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
Seth Godin - Carving out your Speaker Path
Seth is an accomplished writer, entrepreneur, and speaker who is a pioneer in the ethical online direct marketing space. He has published 20 bestselling books mainly about marketing and innovation, and they have been translated into nearly 40 languages. Through his talks about effective marketing, leadership, the spread of ideas, and more, Seth has been able to motivate and inspire countless people around the world. His goals are to solve interesting problems, notice things that people don't notice, and lend a hand to others—all things that he is able to accomplish on stage. Seth's many achievements include being in the Guerrilla Marketing Hall of Fame, the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame, and the Marketing Hall of Fame.
Key Takeaways
- Seth believes you are not necessarily predestined to do something but you can decide what you are called to do based on your analysis of the world.
- Learn about the easiest road to becoming a successful speaker. Hint: it is about the value you bring before getting on the stage.
- Giving people a story to take away from a product or experience—like a book or speaking engagement—is key to being memorable.
- Being a great speaker is about being creative and innovative.
- Learn about the most challenging speech Charles had to give and how he had to pivot on the spot.
Memorable Quotes
- "I discovered as a marketer that you don't change things because you're tired of them, you change things because your audience gets tired of them." - Seth Godin
- "We want things to look all pretty. We tend to the outside rather than tend to what's on the inside of our heart to perfect that and make those things better." - Charles Clark
- "Authenticity creates connectivity." - Charles Clark
- "Do not beat yourself up about the disconnect between what the market is rewarding and the quality of what you're saying." - Seth Godin
Episode Resources & Links
Seth Godin
Website: https://www.sethgodin.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethgodin/
Facebook + Instagram: @sethgodin | Twitter: @thisissethsblog
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 best selling author, Seth Godin.
00:00:20 Charles Clark
If you like what you hear today, check out the journey to paid speaking gigs Academy on my website.
00:00:25 Charles Clark
Thecharlesclark.com/apply, where you're gonna 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.
00:00:35 Charles Clark
Let's welcome Seth to the show.
00:00:38 Seth Godin
Well, thank you.
00:00:38 Seth Godin
Thanks for doing the show.
00:00:39 Seth Godin
It's really generous for you to do it.
00:00:41 Seth Godin
And I'm glad that people.
00:00:42 Seth Godin
Are listening to what you have to say.
00:00:44 Charles Clark
So before we get started, let the Thrive Tribe know.
00:00:47 Charles Clark
Who is Seth Godin?
00:00:48 Charles Clark
And I'm I'm referring to you as a person.
00:00:51 Charles Clark
You as a speaker, as an expert.
00:00:53 Charles Clark
And you know your.
00:00:56 Seth Godin
So in 1977, when I was 17 years old, I heard that it was possible to make a living as a paid speaker.
00:01:02 Seth Godin
I didn't think there.
00:01:03 Seth Godin
Was such a thing, and when people asked, what did you want to be when you grow up, I wanted to be a teacher, which I.
00:01:09 Seth Godin
Get to do and.
00:01:11 Seth Godin
Oh, do you like to get paid to do that?
00:01:13 Seth Godin
So I would.
00:01:14 Seth Godin
Giving hundreds of speeches for.
00:01:16 Seth Godin
And now I've given more than 1000 speeches for money. Uh, I've been really successful at it. And Super lucky, you know, I I came from a place of privilege, but I also worked really hard to figure out how to get.
00:01:28 Seth Godin
Good at it.
00:01:29 Seth Godin
And so on a good day.
00:01:32 Seth Godin
What I try to do for a living is sound interesting problems.
00:01:35 Seth Godin
Notice things that people don't notice.
00:01:37 Seth Godin
Maybe in the hand, and sometimes I get to do well on stage, at least before COVID.
00:01:42 Seth Godin
Now I'm mostly doing it sitting here in this room all by myself.
00:01:46 Charles Clark
Alright, so let's take a little quick break cause I always like to know what's going on in the back of, you know, you got the books, it it it, it looks like it looks like creativity.
00:01:56 Charles Clark
It looks like you so kind of.
00:01:58 Charles Clark
Like tell me about that background before.
00:02:00 Charles Clark
I go into the the next question.
00:02:02 Seth Godin
Yeah, so this.
00:02:03 Seth Godin
Whole thing started when you know I've been on zoom for five years, but the backgrounds of people on CNN and things careful.
