Public speaking sits at the heart of leadership, influence, and growth.
For Sebastian Uzcategui, founder of Speak Up Express, it also became the turning point that shaped his career. What began as a way to promote his work in finance quickly evolved into a deeper focus on speaking, as he discovered a passion for being on stage, telling stories, and connecting with an audience.
In his conversation with Bart Egnal, Sebastian shares how developing his public speaking skills helped him grow his business, and how that momentum led him to expand into speaking full-time and support others in building their presence on stage. He also shares his tips on managing nerves, building an experience for your audience, using movement and delivery to create a stronger connection, and how these skills can help advance your broader business goals.
This is a must-listen for anyone looking to become a more confident, impactful speaker.
Sebastian Uzcategui: All the entrepreneurs that I grew up watching, all the methods for them to succeed, they don't work the same way that they used to. As a matter of fact, some people might even say that they don't work at all anymore. However, that's because the three most expensive problems that have emerged because of the oversaturation of every industry is trust, authority, and connection.
Those three things, companies, they cannot dump enough money to achieve them, and they'll go bankrupt trying to get those three things. I've seen it time and time again.
Bart Egnal: Welcome to the Inspire Podcast, where we examine what it takes to intentionally inspire. I'm your host, Bart Egnal president and CEO of the Humphrey Group, and if you've ever asked yourself, how can you develop an authentic leadership presence, or how can you tell stories that.
Have people hanging off every word. Well, then this podcast is for you, and it's not just for executives. This is a podcast for anyone who wants to [00:01:00] influence and inspire others in their work, but also in their life.
Bart Egnal: So my guest today on the Inspire Podcast is Sebastian Uzcategui, and he is the founder of SpeakUp Express. And he is, uh, someone who I'm very excited to have on the podcast because he's someone who has become, you know, I think you're the rare person I've had on who would describe himself as a full-time professional speaker.
And as someone who's in the, the business of working with people on public speaking and communication, I, I just love, not only that you do this, but. That you are so passionate about it and that you kind of travel around and help other people unlock the power of public speaking. So, Seb, welcome to the Inspire Podcast.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Thank you so much for having me, man. It's a great honor to be here. I appreciate the introduction as well.
Bart Egnal: Absolutely. And, and, and so you are someone who really believes in the power of public speaking. And so just for everyone listening, I mean, I think everyone listening is interested in improving their ability to speak, to [00:02:00] inspire in one sentence, like why should everyone be a public speaker?
Sebastian Uzcategui: Every single successful person that you could ever look at in all of human history without fail has been a speaker. Hmm. Success in speaking. Those two are almost interchangeable. Every leader that you've ever seen is a speaker and every speaker is a leader. No exception to that rule.
Bart Egnal: I couldn't agree more.
And you know, our, our company, the Humphrey Group, has since 1988 really said that we sit at this intersection of leadership and communication and we say we're not. Gonna teach leadership except through the lens of communication. And we're only gonna teach communication through the lens of leadership. So I feel like we're kindred spirits here on this, on this journey.
I agree completely. But, but you didn't start your career as a public speaker and you didn't find so, so let's go back, uh, 'cause today, I know you give like, what, a hundred talks a year and you have a speaker's bureau. But let's wind the clock back. Where, where did you start out? Uh, before you found your way into this career,
Sebastian Uzcategui: I started out [00:03:00] as what I would call a complete failure, and I would put that in, and I've put that in my book and everything because I was running around trying to get my business to work.
I'm an only child immigrant of a family that came to the United States looking for this American dream. I started my first businesses at 14. I kept grinding and trying to make them work and nothing really seemed to work at all. And when both my parents lost their jobs and my businesses were still failing, I was at the end of my line.
I tried everything to grow. I tried everything to see that explosive growth that we really needed to not go homeless. Mm-hmm. And again, nothing was working. No ads, no cold calling, no email bombs. No flyers, nothing.
Bart Egnal: And what businesses were you in at this, at this early stage?
Sebastian Uzcategui: My, my first business was one in finance.
Bart Egnal: Okay.
Sebastian Uzcategui: That was my first real business. And really, like I said, nothing was working. Now I'm a Christian entrepreneur. Mm-hmm. And [00:04:00] by sheer accident, uh, at my church, someone had invited me to step on a stage and speak.
Bart Egnal: About what?
Sebastian Uzcategui: About my business, exactly, but more, more importantly, I said when I got on that stage, I decided I was gonna talk about my story, my mission, and my purpose, and really the situation that I was in that a lot of people were facing at that time, really and still are.
