Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mark Brown. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Mark, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?
I’m a solopreneur, but definitely not by choice. My previous employer eliminated my position which was unique to the company and the industry. My income plummeted and has not recovered on almost eight years.
I’m happier being home more now, and spending more time in physically closer to my bride of more than 40 years is more valuable than frequent flyer miles and hotel upgrades. On my last job I travelled 100+ days each year.
However, at times I flat MISS the steady paycheck of the ‘regular job’, and I have had that feeling several times over the past eight years. There are myriad voices ‘out there’ that scream, “Be your own boss! Start your own company! Be an entrepreneur! Live your dreams!” That works for some, but not for all.
Over the past year I have had clients who made promises that they didn’t or couldn’t keep. Clients have discussed project plans, agreed on a course of action, and asked for proposals detailing the entire process, only to return with, “Well, we decided to go in a different direction.”
Clients have made verbal agreements and decided on project start dates, but when it’s time to ‘sign on the dotted line’ something has come up. Hey, life happens. I get that. In these cases, I don’t fault them. But life doesn’t take that into consideration, and financial obligations don’t go on vacation because I’m having a rough month.
This is frustrating and exhausting. Marketing, sales, building a client base, rebuilding a client base are difficult, and I am learning. Collaborating with others in joint ventures certainly helps, and connecting with experts in mastermind groups provides wonderful learning opportunities.
As far as conclusions and insights go, I have concluded that while I don’t particularly like the life of a solopreneur, my commitment to my bride and family have led TO an increasing faith in God and a dedication to excellence in serving my clients and associates.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, I migrated to the USA at 18 with $40 and became a bank teller and then computer programmer. In 1993 I joined Toastmasters International to develop my public speaking skills and in 1995 defeated 25,000 global contestants to with the World Championship of Public Speaking. This led to my professional speaking career.
Three years later I was hired full-time by a division of Reader’s Digest to travel across North America and deliver inspirational and educational messages in the secondary school education market. To date I’ve spoken to over 1 million middle and high school students, educators, administrators, counselors and psychologists. I’ve also delivered keynote presentations at Student Council, Activities Directors and School Board Association conferences at the state, regional and national levels.
In 2015 my position was eliminated for budgetary reasons, I believe, and I was thrust into solopreneurship. It was not my choice. My work in the education market was drastically reduced and I had to focus more on the corporate space.
While I still work with schools and educational organizations on occasion, I deliver keynote presentations at corporate events and I have had the privilege of addressing audiences on five continents. My messages are mostly inspirational, focusing on performance excellence, leadership and strategic communication using language selectively and intentionally.
I teach organizations, leaders and teams how to elevate their levels of performance and achieve increasing levels of excellence in simple yet meaningful ways. Audiences walk away with powerful strategies for building their team members, leading more effectively, and increasing productivity.
At the turn of the century, I began coaching emerging/aspiring speakers, speech contestants, corporate presenters and professional speakers from countries all over the world. When the pandemic hit, my speaking took a hit as well, and speaker coaching became my main income source.
I help speakers to deliver unforgettable presentations, to shine on stage and online. By working with them through the entire speech life cycle…from initial idea to stage presentation…I teach them how to quickly connect with any audience, how to get buy-in BEFORE they even say a word, and how to create and craft clear messages. Most importantly, I show them how to transform their speeches into experiences. That’s a game changer.
Helping others to serve their clients well gives me great satisfaction and I am proud of the quality of service that I provide to my clients. I’m thankful to have coached five World Champions of Public Speaking as well as clients from a broad spectrum of industries including politics, private equity financing, medicine and sales.
My broad focus is helping individuals and organizations to EXCEL in Performance, Leadership and Communication.
I also collaborate with other professionals to provide webinars and workshops on Virtual Presentations, Business Stories and Platform Mastery.
What am I proud of? Winning the World Championship of Public Speaking was no small task. The competition took place over six months, with 6 levels of competition. I delivered the same 7-minute speech for the first four levels, a new 7-minute speech for the fifth level, and a third 7-minute speech for the World Championship.
Earning the Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association is an accomplishment of which I am very proud. It is the speaking profession’s highest earned international measure of professional platform competence.
Over the years I HAVE derived great satisfaction from delivering training sessions for several chapters of the National Speakers Association in North America, some of which have invited me back.
I’m also honored to have coached and advised numerous International Speech Contest semi-finalists and finalists, and five World Champions of Public Speaking.
Most recently, I delivered a 12-minute speech entirely in French at an International Summit for French-Speaking Orators even though I am not a French speaker and hadn’t had a formal French lesson since high school in 1977.
IN 2022 I co-authored the book deliver unforgettable presentations with Hall-Of-Fame speaking legend Patricia Fripp and Certified Speaking Professional Darren LaCroix.
I co-host the weekly unforgettable presentations podcast with Darren LaCroix. We discuss all things Speaking-Related speak with communicators from a broad range of industries, and interview reputable industry experts like BRIAN TRACY, LES BROWN, PATRICIA FRIPP AND OTHERS. The podcast is ranked in the top 1.5% of over 3 million podcasts worldwide by listen notes.
I co-host the unforgettable presentations podcast with Darren LaCroix. The podcast is ranked in the top 1.5% of over 3 million podcasts worldwide by LISTEN NOTES.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
As I mentioned before, I lost my job in 2015 and had ZERO entrepreneurial experience, and ZERO entrepreneurial desire. My position had been unique…so unique that the company’s CEO had CREATED the position just to match my skillset. Nobody in my network could think of any company that had a similar position in the organization, so to my knowledge, opportunities were non-existent. I had no ‘parachute, having been released without a severance package or short term medical insurance. I had no existing client base, and no marketing expertise. I DID have a family and a mortgage. A friend in a consulting company encouraged me to join them as a speaker and speaking coach. That went fairly well for a couple of years, but expectations and reality don’t always walk hand in hand. Assignments dried up, and coaching dwindled.
In 2020, when the world faced the COVID-19 pandemic everything changed. Speaking engagements were cancelled and without abandoning speaking, I shifted my focus to coaching. I updated my website with guidance from a business expert and speakers bureau executive and what little business I received came from referrals…which is still the case.
Recently I’ve been learning how to use social media…specifically LinkedIn…to acquaint potential associates and prospects with me and my work. I’ve started a LinkedIn newsletter which I publish weekly, and I’m also learning to use AI as an intern and assistant. This part of my journey is ongoing.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In June 1993 I was hospitalized with blood clots covering about 60% of my lungs (the GOOD news) and a massive clot INSIDE MY HEART (the obvious bad news). Doctors gave me at best a 50/50 chance of survival and I passed out four times in three days. My cardiologist used a treatment that was not ‘standard’ 30 years ago, and after I recovered I asked him, “Based on all that you have described, why am I still HERE?” In his experienced medical opinion he said, “I don’t know…the grace of God.” 😁
In 2011 I had another clotting episode and again fought my way back. After a third episode I had to change medication, give up my favorite sport of soccer at 50 and adjust to medication for life.
Despite all that, I still go to gym and exercise a few days each week. When we do ‘benchmark challenges’ at my local Orangetheory studio I consistently perform in the top three in my age group. ‘Safe’ would be easy, but that won’t work for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://markbrownspeaks.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markbrownspeaks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBrownSpeaks
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-l-brown-speaker/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkLeoBrown
- Youtube: marklbrown
Image Credits
Jerry Metellus & Laurent Qy