Archives for August 2023

For those of you who listen to our podcasts or read our blogs, everything we discuss revolves around these four things.

• How to get on Other People’s Stages (OPSs)
• How to build your OWN stages 
• How to get clear on your products and services 
• How to get clear on your message and deliver it as a world-class communicator

Remember, there are two major categories of stages – Other People’s Stages (OPS) and your OWN stages. We encourage you to be on as many OPSs as you possibly can because it doesn’t cost you anything. You don’t have to build it, fill it, or fund it. Somebody else has built it, filled it, and funded it for you. They’ve built the podcast, the mastermind, the big event, or the local stage. You just show up and deliver a powerful talk. But then simultaneously, we encourage you to have one of your OWN stages that you’re building at the same time and that stage can be digital or physical.

You can do more in one week than most do in a year – all through the power of stages!

I recently ran a case study because I wanted to show you a model of how a week could change your life. A couple of months ago, I looked ahead at our calendar  and decided to document a week’s activity so we could provide you with a case study of exactly what you could accomplish by really utilizing the power of stages. I’m sharing that with you today and I’m going to show you what one week on stages produced in revenue and client acquisition.

Here’s that week at a glance:

August 4
I was on an OPS (other people’s stages). It was Elena Cardone’s 10X Ladies event, where I spoke on a physical stage in front of an audience of about 1,000 people.

August 5-6
I was on an OWN (my own stage). It was my own stage in Denver, Colorado, which was a 10x Stages Workshop, where people paid 3-5k to attend. This was another physical stage in front of an audience of about 180 people or so. Not a huge crowd but a powerful stage. (Side note: the size of your stage does not  need to be thousands to be effective.

August 7-9
I rested and prepared for the next upcoming stages.

August 10
I was on digital OPS (Other people’s stages). On this particular day, I did a webinar at Grant Cardone’s studio where I taught in-depth on the topic of How to Conduct Webinars. This was a powerful digital stage with an audience of several thousand people.

August 12
I was on another one of my OWN stages, which was The Great American Speak Off, season two in Miami, where we had a few hundred people in attendance. And it was what we call a free or low-ticket event. People either came for free or they upgraded the ticket for some additional value and paid $197 to be a VIP attendee. This was an in-person workshop, and we had between 150-170 in attendance.

The Results of One Week Using Stages

You might look at this week and not see much. But there is so much here that I don’t want you to miss. Let’s go back to August 10th when I did the webinar in Grant Cardone’s studio. Just shy of 20k people registered for this event but only about 4,000 of them showed up. That may seem like a disappointment but it’s not at all. You’re never going to get 100% to show up for your events. But what I did have coming off that webinar event, was the registration emails of all 18-20k people.

When I heard Russell Brunson talk about how an active email on your email list should be worth $1 to $3 a month, it blew my mind. According to his numbers, that means 10,000 active emails would be worth $10,000 to $30,000 a month! Of course, this depends on your product and how effectively you’re using your email list, but if done right, utilizing your email list can be a total game changer for your company. Another thing about email that you should remember is that you can be stripped of your social media, but you can never be stripped of your email list. Your email list is GOLD!

With this in mind, let’s go back to our case study showing what you can do in one week through the power of stages.

On August 10th, we did the webinar where 4k people showed up, but we gained just shy of 20k emails. So, knowing how valuable that email list is, we advertised a replay of our webinar event, and an additional 3k people showed up for the replay.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a few hundred or a few dozen for you. You’ve got to get started somewhere. 

On August 12th we did The Great American Speak Off preview event. You realize all of you can do preview events in your local backyard if you want to. Of course, we ran a lot of advertising, but you can do it at a restaurant and buy 12 people a dinner. Give them an incredible experience that night and when you pick up several clients from that investment, you’ll realize it was a very profitable dinner.

We did a local event in Miami that people could be a part of it for free. However, we offered an upgrade, a VIP option for $197 and many took that option.

I was hosting a preview event physically in Miami, and on the same day, I ran a live replay of my digital webinar because I had all of those new emails from August 10 to take advantage of.

I’m going to tell you what the numbers of that week generated. Ready?

582 customers and over $2 million in total contracted revenue!

My whole point of today’s show is to drive this home. We did, in one week, what takes almost one year to accomplish, and we did this by maximizing the use of OPSs (physical) and our OWN (physical and digital). Maybe, for you, it’s 50 new customers and $50k in contracted revenue. The numbers don’t matter as long as you are seeing an increase in your investment.

Build your plan to use stages and be diligent with it and it will lead to success.

