November 14, 2025 • 20 mins
What does it take to go from food stamps to global stages? In this episode, I sit down with international speaker and mentor Marianne Hickman, who transformed her life and built a career speaking on more than 2,400 stages across 17 countries. She opens up about the mindset shift that changed her trajectory, the power of healing your story before sharing it, and the difference between simply “speaking” and truly facilitating transformation. We dig into the silent struggles creators and influencers face, why podcasting is one of the most overlooked stages in the industry, and the practical steps you can take right now to get booked, gain confidence, and turn your message into impact. If you’re ready to step into a bigger version of your voice—and finally see the path forward—this conversation will hit you right where you need it.
Reach out to Marianne at: https://mariannehickman.com/
Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound:
https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/unGUrKA8DC/
Reach out to Marianne at: https://mariannehickman.com/
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Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound:
https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/unGUrKA8DC/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hi, everyone, Welcome to the Soul Podcasting Podcasts. I am
so excited today to talk about speaking and all the
awesome things we're going to share today with our guest
Marianne Hickman. She's an international speaker, a speaker trainer, and
a personal mentor who's graced over two thousand staguages worldwide.
She's not just a speaker, though, she's a powerhouse and
(00:35):
helping industry experts monetize their message and turn their speaking
into a profitable business. And so she's going to share
how she's done that, the tools she's used, some of
the things that she's done to build this incredible business.
Welcome Marianne, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Radie Me Jimitria. When we're in the green room, in
a digital greenroom, I was just like digging your energy.
This is a fun conversation.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yay, I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Well, okay, So I need to start with your story
because that is going to be the groundwork for the
rest of this interview and our conversation. So I know
that they stung your bio. You went from being a
single mom on food stamps to speaking to over twoy
four hundred stages and seventeen countries. So I think that's
(01:22):
pretty powerful. I want to hear, how in the world
did that happen?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Oh gosh, there's no one answer, right. But you know
what's crazy is I I have just noticed recently so
the rise of influencership, meaning the personal brand, is reaching
a fever pitch right now, right like, everyone is realizing
that if they want to build something that they can
put their name on, that they should put their name
(01:47):
on it. You know, Instagram and TikTok. They've never existed
to this level to where it's now like you can
start your personal brand if you stay consistent exactly, it's
just gonna happen. But what I'm noticing is, as I
have lots of friends in this industry, way more followers
on their accounts than mine. I have friends with three
million followers, millions of the followers, all this kind of thing.
(02:09):
What I'm noticing is that they are such experts and
engagement on camera, right they can they can generate the followers.
People love them for good reason, fantastic entertainment, fantastic personalities.
But there's this this behind the scenes struggle that yeah,
you know, we hardly ever talk about on camera one
(02:29):
because it won't serve the audience, right, It won't serve
the audience to talk about that struggle until you've resolved it.
But it's the silent struggle of what I used to
say is the entrepreneur, but now the influencer is we
were producing content, and we're producing content like crazy. Yeah, mind,
they's a missing piece, like how is this going to
(02:51):
pay me? I still need to keep the lights on.
I still need to scare my family, right. There's so
many of them and of us that are online and
we're producing, producing, producing, and there's this silent struggle when
we press stop on the record button that says, okay,
well where's the money coming from? Right? And that's that's
(03:11):
a real issue. Yeah, and I went through that too.
I get it, and I'm not I don't even know
if I mean money, ebbs and flows. It has peaks
and valleys, and I don't think I'm done having my
peaks and valley. I don't know of anyone that is,
but you know, it's there was this this moment I
was actually, you know, kind of starting to speak on stages.