And so I got on there. I was, I was speaking, and something really clicked. Something changed entirely. It wasn't just me talking, it was my voice and their ears altogether, feeling like they're dancing, right? Feeling like the audience is becoming me, aligning themselves with my purpose, with my story.
Suffering, rise, suffered feeling, excitement where I felt excitement and feeling inspired when I proposed, uh, my business idea to them. Right. And I discovered there that speaking is the best way to solve the three most expensive issues in today's industries. Right. Hmm. And what
Bart Egnal: are they? [00:05:00]
Sebastian Uzcategui: Yeah. Let's, well, let's be realistic.
Right? Nothing works the same way that it used to.
Bart Egnal: Mm-hmm.
Sebastian Uzcategui: All the entrepreneurs that I grew up watching, all the methods for them to succeed, they don't work the same way that they used to. As a matter of fact, some people might even say that they don't work at all anymore. However, that's because the three most expensive problems that have emerged because of the oversaturation of every industry is trust, authority, and connection.
Bart Egnal: Mm-hmm.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Those three things, companies, they cannot dump enough money to achieve them and they'll go bankrupt trying to get those three things. I've seen
Bart Egnal: it. Right. And time again,
Sebastian Uzcategui: I think
Bart Egnal: you're right. And you mentioned, you know, uh, I like this word you've used oversaturation. You know, when I think about.
Every person in the business world is now just like inundated with content, you know, podcasts, newsletters, emails, slack, and, and it is tough to know what is material and who the, who, the listen to and whom to trust. So I think you're absolutely right and I think, you know, the ability to [00:06:00] connect on a human level and actually reach people is.
Increasingly rare.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Yep, exactly right. Not just that, but, uh, I'm actually writing a study on this as, as we speak. There is, uh, a number, I'll, I'm gonna share it with you real quick. Mm-hmm. If you gimme a sec. Sure. Uh, it, it, it, it highlights really how things have changed in just the last 20 years or less.
Right. So, for example. In the nineties, people would only see, and this is just the nineties, this is only less than 30 years ago or more, a little bit more, uh, people would see only 300 to 500 ads or sales pitches per day. Today, people are seeing 6,000 to 10,000 Wow. Per day. And obviously this has contributed to some of the following numbers, which are cold call rates are below 1% now, right?
Mm-hmm. In the nineties, 92% of people would trust brands quite a bit. Mm-hmm. Right? They would trust corporations and brands and all these different things nowadays. 92% of people trust individuals more than brands. So it's a [00:07:00] complete flip around. Right. Right. And that really highlights what's happening. We are sick and tired of the inauthentic.
We're sick and tired of the greedy. Mm-hmm. And we're sick and tired of the kind of entrepreneur that's chasing profit. Hmm. People want the entrepreneur that's chasing purpose. Those are two different things. And I refuse to align myself with any entrepreneur who's just chasing profit.
Bart Egnal: Yeah. And I think you're, you're right.
You know, companies. People wanna follow people and follow brands that they are connected with as people. And then, you know, in my work where we work with executives and leaders who aspire to executive roles, it is that human connection. You know, you're, you cannot just kind of carry the message of your company.
You've gotta, you know, be personally connected. So, okay, so I wanna go back to this moment. So your business is struggling. Someone invites you to come up on stage on church, and you have this moment. Where everything vibes and you think, wow, this is amazing. How do you go from there to starting a business in public speaking?
Because you were up there to talk about [00:08:00] the finance business, right? So take me into what happened next.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Yeah, so that was where I saw my, my explosion. After dumping thousands, tens of thousands of dollars into things like ads and seeing pretty much no results from it, that was where I saw almost everyone in the audience schedule a call with me or, or sign up directly to my business.
It was, it was insane and, and I realized that that's the direction to go. I realized that if I wanna keep scaling everything all at once, I need to do this. So from scratch, I was pretty much my first client in my speaking agency. Hmm. I built, I hired people, I built my own speaking agency, but it was really only for myself.
It was really, at the time, it was just a marketing team. Right. That was working to get me on paid speaking events instead of, and
Bart Egnal: and were you there chasing? And this was like to promote your finance business still, right? You work
Sebastian Uzcategui: exactly this. This had nothing to do with speaking
Bart Egnal: Right.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Until it got so big.
'cause because again, these guys, these are just some guys that I hired. It was up to 40 people at one point, and they were pretty much just working me, getting me booked on events here and there. That was their, their [00:09:00] job. Right. Hmm. I realized, well, hey, I mean, I've built an extensive database at this point.
