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Hey, everybody. Barry Friedman, Showbiz Blueprint, and here we are at week one. We have filled out applications. You’ve watched training videos. We’ve talked on the phone. We have had conferences, and we’ve both agreed that this is a fit for you, so I can’t tell you how excited I am. Not everybody gets to this point. Showbiz Blueprint has grown since 2011, and it’s bigger and better every year. More alumni, more lessons, more modules, more guest faculty, and this year is no exception.

One of the things I really want to emphasize to you right now is that we’re going to be doing a lot in these 10 weeks, and one of my worst nightmares is that this ends up on a hard drive of yours somewhere and you feel overwhelmed. We have resources in place for that, we have your accountability groups, we have our live Q&As every Tuesday. We have our Facebook group, our secret Facebook group, and when the program finishes we have our Facebook alumni group. It doesn’t have to go away. We have people who were at the very first session back in 2011 still inside of our alumni group trying new techniques, pushing the limits, assisting others who are struggling and asking for help when they need it.

So this is a remarkable community you’re a part of and I want to just assure you right at the beginning, although there is a lot that I’m going to teach you, more importantly we’re going to spend time, really take the time to absorb it, accept it, and implement it each week. As one of our alumni, Chris Ruggiero says in the title of his book, Just Go. That’s what we’re going to do and I will be watching, eye in the sky, your accountability group will be watching eye in the sky to make sure you’re putting it into work.

Joseph Campbell, one of the great speakers, educators of all time, minds, philosophical minds says as you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm. Jump! It’s not as wide as you think. We’re going to have a lot of time to jump off cliffs in this program. So let’s kick into gear. A bit of housekeeping that won’t have every module, but I want to get some things out of the way. These presentations, I don’t make these to be entertaining. I’m in a beautiful studio here, but I really just cover what we need to cover. I know everybody’s busy and I get down to business pretty quickly. I don’t want to ever waste your time. Heck, I’m injecting some video once in a while, but for the most part I just want to keep it nice and simple on a whiteboard when we can.

I show up very big at these modules, I show up very big in our Facebook group, I show up huge in our live Q&A sessions, and I will tell you right now I expect the exact same from you. I don’t want anybody walking through this thing. I worked very hard during our phone interviews to filter out the people who weren’t going to make it. And every year some people don’t get through the phone interview. We just have that conversation and they realize or I realize that this isn’t going to happen, and I can see the future very well that in 10 weeks you’re going to be in about the same place.

So that’s not why you’re here, you’re here because I truly believe you’re not going to be in the same place. You will get so much more than you expected. You’ll get more than I talked about on the final page where you purchased the program from. Anything I’ve talked about in webinars or in the four training videos that led up to this, I over-deliver and as things come up in business I just open the book and show them to you there. So count on that. Know that for this 10 weeks you’re going to step out of maybe any story you have about your inability to learn or that it’s difficult for you to do new things or you don’t have time.

I’m going to talk about time in a second, but for this amount of time trust yourself to let go of any stories you may have about how you do in courses, classes. How you do anything is how you do everything. That is a wonderful expression that I hold true. I think it’s very difficult to find somebody who’s organized in their life, good at their job, great parent. And then they’re some wacko in some other area of their life, or a closet alcoholic or … There’s always signs. Success leaves a trail and I’m going to ask you to look for areas in your life throughout this, we’ll do a little bit of work on this in week two, where there’s blocks where things are holding you down, because if it’s showing up in your life in some way it’s going to show up somehow in your work. My goal as I’ve said so many times in this is to have you not even recognize yourself at the end of these 10 weeks, and that’s where I’m heading with you guys for this.

So I’m going to give you steps to take, I don’t ever want this to feel like it’s a pool you’re drowning in. Does that make sense? I want to just give you steps to take and if it’s too much it’s your responsibility to break those down. You can use your accountability group, you can use our Facebook group. You can get more clarification during the live Q&A. Don’t ever let yourself get up here in water. It’s going to feel like I’m overwhelmed, I don’t know what to do. Break this stuff into small chunks.

As a side note, I want to tell you there are alumni who are taking the program again this year who got maybe 50% of it when they took it in the past. That’s fine, you’re already invited every year to come back and redo the program free of charge. A lot of people take us up on that because what happens is, if you’re operating your business down here at a zero or a one, getting to a two is mathematically a very big jump. Going from a two to three is a little smaller jump. When you’re up doing at a seven, eight, nine, moving up one step is not that big a deal. It’s refinement.

