Jay Baer
Yeah, but I had 20 years of like.
00:06:45 Jay Baer
Deep, deep, deep.
00:06:46 Jay Baer
Experience in the industry as a professional marketing consultant, as a customer experience consultant, as a technology consultant before I ever gave a presentation.
00:06:55 Jay Baer
And then the whole time I was becoming a busier and busier speaker, why I still had all of these.
00:07:01 Jay Baer
Clients and all the lessons that I was learning everyday working for them so.
00:07:06 Jay Baer
It really helps to know what you're talking about, like like, especially if you're going to be a content speaker like I am, right?
00:07:08 Charles Clark
Yeah, exactly.
00:07:13 Jay Baer
I'm not a a motivational speaker or a leadership speaker.
00:07:15 Jay Baer
Gonna bring you.
00:07:16 Jay Baer
Ideas of how to make your business better, right?
00:07:18 Jay Baer
And those ideas are real, because I actually developed them and put them into practice for Oracle and Hilton and the United Nations.
00:07:26 Jay Baer
And jack-in-the-box and all these other clients like you know it's not, it's not just something I think it's a good idea. Like I've actually done it. Yeah. And so having that kind of day-to-day experience.
00:07:36 Jay Baer
In the business, I think not only adds credibility as a speaker but, but allows you to Rd.
00:07:41 Jay Baer
test the ideas if you're gonna go stand up there in front of us.
00:07:43 Jay Baer
Did an event last week. You stand up in front of 10,000 people and say, hey, you should change your business and do it this way.
00:07:50 Jay Baer
You damn well.
00:07:51 Jay Baer
I don't know.
00:07:52 Charles Clark
You gotta have to prove show me the stats.
00:07:54 Charles Clark
Show me the.
00:07:56 Charles Clark
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:07:59 Charles Clark
All day I think.
00:08:01 Charles Clark
I think that's Golden tribe.
00:08:02 Charles Clark
Listen, if there's something that you're going to do, have the experience in doing it, if that's something that you want to be known for in a profession for like, get out there, get your feet wet, you know, fail a couple times because I'm pretty sure, Jay, you know, it took you.
00:08:19 Charles Clark
Some failures and learning learning curves experiences to to get to the place that.
00:08:24 Charles Clark
You are now. Yeah, I.
00:08:25 Jay Baer
Mean one of the one of the best pieces of.
00:08:27 Jay Baer
Advice I ever.
00:08:27 Jay Baer
Got in this industry was for my buddy Scott Stratton, who's a magnificent speaker, much better than I'll.
00:08:33 Jay Baer
Be and when I was first getting started I I I carried around the curse that many content oriented speakers carry around because I came at it from a consultants mindset and my thinking was alright.
00:08:47 Jay Baer
I got what I got. 45 minutes. Cool. Let me tell you everything I know in 45 minutes, right?
00:08:53 Jay Baer
And it was just an absolute fire hose.
00:08:57 Jay Baer
Of information and and Scott saw me speak and he came up to me afterwards and he said hey man, you could actually be pretty good at this.
00:09:05 Jay Baer
If you do one thing, oh man.
00:09:07 Jay Baer
What is it he's like?
00:09:08 Jay Baer
Half of your speech and.
00:09:09 Jay Baer
Throw it away and then it'll be a good step.
00:09:12 Jay Baer
Which and I was like, huh?
00:09:15 Jay Baer
And that was really, really.
00:09:17 Jay Baer
Good advice, and in fact it changed my whole.
00:09:18
OK.
00:09:19 Jay Baer
Career because now.
00:09:22 Jay Baer
Like what most people do, who who also write books is they write a book and then they create a speech.
00:09:27 Jay Baer
Based on the book.
00:09:27 Jay Baer
Right.
00:09:28 Jay Baer
I do it the exact opposite.
00:09:30 Jay Baer
I write a speech, I go out and give that speech 50 times and get it perfect and get the stories perfect.
00:09:37 Jay Baer
And then I.
00:09:37 Jay Baer
Write a book.
00:09:38 Jay Baer
And when you do it that way, it prevents the the speech from getting too heavy because you're trying to like.
00:09:43 Jay Baer
Fit a whole.
00:09:44 Jay Baer
Book into a 45 minute keynote.
00:09:45 Charles Clark
Right.
00:09:47 Jay Baer
So it's been really.
00:09:47 Jay Baer
Really effective and that that's.
00:09:49 Jay Baer
One of the best.