I mean, I've spoken at, I mean, I, I, I, when I launched my speaking business, I'd spoken at over 300 different stages and I realized that I've got something so big here that changed my life. I mean, this became a much greater passion for me than finance ever was. Hmm. Point. So
Bart Egnal: was there a moment when you started, you started doing these talks, you're doing all these talks about finance.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Mm-hmm.
Bart Egnal: But you're like, when did you start to say. What I'm really enjoying here and what people really wanna hear is about the speaking and not about the finance. Like was there, was there a talk you were giving where you were like. Yeah, I'm giving the wrong talk here.
Sebastian Uzcategui: There. There's a funny, there's a funny story with that actually.
I had been talking about launching my public speaking business to some of the employees for some time, and then one of my agents had mentioned to me, Hey, we've got an event coming up. This is a perfect opportunity to launch your public speaking event. At this point, I had nothing prepared. I had no website, I had, I had nothing.
[00:10:00] But guess what? I wasn't prepared when I first got on stage. Hmm. I still did it. I wasn't prepared when I first started my, my business in finance, but I still did it. I'm a big believer that if you don't throw yourself at things, it'll mm-hmm. They'll just never happen. Never a perfect time. So my agent tells me this is gonna be a two hour presentation.
I'm like, okay. Wow, that's, that's quite a long time. So that's a long, a long thing with no preparation. Yeah. I'm gonna be on a u uh, call a university campus here in, in Orlando, U-U-U-C-F, and I was gonna have two hours to pitch and I'm like, okay, wow. I make a 45 slide presentation for this public speaking career that I'm about to launch.
Uh, when I get there, they tell me, no, man, it's not two hours. You have six minutes to speak. The whole event lasts two hours, but you only have six minutes. Right. Here's what happened though, and I, I, I trained my speakers now to do this exact thing. I was already so deeply passionate about speaking mm-hmm.
That I threw away the slides and I said, alright, you know, screw it. We're [00:11:00] on whatever.
Bart Egnal: Right?
Sebastian Uzcategui: I get on there, I give the presentation four minutes, and to this day they say that it was the best presentation that they had there at that specific venue and event. And to me. That's where I found my first speakers, my first clients.
I like it. It, it was al almost an immediate success on Speak Up Express To me that highlights just how important it is to believe your message and to love it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I couldn't,
Bart Egnal: couldn't, I couldn't agree more. I mean, that's at the heart. You come, you should come do some work with the Humphrey Group 'cause everything you're saying is exactly what we're talking about.
Yeah. I love
Sebastian Uzcategui: to man. Yeah.
Bart Egnal: You know, it's definitely at the heart of. Being able to speak with conviction and authenticity is clarity of thinking and commitment to the idea.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Exactly.
Bart Egnal: So, okay, so you're out there, you're like, okay, this was actually in six minutes. I'm delivering something that I'm really much more passionate about and is resonating.
Yeah. When did you say, I'm gonna scrap this finance business and I'm going to go full-time as a speaker?
Sebastian Uzcategui: Well, funny thing is I actually never scrapped the finance business. I run both at the same time. [00:12:00]
Bart Egnal: Oh, okay.
Sebastian Uzcategui: The finance business, after that first year of being a speaker just for that, it took off well enough to the point where it's like.
I mean, it just, it, it, it moves itself by just sheer word of mouth. Right. And
Bart Egnal: you're able to just put your energy into this.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Yeah, exactly. Right. Like it pretty much runs itself and I'm very satisfied with that. Right. And it goes to show, uh, organic growth. No. No matter what entrepreneur you talk about, they'll tell you organic growth is obviously the best.
It's the most comfortable, it's the easiest. The problem is it's the hardest to replicate. You can't really plan to grow organically, and I hear that all the time, so it's very difficult for a lot of people. That's true. Right? Here's what I tell them. Speaking is how you replicate. Hmm. And organize. Organic growth because of my stages and my recordings of my financial business that I spoke at, I still have people coming in through some of those recordings and videos, right?
Or people still talking about me that bring in some clientele. I just sit down and I just see, uh, x amount of clients coming through every month for my speaking business that I stop doing. [00:13:00] I mean,
right
Sebastian Uzcategui: months ago, right? And so. I always suggest every business owner have, either you're speaking yourself or you're a spokesperson.
Those two things are, are,
Bart Egnal: yeah, you, you've gotta be
Sebastian Uzcategui: valuable.
Bart Egnal: You've gotta be your own, your own voice.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Mm-hmm.
Bart Egnal: Oh, okay. So I want to go through this period. You're, you're out there, you're learning to be a public speaker. You're kind of just doing it. Sometimes you're making it up, but you're loving it. You're building capability.
