How to Profit from Your Purpose

At the end of your life, if you had two options that you could impact the world or make a lot of money, which one would you choose? Welcome to the Dean Graziosi show. All success starts right here. Hey, guys. Welcome to the Dean Grazios show. I'm so excited about who we have as our guest today. In a world where things have been been completely turned upside down, we don't know left from right, it is so great to have an amazing couple who have shifted, who are making an impact, who are being innovative in a time that we all need to be being role models, being leaders. And I think we need more of that than ever before in life. That's why I'm so excited to have this couple on. I'm going to have them share a little bit about their life. But remember, the Dean Graziosi show is where you go upstream and. And you anchor in a foundation for success. There's no way to get rich overnight for doing anything, impact the world without putting the time and effort in. But when you shift your habits, when you shift your goals, when you shift your focus, your value, your heart, anything is possible. And that's why I'm so excited. We got Nikki and John here today. What's going on, guys?

Hey, Dean.

What's up?

Thanks for having us.

So good to have you here. So before we get into your story, what you're doing, the impact you're making, the shifts you made, the craziness of COVID in 2020 and how we can kind of take that momentum and shift in 2021, which everybody's looking for. I'd love to hear a little bit. I know your story, but those listening, I'd love to hear a little bit of how you got where you are right now and with Pop Drop and all of your initiatives.

Okay. Well, it started on our very first date. We were talking and I was telling her the kind of business I was in. I have an office supply company and we sell toner and ink for printers and other supplies, but that's our core product. And I was telling her the story of everybody in our business, like Office Depot and Staples, all the big box retailers, they do something kind of odd to me at the time. They send out a big 3 pound bag of M&Ms. With every order of toner to each client that orders toner for their printer. And so we were talking. I'm like, it's kind of weird to me that they do that. And I got a guy on board that he was left his old company toner business. He Was disgruntled. And he says, I know a lot of people in the business, you know, get me going, John. So I brought him on board and he has a great first day of business. And all of a sudden he goes, so you gotta send me. You gotta send three pound bags of M&M's out with my toner orders. I said, why? He said, well, cause Staples and Office Depot does that. And I'm like, well, I was telling her the story. I'm telling you. And I said, well, why don't you we just save that money and buy food for homeless people every month. I just like, threw it out there. And she's like, yeah, that's a great idea. And she's like, well, you gotta promote it and this and that. I said, well, I'm not one of those people that wants to go around, hey, look at me, I'm giving, you know. She's like, well, if you want to promote it and you want to empower others to give with you and make it a bigger force of giving, then you have to do that. So, you know, she got doing all that, and next thing you know, here we are nine years later, almost a decade of giving. And our clients love that. They're not just feeding a printer machine with a toner cartridge, they're actually feeding a human being when they purchase from us and they get on board with Project Pop Drop Foundation. So we created this on our very first date. And something exciting actually just happened since we last talked to you. We just were nominated and got a call from the White House. We got awarded a medal, like a gold medal for the President's Volunteer Service Award, to our Sharon Edwards, who works with us out in Florida.

Congratulations, guys. Seriously. You know, and not everybody.

We got a call from the White House. So it was kind of crazy.

Yeah. Oh, my God. And before we go any further and I want to dig a little deeper into your story because you're like, we had this idea on our first date, and nine years later, here we are, Right? There's a little bit that probably happened in between there, maybe just a little. But here's what I want to share, guys, is I've asked this question and I'm asking those of you listening right now, I've asked this question on stage and I've asked it to thousands and thousands of people. I asked last year with Tony Robbins, we had 400,000 people live, and we asked this question, at the end of your life, if you had two options that you could impact the world or make a lot of money, which one would you choose? And I have to tell you, whether we've done this virtually online to hundreds of thousands of people, or I've been on a stadium with 10,000 people in the audience, 100% of the people raise their hand. When it comes to impact, I have the hair stands up on my arms. I think the way we're designed by God, the universe, whatever your beliefs are as you listen, we're designed to grow and we're designed to give. I think when you really boil down life, it's about giving, growing and loving. And I think all the rest of the stuff can facilitate that. I'm not saying choose giving, loving and growing over revenue, but what I love about what you guys, and you're such a great example, is what if you don't have to choose one or the other? Right? And I love that, John, that you had the nerve to, to just say it out loud. Like, why are we going to buy a big bag of M and Ms. Or give that discount when somebody needs real food, not just the snack? And that's kind of brave because the big box stores were doing that. It was kind of the cool thing. And most people just follow the trend. So a couple questions I have is let's talk about giving and earning, right, and having the mix between the two. And then how do people feel brave to step into that service that we all want to do?

