How I've Spoken in 69 Countries Around the World

Hello, I'm Brian Tracy, and I have spoken in 69 countries around the world in the last 30 years. I've spoken in virtually every large and small company on every continent. So I've had a lot of experience. Also, I have been Translated by about 50 different professional interpreters in those different languages. So I know a little bit about speaking worldwide. And let me tell you why I speak worldwide. Number one is I am a businessman. As a businessman, I look to expand the range of offerings, my products and services. And when I started off, for the first 10, 15 years, I was focused in North America, of course, as everybody else is in the United States and Canada. But then I began thinking it would be a good idea to expand strategically into other countries. So I made a bridge into Germany, and Germany was the starting point of my international speaking. What I did then is I learned German. People said, you know, if you could speak German, we could develop a tremendous business in Germany around your speaking and your seminars, around my video programs, my audio programs, and my books. So I sat down and I had some basic rudimentary high school German, and I sat down and I began taking lessons and courses and tutoring. And today I can speak almost fluent German. Surprise, surprise. I ended up doing 10 to 15 talks every year in Germany. And since Germany is an epicenter in Europe, people would come from other countries. And I began speaking in Poland and Switzerland and Austria and Romania and Czechoslovakia, and then Czech Republic and Slovakian Republic. Then throughout all of Serbia, including Kosovo, Croatia, Slovenia, Albania. I began to speak in Italy, and people began to book me into the Middle east and book me into the Nordic countries. Began to speak in Sweden and Finland and Denmark and Iceland. Amazing darn thing. So what you do is you link in, you put your stake in the ground in one country, and then you do a really good job. And then people come up to you and say, could you come to my country and speak as well? Now I have spoken in 69 countries. I have one good friend who has also spoken in 69 countries. So my goal now is to speak in 70 countries. That will make me the most prolific professional speaker probably in the history of the world. And fortunately, next month, I am speaking in my 70th country. And probably in June, I'll speak in 71 and 72. There's really no country that I have ever wanted to speak in that I haven't spoken in. But there's a lot of little countries. Like, I'm going to be speaking in Georgia, which is south of Russia, which is on the black sea very soon. So it's going to be an interesting experience. Now, for those of you who would like to break into professional speaking, not just internationally, is the rule is start where you are. We say fish where the fish are. What you do is you pick a subject that you think is really important for people to know about, and you major in a single subject and you become very knowledgeable in that subject. And then what you do is you begin to offer speeches or small workshops to people within your circle and usually at no charge. There was a basic rule many years ago that said before you can be paid for speaking, you have to give 300 free talks. And it may be 100. Some people say they've given 500. But what you do is you keep offering free talks on a subject that you really care about until somebody comes up and says, how much would you charge to give that talk to my people or my company? And that is the starting point of your career in professional speaking. Thank you for watching. Here's a question. What's the one action step that you're going to take based on what you've just learned from this video, to achieve your most important goal? Whatever it is, leave a comment below and maybe we'll get back to you. And until next time, remember, only you are responsible for your success.