First Time Facilitator transcript with Steve Sims
Here's the episode transcript with Steve Smith from Episode 55.
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Leanne Hughes: It is an absolute delight to welcome to the First-Time Facilitator podcast, the Wizard of Oz himself, Steve Sims Sims. Steve Sims, it's so cool having you on the show.
Steve Sims: It's a pleasure to be here.
Leanne Hughes: Thanks. But I guess you're a bit different to other guests that we've had on this podcast. So your main gig isn't facilitating workshops but when I thought about having you as a guest it was because you facilitate these once-in-a-lifetime experiences for your client so I'm really keen to dive into that.
I was watching your speaker's reel and someone in the audience puts up their hand and they ask you the question, you know: What drives you? What keeps you going? And you showed a really great story. I think that would be a really great beginning- if our listeners haven't heard of you. Can you tell us what happened when you were 11 years old with your mother walking down Bond Street?
Steve Sims: Oh yeah. You know you get those moments in life which you think are just going to be uneventful and an impactful and it's the smallest thing that can really just change your life. I was walking down a place called Bond Street and like every city in the planet they've all got that one Street where all the posh stores are.
And you've got Madison Avenue, Fifth Avenue, Bond Street, Barham Street. So there's all these different places around the planet where you wear your Gucci, Prada and all the other brands are on. Me and my mom walking down and I'm just a young kid and I'm holding onto my mom's hand and we're walking down the street and she stops and turns around on the corner of the curb and looks across the road into a Gucci store and in the window was a handbag.
Now, of course me being an idiot, you know I'm a little kid I'm thinking, “Huh, we're going to cross the road now!” and there was no traffic so I stepped off the curb to cross the road and she yanked me back and I was like, “What? Aren't we going across there?” and of course like you know I'm a little kid I don't really care by looking at handbags but I just thought that was what we were doing. So as we were so poised and staring at it and she literally pulled me aside she went, “No, no, no. I'm just looking. We don't go in there that's not for us.” and we walked off again.
Now, it was obvious she liked what was in the window. I don't remember the handbag, I do remember the store, I remember the exact window she was looking in but I just remember the kind of embarrassment / intimidation / fear who she had about walking into what it in all purpose is a bloody shop.
And it bothered her and I suddenly realized that she had been brought up on “them and us” scenario and basis and I just felt how bad that actually was and how sad that was and it was a daftest thing but one of the most impactful moments in my life.
Leanne Hughes: Hmm. So this whole “them versus us”. When did it really start? That's a great story from when you’re 11. Was at the moment that really changed your mindset like when did you start thinking that you could bring together at them and ask that you actually had, you could cross the line that you could be part of us. When did that sort of happen and play out in your career?
Steve Sims: Uh, it is kind of weird. It's like saying, “Hey, when did you realize that you had two arms? Or “When did you realize that you were left-handed or right-handed?” You don't, you just are. And as I grew up, I was ignorant and I think one of the advantages I had was that I was uneducated and ignorant to affluence.
So you know I live now in Los Angeles and we roll down Beverly Hills and every second car is a 2 to 5 hundred thousand dollar vehicle. It’s Rolls Royces, Lamborghinis, you know. It's constant and even without being in Beverly Hills, everyone's Instagram profile can easily show a 20 grand watch or scene on an aircraft or you know there's- we're bombarded now with people that are apparently more well-off than us. As an East London boy, I never had that.
So I also never woke up with the fear of it. So when I started doing- when I wanted to be more affluent, when I started doing door work and wanting to hang around with more affluent people and get him into parties and things like that, I didn't have a fear of talking to them because as far as I was concerned they were just the same as us, there was no difference in it and so I was very lucky. It’s like the kid that walks up and touches a hot plate. You know it's a hot plate but they're oblivious to it and they'll only going to find out once they touch the plate that it's hot.
With me, I was walking up to the front door of these parties, in these clubs, and these red-carpet events and just walking through the door because I had an air of an intimidation may be the ones are a little bit better. As a big ugly lad, I've done a lot of door work in my younger years.
