Secret Millionaire: Interview with Business and Motivational Speaker, James Malinchak

Originally from a small Pennsylvania steel mill town, James Malinchak is a true American success story and one of the most requested business, motivational, and marketing speakers worldwide. He was featured on the hit ABC TV show, Secret Millionaire, co-authored the best-selling book: Chicken Soup for the College Soul, and was twice named college speaker of the year.

James has delivered over 2000 presentations for corporations, associations, business groups, colleges, universities, and youth organizations worldwide and speaks to groups from 20 to 20,000. He created his business from scratch without being famous, having any advanced degrees, and without any speaker designations or certifications from any association. James is the behind-the-scenes marketing advisor for many top speakers, authors, celebrities, business professionals, entrepreneurs, sports coaches, athletes, and thought leaders, and is recognized as the No. 1 big money speaker, trainer, and coach. He can teach anyone who wants to get highly paid as a motivational or business speaker how to correctly package, market, and sell their time, knowledge, expertise, and message.

James grew up in a tiny steel-mill town outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a population of about 6,000 people. He didn’t have much growing up. Dad worked as a railroad conductor in the mill, driving trains, and mom was a lunch mother, serving lunches to kids.

But James had some big dreams and goals. The biggest one coming out of high school was to get a basketball scholarship and play college basketball. He got a scholarship to the University of Cincinnati, and his coach got fired. So he transferred and played out in Hawaii.

His first dream was to play professional basketball, but he blew his knee out in college. His backup dream was to be a stockbroker or financial advisor. He moved to Los Angeles, started his career as a stockbroker, and did pretty well there, working for a major Wall Street investment firm. He opened up some 200 or so accounts in his first year. Because of that, he got a call one day to go speak about his success. Although he really wasn’t sure about speaking, but they offered him $5000, so he did it. It went so well that he was booked for a second and a third. Now he’s done over 3000 talks.

Sometimes in a career, we don’t know the path that we’re going to go down. If you have blinders on and you’re not open to ideas, you get tunnel vision and you don’t see opportunities. He would have missed that opportunity had he not accepted that payment for the speech and then realized that he could really do this.

You may have a good foundation, a skill set that you learned through school, but then you get out in the world and all sorts of new things open up. You have to be willing to listen and take the risk to try something different, and you never know where that path is going to lead. You have to take the blinders off because a lot of, times opportunities for your career will come at you.

Need a break from reading articles? Want just to listen instead? Below is a transcript of Episode 27 of my podcast, Stand Up & Stand Out. If you’d prefer to listen, head over to our website or find us wherever the cool kids hang out that do podcasts!

James says networking equals “pest working.” What you want to focus on is relationship work. We don’t network with family, friends, or people we love and care about. We build relationships with them. If I look at you as a family member or friend, I start to look at you. How can I build a relationship with you? We may not work together right now, but if I’m focused on serving and building a relationship, we might come back together seven years from now, and it’s the right time for us to work together.

You just don’t know these days; people are changing jobs because office boundaries are dissolving, and you can work anywhere you want. It’s an evolving environment, so you just put yourself out there and be genuine. That’s such an important message: to connect on a natural level. Not just because you’re trying to get something from the other person.

So what would you do if you are building a relationship and the immediate payoff doesn’t happen? James says: “Don’t wear a bib. Wear a napkin draped over your arm.”

When we come into this world, we get a bib placed under our chin. And people give us service, feed us, take care of us. It gets embedded in your subconscious mind at a young age stays with you. That drives your actions, and you don’t even realize it. Then we go through the rest of our lives thinking that people should be giving to us.

The first part of all transformation is awareness.

What James wants you to do is decide to take that bib from around your neck and drape it over your forearm. Walk around looking at people like you are a server in the finest dining establishment and ask, “How can I serve this person? What can I do to make their life better? What can I do to help them?”

It could be sending a thank you note because they gave you their time. That’s serving them. That’s appreciating them. That’s what you would do for a family member.

It makes your interaction more long-term, rather than getting something from someone today and forgetting them tomorrow. You build for the long-term because careers are long. If you’re getting out of school in your twenties and working until you’re 60 or more, that’s 40+ years where you’re trying to make connections. Each connection gets easier because you have people to rely on who can vouch for you.

