5 Powerful Speaking Tips from Legendary Communicators Feat. Les Brown and Joel Weldon

You told the story of how you learned how to make words beautiful. And you described the process you went through because you weren't as articulate, certainly as a young man, as you are now. I never forgot those things that you talked about. Could you share how you developed that such unique Les Brown word delivery system that you have? This would be helpful to this group.

Mr. Washington said, what do you want to do with your life, young man?

I said, micah, okay.

Sorry.

Okay. He said, what do you want to do with your life, young man? I said, I'd like to become a disc jockey. He said, here are my car keys. I said, what is it? He said, I want you to go in my car at 12 noon. Don't go to the cafeteria, bring a sandwich to school. He said, in order to be successful, you must be willing to do the things today others won't do in order to have the things tomorrow others won't have. I want you to listen to a guy named Paul Harvey. He's the greatest communicator in the world. He does a program at 12 noon called the Rest of the Story. So at lunchtime, I would be in his car and the air conditioner going, eating peanut butter jelly sandwiches and listening to Paul Harvey, who said, good day. And I studied Paul Harvey. I watched Billy Graham. I turned the volume down. I watched his eyes. He was very intense with his eyes. I studied Zig Ziglar. I learned the value of energy. Zig had energy. Jim Rowan, when the end comes for you, let it find you conquering a new mountain, not sliding down an old one. I read other philosophers, Winston Churchill. The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. Ignorance may deride it. At the end, there it is. When I train speakers, I say to them, you must be a perpetual learner. As soon as your audience knows as much as you know, they no longer need you. Robert Schuler said, we must expand or we are expendable. And we're in this place that Peter Drucker said that we must be willing to unlearn, learn and relearn. So this is a new space. Einstein said, the thinking that has brought me this far has created some problems that this thinking can't solve. So I wanted to make Mike Williams head Brownie. You must study and you must be. I don't want to train you to speak in a niche. I want to train you to speak to the world. Because when I told him I wanted him to be my coach, because I saw him speak and he was so captivating and had humor and quotes and well read. And I said, man, I said, can you teach me to do what you do? He said, yes. So I said, great. And then he asked me a question. James, who you want to speak to? I said, the naacp, the Urban League. All of a sudden, the phone went dead. I say, man, we lost the line. He said, no, we did not. I said, what happened? He said, I don't want to work with anybody who has such a small vision, and hung up again. I called him back. I said, man, please don't hang up on me. He said, what do you want to do? I said, I want to speak to the world. He said, okay, then we got some synergy. This is a good fit because you can. I don't want you to see yourself as Les Brown, lb Triple P. Les Brown. You're platter playing pauper. There were none before me, and there will be none after me. Therefore, that makes me the one and only young and single and love Domingo, certified bona fide and dubiously qualified to bring you satisfaction and a whole lot of action. You're not just a disc jockey. I want you to empower and change people's lives. You got that in you? I say, thank you, Mike. Sometimes you. And this is write this down. Sometimes you have to believe in somebody's belief in you until your belief kicks in. Does that make sense.

Really? I think that is part of the key is the, you know, being around people that believe in you oftentimes more than you believe in yourself. I mean, you talk a lot about that in your book. And, I mean, I would not be. I don't think I'd be where I'm at with addiction recovery had I not met many individuals that somehow, you know, when I'm talking my way out of any level of living a functional life, even surviving, is having people. You can do it. You can do it. And I think the difference, though, is when it's puffery versus it really penetrates, you know, like real nutrition versus, you know, where's Michael Bernoff? Michael Bernoff's somewhere in the building. I think he's downstairs.

But I want to say thank you. My issue dealing with the drugs, and I knew what your passion was, you got to have somebody that you can talk to and you can be transparent with and share things about yourself and know that they won't judge you. And so I knew when I called you and told you that I was addicted to drugs, you wouldn't say, you, Les Brown, you're the motivator. How in the hell you get hooked on drugs. You didn't judge me. I say to speakers, who you are behind the words are far more important than the words that you speak. And so, because of your compassion, when I'm training, working with speakers, I work first with the messenger and then the message and then the delivery. Because if it comes through with the words that you speak, it comes through when you're speaking, that people can feel you or they can just hear you, and they hear you in their heart. But if you want to change an audience or change a person, you have to acknowledge that people are asking three questions when they see you. Who are you? What do you have? And can I trust you?

What was the last one?

Can I trust you? Can I trust you with my heart? Can I trust you with my secrets? There's a book years ago I read called why I'm Afraid to Tell youl who I Am because you Might not Like Me. And that's all I've got. So this is Les Brown, the motivator, who talk about, if life knocks you down, try and land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up. And I had to call my friend and say, hey, man, I'm dealing with something up in here, and I know you don't. And you were so confident to me. You gave me strength. You said you could do this, man. And that. I mean, I knew I had my work cut out for me, and that meant so much to me, and I'm so honored to be here to serve you and your group, and I'm always available to you. I want us to finish life together. But you too young. You know, when I was first dying with prostate cancer, they said I was terminal. My mother had passed, and she came to me to dream. She had a great sense of humor. She said, baby, she said, I heard you have prostate cancer. She said, you said, you missed me. I'm looking forward to seeing you. I woke up. I said, not now, Mama. I ain't ready to see you yet.

I have to say something about just the. I mean, it's really interesting what you just said. What a great framework of the messenger, the message, then the delivery. The ability to convey and transfer belief, to transfer ability. Like, I have a friend who's six years old who two weeks, six days ago, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. And I. I let him know you were coming down here, and he's like, I love Les Brown. And he's like, is there any way you could connect me to him?

And I kind of like to talk to him.

Yeah.

He did, yeah. The reason I bring this.

Did you tell him. Did he tell you about our conversation?

Oh, he loved it. I mean, he left me a message last night, a group of closest friends, and this is a. Yeah, very successful dude. And he. I mean, he is in such a good state of mind right now. He's also aware of the fact that this is not the cancer you want to get.

Right?

I mean, he's telling me about how he's met in the last week with supposedly the best pancreatic cancer doctor in the world. And he's like, it's across the board, the differences, where some will say, no matter what you do, you got two to five years, and others where it's like, no, there's no limit. He's like, it's so. He's talked to so many people, and he's tired and he's exhausted, and his wife, who's more along mainstream medicine, and he's very. But the fact is, that conversation with you literally changed the trajectory of this guy's behavior, his thought process. And the reason I bring this up is that when you can transfer belief, hope to other people, because I think hope is an interesting thing. Hope used in false, superficial ways is like bullshitting people.

Yes.

There's damaging ways to use hope. And hope used in certain ways heals people.

Right?

And so the point is, you talk to this individual. And so it's not just a conversation, though. You have developed this ability, which I know is part of what you do with other people. That's your business.

