Preparing for Impact | Ryan Estis

26:38It's just like, this is what I charge everybody. This is what the bureaus booked me for. That's my rate. and you build some goodwill that way too. It's just your integrity and credibility. So, yeah. Do you ever get like imposter syndrome? Like you go on stage and they're all looking, expecting Deepak Chopra, or they kind of signed up for this conference hoping for Deepak Chopra. And there's you, you might be better, you might be worse, I don't know, but you're not Deepak Chopra, right? And he's like this famous guy in a lot of different ways. Like, do you ever feel like, oh my gosh, I don't deserve to be here or why?

27:14They're all going to be disappointed? Yes. And I'll answer that in two ways. So last year with the Deepak Chopra thing, right, because that was a corporate event. They didn't have a choice. They had to be there. So they may have been disappointed that Deepak got sick. They'll rebook him. We've got this other guy. I just have to be me in that moment. I'm not trying to replicate what he did, but yeah, of course, you know, I'll share with you and I've known you for a long time. I mean, I, when I, when I sort of made the trans, so, so sure. I'm that day with Dan Pink. I was, I was terrified. I was probably throwing up in the bathroom like an hour before that.

28:02Like, it's like, it's Dan Pink. Like I idolized him. Like I read everything the guy had written. I was trying to become him. And now I have to follow him? And so that was a moment my career started to shift. It was probably, I don't know, 2015, 2016, somewhere around then. I don't even know if we had met yet. But I started to break through. And I remember that year I spoke with Gary Vaynerchuk, Simon Sinek. Like, and that was crazy. He spoke, then I spoke, no break. Nine to 10, Simon, 10 to 11, Ryan. And I, you know, I got there and I remember saying to the agent, why would you have me speak out?

28:50Like, can't someone screw this up? Like, you know, and that was my, my, my, he's, he's like the greatest leadership keynote speaker in the world. And I'm just me. I can't, you know. And so I, I would torture myself in that way. I would go through that and be intimidated and overwhelmed. And I, you know, there were some experiences that I went through in my life that just helped me recognize that, you know, he's a person. I'm a person. I have this experience. He has that experience. I'm being invited to be here because someone thought it. And I just have I have to remind myself of that because it is easy to get, you know, intimidated or starstruck when there's a celebrity or a famous athlete or somebody you really admire.

29:38And, yeah, I've had to deal with that on this on this journey. And I think I deal with it better today than I did then. I am able to sleep a few hours no matter who the other speaker is. But, yeah, man, I've absolutely been through that. There's one time I had to speak at a conference right after Julian Assange. So he's the famous WikiLeaks guy. And they videoed him in from the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK where he was kind of like a prisoner. And I had to speak immediately after him. And so I was really scared. I had to figure out what to do. and so he had said something about how like everybody is listening to your phone all the time like all the three-letter agencies are listening to your phone conversations all the time so he was while he was speaking i was thinking how i needed to kind of break the connection between the audience and him or else nobody would i was afraid nobody would pay attention to me so i go out on the stage talking on the phone and i was as if i was talking to somebody and i was saying like yeah juliana's hands just said everyone's even listening to this conversation So then I took the phone and I threw it behind me and I smashed it into like a thousand pieces.

30:51And I arranged for the cleanup crew to come in with like this 12 foot long broom to like sweep up all the pieces of the phone that I just smashed. And everyone started laughing. And that's how I said, OK, now that's basically the transition. And so after that, I kind of got confidence speaking. Yeah, well, and once you do something like that, too, that's kind of an icebreaker. And if you can get people sort of dropped in with you and then you just move into your spot, it's it's great. So, I mean, that's why I always start with a story. It's a story I'm comfortable telling that I know is typically going to generate a warm response.

