World of Speakers E.42: Vince Molinaro | Leadership and speakership

VM: It's a great question!

I would begin with a story of something that happened early in my career.

My very first job after I graduated from college, I started working at a large public sector organization.

What I quickly realized, a lot of young people when they enter the workforce for the first time, they're just so ready to change the world—and that was me.

I wanted to have a real impact in the real world, and here I joined this large organization that did really important work, it helped some of the neediest people in society get their lives back on track. That was inspiring and exciting.

But then I was struck by the feel of the organization day to day—people just going through the motions Monday to Friday, no life, no energy no vitality. I remember early on going, "Is this what the world of work is going to be like? Now all I need to do is show up every day, be a diligent employee...for the next 40 years?”

“At the end of it I'll retire, maybe they will give me a little ceremony with a cake, maybe a little watch or something. Is that it?"

That was one of the early questions, literally weeks into starting work, and I already knew that no matter how meaningful that job was in helping needy people, there was something more that I wanted.

I wanted to have an impact in the organization, and over months and months being there, I encountered a leader, a senior manager named Zinta, who wasn't even my direct manager, but somehow she saw something in me and gave me the opportunity to work with her to actually try to turn around that workplace climate and that environment.

We started to put things in place and it started to change.

Here are all these people showing up like zombies Monday to Friday, and all of a sudden, there was more energy, more passion, more vitality and I realized the impact that one manager like Zinta could have.

I started to really get excited about this idea of what it means to kind of be a leader.

Then disaster struck. Zinta had been diagnosed with lung cancer and had to immediately leave to start her treatment, and I was devastated, as a lot of us were hearing that news.

As soon as she left, it seemed like everything that we worked towards, all those positive changes slowly started to reverse back.

I realized one manager might be able to start a change, but on her own, it's not enough to sustain it. In her absence, everything got really negative and sour again and it was a really frustrating time.

I was hearing through the grapevine many, many months later that she wasn't doing well and I felt compelled to go visit her because she was so helpful to me.

In that visit to her home, I could immediately tell the disease was getting the best of her and she wanted to know what my experience was in her absence.

I told her my frustrations and then she opened up and told me her experience as a senior manager in that organization—the bickering, the infighting, the lack of trust, the backstabbing, the sabotaging.

It was a really toxic culture she was describing.

She went further and said that she believed that her health, her disease that she was fighting, that cancer that was ravaging her body was a direct function of spending her career in that toxic culture.

RF: I am getting goosebumps, by the way, you just gave me goosebumps buddy.

VM: I walked away from that, from meeting her, my mind racing with everything that she had said, because, as a young employee, I was completely oblivious to what was going on in senior management.

Two weeks after that, she sent me a letter kind of encouraging me, challenging me, and two weeks after I got that letter, she passed away.

Everything I've been doing to this point in time in my career is about that experience. Because I knew I had to make a change. I had to really take her words seriously to say,

"We can be better, we can do better. We can't create toxic workplaces, we need leaders like Zinta who are inspirational and supportive to the people they lead."

Shortly thereafter I left the organization. I started my own consulting business, and that is what I have been doing ever since.

It’s really this mission to help companies create the best leaders they can, because of the impact it can have on employees, on customers, on productivity, and that's really what I have been doing since that time.

RF: Wow! That's an amazing example of a story that definitely gives tons of insights into you as a person and what you're doing. It gave me goosebumps!

It actually makes me think of the irony: that this company was helping to change lives as an output, yet it was breaking people who were within the organization that were the functioning units to make the change in people's lives outside of the organization.

That seems pretty ironic.

VM: It is a great observation, not only is it ironic, but what I came to learn is that’s how they coped. When you were helping your clients in need, that was gratifying, that was fulfilling, and it allowed you to almost ignore all the organizational crap that was going on.

That's how people survived.

If that work wasn't meaningful, if it was really mundane and mind-numbing, I think we would have had a different environment.

