Setting The Stage

Attending the Badass Business Summit

“I didn’t know people actually made a living from speaking. I was just having fun getting on stages and being in front of rooms full of people.”

By Donnie Boivin

I sat about six rows back from the stage. The lights dimmed, and the music started. The anticipation was heavy. One man walked out and stood center stage. With microphone in hand, a spotlight slowly lit him up and he smiled, looked at the crowd, and said, “HEY!” And the crowd went fucking wild.

You would have thought they’d just won the championship game. It was crazy and I was totally caught up in it. To this day I don’t know where this was, why I was there, or who the guy on stage was. I just knew that one day I would be that guy. It’s wild how memories stay with you. At that moment, I was doing a job I didn’t like. I worked for my best friend and his dad doing Heating & Air Conditioning in the Texas summer. It was stupid-hot and dirty work. Hell, one attic we worked in was about 140 degrees. We’d run up, work for five minutes, then come back down to cool off for 20. Those were long days and nights. It was after that event that I started attending more conferences, trade shows, and summits. I learned that people actually taught the stuff I needed help with: Sales, mindset, money, and so much more.

My first time on stage was when I worked in St. Louis. I was asked to present to a group from the United Nations on pharmacies in impoverished areas. It’s a long story for another time, but let’s just say I was way out of my league.

I was nervous and the room could tell, but I did well and loved the thrill of speaking in front of a room full of people. I really started getting on stages when I sold commercial printing back in Texas. I built a pretty solid personal brand through networking and people asked me to teach about what I was doing. I didn’t know that everyone didn’t do what I was doing. I just thought it was how networking was done.

I stepped on stages and told people to make more introductions than they received. And, I had people nodding, smiling, and writing furiously. I’d say, “Go meet with someone and spend more time focused on them. Open doors for them.” People looked at me like I’d invented water. It was crazy. I didn’t know people actually made a living from speaking. I was just having fun getting on stages

and being in front of rooms full of people. It also helped significantly increase my commercial printing sales. Around 2011, I transitioned from commercial printing to a sales training organization. I took the job because I wanted to sell, but I secretly hoped it would get me on more stages. And it did. I spoke to thousands of people in conferences, training rooms, boardrooms, and at events. But it wasn’t my own content I was presenting, it was other people’s ideas. It had a Donnie flair, without the profanity because that didn’t start until I opened my own company and realized I could be me.

I found myself wanting to be on bigger stages more and more. I think this added to my desire to do my own thing and launch a business. When I launched my company, Success Champions, I thought landing speaking gigs was going to be easier and that the world was just waiting for me to show up. What I didn’t realize is I didn’t have a personal brand outside sales training and Fort Worth, Texas. So, I got to work building my brand and getting those gigs. Trying to get on stages and run a business proved to be a lot of damn work, and paying the bills became the priority. I had to focus more time on revenue building activities and build a company that would allow me the time to get on more stages. In doing so, I built a tribe of Champions, a bunch of badasses who were all going for it. This tribe was my support staff and helped me through the ups and downs of building a business. One day while doing a Facebook live in the Success Champions Facebook Group, a listener said, “Hey Donnie I have a speaking gig for you in Corpus Christi, Texas.” Then some of the listeners said they wanted to go to Corpus and watch me speak. A conversation started about a Success Champions get together. And that’s when the Badass Business Summit was born. It was based on Champions coming together and helping each other build their business. Imagine that many badasses in one room! I no longer chase the stage or teach other people’s content. I built my own fucking stage and invited other people to come hang out. I don’t know if I’ll walk out on stage one day and the crowd will go fucking wild, but I love being around my Champions. I love watching their successes unfold, watching them step into that badassery, and watching them become champions. It’s fucking beautiful. If you want to experience some pure badassery you need to get your ass to the summit.

“I no longer chase the stage or teach other people’s content. I built my own fucking stage and invited other people to come hang out.”