Mic Drop

Pushing Past Autopilot (ft. Ryan Leak)

Episode Summary

From practical ideas for growing your speaking career to developing the courage to be vulnerable and use humor to connect, Ryan Leak joins us this week with all of his disarming, ego-free wisdom. If you want to know how a wildly successful speaking business is made, you don’t want to miss this conversation.

Episode Notes

Pushing Past Autopilot (ft. Ryan Leak)

How one of the world’s most successful speakers lives intentionally

OPENING QUOTE:

“I grew up in the church, and saw my dad. We had this small African-American church in the suburbs of Chicago, and I just saw the impact my dad had on a community of people and I thought, man, what if we could do this all the time? What if we could do this, not just Sundays, but what if we could add value to people's lives all week long?”

-Ryan Leak

GUEST BIO:

Who has the audacity to propose to the love of his life, then ask her to marry him the very same day as the proposal? The incredible Ryan Leak not only secretly planned a blowout wedding, but is one of the most inspiring and successful keynote speakers on the planet. He is the best-selling author of two books, Chasing Failure and Leveling Up. He's the CEO of a leadership development firm that trains over 15,000 leaders each year. Most importantly, he's married to his best friend Amanda and is the proud assistant coach for his son's basketball team.

Links:

CORE TOPICS + DETAILS:

[13:47] - Sharing Your Failures

The courage to be vulnerable onstage

A mentor once told Ryan, “If you talk about your weaknesses, you’ll never run out of content.” He’s taken that to heart in his career — and helped others talk about their own weaknesses and failures. The result is that he’s helped thousands of people come to not only accept failure, but embrace it as a necessary and thrilling part of their journey toward greatness and personal success.

[14:48] - The Role of Humor

Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em laugh, make ‘em laugh

Ryan is keenly aware of the power of humor. It does much more than just entertain an audience. It breaks down barriers between audience and speaker. It allows you to communicate profound truths in a disarming way. It allows you to be authentic about your own shortcomings while also acknowledging the often funny — and tragic — ways the world works. All this adds up to more engaging, powerful, and impactful speeches, no matter your topic, approach, or audience.

[17:22] - Take Control of the Plane

What it means to push past autopilot

Many speakers — and successful people in all careers — begin to rely on their instincts and experience to guide them. They come up with an idea, it feels right, it seems to work, and so they keep using it again and again. But Ryan advises that this can often lead you to become stuck. You don’t want to change, or plainly assess your own performance for potential weaknesses.

But the key to success like Ryan’s is to always have your hands on the wheel, turning here and there to keep yourself on the right path — even if those adjustments can be painful for the ego at times.

[29:23] - Generosity is Everything

Give everything and you’ll have everything

Ryan recounts a CEO who approached him after a speech, telling him: “You’re pretty special.” Why? Because he “give[s] a shit about people.”

What seems like such a simple trait makes all the difference. Ryan discusses how he makes it his goal at every event to be as lowkey and un-demanding as possible, to the point of ordering his own food at times even when the client offers to do it for him. He believes in being generous when it’s easy and it’s not easy, and he’s found that it’s blessed his life and career in ways he never could have imagined.

[35:27] - Studying the Greats

Taking bits and pieces to make yourself

As a student of basketball to the point of having had the chance to work out with an NBA team, Ryan recognizes the value in studying the greats. Even though he may not seem to have much in common with the likes of Gary Vee, he recognizes that there’s value in studying other speakers — no matter how different they may seem. Then he can identify their strengths and incorporate them into his own approach.

RESOURCES:

[2:01] Chasing Failure & Leveling Up
[20:28] The Surprise Wedding

Follow Ryan Leak:

Follow Josh Linkner:

ABOUT MIC DROP:

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 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

Episode Transcription

Ryan Leak:

I grew up in the church, and saw my dad, we had this small African-American church in the suburbs of Chicago, and I just saw the impact my dad had on a community of people and I thought, man, what if we could do this all time? What if we could do this, not just Sundays, but what if we could add value to people's lives all week long?

Josh Linkner:

Hey, Mic Drop enthusiast, Josh Linkner here. Delighted to be bringing you season two of Mic Drop. I love our conversations with speakers and industry leaders alike, so we can unpack the industry and we can all perform better. Let's get after it and get better together. Mic Drop is brought to you by ImpactEleven, the most diverse and inclusive community built for training and developing professional speakers to get on bigger stages at higher fees with greater impact, faster. They're not just elevating an industry that we all know and love. They work with thousands of speakers to launch and scale their speaking businesses. Accelerating time to success, earning tens of millions in speaking fees, landing bureau representation, securing book deals, and rising to the top of the field.