What I also learned, because the question I always asked myself was, at the time I said, "Did that experience that she had in that environment really cause her disease?”

Now we know enough about the impact of workplace stress on people's health, so the answer is, yes, there was probably a strong connection. She believed so.

Then I asked myself, "well, if it was so bad for her, why didn't she just leave?"

I didn't realise the answer to that question until many years later, in my consulting work: Zinta was a Baby Boomer, and the attitude of Baby Boomers were you put up with the worst managers, the worst cultures, the work environments, that was kind of a badge of honor that Boomers had.

I was a Gen X and I already knew I was wired differently. In fact, I left a very stable, fairly well-paying job because I thought,

"No, that's not for me, I'm not going to pay that price. I want to work with great leaders who want to build great cultures, not toxic ones”.

That was always my aspiration, but it's interesting how you have these questions early on, you don't quite have the answers, and then, many years later, those answers come.

RF: Hindsight is 20/20, right?

Tell us about your book and how that came about, how integral that is to the impact that you're making, for people that maybe can't afford your consulting, or can't get in front of you.

Talk to us about this book.

VM: Since that time with Zinta and since I've kind of broken out on my own, I have had various experiences, I’ve gone back into companies, into consulting, I've had leadership roles myself.

I've done my graduate, academic stuff that one needs to do, and I've worked with a ton of leaders in their companies really helping them build a strong leadership.

Along the way, I've always done speaking, and writing, and research, to inform the work.

Around 2010-2011, I started to see clients with really different challenges.

Initially, we were always trying to encourage organizations to invest in developing their leaders because they would see the payback.

Well, that was no longer the problem then, but what we were finding was that companies were investing in developing leaders, but not seeing it translated to stronger leadership.

One meeting I had in particular was with the head of HR and organizational development for a large financial services company, she was quite visibly frustrated in that meeting.

She was saying, "You know what, I thought we had done all the right things when it comes to developing leaders."

I asked what she did, and she said, "We identified who are key leaders, we invested heavily, we coached them, we assessed them, we sent them off to business schools, we promoted them, we made them all vice presidents and now we are waiting."

I asked, "What are you waiting for?"

She said, "We are waiting for them to lead!"

I asked, "What's happening?"

She replied, "Well, they’re not. They are looking at each other every day thinking someone else is going to pick things up, they always looked to the executive team for direction on everything".

And she said, "I don't understand what it means to be a leader."

That was the first time I had that problem.

There's a new problem that companies are facing.

When you do the kind of work we do, it's always remarkable that you hear one new problem and then it seems like every other day you see the same thing just crop up over and over again in other companies, in other industries.

That's what was happening, and then I realized that there's something more fundamental going on here that no one has really thought about.

What I began to learn was an issue around accountability.

We have people in leadership roles who do not fully understand what it means to be a leader and aren't really stepping up in ways that their companies need them to, particularly today, when the expectations and the demands of leaders at all levels are greater than they have ever been.

That led me to write “The Leadership Contract” which really kind of positions this idea that we need people who are going to jump into leadership roles at any point in their career understand that they have actually signed up for something really, really important.

They need to understand that leadership roles are critical to the success of any company or organization.

And without really being aware of it, people have actually entered a contract, because we expect a lot from leaders, we expect them to step up in meaningful ways.

I think a lot of leaders haven't really thought about this idea of a contract.

I think they treat it more like when you are online and that window pops up with all the terms and conditions.

When I am really busy, I always scroll down to the bottom, I click “Agree” I move on with my day.

I know I've entered something, I have entered some kind of contract, I have no idea what it is. That's the same thing.

The book really talked about that there is a contract, and it comes with four terms.

