Getting Paid to Speak: How Torin Ellis Built a Career That Lasts

Torin Ellis (00:00.174)
I had spoken enough on a free basis. I had been tucked away in rooms where there were only three people in the room in the audience and two of them were sitting up on the stage in a conversation. I was authentic and genuine. I made it a point to tell every person who booked me, no matter where they booked me, that one day you will put me on the main stage.

How do you keep delivering a message you believe in when the environment feels hostile, right now, 2025?

If we're not actually a practitioner, I say as long as you are delivering value and people feel like you are delivering value, then you stand and deliver. Ain't too many people gonna mess with Torin Ellis.

to be a sought after speaker until they realize it's more than a great talk and a LinkedIn profile. Torrin Ellis has built a career commanding rooms, shaping conversations, and getting booked again and again in the crowded HR and TA speaking circuit. Today, we're pulling back the curtain on what it really takes from carving your niche to setting your price to stay relevant in a space that changes overnight. Torrin, welcome to Workfluencer.

Love forces us to remove the mask that we live within and fear that we cannot live without. James Baldwin, I am good. Thank you for having me.

Rhona Pierce (01:32.302)
Amazing amazing. I love love the energy that I'm feeling at the start I'm so excited to talk to you today, but I want to understand like more about your speaking journey, right? So take me back. How did you first get into speaking and why?

Yeah, first got into speaking and I don't think any of this was really official. You know, if you look at it from a standpoint of we are all speakers. So if you have led a sales team, you know that at some point throughout the day, morning, afternoon, or before the shift is over,

that as the leader of that sales team, you have to command their attention. It may be one or two of them. And at times it's the entire team. If we were in major sports and we were the coach, you find them doing the motivational rah-rahs and the calling of plays and schematics. So we are all Rona, a speaker in some particular way. And so if I were to say,

I started probably in the military because I was not a drill sergeant, but I was a squadron lead. So I was the person who called out the cadence when we were marching down the street. I'm the individual who kept us moving in sync, if you will. And certainly in the air force, it's a lot different than it was in the army and the Marines and the Navy, but I got it there. I did it at MCI when I had a sales team.

not just a regular sales team, one of the poorest performing sales teams in the country grew them to one of the best in the entire country. One of the most efficient, one of the most effective. I got speaking because I was frustrated with organizations saying that recruiters were less than important.

Torin Ellis (03:28.568)
We've always been the tip of the spear. We are the individuals responsible for building high performing teams. And so my speaking was honed in working with leaders, getting them to understand why is it important? Why is it necessary for us to execute an agreement with an outside agency when I have internal assets? I would walk them through a process of why you would contract with me

as an external agent versus your internal assets. And then finally, you know, hitting stages, I was just of the opinion that there were far too many white men, far too many conference organizers, far too many pacifist black folk. There were just far too many individuals that were disappointing me and were not giving the conversation of diversity and inclusion what I knew it deserved.

And so I made sure that I made space on stages, that I showed up unapologetically, that I always operated in principle over technique. I was authentic and genuine and I made it a point. I made it a point to tell every person who booked me, no matter where they booked me, that one day you will put me on the main stage.

That for now, I'm okay being in this little back room tucked away in the corner, but at some point, you are going to respect my voice and place me on the main stage. And that happened in October of 2018.

Ooh, I love that. If you've made it this far into the episode and you're not subscribed yet, now's a good time. You've said a lot. You've talked about the military. You've talked about your corporate career and how that has shaped everything. And I love that you've stayed authentic and like strive to stay authentic to your message. How do you keep delivering a message you believe in when the environment feels hostile, like right now, 2025?

Torin Ellis (05:36.866)
Yeah, because I'm not a function of my environment per se. Certainly it impacts the things that I do around me, but I'm not shape-shifting. I think that's the way that they say that. I'm not shape-shifting Rhona for the environment. I am committed to humanity. I understand that behind a person's health, the way that they earn income is probably the most important thing to them.

Like think about that. You want good health, you want air, you want to have mobility, you want to be able to, you need to be able to function. But behind how you function and show up, how you take care of yourself and your family, your personal economy is probably the second most important thing to you. And so I understand that no matter how the environment

administrations, corporate leaders, colleagues, friends, foes, enemies, detractors, lurkers. I don't care about none of them. All I care about is am I committed in doing the right thing for humanity, for people? And people can say all that they want to say about me, Rona. I don't give a shit. What they cannot say about me is that Torrin has done me wrong.

