Episode 178: Confidence to Steal the Show with Michael Port

Oh, you are in for an amazing episode. Welcome to another greatest hit of the Profit first podcast. Michael Port's been a longtime friend of mine, and he was kind enough to come on during the first year of the Profit First Podcast, and, man, he hit it out of the park. You are going to learn how to gain amazing confidence when you deliver the most important speech of all time, which is perhaps your. Your next speech. You see, Michael explains, when you steal the show, it doesn't have to be on the stage. It could just be on the stage of life. It could be your next business meeting, your next discussion with a spouse or a loved one, the next anything. It's time for you to steal the show.

Barry, do you like when Michael Port is a guest on the Profit first podcast?

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

You're listening to the Profit first podcast.

And you're in for the best episode of all time. Episode 49. Oh.

Ow.

Purposely tripping up the old struggle.

No, that was not on purpose. No, no, I. I Knew it was 40, and then it's like, is it 6 or 9? I didn't know if I was reading the right.

Oh, okay. Welcome, everyone, to the show. I'm Chris Curran. I'm the founder of Fractal Recording.

And I'm Mike Michalowitz, the author of Profit First. And you're listening to the Profit first podcast, where you learn everything. I mean, every ang. Stinking nook and cranny of profitability.

That's right. And we talk to. We have guests on the show who are really good at being profitable, and I think today is no exception.

Oh, my. Are you kidding me? Dude, this guy. Last time I saw this guy, it was on his boat, which was bigger than my house, just so you know, cruising around the bay down in Maryland. I think he's making a few dollars.

Yeah. And we're not ready to get to him just yet. But I did leave him unmuted. Just.

I don't know.

That's my new. My new thing.

Oh, God, I feel safer already. Oh, I'll try to refrain myself.

Oh, there it is. You don't recognize that voice?

All right, before we get to our guest, what do we got to do?

We got to thank our sponsors, man. Our corporate partners.

Yes.

Fund Box. They heard Michael Ports coming on. They're like, we're still in. They said otherwise.

Did you say. Wait, did you say Fun Box?

No, not fund. Fund with a D. Okay.

You gotta articulate clearly. Fundbox.

Yeah, Fundbox is a whole different thing. Do not go to fundbox.com.

This is why I wanted you to clarify, Michael, because that's Michael Port's other business.

Yeah, that's why. Okay, so now we're getting to the root of the truth. The reason Michael Port is so successful is because his domain, funbox.com it came out there at the same time as YouPorn and he's just dominating this week. Ye.

So that's a box to your house.

Did you say dominating?

Listen to you, bro. All right, so fund box heard Michael Port's coming. They said we're back. Fundera. They said we're back if Michael Port doesn't come. We said, well, he's not coming on this show. And I said, okay, we're back. So we lied to them. Then nextiva and T sheets, all four are here to support this show. Thank you, guys.

Right. And we really like our corporate partners. They're not just like random advertisers either. They're really good companies. And you use pretty much all of them, right?

Use all of them. Yeah. They're not randomized advertisers. They're very specific advertisers. They specifically advertise to you. Listener. All right, dude, what have you been up to? Before we get Michael poured in, I got to know what Chris Curran's been doing.

You know, just really starting to make more phone calls and trying to get in touch with more business authors. I'm a one man band, so one. One of the thing I like about being a host. Co host on this show is that I get to learn from all our guests about how to. Yeah. And you know, sometimes we have babies in the studio and bruh. And. But. But you know, I learned a lot from someone who is going to be on a future episode about. Yeah, I know it's weird, but about execution because I'm an idea guy and execution is so important. And so stay tuned for more on how to execute.

Well, Chris, you better get your pen ready because I swear to God you're going to learn the most of all episodes on today's show.

Oh, I love it.

Because Michael's going to be talking about steal the show. Brand new book he has out. Listen, listener, if you don't have that book, what is your problem? Get it. The smartest investment of all time is buying a book. It's like, what, $21. Could you. What would you pay Chris to spend five hours with Michael Port and him sharing everything he knows with you? Everything he knows a lot.

I'd spend a lot of money and I'd maybe bring some.

Would you spend $100.

Tea. I'd spend thousand. At least a thousand.

Absolutely. Yeah, you would scratch together something.

I'll send the invoice right now and I'll have my assistant call you up to schedule the time.

But I'm just telling you, Michael, it's.

Going to cost you a lot more than $1,000.

Michael, I was going to say, yeah, that's a dream.

