In this engaging episode of The High Profit Event Show, host Rudy Rodriguez welcomes guest Naeem Mahmood, CEO of Mood Ventures. Naeem, a renowned peak performance coach and former Tony Robbins speaker, shares his extensive experience and insights from delivering over 2,000 talks and trainings across the country, impacting more than 100,000 lives. This episode dives into Naeem's journey, his approach to filling events, and the critical elements that contribute to a highly impactful and profitable event.

One of the primary topics discussed is the importance of emotional state in decision-making. Naeem emphasizes how mastering one's emotional state can significantly influence decision-making processes, leading to better outcomes and greater success. He shares practical tips on how to harness this power, drawing from his rich experience with Tony Robbins and his own coaching practice. The conversation sheds light on how event leaders can use this understanding to enhance their events and drive more meaningful engagement from their audiences.

We also discuss ethical selling and serving first. Naeem passionately discusses the art of ethical selling, explaining why prioritizing service over sales leads to more significant long-term success. He recounts his experiences of speaking to various organizations and how genuinely caring about each attendee, whether in a small group or a large audience, creates a ripple effect of positive impact and engagement. This philosophy of serving first not only builds trust but also encourages participants to invest more deeply in the event experience.

Lastly, the episode explores effective engagement strategies for events. Naeem reveals his methods for maintaining high energy and engagement throughout an event, from the initial interaction to the final session. He stresses the importance of making events fun, interactive, and dynamic to keep participants fully present and engaged. By sharing stories and techniques, such as integrating unexpected elements like dance and movement, Naeem provides a comprehensive guide for event leaders to create memorable and impactful experiences for their attendees.

Catch this episode to gain valuable insights from Naeem Mahmood on how to elevate your event strategy, enhance participant engagement, and achieve peak performance. Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn from a master in the field!

Want to connect with Naeem?

Feature Naeem as your keynote speaker for your event or at your company: https://forms.gle/Q1YygTAUHZsRan2JA

Website:https://naeemmahmood.com/

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamnaeemmahmood/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naeem-mahmood-aa84b019/

Twitter: https://x.com/NaeemMahmood

Welcome to the show today. We have a special guest, Mr. Naeem. Welcome, sir. Grateful to have you here, man. You're a friend here on the island of Puerto Rico, as well as a peer in our industry. You've been big in the Tony Robbins world for many years. In fact, you actually worked for Tony and you delivered over 2,000 talks and trainings on the psychology of peak performance across the country. Having spoken and impacted over 100,000 lives. Holy smokes, man. That's remarkable.

It is. When I hear that stat, I'm like, wow, that's pretty impressive.

You are a world renowned peak performance expert and coach. I know you're also a keynote speaker. You've been hired to speak on various stages. You were just at a crypto conference speaking as well. You lead, you work with CEOs of large organizations as well as their teams in the psychology of achievement and sales mastery and training. So you're a very valuable resource in that department and really your mission, your passion is to inspire people to help them achieve their full potential and their dreams, which is awesome, man.

Yep, it is. I'm honored and privileged to be able to do that. It lights me up.

So I'm really, really looking forward to our interview today, especially with your background, having worked with Tony, and for people who don't know this, Tony's events, his UPW event has like 10,000 people or more at it. Naeem was a big part in learning how to fill those events. So Naeem, let's just jump right into the meat of the interview. Let's answer the question that we know our audience has, hey, how do I fill an event? If I want to have a highly impactful and profitable event, how do I go about filling an event? I'd love to hear about your, maybe share a little bit about your background, your story and the work you've done with Tony Robbins and all the lives that you've gotten to UPW through your experience.

Absolutely. So maybe I'll start with my story real quick to give you some background. So I was first a client of Tony. I went to his UPW event a long time ago in New Jersey, actually. I was just blown away. I was like, this is incredible. I always had a mindset of wanting to learn from the best and just be around the best. So I decided to work for him and I was one of his speakers and I would travel around the country, the US, around The United States and speak with different companies and organizations on behalf of Tony. Also one of my mandates was to fill the room of the UPW event for Tony. So I'd speak from the stage and put on an amazing, incredible, life changing presentation to get people to want more and go see Tony. So in terms of answering your second question, filling a room, it takes a lot of I'd say, top of mind is passion. I totally a million percent believe in what I do and I believe a million percent of what Tony does. So I'd say being able to be in a room and have 50 people to 300 people to 1000 people to be able to move them. You got to speak from your heart and have emotion pouring through you to be able to, like Tony always talks about, influence. The ability to influence and move people is his mission. He doesn't want to sound good. He wants to influence people to actually take action. So I learned that skill and I was grateful to learn that from Tony on, okay, how do I get in this room? If it's 5 people or 500 people, how can I be influential enough to move these people to not just make me sound like a great speaker, but actually to get people like, oh, I want to sign up right now and come to this event and go to the next level.