What they will not say about me is that he's unscrupulous, that his business practices are not genuine, that he is cutting corners, that he doesn't deliver. They'll never be able to say that about me. And if they do point me to them so that they can prove it to me, trust me when I tell you I can go anywhere. And I don't say that just as a professional. I say it as a person. Give me, I'll give you an example. I love

my vehicle. I've always loved my vehicle. I don't worship my vehicle, but I love my vehicle. I don't take my vehicle through a car wash. My vehicle gets hand washed and I go in the hood to get it hand washed. I go in the hood on a corner known for a lot of nefarious activity. I'm never worried about where I am. Again, I don't say that

Torin Ellis (07:58.006)
in a way to impress anybody. I'm just comfortable with who I am, where I am, period. And I'm not really influenced by what other people are saying, doing or not doing. I know what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to make workplaces better for every single individual. I'm trying to make it so that none of us are struggling. I'm trying to make it so that

People don't have to experience what I experienced in 2001 when the bubble burst and 04 when I filed bankruptcy and 11 when I lost the multimillion dollar contract. I don't want people to experience some of the things that I've experienced. And so I just channel my lived experiences and business acumen and all of that and try to put it out in a way that is good.

for the masses. That's who I am.

So let's go back to that time before October 2018, you said, was when you hit the big stage, right? You have all this passion. You truly believe in what you're doing. Is there any part of you that when you were starting, before you were on that main stage, that was scared of being able to deliver and to get to where you wanted to get to?

So I'm gonna answer it honestly, no, not scared. Certainly when you, there's always the butterflies or the jitter if you will, before you do a presentation, whether it be a podcast recording, whether it be a panel fireside chat, certainly if you're going to do the keynote and you are the center of attention for a room of five, six, 700, 1,000, 1,500 people, you'll have a bit of a butterfly. But never afraid because I understood that I,

Torin Ellis (09:53.768)
earned the right to be there. I had spoken enough on a free basis. I had spoken enough on panel conversations. I had been tucked away in rooms where there were only three people in the room in the audience and two of them were sitting up on the stage in a conversation. So I had done enough of these small, obscure

often off of the radar conversations that I felt like I had honed a message and a particular style of delivery and certainly a point of view that when I moved onto that stage in October of 2018 at ERE down in Orlando at the Gaylord, trust me when I tell you there was nothing that could shake me. Like I was so ready. I had all brown alligator shoes. I have an incredible brown suit.

pocket square, crisp white shirt, and I knew the moment they called my name, it was on and popping and it's been that way ever since.

I absolutely love that energy. love it. Do you recommend that people start by doing free things to build their name or should they charge from the start?

I think it depends on the individual. try not to give out a prescription that I feel is the most absolute or the most direct. I think people have to figure out what's good for them. I think about a conversation I had a couple of weeks back with a young lady who, she saw me on a webinar. She was one of about 3000 people on this particular webinar. She saw me, wanted to connect with me, connected on LinkedIn. I told her she could reach out and call me. We got on the phone and within 10 minutes of the conversation.

Torin Ellis (11:40.022)
I told her to raise her price by 25%. Rona, I don't even know what her current price is, but within 10 minutes, I said raise it by 25%. She's actually writing furiously and she's kind of grabbing her pearls, if you will, because she's like, I can't rate, I've only been in business for two months. I don't know the answer to that, Rona, in terms of should you charge off the gate or should you do free? I will tell you what works for me.

What worked for me is I was always connected to the value that I was bringing. And I always understood that you are no matter how good you think you might be, there's always some room for improvement. Even today, you know, I still feel like there is room for improvement when I am standing on stage. Sometimes I could be too much of this or I might not be enough of that. I can over index here and maybe

short shrift the audience as it relates to certain topics or data or so I understand that there's always room for me to get better. I just encourage individuals find a formula that makes you feel like you are always delivering value. And if that means that you do some complimentary presentations, various formats and more modalities, do that and then start to charge. And I will tell you, I think that that is the one that works best for me.

