Mastering On-Air Sales and Public Speaking: Insights from a Former Home Shopping Network Pitchman

Have you ever wondered what it's like to sell live on television, where every second counts? Join us as we chat with Mitch Carson, former pitchman on the Home Shopping Network in the 1990s, who shares his experiences of live TV sales. He takes us behind the scenes to explore the pressures of crafting messages that not only grab attention but also trigger that irresistible urge to buy. Discover the adrenaline rush that comes from turning viewers into buyers in mere moments, and how this fast-paced environment draws fascinating connections to today's click-happy online shopping culture.

In this episode, Mitch Carson shares his profound experiences and actionable strategies on various aspects of public speaking and professional communication. The conversation covers a wide range of topics, including:

• Audience Engagement Techniques: Mitch emphasizes aligning speech with the audience's culture and level, using humor as a bridge, and the importance of finding a friendly face in the crowd to create a strong connection.
• Navigating Cultural Differences: Mitch recounts his first speaking engagement in Karachi, where he used humor and cultural respect to overcome initial fears and build rapport.
• Building Credibility and Networking: Mitch discusses how engaging directly with audiences and respecting their cultural norms have helped him gain credibility and forge international opportunities.
• Resourcefulness and Strategic Market Focus: Mitch explains his perseverance in markets like Singapore, how he built relationships through small initial audiences, and why strategic focus on certain markets can be more lucrative.
• Challenges of Today’s Generation: Both Tim and Mitch contemplate how the current generation’s heavy reliance on technology affects their communication skills, emphasizing the need for situational awareness and face-to-face interaction.

Key Takeaways:

1. Audience-Centric Speaking: Align your speech with your audience’s cultural background and understanding, and use humor to break barriers. Finding a "friend" in the audience can help establish an immediate and personal connection.
2. Overcoming and Respecting Cultural Norms: Mitch's experience in Karachi illustrates the importance of engaging the audience while respecting local customs. Avoiding cultural missteps, such as respecting gender norms, can significantly enhance your credibility and acceptance.
3. Networking and Long-Term Strategy: Building personal relationships and networks is often more effective than traditional marketing strategies. Mitch's engagements in Singapore started small but grew exponentially due to his consistent efforts and network-building.
4. Technology and Communication: While technology offers access to constant information, it can hinder personal communication skills. Public speaking requires a balance between harnessing technology and maintaining face-to-face interaction skills.
5. Continuous Practice and Preparation: Public speaking, like sports, requires rigorous preparation and practice. Recording your speeches, joining groups like Toastmasters, and getting continuous feedback can improve confidence and performance over time.

Don't miss out on practical tips to overcome

Chapters

• 0:35 Power of Public Speaking and Sales
• 9:15 Navigating Public Speaking Challenges and Technology
• 23:05 Building Relationships Through Public Speaking
• 36:33 Mastering Public Speaking for Success

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:35

Welcome to Speaking with Confidence, a podcast that's here to help you unlock the power of effective public speaking. I'm your host, tim Newman, and I'm excited to take you on a journey to become a better public speaker. Over the past 30 years, our next guest, mitch Carson, has helped hundreds of speakers, authors, coaches, consultants and business owners worldwide play in TV and radio interviews, boosting their credibility instantly and aiding them to charge premium prices for their products and services. As a television show host on NBC Channel 3 in Las Vegas, he knows what it has done for him and his clients. Mitch is also a celebrated professional speaker and closer who has spoken on stages in 63 countries and produced over 2,000 live events in 19 countries. He's been a Home Shopping Network pitch man who knows how to sell anything, craft a unique message around any product, person or event. He's also a published author with John Wiley Sons, and his books have been published in six languages. Mitch, thanks for spending some time with us today. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 1:36

Well, thank you, tim, I'm glad to be here.

Speaker 1: 1:39

You know you've got a really, really unique history and experience. And one of the things that really kind of stuck out to me as really interesting is your pitch ban on Home Shopping Network, and I don't know how much my audience has ever seen Home Shopping Network, but I've seen it, I watch it and it's just kind of fascinating to me. You know the hosts and how they do that. Can you give us a little bit of insight on what that process is like?

Speaker 2: 2:03

Well, it's interesting. You talk about it, your audience. It depends on the age of the demographic that we're talking to From our generation. I was born in 1960. So it gives you a little perspective of my age and background. So I grew up with television and looking at people on TV in an elevated status and today I think if you ask somebody under 30, what do they think about television, they'll look at your cross-eyed because they've never watched it. Maybe some sports with their grandpa or dad or something, but other than that they don't really know about television.