Right.

Well, right now it's like we're going to these shelters right now and they're saying, like, we're not getting as many donations as we were before because everyone's afraid because Covid and no one wants to come in this and that. And so we just actually recently with one of our partners, lausd, I'll give it to you real quick. The school district, we had a good plan. Like Mike Tyson saying, everybody's got a good plan until they get hit in the mouth. Pretty much the whole world got hit in the mouth. And we had a good plan. And next thing you know, we're waking up and all our schools are at home. They're not using their printers, they're not ordering toner from us, they're not ordering ink. So we had to pivot with our client lausd, and we just did a zoom donation drive and got a link. Lot of donations, a lot of toys for Christmas for the kids at the rescue mission. And, you know, so we're just, just pivoting and a lot of, you know, just a lot of moving and a lot of, you know, we've been Inspiring a lot of people to come give with us through different avenues, you know, so we're excited. And I told the whole story that I told you how we, you know, I kind of skipped over a lot, you know, and. But you get it. And I told the story how we started Pop Drop, and it was at a homeless shelter in skid row in downtown Los Angeles. And I told this story to my mom, who I lost in February, unfortunately. And I tell her this whole story, and I turn around, she's crying. And I said, why are you crying, mom? And she says, well, don't tell anybody. Which we made peace. And she said, I could tell people. She said, don't tell anybody, but your grandfather in the 1950s actually stayed at the very homeless shelter, the union rescue mission down on skid row, the epicenter of homelessness in America. And your grandfather had to stay there in the 50s, a homeless man that was. He had a drinking problem. I never met him, you know, and he left them when they were young. And so we started a program, giving back at the very homeless shelter. My grandfather had to stay. And I had no idea. So I'm like, okay, cool. I'm living my life's purpose. Let's go. And here we are, you know, so that's just kind of to fill in the blanks a little bit.

Nick, I'm sorry about the loss of your mom, but I'm happy that she got to share that story with you. And it probably touched her heart in a big way and probably still touches your heart when you share that, of coming full circle. Nikki, let me hear from you. What is your perspective like before? Not the details, just the perspective. I'm betting people are listening right now. It's like, well, I need to take care of me first, and then I want to take others, or when do I start helping others? And I have this philosophy, and I want to hear yours, is we need to get ourselves secure. Like, we need to put our own oxygen mask on, because if the foundation isn't good, then you're stressed trying to help other people, and you can't even help your own family, right? So I believe that we all want to serve, but first, let's get our feet grounded, right? Until something like Covid comes. That just is a complete shift for everybody. But what is your philosophy on how this is just a part of your life and how can other people adopt that?

So thank you for asking. Great question. For us, being people that are making a living by giving, it all goes hand in hand to me and to John and I think everybody on our team and all of our partners, because we feel like everybody truly wants to give, but sometimes they just don't know how to give. Right. So what we have done is we've actually created something that we believe is the evolution of what we built with Project Pop Drop. And we actually came up with a really cool name for it. We call what we're doing now, we call it being Giffluencers. And the reason we call it Gifflancers is because what you're saying. And back to the question that you asked me, it's a lifestyle choice that will enhance your life personally and professionally. If you're giving while you're making a living, at the same time, it's not just going to enhance your life professionally to get more sales to, you know, at the end of the day, bump up your income. Your impact that you're making is a lifestyle choice. We really, truly believe that when you're giving while making a living, that's a lifestyle choice. Just like you decide that you're going to be a vegetarian or you're going to be a pescatarian, or you make that kind of a choice where you're that strict and you're that disciplined about what you eat and what you put into your body. This is about how you want to live your life. When you decide to become a givefluencer, which is exactly what we're trying to spread around into the world, that everybody could be a gibflancer. Everybody. You know, being an influencer is trendy, and everybody wants to be an influencer. They think it's, you're gonna get your five minutes of fame, you're gonna make money. But it's going back to what you said, Dean, that in all the years of all of your speaking engagements, that the thing that popped all the hands up and got the most engagement is when you gave people the opportunity that they could be giving.

