How to Speak in a Way That Moves People Feat. Les Brown

I struggle with using humor when I speak. How did you get good at it.

And what advice would you give? Don't struggle with that. Laughter is a lubricant that allows us to handle and navigate our way through life. Don't struggle with that. I don't tell jokes, but people say that I'm funny. So you find things that you can use that will trigger laughter, and particularly if you're a presenter, because when you are, when you use humor strategically, case in point, you know, ladies and gentlemen, how many of you know, people say money won't make you happy, but everybody want to find out for themselves. And I remember a time in my life I was so broke, I'd walk past the bank and tripped the alarm. And then I had a moment. I got a call. Leslie, my sister, Margaret Ann, are you sitting down? What's wrong with Mama? Margaret? Mama's got breast cancer. She's got breast cancer? Yes, I'll be there tomorrow. Leslie, you don't have to do that. You just got elected for the third time. Listen to me. I promise her, if anything happened to her, I would be there. How many of you have somebody that you love that anything ever happened to them, that you would be there for them? Raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I want you to write this down. Earn, walk away money that I had a job in LA. I was making over $220,000 for two hours on a radio station, on CBS radio station. And I walked away. I left. They said, are you crazy? Mm. I said, my mama needs me and I'm gonna be there for her. But you notice the laughter before and how I came to that place. Write this down. Never make a point without a story and never tell a story without a point. So rather than doing the stuff like our friend, friends that we know in the industry that's pushing, getting planes and boats and making a lot of money, I said, you know, you want to be in a position if something happens to someone you love, that you can be there for them, that you can do more than just pray for them. Does that make sense? When I asked that question to the audience, and James is right about the power of questions. Now I've created an opening in the presentation so that they now are participant in the story and the presentation that I'm creating because we're orchestrating an experience in this audience. Now, there are audiences inside of each audience, people who are going through some stuff. Some people need humor, some people need content, some people need passion. And energy. And so when we are talking to people who, separated by education, by the things they've gone through, that as presenters we have to create a presentation that will allow us to make that audience, those audiences inside of the audience, one audience, by listening to the listening of the audience and then using your stories strategically so that your story becomes their story and you create an experience where you take them to a place in themselves where they can't go by themselves. That's what I'm doing now at this stage of my life, because there's no success without success. Training speakers on how to take their life, their story, their skills, their hunger to make a difference, to make their mark, to live a life that will outlive them and be able to make a difference in people's lives, to promote themselves and knowledge in their companies, you.

Know, to speak to, you could probably articulate this, which you're already doing pretty well, is that my version of this is somewhere along the way I was reading so many books and trying to figure out how to learn more effectively. Like how does one accelerate learning? And so for years I would share with my service business clients. Early on, when I went from dead broke carpet cleaner to learning how to make that business work, then taking wow, I figured out a bunch of things that work and now how do I share them with other people? And I'm definitely afraid of speaking, so I don't want to go speak. And then I would force myself to be in situations where I had to present, although I was a nervous wreck. And then I started going to Toastmasters and that was incredibly beneficial. And then it dawned on me like, wow, I'm learning this stuff so much quicker because I'm now putting myself in a position to have to teach other people. So I would then later share three ways to learn something. You learn through the school of hard knocks. You just don't ask for directions. Before gps that who there was that whole stereotype of men never ask for direction sort of thing. You know, you just bumble your way through life, you figure it out, you'll learn stuff, but you're going to fail a lot. It's going to be painful. So that's one way to learn. Second way to learn is you learn through the experiences of other people. You read their books, go to their seminars, buy their courses, learn, get educated. Not education in school, but education out of school, right? Real life education. And that's a more effective way to learn. That's why I read a lot of books. That's why I've gone To a lot of seminars. That's why I've hired a lot of people. So then the third way to learn, which is the most accelerated, fastest way, is you start teaching other people. Because then you have to integrate it at a whole nother level.

I would challenge that.

Well, yeah.

I want to hear your perspective on this.

Yeah. When I graduated from high school, I went. Friend of mine, Larry Littles, he went to Bethune Cookman College, graduated together. They traded him to he. So he went. He went to San Diego Chargers. He was an offensive guard. He was so ineffective there. They traded him for like two or three dollars.

He must be really ineffective.

He was very ineffective. But he went to the Miami Dolphins. Don Shuler, a coach. Larry became all Star offensive guard 12 years in a row. Inducted into the hall of Fame, Football hall of Fame. Very seldom that offensive guards inducted into the hall of Fame. What was the difference? The coach. Yeah. What the coach was able to find and bring out of him. When I met Mr. Leroy Washington, when I was in his class, when I was back, when I fell in the eighth grade and I was looking for a friend and you know the story. MacArthur Stevens. And Mr. Washington, who was a speech and drama teacher. And I admired his oratorical skills and how he trained students and my classmates. And he said, young man, he's going to do a play called 12 Angry Men. And so he said, I want you to go out up to the front and I want you to work this problem out for me. We're looking for something. And I said, sir, I can't do that. I'm just here looking for MacArthur Stevens. He said, I want you to do what I ask you to do anyhow. I said, sir, I'm not one of your students. I'm just looking for my friend. And the other students started laughing, saying, he's Leslie. He's got a twin brother, Wesley. Wesley's smart. He's dt. And they started laughing and he asked, what's dt? And they said, he's educable, mentally retarded. He's in special education. And he looked at me and I said, I am, sir. And he came from behind his desk, he looked at me, he said, don't you ever say that again. Someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality. Do you hear me? I said, yes, sir. He disrupted the story that I believed about myself. And as a result of him, he told me three things that serves me today that I mentioned earlier. He said, you want to make it in life, don't you? I Said, yes, sir. He said, number one, develop your mind. You don't get in life what you want. You get in life what you are. He said, I want you to listen to this. And he gave me Earl Nightingale. Strangest secret in the world.

Wow.