00:02:09 Seth Godin
And I was like, oh, it's nice that a lot of books by authors you like, but it's totally different to have books after.
00:02:15 Seth Godin
The books you wrote.
00:02:17 Seth Godin
And so I just thought it was fine.
00:02:19 Seth Godin
My bookshelf has always been messy.
00:02:21 Seth Godin
I prefer to organize it in the way my brain works as opposed to like a library.
00:02:26 Seth Godin
And I discovered.
00:02:29 Seth Godin
As a marketer, you don't change things because you're tired of them.
00:02:32 Seth Godin
You change things cause your.
00:02:33 Seth Godin
Audience gets tired of.
00:02:35 Seth Godin
Them so like you shouldn't change their logo and I shouldn't change my background.
00:02:39 Charles Clark
So I don't.
00:02:42 Charles Clark
That's that's, that's that's.
00:02:43 Charles Clark
Pretty amazing because I think you know what people tend to do, they they we want things to look all pretty.
00:02:49 Charles Clark
We rather we tend to the outside rather than tend to what's on the inside of our heart and to perfect that and make those things better.
00:02:57 Charles Clark
And yeah, man, yeah, I I definitely respect that because you know what?
00:02:57 Seth Godin
What's that?
00:03:01 Charles Clark
Let's just keep it real and I.
00:03:03 Charles Clark
Think during COVID right like.
00:03:05 Charles Clark
We've been exposed like some people, you know, you got, you got your wife coming in, the dog barking.
00:03:10 Charles Clark
Sometimes you're in the middle of a speech.
00:03:12 Charles Clark
I don't know.
00:03:12 Charles Clark
A meeting like, let's just keep it real.
00:03:15 Charles Clark
Because I think in authenticity it it creates connectivity.
00:03:18 Charles Clark
So yeah, thanks for sharing that.
00:03:21 Charles Clark
So I want to go into the in this in this part.
00:03:23 Charles Clark
So you you've been in the marketing space and you have over 19 best selling books and that's incredible.
00:03:30 Charles Clark
So kind of tell me about.
00:03:31 Charles Clark
That journey of the the.
00:03:33 Charles Clark
Story of how did you get into speaking and and when did you know that what you had to say it mattered?
00:03:40 Seth Godin
Let's see the last part first.
00:03:42 Seth Godin
Anyone who's listening to.
00:03:43 Seth Godin
This what they have to say.
00:03:44 Seth Godin
Matters do not beat yourself up about the disconnect between what the market is rewarding and the quality of.
00:03:52 Charles Clark
You're saying?
00:03:53 Seth Godin
So before I wasn't a best selling author, I was a book packager.
00:03:57 Seth Godin
Book packagers do for a living is, we discover problems that are too hard to solve for single author like almanacs, test prep books, books on gardening or whatever.
00:04:07 Seth Godin
And we bring that package to the publisher sometimes.
00:04:11 Seth Godin
I was the quote author.
00:04:12 Seth Godin
Sometimes I found authors.
00:04:14 Seth Godin
My second book was about removing spots and stains and I found this guy who was the world expert on spot and staining.
00:04:21 Seth Godin
Local, so I knew how to talk to public.
00:04:23 Seth Godin
It was, and I taught myself how to write because writing isn't talent.
00:04:27 Seth Godin
It's not a gift, as you've discovered.
00:04:29 Seth Godin
It's a skill, yeah.
00:04:31 Seth Godin
The same thing you learned how to run.
00:04:33 Seth Godin
You learned how to write more, one more running.
00:04:36 Seth Godin
No one's born writing. You just decide. And I realized a long time ago when a book.
00:04:43 Seth Godin
Is a magical.
00:04:43 Seth Godin
Totem that it's it, it stands for something it reminds people of something it.
00:04:48 Seth Godin
Gives us status.
00:04:50 Seth Godin
And so when I started one of the first Internet companies, we need to explain to a lot of people what we did.
00:04:58 Seth Godin
And it was taking too many months to do it.
00:05:00 Seth Godin
Every sales call.
00:05:01 Seth Godin
So I read a book about what we were doing and we had to make a book.
00:05:05 Seth Godin
That book ended up becoming a New York Times bestseller, and it opened the door for the kind of work.
00:05:09 Seth Godin
We were doing with it.
00:05:10 Seth Godin
Well, I'm an actor now.