You get these people when they walk towards a club there's a line-up on the left or there's a front door with the two doorman. Now, if you've noticed you get these people just walk straight through into the club, don't they?
Leanne Hughes: Uhmm.
Steve Sims: You’ve noticed that. When I stood on the door, as people walk to me, there'll be a natural selection. There will be people that go, “Oh, I have to go and stand in the line.” and then there be other people that go, “I'm not standing in that line. I'm going through the front door.” There's a natural Darwin selection then they do themselves as to where that's supposed to be.
Now, of course you get some idiots to walk up the front door and you can see they're not going to be spending a lot of money and you have to tell them to get in the line. But nine times out of ten you walk up the front door and you go, “Hi guys. How are you?” and you just walk straight you go, “Have a good time.” and you look apart and you're respectful.
You get to walk straight in and I noticed that. So as I grew up, I never had the intelligence or probably the overbearing saturation of what affluence was supposed to do to you i.e. intimidate you, scare you and make you desire it. I never had.
Leanne Hughes: That’s so refreshing. I'm just reflecting back on a moment in an airport. So I kind of did the same thing. I swore through this premium way line and I probably wasn't meant to be there but and I just walked through and they just let me in and that was the first time I recognized.
You're right, we do have these limitations and assumptions just from the way that we've been brought up in the way I guess society dictates things and to play by the rules sometimes but yeah I think I wasn't waiting. It was a huge line, I was tired and jet-lagged so I was taking every opportunity I could.
Can you let our listeners know like what is it about that era of confidence that you see when you were the doorman? Was it you know, they were dressed a certain way or was it just didn't hesitate that they look like they belonged in that front door, what was it?
Steve Sims: They weren't fearful, they were confident. And I think nowadays and sadly is getting worse. We're losing confidence because we're losing the ability to approach each other. I heard a horrible fact the other day.
There's some people spend more time talking to AI like Siri, Alexa than they actually do with their best friends. And I thought that was terrible because on average, most days people are talking into a phone or telling the Alexa to turn the heating on or put the music on, get your speak to your best mate maybe once a month and that's quite scary that that's what's happened.
So I noticed, if you were confident you just walked up into it, “Hey, how are you doing. All right if I go in?” Nine times that's it. I know me personally, I'll be like, “Sure, go in. Have a good night.” But it's the tongue that- it's the people that come up and they're like, “Hey, ah, yeah. Hi, I was wondering-” and you go, “Yeah. There's the line.” and you move on.
Leanne Hughes: That's cool. That's a really cool skill for all of us to get through those doors are both literally and metaphorically. You spoke about- so that's interesting about technology and how most of us are talking to sort of AI and BOTS and a lot more and I've heard you know were the most connected species has ever been on the planet but at the same time we're also the most loneliest so it's a really interesting mix.
Steve Sims: Yeah.
Leanne Hughes: So there is a value I guess in making this kind of approaches. Can you talk about I guess the first kind of big wish that you made that you gave to a client? Someone that came to you requested it. What was the first one that you made happen and then you thought, “Well, there's something in this.”?
Steve Sims: Yeah and it wasn't very big. Anyone that doesn't know me, I've got people married in the Vatican. I've sent people down on the Titanic. I put people on stage with our favourite rock band. But the first one that really mattered that sent me off in a trajectory couldn't be much smaller.
I was working in a nightclub in Hong Kong and I realized that as they say, “You are the five people that you hang around with.” I noticed the most of people that I hang around with are poor. So I thought if I start hanging around with more rich people, I will become rich.
So I started trying to communicate a lot more with affluent people and it was pretty rocky in the early stage. But as the doorman, I started to tell people where the best club was, what night was the best party night. So I started to build up a value in them knowing me.