Almost by accident. I went to enough seminars where they
(03:33):
asked me to just mc so that would be if
I'm ever to teach a principle, I would say, just
make yourself a known figure in a seminar or in
a series that you like, start doing that. But I
was on food stamps, Like I didn't teach financial freedom
from the stage, so I didn't feel like I was
out of integrity, but part of me like I'm on stage,
(03:57):
I'm being seen. The audience is a assuming that I
have my financial house together and I don't, and I
feel almost guilty because I don't, And like, what if
one of them saw me at the charity food bank,
they'd be like, what are you doing here? And that
(04:18):
was so right, you know, like I almost felt embarrassed
but grateful for the help at the same time. And
there was this moment I'm driving on the freeway and
I'm about you. But I have conversations with God in
my car all the time when i'm.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Driving, right, Yeah, And that's when you're all alone and
you could talk exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
That's when we're raw and real. And I just sat
next to God and I was like, Okay, So I've
been doing all these motivational seminars. I've been teaching all
this stuff, I'm going to practice this, and I'm like, God,
what if we just pretended that I had arrived at
that level, not like enlightenment, but at least the level
I wanted to be at, where if I opened the
app of my bank on my phone, I would see
(04:57):
fifty grand in the bank account. What would that be like?
What would that feel like? And so I pretended I
just visualized it driving there and I started to cry,
and I was like, this feeling if I did it
just washed over me, even though none of the circumstance
had come to match it, you know, none of my
environment reflected it yet, but this of let's just try
this on what would I do if I had that?
(05:22):
What would I be doing? And when I started doing
those behaviors of what would I be doing if I
had already arrived anyway and I didn't have to worry
about it, The desperation and my presentations went away. The
not as good as feeling when I was comparing myself
to all these other people that started to go away.
And it took practice, of course, in time, and then
(05:42):
the results followed it. It matched because I put I
made room energy energy wise, you know, I don't know
if how will we get here, but go for it.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Go for it. Yeah, yeah, we have to imagine and
because that's what we have our We have our brains
and our imaginations for a reason, so we may as
well put it to use and put it to work
for our benefit. And I love that you made space
for your future and what you wanted to see, because
(06:18):
your reality didn't match up with where you wanted to be,
but you you paved the way for that through your
imagination and talking to the Lord, talking to God, like
just letting him do that for you. Right, And that's
that's amazing, dirty, that's good, that's awesome. I love that
that you were able to get there. But it wasn't
(06:40):
I'm sure it wasn't an overnight. It was something that
took some time and and but at what point did
you realize that this could be not only healing for you,
but just for others as well, Because I know when
you're going on stages, you're you're doing more than just speaking.
(07:01):
You are speaking that energy, the same energy that you
just talked about for yourself, you're delivering that to your audience.
So kind of what was your turning point when you knew, Okay,
this is it, and I'm going to help so many people.
I'm coming out of what I was in before. I'm
coming out of that stage. I'm moving to the next level.
I'm going to keep going and keep helping people.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I love that question because it brings up a topic
that I have recently been focused on, and that's the
difference between a speaker and a facilitator. A speaker gets
up there, and a speaker can have ego right, and
we can get up there be all about the line
light and all about me and how cool I am.
(07:45):
And I'm sure you've seen speakers that do that. They're
a diving, right, a facilitator or something different. If you
look at the the I think the the entomology of
the world. I hope I said that word right, but
the breakdown of there if that sounds right, yeah, it
sounds fair. Facilitator facille in French means to make easy
or to be easy. So a facilitator is there to
(08:07):
make something easy for somebody else. I'm here to make
things easier for you than they were for me. And
I remember when I was, you know, in the in
the circuit of speaking, I was teaching a class on
public speaking, and we were teaching our students how to
run their own kind of a mini seminar or workshop
and you know, you know, get up on stage and
(08:28):
tell your story. And we had taught them about the
signature keynote and how to craft it, because when you
give your signature keynote, it can either appear as a
laundry list of traumas that you're not healed from yet,
which doesn't help anybody, or it can be like, hey,
here's my story, here's what I did to walk out
of that story, and here's the steps that I've seen work.
So I'm going to give them to you right now
(08:49):
so you can do them. And we had this one
student of ours who said, Okay, I'm going to take this,
I'm going to run with it. I'm going to do
my own event. And she started her own event and
at that event, following our system, she made nineteen thousand dollars.
And I was like, okay, I just.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Got good and now I'm curious, Hey, oh in the world,
Oh this is real.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
It's working. It's not just theory that works for me.
It can be duplicated, it can be replicated. And I
had a small part not for my self ego purposes.
I donned that, but it just is proof to me
that what I'm doing is worthwhile because it's working. That
was like, okay, yes, let's.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Go yeah, wow, Wow, that's yeah, that's amazing. In one day,
probably not even an hour, maybe an hour and a half.
