SL071: Public Speaking Tips from The Feisty, Focused And Fearless Speaker

Public Speaking Tips from The Feisty, Focused And Fearless Speaker Public Speaking Tips: James Taylor interviews Pegine Echevarria; The Feisty, Focused And Fearless Speaker

In today's episode Pegine Echvarria talks about Public Speaking Tips from The Feisty, Focused And Fearless Speaker.

Be powerful! Be You! Make a positive impact! These are Pegine’s calls to action. She goes by her first name, Pegine. Hey, if first names are good enough for Oprah, Beyoncé and Shakira it's good enough for her. Pegine is the only Latina and one of only eight women inducted into the 60-member Motivational Speaker Hall of Fame, others include Anthony Robbins and Jack Canfield. Her training company received the extremely rare US Department of Defence rating of EXCELLENT for quality, service and success for contracts over a million dollars. A former Bronx gang member kicked out of her first high school, she is a true American success story. Her life story and wisdom is featured in over 15 books on success including "The American Dream Revisited" by Gary Sirak and Powerful Self-Confidence: Developing Unshakeable Confidence (Made for Success) with Zig Ziglar. She’s been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Forbes among others and is the author of 'Sometimes You Need to Kick Your Own Butt', Days' and 'I've Got the Power To Lead & Think Big' among others.

What we cover:

• Seminal moments in a speakers career
• Power Women of NSA
• Chants, Mantras and Theme Songs

Resources:

• Pegine's Website

• Tamsen's Free Gift For You: The Affirmation Book for PowerPlayers - Lead and Think Big

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Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/public-speaking-tips-from-the-feisty-focused-and-fearless-speaker-sl071/

James Taylor Hi, it's James Taylor, founder of SpeakersU. Today's episode was first aired as part of International Speakers Summit the world's largest online event for professional speakers. And if you'd like to access the full video version, as well as in depth sessions with over 150 top speakers, then I've got a very special offer for you. Just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com, where you'll be able to register for a free pass for the summit. Yep, that's right 150 of the world's top speakers sharing their insights, strategies and tactics on how to launch grow and build a successful speaking business. So just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com but not before you listen to today's episode.

Hey there it's James Taylor and I'm delighted today to welcome Pegine Echevarria. Be powerful be you make a positive impact. These are Perkins calls to action. She goes by our first name Peggy. Hey, it first things a good enough Oprah for Beyonce for Shakira, then it's good enough. patina is the only Latina One of only eight women inducted into the 16 member motivational speaker Hall of Fame including Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield, some incredible names. They're part of that grouping. Her training company received extremely rare US Department of Defense rating of excellent for quality, service and success for contracts over a million dollars. A former Bronx gang member kicked out of our first High School, she's a true American success story. Her life story and wisdom is featured in over 15 books on success, including the American Dream revisited by Gary sirak and powerful self confidence developing unshakable confidence that made for success by Zig Ziglar. She's been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Forbes, among others and is the author of sometimes you need to kick your own butt days. And I've got the parrot to lead and think big amongst others. And it's my great pleasure to have begin joining us today. So welcome, Pegine.

Pegine Echevarria I'm so excited to be with you. This is antastic I love it. People like you that take the spirit and say we're going to show it to the world and expand. So thank you for making an impact. This is fantastic.

James Taylor So share with everyone what's happening in your world just now

Pegine Echevarria just happening right now in my world. So yesterday I got to speak to a group of military buyers, federal government buyers, international buyers for large groups, plus small businesses that want to sell to them. And having been in that world, being able to get them to know something really important. So you and I are going to talk about chance. So the message yesterday was add his side and add of mine, I'll make sure you remember mine count off one, two. So imagine hundreds of people singing that because that's what we do is make it memorable. So that's been great in putting writing some books and doing coaching and opening a new membership site that just started for professional women's speakers. So I'm very excited.

James Taylor So tell me how how did a Bronx gang member end up as probably one of the top keynote speakers in the world? What was take me through that journey? how you ended up, you know, getting on stage?

Pegine Echevarria Well, I will tell you what, the one thing that got me on stage, not live this life. And I'll tell you a little bit about that. But really the the moment was I had been on Montel Williams, which is a famous talk show host had a big talk show on regular TV went all over the world. And I, he had heard about my life, and he had heard about my work. And I was on his show for 32 times. And one day he took me into the green room. And I was always on right. He took me in the green room and said, girl, why aren't you out there speaking? And I said, I don't know what you're talking about. You know, he could get really into your face and that's what he was like radios. You should be out there speaking nobody talks away. You talk you got to be out there. And I said, Montel, I don't know what you're talking about. And what it turns out is Montel had been a professional speaker in the youth market for years and years and years. And that is how he got his TV show. Before that he had been in the military and doing rallies, but for the military, but he didn't know that there was professional speaking until he left. So now he's passing it on to me, and you are passing it on to everybody else. Now, James, is somebody said, you can do this. And you've got to learn. And that day, he did two things for me. One, he signed me up. He paid for my union membership in the afternoon, which is the TV union to be on TV, talk TV, so I got paid, rather than doing it for free. And then the second thing that he did was tell me about the National Speakers Association. And that's really the beginning story of how I got into professional speaking mind you I had been president of direct sales company. I had been a national sales manager. I'm going backwards, right? I had been a Director of Operations for a company. I had sold two businesses in Spain. By the time I was 23, I had been a gang member, I had left the states to get out of the game. But in all those processes of my life, it never dawned on me that there was this that people would pay you to speak. And I did love to speak. You know, my, my BA is in children's theater, and theater and an improvisational theater, basically, because it was the easiest ba to get, you know, college degree. But all of those techniques that I learned then now I use my work, so I guess it was divine, that I was supposed to be doing this and it's actually