Right? What were the big things that went wrong during that time that made you a better speaker that now are fundamental to what you do?
Sebastian Uzcategui: That's a great question. Uh, I, I'm actually writing a chapter right now on this, in this book. There was another time where I was actually speaking for a group of high schoolers about to go into college.
Right. Okay. And this was a separate. Event for students who are put into this entrepreneurship program. So I'm like, I'm, I'm stoked. I put on my best suit. I go, I go to this, uh, this, this campus. And, and I'm so excited, man. When I get there, I'm like, I'm gonna share my story. It's gonna be amazing. But I get there and I see like, [00:14:00] these kids are like half asleep, man.
They're like deeply disinterested with this whole program that they're in. It, it, it was insane. And so I'm talking to the event organizer and, and I'm like, you know, I'm like, what's going on here? You know, I'm asking him, hold on real quick. Did they choose to be here? Mm-hmm. Or what they put here by their parents.
And he said that they're put there by their parents most. Mm-hmm. And that's where it clicked. And, and I thought back to myself in high school about how disinterested I was with everything and when I started speaking. I felt like it was my first time ever on stage. Like the air felt thick as butter. It was like a deep disinterest.
They felt miles away from me, man.
Bart Egnal: Hmm.
Sebastian Uzcategui: And that's when I learned my first and strongest lesson speaking is you have to tune your audience to you and yourself to them.
Bart Egnal: Hmm.
Sebastian Uzcategui: So, and I kind of pissed off the event organizer a little bit. Hmm. But I went completely off the rails with what I was talking about.
I was supposed to be there, goodie two shoes, talking about college and this and that. And you know what? I said, you know what guys? I never went to college. I actually didn't even want to go to college. It wasn't aligned for me. [00:15:00] Right. And I'm sure you guys feel the same way here too. I broke down their walls.
And then I started talking about like the real story, not just like the, the, the pretty face of it all, but the real story. What comes into everything. Hmm. And I didn't leave that event. I literally went one by one talking to every single one of them about what their dreams were. And if they didn't have any articulate, I would tell them to dare to say anything and, and not be afraid of how big it was because I saw how afraid they were of their own dreams coming into that and how so to
Bart Egnal: completely revamped it to fit with them.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Yeah. And it was not at all what the event was supposed to be,
Bart Egnal: right.
Sebastian Uzcategui: But I saw a much bigger issue there. And like I said, my first and hardest lesson in speaking was you have to tune yourself to your audience and tune them to you.
Bart Egnal: And that's maybe a good transition to people listening or saying, look, how do I, how do I become an effective public speaker?
So let's, let's go with some of that advice. So one is you've gotta tune your. Talk your message to your audience. What would be a second [00:16:00] piece of advice that you've, that you'd have for people listening and, and how did you develop it?
Sebastian Uzcategui: I would actually tell you to scrap all the advice and everything we've talked about so far.
There's only three things that matter.
Bart Egnal: Okay.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Now, this is more, I would say, primordial. Mm-hmm. This isn't like the, the little, uh, nitty ni nitpicky stuff. This is like the real deep core value. You need to have to speak highly, and if you can do these three things, the rest will fall into place.
Bart Egnal: Okay. Let's have them.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Yeah. The first thing is you have to believe your message. Okay. If you don't believe your message, people can tell. If you're not genuinely passionate about this, like it's life or death, like the world needs to hear it, people will not resonate.
Bart Egnal: And when, let's just stop on that one for a moment. 'cause I totally agree with you.
But I think people listening might say, Seb, like that's self-evident. Like
Sebastian Uzcategui: mm-hmm.
Bart Egnal: If I, I have to believe my message. So what would you say to those people?
Sebastian Uzcategui: It's not self-evident at all. Mm-hmm. As a matter of fact, it's one of the most difficult things to do. Okay. And it's the reason why a lot of people that they go on to speak for like a business, or they try to do sales pitches for a business, they struggle, man.[00:17:00]
Bart Egnal: Mm-hmm.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Because real belief, belief isn't just, yeah, I agree with this. Belief is, I would die for this. Belief is the world needs this, which actually gets us to our second point. You have to also believe that your audience needs to hear that. That's the second, possibly more important part of that, because a lot of people, I'll see them and I'll hear them talk as if they themselves are disinterested with a topic.
They're speeding through. They're going, yo, basically, well, you guys know what I mean, and, and they're talking like it's not important. And I, I stop and tell 'em, slow down. What's going on, man? It sounds like you don't really believe that I need to hear this. You're not speaking with the importance that your message is supposed to carry.