To learn more about the ImpactEleven community, schedule a free strategy session today by visiting impacteleven.com/connect. That's impacteleven.com/connect. Who has the audacity to propose to the love of his life, asking her to marry him the same day as the proposal? The incredible Ryan Leak not only secretly planned a blowout wedding, but he's one of the most inspiring and most successful keynote speakers on the planet. Ryan is the best-selling author of two books, Chasing Failure and Leveling Up. He's the CEO of a leadership development firm that trains over 15,000 leaders each year. And most importantly, he's married to his best friend Amanda and is the proud assistant coach for his son's basketball team.

In today's conversation, Ryan delivers both inspiration and practical ideas for growing your speaking practice. Highlights include, how to develop the courage to be vulnerable on stage, which in turn creates deep audience connection. What Ryan learned from studying other great orators to develop his own style and who he still studies today. How his ego got in the way of progress, and how he eventually overcame that obstacle to reach his next level. And the role humor plays in connecting with audiences and growing a wildly successful speaking practice. Of course, we also have some fun talking about his surprise wedding, kids, health, failure and generosity. I know you're going to love my conversation with this powerhouse speaker and all round incredible human being. Ryan Leak. Welcome to Mic Drop.

Ryan Leak:

It's an honor to be here, Josh.

Josh Linkner:

I've been so looking forward to our conversation today, my friend. I got the first chance to see you speak. I'd heard all about you. You're sort of a living legend, but we were together in Boston at the MDRT event, and I watched your talk. I was just transfixed, man. I was glued to it, your energy, your storytelling, your passion. But before we get into where you are now, which is one of the most successful speakers on the circuit, take us back to the beginning. When did you even think about doing professional speaking? How'd you get into the business? Give us a little bit of that backstory.

Ryan Leak:

Man, you know what? I grew up in the church and saw my dad, we had this small African American church in the suburbs of Chicago, and I just saw the impact my dad had on a community of people, and I thought, man, what if we could do this all the time? What if we could do this, not just Sundays, but what if we could add value to people's lives all week long? And so early on I fell in love with the art of communication. And little by little, just whatever opportunity I was given, I always saw it as an opportunity to get better. So if I was able to be in front of a small group of people, I remember the first time I spoke to five people and then they called a friend and said, hey, can you have him speak to 15 people?

I'll never forget the first time I got a phone call from a friend named Sam. He says, dude, I want to introduce you to a guy named Reggie. I was like, okay, well, Reggie runs a conference that has five to 7,000 leaders every single year. And he was like, man, I'm not so sure about you, but I'll give you seven minutes. And I'm like, seven minutes. I was like, what are you going to do seven minutes? And so I just changed my mindset and just said, man, go give him a great seven minutes. I'm going to go do my best in seven minutes. Seven minutes went really well, and he called another friend who had me speak to four, 5,000 people. I'm just a proponent of giving your best to whatever opportunity you've been given.

Josh Linkner:

That's awesome. And so when did you get going and really thinking about this as a profession as opposed to doing it from your heart, wanting to make an impact? When did it shift to something that was more you said, hey, this could be my livelihood?

Ryan Leak:

I think it shifted the first time that I charged somebody money to speak and they actually paid me. There's some people I spoke for in, I don't know, 2016, that still haven't paid me, that said they'd give me a Coke, and there's $1,000 check coming in the mail and I'm still waiting on that check. I think it's one of those things where you just, I think the more and more the fact that people actually pay you to talk out loud, I've never gotten used to that. Every single time I pinch myself and go, I cannot believe they're paying me to be here to add value to other people's lives.

Josh Linkner:

And as I understand, for you it's been a pretty fast ascent up the mountain. When did you really start speaking in volume? I heard about you a few years back that you just lit up a couple stages and the next thing I know, I see you everywhere, you're just rocking it out and you warm my heart with joy in your success. But what's the timeline? Here we are in 2023. Did this start to accelerate in 2018? When did this begin?

