The Art and Craft Of Speaking: The Fourth ILM Zoom Meetup featuring Joel Weldon, Joe Polish, and Dean Jackson - I Love Marketing Episode #377

You made this analogy. You said if you had a beautiful or valuable painting and you duct taped it to the wall without any lighting versus if you put it in a frame and you put it in a museum and you had great lighting, all of a sudden it's just a completely different context. So, so much of what we teach at I Love Marketing with the eight profit activators before, during, after education based marketing, all of the stuff is really about how to frame and position what it is you do.

I'm Dean Jackson, he's Joe Polish and this is the I Love Marketing podcast.

Want to learn how to influence, inspire and captivate from the stage? Learn the art and craft of speaking in today's episode of the I Love Marketing Podcast. In this episode, Joe Polish, Dean Jackson and Joe Weldon discuss valuable speaking and presenting strategies for delivering a compelling message to your audience. Joe will reveal his three word secret for ensuring your message is never misunderstood. You'll learn ways to leverage your personality and the best tools to become a respected expert in your marketplace, whether you're speaking virtually or in person. If you'd like to join world renowned entrepreneurs at the next Genius Network annual event, then apply today for your invitation to attend. If you'd like to learn more about the Genius Network annual event or to apply, go to geniusnetwork.com we want to.

Be as valuable and as helpful as humanly possible. We know some really hard times for a lot of people and we hope that what you're going to get out of tonight in terms of communication, we've got one of, not one of. I would literally consider our guests the best in the world that I've ever met and I've met some really smart people. He's literally one of the best in the world and not only speaking, but the best I have ever met in terms of teaching people the art and the craft of being a more effective speaker. It could be either through webinars and you'll see he's way better than me because I'm just babbling right now. But I've learned a lot from Joel. We want you to use what we're going to share here to go out and do some good stuff in the world. I want to do a couple of shout outs because I said I would. So there's this book years ago that Bill Phillips wrote, probably the number one fitness book of all time. Millions of copies have been sold to this and I became Bill's marketing consultant in late 1995. So 25 years ago when I first met Bill and yeah, this book came out as a result of this movie called Body of Work, and this is a VHS version of it. And I'd given Bill an idea to donate money to the Make a Wish Foundation. And I have all the original promotional stuff, and included in here was a letter where if people liked the video, they would make a donation to Make a Wish. And I gave him this idea when he had shared with me that he had spent a million dollars putting this movie together. Back then, it was really expensive to put together documentaries, still is, but this one cost over a million dollars for him to do this. And he wanted to share it with people, but he wanted them to place value on it. And this is one of the dangers that we all have even doing with, like, podcasts, right? Because you don't charge for it. If people don't pay, sometimes they don't pay attention. And so he wanted people to take this video seriously. And I had recently sent out a letter of an interview I did with Gary Halbert, who's the guy that I learned marketing from. And I said, I want to send you this cassette, but I want you to value it. I'll send it to you for free. So if you make a donation to the Phoenix children's hospital for $20, send us a check. Because back then, this was all direct mail. There was no Internet. I'll send you the cassette for free. And if you want to pay by credit card, $21 so I can have a dollar for the processing charges for the credit card. You know, I met with Bill, like, about a week after I had just sent that letter out, and I'd already brought in $7000 in $20 donations to a small list of 1200 people that were in the carpet and upholstery cleaning business because I was helping carbon upholstery cleaners build and grow their businesses. And I said, you know, resonate with children's charities. And so I recommend pick either the Denver's Children's Hospital, because he was in Golden, Colorado, or the Make a Wish Foundation. So he picked the Make a Wish Foundation. And make a long story short, he became the single largest individual contributor in the history of the world to the Make A Wish Foundation. Raised millions of dollars, granted tons of wishes for kids. It was awesome. And overnight, it just. His company just exploded. And Bill was also incredibly good marketer. And I was in Australia and speaking at these carpet cleaning conventions in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and then in Auckland. It was the only time I was. 1997 was the last time I was in Australia. Believe it or not, I need to go back and New Zealand, of course, because I know you guys argue over which one's better. Dean, of course, goes all the time. He does every year. I know. Yeah. Not right now.

Right.

With all this wonderful travel we're able to do. So I was there, and I saw a magazine. It had had this evolution, man. And it was now Clark, who I'm going to ask to speak in a moment, he ended up becoming this guy. This is Clark, Clark Bartram. Okay? And he's on with us right now. And it's the new theory of evolution. But I had pulled out this magazine thing, and I ripped it out and I sent it to Bill, and I said, you should have someone diet and literally create an ad like this. And so he ended up having Clark do it. And you know what, Clark, why don't you just pop on and say something? I'll show. Here's the. It's on the back of a magazine. Muscle media. This was in. I think it was in Sports Illustrated. It was on billboards. It was in, you know, New York Times. It became the number one fitness ad in the world, and maybe to this day still is back in 1997. And I just connected with Clark just a few weeks ago after, you know, 23 years later, we finally met each other. And we've had several conversations. And the dude is awesome, and he's fit, 56 years old, and he pisses me off because look at how incredibly physically fit this dude is. And so he teaches people how to get in shape, not just physically, but with their mindset. And I'll tell you, man, like, I'm so impressed with him because there's many people in the fitness world that have massive egos. It's built around looks, and this guy is a genuinely amazing dude. So, Clark, say a few things about who you are, what you do anything with this, because we're going to do a special episode with you at some point just on mental and physical fitness. Well, brother, I'll keep it quick, but.

I am so honored to be here. And you, sir, are a genius. And I'm privileged to be in the atmosphere of all these other geniuses. And it's so awesome that that ad came full circle. There was so much that happened from 1997 until the day you reached out to me just a few short weeks ago and said, clark, I was the guy that thought of this thing. I would love to tell you more my story. Comparing it to yours.

And.

And from that introduction is a relationship that is growing my Life has been enriched already just through reading the COVID of one of Joe's books. And I just got to say, I'm so happy that the guy who was originally supposed to do that ad turned it down because he didn't want to get fat and overweight for the ad. And that's actually how it was shot. And Joe was even surprised to find out that I had to get out of shape in order to get back into shape when I was already in shape. And Bill said, nope, we got to do it the right way. No photoshopping. That ad, like you said, Joe, is still to this day the number one ad ever done in the history of fitness. And I've done a lot in my career, from movies to hundreds of magazine covers, television shows, home shopping. And that ad has surpassed everything. People recognize me from that more than anything else I've ever done.

So thank you.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So the point is, what is advertising? It's communication, right? It's what you say and who you say it to. Dean Jackson, explain your wonderful line, which is, a compelling offer is 10 times more powerful than a convincing argument. And then let's relate that into brand and relate that into image, relate that into visual, because this is a setup for Joel Weldon, who we've got one of the greatest trainers of teaching people how to communicate, that's going to be our guest tonight. But say something about that, Dean, about advertising.

Well, the real thing about, you know, compelling is different than convincing. Convincing is taking somebody who's thinking something else, who's thinking their own thought, they're thinking their own way, they're going down their path, introducing a new thought to them, and then convincing them to think something differently and then take an action on it. And compelling somebody is to attach your idea, what you want them to do, to something that they're already seeking out, they're already motivated to do. And when you can tap into that, it's like the jet stream. Now you can introduce a new thought. So a couple of examples of how we use something like that is when you've got a service that brands and packages hockey players, you're a hockey management company. The kids that you're trying to attract or the parents, elite hockey players, their parents look at social media and branding and packaging and all that stuff as maybe a luxury item or something. That's like ego type of thing. But when you look at what actually happens, like, if your goal is to be an NHL hockey player, the best thing that could happen to you is to be born in Ontario, Canada, because That's where they all come from. And so if you're looking and playing elite hockey there, the parents invest thousands of dollars for their kids to do this. And that's a viable path to the NHL because every community has had people come through their hockey program into the NHL. But their plan B, the worst case scenario in their mind is that they'll get a US Hockey scholarship, they'll get a scholarship to go to the states and don't have to pay for college. So that's a compelling thought. Rather than trying to convince a parent that their kid needs packaging and time, brand and educate them what you do, which you could build a convincing argument for it. But instead, you can start the conversation by offering in an ad the free 2020 guide to US hockey scholarships. And that is compelling to people because that's something that they already want. Now, when you give them that, you're in a conversation that now their immediate next thought. When you have that next thought, you've got the directory with all the scholarship programs. The first thought that they have is, well, now what? What do I do now that I've got all this information? How do I approach these schools? How do I make my kids stand out? Now they're in a situation where they're open to hearing the message about branding and packaging and social media and all the stuff to make their kid packaged and stand out to all these scouts, both professional and NHL. But it starts with looking for the thing that they're already thinking. That's a short form explanation of how it's make it compelling like that.