And one night these guys came in and I've known him for a couple of months by then and they came into the club and they went, “Are you going down to the yacht party tonight?” Because I was really trying to network. I wasn't very good at it. I didn't talk to a lot of people but I was always showing up at these things and I said to the guys, “You know, what your party's that?” and they told me where it was and “I don't know. I don't know.” and I lamb into the club and you know that was it.
So I stood at the front door and I thought myself you know I'd spoke to my fellow, “Wait a minute. Look after the door a minute. I'm just going to try something.” and I went down to the yacht. Now they'd already told me where it was going to be.
As I walked up to the yacht, this is like about maybe two and a half hours before it opened up to the party and there's a girl there with a flipchart just by the deck as you go up onto the yacht. And I walked up to run away, “Hey. How are you doing?” I said, “You, you’re in for busy night?
Anyway my four guests are coming over this evening. I know you open up at like 9:30, I just wanted to know would you prefer they go here at like 9 o'clock or like 10:30 you know what would be better for you to avoid the ball neck?” and she just come on look to me a bit blank and then looks down at the flipchart and starts flicking through the flipchart.
Now the dump thing was I hadn't even given her the client’s name. She was just doing this because it was a knee-jerk reaction. If you notice and we talked about metaphorically. If you know it's the most people's knee-jerk reaction now is to actually hold that phone with both hands.
If you watch people go in and they order a cup of coffee, they order the coffee and then the next thing they do is they get that phone out and they hold the phone and they start looking through the phone. Have you ever noticed how holding the phone with both hands is the exact same position that a boxer has when they've got their guard up?
Leanne Hughes: Hmm.
Steve Sims: Okay. So most people now are walking around with their guard up. Now this girl was using the flip chart to come like gather her kind of mentality work out- what's going on? What’s this guy? Who is he? What’s he asking me? She was flicking through that flipchart.
I swear she's got of a phone then if she was back in the ‘90s they didn't have them but if she'd have had it should have probably done something with the phone. But then I turned around and again and I pushed a little bit further and I said, “Well, I don't want to get in your way because I know it's going to be a busy night for you.
I just want to know, do you want them here at this time or this time?” and then she turned around she went, “Ah, 10 o'clock.” I said, “Thank you so much. I appreciate it.” and then I went with empathy. “I know you're going to have a crazy night tonight and let's be blunt. People are going to turn up, they're going to party and they're not going to say thank you. So I want to say thank you.
You got four people coming in here, here's 400 bucks. Tomorrow when it's all over you can grab a bottle of wine, nice food and just be thankful it's over. And she was like, “Thank you so much.” and I was like, “Have a good evening. I wish you would be the best.” and I went to walk away and then she stopped me and she went, “Hang on a minute, what are the guests names?” and I gave them to her and she wrote them down on the front of her list.
Leanne Hughes: Oh, wow.
Steve Sims: So then I went back to the nightclub. Now bearing in mind what you're not aware of is I only used to make about 800 to a thousand dollars a week and I'm just giving away 40 percent of that to this girl for four people that I didn't even know was still at the club, it was a gamble.
So I went back to the club, the guys were still in there I walked up and said, “Boys, I've just pulled some strings for you and you're going to the yacht hide tonight.” “Oh, fantastic.” “You're welcome. It's 500 bucks each.”
Leanne Hughes: Hahaha.
Steve Sims: And they literally just paid up within a heartbeat and I went back out to the door and I realized I just made 1,600 bucks and I had solved the problem of embarrassment. You see these guys were successful, they were good-looking, they could afford, they could afford to buy the yacht but they didn't know how to communicate, how to ask and then more importantly how do we call from being denied entrance and so with me, I was the solution.
I didn't ever say who the guy’s names were. Now, the funny thing is that girl because I've shown that I've respected her time, I paid her for her time. She let me know every party that was going on that she had any kind of involvement with. So I now started building up a network of access and from the door I had a network of after on people that liked to party.
