The Speaker Lab Podcast

Wondering whether age has closed the door on a speaking career? This conversation explores why decades of experience can become your greatest asset, what event planners really value, and how to turn a lifetime of expertise into one clear talk. Hear how a retired principal found his first paid opportunity, plus practical steps for moving from hesitation to the stage.

"Because a plan that you make alone on the last night of the year is a wish. And a plan you build in a room with coaches looking at your numbers and speakers holding you to it. Now that is a commitment and commitments are what get you booked and paid to speak." Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! In this episode, Dan Irvin is flying solo with a big announcement — and a lesson that holds up long after the announcement does. The Speaker Lab Live, the first-ever Speaker Lab live event, is coming to Plywood Place in Atlanta's West End on Thursday, December 10, 2026. Dan and Lead Coach Erick Rheam are leading a full day of live coaching, breakout sessions, and 2027 planning — a "momentum day" designed to close out the year with energy and a real plan. But if you're hearing this after December 10, stick around. The reason behind the event is the episode. Dan starts with the part of speaking nobody puts on a highlight reel: the drive home. The room was with you. People lined up afterward. And then you shut the car door and it's quiet — no team high fives, no one to debrief with. The next morning you're back at your desk writing outreach emails alone. Dan has talked with thousands of speakers, and that alone feeling comes up more than fees, more than niche. The speakers who grow fastest, he says, are typically the most connected — people who refer them, tell them the truth, and pass along gigs that fit. The ones who stall are often smart and hardworking, but they're doing it all by themselves, guessing at their fees, second-guessing every proposal at 11 at night. The Speaker Lab has lived on video calls and community threads, and that works. But some things only happen in a room: the lunch conversation where a speaker you just met knows the planner you've been trying to reach for a year; honest feedback that a comment thread keeps polite; and energy from people who don't look at you funny when you say you want to get paid to speak. Dan shares the story of a speaker inside The Speaker Lab who spent 20 years in banking with a talk on leading teams through big change. She was smart, prepared, did every assignment — and told Dan, "I feel like I'm doing this on an island." She worked from her kitchen table, sent emails, got silence, and started to wonder if it was her. The team nudged her to connect with other speakers in the community. She was nervous and almost didn't, but she reached out to one. They traded outreach emails and pointed out what wasn't landing. Then that speaker messaged her: a planner was looking for someone on change, and she'd given the planner her name. A few weeks later, it turned into a paid booking. Her line: "The gig was great… but the best part was realizing I was not alone." Whether you're planning to be in Atlanta on December 10, building your speaking business from your kitchen table, or just tired of doing this whole thing alone, this episode makes the case for the thing most speakers skip: finding your people. You'll learn: Why the speakers who grow fastest are typically the most connected — not always the most talented or the most polished The part of speaking nobody talks about: the drive home, the quiet car, and the alone feeling that comes up more than fees or niche Three things that happen in a room that almost never happen on Zoom: referrals, honest feedback, and real energy How one lunch conversation can connect you to the planner you've been trying to reach for a year Why Dan chose December — and why a plan you make alone on the last night of the year is a wish What The Speaker Lab Live actually looks like: live coaching on real businesses, breakouts for newer and advanced speakers, and a 2027 plan built in the room Who The Speaker Lab Live is for (you don't have to be a Speaker Lab student — if you're building a speaking business, you belong in the room) The story of a speaker who went from working alone at her kitchen table to a paid booking after reaching out to one fellow speaker Dan's homework, whether you come to Atlanta or not: write down the names of three speakers, reach out to one this week, and bring something real to the conversation Why "My spouse is supportive, but they don't really get it" is a call Dan hears again and again — and what to do about it And much, much more! "In this business, one booking can pay for the trip many times over. I cannot promise you that booking. Nobody honestly can, but I can tell you where those bookings tend to start. They start with people. They start with people every single time." The Speaker Lab Live — Thursday, December 10, 2026 — Plywood Place, Atlanta. One full day of live coaching, breakouts, and building your 2027 plan in the room with Dan Irvin and Lead Coach Erick Rheam. The date, venue, nearby hotels, and how to grab your seat are all at thespeakerlab.com/live-event. Pricing goes up as seats fill. Building your speaking business and doing most of it alone? Book a free Speaker Business Assessment — a 15-minute session where the team looks at where you are, where you want to go, and what a real system looks like from here. Episode Resources: The Speaker Lab Live (Atlanta, Dec 10) Speaker Business Assessment MySpeakerFee Apple Podcasts Spotify See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Think you need a huge following before anyone will book you? This conversation challenges that assumption, exploring how associations, companies, conferences, and schools choose speakers. It covers the trust-building essentials planners look for, why clear talk titles beat clever ones, what demo videos and one-sheets should accomplish, and how warm relationships can open doors faster than posting into the void.