It’s not networking, it’s relationships.

James’ company is called Big Money Speaker. His logo is a coin because he says that you can’t just want to be a speaker. There are two sides to the coin.

The first side is information and helping people, serving, and making the world better, impacting people’s lives. And that is extremely important, it took him a long time to understand that that’s only one side. James helps folks with the first side: what is the message? How are you going to communicate? How are you going to have people see your value and see the benefits that you bring?

The flip side of the coin is “the business of everything.” If you’re trying to get a job or a career, the first part is how can you serve them? How can you help them? How can you contribute? The flip side of that is what are you going to be able to do for that organization now? What’s the real tangible stuff?

He also helps with the flip side of that coin on a tangible basis. Now we’re in a career, and we’ve got to run it by the numbers. He looks at what you do daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly to make your business and make your career fly and be successful. He focuses on both sides of the coin, not just one side.

It doesn’t have to be getting on a stage in front of thousands of people. It’s that initial interview to land the job, it’s presenting in front of your boss or your superiors to try to get that next raise.

Many people are afraid of public speaking, but this is public speaking. You even have virtual options now. You don’t know how many people could be behind the screen, listening in. Everything in life is public speaking. We just don’t usually look at it like that.

James made a career out of public speaking. He’s not saying everybody has to do that, but you must realize that you are always public speaking. You are constantly communicating, and you never know how many people will see it over the years. You think you’re communicating with one person, but you could be doing a job interview, and it could be in 47 different countries with 47 different managers looking at you.

Be cognizant of how you are communicating, and just always remember: are you leading with the bib, or are you leading with the napkin over the arm? Try to talk in terms of serving.

James got a call one day from some people doing a documentary on volunteering. He told them he wasn’t interested because he wasn’t a volunteer. He was an entrepreneur. They kept persisting. They said a mutual friend recommended it, and he decided he should talk to them because he didn’t want to upset this mutual friend. On the phone, they said he sounded fantastic. These people were ABC, and the show was not a documentary. It was called Secret Millionaire and would be prime time on ABC worldwide. The show would take millionaire entrepreneurs out of their element to live undercover, looking for exceptional, beautiful people who are serving and making a contribution so they can be recognized.

James said, “If this is true, this is way bigger than a TV show. We could put the hope back into people’s hope tanks because so many people have their hope tank on E.” Apparently, over 50 million people worldwide have watched Secret Millionaire at this point.

Any scale of giving back to people is so important. A little bit of kindness can go a long way. That’s why we’re here on earth.

James’ dad used to say, “I love you. But remember, you didn’t come into this world with anything, you’re not leaving with nothing, and the only thing you can take with you is knowing that you made a difference while you’re here and the memories you created.”

Just remember, it’s about the difference and memories we make while we’re here.

It’s such an important thing that there are so many ways to give back, and it doesn’t take much to make a difference in other people’s lives. And you don’t have to give money. You can donate and give your time. You can share your talents. If you’re good at fixing things, you can donate your skills to an organization where you are willing to fix things for free. It could be financial resources, but don’t think it’s just money.

Do you know how we spell love in this world? It’s not L-O-V-E. It’s T-I-M-E. How much time do you give to others?

People make new year’s resolutions in January, but we can continually improve ourselves, think about how we can do better for ourselves for our community, and help others in the process. Every day above ground is exemplary. If you wake up, and you’re living and breathing, and have a chance to be alive, then why don’t you make a daily decision to impact folks and put a smile on one person’s face.

I don’t care if it’s holding the door for someone or helping an elderly lady with groceries into your building, but just do something for someone else. Just one little act of kindness each day. Make this world a little bit better. It will pay back in karma, and so many good things will come your way when you just keep putting positive energy back into the environment. Remember, you’re blessing people. You’re uplifting them. You’re giving them a little kick in the rear to get them in gear, and we all need that.

You can find James Malinchak’s website at www.bigmoneyspeaker.com. He constantly has speaking engagements worldwide, and many of his speeches are on YouTube. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you’re getting a lot out of these blog posts!

You can find more from Nikki on her website or watch the Stand Up & Stand Up podcast on her YouTube Channel or Spotify!