Speaker 2: 2:36

In the 90s, when I was a pitchman on Home Shopping Network from 96 through 98, I sold products on live TV to 5 million viewers and it was the most exhilarating experience, quite different than speaking to a crowd of people in person. This is long before the internet took hold and where Martha would call in eating bonbons, sitting on the couch, saying I love the product you're talking about, I want to buy it and it's going to be so easy to use. And we lived off the call in testimonials and it was a tremendously gratifying position to be able to sell and validate your sales immediately. There's none of this. I'm going to call back later like the traditional one-to-one salesperson who sells something and they give you that. Oh, I have to talk to my husband. Oh, I have to talk to my wife, oh, I'm just not ready right now. You don't hear any of those excuses.

Speaker 2: 3:37

When you're on TV, you are only evaluated based on how many you're selling by the second Right Sales matter. By the second, not the minute. By the second, because the counter is going. You know, as a pitch person, exactly whether or not you're going to have a job tomorrow. Wow, yeah, I mean, that's the kind of pressure. It's the big league of selling, tim. Yeah, yeah, this is this is the big league. And you either produce or you're fired. Exactly, this is long before the apprentice. And when Donald Trump would say you're fired you know this is from the boss of hsn you have to produce. Yeah, you've got to sell now.

Speaker 2: 4:20

Sometimes it's the product is not great, but it's all about crafting the message around this product, creating a hook, creating interest and getting people to take out their credit card before their husband got home and then buy all this stuff that they didn't need. And to scratch that itch of that endorphin rush of something's coming in the mail, something's coming UPS we all get a little bit of an exhilaration when we buy something. On unwrapping it there is an experience. It goes back to maybe our training as kids for Christmas Day, tearing the paper, and that's half the excitement. Yes, whatever is inside is inside. I mean we know this as kids and as adults. Now, when you see somebody unwrapping that, there is an exhilarance.

Speaker 2: 5:10

And that's what people experience when they buy stuff. Now the itch is scratched by going to Amazon and buying. Yeah, it's, it's, but the the function has changed. The experience and exhilaration exactly the same, it's just a different mode. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:28

So my, my guess is you know, you go on, they, they give you a script of whatever products and and then you know, once you're live, you've got to you a script of whatever products and and then you know, once you're live, you've got to, you've got to think on your feet and you've got to react to, to everything just like shuffle, shuffle, my man.

Speaker 2: 5:44

man, you've got to find the benefit of that product and why someone needs to buy it. They're on special, limited quantity. All of those tenets of sales come into play. Limited time, limited quantity. So scarcity, right. So you better get it quick. You better get it quick because FOMO, fear of missing out, missing out, right. Fear of missing out, that's all part of the story and in many cases it's true. Yes, if you don't look at the inventory that's stacked high in the warehouse.

Speaker 1: 6:17

Yeah, I don't know anything about that. You know, that's not my concern. Yeah, I bought some things on Home Shopping Network, like being up late at night, and the one thing I bought that was really amazing. It was called the Mr Beer Beer Barrel Brewery Kit, okay, and I used that for years. I started brewing beer, you know, early 90s, and then when I had kids it grew but it just got to be too much. But that was one thing I bought from Home Shopping Network that really kind of stuck out Middle of the night, you know, 2.30 in the morning, and that's what I did. Again, there was no Amazon at the time, so it was great.

Speaker 1: 7:05

So let's really get into this. You know you started your first business in college and sold for seven figures when you were 28. And I tell you, you know the kids, you know most of my audience is college age students, young professionals, and I think that they are way more entrepreneurial than our generation and much smarter than we were, but don't know how to communicate. When did you realize the connection between communication and professional success? You realize the connection?

Speaker 2: 7:34

between communication and professional success. Oh gosh, it's everything. And I agree with you. Kids are smarter, faster, but they lack social skills today because they're so tied to their devices and the involvement. This is the fallback. For homeschooling kids, it's that same issue. They have no socialization because if mommy's teaching them that's all they know is mommy and possibly a sibling or two, I mean, the worst thing you can do to an only child is homeschool them because he'll have no interaction with other children. No, playing with Jimmy next door who socked him in the nose and goes home.

Speaker 2: 8:09

These are all parts of growing up that we experienced, of our generation playing kickball on the street, doing all these things that are normal. So they are smarter because they're reading and in their devices, but the social skill of interacting with people is lacking. Yes, and there's a tradeoff yes, they're smarter, tim, and no, they aren't street smart. They are absolutely devoid of street skills, of the communication potential that they're missing out on. And how to sell someone. And how do you get to sell someone? Understanding human nature, because to me, marketing is psychology plus math, and they've got the math part down. Maybe Maybe they'll understand all the metrics that some people might find difficult. Maybe they get it because they are smarter and they have AI to help them come up with these solutions, but the ability to sell it from the stage or persuade people there's a big void there, right right?