"I made a decision in my head, I'm going to America. I'm going to come here, build a business, live a life, get a green card, then get citizenship, do it all above board. But the decision was massive. How do I make it stick?"Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! In this Alumni Spotlight, Dan pulls up a chair with Julian V. Taylor — a British-born media entrepreneur who spent more than two decades building businesses on both sides of the Atlantic. Julian started in magazine publishing in London, launched RedCoat Publishing in Boston, and produced television for networks like the History Channel and Discovery. Now he speaks to CEOs and leadership teams through his workshop, "Decisions That Stick," part of his broader Bold Bridge Method for working with the C-suite.Julian walks through how a couple of outreach phone calls landed him in front of Vistage groups — one of the toughest rooms there is — and what it was like running his first workshop for a brand-new group in Tallahassee after losing his voice on a London work trip. He breaks down the hands-on tools he brings into those rooms, including a Decision Contract (each participant writes a contract with themselves to keep a decision on track) and a Consequence Ladder that maps where a choice actually takes you. He also gets honest about the session that didn't go well: a third workshop with too many people dialing in remotely, a score that came back below where it needed to be, and the rule he built from it.But the real surprise? The content wasn't the hard part. Julian expected building his curriculum to be the biggest climb. It wasn't — that flowed naturally. The brick wall was everything else: who to call, who to talk to, and the hours it takes to work the phones. Dan and Julian dig into what's actually working now — from a longtime friend who told Julian poolside that his team needs exactly what he teaches, to Vistage chairs recommending his workshop to other chairs. Dan coaches on depth over breadth (go deeper into rooms you've already been in before going wider) and the 85/15 reality of speaking: maybe 15% of the time is on stage, and the other 85% is everything that gets you there.Whether you're building your first workshop, trying to crack into executive peer groups, or grinding through the middle stretch where the content is ready but the pipeline isn't — this conversation is full of practical, honest insight on what it actually takes.You'll learn:How two outreach calls to business owners in Ohio turned into three back-to-back Vistage meetings in FloridaWhy Julian ran his first Vistage workshop with almost no voice, and why not overthinking it helpedThe Decision Contract: the agreement each CEO writes with themselves, on paper, to keep a decision on trackThe Consequence Ladder, Julian's three-lane interstate for seeing where a decision's consequences push youWhy you can't blanket-call or blanket-email Vistage chairs, and what to do insteadWhat a low score on his third workshop taught him, and why he now turns down rooms full of people dialing in remotelyThe part Julian expected to be hardest (building the content) vs the part that actually is (finding planners with an event six months out)Dan's 85/15 rule: how little of a speaking business actually happens on stageWhy a friend's comment by the pool and chair-to-chair referrals beat a bigger list, plus Dan's case for 30 minutes of outreach a dayHow speaking pulled Julian into consulting, including a succession plan for an owner whose four kids are buying the business"I've got two or three other chairs that are considering my curriculum and my workshop. And they've spoken to the other chairs. So now they're, oh, you came highly recommended. How would you do this for my group? That's worth its weight in gold."Are your best opportunities hiding in rooms you've already been in? Take the free Speaker Business Assessment and find out where your speaking business actually stands.Episode Resources:Speaker Business AssessmentJulian V. TaylorJVH Media GroupMySpeakerFeeApple PodcastsSpotifySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The glamorous stage is only a small slice of a speaking career. This candid conversation explores the feast-famine cycle, the unseen work behind consistent bookings, and five pipeline stages that keep opportunities moving. It also covers outreach math, follow-up strategies, post-gig relationship building, and the simple systems that turn unpredictable speaking income into a business you can own.

