SFR 209: My Stage Teaching Template...

Sales Funnel Radio

Boom, what's going on, everyone?

Steve Larsen from Sales Funnel Radio, today I'm gonna teach you guys my event teaching template.

I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today and now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.

The real question is how will I do it without VC funding or debt completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.

Join me and follow along as I learn, apply and share marketing strategies to grow my online business, using only today's best internet sales funnels.

My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.

What's up, guys? Hey, I'm excited for today. I wanna share with you guys kind of a cool little thing here.

I’ve been teaching at events for a number of years now. I’ve taught everyone, from people who are brand new to people who are extremely experienced and very wealthy, and there is a format that I teach in.

One of the things that I get asked, actually more and more frequently this has been happening, is, “Stephen, how can you get up and riff for two hours?”

The answer is, I'm not just like talking, I'm actually following a format in my head.

There's been a few people have reached out and said, “Stephen, I wish you'd just get straight to the principle.” But there's reasons why I'm doing what I'm doing with this.

Right after my OfferMind event in 20218, I had the opportunity to go in and teach Russell Brunson's new speaker team for about half a day. He's got a new traveling team and they travel around on small stages that he can't get to, 'cause of who he is - which totally makes sense.

This team pitches ClickFunnels and content around the world, which is awesome. It's super cool.

So I was asked to come in and teach some of my methods and how I do what I do. I walked up and there wasn't really much of a framework, I had an idea…

I was watching and observing like crazy before it was my turn to go up, 'cause I wanted to see where they were. So I had an idea of what to actually talk about…

But guys, I'll be honest with you, sometimes as I'm talking, especially on stage, (I'm always extremely prepared, especially when I get on stage), but there's always a little bit of playroom.

One of my favorite things to do when I'm talking and going through a principle or whatever is to watch, I don't know how else to describe it, other than watching the eyes of the people to see:

#: Do I have them?

If I'm losing them, I've got to tell a story. I've got to just do something that's high drama or drop some more gold, something a little more valuable. I've got to do something to get 'em back; whether that's an engagement, or sometimes I'll do a random Q&A.

Half of a being speaker is being able to deliver cool stuff; the other half is being able to read the audience.

I’ve done a lot of three-day events, tons of them and I have slides, but not every group that comes into the room is the exact same, so I've got to be able to adjust based on what they're doing.

So what I've done, especially over the last two years, I've been developing kind of my own pattern for how I do stage stuff. Those of you guys who are coming to Funnel Hacking Live, you’ll see me do this.

I'll be extremely prepared, however I'm also gonna leave a little bit of room. I'm gonna watch how people are reacting.

There's been some stages that I've spoken on and like every audience is different, there's nothing to really prepare you for it, other than just doing it.

There’ve been some audiences that I've spoken to that were just the driest, dry, most unfun group to talk to ever, I'm not gonna say who it was, but it was a few events in Vegas and Texas and these other areas. I just talked to them and like, “Man, are you guys dead?”

Anyway, before I say anything offensive, I'm gonna move on, but like, “MAN!”

Then some of the most fun stages are not necessarily always the most educated in what I do, so I've got to start at a different level. You've got to be really fluid as a stage talker.

Now there's a difference between stage teaching and stage pitching - huge difference, monumental difference.

• Every time I'm doing a stage pitch, I will follow a webinar script.

• Teaching from stage, it's kind of that, but not really, there's a lot more that goes into it.

So my wife and I, we're both geeks now and she and I were talking late about stage and we were talking about the different formats of being able to present on stage, and so I thought it'd be kind of cool to share with you guys some of what I do, and how I'm actually able to pull that off…

I'm not just riffing, although it may look like that.

Let me just pull this whiteboard in here. If you guys are on ITunes, no sweat, I'm gonna walk through, you guys won't miss anything out. Drawing just helps me explain, so that's half the reason I draw so much.

Okay, so the first thing that I do is I go in and I draw a big old framework picture. It's a massive framework picture right here up at the top and it's a picture that represents the all the content.

One of the major reasons that I do this is because it helps me stay focused on what I need to produce, but also it helps me stay focused on what I should NOT get distracted by. There are squirrels!

