Mic Drop

Break the Mold (ft. Heather McGowan)

Episode Summary

Heather McGowan is far from the ‘cookie cutter’ keynote speaker. Yet far from a barrier, Heather’s unique approach and authenticity have made her one of the most in-demand speakers and thought leaders around. Meanwhile, she’s re-defined our understanding of the future of work— and how to apply its principles today.

Episode Notes

Break the Mold (ft. Heather McGowan)

Sometimes the best advice is to ignore the advice.

OPENING QUOTE:

“In the past two weeks, it was diamonds, hairdressers, biopharmaceuticals, education, quality control. Next week, it's education. So it's all over the place. And how do you take that same insights or series of insights or decide which ones are important to which audiences so you can scale it?”

- Heather McGowan

GUEST BIO:

One of the most successful speakers today, Heather McGowan is a leading voice on the future of work and the fourth industrial revolution. She’s helped lead organizations around the world in the quest to balance performance and wellbeing, and her latest book The Adaptation Advantage was named one of the Top 30 business books of 2021. It delivers a groundbreaking model for helping leaders let go, learn fast, and thrive.

Links:

CORE TOPICS + DETAILS:

[6:28] - Uniquely Authentic, Uniquely Successful

Breaking the mold & making careers

People are always telling Heather how authentic she is. But the truth is that she begins from a very simple truth— people want to have a conversation. When Heather steps onstage, she has an idea she wants to convey and she’s out to do it in the most authentic, straightforward, and memorable way. Sometimes, it’s as simple as that— though it’s certainly never easy.

[12:29] - Adapting Your Message

Same mission, different audience

How do you deliver the same message to a group of 5,000 people for 12 minutes as you do a group of 100 people for 75 minutes? The answer is adaptability. You have to be able to identify the core truths and value in your message, then build the rest of your message around them based on the audience, setting, time limit, and other factors. It’s a skill, and like any skill it can be practiced and perfected.

[9:25] - The Future of Work & The Future of Keynotes

The world is changing. Are you changing with it?

The future of keynote speaking has a lot in common with the future of work— it’s becoming more connected, less rigid in its formulas, and more open to unique perspectives and ways of doing things. That can only be a good thing, and it will allow for a new group of speakers to come up and continue changing the game for generations to come.

[22:13] - Bringing Diversity to the Stage

Equity and inclusion are #1

Heather’s goal? To see a time when all of the things about her that are currently selling points relating to her uniqueness— such as her orientation— are simply background to her message. But for now, she’s proud to be a driving force helping more diverse voices reach keynote stages. It’s something we should all aspire to do in our own ways.

RESOURCES:

[2:37] The Adaptation Advantage
[4:18] About Amplify Festival

Follow Heather McGowan:

Follow Josh Linkner:

ABOUT MIC DROP:

Brought to you by eSpeakers, hear from the world’s top thought leaders and experts, sharing tipping point moments, strategies, and approaches that led to their speaking career success. Throughout each episode, host Josh Linkner, #1 Innovation keynote speaker in the world, deconstructs guests’ Mic Drop moments and provides tactical tools and takeaways that can be applied to any speaking business, no matter it’s starting point. You'll enjoy hearing from some of the top keynote speakers in the industry including: Ryan Estis, Alison Levine, Peter Sheahan, Seth Mattison, Cassandra Worthy, and many more. Mic Drop is produced and presented by eSpeakers; sponsored by ImpactEleven.

Learn more at: MicDropPodcast.com

ABOUT THE HOST:

Josh Linkner is a Creative Troublemaker. He believes passionately that all human beings have incredible creative capacity, and he’s on a mission to unlock inventive thinking and creative problem solving to help leaders, individuals, and communities soar.

Josh has been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which sold for a combined value of over $200 million and is the author of four books including the New York Times Bestsellers, Disciplined Dreaming and The Road to Reinvention. He has invested in and/or mentored over 100 startups and is the Founding Partner of Detroit Venture Partners.

Today, Josh serves as Chairman and Co-founder of Platypus Labs, an innovation research, training, and consulting firm. He has twice been named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and is the recipient of the United States Presidential Champion of Change Award.