Undercharging can make speakers harder to book, not easier. Explore how free gigs, comparison shopping, and fear of rejection fuel the discount cycle, while pricing shapes perceived value, event treatment, and positioning. Learn how one negotiated fee led to over $50,000 in workshops, plus practical ways to lead fee conversations and discount strategically.

"And I realized I had bought into someone else's definition of what success looked like and even career path. And I find that so many people do that. And so we're living a life that someone else designed for us. And my whole thing is just determine what's important to you and then find a career that enables you to do that." Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! In this Alumni Spotlight, Dan pulls up a chair with Carlos Hidalgo — keynote speaker, executive advisor, and author — who spent years building and running the company he co-founded before walking away to design a life and career on his own terms. That decision opened doors. Fellow executives started calling to ask how he did it — because they were miserable. Carlos built an advisory practice, wrote a book, and started gaining traction as a speaker. Then, right after joining The Speaker Lab, he suffered a stroke. A brain bleed with a 50% mortality rate. Seven days in a hospital bed. About eight weeks derailed. He came back, caught up, and graduated from the program in April. The experience sharpened everything: his message, his sense of urgency, and his willingness to do the daily work most speakers skip. In this conversation, Carlos breaks down the exact moves he's making to build his pipeline — from the digital audit that revealed he was positioning himself three different ways on his own website, to the warm network strategy that turned 100 messages into real conversations and real opportunities. He talks about his "power hour" habit, why he held his fee when a past client pushed back on price, and what it actually looks like to grind through the messy middle of building a speaking business. The stage, as Carlos puts it, is the cherry on top. Whether you're just getting started, rebuilding after a setback, or deep in the daily grind wondering if any of it is going somewhere — this one will remind you that the work compounds. You'll learn: Why Carlos walked away from the company he co-founded — and what fellow executives kept asking him afterward How he and his wife use a "mental whiteboard" to pressure-test big life decisions (and how that landed them in the Adirondacks) What happened when a stroke hit right after he started with The Speaker Lab — and how he caught up and graduated that April What TSL's digital audit uncovered about his website and positioning, and how he fixed it in about a week The warm network move: how he turned roughly 700 real LinkedIn relationships into speaking opportunities with 100 targeted messages His "power hour" — one daily hour of cold outreach and follow-ups, tracked and consistent Why a seventh follow-up finally landed a response and what that tells you about persistence and pipeline How he stays "always ready" with his messaging locked, full-day availability built into his fee, and a referral-first mindset when he's not the right fit Why he held his fee when a previous client passed on two events over cost — and the long-game math behind that decision The one-small-change-per-day approach to redesigning your career without blowing everything up And much, much more! "So I just started to call that list and I didn't go out and say, do you have any opportunities? What I said was, here's what I'm doing and I'm building this. Here's my message. Here's who I work with. If you know of anybody who wants or needs a speaker, I would love an introduction. And if there's any way I can help you, please let me know." Are you building your speaking business around your own definition of success — or someone else's? Take the free Speaker Business Assessment and find out where you actually stand. Episode Resources: Speaker Business Assessment Carlos Hidalgo MySpeakerFee Apple Podcasts Spotify See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