James Taylor quite strange. I didn't realize the Montel Williams can But there's another connection that you and I have, because I'm very good friends with a gentleman who served with Montel, in the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. And so if I was with him last month and and we would actually, we were actually having a conversation because I just been speaking in Baltimore, and I was chatting to my friend who'd run the US Naval Academy band. And he said,

Pegine Echevarria Oh, yeah, I said years ago that there was a guy that was here,

James Taylor you know, and, you know, he was getting into speaking through the, through the military, he was going out and training and speaking in terms of promoting the work of the military and schools and colleges. And then he said one day, you know, I think I'm gonna do this more and it's a TV show. Nothing was his name is his name is Montel Williams. So you and I have that that little circuitous connection there as well. And that's because I've presented

Pegine Echevarria at the Naval Academy several times they want me in to, to educate them to be you, right? I mean, uniquely you and to that the military is a diverse component of all people. And that's worldwide. Right? So it's so that's so funny. So that connection. So I love that. Exactly

James Taylor as you were starting to build your, your, your speaking career your speaking business, who were those other key mentors for you people that maybe took you under their wing really can help support support you taught you the tricks of the trade and things to maybe to avoid and things to focus on?

Pegine Echevarria Well, I mean, that's those are all awesome questions. And it was a combination. So I am very involved in the in it net National Speakers Association, which we call NSA, which is not the National Security Agency, but National Speakers Association. And there were a combination of courses that I took from two perspectives because I think that what happens with speaking industry is everybody thinks the business is the speaking That is true. But there is a larger part of the business than 90% of the business to get you on the stage, which is the business. So for me it was taking courses on entrepreneur ism, taking courses on sales, taking courses, even though I had a national salesperson, it is a little bit different to sell a something than it is to sell yourself. Because sometimes you don't realize how magnificent you are. Most times that's what I find from speakers. Most times they don't realize their true brilliance and what they bring to the stage and what they bring to to be able to make a difference in people, businesses and people. They love to speak but they don't love to sell. And honestly if you want to get paid for speaking you have to love to sell and learn to love To sell yourself, you know only and that's really an important piece. I think that for me, that's what I had to do is learn how to run the business. Right? Learn how to do the financials, learn how to do the sales, learn how to do the packaging, learn how to do the social media, and all of it is joyful. If it's not joyful, make a joyful because you live this stuff, you are a living brand, and I talk about that a lot.

James Taylor So can you remember a time as you were building your speaking career? When things finally started to click, you know, they start you suddenly can Okay, this is it feels like it's happening now. A number of things are starting to come together was it was kind of seminal moment like that in your speaking career.

Pegine Echevarria They're always seminal moments. Because what happens in the world of speaking, is you you start at what you have a level right and then suddenly go, Oh, look at that. I'm getting that level. It feels amazing. You know, that when I started going to libraries, and somebody was gonna pay me five hundred dollars to speak on the topic I was speaking was like, Oh, right. And I didn't realize what Montel was talking about was a whole different number. Right? And so then I was moved that I moved to the next level. And I realized that first time that I hit the five figures for a 30 minute speech. And that moment that I was like, Okay, what, here's a check what so amazing. So that was the firt. One of the seminal moments. A huge moment for me, of course, was when we closed million dollar deal, and I was able to bring it to my mother. And I had a copy of the check. And I bought her the copy and I framed it for her and that was like, a huge deal. A huge I don't mean what was a huge deal, but I mean, a huge amount. To say, Mom, this kid from the Bronx, this is what I was just paid for this event that we were doing, which is pretty extraordinary, right? But in through that I when I want to mean is I don't want people to think that it's always like that because it's not it's levels. So you have a seminal moment when you reach this level of fee, which was, every time I do it, it's extraordinary. When you raise up, there's a seminal moment in terms of the products that you produce. So your first book, your first membership, your first time that you're on a stage and and it's all lit up, and it's huge. And you're on the iMac, that's a seminal moment in the speaker's life. There's a seminal moment when you're amongst your peers. And they This is a seminal moment. This is a seminal moment for me, because here I am with you, and we're talking about the hundred speakers and it's like, I'm just doing My job doing what I was placed on this earth to be and to be amongst my friends, this is a seminal moment. The challenge if I can talk about the challenge, the challenge for a lot of speakers is sometimes we are growing and expanding and we don't realize that we are. So it's like if you get you were a little kid and you got a sneaker, and you started growing out of your sneaker and your mom buys you a slightly bigger sneaker so your foot can grow into it. And those first couple of days the sneaker is flopping around because it's too big. And then suddenly, one day you don't even notice that now the sneaker is too small for you and you have to expand. And sometimes we get professional speakers get stuck because we're wearing too small sneakers. It's time for us to expand. And we don't have a mom to tell us that it's more we need friends like you to say you need To change your sneakers, it's time to make it big. So

James Taylor one of those groupings of obviously you can have coach coaches that can help you with that journey. But one of the things that you started was a grouping a community within a community for the National Speakers Association, which was the power woman of NSA, which is people have told me about this before and I have been limited. I didn't know too much about it. But some of my some of my friends who are members of it at Sydney got huge value from being in this group. And so first of all, tell us what was the reason for starting this group within a group? And then what does it really do for the members? And how does, how does it help those women? Say, tell them maybe one woman tell another woman Okay, you need to go into some bigger sneakers here.

