Finding your confidence in public speaking with Phillip Sessions

Photo Credit: AA Torres Photography

Philip Sessions is a speaking coach who helps business owners, leaders, and salespeople become confident in public speaking. With over three years of experience being a podcaster, public speaker, and Toastmaster, Philip specializes in helping business owners step into their true speaking potential by building their confidence to empower them to lead their companies and express the vision, mission, and strategy of their company so all their employees can understand the WHY behind their work and not just the what!

Can you tell our readers about your background?

I am first and foremost a Christian, husband, and father. We just had our 1st recently and it's been an awesome journey already. I’m originally from Houston, Texas, and moved to Greenville, SC in 2015 where I met my wife a few years later. I have a degree in electrical engineering, and I am a published author, podcaster, public speaker, and coach.

What inspired you to start your podcast?

I was inspired to start a podcast to pass down my knowledge to other people and to my future children. I wanted a place where they could learn from me. I wanted to be able to have a place where all the things I learned could stay even after I was gone to continue to impact others.

How did you start it? What were the first steps you took?

Literally starting. I went to a local entrepreneur event in town and asked a local podcaster what he did to get his podcast started and he told me, “Just start.” That next week I launched my first episode. I already had a microphone and audio editing software. I just did research and found Pat Flynn’s, “How to start a podcast” blog to learn how to publish the podcast and I took off from there.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your podcast?

The most effective way besides you consistently posting about it on your social media is to have guests on and give them some form of clip/soundbite that they can put on their social media. You may ask why that is and that is because they will want to share something that is about them to their network and in turn from them sharing to their network, their network will check out that podcast episode and most likely a couple of others. Make sure your podcast is good and you’ll be able to gain followers through your podcast guests!

What have been your biggest challenges when launching your podcast?

Being a good interviewer. Some guests are amazing and can carry on a conversation instead of the show feeling like an interview and other guests don’t seem to know how to do more than literally answer the question. I’ve had to learn how to ask one question at a time and make sure to pull out details to create a story so that the audience will remain interested. No one wants to listen to an hour-long show that is nothing but facts and answers to questions, plus we all learn better from a great story and direct applications.

How do you monetize your podcast? What are your best tips to monetize a podcast?

I actually don’t monetize my podcast so I can’t give you an answer. I will say that you should make sure that the sponsors/ads you present should be related to you and your audience. For example, if I did an ad on makeup that wouldn’t make sense as I’m typically talking about speaking and I don’t wear makeup as a guy.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new podcasters?

You need to start today. Your message WILL impact someone. Your podcast doesn’t have to be on a unique subject. In fact, you and I can speak on the same thing and have two different audiences who love us both. Don’t wait, start today!

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

My favorite book is “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy because it talks about the power of consistency and how even just a small action in the right direction applied over a period of time makes a huge impact in your life and vice versa if you do one small negative action consistently.

What's your favorite business/podcast tool or resource? Why?

Real Business Owners. Those two guys are down to earth and just tell it like it is. They give a ton of value all the time and inspire me every day to be a better entrepreneur.

What projects do you have planned for the next six months?

I plan to publish my second book, create my first mastermind event, launch a membership group to connect speakers and podcasters and get on more podcasts and stages to speak and help inspire others to gain their confidence in public speaking.

How can our readers connect with you?

I love answering questions and helping people as much as possible. The best ways to reach me are my website’s contact form, Instagram, or Facebook.

Website: http://speakingsessions.com/

Instagram: @philipsessions

Facebook: Philip Sessions

Book: Mindset Over Motivation