Unlocking the Secrets of Captivating Keynote Speaking

this is the story of the one as the purchasing manager at a manufacturing plant she knows the only thing more important than having the right safety gear is having it there when you need it that's why she partners with Grainger for auto reordering so her team members can count on her to have cut resistant gloves on hand and each shift can run safely and efficiently call 1-800 Grainger click Grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done happy holidays want to give your host a gift consider subscribing rating and reviewing the show this holiday season it really helps the show grow from all of us at believe have a merry christmas everyone and a happy holiday i don't do it to do it i do it because i want that audience to have so much fun and to learn and to laugh and to cry and to and to and to feel connected not not just to me but to the other people in the audience to the event to the moment i want them hugging each other between sessions and talking about things and questioning things and wanting to to dig deeper topics like i want i want them to be so freaking jacked that daniel's coming on to the stage and when it does daniel could come out and rip a fart and they're gonna start clapping right and the whole idea and this goes for everything in my life and and this is why people know i wear everything on my sleep i can't help that it's who i am hello everyone and welcome back to the show today i am sharing with you a conversation that i had had with daniel sung a few months ago uh daniel has become a near and dear friend to me and he asked that i come on his show the buttoned up podcast to talk about my experience as a keynote speaker and i will tell you that this is the first time i've ever gone this deep into my thoughts feelings preparation how i approach speaking to an audience what it means to me what i'm trying to deliver my mindset how i you know my physical health my mental health my energy my focus how all these things play a role in what i view as a performance uh it's not a gig it's not a presentation i really view being a keynote speaker and and really anytime you're in front of an audience of any sort be it as a coach for a little league team or you're talking to uh your team that you have at your office or your work or you're speaking to a group of people who've attended an event like i do uh most of the time then viewing it as a performance brings a different type of energy focus and approach and this has worked incredibly well for me and as i continue to refine and hone my own skills as a keynote speaker i thought it would be fun to share this because i go fairly deep and it's fairly dynamic conversation and i think you're going to get a lot out of it especially if you are looking to add public speaking to your repertoire of skills so i was very pleased that daniel uh allowed me to repost this to you guys uh i highly encourage you to subscribe to his podcast the buttoned up podcast there'll be links in the show notes he has a wonderful podcast and daniel's approach is so much different than mine uh much more measured much more thought out uh i tend to be scattered as you all know and high energy and kind of out over my skis most of the time and i embrace that as who i am and i love the fact that daniel comes at just about everything in life from a slightly different approach um though he is scared of nothing uh as an absolute uh just gangster when it comes to creating content helping people delivering value and in a trip to utah out of 12 guys daniel and i were the only ones to hit a thousand yard target um when we were shooting guns so we have that uh kindred kindred relationship in being able to shoot uh large guns at large distances so uh with that i want to get on to daniel uh one quick note guys i have probably the biggest content project i've ever put together it is really the download of my brain as it relates to growth and it's going to be called the insurance growth masterclass if growth is something that you are interested in if you've ever wanted to get a full download of everything i've learned over 18 plus years in the insurance industry i want you to go to masterclass dot insure that's masterclass dot i n s u r e masterclass dot insure go to masterclass dot insure today and just put your name and email in and you'll start getting information as we get closer to dropping um this content project uh i think this is going to be um i'm very proud of what it's becoming and i wanted to share kind of the unadulterated full throttle uh or unthrottled version of what i know what i've learned uh in my 18 plus years in the insurance industry for a long time and um you know based on the fact that rogue no longer exists and i'm now moving into more speaking consulting uh coaching type work uh which if you have any questions around that you can always just email me ryan um at finding peak dot com and uh just just uh check it out masterclass dot insure that's masterclass dot insure check it out today sign up get on the list and um as that project gets closer to launch uh you'll be getting notifications and have an opportunity to uh engage in it if it's something that you want to do so with that i want to give a huge shout out to daniel sung i highly encourage you to subscribe to his podcast the buttoned up podcast if you're not already and uh just appreciate him for letting me share this with you here we go ladies and gentlemen my name is daniel sung and i am honored to be your host of the buttoned up podcast really excited today because i have one of my dear friends on the show he is the founder and president of road risk a first of its kind human-optimized digital insurance agency creating sustainability for small businesses through insurance and the risk management as a creator strategist and speaker ryan have organizations