One of my favorite scriptures on diligence is Proverbs 21:5 which says, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” There is a principle here for success. A lot of people are diligent in going after no plan. They have no vision and no plan. Diligence doesn’t supersede the plan – the plan supersedes diligence. Then, there must be diligence in executing the plan.

The plans of the diligent lead to abundance.

I hope you have a plan around your faith (if you’re searching for wisdom and direction on your faith journey, DM me on Instagram, and I’ll send you some incredible resources to help you).

I hope you have a plan around your relationships.

I hope you have a plan around your health.

I hope you have a plan around your wealth.

I hope you have a plan around your business or around your professional career, and I hope that plan involves how you will utilize stages to their maximum potential.

If you are serious about making and executing a plan with diligence, I want to offer you a free gift.

If you follow these instructions, I will give you a gift that is $1000 in value.

• Email pete@10xstages.com
• In the subject line of the email, put “STAGE STRATEGY”
• In the body of the email, tell us where your revenues have been in the last 12 months and where you want them to be in the next 12 months.

If you do this, our team will send you a beautiful worksheet where they’re going to help you get clear on how many and what type of stages you should be on to meet your goals.

If you’re a “wantrepreneur,” or a person that’s not going to be diligent in executing a plan, please do not send me an email. This is only for those who are ready to take action.

I hope you have been able to see how, if you plan right, you can use one week of your life and just a few stages to acquire new customers, make new sales, and increase your revenue.

— Pete Vargas, III

Today I am going to take you – step by step – through some concrete examples of how stages can grow businesses. I am going to share with you a very specific model today that combines the use of Other People’s Stages (OPS) and MRR with the use of webinars.

Do you know what MRR stands for? It stands for Monthly Recurring Revenue. To have MRR, you must produce products that bring in revenue over and over again without having to re-sell your customer. You get a customer to buy your product one time, and then they give you money on an automatically renewing schedule. MRRs cause the valuation of your business to go up, and up, and up. If all of your products are single purchases and you have to convince your customers to buy again, then keep reading! This is for you! You need to add an MRR product to your business. I want to show you how I did just that, in three of my businesses. 

I started my professional life as a magician, but after about ten years in the profession, I decided I needed to get a real job. I became a public school teacher. I taught high school math for 12 years, but I wanted to have a greater influence on the education system and not just the students in my classroom, so I started a business where I was training teachers around the country.

When I first started the company, everybody said, “Oh, what a great idea! I’ll buy your training!” I thought that I was going to have more business than I knew what to do with. So I started this business where I was going into schools and training teachers. The first six months, it was great because all my friends hired me and I knew a lot of teachers. However, after six months the business started to dry up and I struggled to gain new customers. After that initial enthusiasm wore off, it was rough. 

The only way I knew to get new business was through networking and referrals. I asked my friends for business and then I would ask them if they knew anybody who might want my services. That’s the entire business plan for a lot of people. But honestly, many of the businesses that are doing that are struggling – gasping for air and oxygen. Can anyone relate?

Then I stumbled upon the idea of using stages to grow my business. I had the opportunity through a friend to speak at the Indiana School Counselors Conference. Every school counselor in the state of Indiana came to Indianapolis for this event. I applied to be the keynote speaker so I could get paid, but they turned me down. They did, however, offer me a breakout room if I would sign up and pay for the event. So, I paid $299 to go to the event, and I secured a room to host a breakout presentation. Okay. Here’s where I need you to pay attention because I’m going to teach you something.

Lesson #1: When you have a breakout room at an event, make sure that the people who pick the keynote speakers come to your breakout room.

 So, the week before the event, I reached out to the committee that made the decision on the keynote speakers and said, “Hey, I’m happy that I’m able to speak at your event next week at a breakout session! It’s going to be Thursday afternoon at three o’clock in this room. I really believe I should keynote your event.” I proceeded to explain to them why I believed I should be the keynote speaker. 

I highlighted a problem that their audience had – which was motivating students – and why I could solve that problem. I told them that I had some social proof that I could solve this problem for schools. I then invited them to attend my breakout session to see if I was an appropriate keynoter. There were six people on that committee and not all of them attended my breakout session – but two of them did. Those two committee members became huge advocates for me because a year later I was asked to keynote the Indiana State School Counselors Conference! I had the wonderful opportunity of addressing 1600 school counselors in a hotel ballroom at the Marriott on the east side of Indianapolis as the keynote speaker. Now, at this event, I was not allowed to sell anything. I’m going to teach you what to do when you’re not allowed to sell anything. Ready?