That's pretty darn good, as usual. So thank you. Thank you, Dean. All right, so, Joel, are you ready? I'm going to introduce you anytime. Okay, so our podcast that I do with Dean Jackson here is I love marketing. And we're going to turn this into, into a podcast episode as we're doing it live. And so we're going to assume that everyone loves marketing. That's here. So imagine you have the opportunity to get in front of, you know, say 700 of your ideal prospects virtually on or some day at a live event. Your host has given you 45 minutes to make a presentation and close yet close for an offer of your choosing. How confident would you be that you would get the results you want? And an extremely high closing percentage. What if there was a way, a simple way, that you could organize your thinking, pick the right fit message for your audience, deliver that message with power, conviction and believability, all while feeling relaxed, calm and confident? That's what this podcast is going to help you do. Joel Weldon is a longtime member of Genius Network. He's a full time professional speaker and speaking skills coach to hundreds of highly successful entrepreneurs and result leaders. Joel is the oldest member of Genius Network, and yet he has more enthusiasm and energy than some of our members half his age. He's been paid to speak at over 3,000 events and has personally coached and critiqued over 10,000 speakers, which is true. That's why this guy's one of the.

Best in the world.

He's an original founder of the National Speakers association. And there's even a rumor that he's a licensed pork inspector and a notary public. We can't verify these last two facts. Some people can do, and some people can coach. Joel is unique in the fact that he can do both when it comes to making speaking simple and helping you get the results you want every time you open your mouth. Joel is also extremely creative and innovative. Way back in 1974, he created a business card says, success comes in cans, in canots. Okay? And this sits on over half a million people's desks or wherever they do their work. His business card is a heavy 8 ounce can. Okay? So it says, success comes in cans, not in cannots. That message sums up Joel's philosophy as well as ours. Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right. You can do an even better. You can be an even better communicator and speaker. And this presentation from Joel will show you how to do it. So, Joel, what didn't I say about you that everyone needs to know?

Well, how much I love you. That would be a good thing, because I was brought to Joe kicking and screaming about six and a half years ago by a mutual friend. And he told me to go meet Joe Polish. And so I looked him up online, I read his background, and I thought, there's no way I'm going to go meet this guy. So I told my friend, whose name is Martin Howey, I just wasn't interested. He said, no, you got to do it. Well, he didn't let up on me after, like six or seven rejections and me turning him away, he did the worst thing a friend can do. He played the guilty card. And he said to me on the phone, joel, I know you don't want to see Joe Polish. I know you don't have any interest in meeting him or what he's doing, but I want you to do it for me. Now, what would you say if somebody said that to you. So I had to go and see him. And within 10 minutes, I thought this was really cool. And that's now over, what, six years ago? And let's see, I paid $150,000 to be around this guy six times of 25 grand. It's the best money I've ever spent. It certainly is the best business decision I've ever made. And as Joe mentioned in the introduction, I'm the oldest member of Genius. I mean, my Social Security card is five. So I've been around a long time, and there is a rumor I was a busboy at the Last Supper, but that's not really true. But seriously, I've been around a long time, and I'm not planning to slow down at all. So that's why I wanted to open and just tell you, Joe, I do love you. And these six years have been just a marvelous revelation of what ideas can do. And that's what we're going to talk about for you, is even though this subject is about speaking, it's really about communicating. And the study was done at the University of Michigan that 71% of the average workday is spent in some form of communication. Listening, writing, talking, reading. All of those are forms of communication. So just ask yourself, self, how good of a communicator am I? Because if your ability to communicate what you have in your mind is so clear that you can transfer that to the mind of someone else, you can be so much more successful than any ordinary person. And that is a learned skill. So our format and. Joe, let me just check what our format is. Dean, are we going to just have a discussion back and forth between the three of us and then any questions that come up? Because you can stop me at any time and it won't throw me off at all. So we can go in any direction you want.

Here's what I was hoping to do. I wanted to actually not have you have any clue what we were going to do today, because my sole purpose was to see if I could throw you off because, you know, there's a little bit of pressure. There's not a. I mean, for what you're used to. There's 243 people that are on right now, okay. That are watching this live. And I don't know if we're actually streaming this on the Facebook thing. There could be more over there, which I have no idea because I'm not looking at that. So I want to ask you some questions. I want Dean to be able to pipe in and ask some questions. I have to mention this because this is like a big deal. So Ben Hardy is on right now. I don't know where he's at, but Ben Hardy posted. I attest that Joel is the best. Excited to learn. And Ben has been the number one writer in the world@medium.com. he's got millions of people that read his stuff. He's one of the most amazing people on the planet. Young guy, PhD, and his latest book is called Personality Isn't Permanent, which you've heard me talk about on the last two meetings, which is awesome. And there's a lot of people that if you just read the comments about what people are saying about Joel here, I'm not obviously reading all of them, but there's some good ones. So yeah, we'll do some Q and A with you, Joel, and then we'll do some Q and A with the audience so that people here listening, after they get some stuff, they can ask you some questions. So, Dean, you want me to start.

Or you want to start?

You go right ahead.

Okay. So, Joel, over the course of your career, what are the three most valuable speaking and presentation lessons you've learned or discovered?

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. 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. 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 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.

I think that this you recommend. There's not much I can tell 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, 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. 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 to. 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.

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'd 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 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 Fabricare 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 sold 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. 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. 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 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. 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, 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 to 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. 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 know, 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?

I've got to read this because there's this comment from Celia Black, who's like, fricking brilliant. And she wrote, I get stuck thinking that no one wants to hear what I have to say. 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. When someone's doubting themselves and they're yet at the stage where 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, 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. 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 you're subject is, 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. That doesn't sound as. Yeah, what's Ben gonna say?

Where's Ben? Ben, where are you? You know, it'd be really funny if he's, like, nowhere to be found right now. Okay, there you are.

Maybe he's changing a diaper.

Now, Ben, here's what I wanted you to say. So you just wrote, personality is impermanent. You've just done this exhaustive research, and you have literally found that most personality tests not only are not accurate and valid, they're dangerous in some cases. And this whole introverted, extroverted, and all the labels that people give, you literally have all this proof, and you wrote an entire book. So if someone's like, I can't do this, you're like, well, yeah, but you can become whoever you want to become within the ability of your ability to develop yourself. So the thing that made me think about this is the whole subject. I'm nervous, or no one wants to hear my ideas. Your personality, like, speak to that topic, Ben, if you could. Because again, you just wrote a whole book on this.

So I think Joel said it best. He said that speaking is a learnable skill. And pretty much anything is a learnable skill if you invest in it and if you visualize it and if you. Obviously if you develop the skill. So whether it's extroversion, whether it's speaking, all of these things are learnable skills. What specifically you want me to talk.

About more so than anything I tell people. Like what? Because you actually teach them in your book what they can do to dramatically improve their life, no matter what sort of excuses or stuck points they have. So do a pitch for your book. I mean, that's, you know, if it wasn't obvious. I'm a marketer.