create meaningful and sustainable long-term growth his keynote presentations and customized workshops concentrate on implementing leadership marketing and sales initiatives within growth focused organizations oh and abundance-minded organizations yeah that's mr ryan hanley daniel it is such a pleasure to be on the show man i uh um you you said it and it's completely mutual um i feel like the last six months year maybe a little bit longer our relationship has started to really um kind of grow deeper and grow roots and um you have become one of my absolute favorite people and uh i'm so happy that we have had the chance to spend a lot of time in real life and really get to know each other on a deeper level and you're in your wife and uh it's been it's been such a pleasure man so i'm so happy to be here well that that's a true uh likewise likewise and folks you always have to excuse me here i'm a little bit under the weather uh last couple weeks and i'm i'm not sick but i just had this darn throat or this cough so you'll have to excuse me here but right i i wanted to bring you on specifically on the show here because there are so many things that you and i could talk about uh and that you do speak about you know on stage and you know traveling the country in the world but you just came back from the insurance soup conference yes and you were asked to emcee the event yes now i can't tell you how many people were texting me throughout the couple days saying what an incredible job you did and and i think you were fired up because you probably felt the energy like it was the right moment for you you know for those couple days but one of the one of the biggest fears that people have is public speaking and you and i go to a lot of these events i see you a couple times a year and i see you on stage and you are different than any other person that i see within the insurance space and what i mean by that is you know a lot of people are just uncomfortable and you see it and it's not that they have a bad presentation but they're just they just haven't done it as much so they stand there behind the podium or they'll kind of you know they want to they notice that they're being a little stiff so to loosen up they'll walk three feet to the left three feet to the right but you can just tell you however not only do you work the stage you come down the stairs you go into the audience walk in the aisles of the audience you spin around hand gestures tonality rhythm the way you dress i notice it all and what i notice more i watch the audience watch you and you just see it in their eyes like wow this guy's a pro like he knows what he's doing and he knows what he's talking about now i can guarantee you that you weren't always like this but give us give us a little feedback on what it took to get to that point yeah um yes so one thank you uh that's maybe one of the nicest things that anyone's ever said uh i want to be clear um being in front of audiences is my favorite work thing in my life um if someone were to ask me like you could do anything you could do anything for work and while you know as a kid i may have said be a baseball player and maybe if i could have been a professional baseball player i would choose that but let's talking in real life today um it's that is where i'm the happiest uh you know outside of like being with my kids so take that part out of it um that's my place like when like when when michael and taylor asked me to emcee insurance soup um you know they kept saying you know we we didn't know that you would be like this and i said dude this is what i do this is this is this is like breathing to me like being there putting on an experience for that audience so so so i i'm gonna get to your question in a second but just to give context like i don't do it to do it i do it because i want that audience to have so much fun and to learn and to laugh and to cry into and to and to feel connected not not just to me but to the other people in the audience to the event to the moment i want them hugging each other between sessions and talking about things and questioning things and wanting to to dig deeper into topics and especially when i emcee which which i haven't had a chance to do too much because of covet and stuff lately but i i used to do a lot more um especially back in the agency nation days because like a big part of that particular like a lot of a lot of people come in they just now up daniel's young you know what i mean here you go and it's like no it's like you got to prime that pump like i want i want them to be so freaking jacked that daniel's coming on to the stage and when it does daniel could come out and rip a fart and they're gonna start clapping right like that's your job and and it's to create an experience like um to start elevate 2018 which is probably the the biggest emceeing event that i ever did there's 825 people in that audience um i kicked off that uh and this is actually on youtube if you want to see it but i kicked off that uh event with a a 12-minute talk which i titled uh give a shit and and the whole idea and this goes for everything in my life and and this is why people know i wear everything on my sleeve i can't help that it's who i am right if i'm if i for the things that i care about it is so obvious and the things that i don't is also obvious but um but but creating experiences for people um is just so meaningful to me and and and and and i take it so seriously and i think about the engagement and the eyes and the way they're positioned in the room how the how the how the sound the sound the way that the way people are sitting like um you know if they're in circular tables are they in classroom rows do they have benches in front where they can write are they spaced out are are we missing the first four rows because everyone's sitting in back and is hung over what time of day