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Sasha Simmons started speaking by accident. She mentored her boyfriend's younger brother through the scholarship process, agreed to create a PowerPoint for a church youth event, stepped on the stage, and felt something click. The next day, she started telling everyone she was a speaker. That simple act—claiming it, saying it aloud, making it real—created a path that led to her standing in front of 500 university donors a few months later, shaking and talking fast, making every mistake a first-time speaker makes. Now she runs Speak Life LLC and teaches the framework she calls SLAB (Speak Like a Boss), and she is on the podcast this week to talk about exactly what it means to treat speaking as both an art and a business. If you have written a book, built something worth talking about, or had a message burning to get out, this one is for you, whether you are scared of the stage or just do not know where to start.

Key Takeaways from This Episode

Speaking is talent and business, and you have to do both at once. Sasha draws a line between the art of speaking—what you say and how you say it—and the business of speaking, which is the unglamorous work of getting yourself booked. "If you don't know the business of speaking, you will never have a successful career as a speaker."

Begin with the end in mind. Before you write a speech, Sasha has her clients write down every adjective they want the audience to feel. Then she backfills the story from there. "What do I want them to gain? How do I want to challenge them? By doing this, then you are able to backfill your story from there."

You need a sizzle reel, a one-sheet, and an online presence before you book anything. Speak for free at local clubs, churches, or businesses to get video footage. Design a one-pager that lists your topics, bio, contact info, and past clients. Claim every social platform, especially LinkedIn, where event organizers go looking.

Practice your full speech in front of a mirror. This catches the facial tics and nervous habits nobody else will call out. It also lets you work through the moments where you lose your place, so you can find keywords or imagery that help you get unstuck. By the 25th time, you own the flow instead of reciting it.

Make 25 sales calls a day, draft emails to every event you want to be on, and follow up relentlessly. The first response is almost never yes. Sasha's speaking coach preached this: "There are no shortcuts in life. You can't sustain a successful career by looking for shortcuts. You have to just put in the work."

Read 10 articles a day about your subject. Sasha subscribes to newsletters and sources so information gets pushed to her inbox. "If you want to be a real competitor and if you want to be an expert, you have to be on the cutting edge of your industry. You can't afford to not do that."

Vulnerability is the thing that makes people trust you and relate to you. By showing the hard parts of your story, the audience sees themselves in you. Sasha says, "It's all about trust and belief in all these things when you're speaking to an audience. And establishing some level of vulnerability in your speech makes you relatable."

Sasha Simmons, known as "The Witavator™," is a leadership speaker and founder of Witavation, a professional development company that combines wit with transformation. With 13+ years of speaking experience across corporate, nonprofit, education, and leadership organizations including USDA, Nationwide, Chase, and Silicon Valley Bank, Sasha delivers keynotes and coaching programs designed to move organizations from stuck to strategic. She holds a Master of Public Health from the University of North Florida and hosts a podcast with 150K+ downloads. Her approach blends sharp wit, raw authenticity, and practical frameworks that teams implement long after the event ends. Find her at witavation.com.