IAM1498 – Speaking Coach Helps the Unconfident Speakers to be Good on Stage

Philip is a husband, Christian, fitness enthusiast, coach, author, podcast host, public speaker, and speaking coach at Speaking Sessions.

Philip is a connector of people and inspires them to become the best version of themselves. He does this by helping people build a stronger mindset, learn to speak more confidently and get comfortable in their own skin so they can impact others through their message.

• CEO Story: Philip attended his first growth conference in 2015. A few years later, seeing the success of the people who attended that conference inspired and changed the trajectory of Philip’s life – seeing what entrepreneurship is all about. Started his entrepreneurial journey after listening to podcasts, then started making his own in 2017, starting to connect with people, joining mastermind groups and mentors, and continuing to work on a better self, building his CEO story and branding himself as a speaking coach.
• Business Service: Speaking coach – helping individuals speak with confidence. Coaching program community – incubation
• Secret Sauce: Being able to relate with people and connect. Big smile, giver, and having a genuine conversation.
• CEO Hack:  App mention: Calendly – Scheduling calendar for you and that you can send a link to your client or person to meet.
• CEO Nugget: Do the things that would make you uncomfortable, because those are the things that will make you grow.
• CEO Defined: Person that is ultimately responsible – for your business and for anybody around you including those who work for you.

Website: speakingsessions.com

Instagram: iamphilipsessions

Facebook: william.philip.sessionsII

YouTube:philipsessions

Podcast: speakingsessions.com/podcast

Book: Mindset-Over-Motivation-Temporary-Establish

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Transcription

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00:26 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:54 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Phillip Sessions of Speaking Sessions. Phillip, super excited to have you on the show.

01:04 – Philip Sessions

Yeah, I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Super excited to have you on the show. Yeah, I'm glad to be here.

01:06 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Super excited to have you on as well too. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Philip so you can hear about some of those awesome things. And Philip is a husband, Christian, fitness enthusiast, coach, author, podcast host, public speaker, and speaking coach at speaking sessions. Philip is a connector of people and inspires them to become the best version of themselves. He does this by helping people to build a stronger mindset, learn to speak more confidently, and get more comfortable in their own skin so that they can impact others through their message. Philip, excited again to have you on the show, my friend. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:41 – Philip Sessions

Oh yeah, let's do it.

01:42 – Gresham Harkless

Let's make it happen then. So they kind of kick everything off. What I wanted to do was just rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more about how you got started with a car, your CEO story.

01:51 – Philip Sessions

Oh, man. So probably back in 2015, the first real conference I went to Growth Con too, I think it was 2015, so like that 2015, 2016 somewhere in there. And I met these 2 guys. A lot of people may not know about them. Andy Frazella and Ed Milet. I think really a lot of people.

02:11 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, yeah.

02:11 – Philip Sessions

Yeah, a lot of people know about them, but man, back then, a lot of people really didn't know them. So it's crazy to think 7 years later, these guys were already pretty big successes in most people's eyes, and yet how much more success they've got from there. But really seeing that in the success of everybody else that was there speaking on that stage, really changed the trajectory of my life. I really started seeing what entrepreneurship was about. And I started my entrepreneurship journey really when that came out, podcasting, listening to podcasts. I didn't quite start one yet. It wasn't until about 2018 before I started my first podcast or 2017 rather.

And I went on this entrepreneurial journey, learning, trying to start connecting with people and everything, and slowly got into masterminds, got into actually Andy and Ed's mastermind, Arte syndicate in 2019. And now I'm part of Apex, which is Ryan Stum's mastermind. And he's in the Dallas area. If you don't know him, he's definitely a little bit smaller than them, but he still pretty big influence on me and has just gotten mentors and everything over time and just continues to work on myself. And that's really how I've started building myself up as that CEO and trying to brand myself as the speaking coach at the moment.

03:27 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, I absolutely love that. It's just so funny that I think Steve Jobs has this commencement speech where he talks about a lot of times, you don't realize the things that you're going through in life, you know, are all connected until you start to connect the dots looking backward. And it kind of sounds like you had that experience whether it be, you know, having that conference and then like all the people that you've been around and made a point to put yourself around to put you at where you're at now.

03:52 – Philip Sessions

Yeah, exactly. And actually the way we kind of connected through Haro, helping a reporter out, was because of my mentor, Ryan Stumman. He talks about that and building your machine. It's all about getting out there, getting publications, and things of that nature. And so that's why I signed up for Haro and that's how we connected, which is really cool. And now here we are doing a podcast too.

04:12 – Gresham Harkless

Exactly. These things start to take off from there and get an opportunity to kind of feature. You talk about all the awesome things that you have that they kind of share is so impactful. And I think again, it's just being able to kind of put yourself out there and be able to make sure that you're making that impact.

04:26 – Philip Sessions

Exactly.

04:27 – Gresham Harkless

So I wanted to drill down a little bit more. Can you take us through a little bit more on how you're serving your clients, and how you're working with them? We'd love to hear more about you, your podcast, and your show as well.