00:05:12 Seth Godin
I'm not a package.
00:05:12 Seth Godin
I got something to say, so I've.
00:05:15 Seth Godin
Been an author off and on ever since.
00:05:19 Charles Clark
So when did you know?
00:05:20 Charles Clark
Because I think that it happens like an aha moment that happens.
00:05:24 Charles Clark
Like I'm on the cusp of doing something full time where I no longer have to do the secondary idea or the vision that I have for my life, but I can I can focus on what I'm truly called to do.
00:05:37 Seth Godin
Well, I I hate to be disappointing, but first of all, I don't think anyone.
00:05:40 Seth Godin
's called to do anything.
00:05:41 Charles Clark
OK. Yeah.
00:05:42 Seth Godin
I didn't that we decide what Our Calling is based on our analysis of the world like you would see somebody who says my calling is to make desserts using mud, Sass, Parrilla and whipped cream.
00:05:55 Seth Godin
Because yeah, that.
00:05:56 Seth Godin
Look, that's not a.
00:05:57 Seth Godin
Calling because you can't imagine it work.
00:06:01 Seth Godin
What happens if people see this landscape where some folks are getting on planes and talking in front of audiences and etcetera?
00:06:08 Seth Godin
Oh my calling is to be a speaker.
00:06:09 Seth Godin
Well, you would like to be a speaker.
00:06:12 Seth Godin
I get that.
00:06:13 Seth Godin
So then the question is, you know, when you get a chance to do it and for me.
00:06:19 Seth Godin
I paid to speak.
00:06:20 Seth Godin
For years and years I had a publicist who got me on stage for free.
00:06:25 Seth Godin
Yeah, and.
00:06:27 Seth Godin
There's a few ways to become a paid speaker the most.
00:06:35 Seth Godin
Reliable way to do it for sure.
00:06:38 Seth Godin
Is to be famous.
00:06:40 Seth Godin
Get famous at something and then they call you up and they say.
00:06:44 Seth Godin
Hey you want?
00:06:45 Seth Godin
A little bit better is, hey, where did you lady?
00:06:47 Seth Godin
Hey, whatever.
00:06:47 Seth Godin
Come give a speech.
00:06:49 Seth Godin
This is really important to understand.
00:06:51 Seth Godin
So here's here's the heartbreaking moment in my arc.
00:06:55 Seth Godin
I worked at it, I worked at.
00:06:57 Seth Godin
I invented a a different way of using PowerPoint than it ever done before, which is my PowerPoint slides had hundreds of pictures and no words.
00:07:05 Seth Godin
Never said you can't do that, and I did it anyway and I worked in my timing and I worked at how to be on stage and I show up at this conference and there's someone else speaking who's getting paid five times.
00:07:16 Seth Godin
More than me.
00:07:17 Seth Godin
And I watched their talk and they're terrible.
00:07:20 Seth Godin
They're terrible.
00:07:22 Seth Godin
But the question is, what does it mean to be good as a paid speaker?
00:07:26 Seth Godin
Well, they are better than me.
00:07:29 Seth Godin
Because they were famous, I gave a speech.
00:07:33 Seth Godin
One of the.
00:07:34 Seth Godin
Highlights of my career the Zigzagger who was just the the godfather of the whole thing.
00:07:40 Seth Godin
And Gerald Ford, former president of the United States and the soccer player. So there are four of us there, and there are 22,000 people.
00:07:49 Seth Godin
In the audience.
00:07:51 Seth Godin
And I was paid the least.
00:07:53 Seth Godin
And I will tell you, I couldn't compare to zig, but I could do a better speech than jail for it in my sleep.
00:08:02 Seth Godin
To be frank and full respect, her couldn't string 7 sentences together and both of them were paid way more than me and got a standing ovation before they started to speak, because what were they paid for?
00:08:18 Seth Godin
So this is the.
00:08:19 Seth Godin
The key take away here?
00:08:21 Seth Godin
There's a curve.
00:08:22 Seth Godin
With two humps in it.
00:08:24 Seth Godin
One hump is how many people are willing.
00:08:27 Seth Godin
To speak for.
00:08:27 Seth Godin
Free and the answer is a lot, right?
00:08:31 Seth Godin
And then there is another curve which is speakers who are really famous, who will help me sell tickets to my event, or who, if I tell people I got this person will be impressed.
