In this solo episode of Unlocking Lilly, the host (the Unlocking Lilly speaker) shares how, prompted by Evan Carmichael, she researched 20 successful speakers to accelerate her own speaking journey. She explains her two‑part research framework—"path to success" (career milestones) and "business side" (income streams). Analyzing the data, she identifies three common breakthrough strategies: finding a kingmaker (leveraging an established brand or media), grinding out content (consistent creation), and proving it live (stage performances). She also uncovers three prevalent revenue models: online training programs, bestselling books, and live events/seminars. Reflecting on the findings, she decides to focus her energy on live‑stage proof and on coaching/workshops as her primary business model, noting how the research boosted her confidence. She announces a forthcoming deep‑dive into Tony Robbins, Brené Brown, and Simon Sinek, and invites viewers to comment on the three speakers they admire. The episode ends with gratitude to her community, Believe Nation, and a special shout‑out to a supporter.
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Hello everyone, so welcome to another episode of Unlocking Lilly. It's always been my dream to be a speaker, and with the help of Evan Carmichael, I'm able to do this full time, and you guys are all coming along for the ride with me. So Evan challenged me to research 20 speakers, and the reason for that is I'm starting out on my journey, and the truth is I can't figure everything out on my own. But it will take me a very, very long time. So to shorten that process, it's important for me to take a look at all the people who have done similar things to what I want to do and I could look at their path so that way I could fast-track my process and then model after them. So I needed 20 speakers. I only had 3, 3 people that I've been following for the past few years, but I needed 17 more. How do I do that? Right? So I thought to myself, well, you know what, Evan? He actually covers a lot of successful people on his channel. I'm sure some of them are speakers. And it's true, I did find a lot of them on his channel, but I needed more than that. And Google being our best friend, I actually googled famous speakers and I was able to come up with my list of 20 names. And once I got the 20 names, I split the research into 2 parts. So I had one part which was a path to success and the other part is their business side. The path to success is very crucial. The reason for that is right now I'm just starting, so for me to compare my beginning to their top, is what they're doing right now, seems like it's way too much of a leap and it almost seems impossible at times. But if I were to actually look at all the things that they have done in the previous years and when they first got started, it may— not only does it make it more realistic for me, but it also makes more sense that, okay, these are the things that I need to to get to where they are today. And on the business side, I want to be able to make an income from speaking. So for me to look at all the things that they are doing to earn an income is going to help me create a business around speaking as well. So as part of my research, I needed to highlight their breakthroughs. So what are the specific things that they did to break them through into the successes they are today? And as I was doing my research, I started to realize that there were 3 common ways that they were breaking through. So the first one is to find a kingmaker. So what that means is to leverage an existing brand or media. So for example, Oprah Winfrey and Les Brown had mediocre success, but they didn't actually become household names until they had their own talk shows. And even Jack Canfield, who used to be an educator, and he didn't actually become known for what he is today until he published his first book in his Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Number 2 is to grind out content, is to work consistently on your craft day after day after day. So you have Neil Pasricha who wrote on his blog 1,000 awesome things every single day until one day he was recognized and he was able to get a book deal out of it, which is the Book of Awesome. And Eric Thomas who put out YouTube videos after YouTube videos after YouTube videos until one of them went viral and had over 40 million views. And number 3 is to prove it live. These are the folks that went on stage and actually proved themselves and their message and stood up for what they believed in. So you have Tony Robbins, who was well known but did not become notorious until he went on stage and cured a woman from her snake phobia after being challenged by psychiatrists that he was a fake. And even Brené Brown and Simon Sinek, who were relatively unknown before they had their world popular TEDx talks, which actually put them on the map as being the leading thought leaders. So on the business side, I was able to identify 3 common ways they're making an income. So number 1 are online training programs. So Sean Atcher, Gabrielle Bernstein, and Zig Ziglar all have online courses that they sell through their website. Number 2 are books. Lisa Nichols, Robin Sharma, and Dale Carnegie all wrote bestsellers that sold millions of copies. Number 3 are live events and seminars. Tony Robbins, Brendon Burchard, and Eckhart Tolle all sell out their shows months leading up to their live events. So I walked into this research knowing I wanted to be a speaker, but I'm walking away with so much more clarity. On the breakthrough side, I love the people that proved it live. There's something so magical and exhilarating to me about going on stage stage and showing yourself, showing up as yourself and standing up for what you believe in and proving yourself and proving your message. So I really want to focus my energy into doing that. And on the business side, I love coaching. I love the one-on-one connection that I get with people. Not only that, to see them being inspired by their own awesomeness and going out there and doing amazing things and taking action. So I'm going to focus a lot of my energy into coaching, and as much as I love the one-on-one connection that I get from coaching, I love a group environment as well. There's something so fulfilling to me when I see a group of people support each other and have empathy for each other and then walk away as a group feeling, you know, completely inspired and ready to like take on their goals. It's such an amazing feeling. So on the business side, I'm going to really focus a lot of my time into the coaching and the workshop side. So this research gave me so much more than just a path to becoming a speaker. It gave me confidence. A lot of the times I think to myself that maybe my goal is too bold. Maybe I can't get there. Maybe it's a silly idea. You know, what makes me think that I could actually achieve the same amount of success as all these people did? You know, maybe I should have started when I was a lot younger. I don't have a lot of time. I need more education. I need to go back to school. I need to go get a PhD. Until that happens, I can't actually go on stage and give a speech because I don't know what I'm talking about. Or I feel like I don't have the money to back up this business plan that I have. And the truth is, a lot of these people that I researched started off with a lot less than what I have right now. I already have way more. You know, look at Dale Carnegie. He was actually homeless when he started off his first seminar. He was living at the YMCA, and the things that he has accomplished from having so little is incredible. Even years and years after his passing, people know his training programs. They know his books. His books is still one of the bestsellers in the world. So what gives me the excuse? At the same time, it makes me feel very confident. If he can do it, so can I. And that's really the truth, right? Anything that you want to do is not too bold because people who have done it before you have done it with a lot less. So for my next challenge, I'm going to take you guys on a deeper journey into the 3 people that I resonated with the most. Most. So they are Tony Robbins, Brené Brown, and Simon Sinek. I'm going to share with you what are the specific things that they did to get to where they are today, and also what are the things that I have learned from them that I could put into action right away. So the question of the day is, who are the 3 people that you look up to in your industry that you're gonna start researching today? I love reading your comments and I would love to find out who they are. So leave in the comments below and I'm going to join in on the discussion. Discussion. So thank you so much for watching, but more importantly, I am so grateful for having you on this journey with me. You have been so supportive and encouraging and loving since day one, and honestly, I couldn't have asked for a better community than Believe Nation to be part of this crazy ride that I'm on. And I actually have a special shout out for Karthik Reddy. So Karthik wrote, Lily, you improved Lily, congratulations. So Karthik, thank you so much for writing the encouraging kind words. It really does mean a lot to me. So thank you, and thank you guys, and I'll see you very, very soon for another episode of Unlocking Lily. Thank you, and I love you all.
