I cold-called a speaker with more stage experience than I had life experience. Hoped he wouldn't answer.

He did. I stumbled through my script. Thought I did ok. Until he cut me off: "Are you reading a script? Sounds horrible. I was convinced you were AI." He then proceeded to tear my script apart. Line by line. "Alright, I'm going to go now." "My bad. I actually just wanted to help. Don't you want to try and sell me?" One week later, $5,000 hit my account. A month later, mid-call, he stopped and said: "You're really good at this." 3 months later, he called to tell me his rebuilt talk had lined up three 6-figure conversations off the first presentation. Maybe I’m a better coach than a salesman.