Scaling Up Success Podcast

Unlock Your GEM: How to Speak, Scale, and Succeed with Marty Dickinson

• Ryan Van Ornum • Season 1 • Episode 14

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Are you ready to turn your speaking talent into a thriving business? In this episode of Scaling Up Success, Marty Dickinson joins Ryan Van Ornum to break down how speakers can build momentum and attract clients by leveraging their unique expertise. With nearly three decades of experience, Marty introduces his mascot “Action” — a symbol for moving past procrastination — and explains why true growth demands more than just activity. It's about taking the right actions in the right order, a methodical strategy that’s become his trademark for helping others simplify complex goals and make steady progress.

From adapting to an ever-changing speaking landscape to discovering your personal "Genuine Expert Method" (GEM), Marty shares game-changing insights that shift the way you approach your business. He emphasizes that clients don’t just want results — they want the process only you can deliver. Marty also dives into practical strategies for networking at events, using tech tools like AI, and building communities that support your growth. Whether you're just starting or looking to scale, this episode is your guide to turning your method into a movement.

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Speaker 1:

What's up everybody. I'm Ryan Van Ornam and we are back for another edition of Scaling Up Success with one of my good friends, marty Dickinson. Marty, how are you today, sir?

Speaker 2:

Terrific. How are you doing, Ryan? Great to be with you.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for coming on. We really appreciate it. Man, you are a man of many talents and I'm so excited to be able to jump into some of this stuff. First of all, I love the story behind it and it kind of goes into what your business is about with Speak or Speak Live. But tell me a little bit about Action.

Speaker 2:

That is a great place to start, because I always start with my presentations introducing my mascot. And there he is, right. There, that is action. You know, I started action because when I started speaking, I came up with my very first book called Winning the Internet Dogfight, and I went around and watched a lot of speakers and started giving workshops myself, teaching internet marketing strategies and SEO and converting more visitors to sales on your website, all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2:

And I saw every speaker would get on stage and he'd say remember, you need to take action. Everything I've just taught you will go to waste If you don't take action. You got to take action and I was like who is this action person and why do I have to do anything? He says where do I take them? So so I finally put a name to a face and I've been using that as my action. So I'll stand in front of the room and I'll hold this big poster board and I'll say remember this face next time you find yourself procrastinating and take action.

Speaker 2:

And I mean, that's where the money is. You got to take some kind of action or nothing happens. And so I even put action on his own money. So action is a picture right in the middle of a $1 million bill in the middle of a $1 million bill. So my clients have these taped to their computers so that they always see action every single day and they know that they have to do something. That's my way of being people's thumb in the back to actually get them to do things.

Speaker 1:

I love that and really that's what it comes down to and in most business ventures is how much action are you taking? Because, like I found, I would rather make mistakes with action than trying to be like paralysis analysis by paralysis by analysis. Like you know, I can't even speak it out, but you get what the drift of it is Right.

Speaker 2:

And you bring up a really good point too, because I mean, if you know anything about this particular kind of dog, he just runs everywhere, he's chasing his tail, he's going in circles, he's just a crazy thing. He's full of energy, he's taking action, all right. But the real secret is what you just said, because action is nothing without a sequence. You've got to have a sequence of steps, you've got to do the right thing at the right time, in the right sequence, or you're just going to be chasing your tail all over the place and making all kinds of mistakes. Of course you're going to make mistakes, but if you follow things in a proven sequence as much as you can and experiment and test, then at least you have a better chance of that action that you take actually turning into something productive and meaningful and getting the desired result.

Speaker 1:

What's your thoughts on? And we'll just continue down this road a little bit. A lot of people they find what works for them, but they don't write it down like procedures or standard operating procedures, that kind of stuff. So the stuff that goes well continues to go well because you kind of stuff. So you like the stuff that goes well continues to go well because you kind of have like a guidebook that you built yourself. Is that something that you work with your clients about?