Mm-hmm. And so it's being received as a lesser message, very common mistake.
Bart Egnal: Mm-hmm.
Sebastian Uzcategui: And that also ties into the third one. And this one, this one will fix confidence in my speakers. Right. So each of these points is supposed to fix a different thing, but leaving your message fixes your authenticity and your tone.
Mm-hmm. Believing your audience needs. It fixes your cadence and, [00:18:00] and, and the emphasis that you give to your words. And the third thing here fixes your confidence and your nerves. You have to believe that you're the only one that can say that message at that moment. Because you are, there is no one not to say that you're the most important person in the world.
No, but you're the only person that's actually there to speak about that thing. No one else can say it for you, and no one else can use your voice for you.
Bart Egnal: Okay. I, I love your points. I think they're so powerful. So let, let's take it into an example. So we have a client who comes to you and says, Seb, all this sounds great.
I'm a vice president at a giant pharma company. We're doing a, we're doing a national meeting. I've been asked to give an update on stage to 500 people about this new product we're working on.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Mm-hmm.
Bart Egnal: And, you know, they chose me. It's a great opportunity. But you know, when I look at your three. You know, I do believe it, but.
Do I really believe that they need to hear it or that I'm the only [00:19:00] one? No. So help me understand how I should think about this. 'cause I don't wanna turn down the opportunity that would look bad.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Right? Absolutely. Well, it's funny you mentioned that. Uh, my most recent construct was actually a, a, a pretty large speaker.
His name is, uh, Dr. Philip Mead. He is a NASA speaker. He's the guy that NASA hired to speak after the Columbia Rocket tragedy, and it exploded. And they had to fix, well, what was going on in NASA at that time, right? Mm-hmm. How, how, how did they oversee this? How did they let that happen? And so what I said to him was the same thing.
I actually sat down with him and I was a little surprised at his tone, even though he was a NASA speaker. He was not a very powerful speaker when I first met with him. And I noticed this because those, those two points you're talking about, were missing. Right. How do you believe that your audience needs that, and how do you believe that you're the only one that can say it?
Bart Egnal: Mm-hmm.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Well, it's very simple and, and, and this is an exercise that I give to all my speakers. I'll ask them first and foremost before we move on to any other calls or any other events, I ask them, what makes you a [00:20:00] revolutionary speaker? Hmm. What is it? And what that question really means is what do you want to change in the world with what you're doing?
So in your case, you're asking me, you know, we've got a new product, I'm a pharma company. Mm-hmm. Whatever. And, and you're people like that are, they tend to be hyper fixated on the product. Hmm. And nobody cares about products.
Bart Egnal: Huh?
Sebastian Uzcategui: They care about what you're gonna change with that. Okay? So get acquainted with the difference that you're making.
That's it. That's all you have to do. And realize that it's so much bigger than a product. The product is just a means to an end of a greater mission. Right?
Bart Egnal: So I, and I can see how that, that will connect to why the audience in here is because you're, it's not just the product, it's what's gonna change. But now tell me why, how about this third point?
Why me if I'm this, you know, VP and say, all right, well I get it, Seb, like it's, yeah, it's, they need to understand the impact make in treatment, but. Anyone could deliver this. Even though I've been chosen, there's like 10 people who could deliver this.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Sure. Anybody can. And and here's what I would say to that, right?
90% of people are more scared of public speaking than they are of [00:21:00] dying. This is a, is a real statistic. Which, which crazy.
Bart Egnal: Which means you'd rather be in the coffin than giving the eulogy.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Yeah, exactly. Right? And so you hear that and you realize. And, and, and if you were to ask me that, I would simply ask you in this hypothetical, I would say, mm-hmm.
Well, do you have, and forgive my language, do you have the balls to get up there and overcome the nerves?
Bart Egnal: Mm-hmm.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Do you have
Bart Egnal: that? Yeah. Let's say the person says I do.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Right? I would say that's why you have to be up there. That's why you're the only person that can, what defines a leader, entrepreneur, and speaker all in one.
There's one thing that defines all three of them, and it's the journey of overcoming. Right. I don't care if the people that I'm working with are shy. I don't care if they've got impediments, disabilities, if they're broke or rich or whatever they are. I don't care about any of those things. I care about whether or not they're willing to overcome that to embody the greatness that they're destined for.
I myself, for example, English is not my first language. I'm sorry.