Ryan Leak:

So in 2016, 2017, I started joining a large church's teaching team, which means you're in front of thousands of people, eight, 10 times a year, trying to add value to their lives and specifically to their faith. And I'll never forget, I was just doing my deal on a Sunday and a professional sports team executive came to me after and said, if all of my employees behaved how you described today, we'd be the best team in the league. So can you help us do that? And I was like, sure, I don't know how we're going to do that. But for some odd reason it translated in people's minds. And so the way that I see faith is I don't think that anybody that is a person of faith isn't going to live out their faith at a church. They're going to live out their faith, would spend the majority of their life at work.

And so the way I cast vision when I speak is I say, well, hey, can you imagine if we all acted like this at work? And the more I started talking like that, the more and more executives started inviting me to speak. And so now one day, probably 2018, 2019, I woke up and I wasn't just on one teaching team, I was on five teaching teams at five mega churches, which put me in front of 50,000 people every single month where I'm just doing my deal. And so from that, one of the churches is like 30, 35,000 up in Minnesota, which has headquarters to lots of Fortune 500 companies. And so a lot of those executives started bringing me in. And in 2021 is when I joined Premiere Speakers Bureau, and then they helped me really accelerate some things.

Josh Linkner:

Ryan, one of the things that impresses me is that the way that you entered this business, people enter from lots of different starting points. I entered from the business world, and I love how you came out through this faith-based approach and of course your personal story. What role has faith played in this for you? Obviously growing up it sounds like very involved in your church. How has faith influenced your speaking business and vice versa?

Ryan Leak:

When people ask me like, man, how do you build a business or a speaking business? I don't have another path. I wish I could give people like this one, two, three step. I think faith has been the major component for me, because honestly, there's so many stages I've been on that I think, man, there's no way that I should be here. My faith has allowed me to persevere through a lot of things in my life, and I think it gives me the strength to help my clients at a very, very high level. And I don't leave with my faith when I speak, obviously you've heard me speak, but what I try to do is I try to do a really good job and when you do a really good job, it's amazing how many people go, hey, tell me more about you.

And so I've had an opportunity to share my faith after I've gotten done speaking because you can win someone's respect that way. But I think that my faith is what gives me hope. It's what gives me joy and essentially what gives me a lot of peace. I can't speak for you, but I get nervous before I speak. There's this thing in me that's just like, oh my gosh, this could go terrible. But man, there's something about it. I can't tell you how many times right before I've gotten up to speak that there's been somebody in the audience that has walked up to me and says, hey, you don't know me, but I just feel led to pray for you right now. And I just think I've watched God just align my journey with so many different people.

And some people would call it, hey, you've caught lightning in a bottle. I would just say, no, this is a part of my faith and I believe that God can do some incredible things in my life and I think God can do incredible things in your life. I was actually speaking for Hyatt a couple of months ago and this woman walks up to me afterwards, I'm signing books and she says, I don't know why I'm telling you this, but my son, he has an incurable disease. And I said, ma'am I know why you're telling me this. And she was like, why? I said, because I'm a person of faith. And I said, so yes, it is incurable, but I have faith and I have hope that your son could be healed. Can I pray for you? And Hyatt was like, that was awesome. Thank you for praying for that woman.

It's like she wouldn't tell us that. And I never mentioned that I was a person of faith on stage. And so I believe that God has truly ordained my steps in that way. And so it's a massive part of my business and my personal life. And that also impacts how we see money, how we see generosity. And so we actually live our life by giving goals. And so we set a new giving goal every single year and we continue to hit it. And so one of our key values is generosity. And so I think our clients can sense that, feel that, that for us we're trying to give you something, not trying to take something from you.

Josh Linkner:

What a beautiful sentiment and whatever people's individual face, I know you're not proselytizing of course, but just the notion of connecting into a power that's higher than yourself, channeling that sense of wisdom in service of others is a really core underpinning I think of your success and many of the best people out on the circuit. I wanted to ask you a question about the way you perform. There are a lot of styles. Again, just like in music, there's no one style. Each person thankfully should be more of themselves. So some people go up and take the stage and they don't mention anything about themselves, and they're very good people. Seth Godin would be an example. Probably Dan Pink is an example. Adam Grant. These are very thoughtful intellectual business people or whatever, and they tell other people's stories but rarely tell their own.