Speaker 2:

Well, a little secret for you, ryan I am a September baby, so I am a Virgo through and through, and one of our traits as a Virgo is that we are hopelessly disorganized if we do not write things down. So, but you bring up the idea of writing things down. I have so many procedures written in Google spreadsheets I mean they're endless for every single topic and even subtopics, and that way I can share those with my team and say, here, just follow this. I mean it cuts training down to minutes instead of what would normally take a whole day of training. Just follow these steps and it makes life so much easier.

Speaker 2:

But the other thing is that these evolve. I mean you can't just make one standard operating procedure and it's there forever, because the whole concept of working on the internet to build your business is that things change every 10 minutes. I mean it's not. We used to say, oh, things change every year, then it was every month and then every week, and now it's just like I mean you could try something now and 10 minutes later it's not the best way to do it anymore. You've discovered something else that's going to take its place in that part of the process. It's continuously fluid Marketing.

Speaker 1:

you know, when people say, oh, that's so 2015 to market that way, or whatever it is, you know, I find it it's like what didn't work last year or what did work last year may not work this year. Now it's moving so fast even six months ago. You know, I find that very interesting that point, because the way that social media has changed the way that people are marketing, it's kind of similar to, like, the attention spans of people. Would you agree? Like? You know, like, oh, we're going to market this way and that works great, and then, all of a sudden, three months later, you know it's off into the waste bin and then something else is coming up, that's a new marketing piece. You know, on your speaking side of stuff, you probably have to change up your speeches quite a bit now. Is that? Is that something that you do?

Speaker 2:

oh, all the time, I mean honestly every. Every time I get in front of an audience, it's a custom job, because not only does the content change itself, but the audience has changed too. So, depending on what audience you're speaking to, you have to alter your presentation. So those are just called modules. You have a core of presentation that everybody's going to receive, that's what you're known for, that's what they're bringing you in for, and then you just bring in this piece oh, it's a customer service department, oh, it's a bunch of internet marketing experts. I mean, you have all these different modules that you bring in, depending on who your audience is man.

Speaker 1:

That's phenomenal stuff right there, hey, one of the things that I see about you you're known nationwide and worldwide for your speaking. One of the things that I see is, like how did you get to that place, man? That doesn't start overnight. What kind of little nuggets can you drop for somebody that is like man? I really feel like I have a gift for this, but I just don't know how to take it from like I want to speak in front of people. To like I want to get paid. To like I want to make this my career.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think you do have to have something about you that you want to use.

Speaker 2:

There are a lot of skills that we're born with and we're raised with and we come up with when we're kids and we recognize them and develop them. But there are some of those skills that people just kind of push under the rug. They don't use those skills and one of the things that I've had my entire life that I didn't have to learn was that I really need to know the minute details of anything that I do, like swinging a baseball bat, for example. I was a competitive baseball and softball coach for a number of years when my kids were growing up and everything. I had no idea how to hit a ball. I mean, I remember when I was a kid I had to swing a bat and everything, but I had to actually dissect it into five specific steps and analyze and what are all the nuances. I do that with everything I do and I think that's a that's a trait that I bring, because I can go to any conference where they're talking about some kind of a marketing strategy and somebody will elbow me next to me and they'll say do you have any idea what he said? Because it seems like there's a lot of holes in that process. Yeah, here, let me show you how it works. Here's step one two, three, four, five, six.

Speaker 2:

Wow, why aren't you on stage? Is is I find out what all the little bitty steps are, and I chaperone people through those. Even when I'm on stage speaking, I'm chaperoning. I'm not really giving a presentation in its traditional sense. I'm having my audience do what they've come to do. So, right in the moment they're like well, marty, I see I'm supposed to do that on my cell phone, but I can't figure that out. Can you help me? So I walk over to the person and we actually do it. So this is experiential learning. That's the kind of presenting that I work because, coming back to your original question, I've been doing that my whole life is just dissecting every little minute detail and going through the actual steps.

