Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi Share Success Secrets No One Knows

Welcome to this very special Millionaire Success Habits podcast where I sit down with my dear friend Tony Robbins and he exposes parts of his past that I don't think he's ever shared before publicly. In fact, this interview is part of a secret project that we're working on and was never going to be released as a podcast. So you're going to want to go listen now because it won't be up long. As you go through the interview, you're going to hear things like knowledge broker or being the reporter or helping people go to another level. Again, it's part of a project where we want to show you how to tap into a $355 million a day industry, solve a huge problem, and make massive impact on the world. That's how we create legacy. That's how we create true freedom in our lives. So listen to every word, get inspired wherever you are in your life, especially if you're struggling, this is the interview you need to listen to. Then when you're done, go to deanslink.com deanslink.com and register for a special live training I'm doing with Tony where we will expose and pull back the curtain on this special project we're doing to show you how to tap into your full potential and live life to the fullest. Now, enjoy this behind the scenes interview with my dear friend, Tony Robbins. With all the opportunities that exist today, why haven't you reached your next level of income, life and wealth? In most cases, we've been lied to. We've been told that if you find the right opportunity and you work hard, you can be successful. And that's simply not true. Millionaires, billionaires and successful people have realized you need the foundation for wealth, the habits. And that's exactly what you'll be learning on the Millionaire Success Habits podcast. All success starts here. When you do something, you gotta play full out. Nothing happens with lack of commitment. Nothing happens when you dabble. And right now, I want to talk about a knowledge broker. I want to talk about being the reporter of other people's knowledge. But I think it'd be best if we did it through a story. See, it's really easy to look at Tony and I and now and go, oh, they're flying on private jets. Tony speaks in front of 20,000 people all over the world, multiple countries. But sometimes you forget where we came from and where it started. And we've never forgot what it's like to struggle. We've never forgot what it's like to want, even have envy of Other people that are successful. So I don't think there could be anything better at this point than if you'd share your story tone.

Well, I will, but I don't want to then reciprocate and hear yours. We both know pieces of each other's stories. We've been friends for so many years. But I think I was talking to Dean about this off camera. I said, I think if we were to share our stories, you get the reality. You know, it's like, not the hype. You see what it really takes, but also you see what's really possible. So my story starts out with me going to a seminar for the first time. I didn't know what a seminar was. I was 17 years old. I was working at high school, and I was working as a janitor, and I was working as a busboy, trying to help support my family going to high school. And there was a man that my mom knew really well that was making money. And my mom and dad used to talk about this guy. And my dad said, he was such a loser, and now he's so successful, he goes. He went to this seminar thing, and I was interested. What is the seminar thing? And he goes, I don't know. But, you know. And he was buying real estate in Orange County, California. Flipping it, fixing things and flipping your business, basically, right? So he needed somebody to help move somebody. And I was, you know, pretty big. So I rented myself out for the weekend, carrying this heavy shit all around. But my goal was not to move shit. I was happy to do that and make some money. But I want to know what made this guy successful. I was obsessed even then. And so I actually said to him at one point, we spent, you know, two days moving shit and doing all this stuff. And I said, I got your question. And the only kid knew this. I go, my dad says, you used to be such a loser. And the guy says, your dad said that? Well, he goes, I kind of was. I said, now you got all these homes, and how did you do all this? And he didn't tell me the mechanics of the strategies of buying real estate. He said, I went to this seminar by this guy named Jim Rohn. I said, what's a seminar? He goes, well, a man takes all he's learned in his life and pours into four or five hours, three hours, and he teaches it to you, pay a fee to go learn what he knows and save yourself all this time. And I said, like, what kind of things do you learn? He goes, well, simple things, like, you know, you Know, for things to get better, you got to get better. For things to change, you got to change. I said, well, that's obvious. He goes, yeah, but it's different when he tells it to you the way he does it. And I said, well, I think I'd like to go to all those things. Could I go? He said, yeah, you could. I said, well, will you get me in? He said, no. And I said, why not? He goes, because if you don't pay for it, you won't value it. And I said, well, how much is it? And he said, $40. Now, this is 1977. I'm 17 years old, and I'm making $35 a week as a janitor, right? I'm like, that's a week's pay. He said, well, then don't go. Learn by your own experience. And you don't let it take decades. He was not really sweet about it, but I'm glad he challenged me. Cause I remember leaving there going, that's bullshit. Why didn't he just get me in? But then I was like, shit, you know, I gotta know what this is. And so I went. I scraped my money together. Drive my 1968 Baja Bug down to Orange County, California, to this hotel down there. And remember, I turned the engine off and it exploded. Made that sound. I wear my thrift store jacket and suit I got with open collar with a fake chain. And I go into this seminar, you know, to go learn from this guy. And I listened to the seminar, and I was really inspired by it. And I was like. I'd read a lot of books at that point. I was like, you know the kid who's finishing the sentences out loud. You know, I'd read think and grow rich. I thought I had all the answers. And at the end, I was like, I want to go to work for this man. I want to spread the word. So I came back and I had all these ideas, and I was going to make all this stuff happen. I laid out kind of a plan. And then I had this interruption, which is my mom and dad got divorced. My mom thought I was on my dad's side, so she kicked me out. It was Christmas Eve, and so that night, I slept on a mountain. The next night, I slept in somebody's laundry room. And then I laid out this plan to go to work for Jim Rohn. It was Christmas time, and so I called his offices in San Jose, and they were closed for the holidays. So I had to do these other jobs, get working as a janitor and things. But I laid out this plan. And then one day I was working for this other company. I was. I was selling music. I love music. And I would be in people's homes. And I learned so much about human psychology doing that. And this man looked at my giant hand, said, you should be a boxer. Went through this whole story. In the end, he goes, you remind me of a friend of mine, a guy named Jim Rohn. I said, jim Rohn? I went to a seminar, and he goes, oh, he's my good friend. He goes, he's doing a seminar down in Orange county next Thursday. You should come down and say hello to him. I said, can I come? He goes, yeah. He goes, come down and introduce you. He was just getting me out of the house. Cause I was sitting cozy. And he wasn't friends with Jim Rohn. And I went back down to the same hotel I'd been like a year later. And I kept talking to somebody asking for this guy. And his name was Paul Robinson.