So let’s really look at where we’re at right now, what we want to get to, and how realistic can we be with our time, with our commitments, with the stuff we’re still holding in our lives, our family, maybe another job you’re doing, the performing and traveling you’re doing. Where can you fit this stuff into your life such that you get the maximum benefit without it taking away from anything else?

Everybody is at a different starting place and you will be met. I will do what I can to meet you there and your accountability group will do what they can to meet you there. The onus always, the onus is on you to define what you can do. I can’t guess that for you, I can’t assign you stuff. I can assign you daily homework and I will. Do it to the level that you can. Push yourself a little bit and always just make sure you’re not killing yourself or drowning. Find the zone in between those two.

Look, this is what I do as a coach. I always see you in the full potential. What you wrote down on your written questionnaire, what we talked about on the phone. That’s where I hold you as. I will never believe anything less. If you get buried in the story that you’re too busy or this is … That’s your story. I’ve heard the truth, I’ve heard where you want to go, and that’s where I’m taking you.

So a few more housekeeping tips. Be present during these modules. If you can only do 15 minutes at a time and then your mind starts to wander, wonderful. Do 15 minutes, hit pause, do some pushups, walk around, get something to drink, keep something handy to drink, a wet brain’s a happy brain and stay present during the webinars. If you feel yourself starting to phase out, stop it and let’s do this when it’s making sense. I think you have three or four days before our live Q&A to watch this module.

Define your workday. I think I covered a little bit of that. We’re going to do a module or two where we really get into how to manage our time, what to do, how we set the most important things for the day, a good lesson I’ll link you to in get more corporate gigs about that. You have to define what works for you. There’s a system of goals called smart goals. I think there may be something in the page about that. If not I will put that in. You have to define goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound. And we will be doing that with everything we do in this homework. You need to make sure that you set a goal, you achieve the goal.

Any sort of failure when you start to slip, that’s going to build a hole in your passion for this and your … The past is beckoning. There is a history of how you’ve run your business that is beckoning for you not to do what we’re doing right here. You can slay that by consistent, regular action every single day that looks like something new. Not that you squeeze into the same old way you’ve always done it. If it helps you to get dressed, get dressed. If it helps you to shave and shower before you start doing this stuff, do that. Do something to shake yourself up a little bit. Good.

I’m going to invite you also to use our Facebook group to tell on yourself. This is not commonly done in our culture, we tend to hide things. Facebook is a selective highlights of people’s lives. I’m going to invite you in our group, in the secret group that can’t be seen by anyone except who’s in this group, to tell on yourself. When you’re feeling lazy, when you’re not doing the work. Use that because the old part of the brain, the lizard brain doesn’t want you to do that. That’s the part that I was saying before, is fighting to keep you on the exact same path. So let’s tell on ourselves, it’s a very powerful tool just to come on and say, “Hey, I’m not doing the work. I’m lost at this spot.” Who admits in this culture that they’re lost? Certainly not men, right? Thank goodness for the GPS, we’re able to do that.

No resistance, I recommended when you first came into this that you read an incredible book by Steven Pressfield called The War of Art. That book, the main character is resistance and I want you to understand resistance. I want you to know your resistance. Make friends with it because it’s going to do nothing over the next 10 weeks, six months, year, for the rest of your future. but show up and try and go, “Hey, come on back here. Come on back here to where it’s safe.” We’re not going to do that.

Perfection. Perfection does not exist. Perfection is something that even if it kills you, even if you’re an obsessive compulsive, and I can raise my hand to that, you have some obsessive compulsive disorders. Perfection is not going to be part of our system for the next 10 weeks. It’s not something that I allow into the program, and if I catch you doing it I’m going to force you to do an exercise, I’m going to force you to make a call that’s imperfect just so that you can see you’re alive on the other side of it.