when is last time they ate how much have they had to drink that day like like these are all like what was the presentation before what was after so so i'm gonna get to your question right now and i apologize but i just wanted to give context to the fact that what i'm about to share with people this is my most passionate work thing like this is it for me like all the other things that i do in life are the pay the bills because of what i want to do full-time at some point in my life is this thing this is what i love more than anything so okay so all that being said how did i get there um one i have never ever in my life and and and i'd hate leaning on like natural abilities but for whatever there are a lot of things i'm not good at i have never been afraid of being in front of people ever it has never bothered me um maybe it's because i was i don't know i have no idea why uh my mom said that from the earliest ages i just i don't care what people think about me yeah i care that they have a good time i care that i add value to them that that's not what i mean i don't mean like i'm gonna say whatever i want and screw you no you know what i mean like that's not what i mean i mean that i am not the reason people get uncomfortable is because instead of thinking about the value they want to add they're thinking about what people are thinking when they look at them well what if i do this what if i say this what if i don't know you if you're going to be good on stage you got to fully commit commit to the fact you're going to mess up right and we can get into the nuances of speaking and how we can do that but so uh from very early age it never bothered me um i've been the captain of every sports team i've ever played for uh i've been uh in leadership positions in college in high school um i've just this is it's just i am okay being out in front because i have zero fear of failure i mean i've been fired from large four jobs that i've worked at or or asked to leave uh i guess you know one of the other um and and not and i don't i don't wear that as a badge of honor i'm just saying like i it failure does not bother me so when i'm in front of an audience i'm not thinking oh my god what if i move this way or what if i stumble over a word or what if i don't i'm you know i don't say something or my timing is off i'm watching the audience and engaging with them like like like it's like a dance you know what i mean i'm dancing with them that's the way i think about it like i am watching them and and it's why when i do presentations i don't do 80 slide presentations like stromso did an 80 slide presentation he's great at it his style what he does it's awesome it's tons of value right and it's slide slide slide slide point point point tactic tactic tactic id id id id it's awesome it's all that is his style my style is i want no more than a dozen slides max that's even a lot and i'm just flowing with you yeah if i start down a topic and i can tell daniel by your eyes that maybe that's that's not something this audience is really grabbing onto well let's dig into it let's let's hit it from a different angle they're not picking up on this idea some audiences will pick up on a topic like this and we'll just skip right off it and keep going because they already got that thing right so i think that's also being comfortable on stage right you're you're you're able to kind of take a breath and just being being able to read the room a little bit now let me let me ask you this because you are one of the ones that puts out more video content than anybody i know yeah would you say that that's a great on-ramp to be getting comfortable speaking on stages maybe working on some videos yeah i think that so so you have to be feeling i read ferociously and i listen to podcasts and i talk to people like if i'm in a room with you and you're talking about your business i am listening to every and word that you say and i'm taking it in and i'm i'm creating derivative ideas that that fit my life in my world or or how i can understand what you're saying right and i'm constantly listening constantly taking things in so when i'm on stage i may have a goal right so so so basically how i view it is i have a starting point and i have an ending point and i have no clue how we're going to get there i have ideas right i've i've run the race before but there's like 17 bazillion different paths that i can take to get here i know i want to get here i want you to understand x concept at the end of this and believe x thing and at insurance soup it was the idea that i wanted them to take away uh this concept of the of the one thing it's a gary keller's book i highly recommend everyone read it um but it's this idea of the one thing and just i read this book a couple weeks ago and um i just wanted like when i was thinking about insurance soup and what i wanted the narrative to be uh i thought to myself this is what i want i want them to take one thing away one powerful concept and i just wanted to hit it from every angle so so that was the narrative i didn't know what i was going to say when i went out like sometimes right before i would go out i'd be taking some notes on my phone just to like lock in some ideas in my head and then i just go out and talk but it's because i'm constantly filling my brain with ideas and then practicing those ideas on social media so like instagram is basically practice for my speaking right it's i'm going to say something a certain way and see how it responds this one didn't do that well no one really commented or liked it they didn't like doesn't mean the idea was bad it just means it wasn't what's up guys sorry to take you away from the episode but as you know we do not run ads on this show in an exchange for that i need your help if you're loving this episode if you enjoy this podcast whether you're watching on youtube or you're listening