Oh, my God. Yeah.

And this one guy named Larry Hiraka comes up to me. And he's a little short guy, older man, like in his late 50s. And he says, that guy you're talking about, he's a client of mine. He doesn't know Jim Rohn. I said, he told me he's friends. He's going to introduce me. He's going to help me attend the seminar. He goes, yeah, he's pulling your chain. He goes, I'll let you in, kid. So I sat for the second time going through the seminar. At the end, though, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to go to work for Jim Rohn. So I went up to Jim Rohn during the break. And I'm talking Hyperspeed like this. Mr. Rohn, I said, you changed my life. I'm so excited. I want to come to work for you. And you know, I'm going to promote you. And I'll open you up where I live in this part of California. And he said, hold on, young man. He goes, what are you saying? I told him, he goes, listen. I said, but he goes, you got to get my courses. I said, well, those are $1,200. I said, I was sleeping in my car. Now I'm in the back of this person's little laundry room. And he goes, I said, loan me the money. I'll be such a great story for you. I promise you. I'll pay it all back, and I'll be this great story, true story. And he looks at me, and he did not have Warmth in his eyes. And he goes, young man, I'm not your banker. He said, you know, some people have to survive. Some people have to become wealthy. Decide which one you are. He said, if you're committed, you'll find a way next Saturday to be here. And it's $1,200. And I remember leaving, going, this an asshole. I'm 17. He wants my money. I don't need money. It's like I'm sleeping in a laundry room, you know? But then I just thought, he kept saying, people get what they have to have, was the other thing he said. And I was like, I haven't had to have much. And so I remember I went home and I was like, I'm gonna get this money. So I started going to banks and I got really good at knowing when they're gonna say no. Like when I walked in and I went to five different banks and then I was running out of time and I was like so freaked out. And I needed 1200 bucks. And the car I'd slept in was 1100 bucks, this old Volkswagen Baja buck. So it was like my mortgage then to go for a weekend. And so I went in and I'll never forget, I walked in this bank. It was the first time I ever made a move. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I was just getting so intense. And I looked for somebody who looked persuadable. And there's this one woman, a kind eyes and kind face. Mrs. Williams is her name. And I went up to this woman and I launched into this presentation. We had a long story short. And I got her to get the bank loan me money. She said, I'll loan you the money, the bank won't. At the end, I don't want to waste time telling you the whole story. It was a wild story. But I was parked at 7:11 in my car at that point, sleeping in my car, because I convinced the mailman that I could use that address. He cared about me and let me get my mail. And I couldn't lie to her. I told her, well, the address you're going to send is 7 11. And that's how I started my career. That's where it all began. And I go ahead.

No. And I want you to stay in flow. But I'm so glad you're sharing this because so many times this is forgotten. Especially a new generation that knows you, Tony. They might know you for 20 years. You already had 20 years of success, right? So they. Even if they've seen you rise from your UPWs going from 4 to 15,000. They've only seen that. And to hear this. And I know you do it with a smile now, but I'll share my. I know what that pain and desperation is. I know when you feel like each one of those moments, if you miss it, you're done. Like, if I don't get to Jim Rohn, if he doesn't let me work for him, then I'm stuck over here.

That's right. And I went. And I wasn't willing to accept that. And so I kept going and going and going. I had all these stories, and I'd read all these books. Disney being turned down by 302 banks. I was like, it's only been five. I got plenty of it. But the bottom line is, I took that money and I went. I met one of my dearest friends, still a friend of mine today from 40 years later, and he had a little more money than I did. So instead of sleeping in my car, I slept in the hotel room. He let me stay there. And we both. Man. Like, when he said the. I wrote down the. I mean, I never got to the bathroom. I did. I took every. Now, we figured at $0.01, one point, every word was worth, like $0.03 or some shit.

I mean, your money's worth.