Pegine Echevarria Great question. So the reason I started the group was that there are issues that women's speakers don't get to talk about in the larger thing in when we're with men and women. A guy can go on and this is a Perfect example a guy go on camera in the morning, after he's worked out rain, the sweat is there, he's coming, he puts on a T shirt, he's just boom, he's on no problem. A woman doesn't get to do that. Because the moment that she does it, then somebody will say, you know, could have gotten your hair done could have had this stuff. That's just it's just different. It's just different. It's a perspective that goes on. So there's a little bit more things or things that we can talk about that we have to talk about that are not the kind of things you would want to talk about mixed company.

James Taylor Tell me Give me an example then to that

Pegine Echevarria Ross draws and where to put your, your lavell ear mic, for instance. Yeah, uh, being on a huge, huge camera and that day wearing a white bra but you're wearing a black shirt and there you just have two big white circles on this huge I'm egg It's, it's really deep. I mean, it sounds silly. No, I tell you that.

James Taylor As you're saying this, it also reminds me of my days in the music industry when I used to manage bands and one band, well known band that took Platinum sellers, 6 million albums. And it was a it was a male and a female from people from persons. And I always felt bad concern for that for for her, because she felt like she had to deal with a lot more stuff. When we were kind of doing these shows, and it was you Yes, big screens, and it was a whole bunch of other things as well. So I, I can understand that. And also, my wife is a jazz singer. So as someone who is she's up on stage all the time. I also know I can get to see that behind the scenes stuff as well and her saying exactly the kind of things you were saying brahs and things of that

Pegine Echevarria level. So So here's a great here's another example. So a lavalier mic, right that you clip on. Yeah. is made for men. Yeah. It's made for men. It's supposed to be on your tie to hit your Lauren. It's not So even it wasn't even made to be on your lapel it was made to put on your tie to capture your lonex well guess what we wear jewelry. We wear our our materials are more flimsy. So we have to wear headsets or other things because when we move around, you're hearing the jingle. That's a women's issue. The other piece that's fascinating is to create some vulnerability. We have some we have 800 890 women, experts, authorities, speakers, Olympians, New York Times bestselling authors, all of that. And so we look at how can we support them as females to be on the grander stage. There tends to be more men on the grand stage than women. Why is that? So I am. I help reporters. We have a dear friend who's a reporter from the Forbes man And he found out that while he wanted lots of women, he thought he had lots of women at being interviewed. When he really looked at the numbers, he only had 25% of his interviewees were women. And he was conscious, right? So we had a whole talk. And we found out that women need to be asked more.

James Taylor So what so explain that because actually, this is a point of even doing this summit the very first time I ran this summit, and I just went out to people when people recommended other people, and then I looked at by the time we finalize the this would be I think, 60 in the first year. And I think I figured out it was like 30 or 35% women, and the rest were men and it was one of things I wanted to change. So it was more it was it was more even and I did kind of question is, I might do I have an unconscious bias that's kind of going on here. And as I start to drill into it, for me that felt like there was a number of reasons why I ended up not 5050 and we can go into can go into those Meet event organizer. I'd be interested to know from your perspective, why do you think that so many of these events panels and things ends up being is not? I'm not saying just male and female, but let's say it's not diverse.

Pegine Echevarria Absolutely. I mean, heck, hey, as a Hispanic woman, I'm like one of the rare out there and part so I've learned a long time I can change people places, things or situations. I can only change myself in that and and educate people about what the changes that I've had to do to be more of a player to be more there and to be more bold and I think that's a speaker bureau the other day said something really interesting. She said, You're one of three women that I know that boldly promote themselves boldly put themselves out there, you know, and I think that's one of the the bigger pieces. So you here you had this international summit, I would guarantee that you got lots of guys emailing you put me on put me on. I'm a great speaker to write. I would guarantee that if you looked at all the people that asked that weren't even big speakers weren't even, you would see, you would see tons of guys saying, Pick me Pick me Pick me, I want to be here. I want to be here and you would see very few women doing that. That's very few women saying, me, me, me, Pick me Pick me. And this is part of something that we've learned, you know, you go to school, remember the guys in class? That would be I know the answer. I know the answer. I know the answer. And you rarely and sometimes you got a girl doing that. I got the answer. And everybody who thought thought she was a nerd, right? Because she knew the answer, but she wasn't held in high esteem about it, right? That kind of taught we we think about that. I don't want to be too pushy. I don't want to be too brash. I don't want to be too bold. I want to know, you know, if I'm good enough, you will notice me. And that is not how it happens in this world of both speaking and sales right? There is no guardian angel that's gonna go you're not going to James, you're going to not have the time and effort for yourself to go and keep on asking the same people over and over. It really takes a lot of effort to say, I want women. All right, who knows woman? Nope. Don't want you guy. But can you recommend me women? Nope. Don't want you but recommend a woman. And so from a network perspective, do the people that you ask have a network of strong women? That's one of the reasons that I did pw NSA. So people like you and everything? No, these are vetted women who are professional speakers who get paid to speak, live by ethics, and call us up because we have somebody to fit your need. So an easy way for people to reach out to us. We're not a speaker's bureau. We don't get any commission boundaries. We're just helping out right. The second thing is to educate women to pitch your proposals, so If, if anybody's out there and they're looking for women to be interviewed, we will. I will post in our group saying here's some people that are looking for women to be interviewed. And I become a little bit of a mosquito and an egg. I do I do to my group, you know, did you submit Did you submit right now for NSA there's this thing submit two minutes of your best tip well I know that there's been tons of guys has not been to tons of women so I become a nag I'm holding you up. Come on, girls. You've just submitted don't start complaining. You've got to submit two minutes. You are brilliant. You are smart. You all have you run magnificent business. Share your two minutes. It's got to be now so that is what does