Right? But I asked him a key question. I said, why you want to be here? For his wife, for his children. When you think about man's search for meaning. And Viktor Frankl, he said, the Jews that survived the inexpressible cruelties of Nazism. And I went to Poland. I wanted to go to the place where Ann Ryan was, and I went to Auschwitz because I work with a guy named Sam Axelrod, who was one of my early mentors. He said they either had some spiritual commitment they had with their lives or some loved one that they were determined to see or some reason that was bigger than them. And so once I found out that his reason was his family, I started talking about it from that point. I said, let me tell you something. While we're going to do this and. And notice, I said, why we're going to do this? I spoke from the end that we got this done. You got to stick a fork in it. Like you see a basketball game, a guy shoots a baskin curry Steph Curry and start running down court before they even hit the nets. All right? So that when we speak to people, we want to affirm them. Whenever I speak, I say again and again, you have something special. You've got greatness in you. You have the ability to do more than you can ever begin to imagine. What we're doing is we are breaking through all of the negative conversations that's in the collective consciousness of people. Your passion, your energy and the words that you use will dismantle and open up their mind where they begin to see. I want everybody to repeat after me, please. It's possible. I want you to write this. I'm going to show you a model that you can use in any type of situation. If you go get brought in to speak at a corporation, first you want to do a needs assessment. Find out their mission statement and find out what is it they're looking for. Then what I do at the top of your speech, what you want to do is paint the picture. What they say their goals are in their mission statement and say it's possible. As you begin to look at the Genius Network, the goal and objective of changing the planet, of operating out of the thing, thinking that as we face inevitable death one day we're going to leave here. What in the meaning and purpose of our lives that will not be undone or destroyed when we are gone? The people that come here, the Genius Network, I want to say to you, Mr. Polish, that those people will be transformed. And the people's lives that they touch, they will be transformed. And this will have a rippling effect into the future that you don't get to see. Let us say together, it's necessary that as you decided to do this and get involved in doing the greater work, greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world that you decided, I got to do this, you got to Ken helps it that you decide. You said to yourself, I want to live a life that will outlive me. I've had a defining moment in my life that I'd lost myself in drug addiction. And then there was a defining moment. Moment that I said, this is not me. And I died. To who? Joe was then to give birth to this Joe that you now see. And I decided it was a non negotiable with my life. I want to live a life that will make an impact. The things that I've gone through will not define me. They will refine me so I can live a life of contribution. Let us say together, It's You. You. It's me. George Bernard Shaw said, the people that make it in his life, they look around for the circumstances that they want and they can't find them, they create them. And so you decided that I'm going to take a stand with my life, therefore taking you the whole arm of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, that having done all to stand, you decided when something happens, there's a victim, there's a perpetrator, and they're the witnesses. And you decided, I'm not going to be a witness. You decided that if you. You're not a part of the solution, you're part of the problem that gave birth to the genius network. You see what I did with it? How you edified the person who started it, who wrote the check, and you make him look good, he will not only write you another check and bring you back. 95% of my speaking engagements are repeat and they give me referrals. You want to fry the fish while the grease is hot? Is there anybody else you know that can use my services?

All right.

You see what I did with that? Yes.

Wow.

Well, Hugh, there's so many things you've done. I mean, I wouldn't even know where to begin. What are some highlights of who you are that you'd like to point out that I didn't mention?

You know, I wonder. My wife. I do confess to being a generalist. I'm interested in a lot of things a little by like what Alexander Wolcott once said. He said, I'm interested in everything except incest and folk dancing. And I said, that's kind of where I am, really. I'm interested in everything. And my wife calls me a generalist, but she defines a generalist as somebody who comes to know less and less about more and more until he knows nothing about everything. I said, I think that's about where I am.

I mean, there's one area where you're just a complete expert, which is in communication.

I mean, this is.

I have focused on that. That's true.

If you would. If you had to identify your core expertise out of all the things you know. And yeah, you do know a tremendous amount when I was just even researching you. It's amazing how expansive your knowledge base is.

I've been fascinated by communication, really, because it is. It's what it's all about in human relationships. There's no doubt about that, you know, and it's useful if you have communication techniques and no matter what you choose as a. As A walk of life, you know, engineering or law or whatever. Knowing communication is important. And that's why I'm kind of proud to be connected with that school.

What makes, what makes a good communicator or a great communicator?

I think establishing a rapport with, with another human being in a way that is honest and as powerful as you can make it. And it sounds corny, but if it's at the very, the least bit of self serving that you have, that's good. Because if you're out to do it all for yourself, you're going to fail. First of all, you won't communicate right. And secondly, you won't establish relationships that you want. So you have to be open to that and vulnerable and still get across whatever you want to get across in an honest way.

Well, I mean, I remember reading something you had said where I don't know how many years ago this was, but you said, my customer. I guess I don't know if this is your exact words, but is the audience. It's not the networks, it's the actual audience. And at the time you said that even went against what some people believed in. But you always felt the person that you were catering to was the viewer.

The listener, exactly. My first allegiance was to that person tuned in and then after that to the product or the network or whatever. And I did have an argument with an agency guy one time and he said, well, you don't know where the bread's buttered. And I said, bread would not be buttered for me at all if I lost faith, you know, if people didn't believe that I believed what I was saying. So I adopted that as a means of operation.

Wow.

Wow.

Well, you've done news reporting and journalism for, I mean, God, years, 66 years. You started in radio. How does journalism and news reporting today compare to where it was 20, 30 years ago?

There are some interesting differences, really, and not all of them are good. I think they're. First of all, technically it's improved vastly, as you know, from the standpoint of where, of how it operates. I think it's deteriorated to this extent. Competition made it got so fierce finally that in order to get better ratings, better circulation for print and whatnot, you had to kind of lean toward going toward that arena audience that tunes in for blood and dirt. You can get fast ratings that way.

Right.

But you won't last as well as if you take a longer, a longer view. And I think that it's important to recognize the fact that we went a little Downhill that way when we, when we got so competitive. When I started 2020, 1978, you had to have a share in the low 40s or mid-40s to be respectable. By the time I left 21 years later, a share in the low 20s was more than respectable. When I left 2020, we had a share of 21 and the competition had 17 and 11.

What does that even mean, a share?

A share means a percentage of people tuned in who have their television sets on that are tuned to you. If you got a 50 share. That's right. And so 21%. The reason we had so little at the end was that pie got sliced so much thinner and thinner that you know, originally when, when I first went into television, there were three television networks. No, there were two television ABC wasn't quite on the air yet and a couple of independents and that was a choice of five channels. Maybe in a community look at the choice we've got now with cable. So the pie does get sliced thinner and that's one of the big differences in the media today.

Well, what, what do you actually, where do you get your information from? I know you've read a tremendous amount of books. You've written 11 or 12 books.

Yeah, I've finished 11 books now and that. But my information comes largely, I get a lot of news information from television and I must say CNN has been a pretty good source for. I'll tell you something later about that because it made some changes after Turner no longer owned it.

Right.

But that and local newspapers and, and the New York Times I try to keep up with. And that's about the way I have found out though that the world goes on. Even if I've missed a day of following what the journalists say, it doesn't make a big difference.

Do you watch a lot of tv?

Not a lot, no. I try to catch some news. I just don't have time to watch television like I did once. So I can't really judge what the television fair generally is. Right. Anymore. But that I try to keep up with the news in some ways.

What do you recommend for people? There' swe are in a current age where there's more data inputs and we're so over communicated to. I mean most people. I don't know if it's just my perspective, but it seems to me 10 years ago people were nowhere near as stressed or at least crazy busy as they are today. And I think it's simply because of the Internet and communication. I mean, you're right. What recommendations do you have for people to stay tuned in, but not, you know, go nuts with trying to pay attention to so many.

I know. And obviously one of the things that has caused the polarization in our community now is the fact that so much is available, that if a person gravitates only toward that ideology or that source that he wants to believe in, then he kind of misses out on the perspective. And that can happen at both ends of the spectrum. My advice would be to anybody that really wants to know what's going on is to broaden the scope of what you take in and then make judgments. And I think smart people do that to a large extent. So even though it is, as you said, overwhelming, I used to think there was such a thing as information overload. I really don't think that now all you got to do is watch an early teenager working a computer and maybe listening to music same time. And the information isn't overloading him. It can overload you a little later on. And if you get lost in that labyrinth and don't make judgments and decisions, then you get overwhelmed. But people who have anything on the ball are not going to be overwhelmed by it.

Well, I remember you. I'm trying to think who you actually were talking to about it. You said that you think one of the most crucial things of keeping your mind sharp was just having a lot of different interests in a lot of different areas.

I think that's true because I admire people who are single purpose. A brain surgeon who is really good and devotes all his attention to that, that's commendable. But that makes him more vulnerable. If you've got a lot of interest. And I've seen people in my business, television, who when they were forcibly retired or elected, they got bored and they didn't know what to do with themselves. I can't imagine being bored. It was a 40 hour day, you know, and I had nothing else to do but sit and think or read. I can't imagine being bored. So it's important, I think, to keep active mentally. And the brain is like a muscle. That's a cliche observation, but if you don't use it, it's going to kind of atrophy.

Well, you've done a tremendous amount of work with just helping people. Older people, however you define it, live better lives, understand their purpose. I mean, what would be some of your tips and recommendations as people get older to keep themselves totally mentally sharp? I mean, here you are, 87 years old when I live here in Arizona. So when I went to pick you up Today, you know, I was getting there a little early, called and your wife said, well, he'll be back here at 9:30.