As a speaker, you're like, “Oh man, you, one person in the audience, you think that's cool? Why don't I go on a massive tangent and teach you some other cool things, 'cause you think that's cool?” No! I'm sticking to a framework.

There was an event I was speaking at early on, one of the first stages I ever spoke on, and it was really valuable, but I stopped teaching and started Q&A-ing.

Stage pitching, totally different than stage teaching, which is totally different than Q&A, which is totally different than workshop. They're not all the same thing. They're the little tools that I pull out of my pocket when I need to to keep:

• Things interesting

• The learning up and high

• The energy high

• People engaged

... 'cause some of the principles I go through... man, they're freaking boring. I know they're boring! I hate listening to boring speakers. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

I don't really watch so much football. I like the Denver Broncos, they're my team, but I don't really watch that much of it, but when I do…

I'm not really an armchair quarterback, but I am TOTALLY an armchair quarterback when I am watching other people on stage. I’m nitpicking the crap out of 'em, I can't help it.

I'm like:

• Oh, I would have done that different

• I would have pointed differently there

• What's with the stature of that person?

• Why is every one of their sentences going down? They should be going up.

...you know, it's like I can't help it. This is my craft, this is what I do, I can't help but watch what people are doing on stage.

So anyway, there's different mechanisms and frameworks and patterns that I'm using throughout. Specifically for this episode, I'm gonna walk through how I handle teaching on stage in a way that’s:

• Interesting

• Interactive

• Captivating and brings the minds of the audience with you

If I just pop right out and say, “Here's the framework!”

The audience will:

1. Look at it

1. Finds something on there that they have seen before

1. Thinks that they understand the rest of it immediately - when they don't.

I can't just walk up and be like, “Here's the framework.” So what I do first of all is I go in and I draw a framework picture, then what I do is I break up the picture into chunks, three, four, five, six, seven chunks.

• This is exactly what I did for OfferMind

• This is exactly what I did for all of the FHAT events that I used to run

• It's exactly what I do for OfferLab, which is coming up for those of you guys that are coming to it.

...Does that make sense? There's a lot of what I do that comes from just this piece alone.

I got to hang out with Russell when he was drafting a lot of the Traffic Secrets book which he's been working on. He's writing it right now, but the actual ideation of the principles, he does the exact same thing... Where do you think I learned it? ;-)

When I first got to ClickFunnels and he started drafting the Expert Secrets Book, this is exactly what we did.

There was a picture that represented all of it and then the picture was broken up into four or five different pieces, and those are the major sections of the book.

So I do this the exact same way when I'm doing a teaching-based event. When I go into pitching, that's a different activity and a different pattern. But specifically this is how to teach at events. Okay, just making that clear, so that no one thinks that's how you pitch!

The first thing I do is I draw a picture…

If I can explain a complex principle with a doodle, it means it’s simple enough for the masses to understand. Most people are on a third grade reading level,and I can't stand up and use complex vocabulary.

The point is to not make me look smart, the point is to educate the audience.

It drives me nuts when you can tell someone wrote a speech to make 'em look smart, rather than to connect with the audience.

I'm not gonna name any names, but man, there was an event that I went to, (this happened like three times last year), where I got to speak at an event or I went to one that I just kind of wanted to go to… and there would be one or two speeches specifically you could just tell that were created to just remind everyone how cool the speaker was.

...That's awesome, but I believe that if you want credit, don't seek it. If you want stature, don't seek it. You're gonna look like you are and you distance yourself from the listeners, 'cause you're like:

“Will you remind me again of how awesome I am, please? Remind me how much of a pedestal I'm on. Raise me up, please, audience, following.”

...You distance yourself from the audience in that one move. Stupid, don't do it! okay.

So anyways,I draw a picture (for a lot of reasons), but it's so that I understand it in a simple way to teach it and so it's a simple to deliver the principle at the same time.

So I draw a smaller picture of a chunk of the major framework picture and I do it again, and then I do it again.

Let's say that there are four major principles, that are distinct from each other inside of this major picture. So then I draw another picture. Then there's a pattern inside each one of these that I'm pulling off.

When I'm doing a lot of Facebook Lives, or even sometimes in these episodes, I don't always do this in these episodes, but a lot of times I'll follow kind of a version of this a little bit.

There's really two phases to this:

#1: Is Preparing: so, first, I'm gonna walk through the preparing phase, which is what we're doing right now.