The four terms are:

1. You've got to make a decision and define yourself as the leader: because it is a different role.
2. It comes with significant obligations: you've got to be clear on what those obligations are and work to live up to those.
3. It's not an easy role: it is a lot of hard work, and you've got to have the resilience and resolve to tackle some of the tough things that come in your role.
4. It's about community: that it's no longer about the hero or one leader who's going to save the day, that leaders are having to collaborate, work together in ways they never have before, and so you've got to be really good at building that sense of leadership culture.

We've created the books, we've got workshops and programs that we have been delivering around the world, the books have been translated.

In fact, later this month the Spanish translation will be out as well.

RF: Que bueno!

VM: This idea of the leadership contract and leadership accountability has really taken hold and that's something that I would never have anticipated or have predicted.

It's how things have unfolded, so I am grateful for that.

RF: That's life, right, the way that it unfolds, starting from your story, your ignorance, your experience, somebody taking you under their wing; you making changes, those changes being removed as soon as the leader is removed, you being inspired, and sort of shell-shocked that this type of environment could potentially cause cancer, which you found out later it did.

And then you start seeing these problems and the key issues are popping up so you decide to start “whack-a-moling” them all in, and eventually finding out that it's a lot larger of a specific problem that has to do with the terms of leadership.

Here is what comes to mind—I always liked the idea that leaders are speakers and speakers are leaders.

Do you think it would be a fair assessment to take this book that you had, and I'm going to say instead of the “Leadership Contract”, just cross it out, and it could be the “Speakership contract” I just threw this “ship” in there, right...so it's the same!

Do you think that in the 4 pillars of the contract, we could substitute the word “leader” and put “speaker”, and it would still make sense?

VM: Let's play that out, it's a really interesting idea, one that I haven't thought about until now.

If I think about my own speaking career, and I have had the pleasure of knowing a lot of great speakers as well, I think the really great speakers, the people that I truly admire, I don't think that happens by accident.

There is a deliberate decision to say, "I want to, I need to be a speaker. I need to commit to the craft of speaking, and do what's necessary to be the best speaker I can be for my audience."

Whichever audience that may be. I think that is foundational.

I think the other thing, if I think about obligation, there is an obligation that speakers must live up to in terms of creating value for the people in their audience.

It's a funny craft—speaking.

Because you're there, you're at the center of attention, you're the spotlight, your ego can run amok.

But at the end of the day, it's not about you, it's about your audience and making sure that you're clear on what your obligation is, to provide value to them.

I remember reading years and years ago, in the early days of universities, talk about how different it is than today, and people who I guess would be self-proclaimed professors, they would give a lecture under a tree somewhere with a group of students and the students would pay them right after that lecture, based on the value that they got.

I always thought, "What a cool idea,"... that's a pure entrepreneurial act.

If you create value for the person, they will reimburse you or pay you based on their sense of perceived value.

You talk about the pressure that some of those speakers or professors were under, so that obligation is important.

I think the demands of being a speaker are high.

I think it is a lot of hard work to hone your craft, there are a lot of things that you've got to pay attention to, and you've got to get right: I don't think you can come at it with a sense of lightness or treating it in a light way.

I think you have to commit, and I think everyone that I speak to talks about the resilience and it's all you need to be successful.

We've all been on stage, we think we did okay and then you get the evaluations and what do we always do, we look to the lowest rated numbers.

RF: Right, that's where the eyeballs always go to, yeah.

VM: My sense is that there is a community. You referenced Josh Linkner's event, the benefit there was coming together with 25-30 leaders from very different areas and disciplines and understanding and learning from one another.

It's that sense of community and support that I think is critical to not only help you get better but just help the profession as a whole get stronger.

RF: Totally.

Before we jump into the nuts and bolts of some of the tips to help people with their own speakership contracts, from a tactical standpoint, I want to throw at you this 3-1-3 challenge.

The thing that I speak about is the 3-1-3 and the problem that I am solving is an idea that's not communicated well, no longer becomes a good idea.

I think 3 sentences get to the core of what people do.

So we've gotten a chance to know you. I'm going to do a little pop quiz with 3 questions and the fun challenge is that you can only answer them in one sentence.