Josh is also a passionate Detroiter, the father of four, is a professional-level jazz guitarist, and has a slightly odd obsession with greasy pizza.

Learn more about Josh: JoshLinkner.com

ABOUT eSPEAKERS:

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eSpeakers is where the speaking industry does business on the web. Speakers, speaker managers, associations, and bureaus use our tools to organize, promote and grow successful businesses. Event organizers think of eSpeakers first when they want to hire speakers for their meetings or events.

The eSpeakers Marketplace technology lets us and our partner directories help meeting professionals all over the world connect directly with speakers for great engagements.

Thousands of successful speakers, trainers, and coaches use eSpeakers to build their businesses and manage their calendars. Thousands of event organizers use our directories every day to find and hire speakers. Our tools are built for speakers, by speakers, to do things that only purpose-built systems can.

Learn more at: eSpeakers.com

Episode Transcription

Heather McGowan:

In the past two weeks, it was diamonds, hairdressers, biopharmaceuticals, education, quality control. Next week's, it's education. So it's all over the place. And how do you take that same insights or series of insights or decide which ones are important to which audiences so you can scale it?

Josh Linkner:

Welcome to Mic Drop, the podcast for professional speakers. We cover the ins and outs of the business. Helping you deliver more impact on bigger stages. At higher fees, you'll gain an inside edge through intimate conversations with the world's most successful keynote speakers. Mic Drop is brought to you by eSpeakers. I'm your host, Josh Linkner get ready for some inspiring mic drop moments together.

Josh Linkner:

Today's show is sponsored by IMPACT 11, formerly known as 3 Ring Circus. The best and most diverse and inclusive community built for training and developing professional speakers. They're not just elevating an industry we know and love. They work with hundreds of speakers to launch and scale their speaking businesses, earning tens of millions of speaking fees, landing bureau representation, securing book deals, and rising to the top of the field to learn more and schedule a free intro call visit impacteleven.com that's impact E-L-E-V-E-N.com. Mike Drop is produced and presented by eSpeakers. If you want more audiences and organizations to be moved and changed by your message, you owe it to yourself to find out why thousands of top experts use eSpeakers to manage and grow their business. When you use eSpeakers, you'll feel confident about your business. Package yourself up for success and be able to focus on what matters most to you and your business. For more information and a free 30-day trial visit eSpeakers.com/micdrop that's eSpeakers.com/micdrop.

Josh Linkner:

On today's episode of Mic Drop, I sit down with one of the top keynote speakers, my good friend, Heather McGowan. Heather is one of the leading voices on the future of work and the fourth industrial revolution. Helping leading organizations around the world balance high performance and wellbeing. Her latest book, The Adaptation Advantage was named one of the top 30 business books of 2021 and delivers a groundbreaking model, helping leaders let go, learn fast, and thrive. Heather holds a BFA in industrial design from Rhode Island School of Design and an MBA with a concentration in entrepreneurship and finance from Babson College. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Pennsylvania College of Art and design.

Josh Linkner:

These days she's cranking out 75 plus keynotes a year to the delight of audiences, meeting planners and bureaus alike. In my conversation with Heather, we discuss how her success has been driven by being uniquely authentic, shattering the mold of most keynote speakers, tips on how to adapt a message to different industries and audiences, how the future of work is informing the future of keynote speaking and how bureaus and planners are craving diversity, equity and inclusion, and why there's never been a better time to bring diversity to the platform. On today's episode, we get to know Heather as a brilliant thought leader, and one of the most important speakers on the circuit today. My good friend, Heather McGowan, welcome to Mic Drop.

Heather McGowan:

Thank you very much for having me. It's lovely to see you today.

Josh Linkner:

So Heather, your speaking career has just blown up in the last few years and I'd love to have you unpack that for us a little bit. You had wild success in other areas of life, in business, in academia, and then you launched onto the speaking scene. Can you give us a little bit of that backstory? How did you enter the world of professional speaking and where's that path led, especially in these last couple years where it's exploded?