Don't feel like you have to be some influencer and always have to have a dollar associated with it. Trust, I've done a lot of stuff for free. And so I just think that it was the best path for me.

I love this and I love this conversation because yes, I know a lot of us, me included, are always speaking about, get your money, get charged for like charge for your worth, because it's true. It's work and you should charge for it. But charging, like my high school teacher, one of my first business teachers in high school said, money is whatever money can buy. That's his definition of money. So if I can get something out of it.

Rhona Pierce (13:48.818)
and the person isn't, it's like doing it for free for, they're not paying, but I can get something out of it. To me, I feel like I got paid. So how do you evaluate what to do for free versus what needs to be charged? How do you do it?

It really depends. know, I kind of ebb and flow through a bit of a formula of trying to feel whether or not an entity or an organization is trying to take advantage of who I am in this particular moment. Again, Torin today is a lot different than the Torin that hit the stage in October of 2018. That said,

I still evaluate whether or not I think an organization or an entity is attempting to take advantage of what it is that I bring to the equation. I also try to understand, can they really afford it? When I'm charging individuals the fee that I charge, can they really afford it? And here's one thing that I will tell you, Rona, even if I do it for free,

eight times out of 10, I'll still send the organization, not so much an individual, but I'll still send the organization an invoice showing them what I would have charged them because I want them to see, all right, this is what you would have paid for. And in some ways, Rona, I'm waiting to see if they'll respond, if they'll give me some commentary after the event to say, wow, you really delivered value.

But I always want people to know this is how I value myself. And so I want them to kind of see that there really is no, you know, clear cut step a step B step C. really tend to say if an organization or an entity wants me to do it for free, are they taking advantage of me or not? And then I kind of go from there.

Rhona Pierce (15:48.534)
I want to talk a little bit about questions that I get a lot. I imagine you do too. People are like, OK, I've got this knowledge. I really want to do it. But I don't feel ready. They don't feel ready to charge. They don't feel ready to even start speaking. What do you tell people that signifies that they are ready to start speaking?

Again, I'll go back to the very beginning. Everyone's a speaker. What type of a speaker you are to be determined, but everyone is a speaker. Rarely are we in a capacity professionally or personally, but certainly professionally in this conversation. Rarely are we in a capacity where we don't have something to contribute to the conversation. I wrote a book in 2016 titled, RIP the Resume.

And one of the first things that I talk about in the book and talked about prior to writing the book and still talk about today is when you are going for an advancement of an opportunity, whether it's a promotion, whether it's a stretch assignment, you are looking to be put on a task team. You want to be part of the recon team, exploring new AI technologies. I'm always saying here are the three things that I want you to do to position yourself to be on that team. Number one.

your creative contribution. What have you delivered? What have you done for the organization? How do you package that particular story with some data, with some examples, with some substantive material? And so all of us have to be in some way, Rona, a speaker. And if you can show that you have delivered some degree of creativity, then you've got something to talk about.

And so I just feel like when you ask, you know, what determines being a speaker, you, you do. You determine if you are a speaker, you determine if you'll be an internal voice only at your organization, in your department or your team. You decide whether or not you wish to be a person who submit yourself for speaking at a conference or an event or something local.

Torin Ellis (18:03.466)
You decide whether or not you wish to go out in the community and build brand cache because you want to partner with a nonprofit organization or you want to help raise awareness or collect canned goods during the holiday season or you want to help the home. You decide that. You get to exercise being a part of your voice. It's the number one thing that I talk about when I'm doing diversity and inclusion consulting. always say step number one is empowerment.

And Rhona, I can't empower you, but I can damn sure make sure that you feel confident and you feel supported and you feel inspired and you feel like you have all of the resources. That dude, Torin, is an incredible leader for me. So I feel like I can speak my voice. So empowerment is certainly a part of the formula of whether or not you feel like you are a speaker.

I obviously prepare for these interviews and I had this whole thing of, want to talk about how to position yourself and the mistakes that people make. But I think everything that you're saying and correct me if I'm wrong is really how you position yourself and how you command that is the belief in what you're speaking about and that you are an expert at whatever level you are, you are an expert. Is that a correct statement? Am I summarizing?

