This week, I’m inviting you into a truly special moment—the Make a Scene book launch party! We celebrated in style here at the Mic Drop Method World Headquarters in Los Angeles with friends, family, clients, and colleagues. There was sangria, a red carpet, and so much love in the room for this book, and I’m thrilled to share part of the experience with you.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
This book—and this party—are about celebrating your voice, your story, and your power. I hope it inspires you to step up, speak out, and, of course, make a scene.
Grab Your Copy of Make a Scene
You can pick up the book at MikeGanino.com/books or wherever you love to shop for books. And if you’ve already read it, please leave a review! Reviews help get the book in front of more people, and I would be so grateful for your support.
Episode Highlights:
Connect with Me:
Don’t Forget to Subscribe & Review:
If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe and leave a review! It means the world to me and helps more people find the podcast.
Final Note:
The stage is set, the spotlight is ready, and your audience is waiting. Let’s step up, speak out, and make our scenes together.
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This episode is something special. My good friend Erin King flips the script and takes over to celebrate the launch of my new book, Make A Scene: Storytelling, Stage Presence, and the Art of Being Unforgettable in Every Spotlight. This book is the culmination of years of coaching, performing, and helping people like you become unforgettable.
In our conversation, Erin and I dive into:
Erin shares what it’s like to work with me as a client (spoiler: there were tears), and we discuss how every moment—on stage or in life—is an opportunity to make a scene.
Timestamps:
01:14 Celebrating the Book Launch
02:17 Mike Ganino's Journey and Achievements
03:08 Challenges and Insights in Writing
17:43 The Five Stage Languages
25:35 Introduction to the Five Stage Languages
25:59 The Revolutionary Rehearsal Process
27:21 Rapid Prototyping Protocol
35:40 Staying Active in the Scene
41:37 Reclaiming Your Voice
52:22 Final Thoughts and Acknowledgements
Links and Resources:
Key Quotes from the Episode:
Take Action:
This isn’t just a podcast episode—it’s an invitation to step into your power as a communicator, storyteller, and human. Tune in, take notes, and let’s make some scenes together. 🎙️✨
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
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In this episode, we talk about storytelling from all perspectives -- how to find your story, how to shape the story, and what it takes to tell it on stage.
My guest this episode is Margot Leitman.
Margot Leitman is an award-winning storyteller, best-selling author, speaker and teacher originally from Matawan, New Jersey.
A leading expert in the growing field of storytelling, Leitman has written two books on the subject: the best-selling, Long Story Short- the Only Storytelling Guide You'll Ever Need and her latest What’s Your Story? A Workbook For the Storyteller in All of Us both from Sasquatch Books. Her comedic memoir, Gawky…Tales of an Extra Long Awkward Phase is available from Seal Press/ Perseus Books.
She has written for NBC, DreamWorks TV, the Hallmark Channel and the PixL Network and a variety of print and online sources including Cosmo and Backstage Magazine. In 2016 she worked as the west coast story scout for This American Life.
Margot is a five-time winner of The Moth StorySLAM, and was the Moth GrandSLAM winner in New York City achieving the series' first ever score of a perfect 10. Her stories have been featured on NPR's “The Moth Podcast,” “Good Food," “Unfictional,” "Strangers," and is a frequent contributor to the popular podcast “RISK!"
Leitman is the founder of the storytelling program at the UCB Theatre, where she has performed in dozens of shows over the years and is a frequent monologist at their flagship show "Asssscat."
Margot travels all over the world as a public speaker, storyteller and teacher. Internationally she has performed and taught at the SPOKEN FEST in Mumbai, India as well as a six-week teaching residency at the Blue Room Theatre in Australia.
In her spare time Leitman is an amateur baker, avid yogi and a devoted bibliophile. A proud graduate of the Ithaca College Theatre Department, Leitman now resides in Los Angeles.
Links
https://www.margotleitman.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/margotleitman/
Books
Long Story Short https://amzn.to/3m8XmM9
What’s Your Story https://amzn.to/3SzgDCF
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
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In this episode, I speak with UK-based comedy director -- Chris Head about storytelling, humor, adding contrast to your speech, and how the Jungian archetypes applying to performers.
We also look behind the scenes of Caroline Goyder's hugely popular (like 9 million views popular) TEDx talk -- where Chris directed her -- to see how these ideas come to life on stage.
Chris Head is a comedy director, teacher and script-editor. He has taught stand-up, sketch and sitcom for twenty years and teaches on the BA Comedy Degree at Bath Spa University. Chris recently script-edited BBC Radio and Channel 4 sitcom scripts, a comedy short film that was a global hit, and a sell-out comedy play seen at Assembly in Edinburgh and Soho Theatre in London (that he also directed). His stand-up directing work has been seen at Soho and Bloomsbury Theatres, Pleasance, Assembly and Underbelly in Edinburgh, and internationally.
Links
IG: https://www.instagram.com/xopherhead/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/chrisheadcomedytraining/
Books
Creating Comedy Narratives: https://amzn.to/3ILobii *affiliate link
A Director’s Guide to the Art of Stand Up: https://amzn.to/3SiAmX9 *affiliate link
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
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In this episode, Mike talks about the big list of "dos" and "donts" when it comes to writing your speaker or podcast introduction.