I don't know how long her speaks.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Well, the action is so fast. I don't think it's
fair to say a day though, because we look at
it like that. Right when we're in the audience. I
remember sticking that the vent and Saltlake. I'm at the
Salt Palace and seven hundred people in the room, that
speaker does their call to action. Half of the room
goes up and they go to the back and they
buy a three hundred dollars de d said, that's how
tells all old. I am right, we're selling DVDs and
CDs at this point. Uh huh. I was like, okay,
(10:05):
I'm doing the math. Three hundred and fifty times three
hundred bucks of poppies a lot of money, and it
seems like it's just a small window. But the from
if you look at the backstage, it took probably six
months to prepare for that event. It took how many
years of developmental story and keynote to get to that moment. Yeah,
but you're right that that consistency, it's not overnight, but
(10:27):
it can come to a boiling point that all that
work and it pays off when you know how to
put all the pieces in.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Exactly that that's a really good way to put it.
It comes to a boiling point. So that just it
just makes me think of how long it takes to
lay the groundwork in the foundation and how we as speakers, podcasters, coaches, authors,
whatever we were doing, we need to lay that groundwork
and be consistent and faithful with the work that's set before,
(11:00):
because that day will come when we'll be able to
show up in a bigger way on a bigger stage.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
But for some of us who are starting off with
our podcast and maybe it's our first week podcasting, how
can you share like a little bit about that synergy
between transformational speaking on a stage right versus a podcast.
Is there a little bit of some similarity between the
two of those and how our mindset should be when
(11:28):
going from one to the other or starting with podcasting
and moving into speaking.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Oh definitely. So podcast is a form of a stage.
This is why I love podcasting so much, because it
gets exposure that's evergreen. You know when you do an
event and you see a webinar, right, like, that's a
timed event. Even when you post on Instagram that has
a lifespan of maybe seventy two hours six weeks if
it goes megaviral. Right. But when you podcast, now you're
(11:54):
part of an seo. You can be the answer of
a search engine. Especially if the podcast is on YouTube
or whatever. There's ways to find the episode long after
it's been recorded, which is some of the brilliance of it. Now,
that's the one of the benefits of doing podcasting. Now
when it comes to like keynote speaking versus podcasting, we'll
(12:15):
just omit the podcasts that are a keynote speaking style.
So some of them do that. But when we're keynote speaking,
this is both of them are one to many, right,
it's you and me and then everyone that's listening. It's
one to many or two to many. But keynote speaking
is you've got a structure. I put a ten step
structure in of telling the story, walking through the content
(12:37):
of how you got out of your story into your
success sharing that with the odd against actionable steps. That's
and you're on your own for like twenty thirty minutes
or more with your keynote. Podcasts are so fun because
you can do the same thing. I shared my story
already check if I were to share takeaways, I've already
started to do that of stay consistent, do these things check.
(12:59):
But the the podcasts are so fun because you get
these curveballs in interview style or just conversations that you
don't prepare for. And I believe there's a place for
podcasting before you keynote because it will help you because
you'll get repetitive questions that you're like, oh, maybe I
should put this on my keynote because I get asked
this all the time. And then while you're keynoting, you
(13:20):
should still be podcasting because I mean, the networking. I'm
sure you've experienced this. I have met some of the
most incredible people like you, like your our energies were
like it was cool podcasting like I've met. I went
to an event with my daughter. It was like a
(13:41):
teen entrepreneur event. She put up a booth startup company.
It was really cool anyway, So I went to that
event but I met the I made it a point
to introduce myself to the venue owner, the building owner,
and I was like, Hey, thanks for letting us come here.
This is really cool. Can I have on my podcast
because you're in the event space and I would love
to talk to you about that. And I had him on,
(14:01):
and then he's asked me to speak at every single
one of his gatherings since then, which has been amazing
and I'm very grateful. But the ships that I've developed
since then have just been like, there's no other way
it could have meant these people. So I mean, as
far as comparison and all that, I would just say,
do it all because you never know who you're gonna bless.
(14:22):
You might bless the one on a podcast that would
never go to an event. So get on as many
stages as you can.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, work work that podcasting. And I love
that you said podcasting is a stage. And then do
you have any like just a couple of tips advice
for podcasters who want to take their signature story into
make it into that like high converting keynote stage talk.