Speaker 1:

Man, I love that. One of the things that like and we've been in several different rooms together over the last year and one of the things that I know when I come into like different conferences or different seminars is I don't really know what unexpected opportunities may come out of these things. So can you give a couple of cool examples that maybe one or two that you've had in the past just by being in a room that you didn't expect anything to come from it?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. Right now I'm really excited about an organization I joined called Achieve Systems, and they're based in Denver. Actually, I've been here for a long time and it just took a long time for somebody to finally convince me to go to the conference. But I finally did, and I went to a second conference. I had not joined the organization yet, and then I finally did, and once I did, I started getting introduced to not just one person or a couple, but to many, and I think that's really the key.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to Toronto in a couple of weeks to speak on a stage. I've never been to Toronto, but I'm going to be speaking on a stage at a conference of someone I met at Achieve. So that's awesome. I mean, that's how these things work. Is you need to approach the conferences that you go to thinking, who do I need to meet? And in the case of a conference, if you are a speaker, the one person you need to meet at every conference you go to is the person who's who planned the conference, who put it together, who organized it. And that's exactly what I did, because this person was organizing this conference in Canada. So I met that person and now we're.

Speaker 2:

You know, there's a whole bunch of magic that is happening based on that relationship that just started a few months ago. So it's real exciting how fast things can happen like that. But know who you need to meet when you go to a conference and find the person that can introduce you like. But know who you need to meet when you go to a conference and find the person that can introduce you like you know I go to conferences. That's who I look for is who is that one person that I can walk up to that person and say I need to be introduced to a person that does this. Who should I talk to? And then all of a sudden, that conference organizer oh yeah, go here, go here, go here, go here. And all of a sudden your entire investment in that conference is made back two, three, four or five times in a matter of minutes because you've been introduced to the right people.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. That's how we met. We got I got introduced and they're like you got to talk to Marty, and so we we hit it off. We had a great, great conversation. We've ended up having several conversations since then and I I just love your energy that you bring to, to what you present and how you present it. Uh, you, you're, um, you're, you're making a difference in in your industry, in your genre, and I love what you're doing, man well, I appreciate that you are too well, thank you, sir. Appreciate that amazing minds think alike.

Speaker 2:

That's how it works and really, ryan, we really need to to put this message out to people that it's not just about how many people you meet. You need to not just meet even the right people. The key is developing deep, lifelong relationships with people who are just like you. I mean, if you are a high achiever, you've got to hang out with other high achievers that might even be a little bit achieving a little higher than you are, even because you're going to play up at that level, and those are the people that you want to spend time with. Take them out to dinner. Laura from Canada. She is putting together this conference. She was in Denver this past week, so I said great, let's get together. For the afternoon I drove her down to Colorado Springs where she had another meeting. I took her out for a steak dinner. I mean, that's the kind of things that should be done between people who are trying to build relationships that are lifelong and can really make an impact in your business.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I agree a hundred percent and you know it's like you have I kind of relate it to like different circles. You have your very close circle of people that you can trust on the daily basis of stuff, and then a little larger are the people that you probably talk to on like a couple every other week, maybe every month, maybe every six weeks, and then maybe like the people you talk to a couple of times a year. But even still in those groups people can come in and out of those circles. But it still makes a real big impact on how you're. You know whether it's just sending a text message and checking in on them, seeing how they're doing, because you never know what can happen just from those little messages. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2:

Oh, yeah, and it reminds me of, I mean, even going back to Think and Grow Rich days with Napoleon Hill. He talks about creating a mastermind group. Right, a mastermind group doesn't have to be a lot of people, it can just be two, three, four people at a time. To be a lot of people, it can just be two, three, four people at a time. But when you start getting into a community where you have a lot of people that are thinking all in the same alignment, it really turns into having a giant mastermind group to draw from. And now imagine that you take that concept and you start building your own community or build a sub community within the community that you're in.

Speaker 2:

I mean, this is the time that we're in now and I think this has been the strongest just since COVID, when things started opening up again and we realized how alone we were during the COVID shutdown. When things did finally open up again, we realized how much we needed people, we needed community. So the technique now, the strategy now depending on how you want to use that word is to eventually build your own community so that you are leading a cause of your own. And that's why I started Speakers Speak Group, because speakers need a place where they can hang out with other speakers. I mean, there's nobody in the world that understands the speaking business except for other speakers. You have to do this kind of work to actually understand it, and we all need to hang out together. We need to be able to go to each other and voice a problem that we're having, get ideas from people, try new material, and that's where Speakers Speak Live came into play, because we all need it. We all recognize the need for us to be able to keep our chops up and have a place to practice and get suggestions from people for how we can improve, and Speakers Speak Live was born.