31:31And then we're off and running and I can get into my stuff. So, yeah. But it's a it's a funny business that way, though. You know, when you meet all these people that you idolize. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and, and to that point too, like when things start to slow down, which, you know, if this seems like a Hills and valleys kind of business, or maybe I'm wrong, like, cause I never did it regularly. Like, do you ever think, Oh my God, this is it. It's like, like COVID what happened? Like, did you think that's it? My whole source of living is gone. Yeah. I, uh, for sure. Sure. So two things came out of COVID.

32:11So first, you're right in your assessment. It is a peaks and valleys business and you're trading time for money. And with very few exceptions, there isn't any value creation in a business. I mean, Tony Robbins, and there's a few exceptions, but not for Ryan Estes. And so COVID, I had my best year ever in 2019. And I just, I think I did 84, 85 events and I felt this just incredible moment. Including Scott's wedding where you did this incredible toast. Thank you. Yeah, that was great. Yeah. So Scott's wedding and that was, and so I felt at that point, I, yeah, supreme confidence. This is never going to slow down.

32:58And then of course COVID happened. Everything goes to zero. And that was that was initially a dark moment. You know, it's exactly what you said. It's I can't make a living. Like, what am I you know, what am I going to do or when am I going to be able to work again? And, you know, when you did when we really didn't know what it was or how long it was going to be, but all my contracts were canceling. Virtual wasn't a thing yet. So it was very unsettling. But the next phase of after, you know, freaking out a little bit was, okay, that was a good two-year, a 10-year run. You know, 2010 to 2020, like I did it.

33:41I accomplished a lot. I made a good living. What do I want the next 10 years to look like? And to your point, I said one of the things I decided in that moment was I don't want to do this alone anymore. Not like this. Like I love speaking. I want to write a book. I still want to do this. But it's there has to be more than that. And that was the genesis of we formed a new business with three partners called Impact Eleven. And it started it during COVID and that business is growing. And that's a whole different experience. And it's tangential to what we're doing as speakers. But that is a business with enterprise value and with customers.

34:27And we've built a team around it. And so, you know, I took another big risk. And, you know, it's funny, like, back to sort of you asked me about my start. One of the things I think I learned was, you know, when these challenges or crisis moment happens, there is opportunity in there if you can pay attention to it. You know, to your point, go contrarian, do what everybody else isn't doing or okay. And I just remember thinking, wow, this feels awful. And I remember how it felt in 2009. What did I learn? And I'm like, there's going to be opportunity. And I have to start paying attention and thinking about what do I want to do?

35:06How do I want to do it differently? And man, like all of a sudden you start moving in that direction and people and things start forming around you. And I'm really proud of that, both that choice and what we're building. And it's a cool community. It's a cool business. Well, and I want you to describe Impact 11, not only because it's related to your book. The title of the book is Prepare for Impact. But I think for a lot of public speakers, particularly a corporate public speaker, you're leaving money on the table if all you do is speak. because really what you're doing when you're speaking is you're building a relationship between yourself, the company, and the bridges, the ideas that you're sharing with the company.

35:48And then to further indoctrinate the company and those ideas requires more relationship building and more opportunities for making money and education and so on. So describe Impact 11. Yeah. So Impact 11 at its genesis was a, it's a community of thought leaders, A good way to think about it is that we're a speaker accelerator. So we've just taken the blueprint, our knowledge. There's four founding partners. One of the partners was doing this really on the side, wasn't building it or scaling it. But he would do a weekend workshop just sharing his IP, his approach, his strategy, his marketing budget, kind of opening the kimono for a weekend.

36:31Because, you know, he'd get five calls a week. I want to be a speaker. How did you do this? Can I pick your brain? Can I take you to coffee? You know how that goes. And so he sort of put this, he said, you know what, a few times a year, my team and I are going to do this weekend. And if you want to come, it's not, it's accessible. And so he became a friend of mine and he and I and two other speakers, we were, we got together during COVID during the soft period. And we started talking about, Hey, could we do something together? and so that was the genesis of Impact 11 and initially it was a shared services model we were combining our back offices but decided to really invest in this business of helping other thought leaders monetize their expertise and develop speaking skills and it's a membership business it's a community model so people pay a subscription we have live events we have online learning and we support our members with distribution.