00:09:49 Charles Clark
Piece of the well, I mean that that was so many jewels in that one sound bite right there, but to me, you know.
00:09:49 Jay Baer
Best I ever got.
00:09:58 Charles Clark
What I what I'm getting from that and that's something that I I definitely had to work on because you know, I always feel like I I want to offer so much value to people, but sometimes.
00:10:08 Charles Clark
Great value is basic information.
00:10:11 Charles Clark
And not overwhelming people with all that, you know, I mean, first of all, if if someone knows everything about you, every every bit of your content, what more do we?
00:10:21 Charles Clark
Have to give.
00:10:23 Charles Clark
So you know, you know Jay.
00:10:25 Charles Clark
So, So what I'm learning from you, man is is really slow it down.
00:10:28 Charles Clark
Just take in the main pieces that you really want to share.
00:10:33 Charles Clark
And and work from.
00:10:33 Charles Clark
There. Yeah, I.
00:10:34 Jay Baer
Mean it's just Physiology, right?
00:10:36
It it's yeah.
00:10:37 Jay Baer
The the human mind can only absorb so much information at one.
00:10:43 Jay Baer
And so you can't.
00:10:45 Jay Baer
You can't give them too much at a time.
00:10:48 Jay Baer
It seems like you're delivering value, but what you're really delivering is confusion, right?
00:10:54 Jay Baer
And in ways, it's just they can't.
00:10:56 Jay Baer
They can't contextualize it, and they can't write it down.
00:10:59 Jay Baer
And and even now I struggle with it, not so much in terms of how much contents in the program.
00:11:05 Jay Baer
But just pace and rate like I speak pretty quickly as.
00:11:07 Jay Baer
You can probably.
00:11:08 Jay Baer
Tell and it's it's.
00:11:08
Yeah, you too.
00:11:11 Jay Baer
I'm always trying to remind myself.
00:11:13 Jay Baer
Like if it sounds slow to me, it's.
00:11:16 Jay Baer
For them and and things like that, I just you know, I've been doing this. You know, I've done, I don't know. Now 1200 paid programs.
00:11:17 Charles Clark
Yeah, yeah.
00:11:22 Jay Baer
And I still.
00:11:23 Jay Baer
Still struggle every day on some of those things.
00:11:27 Charles Clark
Yeah, that speed is definitely my weakness too.
00:11:29 Charles Clark
Sometimes I'm just flowing.
00:11:31 Charles Clark
I'm like, it's not fast enough.
00:11:32 Charles Clark
And and So what?
00:11:33 Charles Clark
What you're saying is is resonate with me?
00:11:36 Charles Clark
Slowing down.
00:11:36 Charles Clark
Because sometimes people like yo, I wrote.
00:11:39 Charles Clark
I wrote about 7 pages of content and I'm like 7 pages.
00:11:43 Charles Clark
I only spoke for 30 minutes.
00:11:45 Charles Clark
So you know that.
00:11:46 Charles Clark
That's pretty cool.
00:11:47 Charles Clark
Like so for you when you know, when you, when you talk about, you know, you started later in your career, 30 at 30 plus.
00:11:54 Jay Baer
Yeah, it was almost 4.
00:11:56 Charles Clark
When did you know like this?
00:11:59 Charles Clark
This is working.
00:12:00 Charles Clark
This is actually working.
00:12:01 Charles Clark
I know you got the the award for it, but when was it like?
00:12:03 Jay Baer
Yeah, I was probably that's a good question.
00:12:04 Charles Clark
Yeah, this is.
00:12:06 Jay Baer
I was probably.
00:12:10 Jay Baer
And again, it wasn't like I was like, hey, I gotta pay all my bills, you know, from speaking initially cause had other other businesses.
00:12:18 Jay Baer
So that helped.
00:12:18 Jay Baer
I can kind of ease into.
00:12:21 Jay Baer
But it was probably, you know, three years before I was like, alright, I think that that I could kind of make this happen.
00:12:28 Jay Baer
That was helpful.
00:12:30 Jay Baer
Because at the time I did a lot of work in digital marketing and social media and kind of all that jazz.
00:12:34 Jay Baer
And that was a really, really hot topic at.
00:12:36 Jay Baer
That time.
00:12:36 Jay Baer
So a lot of conferences and events and associations and organizations.
00:12:40 Jay Baer
Really wanted to hear.
00:12:41 Jay Baer
That story, like how can we use social media etcetera to connect with our our audiences better?