James Taylor that mean? That's great. I mean, one of the cuz I have no in some way. I have no vested interest creating this. This summit is not affiliated with any particular Speakers Association, or CPP or anything. So one of the things I I can do in this business is I can sometimes ask uncomfortable questions of things because I don't have to, to align something. So one of the ones I was thinking like, one of the questions that no one is asking about this industry. And for me coming in as an outsider, I can quite happily asked what seemed as a dumb questions because I'm a newbie, you know, new person kind of coming into it. So I can ask those questions, because these are questions I want to know. But one of the ones I've been thinking about a lot recently, and I don't if it's gonna be a dirty little secret in this business, but if I look, let's say the music industry, I come from all the entertainment industry, the film industry, there's been big seismic changes in the past two years, in terms of pay for men and women actors, it could be on the same film, the woman could be actually the face the star of the movie, but the guy ends up getting paid more than that. Now thinking about the speaking business. The speaking business is also one of those industries which is not transparent when it comes to what people earn what people make on To speak of fees. So is there any way of being able to kind of like drill down? Because I do wonder if I look at if I'm speaking at a conference, and I'm the closing keynote speaker, and there's a woman, that's the opening speaker of how it is? Am I getting paid less? assuming we're on the same level in terms of speaking careers? Am I getting paid the same as that person? I mean, is she getting paid the same as me? And is any way of drilling into that?

Pegine Echevarria So here's a really great, the best way I can say so I have referred. I'll get asked my clients, you know, my clients by our very large companies, right? And they'll ask me, you know, you have people that you could recommend, and they'll ask me for a fee range. So, you know, I can find low fee speakers, right, and I'm trying the under 2000. Then I'll have my five to seven k speaker, and I'm talking about women, right? And I could get a robust group of that. Then I go to that. 11 to 15 15,000 becomes much shorter. But then we go to the 15 to 35 for 35. professional speaker not celebrity, okay, there's a distinction there. So these are professionals, people, it is a, it is a handful, right. And the reason for that is for a couple of reasons. bodacious pneus being able to say I'm worth it, here's my fee, and to being in the network of other men who are in that figure who said, you're better than me, be at that fee. Or now it's becoming a thing, which is kind of cool. For me. I'm happy about it word guys. Want to show I support women, so they will tell. So let's say you're doing this speaking job, and you'll look at Add the list and go, Oh man, you need some diversity. You want to look like a superstar. Like I get this, I know this and say to the planner, listen, I have a couple of people that I want to recommend that have you need some more women you need some more color here you need some something else, let me recommend them. So you create a roster of people that you can refer to right, that makes you elevated and me seen as a player in a different new world because the world is changing. Definitely. And it goes also back to what's happening in entertainment and you haven't been an agent and been involved in the entertainment ages. You know, you you I know that you saw some of the difference of what a guy was saying, this is all I'm going to be. This is what I'm going to charge I don't take anything less. And a woman be more prone to say, Well, you know better than me, you ask. You know what I could get you ask. And now Being as determined to get the higher fee, right and you as the agent are going to go back and you're going to do it but it comes back to confidence. Can you? Does the person confidently say, I am worth this? I'm absolutely worthless. I'm at as good or I'm not even compared. I don't even compare myself to anybody because I'm so uniquely me. And I'm so valuable that you have to buy me Take me bring me at my feet, that you don't hear that languaging I'm sure you've heard more than people that that languaging is oftentimes not from a female's voice,

James Taylor but I think is good to listen to see listen in team world actors like Jennifer Lawrence. Now saying, actually, you know, she, you know, puppets shame on me because I need to be pushing much further now in terms I know. I'm worth this And but what what what just wasn't shown before was just the huge disparity. And now in corporate boards, they have to show the difference only here in the UK, they have to show the difference between what male executives are as pros, female executives are making, for example. So I guess then we're going to start seeing that more generally in society.

Pegine Echevarria Well, I will tell you having worked in that field for a while, is knowing that other countries are leading far ahead than the US in terms and so the some of the rules regulations, being able to say, Hey, here's transparency, here's what I'm earning. Here's what I'm earning and having that going up. Certainly having some international stars be more vocal about their demand. India, some of the Bollywood stars, they realize that they are the stars, they are carrying those movies so they're demanding more and that is influencing their peers in this state. Being able to say, wait a minute, I could actually talk about this. I can actually speak up about this. Uh, certainly in the world of speaking there's now these, you know, white male panel websites where they're putting pictures on my

James Taylor sequel, someone said to me the code manuals now.