He says, number two, practice the principle of oqp only quality people. The award winning Academy Award winner, Sidney Poitier, he wrote a book called the Measure of a Man. He said, when you go for a walk with someone, something happens without being spoken. Either you adjust to their pace or they adjust to your pace. Whose pace have you adjusted to? We're earning within 2 to $3,000 of our closest friends. When I found that out, I got all my broke friends out of my life. I said, y' all gotta go. Don't go away mad, but y' all gotta go. And the other thing he said, Mr. Brown, develop your communication skills because once you open your mouth, you tell the world who you are. Yeah. And where's James? James, yeah. Questions of what he said was very important. I did a presentation for a major pharmaceutical company. And when I was getting ready to leave, I saw a sign that said Danger Zone. And all of these people lined up to go into this room, do a presentation. And I came in and I was curious to find out what was going on. And so there were doctors in the room. I was the only one that was not a doctor, except people in the hotel. And so. And this conference was teaching doctors how to communicate with their patients to encourage them to take their hypertension medication. And if they don't, they will have a stroke or they can suffer an aneurysm or heart disease. And so I was seated next to the CEO and he came in late. I said, excuse me, sir. I said, you're the CEO? Yeah. I said, do you have hypertension? He said, yes. And I touched him slightly on his leg. Doctors who touch their patients reduce their chances of having a malpractice suit file against them by 37%. I said, you have hypertension? He said, yes. I asked him, why do you take your medication? He said, I want to live. Then why do you have a fear based campaign? Why not have it the Success zone? Appeal to people's desire to want to live? He said, you got a point. He said, can you train doctors? I said, yes. They had all these doctors there. I'm the only one not a doctor, right? The only. Raisin and a glass of buttermilk milk. I'm turning red, but y' all can't see it anyhow. He said, you got A contract. You never believe what that contract was for training 3,500 doctors. You'd never guess anybody. Wild guess. One month. How much money I get paid? No, those small. I just trained them. Went to different cities and trained them. But that's good. I like James. You are profit. All right. Thank you, though. $640,000 because I asked the right question. I didn't try and sell myself on it. Everybody. You've heard the expression, you can take a horse to the water, but you can't make him drink, Right? What we do as coaches and as speakers, we create the want. If you know how to effectively communicate and ask the right questions, then they will want to do business with you. Because our goal and objective. When you look at Joe Polish and his whole staff, they're not here to sell you. They're here to serve you. And that's why you show up. The greatest among you will be your servant. So when you ask the right questions, something Zig Ziglar talked about and you and your book addresses this, he said, if you give enough people what they want, they'll give you what you want. Maya Angelou said, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And so when you care enough to ask people questions. As I train speakers, I said, never let what you want to say get in the way of what your customer wants to hear. And all thy getting get understanding. Find out, who are they? What's on going going on with them, what challenges are they facing? What's keeping them up at night? What have they done before that did not work as you talked in those strategic questions. And so I sent out a needs assessment. And when I spoke for Merrill lynch and Talked about these two guys who got together in 1905, one was a businessman, the other one was a visionary. As a result of my doing research, people started seated in the audience. That was just one name. And I got another 22 engagements out of that. And so you're asking key questions, but becoming knowledgeable and finding out things about your client and incorporating those things in your presentation. I spoke for a guy named Brian Buffini. Anybody ever heard of him? He sell real estate. So when I go in to speak, I send a needs assessment. Brian filled out. So I wanted to find out where he was and what he wanted, because he's a man that signs a check. Okay. Then I talked to his top performers, and I extracted stories out of them. And so when I got up and was giving my speech, every point that I was going to make in my speech, I create a framework how trained people do this. I would use their story as an example. So I said, you know, I was talking to James, and he's been with the company for years, and he said that this place he loves because it helps him to begin to learn more about the customers, that life is a question, and how we live our lives is the answer. And so James said he loves being here because it's a faith, family consciousness. And when I talked to Veronica, Veronica talked about the day that she was thinking about how she was going through a tough time when a family member died. But everybody got together, and it gave her the strength to weather that red sea, to weather that storm. And when I got to the end of my speech, when I was getting a standing ovation, I said, I'm so glad to be able to see you. And I started walking off, and I said, oh, by the way, I'm not too busy for referrals. That's his theme. We're never too busy for referrals. I got 56 speaking engagements.

Wow.

Wow.

But guess what, James, he said, wait a minute, Mr. Brown. He said, this is November. He said, whatever number of engagements that you have for the rest of the year, I want them. I write the check for them. And at that time, I was charging $35,000 an hour. But he paid for every speaking engagement for the rest of the year. Because I did research on him. I interviewed the top performers. What is it about you that's different than the rest of the people here? I found out his mission statement. I found out how he met his wife. I said, you know, Brian, one of the things I know about you, when you met your wife Martha, you became very spiritual and said, the Lord is my shepherd. I see what I want. So complimenting his wife, I did research on him and his people and the people that came in the room, that I interviewed them individually and used their story, they say, oh, my God. When I would use this story, they start hunching, he's talking about me, you know, and all of those things, you put those elements in, it's different than just going out doing an information dump. If information could change people, everybody would be skinny, rich, and happy. They can Google information. They bring us in. You ask the right questions, you can create an experience. Oliver Winderholme said that once a man or woman's mind has been expanded with an idea, concept, or experience, it can never be satisfied to going back to where it was. And when we look at what this experience that we're going through right now. It's giving us a larger vision of ourselves and allowing us to navigate all the things that we're facing right now.

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. Going back to the well, no, let's go. Because I throw Joel, I won't switch topics yet.

When I first heard you at nsa, when you joined, 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 develop 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 Micah. Okay. Sorry.

Okay. He said, what do you want to do with your life, young man? I said, I'd like to be 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 that 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 see 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 said, 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, your 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 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, 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. When I 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 and working with speakers, I work first with the messenger and then the message and then the delivery, because it comes through 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? 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 you 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 know, and you were so confident to me. You gave me strength. You said you could do this 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're too young. You know, when I was first diagnosed with prostate cancer, they said I was terminal. I was. 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, da, da, 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 60 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, you did. And. Oh, 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, and 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. It's. You know, 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, you know, 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. 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.

Yeah.

When you think about man search, 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 Poland, the place where Ann Ryan was. And I went to Auschwitz because I worked 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. Why are we going to do this? And notice. I said, why we are 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 are 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. So 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. And then what I do, at the top of your speech, what you want to do is paint the picture of 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 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. It's necessary that as you decided to do this and get involved in. 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. Can't helps it that you said, 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 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, it's 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've decided I'm not going to be a witness. You decided that if 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, I 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, go ahead.

Wow. Since I brought this goofball up, Michael Bernoff, who's an amazing speaker, can you throw him up?