But here's the deal. You would spend a lot of money to spend a lot of time with Michael port and. And get the best of what he knows. Now here's the beautiful thing. Michael took the best of what he knows. He compiled the notes for you, ready? Put it together in a readable format, and he gave it to you in the form of a book. The smartest investment of all time is knowledge. And the easiest and most inexpensive way to get the best knowledge is a book. So steal the show, get his book and this really quick. What I've been up to is I got my soundboard back. Yeah, I'm big and happy about that. All right, well, you know who our guest is. He has a brand new book out there called Steal the Show. It is stealing all the thunder from my books as I see them fall in the rankings compared to this book. It is a top seller. It is a must read. I have been blessed with an early copy. Love it. It's not just for public speaking. It's for any performance in your life. If you have to speak to two people, if you have to do a sales call, or if you got to get up on stage, this is the book to read. And this is the author to. To be reading from. Michael, welcome to our show.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

So you're in the throes of a book launch. Where in the world are you right now?

I'm actually on my boat right now.

Are you kidding me?

No, I'm not kidding you.

Oh, my.

I wish there was video I'd show you. It's gorgeous out here. It's absolutely beautiful. I apologize. Yes. This is book launch week. This is book launch week.

Yeah, yeah.

But, you know, you got, you know, look, all. All work and no play. Make big thoughts go away. So I need a little bit of time, you know, re. Energize. We've got a big event on Monday. You are coming. Which makes it much bigger. And so, you know, a little time on the boat, you know, helps out.

There you go. Recharge the batteries. Absolutely.

Yeah. But I do. I will confirm what you're saying, Michael. We're number one. And everywhere, just everywhere. Just think of a place and Steal the Show is number one.

Well, I'm going on Amazon right now. I'm going to verify what you're saying.

All right, well, it's actually, it's 160something overall, so it's not. There's a one in that. So it's 100. But then in all.

I'm pulling it up. Let's see where it is right now. Steal the show, number one bestseller right here in running meetings and presentations is already listed, 98 reviews. It's been out for two days. It is. You weren't kidding. Number one in running meetings and presentations. Number one in public speaking, number one in sales and selling. Damn.

And, and check this out. Check this out. My mom's listening. She's listening. So I'm saying this just for her. I'm not, I'm not bragging. It's just for my mom. We pulled a hat trick today in new and notable for Steal the Show, the podcast. Number one new and notable in business, number one new and notable in education, number one new and notable in society and culture all at the same time.

And you know, I called you, right, or emailed you right after the book launch and I said what I said in that email is authentic. Can I borrow 10 bucks? But above that, I said, I think this book. Listen, you wrote book yourself. Solid. Beyond book. Solid Think Big Manifesto. This guy writes amazing books, Christina. Of all his books, Michael, this is the one that is going to go so effing big. It's so obvious because it speaks to everyone and it speaks to. To that core inner challenge we all face. It's the word confidence.

Yeah.

Tell us how this addresses confidence, Michael.

Okay, but I want to talk about profit first. First take over the show, bro.

Whatever you want. I like that.

No, I'm serious. Because, listen, listen. No, I, I just read it and it's fan. Can I curse? Can you gonna beat me out here?

No, there's no, there's no curse on the show.

Okay, I'm sorry. I won't do it now.

You can't.

It's fan tastic. You know, people, one of the reasons I, I got it and I bought it on my own. I didn't say, mike, can you send me a true book like you did? And I sent, but I went and purchased it, actually bought it, because in my events, people started getting up and talking about it. So it's just started popping all over. This is. Why is. Why are people talking about Mike McAllister? This does not usually happen. So I had to look into this and it is absolutely. I think personally, it's one. And I'm not just saying this for your listeners. I'm not just, you know, sort of fluffing you up here. I'll do that when I see you on Sunday.

But you're a fluffer is what you just basically said.

Exactly right. But hold it there, cracker boy. I'm not finished.

I'm sorry.

It's one of the most important books that has come out in our industry because so many folks focus on how do you make more money, how do you market better, how do you sell better, you know, how do you execute better, et cetera, et cetera. But very few people really have addressed profit first in the way you have put together an actual protocol that's easy to follow, really straightforward. And I think it's so incredibly important that I'm going to start having my clients read it. Because, you know, the folk. We have two different businesses. One's on the book yourself, solid side, and then, of course, the public speaking side. But in the book yourself, solid side. You know, we're always teaching them marketing and sales, business development, project management, et cetera. And this is not something we do. And it's so important. And I'm reading this book and going, I can't believe we're not addressing this. It's primarily because I wouldn't know the first thing about it. But now, you know, I can give them this. And I just. So I just want to commend you. I think it's absolutely outstanding. And in fact, I went over to bank of America. We're switching. We have a number of different business accounts for different businesses now. I'm bringing them all over there. I'm like, give me six accounts. Just give me six.

Nice.

What? I was like, you haven't read Profit First? He's like, no. I said, well, here you go. You got to read it.

It's so that's my.

That's my pitch. I know this is going to extend the interview a little bit longer, but I just wanted to say that because it's really important that everybody hears it.

Oh, stop.