So one thing that's really cool is that they did a whole study on about 300 people who went to Harvard for the study, went for 75 years. And basically, when you look at someone's life over 75 years, there are many unexpected changes that happen. So, I mean, the research is pretty obvious that your personality. Well, I'll just talk to anyone here. So if you think about who you are right now, you're probably not exactly the same person you were 10 years ago. Hopefully you've made some adjustments. And I'm sure that if you actually look at it, you're not exactly the same. But ultimately, the goal is that you visualize your future self, Joe, and all of you guys help people do is all of the research in psychology is pointing towards the future, not the past. For about 100 years, the whole field of psychology said that the past is what drives you, and that's. That's false. It's not actually the past that drives you. It's actually the future that draws you. The future is the thing that draws all your decisions. And so what you want to do is obviously you want to visualize and decide who your future self is, then make that your new narrative. You start investing money into that. And that's what I did. I started investing big into Genius Network, into learning how to speak with people like Joel Weldon. When you start investing in your future self, you start to develop the capacity and the attributes of your future selves. And that's where you start to break out of the patterns and the habits that have gotten you stuck. And so we can all do it. And actually, what the research shows, and this is all straight out of Harvard, is that very few people actually conceptualize their future self and make that their new narratives. And your identity, by the way, your identity and your personality are two different things, but your identity is actually way more important. Your identity is the way you describe and define yourself. And most people, if you ask them who they are, they define themselves all about either the past or the present. Very few people are very strategic at defining their future self and using that as their narratives. But your narrative is usually the thing that predicts your behavior. And your behavior over time becomes your personality. So my invitation for people is, who is your future self? And when you get into rooms like this with Joe and others, you know, your future self gets a lot bigger. And I can honestly say, and, you know, I just love to do this, Joe, but I invested in Genius Network about three years ago. My whole life is completely different. I wouldn't have met people like Joel. So I just wanted to thank you, Joe, for investing, you know, for letting me be a part of your group. It's really changed my life. And those types of investments, by the way, shatter your subconscious. Investing. This will be my last thought, Joe. But investing money into your future identity really is how you upgrade your subconscious.

Right?

Right.

No, thank you. Thank you, Ben. And I'll tell you, like, I remember, Joel, you will remember this. When Ben first, like, talked, I think the first presentation he probably ever gave was maybe a Genius Network, right? And he was so nervous, and he had. I mean, we're talking. Ben is an incredibly smart guy. Right. I mean, highly educated, so well researched. He's, you know, I mean, I'm just annoyed with him because he's 20 years younger than me. It's the ability to now go out and speak. And. Ben, how many podcasts have you recorded in the last year?

Probably like 250. I did about. I did about 250 in this year, actually in 2020 in preparation for the Personalities of permanent launch, I did about 250.

Wait, wait, so you recorded 250 podcasts in the last six months of this year?

Yeah, probably since around COVID 19 started. I just, I hired someone. I did some who not how action. Got someone on my team who was amazing. And my schedule was just packed about five a day for about three and a half months. And I just. So I was on a ton of different podcasts. A lot of huge ones, a lot of mid tier ones and small ones, but it was great. And a lot of them haven't even been released yet, honestly, probably 60 of them haven't even been released yet, and they'll be released in the next 60 days.

There you go. I mean, if there's something to be said about just doing the work right, think about how much better you get at your explaining what it is, you know, when you're on that many podcasts. So this all goes back to speaking. Even if you're not in front of a live audience, you are so you're talking to someone and communicate. It is truly an amazing book and the audio version is fantastic also that you actually, I usually don't like it when the author doesn't read their book. You actually have a reader for your new book, which is amazing.

I picked him, Joe. He was my favorite audiobook guy. Sorry. He actually did the Body Keeps His Score. He's done some of my favorite audiobooks and so I handpicked him. He's one of the best audiobook guys in the business.

So awesome.

So awesome. So thank you. All right, so we'll go back to Joel. Joel, let me ask you, what's the best way for someone to organize a speech and ensure it fits the audience they're speaking to?

Okay, so the question is really how best can you organize all the ideas you have in your mind and connect them to your audience? So let me give you a hypothetical situation. Imagine as you're listening to this, somebody says they want you to do. Ben mentioned 250 podcasts, so they want you to do a podcast you're going to be on an hour, but instead of that, they say to you okay, we're going to do a podcast. Talk as long as you want. If you want to take two days, go for two days. You want three days, four days, we'll just keep recording. Talk as long as you want. Do you think that would ever happen? No, it's never. I've been paid to speak at over 3,000 events. As Joe said, not once has anybody ever said, talk as long as you want. They said you've got 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 2 hours, 3 hours, whatever it is. So that's what you need to think of. You know so much about your subject, your expertise. You could talk literally for days about that subject, but we only have an hour podcast or an hour webinar. How do you know what to put in? And that's where it goes back to thinking about your audience. The only thing that you should put into a presentation are the ideas and thoughts that meet the needs of your audience that day in that experience on that subject, or help them overcome their worries, concerns, or fears, or reinforces what they're already doing well, successful. And that goes back to those three words I mentioned in the beginning. Needs, fears, and victories. And when I created that part of a system, it made it so easy to organize your thinking to 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours. And that's what we did with Ben when he made that first presentation at Genius network. We had 10 minutes. And when we started out working on the phone on this presentation, it was like 22 minutes long, so we had to cut it in half. And we ended up with really the essence of what his message was, which was how to build your email list. So that's really the best way to know that you're going to have the right subject for the right audience at that time. Does that make sense?

But Joe, one of the things he always teaches me, and he said it many times, is to make it about the audience. But it's crazy how much time you can cut from your speaking if you just literally think of one to three points you want to make and just deliver on those one to three points straight to the audience. So many people spend half their time talking about themselves. I just want to attest one more time if anyone's thinking about Joel's program, I wouldn't have been able to speak on the Genius Network annual event, honestly, if it wasn't for Joel. So just wanted to say one more time, like, he will teach you the best stuff.

And Joel hasn't even pitched anything. So, Joel, you're going to almost have to now. So no thank you, Ben. I really appreciate it.

With Joel Weldon. Not only is he a very handsome.

Man, but I love something I learned from Joel really early was your audience needs to know where you're going.

It's like getting on a bus and the bus has, this is the destination. And too often in my talks and.

Other talks, it takes about halfway through.

Or 10 minutes into the talk before.

You realize, oh, that's what she's talking about.

So Joel made that really clear and.

That made, I think a lot of people much better speakers. And he's handsome. Let me give you the system for doing that. Tim Paulson. Thank you. Mrs. Paulson's little boy. And he's one of my other sons that I'd love to adopt. Thank you. Having two daughters and two grandsons and two granddaughters, I could use a guy like Tim. And the way that you can open a message to do just what Tim said to make it impossible for the audience not to know what you're talking about is to use three, four letter words. Know, have, feel, K, N, O, W, have, feel. So in our time together, you're going to know, what are they going to know? Are they going to know facts, information, statistics, data, what are they going to learn about what are they going to know? You'll also have, then what are you going to give them? Maybe you're going to have a handout, maybe you're going to have a follow up program, maybe you're going to have an opportunity to ask you questions. So what will they know? What will they have? And then the last one is, and I know Jennifer Carroll wants to jump in on this one, how is this going to make you feel? Because remember, people don't remember what you say, they remember how you made them feel. So what is the feeling? So as a result of what we're going to talk about, you're going to feel even more confident, you're going to feel even more courageous, you're going to feel even more optimistic about your future. What is going to be the end result of the feeling you're going to leave your audience with? And just think for a moment how many times you've heard a speaker when you were at a live meeting turn to the person next to you and said, what are they talking about? It happens all the time. It will never happen. If you put in those first few minutes, here's what you're going to know, here's what you're going to have, and here's how it's going to make you feel. So with that said, let's get started with the first idea. And now you're into your presentation. So that's one of the tools in our system on how to open any message. So it's impossible to be misunderstood. Well, thank you, Tim, for bringing that up.

You know what, Joel? When it comes to longevity and stuff, the way my weird brain works in the back here, I've got this Nightingale Conant program that me and Tim Poulson did together in 2003. 2003, 2004. When was it, Tim?

2004.

Okay. And it's the number one selling marketing program in the world for Nightingale Conan. It sold millions of dollars worth of this program. It's called Piranha Marketing Success 7 Success. Multiplying factors to dominate any market you enter. And you can now get this actually on audible. Paul Culligan is there holding it up. And this is the one that look at.

This is the cassette tape version. Right.

Then we have the CD version. Then, of course, they ended up moving it to all online. Right. So people can get it on audible. But here's the thing. Darrell Sutherland printed up this domino. And you guys have probably heard me talk about the first domino. What are the things that are first domino? Well, you were act friends with Earl Nightingale, who literally created Nightingale Conant. And as a matter of fact, if you think of NSA and all of this stuff, we wouldn't even know each other. All of us. And all these things that have happened in the world of personal development and Jim Rohn and Brian Tracy and Tony Robbins tapes and all of this stuff, had it not been for individuals like that that built an organization about sharing the speaking and communication of other humans. And now all of this stuff is licensed, you know, to audible. So it's, it's just this, the history of the personal development industry. I mean, you are truly, you've been there since the beginning when all of this stuff happened, because Earl Nightingale had.