Yeah, I got a formula P minus I equals R potential minus interference equals results. I've always known my potential. I'm an incredible salesperson. I have a formula for addressing sales. People don't know this about me because they see me as a recruiter. And now as of late, they see me as a consultant or as a speaker, but I'm an incredible, like give me a bag, give me a million dollar quota. I'm going after it. I'm going to hit it because I'm an incredible salesperson.

but we all have a variety of different threads that make up our life. We are not but one instance or incident of life. We are a combination of all of these things. And so, yes, I do bring something to the equation. You absolutely need to bring some acumen and experience and accomplishment and belief and efficiency and efficacy. You have to bring collaboration and strategy and

Torin Ellis (20:28.27)
execution and operational support. You have to bring redesign. I can keep going. You've got to be able to bring so much to the equation and I just tend to make it look easy when I show up and bring all of that to the equation but you got to understand that my mind is moving extremely fast even in this moment like my mind is moving. I have respect for artists, for rappers, for entertainers. I have respect

for politicians and athletes and executives. I have respect for individuals who do what it is that they do and I try to operate with that same degree of respect for myself. I know what I bring to the equation. I just need to make sure that I deliver it every single time that I show up. I'm absolutely convicted, but it's not any one thing. It's...

I don't know how to really say it, Ronan, but it's all of who we are.

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Rhona Pierce (22:11.246)
So the space that we're in, HR and TA, it changes fast. And a lot of people are of the mindset of you shouldn't be on a stage if you're not doing the work, whatever that means. How do you keep your message relevant when you're not inside of corporate every day?

Yeah, because I mean, this this may come across as a really, really aggressive statement, but I can do the work. So I do operate with a degree of, yeah, I'm connected enough. You know, I still talk to a number of recruiters and understand. No, I don't know all of the systems and the technologies that they are using today versus when I was recruiting and carrying, you know, a book of business and doing requisitions.

Certainly things have changed since I stopped doing that but I try to remain connected. I try to make sure Rhonda that I'm staying in a posture of learning. So I read, is it voraciously, ferociously, whatever the word is, I do a whole lot of reading because I want to make sure that I am feeding the mental index what is current and then I try to sharpen that or bounce that off of people that are currently in

capacity whether that be employer branding, whether it be talent acquisition or sourcing, whether it be a person in the C-suite, supplier diversity learning and development. So I have a variety of friends that I talk to to make sure that when I am putting my words together, when I am pointing people to different lines of thought and position statements and approaches to the business.

When I am doing that, I'm doing that in a way that is applicable. But here's the thing, Rona, caring about people is timeless. And so I've often said, you can take away all of the technology. You can just give me a regular phone and an old school phone book. And I would figure out how to build a team for an organization.

Torin Ellis (24:27.096)
how to motivate that team to deliver on the goals and the objectives. Be a manager when I need to be a manager, administratively, you will, policy style, if you will, inspirational. I can do that because it's intrinsic. It's who I am. I'm not shaped by technology. I'm not shaped by the shiny. I'm shaped by the connectedness. And so how do I stay relevant?

Or what do I say to the naysayers or the people who say we shouldn't be speaking if we're not actually a practitioner? I say, as long as you are delivering value and people feel like you are delivering value, then you stand and deliver. And so that is the reason why people continue to have me to come back. And truth of the matter is, Ronna, ain't too many people gonna mess with Tor and Ellis.

Yes, that is for sure. And I absolutely love that answer. I ask a lot of people this question because it's a thing that I hear all the time. Even I've been told that. caring about people is timeless. Absolutely love that answer. Because at the heart of what we do it like at the core of HR and TA is caring about people. And if you don't have that, it doesn't matter if you're there every day or if you haven't been there for

20, 30 years. I absolutely love that answer. How do you actually find and book speaking gigs?

Yes, for me, it has really been a matter of referral. I honestly, and this is not going to be the most helpful answer, but I honestly don't reach out to many organizers and say, I want to speak. I probably in the last 10 years, I've probably reached out to 20 or 30 organizations and said, Hey, I'd like to speak.

