How I Built a Multimillion Dollar Speaking Business Part 1

How do I build a million-dollar company? Better yet, how can someone build a multimillion-dollar public speaking company? Well, although I have done both of those things, I wouldn’t suggest anyone try to do what I did. I made every mistake in the book. In fact, every mistake showed me what “not to do.” Then, I’d use that lesson to get me closer to what “to do.”By the way, the reason that I am not the best role model for building a business is that I’m pretty hard-headed. It is both a blessing and a curse. Hopefully, if you are a business owner and you are looking to grow, you can use my example to help save you time and effort. I spent 12 years putting everything back into my business before I crossed the million-dollar per year threshold. However, I was able to generate the second million dollars in less than six months after that.Hopefully, a few of these lessons-learned can help you in your journey.Learn from Experts Who Already Have “Fruit on the Tree.”I was teaching a class in Boston long ago and was staying in a hotel out by Logan Airport. There were no restaurants in or around the hotel. However, the airport shuttle dropped me off in a little village that had three eating choices. One of the three was a barbeque place. Being from Texas, I’m pretty picky about my BBQ, but the line was out the door. While waiting to get a table, I began to read the press-clippings posted in the lobby.It turns out that the owner of the BBQ joint was a Korean Doctor who came to the US to practice medicine. Shortly after he arrived, he attended a meeting where the caterers served barbeque. He loved it. A few years later, he was traveling to a different state and saw a BBQ place. Hoping to get a similar meal, he stopped in. However, he was shocked that although he had ordered the same type of meat, it tasted fantastic but totally different from what he remembered. This started a 10-year quest to travel the US collecting BBQ recipes. He experimented with Texas brisket and Tennesse pulled-pork. Then he perfected the St. Louis baby-back ribs.When I was finally seated at a table, I ordered the brisket. I loved every mouthful. In fact, I felt like the food critic in the movie Rattatoui. The meal made me think of home. The point is that this Korean doctor didn’t invent Texas BBQ brisket. He just traveled to Texas and learned how to do it properly from someone who was already an expert.That is what I did as well.You Must Invest Time and Resources into Your Craft to Become the Expert.For those of you who don’t know, my college degree is in the Oil & Gas industry. My first big break was with Atlantic Richfield as an intern. However, at the end of the summer, I had to give a presentation and I totally bombed it. I hated public speaking and knew I needed help. So I read books, attended Toastmaster, and took presentation classes. Nothing really seemed to work, though. That is until I came across an expert in the industry.Eventually, I found a professional speaker named Mary Ann Smith who was offering classes to the general public. The fee that she was charging for a seat in her class was about what I made in a month. I was desperate, though. I had already tried so many things and nothing worked. But this coach had built a company that was generating about a half-million dollars in income in a city of about 89,000 people.For full show notes, visit How I Built a Multimillion-Dollar Speaking Businesshttps://www.fearlesspresentations.com/how-i-built-a-multimillion-dollar-speaking-company/