The first, first gold record hanging on.

The wall that you gave me a copy of that.

Yeah, yeah.

So, I mean, what makes in your mind, people successful at speaking and what causes them to fail?

Well, I think the answer to the first question is what makes a successful speaker? It's one word results. I mean, if we think of the great speakers in our nation's history, John F. Kennedy, what did he say? We're going to land a man on the moon in 10 years and bring him home safely. What was the result? We landed a man on the moon and brought him home safely. Ronald Reagan said, Gorbachev, tear down that wall. And what happened? The wall was turned down. Martin Luther King said, you know, I have a dream. And what happened with the civil rights movement? Look at the results those three speakers got with the words that they used. So that's what you need to think of as a communicator. What are the results that you're going to get? And one of the things in this system that I've developed is I've tried to create tools and ideas that are so doable, so simple and easy to use, and I frame them around a word, a sentence that you taught me, Joe, that little hinges swing, big doors, that little tweaks just like opening with no have feel. So let me share with you as a listener one of the other little tweaks you could think of. Let's say if I said to you, joe, I can help you earn more money. Now that sounds like a good statement, but you're probably pretty broke right now. Or if I said, joe, I can help you get in better shape, chances are you're probably not in very good shape now. But if I add one word in front of better or more. So here's the tool. Anytime you use the word better or more, put in even. So let me give you that statement again. Joe, I can help you earn even more money. Joe, I can help you get in even better shape. Look how the tone of that message completely changes by giving your listener credit. Now, that doesn't mean they can't get in better shape, but it means that they're already doing something in the right direction. And just that word, even. So, in working with so many of our members at Genius Network on their presentations, just putting little tweaks like that, it's simple stuff. But it's taken me 46 years to figure these things out by watching and critiquing over 10,000 speakers and seeing how little things like that can make a difference. So think about just little tweaks, easy things.

I totally agree. The interesting thing about what you just said, the psychology behind it is that most of the self help books are what's wrong with you and how to fix it versus what's right with you and how to enhance it. And whenever you approach someone in that way, it's way less threatening and it's more validating and they become more open to hearing what it is you have to say. So that framing that you did is really powerful. And one thing I learned from you early on is you made this analogy that I've talked about quite a bit where you said, if you had a beautiful or valuable painting and you duct taped it to the wall without any lighting, versus if you put it in a frame and you put it in a museum and you had great lighting, all of a sudden it's just a completely different context. So, so much of what we teach at I love marketing with the eight profit activators, before, during, after education based marketing, all of the stuff is really about how to frame and position what it is you do. And then our friend Jason Fladlin has this great line where he's like, anything that you're selling, you want to put information in front of it. Well, people have to communicate in order to do that. So I want to ask you about what are some things that everyone here could do to frame their message in way now you're already talking about. I mean, we're right in the middle of having a whole conversation. All of this is about framing. Right. But I want you to really speak and elaborate a little bit more on that because I think it's so important for people to get that context.

Let's just pick the subject that this podcast is about. About marketing. So just imagine this was your presentation and you're going to talk to the audience that we have tonight about the three most important things they need to know about marketing. Okay? So remember what Ben said. When I started working with Ben three years ago, he had so much information, he had so many great ideas. But we narrowed it down to three things, just three things, so it was easy to follow. And I think that's one of the best ways to frame it is since we're here to talk about marketing and all of these books and seminars that have been done and all the years, Joe, that you've studied these things, I boiled it down to the three most important things that you need to know. So let's start off with number one. And we talk about number one. And one other suggestion is, especially when you're doing an interactive thing like we are, is just like you're interrupting me. Not interrupting, but adding things or asking questions.

No, I'm interrupting you.

You're not interrupting. We're having a discussion. When you have a conversation, it's a two way street. Even though we have hundreds of people listening to us, they can still text in. And I'm sure we'll have some other questions coming up. But when we have this back and forth discussion, it's important. Before we go on to idea number two, does anybody have any questions about what we covered on idea number one? Because this is a tool in our ultimate speaking system. Don't continue with point two if somebody's brain is stuck on point one and they have something that's holding them back. So let's get any questions out. Good. Okay, now let's go to idea number two, idea number three. And since we're talking about structuring a message, we know we have to have an opening, something that grabs them, then we have to have our content, and then we have. And this is where people get confused. They confuse a closing and a call to action, and they're completely different things. The call to action, in my experience and opinion, should never be the close. The call to action should precede the close. And the closing is like the bull on a package. It's an impacting story. It's an emotional connection. It's a reinforcement of a key point. It's something that leaves the audience with a wow. Not a call to action. Sign up for my course. Get my book. No. So let's just say that Ben was going to make a presentation on his book, and he said, you can go to Audible, you can get the book here, you can go to Amazon. Okay. That's his call to action. Then what if he said, on page 116, I tell a story about this man and his wife, and then he uses something from that book as a story to drive home the point. And of course, I'm making this up. I don't know what's on that page. If there's a story about a man or woman in the book. And then if he said, and that man or that woman could be you, your personality isn't permanent. Your personality isn't permanent. Now go out and make it a great day. That's a closing. That's a wrapping up of his message that he would have given to us if we had more time and we could understand what he was saying in the middle of nowhere. That's one of the ways to structure it, is to make sure you're very clear in your mind. And one of the things Earl Nightingale taught me in the three years we spent together, the last three years on our planet, that he passed on in 1989. So he moved here in 1986, and I took him fishing a number of times. He was up on our houseboat at Lake Powell was he described the idea of moving a message from your mind to the mind of the audience. And if you numbered all of the pieces in your mind and could move them like blocks of a building to the mind of your audience, when you got finished, they would see the same picture that you see in their mind. And that's what you can do to be an even better communicator. Get a clear picture in your mind what your message is and what picture do you want this to create for your listeners? And my picture for you as you've tuned in to this I love Marketing Meetup is what Joe started with. I had no idea what he was going to say to me, but that speaking is a learned skill and it is not about you. It's all about your audience. And it's being you. It's being who you are, not a performance. And so many times people think when they're going to hire a speech coach, he's going to talk about how to make gestures and how to use your voice and how to use your eyes. That's ridiculous. I mean, most of the people that are listening to this are over 30 years old. You've spent 30 years being you. Why would you want to be somebody else? And then if somebody sees you in your business off the stage or off a video, they think, well, who are you? You're not the guy that I talked to or listened to or connected to. And that's what, again, about Dean and Joe. All the time I see you both speaking. You are always the same. You're Joe and Dean. What you see is what you get. And that's so wonderful. And every one of you has that. You have your own. You just be you.

I think it's important to make this distinction too, that when people think about something speaking, that they may think, well, I'm not going to do any public speaking or I don't speak to audiences or get up on stage and speak. But everything that you're talking about in terms of all the skills that you share with people, the structure, the formatting of your message, the gathering your thoughts of how to convey it, even words like thinking about those building blocks that no matter what, whether you're speaking in front of a crowd or you're speaking in the boardroom at your company, or you're speaking one on one in a sales conversation with somebody, the better you are at being able to organize your thoughts and present them in a way that conveys the real communication to the person that the only one that matters, the one person that you're talking to, that's really the bigger picture of what it is that you're helping people do.

Could I call on one of our members to add to what you just said? Because when you said, I thought of Jennifer Carol and how the message that she created about prostate cancer husband. And I hope Jennifer is still here. I saw her earlier. Jen, are you still on? Hi, Julie.

Hi.

Well, first of all, Jen and I go way back, and she was one of my first coaching clients that I've worked with over these, what, 15 years maybe.

Plus.

Plus, when you lost your husband to prostate cancer and you wanted to get onto this movement, we worked on this presentation of yours and how it's not all about Phil, it's about them. And just in a short version about getting checked and the coach up in Canada, the hockey coach. So could you share how you were able to do what Dean was saying about structuring and organizing your ideas? Because Jennifer Carroll is a ball of energy. She's going in all different directions. And you found out very quickly that doesn't work in speaking, that your audience needs to be able to follow your message, and that's what you've done with your talk. So take over.