So you're right, doing something this morning.

You have appointments this afternoon. I mean, you stay very active and I mean you're, you're clearly very sharp individual and you're physically, you know, in fantastic shape. I mean, at least it appears that way to me. I mean, what are some tips and recommendations that you would have that would be significant life?

Well, a realization that you can mitigate hazards. You can, you can influence your longevity and your comfort and everything by habits that you clean up. When I was 25 years old, I thought it was the normal adult human condition to feel bad. I really did. I remembered when I was 15, I felt good all the time. If somebody had said when I was 25 and didn't feel good, when you're 45 and 65 and 75 and even 85, you will feel about like you did when you were 15, I would not have believed them. But I was too dumb to realize why I felt bad. At 25, I was smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. I had a diet that would not have been good for a hog, really. And I wasn't getting enough sleep and I drank too much. And I got that all cleaned up in short order through the help of my wife and with a decent regimen. I realized you can influence very heavily how your well being is, how you feel, how long you're going to make it. So I would advise that let nobody adopt the idea that they're going to die young because an ancestor died young. That's not necessarily true. You can do things to make things better and if people realize that, they start doing them.

You said a really important thing, which is you adopted a regimen that just turned it all around. I mean, what was the happiest time of your life or your career?

Oh, well, probably at points in 2020, because that was, that was not just because it was the last, but it was because it was where I belonged, really. I'd done. I once said to somebody, a newspaper interviewer said, I said, I've done everything there is to do in my end of my business except play by play sports. And then I realized as soon as I said it that wasn't true because in 1939 I broadcast a boxing match on radio blow by blow.

Wow.

Mercifully, no recording of that show still exists because it was pretty awful, I imagine. But I've done even play by play sports. So I was, I imagine that Being a generalist, I belonged on 2020, and I felt that was where I felt most comfortable because it was news, but it wasn't headline news and little snatches that you had to go on from one to another. You could get in depth in a thing and do a news feature, and I loved doing that. Some high points there that.

I mean, all the time that you spent doing news reporting, do you think it's gotten better, worse, or is it just kind of the same?

Well, some of, some of it's pretty good, but I think in some ways it has, it has slipped because of the competition, as I mentioned, you know, the competition got a little fiercer than it ought to be. And then you ask yourself, how, how will we mitigate that? If. Do you want the government really running that right? No. Free enterprise is still the best way, but a proper regulation of free enterprise, and I would like to see the, the FCC a little less supinely weak than they've been on some points, but I think a proper, proper supervision of what's going on and then allow. Allow the free enterprise aspects to flourish because that's what, that's what keeps capitalism alive.

Good morning. Are we having some great ideas? Well, Joe told you that that can. You've got is just a reminder of what you can do every time you have to make a presentation. So when you think of freedom of speech, we know that's one of our gifts as Americans, but we have people from 11 different countries. So basically freedom of the speech means what makes a great speech or speaker. What can you do to be even better? Well, there are limitations. You certainly can't libel anybody. You can't slander somebody. You can't yell fire in a theater and create incitement and you can't commit perjury. We should add a couple of other things. You shouldn't be boring and you shouldn't be offensive. And Michael Fishman talked about being open. I was offensive yesterday after lunch and I need to apologize. I made a comment when we come back. We should have had the robots serving lunch because we were so late. The speakers were on outside and the serving staff heard that and that was offensive. We have to be so careful what we say. It's something called the privilege of the platform. Our words have power. So I apologize to the staff. If they're not hearing it, I'll go and tell them lunchtime. So what makes a great speech? Well, we've got to be open. So I've been doing this since then. I mean, that was 1974. And I've been paid, as Joe said, 3,000 times. I've coached so many people. And at all those smaller meetings that we have in Tempe, I have a handout of these ideas. So don't write anything down. There are three things I'm going to share with you. How do you have freedom of the speech? Freedom when you speak? First, be relevant. One thing be if the next 10 minute speech was working for the post office, how would you, would you be excited to hear that message? Is anybody here ready to quit their job and go to the post office? No, that's not a relevant topic. So here's the first, is your message relevant to that audience? At that time Yesterday, there were 14 speakers on the stage. We had the panel at the end. Every one of them had relevancy to this group. I told you, the sponsors were selected by a survey. The speakers are selected by a survey. What did you want to hear? So these topics were relevant to the audience. So I made some notes about what happened in relevancy. Peter talked about the future, the first three, Dan talked about procrastination. And Sean Stevenson talked about laugh, cry and get them to think those are relevant subjects. What if you asked yourself, is what you're saying relevant to the people that you're talking to and set it up in the introduction? Have the introduction say so. We've asked our speaker to talk about this subject and why it's so important to you is, hey, I hope you're enjoying this video.

And I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out and if you'd like to get it absolutely free, there's a link below the description. Or you can wait till the end of this video or you can Simply go to joe'sfreebook.com and you can get a copy there.

So before you even say your first word, the audience is mentally geared up to hear what you want to hear. That's relevancy. Second thing to think of is clarity. Is your message clear? What if the next speaker on this stage was going to talk about the top 10 top 10 lists on the top 10 websites? That is actually the title of a speech. Can you imagine how the audience felt when they heard that title? What is that all about? That's impossible to understand. So your goal is make it impossible not to be understood. How can you be so clear in your message? And when you have clarity, you hear the audience say this to you afterwards, I really could see what you meant. I see what you mean. It's A visual thing. I got the picture. When you talked, I could really see what you were saying. And yesterday we had speakers that did that. So looking at my notes, I want to use Peter Diamandis as an example. He had seven speeches. He had seven speeches. He talked about computers, robots, human longevity, artificial intelligence, energy, virtual reality and space exploration. Did you understand what he talked about? This is stuff we never even heard of. And how did he do it? Every message was opened with a title slide that was different from all the other slides. Now we knew we were on a different subject. Each one moved progressively through his message. And then he said, so what does this mean to you? And then he connected that with such great clarity, even though that it was such an innovative message. Doable is the third idea. And this is perhaps the most important thing for you to think of. If you want freedom of speech in your message, is your message doable? So what if our next 10 minute speaker was going to talk about how to finger text at 100 words per minute, when a recent study found that the average person in this room can text about 38 words a minute? Well, if you heard that, you might say, well, sounds good, but can I do it? So I happened to look in the Guinness Book of Records and I found the fastest finger texter is a guy in Brazil and He can do 83 words a minute. So how can we talk about you doing 100 words a minute? It sounds like a great idea, but it is not doable. So here's what you need to think of in your call to action, which is always a verb. What do you want the audience to do? Think, feel, say go or buy? What action are you asking for? And if you would think in your mind, can they do that? Can they do that? So let me look at yesterday's closing 10 minute speaker. Craig Crazy man Diswalt. Would you say he had energy and passion for his subject? Would you say he was loud? Because that's why it was written in the introduction. So Joe has me write all the introductions. So we set it up that this guy worked with Guns N Roses. This is going to be a different kind of program. This is a rock star guy. So when he started yelling at you, you were already prepared. What are you putting in the introduction to prepare people about your accent, about your height? Big guy gets on the stage, everybody's thinking, how tall is that guy? Put it in the introduction. And Fred is 6 foot 7. Okay, nobody's thinking about it. Now we've got the answer. So if you want to have A call to action. Let's look at our doable speakers. If we had Craig back up here, he talked about six books that you could write. And I asked my table mates after he finished that, do you think you could do that? And somebody said, oh my, I've been wanting to write a book. I never thought of that. I could have a book of quotes. I could use my own system. I could. That was such a simple idea. My tips, I could put my tips in a book. I could do interviews, my blog posts. How many of you when he gave those six thought to yourself, I could do one of those. Let me just see your hands. That's a doable idea. Are your ideas so doable that the audience says I can do that? Because that's all accounts. What's going to happen when you finish speaking? What about reverse shoplifting? Now that was such a creative idea. You might say that would be great. But I don't think I would do that. That's not really me. But some of you could do that. So that's great. By the way, are these insights helpful for you? Okay, so what I'm gonna do is Joe's arranged. I'm gonna do a special follow up video on all the speakers you've seen and go into a lot more depth of what you've seen here that you could use specific things. So you can use speaking to build your business and also position you as an expert. How do you get better as a speaker? Now, Joe Manchin, I work with a lot of you want to one coaching on the content. That's my strong suit. How do you organize your ideas so it's impossible to be misunderstood, but you can do that today and you do it by watching and listening. That's your job. Like these two characters up here, just sit there and watch these speakers. We've got nine more coming today. Open up the handout. On your table there's a white envelope that says don't open until Joel tells you. Somebody find that envelope, open it up and pass it around. I wanted to use this idea. Many of you use handout materials. We have 350 people in the room. Open the envelope. Quickly pass those sheets around the table. So we have 350 handouts that are already being distributed. Nobody has to go through the room. This is a simple idea. If you do events, put your handout material on the table and just put it on an envelope with a little sticker like that. So if you would look at that sheet and on that first topic, freedom of speech and there Are the first two ideas relevancy and clarity. On the back of the page is the idea of doable. Let's go to the call to action at the very bottom where the can is. Take those three words. Is it relevant? Is it clear? Is it doable? When you organize your next message, study every speaker that you see and hear and ask what worked, what didn't work, and then follow up by watching that video I'm going to send you about relevancy, clarity, and doability. How many were you in this room last year on October 26th or 27th? Raise your hands. We had 24 speakers. How many do you remember? What are you going to do as a result of what they said? There was one speaker that left more of an impact, based on the survey that I did and Genius Network did, and that was John Paul DeJuria. He runs multiple companies. He's worth $2.7 billion. How many? Remember that interview? It was impactful. He was quiet and calm. He said two words in 45 minutes that everybody in that room was left with and they could do. Be nice. Be nice. So what can you do for your audience? Be relevant. Be clear, Be doable. You'll have freedom of the speech. And when you do those things and you're nice, it makes a difference. Now, make it a great day.