I'm a little bit of the balance. I'm probably more on other people's. I bring a little bit of myself out there. Your talk for the most part is your own story. And on the surface someone might hear him, that might say, well, how arrogant and why does a person think their story is so good? But it's not like that at all. You tell this beautiful story, I wanted to know more about it. It was so personal, so fascinating, and it didn't come across as boastful at all. It came across completely in service of the audience. Can you walk us through that a little bit? How do you decide what content to share, how much of yourself versus other people's stories, and how did you develop that style work and come across, well, it's so much about you, but it really feels so much about the audience.

Ryan Leak:

That's a great question. I don't know that I intentionally thought through that. One of my mentors said, if you continuously talk about your weaknesses, you'll never run out of content. And so the way I sometimes view communication is if you can make fun of yourself, not take yourself too seriously, you instantly disarm an audience. Because an audience can be like this within the first five minutes of you. Who is this guy? Who does he think he is? Okay, who do we bring in? What's his deal? What's his agenda? And I think what I try to do is I try to poke fun at myself and bring the audience along that journey of saying, hey, we're going to have some fun today. And again, my subject is failure. It's like, hey guys, let's figure out how we can lose.

Immediately there is, okay, he's not trying to give me 10 steps to a better life, and this is how we're all going to be millionaires, and here's the sales funnel I'm going to take you through. That's immediately gone. And so I try to bring about humor in a way of not like, I'm a comedian. But when I think about my life and things that just happened in it, I think that's funny. My kid hit my other kid with a hockey stick the other day and I thought, that's funny. He shouldn't have done that. But I try to be transparent in that to be able to say, I try not to say, here's what you need to do. I try to say, here's what we need to do to get better. I'm trying to get in a boat with my audience, not say, I'm up here on this stage and you need to get your act together. It's like, no, if you lose your cool, it's not going to be cool in your organization. And I lose my cool all the time.

And then I'll tell a story about how I've lost my cool in the last week and how I need to get better. I try to take people on a journey and get in that journey with them. And I just think it creates a little bit of relatability. One of my friends says, everyone admires perfection from a distance, but nobody can relate to it. And that has really been a theme in my own communication of just going, I think it's just sharing just transparent stories is more my style. I don't think it's better than someone else's style, but it's the thing that I know very, very well. I know me and I know my life pretty well. I think being able to share that with an audience can really create a connection.

Josh Linkner:

You do it so beautifully too. I think you come across as deeply authentic. As you mentioned vulnerable, you talk about your own frailties and setbacks and things, and you come across obviously in a place of service. And so those three come together and there's the instant likability factor, which really you can tell is working. In terms of your message, I was looking at your website, you said Ryan's passionate in helping leaders push past autopilot and level up in their lives and their careers. If that's a core message, can you elaborate on that? What does that mean to you and what can that mean to speakers who are trying to do the same in their speaking practice?

Ryan Leak:

I think that there's something about leaders, anybody that's trying to perfect their craft, that people can just get stuck. They can do the same thing over and over and over again. I think the number one challenge in the American workforce right now is change. Because people just don't want to do it. They are in love with familiar. And so I think that if a speaker's going to take things to the next level, if a leader's going to take things to the next level, they've got to put themselves in a position to say, you know what? I need to try something new. I need to do something different. I look at all of my keynotes and have had great success and super grateful for that, but I look at them every single day going, you might want to tweak this intro.

You know what? You actually created a disconnection with that joke when you thought it was going to be a connection. Hey, that story's for you, but it really doesn't have a point. And so I'm constantly tweaking. And what I've learned in our executive coaching practices is the people that actually change have three key components. Number one, they actually want to change. Number two, they actually think they need to. Number three, they spend resources to do so. And so I think when a speaker is saying, man, I want to get better. Well, do you actually think you need to get better? I think when I sit with a lot of speakers, there's this, man, I've got a story to tell and I think it's going to help a lot of people. It's like, well, you need more than just that. You need some points.

You need to be, how does this help their business? How does this increase sales? How does this move them from a $10 million company to a $20 million company? That's a little bit more difficult. But I think what I try to do with leaders, speakers, authors, entrepreneurs, is try and help them find where they're stuck, familiar, doing the same thing over and over again and saying, hey, how can we retool? How can we get better? And is there technology we could be using? What can we be doing to take things to the next level? I've just found that a lot of leaders, speakers, entrepreneurs, just have bad habits and they're just stuck. They're on the hamster wheel, so they're always exhausted, but they're in the same place they were in a few years ago. And so I try to help them dissect where they're stuck and how they can take things to the next level.