Maybe one or two or three tips that you have
(14:49):
just how can they go from podcasting to that stage.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Absolutely. So there's there's different ways to acquire stages, right,
and that's as far as acquiring stages. If you're looking
on at acquiring stages and you're having difficulty, just start
your own. Just make your own stage, do your own webinar,
do your own one day workshop or one day summit,
and then you can go pitch yourself at other stages.
(15:13):
But don't worry about that until you start getting the
experience on your own. As far as developing your keynote,
there is a formula that if you watch keynotes, you'll
be able to pick it out, and I'll give you
the I call it ten steps, but i'll break it
down into simplify it into four. So the first step
is to connect with your audience because it's not about you,
it's about them. They are the rock stars of the event.
(15:35):
Number two is to tell your story. But you only
have permission to tell your story if it's from a
place of scars, not open wounds. I don't want to
talk about it if it's still gaping and I haven't
figured it out yet, because then it's a trauma laundry.
Last you know, we're not there. I want to tell
you how I got this scar and how it healed. Okay,
(15:57):
and then I'm gonna give this is number three. Give
the audience something they can do before they're done listening
to you. Right, So, if you're listening to this podcast
and you want to get on more stages, we can
talk about what you can do before the podcast is over,
so that before you go to bed tonight you're gonna
get on more stages. Right. Then, the last thing you
do is end from the heart. We want to end
(16:18):
with a unified mission, a unified collected purpose. This something
that we can authentically say we are in this together,
and this is why I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm
raising six kids on this planet and it is a
messed up place to be and I my goal in
doing all of this is to first of all take
care of my children. But then yes, put the microphone
(16:39):
up to more speakers whose messages I can get behind,
because I need to infect this world with things I
can support, and those are the people that I want
to see get on stages.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
I love what you just said. I want to infect
this world with things that I support that that's powerful.
I love everything you've just said. Your tips are really
practical things that we can apply right away as we
listen to this podcast, and once we're done listening, let's
(17:09):
put this into action. I am so happy that you
have shared that with us and have just shared a
bit of your world with us too. It's really encouraging
to inspiring to see how you have just gone from
point A to point further along than be at this point.
You're way down there. You really accomplished a lot. You've
(17:31):
accomplished a lot, and it's just like watching you do
what you do is encouraged and the rest of us
that we can also do the same. So I want
you to share. Yeah, help us figure out how we
can get to where you are and walk alongside you
as well. So you help people bookstages and get paid
to speak. So how can our audience connect with you
(17:53):
to figure out how to do this?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Okay, So this is that point where I'm like, give
something actionable. This is it. So I've collected over the
past five years. I've collected a list of over one
thousand podcasts and you can keyword search it by topic,
and I just give that away because that's those are
easy stages to get on. You create networking opportunities. So
I have a database. If you go to Marianne Hickman
dot com forward slash database or database however you say it,
(18:18):
you can download that for free. I just need to
give you access through your email. Then once I have
your email, we can chat about you know, if that
solves it for you, go for it, take it and run. Right.
If we want to work more closely together, we can.
We can explore that I'm not for everybody, I don't
pretend to be, but if I can help someone, I
can support in that way, take it and run. If
we want to work together to get booked on more
(18:39):
podcasts or more stages, or take that keynot you got
on stage, you delivered your keynote, it was a dud,
and you're like, okay, now I'm ready for feedback. That's
that's the fun part. That's what we do. But go
get the data, Go get the databack and run with
it and get on shows. Just spend twenty minutes each
day applying to shows and start getting booked.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Sounds simple, sounds easy. Sure, we have to. We have
to follow through though and do the work. And I
love that. So how can we reach you?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
How can that is your website. Yeah, so you can
go to Maryannickman dot com. Uh and check out I
mean that's that's like looking at my billboard. But if
you want to just chat with me, I can get
my phone number eight on one five nine five nine five.
You can just send me a text, act to me,
ask me a question. If they're listen, If yours is
a message I can get behind, then we'll work together.