Bart Egnal: No, your Engli, your English is great.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Thank you. Thank you so much. I do also have a speech impediment as well, right? You may have heard me a couple times here, but I stutter a lot, right? Mm-hmm. [00:22:00] That, that, that's, that's from when I was a kid.
And so I tell people, none of those things matter to someone that's willing to go through whatever it takes to overcome it. Hmm. So the fact that while I'm having this conversation with you, of you asking me, I mean. Why me? I mean, I was chosen, but why me? I mean, I wanna do this, I wanna do this or that.
That tells me that's, that is why you need to be the speaker. That is why, because you have the audacity, the divine audacity to get out there and do it. No matter how nervous you are or how doubtful you are, you're still doing it. That's why not everyone has that. As a matter of fact, most people don't.
Bart Egnal: I, I love it and I love the way you've taken.
What is, as you said, you know, kind of a bit of a dry topic and you've found, you've energized the person. By helping them connect to why, why this audience needs to hear and why you. Mm-hmm. And, uh, and you know, I think you're, you're right, a lot of people do hold back from taking up opportunities because, you know, the fear of public speaking, the fear beyond.
So finding that inner courage, I think is, is a wonderful way to, to help [00:23:00] them get on stage. Exactly, so, so let me, let's, I, I like your three points. Let's shift gears a bit here. And since you've done so much public speaking and since you work with public speakers, let's go through a few questions that I'm sure people would wanna ask you if they were hosting this podcast.
Yeah, let's start with nerves, 'cause you mentioned it.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Good
Bart Egnal: do really, so the question is, do nerves ever go away? And what can I do as a speaker? To feel fewer nerves before and during my talk.
Sebastian Uzcategui: I love that question and I have to deal with that a lot with, with newer speakers and, and nerves are very real. I still get nerves, right, and I like to put it this way.
When you're at the gym right, does the weight ever go away?
Bart Egnal: Hmm.
Sebastian Uzcategui: No. You just get stronger, right? Nerves are just a result of you being put to the test. Nerves are actually a good thing. The, the successful will run towards them and overcome them, the, the weak, and, and, and those who will fail will shy away from them every single time.
So it's a question of, of of [00:24:00] are you allowing yourself the space to. Get up there and speak, even if you fail, it's fine man. Everything's gonna be okay at the end of the day. As long as you keep doing it, you get to repin and that nerve becomes mm-hmm. More like excitement.
Bart Egnal: Hmm.
Sebastian Uzcategui: As a matter of fact, one of my speakers is actually a neuroscientist and he has a study on that exact thing.
How nerves, uh, to the brain are actually chemically interchange, uh, interchangeable with excitement.
Bart Egnal: Wow.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Okay. Then the motion is the same to the brain. So that's, that's a little switch that I teach my speakers. I love that. Yeah. Now the other thing I teach people, I'll teach them, uh. When you get up on stage, this is more of a practical exercise.
Bart Egnal: Okay?
Sebastian Uzcategui: Right. But when you actually get up on stage, what happens is you're gonna be crushed by nerves every single time. It's so normal, right? You're gonna be crushed. You're gonna feel like the whole room is like miles away from you. You're gonna feel like the air's as thick as butter and the silence is like eating you alive.
Right? Right. It, it [00:25:00] sucks. I still feel it every time. What do you do? You need to be the voice that cuts the butter. You need to be the voice that melts the ice and shrinks the room. You have to be that too many speakers and, and the reason why people die to nerves is because they get up there and they hope and pray that it's gonna be done for them.
Doesn't happen. Hmm. The quick and easy way to do that is get up there and just be loud. It sounds silly, but just be loud. Just be loud and everyone shrinks down. Right. Just speak with that audacity. So I'll get up there and I'll say. I, I mean, I'll, I like to start my speeches either with a story or with a question, so I'll take the mic.
I've already been introduced. I don't believe in introducing myself as a speaker. I think that's a very poor start off tactic. But I'll get on there and be like, has anyone here ever experienced dot, dot, dot? I get loud right off the bat and the whole room shrinks back to me. Hmm, right. Silly trick. Sounds a little funny, but it's the best thing.
I like it. You could possibly do.
Bart Egnal: Okay, good. Great context for nerves and, uh, I love your technique. Okay. Let's go to [00:26:00] another question. And you see so many different speakers on big stages. What is the number one mistake that even experienced speakers make, that people should watch out for?
Sebastian Uzcategui: Mm-hmm. Well, I would say experienced speakers, they're not making the mistakes of your ums and uhs and buts.
Mm-hmm. But for example, uh, my recent speaker, Dr. Philip Mead. When I sat down with him for our coaching call, I still noticed a couple of of really problematic things. One thing that be because you're an experienced speaker and may maybe you're very knowledgeable on something, they slip into what's called monotony.