It's an excerpt from The Mike Drop Method's Magnetic Intro + Bio course -- which helps experts, entrepreneurs, and speakers craft engaging introductions for stages and podcasts as well as bios for show notes + event marketing.
You can get your hands on the workshop at www.mikeganino.com/intro
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
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Jermaine Fowler is the founder of The Humanity Archive. He has spent his life in pursuit of knowledge earning the nickname “the professor.” He is an author, speaker, and storyteller sharing the untold stories of history.
After years of dedication to scholarship and storytelling, Jermaine launched the website and podcast and was able to go full-time to running The Humanity Archive in 2021. He goes “outside the textbooks to find stories that are recognizably human.”
His new book, The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth releases February 28, 2023.
Retelling History with Jermaine Fowler
Links:
The Humanity Archive Podcast
Book: The Humanity Archive, available February 28, 2023 *affiliate link*
Follow Jermaine:
TikTok: @thehumanityarchive
Patreon: @thehumanityarchive
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
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Neen James is the author of Folding TimeTM and Attention PaysTM. She has been named one of the Top 30 Leadership Speakers by Global Guru several years in a row because of her work with companies like Viacom, Comcast, and Virtuoso Travel among others.
Neen has boundless energy, is quick-witted and always offers powerful strategies for prioritizing focus in what matters most — all so you can pay more attention, create more significant moments and increase productivity at work and home.
Whether presenting in person or virtually, Neen is the kind of speaker that engages, educates, entertains, and delivers the real-world solutions that apply in your organization, your home, and your community. She also provides one-on-one consulting in a variety of leadership topics and loves serving her audiences.
Links
https://www.instagram.com/neenjames/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/neenjames/
Books
Attention Pays” https://amzn.to/3kvMB5A *affiliate link
Folding Time: https://amzn.to/3iR8BaN *affiliate link
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
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In this episode, I chat with Maggie Bayless – Founder of ZingTrain, about her entrepreneurial journey of 30 years where she has built training organization that's delivered for hundreds of organizations, including banking, real estate, health care, manufacturing and non-profits.
Maggie’s entrepreneurial journey taught her how to turn failures into positives, or at least how to look deeper and say, “What's the lesson here? How can we improve, improvise, make something different?”
Her decades of running a training and seminar-based business shaped the cultural impact of training and seminars on every organization she worked with. From workshop design to making sure that when someone leaves the room, that they are actually improved afterwards.
Maggie brings an honesty to her training that people appreciate by saying, “This is what we do, this is what's working, this is what's not working. Here are some things we've tried that didn't work. Here are some things that aren't working as well as we'd like them to be, but we think are important and we're continuing to push on.”
Find out more about Maggie
IG: https://www.instagram.com/zingtrain/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/ZingTrain/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zingtrain-zingermans-training-inc/
Web: https://www.zingtrain.com
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
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If there's a place where scholarship and smart ideas are spread, then Dr. Anthony Jack has probably been featured there.
In this episode, I chat with Dr. Anthony Jack -- the Assistant Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the author of the book, The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students, about his journey to the testament that “even undreamt dreams come true” and how communication is pivotal in creating accessible content, both written and spoken.
Anthony’s TEDxCambridge talk from 2019 created conversations in a time when acceptance scandals dominated the headlines. He was, and is, the expert on inequality in higher education.
His ideas have been on the front page of the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the Atlantic, the New Yorker, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Huffington Post, among others.
His book, The Privileged Poor, continues to create conversations around access and inclusion in higher education. And while one reviewer of his book said, “It is so well written that anyone can pick it up and understand it. There's no specific academic language in which to signal to other academics.” His take is, “If my mama can’t read it; I don’t wanna write it.”
The Privileged Poor on Amazon.
TEDxCambridge Talk, “On Diversity: Access Ain’t Inclusion”
Washington Post article, “I was a first-generation college student, an elite college admissions scandal reopens old wounds.”
New York Times article, “I was a low-income college student. Classes were not the hard part.”
Instagram: @aajack07
Twitter: @tony_jack
Website: anthonyabrahamjack.com
www.mikeganino.com/blog/undreamt-dreams-with-anthony-jack-episode-43
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
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Are you looking for ways to make your business more successful in 2023? In this episode, Mike Ganino shares insights on what worked in 2022 and what's ahead in 2023. He also talks about the importance of making bets and staying improvisational in your business. If you're looking for ways to take your business to the next level, this episode is a must-listen!
1. What worked in 2022 and what's ahead in 2023
2. Finding your mic drop moment
3. Making bets instead of setting goals
4. The importance of audio in 2023
5. Small live retreats and events
6. The $100,000 speaker offer
7. Spiritual new age stories
8. Mike's big bet for 2023
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
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When it comes to being introduced on stage, podcasts, and panels - it's common to just grab you About Page bio and send it over. But that's cost you A LOT when it comes to propping up your topic, expertise, and voice.
In this episode, we explore why you shouldn't be using your "About Page" as your introduction for public speaking gigs, podcast interviews, and panel conversations.