So I started putting two and two together when I stayed game people into other people's events then I started putting on my own events and then people were like, “Oh, yeah. That was a great event but can you give me a hotel? I don't know if you do travel. I'm like, “Yeah.” So I started doing travel and then before you knew it and the real thing people started going will it. “I want to do this but I want to meet so-and-so” or “I want to go backstage. Do you do that kind of thing?” I became the fixer, I became the guy that could. There was no word for it, I just got stuff done and I got it done but just charging them and I realized how easy people were to actually pay for things.
Leanne Hughes: That's unreal and I definitely need you in my life. But I want to go back to is that question that you asked the lady on the yacht. So you didn't rock up there and say, “Hey. I've got this four guests, can we go on the yacht tonight?” You asked what time and you gave her two options: 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. Do you think it's all about the language of the ask because you basically weren't asking for yes or no you were asking for a yes and what time. It was already in the question. Do you think that helped?
Steve Sims: 100%. I learned at a very early age. See, I'm a great believer in liability. You know if I'm going to have a fight with a guy I look at the guy and I go is he bigger is he leaner, is he faster than me therefore I can get hurt I'm not going to be in that fight. So I look at liability. If I'm driving an old car I'm not going to drive it fast because it could probably break or go wrong. So I'm a great believer in keeping liability low.
Now, when I ask a question, if I ask a question that gives you the ability to say yes or no, I'm increasing my liability of getting out so I don't want especially when you consider that “no” can be said to anyone in any country and understood as a refusal. Even if it's not in the same language, you can say no in Thailand, Germany, Russia and they will know that it's a negative and in some refusal. And nine times out of ten, bear in mind it's also the shortest word in history in our language. So if I go up to you and I go, “Hey, can I get four guys on your yacht tonight?” What's the chances I'm going to get a no rather than a yes?
Leanne Hughes: 100%.
Steve Sims: Bingo. So what I did was I lose that liability. I remove it by only giving you the ability to answer with an answer that I will accept. So I go up there and I go, “Hey, what time?” I go up to people now and I don't ask them, “Hey. I want to shut your museum down, can I do that?” “Hey, I want to send my clients backstage to meet Taylor Swift, can we do that?” I don't do that. What I do is what needs to happen in order for my clients to be backstage with Taylor Swift?
What are the steps required in order for me to get you to close your museum down on Wednesday afternoon for dinner party at the feet of Michelangelo's David? I ask a question there is only going to provide me- because if I say something like that, “Hey, what are the steps required for me to have your museum closed down on Wednesday?” If the guy or girl lips looks at me and goes “no” They’re looking like a mole one because they didn't actually speak in a manner that makes any sense to anyone.
Leanne Hughes: This is so funny. So recently, so I'm a fan of Dr. Jordan Peterson and he's in Australia at the moment on tour and I've completely failed. I mean now what I've just picked up from you is- so I reached out to his agent and kind of the ask words you know. I'll fly anywhere in Australia like how can I get an interview with Jordan Peterson, 30 minutes and you know what the answer would was it was a no. But now I'm just thinking of that and maybe those ways of reframing but also possibly not even going through the agent.
Steve Sims: Well, there's another. Okay, so let's take you another step. When you’re given a “no”, nine times out of 10 is because you asked the wrong question or you asked the wrong person.
Leanne Hughes: Yep. Yes.
Steve Sims: And again, look at the liability. You go- what’s an agent's job? Now, I live in Hollywood, okay. Agents are one millimetre above bottom-feeders you know. An agent's job is to do whatever they can to earn money off of talented people. That's the job of an agent. Now, a manager is there to look after the duty or the talent and the assistant is to make sure the talent is happy all the time but the actual talent agent themselves is there to basically contract and make money from the event.
If you walk up to him and you tell him or ask him for something which benefits him in no manner whatsoever then your liability and your chances of getting a no are huge. So in that situation for a start you were asking the wrong person, it may have been better if you asked a better question but I think by asking that person you were more than likely asking the wrong person already.
Leanne Hughes: Hmm. Yeah. I think you're right. I think it was deemed to a failure to start off with.
Steve Sims: Yeah.
