Mastering On-Air Sales and Public Speaking: Insights from a Former Home Shopping Network Pitchman

Tim Newman [00:00:04]:
Welcome to Speaking with Confidence, a podcast that’s here to help you unlock the power of effective public speaking. I’m your host, Tim Newman, and I’m excited to take you on a journey to become a better public speaker. Over the past 30 years, our next guest, Mitch Carson, has helped hundreds of speakers, authors, coaches, consultants, and business owners worldwide land TV and radio interviews, boosting their credibility instantly and aiding them to charge premium prices for their products and services. As a television show host on NBC Channel 3 in Las Vegas, he knows what it’s it’s done for him and his clients. Mitch is also a celebrated professional speaker and closer who has spoken on stages in 63 countries and produced over 2,000 live events in 19 countries. He’s been a Home Shopping Network pitchman who knows how to sell anything, craft a unique message around any product, person, or event. He’s also a published author with John Wiley and Sons, and his books have been published in 6 languages. Mitch, thanks for spending some time with us today, and welcome to the show.

Mitch Carson [00:01:06]:
Well, thank you, Tim. I’m glad to be here.

Tim Newman [00:01:09]:
You know, you you’ve got a really, really unique, history and experience, and one of the things that really kinda stuck out to me as as really interesting is your pitch band on Home Shopping Network. And I don’t know how much my audience has ever seen Home Shopping Network, but I’ve seen it, I watch it, and it’s just kinda fascinating to me, you know, the hosts and how they do that. Can you give us a little bit of insight on what that process is like?

Mitch Carson [00:01:32]:
Well, it’s interesting you talk about it, your audience. It depends on the age of the demographic that we’re talking to from our generation. I was I I was a I was born in 19 sixties, so it gives you a little perspective of my age and background. So I grew up with television and looking at people on TV in an elevated status. And today Mhmm. I think if you ask somebody under 30, you know, what do they think about television? They’ll look at your cross eyed because they’ve never watched it. Maybe some sports with their grandpa or dad or something, but other than that, they don’t really know about television. In the nineties, when I was a pitchman on Home Shopping Network from 96 through 98, I sold products on live TV to 5,000,000 viewers.

Mitch Carson [00:02:14]:
And it was the most exhilarating experience, quite different than speaking to a crowd of people in person. This is long before the Internet took hold Right. And where where Martha would call in eating bonbons, sitting on the couch saying, I love the product you’re talking about. I wanna buy it, and it’s gonna be so easy to use. And we will we lived off the call in testimonials, and it was a tremendously gratifying position to be able to sell and validate your sales immediately. Yeah. There’s none of this, I’m gonna call back later like the traditional one to one salesperson who sells something. You know, when they give you that, oh, I have to talk to my husband.

Mitch Carson [00:03:00]:
Oh, I have to talk to my wife. Oh, I’m just not ready right now. You don’t hear any of those excuses. When you’re on TV, you are only evaluated based on how many you’re selling by the second. Right? Sales matter by the second, not the minute, by the second because the counter is going, you know, as a pitch person, exactly whether or not you’re gonna have a job tomorrow.

Tim Newman [00:03:27]:
Wow.

Mitch Carson [00:03:29]:
Yeah. I mean, that’s the kind of pressure. It’s the big league of selling, Tim.

Tim Newman [00:03:32]:
Yeah. Yeah. This

Mitch Carson [00:03:33]:
is this is the big league, and you either produce or you’re fired.

Tim Newman [00:03:38]:
Exactly.

Mitch Carson [00:03:39]:
This is long before The Apprentice and when Donald Trump would say you’re fired. You know? This is from the boss of HSN. You have to produce. Yeah. You’ve got to sell. Now sometimes it’s the product is not great, but it’s all about crafting the message around this product, creating a hook, creating interest, and getting people to take out their credit card before their husband got home. Yeah. And then buy all this stuff that they didn’t need and to scratch that itch of that endorphin rush of something’s coming in the mail.

Mitch Carson [00:04:15]:
Something’s coming with UPS. We all get a little bit of an exhilaration when we buy something on unwrapping it. There’s an experience. It goes back to maybe our training as kids for Christmas day. We’re tearing the paper, and that’s that’s half the excitement. Yes. But whatever is inside is inside. I mean, we know this as kids and as adults now.

Mitch Carson [00:04:36]:
When you see somebody unwrapping that, there’s an an exhilarance. And that’s what people experience when they buy stuff. Now the itch is scratched by going to Amazon and buying yeah. It’s it’s but the the function has changed the experience and exhilaration exactly the same. It’s just a different mode. Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:04:58]:
So my my guess is, you know, you go on they they give you a script of of whatever products, and and then, you know, once you’re live, you’ve gotta you’ve gotta sync on your feet, and you’ve you’ve gotta react to to everything. Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. Just like

Mitch Carson [00:05:12]:
that. Shuffle, my man.

Tim Newman [00:05:13]:
Man.

Mitch Carson [00:05:14]:
You’ve gotta find the benefit of that product and why someone needs to buy it. Yep. They’re on special limited quantity. All of those tenets of sales come into play. Limited time, limited quantity, so scarcity.