Pegine Echevarria Nanos Oh my god, it's becoming it's becoming a huge issue. And it's becoming a huge issue for two reasons. Right now they're having women facilitators, which they're getting backlash because stop making me a facilitator. I'm an expert. I know this stuff I could, I could crush these other guys. You know, you have to be there and make you a keynote. I'm fine with that. Hey, you want to bring me in because you suddenly realized, oops, bring me in. Let me close it down. And I'll show you what a powerful woman on stage can do. That's the most important message that's going on and so power women of NSA is Definitely to, to recruit women who are leaders, experts, authorities, speakers, who are ready to play a bigger game and want to, to to create a safe space where we can have some some of the real conversations like asking for money, like, promoting yourself like brahs. Like managing, you know, we're, we have issues about caregiving, you know, leaving your sick mom when you got to go do a speech and that killed OCE can really affect them, things like that, as well as this depth. Oh my gosh, of, hey, I've got this contract and I'm trying to work through it. Can you help me through it? We have real vulnerable conversations about business. I'm trying to promote my book and I'm getting slammed by the publisher. What do I do those kinds of? I think the biggest piece about pw NSA is we are willing to be vulnerable and share Our truth in that it sucks when we get turned down from a speaking engagement, and we can write that and everybody else will say, been there done that know that so you're never alone. This is a hard strong amazing

James Taylor business well it's great i mean i'm so it's such an amazing thing that you've created. I know it's not just you there's other other in terms of team members now that they're responsible for making them so I commend you for having done this is I just hear amazing things about about what you do there. So if anyone's watching this just now you should and you're not a member of you know, power and of NSA, you should definitely be checking this out.

Pegine Echevarria Yeah. And I started a separate group called feisty, fearless females and biz, a speaker's group for women who will never join NSA or aren't can't meet the requirements but want to speak. So it's called feisty, fearless females in biz, and they could go to feisty females.com to hear information. I'll share that with you later on. But the other thing I just want to share, yes, it starts With me, but then Gina card, Karen Jacobson, Liz green came later together and said we got to do this. We have listened to this 120 volunteers that do work just for pw NSA.

James Taylor That's it was actually interesting. I was I was interviewing Mary Lou Peck as part of this new CEO of the NSA. And we were actually having this discussion we said, you know, we're probably all in our in our careers will be members of different associations, trade bodies, associations or in our industries. But but the NSA is one of those ones, where you definitely get a sense is a very strong sense of engagement in it amongst their members of kind of supporting each other, which is not necessarily the case in all associations. If we're, if we're truthful, we speak to associations as well, it's not always the case. So that's great you have and I know the NSA itself is very engaged, but then you have this additional level, which is very engaged as well. And let's start to move on because one of the things that you and I were speaking about, which just kind of blew my mind, and I I've been telling loads of people about it was, you know, we hear that it's important to have mantras in our in when we're speaking though, you know the the phrase that pays things that people will remember they'll go out that room they remember the weeks and the months afterwards, you took it kind of one step further in terms of the music, the walk on music view do so, first of all, tell us the the story of if anyone goes and sees you on stage, that they're going to be before you kind of actually come onto the stage, they're going to hear something.

Pegine Echevarria Tell us that story. You know, you go on stage and he and everybody chooses songs, you know what song you talk to the AV guy and they do it. And for me, it was like, that is so wrong on so many races for me because if I'm going to be a professional speaker, if I'm going to be the celebrity, create that experience, and I should have my own song and most importantly, the song serves to protect One is, obviously to bed in people's mind, Who is this woman pegging? Power pegging power, you know, we have this whole song. And to, to help them understand who I am three to make them dance in the aisles. And for for me to hear it, because I gotta tell you, when I am backstage or in the aisles, I'm going to come down, and you start hearing your own song that you made a commitment to, this is who you are, this is the line in the sand. As you're walking up, you start motivating, inspiring yourself about the work that you do. And it becomes a really ying yang kind of experience. And I told you that I have people now that have my song as their ringtone. So, it's a continual message of be feisty, be fearless, be focused, have fun. It's a whole other attitude about who you are. And so I believe that every single speaker should have a song to not have one just means you're being a personally, you're taking it for granted that people get you. And having a song allows you to replicate yourself going out. I mean, people go to my YouTube on YouTube and they go, the motor piggies motivational song. And they, you know, we added a new stance, so if people could choose themselves, it's my power. But it makes it important to the experience of speaking before, during and after. It also is I pulled out or I had the producer pull out just the instrumentals so that when I'm doing a video, it's my song that's playing subliminally, underneath. I want people to recognize the tune the rhythm, the message. So when they hear they go, I know that song, I know that song. I know that song because, you know, branding is critical in this business.

James Taylor And actually, so if anyone that's watching is just beginning that sounds great, but that sounds really expensive to have to have your music. They have your own theme tune. I mean, we must be doing like thousands of high musicians and know people to write it and produce it and all these kind of things. What was your experience?

Pegine Echevarria So when I first started going down this path? I did ask somebody how much it was going to cost and they gave me some, like, big number was like, yeah, that's not gonna happen. And then then I went to a local university and I found some college kids that were musicians. And here's what I did. I wrote a poem of my message. So my stance is be feisty. Be fearless. be focused on pegging power piggie power. This is when Say when I'm walking down the street, I got the power, you got the power, we got the power, you know this whole thing. So first you write a poem. What is it the message and what is the chant or stanza that's repeated. Then I gave it to a local group of musicians that cost me 50 bucks. And they interpreted through music what I was saying, I got singers, and I use that for about a year. But what was missing was, I wanted some more of a beat. So I love the song Happy by Pharrell Williams. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I love the beat. I loved what they did. So then I went on to my favorite one of my favorite places, which is fiber. And I found first a producer, music producer, electronic and I said, and I talked to him before and I said, This is what I want. I love this music. I'm making my own song. Can you create a background but it's got to be it's got to get give me a little bit of flavor. It's got to get me moving kind of like this. And And so he did an a cost me about $150. Right for that bottom line, right? Then he's when they told me he says, Okay, now you need to go to a singer who will riff with the music of this, the sound who says all you have to do is listen to the sound and kind of you sing sort of what you want. I am not a singer, right. But I sort of knew what I what I wanted. So then through fiber, I found a phenomenal female singer. And she then ripped and sang the song, and they went back to the produce and we put it all together the whole thing cost me $300 even theme, but that $300 song has made such a huge difference to me personally, when I've gotten down when I've gotten in that mode because we all get there. I listen to I'm like, Oh, yes. Bigger, you know I am. Oh, yeah. And then number two is my audiences, dance to it, relate to it, play with it. And then three those there are I have set almost 1000 people that I know of who use the song as their ringtone or their daily mantra. What more could I ever ask right to to that gift and it was $300. So there is no excuse.