Josh Linkner:

I know a big part of your message too is around going after discomfort and pushing yourself to take some bolder risks, put yourself out there and being sort of all in. And of course your signature story, one of them is the time that you proposed to your best friend and wife. Would you mind just giving us a short version of that? Because for those that don't know it, I think it's worth hearing.

Ryan Leak:

Yes. So my girlfriend, when we were dating, I overheard her tell a friend that she thought it would be cool to get engaged and marry on the same day. I had no idea what that meant, so I guessed and began planning our wedding behind her back over the course of two years. So June 7th, 2013, I get down on one knee, I say, Amanda, will you marry me? She said, yes. I said, just kidding, will you marry me today? And we opened up a lounge room door and 85 of our family and friends were standing there with a sign that says, today we rolled in everything that you would need to get engaged and married in a 24-hour period. Dresses, bridesmaids, hairstylists, makeup artists. We had everything planned. And so we were engaged for a good 11, 12 hours and then got married that night and had a friend film it and wanted to just show some friends, and we put it up on YouTube.

This was at the beginning of when things were going viral, that wasn't even that much of a thing. There wasn't like, you could pay for something to go viral. You just really just sharing it on Facebook. And so it went literal viral in 2013. And that led to me being known as a risk-taker, if you will. Because everyone's always like, well, what if she said no? I'm like, well, that would've been a very, very good documentary. In fact, it'd have a whole lot more views if she would've said no. So it was good.

Josh Linkner:

It would've been good for business, but not so good for personal. I'm glad that she said yes. And of course she's still your bride today. That's amazing. And it really does speak to, I have a phrase that I talk about Ryan, it's kind of the same thing said in a different way. That so often we spend our lives, we do something pretty conservative to begin with, and then we have a plan B, which is what if everything goes wrong? And I would say, we spent so much energy and focus on, well, what if it goes wrong? Have my plan B. I was thinking, well, what about your plan Z? Which is what if everything goes right? And that's exactly what you did. You did a Plan Z move. You said, I'm going to plan as she's going to say yes. And obviously I'm sure your confidence and love for her came through and made it happen.

What did that do to your life? All of a sudden you blew up, become this international famous person, and you're on the Today Show and everything. What was that like for you and your bride?

Ryan Leak:

My wife is amazing. We're getting ready to celebrate 10 years here. And she is so grounded. She is so levelheaded that she just wanted to marry me. She doesn't need the glitz and the glam. I have more of that eccentric personality. My wife's like, hey, we can do it. She's one of the most content people you'll ever meet. And so I think part of that journey was actually pretty chilled mostly because of her, because I think we're both homebodies. When we go on vacation, we barely leave the hotel room. We go get the nicest room you can possibly get, and we just sit there and let people bring us food for five days. And so people are like, oh my gosh, did you go to the beach? We're like, we took a picture of the beach. We saw it from our room.

But she really, I think, grounds us that those opportunities are fun. But again, a lot of it was like 10 years ago now. You talk about nine and a half years later, it's like, we got kids, we've moved on with our life, but people keep asking me to share the story and giving me money to do so. I'm like, sure, I'll tell you about that and here's some things that I think could add value to your business. But that led to us going on the Queen Latifah Show, which got me connected with Kobe Bryant, which led to a whole new thing, which is my premier keynote around Chasing Failure, where just I said, man, I'm getting ready to meet Kobe. It's time for me to try and be in the league. AI played college basketball and always had dreams of being in the league, but never actually had even tried until, long story short, you've heard it, but I had an opportunity to work out for the Phoenix Suns and I failed.

And it was brutal. It was embarrassing. And here's the part of the story that I don't often tell, Josh. This is some low-key content here. I make this documentary called Chasing Failure, asking people, what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? And you see this whole documentary of me practicing with the Phoenix Suns and failing and some little lessons that I learned from that. However, what most people don't know is when I shot that documentary, it was September of 2014, I was so embarrassed. I didn't actually make the documentary until December of 2015. It took me almost 15 months to get over my ego, because I didn't want anybody to see me fail. And it took me 15 months to get that perspective that like, no, this actually can help people and your failure could help somebody else succeed.

