Building Your Off Ramp: From Corporate to Full-Time Speaking with Velera Wilson

The Speaker Lab Podcast

The Speaker Lab

Authors, Public Speakers, Public Speaking, How To, Marketing, Smallbusiness, Coaching, Education, Entrepreneurship, Speaking, Business, Side Gig

4.8 • 575 Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2026

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Sometimes in today’s society, there’s a pressure to do entrepreneurship the right way. Others have the Instagram businesses that everybody makes look good, but I think everyone has their own particular situation and scenarios.”

Welcome to another episode of The Speaker Lab Podcast! In this episode, host Grant Baldwin welcomes speaker and author Velera Wilson, a remarkable leader who candidly shares her journey from corporate executive to building a thriving full-time speaking business.

Velera opens up about the pivotal moments that led her to pursue her passion, from years of speaking in executive roles and nonprofit associations, to leaping into an unexpected corporate layoff. She discusses the behind-the-scenes reality: building her “off ramp” while juggling executive responsibilities, the importance of being selective with dream-sharing, and developing the grit to keep moving forward despite doubts and dry spells.

Through her story, Velera reveals practical strategies for anyone considering a similar path: how to parlay your existing skills and network into new opportunities, why having a book is helpful but not essential to get booked, and the necessity of treating speaking like a business. She also emphasizes the need for community, highlighting the crucial role The Speaker Lab played in providing mentorship, camaraderie, and real-world advice about the unpredictable cycles of this industry.

Whether you’re a seasoned speaker or just contemplating your first paid gig, this episode is packed with actionable wisdom on marketing yourself, managing your mindset, and designing a transition that fits your life and goals!

You’ll learn:

Managing hesitation from financial insecurity
Analyzing the value of writing a book versus focusing on speaking gigs
Financial considerations of books versus paid speaking engagements
How books are “nice to have” for credibility, but not a “must-have”
Business development tactics: LinkedIn and email outreach
The importance of daily effort versus waiting passively
Being intentional with “chunking” time to balance demands
Building a strategic off-ramp versus jumping into entrepreneurship
And much, much more!

“I work for a company, but I am my own brand. I’m an individual…I take that with me [when I leave].”

Episode Resources

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, friend, are you looking for ways to book more paid speaking gigs?
0:03.7	Well, of course you are.
0:04.4	Maybe you're just starting out as a speaker. You're trying to figure out what to prioritize in order to get booked and paid as quickly as possible. Listen, if that's you, I want you to join us for a free live training where you're going to learn how to create the number one marketing asset that you need to consistently book more paid gigs. This is a tool that one speaker on our team used to book over $36,000 in paid gigs before he even had a website.
0:27.2	This training is free.
0:28.1	It's live and we offered a few times a week so you can find a time that works best for you.
0:32.5	All you got to do is head over to thespeakerlab.com slash get booked.
0:36.3	That's all one word.
0:37.2	Thespeakelab.com slash get booked. That's all one word, thespeakerlab.com slash get booked
0:39.3	and register right now. We look forward to seeing you on the live training.
0:43.9	Hey, friends, Graham Baldwin here. Hey, if you've been listening for a while, you know that we are
0:46.6	obsessed with helping speakers get booked and paid. Not someday, not after you have it all figured
0:51.0	out, but right now. Well, buckle up. I got some big news for you.
0:55.0	We just completely rebuilt and upgraded our flagship program.
0:58.5	It's now officially called Booked and Paid to Speak.
1:01.4	And it is the most comprehensive system that we've ever created to help speakers get results now.
1:07.1	Not theory, not fluff, not ideas, just get more paid gigs. And so whether you are a brand
1:13.3	new speaker and you're trying to figure out how to land your first few gigs or you're already
1:16.7	speaking, you want to scale into higher fees, bigger opportunities, this new program gives you
1:21.2	the exact system that our top speakers use to build a predictable, profitable, profitable speaking
1:25.7	business. You're going to learn how to launch, optimize, and scale a paid speaking business.
1:30.4	This is everything from how to position your message and build a world-class talk
1:34.4	to how to book gigs on repeat and scale your impact to bigger and bigger stages.
	...

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