Many of my friends thought that running away from the safety of the school salary to pursue my dream of becoming a professional speaker was a big mistake.
I had no savings. And I didn’t know how to start.
Pursuing my dream wasn’t a mistake. I could say that the timing was not right. But pursuing a dream is always worth the risks.
My big mistake was really in thinking that all I needed to know, I could get from reading books.
During the first six months, I must have read 100 books on salesmanship, marketing, public speaking, and leadership. I read like I was starving for knowledge.
I was.
And I was also literally starving. I failed to monetize the lessons I learned from reading books.
I had six months of reading, cold calling, direct mailing, sending spam emails, and networking. All the efforts produced no client.
To survive, I did tutorials sessions on the side.
Many things changed when I met someone who mentored me. Vic taught me valuable lessons most of which I read also from books.
But Vic’s mentoring was 100x better. That’s because he explained professional speaking to me based on his experiences as a successful and highly-paid professional speaker. His stories demonstrated the very principles I should have learned from the very start.
I realized that I tried to understand the books I read for six months based on how I imagined professional speaking to be.
I was wrong.
Another big mistake was that I did not look for a mentor before I did any reading. A live person who could ask me questions I dared not ask myself. Someone who could guide me based on his experiences.
Anyhoo.
I will write some of the lessons I learned from Vic in future updates. I will also share with you how to find mentors.
For now, allow me to speak about the Leadership Challenge Workshop that I have designed for leaders.
This is based on the study of Kouzes and Posner.
But this program is unique and is not like the Leadership Challenge Workshop run by other trainers worldwide. This is an intensive one-day program for Filipino supervisors and managers.
This is not like the basic leadership training programs offered by training providers in Metro Manila. This is lean. I give more importance to useful, desirable, and valuable content.
More importantly, the workshop is interactive. You will not just listen to a wonderful and amazing speaker. You will not just follow the trainer as he swipes one presentation slide after another. You’ll participate in conversations of leaders. You’ll have an opportunity to ask questions and clarify your understanding.
Yes, like the way Vic did it to me. And I will add the way that is mine, based on my 12 years of experience as a speaker, corporate trainer, and leader.
If you have previously subscribed to updates, you can avail your 5% discount. You can find the descriptions of the Leadership Challenge Workshop here: https://jefmenguin.com/leadership-challenge-workshop.
Jef”the zagger” Menguin