So let's talk about speaking then. Not that we haven't been, but I want to talk about the mistakes that you see people make when they're speaking. What are some of the biggest ones?

Biggest mistake is not thinking like the audience, is thinking like a speaker. And, you know, I'm just so passionate about this. Who cares? I want to tell my personal story. Nobody cares about you. They care about themselves. Now, your story can be a tool to help move the audience into action. But if you accept my premise that what makes an effective speaker or presentation is if action results, do you accept that premise that if you do a meeting and people act and implement the ideas, this was effective?

Well, in the context of if the goal is to actually build and grow your business, yes. If your goal is just to entertain people and make them laugh or whatever.

Well, then if the goal is to be an entertaining speaker, you measure it by how many times the audience laughs. And if they laugh 50 times in 30 minutes, that was an effective presentation.

Right.

But if your goal is to get them to do something in healthcare, like Dave Berg. Dave Berg, one of your longtime members of Genius Network, we worked on his presentation. A year and a half ago, he started a new company called Redirect Health because he discovered our health care system in the United States was not effective and he implemented it. He has 400 employees. So he has a big company here in Phoenix and he implemented it and he saved himself so much money, he shared it with the his friends and they implemented the system and they saved money. So now a year and a half later, he has 100 companies that have signed up with over 5,000 people using redirect Health to have better health care. And Dave gave a talk about this, a 10 minute talk that changed people's thinking on the health care system.

And by the way, because we mentioned earlier your epiphany, if you actually want to see Joel in action, we're going to. We're literally as we're doing this interview, we are building the Genius X platform and so a lot of your talks are going to go on there. So people can actually see some of your 10 minute talks, see other examples of 10 minute talks. So since we brought up the 10 minute talk, you'll be able to see examples on geniusx.com well, you need a.

10 minute talk for whatever your business is because in 10 minutes. And this is the man that created it. I never heard of this idea before, before, but it's so difficult to concise what you do in 10 minutes. So you're talking about the health care system, a tiny different mindset. And he was able to do it in 10 minutes. And now the growth of this company has resulted from his ability to stand up in front of a group and communicate an idea and get action. And that's what makes Dave Bergen a few effective speaker, not a great speaker as far as humor, energy, charisma, like a Tony Robb. Nothing like that. The message is the key. So John Paul de jure, be nice. So many of those simple little truths, Earl Nightingale, that you become what you think about.

Yeah, got it. So how do you constantly improve and grow your skills, your goals and success as a speaker and as an entrepreneur?

Well, I told you, that's the basis of everything in my mindset is improving. Because if you're not getting better, you're getting worse. You can't stand still. So you're either moving forward or moving back. If you're alive, everything grows or it dies. So if that's the case, the only way, you know, I call it numbers. You've got to measure it, right? So if you have a business, how much did you sell last year? Okay, what's that number? Well, how much are you going to sell this year? It's pretty Easy to see. Did it go up or did it go down? So if you implemented some of Joe's marketing ideas and your business grew, then you would say, okay, maybe I should implement some more of these marketing ideas and grow it again. And then Dan Sullivan, a strategic coach, one of your longtime friends and members of Genius Network, talks about 10xing things. That 10x is easier than 2x instead of doubling it 10 times it. But you do that with ideas. So you need numbers. You need to know where you are.

Right.

And I'm a numbers fanatic, so I keep records of everything. I mean, how do I know I'm improving unless you know where you were?

Good point. I mean, there's a lot of people that just do not track anything and then they don't have any way of even knowing. So awesome. What are some of the best ways? So I've got some different questions here that I think would be really valuable for you to dig into. So what are some of the best ways to develop a message and create a credible and emotional connection with your audience?

Well, how do you develop a credible message? I mean, that's really the key. You got to know the audience. It's got to be credible to that audience. Since you're such a health fanatic, I mean, you work out all the time, you stay in great shape. So if you were going to talk about fitness to Olympic athletes or in this room we had overweight teenagers and in this room we had pregnant mothers. But our subject is fitness, health and nutrition. Now would you need a different presentation for an Olympic athlete versus a pregnant mom?

Yes, you would.

Okay, but could there be some similar themes through that?

Absolutely.

Some of the principles wouldn't change. That's what most speakers don't do. They have a talk on health and nutrition, not realizing they're talking to Olympic athletes or pregnant mothers or overweight teenagers.

Right.

So if you always start with the audience. So in all my years of speaking, I've never given the same presentation twice.

So you don't have what many people refer to as a signature speech.

I don't have a signature audience. If I had the same audience on the same day at the same time, I could give the same speech. But since. And I go back many times to the company's train air conditioning company, State Farm Insurance Company hired me in 1974 and they still hire me 40 some odd years later. But I've still never given the same presentation twice because the Trane Air Conditioning Company has changed tremendously in 40 years. All the needs have changed. The fears change. So if I go back a month later, they say, I want you to do the same presentation. It's not going to be the same because the NFVs have changed. So you don't have. You can have basic truths like your talk on nutrition and fitness, certain principles, stories you can use, but you've got to reframe it for the Olympic athlete. Different than the pregnant mom.

Interesting.

And the same thing when I encourage all of the speakers that speak at Genius Network, who is. So we look at the member directory. Joe, we had 72 people at the last meeting. So I had the speakers that I coached before the meeting. Let's look at the directory. How many of these are online marketers? There weren't that many. We had real estate people, we had people that owned supermarkets in the East. We had people that were in brain work. We had all different kinds of people. So Jimmy realized if we're talking about retargeting, I better define some of these terms because these people don't know that. And that's why those presentations get so effective. And that's what you need to do. Who is your audience?

Well, let me ask you to play devil's advocate a little bit because I know some professional speakers that have made a huge. Created huge businesses with the same talk.

Absolutely.

In signature speeches. So now granted, I am in agreement with you also that I've never given the same speech. I mean, there are things that I will talk about. I have my riffs and I tie them all together and I've learned how to do that. And I feel it's a better service to the audience to not just giving a quote unquote canned speech. And at the same time, I don't argue with success either. If someone's having success in a particular way, what I'm a big fan of is having more success. So if someone has a signature speech and they can apply it or they go from niche to niche, for instance, if you talk to people that are in multilevel companies and the multi level companies are selling, I don't even know why I'm using this as an example. But selling nutritional products, you could probably give the same speech to different multi level companies with very little if any changing. But if you have much different, you're talking to lumberjacks and then you're talking to vegetarians, it could be quite a difference. So to what degree do you keep some things the same and just adapt it or customize it versus what? Because what I don't want to do is scare anyone off saying, oh, I could never give the same speech.

