JLD: Boom. Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here with an Audio Masterclass that’s gonna blow your socks off using speaking to build your business in just three steps. We’re gonna focus on why stages are the fastest way to grow your business, how to overcome the fear of speaking that exists in all of us, how to speak with confidence but at the same time, not be salesy, and then of course, we’re gonna focus on those three steps.

Now, who’s gonna be taking us through this Audio Masterclass? Mr. Pete Vargas himself. He is the leading authority on using stages to build your business. With over 25,000 stages booked, many people call him the Stage Whisperer. Now we’re gonna take a second to thank our sponsor. So, Pete, say “What’s up?” to Fire Nation and share something interesting about yourself that most people don’t know.

Pete: Yeah, what’s up, Fire Nation. Pete Vargas here, and something that most people don’t know about me, I was going back and forth, and a lot of people don’t know that I’m Pete Vargas the Third. A lot of people call me PV3, but the big that the majority of folks don’t know is that I was actually ranked No. 1 in the State of Colorado in tennis about five years ago when I was 34-35.

JLD: I can actually see you in those really short, white tennis shorts. I really can. I’m not even joking, and it’s an image I actually scarily can’t get out of my mind right now. But PV3, I feel like that does rival JLD as sweet initials. I think you should run with that.

Pete: Or complement it, yeah, for sure. I need to take the world over of PV3, yeah, so that is it, man, PV3.

JLD: I love it. Well, Fire Nation, I am really excited. I’ve met Pete in person multiple times. He’s been on this show before. Whenever we’re at the best events around the world, we both seem to be there hanging out having a blast, and today’s Audio Masterclass is gonna be super killer because it’s about you using speaking, Fire Nation, to build your business, and Pete Vargas is gonna break it down in three steps. So, using speaking to build your business in three steps, and Pete Vargas is the person, the authority to talk about this today. So, Pete, give us a quick teaser about a couple things we’re gonna chat about, then we’re gonna dive into the meat and potatoes.

Pete: Yeah, JLD, so as you obviously know but maybe Fire Nation doesn’t know is that my life was deeply impacted by a speaker 15 years ago. This guy came to my town – long story short, it was what prompted my dad to ask for forgiveness for the father that he’d been growing up to me. He saw this speaker, and in one hour, what it prompted my dad to do was literally write me a letter and say I’m sorry for the father I’ve been, and he asked me for a second chance to do things right. And so, we had tried everything. We had tried everything to make things right with my dad growing up, and then all of a sudden, in one hour, it happened.

And so, I called that speaker, and I just said, “Why aren’t you getting your message out into the world?” and he said, “I don’t know how to do that.” I said, “Darrell, you have to keep speaking. You have to get out there and speak.” And so, for 13 years – this is important for Fire Nation to understand – 13 years, we perfected this system of really using speaking as a customer acquisition channel, not just to influence people, but also to make sure that it drives your business.

And so, there’s three things that really we helped him do, and we’ve helped thousands of other people do is how do you make sure you’re great onstage. Like, how do you make sure that when you get on that stage, you’re unbelievable, you’re great, you knock it out of the park? I mean, literally, you’re one of the top-rated speakers. How do you make sure – but here’s the thing I wanna say about that, and we can come back to this story here in a minute – not just top-rated speaker, being great onstage isn’t just a top-rated speaker, but it’s making sure that people go deeper with you, and I’ll tell you how John Ruhlin left millions of dollars on the table even though he was the top-rated speaker.

He wasn’t doing some things right. The other piece – here’s the other piece we’ll talk about – is how do you get onstage? It’s like how many stages exist because there are a lot of people listening right now on Fire Nation that they don’t wanna go travel all the time, and I completely understand that. I have three kids, and I don’t wanna travel all the time, but there’s 40 different stages that exist online, 40 different stages that exist offline stages, and I’m gonna show you how to create a portfolio that actually matches up with your lifestyle and how do you find and how do you win those stages.

And then the last thing we’ll talk about is how do you actually scale those stages to make sure that you have the greatest impact but also that people go deeper and work with you. And I don’t think there’s any greater story to share than that, than what you experienced this year on a stage, which was unbelievable. So, how do you in one hour create more business in one hour than what – you know, sometimes launches take 9-12 months of a team’s time or the sales cycle takes 12-18 months to bring people into your business or your organization – how do you go do that in one hour and actually scale these stages? So, we’ll talk about that as well, JLD.

JLD: And Fire Nation, I experienced that firsthand just a couple months ago where that exact thing came to truth where I generated more revenue from one hour onstage than some of my biggest launches that I’ve done that have taken months to prepare, so much investment – financially, timewise, bandwidth-wise – such exciting things to be chatting about.