So, okay, earlier, I'm not on this level with my very good friend Jewel. You know, he's an icon. Let's give him another round of applause. I love and admire your work. Your sharpness, your eye, your intuition, your gift to the planet. You've been so. For a long time, I've been watching you. Yes. Yes, sir.

So.

So you called me.

And part of this. So in Michael's book, he has a book called Average Sucks. And he's a great speaker and he's a trainer and he's a coach. And he's really good at many things. And in the book, he talks about food. And I was using this as a metaphor towards real sincereness versus faking it.

Right.

And so the way he talks about food is there's food that is addiction, which would be donuts and sugar and fat and just like unhealthy food. The second would be entertainment, which is what most restaurants would be. And then there's nutrition. Yep. And I look at people that way too. There's speakers and there's coaches and there's marketers that are, you know, they're not good. It's talkers. It tastes good, but it's, you know, it's kind of like a shit cake.

Can I ask you a question? Please, do you mind?

Go ahead.

Your book is entitled, what's your first name?

Average Sucks. Michael Bernoff.

Michael. Yep. You said average sucks. Yep.

Not sex sucks.

Yeah.

Sometimes people.

I will be praying for you, Michael. Michael. Wanna ask you a question. Yeah. When you go back and look at your life, you're four or five, who's somebody that you admired that really impacted how you see yourself? How I see myself? Yes. Who? Somebody that you saw, that you admired, that you say, wow, they made you feel safe, made you feel good. And because of their character, because of how they treated you, because of their example, they influence you in becoming the person that you are now. Who's that person?

I've had a ton of them.

I would say I'm talking about when you're around five or six years.

Five or six years old?

Yeah. Who was the closest person your reference group literally had.

I was at. I was at a family event and there was a cousin. It was one time. It was a one time meeting. It was a cousin came in for a funeral and literally just said something to me. He said, you don't have to always listen to everything your parents say. You can be anything that you want to be. And I remember hearing this at a weird age, about eight years older than me. And he said this to me, and I remember those words to this day. I had a couple interactions with this gentleman.

Okay, hold just a minute.

Yep.

Pump your brakes. Now I want you to listen, ladies and gentlemen, I want you to shake someone's hand on your right and left and say, you can be anything you want to be. Do that right now, please. That's good. You can be anything you want to be.

That's good.

Ladies and gentlemen, I. I went to a funeral and they said, coincidence is God's way of staying anonymous. And I ran into a cousin of mine and he said that to me. He said, you can be anything that you want to be. I was going through an experience at this time trying to find my footing in life. How many of you had some moments in your life trying to make sense of and say, what is this all about? You remember those moments when you question yourself. And he affirmed me. And so I want to share with you some things I learned from my cousin. Now that's good. That goes different than average sucks because you're assuming that I'm average or he's average. We're not. So you lock you blocking a lot of people. But when you say you can be anything you want want to be. Maslow said the number one thing that people want is self actualization. So now you're affirming people and they and things I learned from my cousin. You now are in that category. People go online to find out information. How did you get to where you are and what did you learn from your cousin? You want to create the want to that they want to know. What did you learn from your cousin? Because you got some secrets that you learned that allowed you to become the person that you are now. To die to who you were, to give birth to who you are now. And you've decided that you can be anything you want to do. His words when he spoke to you, that went to your heart and you carried it all these years. He didn't say to you average sucks. And so the reason I ask you that question, I work with people to get what's in your heart. Average sucks. That's a head thing. You can be anything you want to be. People need to know that in the face of the pandemic, in the face of artificial intelligence, in the face of the statistics at over 350 million people that will be unemployed because of artificial intelligence, you'll say you can be anything you want to be. I'm not saying that there will be 350 million people who will lose their jobs. My cousin taught me that 350 million people lose their jobs. 300 million people have been freed up so they can become entrepreneurs to control their own destiny. It was one said by one philosopher that things may happen to you and things may happen around you, but the things that really count are the things that happen in you. You can do anything you want to do. You can create your own economy. This is a new place of accelerated change, overwhelming complexity and tremendous competition. You've got greatness in you. Greater is he that's in you than he. That's in the world. My cousin was right. And because of those words he spoke to me, I redefined myself. Because of what he's said to me, my life was never the same again. Because of what my cousin said to me, I decided to become an ambassador in life and encourage people to pursue their dreams rather than live their fears. Solid. Okay. I like it.

And then I think marketing and all.

Our market research, that's a whole other conversation.

So. But do you see what I did with that? Yeah, I like that. How many jokes? Do you see the difference? Raise your hand if you see the difference in what I was talking about. Yes. You know, I got a funny story for you after this.

Well, here's just to bring it up. Andre, don't go away. So the power of relationships. So how many years ago now was it, Andre, that Michael Bernoff and K. Cameron Herald. And then John Rulin said, you know, to you, we need. You need to meet this dude. I happen to be in. So do you know Andre Norman by chance?

Yes.

Okay.

It's a black thing.

Yeah, it's a black guy.

But it's something different.

So, I mean, it seems to me. So we're recording this conversation, it seems to me that all these incarcerated individuals, individuals that you're in charge of this program to putting, you know, content on 650,000 tablets that are in prisons for people that are incarcerated would be very valuable for them to hear a conversation like this.

1,000%.

Yeah.

And because, you know, when you're in a position like that, the thing that incarceration does for most people is they usually don't come out better, they usually come out worse. And they now have a. They now have an identity of a convict. They have an identity that I'm. I fucked up. I'm a loser, whatever. The interesting thing on the stats are there's 2.2 million people incarcerated in the United States. We're the highest incarcerating country in the world. 25% of the world's prisoners are in the United States. And 80 to 90% of everyone arrested or thrown in jail, drugs and alcohol were involved. And 40% of people that are, you know, incarcerated committed some sort of violent crime, which is a different discussion. 60% have not. So there's a lot of addicted people that are incarcerated. And putting people into a punitive system, you can't punish pain out of people is really damaging. And it's not just the incarcerated people. The 2.2 million people, for every person incarcerated, there's a whole family Unit and relationships that are attached to that person. So there's a very. There's an opportunity to change that person so that they can get out and become an Andre Norman, because many people do not. And I would have never met Andre if it wasn't for Michael or Cameron or John. So it's a relationship thing. And when I heard his story, you know, I was like, I want to be helpful to this individual. And it was supposed to be for like five months. It's now been five years.