Thank you for that. No, stop. Continue more. No, the accolades from you are so tremendous. Thank you, Michael. And yeah, I really do hope it serves the world. Now back to my man, Steal the show. You know, the big issue so many people have, I have it, too, is confidence. I mean, I enter something new and I don't know if I can pull it off. But when it comes to the performances of life. Speaking in any venue, confidence is the big thing. How do you address confidence?

Well, if you think about our life, it's made up of lots of high stakes situations. And how we perform during those situations often determines the quality of our life. So if we fall flat, you know, when the spotlight's on, not a lot happens. But if we can shine during those moments, I think we can do big things. And one of the reasons that we get so anxious is because we're not prepared. A lot of us go into these high stakes situations and wing it and think that we'll rise to the occasion, but we do not rise to the occasion. As the military says, we fall back in our training. So this is going to be a very extreme example, but I'm making it extreme intentionally. If, if someone, if someone gave me a soldier's weapon, if they gave me an AK47 and they said, listen, we're not going to train you on how to use that thing, we're not going to teach you anything about combat, but we're probably going to call you over the next couple weeks, just ask you to step into a firefight in Afghanistan. How's that sound? And I'm sure you'll figure out how to use the weapon while you're there. Of course, there's no way, there's no way I could possibly figure that out just in that moment. But if I'm prepared, if I'm trained, then I can handle myself in a difficult situation. And the same thing is true for life's regular high stakes situation. So that's number one. Number two, we obsess and focus on ourselves and our own needs and our need for approval. So one of the reasons that we're not confident is because we're trying to get approval from other people rather than focusing on getting results. And when you focus on approval, you're thinking about, well, how do I look right now? You know, do I sound good? Oh, shoot. I just said an. That means they're going to hate me. They're going to think I'm stupid and we're afraid of rejection and it's perfectly normal. I don't like to be rejected. I mean, I know, Mike, you've been rejected for most of your life. And it probably doesn't, probably doesn't feel good.

It doesn't.

But no, it doesn't. It doesn't. And I feel for you, but nobody wants to be, nobody wants to be rejected. And that, that's one of the reasons we're so afraid so what we do is we play it safe. We play it safe and we don't take risks. And we kind of go up there just trying to fly under the radar and not rock the boat. And that's one of the reasons we're not confident. Look, I screw things up all the time. We all do. Anybody that's out there in the world trying to do cool things is going to make mistakes often. And so what we're trying to do is raise the stakes. One of the important performance principles that I introduce in the book is this idea of raising the stakes. Because when you, when you look at performers, performers are really interesting when they raise the stakes. When things are pedestrian, it's not particularly fun, it's not particularly interesting to watch. But when the stakes are high, well, that's when people want to watch us. And that's what's exciting. And I just want to make a really important point. Sometimes when the people hear the word performance, they think fake, they think phony, they think that you're manufacturing something or pretending. And sure, there are certainly people who will do that, no doubt. But the kind of performance that I'm addressing in Steal the Show is authentic performance, honest performance based on your voice amplifying different parts of your personality and sometimes downplaying parts of your personality that are not necessary for a given scenario. And instead of being rigidly fixed on only one way of being rigidly fixed on only one style of behavior, we start to see ourselves. We start to say, we start to act as if. We act as if we're much more comfortable in different situations. We start to play different roles in different situations authentically based on different parts of our personality. We never let go of our values. That's different. But being a chameleon is very, very useful tool in all aspects of life. And a chameleon is not inauthentic. In fact, a chameleon is more authentic than you might think. Because when a chameleon's on a green leaf, it turns green. When it comes on a red leaf, it turns red. It's not pretending to. It's true to itself. So, you know, this thing of confidence is. Confidence is, is earned on the battlefield. We really don't know what we're capable of until we do the training. And a big part of Steal the Show is focused on how to rehearse for these high stakes situations. Sales meetings, negotiations, job interviews, of course, public speaking. Nobody who taught us to rehearse, nobody taught us this. And I learned it when I got my master's at nyu, the graduate acting program there, we were trained, we were taught how to rehearse, but nobody would know that otherwise. So that's one of the things I've done, is I've brought a very specific process for rehearsal to the regular person who has never been taught that before in their life.

Well, I want to talk about the rehearsals because you mentioned you can't wing the high stakes. And everyone listening into this podcast has a business. They are in the high stakes game of making the next sale. That's their performance. You can't rehearse that, can you, Michael? I mean, I can't practice. I can't practice for something that hasn't happened yet.