on your favorite podcast platform i would love for you to subscribe share comment if you're on youtube leave a rating review if you're on spotify or apple itunes etc this helps the show grow it helps me bring more guests in we have a tremendous lineup of people coming in men and women who've done incredible things sharing their stories around peak performance leadership growth sales the things that are going to help you grow as a person and grow your business but they all check out comments ratings reviews they check out all this information before they come on so as i reach out to more and more people and want to bring them in and share their stories with you i need your help share the show subscribe if you're not subscribed and i'd love for you to leave a comment about the show because i read all the comments or if you're on apple or spotify leave a rating review of this show i love you for listening to this show and i hope you enjoy it listening as much as i do creating the show for you all right i'm out of here peace let's get back to the episode package properly okay let's wait a week i'm gonna repackage that idea this way let's see how it goes oh wow that hit a nerve people really like that let's take note of that and let's start to dial in because packaging that idea this way works really well um i you know i think uh um you know so i've done north of i lost count at 350 speaking events um about that's over how many years how many years my very first one was 2009 i spoke at the national young agents conference for the big eye in san francisco that was my first real speak i did a couple local ones but my first real speaking event was that event in 2009 so that's 14 years ago um i'd say probably 80 of those are paid speaking gigs um and you know i do free events every once in a while like insurance soup was free but i really love michael and taylor and i wanted to be in front of their audience and um i thought it was a tremendous opportunity to meet a bunch of new people and and they're i really like that group so um that was a solid value proposition for me yeah i i have a question here so i i noticed people have a certain certain type of style when they speak and i'm talking about their dress code yep you're or i'm more like you where um you know if i'm on stage i don't know call it old school call it you know know traditional you know i'm gonna be suited up it just it's just who i am and how i'm comfortable with now some people out there in t-shirts hats jeans which is totally great and i think the venue or the event has something to do with that i always notice you are in a dress shirt a blazer i mean you're just you're you're looking the part you're yeah why do you do that because i want people to know that i'm serious i think that look if you want to go the mark zuckerberg hoodie thing i think that's cool but unless you're mark zuckerberg people are going to take you seriously you come out in a ratty polo and jeans that don't fit and work boots right because you're you're this is who you are sure but people don't take you as seriously right like i take this work very very seriously when i'm out there it's um this is this is what i do it's what i love and i want you to know hey i'm i'm serious about what i'm doing right now this isn't me showing up i've thought about it i've prepped for it you know what i mean like i'm not hung over um you know maybe depending on airplanes and travel sometimes you have to rock and roll unlimited sleep but like you know outside of that like i'm ready to go like i'm i was up i'm prepared i'm ready to kill i'm here to help you whatever you know i'm here to bring max value to you and i think that when you show up you know unless you're specifically told by the event organizers to not do that which i've never had happen ever i think a speaker should always be the best dressed person in the audience like i agree i i think it shows to me it shows a lack of commitment and seriousness when you you know i'm gonna be casual okay but i feel like you're not taking it seriously like why should i listen to you if you can't if you can't make the effort to look sharp then why should i make the effort to give you my max attention i um you know any any time i have spoken i up until literally the last second until i get announced or come up on stage i'm i'm fighting these anxiety attacks that that happened within myself my heart starts beating faster i start doubting i'm totally mic'd up but i almost want to just take off the mic and just run to my room yeah i've had those moments and um i continue to have those moments and yeah and even i just i was with you last week at mick and marcy's wedding you know something so casual and so just non-threatening like that you know uh mick asked me to kind of lead the ceremony and i was getting stressed out dude you crushed you well well thank you but i was really getting stressed out but and i was practicing the intro you know because i didn't want to ruin it for them but what's your advice for somebody because as good as you are and as much as you love presenting and speaking and being up there on stage i guarantee you even ryan hanley gets nervous what's your record how do you overcome that if you don't if you don't get anxiety before you speak then you're doing something wrong it means that you're not you're not pushing hard enough if you're if you're just if you're if you show up and it's just like you know whatever that you're you're not pushing hard enough you're not trying to be the best that you can be like i want to hit every line every joke i want to hit every moment i want every eye in that room on me at all times i want them to stop eating i don't want them drinking water i don't want them looking at their phone i want them on me because for 45 to 90 minutes i'm there working and and and that to me is anxiety it creates anxiety