This is how I prepare all the content ahead of time to make sure that I am ready to over deliver on stage. Is it a brain jog? Yes, it’s mentally exhausting. It’s so challenging.

I'm going through the exact same process for my book right now. Ha, right! It's not easy, guys. It's NOT easy at all.

Realistically, if you're doing something that's gonna be a little more permanent like a book…

I don't write the book to make money, it's gonna make some, but I'm making the book to make sure it’s easily transferable information to the masses. It's a low ticket thing = low cost + high circulation product.

So these are the stages I’m gonna go through with you:

1. Preparation

2. Delivery

So the first thing I do is I come up a big picture represents all of it and then there's four major principles - they're like little breakouts of the major framework.

So now let's get down to each one of these levels. I draw the major, overarching principle pictures and I will usually use blue.

The next color I use for the actual content itself is typically green.I hope it shows up well on the camera here. Then I draw a smaller picture, yeah, that shows up alright, I draw a smaller picture and inside of that, I'm coming up with:

• A quote,
• A story
• The actual concept itself
• A ‘So What?’

You’ll see Russell do this in several places as well, I do this in a lot of spots: “Oh, cool quote about this. By the way, here's a really cool story that's gonna set you up to understand the concept when I drop it.” Which is why I always tell a lot of stories on this show and anywhere.

Then, the “So what?” Meaning; “Who freaking cares?”

If I teach you something cool and you can't use it, then who cares? I'm not here to say, “Oh, look how cool I am. So what? Who cares?

I hate my time being wasted. I do my best NOT to waste you guy's time, so I do what's called a “So What?”

I this at OfferMind; meaning:

1. I teach you the principle
2. Here's what you should be able to do with it now that you've learned it.

It's like the deliverables, the thing that they should be able to go do afterwards.

And frankly, this is a small picture... and then I do it again. We do a smaller picture, a quote.. and these are all little, tiny micro stories that teach the bigger concept. There'll be a bunch of 'em, boom, boom, small, small pictures. However many I need, in order to actually accurately show the BIG concept.

Does that make sense so far?

Then what I do is I typically, not always, it depends on how much time I have...

So then I grab a red pen and red to me is the “So whats?” If you don't have red, you're dead... meaning this is the applicable area of what I'm teaching here.

So then, I usually do somewhat of a workshop/Q&A, not always. One or the other, sometimes both, it’s very time dependent. These usually end out the principle that I’ve taught.

For those of you guys who have got tickets to the next OfferMind, you got the replays from last year, watch me doing this.

Each session is is usually about an hour and a half to two hours,and then we usually need a break, and that's fine, but I usually end with a workshop/Q&A section or session.

I do the exact same thing for every single one of those major pictures and frameworks moving forward. Does that kind of make sense?

That's how I prepare, but that's NOT actually how I teach it. That’s NOT how I teach it at all.

Now I'm gonna erase the bottom of this right here, just so that I can draw how I actually toss it out, okay.

So that's why I lace it all out on my floor. I just got another 12 legal pads from Amazon Basics, because I'm running out. I use a lot of legal pads because I'm literally drawing pictures and writing the quotes on all these sheets on my floor and stuff - because then I can visually see:

“Crap, I'm missing a story on picture number two, section one, right, oh, dang, I'm need to find a quote, that backs up what I've been saying, I know this is a true principle, who else talks about that?”

That's why I buy so many books, I don't necessarily read that many books from cover to cover, I don't. What I do is I hunt answers.

If I know I'm missing a quote from section one, picture number three, I'm like, “Crap, who talked about that again?”

Then what I do is I walk through my bookshelves and I grab out all the books,that look like they're about that topic and I will rifle through and speed read like crazy.

In fact, on the other side of this camera is where I usually put all that stuff. I had stacks of books next to each principle: “Oh man, this stack of books is really about that one principle. This stack of books is really about that principle.” And I rifle through them to make sure.

That's why OfferMind was so good, guys, I did my freaking homework.

Let me grab another color here. Yeah, let's grab black…

So that's how I prepare, but the way I actually deliver is, I always start with a story. A story at a place of high drama. Sometimes I will start also with a quote; sometimes those are interchangeable. It's not always in that order, but these are always at the beginning at least.

