Friday, May 11, 2007

An extraordinary 75 minutes

When I saw what 1,197 people in one room looked like, I was a bit stunned. I’d heard the number, but it didn’t fully prepare me for experience of being there.

It was six years since I’d really spoken – back in Australia for some clinical scientists - and my biggest audience was a whopping 300.

The room was so wiiiiiiidddddeeee that there were four huge projection screens on the wall, so everybody could see the slides, or the speaker’s face, depending on the cameraman’s choice.
Here's half the room:















When the time came, I was mic’d up, and then not allowed to go anywhere
without permission. (lucky I was allowed to pee!). I got to frolic outside for 30 minutes while they ran late, and meet a couple of people, got grounded….see trees, supported by my flunkies Jon and Ezra.

(BTW - to give some context, the 4 day seminar was entitled 'Never Work Again', held in Los Angeles, and they called me 2 weeks earlier to ask if I would speak at it. I nearly said 'no'! My topic? Newsletter Money Machines....also known as Monetize Your Passion)

Then they lead me to the side/front of the room, and T. Harv Eker (you may have heard of his 'Millionaire Mind Set' read out the intro (while everyone snuck peaks at me and smiled). Here's the intro he read out.....

Introduction:

Our next speaker gave up being a Fortune 100 Consultant, to become a pub singer and guitarist in Australia. He’s proud to have earned a whopping $10,000 at this, despite having a terrible singing voice

Discovering the internet in 1998, he went onto grow his newsletter list to 70,000 subscribers, being the largest in his industry, and to reach #1 on Google out of 26 million sites. He has two staff members whom he has never met – even after 4 years of employment – and now gets paid to live, instead of paid to work.

A former actuary, David has been a stand up comedian, a snow board instructor, actor, squash coach in Jamaica, hang glider pilot, life coach, and closet West Wing fan. He says when you’re fully living life, there’s just no time left to work, so you’ve got to create a money machine.

And he’s here to show you exactly how to do just that. Please join me in welcoming David Wood.

















I high fived my way to the front of the stage, and then stood there for 66 seconds for a standing ovation….. before I’d even opened my mouth. Wow! These guys were pumped!

(BTW - in the pics, I'm the dot in the black t-shirt)

The BEST thing about the whole experience, is that I felt very present, only a little nervous, once I was on stage. I was real; I was having fun. I was natural, crystal clear, even funny.

Interestingly, I talked about impacting the world - much more than I thought I would. It really showed me more of who I am, and more of what I'm up to in life.

I'd known for years I was meant to speak. But for years I was scared - it didn't feel right/authentic. When I came back from India just 4 months ago I told some friends: "I'm ready to speak now". But I figured it would take 5 years of developing my speech, stripping away any act, and building enough profile to get a decent audience. And I hadn't done anything about it except write in my newsletter I was ready to speak.

Well - I was wrong about the 5 year thing. I feel like I've landed with a splash! And I'm hooked. Harv sent his guy up while I had the audience busy with an exercise, to ask me if I’d done the train the trainer program,because I was doing everything they taught. That was very flattering and has me really feeling like I know this stuff.

Oh - and there's a bonus to this story. At the end – it was better than I dreamed. I made my pitch - offered a few packages I'd created, and well....the video says it all. Harv asked me where I learned that technique – it was pretty damn effective!


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Result? In 15 minutes I sold 6 figures worth of product! I'm serious.
Better than I'd dared dream. I don't really know what to say about that. That was my first experience pitching from the stage, and I'm pretty excited about the next one (I'm planning four separate new things for the next presentation that would ALL be awesome on their own - can't wait!) It feels like stepping into a new dimension.


The feedback was constant - all the next day, and wonderful: “You’re real, authentic, loving. Really enjoyed you. I feel your integrity. I'm so inspired” A few hearts were touched with a hug or a kind word at the booth later. Hearing the feedback, and feeling the impact on people - was way better than the sales. (Hmmm....way better? Let's say better ;-)

I AM SO GOING TO KEEP DOING THIS STUFF! (Oh BTW - I'm already booked to do the same thing again for Orlando June 19-22. Kristina is coming to this one, Ezra, Jon - and my assistant Beth - the one I've never met! And who did SO much behind the scenes to support this event happening. Ezra and Jon also rocked the event).


















BTW _ hung out with Mr. Costa Rica, the largest land owner in Costa Rica (and owns 300 monkeys – isn’t that cool?). His best line to us: "It's not how much money you make...it's who you become because of it that counts."
Plus got to rub shoulders with some other big names in the industry (e.g. met Armin Moran, Kirt Kirshner, didn't meet Jay Abrahms, maybe next time.)

So where to from now?

Well, Orlando is definitely in my sights. And...here are some of my goals


CURRENT GOALS:

Rebrand – new message – better value – 3 day bootcamp
Double sales at end of event.

Find an internet project Manager - to help me create all the great tools/information products for people. For a 50% split.

Publish relationship book with Cindy Joseph.

Buy a house on a river in nature, with K. Maybe Byron, Costa Rica, Colorado…
and keep the place in Manhattan (and rent the floor above or to the side and combine the two!)

Love and play with Kristina, and support her goals.

* * *

Thanks for hearing/reading. I want to share this ride as much as I can - it's one of the biggest rides I've taken!

Love and adventure (and a healthy dose of mischief)

David















PS The whole event was VERY hard work, which Jon can vouch for.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi David and Ezra, wicked name by the way...Just thought I'd let you know that it was nice to see you actually in action at the big conference as opposed to just reading your newsletters and wondering 'is this guy for real?'. Are you ever going to be talking in Adelaide? If so how will we be able to find out? Cheers x Gaby

David Wood said...

love to -just get 500 people in a room and I'll come :-)