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Excerpt
Jayson Lo started speaking professionally at the age of 21 while he was still in sales. Contrary to popular belief, he was never passionate about speaking. In fact, he hated it.
There came a time when he would think of excuses not to go to certain speaking engagements while circling around the venue itself. However, he always went and did his job in the end. At the time, he never thought that speaking was going to be his calling.
Eventually, Jayson started improving. He started getting invites from companies but at the start, he never got paid.
It was only after seven years of speaking did he get paid by a company. After that, it took another three years before he got paid again for his talks. Luckily, Jayson had a few businesses at the side, so he still had a source of income.
It took Jayson a total of 10 years before he was able to say that he could get paid for his talks.
In the early years of when Jayson was speaking, companies did not think it was necessary. They considered it more of a luxury.
This didn’t stop him, however—and when the demand for speakers came, Jayson was already sure that he could do this full time.
With other businesses on his plate, Jayson’s call to be a speaker became a conflict of interest.
He chose to leave all of his businesses, even the ones that he knew were growing, so that he can focus on his speaking career.
Jayson admits that he had started a few businesses for the wrong reasons.
Over the course of his life, Jayson has gone through a lot. He was in business for over a decade, he went bankrupt, and he even became a pastor for three years.
All of this exposed him to different kinds of disciplines in speaking.
He notes that there is a big difference between motivational speaking, preaching, facilitation, training, and other kinds of speaking engagements.
Even now, I find it really difficult to integrate the gospel into my talks. I usually talk to a large group of people, and although it’s easy for me to talk about motivation, I find it hard to insert God into my talks. I can do it if it’s a one-on-one discourse, but with a group of people, not exactly.
Jayson understands my struggles. He shared that there are some multinational companies that would prefer that he won’t share the Word of the Lord because they respect diversity.
His workaround is that he makes sure that the message is somewhat ingrained in his talks. He makes sure that his audience can feel God in his message.
Ministry has become a big part of Jayson, and there came a time when he was comfortable enough to say that he was content with being a pastor for the rest of his life.
However, speaking still found its way back to his career.
Jayson wrote a book while he was still in the ministry. Because of that, he began to receive invitations once again.
He had a hard time deciding whether he should become a public speaker or to stay as a pastor. It was then and there that he decided on what his calling really was—and that was public speaking.
Right now, Jayson describes what he does to be similar to what a pastor does, but on a larger scale because you can speak to people in different industries, of different religions, and different walks in life.
As a speaker, Jayson is experienced in reading his audience, and determining what it is that they need. He does TNA (Training Needs Analysis) before and during his talks. He looks at whether he is able to connect to his audience or not, and then make adjustment at the moment.
Jayson is famous for his use of the DISC test. The book has been ingrained in him for almost a decade before he decided on writing it.