Tim Newman [00:05:30]:
Right. And You better get it quick. You better

Mitch Carson [00:05:32]:
get it quick because f o m o, fear of missing out.

Tim Newman [00:05:35]:
Know. Right.

Mitch Carson [00:05:37]:
Fear of missing out. That’s all part of the story, and and it’s and in many cases, it’s true Yes. If you don’t look at the inventory that’s stacked high in the warehouse. Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:05:46]:
I don’t know anything about I don’t know I don’t know anything about that. You know? Because it’s it’s not my it’s not my concern. Yeah. I I I bought some things on home shopping network, like like, being up late at night. And and, the the one thing I bought that that was really amazing, it it was called, the Mr. Beer Beer Barrel Brewery kit.

Mitch Carson [00:06:07]:
Okay.

Tim Newman [00:06:07]:
And I I used that for for years. That was I I started brewing beer, you know, you know, early nineties. And then when I had kids, it it it it grew, but it got it just got to be too much. But but that’s that was one one thing I bought from home shopping network that really kinda stuck out. Middle of the night, you know, 2:30 in the morning, and that’s what that’s what it did. There there there again, there there was no Amazon at the time.

Mitch Carson [00:06:33]:
So that’s great.

Tim Newman [00:06:34]:
So let let’s really get get into this. You know, you you started your first business in college and and sold for 7 figures when you were 28. And I tell you, you know, the kids you know, most of my audience is is college age students, young professionals, and I I think that they are way more entrepreneurial than than our generation, and and and much smarter than we were, but don’t know how to communicate. When when did you realize the connection between communication and professional success?

Mitch Carson [00:07:05]:
Oh, gosh. It’s everything. And I and I agree with you. Kids are smarter, faster, but they lack social skills today because they’re so tied to their devices. Mhmm. And the the involvement, it’s this is the the fallback for homeschooling kids. It’s that same issue. They have no socialization because if mommy’s teaching them, that’s all they know is mommy and possibly a sibling or 2.

Mitch Carson [00:07:28]:
I mean, the worst thing you can do to an only child is homeschool them. Yeah. Because he’ll have no interaction with other children. Right. No playing with Jimmy next door who socked him in the nose and goes home and you know, you just don’t these are all parts of growing up that we experienced of our generation playing kickball on the street, doing all these things that are normal. So they are smarter because they’re reading and in their devices, but the social skill of interacting with people is lacking. Yes. And it there’s a trade off.

Mitch Carson [00:08:00]:
Yes. They’re smarter, Tim, and, no, they aren’t street smart. Right. They are absolutely devoid of street skills

Tim Newman [00:08:09]:
Right.

Mitch Carson [00:08:10]:
Of the communication potential that they’re missing out on and how to sell someone and how do you get to sell someone. Understanding human nature. Right. Because to to me, marketing is psychology plus math. Yes. And they’ve got the math part down maybe. Maybe they’ll understand all the metrics that, you know, some people might find difficult. Maybe they get it because they are smarter.

Mitch Carson [00:08:32]:
They have, you know, AI to help them come up with these solutions. But the ability to sell it from the stage or persuade people is is there’s a big void there.

Tim Newman [00:08:43]:
Right. Right. And, you know, you talk about street smarts and, you know, I I I teach in downtown Atlanta, and they you see you see students walking down the streets in downtown Atlanta. They’ve got their headphones in, and they’re staring at their phone, which to me is just it that’s probably one of the worst things that you can do because, I mean, you you have no idea what’s really going on around you. And you’re around you’re around all these people, and you’re you’re we’ve got this the the screen in front of your face. It’s it’s, it’s it’s mind boggling that, you know, they they can’t even get their phone out of their face to walk down the street sometimes.

Mitch Carson [00:09:25]:
Well, you know, it’s an interesting I’m gonna do a flashback. A fellow I went to high school with moved after college to New York to work on Wall Street. And the story was he was walking down Wall Street one day after work, and eating an apple, not paying attention to the street because New York City can be quite perilous if you don’t know. I lived there for 1 year. You better your awareness better be heightened. Now today, people are using all these phones. They become easy prey for the predators.

Tim Newman [00:09:57]:
Mhmm.

Mitch Carson [00:09:58]:
And this fellow was walking down the street, and one person who ended up mugging him saw that his he was distracted eating his apple, biting like this instead of having his street awareness, looking peripherally. Punched him in the face, I mean, and pounded him, just knocked him cold, cold cocked him, and then took his wallet and ran off. And this is long before all the yell the cards. You know, people carried cash back then. This is the early eighties. And it’s about street awareness. Think of how many people are walking around buried in their phones. They’re not aware of their environment.

Mitch Carson [00:10:34]:
How do you protect yourself if you’re doing this? It’s like texting when driving. You’re gonna get into a crash. Yes. Yeah. So you got

Tim Newman [00:10:41]:
it’s street awareness. And and and, again, we we we take that further. You know, it we talk all the time about the, you know, the whole idea, doesn’t really matter what industry you get into, you know, personal relationships and and personal connections and and knowing, knowing how to deal with with different types of people. And, you know, we like, so we we’ve we’ve gotten away with that with the whole idea of social media and electronics in in our in our hands. You know, like, on on one hand, it’s it’s really good because it gives us access to information 247. But on the other hand, just as bad, we have very little connection with with people.

