Billionaires Advice After Losing My Fortune

There’s an old saying among the rich: “it’s easier to live without money if you’ve never had it.” I think that’s true. Financial independence makes for a cushy, comfortable life, and it’s not easy to re-enter the rat race. No matter, that’s what I was forced to do many years ago after earning a small...

My 5-Year Beef with Zig Ziglar: (1997-2002)

In 1997, I formed a business partnership with Bill Gove, the 85-year father of Professional Speaking. I was 32 years old. We were Mutt and Jeff. Bill and I referred to our partnership as “The hustle and the muscle”. Our goals were clear: I got Bill back on the platform (after 20 years of retirement)...

Speakers Boycotting Television Losing Millions

If you’re professional speaker, and you’re not leveraging traditional television interviews, it’s literally costing you a fortune. Social media is all the rage, and most likely the television of the future, but the major creators, purveyors and pundits of social media skew heavily in the under 40 demographic, which is NOT the demographic that hires...

Going Onstage with Les Brown at UCLA

500 million people watched the hit movie, The Secret. I missed the casting call, but Bob Proctor assured me that if they ever made a sequel, I’d be in it. Sure enough, in 2009, both of us got the call for “Beyond the Secret”. The movie turned out to be a flop, but we had...

The Difference Between 6 & 7 Figure Professional Speakers

Why do so few non-celebrity professional speakers ever quailify for the National Speakers Association’s Million-Dollar Speakers Group? I’ve been a member of this group since it’s inception, (2009) and its always been a tiny percentage of NSA’s membership. The year I was chairman, we had 39 speakers out of 5,000 qualify…worldwide! So what are these...

How to Captivate an Audience: The Genius of Marcus Lemonis

Last week Marcus Lemonis, famous for his hit TV show, The Profit, on CNBC, delivered a unique closing keynote speech in Orlando, Florida. Few times in the past 25 years as a professional speaker have I seen a speaker captivate an audience at this level. It was a masterclass on how to connect with an...

Speakers: A Call to Arms

To my speaker friends around the world: This is a call to arms. I need your help. It’s no secret that the world is a mess. Never in any of our lifetimes has any of us experienced this level of global negativity and psychological suffering. War, terrorism, corruption, political polarization, economic uncertainty, pandemic, school shootings,...