Perfection is not worth the time it takes. We will do everything we can in our power to avoid making sure that something’s perfect. My buddy Seth [Godan 00:09:56] says, “Ship it, ship it, ship it.” Something that’s finished is way better than something that’s not yet perfect. We are going to follow that to a T. You would not believe the limited range of vision that I’ve seen entertainers come into this program with where they think, “Oh, there’s just, I have to book these people, I have to be so careful.” No, there is a world out there of possibilities for you. It’s fine if you blow five, 10, 100 phone calls, 100 emails. Doesn’t even matter. It won’t even show up on the radar. It’s a drop in the ocean. So I’m going to push you to get real used to putting things out, shipping and publishing them before they’re whatever you might consider perfect. That perfection has been costing you your entire life and I do not want to be a part of that anymore.

Okay, two more things. You can work really hard at this program and have no results, or you can just do what I say and have a lot of results. Don’t confuse effort with results. One big thing I want to say and I want to invite you to drop your ego a bit in this, drop your reputation. If I say something and you say, “I’ve tried that, that doesn’t work.” My BS detector’s going to go off. If you say, “I’m going to modify that a little bit to fit me,” I’m going to call BS. I’ve been doing this since 1982, the exact same way. I’ve built a career that is legendary by all standards and I’ve taught this to almost 200 people at this point. It works. Just work it. For 10 weeks, put the beliefs you have aside and just go all in.

I remember when I bought a program, you watched a series of videos that brought you into this program. They were invented by, the system by a man named Jeff Walker who releases something called Product Launch Formula once a year. It is incredible what I went through to be on the other side of where I’m standing right now when he said to do something one way. I literally had to take my other hand and force myself to send stuff sometimes. It was so out of character, out of align with how I would’ve worded something, with how often I would have sent an email, with certain triggers that I might have used in a video. But I said, “You know what? I spent two grand on this program. I’m going to go in, I’m going to follow for 10 weeks. I can always forget it all when it’s over.” So I’m going to ask you to do that. I’ve done that work and I’m going to ask you to do that.

The final thing I want you to do is, and I’m going to call you out on this like you’re not going to believe this. You’re going to think I’m rude, you’re going to think I’m a real a-hole when I do this. In the group I don’t want to hear you say things like, you know when you’re sitting there and you don’t know what to do and you get a phone call. None of that. Everything in this group, or in the live Q&A I’m going to call you on it, I want you to own every single thing that’s happening for you. I want you to use what’s called I statements.

I’m sitting here, I don’t know who to call. I feel lost. At that point we can actually do something about it, but when you’re using that royal we there’s nothing we can do. There’s nothing that I can do to help you. It becomes very uninteresting to me when I hear somebody start using we, you, that whole big general thing that just takes all the ownership out of what you’re doing in the business. So I statements are going to be a big piece of this thing.

All right, next let’s talk about our brainstorming and accountability groups. You guys have already been set up with a group. Three people in a group. The protocol is on the page where I told you who you’re in with and these are set up for a very specific reason, I put a lot of thought into these. Trust the group intelligence, lean into it, and know that going into it you’re going to have some judgments, you’re going to be like, “Ah, this guy does that or she does this and it doesn’t make any …” Trust the group judgment, it’s pretty amazing.

Wring this program out. And the accountability groups are a big piece of it. Just wring it out like you’re trying to squeeze every single drop of water out of it. That brings me to something I want to mention real big here, confidentiality agreement. This is a … You signed it in your agreement. This is a very intimate container that we build here and we’re all over the world, and it’s this intimate container that somehow we’re able to build through a lot of trust and just being present.

I really trust that you guys will keep what we do here in the group. I never mention a word of what happens with anyone’s name attached to it anywhere outside of this group. There are remarkable things that have happened. You’ll see some of them when you’re in the alumni group at the end of this program when you’re added. Things happen in here and I want you to treat it as a very sacred container. Something that if you poke a hole in it, it starts to lose its sand, it starts to lose its power. So I’m going to invite you to really embrace it, even though you’ve already signed that confidentiality agreement, I want you to really embrace it in your heart.

I’m always going to be covering in this, the what, why and the how. Those are three big pieces for me. What we’re going to do, how we’re going to do it, and then why we’re going to do it. I always look for the why, I always look for what’s going to be different on the other side. I often use an expression, so that. You’ll hear this. We’ll talk about what we’re going to do, how we’re going to do it so that you get more leads, so that you can close deals faster, so that when you’re at the event you know how to act, so that you can get the best referrals. It’s always about the so that.

You’ll find you can always take so that even deeper so that you can get better gigs, so that you can make more money, so that you can have more time with your family, so that when you want to take a vacation you’ll get down to one that just rings so true in your body that it makes it impossible for you to go forward.

