In this episode of "Small Business, Big Moves,". Thomas Bennett is joined by guest Phillip Sessions to explore creative strategies and innovative approaches that have propelled small businesses to new heights. Discover the art of thinking big in small business and how to communicate and speak publicly.
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Small Business Big Moves is a podcast where innovation meets entrepreneurship. Join Tom Bennett as he explores all things business growth! From business funding and business tax credits to conversations with leaders who have grown successful and innovative businesses!
In this episode of "Small Business, Big Moves,". Thomas Bennett is joined by guest Phillip Sessions to explore creative strategies and innovative approaches that have propelled small businesses to new heights. Discover the art of thinking big in small business and how to communicate and speak publicly.
Connect with us on social media:
- Facebook: Thomas Bennett
- Instagram: @Thomas.mbennett
-YouTube:@SmallBusinessMoneyConnector
- LinkedIn: Thomas Bennett
Subscribe to "Small Business, Big Moves" on Your Favorite Podcast Platform for more inspiring episodes on innovation and entrepreneurship.
Small Business Big Moves is a podcast where innovation meets entrepreneurship. Join Tom Bennett as he explores all things business growth! From business funding and business tax credits to conversations with leaders who have grown successful and innovative businesses!
to Small Business Big Moves, the podcast where innovation meets entrepreneurship. I'm your host, Tom Bennett, and we'll explore all things business growth from business funding and business tax credits to conversations with leaders who have grown successful and innovative businesses. Welcome to the show. My guest today is Philip Sessions. Philip, I'm excited to have you on the show. You wanted to introduce yourself to the listeners out there. Yeah, well, Tom, first of all, I appreciate you having me on the podcast. This is always exciting to be interviewed, but I'm a public speaking coach, a father, husband, Christian, you name it. I've probably dabbled in some sort of it and definitely dove into a lot of things and stuck with that. But public speaking is where I help people out the most. And that does seem like a big ordeal where I can help out a lot of areas, but I specifically focus on stage prep. So. Getting people ready for their presentation, whether it be helping them create a signature talk, or they've already got something and they just want to get a little bit better. Kind of like the Michael Jordans where you're great, but you want to coach to help you get even better. That's what I come in and help out with specifically. Absolutely. I love it. Glad you shared that. Yeah. And kind of piggybacking off that, today's episode is going to really be focused on effective communication and speaking. I know you know, you just covered that. So I want to open that up and let you kind of give some value to the listeners out there. I know, I know it's a space that a lot of people a lot of business owners, executives need need help with, like you said. Even if it's something that you're already doing, you could always get better at it. What, I guess, what got you into that space or made you realize, Hey, I really have some value here that I can provide to these leaders. Yeah, well, long story short, really, I started out in the fitness space. I thought, Hey, this is something I'd love to help people with. And I started finding where I didn't enjoy it that much for them, as well as for myself. But more important than that, I found that I couldn't really create the impact that I wanted to create in this world through helping an individual or a small group with their fitness. Because while yes, that helps them and impacts them and their family, That's kind of where it ended at. It didn't really go beyond that. And that's where this whole thing with presentations came up. And I had thought about leadership and I had an opportunity in the training department at BMW manufacturing to get into actual presentation skills. And that's where it kind of clicked for me. I realized BMW, they're a massive company. They need help with their employees with this. Speaking has helped me so much in my life, just getting better and more comfortable and confident with it. And that's where it clicked for me that this is something that I could do. And I wanted to focus specifically on people actually getting ready for stages because going to these mastermind events and all of these conferences and stuff like that, while we still have to go do the work afterwards, I realized that you're going one to many. There's a lot of people that you can help out. And I'm not getting on every single stage out there. I would love to get on more stages and be on all these huge stages. But realistically, I'm not the right person for all of those. And so I wanted to help the people that were getting on those stages. Because if I help one speaker, they could speak in front of thousands of people where Maybe I only speak in front of a hundred people and then this just, it's a ripple effect. And so that's really why I got into this because I saw the massive impact that I could create by helping even just a few people, how many people then they could go help out. Absolutely. one to many approach is powerful. Like you said, you get in and start, start bringing that value and help improve a lot of these businesses. They're going to obviously keep, keep spreading the word. So that's exciting stuff. I know you said you were, obviously we'll go back to that too. I know you said you kind of started out in the fitness space. know you mentioned you got into BMW and manufacturing, got an opportunity there. When was that when that kind of all switched and you were able to really go all in with with this