because the other thing too is i have the propensity to say stupid shit so i also have to you know because i have a crass sense of humor i am a conservative and have no problem saying jokes against liberals i you know i have like these things that sometimes so i have to like know my audience there are audiences we're like that doesn't go over very well like right i made a sex joke in nebraska one time and it went over very poorly now the reason i did it is because i use sex jokes as a way to capture people's attention when i'm speaking post-lunch so after lunch is one of the toughest after lunch and the and the closing keynote or in my opinion are the two toughest times to speak yeah because people just got food they're talking about whatever their weekend their golf and now they're supposed to lock back in on you yeah so a lot of times post-lunch which is where i was at this point and nothing i love the people in nebraska there isn't anything against them because you know they're a little more conservative and uh and and and i'm post-lunch and i come on and uh i can tell i don't have them right i can tell they're not they're not back yet they haven't re-acclimated to being in the auditorium this is this is pre-joke or post-joke this is this is pre-joke okay i'm scanning i'm watching so so before the thing uh i will like glad hand glad hand glad hand in about five to ten minutes before i go on stage i kind of start to separate myself and what i'm doing is watching the audience what is glad hand what is that like uh shaking hands oh gotcha bro hugging how are you doing great to see you kind of stuff around five to ten minutes before the presentation i will separate myself from that and just watch the audience i'm just watching them i'm watching them sit how do they interact with each other are they comfortable how much attention do i naturally have who are the people that are going to be troublemakers like i don't mean troublemakers in a bad way but people who may be talking or doing other things like i want to know the scope of the audience before i go live so um so i'm watching that so i'm watching and i can just tell right away i'm like i this is gonna be work like they're they're they're not locked in and that's not a knock on them they just you know that happens um they're coming right off a lunch right back into another thing into another session after you know a three session morning so like i was the fourth session of the day so i get out there and to be honest i'm i'm not even going to try to say what i said because i can't exactly remember but i have this sometimes i say this thing we're like i'll i'll a pretty standard line is i'll be like whatever i'm talking about it's like sex i can love it right like something like that right so you wait you said you effing love it yeah yeah you said the word yeah yeah yeah because i because you know so sex saying the word sex and f-bombs tend to snap people's attention back oh yeah doing it to be well you got their attention that's for sure yes got their attention not necessarily in a good way yeah um the the few younger kids who were in this audience they thought it was funny and i had them but some of the some of the stagio white guys in back were not they were not impressed with that language and i got a couple head shakes and a couple did anybody walk up and leave no no no one no one got up and left but i could tell well one i had their attention but they did not appreciate it so um so then the next couple jokes that i had uh didn't necessarily hit as good like again it was very age specific you know you didn't know your audience there buddy yeah yeah that was when i learned don't swear and use sex jokes in the midwest they do not appreciate that kind of stuff which again is fine now i know i mean this was probably four or five years ago but um but like it that was a good lesson uh but yeah so so i have little things that i'll do um to kind of capture their attention like if i see someone's not really paying attention i'll work my way over to them in the audience right and i'll use them as an example um or i'll you know i'll touch them on the shoulder as i'm talking or i'll get like right up next to them and kind of look and speak directly to them yeah um well and also ryan i also noticed just the fact that you're walking by them you don't have to engage with them touch them or look at just the fact that you're walking by them kind of wakes them up a little bit yeah you know they're feeling the energy around them so that that one hundred percent works yes yeah so it's you know and i learned that trick from um from marcus sheridan who's a good buddy of mine he wrote they ask you answer he's been to a lot of insurance conference uh insurance events um he's a tremendous tremendous speaker and uh that's one of the things that i picked up from him i've kind of made it my own but uh he's really big on names i don't do the names thing um that's his thing i don't i don't do the names thing he will he will uh part of his contract will be that he'll everyone has to wear a name tag everybody in the audience has to wear a name tag and and before he goes live he will literally write people's names down and hand them stickers for them to put on so that he knows their names and he'll call them by name as he's working the audience i don't do that that's that's his thing i think that's very cool um i don't uh now ryan ryan why you got to share with the audience because this is gold right here why does he do that because it it makes one so there's a couple reasons one it makes it a wholly unique experience in that event it was tammy tammy's gonna have a specific thing he's gonna ask her a question tammy's gonna give him a response he can now engage with tammy directly um and and it makes it a unique experience to everybody who knows tammy wants to know what tammy's gonna