Mm-hmm. And informative speaking, they're just dumping information. Right. Or they'll speak too quickly or, or, or they don't actually treat their words with the importance that they carry. So what I noticed in his case, because of, I have, I have his book right here. It's a, it's a pretty thick book, and it's a lot of information.
This is his book, right? Right. I read the books of all my speakers if they have one, because I have to fall in love with their message. But I noticed that [00:27:00] it didn't sound like he was in love with his message. It didn't sound like that because he was talking like this, you know, when, when there's a problem in NASA and culture and this and that and he's talking like that, and I'm like, dude, slow down for a second.
It's not about how much you say or even how informative it is.
Bart Egnal: Mm-hmm.
Sebastian Uzcategui: It's about how powerful it's,
Bart Egnal: Hmm.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Speaking is less, is more quality over quantity. So I noticed a lot of people, they're not using power words. They're talking, they're dumping information. And I told 'em, listen, I need you to talk with words.
Like I need you to tell me how devastating this was.
Bart Egnal: Right?
Sebastian Uzcategui: How oppressive, how impossible, how insurmountable this, this was. How the feelings
Bart Egnal: that, the feelings of that story. Hmm.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Words that paint pictures. Not enough speakers do that. And that's what separates a revolutionary top 10% speaker from the rest is you build an experience and you're using your words not just for information.
That's the weakest way to use words actually. Right. But as colors on a canvas. So now I'm saying things like shackled, oppressed, [00:28:00] uh, insurmountable. I'm saying the words like inspired, lifted, free, liberated, all these different things that that actively. Trick the audience into visualizing what you're talking about.
That is one of the biggest mistakes that I see.
Bart Egnal: I love that. And that, and so you talk about, and let's, let's talk about that experience. You describe, you're going to create an experience. How should someone listening, maybe they're not speaking at a conference to 500 people, but they're talking to a board of directors, or like how can they bring that experience to life?
For a corporate audience or for an audience that might not be there for a keynote, but still very much would react positively to this kind of storytelling.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Well, also a little secret about speaking, not just in the public speaking space, but all speaking, right? And you always create an experience when you speak.
The secret is no matter where you go. This is extremely powerful information. Mm-hmm. No matter where you're at, even if you're just talking to your spouse, to your friends.
Bart Egnal: Mm-hmm.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Or like you said, on a board of directors, [00:29:00] you always have to create an experience of some kind. Hmm. Because here's, here's a secret.
Humanity naturally responds to that,
Bart Egnal: right?
Sebastian Uzcategui: I'm not, I mean, countless studies have been run on this subject, but people are moved by words a lot. And you'll see people doing incredible things when pose in front of powerful words. So what's really happening? We are. Beginning to pin a picture because we think in words, words are the building blocks of our minds.
And when someone is speaking, especially in a word, in, in a way that is conveying images and emotion, what happens is we are naturally following the same ideology that they are. We are literally, uh, they, they, they're becoming the composers of our thoughts. Right? Right. So what happens whether you're speaking at a corporate stage.
Or, or in front of a board of directors or wherever you are. If you do this, if you apply these powerful words, these, these powerful tones where you're speaking a little bit more [00:30:00] passionately and you're throwing in, uh, words that are painting pictures mm-hmm. And, and building an experience, people resonate more.
You are composing their thoughts and you're leading them down this river of thinking that you want them to, for whatever your goal is. So,
Bart Egnal: yeah,
Sebastian Uzcategui: sometimes whether you're doing a sales pitch, whether you are trying to get a, a, you know, loan or for your business or whatever it may be, you're an investment.
You need to talk purpose. People only mm-hmm. Align with purpose.
Bart Egnal: Yeah. So much of what you said resonates. I mean, I think your point around, there's always an experience and it's almost like, are you gonna create that experience intentionally or unintentionally? You know, if you, if you just walk up and use informational language, you are creating an experience.
It's just not the one that you're hoping for.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Exactly. You can be informative while still being passionate, I think. Totally. I think that's a huge takeaway that, that, that's been one of my biggest lessons with, uh, Dr. Philip for example. It's that, I mean, realistically, it takes less than five seconds to drop the piece of information that your audience needs in that moment.
You can go over it very quickly [00:31:00] now. How do you paint the information that you're trying to convey in a way that's going to stick with them? Otherwise, it's not. That's true. We have too much going on in our lives to remember anything. 95% of your whole speech is not gonna be remembered. So speaking becomes a game of setting up these most powerful points to come crashing down hard.