Yeah.

Because I don't there's any greater feeling in the world than giving.

There isn't. There isn't. And I have to tell you, Tony Robbins, my partner and dear friend, says something. If you won't give 10 cents out of a dollar, why will you give 100 grand out of a million? And I think that is just such a powerful statement in two ways. Yes, you need to anchor and be secure for your family and protect them and make sure your oxygen mask is on, but we can always give. And I don't know if there's any better feeling. You know, the phase I'M at in my life is I want to make more money next year so I can give more away. We donated more in 2020, personally, my wife and I, than I ever had in any other year because it was the hardest year and people needed it. We donated to multiple charities. We built a school. We provided over 7 million meals. We donated $600,000 to Operation Underground Railroad to help kids with slavery. We're working on a couple different projects right now. I don't say that to brag, but. But nothing has ever made me feel better than that. The night that my wife and I were at Tony's birthday party and we donated a half a million that night, we went up to the room and we prayed and we smiled, and it's like we knew how hard some people have it. And we felt blessed that we had the ability to give. And what it's really done is driven us. I want to have a bigger year next year so I can give more away, and that's my choice. But there's something I heard once that I think is really powerful. When someone says money can't buy you happiness, somebody said to me once, that just means you haven't given enough away yet.

Right?

And that is such a profound thing. And again, I said Tony three times because my dear friend, but he inspires me. He gives more away than anyone could ever imagine. Like, it's not even something he talks about because you wouldn't believe the numbers. Tens of millions of dollars helping people without going on social media saying, look what I did this week. You don't even know the stuff he does. Or he'll get a letter of somebody struggling, losing their house and pay off their house. Like, besides, I mean, millions and millions and millions. And I know that's his complete drive because he could retire. And I think it's addicting in such a good way. We could be addicted to social media. We could be addicted to Ferraris and Lamborghinis and all that stuff. I wish everybody the prosperity to get the toys and the things they want. But true fulfillment is when you know you're working to provide for your family, grow a solid company, while simultaneously making an impact. So here's what I'd love to ask you, John. Great story. You guys on a date. You're talking about, hell with the M&Ms. Let's give and charity. Tell me how that evolved with your business. But then also, how are you helping other potential givepreneurs? If I said that right, really see under the hood of how they could potentially do it in their business.

Well, we actually started, like reaching out to the SBA and the White House because we wanted every business in America to adopt a program like we have, where every single month they go to a homeless shelter near their place of business and they get their employees involved and then they get their customers involved doing donation drives. And then at the end of the month, they go. Everybody goes together and gives back. So we kept reaching out to the sba, the White House. Nothing. I don't know if you saw when what's her name, the lady everyone really likes, Nancy Pelosi, she ripped up the State of the Union. We sent the White House a toner cartridge and said, here, why don't you print on us the new. Just everything we could. So when we got that call, we're like, okay. It came back a way we never expected.

We got nominated Dean, and we had no idea somebody nominated us. So that proves with what all of us are saying right now, what you give is what you give.

Okay, so now tell me, how are you gonna leverage that? And how do you wanna help other entrepreneurs make that their model? That's why I'd love to know that.

Well, you and actually Tony are involved. So I just want to say thank you because in 2021, we are launching a course thanks to you and KBB and Tony Robbins. We learned how to do the knowledge business. And we're excited that we're finding another way for businesses to get involved, to switch over their business model to a more customer cause, marketing business model where they're giving back, their customers are giving back with them and not only purchasing their products, but they're donating with them.