Leanne Hughes: Hey. I can hear through, just through your voice you're very dynamic and I like, I mean I can imagine when you're in front of a stage or in front of a workshop everyone in that room is really paying attention to what you're saying cuz you tell stories really effectively. But I want to talk about your upcoming event the Speakeasy workshop which I saw. So what you're essentially doing is it's a two-day workshop, people fly into LA. What do they do in that workshop and what happens at the end of it?
Steve Sims: So we tried- so I'm the speaker. I've spoken at God countless events including Pentagon, Harvard and even jails. So I've done a lot of speaking, a lot of different entrepreneurial events and sometimes these aggravate me because you get speakers come up there they do a presentation which they've been doing since 1973 and there's no engagement with the crowd. There’s no connection, they're just running through the slideshow that running through that very polished presentation and then they go offstage and you're left with, “Well, what actionable advice did I get there?” I know the guy's brilliant, I know the girl launched a company now she's a billionaire and I know they sold it and I know they love to travel around Italy but how the bloody hell does that help me? So what I decided to do was to re-engineer a workshop and we launched something and it was the greatest growth comes from the greatest accidents. I decided last year, early part of last year to do an event and I didn't know where I was going to do it.
So I just put it out to my community. “I'm going to do an event. It's two thousand bucks for two days and it's in San Diego who wants to go?” and I had people going, “Who's speaking?” I'm not telling you. “Who's going?” I'm not telling you. “Where is it?” San Diego. You know I was as vague as that and I said there, “You know, I want people that are willing to take his shot. I want people to look at me, know who I am, know what I do and gamble on it.” You know gamble on me and I said, “You know, if that don't work, I'll give you your money back.”
Now, one of the reasons I was doing it that way was because one, I didn't know how many people would want to go. So we've got about 40 people going. So I thought, “Okay, I now know what kind of property I've got. But then I thought of myself, “What speakers do I get in? I've got loads of friends, I've got some very interesting friends in my Rolodex. “Who do I have walk in?” and then that's when it came to me. I'm going to reverse engineer it. So then everyone that paid for a ticket, we reached out to him we went, “Okay.
What do you do? Who are you? What’s your problem?” And I asked them what they helped that hurdle the hiccup was now, today that they would like solved in order to give them a productive rest of the year and going on. And so we suddenly started getting these, “Well I want to do viral videos.” “I want to launch a podcast.” “Oh, I don't know how to get a good accounting platform.” “How do I get people to book me more speaking gigs.” We had all of these different questions and then I went out to my people when I went these are the problems that I need you to speak at my event and solve.
And so now what I did was I had speak of agents literary agents about how to write a book, video people and I'm not about top shelf people in there talking about how to do a video, how to get the best audio you know. How did not spend a fortune on doing again Podcast studio put together. The difference between an omnidirectional mic and a dynamic mic. So we had people come along. They literally would give a presentation on who they are, what they do and how they do it and then go, “Right.
These would the questions I would ask let's get these solved now. What are you using?” and because the group was only about 40 strong, they could literally reach out go, “So who's doing this? How are you doing it? Let me solve that.” So by the time they leave the room, you haven't heard from a brilliant speaker, you've got your problem solved. Now, here's a funny little quirk to this. Are you still there?
Leanne Hughes: Yeah. I'm all is.
Steve Sims: Here's a funny little quirk that happened. So I wanted to get it videoed and recorded so I could share it on my Speakeasy Facebook page. The video guy let me down he didn't turn up. So then without realizing it the community suddenly started turning around going, “This is brilliant we never knew where it was going to be, we didn't know who was going to turn up and what happens here stays here because no one else will ever get it that wasn't in this room.”