We're so committed. So I went to work for Jim Rohn, and I was a speaker, and I went out. I didn't know how to speak. I don't know what I was doing, but I went out. I remember my very first talk was in this little real estate office in West Covina. Because we'd go out and we'd do a talk. So one of the ways you become a knowledge broker is you find groups of people that might need what it is you're going to represent. And I said, I want to come and do this talk I was trained to do for 30 minutes, add value, and then we'll invite them to the seminar. So I got up and I did way more than the talk. I did like 50 minutes, and I was, like, so passionate at the end. I had everybody involved, but one guy raised a hand. I was like, okay, I'm done. And one guy said, well, when is it? How much is it? I didn't. I've screwed all that stuff up. So if you're new and a knowledge broker or expertise, don't worry about it. It's part of the process. But people felt my sincerity, and you can't fake that. And they felt what was real. And so I got really Good. Then his business was, you got, say over the course of a month, maybe or two months, you got 20 or 25 people or 30 people to go on an event. Well, I had like 50, because everybody's like, who is this young kid? But then you followed up with them one on one, all of them, to sell his whole $1,200 program. He had a back end program, a leadership course and things of that nature. A set of audio tapes. In those days, six audio tapes in a workbook cost $300. You know, it's not like where you go free on YouTube today.

It's a whole different world.

And I went out and literally every person I sat down went, I convinced. Because I convinced the bank to loan me money, by the way. I was 17. I wasn't even legal. The woman says, how old are you? I said, I'm 17. She goes, you're not legal for a contract in California until you're 18. I said, I'll be 18 soon. She said, how soon? I said, how soon have I be 18? But my birthday was like two weeks later. Anyway, long story short, I go to work for him. I become the top guy in the whole country. He had like 1200 employees there, salespeople. And it was just my pure passion. So in the beginning, I didn't have the skills. So if you don't either, people sense when something is real and raw. And I ran into people to talk to, and I wasn't doing it for the money. So I turned to the other salespeople and I said, who do you have? I'll go talk to them for free for you. And everybody heard. I closed every person successfully.

So they were like, hell, yeah.