You know, you're bringing up a very. So yes, this needs to be clarified. So let's just use this thing. You're talking about a multi level company that sells nutritional products and you have company A that you spoke for and now you go into company B. Yeah, I'm not saying that it's 100% different different, but it's that 5% or 10% that's customized that changes everything.

And by the way, I mean, and I love marketing that I do with Dean Jackson. The very first profit activator is select a single target market. I mean, you're talking to a guy that absolutely believes the number one thing first and foremost is who's your audience. I mean, if you're going to fish, the bait you use is dependent upon what you're fishing for. And I'm not really a fisherman, so I'm just using that as an analogy. The point is though, I'm very big on identifying who is the client. People don't buy from you because they understand what you do. People buy from you because they feel understood. And the more that you understand the mindset, the person, their fears, their paranoias, their needs, their desires, their perversions, I mean, everything you can, the better you're going to be able to connect and communicate with that individual. So I'm in favor of what it is you're saying. I'm also someone that's like replicate what you can.

Okay, absolutely. I'm not suggesting it's an entirely different presentation. So let's say you have 100 parts to this message. Stories, illustrations, examples. 95 of them could be exactly the same, but you reposition each one. So let's say company A has been established for 50 years and they have grown substantially. Substantially. Company B sells the same basic products, except they've made two acquisitions and they've merged two other companies. That's a little different kind of product mix and mindset of these people. So if the speaker understood that and said, since you've just gone through these two acquisitions, we got three different groups of people in the room. We're coming together now under a unified thing. Let me tell you a story. Same exact story you told under A, but now you're reframing it for that audience. That's the kind of customizing I'm talking about. I'm not saying that the talk is entirely different, but it's reframing it and reusing that. That based on the needs, fears and victories of this group with the two acquisitions, they're going through a lot more turmoil that this group didn't have. And once the audience knows that you know what they're thinking and feeling, that's how you connect with them. When the audience says, that speaker knows exactly what I'm going through, and how many times have you sat and listened to a speaker and said, he doesn't have a clue what's going on with me.

Right.

And if you can do that, that's how you emotionally connect. Where the audience says, he gets me or she gets me. And that's where the preparation, the customizing and the focus on the audience comes in. Not on changing your content stories, your riffs, as you like to call them. But you can reframe it.

Yeah. And I'll tell you, like that conversation we had a while back, if you remember talking about, you said, if you have a beautiful piece of art and you duct tape it to a wall versus putting it in a beautiful frame, it gives a much different presentation. So how you frame everything in speaking, in marketing, in packaging, in positioning, has everything to do with how people respond and how you enroll people in. So I just even love the term of reframing because listening to this, think about all of the things you say, how you present yourself, what you communicate, not just in speaking, but in your marketing. How you frame everything has to do with how people see it. Joel, over the course of your career, what are the three most valuable speaking and presentation lessons you've learned or discovered?

Okay, that's a great question. So as you're listening to this, what about in your own experience, what has been when it comes to speaking, your aha moments? Well, since you're asking me that question, the first thing I would say is that speaking is a learned skill. Once that became clear to me in 1969 when I went to a Toastmasters club in Tempe, Arizona and realized that I needed to learn how to speak. I couldn't even lead my Sunday school class in silent prayer. I mean, that's bad. And I was terrified standing up in front of a group. I mean, if anybody ever told me I'd have a 46 year career as a professional speaker when I couldn't even lead my Sunday school class in asylum prayer. How could that be? So that's the first thing that it's a learned skill. You don't have to be naturally gregarious and outgoing and dynamic. You can be dull, boring and monotone and be highly effective. One of the greatest speakers recently passed on a few years ago, Jim Rohn and I've known Jim over the last 40 years. Jim was not a high energy guy. He spoke in a monotone, but people hung on every word he said because what he said was so important. So that's the first thing I'd like you to think about. That speaking effectively is a learned skill. Number two, that being an effective communicator is the fastest and best way to position you as an expert, a thought leader, a results getter. That your ability to communicate to more than one person at one time is going to help position you at a higher level in whatever field that you're in. And third, and most important, it's being you. Speaking effectively is a private conversation held publicly. It is not a performance. And Jennifer Carroll has known me longer probably than anybody else on this call, other than Jenny Laughlin, who was on this call, who's my daughter and one of our certified coaches of the ultimate speaking system. Hi, Jennifer. And Jennifer knows that what you're seeing now is just like I am. If we were sitting in her living room or I was with one of her kids. It's not a performance. And that's what you need to think of. Be congruent. Be you. When you're you, you're relaxed, you're calm and you're confident. And if you are dull, boring and monotone, you can build that into a presentation. So one of my clients, we called him Boring Bob. One of the things we did when we introduced him at a meeting, the president of the company said that the next part of the program is going to be the most difficult. Boring Bob is going to come up. He's our chief financial officer. He's going to give us all the reports for the year. It's going to take an hour. Every year that he does this, people fall asleep. So we have a plan this year. If the person next to you starts to fall asleep, you've got to wake them up. For the people in the front row, if Bob starts to fall asleep while he's talking, you got to go on stage and wake him up. Well, before Bob said his first word, they were clapping and cheering. He never changed his presentation. He was dull, boring and monotone. We just worked out a system to capitalize on that negative and turn it into a positive. So just think about those three things. That it's a learned skill. It's the fastest way to position you as an expert and be yourself.

Love it. Love it. So, Dean, I can keep going? Unless you want to.

You know, I think that this you recommend, you know, there's not much I can tell, like from learning speaking, just getting the more comfortable you are in bigger groups, that it does become much more natural. I remember that same thing. Being fearful. Not fearful, but more nervous. The first time I did a home buyer workshop as a real estate agent, I had 18 people. And it was like a big, much bigger nervousness than being in front of a thousand people became. And you're right, just felt being natural was really a thing. More conversational, too, in a way. Well, let me just comment about you, Dean. In the years that I've known you, you're always the same. Yeah. Just like what you're saying right now. I mean, the attire that you have, the black hat, the black shirt, the black pants, shorts. I mean, that's the look. And you are the same. You are real. And that's what you need to think of as you're listening to this. Be you. There's no one else like you in the world. Everybody else is already taken. Why would you try to be somebody else? And if there's anything about that, like, I noticed we had people from all over the world. We had Peru, South Africa. When we have an accent which could add difficulty in understanding you, you just build that into the introduction that Fred is from Peru. English is his second language, but he's an expert at building email lists. So you're going to really need to concentrate on what he says. And even if you only get half of what he shares, you'll be still twice as far ahead in building your email list. So pay close attention and don't let his accent distract. And if you say something like that, people say, well, I can understand everything he says, but if we don't do it, then it can become a distraction. That's one thing I've learned from you, is observing the introductions and how you went through exercises with us in Genius Network meetings to lay out an introduction for ourselves and what you just said, so much of it. You can set the table. You can set everything up in the introduction. Well, let's just add. That's such an important part, Dean. And since we have Ben Hardy on here and having worked on many of his introductions, the things that he speaks on since he's been a client since the three years that he's joined Genius Network, if you get a good introduction and there's a certain system in writing an introduction, and Joe, I think I've written 187 introductions for Genius Network members that have spoken at our events, and there's a system of doing it, and when you get a great introduction, you speak downhill. Now, if you've ridden a bike, when you go down a hill, it's a lot easier than going up a hill. And unfortunately, most people begin speaking uphill. They're trying to drag the audience into the message. But a great introduction enables you to have the audience moving with you before you have even said your first words. And that's the key of a great introduction. And remember, the introduction is not really about you. It's about the message and how that message is going to help your audience.