And you might remember John Ruhlin who Pete just mentioned. He is the gift giver. He is the founder of Giftology, and he was a great past guest of EOFire. And I think I followed up with you guys, Fire Nation, afterwards, but John actually sent me a sauna – an actual sauna – after our interview went live because he was so blown away by you reaching out to him just to thank him for the show and to see what he was all about. He literally sent me a two-person, wooden dry sauna that is just incredible that my father still is using to this day up in Maine.

So, just super cool stuff and just kind of a side note, but these are the kind of people that Pete are helping spread their message to the world because even when John was able to be on my stage for a brief minute, he wasn’t able to maximize the impact that he could’ve had because of a few key things that he didn’t do that we’re gonna be talking about today with Pete. So, Pete, let’s just dive in because you are officially called the Stage Whisperer, and you’ve been on 25,000 stages. Why the heck do you love stages so much?

Pete: The true reality is – and I haven’t been on 25,000 stages. That was the amount of stages that we booked directly out of our offices from 2003-2004.

JLD: I was trying to do the math. I’m like how does that work?

Pete: Yeah, that’s not me. That’s not possible. And somebody’s like, “How can you do that? There’s 365 days. Were you doing it four times a day?” No, we actually put over – I don’t know, probably over 100 different speakers on 25,000 stages across the world. And dude, the reason – I mean, literally, the reason I love stages so much, the reason I geek out over stages is I shared that story, but the man who shared that story was Darrell Scott.

His daughter was the first girl killed at Columbine, and when he came into my town, and that morning, when he said, “Hey, you need to go let five people in your life know how much you love them because you don’t know if they’re gonna be here with you tomorrow,” and then he went on to say, “Some of them, you’re not in good standings with,” I went immediately and begged my dad to come back to the night event because my dad was extremely abusive, verbally and physically, growing up, and we have an amazing relationship today, but I begged him to come back.

And that night, my dad came back. He didn’t say a word to me that night, and I was like, “Dude, if that doesn’t get him, I don’t know what is.”

JLD: Yeah, nothing will.

Pete: I felt like giving up on my entrepreneurial journey, and I got that letter in the mail. And when I got that letter, it was this subconscious, like, “Stages are it.” And a lot of people listening, the thing they’re gonna say is, “Yeah, but his daughter was killed,” and, “He was a motivational speaker and an inspirational speaker.” What I want Fire Nation to understand is that the first time – you know him, JLD – the first time I heard Ryan Deiss on a stage, one hour, live setting, since that day, I bought almost everything that Ryan Deiss has to offer. First time I heard Garrett Gunderson on a stage, I looked at my wife and I said, “Babe, whatever he has to offer –”

JLD: We’re in.

Pete: We’re in. First time I heard Axis on a stage, they helped parents understand how to communicate with their kids in pop culture, and teen, and multimedia. Not only did I buy every one of their parenting products, I started donating to their charity. So, I get goosebumps because it’s not about an inspirational speaker. It’s about anybody that does an incredible job on a stage. Those are exact instances of people that I wanted to go deeper with because I connected with them in one hour on a stage.

And so, dude, that’s why I care about stages. It’s personal to me, but it’s been a repetitive theme of how I work with people, and quite frankly, how a lot of people work with people after they experienced them on some type of online or offline stage, dude. So, that’s why I care about stages so much, man.

JLD: So, you believe the stages are, if not one of the fastest, the fastest way to grow your business. So, what makes you think that? Let’s get some real tangible, specific examples.

Pete: For me, when I came out of the gates two and a half years ago to start Advance Your Reach, I had the opportunity – I don’t wanna pick on anything, but I tried a lot of bright, shiny objects. I tried product launches, and I tried funnels, and I tried –

JLD: Just real quick, I don’t wanna get sidetracked, but what was looking back one of the funnier things that you tried that you were just like, “Oh, my god. What was I thinking?”

Pete: I wanna be careful, but yeah, because we’re boys, I’ll share it with you. I went and did an – there’s an ingredient to your business, dude, and there’s all these ingredients, and there’s a time and a place for the ingredient to go in, and I wanna say that I did the ingredients wrong, but I went out and I spent five figures on creating videos and all of this stuff to do a big launch. My list was zero. I had no community, no following, spent tens of thousands of dollars. My team and I went out, and we launched, and we got one sale.

JLD: So, one sale. So, I mean, that was something you look back and you’re like, “Wow, if I could take that back, I would.” So, getting back on track though, stages, they’re an awesome way to grow your business. Why is that for a fact and some specific examples?

Pete: So, I’ll give you a couple examples. So, me, I just did this for 13 years for other people. I saw how quickly what it does for them. Why did I not go do that? And so, we went out and got on a couple of stages – three stages in the infancy of our business. And, JLD, a couple of those stages returned five figures and one of those stages returned six figures within a few weeks and a few months. And so, that’s an example of me. But then I think about Molly Grubb who is a financial advisor, and there are millions of stages in all of your listeners backyards, every association, every niche, every industry that exists, those stages are happening a drive away from your home in your backyard and they happen every single month.