That's crazy.

And he's saved lives and we've done a lot of stuff. And here we are with people with skills and talents and abilities, everyone here. And through a mechanism here, he's now in a position where I think by the end of this year, there'll be like a million tablets that delivers education and content to people. And that's one of the things he's in charge of. And he's an incredible speaker. If he would have not at some point figured out, I want to go and address people, I want to teach them. You don't have to go down the path.

I did.

It is all through speaking, just like Joel Weldon. I mean, speaking is the vehicle, it is the mechanism to getting messages and inspiration out to people. And you can make a lot of money doing it. But, you know, that conversation you have with. With my friend Rick is worth a lot. That guy is a multimillionaire. He is rich as hell. It wasn't about money. It was about what it did for his mindset, you know, and so the ability to speak and influence and persuade goes way beyond a business. I mean, it's what made you can either, you know, Hitler was a powerful orator. You know, it's what you do with it that makes a difference.

Hitler is doing something we're witnessing now. People who have great presentation skills are able to create an experience. It's one thing to speak and people hear you, it's something else. When you speak, people feel you. That's a different dynamic. So he was a master communicator. The. The people that make that transformation is like Norman. It was not just the speaking. Norman died. If a man to gain his life, he must lose his life. Norman who went to prison, he was liberated when he got out, even before they released him, because he got a new identity. Once your life has a new identity, people that we work with, the people that are part of our team, the people that we align ourselves with for some social good, once you have a different mindset that gives your life A sense of purpose. And once your life has a sense of purpose, then that gives your life a sense of direction. So now Norman is an asset to society rather than liability. Robert Kennedy said, if we cannot save the many that are poor, we truly cannot save the few that are rich. So when we look at the smash in grafts and all the killings that are taking place, we're watching the throes of a dying beast. Something has happened. And the only way that we can take this on, cultures of violence, cultures of other. You know, when you can put traps together and immigrants, it's one thing to talk about preventing people from coming here, but creating traps in water so they would drown in their children. That's not who we are as a country. We are the greatest country on the planet. And so that cultures are created by words. And the reason that I'm committed to training people how to communicating to create peace, he said, I'll give you perfect peace. Whose mind is stayed on the harmony. When we have harmony with ourselves and our spirituality, our family, our relationships and the purpose of our lives and joy, stuff's going to be happening. Life would be happening. But when you have a sense of spiritual strength, you are able to handle it. You know, Jesus, he walked on water, but he went out there in a boat. And so you have to have something that when life be life in that you can hold on to that can that allows you to say, I'm going to be all right, you know, and this is what you're doing now. And the relationships that people are building here. One goose can fly 75% further in formation with other geese than it can ever fly. And so the relationships and the sharing that people have and building relationships, building a new reference group. They did this 85 year study at Harvard University and they said the people who were successful had a reference group of about five to seven people that they connected with, that they identified with, that they had goals and dreams and held each other accountable. The same things that you're talking about right now. This is extraordinary. This is what the Genius network is. Something that needs to be replicated all across this country and around the world. Because politicians won't do it and religious leaders won't do it. They keep us divided by politics and religion and keep us at each other's throats. What you're doing is that you have one agenda and that agenda is greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. You have the power to create peace. We have the power to turn to each Other, rather than turn on each other. We have the power to leave a legacy. And for generations yet unborn, that's what the Genius Network is all about.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Gracias.

So, yeah, go ahead, Devin, throw. Hey, Les.

I was. I had the honor of going to breakfast with him and Evan this morning, you know, and a lot of people have talked about, you know, his audio, you know, and my favorite people to listen to are people whose audio matches their video. Right. Like, who they're being. And. And one thing that stood out, there were people who would just. We were leaving. They wouldn't let them leave. Just come up to them. And I just watched and I watched how you treated people. And when you talk about coming from the heart reaches the heart, you know, it really occurred to me that you make the people you're with feel like they're the most important person in the room. And that was such a great. I just want to acknowledge you for that because it was such. It was. It was more powerful than anything you said. And he was dropping Jewels, y'.

All.

He was dropping Jewels. But, like, it was really a great example of how, like, your audio matching your video of really making a difference. And I want to thank you.

Thank you. I say to speakers, who you are when you. You don't have the microphone is more important when you have it. Because you could tell a lot about a person's character based upon how they treat people that they consider unimportant.

That's right.

Okay. There's something here that this place where we are in history, we're here for a reason, and we were preserved for such a time, is this friend of mine. He went out to give his walk with his dog, and he came back. And his wife, who had left in the house, whose work on the computer was slumped. Boom, dead, fell forward on the computer. So there are things that many times we take for granted. We're still here. And I believe that you were chosen. As much as you have chosen this work, you were chosen for this work. There are some of you that there are people in your world, they really don't know you, even though they might be family or close. There's a story in the Bible where they said Jesus came to town, and this lady who was physically afflicted, she said, lord, help, have mercy on me. And the next line said, he saw her. There's some people when you have a big dream, they don't see you. They can't see you doing that. All my family members and friends, none of them Saw this Les Brown, they didn't see. But this Mike Williams, who's like you, he saw me. And I was so grateful that he saw me. I talked to him yesterday and said, I can't thank you enough that you saw me and you called me out. And I say to you, those of you that are here, things don't just happen. They happen. Just you. I'm just telling you what I know. I'm 78 years old. I've been on the planet 78 years young. I've been on the planet for a long time. You have a calling. Most people die at age 25 and don't get buried until they're 65. There's something in you that say, I can do more. Socrates said, a man's reaches to supersede his grass, or what are the heavens for? There's something in you saying, I'm not really. I'm not going to settle for where I am. I want to do something else with my life. I need to be around some people who think like me and have this expanded vision of making a greater impact. I know that there's something in me. And I'm going to rob the cemetery of the gift that God has placed in me. Life is God's gift to us. And how we live our lives is our gift to God. And I want to make my gift an extraordinary gift. There's something in you that keeps you up at night that won't let you settle for a life of mediocrity. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. So.

What does it mean to be hungry? We got a copy of your book for everyone here, don't we? I think we do, right?

Yeah.

So if we could pass those out, that would be.

Aw.

You know, we can leave them on everyone's desk when we break. It's okay.

