Why Toby and Layla Black Made a Room Rehearse a Night That Hadn’t Happened Yet

Toby and Layla Black had fifteen minutes on the Lake Las Vegas stage, and they spent almost none of it on tactics. Instead they walked a room full of network marketers through a countdown, a staircase, and a full rehearsal, eyes closed, of a night in April that hadn’t happened yet: the night some of those same people would walk up to be recognized in front of a team they hadn’t finished building.

Before any of it started, they asked permission. Not the rhetorical kind. Toby wanted to know, by a show of hands, who actually wanted to be on stage in April, and only once the room answered did they explain the rule for the next thirteen minutes: “The mind can only take what the bum can handle,” which is their way of saying they’d scheduled the exercise right after lunch on purpose, when a room is too full and too sleepy for anything except something that works on the body first and the brain second.

What’s actually happening when a room counts backward from three with its eyes closed?

The mechanics are almost embarrassingly simple to describe. Look at a spot on the ceiling until your eyes strain. Look back at the two people talking to you. Take a breath, close your eyes, and picture a staircase. Count from one to three, one breath per step, and notice the sensation of relaxing moving from behind your eyelids down your spine, down your hips, down into your feet. That’s the entire induction. No hypnotist’s watch, no trick, just breath and attention pointed at the body instead of the to-do list still running in the background.

What makes it worth studying isn’t the theatrics. It’s the order of operations. Toby and Layla didn’t ask anyone to visualize success until the room’s body had already gone still. Most stage pitches skip straight to telling you to picture yourself winning while the audience is still half-checking their phone under the table. This one earned the visualization by removing the noise first.

Why rehearse one specific night instead of just telling a room to picture success?

Once the room was settled, the scene they built wasn’t vague. It was a walk down a specific aisle at a specific event, months out, with a specific team behind the person walking: five people, then ten, then fifteen, then fifty, some brand new, some who’d been there since the beginning. Blogging every day without worrying what to write about. The eight core commitments, done, not talked about. Family and friends proud whether or not they’d ever joined the business themselves. Then the walk itself: teammates crying, a hand on the staircase rail, a feeling starting in the toes and climbing through the legs, the back, the fingertips.

this greatness lives inside of you now

That’s the actual claim underneath the exercise, and it runs backward from how most people think about confidence. Most people wait for the big result to arrive before they let themselves feel proud of it. Toby and Layla’s argument is that the feeling can be built on purpose, before the result exists, with enough specific, physical detail that the nervous system stops being able to tell the difference between rehearsing it and living it. Whether or not that’s provable in a lab, it’s exactly what elite performers describe doing before the moment they’re training for ever shows up. You don’t wait to feel ready. You build the feeling first, then walk into the room already carrying it.

How do you actually run this alone, without a stage or a countdown voice?

Strip away the room, the music, and the accent, and what’s left is a repeatable drill anyone can run at a kitchen table.

1. Pick one specific future scene tied to an actual date, not a general goal. A launch, a deadline, a room you’ll physically walk into.
2. Sit down, take three slow breaths, and let tension drain out from your head down to your feet, on purpose, one section at a time.
3. Rehearse the scene with the details that would actually be true that day: who’s standing near you, what you can hear, what your hands are doing, not just what it looks like from the outside.
4. Let the feeling build in your body before you worry about the plan to get there. The plan is easier to write once you’ve already felt the reason for doing it.

None of this replaces the eight core commitments or the daily blogging or the actual work of building a team, and Toby and Layla never claimed it did. What they gave the room was the missing piece most people skip because it feels too soft to bother with: proof, felt in the body, that the version of you standing on that future stage is not a stranger you’re hoping to become. He’s already in there. She’s already in there. The work between now and April is just catching up to what the rehearsal already knew.

The full session goes further than what’s above, including the rest of the countdown and what happened when the room opened its eyes. Watch it in full, free, when you Create your free account.

The full session transcript follows below.

Transcript

It's our honor and a pleasure to introduce to you guys, Toby and Layla Black and B! Come on guys. Oh my dear, you're a natural man. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!

