The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

INTERNATIONAL motivational speaker, trainer, and author Mitch Carson expects to launch a series of live speaking events in The Bahamas to transform lives, while helping speakers build their personal brands internationally.

Over the past 36 years, Mr Carson has hosted successful stage events in several countries, including North America, Canada, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia, to name a few. And now Grand Bahama could be the next international staging ground for his upcoming live events.

Through his Instant Celebrity Maker model, he has trained and helped people achieve celebrity status, appearing on television, in newspapers, and other platforms. He has also prepared business CEOs and has coached some very prominent people.

While in Freeport over the weekend, he spoke at the Rotary Club of Grand Bahama’s bi-monthly meeting at the Garden of the Groves, where he shared his knowledge about public speaking and how he became a motivational speaker.

“I learned to speak and share about me through Alcoholics Anonymous,” admits the 62-year-old who had developed a drinking and drug problem in his early 20s after he lost both his parents. “I have been sober and clean for 38 years.”

Mr Carson, who initially did it for free to help other alcoholics, was approached by someone who paid him to speak at a luncheon, and the rest is history.

“It was a passion with a purpose and then it turned into profits. So, there is a lot of money to be made in the speaking business,” he explained. “I have trained two prime ministers and three members of the royal family in the Middle East.”

Mr Carson has also written several books, including ‘The Silent Salesman.’ And has shared the stage with persons such as former US Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, world-renowned public speaking expert Les Brown, Mark Victor Hansen, Lord Sugar, and Sir Richard Branson at the O2 Arena in London before 40,000 people.

In addition to being a sales-focused speaker, he also focuses on developing personal brands.

“I have gotten into creating personal brands through finding someone’s expertise and finding the hidden gem inside them; finding what they actually contribute, and then getting them on various platforms to grow their personal brand and their presence, so then eventually they can become either locally, nationally or internationally known,” he explained.

Carson has held seven live events in Dubai. James Dentley, and his wife, Kara, attended one of those events and were featured on CNBC. The couple attended other events hosted by Carson in Thailand and Bahrain.

“They used that credibility to grow their network marketing business, and they have grown their income as a result,” he said.

There is also spiritual growth and - that’s why I do what I do. The transformation experienced internally gives me the push to do what I do, knowing I am doing the right thing. It is transformation with people and not just going on stage overcoming fear. It is breaking through that barrier of emotional self-restriction, emotional constraints.”

Mr Carson’s live stage events were very successful in Asia for 11 years before the pandemic shifted everything, and he returned to America.

“All the live events got shut down,” he recalled.

Living in America, he thinks that model can work in The Bahamas.

“It is international, and it is a different country. I would be bringing people to The Bahamas. There is a well-known African American Chef, out of Atlanta, who has expressed interest in going international. We got a big following in Atlanta, and many of them would like to come here. They are mostly CEOs and business owners,” he said.

Mr Carson has trained over 600 speakers, authors, coaches, consultants, and CEOs to reach their goals. Some notable clients include Mark Victor Hansen (author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, half billion books sold), Chris Okazaki who is the Tony Robbins of Japan, and Dan Kennedy (author of 30 books).