(19:27):
And again, not for everybody. If you're out there to
destroy families or destroy marriages or promote your only fans,
I'm not interested, Like I will not help these people,
like go find somebody else. Yeah, but if if you're
to support families and good causes and I should save lives,
I'm your girls.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Yeah. Wow, marian it's awesome. So you guys have her number,
you have her website, you can reach her or snow
excuse if you want to find out more about how
to do this type of work with speaking and reaching
the world with your message. So, Marianne, thank you so
much for joining me today on this episode.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Thanks for having me
Hi, everyone, Welcome to the Soul Podcasting Podcasts. I am
so excited today to talk about speaking and all the
awesome things we're going to share today with our guest
Marianne Hickman. She's an international speaker, a speaker trainer, and
a personal mentor who's graced over two thousand staguages worldwide.
She's not just a speaker, though, she's a powerhouse and
(00:35):
helping industry experts monetize their message and turn their speaking
into a profitable business. And so she's going to share
how she's done that, the tools she's used, some of
the things that she's done to build this incredible business.
Welcome Marianne, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Radie Me Jimitria. When we're in the green room, in
a digital greenroom, I was just like digging your energy.
This is a fun conversation.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yay, I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Well, okay, So I need to start with your story
because that is going to be the groundwork for the
rest of this interview and our conversation. So I know
that they stung your bio. You went from being a
single mom on food stamps to speaking to over twoy
four hundred stages and seventeen countries. So I think that's
(01:22):
pretty powerful. I want to hear, how in the world
did that happen?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Oh gosh, there's no one answer, right. But you know
what's crazy is I I have just noticed recently so
the rise of influencership, meaning the personal brand, is reaching
a fever pitch right now, right like, everyone is realizing
that if they want to build something that they can
put their name on, that they should put their name
(01:47):
on it. You know, Instagram and TikTok. They've never existed
to this level to where it's now like you can
start your personal brand if you stay consistent exactly, it's
just gonna happen. But what I'm noticing is, as I
have lots of friends in this industry, way more followers
on their accounts than mine. I have friends with three
million followers, millions of the followers, all this kind of thing.
(02:09):
What I'm noticing is that they are such experts and
engagement on camera, right they can they can generate the followers.
People love them for good reason, fantastic entertainment, fantastic personalities.
But there's this this behind the scenes struggle that yeah,
you know, we hardly ever talk about on camera one
(02:29):
because it won't serve the audience, right, It won't serve
the audience to talk about that struggle until you've resolved it.
But it's the silent struggle of what I used to
say is the entrepreneur, but now the influencer is we
were producing content, and we're producing content like crazy. Yeah, mind,
they's a missing piece, like how is this going to
(02:51):
pay me? I still need to keep the lights on.
I still need to scare my family, right. There's so
many of them and of us that are online and
we're producing, producing, producing, and there's this silent struggle when
we press stop on the record button that says, okay,
well where's the money coming from? Right? And that's that's
(03:11):
a real issue. Yeah, and I went through that too.
I get it, and I'm not I don't even know
if I mean money, ebbs and flows. It has peaks
and valleys, and I don't think I'm done having my
peaks and valley. I don't know of anyone that is,
but you know, it's there was this this moment I
was actually, you know, kind of starting to speak on stages.
Almost by accident. I went to enough seminars where they
(03:33):
asked me to just mc so that would be if
I'm ever to teach a principle, I would say, just
make yourself a known figure in a seminar or in
a series that you like, start doing that. But I
was on food stamps, Like I didn't teach financial freedom
from the stage, so I didn't feel like I was
out of integrity, but part of me like I'm on stage,
(03:57):
I'm being seen. The audience is a assuming that I
have my financial house together and I don't, and I
feel almost guilty because I don't, And like, what if
one of them saw me at the charity food bank,
they'd be like, what are you doing here? And that
(04:18):
was so right, you know, like I almost felt embarrassed
but grateful for the help at the same time. And
there was this moment I'm driving on the freeway and
I'm about you. But I have conversations with God in
my car all the time when i'm.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Driving, right, Yeah, And that's when you're all alone and
you could talk exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
That's when we're raw and real. And I just sat
next to God and I was like, Okay, So I've
been doing all these motivational seminars. I've been teaching all
this stuff, I'm going to practice this, and I'm like, God,
what if we just pretended that I had arrived at
that level, not like enlightenment, but at least the level
I wanted to be at, where if I opened the
app of my bank on my phone, I would see
(04:57):
fifty grand in the bank account. What would that be like?