So I remember I drove up to Six Flags Magic Mountain, like two hours in my Volkswagen to work for somebody else for free. And we sat in this little booth. I remember this guy's on one side, I'm on the other guy's in the middle. And I kept laying out what we're gonna do. And the man says at the end, goes, you know, I don't think I'm gonna do this. I said, you wouldn't have met me, you wouldn't have come here unless you'd gotten the value. You wouldn't have had this conversation unless you wanted more. And I said, I'm just not letting you out of this booth until you go. I said, you're gonna have to convince me. How are you gonna lose? I literally convinced this guy to do it as well. Then I was so good at convincing everybody, I didn't understand buyer's remorse. And a bunch of people. And I made this money and I got myself a new 260Z car, and I moved in a little apartment, and I wasn't in the room anymore. And a bunch of these people didn't come through in the end, like their checks bounced or they didn't do what I did right? And I couldn't understand it. And then the people at Jim Rohn's company thought, oh, he's a scammer or something. So they didn't give me my checks. They withheld all my checks. So now I'm in this apartment and I can't pay for it. Now I'm going to the grocery store to get spaghetti because I don't have enough money for sketchy and sauce. I use ketchup to put on it that I got from McDonald's. Literally. This is a true story. And people kept saying, when are you going to get a job? And I go, I got a career. And they go, you don't have a fricking career. But I stuck it out. And I eventually became successful again. Through time, I learned the details and what to do. And then eventually I got to the point where I'm most successful guy in this company and the path. I wasn't looking to own my own business. I just wanted to help people. I just wanted to learn. I wanted to grow. I want to help people understand. Jim Rohn is. That's what a knowledge broker is, really. There was no knowledge brokers in those days. I was just working for this man. But I got the idea of being a knowledge broker because it's like, wow, I want to promote other people, too. And I did that only because Jim Rohn's company went under. They went bankrupt. And so they called me one day and I'm like, you never got to talk to Jim Rohn. He was in the distance. Right. But I really. And you got to do it only if it's perform. So I perform. I'd have this lunch with Jim Rohn, and. And the goal in those days was to become a manager of an office. You had like 20 salespeople and so forth. And so I was like, oh, I want to be a manager. So I'm just running around. I'll make this happen. So I get there, I think I'm going to get the promotion. And they go, you know, Tony, you're the most successful in the whole company. But we're going through a new phase. It's called phase two. Phase one. We had offices. Phase two you have the offices. And he goes, where do you want to work? And I always dream. I grew up poor, so it's like Beverly Hills. I want to go in la. I want to open an office in Beverly Hills. Because then they wrote the checks. That's what I thought they were going to do. And he goes, how many salespeople do you want? I said, 30. I said, okay. I said, when do I start? They said, when do you want to start? I said, now. They said, okay. I said, how do I start? They goes, you write the check. I said, what? They go, no, Phase two is you open the office, you pay. Because they were going bankrupt, you pay for everything. You hire the salespeople, you rent the hotel. You. And so I did, and I didn't know what the hell to do. So this is what I want you to know. I asked myself the question. I mentioned this earlier. How long would it take to get good at this? If you do something once a month, you're gonna get good at it. Maybe in decades, probably never. But I remember there was a guy who worked for Jim who had a big attitude. And when the thing broke up, they gave him a territory also of his own. And I remember I went up to him and I just said. I said, you know what? I said, you're an asshole. Because he was mean to everybody. And I said, I'm gonna annihilate you. I'm gonna destroy you. I'm gonna do more than you ever dreamed of. And I said, you know why? Cause you're lazy. Cause this guy would do, like, three talks a month. And I said, I'm gonna do three talks a day. So I said, in 12 days, I'll have a year's worth of your experience. I said, in a month of three years of experience? I said, in six months, I will dwarf you. And I did. I literally booked myself to do any kind of speech. And if you're a knowledge broker, I went to Rotary clubs. I went to drunk realtors. You know, there's supposed to be 20 people and four showed up. But I really learned how to influence people for a higher good. I learned how to get in their head. I learned how to tell the truth. I learned how to pierce through their limitations. And most of the skills I have today came from that experience. And then what happened was I got my own seminar. So then I started brokering people. And I started like, who else can I promote? I want to do a health program. And I got a guy named Harvey Diamond. Marilyn Dimon did a book called Fit for life in the 80s that I helped them to write. I helped them write the book. I taught them how to speak. I do all this. I'm here today. I went from knowledge broker to the speaker himself. Because Harvey and Marilyn and I are friends to this day. But back then, there were some challenges between them. And then I was a third challenge. And they managed to extract the capital that was supposed to be joint capital. They had no money. And somebody offered them. They put all this money in the company. And they said, well, Tony's really young. And I built the whole company from scratch. And so they called everybody together and said, tony's really young. And this new guy was like, from General Motors, he's going to run the company. And I was devastated, waiting to hear what happened. And one of my guys shows up at my house in Venice at the time. And he goes, they got him. They got them all. And then they backed the door open and everybody came. I got the whole company. They all stayed with me. But I had no speaker. So I'm broke. I don't know what the hell to do. I promoted everybody. I taught this guy what to do. So I went on a fast. Not because I was health oriented, because I was broke. So I went on a watermelon fast. That's what I was at. And I went to UCLA Medical library and I buried myself. Because everything that was taught in those days by the dime method was they'd come up with, but they didn't ground it in the reality of science. So I went and learned all the science. And then I booked my first talk for UCLA's medical school. I took these first year medical students and I launched into this talk. And I knew some people there, they got me in. And I remember I had worked with a man who had gangrene. And if you understand natural hygiene and the body's cleansing processes, most people, I said, what would you do? And they go, cut it off. I said, that's what I thought you'd do. But let me show you pictures. I showed slide after slide. And over three months, all there was is discoloration. It's the body's natural ability to heal. So by the time I was done, I think most of them, a third of them thought I was insane. And I said, oh, yeah, people think energy. You're gonna have lots of energy by eating. I haven't eaten in seven days. I just have watermelon they want to throw me. But about a third of them thought it was nuts. A third of them were curious, and a third of them Thought it was really amazing. And they became my first clients. And I started doing these health seminars where I would load it up. I figured how to fill it. Same way I filled them for him because I already had that skill. I was my own knowledge broker. And then I got up and did the event also. And I looked so young in those days. I had fake glasses that I put on and I'd bite on them and chew on them. I had this box in those days, there's no Internet. I'd pull out a file and show them what was true. I remember at my first real big seminar like that, this guy comes up, he goes, well, if you're so health oriented, how come it, you know, you're 19 years old and you're 20, 23 years old. And he goes, you got glasses already? So that was the last time I had the fake glasses. But I'm telling you this whole background story because that's how I got, I got a business because somebody else lost their business. Yeah, I started just out of the goal of taking knowledge and sharing it with people and lighting them up and seeing their lives change. I was truly in it for that. I wasn't for the money, but I figured, God, I'd love to do this full time and get paid for it. And that's what I did. And then eventually what happened was now I'm the speaker. I learned nlp, Neuro Linguistic Programming and I started going out and doing these demonstrations. My first seminar, real seminar outside of the health, was a NLP seminar. I want to teach everybody skills. I rented this room at the LA Hilton, downtown Los Angeles. Really expensive, 500 people. I ran all these ads and I was like, I'm going to have 500 people, it's free and I'll just share all this. I wasn't doing any money. And seven people showed up and they were spread out around the room in different locations. I put them all down the front row. I gave it all like there was 500 people there. But every step along the way I kept adding value and I grew and I grew and I grew and I got. My skill sets got stronger. And then I started getting media attention for what I was doing. And then I learned a system of doing media and then using that to fill a free guest event. My whole focus was add more value. Just add so much value for free that people say, hey, it's worth spending on. And then I do this three day seminar and I literally would do three unleash the power withins a month. And I'd Fly from that city to the next city to do the media and then do the free guest event and then fly to the next one to do it. I used to do all four days, do days and nights. And then eventually I was like, okay, I gotta get more scale. How do I do that? And I remember seeing. I wrote a book. I was 23, and I wrote Unlimited Power. It became top seller. But the same time I was doing that, I said, books, not everybody reads. I gotta get to a larger base. And I saw these crazy infomercials, and I'll never forget seeing, like, these people that were just like. This one guy had teenagers on a yacht, and he was like, you could be rich, too. And I was like, this is so disgusting. If I could do something of real value, if I could take my celebrity clients and not pay them and have them say, he's the real thing. Some of the government officials I work with, presidents, if I got that in and I did something of real value that inspired people, you know, may not buy a lot, but it'll expand my brand and I'll be able to reach more people. And so I partnered with Guthy Ranker, and they negotiated with me for a year and wanted to give me, like, 5%. I said, no, no, no, we're gonna be partners. I'm gonna create this. You're gonna manage the back end, but I'm gonna create it. And we did it. It was the most successful shows in history, and. And it grew and it expanded my brand. And then I learned, you know, I work. I kept growing by working with athletes and business people and creating these amazing results. And that just grew my brand as time went by. And now, you know, now, you know, this year my biggest events are 50 and 65,000. I got some football stadiums this year. I know you do, but my average event now is 10 to 15,000 people. And I get to do what I love. And it all came from that early, crazy little beginning. So I want you to know, I don't care where you're starting. The pathway is there. It's not easy. And again, like I said earlier in an earlier video, I think I mentioned, most people overestimate what they're going to do in the first year or year. They underestimate what they can do in a decade. If you're looking for the get rich quick scheme is the wrong thing. But if you're looking to build something that you can be proud of for a lifetime and build to a point where your impact can be worldwide, especially today. I mean, today with the Internet, with YouTube. I mean it's so easy. It costs money to market those days. But I want to hear your story.

