On Monday I held a monthly meeting with my company Smobble. I call it BFF Day, which stands for Balance, Fun and Freedom. The three values that my company is based on.

During the gathering I have three of my staff share short presentations on their specializations in order to give all-round value to the rest of the team. That way, I feel, everyone is constantly learning and staying fresh. And nobody gets bogged down in their own department, limited by their job scope.

This month I shared a presentation with the team on how to teach anything and make $200,000 in a weekend. I apologize for the overexposed light in the video that I’ve posted, which pretty much makes it impossible to see what I wrote on the wall. Rest assured that my team who were sitting not two feet away from me couldn’t read my handwriting anyway. But here’s a photo of what I wrote:

See what I mean about my handwriting?

So how would you like to earn $200,000 in a single weekend by teaching anything?

Here’s how.

You see,  a lot of people get so caught up with the content, they worry about not having enough data, or that their slides are not perfect, and that sets back their confidence to the point that they can no longer do their presentation.

Here’s the secret. The context is ALWAYS more powerful than the content.

You have to understand this very basic principle first. I’m going to discuss how you can set up your context.  Because once your context is strong, you can fill it up with whatever content you want.

And truth be told, you don’t even have to be an expert in that field.

You don’t even need to be terribly familiar with it. Think of it this way. Imagine a coffee cup. That coffee cup is your context. Whatever you choose to fill that cup with is your content. So as long as your context is strong, your content will never leak.

Now they say that when it comes to public speaking, the first 5 minutes are the most important.

It’s within this 5 minutes that you’ll either make it or break it. The reason is because this is typically when you’ll be at your most nervous. And also because this is when your audience is the most skeptical about you. If you just nail the first 5 minutes, the rest of your talk will be a breeze.

So how do you make those first 5 minutes the best they can possibly be?

It takes 5 simple steps:

The Opener

1. Ask Two Enrolling Questions

Most presenters will start by saying hello then introducing themselves. But you have to keep in mind that people are skeptical of you. Many probably don’t want to be there. Others are questioning why they’re there.

So to start with an introduction to yourself is only going to result in them zoning out.

Get the audience excited and part of the conversation straight off the bat by ask them two enrolling questions.

This forces them to listen and participate. And straight away you’ll find that they’re attentive and ready for what you have to say next. You want the answer to be brief and positive.

Questions like “who wants more money?” is a sure-fire winner, as opposed to “how much debt are you currently in and wouldn’t it be nice if you could pay it off?”

2. Introduce Yourself & the Topic

The second step is to introduce yourself and the topic that you’re going to be covering. Very straight-forward. No need for frills in my opinion. But go ahead and light some fireworks if you’d like.

Once you have them hooked with your opening questions, they’ll be far more receptive to your formal introduction.

3. Give Acknowledgement

Now you take the time to thank your audience for choosing to be there with you. And promise to make it worth their while.

This is important because your audience are still skeptical of you, they don’t know you, and are probably wondering if they made the right decision to be there.

So you want to reassure them that they are in good hands. Be sincere when you deliver this part. Put yourself in their shoes.

I’m sure you’re a busy person. And if someone, for example a boss or colleague, has to give a presentation and your attendance is mandatory, I know you’re likely irritated that your day has been disrupted.

Your audience may feel the same. Especially if they’re giving up their weekend to be with you.

So let them know you appreciate them.

4. WIIFM – What’s in it for me?

If you haven’t heard of this term before, WIIFM basically stands for “what’s in it for me?”

It’s also a very important component of copywriting.

This is where you want to tell them straight up the two, three, five things that they’re going to learn in the next however many days or hours your talk will last.

In the case of the presentation I made to my team, there were two things they would learn – how to create a great opening and basic training techniques. And they were going to learn all that in 10 minutes.

Give your audience something to look forward to. Let them know exactly what they’re going to get out of your talk.

This way they’ll know that they aren’t wasting their time being with you. And that they will come out of it with something of value.

5. ETR – Earning the Right

Now the fifth step is the most important.

Just as in any good sales letter, you need undeniable proof that your product words.

When it comes to your presentation opening, we call it ETR. That stands for “Earning the Right”.

By this point, audience members may be thinking everything seems great, but why should they listen to you?

You have to get this step down, get it just right. Because if you don’t, for the next few hours or days that your talk is running, your audience will neither respect nor listen to you.

So earning the right comes in two forms.

• Credibility

This can come in the form of statistics, social proof and experience.

So since I’m teaching you how to be a successful trainer, I would talk about how for the past couple years I’ve been teaching and training people both at seminars and webinars.

At the same time I have been speaking at platforms and worked with the largest seminar organizers in the world – Success Resources. I’ve held talks in Wealth Expo, Smart Congress and many other platforms where there have been between 1500 to 2000 people in attendance. Last month we held a seminar at the KL Hilton where we had 67 people and charged $4000 per ticket. So that was over $200,000 done in one weekend.

So that’s credibility. Now after you show them your success, the next portion of ETR is:

• Why you are doing this

Once you convince your audience that you’re good at this, you need to explain what’s in it for you.

For example, if you’re in the make money niche, the audience will be wondering why you would bother teaching if you’re already doing so well and making so much money online.

So to tackle this I would say that ever since I was a child, public speaking has been a huge fear of mine. What I didn’t realize was that public speaking and teaching an audience is actually a learnable skill. The whole time I just thought it was purely based on talent. And in all honesty, it pains me to meet someone who has a passion that they really want to share but are unable to do so.

Because I’ve been there.

Just three years ago I would never have imagined going up in front of a huge crowd of people and just speaking from the heart.

So that’s why I’m doing this.

To help people get over their fear. And you simply end it with something like “let’s get started”.

So these are the 5 steps to a great opening. It doesn’t matter what niche you’re in. It could be forex trading or search engine optimization. This is always your standard opening. I mean, you could even talk about gardening and this would work.

That’s how powerful this 5-step process is.

So that’s the context. Now let’s say you’re speaking for 5 days.

What are you going to be talking about for the next 5 days?

Basic Training Method

1. Written Exercise

Remember we’re talking about context. So we can apply this to any niche. It doesn’t matter what your topic is.

So when it comes to this training, the written exercise could be to write your opening, for your niche, for your topic, based on the 5-step process I just went over.

It would probably take like 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Partner Share

After they’re done with the written exercise, you do a partner share.

For those of you who’ve ever attended a T. Harv Eker seminar, you’ll notice that this is the exact format that he uses.

So once they’re done writing, tell them to pick a partner, then share what they’ve written and discuss what they’ve learnt. The great thing about this is that it becomes an opportunity for people to network with others at the seminar.

Another thing is that there’s output. So it doesn’t get monotonous if all they’re doing is sitting and writing.

So it makes it more interesting for them as well.

3. Class Share

Ask the audience who would like to share.

Just open your arms and ask. There will be someone who will want to share.

Now you just have to apply this over and over again. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the session.

So to recap, a successful presentation comes in three parts.

• The Opener. Follow the 5-step process.
• Basic Training. Repeat the 3 steps over and over.
• The Ender. Get the audience into an upsell or continuity program.

The ender is quite lengthy, so I’ll be covering that in an upcoming post.

Until then, why don’t you try out the first part. And actually go ahead and write that all-important 5-step opener. Try it out on a friends or family. See what they have to say.

I believe that everybody has something worth teaching others.

You just have to tap into it, and learn how to teach it. Remember, there’s $200,000 out there with your name on it.

So go out and grab it!