What would that feel like? And so I pretended I
just visualized it driving there and I started to cry,
and I was like, this feeling if I did it
just washed over me, even though none of the circumstance
had come to match it, you know, none of my
environment reflected it yet, but this of let's just try
this on what would I do if I had that?
(05:22):
What would I be doing? And when I started doing
those behaviors of what would I be doing if I
had already arrived anyway and I didn't have to worry
about it, The desperation and my presentations went away. The
not as good as feeling when I was comparing myself
to all these other people that started to go away.
And it took practice, of course, in time, and then
(05:42):
the results followed it. It matched because I put I
made room energy energy wise, you know, I don't know
if how will we get here, but go for it.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Go for it. Yeah, yeah, we have to imagine and
because that's what we have our We have our brains
and our imaginations for a reason, so we may as
well put it to use and put it to work
for our benefit. And I love that you made space
for your future and what you wanted to see, because
(06:18):
your reality didn't match up with where you wanted to be,
but you you paved the way for that through your
imagination and talking to the Lord, talking to God, like
just letting him do that for you. Right, And that's
that's amazing, dirty, that's good, that's awesome. I love that
that you were able to get there. But it wasn't
(06:40):
I'm sure it wasn't an overnight. It was something that
took some time and and but at what point did
you realize that this could be not only healing for you,
but just for others as well, Because I know when
you're going on stages, you're you're doing more than just speaking.
(07:01):
You are speaking that energy, the same energy that you
just talked about for yourself, you're delivering that to your audience.
So kind of what was your turning point when you knew, Okay,
this is it, and I'm going to help so many people.
I'm coming out of what I was in before. I'm
coming out of that stage. I'm moving to the next level.
I'm going to keep going and keep helping people.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I love that question because it brings up a topic
that I have recently been focused on, and that's the
difference between a speaker and a facilitator. A speaker gets
up there, and a speaker can have ego right, and
we can get up there be all about the line
light and all about me and how cool I am.
(07:45):
And I'm sure you've seen speakers that do that. They're
a diving, right, a facilitator or something different. If you
look at the the I think the the entomology of
the world. I hope I said that word right, but
the breakdown of there if that sounds right, yeah, it
sounds fair. Facilitator facille in French means to make easy
or to be easy. So a facilitator is there to
(08:07):
make something easy for somebody else. I'm here to make
things easier for you than they were for me. And
I remember when I was, you know, in the in
the circuit of speaking, I was teaching a class on
public speaking, and we were teaching our students how to
run their own kind of a mini seminar or workshop
and you know, you know, get up on stage and
(08:28):
tell your story. And we had taught them about the
signature keynote and how to craft it, because when you
give your signature keynote, it can either appear as a
laundry list of traumas that you're not healed from yet,
which doesn't help anybody, or it can be like, hey,
here's my story, here's what I did to walk out
of that story, and here's the steps that I've seen work.
So I'm going to give them to you right now
(08:49):
so you can do them. And we had this one
student of ours who said, Okay, I'm going to take this,
I'm going to run with it. I'm going to do
my own event. And she started her own event and
at that event, following our system, she made nineteen thousand dollars.
And I was like, okay, I just.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Got good and now I'm curious, Hey, oh in the world,
Oh this is real.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
It's working. It's not just theory that works for me.
It can be duplicated, it can be replicated. And I
had a small part not for my self ego purposes.
I donned that, but it just is proof to me
that what I'm doing is worthwhile because it's working. That
was like, okay, yes, let's.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Go yeah, wow, Wow, that's yeah, that's amazing. In one day,
probably not even an hour, maybe an hour and a half.