So a couple things before that. First, first off is you have been even when I started 21 years ago, you started 40 plus years ago. Self education wasn't cool. It wasn't the norm. You were the outcast. If you paid for a coach, if you went to a mastermind, there was no coaching.

No one called it a coach. You went to a therapist.

You went to a therapist, right? Or you went to a group setting. Oh, you're in a group or in a membership group or you went to a workshop. It was almost ridiculed because it was so far outside. So as I'm listening to you, it's like you're here at such a perfect time in history because the world needs what you have to offer or being a knowledge broker.

And they know it.

And they know it. Exactly. They always needed it, but now they know it. And here's the cool thing is will your journey hit some obstacles? Absolutely. But here's the cool part. You're learning from 62 plus years, 63 plus years of experience so we can extract which we did, all the shit we screwed up on, all the mistakes we made, all the people not showing up at the event, the wrong marketing, the wrong message, you know, listening to. I don't know about you, but I always shared from my heart. I think it's one of my unique abilities that I didn't realize. But there was parts where when I went to a bigger event and going to the next level, I thought I needed to model other people. I thought I had to dress a certain way. I thought I should have better slides because I wasn't a big slide guy. And I got derailed for a while because I thought my success was gonna fail on my own backbone. And I modeled other people and started going down. When I went back to me, I skyrocketed. Right. All these little things that we learned along the way with 60 plus years.

Cause you didn't weren't a knowledge broker. You jumped straight into being an expert, which is amazing. And you used infomercials. I know.

Yeah. So here's the crazy part and this is the cool part. Some of you might know this or I shared a little bit of it, but so it's 1986, I graduated high school. I knew I wasn't going to college. That wasn't for. For me. Why self education is so impactful and such a passion for me, just like it is For Tony is my guidance counselor. Literally told me, with your grades. And I didn't take the sats because I knew I wasn't going to college. You're not taking the sats. You're barely passing. She's like, hey, there was one factory in my town called Triple R Industries. She goes, you know they're hiring at Triple R. You seem like a dedicated guy. Or you could work with your dad in fixing cars. I think that's for you. It was Maureen Canossa. I still remember Mrs. Canosa. She looked me right in the eye and told me that was my life.

Oh, my God. Well, my mom wanted me to be a truck driver. There was a truck master school, a commercial for 29.95, you can make 20,000 or $29,000 a year. And she was trying to convince me to do that process. So I get it. Yeah.

So you get that feeling, right? But I knew that. Here's the crazy part. I knew there was way more I was gonna give the world. I mean, even in my yearbook, when everybody was going, mine said, you might not hear me now, but my actions will speak loud someday. Or something like that. Like, you'll hear me someday, right? But here's what changes. So I always had that go. I was going after it. So I had a collision shop, then a used car dealership, and then I got into real estate. Before I was the age of 20, I knocked on a million doors, got a no money down deal from a lady named Mary LoPresti, older Italian lady, broken English, loved me. I went there for pasta, dinner on Sundays. She finally sold me her property with no money down. I gave her way more than she asked for it. It went amazing. So I started getting momentum with real estate. And the truth is, I was already successful. I was already on my way to being a millionaire by 25 because of real estate. And then I saw your infomercial. Wow. Right? True story. I saw your infomercial, got obsessed on it, ordered everything you had. In fact, I ordered everything you had on that infomercial. And I loved it so much that I ordered it for 10 of my best friends and family members when I didn't even have the money to do that. And not one of them listened to it. And a couple of them listened for a little and said, oh, that rah, rah. Literally, that was the. And I knew they were wrong, and I knew my father was wrong, because I watched my father. And I won't go too deep in this, but I watched my father and mother. They weren't Together since I was 3. I had lots of moms and dads too. You had lots of dads? I had moms and dads. I watched them work their asses off. My dad got up at five, came home at six, seven o', clock, beat up. Fingers caught up from working so hard, but never had a dime. So at an early age, I know I realized working hard did not equate to success. Had nothing to do with each other. Right. It's like the wrong golf swing, practice it forever. So, long story short, I get your infomercial, I get your first course. I obsess on. I go through the entire thing probably five times. It shifts my way of thinking. I start getting momentum. By 19, 1997, I made the decision. I was filming an infomercial, right? So I'd set my alarm for 4:45 every day. I live in this tiny little apartment.

That's right when I stopped doing infomercials at the same time, actually. That's wild.