So it's a story at a place of high drama, and a quote. I never just present the picture. This is one of the reasons why so many of us use whiteboards on stage is we are drawing the picture in front of the audience.

If you have to go fast, that's fine, but it actually creates a deeper understanding for the audience if you draw and explain at the same time ...and then show them the finalized picture that you prepared ahead of time.

Russell does this at Traffic Secrets. I do this all the time like at the FHAT Events.I did this several times at OfferMind, time depending, based on where I was.

What I do is I draw a story to place high drama, then I go through a quote and then I'm drawing the picture in front of them on a clean whiteboard or a clean piece of paper.

I'm saying the steps that they need to take in order to to do that principle, but I'm also visually writing down those steps. That's why in my slides, a lot of times, you'll see I'm drawing the picture even though it's already done on the next slide.

This works so freaking good.

I've used this many times on a lot of stages, a lot of stages, okay. I've an abnormal amount of stage time for someone my age and I know that, and I'm just saying, okay.

So then I'm gonna number the steps out, audibly and written and then finally I press the slide button, 'cause I go make all these pictures. I have an artist go in and they will actually make a rendering of each one of these pictures. But if I just show it, it's not nearly as effective. Then I go through my “So Whats?” and then leave off with the Q&A/workshop. Does that make sense?

Sorry for the reflection there, guys, I'm trying to get that off there. Anyways, cool, that's how I do it.

First, I prepare it in the order I’ve shown you, but then I deliver it in this order.

I DON’T just:

• Show the picture
• Use a quote
• Tell a story
• Reveal a concept
• Add the “So Whats?”

BECAUSE… it's better if the audience discovers the picture with you as you're drawing it. Man, that's so much more effective. The learning's a lot deeper.

Anyways, I just wanna share that with you guys. Some of you have been asking about this and I'm stoked to be able to share it with you.

So if you guys are doing events - which are amazing. I believe everybody should do an event. Events are incredible whether it’s virtual or in person.

Marketers are event creators.

When you go in, especially in a teaching event. I'm speaking in a lot of places already in 2019, I'm really stoked about it.

I got a lot of offers, I'm going a lot of places and I'm excited about that. I'm saying no to most of 'em, 'cause I'm really focused on my goal for this year. Thank you, I don’t want to offend anyone.

If I’m gonna do any kind of stage speech at all, if I have an hour, if I have 30 minutes, if I have three days, this is how I do it.

You'll see a lot of times, when I'm trying to over deliver content, in my head, I'm following this format.

What's the story format I'm using? Epiphany Bridge Script.

What's the quote I'm using? Someone who's influential, that the audience all know about.

I'm drawing the picture in front of 'em. I suck at drawing, whatever!

Next I walk through and number the steps out: it's the same exact thing I would do in a webinar script, but in this format, it's a little different.

Then I go in and write the “So Whats?”

Finally; Q&A/workshop at the end, time dependent. I love that one, it helps 'em really feel like they've gotten a lot.

Anyway, that's the format that I use both in creating and in delivering.

What I want to do real fast is cut over to one other video real fast…

When I was at OfferMind, I ended the event. I was done, I was excited, I was like man, I knew that it had been awesome. A lot of money has been made from that event already; meaning the people in the audience applied everything and made a lot of cash, which is awesome and very validating…

But I was getting down and guys, I was tired, okay, I was about to go get in the car and continue to teach the speaker team. I was exhausted, man. I had really not slept in a while, and if you've ever been on stage, like you should be freaking tired.

The photographer came up to me afterwards and she goes, "You move more on stage than anybody I've ever seen ever," and I said “Yeah, well, number one, I hate bad speakers who are boring and number two, if I don't keep things interesting it's gonna suck.”

I don't know if you guys have heard the saying or the stat. I don’t know if it’s a stat or a saying, whatever... but I believe it's true, 'cause it seems true every time I do it…

90 minutes on stage is the equivalent in energy to a full eight-hour workday

...And so to go for two straight days, man, you're wrecked, you are so freaking tired.

Whenever I'm doing a webinar, it's an hour and a half, I'm acting like I'm on stage. I’m exhausted after I do a webinar. I’m putting out energy, I’m working hard. They will NOT exceed my energy level.