And so, I think about her. She goes out and speaks in front of 50 entrepreneurs in her backyard, and now she’s got four or five, six, seven new clients in her service-based business company by going on one stage in her backyard for one hour, and it didn’t take her but a couple of phone calls to be able to land that stage.

So, there’s not all of this tech, and all of this setup, and all of these things that have to happen. You can go get on one stage, and it doesn’t have to be some national or international stage. It can be a stage in your backyard and you’re launching your business. That’s what I love about it. You’re launching your business. You’re gaining one, two, three, four, maybe five new clients right away, and it doesn’t take a lot of time, JLD.

JLD: Wow. I mean, Fire Nation, I can just tell you that there are opportunities around you right now. You don’t need to fly halfway across the country or the globe to find these opportunities. They are there. They’re in front of you. It’s just a matter of stepping up to the plate, which I think kinda leads to the next thing I really wanna chat about, Pete, because for me, I know that I had to overcome a fear of speaking.

I mean, this is back in 2012. I can so clearly remember the day I had launched my podcast, it was a couple months in, I was scared enough to talk to people like this, one-on-one audio-wise, but the thought of getting onstage in front of a lot of people freaked me out, and then Cliff Ravenscraft, who was running the podcasting track in New Media Expo said, “John, somebody just dropped out of their podcast talk. Will you come to New Media Expo and will you fill in and speak? There’ll be at least a couple hundred people in the room. It’ll be a solo talk,” and I was freaked out, but I said yes. And I’m not gonna pretend like I was great or even good on that talk, but guess what, I did get up and do it.

And every single one since then, I’ve gotten a little bit better, sometimes even a lot better when I’ve had training from people like yourself, and it’s just been more and more of an enjoyable experience because we’ve all heard that saying, Pete, that at a funeral, most people in that room would rather be in the coffin than giving the eulogy because put fear of speaking is the No. 1 fear that most people have. So, talk to us about that. How do we overcome this fear?

Pete: Yeah, dude, that’s such a good question, and we can jam here a little bit because I’d love to talk about overcoming the fear, but then what does it mean to be great onstage? So, we have a common friend, and her name is Jill Stanton, and we both love her and kinda love Josh but really love Jill.

JLD: No, I love Josh too. I’m not gonna lie.

Pete: I’m joking. I love Josh. But Jill, I was with Jill, and it’s the same thing last year – I was Jill a year ago, and I just wanna reiterate what you just said or reinforce what you said more is that I’m sitting with her at a mastermind, and I heard her talking to someone so powerfully, JLD. She was talking to someone one-on-one so powerfully. I remember sitting there, and it gave me goosebumps. And I turned to her, and I said, “I know you don’t know me, but you should be on stages.” And she’s like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” and she just started fanning herself. Like, really, this is a true story.

And she’s like, “The idea of being on stages freaks me out. It scares me to death.” And I said, “Why?” She said, “I can talk behind video, I can talk on a podcast, but to get onstage…” And I said, “Jill, it’s no different than what you did right there in that conversation. It is no different than that. Your idea is that you’re going out there, and you’re speaking to a crowd of hundreds or maybe even thousands, but it’s no different.” And she’s like, “Really?” And so, a couple of things, JLD, that are really critical to overcoming that fear of speaking is – you’re gonna appreciate the first part of this – is you need one talk. One talk.

There’s a lot of people out there like, “Create four or five, seven talk –” No, you need one talk, and you need repetition and someone to help coach you in that talk. When you can get one talk dialed in and get very comfortable with one talk, it’s amazing what begins to happen. You get confident in it. And all of a sudden, you get a little better every single time. You’re not gonna be perfect the first time, but you will continue to get better every single time, like you said.

But the other thing that I believe is critical is that you wanna lock in with one person. I said, “Jill, when you get on a stage, you look to the right, you find one person. You look in the middle, you find one person. You look to the left, you find one person, and you don’t look at anybody else the rest of the time that you’re onstage. And with that one talk we helped you design and craft and create, you look those people in the eye just like you looked the person in the eye that you were sitting with here at this mastermind. It is no different what you just said to them about your genius than what you’re gonna say onstage.”

And, dude, I’m happy to say in that instance, not only has she begun to get on stages, JLD, she’s gonna be on some of the biggest stages that exist in marketing. I mean, and we’re sitting with her literally a year ago, and she’s fanning herself and scared to death the same way that you are. And so, it’s like really getting laser-focused on one talk and making eye contact with one person, and then I’ll give the audience a little bonus of what I do before because I still get nervous on stage.