Mitch Carson [00:11:25]:
Very true. Very true. Yeah. We there is a trade off, and it’s it par you know, it certainly relates to what you said. They’re smarter, faster, but they’re socially inept.

Tim Newman [00:11:39]:
So so why do people have a fear of of public speaking?

Mitch Carson [00:11:43]:
Oh, I think it’s the embarrassment component. I know that there have been several surveys done. People fear public speaking and the the the judgment that goes into play if you’re not good in front of the crowd or if people are looking at us. Greater fear of public speaking than dying in a fire or drowning. I’ve that’s a little hard to believe, but I know when I first started speaking, I sucked so nervous. I went to the bathroom to throw up.

Tim Newman [00:12:14]:
Yeah.

Mitch Carson [00:12:14]:
When I had to do it initially, I remember in high school, I had to give a a speech. I I died, and I’ve somehow survived it. Maybe I have 9 lives, but it was awful. It was awful, Tim. And then I took speech communication in college in order to overcome this fear. I think I got incrementally better and learned how to rid myself of some of the verbal fillers of, oh, you know, right. Right. And that drives me wacko when people end their sentences with right, Noah left, or like, no.

Mitch Carson [00:12:52]:
I don’t like. Yeah. All these little verbal ticks,

Tim Newman [00:12:55]:
which I

Mitch Carson [00:12:56]:
I know you’re familiar with. And it it was hugely scary because I got embarrassed and got ridiculed for how bad I was.

Tim Newman [00:13:08]:
One of the one of the things that is to me is that that I’m starting to see that they’re starting to kinda maybe go, what are you talking about? They young professionals start with, I I mean I mean pause, and then they go on. It would which, again, it’s all that all that is is, you know, them thinking about what they wanna say as opposed to it’s it’s okay to have some silence and actually think about what you wanna say and then say it. You know, I’d I’d look at Steve Jobs when when his his preparation and the way he went about public speaking is is legendary.

Mitch Carson [00:13:44]:
And He was great.

Tim Newman [00:13:45]:
He was phenomenal. And whenever somebody asked him a question, he never just automatically answered it. He took a deep breath. Most of the time, he look he would look down and start to think about his response, move a little bit, take a few steps, look up, say a sentence, pause, and then really get into his answer. So he really he he had a system down that that really kind of forced him to to to actually think about what he was gonna say without sounding like he had no idea what he was talking about.

Mitch Carson [00:14:20]:
Yes. He was always brilliant. A nominal speaker. And he he didn’t say, here is the one that kills me. I had one of the speakers that attended my event in Dubai some years ago. And I’ll just I won’t say her name. She stood up and said, Yeah. Yeah.

Mitch Carson [00:14:41]:
She started with Yeah. Oh, wow. Who you? Mhmm. Who you? I I wow. Or Oh, goodness. Can you hear me? You know, we could have a whole discussion on those Exactly. Issues to eradicate.

Tim Newman [00:15:00]:
Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, what are some of the other times that, you know, I mean, you already you already said some you when you were in high school, you had to go and throw up. I mean, I I tell my story a lot. I I actually threw up in front of the class. The for the first time I had to

Mitch Carson [00:15:14]:
take my Oh my gosh.

Tim Newman [00:15:15]:
Oh, yeah. It was it was awful. And

Mitch Carson [00:15:17]:
Oh, gosh.

Tim Newman [00:15:18]:
And, Mitch, I was in college and it you know, leading up to that, I was I’ve been an athlete. I’ve been in the military. So I had I had experience. You know, I had experience, you know, talking to people and and and being out there, being upfront. But the whole idea, for whatever reason it was, standing up all alone, talking to people, I I literally threw up. Do do you have any other stories, I mean, that that where where you’ve been in that position, where you’ve where you messed up, where you where you’ve really felt, you know what? I I shouldn’t be here. I I don’t wanna be here because I’m not prepared or or any of those types of things. And if so, how did how did you overcome it?

Mitch Carson [00:15:59]:
I’ve had many experiences like this, and each time I think I get another layer of toughness, another leather skin layer, another layer of skin that is leather that gets placed around me. I was, I was speaking at an event in Chicago one time, oh, 2 different times in Chicago at events. One time, my whole presentation crashed And there was this overwhelming feeling, sinking feeling of, oh my god. I had 600 people in the crowd, and it was a selling stage. It wasn’t a presenting content. It was content plus pitch, and it happened before the close. And I remember that feeling my armpits became instantly wet, not sweaty, but wet dripping at physical manifestation of fear and, oh my gosh, embarrassment. And I’m going to be judged not just by the crowd of what I stumble out next, but by the event producer who wants me to sell, expects me to sell.

Mitch Carson [00:17:10]:
If you don’t sell, you’re not getting invited back.

Tim Newman [00:17:13]:
Exactly.

Mitch Carson [00:17:14]:
And I had to dance and shuffle my feet and do my best. This was a long time ago. Today, if my presentation crashed, I’d still be able to do it. Right. Because I have that experience of failure, that experience of discomfort, and I worked through the fear, worked through the pain. You know, when you do your first push up, it might hurt. After you get through it, you get stronger and stronger and stronger. I mean, you get this.