say everyone who doesn't know tammy wants to know who tammy is and what tammy's gonna say yeah it also and this is a key for for anyone out there who's listening who's a young speaker uh you need to build breaks into your presentation okay some people use silence some people use um a video some people may use a complicated chart that people have to take a second some people use surveys marcus and in his for his uh you know sometimes he'll use this interaction with tammy as a way to let his brain reset and kind of it's almost like a subheading in a blog right this is a we're kind of changing topics or redirecting or giving his himself a chance i have a slide i purchased this um so a slide that i've used for years that is that is exactly what this is for me is um it's just a big ass bare face and anyone who's ever seen me speak has probably seen the big ass bare face slide it is meaningless it's literally a meaningless slide and i put it right around where i know i'm gonna start to run out of gas for a second or need a quick break and what i'll do is i'll click to the bare face and everyone will kind of chuckle because it's just a stock photo of a big ass like close-up on a bare face and and i'll just kind of click it and i'll be silent and people are like what the heck is that like people people don't know what it is and then i'll kind of and again i've done this so many times i'll kind of turn i'll look at and i'll go that's just a badass bare face and everyone will laugh right and what i'm doing is letting my brain kind of cool down right i'm letting my my thoughts kind of collect during this moment and i'll and i'll work kind of slow through this section for a second um and i'm also letting my audience catch back up a little bit because because i tend to work fast through certain sections and um and i'll and i'll have i'll be like you know what and this is true i'll be like you know i paid three dollars and 25 cents for this photo and everyone will kind of chuckle at that and i'm like and i'll just kind of stare at it for a second and then depending on how the audience is engaging i'll say man i just i would never want to be this close to a bear and everyone will kind of chuckle at that and uh and then um and i'll click the side and bam off to the races and that whole section might take 90 seconds maybe maybe maybe two minutes but what it allows the audience to do is settle for a second it allows my brain to cool down for a second and it gives us this transition point from one topic to another topic that has a little bit of humor and is a little off color it's kind of like if you're at a really expensive restaurant and they give you uh the sherbet or whatever they give you to kind of cleanse your palate before you get to the steak you know what i mean you're at a really good steakhouse they let you cleanse your that's kind of what it is i'm kind of cleansing the audience's palette for a second before we move on to something you know not necessarily like a completely different topic but before we start building again i want everyone to be able to go yeah it's a transition transition yes and um and i just picked that up like a while ago um and i don't to be honest with you i've been doing that slide for so long i don't even know where it came from at this point um but i do know i paid three dollars and 25 cents for it on some stock photography website how important is tonality oh it's everything it's so when you speak um again and i don't want anyone thinking i'm fucking master i'm not um you know my goal in the next five years is to be a consistent five-figure speaker um and uh you know i i've been there a couple times but it's not consistent um we'll get there that being said when you when you're when you're on stage you have a couple options you can stand there and just deliver a message that's fine people will tell you you did a good job especially if you have some insights that aren't are you know deep or helpful um and that's great and there's nothing wrong with that to me it's not a presentation it's a performance so when i think about what i'm doing i'm performing this is this is like a comedy routine it's a it's a one-man show it's a uh it's it this i want people to to be up and down and laugh and maybe get a little introspective and and i want them to know that you know they're not alone if they're scared or or you know i i want them to work through a series of emotions and ideas and come out the other end with a core idea and a core tactic or strategy to take away right that's really my goal is is whatever that end goal is i want to get there okay so when i think about it i'm not just thinking about what i'm saying in fact i'm rarely thinking about what i'm saying because and again this goes back to reading prepping preparing right like that i don't go into a to a presentation like even when i started i've done a bunch of presentations recently with no slides and a lot of people will say well geez how much did you prepare for that a fuck ton because to do a presentation with no slides means you have to hold the audience for 45 to 90 minutes with zero visual backup yeah right i'm a i'm a no slides guy myself yeah man i i like i like to have my little notes with me but i i like to just flow and just go with it yeah i'm 100 with you but you to get there you have to have read researched prepped prepared outlined thought through examples life experiences like like there are like people will be like oh man like i had a buddy locally here and he was busting my chops he's like um the first time i ever uh made five figures in a gig i made i i booked a 12 000 gig so excited for it was amazing um and he goes jeez got 12 000 for one hour must be nice and i'm like you don't understand i probably put 12 000 hours worth of work to get to the point where i could make 12 grand in one hour speaking now it's not