Heather McGowan:

Yeah, so I never knew I wanted to be a speaker. It was nowhere on my radar. Never took a speaking class. I thought I wanted to write books and I thought I was speaking so I could write a book. I had that backwards. So I wrote an article on LinkedIn in 2014. I was part of a series, a hundred thousand people read it overnight. And I started getting speaking requests from all over the world. The first one was from Annalee Killian to speak at the Amplify Festival for AMP Bank in Australia. She'd been traveling the world looking for fresh voices. And most of the people there were very well established speakers and it was about 40 of them from all over the world. I was ranked, I can't remember if it was, number two or number three by the audience after the event. And the video of that went viral and then it just snowballed from there. But that's basically how it started.

Josh Linkner:

And approximately what year was that?

Heather McGowan:

That was 2015.

Josh Linkner:

So 2015. So that was not decades ago. That was seven years ago. And tell us a little bit about your speaking business today. Whatever you're comfortable sharing, number of dates, et cetera.

Heather McGowan:

Sure, sure. I think I did about 75 last year. I'll probably do at least that this year. My business has doubled the last three years in a row. Each year is double in revenue the prior year. So dollars are going up, engagements are going up, a lot of repeats. It's just been amazing. You're working with the bureaus is key. I mean, I have the best bureau folks working for me working with me, relationships with them. They're outstanding never could do it without them.

Josh Linkner:

I totally agree by the way. And I know that many of the bureaus who I know are big fans of yours, just like I am. One of the things, among many, that I just adore about you, Heather, is that you don't seem to be a mold follower. You're not saying, "Oh, well, other speakers show up this way, look this way, present this way." You're not telling the same cliche stories. I feel like you've got your own really unique style. And it's counterintuitive. It's the opposite of what many others do. What is some of the feedback that you've heard when people are describing, "Hey, Heather, I loved your event because..." Or "I loved your speech because..." What are some of the pieces of feedback that you hear?

Heather McGowan:

So I've been going back and becoming the student now, which I think you did early on. You really reversed engineered the craft, the industry. And that's how you created what was first 3 Ring Circus, and now IMPACT 11. And I love that bootcamp event I went to because I learned more in 24, 48 hours, however long I was there, than I had in 5 years. Because I hadn't have that inclination to do it. And I didn't have that insight. So that is invaluable. I recommend anybody who's looking at going into speaking to do that. And then I look at there's a TED Talk that popped up on my phone yesterday, How to Write the Perfect Speech. I'm like, "Nope, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that." I don't follow any of the formulas and it's not intentional.

Heather McGowan:

I feel like I have something to explain and I want to just have a conversation with the audience. And the most consistent thing I hear afterwards is, "You feel so authentic. I feel like I know you. I feel like I can talk to you. I feel like you explain things in a way that I can understand them." So people feel like they know me. I mean, people follow me around afterwards. They'll come up to me at the coffee shop or follow me into my hotel room to have a conversation with him. 'Cause they feel like they know me even though they don't or don't yet.

Josh Linkner:

Well, I'd agree with that. And one thing I've noticed is when we got to know each other and I felt instantly drawn to you is that you're not trying to be somebody else. You're not trying to play a role. You're just being you. And that really comes through. Especially in a world of keynote speakers where everything is exaggerated. This plaid jacket, cliche spewing, platitude rolling. And you're the opposite. Deep substance, no bullshit. Has that ever backfired? Have you had expectations where audiences want you to come in and be Tony Robbins and you're not that and has it ever backfired?

Heather McGowan:

No, not really. I mean, I say that straight up front. I'm not doing cartwheels onto the stage. My only shtick maybe is I have an addiction to eyeglasses, which we just discussed before we went on on the radio. But that's an authentic addiction that I use speaking to cover for my advocational addiction. No, it really hasn't because it's so set up upfront. I just say, "That's not who I am. And there are wonderful people, if you're looking for that, there's lots of great folks who fire up the audience and get them doing cartwheels and pushups and that kind of thing. I'm just there to simply have a conversation and help people get a little bit unstuck, change their mindset, be less afraid, feel like they can tackle something. See a picture through the complexity that makes sense to them where they find their own place in it and what to do next."

