The HEROIC community is unlike any other; Alumni were thrilled with the opportunity to come home to the place where it all began and continue to become best-in-class speakers, leaders, and authors.

“When I came here, I knew instantly this was home,” Christine Keisenger said during her introduction at the beginning of our HEROIC Homecoming event at the end of July.

‍

That feeling was evident through two days of countless standing ovations, warm embraces, and heartfelt cheers as Alumni celebrated, connected, and encouraged each other to continue to make big choices and change the world, one speech, one audience at a time.

‍

Change-making leaders, aspiring speakers, founders, and entrepreneurs come to HEROIC to uplevel their speaking skills. They amplify their stage presence, refine their message, and find their voice. They turn signature speeches into best-selling books and build sustainable speaking and thought-leadership businesses.

‍

And they also find a life-long community of belonging and love that is simply unmatched. Here, you are seen. Here, you are celebrated. Here, you are challenged.

‍

Here, you belong.

‍

Alumni from all over the country came back to the HEROIC Campus to gather in community and continue to uplevel their speaking skills because they know that we can do more together than we can alone.

‍

During a reinvigorating celebration of success, perseverance, and community, Alumni were reminded of just how far they’ve come. In the place where it all began, they gathered to continue crafting their words for the stage and bringing them to life.

Full Transcript

Don't

At HEROIC, leaders learn how to have a greater impact on the people they connect with, uplevel their speaking, performance, and writing skills, and serve their audience with more precision and authenticity.

Together, Alumni stepped onto the HEROIC stage, received valuable insight, and formed new connections with speakers from different cohorts.

‍

HEROIC Business Faculty Kris Kelso, Ana Melikian, Ranieka Weston, and Jennifer Fondrevay (all HEROIC Alumni themselves) shared a repeatable referrer process speakers can use to deepen speaker-to-speaker relationships and earn more gigs. In a heartfelt Q&A session with HEROIC’s founders, Michael and Amy Port, Alumni got an inside look at what it takes to lead together in love and partnership. Performance Faculty Eli Pauley evoked roaring laughter as she taught speakers how to infuse their content with more humor by finding the absurd, naughty, and vulnerable moments of life.

‍

Sharing all the insight Alumni gained during this event would simply be too much to fit in a short article, but here’s a quick peek into some of the sessions they experienced and enjoyed.

‍

How to Build Characters for Your Speech

‍

In an intriguing, practical, and hands-on session with Creative Director and Lead Performance Faculty Russell Ewing, Alumni embraced the HEROIC spirit of “Yes, and…” while learning how to build memorable and entertaining characters for their speeches.

‍

Many times, characters are the real-life people you introduce in your stories. However, your characters might also be concepts like linear thinking, empathy, or impostor syndrome. No matter what characters you choose to include in your speech, you can access an enhanced level of detail that makes your characters much more impactful by following these simple principles:

‍

Identify and Introduce Your Characters

Any time you mention someone in your speech, it’s an opportunity to build a memorable character. And often, there are far more opportunities for characters in your speech than you might originally think.

‍

Build the Character, Both Externally and Internally

‍

Even just a 10% change in vocality and movement will set your characters apart and introduce contrast. How does the character speak differently than you? How does the character move differently than you? A person’s internal status, both actual and perceived, will affect how they act, speak, and move. As you investigate and dive into your character’s internal world, you’ll be able to portray them in a memorable and impactful way.

‍

Make Your Audience Feel Like They Actually Met the Character

‍

Show your audience how they should feel about your character with color, texture, and specificity. Play around with the character’s objective and their mind space the moment before they come onstage to really create an accurate representation of humanity. And remember, you don’t have to craft someone literally “right”; you have the creative liberty to craft them as you remember or perceive them.

‍

In between loud laughter, demonstrations from professional actors, and even a rowdy second-grade-esque celebration, Alumni learned once again that stories are best shown, not told.

‍

“The content Russell shared around deepening and expanding our understanding of building characters was incredibly intriguing and useful. I will never think about characters in quite the same way again,” Christine Kiesinger said after the session.