00:12:46 Jay Baer
And I was on that, you know I've been doing it for years like so I really.
00:12:50 Jay Baer
Can speak with expertise on that topic, so that helped right.
00:12:53 Jay Baer
I think it helped me understand that I could make a living out of it because I I I sort of just luckily kind of hit the topics right.
00:13:02 Jay Baer
You know, sort of like today the I is so incredibly popular with events and organizations as it should be, but people who speak on on diversity and inclusion.
00:13:12 Jay Baer
That topic is so red hot right now that if you're just starting the career and that's your topic, it's a good time to start, right?
00:13:18 Jay Baer
And so I got kind of fortunate in that in that regard, but it was probably three years before I was like, alright, Yep, this I can do this.
00:13:18 Charles Clark
Yeah, yeah.
00:13:27 Jay Baer
You know for a while, but look, man, even today, coming out of the pandemic like.
00:13:33 Jay Baer
There's a lot of great speakers out there, even there's a lot of great speakers about marketing and.
00:13:37 Jay Baer
Customer experience.
00:13:38 Jay Baer
I think you're a fool if you spend one day in this industry thinking that you are owed speeches or owed anything, right, like every single day I wake up and think is this the last one I'm going.
00:13:46 Charles Clark
Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah.
00:13:51 Jay Baer
Yeah, because you don't know, man. Somebody's gotta somebody out of all the people in the world, somebody's gotta stroke a check and say I want Charles or I want Jay or I want whoever.
00:14:00 Jay Baer
Else is is listening to the show and you know they're picking you out of everybody.
00:14:04 Jay Baer
I don't think you can ever take that for granted.
00:14:07 Charles Clark
No, I I agree with you.
00:14:09 Charles Clark
And you know I think for for our business and what we're doing at Charles Clark International is like hey, how can we make this better?
00:14:17 Charles Clark
At every touch point, how can we give them an epic experience?
00:14:22 Charles Clark
Because you know, like you said, I I'm not owed anything just because I have a name there.
00:14:27 Charles Clark
There's other people who might be a better fit, you know, even if they have spoken in lesser years than than what I have.
00:14:35 Charles Clark
And so we always have to earn, earn that spot.
00:14:38 Charles Clark
You know, as a transition, my my next question for you is, is there any particular speaker that you have in mind that that allowed you to grow your business in a drastic way?
00:14:50 Charles Clark
What did you see in that person?
00:14:52 Charles Clark
What were those tangible things that allowed you to to increase your your brand?
00:14:58 Charles Clark
Awareness and the success.
00:15:00 Jay Baer
Yeah, I I think it's.
00:15:02 Jay Baer
Speakers who are are not afraid to kind of have something they're known for.
00:15:09 Jay Baer
I wrote a book called Talk Triggers, which is all about how to use word of mouth to to to build your business.
00:15:16 Jay Baer
And so for.
00:15:17 Jay Baer
It's the the Plaid suit, right?
00:15:19 Jay Baer
So I always have a.
00:15:19 Jay Baer
Plaid suit, but more importantly.
00:15:22 Jay Baer
A meeting planner gets to go to a special website. It's dressed Jay baer.com. We can go there right now and they get to pick out which suit.
00:15:28 Jay Baer
I wear.
00:15:29 Jay Baer
They get to.
00:15:30 Jay Baer
They want the blue one, the red one, the purple one, the green one, the other green one, the pink one.
00:15:34 Jay Baer
And sometimes they want to match the OR they want to match the conference logo or the backdrop or whatever they just.
00:15:39 Jay Baer
Pink like and what?
00:15:40 Jay Baer
And then that when they.
00:15:41 Jay Baer
Pick it, we wrote.
00:15:42 Jay Baer
A little program and so it shows up on my calendar so I know what to.
00:15:45 Jay Baer
Pack so it's.
00:15:46 Charles Clark
Like, OK. Oh wow.
00:15:48
Easy for.
00:15:48 Jay Baer
You right. Bring.
00:15:50 Jay Baer
Sue, am I cool?
00:15:51 Jay Baer
I can do that.
00:15:52 Jay Baer
So they love it, right?
00:15:53 Jay Baer
And the meeting planners tell each other about it.
00:15:54 Jay Baer
Like they it's it's.
00:15:56 Jay Baer
Nobody else does it.
00:15:57 Jay Baer
It's kind of my thing.
00:15:58 Charles Clark
Right.