Or whatever. Grab them.

Why not? Why not just give them.

I saw a commercial, thank you. With Tony Robbins, who is just an extraordinary dude. It's an infomercial called Personal Power.

Yep.

I still have the old Personal Power tapes.

Okay. So I sent a letter in my VHS to Gunthi Renko. And they sent me a letter back saying, you have an inspiring story, but you're black. Right. And we don't believe that a black person would appeal to America or the world. So I wrote him back. This is before texting. I said, thank you for reminding me that I'm black. I never would have known that if you had told me. I said, I see you from the top. I want to show you something. Mike. I want to show you something. Mike Dudley, pull up. Pull up this statistic I want to show you. So they spent a million dollars every hour, but that was one of the best things they could have done. To reject me was the best thing. It was a blessing. So look at those numbers. They spent a million dollars every hour. Show you the power of story and changing people's lives. Look at the ranking. Okay? The power story. And so that when, as a result of them saying no, Brian Tracy said, your comfort zone is your danger zone, I could have very easily said, I'll never be able to compete with people like Tony Robbins and Zig Ziglar and Wayne Dyer and all these other guys. I don't have that kind of money. I. I have the complexion of rejection, not the complexion of connection. I won't be able to do it. So when I talk to you about the power story. So those numbers speak for itself. The Bible says, judge a tree by the fruit it bears. So now people say, well, it's in your DNA.

Well, I guess that would beg the question, then. All right, so how do people work with you?

Well, I have a training going on September 29th. The last one doing. Last one I'm doing this year in Atlanta is called Master the Mic. And it's a limited number of people. And what I'm excited about is, like, these speakers now, they're coming from me. I mean, at least half of them are better than I am. If you're a good coach, all of your students will be better than you. They're challenging me. They'd say, we're coming for you. So it's so exciting. But what I do, people speak the whole time they're there. Within 30 minutes, they're up, speaking.

How long is it, the training?

Three days.

Three days.

Okay, three days. Intense. Intense. Sir, what is your name? With the blue shirt? Me? Yes. Randy Long. Randy Long. Yes. I'm. How much time do we have? Well, we're done, but I do apologize. Let's end this.

No, no, no, no. Let's go for another five, ten minutes.

Okay. Well, I was going to ask Randy some questions, and I was going to show you, Randy, what you have in you. But we'll talk privately afterwards. Okay?

Look forward to it.

All right. Thank you. Thank you, brother. But I believe that we're called to do this. People need your story. There's some people that's going to hear me. Some people are going to hear you, but there's some people. They're going to hear you. There's something about you that will cause them to rethink their lives and decide. I can handle this. We make decisions and our decisions make us. And you have the power. And you, you were chosen for this work. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

All right, so a couple. Couple things, then we'll wrap.

So, yeah, they go to lesbrown.com lesbrown.com okay, master the mic. And if they're interested in one on one coaching, which is very intense with me, one on one is. It's. Email me Les Brown 77 mask Les.

Brown 77 mail dot com. Okay, awesome.

Seven is my lucky number. Yes, sir. And say that you had the Genius Network.

So.

The speech that you gave, you've given up many speeches. The one in front of 80,000 people. I sent that link out to everyone via email. Not everyone's watched it, but I waited till I posted on Facebook a couple days ago. And then I to the Genius Network private group. And then I had Eunice and my team. I think Gina did it, sent it out via text, and some of you have watched it. You talk about this in your book before you went on stage to present to 80,000 people. That's probably pretty nerve wracking for most people. What was going through your mind?

First of all, I ran to the bathroom seven times and they called Mike. Yes, they called Mike Williams said, listen, Dexter Yeager is stalling. They need to bring less up now. So he. I'd locked myself in the restroom because the guy said, what is it like to speak to 80,000 people? I said, I don't know. I'm here for a banquet room here. And you show me where the banquet room? No. Are you Les Brown? I said, yes. He said, come over here a minute. And he said, look over there. Yeah, that's who you're speaking to. There are 80,000 people waiting for you to come on stage. I said, oh, my God. I took off. I said, I got to go to the bathroom. I said, but it's number one. So Mike came and he said, I could hear them saying, go get his mentor. He'll listen to his mentor. Because they were knocking on the door to come out, and I wouldn't come out, you know. I said, brownie, what's up? I said, mike, I can't hear the voices. Said, what? I said, I can't hear the voices, Mike. Brownie, you're scared, aren't you? I said, Yes. 80,000 people out there. I've never spoken to an audience that large before. He Said Brownie, are you listening to me? I said, yes. He said, they're waiting to see you. You're not waiting to see them. You got a message for them. This is your moment. I say, I can't think, Mike. I just can't think. I've been trying to pull it up. I can't think. My heart is beating fast. He said, brownie, do it for your mother. You know how she's going to feel to say. My boy spoke in the Georgia Dome. Do it for your mother. He interrupted my thinking. I said, don't use my mama on me. You know, I don't play the dozens. I go to the store, I get 11 eggs. Said, no, I don't get a dozen eggs. I just get 11, you know? So he said, come up, Brownie, and make your mother proud. And when I came out, I was walking toward the stage, and it's the importance of having someone who know you better than you know yourself. He said, brownie, you got this, man. I said, I do, Mike. Yeah. They will never forget this. I said, okay. And when they gave me me the microphone, something said, the fear just left me and said. I could hear his voice saying, you got this. And I looked at the audience, and there's a. To me, all of us have been in situations where we go to a place within ourselves and we surprise ourselves. How many of you have ever had moments? You say, I can't believe I. I did that. That's exactly when I've only. I've never seen the speech completely because I'm very critical of myself. But I said to myself, my heart was beating. I said, he said, I got this. He said, I got this. And so I started watching and listening to them as they were listening to me. I want you to write down, listen to the listening. A lot of people when you have a memorized script, you got to pay attention to what you have memorized. But if you got a framework in which you can go, it's possible, it's necessary, it's you. It's hard, it's worth it, it's done. Then you can put stories and quotes and statistics and humor and passion and energy within that and be able to master the audience and command a standing ovation and transform people's lives. That was the first time that I earned six figures after giving a speech. But I spoke for T. Harv Eckert Seminar of the Century. I think that's a more powerful speech. So $410,000 worth of products.

I was there.

Oh, so you saw that oh, yeah.