Josh Linkner:

And I'd love to move into that. Really about your content. So you are known as a future of work expert. What are people hiring you to share? What are the core underlying message that you believe people are craving and wanting you to bring to their stage?

Heather McGowan:

Well, I mean, I used the word future work because it's one people have latched onto. I, fortunately, found my way to those three words early on, before too many other people are using. Some were, not quite as many. Because I don't think now of work was selling then. It might sell now, but that's really what it is. It's explaining to people what has been happening. Some of them long term trends, some of them more sudden changes that impact what we do. 'Cause most of the time we're a framework or a mindset behind the moment we're in. So to bring people up to speed and say, "You've been leading with fear and that didn't work for the past 10 years and it definitely doesn't work now. So you were hiring unquestioned experts that is now unquestionably a liability. It was a problem over the last decade. Now, it's a pretty severe liability. So those kinds of shifts, which are really not too much about a decade from now. But it's really about now in the next five years.

Josh Linkner:

Your most recent book, The Adaptation Advantage came out in 2021. And it really talks about this notion of-

Heather McGowan:

2020. Smack in the middle of the pandemic.

Josh Linkner:

Oh, 2020.

Heather McGowan:

It was 2020. Yeah. Terrible timing.

Josh Linkner:

Well, on the other hand, talk about the need to adapt. I mean-

Heather McGowan:

Yeah, yeah.

Josh Linkner:

No more time needed than in the middle of the pandemic. So you really talk about this essential skill of adaptability. Can you maybe share a little bit about that and your work on the book and then maybe pivot into how can speakers become more effective if they embrace adaptability?

Heather McGowan:

Sure. So we played around with lots of different titles trying to figure out what the right title was. We knew kind of what we were writing about. And then we landed on adaptability and I thought, "That's absolutely it." And I met a professor who told me that a lot of people conflate flexibility and adaptability. And he said it like this, "Flexibility is reaching down into your toolbox to use a tool you've used before to do a process you've done before. So it's pivoting from known to known and adaptability is reaching down in your toolbox, pulling out a tool that's not fully formed to tackle a process you've never done before." So adaptability requires both unlearning and learning. And I think that's the right way to think about how we have to approach a lot of things today. And when it comes to speaking, let's talk about April, 2020 when the book came out. I don't know about you.

Heather McGowan:

But I was like, "My life is over." We spit on people for a living. Respiratory droplets is our business. What are we going to do? I had done a handful of virtuals before, only when either time or budget didn't allow them to have me in-person. I hadn't done a lot of virtual. Suddenly I had to buy cameras and equipment and lighting and how do you light with glasses? That was a challenge that I had to learn through. So all of us who are listening on this call, if you've been through that, you already went through some pretty profound adaptability. I had to think differently about how do you reach your audience? How do you relate to your audience? How do you keep them engaged? How do you pace when it's virtual. Technology aside, it's a different type of delivery and engagement.

Heather McGowan:

Now, every audience is different in, I don't know about, but you Josh, but I get 12 minutes to 75 minutes. And a lot of times they want the same information. So how do you adapt that? We do that regularly. And now I don't know, a few people are asking for more and more. "Can I do a break out? Can we do a workshop? Can we do a..." And we're learning to do those kinds of things. So I think the speaking business is how do you craft to the medium? How do you craft to the time period? How do you craft to the attention span of the audience? How do you meet them where they are? And then how do you build out things they may need beyond the keynote?

Josh Linkner:

So as somebody who is an expert in adaptability, I'm sure you are also following your own instructions, taking your own medicine. How are you thinking about this next couple years for you and your speaking career? What are you going to learn and unlearn? How do you apply The Adaptability Advantage to your own speaking practice?