I have a couple of virtual assistants who help me with this program. Betsy, Sarah, probably others right now. You’ll see. Always contact them, they’re your first point of contact for technical pieces in the program. They will always be able to answer your questions and if not they can get to me, but it’s very difficult to have 25, 50 questions coming at me of little things that they can handle. Outsourcing is a big piece of what I do in my business, and it’s a big piece of what I’m going to teach you to be doing.

Change takes change and I follow these group dynamics, and I’m always flexible about where this needs to go. So you guys, we are going to get going. Over these 10 weeks we’re going to operate on two very distinct tracks. One is called the fasted path to the cash and one is called the big picture. Fastest path to the cash, that’s stuff that you can take and put into your business right now. The business you’re running, what can I do right now? You can use it for relationship to network stuff, you can looking into your history, we’re going to talk about that in a little while. What are you good at that you have not yet brought to your business? What’s the low hanging fruit that for some reason you have just not attached in your market? Everybody has low hanging fruit.

What risk can you take? What proposals can you get out the door? Right? Like almost immediately, what proposals can you just take action on and get gout the door? This requires dropping the perfectionism and I talked about that in a second. Fasted path to the cash gigs are often in the same fee structure where you’re working now, but they bring in income and they’re just literally giving you the invitation and the path to walk to put all the excuses that have stopped you from doing this kind of work aside and just say, “Yeah, I’m going to meet three fastest path to the cash goals today and I’m going to reach out and I’m going call, email, and get on the phone with.”

Boom. That kind of consistent behavior, that’s one path we’re going to be doing. This will jumpstart your confidence and trust and set you up very big for everything we’re going to be doing on the other side, which is the big picture stuff. We’re going to be looking for what seeds can we plant? As we go through this, we may see a conference that we don’t feel quite ready for but we’re going to keep record of it in our spreadsheet and we’re going to say, “Yeah, that’s something I’d like to look at. It’s in July next year, I’m going to contact them in February of next year.” So we’re going to be planting seeds by the work we do, with the fasted path to the cash stuff, and that’s going to set us up for that big picture element.

Building relationships and networking, that is stuff that I still to this day, since 1982 I begin planting seeds in this business and I still benefit from those to this day. 34, 35, 40 years later. It doesn’t even matter. Those relationships will always be alive and that’s what big picture is about. Big picture is really about looking into your future, not getting stuck in the minutia of what am I going to book today? There’s a little piece of each day that’s dedicated specifically to big picture stuff. You’ll see it pop up in the homework from time to time. You can do it on your own. But there is … That looking into the future piece is a very powerful exercise, a powerful piece of the work we’re going to be doing here.

If we were going to make the low hanging fruit analogy, this is looking for new trees. This is cultivating new land and just digging in, looking for new trees. The big picture is also where we plot necessary steps we’re going to be taking for the big proposal that’s yet to come. The ones that scare us a little bit right now. We’ll have some time to refine this stuff. I aim for everybody in this program to 2x, to 10x their fee. I’m going to share a podcast with you guys where a really smart guy talks about the difference between 2x and 10x. He claims that 10x is easier, and I’ve listened to this podcast at least three times now and each time it becomes a little bit more real to me.

He talks about how 2x, you just have to go back to the path and think what can I do more of? 10x requires you to completely explode the bridge. 10x means you’re creating new ideas, you’re not tied to any old story that got you to where you’re at. So it’s an exciting line to walk and we’ll play around with that. Big picture stuff is a chance for you to spend some of the professional capital that you’ve earned in your career that you may not even have thought about yet. It’s relationships that you have, awards you may have won, places you’ve been, referrals you’re yet to ask for. Lots of ways to cash in on your professional capital. We’ll do all of that. But I wanted just to define the fastest path to the cash and the big picture of these two tracks we’re going to be going on.

All right, so I told you we’re going to deal with the what, the why, the how, and let me just give you a quick example of that right now. One of the most important pieces that we can do as entertainers, as entrepreneurs, it’s what’s made my life everything it is, is the ability to define my own day. What I wear, what I eat for breakfast, when I get up, how much I work, what I do with my body for exercise. Who I call, who I connect with, what I do with my free time. It is unending and if you don’t decide what you’re going to do, somebody else does and that’s a problem. So we’re going to take ownership of our days here. One of the big pieces we’re going to do. Let me just run this through. I like to look, again, why, what, how and maybe even the risk involved.