00:08:41 Seth Godin
Right. Those are the two humps. And in between is a big through, and that through is $5000 speakers $10,000 because we're really, really good. They're not famous.
00:08:54 Seth Godin
Yeah, and no one needs to hire.
00:08:56 Seth Godin
Those people, because they got really, really good, not famous people they can get.
00:09:01 Seth Godin
For free.
00:09:02 Seth Godin
So if you're showing up saying I'm really, really.
00:09:04 Seth Godin
Good. I'm not famous.
00:09:06 Seth Godin
But I want you to pay me money that's really hard to pull off because what they pay for when they're higher speaker.
00:09:14 Seth Godin
Is taking you out of your busy, successful life.
00:09:19 Seth Godin
To get you to interrupt it, to show up in a place where you bring status.
00:09:24 Seth Godin
Where people go.
00:09:25 Seth Godin
I can't believe you got Spike Lee to stop making a movie and come to Santa Fe and give a speech.
00:09:32 Seth Godin
That's what they're paying for.
00:09:34 Seth Godin
And so if you want to make it as a paid speaker, it's a really good idea to get good.
00:09:38 Seth Godin
At it, I would like to think.
00:09:40 Seth Godin
I'm good at it, you know Bono.
00:09:42 Seth Godin
Said my Ted talk was one of the 10.
00:09:43 Seth Godin
Best ever.
00:09:44 Seth Godin
Because I worked at it.
00:09:45 Seth Godin
That's how people hire me.
00:09:47 Seth Godin
They're hiring me because there's bugs in the room because other people say I can't believe you.
00:09:52 Seth Godin
That stuff to come.
00:09:53 Seth Godin
And so the way you do that is by doing other things in your life.
00:09:58 Seth Godin
That make you that sort of unattainable get.
00:10:01 Charles Clark
Yeah, it's it's the value you bring.
00:10:05 Charles Clark
Before you get to the stage, rather than thinking that your value is you speaking on the stage, correct.
00:10:12 Charles Clark
Yeah, I I love the way you frame that.
00:10:14 Charles Clark
So so for you when when you, when you're on the stage, what do you feel is the the biggest goal that you want to to accomplish when you're on that stage?
00:10:26 Seth Godin
Right. OK. So this is where it gets really cool #1.
00:10:30 Seth Godin
The less you want to speak and give, the more likely it is you'll get.
00:10:34 Seth Godin
#2, the more you charge, the more likely it.
00:10:37 Seth Godin
Is you'll get hired.
00:10:39 Seth Godin
So I once I started getting paid to speak, I had already sold my Internet company, so I just getting paid to speak as a paying less because I don't like doing on airplanes.
00:10:50 Seth Godin
I don't like leaving home. Yeah, so I limited the number of speeches I give every year. Some of the people I work with, you know, my hair, Tom Peters at his peak was giving 160.
00:10:59 Seth Godin
Which is here. I have a note I'm not doing more than 25, maybe 30, no matter where they are and if it's far from New York, I'm probably going to say no as soon as I said that more people wanted me to speak.
00:11:14 Seth Godin
Right once, but once I get on stage, I am no longer there for the organizer, the organizer and I are even the.
00:11:14 Seth Godin
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:11:23 Seth Godin
Minute I walk.
00:11:24 Seth Godin
On stage, the minute I walk on stage, I'm there for those.
00:11:26 Seth Godin
People in the seats.
00:11:28 Seth Godin
And then everything changes, it changes to.
00:11:32 Seth Godin
What I want is simple.
00:11:34 Seth Godin
I want to help people see something they cannot Unsee.
00:11:37 Seth Godin
I want to put words on the table that are months from now and two months from now they come up in a meeting.
00:11:44 Seth Godin
I want to.
00:11:46 Seth Godin
Get a note from people, not the day after I give a speech.
00:11:48 Seth Godin
I want to get a note from people six years after.
00:11:50 Seth Godin
I give a speech and that note six years later is you may not remember what you said in Akron.
00:11:57 Seth Godin
OH that day.
00:11:58 Seth Godin
But I want to.
00:11:59 Seth Godin
Tell you what happened.
00:11:59 Seth Godin
After that, yeah.
00:12:01 Seth Godin
Well, well.
00:12:03 Seth Godin
And I still stand by it.
00:12:07 Charles Clark
Thanks for sharing.