So 1997, I'm in this little tiny apartment. I own the apartment house. There's nine apartments. I'd fix one, I'd live in it, I'd rent it, I'd move in one. Not done. I'd get it done, I'd rent it. So I got to the ninth one. I'm in at 4. 45. I get up. The more I start writing my first course that I'm going to put on infomercial 4:45 till about 9, 9 o' clock I'd do that. Then I'd go work on cars. I painted cars, I changed engines. I'd have headaches from spray painting. I drove a tow truck at night. I'd work on houses. So I'm doing all that to pay the bills. And I'm working on my first course. My first infomercial hit the air in November of 1998. It was a failure at first. Went back and forth, had no idea what I was doing. Then when it started working, I didn't even know what to do with the clients. And let me back up.

Tell them a story you told me the other day about. Yeah, I jumped in when you tried to do your first infomercial.

So my first. So I get his course and I have to back up. And I have to say this. You taught me something that my father would say was idiotic. I paid for information. Why would you do that when you could just figure it out on your.

Own or go to the library?

Right? So my poor dad just thought he had to figure out everything on his own. And I realized in early age, I gave Tony Robbins money, and it leapfrogged me years in advance. Like, I just took what you shared and I trusted you. So I just immediately implemented. I didn't question any of it. I just did it. And I watched the momentum grow. I became happier, more successful. I was overcoming obstacles, getting rid of limiting beliefs. I remember all those pieces. I remember you saying, stop, do it now. I'm like, okay, Tony, I'll do it now. Like, literally. So I hire a crew. This whole crew comes to my house. I'm going to film an infomercial. And I figure, I know this so well, I'm just gonna light it up on camera. So I'm sharing this with you so you can now see how bad it was for us, that you don't have to start off what we did. The crew comes. They come with this big dolly that weighed a thousand pounds. I charged the whole thing on credit cards, the whole. The whole setup, the infomercial, everything.

You shot it at your house?

I shot it at my house because I went from a 300 square foot house to. I built the biggest house in my town.

Wow.

Right? So I just moved in this house. I filmed it, and I said, listen, I went from this 300 square foot apartment, I went. I live in this house. This isn't a rented house. This is my house. So all this is in my head. They turn the camera on. I go, so cottonmouth. That I literally couldn't get the tongue off the roof of my mouth. I was like. I'm like, what the hell's wrong? My heart's racing. So I run inside the house. I'm not a big drinker, but I had tequila in the house. I run inside the house, I pour a shot of tequila, I slam it, thinking it's gonna loosen me up. So I can now go down and get on camera. And I go down and I have a buzz. Cause I hadn't eaten all day, and I still have cotton mouth and I'm slurring. So now I'm just drunk, horrible on camera.

I just spent all this money. All. It's a good way to be there.

So I had to send everybody home.

Oh, my God.

So I sent everybody home. I said, come back tomorrow. And I beat myself up that night. I remember I was in the mirror, pounding my chest. I'm like, no one can do this but you. This is on you. You have a chance to stay where you are, or you have the opportunity to grow, Come out of your comfort zone. Fucking do this. I mean, listen. I listened to your course. I was getting in state to the best of my ability. They came back the next day. I nailed it on camera. First time I was ever on camera. I still have the video now. I look at it now, I'm embarrassed. I had a New York accent. I had khakis with pleats in them, tucked in and puffy. My shirt was three sizes too big. But that show went and it worked. That was 1998. I failed miserably and then success and then failed and miserable success brought in some partners that did the wrong thing and failed miserably. But within a couple years, I got massive momentum. The show. I've done 21 years. I haven't missed a day still. I still have an infomercial running on a smaller level, but I haven't missed a day on TV in 21 years. But I want to share one thing, though. In that evolution, I sold a piece of my company to somebody because I thought I was moving to the next level. I made the decision to sell it to the wrong person. They bankrupt. Not officially bankrupt. They offered a bad product. They didn't pay refunds. I took the company back. I used every dollar I had. Almost went out. My whole point is this. And you hear Tony's story. We know what it's like to want more. Not sure what level you're on. Hopefully you're not at the level we were when we started.

But if you are, there's more than hope.

Yeah, there's more than hope.

We can save a whole lot of time and pain and energy. That's the whole point of this course.

And along that journey, there's a couple things I have said. Tony obsessed on going deep, doing breakthroughs, making an impact. I wanted to make an impact. But what I obsessed on, too, just like Tony did, is I knew I had to learn to persuade people and to market, to get act to take action. Because just like Jim Rohn said, if people don't pay, they don't pay attention. That's an old saying. But also, if I didn't get in front of people, if I didn't fill my masterminds up, I didn't fill my groups up, I didn't fill my workshops up, I didn't sell my book, I couldn't make an impact on anyone. So I obsessed for probably 15 years straight on being an effective marketer through the deepest level of enthusiasm. If you've watched my ads, you see there's no hype. We don't tell you you're Gonna get rich overnight. We don't tell you it's easy. There's no magic money machine. But you're still here. Because we spoke through our hearts and truth and through pierces. All the bullshit you're learning from people who have lived this for 62 years. And then you take our best marketing that gets it. So you don't have four people show up at your 500 room event. Because I've done plenty of that. My first one was in my first live event. I was on tv. I figured, oh, now I'll just merge into live events. That's what Tony did. Why shouldn't I do it right? So I booked the show.