This episode is pulled directly from our Magnetic Intro + Bio workshop which gives you everything you need to have a stellar introduction and sizzling media bio (including some fill-in-the-blank Mad Lib Style worksheets).
Learn more about the course (and how ridiculously affordable it is) at www.mikeganino.com/intro
Let's talk about a little problem that a lot of coaches, entrepreneurs and public speakers run into. And you never really realize it until the moment you need the help. And it's usually too late. I'm talking about that podcast introduction, I'm talking about that stage introduction. And that little bio that goes along with it. You know, the thing that's listed in the podcast notes, the part that's put on the website for the event or printed out in the, in the event details for people. And then that part of it, where they introduce you before you go on stage, where they're saying your name, and your accolades, and what you've done and who you are the part when you're on a podcast, and they say, let me tell you about the guest today. Yeah, that part, it's one of the most important pieces of your whole package as an entrepreneur, coach, or public speaker. And yet, it's one we often give little attention to. Well, we've given some attention to it, we have a course called magnetic intro and bio. And we're grabbing one of the modules from that course, to put into this episode of the mic drop moment to kind of give you some ideas of how you might think differently. This is all about why your about page copy isn't going to work as your stage intro or your media bio, why you need to think differently about it and how to start understanding that. And if you want our help in the full course, kind of version, you could go to Mike ganino.com/intro, to grab the full version of this. But here is just a little bit of why your about page copy should not be your intro for podcast and stages. So you have a story to tell. And you wonder how to own the stage and give that killer speech that will captivate the masses, you don't just want to speak to them. You want to transform your audience. Welcome to the mic drop moment. It's bold conversations about public speaking, storytelling and business that give you real world valuable takeaways. So you can craft a speech, a story of business and a life that the world can't stop talking about. It's time to find your mic drop moment. Here's your host, Mike De Nino. Unknown Speaker 2:04 You probably have an about page bio somewhere you have this thing that's on your website that talks about what you do, how you came to be, why you do it, who you do it with all of those things. And that doesn't work for a stage intro or podcast intro and it doesn't work for your media bio. Here's the reason why your stage intro has a different job. It is not about a passive website visitor coming to your website and saying, let me learn about Kathy, let me see what Kathy is all about. Let me see how Kathy works with people. It's not somebody popping in and being like, let me see if Christy's values align with mine if she's been where I've been before. That's not the job of your that's the job on your about page. But it's not the job of your intro, your intro was there to pump them up, we're going to talk about the three jobs it has in a moment when clo comes back with us. It is about really helping the audience get excited about what's going to happen on that podcast or on that stage. The same thing happens for your media bio, which is printed in the show notes or is printed in the I call it a playbill theater guy here. But the little pamphlet or agenda that they give away at a conference, maybe the app for the conference of the website that is about when I see that Brandon is going to be on stage. I go and look up Brandon in the manual in the in the workbook in the playbill to see who's Brandon, what's he all about? That is about credibility. And that is about setting you up of how you work with people. We're going to dive into all of this, those are two different jobs than your about page bio. And you should have all three, an intro, a media bio, and then you're about page with however you're going to approach that there's lots of schools of thoughts there. So let's talk about what's changed a little bit here. The the to do to do there we go. Let's talk about what's changed your audience has more options than ever when it comes to podcasts. When it comes to speaking they have more options for their attention. So if you right off the bat, don't get our attention. If you right off the bat at the beginning of your speech don't before you even take the stage don't get us saying wait a second this might be for me. Then I am just seconds away from watching the Meghan Trainor, Taylor Swift whatever the latest trending dance song is on Tik Tok. I'm gonna be over there scrolling and scrolling and you know how they tell you on reels and tick tock to caption it because a lot of people listen without sound. Have you heard this? Put your captions because people listen that's on. It's the people sitting in the audience of boring speeches who can't turn it on because it's rude. So they're scrolling through watching tick tock and reels. And if you aren't a podcast and the introduction that the host gives you doesn't set it up then guess what I'm going right on down to the next podcast. There's someone else with a clear setup for me. So the attention of your audience is is really changed quite a bit. Everyone today is also an expert. There a speaker go type and speaker on LinkedIn and you will see 1000s and 1000s 10s of 1000s maybe a million people who are speakers, maybe their TEDx speakers, even their keynote speakers there Unknown Speaker 5:00 corporate trainers, all of those things don't make us stand out. And so if that is what your bio is full of is, is an expert is a speaker has worked with big brands like Disney and this and that I cloud that I've worked with Disney before. Sony, like a million other people, it's not that special. Although you are special, don't get me wrong, I think you're very special. Unknown Speaker 5:19 And everyone, everyone's coached everyone to be a nine figure entrepreneur, okay? So that being the thing you lead with isn't enough to get me to stick around. Because there's a lot of other options with similar credentials, and you are a unicorn, you're not made to not stand out. And your audience also has more access to knowledge and information which needs they they need your angle they need to help understand in your introduction, and in your bio, what exactly is your take on this topic? If you're here to share the five ways to grow your Instagram? Is this the same thing? I can Google and read a blog post about properly 1000s of blog posts about what is your specific angle on this that's going to be refreshing and different? We're gonna show you how to do that in a moment. So that's what's new. But let's talk about how it's always worked before with Chloe. Chloe DiVita 6:02 Yes, the old way. You