I’m about to be on J.J. Virgin’s stage coming up, and I have a routine before I get onstage. I meditate, and I pray, and then the thing that I do is I have my go-to song that gets me in the zone of serving that audience. And so, that’s really what I do the 20 minutes before I get onstage. But, dude, the key to that is really that one signature talk. And you know, I mean, what I would tell you is even talking with Marie Forley a little bit over a year ago, she’s like, “Man, to think about all the creative energy that has to go into the talks all of the time,” and I said, “Marie, you don’t have to have a bunch of talks. You have to have one talk.”

And it was like that just gave her this peace, but it’s the same peace that it gave Jill too. So, that’s what I would encourage people to do. And I want you to know you’re still gonna be a little bit nervous –

JLD: Absolutely.

Pete: – but there’s a difference between nervous and being afraid. There’s a big difference between those two, JLD.

JLD: So, here’s a recap, Fire Nation, No. 1, one talk. Give yourself permission to just focus and crush one talk. That’s it. And then when you’re up on that stage – and I love this advice; it’s something I’m definitely gonna do next time I’m onstage – find three people: someone to the left, someone in the center, and someone on the right, and look at no one else. I can be honest with you, I just gave a speech in front of hundreds and hundreds of people at Podcast Movement, and you step up onstage, and you see all those faces and all those eyes, you’re kind of like, “Whoa, that’s a lot,” and your brain is trying to take it all in.

No, focus on one person to the left, one person in the center, one person on the right. Those are your people. That’s it. And then I love how you talked about routine, and this is Pete’s routine, Fire Nation: meditate, prayer, and then he has a song. That’s his go-to. That’s 20 minutes before his talk. That is just his focus. And one kind of quote I wanna share with you right now, Fire Nation, “High barriers equal low competition.” Guess what? We get that you’re nervous to talk from stage. We get that I’m nervous and Pete’s still nervous from talking from stage, but that’s a high barrier to overcome, speaking from stage, so that means that there’s gonna be frankly low competition.

Because look at Jill – Jill is a massive extrovert. I mean, she is as much of an extrovert as I am. I mean, the two of us enter a room, we are off butterflying around. We are taking energy from that room, and we are just loving it, and we love that. We are extroverts. And yet here’s Jill who’s a massive extrovert, and she’s afraid of stages. Well, guess what, the 70-80 percent of people that identify themselves as introverts, that makes it even tougher for them, so we’re talking everybody across the level from extroverts to the highest degree to introverts to the lowest degree.

I mean, you just gotta realize if you go through this process, if you find one talk, find your people, get your routine, and just recognize that you just need to nail that one focused talk, you’re gonna do great things. But this is one thing I know, Pete, for a fact a lot of people have trouble with, and that’s speaking with confidence, but at the same time, not coming across as that slimy, salesy kind of type person. So, what’s the trick there?

Pete: Dude, what you just said is so much wisdom in that, and I would rewind those few seconds. That’s just so much wisdom. And you know, the irony, JLD, is what you’re gonna find out is the people that you connect with in the audience, you make that eye contact with, they’re probably gonna be the people that are bringing you energy. They’re gonna have a smile, they’re gonna be sitting on the edge of their seat, and what I’ve seen happen time in and time out, they’re the people that almost every single time work with you too because –

JLD: Wow.

Pete: Yeah, it’s crazy. It’s absolutely crazy. So, you’re gonna connect with people who you’re gonna be able to feed off of their energy, and they’ll probably just so happen to work with you. Yeah, this is where people miss it. I mean, people miss it whenever they’re trying to design that talk, so that’s how you overcome the fear of really speaking. And you’re right, because of the fact that people avoid it, if you’re the one that will do it, you’re gonna be the one that’s setting yourself up for a lot of success.

So, now you have to craft the talk. And you really want to craft the talk that does a few things. You want to speak to the person in the audience, both the left-brain and the right-brain person. And I know one of the biggest things that we get in feedback is, “I don’t wanna feel slimy. I don’t wanna feel salesy.” I’ve seen you onstage I think three times now, and not one time did I feel like you were slimy or salesy. Like, not one time. And so, there’s a way that you do that, and we call it the Story Braid framework. This is not a formula. We’re not trying to force you into a formula. We’re trying to give you a framework that allows you to be yourself within that framework.

So, don’t think you have to be Pete, and don’t think you have to be JLD, don’t think you have to be Jill Stanton. Be yourself. But this Story Braid framework goes like this, it says what are you gonna do in the first 5-10 minutes to connect with the heart of the person? What are you gonna do to connect with their heart because when you open up their hearts, their minds are ready to listen to you. They will absorb all of the content that you’re gonna lay out, and all of the value that you’re gonna lay out, so those first 5-10 minutes, it’s really, really critical that you have some type of human connection.

If you’re funny, be funny. If you dance, dance. If you have a family and you wanna talk about your family – that’s what I do – talk about your family. Talk about your mission and what you’re trying to accomplish and make sure that they find themselves in your mission. But what is so important to happen in those first 5-10 minutes is for them to see that you are both ordinary and extraordinary, and in that order. Too many people make the mistake of coming out and talking about the extraordinary, and I’m just telling you, we’re in the day and time where people shut down with that. But they do wanna see that because if you’re not extraordinary, why are they gonna listen to you?