We should have talked back then.

Yeah, we should have. We had a. I rented a hotel, the Sheraton at the LA at lax. And I promoted it. I pushed it out to my list. I sent. Sent direct mail. We expected 5, 6, 700 people paid for the whole thing. Less than 20 showed up and talk about Cottonmouth. And then I go out on stage and I was just babbling like an idiot. I think they liked it because they all wanted to do something. But all we're trying to say with showing this real transparent behind the scenes is we've screwed up, but we got 61 years and we know how to do this. So when we share something with you, I want you to do like I did with Tony. I trusted him that I just did what he said, no matter what anybody said. Because if I looked at my dad, I love him dearly, but if I did what my dad did, I'd get his life. I'd get his results. If I did what my friends did, I'd get their results. And at a young age, I had this filter. And maybe I got it from you, Tony, but I had this filter. When someone would give me advice, I immediately know that internal voice we were talking about. My internal voice would say, hey, if I woke up tomorrow and I was them, would I be happy? And if I didn't say yes, I would go, thank you very much. And I wouldn't listen. Because they haven't forged the path in the route that I want to take. So by being here, it shows that you're willing to learn. And I just want to say, trust us at every level, because the only thing.

And I'll give you another language. You don't have to trust us. Trust the process.

Yeah, trust the process.

In other words, test the process. Really? Because I think you do trust us or you wouldn't be here. But I don't even need you to do that. What I really need you to do is trust yourself. Trust yourself enough to say that if I persist enough, if I keep learning, if I keep improving, I'm going to hit the promised land, where the promised land is for you. It's different for everybody. Some people, Promised land is like, wow, I got this beautiful ability to share these insights that have been important in my life. And I have this meaningful life and I get paid to do it, or I got a secondary income, or I built a business, or I built a brokerage. But also it'll evolve. Like, I started as, quote, knowledge broker, and you had that term back then. But by promoting other people, I learned so much. I knew how to run a business because I had to fill these people's businesses for them. So I knew the marketing side. And I also knew in order to be a marketer, how to know what people really want, what they really need, what they were afraid of, where were the wounds, where were the opportunities to make a difference? And so I knew that better than anybody else. And so that made me turn into an expert. I also though, did the other part, which is the modeling.

Yeah, sure did.

So, you know, I mentioned in one of the earlier videos, I did this, you know, about more than a decade ago, I started doing this in finance. I've been teaching finance for 25 years. But I went, interviewed 50 of the smartest minds alive financially today. People, people that are all not from the lucky sperm club. They all built it from scratch, right? Multi billionaires, all in the financial area and figure out what did they do together. Well, my expertise got so strong because my goal was I want to write a book that is unassailable. It's not based on. Because some people are going, oh, Tony Robbins. They think maybe I'm a motivator or some shit. They don't know how strategic it is. So I don't give a shit. They can believe whatever they want. I want to write this book based on the smartest people in the world. You can't argue with Warren Buffett. You can Ray Dali, the greatest hedge fund investor in history, right? So I did that process. But like Steve Forbes wrote an article and said, if there is a Pulitzer Prize for financial book money, master the game. He goes, this is it. Literally. I mean, to get that kind of response where my billionaire clients and my millennial clients would all find value in it. But now I'm doing the same thing in the health field, right? Because I've had some health challenges. I had to deal with tore Rotator cuffs, had some mercury poisoning, some intense stuff the last three years. But I learned so much about stem cells and because I'm obsessive and learning that. So now I'm writing a book with two amazing MDs. Bob Harari, Dr. Harari is one of the top. He's the guy that figured stem cells. He's the man. He's the guy that figured out years ago that he took old cells or old blood out of a young blood, I should say out of rats and put it in old rats and they got the hair turned black, the muscles got strong, took the old blood, put it in the young rats and they got old. Sound creepy? But it led to figuring out stem cells. So he's my partner and then Peter Diamandis who's a Harvard MD and a rocket scientist. They're my co authors and I'm going out and I'm interviewing the best doctors in the world. I mean there's things happening right now in cancer research that is not like stuff you think would be magic 20 years from now. That's some of it's available right now, some of it's available in the next 24 months. It's in phase two, phase three trials. But I'm learning so much knowledge in this area and I can help. I get a phone call a week from somebody who's, you know, this last week one of my partners in the movie business who were making Man Search meeting her six year old son couldn't pee, took him to the hospital and he's got cancer, right? Poor six year old boy. Like what do you do? And so now I can take them to cutting edge technologies and tools where they're available that are not so toxic there. But it's all because I'm doing the modeling, reporting and then that makes me an expert. So I have a. I was written up. You know, it sounds like I'm bragging, but I'm not. I just want to give you a sense hearing my story where it is like, you know, Worth magazine named me in the power 100, 100 most influential people in global finance. And I was like 25 out of 100 ahead of people that like, I don't even think I should be. But I've been able to spread that knowledge. My expertise has grown geometrically. I go to the billionaire conferences for JP Morgan. You have a billion dollar net worth to be in there. The alternative conference. I'm there lecturing. How the hell does that happen? Because I understand how to model, I understand how to go and figure out what the best have and extract it. So the modeling process, the reporting process, can actually turn you into an expert as well. So I want you to understand you don't have to just play one role. You might start out as a knowledge broker, you might start out as an expert and become a better expert by reporting. There's so many avenues here, but the real main reason we wanted to take this few minutes with you is you see somebody today and you go, oh, they're so lucky, or they're so brilliant. Well, yeah, we've had a lot of grace in our lives. We busted our ass, but there's grace. There's no question. You can call it luck if you want. But there's also something to be said for constantly finding a way to add value, constantly pushing through and constantly educating yourself. It's about, hey, how do we save you that time? By eliminating those challenges we've got to go through and also taking control of some of the new technology that can allow you to do things in minutes that used to take months and years.