Mitch Carson [00:17:44]:
You’re ex military. You go through you go through a boot camp. It’s not comfortable, but you’re a tougher soldier at the end. You’re a tougher speaker, more experience under in your tool belt in order to handle mishaps, handle technology failures, handle noise. Another time in Chicago, I was speaking to a large audience. Next door, the next salon was a sweet 16 party of, you know, I don’t know, couple hundred teenagers, 15 16 year olds, screaming their heads off, blasting Madonna.

Tim Newman [00:18:20]:
Oh my god.

Mitch Carson [00:18:22]:
Yes. And I had to hear this, like a virgin. No. You’re not a virgin. You’re 16. And it kept going on and on and on, Tim. And I had to deal with this, and I said, well, would it wouldn’t wouldn’t it be nice to be a virgin again? So I piggybacked off the joke of the loud Madonna music and just continued. You have to either ignore it or you comment and make a humorous joke out of it and use it in a way and everybody laughed and I just proceeded because I didn’t have the time to get off the stage, talk to the go next door, tell the girls to be quiet.

Mitch Carson [00:18:57]:
It would have never

Tim Newman [00:18:58]:
happened. Which they weren’t gonna do anyway. Right.

Mitch Carson [00:19:01]:
They weren’t gonna do. So it you know, I don’t know if it changed from I’m a virgin to something else. Didn’t matter. I just had to continue. So I’ve had I can go down all sorts of challenges, and you get better and better and better. My solution and suggestion for people is be prepared. Yes. The old Murphy’s Law, be prepared prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

Tim Newman [00:19:28]:
Hope hope for the best. Yeah. If you Yeah. I I I think preparation is is it it’s key really for anything. You know? It doesn’t matter what we do. If In life? If we wanna be good at something, it doesn’t just happen. We we have to work for it. We have to prepare.

Tim Newman [00:19:42]:
We have to, you know, take the actual steps, you know, to get better. And I and I think We can’t

Mitch Carson [00:19:51]:
wing it.

Tim Newman [00:19:52]:
No. You can’t. Cannot. Especially in this business or especially in in professional you know, once you be actually become professional, people are gonna be able to find you out if you are just winging it. You know, you’re hired for a reason because you can do the job, but then you actually have to do the job. You can’t you you can’t just win it. You can’t go into a team meeting expected when you’re expected to to know something about a product or service or, you know, what’s been going on with it and present on it if you haven’t actually followed up in on on what those things are and and know what what’s what’s actually going on. You’ll be fine we found out real quick.

Mitch Carson [00:20:29]:
100%. I mean, did you ever play any team sports, Tim?

Tim Newman [00:20:33]:
Team sports? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I bet.

Mitch Carson [00:20:35]:
Can you imagine going in between football games No. You know, one one week to the next if you don’t have a practice?

Tim Newman [00:20:41]:
No. Wouldn’t happen. For sure. It never happens. Right? Yeah. You you you you no sport that where where you don’t even at rec league sports, right, even now, you practice, and then there’s game. You practice There’s game day. Right.

Tim Newman [00:20:59]:
And I I that’s what it’s one of the things that I harp on with with my students and clients is doesn’t really matter. You you have to practice. It’s this is hard work. It it doesn’t come easy, especially if if you really truly have that anxiety. You you’ve you’ve gotta do the research, you’ve gotta prepare, and you have to actually practice. And practice isn’t just looking at your notes, reading it to yourself. Practice means actually practice.

Mitch Carson [00:21:25]:
Well, and doing it well because game day, you play 1 football game a week Right. In season. How many practices are there in between game day and and the next game day? It’s about 6 to 1. Mhmm. 5 or 6 to 1.

Tim Newman [00:21:40]:
Yeah. So

Mitch Carson [00:21:40]:
if you’re presenting a speech let’s just use football as an example. How many practices do you go through before you are game again? Right. I mean, how many practices do you have in the preseason? It’s preseason speaking. It’s your practice sessions.

Tim Newman [00:21:56]:
So when when you talk about preparing and and practicing, you what do you tell your your clients on on how to actually prepare? You know, for for me, though, I always start with the audience. You know, figure out who who your audience is, and that and that’s that’s where you start. Right?

Mitch Carson [00:22:13]:
Oh, I agree. A 100% with you. Yeah. That’s that’s a mature real perspective. An obvious answer is who are you speaking to, what will resonate with them, and gear your talk to them. It’s not about you. It’s about how they will receive you. Right.

Mitch Carson [00:22:30]:
What do you have to use? What vocabulary will they relate to? Or if you are a college professor with professorial words showing your PhD piled high and deep, and you are talking to an audience of 6 year old boys and you’re talking at PhD level, I don’t care how smart you are, if you’ve won toastmasters of the week, when when you are talking to 6 year old boys, you need to gear your talk to 6 year old vocabulary.

Tim Newman [00:23:05]:
Exactly.

Mitch Carson [00:23:06]:
And in order for them to connect, otherwise, they’re gonna do this. I taught martial arts to 6 year olds, so I’m speaking from experience, and and that’s worse than herding cats.