37:31We, you know, agents in the Bureau community support our events and come out. And so we've built this really robust community of experts and thought leaders. One thing I didn't even anticipate was I've just met some of the most fascinating people, you know, retired pro athletes, Navy SEALs, adventurers, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, people that have done extraordinary things and now are paid to speak about it. And we built a whole team. One of the cool things about the business, one of the good decisions we made is we don't run it. We hired a proper CEO. He's and we have a team that are building out the business.

38:10And we just launched. We just launched phase two, which is our corporate product. And it's executive presence and presentation skills training for executives. So we'll do We're doing ticketed events, offering that as a service, but we'll also come into an organization or an enterprise that wants to develop that skill and competency. And it's just evolving our IP and our approach to training to fit for the corporate client. I think it's so valuable. Thank you. You know what? Honestly, I mean, I don't know if you have any interest in speaking anymore given or what you're doing. But, yeah, like you would love it.

38:50I mean, it's for people that have written books because there's all this mystery to it. You know, what do I charge and how do I market and how do I get on representation? Should I hire a manager? Shouldn't I? Not to mention the stagecraft, the actual, you know, the anatomy of an insight is one of our blocks of content and, you know, the essence of storytelling and all of the things that go into both building the practice, evolving your body of work, and ultimately delivering that message in a way that creates impact. And then I also, to your point around leaving money on the table, you're absolutely right.

39:32I mean, you're trading time for money. And so having a service offering around the throughput, and I have also introduced that. So if you go to my new website, there's a tab called the growth lab, which is my offer, call it beyond the keynote, which is really consulting or advisory work. But you know, between, yeah, usually viable. So, you know, between COVID, COVID was a gift for me because I got off the tread. I never would have done any of this delivering 85 events a year. I mean, but getting pushed off the treadmill, having a chance to step back and say, okay, now what do I want to do? And I wanted to solve some of the problems that you talked about, but I also, you've done enough of it to know speaking, in some respects, writing a book too, it's an isolating endeavor.

40:27You are out, it looks glamorous, but you're out there by yourself with your laptop. And yeah, there may be 800 people in a ballroom, but you're in the next city having, you're alone. And it was isolating. And I, I really felt like coming through this, I want to be part of a team and build something again. I, um, there are a lot of things about working for a big company I don't miss. And I don't know that that's ever for me again. In fact, I'm sure it's not, but, uh, being part of something larger than me became something that became, was important. I realized that.

41:19so it's funny the two big catastrophes in the u.s over the past 16 years were you know in one you completely changed careers from being an employee in an ad agency to being a public speaker and really making a great living at it and then the second crisis you start an entire business and this business, it strikes me this has real valuable in the sense that you could sell this business eventually. Like it's going to live beyond you. A hundred percent. I mean, it's, is the business also a speaker's bureau? Like do you, do you help people get booked or you just have relationships with the bureaus?

41:55Just a development company. And that we want to be real clear. I mean, those speaker bureaus, like we have such good and long relationships. I mean, And there are partners, contributors, collaborators. So our lane is development. Their lane is booking. But it's a partnership. We're a big supporter of their governing body, their association. They come to our events. And we have relationships. We have a whole sort of universal constellation of service providers, from content marketers to website designers to videographers. We have a partnership with Amplify Publishing. so we've really built out it's it's a pretty robot and it's grown quickly and and it's a you know it is exactly right I don't know that I ever thought about the way you sort of said it these two two events these cataclysmic events and they were so confronting you know in the sort of in the you know initially as I was making what seemed like this this decision and I didn't know if I was going to be okay.

42:59And I was going out into the unknown. And, uh, but man, when I think about it, they're, they're probably two of the best things that ever happened. And I don't mean to diminish that, you know, the carnage or the pain for other people. Like I'm not, I wouldn't wish obviously a global pandemic, but personally it forced me to confront myself in a new way and make a bold decision that maybe otherwise I wouldn't have had the courage to make. And there's probably some real learning in that. Did you get more confidence in yourself each time as a result? Like, particularly like with COVID, that was probably a point where you were losing confidence in the beginning.