Jen definitely resonated with me when you said, you know, you want to have your wow story after your close, and you helped.

After the call to action. After the call to action, yes.

The story that I had that I shared with you and we left us in the very end, was that I went to visit my son, and I tried. My son, my husband, passed away of prostate cancer. So I was speaking to people all over the world about having health number one and treating health number one and getting checked. That was my bid on bomb, and that was my call to action. It's just, go get checked. And so I told the story about how I went to visit my son who plays professional hockey up in Canada. And as I was there, my late husband was very sick at the time, and I was just going up to see Austin and bring him home to see his father for what ended up being the last time. And while I was there, one of his coaches came up to me after one of the games, and he said to me, hi, Jen. Give me a condolences. I hope your husband's doing well. And by the way, what does he have? And I said, prostate cancer. And he said, whoa, Prostate cancer? Really? I'm sorry. I thought he was fighting for his life. And I thought everyone survived prostate cancer. And I said, well, yeah, if you get checked, you can be one of the 97% of the men in the world that survived prostate cancer. But Phil, he. Yeah, he wasn't that guy. He didn't really believe in going to the doctor. You know, he didn't like to. You know, he didn't, you know, Go in there. He didn't want to go and get checked. And he looked at me and he said, oh, I'm sorry. And I went home, and I took Austin home, and he said goodbye to his dad. And sadly, Phil passed away shortly after. And fast forward a couple months. I was back in Canada, and I was watching my son play another hockey game, and up comes Coach Jeff, and he gave me his condolences. He said, I'm sorry to hear that your husband passed away. It's very tragic. And he said, but I want you to know I went in and I got checked. And you know me. And you told me to not be afraid, and you told me that you didn't care if I was afraid, and you didn't care if you didn't want to go, and you didn't care about all those things that you wanted me to. To have the opportunity to watch my son live out his dream and walk my daughter down the aisle, and that my husband wasn't going to have the chance because he was home and he was dying. And then you looked at me and you pointed your finger in my face, and you said, you go in and you bend over and you take it like a man. He said, get out. It woke me up, and I went in and I went in and I saw the doctor, and I bent over and I took it like a man. And I need to tell you that today. And you know what? When I was in there and the doctor was putting on my glove, I said, doc, I'm doing this for a woman, and it's not my wife. And it engaged people in laughter, which, of course, it's a tough subject matter. And I. And I'll tell you, you ask anyone at Genius Network, if I stand up, I'm gonna bend over and take it like a man, gal. And it's not maybe what I thought my legacy would be, but it's okay as long as it gets men bending over and taking it like a man. And hopefully save some lives through this shared.

Can you see the impact of that closing to put the rapture on this message about prostate cancer and getting checked? You know, it's one thing to say how important it is, but putting it in a story after the call to action is what made Jennifer's closing so powerful. So thank you, sweet lady, for sharing that. We will talk again. Joe, let's go back to you.

In addition to everything you're talking about, how can people best tailor their speeches and presentations for a virtual environment like we're doing right now?

What I wanted to put together for your members was just a couple of thoughts on virtual communications because that's what we're doing now. That means videos, webinars, podcasts, and as we know, all of this started with COVID 19 and now we've got the mass. Now, I don't know if this is one of our genius network members or if this guy is. I know he is. I think that's John Cecky. In this little eight minute or so presentation, you're going to know how you can be more effective virtually. You're going to have very doable ideas you can use immediately and hopefully you're going to feel confident, excited in any virtual setting. Dean, do you remember what I just did?

Amen.

Look at that.

No have field.

Yes.

Well, times have changed now, Dean. I know you love collecting money, you've used Visa, MasterCard, but now of course we've had to use toilet paper. And this is all part of the new normal. So virtual communications is not going to go away when COVID 19 is defeated. So let's look at the speaker's perspective. As you're watching this interview, think about when you have to do a virtual presentation. It could be a one on one like this picture that you're seeing here. But whatever it is, there's a limited connection with the audience. It is difficult to read and feel. As opposed to a live event where you can see a smile, a laugh or sitting up, cheering, clapping, energy. Or if you're seeing something like this, you know you're in trouble. So one of the things that can help you is avoid distractions. I call them the three P's that's people, phone and pets. Anything that your eyes see when you're on a virtual call, your brain will think about. So you want to avoid distracting views. Let's just say a cat walk past the screen right now in a box. If you're watching your screen, you cannot help but think about that cat. Third idea, people come at different times and leave at different times. When you are at a live event starting at three in the afternoon, 90% of the people are going to be in the room and nobody's going to leave before it's over. So because you don't know when they come or they go, maybe in the beginning you covered some important things. You could say things like as we discussed earlier, or let's review some of the points that you heard in the beginning or remember earlier we discussed those three most important things about speaking now. Also, because they can leave early, they might miss your call. To action. And you're closing. So notice on the screen it says open with your close. Tell them in the beginning where you're going with this. Remember, all of these ideas are in our system, or a little later, you're going to have an opportunity to invest in the system. Okay, so that's your perspective as a speaker. Now let's think of the audience's perspective. It's free, just like this call. I mean, you didn't pay anything to be here. So we don't know when you're coming, when you're going. And as a result, because there's no real financial commitment, people start to Multitask. And Joe SurveyMonkey, I know you've used them a lot. They did a study on virtual calls recently and found 64% are doing other work while on a virtual call, 56% are eating or get this dean. Or making food while they're on a virtual call. 44% are texting, 43% are on social media, and 21% are actually buying something online that has nothing to do with what you're talking about. And the third thing to think of from the audience's perspective is it's really not that important. They can dress casual, which means they could be in their pajamas. So what are the solutions? Let me give you a couple of very simple things you can do as part of a plan, a strategy, and just requires very little effort on your part. First is your mindset. Have a positive expectancy every time you do a virtual presentation. Use tla. TLA is an acronym. Think like your audience. Think like your audience. Hot tip. Dress like it was a live event. So I don't have a T shirt on. I have a more formal dress shirt like I would do at Genius Network. Then we need some equipment. Obviously you need a camera, microphone, lighting, green screen. Hot tip. Set your camera 3 to 4 inches above your eye level so you're looking up, not looking down. Simple thing. And then always look at the camera. Don't look at the screen. And if you use a green screen like I have, keep it simple. You don't want to put a big cityscape like this. People are thinking, is that New York or is that Chicago or is that the Chrysler Building? Or they're not listening to your message. And your message is the king. Your message is what it's all about. And we said earlier, remember these three things. Meet your audience's needs, overcome their fears, and reinforce their victories. And then set the hook early. This is a hot tip. I'm a serious Fisherman, bass fisherman. And when you get a bite, you got to set the hook. That means explain your call to action and use hooks. The nightly news does this every night. If you watch Lester Holt, he says things like this. So tonight in our broadcast, you're going to find out how did a million dollars fall into a schoolyard? And what player got a $100 million contract? And how could it be 92 one day and then it's going to snow the next day? Stay tuned for those stories and a lot more still ahead. And then keep them short and snappy. Hot tip. Act, don't react. If there's some kind of a lack of connection or technical details or not everybody shows up, don't react. One other hot tip, and this is a real important this will make the whole evening worthwhile. Whenever you do a presentation, live or virtual, talk only to one person and their name is you. You can be amazing virtually. Now go out and speak. Virtual is here to stay, get even better at it. And that should be just about eight minutes.

That was great.

What do you think of that, Dean?

I'm Joel Weldon and that's the news.

Well, I know you're so good at seeding presentations and you know when you look at the news, they've got to keep you on for that 30 minutes. So they always do something in it. Whether you hear what Donald Trump said.

Yeah.

Or will you see what happened in New York, you won't believe this. Stay tuned.

So many times. They'll nurture. They'll get that all the way through tonight. Coming up still ahead, next.

Well, this proves that you need a system, that you need an organized way to do things, that speaking effectively is a learned skill. And just like any skill, it just takes time, effort and energy, like Ben said. But if you have the right tools, and that's really what I'm in the business of creating, is the right tools and the coaching to do it. Because the system saves you so much, and I just love that acronym, it saves you stress, time, energy and money. And you need a coach, too, because sometimes you're so close to something, you can't see what you're doing or you don't hear what you're saying. And that's one thing in working with all of our genius network members and so many, John Cecky out there is one of our clients and of course, Jennifer and Ben and Paul Culligan. So it's just little things that can make the difference. And think about this belief that if you make the wrong presentation, it can cost you big time. So every presentation you make is important. You don't want to make a bad one. You want to make them better and better.