So actually someone turned around and said, “This is like a Speakeasy you know. If you don't know the password to get in you're not getting in.” and we’re like, everyone knows I like whisky so I was like you know, “That's brilliant.” So we did a Speakeasy San Diego. The original one was a quarter, a speakeasy it was quarter of a verse mastermind but then we called it- we didn't know what the bloody hell to call it and then we did them we did three other Speakeasys’ last year including New York and then we've got one in LA which we are and it's next week. But we didn't, we- again didn't even tell anyone where it was until I think it was yesterday because we wanted to know how many people are coming, what's your problems watch your questions and it's really reverse-engineered or what a normal speaker workshop/ event should be and it's been gentlemen a great community as well so how many a great deal of fun with it.
Leanne Hughes: That's so cool and what's the event that culminates the hold sort of two days? There's a pretty cool party that everyone's off to I believe.
Steve Sims: So one of the things that I actually- you've been doing your homework.
Leanne Hughes: Well, he's my favourite artist. I love the guy so much.
Steve Sims: Alright. So one of the things that I like to do is I want to shake you up and get you into somebody else's sandpit. So what we're doing is we're doing two days of a Speakeasy where we're going to get your problem solved, introduce you to different perspectives, different growth, more family members which is what you'll gain within the entrepreneurial guests at the event and then after that we'll all get dressed up and we're going to serve Elton John's Oscar party with basically or the A-list of Hollywood.
So we did that last year in New York where we did two days in Soho, had a bunch of really cool cats come in and solve problems and then that evening we went to Sir Elton John's gala at Cipriani in Midtown. So it was the chance for you to learn all this information and then be sat next to the guy that owns the New York Jets or who owns the Rockefeller Plaza you know millionaires and billionaires so that you can see that just like you. You're having a conversation now with people that are one table have the financial economy of a small country and you're on that table with them and it's been a real eye-opener for a lot of people to actually come back from there and go, “You have no idea who I was talking in the toilet with him and then I was having this conversation about with so-and-so and Ralph Lauren was there and I was talking about is his new linen.” And it's just it's incredible to have people just be able to realize the rich people are poor people with a lot of money; things don't change, just that the bank account.
Leanne Hughes: Yeah that's a really interesting perspective. It's also probably the coolest workshop that I've ever heard of and this would be like episode 55, I believe. I think you've just won the coolest workshop ever. And that's definitely a party I wouldn't want to get too pissed at because I want to remember every moment. So I love as well-
Steve Sims: Yeah.
Leanne Hughes: Yeah with your approach. But the speakeasy how I guess a lot of the time when we run workshops we want to make sure it's perfect before we even you know put it out there to advertise so we'll spend a lot of time creating all the content and everything else and then like you said you might get people that actually want something a little bit different. They want to be involved with your community but they're after something else so it's a really interesting approach. I've got to ask you-
Steve Sims: I'll go interrupt there for a second. Tell me one thing that's perfect.
Leanne Hughes: Oh.
Steve Sims: You see. I'm a great believer that perfection is a blue unicorn with three testicles; it doesn't exist. So what I do is I have a saying that I drill through my kids and it's basically my mantra and I say, “Get going then get good.” and every day that I pull something out someone would go, “That's brilliant.” I'd be like, “Yeah. It's really, really, really good and I'm really happy with it but I bet you in two months’ time I'll find a way to be able to make you better.” So why do I want to wait chasing that unicorn that let’s be blunt, doesn't exist!
Leanne Hughes: Yeah and there's something really key in momentum isn’t then by putting it out they’re getting in the feedback.
Steve Sims: Oh, yeah.
Leanne Hughes: Yeah. It is sometimes I guess when your own as well working on your own business it can be tough because you think you're at your own worst critic sometimes as well.
Steve Sims: Yeah. Absolutely. So yeah, and you're the old paralysis by analysis. You'll sit there for years, you're doing a 400 page PowerPoint on how this could be brilliant and then all of a sudden you'll just keep second guessing yourself and getting in the way of yourself and someone else will just do it and then do it and fail and do it and get better and fail and progress and succeed. So what you're thinking about it someone else is getting all the education and actually building up a platform that you can't even compete with.