If you don't get it that's fine, we can play with it, but this is a way for the audience to get up to speed and have super clarity on what you do.

The 3 questions are:

1. What is the problem that you solve?
2. What is your solution?
3. What is your market?

They seem very unassuming, but they're actually very challenging.

If I could challenge you, what is the single biggest problem that you solved with your consulting agency? Do not tell us what you do, that's the tricky part, just tell us a problem.

And then, if you mess up, I'm going to go like “Buzz!”, and then we'll start again. It'll be fun.

What is the biggest problem, the single biggest problem that you solve and can you say it in a sentence?

VM: I would say—I'm waiting for the buzzer to come out any minute—I would say, and I am challenging my own thinking because I love what you doing. I would say that ultimately, I help leaders get clear…

RF: Buzz. You said, "I help leaders" that's what you do.

Let's go back to the beginning, you can't tell me what you do, and the fun premise is that secretly, I don't believe anybody cares what anybody does, I think they're really more interested in the problem.

If you tell people just the problem, they start to think about what your solution is and they're getting invested in the idea. It's like a guessing game.

Alright, Take 2, and you didn't lose any points, that was just a trial.

VM: Okay, good, it's like in tennis, my first in!

RF: I'll help you, you can literally just say, "The problem is," because we're so ingrained, we want to say that we help people but let's pretend that nobody cares about that.

VM: The problem is we have people in leadership roles who are not stepping up to the expectations of their roles, and ultimately, they are not accountable.

This is impacting company performance, cultures that companies are trying to create and that's a problem that really needs to be addressed today.

RF: Gotcha. Cool. If we had more time, just you and me doing this, I would push you back on is it affecting performance or culture?

If you had to choose a top level, understanding that leadership that's not accountable will have a lot of problems, what would you say the biggest problem is, between those, is it a cultural problem that it creates? Is it a performance problem that it creates? I'm just honestly curious?

VM: Yeah, well the research that I've done globally really shows that it impacts both, but that among companies—

RF: Is there one that's more than the other? If there had to be, if it was a split second race?

VM: To me, it's always going to be about performance, because ultimately, that's where a company needs its performance. You can have a great culture and not perform. So it's about performance.

RF: Okay, got it, so that's crystal clear now on the problem.

Can you explain your solution in just one sentence? And the trick is, don't try to explain how, just explain what.

What's your solution to that problem?

VM: The leadership contract helps leaders create the mindset so that they can lead with greater accountability and have the desired impact that the company needs them to have.

RF: Perfect, super straightforward and clear. The problem is solved by that solution.

Now, the third question is what type of leaders are you after? What is that target market?

Not everybody, but who does that leadership contract really speak to?

VM: What I find it really speaks to is any time there's a company going through a major change—there's a new CEO, there's a new strategy, post-merger or acquisition—when there are moments or inflection points where what it means to be a leader in that company changes, the company needs leaders to step up and understand what those changes are, and change how they are leading.

That seems to be where we have the greatest impact and success.

RF: Gotcha.

Not just that they're trained, that they have an MBA, that they're in a vice president position and that they've got a nice corner office, but the accountability behind those terms and services, I love that concept.

VM: Exactly.

RF: Alright, so let's dive into it from a tactical speaking presentation concept.

You're taking this message and bearing in mind the idea that a message that's not communicated well is not as good as a lesser message communicated amazingly, when you're speaking around the world, what are some of the things that you really focus on making sure that you check the boxes in?

What are some tips that you wish somebody would have told you that would have just 10X-ed your speaking experience now? What would those top tips be?

VM: I would say the first one is learn from great speakers and work with people who've got a depth of experience.

I have the privilege and honor of working with Dr.Nick Morgan from Boston, who I know has helped a lot of speakers.

He was helpful with the concept of framing ideas in a compounding and personal way. I think that has become really instrumental in the consulting work I have done, the academic work I've done.