Heather McGowan:

Well, since mine came accidentally, I didn't come from a whole series of trainings and classes and that sort of thing. I'm with you folks working on my next show reel in early August. And I just looked at my schedule and I have two coaching sessions with Peter, I think, it's next week or the week after. And one of the things he said to me and I'm still, of course, I'm, I'm a student more than anything is that I don't use the stage. Basically, I stand in one spot and I talk to you. And he said, "Figure out your power spot on the stage when you've got really something important to say, go to that spot." When you're trying to make the audience feel like they're getting the information at the same time as you are. He sometimes walks into the audience and looks at the information with them.

Heather McGowan:

So there's a whole physicality and how you use the stage that I haven't done much with that. I haven't done much with voice, up and down and emphasis. I've got a lot to do there. So I know I'm just at the beginning of this and there's always more to learn. I'm very much reliant on visuals. I don't think that'll change, because I think that helps folks a lot. But there is the argument that I could get rid of those and go without it. But I think the visual thing, I think, helps people too much. I don't think that's going to change. But maybe I'll do fewer of them and go deeper. 'Cause I give people a lot of information at once. So I'm definitely a student still trying to figure this out.

Josh Linkner:

Becoming a keynote speaker is an amazing profession. The top performers earn millions in annual income while driving massive impact on audiences around the world. But the quest to speaking glory can be a slow route with many obstacles that can knock even the best speakers out of the game. If you are serious about growing your speaking business, the seasoned pros at IMPACT 11 can help. From optimizing your marketing and business efforts to crafting your ideal positioning, to perfecting your expertise and stage skills, IMPACT 11 is the only speaker training and development program run by current high level speakers at the top of their field. That's why the major bureaus like Washington Speakers Bureau, Premier Speakers, Speak Inc, Executive Speakers, Harry Walker Agency, Kepler, Gotham Artists, and GDA all endorses and participate in IMPACT 11, from interactive boot camps to one-on-one coaching. If you are looking to take your speaking career to the next level, they'll help you make a bigger impact faster. For a free 30-minute consultation, visit impacteleven.com/micdrop.

Josh Linkner:

I love that. And that is a characteristic that I've seen with wildly successful people in many fields. Where you reach the top of the field and instead of becoming, "Oh, I'm the guru." It's that, "I'm the student." And I really admire your humility and your willingness to continue to learn. It's something that I really connect with deeply and appreciate about you. And so speaking of that you've learned a lot of things. So I was reading about BFA in industrial design, Rhode Island School of Design, MBA from Babson. So you looked at the world of design and you've looked at the world of business and your academic studies. How are you applying those two principles to your speaking business?

Heather McGowan:

Sure. So industrial science is one of the least understood fields and it's better understood as either product design or design strategy, which both of those fall into industrial design. So basically it's how do you put the user or the person who's going to operate your solution or need your solution at the center and figure out what they need. And a lot of times it's not just solving a problem, but rather finding and framing the problem. And that's very much what I do with speaking. It's, who's my audience. What do they need? What do they understand? What metaphors would work for them? What analogies would work for them? What visuals would make things easier for them and then businesses. So if design is finding and framing an opportunity, a business, particularly, entrepreneurship is how do you turn that opportunity into something that's valuable and how do you scale it? And scaling it is how do you figure out how to take one keynote talk or a framing that manages 10 different keynote talks and how do you scale that to so many different audiences?

Heather McGowan:

Because I speak to everybody from in the past two weeks, it was diamonds, hairdressers, biopharmaceuticals, education, quality control. Next week's, it's education. So it's all over the place. And how do you take that same insights or series of insights or decide which ones are important to which audiences so you can scale it. Because you can't write a new speech. You don't write 75 new speeches a year. You take an inventory of content or an inventory of insights, and then you repackage them to the user basically.

Josh Linkner:

So well said and such a powerful message for speakers. We may have our signature story. We may have our signature body of work or research. But it's not just spewing it at the audience. It's adapting, back to your word, adapting that message to the specific needs and nuances that they're facing and diamonds and education are very different industries. And so just adapting the message accordingly is going to leave a bigger mark.

Heather McGowan:

Yeah. It's always about the audience. It's not about us. I mean, I'm just there to try to help the audience understand themselves better.

