How the CEO of a cleaning business started a speaking career
I'm often asked how I started my speaking career. The truth is, just like I never intended to start a cleaning business, I never really set out to be a speaker.
When I started Student Maid, I was a finance major at the University of Florida, and a lot of my classes were in the business school. As Student Maid grew, I would ask my professors for advice on things that were happening in my business, and some of them became like mentors to me. One of those professors, Dr. Rossi, taught entrepreneurship, and he asked me to share my experience of starting a business with his classes while I was still a student.
I will never forget the first time I first spoke for his class. I was so nervous: I wrote down everything I was going to say on a sheet of paper ahead of time. When I got up in front of the class, I didn't look up even once. I kept my head down and read from my paper the entire time. I still cringe when I think about it, but at the time, I thought I’d done a great job.
The next semester, Professor Rossi asked me to come back and speak for his class again. I did the same thing: I wrote my speech down on paper and planned to read it word-for-word. Except this time, when I walked into the class, Professor Rossi took the paper out of my hand. He said, “Please don’t do that. Speak from your heart!” So I did. And two things happened: I really connected with the students, and I felt really fulfilled doing it.
After that, I continued to speak for Professor Rossi’s class, and a few other professors in the business school asked me to talk to their classes, too. I quickly realized that I had a passion for speaking. I loved sharing what I was learning as a leader and entrepreneur, and I thought my story could help people. I began to look for other speaking opportunities on campus, and there were many: Professors were always looking for speakers, and they were also really connected in the community. What started to happen is that the more I put myself out there, the more people heard about me. In addition to the talks I gave on campus, I’d speak at business networking events, chamber of commerce events, nonprofit fundraisers, and more.
Over time, I began to notice how much speaking was taking me away from Student Maid. And while I loved doing it because it was a passion of mine, it also had a real cost: It meant that when I was speaking, I wasn’t focused on growing my business or putting my full attention there. I realized that if I wanted to feel good about pursuing this new passion full-throttle, it needed to benefit the business as well. I had met other speakers who made businesses out of speaking, and I decided that I would try to do the same. I began to look for paid speaking opportunities, which was quite an uncomfortable shift for me.
My first-ever paid gig was in Colorado. Someone I knew asked me to speak, and it was the first talk that I decided I’d charge for. I can’t remember the exact fee I asked for—it couldn’t have been more than a couple hundred dollars—but I remember feeling very nervous to put a value on my speaking. Looking back, my plane ticket cost more than my speaking fee! But in those early years, I was experimenting and learning, and each paid event led to another. Anytime I gave a talk, I would ask that client to refer me to others if they felt I did a good job. I kept my fees low and used every speech as a learning opportunity.
The real turning point was when I started working with an agency called CAMPUSPEAK, which connects speakers to college students and campuses. A friend of mine had been a speaker for them, and he told me he thought I would be a great fit. I applied, went through the interview process, and got a spot on their roster, and for several years, I traveled to campuses all over the country.
Colleges and student groups turned out to be the best testing ground. I got valuable feedback, tried out all kinds of content, and learned a ton. The audience size was all over the place: anywhere from a dozen students to more than 1,000. I spoke to sororities, fraternities, leadership groups—any leadership or business-related extracurricular you could imagine. When I look back, I think that was the experience that really made me the speaker that I am. My fees weren’t what they are today, but I learned so much about what it takes to engage and relate to an audience.
Another huge turning point for my speaking career was working with Simon Sinek and his team. I met Simon early on in my speaking journey at an event in Gainesville (where Student Maid was headquartered), and he was really intrigued by Student Maid’s people-first culture. A few years down the road, he and his team saw an opportunity for me to bring my message to their clients, most of which are in the corporate world. Someone from the team came to watch one of my college talks. They gave me feedback and helped me develop keynotes for companies, and things really took off from there.
Today, my speaking looks a lot different. I do about 200 events a year, both in person and virtual. Instead of solely doing keynotes, I’m doing a lot of workshops and leadership development work with teams, too. I still partner with Simon’s team as well as a few different bureaus, but the majority of those 200-plus events are our own work that come from our own website.
It took 12+ years of patience and passion to get this business where it is today. Whenever people who are interested in speaking ask me for my advice, I always share that I believe it takes a giver mentality. I believe that if you can do things with the mentality that you are sharing your gifts and serving others, it will come back to you. Even when I think back to the early Student Maid days, that giver mentality was there: We would sometimes clean houses for free in exchange for feedback, or we would clean a house at a discounted rate in exchange for the client telling their friends about us. We also offered free cleanings for people going through cancer treatments. Today, that’s the mentality behind our pay-what-you-can tickets for the Human Leadership Program. The way I see it, when people get so fixated on a fee or on making a business work from a numbers standpoint, it takes them away from the gift they’re sharing or the impact they're making. If you believe in what you are doing, if you are passionate about it, if you are persistent, if you are willing to be open to learning, I believe the business will grow with you.
For those of you who have a dream, whether it’s to speak on a stage or a different dream altogether, I see you. Keep putting yourself out there. If you love it, keep at it. Embrace every opportunity you get to grow. And just remember that patience is definitely a part of the process!
Big hugs,