04:36 – Philip Sessions

Yeah. So what does my customer journey look like? So if you're at the very beginning of trying to get into public speaking, I'll take it from that, but you can hop in anywhere along the path, just depending on where you're at in your public speaking career. So if you have no confidence at all, what I do and what this journey looks like is basically you become a part of my podcast. The podcast is obviously free. You can get into my free Facebook group, Speaking with Confidence, and go along that journey. I'm working on a book right now. I have one out, but it's mainly on mindset. And I'm playing on Q4 of this year to put out a book on public speaking.

So then there's that. But then I have a group coaching program, which basically, I hate to use the word incubator, but it's essentially, and it's really more of a community. I guess I shouldn't use an incubator, but it's a community where people can come together and they do get coaching, but it's more of a generic coaching if you will, but it's more crafted to what you want to do, get better at speaking, giving those tips, and you actually get on a coaching call once a month and also access to live interviews with my podcast guests. So in the end, you can ask questions about that. And so you're getting exposed, you can expose other speakers, you get exposed to more information to be able to ask questions directly to get you better at that.

And then I do some custom coaching on getting yourself your brand identity, and who you're speaking to, as well as one-on-one coaching, which is still in the development part, but where I will get you on stage. You pay me essentially, and I get you on X amount of stages, but I'm still building up that network of event coordinators and public relations people. So that way I can find speakers or have speakers ready to go, but also have the events to put them at. So I'm not ready for that yet, but that's kind of at the end of the journey. So I've taken you from being unconfident and you're speaking all the way to having you get on stage, which is my ultimate mission is getting a thousand people on stage, get their message out there to create more impact, to change people's lives.

06:37 – Gresham Harkless

I absolutely love that. I love that you started out with a customer journey. And I think that's so kind of undervalued and understanding what exactly that looks like.

06:48 – Philip Sessions

Yeah, for sure. I mean, because it all starts with knowing what your message is. And then now you have your message, you have your brand. And then the next goal is to get on stage to be able to get your message out there even more and keep building your brand up and build your following and everything, which is where you're getting on podcasts. Like you're awesome podcast here, getting it publications. And I know you're, you're all in that getting people out and getting their word out, what they do and publications, everything. And you're spreading a message as well for yourself. So that's what I like to do and try to help people with.

07:19 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I love it. And then, you've written on mindset as well, but one of the things that also kind of spoke to me is one of the 7 habits of highly effective people is beginning with the end in mind and you understanding, you know, where the end is, but also the why of the end, as you want to help people to be able to share their message is something that's so, undervalued and people don't do enough of. So I appreciate you sharing that.

07:43 – Philip Sessions

Of course. And with that, and I'll just say this real quick. A lot of people, when they think about getting on stage, they just, yeah, I want to get on stage and raise their hand to get on stage, but they have no clue what they're going to do. They have no clue what they're going to talk about. And so that's why that journey is beginning is about building up what that avatar, what that message is that you're going to share. You have to have that because if you ask, if I were to ask you, hey, can I get in your podcast? What's the first question you're going to ask?

08:09 – Gresham Harkless

What are you going to talk about?

08:09 – Philip Sessions

Right? So you have to have that in mind. It's great to have the goal. There's nothing wrong with that, but you need to have an understanding of what that end goal is in mind, and what it is you're going to speak about. And too many people don't think about that.

08:22 – Gresham Harkless

I love that you help people with that direction and along that journey. So what would you consider to be what I like to call your secret sauce? This could be for yourself, the business, or a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

08:34 – Philip Sessions

Being able to relate with people and connect. I feel like most people get comfortable with me because I'm able to have that genuine conversation with them. And most of the time people always say, man, you're always smiling. So I think having that big smile and being able to connect with people is what really differentiates me because I'm a giver as well. I know I mentioned a couple of things there. I think it's just the culmination of all of those things that make me truly unique and what makes everybody unique.

09:04 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I feel like any good recipe, any good secret sauce has a few different ingredients in there. So I appreciate you sharing those because it's not sometimes the solitary ones, it's the combination of all the above that actually makes that secret sauce and has it manifest itself in so many different ways and people that are impacted.

09:22 – Philip Sessions

Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like I phrased it like that.

09:26 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. So, I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:39 – Philip Sessions

Calendly is probably what makes me the most efficient, man. That has been a lifesaver. I remember before I got that, it was like, Hey, what time works for you? And it's just like 20 messages back and forth. Oh wait, that doesn't work for me. Finally. It's like, Hey, here's a link. If you can't find a time, let me know. And then you kind of go back and forth, but they kind of know what works for you. And they try and work around that. Or a lot of times, a lot of people respect that, hey, here's your calendar. I'm just going to find a time, even if it's 3 weeks, 3 months out, I'm going to find a time that works. So Calendly has been my hack and just sticking to that calendar.

10:15 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. It's highly underrated. And, and I love how you, you gave that option as well too, and being able to say, if any of these times don't work, please reach out to me because I think we're getting into, it seems like a much more understandable level where people are saying, Hey, do you have a scheduling link? Do you have a Calendly, you know, whatever it might be so that we can kind of book time. And I think too, in which I'm sure you could probably relate to the, the whole time zone thing is a whole different thing where you have to figure all of that out to be able to say, Hey, Calendly is going to tell me based on my time zone, what time it is based on your time zone, what time it is, and they would just make the connection happen.

