We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joseph Johnston. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joseph below.

Alright, Joseph thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later?

Definetly sooner. At the end of the day, everything happens exactly when it is supposed to. With that said, businesses take time. I have plenty of friends who are younger then me or my age that have been in the game far longer that I am and are simply ‘ahead of me.’ Starting sooner would have simply gave me more time to develop allowing me to, theoretically, be farther ahead now then where I’m currently at.

Joseph, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Joe Johnston and I am a professional speaker, coach, author, and agent. I have been engulfed in the speaking industry for the past 3+ years (through COVID) and I absolutely love it!

I originally got into this space through an online course by Grant Baldwin. I had seen Grant’s ad a few times while scrolling through Instagram and decided to finally pull trigger on it.

Once I got into the course, I started to devour it, soaking up everything I could related to speaking, professional speaking, and how to become a full time, paid professional speaker. Now that dream has become a reality!

At our company, M.I.I. Professional Speaking, we represent a handful of expert speakers who we book to stages, speaking to organizations on topics such as leadership, DEI, wellness, motivation, sales, mental health, and a plethora of other top topics. We offer keynote, workshop, and training-style presentations.

We also have a branch of our company where we help up and coming experts learn how to build their own speaking businesses and success from speaking.

The biggest factor that I believe sets us apart from our competitors, and which I personally pride our company on, is our operations and workflow. Leading up to, and on, event day, we understand that meeting planners and our clients have a LOT on our plate. We make working with us INCREDIBLY easy and simple. From the first touch point all the way to the post-event call, we pride ourselves on being the BEST and EASIEST speaking agency and speakers to work with.

The main thing I want potential clients to know is that we are the best speaking agency in the space. If you have a speaking need for your upcoming event/conference/meeting, we have you covered. Just give me a call (508-380-9997) or shoot me an email ([email protected]) and we will serve you at the highest level!

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

Hahaha. Nothing major to date but there certainly have been times when things were close. Fortunately, I don’t have a ton of overhead right now so nothing crazy here but certainly there have been times where cash was tight or we had down months. Fortunately, things seem to always come in when they are needed and we have always been able to keep our head above water. Being strategic financially is huge.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Yes. This was a side hustle for a little over 2 years before I finally made the full time leap. It reached a point where I couldn’t continue with my current job and making the full time leap, AKA burning the bridges, was neccessary. That was almost a full year ago now and for those 12 months I really had to go hard into growth and focus solely on the business. It’s been a ride however, I can see the tides starting to turn now and I’m so glad I put in all that initial effort to get the ball rolling.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.miiprofessionalspeaking.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejoejohnston/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joejohnston28/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_feed%3BAOzZruqXQGWeliMmO7egEQ%3D%3D

Image Credits
Cassidy Nelson Jake Flynn