Lesson #2: When you are not allowed to sell anything, plan your own webinar shortly after the event and invite your audience to attend. 

I did this. The event that I was speaking at was a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday event. I decided to wait until the following Thursday to host my webinar, and here is why. The attendees are going to go home on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday, they will have all the work from the previous week to catch up on. Wednesday, they’ll be able to breathe. So, on Thursday following the event and after school hours, I held a one-hour webinar. It was a free, one hour webinar. I used OPS (at the Indiana School Counselors Conference) to fill up my webinar

Using Other People’s Stages is the easiest way to fill your webinar. When you get on OPS, you’re not paying for the coffee. You’re not paying for the projector, the screen, or the PA system. Somebody else pays for that. Because someone else paid for those things, there are times when I cannot sell them. But I can let the audience know about my next upcoming, free training where I will include bonus material. And I can also let the audience know that they can invite anyone who may benefit from what they heard that day! I like to provide a simple URL that allows them to easily register themselves and their friends, family, and colleagues. 

So here’s the cool part: out of the 1600 people at that event, how many people do you think showed up at my webinar? 900 people showed up at my webinar! I paid $299 to get a ticket for the year prior and it gave me access to the keynote stage. At that stage, I was able to capture 900 potential customers. Not too bad, if you ask me! About half of those people had heard me speak at the event. The other half were people who were invited just by the conference attendees who passed on the word. I didn’t do anything else. I didn’t buy Facebook ads. I didn’t email a big list. I just invited 1600 people to this event and got 900 people to show up at my webinar.

So let me ask you, How much did this event cost me? Well, it’s a webinar. There’s no breakfast, no coffee, no projector, and no screens. Zero investment expenses for the webinar! But the difference between the Indiana School Counselors stage and the webinar stage was that there I couldn’t sell, and here I can make an offer. 

This is where the MRR comes in. I made an offer for schools to join my year-long mentorship program where I promised to help teachers motivate their unmotivated students. You see, I didn’t just sell them a product. I sent them a product that they would pay for every month, which would bring them value every month. This created immediate Monthly Recurring Revenue.

This is an example of OPS – OWN webinar – MRR.

And I should tell you, out of the 900 people who attended my OWN webinar, 106 people signed up for my mentoring program! 

My program was about $500 a month. 106 people paying $500 a month is $53,000. That’s not a bad day! However, the best part is that the next month I didn’t have to do this again. The next month they paid me $53,000 again, and the next month they paid me $53,000 again. Now, do some people drop off in a program like this? Yes. Every month, 1% or 3% of people drop off. But that’s okay! I’m still getting paid every month for people in this program. And in the meantime, I’m standing on OPS and MY OWN, and I’m acquiring more customers. 

I could tell you a few other case studies, which I do in Episode 7 of the Backstage With PV3 PODCAST. Take a listen by watching the video above or checking out the show on all podcast platforms!

Your takeaway should be utilizing the power of OPS > OWN webinar > MRR to grow your business exponentially with low to no costs if done right. The growth you will experience makes this model a no-brainer. 

So what’s next? Pete Vargas and Grant Cardone are going to be talking about the Power of Webinars and I want to make sure you get to this free online event. I’m like a kid in a candy store waiting for this. They’re gonna pull back the curtain and show you the number one tool they’ve used to grow their businesses – the webinar system that Grant uses to generate over $30 million a year. 

Similar to the case study that I showed you today, Grant and Pete will show you that you can use webinars to drive revenue, grow your business, and most importantly, IMPACT YOUR LIFE!

Head to 10xstages.com/webinars now to secure your place!

Thank you for letting me share with you today and continue to check back here at the Advance Your Reach blog for more impactful content that will help you grow your business. 

-Pat Quinn

Welcome to Backstage with Pete Vargas III, where we take you behind the scenes every week to teach you how to get on those stages that will allow you to build your business and get your message out to the world!

I want to share a little bit of my genesis story with you today – when my life was radically changed by the power of a stage. It was the very first event that I had ever attended – hosted by my good friend Brendon Burchard. I had an experience at that event that launched me in a direction that landed me right here today.

This is a story about the power of communication.