Speaker 1: 9:15

And you talk about street smarts and you know, I teach in downtown Atlanta and they you see students walking down the streets in downtown Atlanta. They've got their headphones in and they're staring at their phone, which to me, is just that's probably one of the worst things that you can do, because I mean, you have no idea what's really going on around you. And you're around all these people and you've got this screen in front of your face. It's mind boggling that you know they can't even get their phone out of their face to walk down the street sometimes.

Speaker 2: 9:55

Well, you know it's an interesting. I'm going to do a flashback. A fellow I went to high school with moved after college to New York to work on Wall Street and the story was he was walking down Wall Street one day after work and eating an apple, not paying attention to the street, because New York City can be quite perilous. If you don't know, I lived there for one year. Your awareness better be heightened Now.

Speaker 2: 10:22

Today, people are using all these phones. They become easy prey for the predators, and this fellow was walking down the street and one person who ended up mugging him saw that he was distracted eating his apple biting like this instead of having his street awareness looking peripherally, punched him in the face, I mean, and pounded him, just knocked him cold, cold, cocked him and then took his wallet and ran off. And this is long before all the cards you know, people carried cash back then. This is the early 80s and it's about street awareness. Think of how many people are walking around buried in their phones. They're not aware of their environment. How do you protect yourself if you're doing this? It's like texting when driving you're going to get into a crash.

Speaker 1: 11:10

Yes, so got it's street awareness.

Speaker 1: 11:14

And and and again. We, we, we take that further. You know we talk all the time about, you know, the whole idea. Doesn't really matter what industry you get into. You know personal relationships and personal connections and and knowing, knowing how to deal with with different types of people, knowing how to deal with different types of people. And you know, like I said, we've gotten away with that with the whole idea of social media and electronics in our hands. You know like, on one hand, it's really good because it gives us access to information 24-7., but on the other hand, just as bad. We have very little connection with people.

Speaker 2: 11:55

Very true, very true. Yeah, there is a trade-off.

Speaker 1: 12:09

And it certainly relates to what you said they're smarter, faster, but they're socially inept.

Speaker 2: 12:14

So why do people have a fear of public speaking? Oh, I think it's the embarrassment component. I know that there have been several surveys done. People fear public speaking and the judgment that goes into play if you're not good in front of the crowd or if people are looking at us Greater fear of public speaking than dying in a fire or drowning. That's a little hard to believe, but I know when I first started speaking I sucked so nervous I went to the bathroom to throw up when I had to do it.

Speaker 2: 12:46

Initially, I remember in high school I had to give a speech. I died and I somehow survived it. Maybe I have nine lives, but it was awful. It was awful, tim. And then I took speech communication in college in order to overcome this fear. I think I got incrementally better and learned how to rid myself of some of the verbal fillers of oh, you know, right, right. That drives me wacko when people end their sentences with right, no, a left or like no, I don't, like yeah, all these little verbal ticks which I know you're familiar with. And it was hugely scary because I got embarrassed and got ridiculed for how bad I was allegedly scary because I got embarrassed and got ridiculed for how bad I was.

Speaker 1: 13:40

One of the things that is to me that I'm starting to see that they're starting to kind of maybe go what are you talking about? The young professionals start with, I mean. I mean they pause and then they go on, which, again, it's all that. All that is is you know them thinking about what they want to say, as opposed to it's okay to have some silence and actually think about what you want to say and then say it. You know, I look at Steve Jobs when his preparation and the way he went about public speaking is is legendary.

Speaker 1: 14:13

He was great. He was great, he was phenomenal and whenever somebody asked him a question, he never just automatically answered it. He took a deep breath. Most of the time he would look down and start to think about his response, move a little bit, take a few steps, look up, say a sentence, pause and then really get into his answer. So he really he had a system down that that really kind of forced him to to to actually think about what he was going to say without sounding like he had no idea what he was talking about.

Speaker 2: 14:50

Yes, he was always brilliant, phenomenal speaker, and he he didn't say here is the one that kills me. I had one of the speakers that attended my event in Dubai some years ago and I'll just I won't say her name. She stood up and said um yeah, um yeah. She started with um yeah. I said who, yeah? Oh yeah, hi, wow, or can you hear me? You know, we could have a whole discussion on those issues to eradicate.

Speaker 1: 15:29

Yeah, yeah. So you know what are some of the other times that you know. I mean you already, you already said some you, when you were in high school, you had to go and throw up. I mean, I tell my story a lot. I actually threw up in front of the class the first time.