00:12:09 Charles Clark
I watched a interview with you where where you talked about we're in this revolution and this is where where we don't have to wait on other people to validate our ideas, our inventions, our creations.
00:12:24 Charles Clark
Rather we can create those things ourselves.
00:12:28 Charles Clark
In the speaking industry, let let's kind of address that within new speakers within the industry, what is kind of like your your mindset and and mantra when it comes to that.
00:12:38 Seth Godin
OK, so I don't believe in gimmicks and I don't believe in hustle.
00:12:42 Seth Godin
I do believe in things being remarkable, so I'm sort of well known for.
00:12:46 Seth Godin
Writing this book.
00:12:48 Seth Godin
And when I wrote it, no, but nothing.
00:12:51 Seth Godin
Would publish me.
00:12:51 Seth Godin
I was a failure.
00:12:52 Seth Godin
I had been kicked out.
00:12:53 Seth Godin
Of the industry.
00:12:55 Seth Godin
So punishing myself, I made 5000 copies and I only offered.
00:12:59 Seth Godin
It to people who got.
00:13:00 Seth Godin
The joke, the reason the milk carton worked.
00:13:03 Seth Godin
Is cause people who got it in the mail left it.
00:13:06 Seth Godin
On their desk.
00:13:08 Seth Godin
If you have a book on your desk, no one says anything, then you have no card on your desk.
00:13:11 Seth Godin
You say what's.
00:13:12 Seth Godin
And people didn't talk about it because they liked me.
00:13:15 Seth Godin
They didn't talk about because they wanted me to succeed.
00:13:17 Seth Godin
They talked about it because they wanted to tell the other person about the idea they're about them.
00:13:23 Seth Godin
So in the speaking world, nobody came up faster than Tony Robbins.
00:13:29 Seth Godin
And the question is, how did Tony?
00:13:31 Seth Godin
Do it.
00:13:31 Seth Godin
Yeah, because Tony lifted a lot of his early material from.
00:13:34 Seth Godin
Zig and other.
00:13:35 Seth Godin
So it wasn't.
00:13:36 Seth Godin
He had a breakthrough content.
00:13:38 Seth Godin
It was he showed up at a Holiday Inn, the cheapest place you could book a room for 100.
00:13:45 Seth Godin
And we'll be doing a speech.
00:13:47 Seth Godin
On a Sunday and while he was talking, his assistant took 3-4 bags of Kingsford charcoal outside and made a 50 foot long trench and little on fire. So now you've got a 50 foot long trench of burning charcoal outside, and Tony's.
00:14:07 Seth Godin
Finishing up his speech, he takes off his shoes and socks.
00:14:10 Seth Godin
He wears up his pants and he says follow me.
00:14:14 Seth Godin
And the people in the room are so hopped up, they walk across these burning coals, 50 feet of burning coals.
00:14:20 Seth Godin
Yeah, and come back.
00:14:21 Seth Godin
Into it.
00:14:21 Seth Godin
Well, here's the thing if.
00:14:22 Seth Godin
You know, physics.
00:14:23 Seth Godin
And and Physiology.
00:14:25 Seth Godin
You can't bring yourself.
00:14:26 Seth Godin
It's not about your mental state, it's about physics.
00:14:29 Seth Godin
You're not gonna burn yourself, but you have to trust yourself enough to walk on the coals.
00:14:33 Seth Godin
All right, fine.
00:14:34 Seth Godin
So what happens on Monday?
00:14:37 Seth Godin
On Monday, you go back to work.
00:14:40 Seth Godin
And your friend says, what'd you do this weekend?
00:14:42 Seth Godin
Thinking you're going to say, I don't know, I went to a BBQ and you say I walked on burning coals cause Tony gave you a story, right?
00:14:52 Seth Godin
And every person you love them because every single person total least five people.
00:14:58 Seth Godin
That's good speaking because they didn't tell people because they thought Tony was a.
00:15:03 Seth Godin
Good guy, right?
00:15:04 Seth Godin
They blow people because they thought they were brave.
00:15:07 Seth Godin
And they became evangelist for the shift and then the next time someone books Tony Robbins and he goes, oh, I can't leave you going.
00:15:14 Seth Godin
To come. Yeah, yeah.
00:15:16 Charles Clark
I think I think a lot of times.
00:15:18 Charles Clark
People forget the name of the book or you know the the, the the message.