So why would we define our own day? We are responsible for our own lives, right? Most of us who are self-employed entrepreneurs, entertainers, don’t have a boss, don’t have someone we have to report to. So the why, we are responsible so that we get the most done. Your choices, the choices you make actually define you. You get that? I think I talked about this in one of the videos, but the thoughts we have, encourage the feelings we have, encourage the thoughts we have, encourage the action we take, and that encourages the result. The output we have in life. So our choices define us.

I define my own choices so that I can achieve my goals. Big piece of the why. We go to decide or someone else will. That’s a given. If we don’t take charge of our day, someone else will. Be it a spouse, our kids, the IRS. A job, if you go get a job or something. Someone was always willing to take your time up and decide what you’re going to do with it. The number one reason why we define our day is man, you’re worth it. You are worth it. You are here because you want to take control of your life. You want to play bigger and bolder in this world. I will just tell you, you are worth every drop of it.

So define your day, what it’s going to look like. So what does that mean? How many hours, how many days a week? Real clear, this is not foggy, this is like I’ll get up and I’ll do something here. This is really, super clear stuff. I’m going to walk four days a week, I’m going to walk two hours, I’m going to take a break to go work out, I’m going to show you a program on this page that I use called an action planner. Old program, still use it, still love it. Then there’s new ones just on your phone, you can set an app. But you have to know what your day looks like. Guaranteed, and I’m going to insist on that, really.

So how many hours a day? How many days a week? Every single detail goes in. Don’t leave anything out. See what it’s like if you’ve been playing here with no planning, see what it’s like to play here and then find this place in the middle where you have an improved amount of productivity and you don’t feel like you’re tied down or bogged down. There’s going to be a lot of playing in that in the next couple of weeks, and it’s gong to serve you the rest of your life.

How? A timer, I talked about a little timer you can have on your app. Action enforcer, a link on this page. Get out of your own way. This is a risk you’re going to have to take. I love to say, what’s at risk for you doing this? There’s something at risk if you do it, and there’s something at risk if you don’t do it. That’s in every decision you make. So you have to get out of your own way. Sometimes that’s really hard. If you’re of a certain age, you’re of a certain belief and it’s difficult. I don’t think anyone’s here you, you wouldn’t have gotten passed the phone interview, but you are going to have to risk to some extent getting out of your own way to do this. You’re going to have to risk getting a whole lot done in a day.

“Oh, Barry, that doesn’t sound bad.” Let me tell you something, there is nothing bad about it but it’s a risk you’re going to have to take. What’s it going to feel like to get so much done in a day just by really defining what you’re going to do, how you’re going to run your day. Maybe there will be some guilt or shame about the past, why haven’t I been doing this for the last 10, 20 years? Maybe there’s going to be some total joy, like I can’t believe how much I got done today, this feels so good, I can’t wait to go again tomorrow. And the realization that you’re going to probably have to risk a realization that for a lot of years you’ve wasted a lot of time. Fine, we don’t get to go back. We are not double blind studies human beings, we get to just live the life we’re living. So don’t beat yourself up, that’s a realization and those are all risks you’re going to have to take.

All right, one place I want to begin talking to you guys about using our low-hanging fruit, right? One of the fastest paths to the cash pieces, and this overlaps a little bit with big picture. This is really looking at our lives and finding a niche. You say, “I already know a niche. I’m a singer, I’m a magician, I’m a juggler, I’m a ventriloquist, I’m a comedian. That’s a skill and what I’m going to invite you to do on this thing is what is a passion of yours, right? What is an actual passion? What is something you would do if you weren’t paid? What’s something you did as a kid? What’s a place where you have some expertise? What’s a place that when you see an article about it or you see an excerpt on YouTube talking about it, you can’t get enough of it? What’s something you share with people?

In my life, it’s been flying small airplanes. It’s been amateur radio. Clearly it’s been juggling, but that’s overlapped into the job quite a big. It’s been rite of passage adventures for young men, it’s been men’s work, it’s been couple’s work. There are things that I just love and I have overlapped those passions with my professional life more times than I can remember in my career and brought them together and ended up performing at places where there was no chance in the world that I would have been seeked out, hired, and gotten a gig at. Ever.