Speaker 2: 15:44

Oh my gosh, oh yeah, it was it.

Speaker 1: 15:45

Oh my gosh, oh yeah, it was awful. Oh gosh and Mitch, I was in college and, you know, leading up to that, I had been an athlete, I had been in the military, so I had experience. You know, I had experience, you know, talking to people and being out there, being up front, but the whole idea, for whatever reason, it was, standing up all alone, talking to people, I literally threw up. Do you have any other stories, I mean, where you've been in that position, where you've messed up, where you've really felt you know what, I shouldn't be here, I don't want to be here because I'm not prepared, or any of those types of things? And if so, how did you overcome it?

Speaker 2: 16:29

I've had many experiences like this and each time I think I get another layer of toughness, another leather skin layer, another layer of skin that is leather that gets placed around me. I was, I was speaking at an event in Chicago one time all two different times in Chicago at events. One time my whole presentation crashed and there was this overwhelming feeling, sinking feeling of oh my God, I had 600 people in the crowd and it was a selling stage. It wasn't a presenting content, it was content plus pitch. And it happened before the close. And I remember that feeling. My armpits became instantly wet, not sweaty but wet, dripping at physical manifestation of fear and, oh my gosh, embarrassment. And I'm going to be judged not just by the crowd of what I stumble out next, but by the event producer who wants me to sell, expects me to sell. If you don't sell, you're not getting invited back. Exactly, and I had to dance and shuffle my feet and do my best. This was a long time ago. Today, if my presentation crashed, I'd still be able to do it Right, because I have that experience of failure, that experience of discomfort, and I worked through the fear, worked through the pain. You know, when you do your first push-up, it might hurt. After you get through, you get stronger and stronger and stronger. I mean, you get this. You're ex-military, you go through, go through boot camp. It's not comfortable, but you're a tougher soldier at the end. You're a tougher speaker, more experience under in your tool belt in order to handle mishaps, handle technology failures, handle noise.

Speaker 2: 18:33

Another time in chicago, I was speaking to a large audience. Next door, the next salon was a sweet 16 party of you know, I don't know couple hundred teenagers, 15 and 16 year olds, screaming their heads off, blasting madonna oh my god, yes. And I had to hear this like a virgin no, you're not a virgin, you're 16. And it kept going on and on and on. Tim and I had to deal with this and I said, well, what it wouldn't? Wouldn't it be nice to be a virgin again? So I piggybacked off the joke of the loud Madonna music and just continued. You have to either ignore it or you comment and make a humorous joke out of it and use it in a way. And everybody laughed and I just proceeded because I didn't have the time to get off the stage. Talk to the. Go next door, tell the girls to be quiet. It would have never happened which they weren't going to do, quiet it would have never happened, which they weren't going to do anyway.

Speaker 2: 19:34

Right, they weren't going to do so it you know? I don't know if it changed from I'm a virgin to something else, didn't matter, I just had to continue. So I've had, I can go down all sorts of challenges and you get better and better and better. My solution and suggestion for people is be prepared. Yes, the old Murphy's law be prepared. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, hope for the best yeah, yeah, I think preparation is it's key really for anything.

Speaker 1: 20:05

You know, it doesn't matter what we do In life. If we want to be good at something, it doesn't just happen. We have to work for it, we have to prepare, we have to, you know, take the actual steps, you know, to get better. And I think we can't wing it?

Speaker 1: 20:22

No, you can't, cannot, especially in this business or especially in professional. You know, once you actually become a professional, people are going to be able to find you out. If you are just winging it, you know you're hired for a reason, because you can do the job, but then you actually have to do the job. You can't just wing it. You can't go into a team meeting when you're expected to know something about a product or service or you know what's been going on with it and present on it. If you haven't actually followed up on what those things are and know what's actually going on, you'll be found out real quick 100%.

Speaker 2: 21:00

I mean, did you ever play any team sports? Tim Team sports? Yeah. Can you imagine going in between football games? No, one week to the next if you don't have a practice.

Speaker 1: 21:11

No, wouldn't happen, of course not. It never happens, right yeah, there's no sport where you don't, even at rec league sports, right? Even now you practice, and then there's a game you practice, and then there's a game, right, you practice and then there's a game.

Speaker 1: 21:31

You practice and then there's a game. Right, and that's one of the things that I harp on with my students and clients is it doesn't really matter, you have to practice. This is hard work. It doesn't come easy, especially if you really truly have that anxiety. You've got to do the research, you've got to prepare and you have to actually practice. And practice isn't just looking at your notes, reading it to yourself. Practice means actually practice.

