The Speaker Lab Podcast

“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 credential
Why your past career detours are qualifications, not wasted time
What “digital discipleship” means and how Robin carved out a speaking niche from it
The mindset shift from speaking for free (or nearly free) to getting paid what your message is worth
Why Robin created a family discernment tool as the key to unlocking hesitant audiences
Dan's advice on finding the smaller group who desperately need your message instead of trying to reach everyone
Why slow, relational trust-building beats aggressive outreach — especially when you're just starting
How 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 message
The difference between having something important to say and assuming everyone wants to hear it
And 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 Assessment
Robin Blair
MySpeakerFee
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
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"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.

"You do not need a superpower. You simply need a system that gets you one step at a time, one day at a time, toward your goal."

Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! This week's Alumni Spotlight features Amy LaBelle — founder and winemaker of LaBelle Winery in New Hampshire, which she started with five thousand dollars and a dream and opened 4,083 days later. Today that's two locations, 250 employees, 16,000-plus cases a year, two restaurants, roughly 700 events annually, a distillery coming online this fall, and lodging and a spa on the way. She's also an author with two books out and two more in progress. And she speaks — mostly to rooms of women leaders — on a framework she calls Count Each Day, Make Each Day Count.

The through-line of this conversation is what Amy does with the material she already has. In March she took the stage at a conference for women leaders in hospitality, held the room for a full hour, then ran an hour-plus workshop right after it. Here's the part Dan wanted underlined: she didn't write new content for that workshop. She built one worksheet — one page, one side — and used the extra hour to walk the room through the framework on a goal each person actually had, so the thing they'd just learned got applied before life could crowd it out. Months later she ran into an attendee who was still chasing the goal she'd set that afternoon.

Amy is also refreshingly honest about the money and the misses. She earned enough from speaking to cover her Speaker Lab investment, then enough to take her family on vacation — a trip she admits she could have paid for anyway, but that felt different coming from found money. And when two organizers came up after a talk last summer, asked for her contact information, and then went silent on her follow-ups, she does the thing most speakers skip: she looks at her own side of it. She had their emails. She didn't have their phone numbers. Dan pushes on the awkwardness underneath that — the instinct not to take up too much of someone's time — and the two of them land on why follow-up isn't a nuisance when you're the one holding the value.

Whether you're weighing how to turn one keynote into a bigger booking, wondering if a speaking business can coexist with a demanding day job, or sitting on a stalled lead you're afraid to chase, this conversation is a practical, warm look at building it one day at a time.

You'll learn:

Why a system beats a superpower, and how Amy's daily framework built a winery in 4,083 days

How to turn an hour keynote into a keynote-plus-workshop booking without writing new content

The one-page worksheet that made her framework stick after the room emptied

How to run a speaking business alongside a company with 250 employees

What it felt like when speaking income crossed over into family money

Why "found money" from a side hustle changes how you spend it

What to do when the organizers who asked for your card never write back

The contact-info fix that would have saved a stalled opportunity

Why following up isn't being a nuisance when you're the one holding the value

Why women hesitate longer before saying yes to their own dreams

The pre-stage ritual and playlist that get Amy's energy right before she walks on

The one action she wants every listener to take before the week is out

And much, much more!

"Sometimes people just need one person to believe in them."

Sitting on a talk you know is worth more than you're charging for it — or a lead you've been too polite to chase? Grab a free 15-minute Speaker Business Assessment and find out exactly where you are in your speaking journey and what to do next.

Episode Resources:

Get Your 15 Minute Speaker Business Assessment

Amy LaBelle's Website

Calculate Your Speaking Fee

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

Subscribe on Spotify

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

"We're always going a hundred miles an hour. So we never even realize that we're driving through fog all that time."

Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! This week's Alumni Spotlight features Scott Hacker — thirty-plus years in corporate sales, now a certified high performance coach who goes by the clarity coach. His signature talk is called Navigating the Fog of Life, and the premise is simple: when you drive into actual fog, you slow down, turn off the radio, and pay attention. In our lives, we just keep going a hundred miles an hour and never notice the fog is there at all.

