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The Speaker Lab Podcast

The Speaker Lab Podcast

Written by: The Speaker Lab
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Want to learn how to get booked and paid to speak — consistently? The Speaker Lab podcast features business tactics, speaking tips, and insider strategies from TSL CEO Dan Irvin, The Speaker Lab coaches, and some of the world's most successful speakers.

You'll learn how to find speaking gigs, build relationships in your industry, negotiate higher speaker fees, and grow your speaking business. Every week, this podcast will give you key insights and practical advice from speakers who have been there and done that and can help you take the next step in your speaking journey. Whether you’re just getting started as a paid speaker or you’re a veteran speaker looking to build and grow your business, The Speaker Lab Podcast is here for you!

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Episodes
  • How to Make Decisions That Stick with Julian V. Taylor

    How to Make Decisions That Stick with Julian V. Taylor
    Oct 1 2026
    "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.
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    40 mins
  • The 85% of Your Speaking Business Nobody Talks About

    The 85% of Your Speaking Business Nobody Talks About
    Sep 22 2026

    "The famine is not caused by the famine. The famine is caused by what you did not do during the feast."

    Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! In this episode, Dan Irvin pulls up a chair for another one of his unfiltered coffee shop conversations — just you and Dan across the table.

    Everybody talks about the stage. The standing ovation, the packed room, the nailed close. Nobody posts about the morning after — back in your home office, adrenaline gone, thank-you messages slowing down, staring at a calendar with nothing on it. Every speaker has had that Tuesday. The ones with full calendars and the ones who are stuck had the exact same Tuesday. They did something different with it. Dan breaks down the feast-famine loop most speakers are trapped in — land a gig, ride the high, go quiet, panic, scramble, repeat — and what it actually takes to replace it, starting with the 85% of the business that happens off stage. He walks through the five pipeline stages working speakers run every week, shares the simple math behind consistent bookings, and opens up about the personal experience that made him swear he'd never build something for someone else without building something for himself.

    Whether you're booking your first paid gig or you've had your best year ever and still can't see next quarter, this episode is the framework for a calendar that fills without the panic.

    You'll learn:

    • Why the feast-famine cycle isn't “the business” — it's the absence of one
    • The 15/85 split: what the stage actually represents vs. the work nobody sees
    • Five pipeline stages every working speaker runs on repeat — prospect, reach out, follow up, close, rebook
    • Dan's illustrative math: how reaching out to 10 organizations a week could map to roughly 24 paid gigs a year (your numbers will differ, but the shape holds)
    • Why your outreach emails aren't landing — and the simple flip that gives planners a reason to reply
    • The real reason planners don't respond, and why following up three, four, five times isn't desperate
    • Dan's post-gig routine: the handwritten thank-you note, the Zoom call, and the question most speakers never ask
    • What you actually need to run a pipeline — a tracker, a weekly block, reminders, and a checklist (that's the whole infrastructure)
    • The reframe for speakers who say “I didn't get into speaking to be in sales”
    • Why Dan still does his own outreach — and the personal story behind his pipeline obsession
    • And much, much more!


    "The stage is the reward. The pipeline is how you earn it."

    Wondering what the gaps in your speaking business actually look like — and what to do about them? Book a free Speaker Business Assessment — a 15-minute session where our team looks at what you're doing now, where the holes are, and what your system should look like.

    Episode Resources:

    • 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.
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    29 mins
  • Why Charging More Actually Gets You Booked More

    Why Charging More Actually Gets You Booked More
    Sep 15 2026

    "Undercharging is not humility. It is a positioning problem and oftentimes a confidence problem. And that confidence problem is wearing a humble costume."

    Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! In this episode, Dan Irvin digs into one of the most common — and most expensive — mistakes speakers make: undercharging for their talks. And not just because it shrinks your paycheck. Dan makes the case that pricing too low actually makes you harder to book.

    Here's the scene he sets: you're on a call with an event planner, the conversation is going great, they ask what your fee is — and a much smaller number comes out of your mouth than the one in your head. Dan's been there himself, early in his career. Inside The Speaker Lab, he's had this exact conversation with speaker after speaker. The problem goes deeper than money. When you price too low, planners treat you differently — worse time slots, skipped introductions, ignored A/V requests. Same speaker, same talk, totally different experience. Dan breaks down the three traps that keep speakers stuck in the discount cycle, shares a story about how one "we don't pay speakers" event turned into more than $50,000 in workshops, and walks through his own approach to the fee conversation — the questions he asks, how he frames his number, and why he doesn't commit to a final number on the discovery call.

    Whether you're brand new and figuring out where to set your first real fee, or you've been speaking for years and suspect you've been leaving serious money on the table, this episode gives you a clear framework for pricing with confidence.

    You'll learn:

    • How undercharging actually makes you harder to book, not easier
    • The three pricing traps that keep speakers stuck (free gigs, comparison shopping, and fear of hearing "no")
    • How "exposure" builds the wrong reputation and trains your market to expect you for free
    • Why somebody else's fee tells you absolutely nothing about what yours should be
    • The direct link between your fee and how event planners treat you — from your time slot to your introduction
    • What actually determines your fee (hint: it's not just how good your talk is)
    • Why getting uncomfortably niche leads to paid gigs
    • Dan's story of turning a "we don't pay speakers" event into more than $50,000 in workshops
    • How to handle the fee conversation without apologizing, hedging, or negotiating against yourself
    • The one question Dan never skips on a discovery call — and why it reframes everything
    • When to adjust your fee down as a strategic choice and when to raise it
    • And much, much more!


    "Stop discounting yourself. Your message is worth more than you're charging for it."

    Not sure what you should be charging — or how to say the number without flinching? Take the free Speaker Business Assessment — In 15 minutes, the team looks at your positioning, niche, and assets and helps you figure out the right fee and how to present it. Dan's on some of those calls himself.

    Episode Resources:

    • 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.
    Show More Show Less
    32 mins
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