00:15:58 Jay Baer
It's interactive, they love it and and.
00:16:00 Jay Baer
So the reason I wrote that book is that it works for all businesses, not just for speakers that have a talk trigger, something that creates conversations.
00:16:08 Jay Baer
But I notice that they're speakers who who?
00:16:10 Jay Baer
Kind of have.
00:16:12 Jay Baer
A signature element, a signature move.
00:16:14 Jay Baer
A signature story.
00:16:15 Jay Baer
In fact, he used to have a podcast that I ran called Standing Ovation, where I interviewed speakers about their signature.
00:16:21 Jay Baer
Story and how they perfected it over time, etcetera.
00:16:23 Jay Baer
So I look at a speaker like Dan Thurman, a good friend of mine, terrific speaker, former president of the National Speakers Association.
00:16:29 Jay Baer
You know, there's a point in every program that he does where he rides a unicycle and juggle.
00:16:35 Jay Baer
It's awesome, man, because there's not a lot of people out there who can do that, period.
00:16:39 Charles Clark
Nobody would at all.
00:16:40 Jay Baer
Nobody up there on stage, right?
00:16:42 Jay Baer
And and it's not like he's like, yeah, I sometimes do the unicycle.
00:16:47 Jay Baer
And then sometimes I don't or I used to do the unicycle, but I got sick of it.
00:16:51 Jay Baer
I don't do it anymore.
00:16:52 Jay Baer
No, it's part of his program, right.
00:16:55 Jay Baer
And I think sometimes, yes, you should keep your material fresh, of course.
00:16:59 Jay Baer
But don't be afraid if you've got a signature bit or something that people really recognize is is your essence.
00:17:07 Jay Baer
Don't run away from it, man.
00:17:08 Jay Baer
Run towards it and that's one of the things I learned, not just from Dan, but from a lot of speakers like, you know, don't be afraid to to, to come up with something that's yours and and keep riding that horse.
00:17:19 Charles Clark
Wow, I love that you know, finding, finding your stick, you know, like, I can't do what you do, Jay, and put that on my website and let be authentically me and and truly it's it's like.
00:17:33 Charles Clark
And and this speaker industry is is not all about copying the cat.
00:17:38 Charles Clark
You know, of course there's certain timeless things that really are, you know, foundational to having a successful business.
00:17:45 Charles Clark
But at the end of the day, you got to be you.
00:17:47 Charles Clark
You got to be willing to be brave enough to to fully embrace.
00:17:52 Charles Clark
Who you are if you know, if you wear a certain outfit, that's cool it.
00:17:55 Charles Clark
You know, if you talk a certain way, that's cool.
00:17:58 Charles Clark
You know if you speak.
00:17:58 Charles Clark
A certain language.
00:17:59 Charles Clark
Embrace it.
00:18:00 Charles Clark
Yeah, you know.
00:18:01 Charles Clark
If if you go on to the stage.
00:18:02 Charles Clark
And you know you like to.
00:18:03 Charles Clark
Juggle things that.
00:18:04 Charles Clark
That's you.
00:18:05 Charles Clark
And and people are going to see when they see it, it's going to come across as authentic.
00:18:11 Charles Clark
Density is better than perfection, man.
00:18:15 Jay Baer
So true and and let me let me tell you something most people might find surprising when when meeting planners or speakers bureaus, or whomever come in to hire me, they don't say we want Jay to do this program or this topic.
00:18:26 Charles Clark
Yeah, yeah.
00:18:31 Jay Baer
Ever. Ever. Ever.
00:18:33 Jay Baer
They say we want Jay to do this.
00:18:35 Jay Baer
Because it's about, it's about me and what I know and what I do, not exactly the thing I'm gonna say.
00:18:40 Jay Baer
And I think people put too much emphasis on their topic and their exact, specific things are gonna say and not enough emphasis on.
00:18:46 Jay Baer
Well, what's your shtick, man?
00:18:47 Jay Baer
Like, what is your?
00:18:48 Jay Baer
What is your brand?
00:18:49 Jay Baer
And and if you.
00:18:50 Jay Baer
Say just an.
00:18:50 Jay Baer
Easy easy test if if you asked ten meeting planner to have worked.
00:18:55 Jay Baer
With you.
00:18:56 Jay Baer
To describe you and your presentation in three words, could they do it?
00:19:00 Jay Baer
And how similar would those 3 words be?