James Taylor And actually, I, as you told you told me this the story and one other thing, and you may not have thought about this yet, but if you were, if you were doing let's say a lot of if you're based in Europe, and you were doing mostly public talks, workshops, as opposed to more corporate ones. The way that it works in Europe is that any event organizer has to pay 3% if they're using music in the background, background, music and other things they have to pay 3% of the ticket price into this font. And if yours is the music that's being used on that, that money will end up coming out of that money will end up coming back to you. So and the reason I know this is because I'm ready to go fishing and I mean, this sounds like really strange. This is my kind of previous life I guess. But so I I own the company, I was the publishing for the theme music for a number of children's TV shows, all and other incidental music. And one point in that tour of that TV show decided to go on tour and go and do like thousand seater been venues around Europe. And so if you imagine you have thousand people spending $25 and you're doing they're doing 100 shows a year, and you as the as your music is being used on that, then that's 3% of that, it can actually become quite a profitable thing for you to do as well. So it's only only really works if it's public. If it's a If it's people are paying to come to that particular event, it doesn't really work. It was a corporate type event. Slightly different rules are kind of going on there. But but that's just I just I thought I'd mentioned that because who knows you might have a nice nice big check if you've been doing a lot of European work

Pegine Echevarria well, I love that and and here in the States, right? planners have to have a license to play music similar to what you're saying. And that was one of the things that was for me is I I was getting with my contract people saying, you know, are you going to be music? We can't do this. Do you own the music? It makes it so much easier for me I own the song. I wrote the song I produced the song It is my song. And it's my property that makes it so much easier for planners because it fills their need and, and honestly, just like you feel part of your unique selling part is I have my own song. Yeah, it was written for me. Oh, you have a home so I don't need to tell them that I wrote it. But the fact that somebody wrote a song for me, I must be a celebrity.

James Taylor I know so you so you use use theme tunes, you use theme music there as well. I know, mantras are very big part of what you do. I mean, you work a lot with the military. So mantras are used all the time in the military is something is very well established. How do you use mantras in terms of your your events,

Pegine Echevarria so I use mantras and every baby so every group that I speak to women's groups, men's groups, business groups, and I do it a couple of ways. One is I have certain mantras that goes to my, my, my speeches, so so why would I do big women's groups? Right? I have one that's be feisty. Be fearless, be focused, have fun. Or remember, imagine thousands of women all standing on. Be feisty, be fearless, be focused, have fun, and I incorporated throughout so they're saying it was fascinating when they walk out and in the car and he A year later, they can repeat it back to me. I have another one then goes, know it, own it, share it. Uh huh. That when I do business groups, you know, know what you're talking about, own what you're talking about and then share it to the world. But what happens is a lot of times, we as speakers do great, fantastic, emotional, magnificent job of educating inspiring people. But six months down the line, they might not remember what you said. They might remember the emotion that you have, but they might not learn. Learn your key points for me and your children's theater, children's jingles. The whole world of commercials and children's jingles is to have it replicated and embedded like it. Like in your mind. You can't get it out of your mind. My job is to make it so they can't get Add their their mind. So I use mantras and chance to get it stuck. So I was invited to speak to a very large organization, there was over 4000 people in this particular group, many of them couldn't attend. But they wanted to institutionalize this sense of everybody's together one, so they asked me to write a chain and was one do law. One, one do law. I said it, I'm in it. I'm here to represent it. Well, that's now taught, and every one of their business meetings and their customer service because they wanted it embedded. And that's what the power of of mantras and chance to it. It's embedded and they remember it. And really, I learned it from watching children's TV commercials, watching Sesame Street. Which Sesame Street has tons of them watching every jingle, that if you watch TV, I bet you I could go to an English audience and say, sing me a song from a commercial and everybody would know that commercial.

James Taylor It just is embedded it kind of and it's it's working on a deeper level with people I think when you have mantras when you have musical things as well, kind of going on there because, you know, when the what without same as patients with dementia patients, and often they, sadly, in the later stages of their lives, they can't remember a lot of things, but play them that theme tune, play that music and then immediately they go back to that moment. So it's working a very, very deep level that we have as human beings

Pegine Echevarria it is and I like love the word resonance. Because what happens in audience when as speakers we're supposed to be creating an experience for them. And oftentimes he experiences us we're talking they're feeling it. But we're not being memorable when they walk away from it. And the only way they can feel it is if they're physically involved in some way to create resonance. So if I have them doing the call back, if I have them doing know it, own it, share it. It's their voice, such rumbling, it's their words are coming. It's their energy that's being that experience is being memorized within. And my job is, as I see, my job is to provide the tools for people that when they're in those tough situations, in those moments, that they're searching for their toolbox, that that will rise up for them, and they can use it immediately. And, and it's so important to me, because I think that what we are given and what we're blessed with is the art of speaking and being professional but what our job is, is to give people the tools to be effective. sessile in their lives as leaders or salespeople or just individuals growing great moms, great dads. But if we don't give them the tools in a way that they can use it when the baby's crying, and they can't remember that to do if you had a mantra, that would make a difference for them, you know, and I think that's important

James Taylor and that's what they do in the military obviously they they get those so when you're under the in those moments of high stress, that these things that they just they just come it almost feels instinct, it feels instinctive or you do you remember those those things? And because you're operating at a much deeper level, you're not not necessarily thinking when the intellectual or this is why I should do I should use this model.