What up, what up, what up? Where's my jungle boogie, yo? What happened to my jungle boogie? Come on now.

Listen up. Get rid of that lunch bot for a second. All right, we only got 15 minutes, so let's rock and roll. Okay, Layla and I were supposed to speak this morning and we're like, no, no, no, no, no, put us on right after lunch, because after everybody's eaten everything that they're eating, they get a little bit sleepy.

It's called lunch bot. Get the lunch bot, right? The mind can only take what the bum can handle. Anybody know that?

So that's why we wanted to come on and ramp things up again. So do we have your permission to speak raw with you today? Do we have permission to get into your soul, get into your heart, and unlock some things so you can be on stage in April? By a show of hands and a show of energy, who actually wants to be on stage in April?

Sorry, who? Who? Okay. Now, when we've been on stage, we've shared some interesting stories with you guys.

I remember coming on stage the first time. We were like, oh my gosh, we're going to be on stage. We're going to be on stage. We told about when I broke Toby's ankle.

Anybody remember that story when I broke Toby's ankle? When we first met? The first night that we met. Don't remind them, babe.

And then last time. Broke my ankle first night that we met. Last time in Orlando, I shared with everybody how I used to be a lesbian. Who remembers that?

Okay. I've got the nickname now, Toby One Kenobi from that. Justin thinks he's a real Jedi master. Just kidding, JV.

I love you, dude. But today. Today, it's going to be a little bit different. We want to take you on a journey through your evolution.

Because we've shared with you our story coming from the basement of a bar, playing music, being broke musicians, and our evolutionary process. But today, we want to go inside of you. That sounds kinky. That sounds kinky, babe.

What kind of a… Brown chicka-bow-wow. Wow. So, do we have your permission, your full permission, for you guys to play all out with us over the next 13 minutes or so, and go to a place that we can all move forward together as a unit, and really start this revolution, right?

Do we have your permission? Okay. You can bring the house lights down a bit, just a wee bit, and then bring them down slower as I let you know, and puts on some really, it doesn't have to be baby-making music, but just some nice soothing music. Watch him put on Marvin Gaye or something.

So, in a moment, Layla and I are going to ask you to close your eyes. And when we do, not right now, but in a moment, when we ask you to close your eyes, we want you to just become aware of all the sounds in the room, the sounds and tone of our voices, and that you're sitting in your seat here today, and you're in Las Vegas, and you become aware of how relaxed you really are. Now, Layla and I… I don't know how relaxed you're going to get.

Only you know how relaxed that you're going to get. Now, right now, I want everybody to look at Layla and I, right here, right in the eyes. Look at us while we're talking. And then I want you to look up and find a spot on the ceiling.

Really look deeply into that spot. Find it. Almost look through it. Strain the eyes almost.

Then look right back at us. And in a moment, when we count to three together, and we take in these deep breaths, I want you to close your eyes. I want you to envision a staircase. And together, we're going to go up the staircase.

And every time that we count from one to three, you're going to take in another big, deep breath. And every time you take in that big, deep breath and release that big, deep breath, you're going to find yourself even more relaxed and even more safe, because you are in a safe and secure place. I want everybody to find that spot again on the ceiling. Let's all do it together.

I love you. Whoever chose this music. That's Braveheart music right there. So everybody, let's just close our eyes together.

And as we listen to this incredible Scottish music, and you listen to my beautiful Scottish voice, don't laugh. Just become aware of the sensation behind your eyelids of how relaxed you feel. And just go ahead and send that sensation all the way down the back of your spine, all the way down your lower back. All the way down your hips, all the way down your knees, all the way into your feet.

And then resting nicely, ever so secure in your toes. Now that we're all feeling this incredible relaxation, knowing that we're safe, knowing that no one or nothing can bring us harm while we're here, I want you to go even deeper. And maybe right now, you don't have your eyes closed. Or maybe your mind's wandering away to another place.

And just know that's fine. That's okay. The moment you become aware of the sounds in the room, or the distractions going on, you'll find yourself even deeper and even more relaxed. Let's go ahead and take in a big deep breath all together.

