1068 – Become a Master: Tom talks One Business Mistake

SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

Tom Antion shares a major business mistake that cost him five years of lower income early in his professional speaking career: trying to market himself as an expert in too many topics and industries at once.
After leaving his entertainment business with strong experience and confidence, Tom listed numerous subjects—sales, customer service, finance, leadership, humor, and more—on his speaker materials. Instead of helping, this positioned him as a “jack of all trades, master of none.” As a result, his speaking fees stayed low, he had to fight hard for every job, referrals were rare, and preparation time was excessive because he constantly customized talks for different industries (87 industries in five years).
Even when he delivered outstanding presentations, meeting planners couldn’t see him as an expert beyond the single topic they hired him for. This lack of specialization made it difficult for him to be rebooked or referred.
The turning point came when Tom chose one topic and one market, became known as the go-to expert, and built his reputation around that focus. His fees eventually rose from $150 per speech to $20,000 in the corporate market, and later to consistent six-figure earnings through public events and back-of-the-room sales.
Key takeaway:
Whether you’re a speaker or any kind of entrepreneur, specialization wins. Pick a clear niche, become known as the expert, and you’ll earn more money with less hassle, less prep time, and greater long-term success.

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Episode 1068 – One Business Mistake
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1068 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today I'm going to tell you about one business mistake I made that cost me five years of lower income. I don't want you to make that mistake. Hope you didn't miss episode 1067. That was the basic tech skills every entrepreneur should have. Anytime you want to get to a back episode, you go to episode number 1067. Was the basic tech skills. All right, pick up a copy of our automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. Make sure you get version 3.0. That's the latest. And check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com and my school at IMTCVA.org, certified to operate by the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. But you don't have to be in Virginia because it's quality distance learning.

[00:01:24] Okey dokey. Here's the deal. When I came out of my entertainment company, I had done over a thousand comic performances. A thousand. And when I got introduced and in the pro speaker business around 1991, I was told by the elders that I was far better than many of the people that had been in the business for a long time. Okay. So I was kind of puffed up about that. And I already had 14 years of business experience where I had tons of topics that I was, you know, pretty much expert on and had to live by, like sales, customer service, finance, insurance, leadership and all the kinds of topics to run your own business for 14 years.

[00:02:22] So what I did, and I'm laughing because. Because what a dumb idea this was. I didn't know any better. I put all those topics sales, customer service, finance, insurance, leadership, and I don't know what else humor in the workplace and all kinds of things I had on my speaker promo materials. Like I said, I'm laughing. This was a terrible idea. And that's because I was looked at as a jack of all trades and master of none. The old cliche my fee stayed low. I had to fight it out for every job to get a speaking engagement. The first one I did get was only because somebody got sick, and I was the only one. Since I was doing nothing, I could get there and get the job done. And I just, like I said, I had to fight it out. And and here's another thing is nobody when you're when you're jack of all trades, it's hard for people to refer you because the example I always use is nobody in the Pennsylvania Dry Cleaners Association knows anybody in the Nebraska Plumbing Association. So they you know, they don't. Your name doesn't spread. Not only was I going to I went to 87 different industries in my first five years in the speaking business.

[00:03:55] And again, when I look back, I don't complain about that because I got an enormous business education, because I researched each industry and did a custom speech for each one. And I don't believe I ever had a bomb, you know, in the whole time I was doing that. But it was low fee and I had to fight it out because my name didn't spread, because, like I said, nobody in one industry knew anybody to refer me to and the other industries that I was going to. So, so it was just fight it out. Fight it out. Another thing I remember vividly, I did this bang up speech, uh, sales speech in and the people were swinging from the chandeliers. The meeting planner was thrilled. Everybody's happy evaluations were through the roof. And the meeting planner afterwards said to me, hey, do you know any good customer service speakers? And I said, why do customer service too? And I remember vividly standing there when she said, ah, no, we really want an expert on customer service. And I'm like, ah, are you kidding me? I just killed it in your audience. And you think I can't do customer service? See, they can't make the leap in their mind. And I swear, had I done a bang up job and same swinging from the chandeliers and high evaluations on customer service topic, she would have asked me, do you know good sales speaker? And she just couldn't make the leap that one person could be an expert on more than one thing.

[00:05:37] Now, I'm not saying you can't sell more than one thing. I'm just saying that I wasted five years. I won't again, I don't want to disparage the the great education I got, But from a fee standpoint and the ease of getting jobs and the fact that I had to customize and take forever to do each speech because nobody knew me in the different industries and I didn't know the different industries. So it took a lot longer to prepare. It was just from that standpoint was terrible low fees, hard to get the jobs and way more prep time for each job. So it was a bad idea overall. What I'm trying to get to is that you got to pick a topic and become the expert. And I'm not just talking for speakers in your business. If you concentrate on one thing and become the the go to person for that in that industry and in your neighborhood, if you're doing a local business or you know, whatever you're doing, if you're a generalist, you're going to have a harder time becoming perceived as the expert, and it's going to be harder to sell stuff. And I know it's tempting when you're first starting because you don't know what's going to be the best market for you and so forth.

[00:06:58] But but I'm just telling you that if you pick something, stick to it, and you are the go to person for that, you you'll do way better in the long run. And some people will go ahead and hire you for other stuff, especially if they could cross industries. If they move to a different industry and they remember how good you did, they could bring you into a new industry and that helps you expand your industries over time. But if you don't concentrate on an industry and a topic in your business, whatever you sell, it's going to be harder. Road to go. So that's my story and I'm sticking to that one. And just an example of what happened to me is once, you know, my first speech was 150 bucks, which was way more than I was making in the entertaining speeches, which was great. But by the time when I picked the topic and the industry, by the time I was done in the corporate market, my fee was 20,000. And then I got switched over to the public events where I could sell it to back of the room. And that's where I haven't done less than $100,000 in the past 25 years. If you put two, 2 to 250 people or more, I'm going to clean up because of being able to sell it to back of the room.

[00:08:23] So I don't want the corporate speeches. Plus, I can be I don't have to be as politically correct in those kinds of things. But but bottom line for you is if you pick something and become well known for it, you'll make more money in the long run. Less hassle, less preparation time, because you'll be the expert on that topic. So that's the business mistake that cost me five years of lower income in the speaking business. But it's the same concept applies to just about any business. Okey doke. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketing.com. It's the longest running, most successful, most unique ever in the field of internet and digital marketing. And the spin off of that is my school IMTCVA.org and you get a scholarship to the school. If you're in my mentor program that you can gift to someone, and it would be one of the best legacy gifts you could ever give them because they'll have an in-demand skill, a highly in demand skill in as little as six months. And we have some people making money before they even graduate. All right. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. We'll catch you on the next episode. See you later.