Speaker 2:

So I think what you'll find is, as you find a community that you fit in well with and you see how it's growing, like Achieve, that's a good example. What's going to happen is you're going to start thinking now, what kind of a community could I start building? And then, what does my community really need that I can continue to support them with? It's exactly how SpeakerSpeak Group and SpeakerSpeak Live came to be, and now we have something new with Achieve Speakers Live. So I've brought it full circle and now I'm giving back to that community for what they've helped me to build. So I just think it all comes back to that community aspect and it's a real powerful strategy going forward for any business owner.

Speaker 1:

That's fantastic, and the thing that it kind of I'm going to kind of relate this to is like in in speaker and in speaking, a lot of times when you're just getting started, you're a solopreneur, you're trying to do everything at one time in those type of environments. But what you're building, you're telling and you're telling our audience, this is you. You can almost build your own cultural team behind you to help you grow, because, uh, so many times solopreneurs just get stuck. They, they don't have those resources or those those people bounce ideas off of to take it to another level. So now, what you're building there? It sounds like you have the ability to help people get out of their own way. Would you agree on that?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. I mean, you brought up working alone. That brings back memories because I just remember back in the corporate world. I mean I was a corporate sales guy. I was traveling around the country selling accounting software the three things that I never wanted to do. I didn't want to be a traveling salesman. I didn't want to have anything to do with accounting, so I hated accounting in college. And I certainly didn't want to have anything to do with computers, because I'm not a technical person. I'm the guy that would hold up our class. The, the teacher would would, you would give us all these commands and they'd say, okay, everybody hit the print key and everybody's project would print, and mine would get stuck somehow and we'd spent all the rest of the class trying to figure it out. It. It was so annoying. So there I found myself flying around the country selling accounting software of all things, and I really wanted to get out of that because, oh, corporate America. And so I started a business on the side, and it was just me.

Speaker 1:

Ooh the holy grail, it was just me.

Speaker 2:

I was a solopreneur. Well, that took about a month to realize that was not the way to do it. I needed help. I needed to start building a team. I actually brought in a partner so that we could put what I was doing offline onto the internet. And that is where things got very exciting. And on the day that I was actually offered a promotion at work six months later I resigned because my website was doing so well and that became that was 1996. That was a long time ago, but it just goes to show that if you really want to make progress, it's really difficult to do everything all alone. I mean I realized I had to get really good at like 50 different things within a week. And how do you do that? I mean, I'm not good at maybe one or two things, but everything else I had to learn and hire people and build a team with and even get volunteers to help with. So there's a lot of requirement that has to happen. You have to learn a lot and it's very hard to do everything yourself.

Speaker 1:

Man and, and that kind of segues a little bit into this next question, because it's like understanding how to leverage, understanding how to delegate, and there are times when you definitely need people. But do you feel like technology has helped you with some of that stuff as well, being able to, you know, ease the load off of your plate a little bit utilizing technology?

Speaker 2:

Well, now that I've forced myself to become technical? Yes, because I can actually start exploring things that are more technical than I would have ever looked at before. But it was such a learning process probably three times as long for me to be able to accept technology than most people. But with AI, the beauty of AI is that for a lot of its applications, you don't have to be as technical as you think you need to be. What you have to be able to do is create in your mind what you actually want.

Speaker 2:

It's kind of like going to a designer and the designer says well, what would you like me to design for you? And you say, oh, I don't know. Just go make me a million bucks, just make a great design for me. That's not going to get you very far, but if you flip that just a little bit and you want to come up with a book title, for example, you can use AI tools to, say, list 20 best-selling book titles that have never been used, that include business ownership and three steps to do something. Fill in the blank, so you can envision in your mind what you really want for a result and just plug that in and get all kinds of ideas to use, and that's where something technology-wise has bridged the gap where people like me, who are genuinely not technical, can still use technology to move forward in a very fast and competitive way.