So, in addition to connecting with their hearts, however that is for you, and in addition to bringing them into this bigger mission that you have, I wanna make sure that in that first 5-10 minutes that you help them see that, yes, I’m ordinary. I’ve been in your seat, I’ve walked in your shoes, I understand how you feel, and I’ve overcome and now these are some of the results I’ve gotten because of the process that I’m about to teach you.

And now, all of a sudden, you’re transitioning into the content with them recognizing the gap in their life, and that is what you’re about to teach them. So, that’s the first piece, JLD. I don’t know if you wanna jam on that a little bit before we get into the second piece of the framework.

JLD: No, let’s dive onto No. 2.

Pete: So, No. 2 is the head, dude. You’ve now opened up their hearts, they are now ready to listen, and you want to teach them. You want to teach them your process to getting you to extraordinary, whether that’s in podcasting, or parenting, or your finances, or stages with me. Teach them what it takes to get those extraordinary results. That’s what you do. And what we love to do, we love for those to be three, four, or five points that you’re teaching. That’s the range we want you to stay in.

People who come out and say the 43 things to – it’s just we really wanna keep it honed in and tight because you have a limited amount of time, and so teach those points and make sure that with every point that you’re either driving it home with a story or you’re driving it home with some data or a case study because data, case study, facts coupled with story help tackle everybody in the audience that’s both right-brained and creative and left-brained and more analytical. That helps tackle everybody in the crowd. So, that second piece to the framework, the second piece to the framework is the head. You’re teaching them. Their hearts are opened, now their minds are listening and absorbing you.

The third piece to the framework, and here’s the piece – and I do wanna tell John Ruhlin’s story here in a minute – but the third piece – and by the way, what a lot of people make a mistake is they teach something that’s not aligned with the way that people can work deeper with them. It’s not aligned. It’s completely not aligned, like not congruent with the way that they can work with them after the fact, so you really wanna teach something that’s congruent with the products or the services that you potentially could work with the people in the audience. That’s one small mistake that John was making.

The third piece to the framework is the hands. It is the hands. It is the call to action. It’s what you’re getting them to do. And so, here’s what you wanna do, and I want people to understand this – there’s two things that are happening. Either you can make an offer or you can’t make an offer. When you can make an offer – and we’ll talk about JLD here in a minute – when you can make an offer, there’s two calls to action you really wanna do is you wanna help them get a quick win.

Help them get a quick win during the presentation – some type of quick win during the presentation and letting them see like, “Wow, he just taught me something that’s gonna be easy for me to go implement,” or, “She just taught me something that I could go do in five minutes that’s gonna get me a quick win,” but the only other focus, JLD, of the call to action when you’re making an offer is actually making the offer. And when you do an incredible job of teaching and building in case studies and doing those things during the teaching part, when it comes time to make the offer, you see the results that you saw on stage, JLD. And so, that’s when you can make an offer, that’s the call to action.

Now, here’s what most of Fire Nation is gonna experience. The majority of them can’t make an offer. Like, when John Lee Dumas gets asked to be at one of the biggest marketing conferences at, like, Traffic & Conversion every year, he can’t make an offer.

JLD: Can’t do it.

Pete: So, what do you do? You do two things. Two things when you can’t make an offer. You still give them a quick win. You still give them a quick win, but here’s the other thing you give them. You give them a free gift that gets them from A to B. A to B. Like, really does get them from A to B in their business and a free gift that they consume in 10-15 minutes because when they consume it, they’re gonna see JLD’s brilliance and genius. You give away a free gift when you’re talking about the content.

It’s a piece of a content that’s like your hottest content that you can’t go as deep because of the limited time, and they’re at the edge of their seats, and a lot of the times, you know this content is great because they’re taking pictures of your screen or your slide or whatever. That is the place to figure out what your free gift is, and you give it away right during the middle of your content, and you remind them at the end of your presentation as well. So, that’s the third piece of the framework, which is the hands, the call to action. That’s what’s setting you up to scale the stage.

And then the last piece, JLD, we don’t ever wanna end with anything call to action or anything like offer. We wanna close with the heart. We started with the heart, let’s close with the heart. So, it’s either closing the loop on maybe an opening story that you tell or it’s just a completely separate story that reinforces everything that you taught those 60 minutes. JLD, that is the framework that makes a great presentation, and you only need one. You only need one, bro, that’s it. One.

JLD: I mean, every time I talk to you, Pete, I literally pull my keynote up, and I’m feverishly making changes to my current presentation because it’s just so true. And, Fire Nation, I wanna go through this Story Braid framework for you real quick. No. 1, what are you gonna do in the first 5-10 minutes to connect with the heart of the audience? You must connect with their heart.