know, we all have been here where we could, we didn't want to do this, right? So we did. But we saw the people who thought oh, they could fool them with their pinstripes, they get on stage, they look classy. They're all nice, right? You just think the intro doesn't matter, because I'm gonna get up there. And I'm gonna just look the part. And that just doesn't work anymore. Maybe it used to be that they didn't know other authors. They didn't know show hosts. They didn't know coaches, it was sort of a unique thing, right? It wasn't everybody had it. It wasn't in everybody's bio, like Mike just mentioned, it wasn't like they, you could just tune in to someone's radio show. And that was special. Now there's podcasts and many, many, many people have podcasts. So it's not important anymore. The way it used to be right, because everything is fancy. Now, everybody who takes the stage is fancy in some way now, and has those things behind them. So that's the old way. And Mike already hinted at this is what's changing. But in the past, they literally couldn't go anywhere, right? They were in front of you whether they were listening, whether they were watching whether they were seated, they didn't have a device that you could pull out of their pocket, watch captions of TiC tock videos, that just didn't happen. There was no little dopamine they could get from a different place because you weren't providing it. That's the way it used to be. But it's not that way anymore. It's shifting. Unknown Speaker 7:28 Yeah. And Sylvia, I see your I see your comment over here. Great info. It's only the first few minutes looking forward to the rest. Thank you. We love you know, we are performers. And we love praise. So thank you for that kind word. Okay, close. So if that's the change, and that's the old way, what what are we after here? What are we trying to do? Yeah, so our big goal here, right? What we should be working towards what we need to do is to set the stage right, what are we there to share with them, we want to be laying it out so that they are doing all the things Mike has already mentioned going, I'm excited to listen, I want to hear, right, you want to get them on your side and your side of the topic specifically. So the minute someone starts talking about you, you're you have started, right? It might not be you speaking yet your words are coming out just yet. But somebody else has started talking about you, which means you have started. So that's the beginning of your speech. That's the beginning of your interview. That is the very beginning and you want to use it. So the audience thinks, hmm, that's interesting. I need to listen, I'm curious, you know, you want them to know your topic and be on your side. And the other thing is, you really want them to feel excited so that you feel the swagger that sort of comes from a pumped up audience. And now that's a little bit that can vary, right? If we're talking about walking into a stadium, there's definitely an energy you're trying to live there. If you're talking about walking into a room of 12 people, it might not be the same podcast also a little bit different. But the goal is to get them excited, the audience should be excited so that when you walk out, you feel their energy and you can bring everything you have to get them excited. I love it. And so so where do we get stuck? Where do we end up getting stuck, we get stuck because Unknown Speaker 9:15 and I'm not going to make anyone raise their hands because my dang hand would be raised the whole time through this. I'm guilty as charged, I have sinned when it comes to doing all of this. We hope that the intro that we give will buy us enough credibility that the audience either listening to the podcast or reading about us in the booklet for this stage intro. We hope that the control bias enough credibility that the audience leans back and says, Oh, he is more important than me. So I should shut up and listen. Unknown Speaker 9:44 By the way, if we can learn anything from the Gen Z's out there is that we don't need to listen to authority just because their authority, they gotta earn that right. Okay, that's a little nod to my gen z's. I love my gen z's. I think we got a couple in here today. So hoping that the intro will buy us enough credibility that they say oh, I should Unknown Speaker 10:00 Listen, because he wants to read a book by Steve Jobs, who cares? Nobody cares. What are you here to help me with today? We think that Unknown Speaker 10:08 we mess up by putting our insights edge I call your insights edge, that moment where you're on the edge of like really being excited learning about something, what you're here to share, that's your insights edge, we put it into bondage, because we dress it up for church. It's like when Bart Simpson goes to church on that TV show The Simpsons, and he comes over his hair and puts on a suit and he loses all of the things that make him him. That's what happens so much to our creativity, our individuality and the specific edge we have and the insight when we start to wrap it up and make it sound professional enough, professional enough to who you know, like, Unknown Speaker 10:45 you know who I'm talking about, we don't need to be professional for them. And then finally, the last one is putting out the buffet hoping that something sticks we put in everything we've ever done being like someone somewhere will relate to this and find it important. So let me put in every acronym, every certification, every school, every stage of ever shared, every person I've ever shake hands with hoping something will do. I am guilty of this, you're probably not guilty of all of them. I am, but maybe you've done one or two over the days, we're gonna help you break that habit. That's just a little snippet of our course magnetic intro and bio, where it walks you through exactly things like this video, but also how to craft your intro, we've got the intro formula, there's the madlib formula where you just fill in the blank, and then also how to write a media bio, the bio that goes along with this so that you really do build the case for what you're there to do and create all this SEO worthy power for being all over the internet on podcasts and event, event placements event websites. So if you're interested in learning more about this course and hearing the rest of it beyond this video, this is just one of like 14 small modules, then go over to Mike ganino.com/intro. And that will get you access, give you all the information so you can get access to the course and and even possibly work with us a little bit so you can get feedback on your intro and bio. That's it for this episode. We'll see you next time. Unknown Speaker 12:10 This episode has ended but your journey doesn't have to head on over to Mike De nino.com. access all the resources and links that Mike and his guests share today and keep on crafting your own story. That's Mike De nino.com. Your audience is waiting, isn't it time to find your hashtag mic drop moment.