Torin Ellis (26:24.778)
more often than not, Rona, I'm not filling out speaker request forms. So those are the things that people can do. Let me do it this way. Let me not center on me. Let me try to be helpful for the audience. I believe that certainly doing a Google search or using one of the GPTs, you can find a list of incredible HR, TA related.

and some of the other industry related and focused events. know that Hung Lee with Recruiting Brain Food has an amazing list of a lot of conferences. wanna say, and I haven't looked at it in a while, but I wanna say that he has like 300 different events listed in this index. I would go to recruitingbrainfood.com, find that list that Hung Lee curates. And as an individual who really wants to speak,

individually go after each of the individual events listed. I would look at the theme of the event. I would look at some of the past speakers. I would look at some of their videos and try to see what it is and how they delivered. And then I would bring it back to myself, Rona, and I would say, do I think that I can deliver in a way that is complimentary, that is equivalent to the way that past individuals have delivered? Do I think that I can curate a message

that is on point and on theme? Do I think that I can find a topic and some energy and push people forward as it relates to a particular conversation? Maybe give them a different point of view. Is there some value that I can bring to each one of these events? And do I encourage you to hit all of them? No, not at all, not at all. I encourage you to find some that you really feel like you can deliver.

some thunder to some fire to and just fill out the form. I also think that it's important that we do a bit more than filling out forms that we create some relationships and go on LinkedIn and find individuals that are hosting and curating these various events, small, medium or large and send them a message. Send them a voice note, send them something encouraging, uplifting, help them build out their event. Maybe provide them with an option

Torin Ellis (28:46.412)
for expanding their event. I was on a call with another major, major, major conference organizer a couple of weeks ago and we have been having a number of conversations around how do we expand into the disability community and making accommodations for the disability community. What am I doing? I'm serving as a thought partner with this conference organizer. I'm not vying to speak.

I am serving as a thought partner, collaboration, connective tissue. So I do believe that in addition to expressing an interest through a web portal, that it's also incredibly critical that we establish relationship so that people have an idea of the person that they might be saying yes to. And then I think the last thing that I would say Rona is let's just be reasonable in what it is that we are asking. Like I don't have a rider.

When I go and speak, I don't have a rider. Like I'm not asking people to put certain foods in the dressing room and have a makeup artist for me and a film crew. you know, I'm not, I'm not doing all of that. I don't even tell them I need to fly first class. I don't even do that. Like I actually more often than not pay for my own travel so that I can travel the way that I want to travel. Now, naturally I have sort of

built that into my fee, but I try to be reasonable in what it is that I'm asking. What am I saying to you? I'm saying Rona, when you ask me to speak, they'll often say, well, Torrin, send us over your agreement. And what I say to them is I don't have one. Just send me yours. I'm not all that choicy. Just send me yours as long as it's not extremely prohibitive and that you get to exploit the value that I bring and I can't exploit it.

then we don't have any issues. So you send me yours. I'm easy to work with. And I think that's the third thing that is probably most important. People also understand what they're going to get, but when they engage with me, they're like, this was all right. Like this cat is really easy to work with. So that's part of the reason why, and I can't put my hand on it now, but inside of my closet over there, have, I probably have 500.

Torin Ellis (31:11.95)
400 badges.

And at 75 % of those events, I was a speaker.

So that's.

It's interesting that you keep the badges too. I keep them too. I don't know why. Why do we keep the badges?

I do, I do. And I'm going to do absolutely nothing with them. When I die and pass away, my family is going to take them and be like, he had a bin full of junk. What are these badges for? But I keep them. I keep all of

Rhona Pierce (31:45.452)
I was recently back home, so I'm from Panama and I grabbed my badges that I had in my childhood bed. Well, I lived in my parents' house like you do in Latin America until you're married. So I had them there and I got married later in life after I had started my professional career. And I was like...

my mom was like you're taking those with you. like yeah they need to come too. Now I have my US stash of badges here. Now I wanted my Panama badges so I have them. I don't know why I keep them but it's just you want that memory.

It is. It really is. I got a question for you. I know it's your show, but I got a question for you. I want to roll it back a little bit. How do you respond to individuals who say, if you're not a practitioner, you shouldn't really be on stage? And I'm asking that. I think it's an interesting question, but Rona, I got to be honest. I don't know your, all I know is the content creator, Rona. I don't know any of the personas

I don't know if you were in employer branding, if you were a recruiter. So how do you answer that question? Because you, you too are on stages and behind that pink mine.

