After all the hooplah about and big deal I had made about
being on the Chicago Board of Trade, I wanted to send you
a short note and let you know how it went, plus share with
you the fun my wife Lisa has been having busting my chops
about it.

She thinks it funny and she likes busting my chops about
it, because she sees how tensed up I get for a phone event
even though I’m not at all bashful about getting up in
front of a room full of people, doesn’t matter if it’s 20
or 500 present. She’s seen me in action.

Phone events seem to be my nemesis. Face to face with
1,000 people, no sweat.

A little secret I’ll let you in on. *Part* of the reason
that I chose to launch the eclass on the same day of the
webinar was to make sure that I had something going on
during the day that would keep me preoccupied – hopefully
enough to keep the stress level down.

As noon came around and activity spiked, that kept me
satisfactorily busy. But then, as is to be expected,
things settled down and since there really wasn’t much more
prep work to do for the call, now I had time to think.

So here I am, a few hours before “go-live” time and trying
to keep my focus on staying relaxed, answering questions as
they come in through the email and phone, but the clock
just seemed to crawl.

AAAARRRGGGHHH!

Plus, I had to be on the phone 30 minutes ahead of time,
just so we had plenty of time for last minute tests and
time enough to address anything that might go wrong. It
took all of about 4 minutes for that and now we’re just…

waiting. I hate that.

Now Lisa knows that I love my Irish heritage and have it in
my blood, so as she’s watching me pace around killing time
during the last half hour, she’s poking fun at me and then
finally says, “Hey mister smooth-talker, mister public-
speaker, why are YOU so nervous? Why don’t you just
have a beer to take the edge off?”

My first reaction was “Great, so I can let out a good beer-
belch on the call? Yeah, right!”

Her answer to that? “You know how to burp quietly, so
go ahead! But just one!”

One time back in college I was talking to my instructor
after I totally choked on a test because I had pulled an
all-nighter, he said to me, “Brian, I’ll tell you this, but
I’ll deny it if you share it with anyone. You’re better off
coming into a test drunk than exhausted or stressed out –
IF you know your stuff, so next time go to bed and get some
sleep rather than stay up all night cramming cause you’re
nervous.”

Needless to say, rather than continue to get myself even
more worked up, I took Lisa up on her suggestion. Not that
I recommend drinking and webinar-ing, but it did certainly
take the edge off. I was able to keep the burping quiet
and things went pretty well.

Here’s some info on the webinar itself…

The registrations were 27% higher than what they normally
get and Barbara, that lady there that runs the events, said
that with a title like “why you’re not making money
trading” she wasn’t surprised. She said there are a lot of
traders struggling and wondering why.

The number of actual attendees was very high as well, 32%
higher than usual.

One thing she does that I found particularly interesting is
that she not only monitors how many people get on the call,
but she watches during the call to see when people drop
off. Barbara says this is a good indicator of how
interesting the call and the presenter are. Now this was a
surprise to both her and I, but she said that the number of
people that dropped off the call before the end was VERY
low.

This may sound like I am just bragging about how great the
presentation was and how good of a speaker I am. I’m not,
at least not on the phone. And while I did okay, I don’t
think I’ll be getting any Emmy nominations!
————————–

As far as the opening of the doors for the “Building a
Rock
-Solid Trading Foundation” eClass, things were pretty
crazy at first and then settled down. As of noon today,
there are still 19 seats open.

If you’re thinking about signing up for it, you’ve got some
time, so relax. I do want you to make the right decision.

“A bit expensive, but most definitely worth it” is a
comment that I heard from the first run of the class, so I
understand if you need a little time.

One other question that came in was a reader asking to hear
from someone that had taken it before. I had received a
call back in December from one of the students in the
November class session, and you can listen to it here…

https://www.insideouttrading.com/eclass/phone-message.html

That’s all for now. I hope your week is going well.

Brian