And remember, be both ordinary and extraordinary. If you’re just one or the other, no good. Just ordinary, they might be like, “Okay, I connect with this person, but why should I listen to this person?” Just extraordinary, “Okay, this person’s obviously awesome, but I don’t connect with them. I’m not on their same level.” Ordinary and extraordinary. What does extraordinary break down into? That’s extra ordinary.

And No. 2, make your point with stories, with data, with case studies because Fire Nation, you wanna be hitting both the right and the left brainers. They’re gonna be chock full in your audience. I mean, who knows what the percentage is gonna be – 40, 60, 70, 30, it doesn’t matter. Make your point with stories, with data, with case studies so those left and right brainers all connect with you. And then 3, that’s your hands, your call to action. You wanna get them that quick win that’s a free gift that’s gonna get them from Point A to Point B, Fire Nation, and something that I definitely took a note on, Pete, 10-15 minutes.

We gotta get them there. We gotta get them there. We need to have them consume it because they’re gonna be bombarded with a lot of great information if they’re at a conference, so get them that win quick. And then No. 4, the final one, close the loop with the heart. Close the loop with the heart. You open with the heart, close with the heart. This is actually an area that I failed at many times when I had given talks from stages. I’ve really connected with their hearts in the beginning. I have a great, great, real story that does that, but I’m not closing with that. I’m not closing the loop there. That’s a huge mistake.

So, as you can tell, Pete’s been dropping value bombs, more coming when we get back from thanking our sponsor. So, Pete, we’re back, and wow, we’re gonna finish really strong with some key points here. And we talked about a lot already, but I’m just kinda curious on my own because I’m like, “Wow, we’re talking to a huge audience, Fire Nation.” I mean, over a million listens per month is what this podcast gets. How many stages actually exist? Is there enough for everybody?

Pete: There are over 80 different stages that exist: 40 different online types of stages, and there’s 40 different offline types of stages. Obviously, we don’t have the opportunity to go through all of those today, but here’s the beauty of it. There are millions and millions of stages at the local level that exist for people to go just into their backyard, which they can drive to and drive home. I do it quite often because of having a family. I’ll just drive to a stage and drive back home. There’s hundreds of thousands, if not millions at the state level – and this exists in all the countries. I’m speaking kind of U.S., but this is very much in all of the nations because I know how big Fire Nation is – Fire Nations.

And then the national and international level conferences that exist and events that exist, there are so many stages. And here’s the thing, depending on the season of life that you’re in, you might say – there’s a guy that we both know, his name is Stu McLaren, and we get the opportunity to serve him. Stu was avoiding stages in his business because he didn’t wanna travel. And then all of a sudden, he had this “aha” from what I’m teaching right now that says, “Man, I just have to be on six of my dream stages, and if I’m on six of my dream stages, how much will that move the needle in my business if I’m just on six dream stages?”

And so, he made a decision to say, “I’m only gonna be on 4-6 offline stages,” because he has a family, and he said, “but I’m cool with being on dozens if not hundreds of online stages because I can be on them in my own home,” just like me and you are today. I’m in my home doing this stage. And quite frankly, it’s probably the biggest stage that I’m on this month. A million downloads a month.

So, think about that, Fire Nation. There is this huge opportunity both offline and both online that exist, and then there’s others of you like Chandler Bolt out there who is a client of ours, who we get to serve, who’s a friend of both JLD’s and me, and Chandler’s 25 years old. He has no wife. He has no kids. He’s like, “Six stages? Yeah, right. I’m gonna be on 25 or 50 stages a year,” because that’s the season of life he’s in, JLD.

JLD: I’m so jealous.

Pete: I know. So, that’s the beauty of stages is that depending on your season, you can pick and choose what you want, but there’s one key thing that I wanna drive home to Fire Nation, and that’s the dream stage. A lot of people here – I’ve kind of coined that phrase, the “dream stage”, but let me tell you the definition of the dream stage because a lot of people think a dream stage is about the number of people in the audience, and that’s not the case. The dream stage is about the percentage of people in the audience who are ideal clients to work with you past the stage.

So, it’s not about having thousands of people, it’s about making sure that 70-80 percent of the people that are in that audience could potentially work with you past that stage. And so, I’m pretty humble. I’m going to an event today, and when I get there, I’m gonna be in a room of a hundred people. Now, I’m pretty experienced and pretty in-demand speaker. Why would you go do that? Because 95 percent of the people in that room are prime candidates to be able to work with me past that stage.

And so, Fire Nation, I really do want you to understand the opportunity that exists with stages, stages in your backyard, stages online, or even for those of you that wanna take your message to the nation or beyond big stages, it’s big, but make sure you’re not just being on the wrong stages. Make sure that you’re actually getting on dream stages.