Alrighty, why do you speak? When you get an opportunity to speak, whether it's to a podcast, a stage, live, virtually live on site, why do you speak? Now, some of you in here are going to tell me, well, Mike, I love the juice from the audience. I love the standing ovation. It just pumps me up. That's a lot of people in this room. All those of you are like, what? No, no, no, it's about the money. How many books get sold back of the room? How many people sign up for my services after I speak, or the check I get when I walk on that stage? Both of those are not focused on your audience. Some of you will say, but, Mike, no, no, no, no. If I sell lots of books, that's going to help my audience. Yeah, but your goal when you walked on stage was to make money for you. Your focus was you. Even if you took all the I's out of your speech because of what you were focused on, the focus. Biggest mistake people make by far is they've got the wrong focus when they walk in front of the room. The wrong focus. What's the right focus to impact and empower? And so we're going, mike, I got to impact. I know we're always taught to impact, but what do you mean by empowerment? Well, here's the sign. You didn't empower. Have you ever been into a big event? You've seen what I'm about to see happen. See, the speaker impacts by digging into your wounds, into your pain point. So much so that the audience has a codependency relationship with a speaker when they walk off stage. They must buy your book because they're in a place of pain or hurt. You left the audience in a deficit from where they walked in. It is unfair, it is manipulative to do that. To empower means I am a better human being the moment you finish speaking than I was before I started talking. Now, what's the difference? Well, if you get surveys after you speak, this is what you're going to love. If you fall into the first two categories we mentioned, you're going to love comments like, well, the best speech ever. The speaker was a 10 out of 10. Notice who they're both about. The audience isn't even talking about themselves in the post event survey. What does it look like when you impact and empower? More words like you're about to see on that screen. Like for instance, how about this? Real. Because it was real to my life. Life changing. Because I changed my life because of something you shared. Everything's about the audience. It enriched me as a human being because of what you shared with me today. That's what we're looking to do when we step on a stage. And by the way, that will sell you more books, that will bring you more clients. You just don't focus on those things when you're doing this work. So what does it look like when you have these conversations? How do you impact and empower? First of all, we got to know what you need to impact. Empower. And there's three things we need if we're going to impact and empower. And that is timing, quantity and the formula. Now what do I mean by timing? Look, timing is everything. Timing is everything. I'll give you an example of bad timing. You see it a lot with slides and what it is is a person will say, hey, I'm about to give you the slide. Gave it away. Instead, the slide's talking. Wait, wait. The audience isn't ready for this yet. Because you're not going to buy in because I'm talking while it's saying it. How many are frustrated right now while I'm doing it to you? Because you don't know who to look at right now because that's talking while I'm talking about the same things I'm talking. It happens all the time. And here's why you chose to use the slides as your guide because you don't know what you're saying on stage. I'm just being honest.

Hey, I hope you're enjoying this video and I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out and if you'd like to get it absolutely free, there's a link below, below in the description. Or you can wait till the end of this video or you can Simply go to joesfreebook.com and you can get a copy there.

You got chosen to make an impact, not to show how much you know by following a guideline in front of you. You should know your Material. Before you ever walk in front of that stage, it is critical. Now compare that to this timing. Watch this slide. Now, here, I'm going to intentionally try to make a point and reinforce it with a slide. For instance, Joe Polish is brilliant. Now, of course, Joe didn't say that.

I said that.

But notice what happened. A few people just snickered. They laughed. Why did they snicker and laugh? Anyone in the room, why did they snicker and laugh? Because it was Joe. Right? If I don't let that sit for a second, you don't have time to recognize, hey, that was a little play on words, a little something he could do with that to catch our attention.

Go.

Did Joe really say that? Now, some of you are going, joe's capable of saying that. But no, I'm not going to take a shot like that. And Joe, of course not. So that's a way you could use humor. By the way, how clean is the slide? Right, super clean. We're not trying to overload information. Some people are going, well, that's for humor, maybe, or to catch their attention. What do I do if I really want to bring home a point? So I'm going to ask all of you a question right now. I ask every audience I speak in front of, and I want you to answer from your heart what you believe to be true. If what I'm about to say is true, you're going to yell every. If it's not, you won't. Those live virtually. You're going to type it in the chat. If you agree with what I say. Here we go. Does every human being deserve a basic level of dignity and respect? If you agree every human being deserves that at some level, just yell every. Yeah, and every means every. Not 99%. Not anybody except our enemy. Now let's pause about what's happening on the slide. It brings home the message while inviting you into my Instagram. Because it's my Instagram shot. It's an actual message we shared on Instagram. So you get to reinforce your message and invite your audience into your community. Have a relationship with you long term, because you do care about the audience. You want that long term relationship. So those are examples of timing. Now, some of you go, well, then what's an example of quantity? Well, we've all seen this too.

Remember that.

And we're flying, flying, flying, flying. There's tons of information, tons of information. And the slide looks the same way. This is a real slide from a presentation I followed. Real slide, massive overwhelm. Somebody going, I would never do that. We never do that. Mike. I keep it simple, I keep it short. I talk about one thing and only one thing in those 10 minutes. And now we are confused because you didn't give us enough information. Here's how we know you didn't give us much information or too much. We have way too many questions. When you're done speaking and you think you rocked it because everybody's asking questions, the fact is, when you get really good, you'll pay attention to all the questions they were asking you afterwards, and you will answer them in the talk. Because here it works with Genius Network, because we're going to get that Q and A sometimes, so that person's doing a brilliant thing by doing it in this moment, right? So, Kostim, you did a great job of that because you knew you had the Q and A coming. But if you only had an hour keynote with no Q and A, are the same results the same thing? Because they're going to be leaving the room. And you get it. You agree with me. Like, yeah, I don't want them leaving the room with all those questions. I got to be able to answer those questions. So we want to be able to avoid all that confusion. So what's the right quantity? Right here it is. Three. You don't teach more than three. It's overwhelming. You don't teach less than three. The human brain has been taught to think in threes. Joe Polish is brilliant at this. Elf. What is it? Easy, lucrative, and fun. It's all over this room. The power of three. You get this right, so make sure your speeches are in threes. If you have an hour, three lessons. If there's going to be a subplot, only three things under those three. The brain learns in threes. Now, we got to the timing and we got to the quantity. We are left with the formula. What's the formula when it comes to speaking? Well, let's look at it. First of all, we're going to invite our audience in. We're going to reveal something they didn't see coming, and then we're going to show them the solution. How do you invite? You invite by investigating the audience live in the room. Wait, what do you mean? I was taught I'm supposed to research my audience, know everything about them before I walk in the room. But you don't. You think you know everything about them before you walk in the room? The room. When you're really gifted, you'll walk in the room and start asking questions that your audience genuinely gets to answer. And that will give you all the fuel to reveal the false narratives they are clinging to. See if you don't get to their false narratives, you could be brilliant and put on an amazing show. They will never change their life because they walk out with the same false narratives they walked in the room with. You must reveal their false narratives so they're disgusted by them themselves. Like, I don't want to hang on to that thing anymore. And then you give them the show, then you show the solution because they want it. They're like, hey, I don't want to be what I was before that false narrative. What's the solution? And you just deliver the solution at that moment. So what does the show look like? Well, nobody wants to see that kind of show, that's for sure. And none of us want to hear about Joe's Tic Tac ever again.

Ever again.

That's not the kind of shows we're talking about here.

Here.

Right? We're talking about really showing them how to live the IRS formula. If you didn't catch it earlier, that's irs, folks. Some of you caught it. So I want you to have a positive viewpoint from now on. When you think of irs, you're going to be how I'm going to investigate, how I'm going to reveal and how I'm going to show. And I'm going to do that for you right now. I'm going to take you to my last audience and you're going to become them right here. That audience was ninth graders two days ago in California. 500 ninth graders in a gym. It's a great place to speak. You have 500. They've been told they're going to go to a speaker on sexual assault and rape. We're going to be told how not to rape, what not to do. We don't want to be in the room just like you heard in the introduction. But they start having fun with me right away and suddenly they're answering all my questions. We're having this great discovery. I'm about to take you midway through that discussion. I'm going to ask you to answer every question I ask with a verbal response. Because we are in the discussion business, not the telling business. Nobody wants to be told what to do, but they love to have conversations. So I'm going to ask you, and if you're live virtual right now, I want you to be typing away in the chat to every question I ask. And you'll see the rhythm, even those of you live virtually how common our answers are in These moments. All right, here we go. Two people alone in a sexual intimate moment. First date. They've never kissed before, but they want to. Do most people stop and say, can I kiss you? Or do you think most people just go for it? Which one? Ask first or go for it?