I spoke for 10 minutes there. That was it.

No, it's great. It's powerful.

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 a silent 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 got to wake him 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, that 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 now. Not fearful, but more nervous. The first time I did a home buyer workshop as a real estate agent, I had, you know, 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.

You know, Joe, let me. There's a lot of questions that I think other people may have. So I want to. If you have something like nervousness or how do you deal with it? I mean, like when Dean was talking reminded me the very first time that I ever gave a presentation. I had written a sales letter because I had learned marketing, and I sent it out. I was selling a program teaching carpent upholstery cleaners how to build and grow their business. Because I was a convert of my own system, but I never yet publicly spoke about it. I had this program, I had this course. I was doing everything through direct mail. So I had this bizarre skill that I had learned and developed to write a sales letter. And I got A supplier in San Diego named Dennis Iverson, I think. Yeah, Dennis Iverson. And we sent a letter to all these local. From his location, he sold chemicals and equipment and stuff to invite them to come to a one day event called how to Double youe Business in Six Months or Less. They would spend all day with me, with me teaching them how to build and grow their business. And it was a $97 a person seminar. And we ended up signing up 52 people to come to this thing. And I had never given really a public presentation before except like introducing people. When I was the Arizona director of the Carpet and Fabric Air institute back in 1992 and 1993, believe it or not, I used to bring all the educational courses to Arizona teaching cleaners how to clean carpets. Who would have known, right? So anyway, I literally saw these people in this event. I had no idea what I was doing. And people would tell me that after the first five minutes the nervousness goes away. I was sweating the entire day. It was one of the most nerve wracking things. And I grew up incredibly shy and introverted. I mean, I didn't like speaking. I was a drug addict in high school. I remember getting stoned in high school to do a public speech because I was so nervous on the dangers of thc. That's how messed up I was. I swear to God, it's a true story. And so I didn't have this whole background. I was incredibly nervous. But at the end of it, I still pitched and I sold $12,000 worth of my marketing course. And I was like, I better figure out how to get good at this because I'd never made that much money in my life, like, do it. And it worked. And that was me like incredibly nervous. So at that point I realized, man, how do I do this? And so that's what started it. And now, you know, me and Dean, I remember me and Dean, we gave an hour presentation in front of 5,000 people, you know, and we had this stuff. So it's, it's. And I, that was my speech. I just invited Dean into it because I'm sort of one of these inclusive sort of individuals.

The way he rolls.

Yeah, but so when it comes to fear. So you're going to say some great stuff. I've got some questions that I know is going to listen to some great stuff. If someone here is like, I can't picture myself speaking in front of people. I'm nervous. And you just said it's, you know, be yourself. But their self is, I'm Scared, I can't do this. What would you say to that person?

Well, if you think about what causes people to be nervous, and I think one of the words that usually comes to mind is you become self conscious. And that's the antithesis of what makes a great speaker. It's not about you. If you accept that as one of the basic beliefs of everything that it's taking me these 46 years to learn about speaking is, it's not about you, it's about your audience. And if you get yourself out of the way, you're not self conscious. If you're not self conscious, you don't become nervous. You're focused on how these ideas can help others. And I know that I don't know you better than anybody else on this broadcast, Joe, but I know you very well, having watched you for many hours. And when I see you speak, I know that that brain inside is thinking one thing. How is this going to help them? And once you do that, it's not about Joe Polish. And that's what you need to think of as you watch and listen to what we're sharing. That when you're focused on your message and how it can meet the needs of your audience, how it can help your audience or your listeners overcome their fears, their worries, their concerns, or reinforce their successes. It's not about you. And then you're not looking at what does your hair look like and what does my clothes look like? That's not part of it. Yeah, you need to check your hair before you start. And then that's it. Forget about you. And that's the best way that you can get away from the nervousness and the fear. And if you look at fear as an acronym, False Evidence Appearing Real. F E A R. False Evidence Appearing Real. If you have the opportunity to talk virtually or in front of a live audience, just think, how is this going to help them?

Yeah, that's a really great. I've got to read this because there's this comment from Celia Black who's like frickin brilliant. And she wrote, I get stuck thinking that no one wants to hear what I have to say. And then, hey, Anna, I'm reading all these comments, these are great. And then Jim writes, celia, your inner voice is a liar. So that's an interesting thing though because you got people that second guess or doubt themselves. And by the way, Ben, this is going to sound like an aside, but Ben Hardy, I'm going to call on you in a moment because I want you to actually come on and say Something but what you know, when someone's doubting themselves and they're yet at the stage where they're. There are people that are on here right now that their success, if you want to call it financial.

Right.

Their ability to do it is limited by this part of them that is doubting themselves, that second guessing themselves. It doesn't think they're good enough. Imposter syndrome. A billion different ways that people can frame stuff. And I know that these people are incredible in terms of their knowledge base and stuff like that. So again. So what would you say to that, Joel?

Well, since you mentioned Ben Hardy and he's going to come on and for those of you that know a little bit about Ben, he now has a whole bunch of children and he just had twins and they're having another one or they already had the other one and they have three adopted children. So Ben is going to come on and teach us how to change diapers. That's his talk. Now, if that was the subject. Ben Hardy's going to talk about changing baby diapers. Is that a subject relevant to this audience on I Love Marketing on our meetup? No. So if Ben is going to talk about the power of a book and how the book you have within you can change your life and the lives of others and why you should think about writing it like he did with the two books that he said published, that's a whole different story. So one of the things to think of when you feel like Cecilia said, well, they're not really going to be interested in this subject, then they shouldn't be hearing about it. We don't want to hear about Ben changing diapers. That's not relevant. That does not meet a need. It does not overcome a fear, it doesn't reinforce a victory. Unless you just happen to have a couple of babies at home and you've never changed a diaper before. And once you know that, what your subject is and how relevant it is to your audience, that imposter syndrome, that fear goes away because you know that what you're going to say is going to help that audience. And I know whatever Ben is going to say is going to help our audience. So I call Ben, my adopted son from another mother and I love you, my friend Ben, even though my daughter is on.

What is the best? Since I obviously love marketing, I have a podcast called I Love Marketing. What's the best marketing Strategy for getting 10,000 or more per speech?

