How did you hear about Juanell? How did you make the decision to work with her as opposed to working with someone else?

I heard about Juanell at the booth at the NSA conference last year in Orlando. I was just basically strolling along the booths. I met with Juanell and just started to talk with her and her staff and just really hit it off. I met a couple of Juanell competitors and for some reason Juanell just stuck in the back of my mind as a very good person; as a Godly person. That was that. Juanell called and we talked about a month or two after that [the conference]. I felt very comfortable with her. Then about two or three months ago I decided that I needed her help and that is why I went with her.

What kind of credibility do you think Juanell has in the speaking industry that gives her the right to do what she does?

I think that she speaks from her heart and from experience. Her relationship with Zig Ziglar of course helps. I think more than that it is her personality and how sincere she is.

When you started with Specialize or Die, at what point do you feel you were at in your career?

I was at the very beginning.

How long have you been speaking?  I know that you have been a professor for a while so you are obviously speaking or lecturing people all the time.

What type of speaking?

I am asking about your speaking career.

How long have I been doing it? I have been doing it where people invite me for about 10 years. But in terms of actually marketing my speaking, I haven’t started.

Did the Specialize or Die program meet your expectations?

The workbook or meeting with Juanell?

The combination of both.

Yes

What was the best feature of the program?

I think the best part was the interaction between James & Juanell and the client, which was me. And the energy that it created, which propelled ideas and creative thinking.

What are three major obstacles or concerns you had with your career before you worked with Juanell?

(1) Time (2) Managing the business (3) Balance among my career as a professor at SMS, my consulting work, my family and the professional speaking.

Explain what you walked away with that you would not have had if you did not worked with Juanell.

What I walked away with is that one has to be true to their message. True to the legitimacy and the authority to speak from one’s own experience. You can’t fake it, you can’t manipulate it, you have to access what is true to one’s self.

Did you eventually develop a branding that was uniquely yours? How much of this happened during your session with Juanell? How much of this happened as you continued to work through the process that she had defined?

Yes. It was all during the session. It was more the one-on-one with Juanell and with James sitting there writing everything down. Juanell drew that out of me.

Did working with Juanell shorten your learning curve? How much? How did it do that?

Absolutely, by years. I would not feel comfortable marketing myself as a professional speaker without Juanell’s help.

Is it possible to do this work by yourself?

No

What would you change in the Specialize or Die program, if you could do it over again? What would make it better?

If I was like in charge of the program?

Maybe more on the lines of a suggestion. Or something that she may want to focus on changing that would make the process of it better.

The thing of it is, I spent hours on that workbook and days. Thinking that it was what we were going to go over in the session. We didn’t go over a lot of it during the session, which is fine. It is perfectly fine, but at least let the client know that it is more for your own self-education type of thing. I was eager to talk about some of the stuff that I wrote down. That would be the main one. Also she may want to mention up front what some of the expectations are and time. I kind of felt that I got lost through time and I was trying to rush things at times with Juanell & James. I thought that we had so much more to do on the list and James and Juanell really has the system down pat. I really wasn’t up to speed on that. A disconnect on my part, but that is not really a complaint or anything it is just a suggestion.

So then, what would you say the bottom-line benefit is of Juanell's program?

I think for a beginner speaker like myself, or a midrange speaker like myself, I would say that it was developing a core message.

Do you believe 100% that your message has been defined and is uniquely yours? And do you believe that it will make a major difference in those lives that you touch?

Yes, however, I feel that I need to develop that further. Juanell helped launch me and now it is up to me to take that next step. I feel like the message is mine and will make a difference.

Are there career concerns you have not addressed in Juanell's program? I guess what we're really looking for is how can Juanell improve what she's doing?

No, it was awesome.

But if there were a way to simplify it, would that be your advice?

I would only say more upfront education to the client that the complete workbook will not be discussed. We won’t go over some things, and this is what we are going to go over. I mean Juanell provided a list in the beginning but I really did not understand that list because I kept on thinking that we were going to go back to the workbook. As the time got short we worked late into the night and I appreciate that, but it would keep the client at ease if it were known that it is all going to be covered.

Does her program give you the confidence that you're on the right career path?

Or that you should get off it. It was very crystal clear that it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of time. You want to be professional and to do it right you have to have time. I tell my students all the time, that if you want to be a good writer that it takes time and that is the same with professional speaking. There is no doubt that if my professional speaking takes off it will be a big credit to Juanell. And if it doesn’t take off it is a big credit to Juanell to sort of highlight to me in advance and give me the signal that I will be stretched too thin. It does take commitment.

Well, what long-range returns do you think you'll receive, not necessarily just financially, but overall from having participated in this program?

I think personally for me setting aside the professional benefits. It would be identifying what helped me overcome tragedy in my life, which was the loss of my legs in a very serious accident.

After you came in Juanell was so impressed by you that she kept telling me the list of things that you have done.

I have never ever been bitter about my accident at all. I am certainly grateful. I just never knew why, I just continued marrying my girlfriend, having a family, getting my PhD, becoming a professor, and traveling the world. I just thought that that is the way life works. It was really Juanell who helped me to dig inside myself to figure out where all of that came from. We came up with this theme of The Power of Gratitude. I am always just so grateful to everyone around me. My students always kid me because I say thank you too much. I think that is what really helped me, I am not a psychologist, but that is just the core message that came out and it is true. The theme came out as gratitude power.

I was just really impressed by you.

How it was that Juanell helped me was sort of pinpoint for me personally, what was it? What was the key variable? Helping me overcome this horrible accident. In the long run I think how it is going to help me is that one-day I want to write a personal book about my experience. Maybe it will sell maybe it wont sell at least it will be something for my children to have. I think Juanell helped me pin point more clearly what was really important – the alleviating the effects of my actions.

When Juanell is speaking about her program, what part of her program would you recommend that she concentrate on?

I think Juanell does a very good job of explaining up front what she does. She has it really down. For you, maybe listen to Juanell. This is the message that I received from her in Orlando last year, on the telephone a couple months later, and when I went to Richardson, Texas. Each of us has a core message. We control our message. There is something about us that is unique and special and I am convinced that Juanell’s role for professional speakers is to discover, explore and clarify what that message is and how it will benefit those in the audience.

That is all of the questions. Is there anything else that you would like to add?

I thought that it was a wonderful experience. It is going to help my business. Quite frankly I have not come up for air since I have been to Dallas. I have been home about 10 days in two months. I haven’t had time to dive into the materials. I will once the semester starts. It was absolutely outstanding and there is a point in time in everybody’s life there are so many projects that you either have to do it or get it off your desk. You have to act on it. I decided by visiting with Juanell to act on it and I made the right decision.