So many jobs like that in so many different niches, and it’s because I looked at what my passions were and what my skillset was as a presenter. It’s no surprise to you guys, you know I run this site called 30-Day Sugar-Free. I’m not a doctor, I’m not a nutritionist, I’m not a scientist, but what I was able to bring to that market was a life experience. Sugar free since leap day 2012 and my skills as a performer, as a presenter. I have been able to create a booming business by literally just talking about my research, my expertise, my experience, my interviews I do with people, going on TV. Because I combined something I was passionate about with my skill as a performer.

So I want to ask you guys, what events are happening in the world in an area that you love? Is it woodworking, is it stamp collecting, is it anime? Is it a YouTuber? What is it? What is it that you’re passionate about that you can combine your skills as a performer? We will have homework on this throughout this week, but be thinking about how you can serve that audience. This is fast path to the cash, I guarantee you if you take this piece of it seriously, you can pay for this course by the time we’re at the halfway point. You can find an event that’s happening, you can get in front of people, you can do a proposal, which you’ll also learn before this course, before the halfway point in this course, you can do a proposal and you can get a secured booking before the halfway point in this course and pay for it if you put a little bit of thought into this homework and dig deep.

Then the bigger picture of this piece, I mean think about this. Think about how … And this is what I’ve done, exactly with the 30-Day Sugar-Free. I just combined my two things, I started going on TV, I started running a little membership site, I wrote a book, now I have a membership site that has global reach. So the big picture piece of this is how can you become a voice in the national, international conversation about your niche?

I don’t care what it is, it could be really about any of those things I listed or a dozen other hobbies or affinities that people have. If it’s something that you know a lot about, you are robbing the world and stealing from yourself, you’re leaving money on the table if you don’t look at the way to present a new voice in it, even old established information in an entertaining way to a targeted audience. You’re leaving a lot of money on the table and I don’t want you to do that.

This is big thinking. This is a huge, huge step from a guy who says, “I’m just a magician.” No, no, no. That’s not why we’re here. You’re here to look at new ways to think, and one of the biggest ways to think is look at something you love, know that there are millions of other people, and chances are they’re looking for a new leader.

So that’s all great, Barry, but how do we do it, right? How do we do it? We have superpowers, I will never hold you in any light other than we are superheroes. The fact that we can walk on a stage and entertain people. Get paid for something that we just love doing. We are superheroes, right? We are in the top 100th, 1000th of 1% of the people in the world. That is a superpower. So what do we do? We get inside the minds of that niche that we’re looking at. I did it when I did a ham radio conference in Long Beach. I’ve done a bunch of ham radio conferences in Long Beach and been paid well for them.

I’ve done some things for the aviation world. I’ve been at the Aircraft Owners Association. Some of them I really tried to get at, but even shows like Boeing that I did corporate days for Boeing. To be able to bring what I know about flying and about the airline industry and about airplanes and aerodynamics to a show, off the charts. It’s crazy. I do the same with computer companies when I do those. Health companies, pharma companies. I’ve learned more about the colon, the liver, the brain and the heart than most jugglers would probably ever know, but it’s because I did shows for those groups and I was always able to incorporate the finer details into my show to make it feel like it was truly for them.

So all kinds of experts in the world. There’s an educational expert, there’s an interview expert, there’s an experience expert. There’s an academic expert. You’ve gone deep into the studying and reading of this stuff. So it’s what we know, it’s what we’ve read, what we’ve seen, what we’ve learned. This world is rich, right you guys? Is your phone filled with podcasts? It’s basically all I listen to when I’m on a drive, a hike, a bike ride, even swimming. I listen to podcasts. I love to learn new things. So that’s where I learn it all.

You can network with experts, you can listen to podcasts. This is us enhancing their reality. This is making their understanding, giving their understanding of a topic more depth, new ways to remember it, maybe through magic or through a song, through a standup routine. Where do you come into this? You come into this because you have so many ways to present that they’ve never seen. We will never, ever be accused of being the talking head, and that is a huge gift that we bring to any, any audience. We will never be the talking head.

