Here's a snapshot of the mental stuff I do to stay in the game before I speak on any stage...    It seems like questions often come in themes and in waves.    I don't know if it's just 'cause I have my ear to the ground listening to what people are asking me…    But it seems like the recent wave of questions are all about, “How do you prepare before you go on stage?”   By the time you read this, OfferMind 2019 will be over, and so I thought it would be the perfect time to share how a guy who used to hate public speaking preps for LIVE events    I didn't really think about my preparation until people started asking the question, but when I started to look more closely, I discovered that:   Before I speak on stage, there's a pattern that I go through that comes in two phases.    The Thinking Phase.   The Prepare for War Phase   … you may find some of what I do a little surprising, (and frankly, a few years back, I could never have imagined myself doing some of this stuff ?) MY TWO-PHASE SPEECH PREPARATION     THE THINKING PHASE      On my office floor right now, there’s tons of yellow paper all over the place…   ... and it's where I collect my ideas as I start to think through and organize my content.    I've done it for a couple of years now... and the system works well for me, and so I keep doing it.   So it's the preparing/ thinking phase where:   I listen to way less music that has words in it    I do a lot more meditation   (I actually use a cool bit of kit that Alex Charfen introduced me to, I’ll show you a bit later)   However, as the actual event gets nearer, my behavior changes a bit as I move into the 2nd phase.   So I thought it would be kinda cool if I wrote a list of the things that I do, and shared them with you… STATE CONTROL 101 There were many times at ClickFunnels when Russell would walk in and be like, "I'm not gonna lie, I really don't know what I wanna do what I gotta do today...”    I’d say, “Yep, I'm not gonna lie, I gotta build three funnels today, me neither!”    ...and we’d be like, “How do we move forward?”   So we’d take a moment,  and sometimes we’d…    Watch comedy    Watch a funny video    Listen to music    ...but we always used the same few things to kick us into state (usually, Seven Nation Army).    We’d jump about and do some Tony Robbins type state control…   I did mentally make fun of it for the first little bit….   But then, I was like, "Oh my gosh, what if, what if this actually works?”   ... and I started doing it.   *IT WORKS*    Suddenly, it's like, “Man, I'm really tired, but I'm ready to rock.”    And as the last three years in my ‘stage speaking career’ have unfolded, I’ve come up with my own kind of state control patterns that help me get ready to go on stage.   PRIMING YOUR RAS RECEPTORS   I've been listening to a super fascinating book lately called Buying On The Brain.   ...it's a challenging book to chew.    You really gotta think hard when you listen to it.   So if you're like, "I don't wanna go listen to it,” don't worry, 'cause I'm a nerd and I'm gonna distill it down and bring the key takeaways back to the show…    Anyway, I've been listening to this part of the book and it talks a lot about the RAS receptors in the brain...   Let me explain…   Have you ever woken up a little bit late with that anxiety feeling?   You’re fast asleep and suddenly, you wake up - BOOM! “Oh, crap the alarm didn't go off,” or whatever… and you go flying out of bed!    Everyone knows that feeling...     You get that hasty, “Oh, My Gosh,” feeling and you go flying around to get all the pieces together, and jump in the car…   You’re like "Oh, my gosh, hurry!”    You go super fast as you're driving to the office or wherever…   Finally, you arrive wherever you're late for and you're like, “Oh, my gosh, I'm sorry!”   ... and the rest of the day you kinda feel a little bit off!   Q: Is the rest of the day really off or is that just kinda how you were pre-framed?   What's interesting abo