JLD: So, again, there’s just a lot of things within this that I wanna kinda go back over, Fire Nation. No. 1, there’s 40 online and 40 offline stages. Now, these are types of stages, so just the number is literally endless because there are millions and millions at your local level, which is where a lot of you should and can be starting. There’s hundreds of thousands, not millions, at the state level. Then there’s the national and international level. And then there’s this dream stage that Pete’s talking about, and I can tell you, I experienced a dream stage, and I think this is maybe a good time to talk about it, Pete.

The dream stage that I just had very recently in Fort Lauderdale, Lisa Sasevich asked me to come speak at her event. The event was called Speak to Sell, and that’s what it was all about. And guess what? She wanted me to come and talk on podcasting, which I did, and she wanted me to make an offer from stage, which I did, which was a $2,000.00 podcast launch formula where for over six weeks, I met with everybody live, they got access to Podcaster’s Paradise and our podcast journal – I mean, this whole sweet package, and I delivered the right offer from stage, and we did $108,000.00 in sales from that stage, and that was from me being on stage for 75 minutes.

Seventy-five minutes. That was a dream stage for me, and I can tell you, that was my first time ever trying that. And I got on the phone with you, Pete, soon afterwards, I was like, “Dude, sign me up. How do I do this?”

Pete: Yeah, so you can imagine even five or 10 stages of that caliber or even bigger.

JLD: I even meant to say, Pete, I forgot to say there were 173 people in the room for that. So, Fire Nation, this wasn’t a massive talk in front of a massive amount of people. There were 173 people in the room.

Pete: JLD, so what happens now if you have 1,700 people in the room of the same caliber or the same clientele? You now have…you know the numbers, right?

JLD: A million dollars.

Pete: A million dollar stage. And that’s what we just saw happen in January for the first time in our business is that exact thing. And you and I have a common friend, Russel Brunson, who I was just with in Africa. Amazing, amazing guy, and just building schools out there for kids, and he had a $3.5 million stage – maybe a $3-3.5 million stage. And so, I would say, JLD, even in his situation, like, oh, my God, 170 people that he didn’t have to get into the room.

He didn’t have to do the marketing. He didn’t have to do the sales. He didn’t have to do launches. He didn’t have to do anything. He had to show up. Now, he had to fly there, but he had to show up, he had to speak for 70 minutes, and it was a six-figure stage. Now, 10x the size of that crowd, and exactly what we said, that’s the opportunity that really does exist with stages when you actually can get on those dream stages.

JLD: So, Pete, we have a workshop we’re gonna kinda be focusing on for the rest of our chat here today. This is your workshop on the three steps, this specific system to use while you’re speaking, so tell Fire Nation a little bit about what this workshop is, and of course, we’re gonna tell you, Fire Nation, how you can get involved in this workshop, and then we’ll just keep dropping value bombs.

Pete: So, Fire Nation, we’re releasing a workshop. This workshop is going deeper into these three areas that we just talked about today. So, the first piece of the workshop actually talks about stages exist everywhere. They’re everywhere. They’re local, they’re national, they’re at the state level, they’re all over the world. And so, we really get clear in defining all of those stages that exist. So, not only do we get clear on those 80 different stages, we’re giving you an entire list of stages that exist online and offline, like the exact stages that could potentially be your dream stages, the websites, when their events are, who runs those events.

We have a master list of a lot of stages that exist that you can actually after hearing this training, you’ll be able to take that download and be like, “Wow, that’s my dream stage right there.” Some of them won’t be your dream stages, a lot of them will be, but the first part of the workshop is really going deeper into defining and getting clearer on all of these stages that exist. And so, phenomenal training, it’s a free workshop. That’s the first piece of the training.

The second piece of the training is we’re gonna tackle exactly what John Lee Dumas and what Jill Stanton overcame is we’re gonna dive deeper into overcoming that fear of being on stages, but we’re also gonna help you craft your talk. I know we got to go into it today, and we gave you some incredible content today, but by the time you’re done with this second part of the workshop, you will have your one talk outlined completely because we have a one-page Story Braid outline that by the time you’re done with this training, you will have your talk outlined, which to me is the greatest marketing tool you have in your business.

And then the third piece of the training, and this is the fun piece, like it brings it all together, how do you scale the stage like JLD did with his six-figure stage? How do you scale a stage like we did and we’ve seen lots of our clients do with seven-figure stages? Or for some of you, it’s like, “Pete, I just need four figures. I just need thousands of dollars or I just need tens of thousands of dollars to really get my business off and running.” We are gonna go into how you actually scale a stage like JLD did in this third video of the workshop.

And so, this workshop is really powerful. You’re gonna get to experience this entire system, and by the time you’re done with it, you’re gonna be able to do stages unlike most people out in the world do stages. And, John Lee, the biggest thing I can tell you is there are people who have chosen not to incorporate speaking into their business, like Chandler Bolt, because he didn’t know what it could do, and this was the first year that he did it, and he’s adding seven figures to his business. And he talked about how much he had left on the table the first three, four, five years in his business from not doing it.