I don't know how long her speaks.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Well, the action is so fast. I don't think it's
fair to say a day though, because we look at
it like that. Right when we're in the audience. I
remember sticking that the vent and Saltlake. I'm at the
Salt Palace and seven hundred people in the room, that
speaker does their call to action. Half of the room
goes up and they go to the back and they
buy a three hundred dollars de d said, that's how
tells all old. I am right, we're selling DVDs and
CDs at this point. Uh huh. I was like, okay,
(10:05):
I'm doing the math. Three hundred and fifty times three
hundred bucks of poppies a lot of money, and it
seems like it's just a small window. But the from
if you look at the backstage, it took probably six
months to prepare for that event. It took how many
years of developmental story and keynote to get to that moment. Yeah,
but you're right that that consistency, it's not overnight, but
(10:27):
it can come to a boiling point that all that
work and it pays off when you know how to
put all the pieces in.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Exactly that that's a really good way to put it.
It comes to a boiling point. So that just it
just makes me think of how long it takes to
lay the groundwork in the foundation and how we as speakers, podcasters, coaches, authors,
whatever we were doing, we need to lay that groundwork
and be consistent and faithful with the work that's set before,
(11:00):
because that day will come when we'll be able to
show up in a bigger way on a bigger stage.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
But for some of us who are starting off with
our podcast and maybe it's our first week podcasting, how
can you share like a little bit about that synergy
between transformational speaking on a stage right versus a podcast.
Is there a little bit of some similarity between the
two of those and how our mindset should be when
(11:28):
going from one to the other or starting with podcasting
and moving into speaking.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Oh definitely. So podcast is a form of a stage.
This is why I love podcasting so much, because it
gets exposure that's evergreen. You know when you do an
event and you see a webinar, right, like, that's a
timed event. Even when you post on Instagram that has
a lifespan of maybe seventy two hours six weeks if
it goes megaviral. Right. But when you podcast, now you're
(11:54):
part of an seo. You can be the answer of
a search engine. Especially if the podcast is on YouTube
or whatever. There's ways to find the episode long after
it's been recorded, which is some of the brilliance of it. Now,
that's the one of the benefits of doing podcasting. Now
when it comes to like keynote speaking versus podcasting, we'll
(12:15):
just omit the podcasts that are a keynote speaking style.
So some of them do that. But when we're keynote speaking,
this is both of them are one to many, right,
it's you and me and then everyone that's listening. It's
one to many or two to many. But keynote speaking
is you've got a structure. I put a ten step
structure in of telling the story, walking through the content
(12:37):
of how you got out of your story into your
success sharing that with the odd against actionable steps. That's
and you're on your own for like twenty thirty minutes
or more with your keynote. Podcasts are so fun because
you can do the same thing. I shared my story
already check if I were to share takeaways, I've already
started to do that of stay consistent, do these things check.
(12:59):
But the the podcasts are so fun because you get
these curveballs in interview style or just conversations that you
don't prepare for. And I believe there's a place for
podcasting before you keynote because it will help you because
you'll get repetitive questions that you're like, oh, maybe I
should put this on my keynote because I get asked
this all the time. And then while you're keynoting, you
(13:20):
should still be podcasting because I mean, the networking. I'm
sure you've experienced this. I have met some of the
most incredible people like you, like your our energies were
like it was cool podcasting like I've met. I went
to an event with my daughter. It was like a
(13:41):
teen entrepreneur event. She put up a booth startup company.
It was really cool anyway, So I went to that
event but I met the I made it a point
to introduce myself to the venue owner, the building owner,
and I was like, Hey, thanks for letting us come here.
This is really cool. Can I have on my podcast
because you're in the event space and I would love
to talk to you about that. And I had him on,
(14:01):
and then he's asked me to speak at every single
one of his gatherings since then, which has been amazing
and I'm very grateful. But the ships that I've developed
since then have just been like, there's no other way
it could have meant these people. So I mean, as
far as comparison and all that, I would just say,
do it all because you never know who you're gonna bless.
(14:22):
You might bless the one on a podcast that would
never go to an event. So get on as many
stages as you can.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, work work that podcasting. And I love
that you said podcasting is a stage. And then do
you have any like just a couple of tips advice
for podcasters who want to take their signature story into
make it into that like high converting keynote stage talk.
Maybe one or two or three tips that you have
(14:49):
just how can they go from podcasting to that stage.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Absolutely. So there's there's different ways to acquire stages, right,
and that's as far as acquiring stages. If you're looking
on at acquiring stages and you're having difficulty, just start
your own. Just make your own stage, do your own webinar,
do your own one day workshop or one day summit,
and then you can go pitch yourself at other stages.