Speaker 2: 21:55

Well and doing it well, because game day you play one football game a week in season. How many practices are there in between game day and the next game day? It's about six to one, and the next game day it's about six to one, five or six to one, yeah. So if you're presenting a speech, let's just use football as an example. How many practices do you go through before you are game again? I mean, how many practices do you have in the preseason? It's preseason speaking, it's your practice sessions.

Speaker 1: 22:26

So when you talk about preparing and practicing, what do you tell your clients on how to actually prepare? You know, for me I always start with the audience. You know. Figure out who your audience is and that's where you start right.

Speaker 2: 22:43

Oh, I agree a hundred percent with you. Yeah, that's a mature, real perspective. An obvious answer is who are you speaking to? What will resonate with them? And gear your talk to them. It's not about you, it's about how they will receive you relate to. If you are a college professor with professorial words showing your PhD piled high and deep, and you are talking to an audience of six-year-old boys and you're talking at PhD level, I don't care how smart you are if you've won Toastmasters of the week when, when you are talking to six-year-old boys, you need to gear your talk to six-year-old vocabulary exactly and in order for them to connect. Otherwise they're going to do this.

Speaker 2: 23:41

I taught martial arts to six-year-olds, so I'm speaking from experience and and that's worse than herding cats yes, okay. And to keep their attention, it's got to be fun, entertaining, engaging, and you got to make sure that jimmy and little billy are paying attention. You got to use words that they can relate to. Similarly, when you're talking to high school kids, it's at a different level than ph, your graduate students. Each time, tim, I'm in total agreement align yourself with your audience. That's a good start. Another technique I use in order to connect with the audience is. Before I begin, I identify somebody in the audience who's going to be my friend. I figure that out quickly. Who in the audience is going to be Mitch friendly?

Speaker 2: 24:31

First time I spoke in Karachi, pakistan. I got invited to speak over there. Different culture, different religion, different country, yeah, so different than any other place that I'd spoken. Up to that point, I knew I was going to be unique, and what I did was I made fun of American and I said let's talk about the myths of Americans. We all eat cheeseburgers and chocolate milkshakes with fries every day. And they laughed. I found out who laughed the most and it was a guy with a big, bushy mustache and there were 600 graduate students in the audience. It was all for the MBA students at this university in Karachi and I found him as my victim. He was then my user-friendly guy because I learned one thing about the Muslim culture over there you don't touch the women, right? You don't do that. It's a real no, no, and you could end up dead. So I didn't.

Speaker 2: 25:31

I stayed away from the women's side because they were separated men on one side, women on the other and I found this fellow. Of course, his name was Muhammad. How unique. So was everybody else name the audience, but he was my guy. So I got off the stage, shook his hand and I called him Mr Mustache and he was my fun fellow. Hey, muhammad, oh, I mean Mr Mustache. Everybody laughed and I shook his hand. Well, what I did, in fact, was by shaking his hand, I shook everybody's hand because he was there. I was here, I was up on a stage and I removed myself from the stage, got down and and went to them. I didn't stand behind a podium ever and I looked at the stages, my cage. So I got out of my cage to come and meet with the zoo members, you know, and all the other people, and I found it an effective technique.

Speaker 1: 26:31

And you built a human connection, correct A relationship and automatically what that does is it builds credibility with the rest of the audience Comfort.

Speaker 2: 26:44

Comfort Because, yeah, because think of how drastically different we were culturally. Number one I was older than everybody else, I was the age of all of their professors, or the dean was there and all these fancy muckety mucks were in the audience. First time an American had ever spoken at that university. So I'm already thinking OK, and I was quite experienced and this is about 10 years ago, something like that Very experienced speaking internationally first time in Pakistan. So I already had this American versus Pakistan. They didn't, they feared us. It was more fear than disliking us. And I had to overcome that quickly and I used humor and a way of overcoming it and setting that aside, at least temporarily, during my hour long talk by going and shaking hands with a guy who smiled and laughed at my jokes. So he was my connector and there was no more about oh, hate the American.

Speaker 1: 27:45

Right, that's a really good technique. And again, it comes back to you know building those relationships and you know I talk about that a lot. You know with my students and you speak and coach all over the world and you and I had talked about you know how a lot of your clients now you spend a lot of time in Singapore. But talk about how, the first, how Singapore actually happened. You know the ping pong effect, how it's not just okay, you woke up today and you got a call, so we're going to Singapore tomorrow. Talk about that ping pong effect, about how networking and personal relationships got you from here to Singapore.