And then you have people like John Ruhlin, Frank Shamrock, five time UFC champion, a guy who was with us just yesterday, Brad Lee, Dr. Maria Church who was with us yesterday, and they say the same common thing, “I’ve left six and seven figures on the table. I’ve done speaking, I just haven’t done it correctly, and the amount of money that we’ve left on the table from not doing it correctly.” So, by the time they’re done with this workshop, whether they’ve done it or they haven’t done it, that won’t be the answer for them moving forward. They’re gonna be able to do it correctly and really make an impact in their business after this workshop, JLD.

JLD: And now, Pete, this workshop, it’s $5,000.00, right? Was that the number?

Pete: Yes. I was gonna charge 10. You told me to do 10. We dropped it to 5, and then at the end of the day, no, it’s a completely virtual, online workshop that, JLD, your community is gonna be able to have access to for a couple of weeks and really be able to dive into this workshop and make the most of it. And we are not charging for the workshop.

JLD: So, you completely went against my $10,000.00 recommendation?

Pete: I did. I did. I completely did, dude. I completely did.

JLD: Fire Nation, let me break this down for you. This workshop, it’s gonna take you through these three steps: the how to be great onstage, how to craft your talk, your one talk is going to be outlined. You’re gonna be able to go through and outline that one talk, and then, holy crap, you’re gonna figure out how to scale from stage, how to actually scale that stage, the ones that you’re on, that you’re speaking from. This is mind-blowing. It literally should be $10,000.00. If it was $5,000.00, it would be an absolutely steal, but Pete’s gonna give this to you for free because he saw what people that can share their message the right way can do.

You heard the story of how it impacted he and his father’s relationship, and I mean, that’s literally priceless. If you could put a dollar amount on that, it doesn’t exist because that is a priceless thing that happened. And why are you keeping your message, your mission, your voice inside when you know that you can go through a workshop like this that, by the way, is gonna cost you nothing more than your time? And guess what, I get your time is valuable, but this is something that you’re worth the investment in. So, you’re gonna head over to EOFire.com/speaker. That’s EOFire.com/speaker, and you are gonna get completely free access to this workshop, Fire Nation.

This is a strong JLD stamp of “Take this call to action right now” on your forehead because this could literally change your life. And even if you decide to never speak from stage, which I hope you don’t make that decision, but you will still learn so much, and this is gonna help you in everything that you do in life, whether that be one-on-one speaking, just talking to people, writing content for blogs, or doing a podcast, or doing a three-minute video or Instagram Story, take this workshop. It’s free. Take action on this. Pete, give us a final takeaway, just one thing you wanna make sure Fire Nation gets, then we’re gonna say goodbye.

Pete: I wouldn’t be living up to what I talk about if I didn’t end with the heart, JLD, so I mean, I’m gonna do that. So, what I wanna tell you first is what JLD just said is so critical. Whether you’re speaking on a stage, or you’re speaking one-on-one, or you’re sitting over coffee, or you’re on a podcast, or you’re on video, this workshop will serve you. And so, long story short, I went home – I think about 12 years ago, I got a phone call from my dad. He was 49 at the time. My stepmom was 48. He called me, and he said, “You’ll never believe this, but we’re pregnant.”

And so, my wife and I were giggling. She talks about it was the biggest giggling that she’s ever seen me have in 16 years of marriage because I’m thinking to myself, “My dad’s about to have another kid, and I haven’t had my first kid.” So, we went home to meet my little brother for the first time that weekend. We were living in Colorado, we drove to meet him. I kept seeing something different. Just something was different with the way that my dad was interacting with my little brother, JT.

And so, we were getting ready to leave that weekend, and we were going to the car, my dad opened the car door for my wife, let her in, he took me around to the other side, he looked me in the eyes, and he said, “I want you to know you’ll always be my little boy, but I feel like JT is my second chance to get to do things right.” And I want you to know that in that moment in time, I thought to myself, “This would’ve not happened had it not been for that stage that he heard that man speak on.” And not only is my dad a powerful, incredible dad to JT, he is the most amazing grandfather to my sister’s kids and my kids, and that’s because of the power of a stage.

And so, I just wanna encourage Fire Nation, take advantage of this workshop and make sure that you really are doing stages or doing them correctly in your business because you are going to be able to impact a lot of people, and the revenues will follow. I mean, it’s a predictable system of 15 years. The revenues will follow.

JLD: Fire nation, you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You’ve been hanging out with PV3 and JLD today, so keep up the heat. And please, head over to EOFire.com/speaker, take this content, take this workshop. It is only the investment of your time and it literally could change your life. And, Pete, I wanna thank you, brother, for sharing your truth with Fire Nation today, and for that, we salute you, and we’ll catch you on the flip side.

Pete: Thank you.