Why You Don't Need A Crazy Story to be a Speaker with Hal Elrod

Jun 11, 2024

Hal Elrod, creator of The Miracle Morning, discusses how impactful speakers don't need a sensational life story, but valuable knowledge. He shares his journey from his first paid gig to commanding high fees leveraging his book. The chapter also explores the importance of commitment and focus in building a successful speaking career.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Hal Elrod's Life Challenges

Hal Elrod experienced several hardships, including the death of his sister, a car accident that left him temporarily dead, and a cancer diagnosis.
These events shaped his journey as a motivational speaker.

INSIGHT

Overcoming Obstacles Isn't Required for Speaking

Speakers don't need a traumatic backstory to succeed.
Success comes from teaching valuable lessons, skills, or achievements, even if only a few steps ahead of the audience.

ANECDOTE

Early Speaking Experiences

Hal Elrod began speaking at Cutco events due to his sales success.
After a car accident, he shifted his focus to motivational speaking, starting with high schools and colleges.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

“In some ways, my story is a detriment. There's a pro and a con to having overcoming extreme adversity, because people feel disconnected from it. I've had people tell me multiple times after speeches, man, if I went through what you went through, I'd be as happy as you are. And I'm like, no, man, you're missing the point. The principles I just taught you are what you need to pay attention to.”

Grant’s sitting down with the creator of The Miracle Morning, Hal Elrod to talk about how he got into speaking, if and when you need a book to complement your speaking efforts, and how to know if you’re living into your true passions.

“During that time, I was really thoughtful and strategic of, like, what do I want this book to do? And one thing I wanted it to do was to get me corporate speaking gigs. I wanted to raise my fee."

In this episode, Grant and Hal get into:

00:00 Hal’s early experiences with overcoming hardships.
05:33 Facing doubt early on as a speaker.
07:06 Do you have to have a massive overcoming story to make an impact?
11:31 How reframing challenges led to public speaking.
14:38 Hal’s experience finding his early gigs and getting booked as a speaker.
17:08 What it’s like to get your first paid gig.
20:35 When should you start flying first class?
24:23 Do you need a book to launch your speaking career?
26:55 How do you get started and build momentum?
30:52 When did you know it was time to transition to the next thing?
33:01 How does a speaker know they have what it takes?

"I got $500, which was my first ever paid gig. I was on top of the world, and it went really, really well. They loved it. And so I was able to share my story, my cutco experience, and then the lessons drawn from both of those, and then that just gave me some confidence, like, oh, wow, I can speak to a corporate audience."

Not sure if you’ll like this episode? Well, Hal’s got great advice on achieving our goals, too. ⬇️

"If you have multiple goals, which a lot of us do, then what ends up happening is you just make a dent in each one, and you rarely accomplish any single one of them because you're always scattering your time."

Episode Resources:

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.