43:42You come through it and you're able to say, did you like outwardly say to yourself, man, I did that. I survived COVID and came out better on the other side. Yeah, I do. I do think, I mean, you exercise that muscle, right? I mean, so I can look back and say, and I did think about that in COVID. I remember thinking to myself, okay, we haven't seen anything like this. The only thing I could compare it to was 2009 when everything was collapsing and my company was laying everybody off. And what did you learn in that? What mistakes did your company made? Because they've never really recovered, to be honest.

44:24It's like, and knowing what you know from that, what do you want to do this time? And you know what's funny? I started writing about it. I remember I wrote a blog post about, you know, who are you becoming? And make decisions today you can be proud of in six and 12 months. And don't succumb to all of the fear, like be smart. but this is a moment where some opportunities, things could look very different on the other side of this. And by the way, and let's be fair, I wanted them to. As I was reflecting, I realized I want to do the next 10 years differently. And yes, I am proud to be able to say I navigated it.

45:08I figured out how to be a virtual keynote speaker, right? And then you know what I figured out? I'm not a keynote speaker. I'm an expert who speaks. And my expertise is still going to be valuable to my customer. And why don't you think about packaging that expertise up in a host of different ways beyond just the stage? And I never would have taken those steps. New website wouldn't exist. The Growth Lab wouldn't exist. Impact 11 wouldn't exist. I like that. I think, I think you just said the title of your next book, which is who are you becoming? Cause that's an important concept. Like at any given point, we were not finished.

45:50Like, I think my big mistake and challenge in life was like, after I would sell a company, I would think that's it. I'm done. I'm done growing as a human. Cause I did what I set out to do. I made some money and blah, blah, blah. And then I would go broke because you're never done. And who are you becoming? You're always becoming someone at some, at every point. Were you going broke because you took outside risks because maybe deep down you wanted to do it all over again? Or like, what do you, what was the connection? You sold a company, you could retire, you could be done, but then you go broke.

46:24Like there's probably something. I think I would lose the hunger and, but I would still want to make a lot of money, like more money. and the combination of no hunger and wanting to make money is the exact opposite combination of what you should have. The real combination is hunger plus wanting to deliver value. And so I had no hunger and I just wanted to make more money so I would lose all the money. But if I thought about it in the context of, listen, who am I now becoming? Because nobody wants to become a jerk, right? We all have this inner nobility that we aspire to. And so if I always focus on, okay, well, who am I becoming?

47:05How am I next going to deliver value? That is powerful. What you just said is very powerful. Thank you. You know, summary of like all these different ideas. Well, I'm, you know, I take good notes when we talk. So, and this one's recorded, so that's good. But, you know, there is something about sort of this idea of when you cross a certain threshold, it is easy to sort of lose the drive or hunger that got you to that threshold. It's just, I think it's a natural human response. It's like, Oh, I'm, I'm safe. I can relax. And it is, it's a paradox of, of, you know, kind of conditioning yourself to realize there is no relaxing.

47:47There's no, now I gotta, I gotta keep becoming more. I gotta keep creating value when the world changes, I have to change and keeping yourself in that energy. And honestly, you know, I'm in that energy now because, you know, we just launched a new website. I just finished a book. I have Impact 11. We're launching a new product at Impact 11. I'm, I mean, this is, I feel like, you know, I'm 23 again, just starting my first job and, you know, and having that energy and being renewed and being around other people who have back to the word and that, that enthusiasm again, it's, uh, and now there's AI and we just launched Ryan Estes GPT and people are asking me questions and we're making it smarter.

