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This episode is brought to you by Netflix from the creator of Homeland. Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys star in the new Netflix series the Beast in Me as ruthless rivals whose shared darkness will set them on a collision course with fatal consequences. The Beast in Me is a riveting psychological cat and mouse story about guilt, justice, and doubt. You will not want to miss this. The Beast in Me is now playing only on Netflix.
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Do you have a funnel? But it's not converting. The problem 99.9% of the time is that your funnel is good, but you suck at selling. If you want to learn how to sell so your funnels will actually convert, then get a ticket to my next selling online event by going to sellingonline.com podcast. That's sellingonline.com podcast. This is the Russell Brunson Show. Before I wanted to be a public speaker, I was an Internet nerd who wanted to make money on the Internet. And. And I went to Armand Moore and had a seminar. It's called the Big Seminar, and it was the biggest seminar in our industry at the time. So I remember going to this because I wanted to learn Internet marketing, not because I wanted to ever be a speaker. That was never a goal or a plan or a vision I ever had. And I go to this event, and I remember seeing the very first speaker get on stage, and the speaker got up there. It was Mike Litman. He started speaking, and I was taking notes as fast as I could. I remember. I still remember this presentation vividly to this day. I man, 18, 17, 18 years ago, at the end of it, he. He actually made an offer. And I remember watching people run to the back and buy his product, and he was selling $2,000 course. And I remember I'd never seen somebody before. I didn't know what was happening. I remember looking in the back of the room and counting the people in the back. I was like, you know, $2,000 offer. Like, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. I'm like, he made $60,000. Next speaker gets up there, he has a $5,000 package. He speaks for 90 minutes. The end of it, he makes a present, he makes an offer, and people start running to the back. And the same thing. I'm, like, so confused. I'm watching this thing happening. I look in the back, and people in the back are buying, and each one's $5,000. I'm like, 5, 10, 15, 20. And, like, I did the math. I was like, he's made $100,000 in 90 minutes. Hey, this is Russell. How's it Going welcome back to my vault. Today I've got a really cool book with a very fascinating story. This book is called the Art of Public Speaking by a guy named Dale Carnegie. You guys know who Dale Carnegie is? I know you've heard Dale Carnegie, but this guy seems different. It's spelled completely different. Who is this guy? So I'll tell you the story about this book first and then, and then we'll dive into some of the information from inside. Now for this copy of the book, I paid $535.35. And again, this one's interesting. So most people have heard the name Dale Carnegie. Right? Dale Carnegie wrote How to Win Friends, Influence People. He still has a huge company around today, 100 years after he passed away, and is one of the most prolific writers and speakers of our generation. Which is fascinating because I found this copy of the book. I'm like, Dale Carnegie. That sounds like the same guy, but it seems a little different. So I did a little research and what's crazy is he was actually born as Dale Carnegie. And at the time, a lot of you guys have heard the story about Andrew Carnegie, who was the most wealthy man on the planet. And so Dale Carnegie, if I can say it, Dale Carnegie, he spoke at the Carnegie Center. And after he got done Speaking this in 1919, he decided I should change my name to sound like Carnegie. That way I can leverage his power and his influence. And so he literally changed his name to Dale Carnegie. That was not his given birth name. So this book is one of the rare books that was actually published before the name change. He was actually speaking and teaching at YMCAs across the, teaching them how to do public speaking. And so this book is the book of him teaching public speaking at YMCAs. And it's just a fascinating book because again, it was written before he became Dale Carnegie. Now one caveat about this book for those of you who want to become public speakers. I remember when I first got into this whole world, it was a guy named John Childers. And John Childers was a public speaking coach. So again, I never had a desire to be a public speaker. I remember I was scared to death of presenting in front of people. I remember in college, like being so scared of, like when I had to present a paper or something in front of the class. And in fact, it's funny, they say that the number one fear people have is public speaking. Number two, fear is death. As I said, like in most situations, the person, like at a funeral, people would be more scared to be the person on Stage, like, reading the eulogy than being the person who's actually dead in the casket. Like, it's crazy how much of a fear this is. And for me, it definitely was. I didn't have it on my radar until I saw human beings who could get on stage, they could move someone, they could change somebody's life, and then they could make that much money. And so John Childers was the last speaker, and he was teaching public speaking. And he asked the questions, like, how many of you guys have noticed what's happened over the last couple days? And I was like, yes, I noticed. And he's like, there's an art to speaking from stage. And what's fascinating, he talked about, he's like, there's two ways to become a great speaker. He said, the first way is you become a great speaker, you become famous, you're someone who speaks really well, and then you can go and get paid to speak, right? And so usually those are people that are famous and stuff. Like I said, the other way is you can learn how to speak to sell. And when you speak to sell, what happens is you don't, you know, not so much you become a great speaker as long as you learn, like, how to actually speak, to persuade people to get them to move and to buy. And John Childers was teaching that version of public speaking. So that was the path I went down, is I went to go learn how to speak to sell. And for me, the last, like, 15, 16 years, that's what I've done and I've mastered. And now I'm in a part of my career because I would argue I'm not the best speaker. I think I'm one of the best ever from, like, speaking to sell, but not the best speaker. So now I'm in this phase of my life. Like, I want to become a better speaker. Like, I want to, like, I want to learn less and speak slower. It's like I'm trying to learn the art of public speaking. And so for me, it's been fun because I'm learning the other side of the speaking business, which is actually how to speak and how to articulate correctly. The very first time I ever experienced a really good speaker, that actually changed my life. I was actually on my mission for my church, and I was in a time in my life where I was really struggling emotionally. I was, like, away from my family. And there was this guy, and he spoke at the conference we had, and his name was Jeffrey Holland, and he spoke. And the talk he gave was called High Priest of Good things to come. And he's given this presentation, he's talking about Christ, everything. But he tells this story and the way he tells