I set the pace, so I've got to come in high and hard, so that I can bring everybody up because that brings them in a better place to be engaged and learn,

I pre-bought caffeine for the tables.

Anyway, so I did all this stuff, and then the event ended, and as I was about to walk off, Colton runs up and he goes, "Hey, wait everyone, don't move, don't move, don't move."

I didn't know he had a mic in his hand and he invited John Ferguson up and they gave me the Statue of Responsibility Award which had a hard time not breaking down and kind of crying over, guys.

The only reason I'm showing you guys this, it's not to pat my back, it's to pat my wife's for what she does to support everything that I'm doing. It's pretty intense.

So I just wanna give a little shout out to my wife here.

We're gonna cut over here, so you guys can watch US get that award and the amazing compliment that he gave her at the end of this video.

So anyways, let's cut over real quick here:

Coulton: We have something pretty special planned for Steve right now.

He has no idea.

So you guys are gonna be part of this, but in order to, like, explain it a little bit more, we're gonna roll a video, so if you guys wanna kinda sit back and watch a quick video with us, that would be awesome.

VIDEO: Viktor Frankl, the author of Man's Search for Meaning and a Holocaust survivor, he firmly believed that if we don't act responsibly with our freedoms, we will lose those, and now we're able to create his vision. His vision was to create a Statue of Responsibility. Bookend the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast with a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.

"Freedom threatens to degenerate into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsiveness. And that is why now it's for ten years that I've been teaching my American audiences they should see to it that the Statue of Liberty on the Atlantic Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the Pacific Coast." -Viktor Frankl

SCULPTOR OF THE STATUE: "Everyday we make decisions. We can think about what defines us. Is it our past, or is it where we're going? Is it what we want to do, or what's happened to us? We have the ability. We decide what we're going to create each and every day."

Coulton: I'm now gonna invite Mr. John Ferguson up to the stage real quick.

John Ferguson: So Stephen knows what this is, but a lot of you didn't, so we wanted to share the video.

On my way out here, I had an opportunity to talk to the sculptor of The Statue of Responsibility.

Two years ago, we were on a mission to find entrepreneurs, influencers, people who are looking to change other people's lives.

Viktor Frankl had in his study in Vienna, a sculpture with a man called The Suffering Man who reaches up to the sky looking for help. He always used to say, before he passed away, is "Where is the hand reaching down?"

Being a Holocaust survivor, he talked about responsibility on the West Coast to bookend liberty and freedom on the East Coast, and so we said:

"Look, we have to find individuals who are the hand reaching down to others in our world."

Don't you think Stephen is one of those people? Yeah, totally!

I think I've known Stephen about three years, first Funnel Hacking live event. We talked about that, and he is a different dude. He is awesome, right? I mean, phenomenal.

And so I talked to the sculptor, and I had him sign one of the statues, and it’s numbered, and we're only giving away a few of these to individuals in the country.

These individuals will have their names in a special place at the statue that will be built in Southern California, 305 feet tall, just like The Statue of Liberty. You'll be able to go inside and visit it.

Because of what he's done, not only for this community, but for all of your communities, do you understand that? Now you can get your message put in a way, you guys are all a part of this.

To Steve: so would you accept the Statue of Responsibility as a gift for what you've given all of us?

Steve: Absolutely, man. Thank you very much. I really appreciate that a lot. That's huge. Thanks, man, thank you.

John Ferguson: And one last thing here with Alyssa, the reason why I wanted her on the stage was she's the hand reaching down at home while Stephen's here with us.

So thank you for giving us Stephen while you're having to take care of the home. Appreciate it.

Steve: Thanks. It means a lot. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Well, you guys are, you guys are gonna see my tears flex in a second.

Hey, guys thank you so much for being here. We love you, we appreciate you a lot. This is totally a family endeavor. Hope you guys know that and feel that from us, and go change the world. We'll see you guys. Thank you, thank you very much.

Thanks for watching this episode, please rate and subscribe at ITunes, I would really appreciate it if you guys rated it. That means a lot.

Guys, thanks so much. Let's cut over to the video and see us getting that award. Bye.

Boom, just try to tell me you didn't like that!

Hey, whoever controls content controls the game. Wanna interview me or get interviewed yourself, grab a time now at stevejlarsen.com.