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
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In this episode, I chat with Adela Hussain -- the creator of Pitch to Press, PR Hero School, and The Spotlight Salon about how speakers and entrepreneurs can get more media by learning how to create an irresistible pitch.
Adela’s the founder of Starts Ups & Co and is a master at helping you pitch your business to people that don’t know you…yet.
Adela discovered she had a talent for pitching when she first started doing PR for her own fashion tech start up and was featured in 14 publications in 12 months, including the Harvard Business Review without pitching!
Known for her high energy and laser-sharp thinking, Adela she spent 20 years as a management consultant and did cool stuff like help British Airways acquire an airline, be a on a new board for Sky and boss men around in India for tech tool launches.
Her Pitch to Press programme and PR Hero School have helped hundreds of founders fall in love with PR and master their media pitching to sky rocket their sales.
Find out more about Adela
IG: https://www.instagram.com/startupsandco
FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/prhero
Download my free guide 10 steps to get your business in the media on zero budget at https://www.pitchtopress.com/
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio.
🦄While your audience's attention span is NOT shorter than a goldfish (seriously -- the research on that does not say what people says it says) -- your audience's attention does have MANY options these days.
And no one wants to listen to content that doesn't help them in some way.
So how do you create a #mikedropmoment worthy speech where the audience leans in and says "I'll have what she's having?"
Watch the live stream to learn the 5 ingredients our clients are mastering to have standing ovation (or virtual chat on fire 🔥) moments in their speeches, talks, and presentations.
If you want to work with us to create and take your speaking to the next level (whether you're a “professional speaker,” or a “sometime speaker,” or a coach, or an entrepreneur)...
We’re hosting a private training for those who apply to work with us.
You just have to fill out that application to get your private invite to the FREE deep dive training.
We’ll share a lot more details on the private call... looking forward to seeing your application!
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio.
🎤 How our clients are tapping into totally new levels of audience reach, authentic presence, and “that’s the best speaker I’ve ever seen” comments (after putting in the hard work of course!) 🎤
Within a few days of working on their speech content and delivery, our clients are say things like:
😮 feeling much more confident and engaging
👋 getting referrals and spin off gigs from speaking
🦄 able to be more themselves on stage and screen
Watch the live stream to learn the 5 languages my clients are mastering to have standing ovation (or virtual chat on fire 🔥) moments in their speeches, talks, and presentations.
➡️➡️➡️ If you want to work with us to create and take your speaking to the next level 💫(whether your a “professional speaker,” or a “sometime speaker,” or a coach, or an entrepreneur)...
We’re hosting a private training for those who apply to work with us.
✨ www.mikeganino.com/apply ✨
You just have to fill out that application to get your private invite to the FREE deep dive training.
We’ll share a lot more details on the private call... looking forward to seeing your application! 🎤
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio.
In this episode, Jamie Varon talks about the creative process of writing her new book, Radically Content: Being Satisfied in an Endlessly Dissatisfied World.
Jamie's writing has been featured on Huffington Post, Fusion, Complex/NTRSCTN, Medium, Thought Catalog, GOOD, Teen Vogue, The Liberty Project, and SF Weekly. She's a writer, designer, digital course creator, and consultant.
Apply to work with Mike: www.mikeganino.com/apply
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
Would you like to deliver your own private podcast feed to your audience? Sign up for a free trial today at Hello Audio.
On March 17, 2022, I was one of the three contestants on Wheel of Fortune.
I originally did a Zoom audition way back on March 16, 2021.
On this episode, I share about:
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
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Biography
Peachez Iman Cummings is NYC's newest and Juiciest rising star. The drag daughter of renowned activist and drag legend, Marti Gould Cummings, she is focused on using her platform to highlight Black queens in the city's seemingly monochromatic nightlife scene. In addition to drag, she sits on the board of directors of HelpNYC, is passionately involved with local government and volunteers with multiple ordinations through the city. Pairing high energy performance with a clear point of view, Peachez will feed your mind, body and soul.
Connect with
Press
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[00:00:00] Mike Ganino: It all came to me in a dream. A brand new website. Most people probably don't dream of websites in the night, or actually, if you are in love with your business or, you know, you can't stop thinking about it, maybe do dream of it. But my new website came to me in a dream and it was illustrated and it had story and I knew it was time to make the change.
[00:00:32] Mike Ganino: But I also had invested a lot of money building my previous website, which won a ton of awards, best public speaker website, greatest personal brand website. So why was I willing to risk it all? And why might your website be ready for you to make a change? We're going to talk about all of that on this episode of the Mike drop moment.
[00:00:52] [00:01:00]
[00:01:40] Mike Ganino: For a long time, I've taken issue with people who are speakers on storytelling or teach storytelling, and then their websites, their content, even their speeches. Don't actually involve any stories we stand up and we say, you should use stories. You need to tell stories, stories of the best. And then we don't actually [00:02:00] use any stories in our own work. And that was one of the things that woke me up that night.