It just took me way too long to do that. So much so that Kobe Bryant was waiting for this documentary, and by the time I actually finished it, he was on his retirement tour and never even saw it. So my ego, just all of it, just really, I let it sit with me way too long. And so that was a mistake on my part of just going, it just took me too long to get that perspective. But again, my journey is my journey, and there's nothing I can do to change that. So that was the, from Surprise Wedding to Phoenix Suns and now working with about five NBA teams, what I say in my keynote a lot is, there's more than one way to be in the NBA. And so we have a blast working with different teams now. And I feel more equipped to do that than to, I went and worked out this morning and I'm still sore and I'm just thinking there's no way.

But can I coach? Can I come alongside a player? Can I come alongside a GM? And I feel so equipped to do that, and I'm super grateful for what I get to do in the league now.

Josh Linkner:

Becoming a keynote speaker is an amazing profession. The top performers earn millions while driving massive impact for audiences around the world. But the quest of speaking glory can be a slow route with many obstacles that cannot knock even the best speakers out of the game. If you're serious about growing your speaking business, the season pros at ImpactEleven can help, from crafting your ideal positioning, to optimizing your marketing effectiveness, to perfecting your expertise and stage skills. As the only speaker training and development community run by current high level speakers at the top of the field, they'll boost your probability of breakthrough success and help you get there faster. That's why nearly every major speaker bureau endorses and actively participates in ImpactEleven.

The ImpactEleven community provides you unparalleled access to the people, relationships, coaching resources, and accountability that compresses your time to success. To learn more about the ImpactEleven community, schedule a free strategy session by visiting impacteleven.com/connect. That's impacteleven.com/connect. Well, as you said, there's more than one way to be to in the NBA and there's more than one way to become a professional speaker. I'd love to shift gears a little bit, Ryan, and thinking about your own practice, and all of those friends in the industry. What advice and counsel do you give to that person who was you five, six years ago that really was passionate about it, doing it for the right reasons, had humility and grace and wanted to serve and had an important message to share?

So not just some jerk who wants to tell a bunch of war stories and get paid, but someone whose heart's in the right place, they want to accent in the business the way that you and I have had the great honor to do. What counsel and advice do you offer?

Ryan Leak:

Well, I often tell people about you. I say, let me tell you about Josh Linkner. He is the Nordstrom of speakers, the level of customer service, you just embody this Ritz-Carlton like care for people and your clients. It's like there's no surprise you're successful. And sometimes people are like, so what do you always tell these companies? And I said, as weird as it sounds, it comes down to teaching people to be nice to each other. It's really not that hard, but for some odd reason people are mean. So it's like, oh, you mean get coffee for the event planner? It's called being nice. That's called being kind. It's like nobody ever does this. It's like, right, you'd be surprised how you are off the stage impacts just somebody wanting to book you. There's lots of people that can speak.

One CEO, he told me afterwards, he said, man, he said, Ryan, he goes, I don't want to give you a big head, but he goes, but you're pretty special. And I was just like, well, I said, hey man, thank you, but help me under unpack that a little bit. What is it? And he goes, you give a shit about people. I was like, that's unique. He's like, he goes, dude, we have paid six figures to the best speakers in the world. He goes, they just don't care about people the way that you care about people. He's like, just the way that you move. He goes, dude, your speech was impressive. But he said, dude, he goes, who you are is why we booked you. I have to encourage speakers to say, hey, it is not just about do I have this great talk? I think half the battle is going, are you a great person to work with? And your overall attitude when you show up.

I think there is a posture that people can have. There is a, hey, where's my green room? Hey, where's my latte? I made a joke. I was speaking for Zillow. They go, so you didn't send a rider, but is there anything that we must have in your room or in your green room? And I made a joke. I said, yeah, I need all pink Starbursts. If I don't have pink Starbursts, it's not going to happen. Everybody on the call laughed. I said, no, I'm just good with water. And I show up to Chicago in this green room and they have this huge bucket of pink Starbursts. And I was like, you guys are amazing. I said, I was completely joking. They're like, you're the easiest speaker we've had. And I went just like, I just think that there's, hey, I can go get my own food. I can DoorDash something. I don't need someone to serve me, I'm truly here to serve you guys.