48:31And there's all these things in the world that are happening. And, and, uh, so yeah, I, I do think there's something about, you know, it's confronting yourself, man, forcing yourself to say, who am I becoming? Who would I be proud to be in six months, you know, or 12 months into the future. And then, and then lining up and moving toward that version of yourself. Because if you don't have that vision, you kind of can drift, you, you could start losing money or, you know, spending too much time in Bali at yoga or whatever your version of not being the best version of you is. And it's interesting because this relates back to the book and the 30 steps to success.

49:14We talked about how that evolved. Like you talked about 30 steps to success with sales. Chad, your brother, brought it into sports teams and it became 30 steps to success, but they had their own definition of success. And it's like a manifesto of sorts. I wonder if you were to make your 30 steps now, how it would be different? Because it's about who you are becoming. The 30 steps are steps to who you are becoming. So I wonder if it would change, if your personal manifesto would change now. They would, it would. I think when I wrote the 30 steps, you know, I was sort of, you know, at base camp of my first mountain, right?

49:57My first summit. So, you know, I had a ton of enthusiasm. It was all this sort of young, aggressive, I'm going to climb the ladder energy. I was naive. And what I did figure out to my credit through all of that and through some discipline, really discipline and self-study, I figured out how to be a really good sales professional. And I, and I, and I was, I mean, I'm proud of that. And you know, that that skill really gave me an opportunity to have a different life from where I came from and the way I grew up. And, and, and so I'm, and that meant a lot to me. And I was trying to give that same, pass that on to my brother, but in this season of life, I think, you know, yeah, I think, you know, going through some of the things that we've been talking about doing some introspection.

50:48Um, I, I think my definition of success is, is changing and I, and I think, um, is, is markedly different. And so, you know, it'd be interesting if the, who are you becoming the steps or tactics outlined in that book and compare them to this book, they'd be different. And, you know, you mentioned earlier, like when you're a public speaker, you're on the road 50 weeks out of the year you're on the road all the time how and particularly as you're getting older and look our good mutual friend scott cohen he's been on the podcast two or three times so the listeners know who he is you know he at our age recently got married has a bunch of kids now do you ever think about like you can't go on the road 50 weeks of the year like you ever think about that life or you know i i think i i have i mean uh you know scott and i and you know our relationship.

51:42I mean, when I met you, I mean, we're very, very close and we went to college together. And so, you know, we sort of were, we're on that bachelorhood trajectory together. And he was very clear he wanted to have kids and I wasn't so sure. And so it would have been tough and I don't think I would have done that well. And I've sort of reconciled that to a degree that I'm okay not doing that, you know? But I do think, I mean, it's beautiful to watch him do it. And I do think it's brought a different kind of, a different layer of meaning and purpose into his life. And I think it's softened him in the most beautiful way.

52:22And I do think you have to find those places that imbue your life with a sense of responsibility or connect you to things larger than yourself or contribution. Like a good way to say it, you know, a good shift is, the way I think about it is, when I wrote the 30 steps, I had something to prove. I mean, I was in that proving energy, prove my worth, prove my value, prove I belong, prove I'm going to be the number one guy, prove I'm good enough to stand on the stage next to that guy. This season of life, I hope I'm evolving into a place where it isn't about proving anything, where I have something to give.

53:02And I think Scott has come into that season in a beautiful way. And that to me, I mean, that comes with wisdom and humility and falling down a bunch of times and navigating difficult circumstances. But if this next chapter in my life could be less proving Ryan and more giving Ryan, I think that's a good evolution. I think that as well I was talking to Arthur Brooks He writes about this The different seasons of life And how when you're younger That's when you're driven to achieve And you have this kind of creativity That's very organic and unique And when you light that up That drives your success But when you're older Your creativity is more about kind of connecting ideas and looking at things you did a long time ago and rearranging them in different ways.

54:03And, and like you said, giving like teaching. So the natural thing is to go from like achieving to teaching others to achieve. And I've just been thinking about this a lot and also seeing my friends go through this. I think it's hard for me. I think I, while I do it, I've always been like kind of a natural teacher and I enjoy that. I still want to have my youthful creativity and you just don't, you don't have it in the same way. It's just different. Yeah. I, I, I, I think, I think sometimes when you really enjoy something or you're really good at it, sort of evolving out of that season of life is difficult.