Communication is the lead domino that can start a progression in your life you never thought imaginable. The most important thing you can do for your business is to learn how to communicate in a powerful way. Things like funnels, ads, websites, and webinars – are all a great help. But nothing can take the place of becoming a powerful communicator. This story is about how I really learned this concept that I’m teaching you right now. Even as I write, I have sitting in front of me, the name badge from that event. It was called World’s Greatest Speaker Training, and I didn’t go with a VIP ticket, I had a free ticket. I checked in at the welcome desk, where they handed me my basic name tag – just my name and the event logo. And before I walked away, they asked me if I wanted to upgrade and be a part of the exclusive speaker training. They explained that for only $1000, I could get on the stage and share my story. For $1000 I could buy two minutes on a stage in front of three or four judges. I thought to myself, surely there was something else to the offer. A grand prize winner? The opportunity at a larger stage? Nope. There was no winner – just an invitation to share your message on the stage, be judged, receive feedback, and go home with a video recording.

Let’s just say I did not want to make that $1000 investment. I was afraid. I had a scarcity mindset. I wasn’t making money at the time, so I thought these guys were crazy. I walked away thinking “There’s no way I’m giving you a thousand dollars!”

I don’t know where you are in your faith journey, but I believe I heard the voice of God inside of me that day. As I walked away from the welcome desk, I heard an inner voice so strongly tell me that I was supposed to take the opportunity. So, somewhat reluctantly, I went back to that welcome desk and turned in my regular badge for a $1000 VIP badge.

I did it. I stood on that stage and shared my message. I still have the video today. I’m chubby. I’m sweaty. I’m wearing the worst outfit that you can imagine. It was the perfect picture of imperfection. I didn’t say perfection – I said imperfection. But what did I do? I took action. I took action and I put myself on that stage. I fumbled over my words. I said a lot of ‘ums’. It wasn’t perfect, but it was real. It was authentic. It was me. I wasn’t trying to be Grant or Elena or Brendon Burchard or Pat Quinn. I was just being me.

Although it wasn’t perfect, I did have the framework in place that helped me be able to take that stage, and I received a standing ovation that day. I remember seeing my friend Brendon Bouchard, and I could tell that it deeply moved him. I saw his response and I knew something had changed for me.

Stop sitting on the sidelines.

Here’s what that experience did for me: It validated that I needed to stop sitting on the sidelines. I had been sitting on my business idea for three or four years. I was what I now call a WANTREPRENEUR. A wantrepreneur is a person who listens to all the training and buys the programs and products, while year after year they sit on their business ideas. And they often blame everyone and everything else for why they can’t do what they want to do.

Are you a wantrepreneur? I know I was. I had my business idea for three or four years and I did nothing with it. But all of a sudden, at this event, the crowd heard me talk and they stood up to their feet and applauded me. This was the lead domino that tilted over to create a massive change for me that day. Coming out of that event, Brendon challenged me to do my own first live event, and I did it!

Do you want to guess how many people were at my very first live event? I had no email, no social media, no database, no anything! But I had 27 people attend my live event! Out of those 27 people, five to ten people were in the audience that had heard me on Brendon’s stage three months earlier.

So I picked up five to ten new customers from that two minutes on the stage. It doesn’t take 60 minutes or even 15 minutes! It’s nice to have but you don’t need it. You have to get good at 1 – 2 – 3 minutes. I launched my first event and there were 27 people there. Out of those 27 attendees, I think five of them signed up for what I coined and trademarked the ‘Speak Off’. A lot of you reading this may think that last year was the very first Speak Off we ever had. November of 2015 was the first Speak Off we ever had.

My promise to those five was that I was going to have meeting planners who control stages come and be the judges. Where Brendon scratched the surface with his speaker training event, I wanted to do it more like a competition where there was a winner. I wanted a competition where, if someone delivered a good message, they would win stages. So, I brought in three or four people to judge the five contestants, and one of those five individuals won.

That one person not only won stages. He won customers, exposure, notoriety, and credibility because he could say he was the first-ever Speak Off winner.

The Great American Speak Off

So fast forward – we have held Speak Offs every year since 2015, and in 2022, I pitched the concept to Grant and Elena Cardone. I knew we could do this bigger and better and they saw it too. The Great American Speak Off. They wanted to take it onto GCTV and allow the winner to be on the Growth Con stage. Can you imagine speaking to 20,000 people on a stage? That’s a packed NBA arena!

Well, we went for it! And in season one, we had 27,000 people sign up to audition but we only had 2000 spots available. We did auditions in three cities and we held one virtual audition. 150 of those auditions received a golden ticket. In the end, 150 contestants became 30, then twelve, then three. Those three advanced on to Growth Con. But just like Grant does in Grant fashion, he threw out a wildcard to make it four. Four contestants competed on the biggest stage of their lives.

My question for you, is what’s going on in your mind and heart as I tell you my story? What happens when I talk about the opportunities that can come from a stage? What could happen to your business with a few minutes in front of 20,000 people?