Of course you can. That's exactly, that's exactly what rehearsal is. There's. There's a difference between practice and rehearsal. Practice is something that you do to develop skills. Practice is something you do to develop skills. Rehearsal is something you do to become more familiar with a given situation. Situation. Rehearsal is something you do to become more familiar with a given situation. And when you're well prepared and you're in the moment, which is another critical principle of performance, then you can be spontaneous. People think that winging it is what's going to make them spontaneous. Winging it will often take you out of the moment because you're grasping at what to say next. You're thinking frantically about what to do next. But if you're rehearsed. So if you've got a big sales meeting coming up, how many times did you run through that meeting with other people doing a mock meeting? How many times did you go through that pitch? Did you go through it in your head a couple times? Did you maybe sit down once and talk it through, like, here's what we're going to do. Or did you rehearse that for hours and hours and hours until you are so comfortable with it that you can change in the moment, in the actual pitch because you're so comfortable with the material, then you can improvise. But without that ability to, without knowing exactly what you're going to do, when you're going to do it, you don't have the ability to improvise in the same way. Then you're just winging it. But improvisation and preparation, when they meet, that's when you get spontaneity.

You know what just clicked in my head is a guy like you. I know, I know you're speaking for you because you've told me, but I mean, you get tens of thousands of dollars if I can share that and when people are pitching like, well, Michael Port's a big deal. He's a superstar out there. Everyone knows his name but me. I'm just an entrepreneur. I'm just, I'm just doing day to day sales. But now think about it. This is what clicked that entrepreneurs are doing that 20,000, $30,000 sale in a sales meeting with two people, as opposed to Michael Port, who's in front of 2,000 people.

Of course. Absolutely. They're actually, what they're doing makes more sense. I'd rather get 30,000 from two people than have to work, you know, to try to get it from 2,000 people. So, absolutely, the stakes are just as high for sure. And look, first of all, first of all, this whole idea of, you know, me being a superstar or something special is, is, is for Coca. It's ridiculous. I'm just like any other entrepreneur who has figured out what they're good at and leveraged natural talents and developed skill in areas that are supported by those talents. So when we, when we distance ourselves from people who are doing the kinds of things that we want to do, then we decrease our confidence. So anybody who's listening, you know, don't put any of us on a different plane. You know, we're all much more similar than we are different. And if we can identify what we are talented in and then we can exploit that leverage that, you know, we can tend to do pretty well and, you know, produce our own definition of success in the work that we do.

Hey, why are so many people afraid to sell? I mean, that's the big performance that we're focusing on right now. Why are so many people just afraid to sell what they have?

I think there could be a couple different reasons. I think sometimes we think that the selling is about us, and ultimately I think we're afraid of being rejected. Otherwise, what are we afraid of? Maybe we're afraid of delivering. Can we deliver on our promises? That could be another fear that people have. You know, I'm gonna make this promise and will I be able to deliver it? So there's that and then there's the, you know, am I worth this money? You know, am I worth it? Who, who am I for them to be buying from me? There's those questions come up too. But our reputation is based on our ability to make commitments and fulfill them. That is our fundamental value to the world around us. If you say you're gonna do something, you don't, nobody wants to play with you. Again, if you're not willing to make commitments in the first place, nobody wants to play with you at all. So this ability to make commitments and that's what sales is about. Look, here's my promise. And my promise is to deliver on that. And we. And it's helpful, I think, to remember that people, people buy to express their own values. They don't buy to express your values. They buy to express their own values. So for example, let's say you saw my credit card statements and it said that I was in Vegas every weekend, that I had a case of Smirnoff delivered to my house every week.

And you do own box, by the way, so clearly that's all true.

Funbox.com yeah, and you know, there was 20 leased Porsches and Maseratis in the garage. You get a set of one value system, you go, okay, I understand what this person values. But if you saw my credit card statement and it was very, very different that I, you know, I was, I was reading books every day on investing or some other kind of personal development or I read all of Mike Michalowicz's books. Profit First Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. What else?

Pumpkin plan.

Pumpkin Plan. Thank you very much.

And My Day in the Life with Michael Port is the newest one.

And My Day in Life with Michael Port. So, you know, if I read and then, you know, let's say it's, I send my kid, my kid to, to after school activities and etc, etc. You get a picture of a different value set. I'm not judging. I'm not saying one's better than the other. I'm just saying it's different. So people express their values through what they buy. And you're giving people the opportunity to express their values by buying your services. And if they don't value it, then get focused somewhere else. You know, that's not the person that you're meant to serve.

That is, that's a doozy. I'm remembering that one forever. People express their values and what they buy. What about the common confidence response I get from folks? Just last week we had this great conference and people came up and said, you know, I want to sell for more, but I'm just not worth it. You even said those words, I'm not worth it. Do you have a tactic or a strategy to overcome that? I'm not worth it Belief.