Live with passion. Absolutely, man, you do it. So that's why I love hanging out with you. I feel the passion whenever we're together. So a million percent. Yes. Absolutely, man. Thank you. So my takeaway I'm hearing is whether it's 50 people or 500 people, the number one thing that you need to do that you have is congruency, belief, certainty, passion for what you're bringing to be able to influence them to say, yes, I'm going to sign up right now and dedicate four plus days of my life and hundreds of dollars, maybe thousands of dollars to invest in myself.

Absolutely. As you speak, it's also really caring. So before it's like when you show up to an office, like, oh, there's only five people here, forget about it, or I don't want to go do it. I want to go speak to the 500 person, big audience, the sexy stuff. But Tony always trained us also to care about every single person whether it's one person or 1000 people. It's that concept. It's kind of like the story of the starfish and the old man on the beach. There's a young boy walking on the beach one day and he sees an old man throwing starfish back in the ocean that got washed up and there's thousands of starfish. This boy's like, sir, you're not going to be able to save all these starfish. Why are you wasting your time? The old man smiles at him. He picks up a starfish and throws it back in the ocean. He's like, well, it mattered to that starfish. So embodying that concept. The wild thing is you never know who somebody is. So I do a great talk or I change somebody's life. Sometimes it actually leads to like 10, 20, 50, 300 more people that are going to be engaged to want to come along for the ride.

I love that story, man. The story made a difference for that one, if nothing else. It's beautiful, brother. Anything else you want to share about your experience in having done, gosh, I don't know, how over 2000 talks on the training of psychology and people from around the country and how you were able to do those talks and to help fill those events? Any other experience or expertise you think could be helpful, relevant for our audience as event leaders?

I'd say, well, again, there's so many different angles to fill a room. I was not the marketing stuff, online or ads. Obviously, that's a great way too. I wasn't on the phones, which is also a great way. I was in person on the ground, constantly meeting people every single day. So that, and that's just one angle, but we did a big, we probably filled up like 30 to 40 percent of UPW, which is a big 10,000 people event. So like six of us versus like 200 people on the phones and wherever ads are running and marketing going online. Like we said, that also goes to show as I talk about it, just in person contact. There's nothing like it. That's why the president, Obama, you go out and shake everybody's hand one by one. So that in person, one to one connection, there's nothing that can replace that no matter how good maybe your ad spend is or your hookups. Story offer is on your marketing, which isn't a bad thing either. But that, too, I'd say that as I'm talking about now, just being out and meeting people and again, caring one to one every single time you talk to somebody has a huge exponential compounding effect.

That gives actually some really great context. It's a team of six compared to a massive phone team or a huge marketing budget. You guys accounted for a third if not more of a 10,000 person event getting built. Six accounted for like three thousand or more. That's massive. And the way you do that is by being out meeting with business owners, setting up speaking engagements in their offices, speaking with their teams and shaking hands and moving people forward in person. That's a really interesting perspective to think about here, because so many of our leaders, including myself in this, we're so used to like, hey, let me email the list. Run an ad campaign. But to see that ROI, you're willing to do it. Go ahead.

And that's great, too. I'm not bashing that. I wasn't doing that and that's also not my skill set. I just love being with people. Right. Again, that's what I was mandated to do. It is really powerful. That's how I still prefer to build my business now today. I just love going out, doing free talks and getting people in a room or just going out and meeting people. It's so much more. The conversion ratio is so much more effective for me.

So I hear the underlying strategy for you is like going out and offering a free talk as a value add and then having that opportunity to enroll them into your event, your bigger event. So that's what's worked for you in your experience.

Yeah. When I do my own events, the big way I do it, again, we do stuff. Obviously, it'd be stupid not to do stuff online on social media, because that's also a great way to reach people that aren't around you or that are just watching and just watching. Obviously. But doing, again, free events or just going out to meet people or speaking at chambers of commerce or entrepreneurs groups. Those are always really effective ways to just tap into other networks.