Speaker 2: 28:28

All right, I'm quite fortunate and unique in the speaking arena. I've never had to market myself. I've had to be the best Mitch possible and do my best in every place I speak. How I ended up in Singapore was through a fellow American and who got invited to speak in five countries. It was part of a tour. They were going to showcase speakers going to, starting in the Philippines and Manila. Then we went to Thailand, then we went to KL, then we ended up in Singapore and then a select group which I did not participate because I had another event I had to go to went to Bali to conclude this tour of speaking engagements, where it traveled each weekend for those several weeks to a different country. And KL was different. We spoke in KL on a Saturday and then on Sunday we were in Singapore. Because it was adjoining, it was easy to fly or take a bus to get us there for the next day, so it wasn't a Saturday. And then on Sunday we're in Singapore. Because it was adjoining, it was easy to fly or take a bus to get us there for the next day, so it wasn't a problem. So that was shortened over a weekend. Bali had to fly and they went on and I didn't go to Bali and I first spoken in Manila.

Speaker 2: 29:45

All the speakers spoke and had a crowd of about 200 people. It was not profitable for me because these were most of the attendees were virtual assistants with no money. They were there to laugh and get exposed to all these international speakers. We had speakers two people were, three people were from Canada, there were two Americans, a fellow came in from India, another fellow was from, oh gosh, vietnam. So we had a multitude of backgrounds and we also had a couple Filipino speakers that participated, oh, and one from Kuala Lumpur, malaysia. So all of these different people were there.

Speaker 2: 30:25

I went and spoke then in KL, had a decent crowd of people, did pretty well, sold some people into my workshop. It was some business crowd, some were students, not exactly. Some of the speakers at that point became frustrated because the audience wasn't what the promoter had promised. They were supposed to be business owners so we could sell right, because we weren't being paid to do this. So then the next city was singapore. The only other speaker who was no, not the only one, one of the other, there were a few of us who were truly professionals, meaning we made our money speaking. Others were just content-based and we're starting out. The four of us who were professionals, who had made money speaking from the stage, went on to singapore. The other three opted not to speak because there were only eight people in the audience and they said I'm not doing this and they just stuck around and they gossiped outside of the room.

Speaker 2: 31:28

I went ahead and spoke. My belief is the show must go on, right. We continue no matter what, right. I spoke in that audience because I played a testimonial of. One of my students, who was quite well known in Singapore, said oh, you're the mentor to X person. I said yes, after I spoke. So the two of them there was this couple bought into my speaking mastery program which I then provided next month in Singapore because I was living in Thailand at the time. So Singapore to Thailand was just a two-hour flight, pretty easy, and they helped fill my next event in Singapore these two people I had 20 people attend and pay my event. So it became an opportunity and since then it parlayed into bigger audiences.

Speaker 2: 32:22

Now I go back twice a year and I make most of my money in Singapore and this played out because I was willing to go and speak no matter what the opportunity was there. The other three are not in Singapore at all and I've made a boatload of money there because I took, I became, I was committed to speak no matter what, no matter what. I wasn't going to let the promoter down. I said I will continue, even though there's a small audience. You promised us a hundred people. There are only, you know, a dozen, and many of them were people who were already participating in the event. They weren't real customers or fresh customers for us, but two were. Two made the whole difference for me, the entire difference. And then the world opened up. Right, I no longer speak of Malaysia because of the currency is one third the value of Singapore? So if I'm going to put my effort and I go to Singapore to sell my services because I make more money, wow.

Speaker 1: 33:28

And again, all because number one, number one you did what you said you were going to do. First and foremost, yes, right, which to me, I think is I stayed in integrity, right. And I think young professionals need to understand and take heed on that. If we say we're going to do something, it doesn't matter, we need to do what we say we're going to do. And that's that Number two. Like you said, the show's got to go on. I don't care if there's one or if there's 10,000. If there's one person there, then you're going to try and reach that one person. You know your presentation may may be a lot different, maybe it's obviously going to be way more personal, but you know you've got a responsibility. And, and again, you never know where that one person or in your case, there's two people what kind of relationship that's going to be and where that's actually going to take you and them down the road 100%.

Speaker 2: 34:24

You just do it. I mean, I had another promoter in KL who promised me a crowd of people. He didn't and the event was there. Seven people signed up out of it, six had to postpone because of a weather condition. I was already in KL. One person showed up and he had essentially a private lesson with me for two days. I was already there, hotel was paid for all of this. Six people had to go into my next training the following month, so I only had one person and he had never spoken. He got one-on-one with me for two days. That's normally quite expensive. My audience is 20 and I had one I. The show must go on. I wasn't going to cancel him out because I was already there, right. If I could have pushed it out and postponed it, I would have done it. But I also realized this fellow took off time from work to be there. My obligation was to teach him, no matter what, and I did Right.