Tim Newman [00:23:18]:
Yes.

Mitch Carson [00:23:19]:
Okay? And to keep their attention, it’s gotta be fun, entertaining, engaging, and you gotta make sure that Jimmy and little Billy are paying attention. You gotta use words that they can relate to. Similarly, when you’re talking to high school kids, it’s at a different level than pH your graduate students. Right. Each time you Tim, I’m in total agreement. Align yourself with your audience. That’s a good start. Another technique I use in order to connect with the audience is before I begin, I identify somebody in the audience who’s going to be my friend.

Mitch Carson [00:23:55]:
I figure that out quickly. Who in the audience is going to be Mitch Friendly? First time I spoke in Karachi, Pakistan, I got invited to speak over there. Different culture, different religion, different country. Yeah. So different than any other place that I’d spoken up to that point. I knew I was gonna be unique, and what I did was I made fun of American, and I said, let’s talk about the biz the myths of Americans. We all eat cheeseburgers and chocolate milkshakes with fries every day. And they laughed.

Mitch Carson [00:24:32]:
I found out who laughed the most, and it was a guy with a big bushy mustache, and there were 600 graduate students in the audience. It was all for the MBA students at this university in Karachi, and I found him as my victim. He was then my user friendly guy because I learned one thing about the Muslim culture over there. You don’t touch the women. Right. You don’t do that. It’s a real no no, and you could end up dead. So I didn’t.

Mitch Carson [00:25:01]:
I stayed away from the women’s side because they were separated, men on one side, women on the other, and I found this fellow. Of course, his name was Mohammed. How unique. So was everybody else’s name in the audience, but he was my guy. So I got off the stage, shook his hand, and I called him mister mustache. And he was my fun fellow. Hey, Mohammed. Oh, I mean mister mustache.

Mitch Carson [00:25:27]:
Everybody laughed, And I shook his hand. Well, what I did, in fact, was by shaking his hand, I shook everybody’s hand. Okay. Because he was there, I was here. I was up on the stage, and I removed myself from the stage, got down, and be and went to them. I didn’t stand behind the podium ever. Ever. And I looked at the stage as my cage.

Mitch Carson [00:25:49]:
So I got out of my cage to come and meet with the zoo members, you know, and all the other people. And I found it an effective technique.

Tim Newman [00:26:00]:
And you and you built a human connection Correct. A relationship. And, automatically, what that does is it builds credibility with the rest of the audience.

Mitch Carson [00:26:13]:
Comfort. Comfort. Right? Yeah. Because think of how drastically different we were culturally. Number 1, I was older than everybody else. I was the age of all of their professors or the dean was there, and all these fancy muckety mucks were in the audience. First time an American had ever spoken at that university. So I’m already thinking, okay.

Mitch Carson [00:26:35]:
And I was quite experienced, and this is about 10 years ago, something like that. Very experienced speaking internationally, first time in Pakistan. So I already had this American versus Pakistan. They didn’t. They feared us. It was more fear than disliking us, and I had to overcome that quickly. And I used Right. Humor and a way of overcoming it and setting that aside at least temporarily during my hour long talk by going and shaking hands with a guy who smiled and laughed at my jokes.

Mitch Carson [00:27:10]:
So he was my connector, and there was no more about, oh, hate the American.

Tim Newman [00:27:15]:
Right. That that that’s a really good technique. And and and, again, it it comes back to, you know, the build building those relationships. And, you know, we I I talk about that a lot, you know, with with my students. And you you speak and coach all over the world. And you and I had talked about, you know, how a lot of your, clients now, you spend a lot of time in Singapore. But talk about talk about how the first how how Singapore actually happened, the, you know, the ping pong effect, how it’s how it’s not just, okay, you woke up today, and you got a call, so we’re going to Singapore tomorrow. Talk about that ping pong effect about how how networking and personal relationships got you from here to Singapore.

Mitch Carson [00:27:58]:
Alright. I’m I’m quite fortunate and unique in the speaking arena. I’ve never had to market myself. I’ve had to be the best Mitch possible and do my best in every place I speak. How I ended up in Singapore was through a fellow American and who got invited to speak, in 5 countries. It was part of a tour. They were gonna showcase speakers going to starting in the Philippines and Manila, then we went to Thailand. Then we went to KL.

Mitch Carson [00:28:33]:
Then we ended up in Singapore. And then a select group, which I did not participate because I had another event I had to go to, went to Bali to conclude this tour of speaking engagements where it traveled each weekend for those several weeks to a different country. And KL was different. We spoke in KL on a Saturday, and then on Sunday, we’re in Singapore because it was adjoining. It was easy to fly or take a bus to get us there to for the next day, so it wasn’t a problem. So that was shortened over a weekend. Bali had to fly,

Tim Newman [00:29:08]:
and they

Mitch Carson [00:29:08]:
went on, and I didn’t go to Bali. And I first spoke in in in Manila. All the speakers spoke and had a crowd of about 200 people. It was not profitable for me because these were most of the attendees were virtual assistants with no money. They were there to laugh and get exposed to all these international speakers. We had speakers. 22 people or 3 people were from Canada. There were 2 Americans.