Josh Linkner:

Heather, as we get to know you better and as I get to know you better, one of the things I've observed is that you are one of the smartest people I've met. Just watching your brain go, it gives me a Kool-Aid smile. And so to me that seems like one of your superpowers. But I'd love to hear in your words, if you were say, what's your superpower and what's your kryptonite? How would you respond to that?

Heather McGowan:

My superpower is, I don't think I'm that smart. I heard Rachel Maddow once describe how she feels like she's never really supposed to be in the room. And it started from when she went to Stanford, she thought she wasn't supposed to get in. When she got her job on MSNBC, she thought it was only going to last the week. I think having that is a superpower to figure out. I'm always trying to be worthy to the room I've been invited into. Because if you think the room's beneath you and they're lucky to have you, you've missed your mark completely. And I think that's true. A lot of people who thought they were when they were younger, they were super athletic or super good looking or super popular. I was okay. And I got along with everybody. I'm not insecure, I have that advantage. But I was never extra anything. And that made me feel like I always needed to work to be worthy of the moment. And I think that is ultimately, as an adult or seemingly so, a superpower.

Heather McGowan:

My kryptonite is I sometimes I think I process for too long. Because what I do is synthesize a lot of information. Sometimes it takes me a while to get out of process and into production when I'm writing. Right now, I'm writing my next book, which is going to be called The Empathy Advantage, how to lead the empowered workforce. A lot of stuff around great resignation and great reset. That'll be out in early 2023. And right now, I am definitely behind on that cause I'm processing too much and I need to get into production road to get it written.

Josh Linkner:

So shifting gears. Thank you for sharing that. Although it does scare me, if you think that you're not that smart of a person, boy, what does that say about the rest of us mere mortals? Geez. That being said, I was looking at your site, Heather and you have 8 speaking topics listed. Arranging from the great resignation to the human capital era, leadership, the robot proof myth, future work is human, and a number of other things. Now to be fair, they're all centered around your expertise. It doesn't bounce from culture to physical fitness to work-life balance. It's all centered around your body work. But my question to you is do you find that confuses buyers? Does someone call you and I want topic number 5? Or does it all gravitate up into one central and then the other 7 are secondary? I'm just curious, maybe you could explain a little bit your thinking of having so many topics and how customers respond.

Heather McGowan:

Yeah. I think of it as like an 8-sided object and everybody's going to pick up the object and look at it and go, "I like these two sides." Or "I like this side and this side." And they're all looking at basically the same set of insights. It's not like I have 3000 insights. It's probably 30 or 40 insights that are repackaged depending on which lens you want to pick. And most of the calls go like this, "The robot proof myth, a lot of people in our group like that. But the other folks really like future work is learning. Can you do some combination?" Of course, I can because they all come from the same well of insights. So what words are that you attach to, you're telling me right away, what's most important to you and that leads that a 30-minute prep call and the first like 8 minutes, I know exactly what they need because they've picked two lenses or one lens. And then they've told me what they're most worried about.

Josh Linkner:

Yeah. That makes at times I like that the 8-sided die. So shifting gears again, I'd love to get your thoughts on the state of the speaking industry, as it relates to diversity and inclusion. I work with as a lot of speakers and many people say, "Oh, I'm concerned that I'm not a straight white middle-aged male." And as a straight white middle-aged dude myself, I'll say that's actually these days a disadvantage rather than, perhaps, an advantage. And by the way, thankfully, I think that we're heading in the right direction there. Would you maybe speak on that topic a little bit on how that's impacted you and any other advice or encouragement for those that might be thinking I'm limited because of my various age, diversity, sexual orientation, et cetera.

Heather McGowan:

Yeah. So it's funny. I've never thought of myself in any category other than the topic in which I speak. Now, there's the body in which I live and I am middle-aged female and not everybody knows it, but openly gay. So I joke around that I am a future work speaker about 10 months of the year, and then one month I'm a women's speaker and another month I'm LGBTQ+ speaker. And I said that, and I made that joke in front of one of an agent and we both know well, and he goes, "I didn't know you were gay." Took a note. He's like, "I'm going to push that in June." And I was like, "Yeah. I think there is some of that there gets to be a flavor to themed months." And we hopefully we'll get to a point where we don't need themed months anymore.