I do an exercise with my speakers where I tell 'em, okay, you just gave me a whole hour presentation. Make it one sentence long. Hmm. It's so tough when it's tough, but I love it. But you master that, right? Mm-hmm. If you can do it. You're set for life and whatever you gotta do, you've just figured out one of the most key concepts of speaking in its simplicity and how easy it's to memorize those two things.
Bart Egnal: I, I think back to, I think it was Mark Twain who wrote, excuse the length of this letter. I didn't have time to be brief. You know, it takes a lot of work to get to clarity and precision of thinking. So I think that's a, that's a fabulous exercise, [00:32:00] and I totally agree with your points on language. I mean, I wrote the book, um, on jargon.
It's called Use the Language of Leadership, which speaks to the fact that, you know, you gotta get cut the jargon and use language that's gonna be evocative. So, total agreement on that. I love it. Seb, I love everything you've shared. I love the, the points. Uh, and, and I also, you know, believe your own message.
Believe your audience needs to hear it. And believe you're the one. And I love the exercises you've given. Uh, I think the other implicit message I'm taking away, and I think everyone listening should take away is that. This is a skill that you build, right? That you are showing that through intention and purpose and hard work, you can become a great speaker.
I think a lot of people say, oh, I'm, I'm just not a public speaker. I don't do public speaking, and you're, I, I'm reading from you. Even these great speakers you have in your speakers bureau. You work with them to develop their skills further. Is that right?
Sebastian Uzcategui: Exactly right. I mean, again, I've worked with people that are even, that have consistently been keynote speakers, and I'll sit down with them and I'll still say, listen, if you're here, it's because you're an entrepreneur and a leader and a [00:33:00] speaker.
Mm-hmm. Which means you're a lifelong learner, which means we gotta still do some coaching. Right. That's right. And even then, I'll still notice in in some of the, I mean, national speakers, I still notice a lot of mistakes, right? Mm-hmm. That need to be tuned out. And that is a simple way of improving everything in your life.
You master your speaking, everything falls into place.
Bart Egnal: And I think everyone taking away, whether they're going to speak to 500 people or going to speak to five, can get something from what you've shared. So I really appreciate you coming on the pod. If, uh, if people wanna connect with you, if people wanna book you as a speaker, learn more about your business, where should they go?
I.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Well, the easiest way, there's two ways, but the easiest way is to go to my website, which is Speak Up Express. So instead of.com, it is Express. Hmm.
Bart Egnal: And we can link to it in the show notes for sure.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Yeah, please. Thank you. And how many, many
Bart Egnal: speakers do you have on your roster?
Sebastian Uzcategui: I keep a consistently cycle of between five to seven speakers.
I dedicate a lot of attention to each of them at a time.
Bart Egnal: And you and your team, like how many in 20, 25, [00:34:00] the year just passed. How many. Keynotes collectively. Did you all do
Sebastian Uzcategui: in, in just 2025? We were probably well above four to 500. Wow. Keynote speak. Yeah.
Bart Egnal: Well,
Sebastian Uzcategui: that's a test. We do a lot of online and in-person events and we make sure to, I mean, like I said, I, I told you right here I have, I have.
I keep my speakers books with me at all times.
Bart Egnal: Mm-hmm.
Sebastian Uzcategui: The philosophy of my agency is I want to fall in love with the message of my speakers so much that I can preach it for them wherever I go. And that allows us to find mm-hmm. So many stages that would previously be completely out of reach. It's your three, it's your three
Bart Egnal: principles in action again.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Yeah.
Bart Egnal: Yeah,
Sebastian Uzcategui: even in my sales team. Yeah.
Bart Egnal: Well, I'm so glad that you were invited up on your church stage all those years ago and that you found your calling, and I can see why you're good at what you do. So thanks so much for joining me on the show.
Sebastian Uzcategui: Thank you so much. It's been an honor to be here. I appreciate it.
Bart Egnal: I hope you enjoyed that episode of the Inspire Podcast [00:35:00] and the conversation that I had, uh, with our guests. And hopefully you left with some really. Practical, tangible tools and tips that you can use to be more consistently inspirational. If you're enjoying the pod, I'll ask you a favor. Please rate and review it.
I love the comments, appreciate the reviews, and the visibility Allows others to discover the pod. It's really how word of mouth has spread the Inspire Podcast to so many listeners and helped us keep making this great content. Stay tuned. We'll be back in two weeks with another inspiring conversation.
Thanks so much for listening. Go forth and [00:36:00] inspire.