John Beede Interview

Posted on 10. Jun, 2007 by DeanHunt in Business Advice

Today I am going to interview John Beede, an author, a hugely successful public speaker, and… a rock climber.

Normally before I show you the interview, I write a few lines about the person, however, I believe that everything you need to know about John is already in the interview. So let’s waste no time in getting straight into the good stuff:

John, you say that rock climbing is one of your passions. From someone like myself who gets dizzy in football stadiums, I have one question…. WHY?

I always laugh when people ask me this. I have two answers. The first one is an answer that’s been floating around the climbing world for years. The second is my best shot at explaining it:

1. If you have to ask “WHY?”… then you’ll never really understand why.

2. I don’t climb to reach the tops of mountains. I don’t mountaineer to explore some of the most remote and challenging locations on the planet. I climb to reach my top personal performance. I mountaineer to explore the most remote and challenging locations inside myself.

A journey into the mountains is as much an inward journey as anything else.

When you’ve hiked 26 kilometers with 40 pounds on your back, gaining 2,000 meters in elevation, at an already agonizing elevation, you stop wondering what your body can do, and you start exploring what your inner-will and inner-strength can muster up.

This probably makes you think I’m even crazier… but I’m cool with that.

What inspired you to become a speaker?

Last year I spoke to nearly 100,000 people in everything from stadiums and arenas to small rooms with 10-15 people. I became a speaker when I was in high school telling my youth pastor about climbing. I told him a story and he said, “You’re giving the sermon next week.”

I laughed, thinking he was kidding.

He wasn’t.

So I gave a 30 minute talk about climbing and goal setting. Within 2 minutes of being onstage I was hooked. Totally loved the buzz, the excitement, and the fun of public speaking, so I wrote a book and made a business out of it.

Essentially, I took an inventory of my passions: rock climbing, public speaking, and helping people. When I combined them together, it made a great ‘brand’ for myself in the speaking business.

My speeches today aren’t religiously focused, but that’s where it all began and it’s been a blast ever since I quit my job and started my own companies.

Do you have any insider tips on how to be a good public speaker?

Yes. Throw out everything you’ve ever been taught about speaking. Take your passion that’s inside of you for your speech and show that to the audience. Be clear in your own head about why you are giving your speech, then get up and show the audience your personality, passion, and clarity of purpose.

If you can’t do all of that, get the hell off the stage.

What were the main challenges you faced in getting to where you are today?

Overcoming my age was a big issue at first. I was 20 when I started this, and most speakers are 35+. I simply made it into a benefit instead of a liability. “Sure I’m young, and that’s EXACTLY why you need me to come speak,” I’d tell prospective clients. “I can relate to your crowd. Do you think your teenage audience will relate to some 40 year old or to someone who thinks like them, dresses like them, and speaks their language and has a great message to bring to them?”

Worked every time.

Working alone is also a challenge. All my friends have ‘jobs’ and steady paychecks. If I don’t work well, I don’t get paid. If I do work well, I get paid VERY well.

That being said, I like to work very well.

What did you want to do when you were a child?

Be a professional baseball player.

If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started, what advice would you give yourself?

Chill out. Don’t grow up too fast. There’s a lot of money to be made all throughout life. Work smart, but only work so that you can have a blast.

Is there anyone that you look up to and model yourself on?

Yes. My parents. My speaking mentors, Scott Ginger and James Malinchak. There are many climbers, kayakers, mountaineers, and philosophers I really admire.

My most recent ‘modeling’ is after a man named Timothy Ferriss, author of “The 4 Hour Workweek”

Don’t walk… RUN to the bookstore to get this book. It’s the ultimate manifesto of creating passive income so that you can enjoy the millionaire lifestyle.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Seek that which is beautiful and avoid what is ugly.

What actual and metaphorical mountains do you plan to climb in the future?

My first assignment in college was to write out a list of 100 goals. If we didn’t complete the assignment, we’d flunk the class.

To date, I’ve finished 35 of these ‘mountains.’ I can guarantee you that by the time I die, I will finish all 100 on the list. (or I’ll die trying #74)

Specifically, I will climb the 7 tallest mountains on every continent. I will give 1 million dollars to an undisclosed charity. I will sail around the world. I will create enough passive income to retire as a multi-millionaire in the next 3-5 years. I will snowboard through a flock of penguins in Antarctica, base jump in Voss, Norway, Climb El Capitan in Yosemite, California… should I keep going?

If you had to hang up your rock climbing, public speaking, and author related shoes tomorrow, what would you do for a living?

You make me sound like a girl with so many pairs of shoes.

I would definitely create 3 membership websites, each of them having at least 1774 subscribers at $47 dollars per month.

Why?

That’s a million dollar site. And it’s not that hard to get that many subscribers.

(Oh, wait, I’m already creating sites like that right now! Check out www.BigMoneySpeaker.com for the first to-be million dollar site I’ve created.)

And then I’d use the cash to travel the world.

Check out John’s main site at Climb On Success