industry and make the impact you've been making? This was 2021, so, or 20, no, 2020, sorry, I'm getting my, my years all mixed up, but 2020. So I was actually working with them, so this wasn't like I just have this job opportunity as an individual or a business and got in with them. So I was actually. Working with them and everything, and had an opportunity to go from engineering over to the HR role doing that. So I just kind of want to put that little caveat in there. Wasn't like just, Oh, I decided on this idea and boom, we got a huge client like BMW, that'd be awesome, but unfortunately I wasn't that awesome at the time to be able to get that on my own, if you will. yeah, it was about 2020 and then 2022 or sorry, 2021. I'm getting and then LLC in 2022. So 2021 was whenever I found that out, gotten that role. And then 2022 was when I was like, you know what, I'm going to make a business out of this and everything. love it. Yeah. It's exciting hearing him. Like you said, you mix up those years. It's like those whole all those pandemic years just kind of flew by. It's like they were all kind of meshed into one. Yeah, but no, it's exciting hearing about talking to business owners like yourself that have kind of created businesses during that time and seeing where they've evolved to his exciting stuff, seeing what came out of that. know you get that book behind you. If you want, I wanted you to jump into that a little bit as well. I know you're a published author, Not many people can say that. Yeah. So the book mindset over motivation actually came out with that in 2021 as well. So this was kind of in that transition for me from fitness to the speaking coaching, and I created that book because I realized where I had gotten in life. Was due to my mindset, it had nothing to do with motivation. I mean, there's motivation sprinkled in here and there. We're all motivated from time to time wanting to do things, but more important than motivation because most people, when they get started in a business, just getting in better shape, going into a marriage, it's all about motivation. Oh, I, when I'm motivated, it's awesome. Things are great. you and I both know being business owners that you're probably motivated 1 percent of the time, like very seldom are you motivated to do the work. And so that's where that mindset, that mental discipline, that mental fortitude comes in. That you have to have the mental aptitude in order to be able to move forward and continue to build whatever it is that you want to build. And so that's why I wrote that book is I took a lot of the principles that I learned and used for myself, especially when I. Did a bodybuilding show in 2017. I think it was, I did a bodybuilding show, man, that's six years ago now, but back in 2017, and I realized just how much mental discipline it took to do that. And even though I enjoyed fitness, even though I enjoyed being in shape and eating healthy, it was just about. Putting in the work, no matter what, because there was a lot of times I didn't want to eat the chicken and rice and go work out twice a day, but I still did it because that's what needed to be done. And so that's a lot of what I talk about in that book and how to actually build that mental fortitude and being in the masterminds and stuff is what I talk about in there. No, that's huge. That's extremely powerful. I know like you said, we know the motivation is powerful, but like you said, it's like that. 1%. You know, you got to get to get motivated every day, but it all comes from that mindset. So that's I think a lot of people can get some value out of that. back to the the fitness in the the communication and speaking, right? It's you're seeing kind of where you've gone with that. Was there any hiccups or any challenges along the way? Kind of making making that change, right? I know we all hear about all the success stories, all the wins, all the good stuff, but kind of going from one industry to a completely different industry. I'd like to hear about how you were able to make that shift. There was a lot of hiccups and I really, with social media, luckily you can kind of change who you are fairly quickly. It was probably more in person that I had that struggle where people identified me as being the fitness guy, all about fitness. They were seeing me, this was probably about a year and a half. I was doing the fitness stuff and talking about doing the fitness coaching and I was doing it online. And then I just kind of went to scorched earth. I stopped talking about fitness at all. And I started talking about like leadership and speaking and really just trying to make that transition. And I still don't really put a lot of fitness in, but I did start bringing some back in after about six months or so, but I wanted to have that clean break that said, Hey, I'm not doing fitness. There's nothing related to fitness on my social media. So that's kind of how I helped make that transition. But there still were the hiccups in there because people would go back and identify me with this. And of course they're like, what, what, I thought you were a fitness coach. Like, how are you just doing speaking? And that's the beauty of entrepreneurship and being in the United States is that. We can essentially just decide, Hey, I'm going to do this thing. Now you should know something about it. Don't just say, Hey, I'm going to go be a life coach and you haven't lived any life or be a business coach and you haven't done any kind of studies or done a business or anything like that. You should have a lot of knowledge and hopefully a good amount of experience with it too. But the hiccups came just because most people knew me as one identity and still focused on me in that way and didn't see me with this other identity. And so really just came with time that got rid of all those hiccups and people now, I mean, here we are two