At times, you can come off sounding like a professor. I think that the impact has come by making things really personal, not only in terms of my own personal stories, but really personally impactful for the person in the audience.

I think that's number one, knowing when you need to reach out and get good advice I think is really helpful.

RF: A quick shout out to Nick, he is amazing!

I've had him on a podcast, I've actually hired him to do some work with me as well and the same testimonial, just helping to bring clarity, but he's got so many years of experience with so many people it's like you're tapping into that knowledge base.

There are all kinds of free stuff and you can read his blog, he's got amazing stuff, but I don’t think people realize that once you hire somebody, somebody who is really good, their full commitment is to do everything and anything to help you, as much as possible.

And with that type of attention, like your whole world opens up, because they become super candid, they provide tough love for you, they're going to push you and challenge you and you just don't get that unless you engage somebody sometimes.

I just wanted to throw that out there.

VM: Yeah, I think the other thing is it's an accelerator, because you can be successful figuring it out on your own, but the school of hard knocks and trial and error...takes a long time.

I find the benefit is that just learning from their wisdom and experience moves you quicker to your outcomes, whatever they may be.

RF: Tapping into your expertise, if you had a chance to talk with all the people that are listening now, what would be another thing that you would challenge them on or that you would help to give them some insight on?

VM: The second thing I've learned through that work is how personal this work is, in other words, people want to know your story.

I like to share the story of my experience with Zinta a lot, and I'm always amazed at how that impacts people who are hearing it.

What's also interesting is that the story is, I've come to learn, somewhat universal.

Whether I'm speaking to seasoned C-suite leaders who are in their 40's, 50's and 60's or to Millenials and Gen Z, that kind of personalization of the story really connects.

It requires people to dig deep, to kind of find what are those stories that are going to be universal and meaningful based on the things you've experienced.

A lot of times those are not necessarily the stories of successes, they are actually stories of, "Here are the hard times I went through, here's how I failed, here's what didn't work."

We're all living through common experiences as humans whether in the workplace or in our private lives, and the more we can bring that sense of who we are, that I think becomes really important.

RF: I can see that challenge with somebody who is so research-based and backing things up by what's actually happening and data becomes stale. I can tell you statistics but stories make things come alive.

And to your story, it literally gave me goosebumps—whenever I get goosebumps I tell people it's a goosebump meter, there's something that resonates.

This idea of a universal story: do you find that this same story applies in a universal way or in a variety of situations?

VM: It applies across a broad cross-section of people.

The last 2.5 years I have probably traveled to 70 cities around the world and shared that story. It has an impact.

Whether I've been in South America, whether I've been in Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, it doesn't seem to matter where I have been, those stories when you get in, when you really have been figured out, have that universal appeal.

I know a broad cross-section of people, different walks of life, different cultures—that is I think how I would be defining them.

RF: You know what's interesting thinking back just really on the actual story, is that it really spanned a long period of time, even to the fact where you're saying,

"Eventually, based on research, we realized that her cancer probably was a result of that working experience," and then you go deeper and you're like, "And then, because she was a Baby Boomer."

It's a story that really, I'm sure you realize it, but it's a short story that spans a very long time, and where I find power in that is all the middle part, which you don't tell.

It's me wanting to guess what happened in between those years and I think that that idea of not giving the entire story away is what makes it so powerful.

I am guessing, and sort of making it part of my own story because you didn't fill in all the gaps.

VM: What's interesting is The Leadership Contract was published in 2013 in its first edition, and when I started writing this a year and a half to two years before that, that letter from Zinta, I actually just kept in an old shoe box at home.

I always knew it was there, but I never got rid of it. I'm not a very sentimental guy. I don't keep a lot of mementos and things like that, I am always a little bit more future-oriented.

And yet, when I started to write that book, I thought, "I don't know why I got to bring this letter along with me, because I think there's something in that story that we need to hear now."