00:15:23 Charles Clark
Well, not the message itself, but they forget the person who's carrying the message.
00:15:26 Charles Clark
But they will remember the message.
00:15:27 Charles Clark
So so it shows us as speakers what needs to take precedence.
00:15:32 Charles Clark
It's it's not about us.
00:15:33 Charles Clark
When we get on the stage, as you as you mentioned before.
00:15:36 Charles Clark
But what is the thing that people going to take away with them?
00:15:40 Charles Clark
I want to hear about your your most memorable speaking experience.
00:15:44 Charles Clark
What was that moment like?
00:15:46 Charles Clark
And where were you?
00:15:50 Seth Godin
I've got so many, you know, I.
00:15:52 Charles Clark
That was a.
00:15:54 Charles Clark
Sign right there.
00:15:57 Seth Godin
I'm thinking really hard about not doing it ever again about not getting on a plane.
00:16:02 Seth Godin
And I had a really good run and it's exhausting and thrilling at the same time.
00:16:08 Seth Godin
There was that trip I took to Australia and my friend Bernadette.
00:16:11 Seth Godin
He's lived in Perth.
00:16:12 Seth Godin
The time when uh, we organized all the events ourselves, rented our own theater, put together the whole day. We had a a reception at the the Art Museum in Sydney and everything was more beautiful than the next. And I'm up there. I'm in a 7 hour Q&A session.
00:16:29 Seth Godin
On stage.
00:16:31 Seth Godin
And it's working.
00:16:32 Seth Godin
I I remember when I launched my book linchpin and again I organized my own event, 450 seats sold in New York City.
00:16:42 Seth Godin
And just before I walk on stage backstage, my dear friend sunny, Lisa and Jacqueline are waiting for me.
00:16:49 Seth Godin
And I didn't even know.
00:16:50 Seth Godin
Where we're going to come.
00:16:51 Seth Godin
And uh, I remember doing a gig virtually in Australia where they put that little earpiece in your head.
00:17:00 Seth Godin
You know, this is long before.
00:17:02 Seth Godin
This thing and.
00:17:04 Seth Godin
5 minutes into it, I'm going on about shrimp on the Barbie and how glad I am to be.
00:17:09 Seth Godin
In Australia and.
00:17:10 Seth Godin
The voice comes on and says I'll set this isn't your Australia gear gets your San Francisco give you Australia weeks tomorrow.
00:17:21 Seth Godin
And I remember well, you know, you just smile and apologize.
00:17:21 Charles Clark
How'd you recover from it?
00:17:28 Seth Godin
My second Ted talk mainstage the first Ted talk.
00:17:31 Seth Godin
No one knew about Ted Video.
00:17:33 Seth Godin
Hadn't been invented yet, so.
00:17:34 Seth Godin
The only time that three.
00:17:35 Seth Godin
100 people is easy, right?
00:17:36 Seth Godin
Like it it?
00:17:37 Seth Godin
There's some cool people there.
00:17:39 Seth Godin
But there's only 300 of them.
00:17:41 Seth Godin
Second time, it's the big.
00:17:43 Seth Godin
And I go on stage and Herbie Hancock's piano was in the middle stage, they forgotten.
00:17:47 Seth Godin
The music, like 18 minutes, is just the piano.
00:17:51 Seth Godin
The wait.
00:17:53 Seth Godin
You know, and I prefer to leave how slow the clock is ticking and how fast the clock is ticking at the same.
00:18:00 Seth Godin
Time you're doing, you're doing, you're doing stuff, and the clicker doesn't work.
00:18:00 Charles Clark
Right, right.
00:18:05 Seth Godin
Or I mean, one other time where I I.
00:18:10 Seth Godin
Two things that make it really hard simultaneous translation, which is when you've got everyone has got headphones on and there's someone in the back reading as fast as they can.
00:18:18 Seth Godin
What you're saying translating on the flag and you can hear the buzzing, but the problem simultaneous translation is everyone laughs 30 seconds after you say something funny because they have.
00:18:28 Seth Godin
To translate it.
00:18:28 Charles Clark
Yeah, yeah.
00:18:29 Seth Godin
The other people.
00:18:30 Seth Godin
There are people who speak English, but so it's.
00:18:32 Seth Godin
All just a mess and.
00:18:36
Right.
00:18:37 Seth Godin
The other problem, of course, is that it's a in a Convention Center and Convention Center is a horrible.