years later, two ish years later, and people are identifying me as a speaking coach and no longer the fitness coach. So over time of being consistent, you can change the identity. And that's really just. What the hiccup was. I didn't have enough time separation and consistency behind my actions to show that I'm somebody else versus this old person. Definitely. No, that's exciting stuff. I'm glad to hear you kind of made that change and evolved into the the speaking guy now instead of the fitness guy. Yeah. Which sometimes that's got a bad rap to it too, because people are like, are you going to judge me for speaking? Like, no, I always joke and say, I'll only judge you if you pay me to. Exactly. I love it. That's great. I know I know you mentioned, obviously, the hiccups. Now, kind of the reverse effect of that, obviously, you mentioned social media. We know how powerful that is. Was there anything that was able to help you kind of faster and kind of accelerate that growth once you really got things clicking and took off of that? Yeah, really a rebrand as well. So I use my name as I guess a pun, if you will. So it was healthy living sessions was the fitness business name. And now it's speaking sessions, which is a play on my last name. If you haven't figured that out yet. So with that rebrand, that helped a lot, but really just diving in and talking about the one thing. I know we talked about kind of the hiccups in that you got, that you got started with, and they just trying to figure out if there was anything that really accelerated the growth or got you to move a little faster once you started picking up some traction. Yeah, really just connecting with people in the masterminds that I'm a part of and the business groups that I'm a part of and everything and asking for their outside expertise, because I'm in the woods right now and I can't see the forest through the trees kind of situation sometimes and really having somebody build a, Hey, let's take this 30, 000 foot view and look, well, based on this, what are you really offering? And that was the. Biggest hurdle for me. Like I, people kind of knew that I was a speaking coach. They knew I was doing these things, but they didn't know exactly how I helped because public speaking is a big, broad spectrum, just like communication is. And so getting help from other people and having them just really speaking to me and be like, Hey, look. Your offer doesn't really make sense. I don't really understand exactly what you do. I know you do something in the speaking space. And so that was probably the biggest thing for me. And what was the hardest hurdle to overcome was really defining what exactly I do in the speaking space and kind of mentioned at the beginning as well, like, Hey, I can help. Really in any area, but I focus in on this specific area, which is presentations, getting you ready for stage, because then you can identify what I do. And of course, from there, well, Hey, do you help with this and this and this? Well, yeah, this is my main focus. That way people can identify me with that. And that was really the biggest hurdle I had to overcome was being identified with something specifically instead of so generic that nobody really wanted to work with me because they didn't know how I could help them. know. I appreciate you sharing that. And then this kind of a two sided question, But was there any powerful, cool or resource that really got you got you picking up and making movement with this or anything that you gear that success towards? Yeah, I would say it was a large group. Now I would say a business group instead of a mastermind, but apex, and that's a group ran by Ryan Stumann out of Dallas or Fresno, Texas, wherever he's at there in in the Dallas area, but anyways. His group really helped me out because there was a lot of resources just from what he puts inside the group, the digital courses that he has and the trainings that he has, but also the members of that group. And those are a lot of people that I had conversations with. They're further along in business than me, maybe not in the same industry. But they're further along in business. And so they were able to give me advice without me having to beat my head against the wall for the next three to five years, they were able to help catapult me forward on certain things. Be able to point out things that, Hey, don't go down this path because of this or, Hey, Like the conversation I said, your offer makes no sense. I don't know exactly what you do if I didn't know you. So how can we make sure that your offer makes sense? And then kind of pricing. There's a lot of stuff, but really that group apex was really what helped me out the most. Absolutely. And no, it's, it's a powerful group. And I was thinking about that too a few minutes back, right? Because it's easy to get people to give you that positive feedback. Hey, Philip. Hey, Tom. I love, I love what you're doing. Things are exciting. This is great. Or it's easy to get the hate. Hey, this is terrible. Like, who do you think you are doing what you're doing? Like you're, you're not there yet. But it's when you get the, the people around you, the powerful individuals that can give you that feedback. Hey, Thanks. From like, they've been through that experience. They've been through the ups and downs. This is what I would do. This is what I would change. Hey, this is something that might help. So, yeah, I think those those groups can be extremely powerful. So glad to see glad to see us running together in those. for sure. I mean, that's where we met, right? Because of apex and then you posted on social media about being on this podcast, but really if it weren't for apex, well, I had the podcast before apex, but they've helped me really hone that in. I wrote the book because of apex. I get on podcasts like this because of apex, because of other members