That story had been dormant for 20+ years in many ways and certainly over the last five or six years I've been talking about it a lot.

That's the other part in terms of how personalizing the story is, I think what surprised me was, here's something that happened when I was 22, 23. Being relevant today is fascinating.

I think going back in terms of your experiences for that key experience or a story that really defines you is important for us as speakers.

RF: I think that's great.

Let's transition a little bit into maybe some of the insights of your speaking success and how you got there.

For you to have been in 70 countries recently and spouting off all those countries, it gets me excited, it gets people excited.

I have been fortunate to be traveling around the world with my 3-1-3 as well.

We each have our own path, but I am curious to pull some insights out of you that would be valuable for our listeners of how they can take something and make it their own.

VM: To me, this is where a few things come into play.

I've always done a lot, as a trainer and facilitator, I've always been in front of audiences, but speaking is a different craft than teaching.

I’d done speaking from time to time, and I have enjoyed it but it was always a small part of what I did.

But the writing kind of preceded the speaking, as it relates to the Leadership Contract, and then as I said before, I was grateful, I had a lot of gratitude in terms of how it worked out.

I got to travel, not because I was pushing it out there that we had global research, it became kind of a global problem that companies were facing, and I was kind of lucky that that kind of played out the way it did.

A lot of times that certainly is a variable.

The other thing I have learned as I have talked to a lot of speakers is, I think a lot of speakers kind of will write e-books, or articles, or blogs, or books, and they speak and then what I find is, what I am really starting to appreciate is, that there are those who then also can create intellectual property.

That becomes something that your audience can hear you speak and get inspired and have some great ideas, then depending if you've got products or solutions, you have workshops that come in behind that, then they really value it because then that's their mechanism, their vehicles actually,to take your ideas and inspiration and apply it in their own day-to-day lives.

To me that is another element that I was certainly paying attention to and it's something that I've always just naturally done.

I can take ideas, create learning experiences from those ideas, and bring those to organizations.

But I am finding that that is an opportunity to be thinking about for your speaking business, your profession, your career, through that lens of how do you create content, how do you create great speeches.

How do you create that IP that then people can use.

RF: It makes me think of the analogy of a movie trailer, let me just play this out for a second.

Let's say it's a $10 to $20 million movie that's made, and the final product is an hour and a half, let's say a two-hour movie.

In order to package that into something that's palatable and entertaining, they will put together a two to three-minute highlight reel or some sort of a trailer.

If you really watch trailers, I'm fascinated, because it pretty much is very close to the movie. I don't like watching trailers because I feel like it ruins a movie for me.

This idea a 45-minute keynote or a workshop, I almost am envisioning this as like a trailer— it has the information, it might be a little fast paced, it might be exciting, there are some wow moments, there are some explosions.

Nick Morgan talks about that a lot, about how do you start your speech, like how does a James Bond movie start? It starts with crazy action and brings people in.

Is your speech is a trailer to give them entertainment and value, but you don't have a full-length feature film for them to go buy to watch over and over, it's never going to have that long-tail traction.

I am curious as to your thoughts on that analogy?

VM: Yeah, it's an interesting one because it all means to be somewhat integrated, because if you use the idea of that trailer, the trailer might look great and then you see the movie and it could disappoint you.

Or the trailer looks okay, and you go see the movie and it's far better than your hopes and expectations.

You look at the trailer, you do see the movie and you kind of go, “I'm not even sure how the trailer and the movie even connect."

How are these things, all these pieces kind of integrated to tell that kind of unified story?

To me, what that also means, what I've learned and maybe in this tip around speaking: the speakers who I've really admired and connected with, have real integrity between who they are, and their message. They are not on stage saying one thing and then behave completely differently off stage.

And people can pick that up, can pick up the sense of is that person the real deal.

If you are up there talking about coaching and giving feedback and then the first time someone gives you feedback, you react negatively...that's probably not a good idea to do that, right.