‍

Armed with practical tips and simple steps to build their own characters, Alumni will be able refine their stories to take their audience back in time to truly live their stories with them.

‍

Laser Coaching for Quick Wins

‍

Alumni had the opportunity to step back onstage and be challenged to go bigger than ever before in a Masterclass session with Performance Faculty Keeley Miller. With specific, nuanced, professional feedback, Alumni refined parts of their speeches to achieve greater connection and impact.

‍

These were a few key takeaways from the session that can help both aspiring and experienced speakers uplevel their onstage performance:

‍

Operative words make a world of difference. These are the words you choose to “pop” in order to capture your audience’s attention. Focus on the most important words in each sentence. Commit to the operative words. Commit to the questions you ask (and wait for an answer).
Your speech is a conversation; make sure to take beats. Give your audience time to internalize your words, your message, and the feeling behind it.
Make bigger, intentional choices. The more precise you are onstage, the more your speech will become a living, captivating, insightful performance. When you commit to a decision, blocking and staging can help you fully deliver that section of your speech.
Don’t scan the room; make eye contact with specific people. When you make eye contact with specific people in your audience, it makes everyone in your audience feel like they’re part of an intimate, personal conversation.

‍

Keeley helped Alumni focus on the feelings they want to evoke through each performance decision. Watching fellow Alumni make small, precise changes that transformed their speech and performance was a reminder of just how important rehearsal in front of a live audience is and the value of constant iteration.

Don't

Alumni enjoyed stepping back onto the HEROIC stage for more valuable Masterclass sessions with HEROIC’s Lead Performance Faculty.

Understanding the Life of a Book

‍

Award-winning author and Book Business Thought Leader AJ Harper made a special appearance at HEROIC’s Campus for Homecoming, where dozens of Alumni she worked with over the years met her in person for the first time and listened attentively to her authorship and publishing wisdom.

‍

Many authors (both those who’ve published books and those who are in the process) don’t truly understand the life of a book. The result? They pass up moments of discovery and creativity, miss out on key elements of the authorship process, and skip over valuable and important opportunities.

‍

AJ brought to light what no one tells you about the publishing industry, and shared the 16 different stages of the life of a book. In an eye-opening session, she encouraged authors not to view writing a book as a transaction or as something finite, but rather, a living, breathing creation that continues to expand over time.

‍

One of the biggest opportunities that authors miss on their publishing journey is taking advantage of the time between signing a book deal and the release of a book. AJ calls this invaluable window spotlight time.

‍

During spotlight time, you want to do everything you can to get the attention of the sales team to sell a lot of books.

‍

If you creatively think outside of the box, the sales team will do much more for you. They’ll see that your book is already gaining momentum and help continue the upward trajectory through book tours, additional opportunities, and more publicity.

‍

Here are a few ideas you can use to spotlight yourself and your book during this valuable window of time:

‍

Share your business and marketing plan with your publishers and sales team (and show them what you’re actively doing to follow your plan).
Do guest podcast appearances and speaking engagements and talk about your book.
Host webinars and online workshops; you can charge the cost of your book or make preordering the book a prerequisite for reserving a spot.

‍

Spotlight time lasts just a few months, and if you can really hustle behind the scenes and find creative ways to get the sales team’s attention, it will pay off big time.

Don't

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

“It was the perfect balance of community building and skill development. As always, the HEROIC team was outstanding. The red carpet is always rolled out for us and the team did it again at Homecoming. I loved the overall energy and vibe in the room over the two days. Such encouragement, support, kindness, interest, love. I'm grateful to be part of the HEROIC community!”

Heather Backstrom

Executive Coach, Author, Speaker

The life of a book can feel like mountain after mountain, one uphill climb after another. It’s not easy. But having an author community and authentic support from the HEROIC community is one of the best ways to find encouragement and initiative to keep going.

‍

AJ’s advice? “Set a five-year goal. Every quarter, make a plan based on what’s working and what’s not. Then, at the end of five years, set another goal. The life of a book is not finite. It’s not a transaction. You can always infuse more life into your book.”