“Constancy of purpose says we're in, we're locked, we're going until we get to a point where we have sufficient data or an understanding of what we're doing that we need to make a change.”Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! In this episode, Dan sits down with TSL alumnus Bill Englehaupt — founder of Auditology and a 30-plus-year veteran of financial services audit. Bill works with CPA firms and Fortune 500 internal audit teams to root out what he calls “the hidden factory”: the invisible, below-the-line work that quietly eats organizations alive.Bill's speaking business had been dormant for months. Then he submitted a proposal for a national conference in Las Vegas, got the nod, and walked into a breakout room with more than 200 people — his first talk back after a long dry spell. He's also an author twice over: his first book, Managing the Hell Out of Your Audit, became the springboard for Auditology, and his brand-new second book, The Productive Auditor, just hit Amazon. He didn't wait for anyone to hand him credibility. He stacked proof: one book, one webinar, one talk at a time.Whether you're trying to crack the chicken-and-egg problem of getting booked without a track record, wondering if writing a book is worth the time, or just trying to stay consistent when outreach feels like shouting into the void, this conversation is packed with real-world tactics from someone building it right now.You'll learn:What “the hidden factory” is and how Bill turned a 30-plus-year audit career into a speaking nicheHow he landed a 200-person breakout session at a national conference after months of his business being dormantWhy writing a book gave him “a platform to stand on” — and why you don't actually need one to get startedThe chicken-and-egg problem: what to do when event applications ask for experience you don't have yetHow webinars for continuing-education content providers became his lower-barrier proof engineHow to turn one strong talk into a demo reelDan's five-week contact strategy and why most responses come from email three, not email oneWhy Bill calls the book “an avoidance activity” — and how to catch yourself dodging the real workW. Edwards Deming's concept of “constancy of purpose” and what it means for speakers chasing shiny objectsThe 30-day win Bill is actually chasing — human-to-human contact, before any bookingAnd much, much more!“Well, for a speaker, it's just stick to your plan, right? I think that's the one main thing. You know, if you've got your power hour, get your power hour going. If you're, you know, having trouble getting your follow-ups going, stick to the plan.”Ready to stop guessing and start building your own proof-stacking plan? Take the free Speaker Business Assessment and find out exactly where you stand.Episode Resources:Speaker Business AssessmentBill EnglehauptMySpeakerFeeApple PodcastsSpotifySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

“You can't get through it if it's not real.”Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! In this alumni speaker connection episode, Dan sits down with Robin Blair — an ordained minister, award-winning speaker, singer, and media producer who spent decades inside network television and radio before walking away from it all to pursue ministry and professional speaking.Robin's career arc reads like a Hollywood pitch: TV shopping host on network television, then a key player in the first children's radio network to go national, then co-founder of a children's television production company. She and her team created a live-action, puppet, and music children's show, made four pilots, and sold the show to Animal Planet. But at the New York City Toy Fair in the 1990s, she watched an executive preview a show being imported from the UK and announce to the room that one-year-olds were now advertising targets. That moment gutted her. Shortly after, discouraged with the direction of the industry, she answered a call to ministry and headed to seminary — all the way through to a doctorate.After a couple of decades preaching from the pulpit, Robin has stepped back from congregational ministry to build a professional speaking business. Her body of work, Digital Discipleship Matters, takes a faith orientation to the digital culture we all live in — helping families discern media rather than making an enemy of it. And she's working through a mindset shift that will sound familiar to a lot of speakers: moving from speaking for little or nothing to truly valuing the expertise she brings.You'll learn:How Robin's decades inside network TV, radio, and children's media became her strongest speaking credentialWhy your past career detours are qualifications, not wasted timeWhat “digital discipleship” means and how Robin carved out a speaking niche from itThe mindset shift from speaking for free (or nearly free) to getting paid what your message is worthWhy Robin created a family discernment tool as the key to unlocking hesitant audiencesDan's advice on finding the smaller group who desperately need your message instead of trying to reach everyoneWhy slow, relational trust-building beats aggressive outreach — especially when you're just startingHow to handle silence after a pitch (hint: it's normal, even when it stings)Robin's approach to treating the internet as a mission field for her messageThe difference between having something important to say and assuming everyone wants to hear itAnd much, much more!