Yell it out?

Yes, that's what everybody says. Everybody goes for it. Right. So why don't we just ask instead of going for it? Give me reasons. Raise your hand. Give me reasons. You think people do not ask why, they instead go for it. What's that?

Permission.

Permission? What do you mean by permission? In case of rejection. Ah, fear of rejection.

Yes.

So whatever you do, don't give him a choice. Ooh, that sounds pretty awful, doesn't it? I'm not going to ask you because you might say no, so I'm just going to do it to you. By the way, if you agree that sounds awful, just yell awful. Yeah. Even if we did that before today, I think we all know. No, we don't ever want to do that again. Right? So fear of rejection. We just debunked that. That's a really weak excuse. What's another one? Yes. Yeah, it's going to kill the moment. It's going to ruin the mood. Now why is that funny? Because that means you actually think you're smooth. The fact is, you're already awkward. We all are. If you've ever been sexually active, you've been awkward. Ever heard of brain, by the way, that gets awkward really fast? You're not afraid of being awkward. You're great at being awkward. Think about how awful it is, though, to think I don't want to be awkward, so I'm going to take a chance to do something awful with their body so I don't look awful. Awkward. Wow. I think we all can agree that's not the approach we want to be the person we want to be. Right? And by the way, the amazing part is if you just go for it, you can be awkward and ruin everything and harm some someone. That's the difference. So then some of you going, well, then, Mike, what do we do? How do we ask? How do we get to that place? Well, some of you might be thinking, I'm still not sure I want to ask. So I'm going to ask you two questions I ask every audience in the world. Question number one, right. Does every human being deserve a choice before you do something with their body, sexually or intimately? Yes or no?

Yes.

Question number two, how do you normally give somebody choice? You simply ask a first question. We all Believe in asking first. So how do you ask first? One, look them in the eyes. It should be intimate. Number two, smile. It should be fun. Number three, ask the question. Question. Now, I need a volunteer quickly for this one. Could I volunteer you? Is that okay? Your first name is?

Marlon.

Marlon, could you step up here? Say, hey, Marlon. Marlon, you're gonna imagine that your partner is right where my hand is. It's more than a tic Tac away.

Though, so you're okay.

All right, so. So they're gonna be right there. And on the count of three, we're gonna have you ask that person for a kiss as if you're the only two in the world. No one's near you, and you've been wanting to kiss them all night. Are you ready, Marlon? Alrighty, let's count to three. Let's count to three for Marlon. One, two, three. Alright, give it up for Marlon. Great job. Great job.

Easy.

Hey, Marlon, do you think that would be awkward if it was happening in the real moment?

No.

Why not?

It's completely natural.

Just. Yeah, it's completely natural. Listen to that. Give a big, big round. Marlon did a great, great job. You can sit down, Marlon, you did a great job. Marlon, you're gonna get a can I kiss you? T shirt for rocking that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. By the way, audience, could it be awkward if you ask yes or no? Sure it could. The better question is, does it matter? Let me prove to you it doesn't. You're alone with someone you want to kiss. You've been wanting to kiss them all night. They lean into you and say, can I kiss you? Are you going to do this?

Are you going to.

You asked. Awkward. Ruined it. Or are you going to be doing a woo hoo dance? This is about to happen if greets are woohoo.

Yeah.

Woohoo.

Woohoo.

Yes. What did we just do, folks? Those same students who said they'd never ask, remember, we all go for it. What was the formula? We started by asking them questions. We investigated their world, right? And then, then we revealed. Revealed the false narratives they're hanging onto. And then at the very last moment there, we show them the solution. That's how you get results. And somebody going, mike, how do you know those are results? I think our computer went to sleep on us back here because I was going to show you the results. But let's see if we can bring it back just so you can see it real quickly here. Yep, it did. So here we go. We'll share that again. All right, so there we are. Here are the results. Just quickly because I'm wrapping up here. So we just went through the formula invite review. Now I said my last audience, ninth graders, right? So that is an average audience for me. So is US military. 40 year olds, though. But here's what the results actually look like. 96% of my audiences say they're more likely to ask first after one hour experience. 95% say they're more likely to intervene to stop sexual assault at a party. 96% say they're more likely to support survivors moving forward in one hour. That's not about me. That's about focusing on the audience like everyone in this room can do. Some of you going, mike, that's just not enough proof for me. You got to have better proof than that. Well, remember those quotes that looked incredibly powerful earlier, like real and bold enriching. Sounds like something the administrators would say. A general in the US Military would say, those are the exact quotes from Monday's survey of ninth graders. Not my best stuff because that's what you should always be looking at. Do change lives, make an impact. Now it is everybody's in this room's turn to do the same. I've got a workshop for you to make it nice and workshop worksheet. That's one page. And you can dive into this formula and start writing your next speech. You can start making your next one more powerful. Maybe just going to start with a part of that speech. Notice the survey link, how easy it is. Not SurveyMonkey.

MikesGift.com as you're attending this event, remember I'm a sponsor. So you're going to know in this time that we have together the power of systems. As Joe said, you're going to have an understanding of why speaking effectively can help you grow your business. And Kara just proved to you what she's done with $150 million business by being a speaker. And hopefully you're going to feel committed to being an even better speaker. Now think of your sister. You probably have a system for new clients, for a new team member, a system on how to stay fit and healthy. And now we have a system to breathe through our nose. A system is a set of procedures, as you know, that is put into an organized framework to get something done. And when you have systems, you can predict the results and you know it's going to work. So as a sponsor, I'm offering you a system on communicating your ideas. Now, we have two other sponsors. Jennifer Houdi has a system on conveying in print your Vivid vision. And Bill Gerber has a system for using accounting virtually. Mine is a system to use communication of your ideas and making it even more effective verbally. So think of this. The longer you work with a system, the better the system is going to work for you. Joe, are you still. Is that true from your experience, that the longer we have a system, the better it's going to work?

Absolutely, because you get more. I mean, like with anything, the more it marinates, the deeper it goes into your behavior, into your knowledge, into your awareness, into your resourcefulness.

Well, and that's what experiences really do. So when you went to Lake Powell with me, which you had never done on our houseboat, you saw the power of systems at work. Everything worked. All of my boats worked because I have a system for maintaining them. We caught fish for dinner because I have a system for fishing. You got up on skis, which you had never done before, because I have a system on how to teach people how to water ski. Everything Joe, you experienced was part of a system, and that's why you had such a good time. Now, remember what we said? The longer you use a system, the better the system gets. So in reality, that houseboating experience of Joe's is a metaphor for what I can do for you when you hire me as your speaking and communications guide. Why? Because of my systems and my experience. You see, when Joe left our houseboat, that was my 1,689th day on my houseboat. Not 1,689 days in a row, but that was over 30 years on that boat. So I perfected those systems. And I don't know anybody that has that many days on Lake Powell on their own houseboat. And the same is true for your ability to communicate and speak. I've got 46 years of taking every part of the communication process and creating an easy to use system that you will learn and use. And as you know, a system saves you stress, time, energy and money.

Hey, I hope you're enjoying this video. And I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out, and if you'd like to get it absolutely free, there's a link below in the description. Or you can wait till the end of this video, or you can Simply go to joe'sfreebook.com and you can get a copy there.