in that group and everything. And so just being around like minded people has helped me elevate and. I've helped elevate other people because of us running together. Absolutely. I love it. And then the second part of that is obviously the powerful resource that what I thought of too is I know you, you and I have talked to about the The course that you had, that you had out or coming out. So I wanted you to kind of shed a little light on that and how that may be a value to some people out there as well. I appreciate that. And so the course is present with influence and I did just come out with it here recently here for black Friday was when the official launch was, but it's on my website. You can find that speaking sessions. com forward slash offers forward slash digital course, and I can, I can give you the link later for that. Essentially what it is, is the mental framework as well as the actual framework of how I go about putting a presentation together. So I say the mental side. So what do I think about as I'm getting ready to present and who am I thinking about and the audience, the topic that I want to discuss and the information I want to leave the audience with, as well as how do I put all that together in a captivating way that will influence the audience to take. That action that I want them to take at the end of my speech. And so I have all of that in a digital course that you can access at any time. And I wanted to put that together because my time is limited. All of our times are limited. And sometimes people just want to learn on their own. And so that was my way of being able to offer that to those that just want to learn on their own. So the exciting stuff. Awesome. And then I know, I know, obviously you're, you get the, we've talked about the book, we've talked about the course, we've talked about the the networking groups that we run in. I mean, you got a lot going on. What are you doing or what have you been doing and what do you continue doing to stay on top of things and make sure that the the business is always improving and getting better instead of just staying stagnant like a lot of the other businesses out there. Just connecting with people at the end of the day, that's business development, but connecting with people, see what they're, they're doing, what they've got going on, how I can help them really helps me out. And then just looking at people that are similar to my industry, what are they doing as I connect with people going back to that. When I connect with them, I hear what's missing out there and what they would be interested in learning more about. And so coming up with offers around that, that's why I created this digital course. I'm also working on an offer where we do. Not marketing per se, but allow people to come in. They get to learn and have a presentation, a signature talk put together. And then they get to go present in front of a group of people and get that actually on video. And then reals create created all of that. And a lot of other stuff that we're going to provide for them within this offer, because I'm finding that people. Part of getting on stage is being seen on stage. And so I want to be able to create that, but also be able to give people opportunity to learn how to create their speech and have a speech. So they are completely ready to go when that opportunity comes up that, Hey. We want, I want to be on your stage. Well, Katie, have any content that I can look at to see what it looks like for you speaking on stage? Well, boom, because of going to Phillips event that he created for me, I was able to have all of this content ready to go. So anybody that's wanting to have you on their stage, they can, you can just send them. Basically a Google doc or something that says, Hey, here's my sizzle reel. Here's my speaker, one pager, here's a interview of me. So on and so forth that they can have and share when they're ready to get on another stage, as well as already have their talk together. So that's kind of what I've learned here recently and planning to implement. So that'll be hopefully Q2 or Q3 of next year that we actually have the event happen where people get to go speak on stage. That's great. That's awesome. Yeah, no, it's a yeah, it's definitely a powerful thing for a bit for a business owner executive Really anyone in leadership and even even some of these top producers out there, right? When you when you have that signature talk and really grow that is part of your brand and being able to have that Consistent story. I think that's where you can really find The people that actually really connect with you. So I'm glad you're doing what you're doing yeah, I know we just, like I said, I know we threw a lot at him today. Was there anything that, that I might've missed out or didn't ask you that you want wanted to cover throw out there? No, I think that that was good as far as covering. I mean, if you want me to leave like one piece of advice, I would say for people just to share their story, because your story is what connects you. With your audience, whether it be on social media, whether it be in person, and you may not share every single detail of your story, because there's times and places where you'll share more or less, but the more you share about you in relation to the information that you are trying to share with your audience, the more you're going to connect with them and the more they're going to want to follow you as the leader. love it. Thank you for sharing all that. That's going to be a wrap on this episode of small business big moves. If you enjoyed today's episode, what would really help us out is if you shared the podcast with someone you think could get value out of it. And you can hit me up on Facebook at Thomas Bennett or also across all other platforms at Thomas Bennett, and we look forward to seeing you all on the next episode.