Show Notes
“There’s a huge amount of progress that comes from pitching yourself and putting information out there and having discovery calls and doing events and speaking at events and fielding questions and posting on social media and seeing what people want.” Welcome to another episode of The Speaker Lab Podcast! Today, host Grant Baldwin welcomes Shannon GaNun, a former communications professional, college professor, and now a thriving full-time speaker who’s built an inspiring business around helping others communicate with purpose and confidence. In this conversation, Shannon takes us through her remarkable journey, starting from her roots in a small Wisconsin town, through her early career on Capitol Hill, and onto the classroom at Georgia Southern University. She shares how her lifelong passion for effective communication eventually led her to pitch herself, land gigs, and build programs that empower leaders at corporations and associations to strengthen their impact through better speaking skills. This episode dives deep into the realities of launching a speaking business later in life, the challenges of making a mid-career pivot, and the process of turning decades of both work and life experience into a valuable, marketable service. Shannon gets candid about overcoming imposter syndrome, learning the business side of speaking through The Speaker Lab, and tackling the not-so-glamorous parts. If you’re someone who wonders if you’re “special enough” to be on stage, or if you’ve wrestled with questions of timing, self-doubt, or financial security in pursuing your passion, you’ll walk away with encouragement to start where you are, leverage your experience, and take that next step! You’ll learn: Starting before you’re 100% ready Transitioning from learning to pitching, discovery calls, and social media outreach Recognizing value in communication versus sharing it on stage Overcoming fears or doubts about speaking in front of groups The misconception that speakers need unique backgrounds Solving a specific problem for a specific audience Packaging expertise into a sellable product And much, much more!
“Everybody, even though we’re all kind of ordinary, normal, what I consider middle class Americans, we all have a unique experience and so we can take what we have experienced and teach others.” Episode Resources Shannon’s Website Get Free Speaker Resources Book a Call with The Speaker Lab Calculate Your Speaking Fee Join The Speaker Lab Community on Facebook Subscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Spotify See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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"Because a plan that you make alone on the last night of the year is a wish. And a plan you build in a room with coaches looking at your numbers and speakers holding you to it. Now that is a commitment and commitments are what get you booked and paid to speak."
"The audience first plan is not really a strategy. It's a hiding place. Because posting into the void is safe. Nobody tells you no."
"I made a decision in my head, I'm going to America. I'm going to come here, build a business, live a life, get a green card, then get citizenship, do it all above board. But the decision was massive. How do I make it stick?" Welcome back to The Speaker Lab Podcast! In this Alumni Spotlight, Dan pulls up a chair with Julian V. Taylor — a British-born media entrepreneur who spent more than two decades building businesses on both sides of the Atlantic. Julian started in magazine publishing in London, launched RedCoat Publishing in Boston, and produced television for networks like the History Channel and Discovery. Now he speaks to CEOs and leadership teams through his workshop, "Decisions That Stick," part of his broader Bold Bridge Method for working with the C-suite. Julian walks through how a couple of outreach phone calls landed him in front of Vistage groups — one of the toughest rooms there is — and what it was like running his first workshop for a brand-new group in Tallahassee after losing his voice on a London work trip. He breaks down the hands-on tools he brings into those rooms, including a Decision Contract (each participant writes a contract with themselves to keep a decision on track) and a Consequence Ladder that maps where a choice actually takes you. He also gets honest about the session that didn't go well: a third workshop with too many people dialing in remotely, a score that came back below where it needed to be, and the rule he built from it. But the real surprise? The content wasn't the hard part. Julian expected building his curriculum to be the biggest climb. It wasn't — that flowed naturally. The brick wall was everything else: who to call, who to talk to, and the hours it takes to work the phones. Dan and Julian dig into what's actually working now — from a longtime friend who told Julian poolside that his team needs exactly what he teaches, to Vistage chairs recommending his workshop to other chairs. Dan coaches on depth over breadth (go deeper into rooms you've already been in before going wider) and the 85/15 reality of speaking: maybe 15% of the time is on stage, and the other 85% is everything that gets you there. Whether you're building your first workshop, trying to crack into executive peer groups, or grinding through the middle stretch where the content is ready but the pipeline isn't — this conversation is full of practical, honest insight on what it actually takes. You'll learn: How two outreach calls to business owners in Ohio turned into three back-to-back Vistage meetings in Florida Why Julian ran his first Vistage workshop with almost no voice, and why not overthinking it helped The Decision Contract: the agreement each CEO writes with themselves, on paper, to keep a decision on track The Consequence Ladder, Julian's three-lane interstate for seeing where a decision's consequences push you Why you can't blanket-call or blanket-email Vistage chairs, and what to do instead What a low score on his third workshop taught him, and why he now turns down rooms full of people dialing in remotely The part Julian expected to be hardest (building the content) vs the part that actually is (finding planners with an event six months out) Dan's 85/15 rule: how little of a speaking business actually happens on stage Why a friend's comment by the pool and chair-to-chair referrals beat a bigger list, plus Dan's case for 30 minutes of outreach a day How speaking pulled Julian into consulting, including a succession plan for an owner whose four kids are buying the business
"The famine is not caused by the famine. The famine is caused by what you did not do during the feast."
"Undercharging is not humility. It is a positioning problem and oftentimes a confidence problem. And that confidence problem is wearing a humble costume."