00:18:42 Seth Godin
Place to do.
00:18:43 Seth Godin
Your work right?
00:18:44 Seth Godin
So I'm up there and that's really Convention Center. There's 3000 people there. There's a woman in the 3rd row.
00:18:50 Seth Godin
I'm not making this up trust she is on her cell phone the whole time, but she's not listening.
00:18:57 Seth Godin
Talking baby the whole time I'm on stage giving my heart out, right.
00:19:03 Seth Godin
Yeah, yeah.
00:19:04 Seth Godin
And for the 1st 12 minutes, I give this speech just.
00:19:08 Seth Godin
To her.
00:19:09 Seth Godin
I because I didn't memorize my speech.
00:19:11 Seth Godin
Is different every time.
00:19:12 Seth Godin
Yeah, yeah.
00:19:13 Seth Godin
All my lines are about, you know, I used to hang up the phone, and I just like, it's nothing.
00:19:21 Seth Godin
It's just bouncing off her.
00:19:23 Seth Godin
And then after 10 minutes, I said to myself, cause you gotta again, time speeds up time so.
00:19:28 Seth Godin
Hello we got 30 minutes left.
00:19:31 Seth Godin
I say this if.
00:19:32 Seth Godin
You know.
00:19:32 Seth Godin
That there are 2999 people here are here from me.
00:19:37 Seth Godin
And she's here for her.
00:19:39 Seth Godin
How dare I steal from those people?
00:19:41 Seth Godin
Right, when in fact, I could deliver to everybody else.
00:19:46 Seth Godin
And that changed my life right then.
00:19:48 Seth Godin
Because I was like, that's from now on.
00:19:49 Seth Godin
That's where I'm going to learn a little blog.
00:19:51 Seth Godin
It's gonna write my book.
00:19:53 Seth Godin
If you're here from.
00:19:54 Seth Godin
I'm here for you and.
00:19:55 Seth Godin
If not, somebody else deserves my attention.
00:19:57 Charles Clark
Hmm yeah, I I I think what you said is spot on. You know making sure to me my my motto is no low level energy around me, right and and and that means including myself right and and I can't accept other people's energy who are who aren't trying to get on that same wavelength.
00:20:14 Charles Clark
And so I I definitely resonate with that.
00:20:17 Charles Clark
I think one of my.
00:20:20 Charles Clark
The the the most challenging speech I ever gave had to happen during COVID, and this is this is this is what a a high school and I'm giving.
00:20:33 Charles Clark
I'm getting ready to do my speech and the teacher introduces me and he's saying alright guys, I want you to watch this video.
00:20:40 Charles Clark
Of the speaker that we're getting ready to bring going and I'm like, oh, it's about to show my the the video of me.
00:20:46 Charles Clark
And he ends up playing the almost like a whole 6-7 minute speech that I delivered the very speech that I was getting ready to give them.
00:20:58 Charles Clark
And I'm like, oh man, how am I going to recover from this?
00:21:01 Charles Clark
And then I that's.
00:21:02 Charles Clark
When I was just like, you know what?
00:21:04 Charles Clark
I I gotta.
00:21:05 Charles Clark
I gotta make up something.
00:21:06 Charles Clark
I gotta flow.
00:21:06 Charles Clark
I gotta do with what I sneakily do.
00:21:09 Charles Clark
You know, like and that's what you.
00:21:10 Charles Clark
Gotta talk about.
00:21:11 Charles Clark
Like the creative?
00:21:12 Charles Clark
The the space of to be innovative, right?
00:21:15 Charles Clark
And and I was.
00:21:16 Charles Clark
So I was troubled by that moment.
00:21:18 Charles Clark
I was like, OK, I can't give what I just what he just released.
00:21:23 Charles Clark
What am I going to do now?
00:21:24 Charles Clark
And it was a perfect moment to be innovative and I think it was one of the best speeches.
00:21:29 Charles Clark
I ever gave.
00:21:32 Seth Godin
The thing that's magic about this business other than.
00:21:34 Seth Godin
We get.
00:21:35 Seth Godin
Unreasonable amounts of positive feedback and.
00:21:37 Seth Godin
Paid well is the crises only feel like crises to.
00:21:41 Seth Godin
Us, yeah.
00:21:42 Seth Godin
Right.
00:21:42 Seth Godin
So I was given it.