Awesome. Thank you for sharing that. The little thing that we oftentimes don't think about, we're looking for other ways of doing it. I just think when you said six people, like three to four thousand people that you impacted, for me it was like a paradigm there. I think if somebody is willing to do it, how powerful that could be.

I might be embellishing a little bit for the record. I don't want to be putting out but we did do 20 to 25 percent for sure. I know that we would fill two thousand, sometimes three thousand in the room. That's still incredible. Six people doing those numbers.

Absolutely, man. Thank you. I'm just a little more curious on the free talks. You are a speaker. This is your skill when you deliver those talks or you offer those talks. How would you say is your approach to a business owner and saying, hey, I'd like to do this talk for your company and for your team? Because I feel like that would be really insightful for our audience to hear how you get in and how you set that up.

Sure. So normally it's funny. I used to try to do this concept where people in sales, they try to turn water into treasure versus just go find the treasure. So I used to try to just sell everybody and call people and be like, hey, let's do a training. But they didn't want a training. So, why am I trying to turn water into gold versus finding the person that wants the gold? Like, oh, yeah, you want gold or you want the training? Boom. That's finding the gold that's right there sitting in the ocean, which sometimes seems harder than it is. But to me, it's harder to actually turn water into gold than it is to just go find the freaking gold. You're never going to turn water into gold. So my point to be saying this is now I honestly just go find the people and it's more of an organic process. Whenever I go out, I'm just being myself, authentic, passionate, purposeful, caring, high energy. If it's not that person directly that has a company that wants me to go do a training, they know that everybody has their network. So I love how Linkedin has the degrees of separation. So pretty much, I don't want to say every time, but maybe 50 percent of the time, whenever I go out, I'm here in L.A. now, social situations. If I go out, like we went to a friend's baby blessing the other day, as long as you're talking and just being cool and being more of a giver than a taker, it's like, oh, dude, I have a friend that wants this or somebody that needs this. I just met somebody here in L.A. that I'm partnering with, too. She has a huge network of businesses across L.A., the Dodgers, huge companies here in L.A., like in the entertainment industry.

And now she is partnering with me, opening up her whole Rolodex with all these companies, literally hundreds of companies that are like big Netflix, big top tier companies. She's going to pitch them for me on my behalf.

Wow. Very cool. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks for sharing that. So strategy, offer free talk, add value, be a giver. Add as much value as you can in that time and then it naturally reciprocates. Let's go to the next part of the narrative. The next part of the narrative is, ok, I have gotten in front of people. I've gotten people to commit to an event with me in some way, shape or form. When you deliver those events, what do you do or what's been working for you to maintain engagement? How do you get people to be fully present, fully engaged, do the work, not be on their phones, not not be late, not be in the hall so that they get the result of that event, that they get the impact from that event? Like what's worked for you?

That's a great question and that's a big challenge for a lot of people. It used to be for me too and sometimes, honestly, still is sometimes. I like this concept, though, not trying to change people from what they're doing. Meeting where they're at. Respecting their model of the world. Sometimes my event is a little too intense. The thing I love about Tony. I've been to a lot of other personal growth events. Sometimes they lock you in the room. You can't leave the room. You have to enroll other people. That's like where people think it's pulpy and just too much. I'm not saying it's good or bad. For me, it was my vibe. But the thing I love about Tony, he lets you be where you're at. If you need to leave the room, he doesn't care. Then ironically, like when you kind of let people have their freedom, let them have their space that they need, they actually are going to kind of become magnetized, actually wanting to be in the room. So I'd say starting with that mindset of not needing people to be in the room. Obviously, I want everybody in the room, but I'm also not attached to it and also forcing people like, guys, you got to stay in the room. But then I'd say the next thing that we started with, it's the high energy, the engagement and the passion. Like that's addictive. That's it. Everybody wants that, man. People want life. It's energy. High energy is life. If you go to a road, I got roses right over here. If you go to a rose, a rose has high frequency. That's why things are attracted to a rose. So I'd say again, it sounds basic and sounds airy fairy, but it's really not. That's the reason why people want to see Tony. He just has high energy. It's not just, oh, let me be like raw but it's also one, getting yourself in the right state and then to bring the certainty over and over and over with the room. Kind of like you did before the call.

