The Secret
Prompter Story
Our Story: The Presentation That Nearly Ended Our business.
One evening, nearly 20 years ago, my wife Vanessa and I were in a hotel room in San Antonio, Texas. We had just wrapped up a long day working a trade show booth.
Vanessa was in tears. “I can’t do this anymore,” she said.
That moment felt like the breaking point of our business. A company had flown us in for a major industry conference.
They hired us to deliver live sales presentations that blended magic tricks with a sales pitch designed to hit their prospects’ emotional hot buttons. The magic added entertainment value. We used it to emphasize the key points of their offer.
In many ways, the day had been a success. Our magic drew huge crowds. People were engaged. Heads nodded during the presentation. The message was landing.
But behind the scenes, it was a mess. Vanessa and I both knew our value came from one thing: the combination of powerful messaging and visual performance. Without both, our magic didn’t matter.
And unfortunately, half of our value was missing because I was struggling to remember my lines.
Despite hours of rehearsing, I kept forgetting what I was supposed to say.
I even tried writing my lines on my props.
One trick involved tearing and restoring a newspaper, but the moment I covered the words with my hand… the line was gone. Just silence.
That day, I stumbled through five or six presentations. Thankfully, the magic was strong enough to keep people watching and the client walked away with leads.
But most of the customized sales pitch, the message we had so carefully crafted, never made it to the audience.
It felt like a disaster. Vanessa and I had launched our business back in 1999 with high hopes. She brought a background in marketing, and I had multiple college degrees in electronics.
But my real talent was stage magic. So we combined our skills to create something unique. Our uniqueness was helping companies at trade shows by using magic to draw a crowd, while delivering a persuasive, tarketed brand sales message. The idea was working. Clients loved it. Audiences loved it
The only problem… was me. I just couldn’t remember the lines.
That night in the hotel, it felt like the end. My brain was racing with visions of failure…of us both having to shut the business down and get jobs. We sat together and prayed for a solution.
And the next day, it showed up.
A woman walked up to our booth and struck up a conversation. She mentioned a device she’d heard actors use to remember their lines. She didn’t know the name of it or how it worked, but it was the lifeline we needed.
From Breakdown to Breakthrough.
Back home in Nashville, I started researching. After a long search, I found an actor in Hollywood who used a micro-cassette recorder to feed audio into an earpiece, an early version of the ear prompter. He sold it to me for over $2,000.
That was a huge investment at the time, but I saw its potential and used it for a couple of years. While the concept was groundbreaking, I discovered a few limitations that didn’t quite match the way I needed to use it. That’s when I saw an opportunity for improvement.
Drawing on my technical background and degrees in electronics, I reimagined a digital version tailored to meet the demands of my high-stakes presentations.
We didn’t invent the concept.
Industry pioneers like Brian Collins and Holmes Osborne helped bring this powerful tool to life.
We reimagined it for today’s high-stakes professionals, upgrading the foundation with new technology and premium hardware built for mission-critical moments.
As technology evolves, I continue to update our product line so Secret Prompter stays on the cutting edge.
The Secret Prompter saved our own business, and gave us the tools to help others generate revenue, build confidence, and create jobs.
Over the years, we’ve had the privilege of working with some of America’s leading companies, and exceptionally kind people who remain dear friends.
None of them ever knew about the Secret Prompter that was enabling me to deliver their message, word for word.
All those years, we kept my device buried underground, until now.
We’re revealing our most closely-held secret. Why?
To help other business owners and entrepreneurs, like us, who need to communicate complex information and persuade an audience.
Are you scheduled to speak in person, on live TV, or on camera?
If you’re short on prep time, the Secret Prompter can give you the confidence to deliver, clearly, naturally, and without memorizing a single line.
“Confidence breeds success.”
-Beryl Markham, English Aviator