10:50 – Philip Sessions

Oh yeah. And there've been several calls I've had with people or when I didn't use Calendly where it's like, Oh yeah, 11 AM. And then they're on the East Coast and they're thinking 11 AM their time. Like, dude, why don't you show up? Well, Oh, I thought you meant 11 AM Pacific. And like, no, at least doing that, say that time zone for sure. But yeah, Calendly is great for doing that. Any scheduling app does that now.

11:17 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I've definitely done that myself where I put in, you know, the wrong time. So, you know, and that happens. And I think that, yeah, you're basically telling my life story a little bit. So there you go. I love scheduling apps too. So what would you consider to be what I like to call a CEO nugget? So this is a little bit more word of wisdom or a piece of advice. I usually say it might be something you would tell your favorite client or if you happen to be a time machine, you might tell your younger busines self.

11:43 – Philip Sessions

Do the thing that makes you a little scared and or the thing that you're not really feeling comfortable doing, or you don't feel like doing. So I've always found when I do the thing that scares me a little bit, or I do the thing that's a little uncomfortable. I really just want to put it off that on the other side of that, things are so much better. Things end up working out so much better than trying to do the things that are comfortable. As we grow outside of that comfort zone, but a lot of times when we have 20 things to do on our plate and we decide to do things that are more comfortable things that, ah, you know, it's not going to be hard to do. Those aren't the things that are going to grow us the things that are going to be difficult to do that end up growing us.

12:29 – Gresham Harkless

I love that. And it's kind of like the, you know, everything you want is outside of your comfort zone and be able to kind of really understand that. But I think when you sometimes have those 20 things on the list, sometimes that could be a way to distract us from getting outside of your comfort zone. I have so much to do. I can't do X, Y, and Z, and A, B, and C. It's not because you can't really do it. It's just that you don't really want to get out of your comfort zone so we can sometimes put things on our plate. So I love that just because it brings, I think, recognition to, in order to really have that transformation, a lot of times to move the needle forward and ourselves or organizations, whatever it might be, you have to really, you know, feel uncomfortable. You have to feel that uncomfortableness and do it anyway.

13:11 – Philip Sessions

Yeah, exactly.

13:14 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Phillip, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:25 – Philip Sessions

Well, we hear different things, chief executive officer, chief everything officer. I think it's the person that's, it's really, I mean, at the end of the day, it's kind of by definition, it's the person that's ultimately responsible. So are you taking responsibility not only for your actions, but for anybody that's really even around you, whether it's in business or life, but obviously specifically to business, are you taking responsibility for all of those that are working for you? I feel like in the 9 to 5, a lot of our management, not necessarily the CEO, but a lot of those managers and even the CEOs don't want to point the finger and say, oh, it's that person's fault because they didn't do something right.

When I was like, you're the one at the end of the day, that's ultimately responsible. So it's about taking ownership and owning whatever happens, good or bad. But then also giving the praise, especially on that good side, and giving some kind of corrective action, maybe not a discipline necessarily, but giving that corrective action if it is something that was a negative thing.

14:23 – Gresham Harkless

Love that ultimate responsibility and how it manifests itself in so many different ways. But love truly appreciates that definition. And of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want us to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get on review, find out about all the awesome things that you're working on. And of course, subscribe to your podcast.

14:43 – Philip Sessions

All right. Yeah, my podcast is I'll start with that. And then I'll give you the little nugget of wisdom, if you will, at the end. But it's podcast speaking sessions. You can find me at my website, speaking sessions.com, or on Facebook at the real Phillips sessions. And that's with one. But the nugget I'll give you is if you want to start getting on stage, you need to build up your business card. And what is that business card here in the 21st century? That is social media. Social media right now is pushing videos. So for you to get on stage, you have to start showing who you are, what you speak about, what your brand is, and who you are as a brand and entity. So start posting videos. Yes. It's not the same as speaking on stage.

15:29 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I absolutely love that. And of course, we're going to have the links and information. The show knows We can also get a copy of your book on there on your site as well too.

15:37 – Philip Sessions

Yes, that's all on my site. And then you can also find it on Amazon if you just want to go directly there.

15:42 – Gresham Harkless

Okay, perfect. We'll have those links and information and the show knows I love love love that last kind of tidbit that nugget that you kind of left us with. I think so many times when you want to have the opportunity to impact, to be on stage, we sometimes forget that the stage that we have is right in our pocket. And there was this book called Groundswell years and years ago that talked a lot about if you want to start to get, you know, picked up, you want to be on stage, whatever it is, you have to start to build that momentum in different ways. And we all have that in our pockets in so many different ways with social media. So truly appreciate you for sharing that. Of course, appreciate you even more for taking some time out and being on the show. And I hope you have a phenomenal today.

16:20 – Philip Sessions

Yeah, thank you. And you have a great day as well.

16:25 –  Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.