Mitch Carson [00:29:35]:
A fellow came in from India. Another fellow was from, oh, gosh, Vietnam. So we had a multitude of backgrounds, and we also had a couple Filipino speakers that that participated. Oh, and one from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. So all of these different people were there. I went and spoke then in KL, had a decent crowd of people, did pretty well, sold some people into my workshop. It was a some business crowd, some were students, not exactly. Some of the speakers at that point became frustrated because the audience wasn’t what the promoter had promised.

Mitch Carson [00:30:15]:
They’re supposed to be business owners, so we could sell. Right. Because we weren’t being paid to do this. So then the next city was Singapore. The only other speaker who was, no, not the only one. 1 of the other, there were a few of us who were truly professionals, meaning we made our money speaking. Others were just content based and we’re starting out. The 4 of us who were professionals who had made money speaking from the stage went on to Singapore.

Mitch Carson [00:30:47]:
The other 3 opted not to speak because there were only 8 people in the audience, And they said, I’m not doing this. And they just stuck around, and they gossiped outside of the room. I went ahead and spoke. My belief is the show must go on. Right. We continue no matter what. Right. I spoke in that audience because I played a testimonial of 1 of my students who was quite well known in Singapore, said, oh, you’re the mentor to x person.

Mitch Carson [00:31:18]:
I said yes after I spoke. So the 2 of them, there was this couple bought into my speaking mastery program, which I then provided, next month in Singapore because I was living in Thailand at the time. So Singapore to Thailand was just a 2 hour flight, pretty easy. And they helped fill my next event in Singapore. These two people, I had 20 people attend and pay my event. So it became an opportunity, and since then, it parlayed into bigger audiences. Now, I go back twice a year and I make most of my money in Singapore. And this played out because I was willing to go and speak no matter what.

Mitch Carson [00:32:04]:
Right. The opportunity was there. The other 3 are not in Singapore at all, and I’ve made a boatload of money there because I took, I I became, I was committed to speak no matter what. No matter what. I wasn’t gonna let the promoter down. I said, I will continue even though there’s a small audience. You promised us a 100 people. There are only, you know, a dozen, and many of them were people who are already participating in the event.

Mitch Carson [00:32:31]:
They weren’t real customers or fresh customers for us, but 2 were. 2 made the whole difference for me. Yep. The entire difference, and then the world opened up.

Tim Newman [00:32:45]:
Right.

Mitch Carson [00:32:46]:
I no longer speak of Malaysia because of the currency is 1 third the value of Singapore. So if I’m gonna put my effort and I go to Singapore to sell my services, because I make more money.

Tim Newman [00:32:56]:
Wow. And all again, all because number 1, you number 1, you did what you said you were gonna do, 1st and foremost. Yes. Right? Which to me, I think is

Mitch Carson [00:33:07]:
I stayed in integrity. Right.

Tim Newman [00:33:08]:
And and I I think young professionals need need to understand and and take heed on that. If we say we’re gonna do something, doesn’t matter. We we need to to do what we say we’re gonna do, and and that’s that. Number 2, like you said, the show’s gotta go on. I don’t care if there’s if there’s 1 or if there’s 10,000. If, you know, you if there’s 1 person there, then then you’re gonna try and reach that one person. You you know, your presentation may may be a lot different. Maybe it’s obviously gonna be way more personal, but, you know, you you’ve got a responsibility.

Tim Newman [00:33:41]:
And and again, you never know where that one person or in your case, there’s 2 people, what kind of relationship that’s gonna be and where that’s actually gonna take you and them down the road.

Mitch Carson [00:33:53]:
100%. You just do it. I mean, I had another promoter in KL who promised me a crowd of people. He didn’t, and the event was was there. 7 people signed up out of it. 6 had to postpone because of a weather condition. I was already in KL. 1 person showed up, and he had essentially a private lesson with me for 2 days.

Tim Newman [00:34:15]:
That’s awesome.

Mitch Carson [00:34:15]:
I was already there. Hotel was paid for. All of this. Six people had to go into my next training the following month, so I only had one person. And he had never spoken. He got one on one with me for 2 days. That’s normally quite expensive. My Yeah.

Mitch Carson [00:34:31]:
Audience is 20, and I had 1. I the show must go on. I wasn’t gonna cancel him out because I was already there. Right. If I could’ve pushed it out and postponed it, I would’ve done it. But I also realized this fellow took off time from work to be there. My obligation was to teach him no matter what, and I did.

Tim Newman [00:34:54]:
Right. And that’s that’s so important that, again, we we need to to think about when we when we commit to doing something, or, you know, even in even we’re an employee, if if we’re if we’re tasked with doing something, we we need to make sure that we’re fulfilling that that that that task or or that responsibility. So so what are some traits of highly successful professional speakers? Again, you know, my audience is is young professionals really struggling. And, you know, if we can say, okay. This is where you are, and this is where we’re gonna try and get you to to to become highly successful. You know? What what are some traits of of those types of speakers?