Yeah, I'm not. Look, I did martial arts for 20 years and part of my practice was meditation. I hated every second of it, but they made me do it an hour, five days a week, every morning, 6:30 in the morning. And I don't believe that sitting and thinking about becoming more confident is going to do much for you. You have to be in the game. I try not to say you have to too much, but in this particular case, I really think you become more confident when you actually do the thing you're thinking about doing, because then you know you did it and then you're more confident. It's very hard to be really confident that you can do something if you haven't done it. So you can believe in yourself that you're capable of doing it. I'd rather have. I'd rather believe that I'm capable than have an extraordinarily high iq. If you have a really high iq, but you don't feel like you're capable, then you'll be able to think about things, but you might not be able to do the things. So I want to be a doer. So the doing is such a big part of it. And there's again, let's go back to this criticism. It's. It boils down to this fear of criticism. And there are two types of criticism. There's criticism from the people in the cheap seats, the people who like to push others down, to lift themselves up. And you know, those people will be there. They'll always be there. There's not a lot we can do about them. Then there's also the internal critic, the voice in your head that said what your. Some of your students were saying, well, I'm not enough, I don't know enough, I'll never be enough. Who am I to say this thing? It's already been said before, etc. Well, those are the voices that we've got to fight. Because when those voices are loud, that's when we hear the voices in the cheap seats even more. But when those voices in our head, when they quiet, when they quiet down, we don't hear those people out there in the cheap seat so much. And, you know, the more that you do out in the public eye, you know, the more detractors you're going to have. That's just the nature of the world in which we live, frankly, you know, so we got to fight against these small thoughts that we've got in our head.

Yeah. So what you're saying is when, when you don't believe in yourself, you're going to hear other people affirming that, that belief.

Yeah, absolutely.

I actually experienced that personally, I think I'm a phenomenal driver. And so therefore, whenever I'm driving down the road, there's no Problems. My wife is like, mike, that guy gave you the finger. That person you just cut off Mike. No, no. But maybe I'm not that good of a driver, but I believe I'm a great driver, and therefore I never have any issues.

Yeah, I mean, look, it's the kind of thing where if someone. If somebody criticized me as a public speaking teacher, I would. I would hear it and say, well, is there any validity to it? And then if I didn't believe it, I wouldn't think about it twice because I know what kind of skills I have in that particular area. So I don't. I don't question myself ever, not when it comes to that. So I don't really hear criticism in the way that one might if, you know, they didn't trust themselves. So we got to look back at that. At the root. If you feel that you're not capable, then what do you need to do to be more capable? Do you need to study more? Maybe. Maybe not. A lot of people spend a lot of too much time studying and not enough time doing, but maybe you do need to learn some more. So, okay, great. So you got to learn some more. Now, what's the plan for learning more? And maybe it's more doing. It's putting yourself into action. So you're a doer. I mean, look, you're. You're one of those people that, you know, I don't. Chris, I don't know you the way I know Mike. But if you're like Mike, consider yourself like you're always. You're actually. You're always actually doing something. You're making something. You're creating something, and you don't have time to be a critic. And you. So you don't criticize yourself, and you don't criticize others, and then you're a performer. Because I don't think you can be a performer and a critic. I think you can be one or the other, but not both. I think there's an important distinction between the two.

Well, you're on such a public. What? What, you can say something that cut you off.

No, no, you can. I'll. I'll let you speak.

Yeah, you just pile your boat around the next pylon coming your way. Here's the deal. Whatever you see, whatever out in the. Whatever's. Whatever's out in that damn ocean. But here's the deal, Mike. You're Michael, you're in such a public space, Criticism gets flung your way all the time. Like, oh, this book. I've seen better. I get Attacked like that. I was called the Devil's Child once by someone. How do you handle all. It was by Chris Kern. How do you handle all those attacks, Michael?

Yeah, well, actually, I have an idea for your show, and I'll tell you how I handle the attacks.

Dump the show, never do it again.

No, that's. No. That I was going to talk to you about afterwards, but right now. Right now, I think it'd be really great if for each get. When you have a guest that's an authority, I think you should find the worst review that was written about them and make them read it on your show.

Oh, come on, dude. You want me to be like, tweets? Do you want.

Oh, yeah, yeah, that's effective.

Like mean tweets. Like, one woman wrote. One woman wrote a review about one of my books where she's like, I just want to slap him. I want to slap him across the face. And then I want to slap him again. And then you know what? I want to slap. I mean, it was the weirdest thing ever, but I think that's pretty funny.

All right, I'm going to do that. Not to you. I'm gonna do it to myself.

You'll start that next time. Start that next time.

Yeah, yeah, I'll do it with my own book this time.

Yeah.

So how do you handle the criticisms? You get attacked all the time in public.

Well, you know what? Okay. So at the beginning, I actually probably don't get attacked quite as much as you, but.

Okay.