Don't

give up on your book. Give your book time and continue to engage and expand long after your book is published.

“There’s Still So Much to Learn.”

‍

The two days Alumni shared on Campus were full of laughs, inspiration, and surprises as well. From rehearsing what to do when extreme audience disruptions happen while you’re onstage to playing the Gibberish game to reinforce the importance of making big choices, Alumni were reminded once again that they can take chances, try new things, make big choices, and crush their fears.

‍

Perhaps Alumni Michelle Hutchings-Medina said it best: “There’s still so much to learn.” Being back on Campus, in a place where friendships are formed, ideas are developed, and mastery is earned, reminds us of both how far we’ve come and that we can still become so much more.

‍

That’s the journey of being a creator, an artist, a performer.

‍

Coming back to HEROIC is a reminder to fight harder for your ideas, to push farther for what you believe in, and to work harder to inspire your audience to feel, think, and act differently. Deciding to make big choices and be fully self-expressed can be a frightening choice. But it’s what your audience needs from you.

‍

The speakers who fight the hardest for their ideas and for their audience are the ones who make the biggest impact. And every single speaker who trains at HEROIC earns the ability to do just that: to show up onstage as a true performer, to commit to big decisions that will drive their ideas home, and to save the world, one speech at a time.

Don't

|

Helpful Links

Your HEROIC journey begins here.

CORE

|

The Breakthrough Experience

Join a community of leaders, speakers, entrepreneurs, and authors who are putting in the work to change the world one speech, one message, and one page at a time.

Learn more

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Together, Alumni stepped onto the HEROIC stage, received valuable insight, and formed new connections with speakers from different cohorts.

‍

Sharing all the insight Alumni gained during this event would simply be too much to fit in a short article, but here’s a quick peek into some of the sessions they experienced and enjoyed.

‍

How to Build Characters for Your Speech

‍

Identify and Introduce Your Characters

‍

Build the Character, Both Externally and Internally

‍

Make Your Audience Feel Like They Actually Met the Character

‍

In between loud laughter, demonstrations from professional actors, and even a rowdy second-grade-esque celebration, Alumni learned once again that stories are best shown, not told.

‍

Armed with practical tips and simple steps to build their own characters, Alumni will be able refine their stories to take their audience back in time to truly live their stories with them.

‍

Laser Coaching for Quick Wins

‍

These were a few key takeaways from the session that can help both aspiring and experienced speakers uplevel their onstage performance:

‍

Operative words make a world of difference. These are the words you choose to “pop” in order to capture your audience’s attention. Focus on the most important words in each sentence. Commit to the operative words. Commit to the questions you ask (and wait for an answer).
Your speech is a conversation; make sure to take beats. Give your audience time to internalize your words, your message, and the feeling behind it.
Make bigger, intentional choices. The more precise you are onstage, the more your speech will become a living, captivating, insightful performance. When you commit to a decision, blocking and staging can help you fully deliver that section of your speech.
Don’t scan the room; make eye contact with specific people. When you make eye contact with specific people in your audience, it makes everyone in your audience feel like they’re part of an intimate, personal conversation.

‍

Dont

Understanding the Life of a Book

‍

During spotlight time, you want to do everything you can to get the attention of the sales team to sell a lot of books.

‍

Here are a few ideas you can use to spotlight yourself and your book during this valuable window of time:

‍

Share your business and marketing plan with your publishers and sales team (and show them what you’re actively doing to follow your plan).
Do guest podcast appearances and speaking engagements and talk about your book.
Host webinars and online workshops; you can charge the cost of your book or make preordering the book a prerequisite for reserving a spot.

‍

Spotlight time lasts just a few months, and if you can really hustle behind the scenes and find creative ways to get the sales team’s attention, it will pay off big time.

Don't

Heather Backstrom

Executive Coach, Author, Speaker

‍

Don't

give up on your book. Give your book time and continue to engage and expand long after your book is published.