(15:13):
But don't worry about that until you start getting the
experience on your own. As far as developing your keynote,
there is a formula that if you watch keynotes, you'll
be able to pick it out, and I'll give you
the I call it ten steps, but i'll break it
down into simplify it into four. So the first step
is to connect with your audience because it's not about you,
it's about them. They are the rock stars of the event.
(15:35):
Number two is to tell your story. But you only
have permission to tell your story if it's from a
place of scars, not open wounds. I don't want to
talk about it if it's still gaping and I haven't
figured it out yet, because then it's a trauma laundry.
Last you know, we're not there. I want to tell
you how I got this scar and how it healed. Okay,
(15:57):
and then I'm gonna give this is number three. Give
the audience something they can do before they're done listening
to you. Right, So, if you're listening to this podcast
and you want to get on more stages, we can
talk about what you can do before the podcast is over,
so that before you go to bed tonight you're gonna
get on more stages. Right. Then, the last thing you
do is end from the heart. We want to end
(16:18):
with a unified mission, a unified collected purpose. This something
that we can authentically say we are in this together,
and this is why I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm
raising six kids on this planet and it is a
messed up place to be and I my goal in
doing all of this is to first of all take
care of my children. But then yes, put the microphone
(16:39):
up to more speakers whose messages I can get behind,
because I need to infect this world with things I
can support, and those are the people that I want
to see get on stages.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
I love what you just said. I want to infect
this world with things that I support that that's powerful.
I love everything you've just said. Your tips are really
practical things that we can apply right away as we
listen to this podcast, and once we're done listening, let's
(17:09):
put this into action. I am so happy that you
have shared that with us and have just shared a
bit of your world with us too. It's really encouraging
to inspiring to see how you have just gone from
point A to point further along than be at this point.
You're way down there. You really accomplished a lot. You've
(17:31):
accomplished a lot, and it's just like watching you do
what you do is encouraged and the rest of us
that we can also do the same. So I want
you to share. Yeah, help us figure out how we
can get to where you are and walk alongside you
as well. So you help people bookstages and get paid
to speak. So how can our audience connect with you
(17:53):
to figure out how to do this?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Okay, So this is that point where I'm like, give
something actionable. This is it. So I've collected over the
past five years. I've collected a list of over one
thousand podcasts and you can keyword search it by topic,
and I just give that away because that's those are
easy stages to get on. You create networking opportunities. So
I have a database. If you go to Marianne Hickman
dot com forward slash database or database however you say it,
(18:18):
you can download that for free. I just need to
give you access through your email. Then once I have
your email, we can chat about you know, if that
solves it for you, go for it, take it and run. Right.
If we want to work more closely together, we can.
We can explore that I'm not for everybody, I don't
pretend to be, but if I can help someone, I
can support in that way, take it and run. If
we want to work together to get booked on more
(18:39):
podcasts or more stages, or take that keynot you got
on stage, you delivered your keynote, it was a dud,
and you're like, okay, now I'm ready for feedback. That's
that's the fun part. That's what we do. But go
get the data, Go get the databack and run with
it and get on shows. Just spend twenty minutes each
day applying to shows and start getting booked.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Sounds simple, sounds easy. Sure, we have to. We have
to follow through though and do the work. And I
love that. So how can we reach you?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
How can that is your website. Yeah, so you can
go to Maryannickman dot com. Uh and check out I
mean that's that's like looking at my billboard. But if
you want to just chat with me, I can get
my phone number eight on one five nine five nine five.
You can just send me a text, act to me,
ask me a question. If they're listen, If yours is
a message I can get behind, then we'll work together.
(19:27):
And again, not for everybody. If you're out there to
destroy families or destroy marriages or promote your only fans,
I'm not interested, Like I will not help these people,
like go find somebody else. Yeah, but if if you're
to support families and good causes and I should save lives,
I'm your girls.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Yeah. Wow, marian it's awesome. So you guys have her number,
you have her website, you can reach her or snow
excuse if you want to find out more about how
to do this type of work with speaking and reaching
the world with your message. So, Marianne, thank you so
much for joining me today on this episode.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Thanks for having me
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