Pegine Echevarria The thing is, you're looking at different level. So yesterday, for instance, at my speech, 10% of the audience were military and former military 90% were corporations, small business and all that. But I came on say this was fascinating. I was set it aside and add a mine. I'll make sure you remember Mine can't count out and the audience on one two, k does count 12341234 I decided and Adam I, and it was by the time you know, when I did my speech, but they walked out as our group saying it Yeah. Which I didn't make them do. It was infected. It was embedded in their minds and how cool is that? Right? vary the meeting planner to feel it. I can I just I know we're in town, but I can share something with you and I would relate to you in terms of how people I think should be looking at their speeches.

James Taylor I love that. I'm

Pegine Echevarria too often lately. So I think that people are not looking at speeches and the way that people are receiving the speeches in today's world. Music, rock shows people will spend a lot of money to go to those entertainment experiences right of hearing music. And it's because they they take them on a trip of emotions and feelings and thoughts. And too often as speakers, we are not creating a rock and roll experience. And what I mean by that is a rock star when they're setting up their set, they're really only singing for about an hour, right? They're setting up their set into three to five minutes segments. What is the song? What will the lighting look like? What will staging look like? Where will I be to have this ballad? And then Okay, we need to move them up to some joyous experience. And so what's gonna happen in those three minutes we how are we going to change the lighting? How are we going to move and we move so far in an hour, there's really three minute segments to take the audience. This role in speaking we become lazy. We're not doing what they want,

James Taylor because we're coming often from from listening and speaking from like, almost a teaching perspective where a teacher is giving one hour, let's say, a presentation to an audience, which is a different form. It's a very valid form in a classroom environment. But maybe doesn't work when you're talking about dinner, that type of audience.

Pegine Echevarria So So our audiences now our audiences that have been grown have grown technologically. A lot of our audiences, if they're under the age of 40, have been very accustomed to social media. They've been very accustomed to fast pace. They were raised on Sesame Street. Three Minute transitions are the norm for them. It's how they learned why they going in they get distracted. You're boring me, okay, I'm going to go here, but if you created it, most people that go to a rock concert or any kind of concert aren't on their phones, texting They're on their phones taking pictures. They're on the phones sharing that. And I think as speaking professionals, we have to take ownership of the experience we're creating. So I say, you break up your speech to look at what's happening in these three minutes. How are they feeling? What am what's happening these three minutes? am I bringing them up? What's happening? Three minutes going down? If I were going to be putting music and lights, what would that look like? Of course, we don't get the funding to do that, like you might get an Iraq show, but we certainly can do it from our own speaking ability. So what is your three minute transition? What is the How are you setting up your song set, so that those in the audience are connected, feel memorable, learn something, and that you've spent the time and energy to really tap into their emotional state. I'm passionate about that.

James Taylor No, I think that's a great I mean, I that's actually one of the How I can build my speeches. Because I always think in terms of in that way, I think in terms of an opening, I think of a closing. And then I'll often the way a musician thinks there's usually two or three songs that work very well together. You know, the, so that's like 15 minutes, let's say you're 10 minutes. And so I'll kind of be thinking, well, that's the kind of relate to that type of feeling that type of emotion, that type of thing, as you start to play with it, and I played with it on cue cards, and I can assess it and move it around on cue cards, and I'm looking and seeing that, okay, well, that bit there. Well, that's a bridge. Well, I know that emotionally, we're going to be at that point, oh, I'm missing this thing here. And you can you can really start to play

Pegine Echevarria with it. And, and it's

James Taylor not to see if you study musicians or comedians act like that as well and look at how they do it. And you'll notice that they use different forms, they're doing it so if you know, Duke Ellington, always started with a mid tempo, do like that kind of tempo and then this Come on in would be like race right up to the top where other people rocks more rock stars will do like right from the start, they'll hit you right between the eyeballs, and then they'll bring you down, both completely valid, because they knew who their audiences were. They knew what the audience wanted. So they would they would play with that

Pegine Echevarria total and that's the thing is, you know, this world that we're in a professional speaking you know, I go back to being powerful, be you. It is where you uniquely shine of who you are. And how do you express yourself at the highest best level so that you're memorable and so that the audience resonates with what you're saying. And I think that every speaker everyone that's watching your your show right now, this experience a summit is benefiting from the diversity of thought perspective idea. This is a never This is not a one size fits all. experience. It's it's Long Term business. It's one of the few businesses that you could keep on doing until you're 100. until you die, literally, you know, you can be speaking and getting paid for it. But it's also one that requires an investment of you in the process. Yeah. And you. Yeah.

