Turning Adversity Into Impact with Tiran Jackson

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

🗓️ 13 May 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“One thing that will make you better suited towards being able to deal with that is if you have a resilient mindset to know that whatever you’re going through, what is the lesson I’m going to get out of it and how is it going to make me better? Where is the positive growth going to come from here?”

Tiran Jackson’s story is a masterclass in turning heartbreak into hope and challenge into fuel. If you think a speaking career is about big breaks or spotlight moments, Tiran is living proof that the real work happens in the trenches of adversity. What began as a thriving engineering career was turned upside down by a tragic accident that took his wife’s life and left Tiran fighting for his own. In the aftermath, he didn’t set out to be a speaker, but the realization that his journey through loss, resilience, and rebuilding could help others, sparked something new.

For months, Tiran focused on tiny, consistent steps: showing up for grueling physical therapy, supporting his son through grief, and speaking at small gatherings, but each moment, and every bit of hard-won progress, mattered. His breakthrough wasn’t about having the “best” story, but about building the discipline to show up, refine his message, and deeply serve his audience.

Today, Tiran speaks to leadership teams, NFL athletes, and faith communities on resilience and using adversity for growth. His business didn’t happen overnight—it grew as he learned to share his story with intention, listen to the needs of his audience, and put in the work of outreach and relationship-building. The lesson? Success as a speaker isn’t about being the loudest or most dramatic voice—it’s about being willing to show up, be real, adapt, and encourage others no matter how tough it gets.

You’ll learn:

Using adversity for growth
Resilience in challenging situations
The role of a strong support system
Growing confidence and recognition of potential
The importance of process, audience outreach, and message refinement
Customizing talks for various audiences
The value of building long-term relationships
Knowing one’s value
The realities of building a business
And much, much more!

“If you’re not good at something, the best thing you can do is have a process for improvement.”

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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, the speakerlap.com slash get booked.
0:39.5	And register right now.
0:41.1	We look forward to seeing you on the live training.
1:01.8	Don't get to the point where you just say, forget it. I don't have the time, I don't have the resources, I can't do all of that.
1:07.0	Take one small bite and do it for a lot of days consistently and you will make progress and then
1:14.0	what's going to happen is the first time that you get that response that first time that you get
1:19.9	somebody to say okay here's your check for what you've done for us it's going to the light bulb is
1:26.4	going to go off and it's going to be like, okay, let me go find
1:29.4	that next time.
1:31.2	I've seen success.
1:38.0	Hey, it's our friends, Grant Baldwin here.
1:39.3	Welcome back to the Speak of Lab podcast today hanging out with Tyran Jackson.
1:43.1	And this is going to be a doozy. This is going to be a good one for a variety of different reasons here. So buckle up. We're going to go on a roller coaster of an adventure today. Tyran, how you doing, man? Good to hang out with you today. Man, I'm doing great. Grant, how about yourself, man? I'm doing awesome. I'm excited to chat with you. You've had an insane, insane story, which we
2:01.3	will cover and dig into. But first of all, to kind of set the stage, why don't you tell us a little bit about your speaking business as of today? We're recording this in early 2021, 2025, like, what's business look like? Who are you speaking to? How much you're speaking? What do you speak about? and then we'll kind of dig in from there.
2:17.8	Yeah, no problem.
	...

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