[00:02:04] Mike Ganino: When I thought I want to redo my website. It was that impartially, that a few things, my business had changed my goals to change. My offers had changed. And it was time to make a change. And for me, I knew right away that I wanted to have this. Illustrated website, a website that told a story, not only with the words that were on it, not only with the way that the pages were sequenced and the journey that a website visitor.
[00:02:30] Mike Ganino: Website. Of viewer of finder, whatever they're called. Would go on, but also one that ain, actual character on the page goes through. And that's when you meet Zoe. Zoe is the Fox character that is that is used throughout the brand new Mick menino.com. To tell the story of someone who has something to say it was a message to share with the world.
[00:02:55] Mike Ganino: And goes on this journey towards gathering. Uh, [00:03:00] consortium gathering momentum, gathering energy behind her movement. And that was really the vision I had when I, when I woke up that day. And so I started, I went on this journey to kind of find. Someone who could illustrate the website. In the way that I wanted, because I didn't want just something kind of abstract. And like, I didn't want doodles. I wanted like a, full-on like fable storytelling website. And that's how I found the team over at Detra forum who did all of the website, all the copy, all the illustrations for me, for the site.
[00:03:33] Mike Ganino: One of the things that. I think is applicable probably for you and your business as well is really knowing when is the right time to change a website because there's also. A little bit of a risk that doing a whole new website can be just a form of procrastination, of not doing the things you should be doing, putting out the content, making the sales that you should be doing because you're constantly reworking the colors and things like that.
[00:03:58] Mike Ganino: I have enough friends [00:04:00] in the, in the brand and design space to, to realize that that's a real risk. And it also keeps a lot of people in business who do that kind of work. But for me, this is where it came down to. And I wonder if for some of you, it might not be the same. A lot of the public speakers that I work with in my coaching, the time comes for them to do a new website because of these reasons. Number one is that the business has changed. Maybe when you originally started your website, what you did was, you know, X, Y, and Z, and now you're doing a, B and C.
[00:04:32] Mike Ganino: So has your business shifted. Are the kinds of things that people come to you for different. Should there be a new way of packaging that and telling that story? In my case, My previous website that was designed by the glorious Jamie Vera and who I believe is a retired maybe for mostly doing this work. That's what I've heard from people I've referred to her.
[00:04:51] Mike Ganino: Um, she's writing what will become. A best selling book right now. Or that comes out in 2022, but [00:05:00] she designed the website. I'd gotten a ton of a ton of like fan girling because of that, because she's just so iconic. And so my previous website was gorgeous. It was a beautiful, it was designed by one of the best designers out there. I worked with my friend, Erin Lindstrom on all of the words that were most of the words that were on the website as well. So they were just so perfect for what I was doing.
[00:05:24] Mike Ganino: Which was being a public speaker. I was aiming at speaking. So my website's goal was to generate public speaking leads for me on a stage teaching. I was out there talking to organizations, associations about storytelling. And. It worked beautifully. I mean, I was booked and busy for many, many years with that website, it did a beautiful job at what it was supposed to do. It also won several awards for like best speaker website, great personal brand website.
[00:05:56] Mike Ganino: Uh, so many times people reached out to me and said, oh my [00:06:00] gosh, your website is exactly like meeting you in person. And that was really the goal of that site. And it did it. That's what it was supposed to do, but my business has shifted. In the last, probably two and a half years, but really significantly in the last year and a half.
[00:06:15] Mike Ganino: Towards working specifically with speakers. Now, I still do a little bit of work here and there. Uh, teaching executives and sales teams, how to use storytelling and how to present. Their sales pitches and how to present at conferences and things like that. But most of my work these days is from working with people like you, individuals who are on the other end of the podcast, listening while working out or walking the dog or in the car, wherever you're going to on an airplane.
[00:06:43] Mike Ganino: If you're headed somewhere. I work with people on their speeches, on their performance of their speeches. And so the website that showcased me as a speaker was no longer as relevant. So my business had changed. And that's one of the things I think for, for you [00:07:00] maybe. Is when your business changes significantly, your website needs to follow you. So that one you don't, you don't worry about giving it out to someone that someone says, oh, how can I find you? And you're like, Ooh, don't look at my website. It doesn't really do a good job of displaying what I do anymore.
[00:07:15] Mike Ganino: Now that doesn't mean that if your business shifts a little bit, you need a whole new rebrand and you need to go using gorgeously illustrated images like we did for Mike adeno.com. That had a whole different point for me, but it does mean that you need to think about. Whether your website is serving the purpose, it needs to serve in supporting your business. And so that was one of the big reasons that I woke up that night and dreamed of like it's time to do a new website was my business had shifted so significantly.
[00:07:47] Mike Ganino: The second thing. The second reason that you might want to rethink your website is that your clients change. Now, those two things can be inner changeable, right? That your business shifted. And so your clients did as well, but they don't have to be, they can be [00:08:00] separate. For example, if your business shifts.
[00:08:03] Mike Ganino: And your still working with the same kinds of clients, then a lot of your branding on there might still work the same types of colors and feelings, the same types of words. Those might all still work. The same images might still work for you. But it might be that both have changed, which was, again, in my case, what happened? My brand had changed because I was, or my business had changed.