So in a moment, when we take our first step onto the staircase, and I say the number one, I want you to take that incredible feeling that you're feeling, feeling of relaxation, and times it by 10. If you're thinking of a picture, double click that picture and make it 10 times bigger. If you're hearing a sound, crank the volume on that and make it even louder and even more relaxed. Let's take one big deep breath in again before we take our first step, one. Continue to focus on your breathing. If the person next to you starts to snore or chuckle or fart, it doesn't matter. Just as easily as that sensation came in, just as easy as that sensation goes away. Let's take our second step, to two.

And what you'll find is you continue to have this incredible deep breathing, maybe the deepest and most relaxed you've been this weekend, or even in your life. And you take that third step, and you take that next step. Breathe, big deep breath in, breathe hard. It's very easy to find yourself, what we call our second level speed. You'll realize how relaxed you are, and you'll be actually quite proud of yourself. And that moment that you feel, wow, I feel great right now, you'll become even more relaxed and even more in the moment of where you are right now. Let's take our big deep breath in and take that step onto the third step together.

Now that we're all in this wonderful place together, the safe, envision yourself sitting here in the chair right now. Have an outer body experience. I want you to envision yourself going home from this event with everything that you've learned so far, everything that you're going to learn tonight and tomorrow, and going home with this incredible, not new, passion, because you've always been passionate. It's just been awoken with this new sense of determination to get to the next level, this new sense of determination to be on stage.

I want you to envision being at home and implementing one or two of these incredible initiatives, ideas and strategies that you've learned this weekend. I want you to envision yourself working the hardest and most determined way that you have ever worked in your life. You are working like a man or a woman possessed. There is nothing that's going to stop you from being on stage in April. There's nothing going to stop you getting your check, getting your bonus, having your team there.

I want you to envision yourself right now blogging every single day and not worrying about what you're going to blog about or what someone's going to say when they read it, just blogging about your passion and how you feel. I want you to envision your team members, the team members that you have right now and the team members that you haven't even met yet, the team members that you haven't even met that's in your teams from all across the country, all across the globe, and you're impacting their life. You're not worried about the how, you're not worried about the when. All you're focused on is changing lives, starting with your own.

I want you to envision yourself right now getting ready to go to that event in April. I want you to envision yourself right now seeing all your friends and your family who are your team members rewarding you and giving you praise leading up to this event, because you've worked so hard over these 90 days. You've worked so hard in your home business, you've worked so hard on yourself. You've been committed to the eight core commitments, you've been blogging daily, you've been telling others, and you've been passionately living your own life, and you've been doing the work that you're doing, and you've been proud of it.

The people who are your friends and family are proud of you even if they don't join you and Empower. They're proud of you for what you're doing, proud of you of who you've become. Envision yourself going to this event in 90 days time, after all of your incredible work, after all of your incredible determination, after everything that you've been doing. You've been pushing yourself to the next level, you've been staying up late and waking up early, because you're, you get to that event in 90 days time, and guess what, you got a team of five, a team of 10, a team of 15, a team of 50 people there with you, some that are with you right now, some that are brand new to your team.

And it becomes your time, for your name to be called up on stage, whether it's the commission countdown, whether you're getting a bonus check or you've won a contest, whether you have done so well that Empower is so blown away by you and your team they've asked you to come up and share some stuff, some share how you've done it over the last 90 days, just like many of the new leaders that we've heard from this weekend. That can be you. That is you. So you get to the event, you know what you've done to get there, you know the sacrifices you've made, and you're feeling proud, you're feeling glad, you're feeling inspired, just like you are right now in this safe environment.

The time comes for them to call you up on stage. They call your name. You're walking down the aisle to go on stage, uncontrollably crying, looking at your teammates, looking at people that you've now developed an amazing relationship with, hearing the stories of people that you may have even saved their life in some way, shape, or form, cheering you on as you walk up on stage. You put your foot on the staircase to walk up on the stage, and you just feel this overwhelming, powerful feeling of yes, I am where I'm supposed to be, I am who I'm, I'm supposed to be, this is my moment, and I'm gonna take it. Great, I am the revolution.