Speaker 1:

I love that man. I love that Real quick, as we start to wrap this up a little bit, what's one piece of wisdom you wish you knew earlier in your journey that you know now. That was kind of like the light switch went on.

Speaker 2:

That people don't hire you because of the outcome you're able to provide. I have been taught that for years and years and years. You always hear sell the outcome, sell the outcome, not your features. You try to sell the benefits right, but the key is that people buy from you specifically because you are the keeper of the method that brings that success the keeper of the method that brings that success.

Speaker 1:

That is. That's some dope stuff right there. I love what you just said, man, that is it really hits home because a lot of people that that they they have to, they have to believe in themselves, because so many times it's you that gets you in the door and you know that they're going to buy from you, whatever the product is. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I talk to people at least every week. I talked to someone that has. It's a surprise to them when I say to them so you own this business, right? No, yeah, I own this business. Are you the best in the world at providing this business, right? No, yeah, I own this business. Are you the best in the world at providing this business? Well, I don't know about that. What do you mean? You're not. Of course you are. Of course you're the best, and nobody does your business exactly the way that you do it.

Speaker 2:

Right, you are the keeper of the most amazing method. I even call it something specific. I call it your genuine expert method. And if you look at the acronym of that, gem, it's that that people are willing to pay for to see you on stage, to buy your book, to hire you for consulting, for services. It all comes back to your gem.

Speaker 2:

So if I was to do something different way back in the day, I would have figured out step one what is my process, my genuine expert method that nobody else does but I do. Nobody has the stories like I do, nobody has the experiences like I do, and the same goes for you. Everybody has that genuine expert method inside them, even if only that gem is that you have stayed alive as long as you have I mean, nobody has lived your life the way that you have. You have an expert method inside you for how you've survived all the possibilities that could have taken you out, but no, you are a survivor. So use that same concept and apply that to your business and come up with your genuine expert method. It's what people want to buy.

Speaker 1:

And I'm telling you guys right now that are watching this thing, that is worth exponentially so much more than the free that we're giving it right now. But Marty is just dropping some golden nuggets today. I love this man, marty. I love the passion that you bring. You know, it's like anytime that you walk into a room you talked about, are you the best in the world? Hell, yeah, I am. I love the way that you operate in that way and you know, that's the way that I walk into a room too, and that's the way that, if you're in business for yourself or running a company, you have to have a little bit of that confidence, that understanding of like what your value proposition is, like different than others. That that's why people want to be around you, that's why people want to work with you. That's the difference, in my opinion. What do you think?

Speaker 2:

And that's what keeps you in business for longevity. I mean, I've been doing this almost 30 years and it's because of that method that I still follow it. I mean, ryan, I have not changed that method, it's my method. When I bring in a client, I use the same six steps every single time, and all the tools have changed, but the process hasn't changed at all.

Speaker 2:

It's really amazing how when you figure out what that genuine expert method is. It is what will give you longevity in your business and people will come to you for years because you are the keeper of that gem. I just think it's a lost idea, it's a lost practice for people to think, huh, I actually do have a sequence that I take every client through and that's why they're hiring me because the sequence is so predictable that it's going to have a positive outcome.

Speaker 1:

Man, I would love it. We could talk for hours, my friend, but you know, I know that you have a busy schedule. We appreciate your time coming on Scaling Up Success today. Is there anything you want to leave the audience with?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think if you are a business owner, you should be using speaking to build your business and if you're not, then I welcome you to join Speakers Speak Group on Facebook. You can go to speakersspeakgroupcom. That'll take you there and if you are using speaking to build your business, great, you should join the same group and you should also come to speakers speak live and you can go to speakerspeaklivecom to join there to be in our weekly zoom event where we will showcase you as a speaker, and then, once we see you speak, we can refer you to the stages that we are on. So those two things together are a great way to get introduced to me and then, ultimately, we can. I'd love to get to know anyone that is ready and willing to find their gem and use speaking to build their business.

Speaker 1:

Love it, man, love it. I can't wait to see you again in person. My friend, always a pleasure getting to be able to talk to you. Thank you so much for coming on the Scaling Up Success podcast. Thanks for having me All right. Enjoy, have a great one.

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