one hour because you have to travel there and all this it's you know it's not like you're yes you're on stage for maybe an hour but it's not an hour's worth of work that being said what most people and most speakers who are struggling to get ahead don't realize is that it's all the work before you get on stage that matters this is like being a professional athlete right like you know um take uh like uh who's um who's a great um jeez why is no one coming to my uh a great baseball player right now ronald acunio jr right so anyone's listening knows ronald acunio jr from the braves the guy went first guy and how many years ago 40 70 no one ever thought it would be done right absolute monster do you think ronald acunio jr just showed up one day and was able to hit 40 home runs and steal 70 bases no since the kid was five he's been fielding ground balls doing sprints agility drills hitting balls off a tee hitting soft toss hitting in games working on his swing doing dry swings over and over and over and in sports everybody's like well yeah of course or take michael jordan right i'm going through tim grover's uh tim grover has an awesome series out right now called breakthrough um it's it's paid but it's phenomenal tim grover trained michael jordan and kobe bryant if you listen or you read his books relentless and winning paradiso talks about these books all the time they're phenomenal um kobe bryant on the court was what we saw but kobe bryant was only kobe bryant on the court because of who he was before he got on the court and that hundred percent translates to public speaking that is absolutely you are as good as your preparation because what's going to happen is the sound's going to go out what do you do then what do you do if you do have visuals and and you go blue smoke on the computer and back and all of a sudden you have no visuals what happens when you get an audience member who's hung over and decides that today he's going to be an asshole and he's going to yell out things in the middle of your presentation what happens when you know the ringleader uh of some young agents event uh who's like 55 years old decides to sit in the middle of the room and tell you that everything you're saying doesn't apply to him and his community right how are you going to work that how are you going to work when uh only half the audience shows up how are you going to work when double the audience shows up how are you going to work when um the the the the event organizer is having a bad day and is screwing around and everything's late and now all of a sudden you're supposed to have an hour and you have 37 minutes what are you going to do then you're going to be a pro and crush it for 37 minutes you're going to bitch you're going to complain what are you going to do right to me you are only as good as your preparation and and you were asking me before we went live about finding peak this this kind of side hustle hobby thing that i'm kind of creating yeah i'm on the side which you know a lot of people have hobbies this is my hobby i love creating right it it it helps me in my job but i love creating the reason is because to me the ideas of discipline purpose intention focus meaning these things are preparation and and you can you can only be at your best if you're prepared you can only be at your best in the moment you can't be thinking what do i say next when someone has to turn around i know a speaker is either young or doesn't actually care it might mean young in the business not necessarily young in age when they have to turn when they turn around like look at their slide and it's unintentional right if it's part of the performance that's different but it's rarely part of the performance it's oh i'm not really sure what i'm supposed to say next what slide am i on you haven't prepared you haven't you don't deserve to get paid you haven't prepared for this event if you're doing that right like like you you need to be prepared so in the moment you're not thinking about what you're saying you're i'm watching the eyes i'm watching body language i'm listening to the feedback how loud do they laugh how do they clap has anyone gotten up and gone to the bathroom has a group has someone looked at their cell phone right i'm i'm i'm scanning to see is the event organizer and back so so you know when you're doing a good job you know what happens the person who hired you comes into the room and stands in the back and watches you that's how you know you're doing well because that event organizer has a shit ton of stuff to do and if they've stopped that stuff to come watch you work you're doing you're either doing really bad or really well and you usually know which one of those things is i love like these are the things that you you're not saying you're not thinking what do i say next the words are just coming out of your mouth or because because you have prepped and you and it's just who you are it's just flowing from you the the the next level the level that gets you paid that gets you on bigger stages this gets you front of and more dynamic and demanding audiences is when you are in the moment and reacting to the stimuli as they come to you and the materials just flowing out of you as a natural recourse of what you're experiencing yeah and like you said all that just takes practice and being on stage multiple times right i'm getting comfortable with it a couple rapid fire questions here yes give me 10 second answers yes favorite topic to speak on uh favorite topic is probably leadership and growth uh most requested topic is sales and marketing how has speaking affected your personal life uh it's probably the reason that i got divorced we won't go into that uh what is give us there's there's a lot of people right now sitting back at home wishing that they can go up there on stage and feel comfortable as you give us something give us