And so I think that that comes through on a pre-event call. I think that comes through when you show up as well. The way I even approach that pre-event call is I say, hey, I've got a bunch of things I can talk about in my other life, in my other world, in the faith-based environment. Each of these organizations give me a subject every week. And they say, Ryan, go. I've written about three to 400 talks over the last couple of years because that's just what I do. That's a muscle I've had to work out for a very, very long time. And so if there's something going on in your organization that you need, hey, I'm truly here to serve you. And so people would be surprised how many keynotes I've written together with companies, not in like, oh, because I can and I'm just that awesome.

But it's just like, no, hey, just realize this isn't my number one keynote. This isn't the flashy pen. But this is going to be more helpful for your organization than my latest book or my greatest latest talk. And you'd just be surprised how far that goes with a lot of companies that just go, you're going to custom build a talk for us? I'm like, sure, if that's what serves your people best. I think that that's what I often would just tell younger speakers.

Josh Linkner:

I love that. Your whole sense of service and generosity and kindness and vulnerability, it's instant likability. We can't help but fall in love with you. So in addition to that, obviously not undermining that at all, because that's crucial and you and I completely are aligned and agree. I'd love to just get your thoughts on stage skills for a minute. I know you're into basketball and you mentioned you were friends with the great Kobe Bryant and others, and I'm sure that when you were working on sports, you studied others, you studied, I'm sure Michael Jordan or LeBron James or others that you aspire to, they became your model. Who do you study on the speaking front? Funny enough, you and I haven't talked about this, but I study a lot of preachers. I study people in the faith-based community because nobody gives a better talk than a Baptist preacher.

I'm sorry, rhythm and repetition and there's such great. If you're going to watch tape to work on your own stage skills, who are you watching?

Ryan Leak:

It's a great question. I think I'm a pretty big Gary Vee fan. I think Gary Vee's unhinged can be good or bad for you, but I think his freedom to, he's a free thinker, it doesn't feel scripted. Does that make sense? We're going to generally give the same talk over and over and over again with a few different variations. And so I think for that authenticity to come out, you got to tell it a little bit different. You've got to make a new turn. You've got to tell, for it to be fresh and authentic, you can't just let them put the quarter in the jukebox and you just sing the same song. And so I think Gary Vee does that pretty well in terms of he's always going to be himself. I have to work pretty hard to consistently be myself.

And every single event I go to, I have this thought, Cole Haan's or Jordan's, and I have to make a decision about what is appropriate, what serves the client best. But at the same time, it's like, this is who I am. I'm packing in an hour and I still have not made up my mind about if I'm going to wear Cole Haan's or Jordan's. But then you go, it's LA, they'll probably be in shorts anyways. I can show up in sweatpants and they would probably appreciate me more. But those are things that I think, not even just mechanical, but just that authenticity that comes across the stage I think is something that I admire. Another guy admire that's in the faith-based world is a guy named Andy Stanley. Andy Stanley has a church called North Point Community Church in Atlanta. Andy Stanley is probably one of the most clear communicators I've ever heard.

Because it's easy to, I say easy. It's not easy. But I have sat in plenty of rooms where the speaker was amazing, and you go to tell somebody about it at lunch, and they're like, so what they talk about? You're like, he was so funny. Well, what was the joke? What was the point? And I would say, I used to be more that even five years ago, and even my speaker coach came along and said, hey, you've got this great story with Kobe and your wife, but what's the point? And my speaker coach gave me a line I'll never forget. She says, remember, audiences are selfish. She said, you had a 30-minute lull where you were hilarious, and the story was awesome, but they had nothing to write down. So Andy Stanley, he actually teaches with a plasma screen next to him. So his points are always, it's always clear. So those are a couple of people that I keep my eye on, if you will, that inspire me and have an influence on the way I communicate.

Josh Linkner:

I love that you study different things about different people rather than I want to just be like person A or person B. You can study Gary Vee for authenticity and freshness, even though you are very stylistically different. You're not trying to emulate Gary Vee, you're studying one aspect of his game. And the other one you're studying one aspect of his game, clarity. That's a really smart approach, Ryan. Hey, as we wrap up, and I of course want to let you get packing here for your next gig. You've done remarkably well in an industry that's tough, through COVID, in a very rapid time. You're at the top of your game. Again, I've seen you and you're just tremendous on stage. What's next for you? What is that next thing that you're striving for? What do the next four or five years look like in the life of Ryan Leak?