Speaker 1: 35:25

And that's so important that, again, we need to think about when we commit to doing something. Or, you know, even when we're an employee, if we're tasked with doing something, we need to make sure that we're fulfilling that task or that responsibility. So what are some traits of highly successful professional speakers? Again, you know my audience is young professionals really struggling, and you know if we can say, okay, this is where you are and this is where we're going to try and get you to become highly successful, you know what are some traits of those types of speakers.

Speaker 2: 36:04

Yeah, I'm going to address your audience of people, if they're young people, a couple of things that are important when you are being considered to get booked, if you're looking to get on a an industry speaking panel, if you're looking to produce a keynote speech, or if you're selling a product or service from a stage or virtual stage, because that has all sorts of credibility today, thanks to COVID, it is a real market In order to get evaluated. If someone were to speak on one of the platforms that I produce, tim, I'm going to look at their LinkedIn number one. Second, I'm going to look at their LinkedIn Number one. Second, I'm going to look at their YouTube channel. Where can I see footage of them speaking previously? So I know I'm not going to eat poo-poo putting this person on my stage.

Speaker 2: 36:56

How do I ensure that I provide quality speakers that are already proven, because if they haven't spoken, I'm not a try it a brand new stage for new speakers. Go to Toastmasters, go to Agora Speakers, go get trained. Go train with Tim, learn how to speak first, then practice at the Lions Club or some of the other places that are out there the local Rotary or Chambers. They're always looking for speakers Right, and you can come and present capture footage of you speaking to those groups. Use that as your credible source to place on your LinkedIn, to place on your YouTube channel or your website so people can feel comfortable before they hire you. Because to hope that your uncle Vinny is going to place you on his platform is a pipe dream. Right, he's not going to risk his reputation on you until you've proven yourself Right. So I think that's a minimum to is to start small but prove it.

Speaker 1: 38:01

Right and again that's a minimum too is to start small but prove it Right. And again that's like that in anything that we're going to do as young professionals. Again, my background in history and industry comes from sport, and so when our students graduate, they're not going to go and become general managers, they're going to start off in ticket sales, which is that's the gateway into the industry. I mean, you have to show that you can actually sell and make organizations money and prove your worth Right. To be able to sell, you have to be able to communicate. You have to be able to think on your feet. You have to be able to sell. You have to be able to communicate. You have to be able to to think on your feet. You have to be able to to relate to people, answer objections, uh, listen to what, what, what your customers are are saying to you and be able to respond accordingly.

Speaker 1: 38:53

And that all all those things lead into. You know what, what you just said, uh, and I'm glad you said about you know, film it and put things on LinkedIn. My students right now a lot of their assignments are when, when they're doing presentations, they've got to be filmed and put on LinkedIn. I don't take them if they're not put on LinkedIn. Oh, I mean, excuse me, oh good for you, wow On.

Speaker 1: 39:19

YouTube. Okay, okay, on YouTube. Okay, now they don't have to make it public yet, but at least it's there, at least it's done, at least it's there. They can make it public later and I can look at it. And that's where I can really truly help them so much better because I can, you know, stop it and point out and guide them and they hate doing it and hopefully that they see the payoff. You know, three months, six months as they get better, and then comparing the one that they did at the end of the training to the one that they did at the beginning of it, and really be able to see that growth and improvement. So, again, I think you're right on with, you know, filming it and having it put on someplace like youtube where it can be archived and and pulled up later, that's great well, and if you just talk about it, that's one thing you must do, it it forces you to do.

Speaker 2: 40:21

And even if it's a bloody failure, fail your way to your success. Right, get better. You have to put your foot in the pond right. You have to start. You sink or swim and start swimming.

Speaker 1: 40:33

Bud right, start and start swimming and I'm going to use another sports analogy here. You know all the great, the greats, you know the Tom Brady's, the Michael Jordan's, the Kobe Bryant's of the world. They practiced until they retired on fundamentals, on footwork, on basics. You know, and you know their philosophy is that you know, if we can't do the basics, there's no way that we're going to be able to do the advanced stuff. And they were so focused on that all the time they hit those basics and practiced them for hours, even at that high level. And you know, I wouldn't be surprised that. You know, obviously Tom Brady's in the booth now. I wouldn't be surprised if he still does some, some quarterback drills, some basic quarterback drills, on his own oh, I bet he does drills before he gets on the mic too.