What’s keeping you from taking action? Are you comparing yourself to others? Are you trying to be someone you’re not? Because I will tell you something – the world doesn’t need a bunch of copies. The world needs YOU. I think about one of the 2022 Great American Speak Off finalists, Randy Hedge. He’s a redneck cowboy. He stepped on that stage in his cowboy hat, with his heavy southern drawl, and the crowd fell in love with this guy. He was a crowd favorite. Part of Randy’s message is that you have to be authentic. Randy talks about how you may have to improve, correct some habits, add some skills, and change some attitudes – but you don’t change who you are to try to impress others. When Randy stepped on that stage, his head was telling him how out of place he was. He says he felt like a “pig at a pool party.” But think about it – this man came in second place out of 2000 auditioners! I’m so glad he brought his real self to the stage that day, rather than cave to insecurities and try to be someone he wasn’t. The crowd loved Randy!

Another thing I love about Randy is that this guy will not quit! He was almost cut in eliminations, but he ended up with a wild card. He talks about the absolute disappointment he felt when he learned he would not be going through to the next round. And before he could even lick his wounds, he learned that he was chosen on the wildcard. He says that he has “failed his way to the top,” simply because he will not quit. Quitters are everywhere. Wantrepreneurs are everywhere!

Be that grinder. Be that one that just won’t give up.

Randy reminds us that there are always going to be people who are smarter, prettier, or who are better speakers, but when you bring your real self to the stage, you can be sure that there will never be another YOU.

Interestingly enough, one of our other top four Speak Off finalists came in as a wildcard, Shametria Gonzalez. She was in our top 12 finalists but was eliminated in the final round. Then Grant threw a curve ball and gave a wild card to allow one more person to go to Growth Con. Shametria was that wild card! Many of our contestants had a backend business or product, but Shametria didn’t have a business. She did, however, have a great story of being an overcomer. She taught us that intention will get people’s attention. She was determined that she could use her story to inspire and motivate others. What she learned along the way in her Speak Off journey was how to take her intention and turn it into a business. She took advantage of 10x Stages and she shares how that push took her to the finish line. Shametria reminds us that you have to show up with the right intention, educate yourself, then apply it. Your gift will make room for you, but you have to show up!

These final contestants were not chosen because of a million-dollar business. They weren’t chosen for their fancy clothes or the money in their bank accounts. They were winners because they were able to communicate their message with spirit, authenticity, energy, and they captivated their audience.

Are you hearing the theme here? Are you catching on to the domino effect that happens when you learn to communicate your message?

Grant Cardone shares how he knows now that he lost DECADES of time and opportunity because he didn’t become an excellent communicator earlier in life. Think of what Grant has accomplished and imagine adding ten or twenty years to his successes.

I want to tell you about one more person. This guy made Grant Cardone tear up. He is the winner of our last round of the Great American Speak Off – Mr. Glenn Lundy.

Glenn followed Grant Cardone for a long time. He participated in some of his training and followed his social media. So he was intrigued by this opportunity to audition for the show. Glenn heard me tell the exact story I am telling you today and he listened to that kick – that voice – and he decided to jump in on our virtual auditions. He hadn’t taken it that seriously until he received word that he had made it through to the second round and he realized what an incredible opportunity this could be. So he better prepared for round two and was chosen again to go to Miami. In Miami, he was blown away by the talent and he talks about how he knew at that moment that he had to ask a lot of questions and get laser-focused on what he had to communicate. He had to craft his communication – and fast!

One thing Glenn says he learned is that you’ve got to get the audience right away.

He used to start his speeches with introductions and talk about himself. He quickly learned that there was no time for that! It’s about the audience in the very first second. You’ve got to captivate them and bring them in immediately.

Glenn learned. He pivoted. He applied knowledge. He crafted his message. And he took the gold.

His life will never be the same. His business, his family, and his relationships have all been impacted and elevated because of what the Growth Con stage did for him.

Think about what that did for his kids as they watched him go after his dreams and use his story and his gift to positively impact others. Lots of people are talking about their dreams but very few take action.

So here it is – Be yourself. Be intentional with your message. Craft your message and put yourself out there. Figure out what you have to say and captivate your audience. The world wants to hear what you have to say!

As Glenn puts it – your story, your life experience, what you’ve walked through, and what you’ve learned along the way – God has given these things uniquely to YOU as an overcomer. But now, it’s for other people. Get out there, tip the lead domino, and take your chance at winning the Growth Con stage!

Sign up for your audition at SPEAKOFF.COM

Your Message Matters!

Pete Vargas III