Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie: How to Speak So People Listen | #Success - Ep. 88

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

In this episode of The Russell Brunson Show, we’re talking public speaking… Something that’s second only to death on people’s list of things that terrify them! Haha!  Before I ever dreamed of stepping on a stage, I was just an internet ‘nerd’ trying to make money online. In this episode, I share the story of how I first discovered the art of public speaking, why it terrified me, and the moment I saw someone speak with so much conviction that it changed my entire life trajectory.  I also dive into the original version of The Art of Public Speaking by the real Dale Carnegie, why this rare edition matters, and the single biggest lesson it teaches about becoming a powerful communicator. If you have a message, a product, or a mission you believe in, this episode will shift the way you think about sharing it. Key Highlights: ◼️The day I watched speakers make 60k and 100k from stage and realized that speaking to sell was a real skill ◼️How I overcame my fear of public speaking by learning persuasion first, not performance ◼️The emotional story of a speaker whose message reached me at exactly the moment I needed it ◼️The truth I’ve learned watching 250 plus Funnel Hacking Live speakers and why passion always beats technique ◼️What the original Dale Carnegie taught about conviction, belief, and why loving your message matters more than perfect delivery The power of public speaking isn’t about flawless articulation. It is about falling in love with what you are sharing so deeply that people feel it when you talk. That was true for me when I started talking about funnels, and it is still true for me today as I study the roots of great communication. If you’re looking to improve on your public speaking… This episode (and book!) is for you! ◼️⁠https://russellbrunson.com/notes⁠ ◼️If you’ve got a product, offer, service… or idea… I’ll show you how to sell it (the RIGHT way) Register for my next event →⁠⁠⁠ https://sellingonline.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠ ◼️Still don’t have a funnel? ClickFunnels gives you the exact tools (and templates) to launch TODAY → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://clickfunnels.com/podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. 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 slash podcast. That's selling online.com slash 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 then I went to Armand Moore and had a seminars called. the big seminar it was the biggest seminar in our industry at the time so i remember going to this um because i wanted to learn internet marketing not because i wanted to ever be a speaker i 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 was mike litman he starts speaking and i was taking notes as fast as i could i remember i still remember this presentation vividly to this day i man 17 18 years ago and the end of it he actually made an offer and i remember watching people run to the back and buy his product and he was selling two thousand dollar

course. And I remember, I'd never seen somebody this 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 by two, four, six, eight, 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 me, he makes a present. It 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, $5,000. I'm like, 5, 10, 15, 20. And like, I did the math. I was like, he's made $100,000.

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 Del Carnegie is? I know you've heard Del Carnegie, but this guy seems different. It's spelled completely different. Who is this guy? So I'm going to tell you the story about this book first, and then we'll dive into some of the information from inside. Now, for this copy of the book, I paid $5.35. And again, this one's interesting. So most people have heard the named Dale Carnegie, right? Dale Carnegie wrote How to Win Friends and 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, like, 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 is 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 YMCA's across the country, teaching them how to do public speaking. And so this book is the book of him teaching public speaking at YMCA's. And it's just a fascinating book because, again, Again, it was written before he became Dale Carnegie. Now, one caveat about this book, for those of you guys 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 in 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 can move someone, they could change somebody's life, and then they can 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 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 just something 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 give them to move and to buy. And John Childers was teaching that. version of public speaking. So that was the path I went down.

So 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 gonna part of my career, like, 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 this phase of my life, right,

I wanna become a better speaker. Like I wanna like, I wanna slur 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 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 of my

life where I was really struggling emotionally. I was like away from my family. And there was this guide. He spoke at the conference we had. And his name was Jeffrey Holland. And he spoke and the talk he 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 the story. In the way he tells it, he tells the story the very beginning of his life when him and his wife they just got married and they just graduated college I think they're going to start his master's degree or something 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 as he goes and he

hikes back to the closest town he gets a tow truck or gets something 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 and 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 his car. It doesn't work. He has to hike like two or three miles back into town, get the tow truck to come,

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 the trip. And then he's talking about later on his life when he's older. And he says, tells this story. I still get emotional and thinking about it. He said he was driving on that same road, you know, 40 years later.

Kids are grown out of the house. Oh, get emotional thinking about it. And he talks about how he was, He's driving past the exact same spot. 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 young father and a kid who's like scared and nervous, not sure what to do. And in the talk, he's like, he's like, in my mind's eye.

He's like, I was yelling off that kid. Like, you can do it. I keep going. Like, the future is going to be amazing. And just shared, anyway, I remember sharing that story. I remember as 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 sharing with him, like, I know it's scary, but you're going to do it,

you're going to 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, it's going to be worth it. Like, keep moving forward. Like, you're going to do it. 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. And I think for me, that's why speaking is so important, right? Like, it'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 save, like, there's so many powerful things that come from that. And 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, it was when he wrote 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, it'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. And I sure mostly as I felt this before, right? If you really believe in the thing you're selling, you can sell it, right?

You can do that. You have to have a deep conviction. They see people all the time who are like, there's a product, you tell, 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 ClickFunnels 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, 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, 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, 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 and you say ums and oz 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 you're speaking more than you know articulating everything perfectly or you know speaking perfectly slow and having the story's perfect it's more like the like understanding like the passion and 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 speakers. So you're looking at 250,300

speakers that have come through and spoken to Funnel Hive 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 experiencing 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 resonate 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 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, is if we spend as much time

really mastering and falling in love with our message, it makes the communication and sharing the message so much better and makes you a much better public speaker. All right, if you want to go deeper and become a better public speaker and learn from the original day, Carl 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 in the description down below and you can get the show notes. Also, I'll throw a link down below. If you wanna see the full video of the talk that changed my life, we'll drop a link in the comments down 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. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first... There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.