Listen, I love this. This is so intriguing. And this is what I want to share with both of you. If you can help all of us as future business owners, as future leaders or people who already have business, I love what you guys do. And I know when you go from doing to teaching, it's a different mind. You got to look through a different lens, right? And I know that's what KBB and Tony and I have done. But for you guys, I want you to remember this one thing. If you think about Amazon, what makes Amazon so easy? Once you put your credit card in, you go back, what do you do? Click, click, boom. It's at your door in what, four hours? It's crazy, right? What we need to do and what you guys, I hope, will do for the world is take your 10 years or all the years that you put in to develop this and then make it A process so people can understand how to make it simple. Because when you go down the road of wanting to donate, if you're listening right now and you want to donate, you go online like, oh my God, what charity? And if I give them that money, is it one of those charities where they keep 90% of the money and they give just a fraction to the people? Or is it a good charity that gives most away? Is it really going to make an impact? Should I help kids? Should I help adults? Should I help older people? And all of a sudden, what is the enemy of execution? You guys ever hear that term complexity? Right? Complexity is the enemy of execution. So I hear you. I want. I'm. I guarantee there's so many people listening right now going, hey, with even my little business, I want to give more. But where do I start? How if. When you guys and I know you're already creating this training, create it in a way that it's the blueprint of, like, how do I make it real? Because especially in 2020, as we go as now 2021 is upon us. And here a lot of businesses are just trying to make sure they survive on their own. They're like, oh, I'll give away someplace some other down the road because things are tight right now. When truthfully, giving away now could be the key for their business to actually grow. It could be the reason for their hearts actually to grow, to be inspired about their business again. Right? It's like, not only do we sell this, we help here. So what I would love to encourage you guys and everybody listening is pick, have them craft, find. Like, have them have the blueprint to make it simple to go, oh, I see the model. You know, it's a buy one, give one or X amount or the change, or like, it's just give them the philosophy so we could plug it in. Does that make sense?

Right? Totally makes sense. And it's just. It's something as simple as the last.

Saturday of the month.

This is the day our company gives back. We go to the homeless shelter, we go to here. This is the day make a shirt, get a name. That's what we did. So we made it real. And we just step by step, we locked ourselves in. And I keep thinking back, I wanted to interrupt you so bad. Cause you were getting me excited. When you're talking about your buddy Tony Robbins, and when you say.

There was.

A couple times when this pandemic started where we're like, geez, I'm looking at the numbers and the bar graphs and you Know the comparison last year, like, oh, God, you know, you're like, you know, your best customer goes away. It's like all of a sudden all your clients went on a boat and they said, we'll see. We'll see you next year, John. And so we're like, geez, you know, so, yeah, there's. There's that time you're a little bit. You get a little bit like, you know, fear. We're like, oh, God, we got it. I gotta do a pop drop in Florida this month. I'm doing one in California. I got, you know, this money, that money. But then it goes back to Tony Robbins. I saw this clip on Instagram, and you could bleep this out if it's not good. But he's like, don't even think about that shit. Just fucking give. It always comes back. And I swear to you, like, I referenced that over the last few months quite a few times. I saw that and I'm like, oh, I'll look at that and hear that again.

Charlie said that you just have to effing give. Yeah, well, maybe he did.

I don't know. But I'm just being real.

So let me ask you, when you. So that's your model, right? Is you sell, you take a portion of the proceeds, you build it up, and then once a month you go to a homeless shelter.

Every single month for almost 10 years now.

So amazing. And what do you bring to the homeless shelter? What do you. What do you do when you go to the homeless shelter? Tell me.

We send our clients and our Pop Drop partners these shirts, and then they do a donation drive. They have a white project Pop Drop box in their place of business. They'll do a donation drive, and then they'll meet us at the homeless shelter, and they'll be wearing the same shirts as us. And they'll do the work, they'll give back with us. They'll roll up their sleeves. They're not sending a check, worrying about the CEOs gonna be driving a nice car because of this check I just sent of the homeless charity or whatever it may be. So it's hands on. They come with us.

I love it.

We've done it with cities, we've done it with mayors. We've done different.

And how much do you hope to raise for each shelter? Like, is there a number you hope to have available? And at each. Each third Saturday of the month, it.

Kind of varies because each shelter that we go to in Florida and California every month, they all have a different needs list. So, like, socks is socks is the number one. Is socks is the number one item needed for homeless people. So we just had my old. My old school, junior high school, Robert Frost Middle School. They did a donation drive. These kids are amazing LAUSD students. And they did it with us last year. And they got so many donations that they, they did it all through Zoom. They doubled it. And how much did they raise? And they just, like, got so many toys for the homeless kids and so many cool things. I'm like, I don't know how you guys did this over Zoom. I don't know what you told them. I tell them the teacher to empower them. But I'm really impressed.