Leanne Hughes: Yeah. Actually, that's a really good point and how I got this interview with you a bit of background. So I heard you on Travis Chappell's Build Your Network a few months ago and I was like, “I need to get Steve Sims on my show.” but I let it sort of simmer and was waiting for the right time. Then I was out for a drink in Brisbane and I met this guy called Jus, who interviewed you on his podcast a marketing podcast and I said, “Oh, you got Steve Sims. I want to interview Steve Sims.” and he's like, “Well, let's just shoot a video now and send it to him over Facebook Messenger.” and I'm like, “No, it's too dark.” and all these excuses. Anyway, we did it and voila! I have an interview with you despise seizing that opportunity and it wasn't perfect, it wasn't a perfect video but it worked.
Steve Sims: Yeah. Yeah and Jus is a great guy by the way. It’s just one of these things that what would you have done that could have been better than what you did.
Leanne Hughes: Yeah. Well, I probably wouldn't have got around to it to be honest. There's so many other things on my-
Steve Sims: No, you wouldn’t of.
Leanne Hughes: No.
Steve Sims: You wouldn’t of. You've just sat that guy with, “Well my hair is not lie and hang on a minute, how do I do this? Oh, we got to get the lighting right.” I released a podcast and literally I was at an event and someone said to me with the people, “You know Steve Sims, you should do a podcast and I was like, “Yeah, that sounds fun. Yeah, that sounds cool.” So I just went online and I just posted online: “Shall I do a podcast?” and I got a bunch of people going, “Yeah. You should do a podcast.” I was like, “All right.” I got a microphone and I found a place in the corner of my garage that didn't have too much echo and I started calling up my buddies and started doing a podcast and I got to about the 18th episode and the first six were revolted they were all- but the daffy was had I not started, I'd have never been in able to be in a position to realize how bad they were and as they weren't even released then I was able to just remove them. In fact, I think it was like the 12th episode became the first one. I've got a better microphone, I learned the difference between dynamic and omnidirectional mics. You know I learned all of these things and now I have a podcast that I still do in my garage with a nice microphone and I just do it and I've got better and better and trust me the ones I'm doing now I quite like. By this time next year, I'll probably look back at those and go, “Oh, my God that’s rough.”
Leanne Hughes: Yeah and that podcast is the art of making things happen. So you sort of really talk about taking action which is what we've kind of just been exploring over the last few minutes.
Steve Sims: Yep.
Leanne Hughes: A lot of these skills as well- So you talked about you know effectively communicating, how to ask questions. You cover that in your online course, The Distillery. What else what other content do you cover if listeners want to sort of learn a bit more about these kind of key skills?
Steve Sims: Well, we try to put in there simple steps but also it's me doing the course, there’s no one else. So the whole premise behind it, the whole underlying theme is if an ugly bricklayer from London can be doing this with the Pope and Elon Musk, you're already out of excuses. So then I walk you through how to build up confidence, how would it look for impact, how to provide value, how to be irresistible in any conversation. So it's all about how to position yourself to get what you want while giving given the person what they want and that's what's in the course. It’s a 16 chapter course and we're also throwing off the regular videos in there.
So it's the kind of content that's constantly going to be growing. Whenever we do cool videos, we add another couple of videos. It started off literally as 16 videos and I think now there's maybe 24 in there and every month were adding more. So it wants to become a resource library, there's got to become your friend and when you join the distillery you also get access into the private speakeasy Facebook page and in there you get to mingle and communicate with different members. They post up what they like, they post up what they're frightened of. It’s a very open-naked environment where you could talk about things that bother you.
Leanne Hughes: Awesome. And we'll link to that in the show notes. Just on the on the topic of confidence, what is your advice for any of our listeners who are first-time facilitators, first-time presenters that are getting the confidence now just to step up in front of a room what advice would you give them?
Steve Sims: Are you about our speakers?
Leanne Hughes: Yeah.
