Harness Your Walk-On Mindset with Jim Roddy.

Welcome to Public Speaking with Peter George. Do you want to be calm, confident, and credible every time you speak in public? Then stay tuned as we discuss public speaking tips, techniques, and tactics that help you increase your impact, influence, and income.

Are you where you want to be as a speaker—not only in your skill set, but in building speaking into a career? If not, take the advice of my mentor, Dick Heron, who reminds me that success is a choice. Your choice. You can also take that advice from today’s guest, Jim Roddy. Jim says we’re in complete control of our career trajectory—and he’s done the research to prove it. He’s studied walk-ons—athletes who weren’t recruited and received no scholarship to play their sport in college—and he’s here to share how ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary feats when their energy is properly channeled. Here’s my chat with Jim Roddy.

What Is the Walk-On Method?

Peter: You’ve written a couple of books, the more recent one being The Walk-On Method to Career and Business Success. What’s the core concept?

Jim: The walk-on method features 31 underdog athletes—non-scholarship players. Everyone else on the team is being paid to go to school; these walk-ons aren’t. We talked to them about how they used that experience: scrambling to make the team, scrambling to stay on it, getting no playing time, sometimes no uniform that fit, no respect or attention from coaches—being forced to serve others and focus on team goals. We talked about how they took that experience and that attitude and applied it to their professional career. And we found that those folks were wildly successful.

Jim: The book goes beyond interesting stories. It outlines how anyone can learn the walk-on attitude at any age and, by following the walk-on method, succeed in their career. It appeals to high school and college students just getting started, parents who want to understand how the working world really works, people new to the workforce looking to propel their career, and long-time employees who want to get more out of their job. The gist: ordinary people—even underdogs, maybe especially underdogs—will accomplish extraordinary feats when their energy is properly channeled.

The Five Steps of the Walk-On Method

Jim: Step one is take a big shot. Anybody can make a layup. Don’t sell yourself short when setting your next career-related goal. Don’t say, “This is what I really want—but I’ll aim for something less just to play it safe.” Take a big shot.

Step two is make a passion statement—prepare with passion, practice with passion, and play with passion. Too many people wish their dream will come true or think they’ll give it their all when the moment presents itself. But don’t wish or want—walk onto your dream. Walk-ons play with passion: you see them fly around when they get in a game. But what people don’t see is the preparation and the practice that came before.

Step three is run uphill. That takes longer and makes you stronger. Embrace obstacles. We’re often taught to avoid obstacles or seek the path of least resistance—but when I ran road races, I noticed that when people hit a hill, they slowed down. I decided to sprint up the hill instead. If you pass someone going uphill, it completely throws them off—and that’s what these walk-ons did. They leaned into difficulty because they knew on the other side, they’d be battle-tested.

Step four is no fuss—all MUSTS. No fuss means control your emotions, especially the negative ones. MUSTS stands for Maximize Your Unique Strengths. Figure out what you do differently. Every walk-on we profiled was shorter, skinnier, or slower than their scholarship teammates—but they found what set them apart.

Step five is make them throw you out of the gym. Never quit. Too many people throw themselves out of the gym—“I won’t try out because everyone’s better than me.” Give it your best. Make them be the ones to say no. Keep going back until you get what you came for.

How Jim Has Used Public Speaking to Bring the Book Alive

Peter: You’ve been using public speaking to bring the book to life. How have you been doing that?

Jim: It was really difficult during the pandemic—I launched this book in 2020, when it seemed like every speaker was sidelined. But going back to embracing obstacles: what are you going to do about that instead of curling up into a ball? I did a lot of online workshops—a mini version of my keynote followed by dialogue with the participants. I also did a ton of podcast interviews. And I’ve now been speaking at franchisee conferences where the message really resonates. I’ve got the pitch down: the five steps, how people can apply them.

Enhanced Perceived Competence

Peter: How do you see public speaking benefiting your career?

Jim: I call it enhanced perceived competence. We’re all, say, ten units competent. But if you get up on stage and deliver effectively and memorably, the perception of your competence goes up exponentially. It doesn’t make you more competent—but people perceive it that way. I’ve had far more people tell me, “You really know what you’re talking about because you wrote the book on hiring,” than have actually bought the book.

Jim: When you present to someone—on a big stage, in a small group—when you’re done, they’re no longer neutral about how they view you. It’s either more positive or more negative. That’s why preparation matters so much. You have to deliver something solid, no matter your walk of life.

Advice for Other Speakers

Jim: It goes back to step two: prepare, practice, play with passion. For any speaking situation—keynote, podcast, panel, a meeting—I make notes, I listen to past episodes, I walk through what I want to say. I also record what I do and tweak from there. The best speakers are always preparing, practicing, and getting better. No athlete just walks onto the field and has it happen.

Jim: Marv Albert used only 10% of the notes he prepared for a game—but think about the mass amount of preparation that went into them. You see the best speakers are the ones who are always getting better. Keep speaking—in whatever format, at whatever size venue. As you say, Peter: the more you speak, the more you’ll speak.

Peter: Jim, where can listeners learn more about you and contact you?

Jim: Both books—The Walk-On Method and Hire Like You Just Beat Cancer—are available on Amazon. You can email me at jim@jimroddycba.com—and if you mention this podcast, I’ll send you a free chapter from The Walk-On Method. My website is jimroddycba.com, and you can also find me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Public Speaking with Peter George. Are you ready to be calm, confident, and credible every time you speak in public? Then visit petergeorgepublicspeaking.com and let’s make it happen. I’ll see you next time.