I love that you're turning this on because I get that question a lot and I get it from a lot of different people, from vendors and from people out there. I think I've put in the reps and the fact that you don't know who I am or what I've done in the past doesn't mean that I haven't done it. So like you, I have relationships with the people that invite me to speak on stages. I've actually never filled out a conference thing to like speak.

Rhona Pierce (33:26.316)
I always get invited because you have those conversations. You talk to people. Someone does a demo. did a lot. I'm a software engineer. That's what I went to school for. And I then transitioned to talent acquisition, did a lot of rec ops because that was the bridge. So I do a lot of demos with vendors and I ask questions that they're like, wait,

How do you even know to ask this question? And then we get to speaking because yes, they see me talk about branding and all of that right now. They don't know my past life, which isn't that past because I will take a consulting gig if it sounds good. I stay close to it. So I believe that any stage that I've been on, any podcast that I've been on, anything that I've done...

I deserve to be there because I've put in the work and because my level of integrity is so high that I would never accept to be somewhere where I don't feel that I am the best person to be. If someone has reached out like, I want you to speak about this topic. Look, that's not my thing. Here is someone who would be way better is what I do. So do I need to work in corporate every day to be relevant and know what's happening? Absolutely not.

Like you said, I've done it, I've put in the reps and at my core, this is what I like to do. This is what I know to do. And a quick conversation with me as a conference organizer would prove to you that I do know what I'm talking about.

Beautiful.

Rhona Pierce (35:01.686)
I have this conversation so many times. Beautiful. And it's actually part of what I, when I started Workfluence or when I moved the podcast to be this, I wanted to feature the people that are doing this because people have this idea of the work that we do is like, they're not in the business anymore. And it's like, but why? I think it's really the only industry where I've seen

people who talk about stuff not be always that respected. And I say this in quotes because if we weren't respected, if you weren't respected, you wouldn't be on stages. The conference organizers wouldn't be calling you. So when I hear people say these things, I'm like, but you're still going to the conferences. You're still paying the tickets. You're still going to see the thing. So do you really believe this thing that you're saying out there?

Practitioner. So here's the deal. As a consultant, I still dub as a practitioner. Yes, I might have operated in the lens and under the umbrella of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. But Rona, I will tell you, the biggest struggle that I've had all of this year at Q4, maybe Q3 of last year is our working to be something other than D &I. Finding ourselves trying to

call the work that we do something different and the struggle that I had is that when I went in as a consultant and still as a consultant, when I go in, we are really doing a forensic style discovery of the organization. Yes, I'm looking and asking for commentary and data and analysis and operational procedure and protocol. I'm looking for policy and review.

through the lens of D &I, but I'm doing it at the organizational leadership structure. I'm doing it in the value center of learning and development. I'm doing it in talent acquisition and in employer branding and corporate social responsibility and in philanthropic efforts and in board governance. So we are doing a forensic style discovery through the entire organization, collecting all of that and then giving them back a report. so

Torin Ellis (37:26.86)
When people say, well, Torn, you're not a practitioner, but if you look at the work that I do, if you look at the way that we are asking questions and understanding the business, I could walk into honestly, and this is certainly not a flex, but there are a lot of organizations where I've consulted where I'm like, okay, that looks familiar. And this is absolutely a plus that you all are doing this. we may be over indexing a little bit here.

I see a little bit of performance drift in this particular business unit of department, but with a minor tweak or maybe a shift in head count or something, we can get that. That's easy fix. So I feel like there are so many organizations, Rona, where I could walk back into them, maybe not be in marketing. I'm not a marketer. I'm not a content creator. You are incredible as a content creator.

You, Hiba and so many other people, you all are amazing. I'm never going to try to compete with you in that way or say that I should be in a marketing or content creation capacity. But could I be in a leadership capacity? In a lot of organizations, I've worked in architectural and engineering. I've supported some of the biggest RPOs on the planet. I've supported some of the biggest shoe performance, athletic wear organizations on the

planet, I've supported some of the biggest sports entities on the planet. Could I work inside of those organizations? I absolutely could. And so I think that that's in part why we can still show up because of the way that we approach the work outside of speaking.

love it. So we've talked about the craft and the business of speaking, but now it's time to confess. I'm going to throw a few rapid fire questions at you. No speeches, no PR spin, just quick answers. Are you ready? Ready. All right. What's something you do right before going on stage that you'd never want caught on video?