[00:08:26] Mike Ganino: Because I was doing less speaking and more and almost exclusively coaching people on public speaking and storytelling and performance. And my clients had shifted from being mostly associations and people that were coming to my website, really, for it as a brochure of what it would be like to hire me for their event.
[00:08:45] Mike Ganino: And more for people that were making the decision to work with me on their talks. So what those people needed to see my new clients really needed to see less of like Mike is wonderful on stage. You should hire him. He'll make your event amazing. He's the shot of energy for [00:09:00] your conference. And more.
[00:09:02] Mike Ganino: The kinds of testimonials that are on my site now that I helped people find their story, that I helped them have the confidence to stand on stage and give it that I helped them unlock new levels of their own performance, that I helped them create the mic drop moment, standing ovation, worthy part of their speech.
[00:09:19] Mike Ganino: And so my clients had shifted in, so the website needed to shift to that was really clear to me. Now the third thing for me. And maybe you, if you're thinking about redoing your content, your website, Is that my intellectual property had changed. Uh, again, I had gone from, from teaching storytelling to executives, organizations, leaders, sales teams.
[00:09:40] Mike Ganino: To teaching public speakers, authors, entrepreneurs, how to use storytelling for sure onstage, but also how to become the kind of public speaker people talk about. And remember the kind of person who goes from being a. Really smart. Subject matter expert to a [00:10:00] transformational storyteller on that stage. And in that process,
[00:10:03] Mike Ganino: My intellectual property around that had gotten better. My. Signature. Frameworks, I guess, in a way, how I teach rapid prototyping, which is my method of going from idea to stage ready speech. My. Uh, specific teaching around storytelling and the storyteller's journey and how, as a thought leader, we can't just get up there and say the same types of things everyone else says, but that we have to include our personal stories.
[00:10:32] Mike Ganino: Our vision for what the future could look like in our work. And so as my intellectual property started getting better, the website needed to follow suit as well. And that's where you can see as you go along. If you look even on the about page, you'll see, there are specific little things that call out.
[00:10:47] Mike Ganino: What do I believe? What is my methodology now? And so my intellectual property was better. It was more specific. It was more tailored. And so we weave that through this brand new website as well. Now. [00:11:00] I was talking about my website. And one of the things I wanted it specifically to do was to tell a story. And so you can see if you go to Mike and yanno.com, if you're like sitting at your computer and want to follow along.
[00:11:11] Mike Ganino: You could see that from the very beginning, this is a different website. I was a little bit scared. Not react. I was scared to not scared, you know, that feeling when you're like, maybe I'm a little bit nervous to do this, but I absolutely know it's the right thing to do. I was feeling that when we designed this, because.
[00:11:29] Mike Ganino: I've never seen a coach like me. Who uses an illustrated. Creature. And illustrated animal to tell a story. And that's exactly what we did with Zoe, who is the character of this Fox on the first page, who wants to come alive and ditch the template and share the world, but doesn't know how to do it. And so you see, as you scroll this first page of the website, the homepage where you introduced to her at the top, and then you scroll down and there she is in the forest, standing on a [00:12:00] soapbox.
[00:12:00] Mike Ganino: Uh, telling her story, trying to raise her flag and no one's really paying attention. All the other animals in this, this forest scenar are kind of ignoring her. And you notice they're all north American forest animals. Uh, later you'll see that those shift. And as you scroll down, you'll see her kind of getting clarity, figuring out her story in a more intimate setting. And as you keep scrolling, you'll see all the creatures from that north American forest, getting excited about her message and bringing others along. Like they see themselves in it so much that they want others to follow along.
[00:12:34] Mike Ganino: And then as you get to the bottom, you'll see Zoe, they're standing by a campfire. Uh, telling the story and all of these, these, these animals, these creatures out there listening and enthralled in it. And that's really the story I wanted to tell. Is that that's possible for all of us. And so for me, the illustrated bit of it was a way to really tell.
[00:12:56] Mike Ganino: A story using classic storytelling [00:13:00] devices, like the animals, like the campfire, we all gather around campfire at some point. Uh, to, to tell our stories, to share lessons, to, to share what we've learned out there. And so all of this was about being able to, to really tell that story without having to use a bunch of photos of myself or stock images of people that aren't real.
[00:13:19] Mike Ganino: I wanted this to, to not only be a story that it was telling, but also to play into all of the classic tomes and ideas and richness that you would find in fables and fairytales in storytelling. And even when you follow Zoe over to the VIP coaching page, which is where people can learn about working with me, one-on-one.
[00:13:42] Mike Ganino: On their content on there. On their speeches, their stories, their media training. Uh, you'll see there that there's even an illustrated version of me. That's coaching Zoe. Uh, that actually came from a real photo shoot for my last website, where I had worked with, uh, there was a picture of me working with someone one-on-one and they illustrated me and [00:14:00] they, they put Zoe in as the person I was coaching.
[00:14:03] Mike Ganino: And as you scroll down on that website, you'll see that at the end. Uh, she's now meeting with a bunch of people. She's done this VIP coaching, and now she's meeting with a bunch of creatures and the creatures, the animals in this one have changed to be a global audience. Now there's an elephant, there's a zebra, there's a lion, there's a monkey, there's a rhinoceros.