But no, no, we all do then. That's the thing. Anytime you put something out in the world, you're gonna be people who are loving. There are gonna be people who not. And when I. When I teach public speaking, one of the things I suggest is, is to focus on the persuadables, not to worry about. So there are people who are going to be your fans. They're already on your side of the fence, and if you only focus on serving them, then you tend to pander to them. It becomes really easy. Then there are the people on the other side of the fence. They're the people who will never come to your side. It's like the difference between somebody who is in the Tea Party and somebody who is in. You know, like, we don't have one, but a Green Party, you know, so it's not. They're not gonna come. You're not gonna. Yeah, like, Arianna Huffington is not gonna vote for Donald Trump, no matter what he does. He could work on her forever, and it's never gonna Happen. So, but in, you know, when you think about politics, they're always going for that 1% right in the middle of the persuadables. And the same thing is true in any audience. Usually it's more than 1%, but you're going for those people. That's who you're trying to serve, because they want to come to your side of the fence, but they may not be ready. So think about. Think about any pitch that you make. People have objections, naturally, but often they want to do the thing with you, but they, they. They need their objections settled, handled.

Right.

And so if I'm asking, look, every speech has a big idea. Every sales pitch has a big idea. And each speech and every sales pitch, they have a promise that's inherent, that's explicit in that. Not just inherent, but explicit. And so the people who are listening to this pitch or this speech, they're thinking, well, you know what? I really. I'm interested in this. I kind of get this. I want that outcome. But I don't know, because maybe they've been seeing the world differently, maybe for the last 30 years, they've been thinking differently than what you're suggesting. And so you're asking them to change the way they see the world. That can be confronting. That's a lot that you're asking.

Abrupt.

That's abrupt. And maybe you're new to them, you know, new sales relationship, or you're a new speaker that they've never experienced. So they need to make sure that we need to make sure that they know that we know how the world looks to them. And that will help us drop some of those filters. Because if they distance themselves from us, even if they want to engage, they're less likely to. So I say this because sometimes we have this tendency to work really hard to get people on our side of the fence who will just not come to our side of the fence. And then the people who love us and the people who are persuadable, they say, hello, what happened to us? So if someone writes a really nasty review, say, on Amazon, about one of my books, I'll write back, I'll comment on it. Yeah, it's all right. It's all right. I appreciate it. No, but you were right.

But how would you. How will you comment on the swing like that?

Well, it's different. It depends. If someone's a really nasty review, I'll just say something nice because. Because when other people are looking at that review, they'll go, oh, he seems like a really nice guy. She seems Kind of mean. So I'm gonna disregard what she had to say. Oh, I got, you know. So I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna argue it. I'm not gonna argue it. I'm just gonna say something nice like, I'm really sorry, you know, I wasn't able to be of service to you. And sometimes what I do is what our buddy Dave Kirpin does, where I say, listen, if you want another book on the topic, just send me an email. I'll buy you one and send it to you.

Oh, that's a smart strategy.

Actually, maybe it wasn't David. I thought you said that David did it. But maybe it's not him. I don't know where I picked it up. Then that's a great strategy.

Gary Vaynerchuk will write, I'm hurt. Someone will say something negative and he'll say, that really hurt me, but I appreciate it. And then goes on too. So he brings in some emotion.

But then, for example, on the Amazon page for Steal the Show, one woman gave a great review. It's like a four. I think it was a four star review. Most of them are fives. There's one. One, she's just out of her mind. And then there's always. Yeah, there's always one. And then. But most of them are fives. But this one, it was a four. And she's like, I love the book. It's absolutely worth getting, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Although I'm not sure I understood this or agreed with this. But what she didn't agree with was not actually what I had written about. So I didn't say, listen, you're wrong. I wrote about that. I said, first of all, I'm so thankful that you read the book and reviewed it. So I'm. Huge appreciation for that. I just wanted to point out one thing, and it may have been my fault. I may have not communicated it clearly, but what I meant in that particular section was this. And then she's like, oh, he's really cool. He's writing back to me and helping explain it. And then other people who read it go, oh, okay, I see what he's saying. That makes sense.

Yeah. No, I like that.

Yeah. But in the beginning, when I first started writing books, man, in 2005, if I saw one negative review like that, I honestly, I'd want to cry. I would be devastated. If there were 200 positive reviews and one negative review, all I could do is think about that negative, that all. I just wanted the approval I just want everyone to say, oh, my God, the book's so great. Now that's. I mean, look, it's wonderful to get, but I want the results, and if the book is good, I'll get the results. And so I do the work, not focus on that negative review from one person. And now instead of ignore. And then. So what I did is I'm just going to ignore it. Seth Godin, you know, told me, he's like, I just don't read any of them. And then what I started doing is started reading the reviews that my. Not mentors, necessarily, but authors who came before me, who were more. Who were more successful than I was as an author or had been doing it for longer. And I started reading their reviews. I'm like, oh, my God, people hate them, too. Like, how do you. How do you tell, like, Jim Collins that he's a douchebag? You know, like, it just is. The professor from Stanford is a douchebag. Like, how do you do that? How do you tell Seth Godin that he knows nothing about marketing? Like, it just didn't make sense. So I'm thinking, well, if they get it, I guess I could get it too. And then, then, then what I did is I started responding to them. You know, unless it's really just completely out of this world, that there's just no way I'm going to respond to it. But then I started responding, and it made it a lot easier. Now I don't worry about it. I get that, like, you know, nervous feeling in my heart when I go look at the reviews to, you know, whether or not somebody wrote a, you know, a good one or a bad one.