00:19:01 Jay Baer
And if they're not similar, then then it's not concentrated enough in in their head, right.
00:19:05 Jay Baer
So you're exactly right about not being.
00:19:08 Jay Baer
Afraid to, to, to.
00:19:09 Jay Baer
Be you?
00:19:10 Jay Baer
Well, one of the greatest compliments I ever get.
00:19:12 Jay Baer
And I and I I hear this.
00:19:13 Jay Baer
Fair bit and I love it.
00:19:15 Jay Baer
Every time people say to me, hey, Jay, it's amazing.
00:19:18 Jay Baer
You're just the exact same on stage as you are off stage.
00:19:22 Jay Baer
Yep, and why wouldn't I be?
00:19:24 Jay Baer
Because if if, if that's not true, then you're either full of **** on stage or you're full of **** off stage.
00:19:31 Jay Baer
What's the old?
00:19:31 Jay Baer
Saying yeah like like.
00:19:32 Jay Baer
You know you don't try to be somebody or not.
00:19:34 Jay Baer
We have to remember the lies you man.
00:19:40 Charles Clark
Yeah, big Macs, yeah.
00:19:42 Charles Clark
Yeah, I'm ain't a lot, you know, that is a a hard thing to embrace.
00:19:46 Charles Clark
I started out.
00:19:47 Charles Clark
I always thought I had to to fit a certain bill because I was speaking into corporate spaces.
00:19:54 Charles Clark
I needed to wear a suit.
00:19:56 Charles Clark
I needed to have a tie on, but then it just the realization.
00:20:01 Charles Clark
For me it was like, yeah, I don't feel comfortable in this, you know, like, not that I don't feel comfortable in a suit.
00:20:06 Charles Clark
I do feel comfortable in a suit, but when I'm on the stage and.
00:20:08 Charles Clark
I'm so dynamic.
00:20:09 Charles Clark
I'm high energy like.
00:20:11 Charles Clark
It doesn't work for me right now, of course or.
00:20:14 Jay Baer
Yeah, and.
00:20:15 Jay Baer
And the audience has pick up on that.
00:20:16 Charles Clark
Exactly, yeah.
00:20:16 Jay Baer
They can tell, they can tell, you know that you know, they say that dogs can smell fear.
00:20:20 Jay Baer
The audience can smell inauthentic inauthenticity.
00:20:23 Jay Baer
They can smell right, like they just know that they can just.
00:20:25 Jay Baer
It's just micro facial movements and stuff.
00:20:27 Jay Baer
It just kind of how you carry yourself and your posture like they can tell if you're not totally inhibiting.
00:20:31 Jay Baer
The character of what you.
00:20:33 Jay Baer
Even up there.
00:20:34 Jay Baer
So I completely agree.
00:20:35 Jay Baer
Like don't don't feel bad about you and it happens like I, you know, I've had that impostor syndrome myself.
00:20:41 Jay Baer
Like man, what am I doing here?
00:20:42 Jay Baer
Like I'm not good enough.
00:20:43 Jay Baer
I don't know enough.
00:20:44 Jay Baer
All these speakers are better than me.
00:20:45 Jay Baer
Like, I still feel that way all the time.
00:20:47 Jay Baer
Right. And and.
00:20:48 Charles Clark
And and I've been doing this for a while now.
00:20:50 Charles Clark
So, but I mean, and and that's really cool for everyone to know, like.
00:20:53 Charles Clark
I I see.
00:20:54 Charles Clark
Struggle with it and I'm pretty sure I would struggle with it again.
00:20:57 Charles Clark
It is just something when when you're out in the forefront, when you're out in the public, there's always something that that goes through your mind.
00:21:06 Charles Clark
But the more you just tap into your authentic self, it'll be fine.
00:21:10 Charles Clark
It'll be fine.
00:21:11 Charles Clark
You know, you you have 6 New York Times.
00:21:14 Charles Clark
That's selling books.
00:21:15 Charles Clark
That's that's extraordinary and just want to celebrate that that with you right now.
00:21:20 Charles Clark
Man, that's that's awesome.
00:21:22 Charles Clark
How how do you use this?
00:21:23 Charles Clark
My last question for for the podcast today.
00:21:26 Charles Clark
How do you leverage that book to create more success in your speaking?
00:21:30 Jay Baer
Business I think partially, especially in the corporate world that I typically work in meeting planners like to know that there's a book behind the speech because it it it sort of feels like you've done the work and that there's a body of expertise.
