Words are currency and can change lives, but also save them. After I worked an airplane crash as a crisis team leader for a major airline, I was impacted on many levels and wrote a book about it. The process was healing, and my publisher in New York asked me to be on Dateline, The Discovery Channel, and many shows. I realized that I didn’t love the spotlight, but I did love changing lives with words, and OnFire Books was born from that crossroads moment. Today we sell and broker books, write books, and create major speaker platforms. I have a book in house now for a client who sold 4 million books and has 4 New York Times bestsellers. Our goal is to help him get his 5th. Every speaker is different.
Our world’s foundation is literally built on words, whether it’s spoken in a presidential debate, job interview, or love relationship. When I write a TEDx talk or audition a speaker, I always make sure their story is authentic. Too polished doesn’t work today in our reality society. You’ve got to be real and live. You’ve got to be vulnerable and honest and consistent.
Who wants that perfect friend? No one is going to share their biggest fears with someone too perfect. And none of us are. This is where this field is so rewarding. You can get paid for being vulnerable. And a good segue is that in the first five years, I never told anyone my own story, which is that I live to save lives because I couldn’t save my fathers.
He committed suicide after a breakup in which words got heated and played a part in the way he felt about his life.
I built a multi-million dollar company from a foundation of saving lives because it’s all I ever wanted to do. I challenge each one of us to ask ourselves, what’s my legacy?
At Zig Ziglar’s 80th birthday party, he told me he had traveled the world speaking and missed a lot of his kids’ events. He seemed remorseful about that. As a speaker coach and owner of one of the world’s top book and branding companies, I’m always concerned for the author.
How can I equip them to be more powerful in sharing their message with the world?
How can we promote them on shows, podcasts, or articles to reach millions?
During Covid, we created a virtual speakers bureau right away as a solution for our speakers. I had a couple of the top speakers in the world call me in crisis because their events had been canceled. They made millions in 2019 and zero in 2020 on the books after covid, so I hosted a 3-week event with 21 days of speakers in conjunction with our corporate clients.
It’s hard to be courageous enough to share the darkest moments of your life struggles.
Speaking is simply telling your story. Those who can do it authentically, are the real heroes.