James Taylor So this we start to finish up here. A couple of quick fire questions for you. First of all, what is that speaker bag what is in your bag that you carry with you to all of your speaking engagements you never leave home without

Pegine Echevarria never will leave home. So funny. I was gonna have it next to me and I just went to the speech right? It's there. So I always bring my own headset, I have my own headset that I bring with me. And in that headset kit. I have six different adapters so that it doesn't matter what the pack is that people have where I'm speaking, I can adapt in them and if I go to Europe, I can adapt into it. So my what my headset has those adapters The second thing that I always have is cherry chapstick. Because Terry chapstick I could put on even before I go on stage or on stage, and my lips will still stay red but it won't look like I just was a clown painted on. I recommend it. I definitely recommend cherry chapstick for men because they tend not to make their lips bright and that will that will make it bright without looking like lipstick. I always always always carry black eyeliner in my bag. Because on iMac you need to see so I have in there. I always always, always, always call carry throat coat tea bags, and it's specifically called throat coat. And I have a throat code before I speak because it soothes my throat. It keeps it very moist and doesn't irritate it and I think every speaker should always have throat coat with them. I also put in my my kid, aspirins big time safety pins. safety pins will save you in ways you can't imagine because it happens just before you go out. So you always bring that I always carry duct tape, black duct tape.

Pegine Echevarria Go ahead ask me why,

James Taylor why and I as someone who's worked on the road a lot, I know. But tell me why.

Pegine Echevarria So I use it for a bunch of reasons. One, if I'm on stage and the staging isn't fitting together, yeah. I'm not going to wait for a roadie to come. I'm going to stage because my heels can get stuck in that stage. I put it there. I use black tape because I often wear black. And if they if the wire stuck, we could stick black tape they'll never see it going on. I use black pay for everything. The other thing that so that's always on my kit, always, always always my clickers. And I like Sally I saw her she said to I carry clickers and I always get them I always lose them. I put my name on everything. I always, always always carry a hard drive. And this one doesn't have it. I have a bunch of them with my name, address and phone number. Because I give this to the AV department for your video making punchy so they immediately capture the video and I don't have to wait to ask them. I always always always for the AV department I in my kit are a little gifts. So it's I think I go into mom world I give them candy and things that they'll like they love rich Twizzlers. I put rich Twizzlers in it on the each get one because the bottom line your ad is the one that makes you look good. And if they love you, they will work with you. If they hate you all mg, you got a problem. So that's what's in my speaker kit. Is there anything else in there? There's a couple of other things that I just put in there. You know, I put powder for my feet. I bring flat shoes. I have been known to wear really high shoes and the middle this middle of a presentation my feet kill me. So I'll say do you all like the shoes? I say yes. You're Love the shoes. Yes. So good. Now you take them off. And

James Taylor then what about if you do recommend one on maybe a tool or an app that you find really useful for yourself as a speaker and also a book that you find really useful for the speakers maybe to read? What would those be?

Pegine Echevarria Oh, my gosh. Well, the newest book that hold on a minute, I have it right here. Oh, the newest book that I'm reading, which I love. It's small. It's called the book ability factor. Yeah. It is by Elizabeth McCormick, who right now is killing it in the speaking world. But she wrote it with these very simple, like chips. So it's easy, easy, easy. I love the power. The book by NSA. I love the two books that they do, they've done. I always love Lewis Kramer stuff but more business always follows Her stuff. I also read a lot of Do you know Vicky Sullivan? No. Oh my gosh. So Vicki Sullivan is a high end speakers coach. Vicki Solomon is a mistress of marketing high end. And so she works with very high end speakers to look at the marketing perspective. So I love getting her blogs. I love reading her stuff. I've hired her a couple of times and she's kicked my butt

James Taylor great. We'll put those links here as well about tool is an online app or online resource you find very useful.

Pegine Echevarria So we live by and I've lived on bi for 20 years more for speakers. I can't imagine not working with speakers. And I use that to to upgraded a lot so so I am always mark. So the speakers piece comes up from a social media piece break everybody thinks about it just from a calendar perspective, but also, they show up in SEO for me. So I make sure that everything is up to date. I go in and update and upgraded You know, it also helps that they will do marketing for you like your other 5050 top speakers over the world and I grab that graphic I'm taking the other piece that I won't can't live. Oh God now you're making me go crazy canva.com you cannot really live without Canva I'm on there all the time. I cannot live with promo calm, which is videos, promo videos. So I had that membership. I've been loving working, just doing little things with them. And I do Hootsuite now everybody else's the Hootsuite the high rise is my CRM. That's great.

James Taylor What we'll do is we'll put a link to all these here as well picking a final question for you. I want you to imagine that you woke up tomorrow morning and you have to start from scratch. So you All the skills that you've acquired over the years, but no one knows you, you know no one you have to restart things. What would you do? How would you restart Craig

Pegine Echevarria Christian, if I weren't going to restart I would have recognized how, how experienced and skilled I was in what I knew that I'm not a beginner. I bring expertise that nobody else has had. And I would have really market that, like crazy. The second thing that I would have done was really listen to the high end pros that you connect with, and not listen to people who are not there yet. It was one of my biggest mistakes in the speaking world. I was blessed with meeting jack Canfield was my first person I ever met at NSA. The second person was Zig Ziglar and augmentee. Know and they gave me amazing advice. was already on TV I had all the stuff right but then I quickly got in to connect with people who were not really big time speakers and where you can charge that you can do that and I wasted time so stay with the winners right that's the biggest thing is really stay with the winners I'm picking thank

James Taylor you so much for coming on today it's been absolute pleasure connecting with you and speaking learning about your journey as a speaker as soon as I finished this I'm going to start working on my theme theme song that's what I like to do now on my to do list as well but thank you so much for also for all the incredible work you do with power woman of NSA.

Pegine Echevarria Thank you so much. This was so fabulous you I'm taking you bringing you much love yeah

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