It could be the best decision that you've ever made. And it sure was for Jim Doo, because, Joe, you always ask people to write in the chat box. What was the best idea that you got and at a recent meeting, Jim wrote this in the chat box. Since I hired Joel Weldon as my speaking skills coach, I have made at least an extra $500,000 by growing my business through speaking. Well, Jim, congratulations and thanks for saying that. So if you want to increase your income every time you speak, go to the chat box and just say, joel, let's talk, and we'll have a conversation. And when you have me as your communication and speaking guide, you're going to learn these systems. And remember, when you have a system, it's going to save you stress, time, energy and money. And we're going to work together on helping you learn these systems so you can make better one on one presentations. Big Joe Clark said that was one of the best benefits he got in working with me. You're going to have a system how to write powerful introductions, get your audience involved before you say your first word. How to capture their attention is a system. How to use visuals and then how to speak virtually. That's a system. What about your videos? Evan Carmichael gave us such great stuff on Friday that you can use, but you got to have good videos. That's what I can help you with. A system on how to close with impact. And one of the best ways to energize your listeners is with humor. And Devang Patel, one of our longtime members, has mastered that. And when Devang hired me six years ago, he wrote this and let me just read that to you. I believe in coaching because every time I hire a coach, it makes me even more money. Plus, investing with Joel Weldon was one of the best coaching investments I have ever made. Well, thank you, Devang. So let's talk about the investment. Unlike most coaching programs that you've been involved in, this is a one time investment. There's no monthly or annual fees. Once you're in, you got me. The investment for me to work with you one on one is normally $10,000 for eight hours. But instead of that 10,000, if you're a Genius Network member, you save $2,100 one time. That's $7,900. But wait, there's more. As Kevin Harrington would have said on his commercials, there's no time limit. It's not going to be eight hours. Once you invest, you get me forever. That's a bonus for this annual event. Now you might be thinking, Joel, how can you do that? It's very simple because of the systems. When you learn these systems, which are so simple and easy to grasp, you're going to be able to Use them immediately and get results immediately. And once you have them, you're not going to need me that much. But yet you can always use that unlimited time. Bounce ideas off me, have me write introductions for you, check your slides. It doesn't have to be for an entire presentation. I want to make sure that I have time. So just like I have for the 167 Genius Network members that have hired me in the last seven years, I'm only going to take nine people from this annual event. That's it. At the $7,900, one time. If this sounds interesting, just write in the chat box. Joel, let's talk in the chat box. We're going to also give you a link to a handout which has some more information on it, and it's unconditionally guaranteed. Plus, we do these on Zoom and we transcribe them for you. So all of our conversations are printed out and you get a copy of everything. It could be for five minutes or two hours. Whatever you need. Now, Joe, you asked me to work with John Raymonds and Bill Gerber on their two presentations. Bill on the accounting and John on the investment. What did you think of those talks that they delivered?

They were both terrible. I didn't like you. No, I'm kidding. No, they were great. They were fantastic. Here's the biggest thing, too, with John. See if you would not help him with that. I don't know if John ever would have like, agreed to do it, so, I mean, he probably would have. But I thought they were fantastic. And I got so much great feedback in the Feed Forward forums about those talks. So thank you.

Well, as John said, he's not a speaker, but he has such wisdom to share. And what did I do? I just helped bring out the best of John. This was his material, but it needed to be organized and structured so you could follow it. And he was so open and willing to listen to suggestions. Same with Bill Gerber. When I came up with the dating theme, it was because he said he's a wild and crazy guy. Let's put that in. And when we work together, I don't beat you up. There's no negative criticism. I don't ask you to be like another speaker or be a stage performer. The key to this system is to be you. John Raymond was John. Bill Gerber was Bill. So what will I do then? If I'm not going to pick on you or change you, I'm going to look for your strengths and encourage you with positive reinforcement to bring out your uniqueness. To add clarity and conciseness to your message and help you connect the message even better to your audience. Now, let me just name drop a few people, since this is a commercial. Ask any of these people. And these are some high visibility members. Dave Berg, Jason Campbell, Jennifer Carroll, Kevin Harrington, Liz Zerera, Verne Harness, Jamie Hope, Mike Koenigs, Big Joe Clark, Mary Morrissey. Joe, you're in there too. These are all part of those 167 members. Joe, what do you hear when you talk to these people about what I've done in seven years? Do you get a lot of complaints?

No.

No.

I mean, everyone loves you. I mean, I think the only complaint, because I'm not gonna lie, the only complaint is, is just your foul mouth. I mean, you use so much profanity. No, I'm kidding. You never hear. Joe, I'd love to actually hear you use profanity during this presentation while you're pitching. That would be awesome. No, I mean, you have helped so many people with literally understanding the before, during and after part of their presentation. So many of the talks that you have helped people with have led to books, they have led to full length presentations. And I mean, people didn't even know how to introduce themselves or even think about speaking to many people. I mean, half of these people weren't even speakers until you worked with them. And now they're doing seminars, now they're doing events. I mean, it's crazy. So that's, you know, that's, that's what I think is the biggest strategic byproduct of you helping people.

Well, that's so kind of you to say. And that's why that tagline is important. Using speaking to grow your business. So just type in the chat box, Joel, and let's talk if this seems to make sense to you. So on August 6, 2017, Joe, you and Eunice called me and said, Ben Hardy is a new member and he wants to give a 10 minute talk at the September meeting. His first meeting. He's 26 years old, he's still in school, and he doesn't really know how to talk, but he has a good idea. Would you help him? Do you remember that, Joe?

Oh, yeah, yeah, totally. It was.

And so at his first meeting, he was going to give his talk. So Ben and I started working on his message. And halfway through the first call, he said, joel, I need what you have. You got to help me beyond this talk because I got to learn to speak better. And that began a three year journey with Ben of using speaking to grow his business and grow it he did. On Ben's testimonial video that he made for me at last year's annual event. Here's what he said. When I hired Joel to help me with that talk, it changed my life. That talk was so well received, it got me to speak on one of the most prestigious stages in the world. That talk opened the door to riches beyond my wildest dreams. And since then, that first talk, it's led to at least 1 1/2 million dollars in revenue. Joel, I love you. Ben always says he loves you. Well, Ben, I love you too, my friend. And I know you're in church today with the five kids and Lawrence, so that's why you're not here. But let me ask you this question for you as a member. What if Ben was not prepared and confident and equipped with a powerful message three years ago, he would have missed out on that opportunity and the rewards that followed that 10 minute talk. So what about you? Are you missing out because your speaking skills aren't what they could be? And who is missing out on hearing your message because your speaking skills aren't what they could be? So, fellow Genius Network members, you're going to love the opportunities coming your way and you're going to love using these systems to grow your business. And when you do, you're going to see your dreams come true. Joe, thank you.

Joel, thank you. And you know, I hope you read all these comments that people have posted here because you have a lot of real respect and real appreciation and you have, aside from, you know, just your business and helping people, you're a really great testament to living a good life. I mean, there's been so many talks about health and how you take care of yourself. And you also have built a life where you spend a lot of time doing what you love to do, which is how many times you been on Lake Powell?

1689 days when you were there, but I had another week after you left. That's four and a half years over the last 30 years on that boat. So we've averaged two months a year while I was young and my daughters were younger. They were raised up there. And as a result, we have the family that I have. And now my youngest daughter is joining us at Genius Network and she's been part of our company for a while and so is my oldest daughter.

Which is awesome. And I'll tell you, if the world ever, like zombies took over and everything got really crazy, I would probably go find you. And then they have you be like the survival guy because he's really good at that stuff.

Yeah.

I mean, that's only because I'm the oldest member of Genius Network. And when you stay as many years as you should, you'll be treated with respect. Like Joe treats me as the old man in the group. But I'm not planning to go anywhere for a long time.

No.

Which is so awesome.

Put a note in the chat box and we'll talk.

Thank you, Joe.

So, hi, Joel. Joel, love you.

And let me say this about when it comes to things that are offered and sponsors and things that are sold, as you know, I do not turn my events into Pitch a Thons. And I would never have anyone offer anything. And I don't recommend things that I don't have a high belief and experience with. And the way that I look at anything that someone's going to offer, if anyone would hire Joel and you don't, you know, considered an incredible value, I would even back it up with guaranteeing it. So I'm not going to recommend anything that has a fee to it that I don't think is going to make you money in the same way that even Genius Network membership, it's a school that pays you to attend. So, you know, those are the things that we will recommend because that's how I feel about it. So awesome. Okay. I hope you found that video awesome and useful. So if you want to get a free copy of my book, I want you to click here. And if you want to watch some more videos that will be useful and awesome, click here.

Go ahead, you're over here.

Do it now. Come on.

Thank you. Watch them.