“What I'm bringing has value to people for their lives and for generations of their lives. And it's perfectly okay to receive compensation for that.”Are you sitting on years of hard-won expertise — but still struggling to turn it into a speaking business that actually pays? Take the free Speaker Business Assessment and find out exactly where you stand.Episode Resources:Speaker Business AssessmentRobin BlairMySpeakerFeeApple PodcastsSpotifySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"And so I'm sending out the emails, I'm doing the work, I'm following the process, and I'm not really getting any responses. And so by the end of the day, I'm like, well, am I doing this right? Or, you know, imposter syndrome kind of sets in, you know, am I really built for this?" Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! In this Alumni Spotlight, Dan Irvin sits down with Marcus Dove — a performance mindset coach based in Tulsa who helps coaches and programs turn talented athletes into consistent performers under pressure. Marcus played basketball for 30 years, earned Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year two years in a row at Oklahoma State, then spent 16 years playing professionally overseas across six countries. He knows what it takes to perform when it counts. Now he's building a speaking business around that expertise — and in this episode, he's just signed his first paid gig. Here's what makes this conversation worth your time: Marcus did not have some easy path to that first booking. He was doing the work. Sending the cold emails. Following the process. And hearing nothing back. By the end of the day he'd be down on himself, questioning whether he was built for this at all. Then his TSL coach Corinne made one suggestion — stop reaching out to coaches, start reaching out to athletic directors. Two days later, an athletic director responded. Five to seven days after that, the gig was locked in. Marcus also walks through the tools that made the difference day to day: the CRM that replaced running outreach off memory (he calls it a lifesaver), the speaking agreement negotiation that nearly sent him spiraling when the buyer countered, and his game film method — recording himself giving the speech 30 to 40 times at home and watching it back, the way an athlete watches tape. Whether you're in the stretch where nothing is coming back and imposter syndrome is creeping in, or you're past the first booking and trying to figure out how to actually prepare for the stage, this is a conversation with someone standing exactly where a lot of listeners are standing right now. You'll learn: How one pivot in Marcus's outreach strategy — from coaches to athletic directors — booked his first paid gig in under a week What the stretch of silence and non-responses actually felt like day to day, and how imposter syndrome set in Why Corinne's suggestion worked so fast, and what Marcus wants every student in the program to hear about it How switching from memory-based outreach to a CRM gave him a clear plan every morning for his power hour The moment a buyer countered his speaking proposal — why he thought the deal was dead, and why it closed within 24 hours His game film method: recording himself giving the speech 30 to 40 times at home and watching the playback to find what to add and cut Why he does a couple of free gigs at local high schools before a paid stage How comparison hit hardest in group sessions — seeing other students further along with their websites already built The reframe that got him past it: everyone's on their own journey, and their progress is information, not a verdict Why a mindset speaker has to practice what he preaches — and Dan's point that what we speak on is often the medicine we need His pre-stage nervous voice, what it says, and the counter-script he runs against it His answer to "a no from a client really means…" — and why reframing it as "not right now" changes how you carry the rejection And much, much more! "Growth comes in uncomfortability, right? If you don't step outside your comfort zone, if you don't step outside your norm, growth doesn't happen. And so try to do something different. Try to push yourself to a limit you haven't been pushed to." Stuck in the stretch where you're doing the work but nothing is coming back? Take the free Speaker Business Assessment at thespeakerlab.com/SBA and find out exactly where you are in your speaking journey and what to do next. Episode Resources: Speaker Business Assessment Marcus Dove MySpeakerFee Apple Podcasts Spotify See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.