And as you look out at the crowd and you see the faces, I want you to visualize, imagine their faces as tears stream down their face, because they know how hard you worked, they know the sacrifices that you've made. And as you're sitting there in this chair right now, I want you to feel that feeling of greatness. And it may start in your toes, this feeling, this fire, and feel it spread up your legs, up your back. Some of you may even rise from your chairs with greatness and not be afraid of who's looking around you, who else is standing with you, because this is your moment, it is now.

And as you rise up, you feel this greatness spread throughout your entire body. Just, art, forward, forward, forward, forward, forward, forward, forward, forward, it rush to your fingertips. This greatness is inside of you now. This greatness lives inside of you now. And as you rise to your feet, you stand up tall, knowing, believing, summoning that greatness in this moment and every moment.

Now, if you're standing or if you're sitting, I just want you to take a moment and fully embrace how you feel, from the tips of your toes all the way up to your head, to the tips of your fingers, in your heart. Just take this, embody it for a second, and take a deep breath in and take a deep breath out for a second, and understand that you created how good you feel right now, you created how passionate, inspired, you feel right now. You can go out there and change the world right now, can't you? We appreciate you, and we love you.

In a moment we're all going to step back down this staircase. We're going to count from three back down to one, and when we reach the number one, whether you're sitting, whether you're standing, whether you're laying down, just know that you're in the right place at the right time. Let's go ahead and take in a big deep breath together and walk from number three down to number two.

In a moment, when we all come back and we're all present in this room together, rather than all of us shouting, now, when Layla and I shout one, two, three, we're going to shout freedom together, in your most Scottish voice that you possibly can. Let's all pick, take a big deep breath, and go from the stair number two down to number one right now. Feel free to slowly open your eyes, come back to the room. It's okay, take a little second, it's fine, whether you're standing, whether you're sitting, whether you're lying down, whether you're totally passed out and you're snoring, which is normally me, that's cool, it's normally Lawrence town too, wherever he is. Just take a second, if everybody could just get off your feet if you're still sitting. We really appreciate you and love you guys.

Let's take two big deep breaths together, and then Layla and I will say one, two, three, and I want to hear a freedom instead of now. Let's take two big deep breaths together, and as we breathe out and we come back to this present room, we feel absolutely incredible and ready to receive whatever else is coming today. One more big deep breath. This music, like I'm, all, I'm fighting back the tears the entire time doing this, because this music to me just means more than anything. But on the count of three, can we all show freedom together, like we're all Scottish running into battle, because we are running into battle. We're not running into battle against the English, we're not running into battle against any one person, we're running into battle against a system, against a way of life that we know there's a better way, don't we?

We know that we can bring that change to people that maybe have lost hope, maybe have lost freedom, or maybe have never even had it. And we, together as the revolution, we together as In Power Network, can go out there and transform the world, and we do it one by one, together. One, two, three, freedom. All right, you guys are absolutely incredible, give yourself a round of applause.

All right, now if everybody could sit down, because we went over in time and we hate doing that. So it's our great pleasure to introduce the next main man, he's been up a few times over the weekend, and I just want to tell a brief little story about jcron, because we had met him a few times at some other events, uh, kind of from a distance, and then we spoke to him on a webcast, got to know him a little bit more. And I'm not sure if you've ever met a person in your life before, maybe you have, maybe you haven't, when you don't really know the person that well, but you know they come from a really good place, all the ins and outs and how they were brought up and what their whole family line is, but you understand that they will do anything to help you out.

You guys know a person like that in your life. You get that feeling from them, you know, you just sense it, you just know that if you are down and out, he's the one that's going to back you up, he's the one that's going to help you out. And that's the exact same feeling Layla and I have had from the moment that we met jcron, and we put our complete and utter lives in David Woods hand, custom to the end of the world. And the fact that David puts his trust and jcron the way he does, to the edge of the world, that to us and to all of you should mean that we all feel the exact same way. This guy is taking us from where we were to where we want to be, need to be, and where we will be.

So if everybody could get up off the seat, and let's blow the roof off this place, and welcome back to the stage, jcron, we love you, did.