With Genius Recovery, which is my passion project, to change the global conversation about how people view and treat addicts with compassion instead of judgment, find the best forms of treatment that have efficacy and share that with the world. That's my statement. That's what we talk about. And we have geniusrecovery.org so it's an educational platform, links to meetings, all these virtual things that you can participate in. If you or anyone you know, struggling with addiction, that's there as a resource. So, and then we have Genius Network. And Genius Network is, I think any problem in the world can be solved with the right Genius Network. So it's a bunch of industry transformers, people like you that are amazing and come and share skills and capabilities. Ultimately, what I try to do is connect people, connect people with ideas, connect people with other people. It's all about connection. So what does connection mean to you, Joel, both personally and in a professional speaking context? Because, you know, when you have a connection with someone, that's what. That's when you get clients. That's how you make the biggest difference in their lives. So what's connection mean to you?

Well, I think it goes back to that premise that I mentioned too, that it's not about you, that the connection really is about them. Like with Jennifer Carroll. The connection that I've had with Jennifer over the years and going through this with Phil and my wife Judy and our daughters involved with her family over these years, this wasn't about, oh, maybe I can get her to hire me to be her speech coach. It was really about helping her in that difficult struggle or seeing how some of the ideas in our ultimate speaking system could help her and then sharing them with her. So I think that's what I've learned in the six years of being in Genius Network is you always open with setting the tone about giving. And Joel, how do you say that? Quote, the world gives to the giver and takes from the taker. Say that exactly the way you say it every time.

Life gives to the giver and takes from the taker.

Yes. Look how well prepared he is for that.

Terrific.

And that's so true. I think that's what connection is all about, is, sure, we all have a self interest, we all need to do business, we all need income, but people sense where your heart is. And that's what I sensed the day that Martin Howey, six and a half years ago, Forced me to come and see you in Tempe, Arizona, in five minutes. I realized this guy wants to help people. And I just felt that immediate connection, even though I didn't know anything about marketing or any of the things that you were doing. And little would I have imagined that I would become such a raving fan of Genius Network all of these years later at a time when most people my age are hanging it up. I mean, my gosh, you said I'm the oldest member. Genius. I feel like a kid in the candy store with all these great ideas you expose us to. So that's what connection is about.

No, thank you. And you take Dale Carnegie, who wrote how to Win Friends and Influence People. Well, what Dale Carnegie was, was the speaker. And Dale Carney actually wrote books on. You know, he wrote Stop Worrying and Start Living, which is another great book. And then he wrote a book on speaking, one of the things that Dan Sullivan says. And you've actually been Dan Sullivan's speaking coach.

Yes, yes. Dan made a great video for me on how much it helped him as a writer because these print, just like Dean said, this is going to help you in your writing as well. And that was what Dan Sullivan said. He got so much out of the coaching that we did together, but it helped him become so much better of a writer because it's the same process. A book or an article is not about you. It's about your reader. How does this help them?

Here's the thing, and I don't think this is actually a stretch. I think one of the reasons why. Because I've never seen you in a bad mood, even though I know you've had very challenging people times. What I didn't bring up here is that Joel went to the dentist and got some sort of. What happened? You literally had heart surgery 2 1/2 months ago. How long ago was it?

March 18th.

March 18th. During the start of all of this, he literally got an infection at a. Going to a dentist for a teeth cleaning, right?

Yes. I picked up a dental infection and it destroyed my heart valve and a main artery. I was in the hospital six weeks. I was in the best shape of my life. I'd never been sick, no problems, and I just had no energy. And my secretary forced me to go and check it out, and they sent me right to the hospital. And it took three weeks to kill that infection before they could do the surgery. Everything turned out great. I mean, it was such a wonderful experience. And the people I met and able to add good things and that's All I kept thinking about, that's good, something good is going to happen from this. There's nothing I could do to change was what it was. But, you know, now I look back on it and it was one of the highlights of this year. And I'm still back doing what I'm doing now.

This is what you call an absolutely insane human right here. He's so positive, right? That being said, Joe, I was to say was. And then you literally went water skiing two months after you had heart surgery and you're 78 years old.

Yes.

And it is massively inspiring. And secondly, I think a lot of your positive attitude to go back to Dan Sullivan, he says people die, obviously, people can have accidents, people can get sick. He goes, when people die, it's because they have no friends, no purpose, and no money. And I think you're speaking. And all of the people that you've shared with, all of the friends that you've developed in the process of doing this, when you put yourself in the role of being a teacher, I'll tell you, like, left to my own devices, I don't want to go out and, like, just meet people. Even though everyone thinks, oh, you're the connection guy. I mean, I'm very curious about humans. I mean, I love learning and meeting interesting people. It's just the teacher role, the interviewer role. Asking people questions is what has created a process for me to go out and actually develop a lot of relationships, which now people know me as. But they think, oh, yeah, Joe just is this connector guy. It's simply because I'm looking for problems that I have that I want to ask the people that have solutions to them. So the point I'm making here is the whole process of being a better communicator isn't just a money thing. I mean, it isn't just sell your products and services. I mean, it's your life. And I swear, I think your life is a function of how much you have put yourself into a role of being an encourager and a teacher to other people, and you live that message. I mean, I've spent so much time around you, even with. With like, incredibly challenging times. You just have tapped into this reservoir of knowledge that has come through this craft that you're talking about right now. So, you know, if people want more friends, if they want more money, I mean, speaking is a vehicle in order to do it. So I think it's a very important thing. And what me and Dean have said many times, I mean, we've encouraged so many people to start podcasts. Because we're like, look, if you just do a podcast, you're going to be out there speaking to people, teaching things, interviewing people. The strategic byproducts that are going to come out of it are really valuable. I mean, we're still trying to find the audio where we're trying to talk Tim Ferriss into doing a podcast. When we were interviewing him probably 10 years ago, because we've interviewed Tim several times on our show, he's like, nah, I don't want to do a podcast. I don't know if that's a good idea. Now he has one of the biggest podcasts in the world. Right. Because he just really put a lot of effort into that thing. And so anyway, the point is, I got one more thing for you and then I'll ask you to tell people how to get your program. Then we'll do Q and A. So if this is a question I have written down, if you were to prescribe one important action step that people would take with everything we've talked about, what would it be if we narrowed.

This down to just one thing?

Yep, one thing. What would be an action step to.

Make your message about your audience and not you?

Why don't you talk about your program first? Because some of the questions may be contained within your program. So what do you sell? How do people get help from you?

Okay, well, one of the things that based on meeting you, created a complete online system of over 200 videos now of audios and printed materials. And what the purpose of it is is to identify all of these tools of a system, how to organize your ideas, how to open, how to close, how to write an introduction. All the things that we've been talking about are available in printed material, on audios and in videos. And it's a one time investment. Once you're in, you never pay another penny. So when I first started the Genius Network, I had I think four or five videos. Now there's over 200 and they've never paid another penny. So there's no recurring investment. Normally it's a 2997 program. And we have a new program called Quick Start, which is a way to write a complete message in under three hours, start to finish, using all of these simple tools in an online course. And that's also included in the ultimate speaking system. And we're going to make that available for 1,500 bucks.

They set up ilovemarketing.com speak S P E A K ilovemarketing.com speak if you're.

Serious about wanting to be an expert. The fastest way to get there is to use speaking and then make your message about your audience get yourself out of the way. Use a system to save you stress, time, energy, and money. Anna.

Anna, what would you want to say? Anything. Hi.

Hi, Anna.

Hi.

This has been great. And yet when I did the annual event, Joel, it was so helpful. What I wanted to add is if speaking is the best way to become an expert, writing a book is the second best way, if not the first best way, along with speaking. And I have a book out. Today is the release day for make youe Mess, you, Memoir. It's all about that. I publish people's books, but it is insane. It has been. Can I swear, such a shit show. This release, like, the best and the worst. Like, I got booked to go on Good Morning America.

The best.

The book's not available on paperback.

The worst.