Mitch Carson [00:35:34]:
Yeah. I I’m gonna address your audience of people. If they’re young people, a couple of things that are important. When you are being considered to get booked, If you’re looking to get on a an industry speaking panel, if you’re looking to produce a keynote speech, or if you’re selling a product or service from a stage or virtual stage, because that has all sorts of credibility today thanks to COVID. It is a real market. In order to get evaluated, if someone were to speak on one of the platforms that I produce, Tim, I’m gonna look at their LinkedIn, number 1. 2nd, I’m gonna look at their YouTube channel. Where can I see footage of them speaking previously so I know I’m not going to eat poo poo putting this person on my stage? Right.

Mitch Carson [00:36:26]:
How do I ensure that I provide quality speakers that are already proven? Because if they haven’t spoken, I’m not a try it, a brand new stage for new speakers. Go to Toastmasters. Go to Agora Speakers. Go get trained. Go train with Tim. Learn how to speak first.

Tim Newman [00:36:48]:
Mhmm.

Mitch Carson [00:36:48]:
Then practice at the Lions Club or some of the other places that are out there, the local rotary or chambers. They’re always looking for speakers.

Tim Newman [00:36:57]:
Right.

Mitch Carson [00:36:57]:
And you can come and present. Capture footage of you speaking to those groups. Use that as your credible source to place on your LinkedIn, to place on your YouTube channel or your website so people can feel comfortable before they hire you. Because to hope that your uncle Vinny is gonna place you on his platform is a pipe dream. Right. He’s not gonna risk his reputation on you until you’ve proven yourself. Right. So I think that’s a minimum.

Mitch Carson [00:37:29]:
So is to start small, but prove it.

Tim Newman [00:37:31]:
Right. And again, that’s like that in in anything that we’re gonna do is as young professionals. You know, again, my my my background in in history in the industry, it comes from from sport. And so when when our students graduate, they’re not gonna go and become general managers. They’re they’re gonna start off at and and

Mitch Carson [00:37:52]:
The water boy.

Tim Newman [00:37:54]:
Well, they’re they’re gonna start off in ticket sales, which is Okay. That well, that that’s, you know, that that’s the the gateway into the industry. I mean, that that’s you you have to show that you can actually sell and make and make organizations money. And To prove your worth. Right. To be able to sell, you have to be able to communicate. You have to be able to to to think on your feet. You have to be able to to relate to people, answer objections, listen to what what what your customers are are saying to you and be able to respond accordingly.

Tim Newman [00:38:22]:
And that all all those things lead into, you know, what what you just said. And and I’m and I’m glad you said about, you know, film it and put things on LinkedIn. Mhmm. My students right now, a lot of their assignments are when when they’re doing presentations, they’ve gotta be filmed and put on LinkedIn. I don’t take them if they’re not put on LinkedIn. Oh, I mean, excuse me.

Mitch Carson [00:38:47]:
Oh, for you. Wow.

Tim Newman [00:38:48]:
On YouTube. On YouTube. Okay?

Mitch Carson [00:38:50]:
On YouTube. Okay.

Tim Newman [00:38:52]:
Now they don’t have to make it they don’t have to make it public yet, but at least it’s there. At least it’s done. At least it’s there. They can make it public later, and and I can look at it. And that’s where where I can really truly help them so much better because I can, you know, stop and point out and and and guide them. And they they hate doing it. And hopefully that that they see the the the payoff, you know, 3 months, 6 months as as they get better, and then comparing comparing the one that they did at the end of the training to the one that they did at the beginning of it, and really be able to see that that that growth in in improvement. So I I I get I I think I think you’re right on with, you know, filming it and having it put on some place like like YouTube where where it can be archived and and and pulled up later.

Tim Newman [00:39:43]:
That’s that’s great.

Mitch Carson [00:39:44]:
Well and if you just talk about it, that’s one thing. You must do it. It forces you to do. And even if it’s a bloody failure, failure way to your success. Right. Get better. You have to put your foot in the pond. Right.

Mitch Carson [00:40:00]:
You have to start. You sink or swim and start swimming, bud.

Tim Newman [00:40:04]:
Right.

Mitch Carson [00:40:04]:
Start start swimming.

Tim Newman [00:40:07]:
And I and I’m gonna use another sports analogy here. You know, all of the greats, you know, the Tom Bradys, the the Michael Jordans, the Kobe Bryants of the world, they practice until they retired on fundamentals, on footwork Basics. On on basics. You know? And, you know, their their philosophy is that, you know, if if we can’t do the basics, there’s no way that we’re gonna be able to do the advanced stuff. And they they were they were so focused on that all the time. They they they hit they hit those basics and practice them for hours, e even at that high level. And, you know, I wouldn’t be surprised that, you know, obviously, Tom Brady’s in the booth now. I wouldn’t be surprised if he still does some some quarterback drills, some basic quarterback drills on his own.

Mitch Carson [00:40:57]:
Oh, I bet he does drills before he gets on the mic too. Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:41:01]:
I’m sure.

Mitch Carson [00:41:02]:
I’m sure he takes his job seriously. That’s just the way he’s wired. Yeah. It’s all about practice, practice, practice before you debut Right. Before you perform. He went through practice interviews, I guarantee you, before they put him on the broadcast mic.