Well, I'm going to tell you this and it's going to sound like I'm kissing your butt, okay? And trust me, you're the last butt I want to kiss. But it's really about surrounding yourself with influencers. I have this thing called advocate marketing that I learned from one of my mentors. And being in groups like Genius Network, going to conferences and meeting people that have an influence over an industry that are connectors, as Malcolm Gladwell says, you know, there's a few group of people on this planet, a select few, you are one of them that have access to potentially hundreds of millions of people through their contacts. And when you get to know these people and you bring them value, you know, I moved my whole business from Chicago to Arizona to get to know you, to spend time with you, to bring you value, to bring value to your community, to the people that you care about. I mean, Joe, you can call me day or night and say, I have a friend that needs help. And I'm not like, well, Joe, you know, that's not my problem. You know, my thing is I drop everything because you are one of these advocates. In my life now, because I do that, there is this unconscious reciprocity that just naturally happens. I don't do it for tit for tat. It's more of like this reciprocity of when you're talking to somebody about events, you say, hey, have you heard of Sean Stevenson? He's one of the best speakers out there. And it's because I stayed top of mind in your life by continuing to bring you value. And there's probably 21 other people in my life that I bring a massive amount of value to them. So on a moment's notice, they know if they're going through something, whether it's putting together a presentation, whether they need my therapy advice, whether there's somebody in my own Rolodex that I can reach out to that by bringing influencers a ton of value. They can make one phone call that can help you skip, you know, dozens of steps and potentially shave 10 to 30 years off the learning curve because they just know the right person to meet because they spent their time developing their, you know, network. And the best way that I built my speaking industry is find the people that have access to influencers, influencers of events and industries and the human race. I mean, now it's come full circle because now I have, you know, reached this year alone, over 200 million people through my videos. And now you are able to come back and say, hey, Sean, you know, let's do something together and get it out to a mass amount of people and teach me how to do live streams or put together viral videos. And so it comes full circle. So if you just bring a ton of value to influencers, find the people that are so busy that they won't pay attention to you unless, A, you pay them, or B, you bring them so much value, it's worth more than money.

Yeah, so true. I mean, so true. And the lesson there is just be useful. And the more useful you are to the certain people, to the right type of people. Although I think people should be as useful as humanly possible to everyone. I mean, you've heard me.

Well, you got to give, expecting nothing thereof. When you call me, I'm not like, hey, Joe, well, I'll trade this help with this friend of yours that's suicidal in exchange for three good leads for speeches this month. It's never like that, you know, and that's the key here, is you have to just keep bringing value. There are 21 people that are influencers that I reach out to, and I will say not everyone each year brings me value in return, but. And some have never even brought me value. But I'm looking at the long game of my whole life, and I'm looking that maybe someday that person of influence calls me up and says, hey, Sean, have you ever been on Fill in the blank event, you know, media, whatever it may be? And my response is, no, maybe I haven't. And then now we've created that, we've closed that loop from bringing all that value to them. And, you know, when I look at the value that you and maybe five other people from that 21, each person brings in potentially six figures a year to my business by just bringing those few people value. And that's the power of mentorship. I mean, I pay you $25,000 a year, and I spend money out of my own pocket to market your materials because I know the value that comes from being your friend and bringing, you know, goodness to your world. I can never keep up with the amount of value you bring. I try, but it's yet to happen. I hope to surpass it someday.

We keep trying to outdo each other, too, which is great, because the whole premise is just, how can we be incredibly useful to each other? And there is no scorecard. I mean, we're not trying to say, oh, he's doing this for me.

He's doing that.

Oh, that mic drop video got you this many people, right? You can't keep score. And the quickest way to lose at life is keep score.

Yeah, totally. Totally. You know, I want to tell a little bit about how I basically have packaged my speaking because. And when I say this, let me remind people that this is not just about being in front of audiences. This is in any situation. Like, for instance, yesterday I was being interviewed for a documentary. And the person that's putting together this documentary, I'm not going to name names because when it comes out, we'll actually see. They want this documentary to be watched by over a million people. And I actually think they have the chops and the ability, and depending on, you know, how the content is, there's probably a really good chance that that will happen. And while we were being. While I was being interviewed at my home and then we went to my office because they wanted to do something footage there, I told them about, you're here in Arizona. When does your plane leave? I called you up yesterday and like, this guy is going to be better on camera than me. He's awesome. And they went over and did that. And it's because we have a relationship. The more that you develop and work on those relationships, the better. I mean, people say that time is money and time is incredibly valuable. You're not going to get it back. You need to treat it well. You don't want to squander it. However, I've never hit my alarm clock, and there's been piles of money there. Money comes from relationships, and the more you develop and nurture those relationships, they will bring opportunities to you. It's the very nature of producing more than you consume. And if you do that, you will get all kinds of opportunities. So that would be an example. So in my world, I don't really want to be on stage all the time. I do my Genius network, we have.

Currently 200, but I would say you are constantly. Every month you're on stage, that it's a stage that you built.

Exactly. So there are models on how to do it. And I know part of what you teach people is not just overcoming, speaking, how to structure formulas, marketing, but literally the model. If you never want to get up in front of an audience, live audience, audience, but you want to do a daily video, you'll teach people how to do that. If you want to create viral videos, you'll teach people how to do that. If you want to do a podcast, you'll teach people how to do that. If you want to have a big following on YouTube or Facebook, you'll teach people how to do that. If you want to do short clips on Instagram, you'll teach people how to do that. There's a lot of stuff that you actually do. I always look at the model. There are people, I charge $50,000 currently to do a talk. A lot of the talks that I do, though, I do them for free because there are certain people that are clients that if they ask me to speak and it's the right fit, I'll do it. Some. I may negotiate the $50,000 fee, but if someone just wants, and that's just in the US and that's just if travel is easy, if I have to go overseas, the bottom line is I won't hop on a plane for a business thing in most cases, unless it's worth at least a minimum of $100,000 to me. So even though I may get $50,000, it's going to also translate into something else. So my criteria for business is 100 grand and something that I'm aligned with or something that's just going to be so damn useful for me that it doesn't matter. I'm going to hop on a plane because there's some other benefit to it. But the reason I'm bringing this up though, is that what I tell people, people all the time, if you're just looking for a famous person, you can get people a lot more well known than Joe Polish for 50 grand and some even for half that price that have more call it fame or notoriety. However, when I speak for someone, I don't just give them a presentation. Actually, we'll spend an hour with them talking to them about how to set up the before, the during and the after the presentation. So a guy that recently hired me for his event, it was to a group of. It's like Michael Perella. He runs Mavs Martial Arts Business Summit. I love kickboxing franchise. So here I am in a room with a lot of very strong people that can beat the shit out of me and I'm teaching them about marketing strategies. But before that, actually he delivers some really great coaching and has a whole program that will teach them how to build and grow their businesses. I spent about an hour on the phone with Michael and he's also in my genius network and gave him a model on how to present his program, his coaching program. At the end of the event, he sent me the nicest text saying, thank you so much. Currently we've done 800,000 in sales and we're probably going to hit over a million. So I always say, do you think it was worth him hiring me to speak? He didn't hire me just because he needed a famous speaker. It was because there's something there. So whatever your deal is, there is no right or wrong way to do it. There's this successful models and there's unsuccessful models. So looking at different models on how to package present charge has everything.