I'm so impressed. How much did they raise?

They actually, what happens is we, you know, we used to pre Covid. We used to do speaking engagements. John and I and Chloe, you've met our daughter. We, we go to the schools and we do speaking engagements. We bring in guest speakers and we go and we get the kids engaged. We bring them their box so they can fill up the box with donations. We empower them for different marketing initiatives to, like, go to their social media. We say, go to your friends, post them all over school, whatever you guys have to do. We give them like, a little marketing lesson of how to, like, get the promos going to raise awareness for the actual event. But now the world's changed, just like you had to shift to virtual Dean everything. And we are now doing speaking engagements via Zoom for classrooms, and we're doing, bringing on the guest speakers and empowering them via Zoom. And we were like, you know, this could really go either way. Like, it's so much better when we're in person and we can have that engagement with the student, with our Pop Drop student partners. But we were just like, completely blown away that even over Zoom, that the spirit of giving and the drive for people to give back was stronger than ever this year.

That's amazing.

They brought 600 brand new socks, 600 pairs of socks. They put 200 hygiene kits together. And I think it was like 500 new toys, which is a huge thing at shelters because most people donate used toys and their heart's in the right place. But as you know, your kids wouldn't want used toys, and neither do these kids. So to get 500 new toys, that warms my heart.

It's amazing what you guys are doing. And again, I understand that you're in a business that's negatively impacted by Covid. Like, that's just a fact. And to have the Ability to still shift and still want to serve those shelters just shows what it can do for all of us. And one of the reasons I wanted to, I was excited to chat with you guys is because again, we all have a desire to serve. And I love what you guys are doing. The reason I wanted to put you out here is to and expose what you guys are doing is because I know it fills your heart. I know your kids are a huge part of it. The last time we talked to your kids, your amazing kids were all over your laps. They're so beautiful. I know that's how you're raising your children is let's be entrepreneurs. Let's do the right thing while simultaneously give at the same time. And I think the more we let the world know it's not, can I be successful or should I give? A lot of times we picture the person that wants to give as the struggling person trying to do. It's like, why not make this a culture that we are a culture of entrepreneurs, capitalists who want to give back to the world. And the only way we can give more is by being more successful. And don't be embarrassed by success. Don't look for handouts. Be leaders, be role models. Take what you have, your ability, share it with the world, whether that's coaching, training, knowledge, industry building courses, workshops, or whatever you do, and find a way to push it over there. What we've done, even, and we've been doing it for half a decade, is every time I sell a book, Millionaire Success habits, we donate 20 meals through feeding America. So we just made that part of the model. And we're almost to a million books sold every time a book sells, 20 meals go to Feeding America. Right?

Cool thing. That's so easy.

So if you think about that, if you think about that, those models are easy. And what I believe is, I believe more people buy my book. This is my perception, because they know I'm giving back and. And it costs me nothing. It costs me absolutely nothing right here.

I already have the book and I'm going to buy it again.

Yeah, exactly. So I just, I don't believe it costs a thing. But what I love what you guys are doing and what you guys are creating is help create that model. You know, Tony and I push people to be in the knowledge industry. You took 10 years or whatever it did to figure this out. Don't let someone else take 10 years to figure it out. Create the course where they can go through it in three days and go, this is how we adopt this into our world. This is how we can help in shelters, we can help here. We can make it a part of our business that doesn't cost anything but fills our heart and fills that desire to serve. So I'm going to keep encouraging and pushing you guys to get that information out.

You're getting me so pumped. I'm ready to fly out of my seat here. You're like skyrocket, Dean. Thanks.

And what I'd also love to do, and I don't know what it takes to help. When is your next. When is your next pop drop? When is your next charity event?

We have three next month. One in Florida and then two in California, one in Oakland, and then one somewhere else. Jeff. I can't think of it right now, but we have three next month.