Tim Newman [00:41:16]:
Yeah. Yeah. I’m I’m I’m sure sure that they did. You know, when when again, when you when you’re getting paid when you’re getting paid those 1,000,000 of dollars and these broadcast the these these network companies have paid, you know, the amount of money that they have to the NFL, they can’t look like they’re like they’re the JVs.

Mitch Carson [00:41:37]:
Brinkie dink. Right. Yeah. No. They gotta be professional, and Tom is trained. Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:41:42]:
A 100%. Absolutely. Because they

Mitch Carson [00:41:44]:
put him through, you know, speaking school. But he he might have already been fairly literate and comfortable because of all the interviews he’s done. But to then become the person that’s the color commentator, that takes, takes preparation.

Tim Newman [00:41:58]:
Absolutely, it does. So let let’s talk about, you you know, your your business and what you do and and how your your training and how you can, you know, take speakers, you know, get them these these interviews to build that credibility, you know, to get interviews on on TV, radio, and and those types of things.

Mitch Carson [00:42:18]:
I live in Las Vegas. My sweet spot, the reason I do what I do is because as an events producer, I found that a lot of speakers have great content, but they lack the credibility. 2 things, they need a book. This is not necessarily for your audience yet, but later if they wanna endure, or or or participate as a speaker in the future, a paid speaker, gotta have a book, gotta have media behind you. That credentializes you. We go to college to get that BA or BS. If we want an advanced degree, we get that master’s. These credentialize you to then open doors, to get paid, to get booked as a as a speaker.

Mitch Carson [00:43:06]:
It’s it’s book media. Media is critical. It is the highest form of media. I love podcast. I embrace it. I have my own podcast, but it’s not network television. They’ve spent 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars in creating that brand.

Tim Newman [00:43:22]:
Right.

Mitch Carson [00:43:23]:
They are supported through their advertisers. I mean, just like the NFL, we were talking about how do you pay a Tom Brady? How do you pay all these other high level communicators? It’s because they had the credibility to the star power. If it’s a person like you or me, Tim, who aren’t from that star background, which they are superstars, well known, they got to skip the line, but they really didn’t because there’s all sorts of media about Tom Brady. And if in order to get credentialized, I found that to get on TV is the highest, quickest form of credentializing you and opening doors for you as a speaker or as a business owner. Or whatever you’re peddling, you get to peddle at premium prices because you’ve been credentialized. Right. So I put them on TV guaranteed in Las Vegas. You know, 4 networks, the CW, NBC, ABC, and CBS.

Tim Newman [00:44:23]:
Yeah. And and Las Vegas is is kind of a, you know, you know, small market

Mitch Carson [00:44:27]:
Entertain the capital of the world.

Tim Newman [00:44:28]:
There’s there’s nothing going on in Vegas. Right?

Mitch Carson [00:44:31]:
Oh, of course not. It’s the number one event setting in the world.

Tim Newman [00:44:36]:
Exactly. And and, you you go you go to Vegas to get noticed. That’s that’s for sure. I mean, it’s Sure. And and again, it’s it’s about, you know, building that credibility so that you can get those get those, bookings on stage.

Mitch Carson [00:44:58]:
Yes, sir.

Tim Newman [00:45:00]:
You know? So again, you you know, for my audience, this is what’s possible. And and I think if if the if the young professionals see what’s possible, it really kinda helps guide them. Okay. Wow. Never thought about that. You know, this going back to what I’ve, you know, brought it in with, they’re way more entrepreneurial. They’re they’re much much smarter. If we could just get them, you know, to become much better communicators, these types of opportunities are opened up to them.

Tim Newman [00:45:28]:
And then, like you, the whole world opens up. Yep. That’s awesome. Is there anything else we that we didn’t talk about that you’d wanna share with our audience before we?

Mitch Carson [00:45:45]:
Yes. One thing I would like to impart to these people, if you have fear, get over it. Face it. Face everything and rise. That’s my acronym for fear. Face everything and rise, and your income will be 20% higher as a proficient communicator than your classmate or your peer who doesn’t embrace public speaking. Leaders speak speakers are leaders. Yes.

Mitch Carson [00:46:13]:
And they’re perceived as such because they’re willing to risk the embarrassment, risk the fear, work through that fear, and speakers are leaders and become a leader.

Tim Newman [00:46:24]:
Absolutely. That that that’s great advice. Mitch, thanks so much. Where where can can people find you? How how can they get in touch with you? Maybe, work with you, get go through your training.

Mitch Carson [00:46:34]:
Yep. Mitch Carson dot com is my website. You can email me there, or if you’re interested in getting on television in Las Vegas, yes, this is my service, but it’s at Mitch, excuse me, get interviewed guaranteed.comforward/meetwithmitch.

Tim Newman [00:46:54]:
Thanks. And and and I’ll put those websites in in the show notes for everybody. Okay. Mitch, thank you so much for taking some time with us today. I I I really do appreciate it, bud.

Mitch Carson [00:47:04]:
Tim, I appreciate you. Thank you. It was a real privilege to be here.

Tim Newman [00:47:07]:
Alright. Alright, guys. Be sure to visit speaking with confidence podcast.com to join our growing community and register for the Formula For Public Speaking course. Always remember, your voice has the power to change the world. We’ll talk to you next time. Take care.