Chapter 14: Rich Gibbons on paid public preaching, parenting prescriptions, and pickles with perfectionism

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I flew down to to sunny San Diego to meet Rich.

“On the one hand, information wants to be expensive because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time.”

Recognize that quote?

It’s from a conversation between Steve Wozniak and Stewart Brand at the very first Hacker’s Conference in 1984.

We’ve heard it so many times.

Information wants to be free.

And in many ways, it already is. We live in The Information Age, a time when you can find the answer to just about any question with the push of a button.

But if that is the case, then why is the paid speaking industry expanding? Why pay five or six figures to bring a big name athlete or author to your conference when you could just watch the video for free online?

We have all this free content everywhere, yet the value of live is going up.

Well, maybe when we have more online content, we miss out on other things.

We have less … attention.

We have less … connection.

We have less … alignment.

If you want to get a room full of people excited about one thing, it’s hard to do that unless you all physically talk about that one thing.

Unless you all feel that one thing … together.

And nobody understands this better than my next guest … Rich Gibbons.

Rich is President of Speak Inc, the largest speaking bureau in the western United States, and was formerly President of the International Association of Speaking Bureaus.

And Rich is one of the most interesting and articulate people I’ve ever met.

How can you become a paid public speaker? How does the industry work and what do speaking bureaus do? What is the “99th Floor” metaphor to inspiring feelings of gratitude?

Buckle up, buckle in, and please enjoy Chapter 14 of 3 Books.

Listen to Chapter 14:

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What You'll Learn:

How can you become a paid public speaker?
How does the speaking industry work and what do speaking bureaus do?
What’s the biggest skill that makes for a great public speaker?
What’s the counterintuitive benefit to exposing ourselves to depravity in books?
What’s the next evolution of parenting after “The Helicopter Parent”?
Why did one of Rich’s dad friends describe himself as a benevolent dictator?
How can parents balance desires for children to be happy … and rich?
What is the “99th Floor” metaphor to inspire feelings of gratitude?
How can writing be compared to telepathy?
What’s Stephen King’s trick to read more books even if you’re a slow reader?