I wrote down a little summary here for your concept there. I said, if you don't relate, you negate. So you got to relate to that people, those people, if you want to respond to them. Hey, last question for you. What's your favorite part of your own book? Steal the show. And why do you.

Nobody's ever asked me a question like that.

Wow, this show is so cutting edge, dude.

I mean, gosh, you really are really quite bright. Honestly. I think the chapter on humor, ooh, talk to me. It's so much fun. Look, I'm not a comedian. You can tell from my jokes during this podcast that I'm not a comedian. On stage, I'm funnier than offstage. I understand timing so well in groups, in big group dynamics when I have the stage, that I am much funnier. And so one of the things I know is how to create that Kind of humor in a big space with a big audience. So I understand the structure behind joke writing. I understand the structure behind storytelling, how you craft, sculpt, mold stories. So I actually teach some joke writing in the book and I teach the rule of three and how to apply it to rhetoric and to humor. And so it's a really fun section. And I had a really, really good time writing that particular chapter of the book.

Oh, that's awesome. Where should the folks listening in pick up the book? Like, what serves you the best? Is it Amazon? Is it Barnes and Nobles? Does it come to your house?

Well, anywhere books are sold is fantastic. Steeltheshow.com is where we offer a whole bunch of bonuses with the book. So there's a documentary video on a masterclass that I taught that we give away for free. We even give away some online courses for free, some templates and toolkits and more. You pick up a copy of the book, you get about a thousand dollars worth of value and pick up some more, you get some more stuff. So that's a great place to go. And then it'll tell you how to get those bonuses. But, you know, if you're listening to this and you're just, you know, in Barnes and Noble right now, just pick it up right there. But anywhere books are sold. And then also listen to Steal the Show, the podcast. You know, we had a great time talking about actually. What the hell did we talk about? Human thing of interest.

You talked a lot about me. A lot about me.

We did. No, but Steal the Show, the podcast is really hard hitting. Lots of short, very, very technical how to type episodes on public speaking specifically. So that might be a fun place to go and subscribe, rate and review. I only take 5 star reviews. I don't accept.

Of course, of course. I funny little final antidote for you, Michael. I am. We do our conference. There's a guy named John Best. He's a student of.

Yeah, I know John.

Okay. Yeah. So I didn't know you knew John. I had to run to the bathroom between breaks. I'm sitting there urinating, and the urinal next to me comes John Best. And he starts doing his business. And then he just looks over at me and goes, hey, what do you think about Michael Port? I'm sitting there, you know, in a very prone position talking about you. Just wanted you to know that you were prone. Well.

Is he sitting down?

No, no, I guess it was prone to the bathroom.

Prone, Prone. You're lying down face.

Yeah, that's how I hear it. Dude, when you got a lot of stuff going on down there, you have to sit that way. I had no idea. That's the inappropriate use of the word prone.

No, that was not. Not at all.

It was all different than visual. All right, Chris, make sure you cut that one out. All right? Michael Port, it was a pleasure having you on the show. Thanks for joining us, brother.

You guys are fantastic. Most fun I've had all day. Bye, guys.

All right, I thought prone means like spread legs. Yeah.

Oh, wow. What I got.

I gotta look up prone. Dude. Listen, what did you learn? First, thank our sponsors. Christina, I'm gonna look up the word prone while you thank our sponsors.

Thank you. To Fundbox, Fundera, tsheets, and nextiva.

And what do each one do?

Fundbox and Fundera are both business funding companies. Tsheets is a time tracking system. And Nextiva, VoIP phone systems.

Nice, Nice. And so I just want you to know I'm looking up the word prone. Appropriate use. Michalowicz, you went with a common lying flat, especially face down. But prone also means with a downward slope or direction. You do urinate in a prone position.

And now you know.

Now you know. So suck that, all of you. That doesn't work.

Classic.

Yeah, okay. Thank God that definition exists. I didn't know that. So here's the deal. Here's what I learned from Michael Port. First of all, I adore him. And what, you know, he's the first guest ever come on show and say, no, we're not gonna talk about me. I want to compliment you. It just speaks to his character. He really cares about other folks. And that was a true honor to hear that. And I believe genuine. So Michael Port. Thank you, sir. You know, interesting. I asked him, I said, if you don't think you're worth it, and that's the most common thing I hear is I can't build more. I'm not worth it. What do you do? He says, well, don't think about your worth. Think about your capability. You have to believe you are capable. Step one. Step two, he says, stop believing or stop thinking about it, Then start doing it. So believe you're capable, then do it. And that's where the capability comes from. And that becomes confidence. So believe that you can then actually do, and then confidence arrives. Don't believe it until you're confident it's impossible. What did you learn?

