Become a ROCKSTAR in Your Community!

I recently had the opportunity to return to where I received my Master’s degree (San Diego State University) to talk to about 150 undergraduate students on “Entrepeneurship.”

It was so much darned FUN!!!

After introducing myself to the students and telling them what I do, they had the opportunity to ask me (and 2 other entrepreneurs on the panel) whatever questions they wanted.

And they asked some really GREAT questions:

• What were some of the biggest mistakes you made in 14.5 years in business?
• If you had to do it all over again, what one thing would you change?How did you finance your business when you were starting?
• What do you do NOW that allows you to play at a high level?
• How much money do you make?
• Where is your industry heading and what are some of the trends you are seeing and where do the opportunities lie.

GREAT questions. And I so thoroughly enjoyed the 90-minutes I spent back on campus. It’s always refreshing and inspiring to be around some young, hungry budding-entrepreneurs in many different fields.

MOST of all, I just loved giving back to the “kids.” I could see their faces light up. I got a ton of positive emails about how my words inspired them to keep dreaming. That put a huge smile on my face. It was IMPACTFUL.

And it made me think about what we do in the training business. And how can we make even more IMPACT. And are we doing ENOUGH outside our “walls?”

When it comes to building your training business, I believe one of the most important ways to build your brand (in addition to getting incredible results with your clients), is to get out and GIVE BACK in your community.

GIVING BACK to your community not only feels good. It’s the right thing to do.

Here are a few ways in which you can GIVE BACK in the community in which you work or play:

• Sponsor a youth team. I still remember playing for the “Cosmos Auto-Body Pirates” when I was in Little League back in NJ. It’s ingrained in my head. Are you sponsoring anyone right now?
• Donating to silent auctions for philanthropic efforts. This is a great way to give back and have your brand mentioned with other key influential people in your community. How often do you do this?
• Having fun-charity events at your facility to raise money for worthy causes. Heck, we just completed a “burpees for boobies” challenge for a week where clients could challenge any of our 38 teammates to as many burpees as they want. But they had to donate 10 cents per burpee to the Susan G. Komen foundation for Breast Cancer Research. As a team, we raised xxx in this fun, mini-charity event all for a GREAT cause.
• Doing educational or motivational talks within your community.This can be done at your facility, a client’s place of work, at a philanthropic group’s monthly meeting (Knights of Columbus, Kiwanis club, Women’s Club, church group, etc.). And I think speaking in your community is one of the most valuable things you can do.

  First, you can positively IMPACT a lot of people through a talk and help people transform their life.

  And second, it positions you as the expert in your community on whatever topic you choose.

  But the more trainers I speak with about speaking, the more fear I hear. And the more questions I get.

  “I’m not good at speaking in front of people.
  “I don’t even know what I would talk about.”
  “How do I find a group, business, or organization to speak to?”
  “How do I craft up a memorable talk or presentation?”
  “Should I charge for my talk?”

All valid questions. But usually just fear masking itself as excuses.

First, you just have to get out there and HUSTLE. And if you are just starting out, do your talks for FREE.

Or you can tie your talk/event to charity and people can donate whatever they choose to the charity you choose.

But you do have to practice. It’s like anything—you need to practice to get good at something. And I highly encourage you to work on this skill.

Heck, I bet you didn’t know I had a speaking coach in 2001 and 2002 when I was first trying to really master presenting and speaking. He would make me do one-hour keynotes just to him while he was sitting there taking notes on how bad I was.

OMG. Can you imagine standing up in front of just ONE person and firing that person up for entire 60 minutes? I still remember how much anxiety that created. But I did it.

And I actually did these coaching sessions on a weekly basis for a couple years to really try and hone in on my speaking and presenting skills. I’m so glad I did!

How about you?

What are you willing to do to GIVE BACK more?

How can you GIVE BACK positively in your community?

What talk or presentation can you muster up to make a difference to those in your community (kids, parents, coaches, seniors, or whatever market you choose!).

ACTION STEP:

1. 1. Plan a talk or presentation in your community. When is it going to be? Commit to a date and start marketing it. Once you make it public, you are committed!
2. 2. Film the talk. Watch it. Learn from it. And then share it with your community.

As life transformers, we have the opportunity to get people better everyday. But we can’t sit in our studios or gyms and expect people just to come in to us.

Get outside your comfort zone, get out into the community, and DO SOMETHING that is going to create some great IMPACT. #Community

Much love… and much COMMUNITY,

Todd

P.S. I shared yesterday, that I made my recent 3.5 Day LIVE Mentorship an ONLINE product. That program will be available for 9 more days. Here is the info:

• It is action-packed with 17 game-changing presentationsand the complete manual. 8 presentations from me (over 15 hours of coaching) and 9 presentations from world-class presenters that I hand-selected.And yes, my latest “The Art of a Great Presentation” is in there and you can learn all my latest systems, tips, lessons, and protocols I use for preparing ANY talk or presentation.
• The 3.5 Day ONLINE Mentorship is 100% virtual and you will receive ALL content immediately upon purchase via an awesome private, password-protected site.
• You own ALL the content for LIFE.
• The investment is less than $25.00 per presentation and it is of the highest film and sound quality. And you won’t need to pay for any airfare, hotels, travel expenses because it’s all virtual.
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