Why (and How) I Became a Professional Speaker

At the end of 2016, I decided to leave a career as a basketball performance coach and become a professional keynote speaker.?

Why did I make such a stark career pivot?

I started to experience the burnout.?

I no longer loved training. I no longer being in the gym. I was no longer fascinated and excited about improving basketball players’ athleticism.?

I knew it was time to make a change. It was time to try something new. It was time for a new craft, a new pursuit, and a new challenge.?

Thankfully, it is one of the most rewarding decisions I’ve ever made.

Now, that’s WHY I became a professional speaker.

But HOW did I do it?

Step 1: I decided. I didn’t tip toe and I didn’t waffle. I made the decision and I went all in.

Step 2: I met with several of my mentors in the corporate space to find out their needs and to drill down on what topics and themes they valued most.?

Step 3: I acknowledged that becoming a full time professional keynote speaker had 3 primary pillars: content, delivery, and the business of speaking. I made sure to research, study, and hire coaches in all 3 areas. I invested in books and online courses as well as in-person seminars and conferences that taught the fundamentals of being a world class speaker. I devoured videos and listened to podcasts of - and about - highly acclaimed speakers. Lastly, I reached out to as many professional speakers as I could to learn from them.

Step 4: I went back to all of concepts, ideas, and lessons I had learned as a basketball performance coach and organized my notes into type (stories, stats, lists) and topics (leadership, teamwork, communication, culture). I used this a la carte menu to assemble the framework and outline of my very first keynote (which was in Jamaica, for a massive fitness brand, in the summer of 2016).?

Step 5: I delivered a dozen free keynotes before I ever asked for a dime. I offered my speaking services at no charge to anyone I felt had an audience that would benefit from my message. I did this to hone my material and to get in quality reps. I filmed every talk so I could see what worked and what didn’t. I was constantly tweaking (and always will be).

Step 6: I immediately invested in a website, and speaker reel and shifted my social media posts to target my new audience.

Step 7:?I created a spreadsheet of everyone I knew that could potentially be an asset and I brainstormed ways I could add value to them. Then I leaned heavily on personal and professional relationships to get my first wave of initial speaking gigs.??

My first official paid corporate gig was in March 2017.?

Since that day, I’ve delivered hundreds of paid speaking engagements all over the world… to brands such as Pepsi, Starbucks, American Express, UGG, Charles Schwab, and Orange Theory Fitness.?

I’ve learned a lot and I’ve had so much fun!

I’ve accepted and embraced that I will always be under construction and that being a professional keynote speaker is an on-going process, not an outcome or a destination.

To this day, with the help my incredible agent/manager (shout out to Michelle Joyce), I’ve continued to repeat and level up these seven steps as I pursue a sense of mastery of the speaking craft.