I did, too. You got your physiology. You got your body. So it's also just practicing these things that I don't know if everybody on this call, everybody listening to knows this, but practicing these things that we know, that Tony teaches, that I teach, that you teach as well. So I'd say that, too. There's going to be more, but I'm going to kick it back to you for a second.

Thank you for that name. I'm hearing you say one of the things that you learn from working with Tony is letting people be where they're at, meeting them where they're at. So not for it to be one way or the other, but rather taking responsibility for maintaining the energy that you bring to the room and knowing it's a byproduct that if you're bringing the energy, you're bringing the caring, the value that they're naturally going to be compelled to want to engage, want to be in the room, want to be present.

Absolutely. Then I'd also say as you're talking, one, making it fun. Entertaining, fun. Not just here. Let's sit down and learn and grow and change our lives. So definitely make it fun and entertaining and also interaction internally with the team and kind of getting to that right away. One thing that was really effective for my speaking is not just talking, and again, even if it sounds good, as soon as I speak, I'm engaging with the audience right away and getting them to participate with me. So it's not just me talking to people and then most people zone out right away. Then they go passive. So it's getting people to engage right away, either with me or with each other as well.

So getting engagement right away. I remember going to a speaker coach and he said that one of the first things you want to do is you want to create engagement by polling people, by asking questions, by getting them to participate very, very early on. Always asking questions. You said also making it fun, being important. Is there anything specifically that you like to do in your events to make sure that it stays fun for the people in the room?

So one thing that I do that's really awesome, my partner, Josephina and I, my girlfriend, she is a relationship coach and love and sexuality coach She's great. She's a master at that. We, and the thing that is a really cool, unique edge that we do, most of my clients are business owners or investors and also in crypto. A lot of them are these alpha male men that are high powered and just more on their masculine. So when I bring her in and we do an event together, she gets them dancing and shaking themselves. It totally breaks their pattern right away. But it's also fun because they're laughing and it's different, and it's also feminine and sensual, which dudes like. So, that's one really awesome way to make it fun. So I'd say to anybody listening that wants to maybe try that strategy. If it's maybe like a masculine crowd of business owners, maybe bring in some sensual feminine energy where people can, and again, get them out of their comfort zone and do something different. Most dudes don't dance. Most dudes don't move around, let alone have a female leading them to that. But whenever we do that, the guys are loving it. They're totally out of, they're in a different state and they're receptive to learn and grow and all that other stuff that's normally weighing them down and they're stressed about. It just literally just vanishes.

Right on man. Keeping them moving, keep changing their pattern. Having fun and moving their body. That's great. So they have a great experience with you at your event, and you and I know that the high of the event, the shine of the event can wear off. People go home and life gets in the way. If they don't continue to reinforce what they've learned, there's some kind of support, whether it's one on one or group or otherwise. How do you support people to continue to reinforce beyond the event and to continue the relationship beyond that initial experience? What works for you when it comes to that?

Totally, man. That's why they need somebody like you, that's going to get people to enroll in something that's going to keep the momentum going after the event because it's true. It's awesome that you invested, you've grown. But again, the analogy that Tony uses all the time, if you go to the gym for a weekend, that's awesome. But if you don't keep going to the gym, your muscles are going to atrophy. So same with this, anything, you go to a sales event, a mindset event, a relationship event, whatever it is, if you don't continuously make those deposits, those investments, get those workouts in, on a consistent basis, it's going to fade. So I love the work you're doing, like helping people like myself that do events and roll people in. Oftentimes, if I work with a company, like I worked in Northwestern Medicine recently, we got them in a six-month container after that versus basically just literally group coaching twice a month for the next six months to keep their momentum, answer the questions, and remind them to keep their habits and patterns going. So I think whatever the business owner thinks is going to be the great tool, and a lot of times it is having coaching sessions, maybe monthly or bi-monthly, twice a month in that process, or people have a program that people can go through. But usually, if it's a program, people won't do it on the road. So that's why I like the human element where there's like a coaching check-in. But whatever people think is the best way to do that and then having somebody like you to get people to sign up, because you also want people to do it in state in the moment before they go home and forget about it.