00:21:43 Jay Baer
Underneath the 45 or 60 minute presentation and then of course in corporate events, a lot of times the book itself becomes a useful adjunct to the presentation.
00:21:52 Jay Baer
So you can give everybody a book, you do a book signing and the sponsors.
00:21:55 Jay Baer
But with those kind of things.
00:21:56 Jay Baer
So the fact that there is a book just makes it sometimes a little bit easy.
00:21:59 Jay Baer
You're for the event itself, right?
00:22:01 Jay Baer
And that's kind of how I think.
00:22:02 Jay Baer
About it, right.
00:22:02 Jay Baer
Is like, yeah, the presentation is the presentation, but if we have the book, then we can do some things before and after the on stage presentation because I think of the the speech isn't just the speech, right?
00:22:11 Jay Baer
The speech starts the second I land in the city, right?
00:22:13 Jay Baer
The speech starts.
00:22:14 Jay Baer
Speech starts when the when the wheels touch the runway, because that's when I start contacting meeting planner and then you show up on site.
00:22:19 Jay Baer
Who can you meet with there? And you know, can you do a special meet and greet with somebody, like, people think that they're getting paid to do 45 minutes with a microphone?
00:22:25 Jay Baer
No, man, you're getting paid to make that event awesome and and.
00:22:28 Jay Baer
And so you gotta think about your role.
00:22:29 Jay Baer
And I think partially I do a lot of.
00:22:31 Jay Baer
The work and a lot of event hosting work and so I'm even more driven by this mentality, which is it's my responsibility to make sure this event is fantastic, even if there's seven other speakers, I still feel like it's my responsibility, right?
00:22:41 Jay Baer
So when you have a book or something else that that maybe it's a a workbook or or some other thing that you have, it just allows the meeting planner and yourself to build other interaction elements inside the event itself.
00:22:52 Jay Baer
That's one of the reasons why a lot of speakers, even that might even be easier to just do a Kindle version or just do an audiobook.
00:22:57 Jay Baer
They still often have the physical book just.
00:23:00 Jay Baer
Because like you can't do a.
00:23:01 Jay Baer
Book signing in the trade show, but.
00:23:03
It can't copy right?
00:23:04 Jay Baer
It doesn't.
00:23:04 Jay Baer
I mean it doesn't.
00:23:05 Jay Baer
Work right? So right? Yeah.
00:23:06 Charles Clark
The NFT version of.
00:23:07 Jay Baer
It right, I mean that's that's it. But yeah, let's just do NFT's like cool.
00:23:11 Jay Baer
How we gonna do the book signing?
00:23:12 Jay Baer
Well, we can't.
00:23:12 Jay Baer
Really do that.
00:23:13 Jay Baer
I'm like, well then.
00:23:13 Jay Baer
I don't wanna do it.
00:23:16 Charles Clark
Hey, Jay, man, I I really enjoyed our episode today so much.
00:23:20 Charles Clark
I wanted to talk about, but you know, hopefully the the tribe got so much value out of this.
00:23:25 Charles Clark
To to really help grow their speaking business.
00:23:28 Charles Clark
So before we go working to try.
00:23:29 Jay Baer
Finding twoplacescharles1jaybear.com is my main site, but I have a newsletter comes out twice a month.
00:23:34 Jay Baer
I think it's pretty dope.
00:23:35 Jay Baer
It's pretty funny.
00:23:36 Jay Baer
There's always a marketing or customer experience lesson, usually drawn from my own, very colorful.
00:23:40 Jay Baer
There's a book review every time there's a podcast review, usually tequila review bunch of other fun stuff. If you go to thebearfacts.com thebearfacts.com, sign up you'll.
00:23:49 Charles Clark
Love it.
00:23:50 Charles Clark
Alright, let's get it.
00:23:51 Charles Clark
I stick around.
00:23:52 Charles Clark
We getting ready.
00:23:52 Charles Clark
To go behind scenes.
00:23:57 Charles Clark
Hope you enjoyed today's episode.
00:23:59 Charles Clark
Click the follow button to be notified for more episodes.
00:24:01 Charles Clark
And if you're interested in learning how to overcome the struggle of stage right, write that life story and speech, or how to become that paid speaker.
00:24:09 Charles Clark
Enrollment is now open to the journey to pay speaking games Academy head to the Charles clark.com/apply. It's time that you speak, even if your voice shakes. I'll catch you guys on the next episode.