I think those are things that we also have to pay attention to. What is the integrity about who we are, versus our story and our message, and are you the real deal?

Big questions, but I think those are important ones for us to think about because as speakers, it can be a very lucrative way to live, but to me, that gets back to that idea that you have an obligation to your audience members.

RF: Yeah, I'm digging the speakership contract, this should be your second book, and I'll buy it, and I'll share with everyone.

When you say 70 cities in 2 years, do you have like a target number that you go after?

Do you try to get a certain amount of speeches per year, per month?

What are some of the behind the scenes rationale for getting a number of gigs? Does it just happen?

Are you actively out there?

I know it's probably very dynamic, but for somebody who wants to speak more in more cities around the world, what are some of the low hanging fruit things that they can start doing today?

VM: All of us, we're at very different points of evolution.

As I've traveled, it's a world of paid speaking engagements, it's a world of engagements where you're supporting marketing efforts and whatnot.

The other thing for me is—I run a business and so the speaking that I do often is off the corner of my desk.

One of the things that I've come to realize is how do I make that more at the center of my desk. That's part of my work and part of what I am learning.

In terms of what it comes down to though is, I think like anything it comes down to having compelling content and figuring out how to get that content out through a number of channels, whether it's blogging, or articles, or video, or podcast, like you and others do that helps get the word out so that people known you're around.

It is hard to do it today because there's so much content and there are so many people but it's also a big world and you can find your audience.

And then I think it really is thinking about what's that platform that you need to build. I don't know if I have a good answer there because I'm figuring that out for myself really as we speak.

I think there's also this sense of knowing what works for you, because I haven't always done this travel, it's kind of where I happen to be at this point in time in the role I am doing now.

I find that when you talk to people about global travel, it always sounds cool, but it also has its drawbacks in terms of that It's a grind! So is that something you're up to?

RF: Yes, you want to get deboarded by plane to get on another plane to only have that crew time out because of another issue—

VM: Exactly, and not even mention jet lag and time zones, and having to be sharp when the time is like 8 a.m. in the morning but your body is thinking it's 8 p.m.

RF: And it's 105°F out with humidity, and you're used to the ocean breeze... and all these things.

VM: Yeah, it's all of those challenges. I think, back to the key point, you've got to have compound content that is differentiated and that gets the word out through a number of platforms.

The good news is, there are so many platforms today that people can leverage, so that's the great thing.

Once people figure out what their formula is, as you said, I think that's what always strikes me as fascinating when I talk to various speakers—there is no one path.

Everyone gets theirs through their own unique journey, it's always fascinating to see how it happens.

Somebody does a video on YouTube that goes viral and, boom, all of a sudden their phone is ringing out the hook and they are now a sought after speaker on customer service, or whatever the topic may be.

Other people come at it through a ton of business experience, others come at it through academic research and background, there is no formula, I think everyone can figure out their own formula. I think that's exciting. That's the case.

RF: Yeah, I agree.

I think a lot of people are looking for the magic pill, but if you are trying to get the magic pill, you're losing the whole experience that gives you that differentiation.

The worst thing you can do is be exactly like another speaker.

Josh talks about this a lot.

My favorite advice is the simple advice, and it's the hardest advice to get because it seems so simple.

But it's like, what is the problem that you're solving, what is the single transformation that you're making? Why would I hire you as a speaker?

Those are the questions that literally will create success or failure, but we oftentimes overlook them because they seem so simple.

VM: The question we started with, it's a simple, profound question that is not easy to answer, but you get that answer figured out and you start seeing different things play out because you make it so clear for people about how they might be able to leverage your expertise and your ideas.

RF: Absolutely.

One final twist on this to sort of tie it all in a nice bow is the leadership contract, and then we've got this speakership contract.

Talk to me about the leaders who don't necessarily see themselves as speakers.

Do you feel that they have more of an opportunity or is that part of their obligation to tap into their talent or develop the talent to take the stage more?