it, he tells the story the very beginning of his life when him and his wife, they just gotten married and they just graduated college. I think they're going to start his master's degree or something. And they got him and his family in this car. As they're driving the car, the car breaks down, right? And he's a young father at the time, he's scared, he's nervous. So he, he leaves his kids in the car, but it's really hot outside. So he goes and he hikes back to the closest town. He gets a tow truck or gets someone to come out to fix the car. They come and they tow the car, they bring it back and they look at it like, well, nothing's wrong with the car. They start up and it works again. So he gets back in the car, he's driving the family in the exact same spot, the car breaks down again, right? And he's like, what in the world? And so he's trying to fix the car, doesn't work. He has to hike like two or three miles back into town, get the tow truck to come and, and does this process three or four times, right? It's him early in his life and he says eventually, you know, they get a new car and they're able to go on, on the trip. And then he's talking about later on his life when he's older and he say tells the story. I still get emotional thinking about it. He said, he said he was driving on that same road, you know, 40 years later, his kids are grown out of the house, get emotional thinking about it. He talks about how he was, he's driving past the exact same spot and he's like, this is the spot. This is the spot where our car broke down 40 years ago. And he's like in my mind's eye I saw this, this young father and a kid who's like scared and nervous, not sure what to do. And in the talk he's like in my mind's eyes, like I was yelling out that kid, like you can do it. Like keep going. Like the future is going to be amazing and just share. Anyway, I remember sharing that story and I remember as again a 20 year old kid who's struggling and where I'm at and I hear this story of this guy who's now talking about his future self, coming back to that moment and like sharing with him like I know it's scary, but you're gonna do it. You're gonna move forward. And I felt like he was coming. It felt like it was like, the future me coming back to me, like, telling me the same thing, like. Like, it's gonna be worth it. Like, keep moving forward, like, you're gonna do it. I remember, like, that, like. Like feeling somebody stand on stage and give a presentation and have it, like, change my entire life. Like, it was the first time I'd ever felt that before. And I think for me, that's why. Why speaking is so important, right? Like, that's why I do. I don't know. We do 20 events a year right now because, like, I see the effect of someone getting in a room, and you hear a speaker with the right message at the right time, you can completely transform that person's life. You could change, you know, it could change their relationship. It could change their personal life. It could save somebody from, you know, darkness. It could say, like, there's so many powerful things that come from that. So public speaking, I think, is such an important skill to learn in this book. This is a. It's a thick book, and there's a lot of stuff. And again, it was written 1915 was when he. When he wrote this. This book. And so there's so many good lessons in here. But I think the lesson that I got from it that was the most powerful is he talked about, like, if you want to be somebody who's great at persuasion and speaking and, like, and doing these things, he's like, you have to really, really, really believe in the thing you're speaking about. And again, it could be a product, it could be a service, could be something different. But. And I sure most of you guys have felt this before, right? If you really believe in the thing you're selling, you can sell it, right? You can. You can do that. Like, but you have to have a deep conviction. They see people who, like, there's a product, you tell, like, they could care less about the product, and they're going door to door. They're selling on a webinar or whatever. Like, they're just doing it because they're trying to make money. There's a different level versus somebody who, like, understands and loves it. I think when we launched the Click Funnels movement a decade ago, and people would see me speak and talk about it, I think the reason why I did so well was not because I was a great speaker necessarily, but I did love. Like, I was obsessed with the product, you know, like, I would Talk about funnels. And there's a clip of Tony Robbins. He's like, every time I talk about funnels, he's like, it's like Jesus is coming through your body. He's like, you have to love your product so much that when you talk about you light up. You're so excited about it. Like, that's the power of it, right? And I think for most people, they want to learn to become a great speaker versus, like, how do you dig deeper into the thing that you're trying to share, like the message, the product, whatever it is. And like becoming so excited about that that when you share it, even if you're not the best speaker, you can be like me. And you talk too fast, you say ums and ahs and you mess up all the time and you're kind of all over the place. And, and. But if people feel the passion coming through that, like, that elevates your speaking more than, you know, articulating everything perfectly or, you know, speaking perfectly slow and having the stories perfect. It's more like the, like, understanding, like the passion about the message is the most important thing. And you know, we've ran our big event Funnel Hacking live for a decade now, which means a decade. Every event we got 20 something speaker. So you're working at 250, 300 speakers that have come through and spoken at Funnel Hack live on our stage. And it's interesting because we get to see a lot of really cool metrics, right? Like we have people who are in the audience who are experience it. We get to be backstage watching, we see how people move, what they don't. And it's fascinating because the people that the audience resonated with the most, the people get the best feedback, the people who sell the most all those kind of things. It's never the people that are the best speakers necessarily, but it's the people that are the most passionate about the, the thing that they're talking about. You can tell the ones that are obsessed, the ones that have the passion, you see it in their eye, like the glint in their eye of just like they're so excited to share the thing. And that's, I think, the most important part. So that's one of the things I really got going back through this book is if we spend as much time really mastering and falling in love with our message, it makes the communication, the sharing the message so much better and makes you a much better public speaker. All right, if you guys want to go deeper and become a better public speaker and learn from the original Dale Carnegie. Not Carnegie, same guy. If you want to I wrote my notes from this book and outlined some really cool things you can get. All you gotta do is click link in the description down below and you can get the show notes. Also, I'll throw a link down below if you want to see the full video of the talk that changed my life. We'll drop a link in the comments down or in the description down below for that as well. Other than that, I hope you guys enjoyed this video and appreciate you guys being here. Thanks so much.