Thank you for that unsolicited plug. I appreciate it. The key point I want to highlight here is the word state that you shared. They're in the event, they're in a certain state. They're in a different state than they were probably leaving before the event. They're in a peak state. If they leave the event, that peak state wears off and it's when people are in a peak state that they're most willing to make a change in their life. They're most willing to stretch and go beyond who they've been in the past or their pattern. We have to invite them when they're in the peak state, when they're inspired, when they see a bigger possibility or bigger vision for themselves, their lives, their business, their relationships. It's in that moment when they're there that we have to hold the space for them and move them into the next step, that next committed action, whether it's the group program, the one-on-one coaching, the mastermind. If we wait until after they leave the container, the law of diminishing intent tends to kick in, and then day by day, hour by hour, people start to forget. They may still want it, but they're missing the state and without the state, they may not have the energy to be able to break through whatever limiting beliefs, blocks, barriers that are in front of them to actually get what they want. So, I think that's a great way of tying it all together there. Naeem, any additional comments on that?

No, you nailed it with what you said. Then I'd say one reframe that was helpful for me when I first started doing this a while ago now, when I first started with Tony, is it's also your obligation to do that. A lot of people feel like, oh, I shouldn't sell them, or I feel bad selling people. A lot of people think that. Even when people come to Tony, they're like, oh my god, he's selling us now. But Tony doesn't think of it as selling. Tony's like, this is my obligation to serve you guys even more. So if anybody's listening and they have doubts or kind of internal conflict about selling them another thing, if you really believe what you're doing and you really believe it's serving your clients, it's your obligation to offer them and invite them to the next level to go with you. They need to know that, too. Some people don't even know that there is another opportunity. A lot of people are actually waiting and ready with their money, too, to be like, oh dude, take my money. I want to go to the next step.

100%. Up-service. It's an opportunity to serve them higher level, deeper, and people need to know about it, otherwise they can't do it. That's a great point. I think that, again, to tie the message here, Naeem, you mentioned another company that you worked with recently. I know you actually have consulted and worked with several Fortune 500 companies, executives, entrepreneurs, in the area of leadership, organizational behavior, etc. You also speak at events. You're a speaker. I'd love to let our audience know who are event leaders or maybe work with event leaders, if they're interested in learning more about you and what it could look like to maybe engage you as a speaker at their event. Can you share with us a little bit more about what that looks like?

Absolutely. So if people want, I do keynotes, I do trainings with companies, whatever, obviously, people are looking for. But the general theme, of course, is a la Tony Robbins. Emotional mastery mindset. I call it the psychology of peak performance. Then within that, some people want their sales team. I work with a lot of sales teams a lot. Also, or just with Northwestern Medicine, it was more just general well-being and more of an emotional reset. After COVID, a lot of their clinical staff is worn down. Then what else is a big topic I do? Leadership, which is a huge one, or communication and team building. So again, then it just depends on what's the outcome for the company, what are the pain points or what do they really want to improve? But the overarching umbrella is, again, emotional mindset, peak mindset mastery that I work with companies on. So it can be a keynote for an event that I do, like annual conferences for companies that have an annual event at an offsite, or a company wants me to engage me for a six-month retainer and do workshops over that course of time as well. It just really depends on what their needs are.

Awesome, brother. Thank you. And just to give you a little even more street cred here, some of the organizations that you worked with include Sofi, The U.S. Army, Total Energy, Salesforce, University Of Alabama. You mentioned Northwest Medicine, Rescon, J.P. Morgan, Redstead Technologies. So you've worked with quite a few different industries, including now you're working with a lot of blockchain companies and founders as well. So if you resonate with any of those companies, you know somebody who does and they need a great speaker, keynote talker, or someone to come in and help with the performance of their teams, definitely encourage you to reach out to Naeem. Naeem, we're going to include here in the show notes a Google form for people to fill out if they want to inquire more about having you as a speaker or trainer. Anything else you want to say about that before we tie it to a close?

No, that's perfect. If anybody's interested, they can click on that. It's a little short intake form and then my team will get it. We'll reach out and have a conversation.

Perfect, my friend. I appreciate you being here today. It's been a pleasure to get to know you even more in your background, your expertise with events, man. Thank you so much.

Absolutely, Rudy. I appreciate you having me on and I appreciate the work you're doing. It's kind of the nuts and bolts to help people get more of their message out there that not everybody has a skill set or wants to do. So thank you for empowering more people like me to be able to reach more people and put more structure behind it.

Awesome, brother. Thank you so much.

Absolutely.