54:44I mean, I think being aware that, wow, that's hard. And I still wish we were, I still wish we were running up that hill. And, you know, I had that sort of, you know, naive enthusiasm to go just attack that with all that vigor versus this sort of reflective, reflective, wise, calculating my risk and my family. It's just, it's a, you know, it is, it's a, it's a different, it's a different season of, of life. But I mean, I mean, you're a wonderful teacher. Look at the, look at the act of generosity that you've contributed through this podcast and your body of work and, and your writing and, you know, how, how much of your, you sort of life experience and vulnerability that you so freely give away.

55:35And I think it's I mean, it's it's helped me. It helped me write a book that I wasn't sure was a good book to write. And I think, what did you just say? You know, and and I mean, you know, the cool thing about like doing this kind of work is it has exponential impact. There's somebody in Sydney, Australia that you've never talked to, that you've never met and you're never going to know. but they hung on something you said and then they made a different choice and then that has reverberation through their life and their relationships and you you are doing that in a way and not not to diminish your missing or your nostalgia about the other thing but i uh yeah i mean i just to reflect back to you i think uh i think your your chapter of giving is pretty robust yeah no i thank you and i i agree it's just like you said i i it's interesting how you can get better at something through through wisdom through experience through knowledge but have worse results just because you don't have that naive enthusiasm anymore and that naive enthusiasm plunges you over the abyss time and time again as an older person you can't do it no you don't want want to do because you don't want to be in the abyss.

56:59You've been in the abyss one too many times. And by the way, you don't want to drag other people that you love into the abyss with you. Like those are, and I see it. I see it in my friends too. I mean, you're reflecting and I see it in Scott and you know, I, I, I know that's true in me and it's, there is some balance of me. if you can sort of connect or maintain some of that energy. And I have some of it again. I mean, I don't have what I had in the 30 steps going up the hill season of life either. But I think, you know, some new partners and a new project and orienting myself in some of those things.

57:42But yeah, I mean, it's funny. Like when I was that age, I would have moved anywhere, taken any job, done anything. that you're almost there's almost a fearlessness and uh i think you get a little more calculating in the season of life but um yeah i mean i was just with our dear friend scott you know we're reminiscing and telling stories and you know and with the big big grins because it was like oh man it was so great when i did this and dropped this and flew there and yeah i mean that's i mean i remember like this is like 10 15 years ago scott would just on a dime on a thursday say okay i got to be in china on friday but back here on saturday yeah and and try to do a business deal that would never work out like i don't think he did any successful business with the chinese but he was constantly going back he kept going that's the best part of the story he did like the oh the next one and the next one and then i could be like on 11 flights or you know he's like I'm in Shanghai.

58:44Like I, yeah, it's great. And he had, he had that energy. I mean, he was, he was, he was relentless. Yeah. Well, but look, everybody is in a good spot and really it's making me think this concept of who are you becoming because you're constantly becoming something and you're different every day. So, but you get to set the direction for the most part, maybe like at least 60 % of the direction you get to set. And it's an interesting food for thought. So look, Ryan, Impact 11, great idea, great step. It's a way to take this public speaking gig that you've been so successful at for so many years and make it three-dimensional.

59:27Prepare for Impact, which is the book by you and Chad. Great book. I learned a lot from it. Like I told you initially, I don't even really like business books that much, but this one really made me think like, what's my, in a way I kept thinking of the word manifesto. What's my personal manifesto for the things I'm interested in succeeding at? And what would be the 30 steps for that? Like, and great stories from Chad about all these different football teams. Great stories from you. Really learned a lot from the book. Thank you. And we've been meaning to do this podcast for a long time. And I'm so glad, A, you wrote the book.

1:00:01But I'm so glad we just did the podcast anyway. And thanks so much for coming on the show.

1:00:13Thank you.