Heather McGowan:

That we'll have more. And I think we're headed in that direction. It's fantastic to see more diversity out there. I think we're scratching the surface on the true diversity we can get out there. And the people who unlike me, I happen to be those things. And I touch on some of those topics and the importance of diversity. But I'm not a diversity expert. And I'm thankful that we have those folks out there doing it. I think that as a speaker, honestly, I have heard folks say to me, "It's so nice to hear from somebody who isn't a straight white middle-aged male." And I think that disadvantage is you guys. But maybe advantage you guys for so long that it's just the pendulum switching the other way. One of the things they feel on the topic on the whole, and this is how I speak about it is it was an HR policy.

Heather McGowan:

For a long time, it was we need DEI. It's a subset of HR. Now, it is so unquestionably an investor strategy and a talent strategy. I mean the diverse companies have outperformed the S&P 500 for 20 years. Now Measure Up is now part of the Fortune 500 where they measure DEI. DEI&B, I should say, belonging is now part of that as well, as part of how they profile companies for investment. And some recent research came out that if you want a diverse executive especially in the C-suite something like 87% of them will not take the job unless you have a sincere and measurable strategy to increase the diversity, equity, collusion, and belonging of your organization. So it just makes sense we have seen more demand for it in the speakers realm. And I think that's one of the things we can do at IMPACT 11 is help more folks from more perspectives get on those stages.

Josh Linkner:

Yeah. Couldn't agree more. And the takeaway is well, two things. One, 'cause you brought it up, as someone who probably has had too much advantage, historically, I think it's a great trend. And when I hear in times when I lose a deal because of that, I have no bad feelings. I think it's great for lots of reasons, not just because it's the right thing to do. But I think you're right, diverse voices make a bigger impact. And I think it's the right on every dimension. The key point that I just wanted listeners to understand is that if you are not a middle-aged, straight white dude, that's okay. Maybe it wasn't 10, 15 years ago and that's a shame that it wasn't, but today it's okay. And if anything, it's at least at par, if not an advantage today. So I just want to encourage people, not to back off because historically there was Zig Ziegler or something. Our industry is changing and there really is room for diverse voices, which I'm grateful for that.

Heather McGowan:

Yep. Yeah. I mean, let's look at who would you say are the top 10 rising speakers right now? Cassandra Worthy, Mel Robbins. You're seeing more and more diversity on gender, race, sexual orientation. Across the board, you're seeing it. And those are the folks who are really shooting to the top, I think. And not because of those things, but because I think people are looking to hear that in addition to the stories they represent and the voices that they have.

Josh Linkner:

Yeah. That's so well said. I'm also glad, Heather, you pointed out that just because you are in one of those categories doesn't mean you're expert at diversity and inclusion. You're an expert at the future work and your body of work stands obviously on its own merit. So as we start to wrap up our conversation and I could chat with you all day and I'm excited to for our next physical meetup. But could you maybe recall a time when you just felt like you crushed it. Maybe put us in that moment. You ended this speech for whomever client and maybe just help us understand why you think you made such a big impact and how you felt after delivering that insight.

Heather McGowan:

Yeah. I've had a bunch of them recently, fortunately. It's always nice to have a bunch of them in a row. But I had two this past week. One in Madrid, I was speaking to a biopharmaceutical company, another one in Arizona speaking to a tourism company. Totally different groups had totally different needs. I was prepped well. And when you're prepped well, I think that really helps. If you get to know the people and you know what they need and what they're looking for. And then I was able to get right on stage and connect with them. About two weeks before that I was at the Thriver Society, which is a group of high end makeup artists and hair salons. And I thought I'm never going to relate to these folks. Soon as I walk in up to stage, they were yelling from the audience to me.

Heather McGowan:

We were talking to each other, it was a smallish room, few hundred people. We just had a great conversation that I still hear from those folks from Instagram. They've offered to take over my Instagram, because I'm not that great at it, to hearing from them on LinkedIn. It was a nice personal connection. They felt empowered. I felt connected to them. I felt like I delivered what they were looking for. And I could see the change in them from slump shoulders, "I have no idea what she's going to talk about," to shoulders went up a little bit, they came charging up to me afterwards, wanted to talk more about things. So it's nice when you feel and see that connection and the change in posture, particularly.