I call that platform agnostic. When you're not attached to well, there's only one way to to get a message out.

There's all kinds of ways that you can do this. And most people wouldn't even know that unless they're learning from someone that's done it for many years, figured it out. So you've got 22 years of doing this stuff. You have a lot there for people that would like to really what we're talking about. They're like, yeah, this makes a lot of of sense to me. I want to talk about your training because people can actually come to you and they can learn how to be more effective doing this. And you're a damn good speaker and you're entertaining and you really care about people.

We also bring in some of the best in marketing and sales and in a lot of different formats that maybe that aren't as my strong suit as speaking news. And so my live event that you're referring to, you've presented at it a couple Times. It's called 10K Speeches. It's in Tempe, Arizona. It's actually here in this room, the Tempe center for the arts. And it's August 19th through the 21st. If people want to register, they got to go to 10k speeches.com.

The number 10.

The number 10. So10k speeches.com youm can get all the information about what you get. A lot of fun bonuses they get. They get more training before they get there on video than they could ever imagine alone. They get that plus they get the live event experience. We spend two and a half days with people. I've been told that it's one of the most fun events because I've been watching live events for 22 years. I see the ones that suck. I see that you got to keep the audience involved and laughing and moving and dancing and having fun. And also you have to have substance. You can't just be fluffy. And you know, I also don't like events that are just the whole thing is a pitch fest, you know. That's why I say when you show up at my event, you get a ton of value for your price for the investment that you put in. Because I'm a big believer of what you teach, what you Pay you, pay attention to. And, you know, I've got all these years of expertise, and I bring in mentors such as yourself on panels and in speakers to share different aspects of business, different aspects of marketing, different aspects of sales, and different aspects of speaking. Because when you come to 10k speeches, I want you to be able to walk out after two and a half days and say, wow, I got more information and more motivation to do this than if I had read hundreds of books and spent years of my life learning. I mean, I. Look at how I struggled. I mean, I didn't. This doesn't sound too sexy, but in 22 years of speaking, I didn't have 22 years of success. It's only been the last maybe eight years that I really dialed it in and figured out what are those little tiny hinges that the big door swings on, as you call it. And those little transformations are what I teach, you know, where not to spend your marketing dollars, what mistakes to. To avoid. I have dumped tons of money into certain things that never panned out because I didn't know what I was doing. It's also a mistake to think that spending money on a bunch of, you know, fancy, flashy websites are going to get you booked. No, it's not. Or even it's not just about being a good speaker, because I spent maybe 10 years really honing my craft. And being a good speaker is not enough. Because people will go, yeah, but we've never heard of him. We've never heard of her. How should we know? And when you really get it dialed in, where you understand all the aspects, the message, the delivery, the marketing, and the overall attitude, because look, this isn't just about getting one date. This is about getting rebooked year after year. I have some clients like Whole Foods and Nike that have brought me in several times. You know, Zappos, these companies that continue to bring me in year after year because I've got the attitude that they like working with. And so I teach people how to have the attitude that an event coordinator goes, yeah, let's bring them in no matter what. Let's make sure the budget can handle this. Joe Polish coming in. This. Sean Stephenson coming in. And so we teach you all that. Plus, it's super fun. And hopefully your calendar permits that you can come back and talk to us about marketing again. But I just really think that this, this whole audience is going to be. It's going to make a magical space here. And some best friends are formed out of this experience. You know, I do this year and year after year, and every year I call you up and like, Joe, events are so hard to run. Why do I do this to myself? It's like having a baby. You're like, oh, you get this great idea and it's fun to get the idea, but then you got to carry this thing for months and then finally you hold it. And the day comes and the audience is filled up and your bank account's hopefully filled up too. And you're like, oh, I want to do it again. And that's why the brain deletes pain, so that we can do things more than just once.

Well, what I want to mention too is there's a difference between just showing up and having someone else run an event and then running your own events.

Oh yeah, but you're probably never going.

To run your own events unless you actually do some speaking. It can be crazy.

Like I did.

And I could run my own event as my very first speech and sell tickets and then show up and be nervous as hell and run everything, but still make more money than I've ever made ever in my life in one fell swoop simply because I went through the fear and I just did it anyway.

I mean, one of my first speeches, Joe, I got paid and the person that hired me didn't even show up and there was no audience. And I flew to Tampa, Florida and showed up, beautiful room like this, no one was there. And I remember thinking I could look at this one of two ways. Pissed off because there's no crowd here to hear my message, or excited because I get paid whether they're here or not. You know, so you gotta look at your speaking career as why are you doing it? Are you doing it because you have a message burning inside of you? Are you doing it because you feel like you are the one expert that can share this solution in the best way? I tell people no one can rid the world of insecurity the way I can. And if I could just kind of pull the curtain back for a moment and just tell the truth, here is this speaker training. It's really about how do you create world class humans? Because when you become a world class human that shows on stage, but nobody pays to find out how to be a world class human. They have to logically justify with becoming a speaker. And I think it's great to be able to teach them both.

Well, you know what, that's a good way to kind of wrap this up is if all of this you're still thinking, well, would I be well served to actually delve into this. If it made you a world class human, that would probably be worth it.

Think about what that could do with your family, your friends, the community, the planet. And as cheesy as it may sound, when you meet a human being that is really on purpose, you want to spend more time with them.

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.

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Thank you.

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