This guy, Jeff Garland on Seinfeld, heard about it and is now posting about it.

The best.

I didn't sleep all night because, you know, anyway, it's just.

It's.

Everything is. Is. Is highs and lows, just like addiction. And I'm a little bit frenetic right now, so I apologize if I'm acting like a lunatic, but Jo knows all about that, so. But. But it. But, yes, I know that for me, I was just like a girl who did a lot of cocaine. I got sober, I wrote a book about it, and suddenly I was on the Today show talking about as an addiction expert, and I'm like, I don't have a degree. And they're like, you don't need a degree. You have a book. So I have seen firsthand, and Dean knows this, and a lot of people on the call know all about this.

Yeah. Well, the point is, is get whatever your message is, whatever you're communicating, the more effective you can put it out there, the better. Anything that you have, you're going to accelerate it by utilizing what Joel has talked about tonight. So who has a question for Joel? Joel, I have a question about how often you should be practicing in between speaking. How long would you say that should.

Be in between your live performances?

Okay, so the question about practice. I don't recommend practicing what most people would think of as practice. I think the best practice is quietly thinking about your audience, about your message, and how that message is going to help them meet their needs, overcome their fears, reinforce their victories, and get yourself out of the way. The reason I don't recommend practicing it is the reason I don't recommend practicing it and memorize the reason. Okay, so what am I doing? I've memorized something. I'm trying to think of that next word, and I just went blank. And you see that so often. So my suggestion, if you accept the premise, the belief that speaking publicly is a private conversation that a number of people hear at the same time. So if you and I had dinner, would we need to practice what we're going to talk about at dinner? No, we would need to know. Okay, I want to ask you about the trip that you had to xyz. I want to ask you about the kids, and I want to see about your book. So I made a mental note. Those are the three things we're going to talk about tonight. I don't need to think about what words to use. You have been speaking your whole life. That's, to me, the best way to practice. And as a result, you should never give the same presentation twice because you don't have the same audience every time. It's about that audience that day on that podcast, that webinar, that live event, and no one else. And Joe knows, when we talked about him speaking at the National Speakers association, how important it is to customize it to the audience you're talking to. And that's not something you memorize. So I know that might not be the answer you're looking for, but practicing something mentally and seeing it clearly in your mind is one of the best ways that you can do it. There are a few people that I've worked with that can memorize a talk and deliver it effectively, and I can count them on one hand. It's not something most people can do, and therefore, it's not necessary. And you don't want it to sound like a talk that's canned. It's a conversation. So hopefully that'll answer that question for you.

Joel, I want to say something. You helped me with that presentation I was given at National Speakers association, so we did it at the headquarters here, which actually is located in Tempe, Arizona. I never even prepared that presentation. I talked about things I've spoken about before, but you actually, you introduced me. You helped me organize it, and it was the highest rated speech in NSA's history at their headquarters there. And I don't even consider myself a public speaker. I just think of me as this marketing guy that happens to speak, and I run, you know, a pretty amazing group. Right. What I think we should do for everyone that gets your package is because we. I've not. I've never distributed that talk. But someone here is asking, like, what's a great introduction? Well, the best introduction is you showing the model, doing an introduction. Like, if anyone gets Joel's program, well, you'll have to let us know that you got it so that we know.

I'll let you know, everybody.

Yes, Jenny, put in here ilovemarketing.com speak and they get a 50% off coupon of the course. Use the code ILM, as in Ilove Marketing ILM to get the course. But let's include the NSA presentation that I did with you introducing me and people seeing how I did it, because it literally got all like, I think four stars or whatever they rated on different things. And it was across the board. And I was like, blown away because had you not helped me with that, there's no way in hell I could have done it. So it's not just even what you talk about. It's all these other things that are so important. And I mean, I tell people all the time you're going to be. You know when I tell people to hire Joel in Genius Network, because I've told so many people in Genius Network, like, I got something to sell you want. You know, it's like, hire Joel. Just trust me on this. Even if you're not a public speaker, it's going to help you in all these other areas. Because of what he does, you're going to use it for the rest of your life. So that's. That's what I want to point out. All right, who has another question for Joel? Mike Lamb. I'm down in Gold Canyon, Arizona, right.

Down the street from you. Hey, Mike, my question for this is, first of all, it's a great shot.

In the arm, so thank you.

Just amazing.

You're welcome.

My question for Joel twofold. Number one, have the prices for new speakers gone up and is there a.

Pricing range for doing virtual speaking? Yes and yes. So there's been a big change. Well, first of all, there are no more meetings, so there are no more live events. I mean, I'm sure there are some somewhere, but for most practical purposes in the US And Canada, that's non existent. So as a result, the fees for virtual presentations are generally substantially lower. And I think it's going to be part of our new normal that many of the clients that I've worked with that have gone to virtual presentations have seen an increase in attendance, an increase in positive feedback, no travel time away from their families, and a much more simplified experience. So I don't know what's going to happen obviously in the future. But obviously the virtual presentations do not command the same fees as a live presentation. Mainly because if you hired me to come and speak, it's a two day event. I've got to travel from Phoenix, go to San Francisco, come back that night. If we do a virtual presentation, we'd be going to spend two hours today and I'm sitting here in my office with no travel time. Total investment, two hours, not two days. So, yes, there's a difference. But you need to think most of the people that are on I Love Marketing are using speaking to grow your business. The income that you would generate, there should be no relevancy to a fee. You should be using speaking to position you as an expert to sell the products, services and ideas that your company has and elevate yourself to that expertise status, which is what speaking does. And then as Anna said, and then having a book and using the book as Joe has used, not to make money on the royalties but, but to establish that expertise position. So hopefully, Mr. Lam, that answers your question. It does.

That's coming. Thank you very much, Patricia.

Hey, Joe.

This is Patricia Martin. I'm actually in East Mesa, so I'm in the Valley as well. So thank you, Joe, for putting this together. It's like every time I'm here, I feel like I won the lottery. But I wanted to ask, I am super nervous because I am applying to be, to speak at TED Talks Scottsdale. I'm already on the committee and so on a committee that isn't going to compromise me my ability to apply. So my question is, I have all kinds of stories what people tell me from being, you know, high school dropout, teenage mom, migrant farm worker. And I am trying to figure out what we would recommend is the best. Like, how do you pull out the best story for your best speaking engagement when you, when you feel like you have so much to share, like, how do you narrow that down aside from, okay, the audience, women. But how do you, how do you pull that out of yourself?

I guess that's a great question. Well, one of the things to think of with any personal story or any story of any kind is you always want to open with the point of the story. How many times have you listened to a speaker tell a story and you're thinking to yourself, where is this going? What is this about? What does this have to do with me? But if you said something like this, I know as you're sitting there, you might be concerned about your future. Maybe you don't have an education Maybe you're a single parent raising a child all alone and a shortage of money. You maybe came from another country where English is a second language. And these could be difficult challenges. But I would like to share a story with you to prove that no matter what the challenges you face are, there are answers to every one of those challenges. And as a matter of fact, the three things I just mentioned all happened to me. So just imagine that you're 16 years old and you're pregnant. Now, if you're a man, just imagine a woman 16 years old. You're not pregnant as a man. Okay, so what did I just do? I'm telling your story, and I don't know your story. But you gave me a couple of little points in the beginning. But notice who was pregnant as a teenager. It wasn't. I was pregnant at 16. Imagine you're 16 and you're pregnant. That's putting your audience in the story, that's making it about them, not you. So think of the point that you're trying to make, and what story or information do you have that illustrates that point? Does that make sense?

Yes, absolutely. Thank you.

Okay, now, I know that you have a closing. I have 22 words to close with Joe when we're done. So if you just say, joel, what are your last words? Because remember, the call to action is never the close.

You got it. Paul asked, how do you research your audience ahead of a keynote to speak to each person, even if you're on stage or a stadium? So how do you research your audience ahead of a keynote?

Okay, well, that's one of the tools in our system. But we have a whole series of questions to ask. But as an example, if I was going to try to make the point, like I mentioned, Rebecca, tell the purpose of your story. What's the point? So let's say the point of what I'm going to share with you is how important enthusiasm is. So let's say the audience was a Genius Network audience. And, Joe, I'm going to have you make believe I'm the guest speaker, and I want to customize it to this audience. And one of my stories is about enthusiasm. So one of my questions for my client, which is Joe Polish. Joe, is there a member of Genius Network, a man or woman that just is so enthusiastic and bubbly all the time? Is there somebody that comes to mind that would fit that description?