Host: Russell Brunson
Date: November 17, 2025
In this episode, Russell Brunson explores the impact and essential lessons of Dale Carnegie’s classic book, The Art of Public Speaking. Russell shares personal stories and insights into how public speaking changed his career, the power of authentic passion in communication, and actionable advice for anyone who wants to become a more effective speaker—whether the goal is to sell or to inspire.
Surprised by Stage Selling:
Russell walks listeners through his first experience at a big marketing seminar. His goal at the event was to learn about internet marketing, not to become a public speaker. But witnessing speakers like Mike Litman and others captivate audiences and generate massive sales in minutes was a revelation.
"I was taking notes as fast as I could...I remember looking in the back of the room, counting people...he made $60,000. Next speaker...made $100,000 in 90 minutes." — Russell Brunson (03:10)
Reappraising Public Speaking as a Career and Skill:
Seeing the sales power of great speakers ignites Russell's interest in speaking—not merely as performance, but as a lever for business transformation.
The Untold Backstory:
Russell shares a little-known fact:
Dale Carnegie was actually born as “Dale Carnagey.” After speaking at the Carnegie Center in 1919, he changed his name’s spelling to leverage Andrew Carnegie’s fame. The edition of The Art of Public Speaking Russell owns was published before this change, making it a rare piece.
"He literally changed his name to Dale Carnegie. That was not his given birth name." — Russell Brunson (08:40)
Rooted in Experience:
The book is rooted in Carnegie’s early workshops at YMCAs, focused on building confidence in everyday people.
"…the number one fear people have is public speaking. Number two, fear is death. In most situations…people would be more scared to be the person on stage reading the eulogy than being the person who's actually dead in the casket." — Russell Brunson (11:15)
Wisdom from John Childers:
Russell’s early coach on public speaking outlined two key approaches:
Russell chose to master speaking to sell, admitting,
"I think I'm one of the best ever from, like, speaking to sell, but not the best speaker." — Russell Brunson (14:00)
Now, Russell’s focused on becoming a better “pure” speaker.
Jeffrey Holland’s Transformative Talk:
Russell recounts a deeply personal moment attending a church conference, where Elder Jeffrey Holland’s speech “High Priest of Good Things to Come” touched him during a difficult phase.
Holland’s narrative weaves a story of repeated car breakdowns, struggle, and later, wisdom and hope from future self—affecting Russell profoundly.
"I remember, like, that. Like feeling somebody stand on stage and give a presentation and have it, like, change my entire life. Like, it was the first time I'd ever felt that before." — Russell Brunson (19:10)
This experience cemented the realization that public speaking isn’t just about business—it can be truly life-altering.
Passion & Belief Is the Foundation:
The key to powerful speaking is deep conviction in the subject.
"You have to really, really, really believe in the thing you're speaking about." — Russell Brunson, paraphrasing Carnegie (20:05)
Russell references Tony Robbins’ comment:
"Every time I talk about funnels, he's like, it's like Jesus is coming through your body... you have to love your product so much that when you talk about it you light up." (21:05)
Focusing on excitement about “the thing”—not just speaking ability—matters most for impact.
Russell describes watching ~300 speakers over 10 years at his events.
The best audience response and the greatest sales come not from the most technically skilled speakers, but those who are visibly obsessed and passionate about their topic.
"It's never the people that are the best speakers necessarily, but it's the people that are the most passionate about the thing that they're talking about." — Russell Brunson (23:10)
Russell eloquently connects personal anecdotes, business acumen, and Dale Carnegie’s timeless wisdom to underscore:
"True mastery of public speaking starts with deep conviction. Fall in love with your message—because authentic excitement, more than perfect delivery, moves audiences to action and transforms lives."
Resources Referenced:
For Russell’s notes and the full referenced talk, check the episode’s description.