Josh Linkner:

So good. Well as an expert in the future of work, my last question for you is could you reflect a little bit about this future of speaking? Where does this industry head from here? And also what advice do you have for people as they lean in and embrace the future of speaking?

Heather McGowan:

I think the speaking industry is just going to continue to explode. Because if you look what's happening in work, the greatest driver in work is humans. Any way you measure it. I mean one simple measurement is if you take the enterprise value of all the companies on the S&P 500. In 1975, about 13% of that value came from humans. Now in over 90% of that value comes from humans, intangible, it's ideas basically that run our economy, that's humans. And now you look at the great resignation, reset, reshuffle, whatever you want to call it. I call it the empowered workforce. Organizations are understanding. They have to have a different relationship with their people and that includes getting them motivated and fired up in understanding the changes that deeply investing in their people. The rate of change requires that we're going to have to learn unlearn and relearn at a clip we've never seen before.

Heather McGowan:

All of that leads to more speaking, more interactions, more human potential and motivation. So I think the speaking industry is poised to continue to explode. I'm loving some of the virtual stuff, because I frankly get to have dinner with my family. So I see virtual probably be 50% maybe going forward is going to be my guess. 30 probably for the next year or two, because we're dying to get in front of each other. But I can think that's going to continue to explode. And you had a second question in there.

Josh Linkner:

Just any advice that you have for speakers trying to embrace the future.

Heather McGowan:

Oh, advice for speaker. Sure. So I didn't think this was ever going to happen for me. What I did was I just kept trying. It used to take me a week, a solid week of working around the clock to put together an hour. I now can do that much more quickly. I would go anywhere they gave me a microphone, pay to get there, pay for recordings. Don't wait for the paid engagement. It will come. Get your material down. Feel solid about it. Be grateful for every microphone you get, whether they're paying you or not and believe in yourself because if you feel like you have something to say, find the way to connect to your audience and you will find your way there. It happened faster than I expected. I hope that is true for you as well.

Josh Linkner:

What a beautiful place to end the conversation and speaking of being grateful for every microphone that you are in front of I'm grateful that you joined ours. Heather you're an inspiration to me personally. And I know to our industry. I appreciate your friendship and your insight and your partnership at IMPACT 11. Wishing you a continued string of successes and wishing everybody on this call a giant mic drop.

Heather McGowan:

Thank you so much.

Josh Linkner:

I'm sure you would agree that Heather is one of the most thoughtful and thought provoking thought leaders on the scene. Phew. That took a lot of thought. A few nuggets I took away from today's conversation. Number one, Heather doesn't try to be someone else. Her unique style and approach right down to her wild fashioned eyewear makes her compelling and irresistible to buyers. The next time any of us feel the urge to copy others, grab a pair of those funky glasses, and resist that diabolical temptation, favoring originality instead of mimicry. Number two, the notion of adaptation is crucial for each of us looking to have staying power in the world of professional speaking. Our success will be directly proportionate to our willingness to adapt reinvent and rethink.

Josh Linkner:

Number three, Heather is a deep expert in our field and it shows. No amount of pizazz can overcome depth and substance. And when you have both, you end up as one of the most successful speakers on the planet. The future of work and the future of speaking will continue to change. And if we follow Heather's lead of uniqueness, substance, and adaptability, we can each ride that change to new heights for years to come here's to a bright future for Heather, each of us, and the incredible keynote speaking industry.

Josh Linkner:

Thanks for joining me on another episode of Mic Drop. Don't forget to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. If you love the show, please share with your friends and don't forget to give us a five star review. For show transcripts and show notes, visit MicDroppodcast.com. Mic Drop is produced and presented by eSpeakers and a big thanks to our sponsor at IMPACT 11. I'm your host, Josh Linkner. Thanks for listening and here's to your mic drop moment.