So what happens when we step into this world, into this speaking to other audiences with our expertise, mixed with our performing skills, is we become a big, giant flare. You know those flares they light up on the highway? We bring that flare into their world. It takes really so little for us to show up big. So all our work is to do right now is to find opportunities. I’m going to pick something out of the blue right now, we’ll use this whiteboard. You can research events, there’s sites called [weedles 00:30:57], I’ll list this on this page here. Google, you guys have probably heard of that. Events in America, events all over the world. I’ll show you a secret hack for using … We’ll cut away here, and I’ll show you a secret hack for using Google Images to find events. This is remarkable.

All right, so let’s talk about ways to combine our skills as performers with our topics in life that we know something about, either through study or education or work experience, life experience. There are so many ways I’ve used this, as I mentioned in the video. I just typed in something random here, cooking conference. Let’s just look at that. Interesting just to think about all the places there are cooking shows, conferences where they may use an MC, a morning kickoff. Someone in between long sessions to break up the monotony. An awards banquet. Ways to combine your passion, your skills, your knowledge of the industry with your skills as a performer.

So this one’s in New York City, 18, February of 18. I’ll just come down here and look around it, a few different ones. Healthy kitchens, how about this? This is something, spring of 2017. Coming up on this one. Solar Cookers International, how about that? That should be somewhere hot I would imagine. Yes, in India. Perfect. All these different opportunities, and that’s one hobby. Let’s look into something else real quick. Let’s try something, maybe you have an interest in genealogy, I mean that’s certainly something huge. National Genealogical Society. I’m sure they have a massive conference. I don’t have any expertise or a certain passion for this area, but wonderful to think about. Learn from others.

All these things will list what they’re going on. An email to contact about it. It doesn’t really have the date just popping. Oh, here, annual conference. Maybe I’m not looking in the right place. But I get in here pretty deep. Here, 10 through 13 of May. Great one there. It’s probably a wonderful opportunity if you have some background in that. Another way to look at this is the images. Click over to Google Images and you’ll just see them all right here. This one’s past. This one’s past, but all these things that are passed, they’re happening again this year and next year after that. So these are all just wonderful opportunities for you to start collecting a database and like I say we’ll get into more logical and organized ways to keep track of it, but you can’t turn away from this opportunity to look at low hanging fruit and mix it with your skill. In the next couple of weeks of the program we’re going to get into modules that talk about how to approach these people. Once again, right now we are simply opening our horizons.

But say we’re going to do some work here in computers. Okay, so we have just the big field of computers. It’s just where we’re going to start with this thing. We’re going to look out here and we’re going to find users. We’re going to find programmers. Okay? We’re going to find retailers. We’re going to find people that do trade shows. We’re going to find tech, tech people, companies. This is exactly, what, 20 seconds of brainstorming here. Each one of these, these all have conferences. They have blogs. They have websites. They have user groups. This can go on LinkedIn. LinkedIn, this can go on Facebook, this can go on Twitter.

You see how each of these blow out in about three minutes on a whiteboard or on a fun little program called FreeMind, which is a free computer drag and drop something like this for computers. However you like to do it. Give yourself a little bit of time and think about how many places you can … I want to see this. This is going to be a homework assignment we’re going to do this week. We’re just going to dream real big right now. The system is coming soon for how we’re actually going to do this. Right now we are going to dream. We are going to make a big, bold whiteboard list of possibilities, or we’re going to use a little thing like FreeMind or whatever you want to use on a computer. We are going to paint a landscape and then we’re going to learn how to fill it in.

You can see what happens in one minute. All these little outcroppings, these happen for each one of these things. So there are all kinds of ways for you to get your voice in writing, in videos, in live performance, in audios, in podcasts, being a podcast guest, doing a special segment video for somebody.

All right, so right now in the midst of this lesson, let’s do a lightning brainstorm session. You guys up for that? Want to try a lightning brainstorm session? It’s going to be kind of cool. I’m going to put a timer on the bottom of the screen here. We’re going to run for three minutes and I want you to list real big on the piece of paper on your computer screen three possible niche markets that you have some expertise, affinity, knowledge, academic, life experience, something like that. You’re going to list three of those on the page.

Next we’re going to do a connection. What connection do we have to it? Are we an expert, enthusiast? I mentioned some of these things. Are we a collector, historian? Have we been properly educated in the topic? Then we’re going to look at what connections we might have right now. Who do we know who’s in this field? We’re going to list that. I didn’t even do that on this example here on the sheet. What connections do we have and what connections could we develop based off who we know?