This episode in particular hits home for me because I am a performer, but I do that. I psych myself out all the time when I'm on an Audition. I hear the person before me, I'm like, oh, crap, she was really good. I don't know if I can top that. But you can't get into that mindset like you were saying. You just. You got to know what you're capable of. You got to go there. You got to be true to yourself, and if it works out, it works out. And I also like that. He said people express their values by what they buy.

Yes, I love that one. Right. So if you're a cheapo and people are paying no money for you, they're expressing. They are. They value. They see you as valueless.

Yeah.

They want valueless things. You have to charge more. That was pretty cool. Chris, what did you learn?

Yeah, I learned, well, a big part of confidence and. But by the way, we were talking about sales a little bit, and obviously sales is from the company to the person who's buying it. But we also talk a lot about team. So sometimes you have to sell your company to a potential team member who might come on board.

Right.

And there's a confidence you have to display there in terms of talking about your vision and that kind of thing. But. But regarding confidence, he said preparation, which is, I mean, so key and also doing it. Like you said, Mike, I feel these days when a business author calls me and wants to talk about producing a podcast and wants to maybe talk about how it all works, I am so confident about everything that I say and any question they ask because I've talked about it so much. I've come across every problem in the book almost, and I've overcome every problem, and I've heard so many things from so many different people that all that experience is like, preparation, and so then I can wing it. Then when I'm in a. On a call with a business author, I can deal with what comes up much more easily. And there's a level of confidence that, like, studying it just. It just doesn't create it. You have to just do it and experience it and have some success and failure. But then you'll reach a point when, like Michael Port and even you, Mike Michalowicz, you can walk on any stage, anywhere, anytime, and just give a great talk, because that's what you do.

But there's. There's three stages to it, like you were saying. There's the practice, which is developing your skills, rehearsal, which is getting familiar with it and preparing for it, and then there's the actual performance where you. You've done all you can, and then it's up to you and you actually get to enjoy it. That's the best part.

Yeah. And I don't think it's winging it as much as free. Free. What they call freewheeling. And I think there's a great difference. So when you wing something, you come from a position of no experience and no confidence. When you freestyle. That's the word. When you freestyle, you're actually calling on experiencing. You're just packaging in a new way. At this conference, we had a violinist open up with this amazing montage of music. He'd never done that performance before, specifically because it just came to him, quote, unquote. Naturally, after thousands and thousands of hours of practicing, all that stuff becomes packaged and can be pieced together in a new musical piece. That's true for all of us. So, Chris, I would argue you are not winging it, you're freestyling it. You're not winging it, Christina. You're freestyling it. And when I go out and speak, those are all stories I've gone over hundreds and hundreds of times. I package in a new way. I'm freestyling.

I'm gonna go buy this book right now.

Yeah, I got a copy here, but it's stealing yourself. No, no, no, no.

Steal the book, not steal the show.

Yeah, yeah. Now buy the book. I mean, and I truly believe it. I believe there's no more valuable piece of information than as it is compiled in a book. All the knowledge of an author is put in there. There's so much time and effort to put in there. It is as valuable as a five hour one on one meeting. But it's 20, 21 dollars, 22. Whatever. Buy the book. Then get a copy of Private first too.

This has been awesome. Mike Michalowicz and Christina, why don't you tell us about Profit First Professionals?

Yeah.

You want to talk about Christina? I always talk about it. Sure.

Profit First Professionals. We certify business coaches, accountants and bookkeepers and all ways of profitability and help them implement it in your business.

Yeah, so listen, everyone needs to hire an accountant. Everyone needs a bookkeeper. Most people should be working with a coach. And aren't. You need a coach? Why use a generic bookkeeper, accountant, or coach? Why not use someone that can drive profitably in your business? We have the collection that go to profit profitfirstprofessionals.com click on the find. We'll hook you up with a amazing ABC which is accountant, bookkeeper, or coach.

There you go. And if you want to know more about me, Chris Curran, go to fractal recording.com learn all about podcasting and feel free to reach out if you have any questions about anything like that. I'm available.

Boom.

Usually so. And check out our website, profit first podcast.com a ton of previous guests and great material. I mean, look, if you listen to this show every week and just let these profit principles just seep into your brain, I mean, over time, think about what that's going to mean to your business and your character and your leadership ability. It's going to mean a lot. So we appreciate you listening.

You steal the show one time. According to what Michael Port just shared with us, one time, it can make so much profit for you, it's ridiculous. Go out there, steal the show.

That's it. See you guys next time.

Sam.