Okay. I'd love to donate $5,000 towards whatever the next shelter you go to and put it. And put it in whatever they need the most. We donate a lot in a lot of different areas. So it's like, I would love, but this is so important to me. I want to add this to the list so my team will get with you. And you. What's that?

You have shirts. You could do a life pop drop.

Yeah. Well, you can let our. Let let us know how to do all that. But I want to know. I want you to know, I want to dedicate $5,000. And I don't care. It could be anonymous. Just go and serve those people the best that we can and let us know how we can help you in the future.

Amazing. And again, like, super. Thank you for helping us with KBB and teaching us something that's gonna get people to switch over their business model. Even if you're a sales guy or a sales gal, it feels so much better to sell with purpose. A purpose. Yeah.

You know, here's the final piece. I want you to really think through this when you're having a tough time, when you're juggling your children, juggling your business, trying to do pop drop, and it's all hectic and crazy. I want you to realize the legacy you guys can have by shifting into self education. You guys took a long time to figure this out, and you're doing and you're making a great impact. But think about when you have 100, 500, 5,000, 50,000 people eventually who have your course, and they're out there in the world putting it into this business. You will exponentially impact the world more than you'll ever be able to calculate. And that's what the self education the knowledge industry, the information industry, whatever you want to call it, that's the power of all of us. We should feel guilty if we don't take what we've learned and share it with other people. Because right now there are businesses that want to do this, guys, and they don't know how. And they're gonna get your course and they're gonna do it and they're gonna impact hundreds of lives. And this one will impact hundreds in the next 10 years. You could literally impact millions of lives because you guys have decided to share what you know. And that's why we encourage everybody. Share what you know.

That's so cool. And that's why we're so excited because it's just like endless giving is possible now because of you. So once again, thanks.

It's mind blowing when you really think about that in 2021, how traditional education is going to be completely replaced by this new form of education. And we couldn't be happier to be at the forefront of this with you because we believe that this is the thing that's going to change the world. It's a once in a generation type of idea and movement, what KBB has created. And we couldn't be happier to be part of the founders, as you call them, behind it and sorry, screen there. But we couldn't be happier to be a part of it. And we're really excited because we're going to be sharing our experience with KBB. We have a really exciting partnership coming up. March 2021, Project Pop Drop and the Givefluencer network is going to be featured on Oprah Winfrey's for a TV show called Give. And we will be giving a special shout out to Dean for that Dean and Tony and Russell because you guys are going to definitely be a part of every single episode. At the end of each episode, we are going to be partnering with them to do a Project Pop Drop giving moment.

Well, thank you. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. If we could just be the spark for you guys to continue the momentum. It feels amazing. Thank you. Thank you guys for spending this time with me today. Keep up the good work. We'll make sure we reach out and we help the next couple that you guys do. And we're here to support you in any way possible. And everybody listening, look out for these guys. Think through that lens of how can you grow or scale or start your company while simultaneously you get to make an impact and fill your heart, your soul and the ability to be great role models more than ever before in history. So thank you guys for spending time with us. Let's do this. Thank you. And we'll see you next time on the Dean Graziosi Show. I hope you enjoyed today's episode on the Dean Graziosi show. These quick hits of strategies, capabilities, tactics to go upstream and anchor in a foundation to reach that level of success, abundance that we desire, we deserve and we look forward to. Real quick, I got something special coming up and I'd like to invite you as my guest at no charge. I'm filming a brand new course called the accelerated Success Force formula to get in the right mindset to Thrive and Crush 2021, to make it your rebound year, your comeback year. And I'd like to invite you to come as my guest when I film it on January 5th and 6th. It could be some of the most foundational and profound knowledge that I've accumulated over 30 plus years of being an entrepreneur, of having success in my life, even the failures, and how to anchor in the best year ever. It's two days. This is a course that'll be for sale for hundreds of dollars. If you know anything about my courses. I obsess over courses and I'm inviting you to be a part of it. It's the only time it's free. You come behind. It's kind of behind the scenes, right? I did this once about five years ago and people went nuts. You're invited. So right now go to asflive.com that's asflive.com and reserve your spot. No catch, no charge. And I'll see you there on January 5th and 6th. And together, let's set in a foundation to crush 2021. See you there.