Jason Fladlin, Jennifer Carroll.

Okay, Jennifer Carroll and Jason Flatland. Okay, so now I have two names. Then I would call up Tim Paulson. Tim, I'M going to tell a story about enthusiasm. And I checked around and I don't really know these people, but Jason Fladlin and Jennifer Carroll, would you say they're enthusiastic? Oh, my gosh. They're off the charts great people. Okay, now, of course, Jennifer Carroll and Jason Fladlin are both clients of mine, so I know them very well. So now I've got the people. So here's how you customize a keynote or any kind of presentation. So we were talking earlier about how important it is to be excited about what you're doing. Now, there are some people who have lots of enthusiasm. Matter of fact, if you took like Jennifer Carroll and Jason Flatland, I mean, they just like off the charts enthusiastic. Matter of fact, if Jason or Jennifer was the captain of the Titanic, they would have said, we're just stopping for ice. I mean, that's the kind of enthusiasm they have. Now there's an example of how you can use the name of somebody and make a point. Now, even if somebody doesn't know Jason or Jennifer, we set them up as being enthusiastic, so asking questions. And there's a whole set of tools on how to customize your message and find out about your audience before you speak, virtual or live. All right, next question.

I was thinking enthusiasm. I should just get Robin Farming. Farming just to say anything.

Oh, yeah, Robin up. Yeah, Robin would be great.

Can you, like, not be enthusiastic? Is there?

No. I have two states of being.

I'm either like extremely brrr or I'm asleep.

That is awesome.

I can remember the cab ride we shared at the annual event in California. I thought, who is this woman? You were just so enthusiastic. So, Robin, you definitely would have said to the passengers, we're just stopping for ice.

And I would have started a company while doing it.

Okay, Joel.

So going back to the communicator, it seems like everything we do, even if, you know, if it's a sales letter or talking about a product or something video sells. Will your course help me to really dial in the what I want to speak about and what I want to convey?

Oh, yeah.

That's what this Quick Start does. It really helps you focus on the content that you have. And then all the other tools help you structure how to tell your personal story and make it about your audience. This is all part of the system. Dave, just as a name dropping. Vern Harnish, who gets 50,000 a talk, founder of EO, very well known entrepreneur and speaker, hired me a couple of years ago to help him on his personal story. He's told this story for 30 years. And I rewrote the story based on the tools in the system. And he called me a few months ago, he said, I have the most important presentation of my life coming up and I'm going to tell that story. And he wrote me afterwards and he said he never had a reaction in the 30 years he's told that story. Like he did when we just flipped the story and made it about the audience instead of about Verne. And the story never changed, but the audience could feel the experience. And that's a tool, that's a tweak. I didn't create a new story, I didn't give them a new story. We just tweaked it. And that's why I love that quote of Joe's that little hinges swing big doors. We're not talking about big changes. Little things make such a difference. Like know, have, feel like even before more and better little things like that.

Brian so when sharing with people the price at the end, I was taught to shut up and not say anything after presenting price, how to call to action. That's really more in a like a one on one sales thing where you actually have that in terms of doing it in front of. I mean, boy, there's a lot of different methods that people have used. I mean, even I had the highest close of giving a presentation in 2011 at Dan Kennedy's summit. And then Robin Robbins, who's been a genius, she's the one that literally gave me the idea to start Genius Network when she was consulting with me years ago. She ended up beating my clothes. I literally did that close with a video sales letter. I think I'm the first person that ever played a video sales letter at the end of my presentation and came up with an elf robotic method of how to close from stage. I want to ask you your opinion on that. I do want to say, though, if anyone wants to watch that presentation, all you need to do is go to ilovemarketing.com type in like Dan Kennedy or Gary Halbert. It was literally what I learned from Gary Halbert. And I closed at the end. But there's a lot of different ways that people close and ask for money. So what would you say to that, Joel?

What you're saying is that old sales technique, whenever you ask a closing question, shut up. But if we're having a conversation with the audience and you're talking about a product or service or an investment. Now, because our format for this was a little different, but many times when I'm Doing a webinar. In my very opening, I would mention very quickly under the have, one of the things you'll have is an opportunity to get the entire Ultimate Speaking system for only $1,500. It's normally a $4,000 program, but I'll tell you more about that later. And I like to get that close right out in the beginning and then near the end, not the ending of the message, because that's the close, but the call to action. I mentioned earlier about the Ultimate Speaking System being only a $1,500 investment, then I would talk about it. So I don't know if you have to think about once you close, never saying anything else, but we tried to make it easy where you could go to the website and you have the link if you can follow it up. Most important, though, on the closing and the call to action, keep them separate. Don't ever end with get my book. Sign up for my mastermind group, join our company, buy this product. You're going to love it. Close with something like Jennifer Carroll did. Get checked. Take it like a man. When I saw that in front of a live audience, Joe, the impact was so powerful. That was the summary of what she was saying.

Joel, I want to ask you before we wrap, if there's any other topics or any questions that we did not ask you that we should have asked you that you'd like to speak to.

Well, I think you've asked about everything except you could ask me. What are the 22 words you want to end this message I've been waiting for? Okay. Dean, did you have a question for me?

Dean, I've been sitting here with my pencil ready, and I've been waiting for Joe to say, dean, do you have.

Anything else to say?

And I'm going to say I've been waiting for 20 minutes for two things. Number one, Joel, you mentioned that you wore a nice shirt like you were doing a live event. But you didn't mention whether you're wearing pants for virtuals.

No, I'm not wearing pants. I have shorts on. There you go.

And that could be your little secret to the audience.

Yes, that's true. I'll tell you the truth or not.

You're wearing pants. Keep them guessing.

The second thing is, what was the second question? I wonder.

These 22 words. We've been sitting, waiting for these 22 words.

Well, if you were to summarize everything you've invested in two hours and 15 minutes on this. I love marketing meetup call and everything, it's taken me 46 years to learn about speaking. Here it is in 22 words. It's on page 148 of your printed toolbox. And you're going to get. If you invest in the program, we're going to send you this printed toolbox. You're going to get a can of success. That's all part of the program. But on page 148, here's a summary of everything in 22 words. Speak to your audience about what they need in an organized way they can follow. And get yourself out of the way. And when you do that, you will become an even better speaker. It's been an honor and a privilege to be with you this afternoon and evening, and thank you, Joe and Dean, for the opportunity.

I want to let everyone know me and Dean have spent no less than $100,000 a year with all of the things we do related to the website, the production, everything for the I Love Marketing podcast. We've been doing it for 10 years, so that means out of pocket. We've spent a million dollars putting out content for free. We don't take sponsorships. We'll occasionally talk about programs. Most of the things that we will promote someone's books. We don't, you know, keep any of those. That money we endorse. We're not beholden to anyone. We don't have to pitch something because we're going to get paid half the money. We could monetize this in much greater ways. We don't. We really put this stuff out there to be helpful to people. So if you find this useful, buy Joel's program because he's an amazing guy. He's very helpful, and I know it'll help. It'll help your life. If you really get a lot out of what we're doing with I Love marketing. You know, go to one, get one of Dean's programs or, you know, make a contribution to Genius Recovery, which is our foundation. So there's, you know, and if you're not able to do any of that, we hope you take this and you share with other business owners that can use it, because a lot of people are struggling right now. And we hope that you take what you learned tonight, you put it into action, and you go and build your mission, your business, whatever it is that you're doing. And it helps just it, you know, it helps people, and that's what we're really doing this for. And it's in it, and we really enjoy it because we really like helping a lot of people. And, yeah, we all have businesses that we're doing. But seriously, like we me and Dean do this as much so that we can learn as we can to help people because one of the best ways to learn anything is to teach it to other people. I mean that's the most accelerated way to learn. There are hundreds of episodes that are all free. I mean best education out there. I think we give away more stuff for free than what most people ever charge for and I hope you find that valuable and I hope you tell other people about it wherever you're at in the world. Have a great night or a great morning and thank you again, Joel. Really appreciate it guys.

Thanks Joel.

Pleasure and make it a great evening.

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