We’re not going to judge anything. We’re just going to write. I’m going to replace my big mug with a screen that lists these things. I’m going to have a three minute counter. All right, let’s go. All right, so what did you come up with? What niche? On your computer screen, if you’re able to right now, I want you to head over to our Facebook group and just put a new post and put Niche Market as the topic, and then write a little bit. What niche or market did you come up with that excites you? What’s your connection, your association to that niche market? Do you know people? What possible connections do you have?

What we’re dealing with here you guys, we are dealing with competitive advantage. That’s a word you’re going to hear me use a lot. I used it before when I talked about you don’t want to be a big talking head. Our competitive advantage is our unique selling proposition. That’s our USP. It’s what makes us valuable. It’s what we will never squelch, it’s what we will never say. “Oh, I shouldn’t do it this way.” No, yes, always do it this way. I go on TV to talk about sugar and I juggle an eight pound bowling ball, which is how much sugar an American eats in three weeks. I juggle a tennis racket and an apple and I talk about healthy sugar versus this big, heavy beast and how important exercise is.

Would it have been easy to talk myself out of that? Of course it would have been. Would I have ever gotten on a news program? No, never. Another segment I actually ordered from Amazon a heart, a liver, and a brain. The three organs that are most affected by sugar. And I do a whole juggling routine with those, and I have the host catch the organs in a fishing net at the end of the juggling. Anytime I want to get on a TV show I make a phone call and that’s it and I can be on. So if I’m going somewhere I just get on.

So, look, the only thing that’s going to keep you from doing this exercise full out and exploding it bigger than you ever imagined is the judgment. It’s that little voice in your head, this will be stupid, no one will buy it, I’m not going to be … An older part of your brain’s going to say, “We’re going to be at risk, we’re going to be vulnerable.” Screw it right now. We’re just writing. That’s all we’re doing right now, we’re just writing. Head over to the Facebook page, fill in what you came up with in the three minutes, I can’t wait to read it.

All right you guys, so today we planted some very big seeds. Huge seeds really and it will continue to sink in as we go along. I wanted to leave today with something that’s completely doable, and that’s the niche assignment right now. That is something that I promise you will open your mind. Many people, alumni of this program have made their money back from this very conversation right now. I can think of half a dozen off the top of my head who have created big programs, who are speaking, who are out incorporating their passion for a hobby, something they love in their life, they’re trained in, they have expertise in, and their performance ability and bringing those together. This is a powerful piece. I want you to hold it that way throughout the week. We will nurture these ideas moving forward. This is something we’ll revisit throughout the program, but I wanted to make sure that you left today with something that was very doable and usable.

So put aside what’s not working. Something I motioned earlier, we’re going to take this in steps. This whole thing is like an onion and we’re going to keep peeling the pieces of it back. So if something just feels too big, even the piece we just talked about, about the niche exercise. If it feels too big, what little tiny piece of it can you do? It’s going to be about that consistent, regular, ongoing action that’s going to bust away the barnacles in the brain that are telling you this isn’t the right program for you, that this is too hard, that this isn’t a good fit for you. These things will creep up every time.

Do the consistent work and you’re going to believe it. There’s homework five days a week and that homework is designed specifically to keep chipping away and give you something to do. You’re going to love it. Make sure you’re registered in the member portal, of course. This is where you’re going to see the replays and get your stuff. Get more corporate gigs. You also got a link to register for that. Make sure you’re registered in that. And the Facebook group. With those three registrations in place, you’re going to be set to take in all the content and have the support all around you. Again, the VAs, there’s always links to the VAs, how you can get in touch and get help with the program as we’re going through if you have any problems. Let’s keep the Facebook group clear of this isn’t working, that isn’t working. That’s stuff that goes directly to the VAs.

All right you guys, that completes module one. Some big stuff to do this week. Check the homework, check in with the Facebook group. You already have an assignment for the Facebook group to get in there and fill in the details of your niche market. I will see you Tuesday for our live Q&A, I cannot wait to get in, get all those beautiful faces on the screen and dig deeper into all of this stuff, and help you more than anything in this program, uncover everything that’s kept you stuck and help you clear the path of where we’re heading with this thing. I’m so excited for you. Welcome, thank you much for your attention during module one. Thank you and we’ll see you guys in module two, so long.