00:21:44 Seth Godin
I almost never go to see the speakers who are on before me, but for whatever reason I went to.
00:21:48 Seth Godin
See this guy I'd heard.
00:21:49 Seth Godin
Something and The thing is.
00:21:53 Seth Godin
He was using nine of my slides.
00:21:57 Seth Godin
And if people steal my sites, that's that's cool.
00:22:03 Seth Godin
I use those same slides.
00:22:05 Seth Godin
People think I'm slaving from him.
00:22:08 Seth Godin
So I like race backstage open with keynote file, delete this, delete this, delete this way to use that and it just makes it fresh, makes it real.
00:22:17 Charles Clark
Man, that that's real like the the behind the scenes things people don't know about speakers there it is right there.
00:22:23
So So what? What?
00:22:24 Charles Clark
Do you feel are the top three things that are are broken with new and upcoming speakers?
00:22:31 Seth Godin
The first one for sure is thinking you can hustle your loaded gigs and on the outside it feels so unfair because you know you're a better speaker than that person or you know you this person is getting better for that and you deserve it.
00:22:46 Seth Godin
But it's important to remember the person who's booking you doesn't own the company.
00:22:51 Seth Godin
They're not spending their own money and they gotta be able to go back to their boss and say good news.
00:22:56 Seth Godin
They said yes, yeah.
00:22:58 Seth Godin
And if they can't say that about you, you gotta do work outside of speaking until they do.
00:23:03 Seth Godin
Right.
00:23:03 Seth Godin
So that's the biggest one.
00:23:05 Seth Godin
And then the second one is all of the ways.
00:23:09 Seth Godin
People are pushed to deal with their stage fright by memorizing their speech super polishing it, doing that thing where they say that put your hands up here like this and all that.
00:23:19 Seth Godin
Dale Carnegie stuff.
00:23:21 Seth Godin
If that works for you, please do it, but a lot of people can tell when you're doing it.
00:23:26 Seth Godin
It's like the difference between being an old fashioned.
00:23:29 Seth Godin
Age magician with a hat and a rabbit versus someone who actually performs miracles.
00:23:34 Seth Godin
If you're actually going to perform miracles, don't show up in a magicians tuxedo because you give it all away when you do that.
00:23:39 Seth Godin
Yeah, right.
00:23:40 Seth Godin
And So what in the post Ted World?
00:23:43 Seth Godin
When people can watch the greatest speakers who ever spoke anytime they want for free.
00:23:49 Seth Godin
We're not going to outdo it.
00:23:50 Seth Godin
You cannot be better than Sir Ken Robinson, my late friend Sir Ken.
00:23:54 Seth Godin
You can't, Sir.
00:23:55 Seth Godin
Don't do a version of Sir Ken do a version of you and do it on behalf of the person in the 3rd row who's not on the phone.
00:24:03 Seth Godin
Those are not people.
00:24:05 Charles Clark
Bringing back their third row, I love it.
00:24:08 Charles Clark
Before we go set like any, any final thoughts?
00:24:11 Charles Clark
To the audience.
00:24:16 Seth Godin
I think one thing that is worth thinking about is we all get choices about how to spend our day.
00:24:22 Seth Godin
And some of the things in our culture are symptoms and some of the.
00:24:25 Seth Godin
Things in our cultural causes.
00:24:28 Seth Godin
And I would say being a well.
00:24:34 Seth Godin
Being a successful professional speaker is a symptom.
00:24:37 Seth Godin
It's not a cause.
00:24:38 Seth Godin
First, you gotta fly.
00:24:39 Seth Godin
What causes your.
00:24:40 Seth Godin
Ability to do that.
00:24:42 Seth Godin
And one thing that causes 250 species for free, but the main thing is the Internet is giving this platform for free where you can build the following go build the following.
00:24:54 Seth Godin
And don't wait to get picked.
00:24:59 Charles Clark
If you enjoyed today's episode, click the follow.
00:25:02 Charles Clark
And to be notified for more episodes.
00:25:04 Charles Clark
And if you're interested in learning how to overcome the struggle of stage fright, write that life story in speech or how to become that paid speaker.
00:25:11 Charles Clark
Enrollment is now open to the journey to pay, so we can games Academy head to the Charles clark.com/apply. It's time that you speak, even if your voice shakes. I'll catch you.
00:25:23 Charles Clark
Guys on the next episode.