Speaker 2: 41:30

Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure he takes his job seriously. That's just the way he's wired. Yeah, it's all about practice, practice, practice before you debut, right before you perform. He went through practice interviews, I guarantee you, before before you perform. He went through practice interviews, I guarantee you, before they put him on the broadcast mic.

Speaker 1: 41:46

Yeah, yeah, I'm sure that they did. You know again when you're getting paid, when you're getting paid those millions of dollars and these broadcast, these network companies have paid. You know the amount of money that they have to the NFL. They can't look like they're the JVs, rinky dink.

Speaker 2: 42:08

Right, yeah, no, they got to be professional. And Tom is trained. Yeah, 100%, absolutely. They put him through, you know, speaking school, but he might have already been fairly literate and comfortable because of all the interviews he's done. But to then become the person that's the color commentator that takes preparation? Absolutely, it does.

Speaker 2: 42:46

So let's talk about your business and what you do and your training and how you can take speakers, get them these interviews to build that know to get interviews on TV, radio and those types of things. I live in Las Vegas, my sweet spot. The reason I do what I do is because as an events producer, I found that a lot of speakers have great content but they lack the credibility. Two things they need a book. This is not necessarily for your audience yet, but later, if they want to endure or participate as a speaker in the future, a paid speaker got to have a book, got to have media behind you. That credentializes you. We go to college to get that BA or BS. If we want an advanced degree, we get that master's. These credentialize you. To then open doors to get paid, to get booked as a speaker. It's book media.

Speaker 2: 43:38

Media is critical. It is the highest form of media. I love podcasts, I embrace it. I have my own podcast, but it's not network television. They've spent hundreds of millions of dollars in creating that brand. They are supported through their advertisers. I mean, just like the NFL we were talking about, how do you pay a Tom Brady? How do you pay all these other high-level communicators? It's because they had the credibility of the star power. If it's a person like you, or me, tim, who aren't from that star background, which they are superstars, well-known. They got to skip the line, but they really didn't, because there's all sorts of media about Tom Brady and if, in order to get credentialized, I found that to get on TV is the highest, quickest form of credentializing you and opening doors for you as a speaker or as a business owner or whatever you're peddling, you get to pedal at premium prices because you've been credentialized Right. So I put them on TV, guaranteed in Las Vegas. You know four networks the CW, nbc, abc and CBS.

Speaker 1: 44:53

Yeah, and Las Vegas is kind of a, you know, small market city Entertainment capital of the world. There's nothing going on in Vegas, right? Oh, of course not, it's the number one event city in the world.

Speaker 2: 45:02

There's nothing going on in.

Speaker 1: 45:03

Vegas right? Oh, of course not.

Speaker 2: 45:04

It's the number one event city in the world, exactly.

Speaker 1: 45:09

And you go to Vegas to get noticed. That's for sure. I mean, it's Sure. It's about, you know, building that credibility so that you can get those bookings on stage. Yes, sir, you know. So again, you know, for my audience this is what's possible, and I think if the young professionals see what's possible, it really kind of helps guide them. Okay, wow, never thought about that, you know this. Going back to what I, you know, brought it in with, they're way more entrepreneurial, they're much, much smarter. If we could just get them, you know, to become much better communicators, these types of opportunities are opened up to them and then, like you, the whole world opens up. Yep, that's awesome. Is there anything else we that we didn't talk about, that you'd want to share with our audience? For we yes.

Speaker 2: 46:15

One thing I would like to impart to these people if you have fear, get over it, face it. Face everything and rise that's my acronym for fear. Face everything and rise, and your income will be 20% higher, as a proficient communicator, than your classmate or your peer who doesn't embrace public speaking. Leaders speakakers are leaders, yes, and they're perceived as such because they're willing to risk the embarrassment, risk the fear, work through that fear, and speakers are leaders and become a leader.

Speaker 1: 46:54

Absolutely. That's great advice, mitch, thanks so much. Where can people find you? How can they get in touch with you, maybe work with you, go through your training?

Speaker 2: 47:04

yep, mitchcarsoncom is my website. You can email me there, uh. Or if you're interested in getting on television in las vegas, yes, this is my service, but it's at mitch, excuse me. Getinterviewedguaranteedcom forward slash meet with Mitch.

Speaker 1: 47:24

Thanks, and I'll put those websites in the show notes for everybody. Okay Great. Thank you so much for taking some time with us today. I really do appreciate it, bud.

Speaker 2: 47:34

Tim, I appreciate you. Thank you, it was a real privilege to be here. All right.

Speaker 1: 47:39

All right guys, be sure to visit speakingwithconfidencepodcastcom to join our growing community and register for the Formula for Public Speaking course. Always remember your voice has the power to change the world. We'll talk to you next time, take care.