On December 9th, I sat down with Kit Pang from BostonSpeaks, a public speaking coaching service located in Boston, MA. We covered his upbringing in a feelings-averse family, his hip hop dance skills, his partnership with Women Speaks, and something weird called “athletic greens” that I’m still a little fuzzy on. Read the full text of the interview below:

Dan: Hi Kit, thanks for sitting down with me today! Tell me about what happened before BostonSpeaks. What got you interested in public speaking?

Kit: What got me interested in public speaking was a public speaking competition that I entered. See, growing up in an Asian family, we don't say I love you out loud, we don't hug. Even around the dinner table, we would never talk. I'm an introvert and so I did not know how to express my feelings nor did I think I needed to express my feelings.

It was in college when I saw a public speaking competition and the only reason I entered it because it was for three thousand dollars and I was a broke college student. It was senior year; I needed some money. So, I entered the public speaking competition-I don’t even remember the topic, something about college- and I practiced my butt off for that whole week. 7pm till 2am almost every single day. I would say the same lines over and over again. Do the same body language over and over again.

Something magical happened to me when I was on stage that day. You know when you get into the zone? I got into the zone for the first time on that day, time slowed down-

Dan: That was your first zone experience?

Kit: That's my first zone! That was the first. And once you have that experience, well, you just want more of it. That day did it: public speaking not only helped transform my life, but I'm gonna say public speaking helped start my life.

Dan: What made you realize this could be a business; what made you realize that you can turn it into BostonSpeaks?

Kit: I used to be a hip hop dancer. I used to be a street performer and I used to dance for 12, 15 years. I would dance and I would work at dance studios. While doing that, I always said to my wife, “I wanna start a business,” and every single year my wife asked, “Well, did you start your business?”

It took three years. Eventually I had to do something so I asked myself: ‘What am I passionate about?’ It was obvious: public speaking. I told myself that even if I failed I could just get a random job.

Dan: But public speaking: a business?

Kit: When you first start anything I think there are doubts. For example, have you ever heard of Toastmasters?

Dan: Yeah, the public speaking organization?

Kit: How can I be a public speaking coach when there's a big organization teaching public speaking already? How is that even possible? So anyways, there were a lot of doubts. I just went for it. I needed to go for it.

Dan: Just like you said, there's Toastmasters, which has been around and people have heard of it. It's got a capital T: Toastmasters. What differentiates BostonSpeaks from something like that?

Kit: I love Toastmasters. I was in it for five years and the president of one club for two years. I love, I love Toastmasters but it really depends on the people in the group. Let's say you want to learn cooking and everyone there is learning cooking. If you want to learn something, there better be a really good cook in there to learn from. So, if you really want to learn how to cook, maybe you should take a class from a professional chef.

That is the difference. We teach public speaking because we know how to teach it. If you go to Toastmasters, you hope you can learn something but you don't know if there are good cooks there that can show you how they cook.

Dan: Okay, that makes sense. So let's say someone wants to work with you at BostonSpeaks. What can they expect from that experience?

Kit: I would say we’re like a fitness studio, we give you a kick in the butt.

[laughter]

Kit: Think of us like a good fitness studio. You're coming for your yoga or for fitness. What we want to give you is that kick in the butt. The extra motivation, that support, that guidance that you need. Yes, we do teach public speaking but what we want you to get is a transformation.

““Yes, we do teach public speaking but what we want you to get is a transformation””

— Kit Pang, Boston Speaks

Dan: Alright, I walk in: it's my first session, I’m super excited, super nervous... what happens in our first BostonSpeaks session?

Kit: It really depends on the individual. We have to really assess where you are now, where are you comfortable, your past experience. We guide you through many steps to help you get to your next level with your speaking.

It's kind of like learning how to swim. Some people want to take a big risk because they enjoy just jumping into the deep end of the pool. Other people need more guidance. We really listen to the individuals and see where they're coming from. We can help you build a plan that you could take and never come back to us, just like a fitness plan. If you need to do abs every single day, here's a plan: now you just need to go do it.

But people aren't just looking for the plan, they're looking for the kick in the butt and the feedback that they get. You can do your ab crunches, but imagine you have a fitness instructor next to you who can say, “Hey that angle is not the best angle for you, try this…” That's why having a coach is so good because they can see things that you cannot see. We build a plan and then we give you feedback along the way to help you reach those improvements.

Dan: I saw that there's a WomenSpeaks group. What's the difference between that and BostonSpeaks?

Kit: Male or female, I think we are all capable of doing the same thing but as a male there are some things that we will never know about females and vice versa. For example, we have a client that when she sits in a room full of men she hikes her chair up so she is the highest or at eye level with all the other people. I would never have noticed that was an intentional choice, but Kristin picked up on it immediately.

There is literally a different perspective when it comes to women and that's why Kristen leads WomenSpeaks. She has that perspective and she advises female leaders on how to speak with more influence and improve their ability to persuade.

Dan: As a learning nerd, I love hearing about failures. Tell me a failure story.

Kit: When I started out teaching public speaking, I had this one client who was not ready to go to the deep end of the pool. I had a breakfast series coming up with 30-40 people attending and I said, “Hey, can you come in and give the opening pitch at the beginning? We can practice the day before, we can even practice the morning of the event.” She has a great personality and I thought she could succeed.

When she got up there... she froze. Totally froze. I tried to talk to her afterwards but she never got back to me. I think I pushed her too far into the deep end. Looking back, I truly didn’t think she was ready even though we practiced a lot beforehand, which is what I regret- I didn’t encourage her to take smaller steps.

Dan: So what about a success story?

Kit: So once a month we host a breakfast series and we put them online. It’s a simple thing, but once someone wrote me an email saying, “Hey kid. I'm watching this from Europe. I want to say thank you to these ladies because now I'm gonna start shifting my mindset and do this and this and that…”

Dan: You changed someone's life!

Kit: Ha, no not me- the panelists did. This person saw it and they experienced it: even though they might not do anything different, their mindset started to shift and that's success already.

Dan: Where should people go if they want to learn more about BostonSpeaks?

Kit: People can go on Bostonspeaks.com or they can send me an email at kit@Bostonspeaks.com.

Dan: Great! So before we leave...what's your favorite morning beverage, and provide details, please.

Kit: Oh, my wife makes me drink something called athletic greens. It has almost every single element of goodness in it, let's see, there's so many different...things in it...

Dan: You don’t know what's in it, exactly, do you?

Kit: No, I mean, yes it has everything! All the vitamins are in it, no junk is in it.

Dan: Okay, so tell me: what's in this ‘athletic greens’?

Kit: Hold on, lemme pull this up because we spend like a hundred and fifty bucks a month on this drink…

[Kit pulls out his phone and furiously starts Googling]

Dan: Does it come out of a jar?

Kit: No, it's it's a powder…

[He continues Googling]

Dan: Okay, and is it served cold or hot…?

Kit: Any way you want it!

Dan: Ok, ok, bring it to the next morning series!

Kit: I’ll mix one up for you!