something one piece of advice right now that would help us button up our performance or but help us button up our comfort level yeah you're gonna have to get rid of your ego uh meaning that's a big one that's a big one because we're all we're all worried about what are other people thinking of us yeah right and and you're yeah go ahead go ahead go ahead no because you're gonna suck you're gonna do things that are wrong you're gonna misstep you're gonna miss topics you're gonna miss words you're gonna say something you don't mean um if you think of it as like a performance then it's okay right if you think of it as a presentation you feel um i'm selling these people no think of it as a performance you're gonna mess up i mess up all the time you know what i do sometimes i go ah you know what i didn't mean that right in the middle of presentation you know i didn't that's not exactly let me let me let me reframe that i said this but you know let me reframe that idea i'll say that right in the middle of presentation because to me uh you know and we saw this daniel in real time in utah at the lions not sheep event with jordan peterson to me the way jordan peterson presents where the dude just walks out on stage kind of scans the audience he's got his hand on his face he's looking at everybody and then he just starts talking and you can almost feel in the way he's got these very unique hand movements which are are like intoxicating to me you know and they like really draw you in because it's almost as if he's reaching out and grabbing these ideas and pulling them into his brain in real time as he's thinking through these things and you can tell that maybe some stimuli in the last three days even if i've heard him talk about this topic before something he read something he saw something experienced slightly changed the way he approaches it today and that to me is a real performance right yes you need to be able to repackage your ideas and do it over and over again because that's how you get better but it doesn't mean you always have to deliver it exactly the same way and that's where people get messed up they're like well last time i said it bup bup bup this time i said it you know this way i screwed up you didn't screw up that's the way you felt it needed to be delivered today right and and maybe it doesn't work okay you just learned one way not to deliver that message so when you can when you can give up that ego part and you can just understand look i could do this 10 000 times and still make mistakes you you it frees you to be able to experience the moment with the audience versus feeling that you need to be perfect which will never happen that's right that's right you know ryan i this was um i was excited to have you speak on this topic because as much um obviously you have the ryan hanley podcast you you're you've been in the industry for so long you've been on several other podcasts shows youtube channel everything else and and uh i asked you hey have you ever spoken about this topic and you said no so i'm very excited to yeah have you come on and talk about this and you know i really do believe there's somebody right now right now in their car listening to this or at work or at home or in the gym listening to this podcast right now and they they hear your passion they feel your passion and there's something that you said today on this show because i've always said there's going to be that one moment that one person says that one thing that changes their life forever and i think this is going to be the show for a lot of people so i want to just thank you for your friendship brother i want to i want to thank you for just um you know being who you are but what is a great what's a way for um venues or events or anybody to reach out to you uh for any speaking engagements or questions yeah yeah so um you can go to my website ryanhanley.com uh you can email me at ryan at findingpeak.com you can go to findingpeak.com i have a newsletter podcast whatever check all that stuff out and um you know my my full-time job and and where i put all the ideas that i talk about into actual practice uh is rogerisk.com you can go check out um the insurance agency there as well so any of those places you can get a hold of me all the socials um you know i'm i'm fairly active because as i said i use social media as practice for testing ideas concepts thoughts ways of delivering messages that ultimately come through in you know the the speaking gigs so um just appreciate the hell out of you man i think that your way uh i i admire your uh calm and collected demeanor and the way that you uh are able to to navigate things difficult situations difficult conversations with uh um an an emotional uh consistency that is uh feels impossible to me but um but uh it's just so much fun i appreciate the opportunity and um as always i wish you nothing but the best brother i love you brother bye thank you so so close twice as many deals by this time next week sound impossible it's not with the one call close system you'll stop chasing leads and start closing deals in one call this is the exact method we use to close 1200 clients under three years during the pandemic no fluff no endless follow-ups just results fast based in behavioral psychology and battle tested the one call close system eliminates excuses and gets the prospect saying yes more than you ever thought possible if you're ready to stop losing opportunities and start winning visit master the close.com that's master the close.com do it today if you like the show please take a moment to rate review and subscribe it really does help the show to grow thank you for listening happy holidays want to give your host a gift consider subscribing rating and reviewing the show this holiday season it really helps the show grow from all of us at believe have a merry christmas everyone and a happy holiday