Ryan Leak:

Man, that's a great question. I did not anticipate, when COVID happened, speaking business, it was like, this thing's going to tank. I signed a two book deal, and I thought, this is the future. I'm going to be writing books the rest of my life, speaking is going away, it's over. And again, dude, my speaking business I think tripled in COVID. The opposite happened of what I had truly anticipated. And so, man, at one point I was speaking too much. I would say 2022, I actually began to have some health issues with my body. I was just doing way too much between church and business. So my weekends were already locked in because those get locked ahead of time. So it was like 48, just like that, 48 weekends. And again, a bunch of those are also where I live. But still, it was just a lot of prep work.

People think, oh man, you get to speak a hundred plus times a year, 120 times a year. It's like, well, that's also 120 pre-event calls. You don't think about, all of that just begins to add up. So next four or five years for me, I've cut down on my church speaking about half, so I'll probably do every other weekend and mostly in Dallas. So that rhythm has changed for me. Dude, my kids are eight and four. My son's on two basketball teams, and so we're locked in on that. I think for me, speaking is always going to be my number one thing. But bigger than that, I think just having a healthier pace over the next four or five years of just that work-life balance. Last year was way too much. This year, man, I'm having a phenomenal year and the rhythm is just so much better for me. And I had to make some lifestyle adjustments. I had to figure out a workout that I can do in any city.

I had some great workouts that work for me in Dallas, but they don't work for me in Alaska. And so I had to pretty drastically change my lifestyle to be conducive for this business. And we're feeling pretty good. So four or five years from now, I hope to have a lot of courses to be able to help different organizations and building leadership curriculum and just trying to take things to the next level. But I'm not in a hurry, man. I'm enjoying what I do. And sometimes I think, there was a comedian, I forget who it was, they talked about selling out Radio City hall, and it was their dream, and they did it four nights in a row, New York City. And she said that she worked so hard to get there that by the time she did it, she doesn't even remember it. And I can honestly say I've been there, there's been so many times where it's just like, I've got 14 gigs in 10 days. And it's like, oh my gosh, I want to be there.

I'm just like, be careful what you wish for. And then that one plane gets stuck and it just throws off everything. And so sometimes you're just moving so fast that you don't actually get to enjoy truly being in the room. And so it's weird to say, but it's almost like sometimes less is more to be able to really show up in a room. And secondly, bring people along that journey. And so inviting more of my team to come and experience, I'm amazed by how many people on my team have never heard me speak live because they're working so hard to put together all of these other pieces at home, that bringing them on trips and creating some memories is something I'm looking forward to over the next four or five years.

Josh Linkner:

That's awesome. Well, my friend, congratulations on your continued success, your beautiful family with Amanda, and the impact that you're making on so many lives and businesses around the world. Great admiration, great respect, and wishing you continued health and success.

Ryan Leak:

Yes, Josh, you and your whole team are doing so much for speakers and I've talked to several speakers that have gone through ImpactEleven. The way you serve them and the way you serve your clients is a beautiful thing. I appreciate having the opportunity to hop on the podcast today.

Josh Linkner:

Thanks again. Wow. How fun is Ryan Leak? A few key takeaways that really hit me from today's conversation. Number one, Ryan lives his life by his giving goals, how incredible and what a refreshing difference from the self-centered culture we live in. And there's no question in my mind that his focus on generosity is in fact fueling his remarkable success. Number two, it was really cool to hear how Ryan studies other masters to refine his own game. We often think that we have to emulate another person, but Ryan borrows specific elements from each person he studies, to develop his own voice. Brilliant. And number three, he reminds us that there's more than one way to build a speaking business.

Ryan came from the faith-based world. While others may build their speaking practice off their research or their business success or their personal life experiences, there isn't the way. There's a lot of ways, and each of us can find our own path. Very few people can bring so much of themselves into a keynote while still making every minute about the audience. The combination of generosity, humor, vulnerability, and dynamic stage skills have helped Ryan achieve remarkable success and can be a guidepost for us all. Thanks for the inspiration, my friend. With your insights, it's time for us all to level up, push past autopilot, find our true voice and like you, change the world.

Thanks so much 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 loved the show, please share it with your friends and don't forget to give us a five star review. For show transcripts and show notes, visit micdroppodcast.com I'm your host, Josh Linkner. Thanks so much for listening, and here's to your next Mic Drop moment.