Scott's recent run is a case study in the long game. He found a whole new market for his workshops in chambers of commerce and nonprofit boards, and none of it happened in one meeting. He joined the chamber. He spoke at a breakfast for free. That turned into a longer workshop, which turned into a chamber president asking him to facilitate a board retreat he had never facilitated before — so he said yes, built it out, and walked away with a board member offering to personally fund an ongoing engagement. Then there's the story Dan wanted the room to sit with: a free two-hour workshop for a women's council of realtors in January of last year, which came back around eighteen months later as a four-month multi-series mastermind. Dan also puts on his coaching hat for a stalled deal, digging into what happens when a chamber executive tells you his members want "real tools," not the soft, touchy feely stuff — and why Scott held his ground instead of building a talk that wasn't his.

Whether you're weighing whether the next free gig is worth your time or trying to decide how hard to hold your positioning when a buyer pushes back, this conversation is a clear-eyed look at how patient, aligned work compounds into paid opportunity.

You'll learn:

How a free talk for a local realtors' association came back as a four-month paid engagement

Why chambers of commerce and nonprofit boards are an overlooked market for workshops

The long game that turns one free breakfast talk into a multi-workshop contract

How saying yes to a board retreat he'd never run led to a funded, ongoing program

Why Scott starts with the business owner's mindset instead of the nuts and bolts

The criteria that decide whether a free stage is worth your effort

What to do when a decision maker says your message is too soft for his members

Why building the talk they asked for would have shown up on stage as incongruent

How alignment with your own message keeps you calm when a room pushes back

The once-a-month touch-base system that keeps a stalled opportunity warm

The daily habit that keeps a clarity coach clear

And much, much more!

"As soon as you get clarity on what it is you truly want, your actions will become a lot easier, the priorities will become easier."

Wondering whether that next free stage is worth your time — or how to turn the ones you're already doing into paid engagements? Grab a free 15-minute Speaker Business Assessment and find out exactly where you are in your speaking journey and what to do next.

Episode Resources:

Get Your 15 Minute Speaker Business Assessment

Scott Hacker's Website

Calculate Your Speaking Fee

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

Subscribe on Spotify

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

“The better the foundation is, the more opportunities I'm getting to do exactly that.”
Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! This week's episode is another alumni spotlight, and it might be Dan's favorite combination yet: Matthew Sharpe is a licensed therapist — and a stand-up comedian. He put the two together in Standup Therapy Live, where the laughs do the heavy lifting for the mental health lessons. Matt works with high-stress, high-stakes professions — healthcare workers, law enforcement, corrections officers — teaching resilience through humor, complete with a “humor lab” where he makes rooms full of uniformed officers sweat bullets by writing jokes on a 15-minute deadline.
But the real story of this episode isn't the comedy — it's the business. Matt just booked out a full week of paid speaking for the first week of October, and every gig in it traces back to a different lesson from The Speaker Lab playbook: cold outreach to people he'd never met, follow-up that turned one law enforcement gig into a repeat booking, and a Department of Corrections client bringing him back to train staff from around their state. He's even had a gig land completely cold — the National Conference of State Legislatures found him through SEO he didn't set up. And then there's the lesson most speakers never learn: Matt genuinely loves the process. The prospecting, the pipeline, even the rejections. Dan also coaches Matt through a proposal that died on price, unpacking budget questions, decision makers, add-on gigs, and the “menu” of offerings that can save a stalled deal.
Whether you're still chasing your first paid gig or trying to figure out why your calendar isn't as full as your talent deserves, this conversation is a masterclass in falling in love with the 95% of the work that gets you the 5% on stage.
You'll learn:
How Matt booked a full week of paid speaking by following the process step by step
The simple cold email (“quick question — who books your talks?”) that keeps turning into gigs
How follow-up after a gig — the harvest — creates repeat bookings
Why an inbound gig from SEO is the bonus you earn for doing the work
The mindset shift that separates speakers who burn out from speakers who build
How to reframe the business side as your foundation, not the tax you pay to perform
The 85/15 rule of speaking — and why Dan thinks it's really 95/5
How Matt learned to price himself with confidence (and who convinced him to raise his fee)
Where a proposal to a doctors' organization stalled — and the budget questions that could have saved it
How add-on gigs and geographic prospecting give you room to get creative with your fee
Why offering a menu — keynote, workshop, reception comedy set — adds value for event planners
And much, much more!

“Find something new and exciting that makes you laugh every day. It just opens your eyes to new possibilities.”
Ready to build a speaking business that books itself — and actually enjoy the work that gets you on stage? 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:
Get Your 15 Minute Speaker Business Assessment
Matthew Sharpe's Website
Calculate Your Speaking Fee
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
Subscribe on Spotify
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.