A short transcript excerpt of Russell Brunson describing how he learned public speaking and selling at events before 2008 by attending shows, asking to speak, and competing for small audiences. He recounts watching other presenters, taking notes on how to outperform them, and the high-variance results of closing sales (sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing).
Not something you're taught at BYU. So where did you learn this? At Identity Framing 101? Yeah. The way I learned this skill set is pre 2008, right? I started going to events, and I would. I would usually ask to speak. So I'd show up to the events. The way it works, obviously, speak to sell. So, like, I gotta find my own stuff out there. I pay for a hotel, but I get to speak and sell. The promoter would be like, all right, there's gonna be 500 people in the audience. I show up to these events, and nine times out of ten, you show up and there's 30 people in the audience, and 15 of them are the other speakers. And so we're all getting up there. It's like, all right, someone's getting paid today and nobody else is. Like, one of us is gonna win. Wow. And so I would sit in the back, and I listen to every presenter and, like, try and say, what are they? How do I beat this guy? Like. And so I'd watch the first person, second and third. And so I was just taking notes of what they were doing, how they were doing it, right? And I have my chance. And some days I would close the room and I get paid. Some days I'd blank, and I have to go home by myself. But, like, it was, eat what you kill. And so that's how, like, I learned this. You kind of learned this.