Steve Sims: Right. Okay. So stop being a speaker and I mean that. I did a speech, I was the opening keynote for a big mortgage convention about two weeks ago and I would speak into their heads of this mortgage cooperation a couple of seconds before I went up on stage and they pay me well to be up on stage and I went up on stage and I went, “Hey, good morning. How I-” cause it was in the morning I was the opening keynote. I usually don't do morning speeches but I did and I said, “Hey, good morning. How are ya? I hate giving speeches.” and you saw the front line of the people that paid me to be up there go, “Oh, my God.” and I just I looked at the audience and I said, “I don't want to stand up here and tell you about how brilliant I am. I'd love to have a conversation with two and a half thousand people about how what I've done and do can make you brilliant. Now, if you don't want me to do that tell me and I'll run through a 90-minute speech and I'll tell you what the stories that make you giggling, you can clap loud two minutes like demented sea lions when I walk off. But I would love to make you better, smart or productive or more impactful. What do you think?” and that was within the first few seconds and of course they would start clapping. I got a standing ovation at the beginning of a speech.
Leanne Hughes: What? That’s amazing.
Steve Sims: It was brilliant. But the people that are paid me went from holding their hands and abs ticking like, “All right.” So the whole point is I don't believe speakers should give speeches. I think speakers should have conversations with thousands of people or hundreds of people but they should have conversations and in a conversation there are things that are a primitive from primeval to make that conversation work and that the first one is engagement and the second one is value. If you can engage someone in a conversation by entertaining, telling them jokes, you know whatever, wearing a funny hat, whatever it takes and then you can feed them with value that benefits them then you'll be on a stage every day your life for as long as you want to be.
Leanne Hughes: Hmm. That's wonderful advice and I've got to say I've had to move myself away from the microphone because I've been laughing a lot through this conversation. So I'm sure that humour has really served you well in your career as well and really opened the doors as well. I can tell you know you're very easy to talk to, very open and very funny which I think people love. So if our listeners want to communicate, find out more about you and you've got a ton of stories about I mean you've mentioned just very quickly the poet behind mask Elton John and there's plenty of other podcasts where you can hear about those stories. I just wanted to focus really on the confident side of things with you and the cool workshops you're running. So where can people find you?
Steve Sims: Well, I've got a website it's Steve Simsdsims.com. If you sign up for the newsletter you'll actually get one of my favourite videos called the chunk test and you'll also get a PDF which would be the cheat sheet from the book The Art of Making Things Happen: Bluefishing. So there'd be a couple of freebies that you'll get. But then you're getting notified of where my speakeasies are. You're getting notified of my new videos that I post up where I just throw rants about things that bother me or make me smile or make me happy or annoy me or tips and tricks. See I love failing, so I'll try different things and then I'll do a video going, “Hey, I just tried these three microphones. These two are shit. This one was brilliant and this is why.” and I will just do reviews on just the randomness kind of stuff I can.
Leanne Hughes: Awesome. I do follow you on Instagram so I love it. I love an occasion rant from right- instead of the perfect shot gym model. It's good having you, it’s a bit of a contrast.
Steve Sims: Did you see my Tai Lopez and Grant Cardone rant on the beach then?
Leanne Hughes: I haven't seen that one. No. After.
Steve Sims: Yeah. I was- I actually did a speech. It’s funny because in December I had a bunch of speeches in June and September and November of this year but I had nothing for the first part of the year. So in December my wife said to me she said, “Ah, people are bored of you already.” and then all of a sudden I got two gigs in January, three in February, two in March. So it took off. So at the beginning of January, I was actually in Mexico speaking to a high-level workshop down there. So I did a bunch of my little rants literally from the beach and if you don't like the rant you'll certainly love the backdrop and that's on my Instagram Steve Sims D Sims.
Leanne Hughes: Awesome. We’ll linked that as well. Steve Sims, it's been an absolute honour or just having you on the podcast and hearing all about the incredible workshops, the work you do, the people you hang out with and hearing a bit of your story as well. Thank you so much for your time.
Steve Sims: Thank you. I appreciate it.
Leanne Hughes: Cheers!
Steve Sims: Thank you.
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