Torin Ellis (39:33.856)
had a playlist that I listened to before every presentation and you can catch it on video. I'm singing, I'm moving, I am in my own zone. Don't fuck with

what's on that playlist?

Mostly love songs, honestly. I got a little bit of gospel. There's one or two country songs on there. A little bit of techno, but mostly love songs for me.

All right, this next one, there's no need to name any names, just why, but a conference you'd never speak at again.

Torin Ellis (40:10.156)
I don't really have one. I would say that actually, you know what? I take that back. I do have one. Shurm. I won't speak at a Shurm event. Yeah. I'm not interested in Shurm's leadership. I don't like their policy. I won't speak at a Shurm event.

I that for sure. The weirdest or most unreasonable request you've gotten from an event planner.

Good question. I don't know if I've had anything, a weird request, like, you know, no one's asked to come up on stage and hug me unnecessarily, but I will tell you a weird request that I have, if I can. I asked a comfort organizer if I could use my time on the mic to raise money for a cancer foundation down in Georgia. And we raised close to $10,000. Shout out to Josh Zwin over at Paradox.

We didn't do it when we were at Paradox. We did it when he was at another organization, but he and Shannon allowed me to use my time on stage. We raised close to $10,000 for the Oralee Cancer Research Foundation.

Love that. And the last one, what's the hardest part about being HR famous?

Torin Ellis (41:21.678)
I don't consider myself to be famous. So it's nothing hard about it for me. The hardest part I think in all of this is to not be emotional. I'm a pretty emotional individual. A lot of people say that you're super serious. I am super serious, but I am so emotional and empathetically connected and I just don't like a lot of what I see.

Anything that I haven't asked you that you think is important for listeners to know.

greatest misconception that people have about me.

Torin Ellis (41:58.602)
is that I'm unapproachable.

Yeah, yeah, I've had a lot of people who they'll send me a message. This is very similar to the top. You know, they'll send me a message and I give back a genuine response. You know, I respond to all of my LinkedIn messages. I respond to every email, if you will. And when I send them a response, they more often than not will say,

I didn't see that coming from you or are you serious about getting on your calendar? So I think that a misconception about me is that I'm unapproachable and I'm really very much so approachable.

and I can totally vouch for that. A hundred. Like I never had that opinion of you, but I remember, I think the first time I met you in person was last year at rec fest and I was like, my gosh, I just want to hug him. You were so approachable. You're so nice. Yeah. You said something about my content. I'm like, my gosh, and Alice has seen my content.

I see it. I see it. I see it.

Rhona Pierce (43:04.686)
Perfect. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for being on the pod. I really enjoyed this conversation. I knew I would. knew you would be real about things. How can listeners connect with you?

simple across all of social media at Torrin Ellis website is torrinellis.com and I will tell you Rona in about two weeks I'm gonna be dropping my newest project I vibe coded a solution called Profile Spike.

Tell me more about that.

So I actually, I remixed my book, RIP the Resume, which I released in 2016. And what I did was I wanted to turn it into a digital asset, direct digital career coach. And so I repurposed the content of my book into a platform that analyzes people's LinkedIn, social media profiles and resume freelance hubs, if you will.

gives them a score and helps them to better position themselves on paper with their story and their accomplishment. So it's called Profile Spike. I'll have it done by the end of August.

Rhona Pierce (44:16.246)
Amazing. And we will add that link to the show notes. Thank you again so much for being on the show.

A big thank you to you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thanks so much for listening. If you're enjoying the Workfluencer pod, share it with someone who's changing how we talk about work or who should be. And hey, if this episode gave you ideas or inspiration, leave us a five-star review. Reviews help other listeners find us. And honestly, it makes my day. Workfluencer is produced by Perceptible Studios. Learn more about how we can help you use video to attract, engage, and retain qualified talent at perceptiblestudios.com. Thanks for listening and I'll chat with you next week.