The question is, in the leadership contract, how much is a leader obligated to actually use the stage as part of their leadership?

VM: It's a great point.

I don't address that, the way I do get at it is the sense of helping leaders appreciate that.

A lot do not really fully appreciate how in fact they are an ambassador for the companies in which they work.

And then, as a leader, people observe everything about you, and so the speaking skills become really invaluable, and I think the people in leadership roles who invest in their speaking skills do have a leg up because it's critical to inspire, it's critical to influence, you get your energy, people get a sense of who you are.

I have not addressed that directly, but I would completely agree with your idea that if leaders are really looking to get their game to a high level as leaders, speaking is a powerful way to do that.

RF: There you go, that is something that I am interested in, because I work with a lot of leaders as well and it's one thing to help somebody translate the numbers or the purpose to their employees, it's a whole other ball game for them to really own the medium of speaking to translate that.

I believe that if you as a leader can't effectively communicate what the mission and purpose are so that you empower your employees to be further brand ambassadors, you're missing opportunities.

VM: Yeah, I completely agree.

RF: Going back, tying back to your original story, it's this idea that you can have a company that's doing amazing things, very fulfilling things, but internally, if the leadership that has been developed is not signing their own contract to lead, the system does not continue to work.

The irony of it all is where you have a company that's doing amazing things but not doing amazing things for the company internally and how people are feeling and living in ill-health, that the whole system breaks down.

You are solving a serious problem my friend, and I am excited to get some insight on this contract that I need to pull up and look at those terms and conditions and need to re-sign.

VM: That's great. In the book, there is a sample contract that allows you to do just that, so have a look.

RF: Awesome.

VM: One of the things when the book first came out in its first edition, it's just this year I have released the third edition of the Leadership Contract, but also a field guide that accompanies it, so we've released that as well, because I had a lot of leaders saying,

"How can I apply these ideas to my own leadership role?"

And so we've got the third edition of the Leadership Contract complete with a field guide.

So if anyone is saying, "How can I apply these ideas to my own leadership role?" the field guide helps you do that, and we are getting really great feedback on that.

RF: Excellent. Where do they find it? Is there a website they go to, how do they find that?

VM: Yeah, www.theleadeshipcontract.com and then the books are obviously available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or the John Wiley & Son’s site, they are my publisher.

RF: I'd like to say bam!

There you go people, you have no excuse. You have a contract that you haven't signed, and you update your iTunes Terms & Conditions all the time, why not take a moment and update and actually read your speakership and your leadership contract.

Vince, this has been a lot of fun, I'm looking forward to staying connected.

Hopefully, I'll see you at another 3 Ring Circus or on the monthly webinars, it's just so much fun to connect with other people that are using their voice to solve real problems.

I appreciate your time today and I'm really going to be thinking about this contract and I'm going to redefine it, make sure it's on point and continues to get me where I want to go.

VM: Great, thanks to you, Ryan.

I really do appreciate that you gave me the opportunity to be on your World of Speakers podcast. Thanks so much.

RF: For sure buddy.

Alright, everybody else who is listening, there are more of these amazing conversations. Go to WorldofSpeakers.com and make sure that you are subscribed to this channel, this podcast wherever you like it.

Make sure to give a review, let us know how we're doing and sign, send and deliver. There we go, another podcast in the can, ladies and gentlemen, and now it's up to you to take that information and run with it. It's up to you and we will see you around, this is Ryan and Vince.

Vince, say goodbye on the count of 3: 1, 2, 3.

BOTH: Bye.

RF: Alright everybody, have a great day, I hope I talk to you soon, bye.

A bit about World of Speakers

World of Speakers is a bi-weekly podcast that helps people find their own voice, and teaches them how to use their voice to develop a speaking business.

We cover topics like: what works versus what doesn't, ideas on how to give memorable presentations, speaking tips, and ideas on how to build a speaking business.

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