[00:14:20] Mike Ganino: And all of those are really popped up. There's like an antelope. All of those are really popped up to be a little more visual and all those north American ones are a little more kind of stencilled or lightly illustrated in the background. Uh, sketched in if you will. And so even that was part of what I wanted.
[00:14:38] Mike Ganino: The story to weave the story, to tell. And so as we crafted this, not only was. That illustrated story important, but also the words and the copy. And that's where, again, working with the team I worked with, they really helped to put this story together in a way that was truly a story that was truly someone wanting something going after it [00:15:00] stumbling along the way, and finally achieving it through.
[00:15:03] Mike Ganino: Transforming themselves, which is the work I do with people as they get ready to take the stage that they want to take in their, their. You know, life and their business. And so for me, those were the reasons it was time to blow up my $20,000 website. My previous website that I had spent a ton of a ton of money, resources, time building, uh, and creating this new one. And so.
[00:15:28] Mike Ganino: It also was a little bit, I don't know. A little bit of like, I'm ready for 20, 22 it's time to make the change. For so long, I was like sending people to random landing pages because they would want to come work with me on their TEDx talk, or they had a book that was coming out and we were going to work on the speech for the book, or they were just coming to me to work in general on speaking. And I would send them to a specific landing page here or there because my website wasn't built to do the job I needed it to do, which was to help people understand what it would be like working with me as a public speaking coach.
[00:15:58] Mike Ganino: And so this new [00:16:00] site. Was.
[00:16:03] Mike Ganino: About cleaning that up, clarifying that, but also about taking it to that very next level. I've never seen another business coach with an illustrated website like this, and I've seen very few people that sell storytelling. Whether it's through copy through spoken word. Through workshops through keynote speeches. I've seen very few of them.
[00:16:25] Mike Ganino: Actually use storytelling on the sites. And I wanted something that did both of that, that night when I had that dream and I woke up in the cold sweat saying, it's time to change this. It was that, that I dreamed of, of somebody landing on this page and being taken on an experience. And that's what I hope for you too, as you're thinking about, is it time to make changes to your website or your content is, has your business shifted? That was the first question I ask. Have your clients changed along the way?
[00:16:51] Mike Ganino: Has your IP advanced, uh, to a new level where you can bring more of that into your work? Uh, because that's what you know you're [00:17:00] doing. It's, it's the clarity, the specificity that I teach in storytelling, you can weave into. Into your website and ultimately. Is your website working for you? Is it telling the story it needs to tell, is it doing what it needs to do? Is it generating the leads that you need it to lead? And if you're.
[00:17:17] Mike Ganino: Creating a website as a public speaker, which mine is no longer that there's a speaking page hidden on there somewhere, but then I'll send out to people specifically want to bring me in, to work with their, with their teams or their association, but. What you have to ask yourself for your speaking website is, does it do what I need it to do?
[00:17:38] Mike Ganino: Clarify my IP. Really, really make it clear what my business is and drive leads to my speaking business. Then. That's a big question. We should all be asking as we head into to new years, new months, new weeks is does my website work for me?
[00:17:58] [00:18:00]
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
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In this episode, I speak with bestselling author and public speaking Erin King about storytelling, building an authentic stage presence, and what it takes to to build a great brand in a digital world.
Erin King is a best-selling author, 3x entrepreneur and the CEO of the Socialite Agency. She’s helped clients ranging from The Academy Awards in Hollywood to The United States Navy at the Pentagon communicate more compellingly using her award-winning PUB method. She is the author of “Digital Persuasion” and “You’re Kind of a Big Deal” which both draw from her personal and professional experiences having founded three companies before the age of 40. Off-duty, you can find her either mountain biking with her husband Hartman, Facetiming with her huge, crazy Irish family, or being an annoyingly extra dog mom to a cavapoo named Betty White.
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
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Instagram can be a lot of fun -- and a lot of stress for entrepreneurs, public speakers, and storytellers who are trying to figure out how to use the platform to connect with their audience. From stories to reels, there's no shortage of ways for you to connect and deepen your relationship -- but how do you do it right? What really matters? And do you have to start dancing and pointing at words on your screen?
I wanted to get to the bottom of it -- so I asked Tyler J. McCall to be do some Instagram myth busting on this episode of the Mike Drop Moment.
We talk about:
Tyler J. McCall is a business and Instagram marketing strategist for online business owners and digital entrepreneurs. He focuses on using Instagram and social media to tell stories, build relationships, and convert followers to fans, drawing from his 10 years of experience in non-profit marketing and community organizing. Since 2015, Tyler has taught thousands of entrepreneurs how to start, grow, and scale their online businesses. He is the founder of the Follower to Fan Society - an online Instagram marketing training program - and of the Online Business Association - the first and only professional association for online business owners and digital entrepreneurs. Tyler is based in Asheville, North Carolina where he lives with his husband Eric. When he’s not coaching or teaching, Tyler enjoys Target runs and road trips…that he documents on his Instagram Stories.
Check out Tyler's webinar: www.tylerjmccall.com/free
Instagram | www.instagram.com/tylerjmccall
Join me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mikeganino
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