We think about the access, right? Just to digress here for a second, is the access you have to people who need what you want. Right. Tone? When I first decided to do this, the only way was direct mail, radio or tv. Really? That's expensive, right? So I had to spend. I put every dollar I had into this. I put my credit card max. I got nine different credit cards. I maxed everyone out. I borrowed money from friends to get on TV to spend well over 100 grand when I didn't have 100 grand. Might as well been 100 million to get on TV to hope that it works. The process you're learning from us is you could get in and get in front of people for dollars, right?

And get in front of people, social media and Facebook. I mean, you're learning the tools we have. It's so much easier today than when you and I have to broadcast to tens of millions of people to try to find a few of the right people that were right for what we wanted to share. You can target that today as you know. So I guess the real purpose here is just to say to you, don't give up. If this is your passion, brother or sister, then understand that it didn't just show up for us. And it won't just show up for you. It'll happen faster for you because the tools are available, the targeting is available, and because we can show you the pathway. But don't give up, persist and make this thing happen because it's Worth it.

Yeah. And if you're here, you've already gone through the section where so many people say to me, dude, how have you stayed relevant for 20 years? I've seen your shows, I've seen your marketing. Now we flipped over to social media. We're doing amazing on social media. How do you stay relevant? And I don't know. And I want to pound this home because listening to Tony and I got a lot of this from him at a real early age is I say the answer to that isn't a magic marketing funnel or an arrow or when the video comes up or a two minute video or 20 minute video or Instagram or Facebook or YouTube. You know what it is? Love what you do so much that you feel like you're doing the world a disservice if they don't pay you. When you feel that way, when you know what you're providing is impactful, that can leapfrog them to a whole nother level of life to tap into their full potential to you. Watch the transformations this guy's got to have. And now I get to have that on a regular basis for almost 20 years. It lights you up. So whether you're the expert with the skill that you're going to share it, share something so damn valuable you feel bad if you don't get it to people who need it. And if you're going to be the expert who extracts the knowledge or the reporter, extract from the best of the best, do whatever it takes. Knock down the doors, get in front of the people who know the answers and become the expert because of proximity and extracting the knowledge. And if you're going to be the knowledge broker, find someone who just has that knowledge but doesn't have the access to fill a room or doesn't know how to do a workshop and you have that and you become the broker of the knowledge, just like Tony had. There could never be a better time to do this. The impact needs, they need you. And this is your time.

And if you do this from that place, if you do it from the place of truly your goal is to serving. I always tell people, you know your goals affect you. Jim Rohn should tell me. Your goals affect you, whatever they are. If your goal is to survive, you operate a certain way. If your goal is to make a difference, you come from a different place. If you can find that mission inside yourself and really connect to it. And if you're willing to persist no matter what, if you're not just doing it for the money, if you're really doing it to serve Neither one of us have to do another damn thing the rest of our life financially. But what would you do with your life? Life is only meaningful if you can do something that's beyond yourself. You've got a chance here to do something so meaningful and earn money. And if you do it over time and really build a business, it can make it so there's no limit to your economics as well. And then your economics won't be for you or even your family. It'll be like, who do I feed? Who do I get out of slavery? What do I. You know, you'll find those things that are your mission. And you'll look at this life and you'll have a level of pride that isn't ego pride. Ego pride is when you make shit up and it's not true to try to look good. No. Enough. Know what you do when you know who you are and what you've created. There's no amount of money that can replace that. So take this journey, whatever stage you're in here, and continue with us. But we just wanted to hopefully bring to you a little reality of what can happen and also what it really takes. We're going to show you how to make it happen a lot quicker. So we hope you've been inspired by it, touched by it, and I hope you look at your own pathway and go, mine's going to be a hell of a lot easier than these two nuts.

And I'll end it with this. In the late 90s, mid-90s, I got your course. You made a shift in my life. I wrote in my journal, someday I just want to sit with Tony Robbins and thank him. Swear on my life, I swear to God, if I'm exaggerating. And look how dreams and life transforms when you focus, when you don't give up. Tony always said, if you find an obstacle, doesn't matter how many are there, keep going. Because at the end, it's worth every bit. It's a pleasure to have you here. Let's keep going. Okay. Okay. I hope you enjoyed that real and raw interview. We both shared things we have never shared before. And some of it may be a little confusing to you, wondering what's going on? What are they working on? That's why you need to go to deanslink.com right now and reserve a spot on the special live training I'm doing with Tony to show you how to tap into an industry that Forbes said is going to $1 billion a day within the next five years. Tony and I have 60 plus years of serving, of helping millions while simultaneously creating real wealth in our lives for impacting the world. And we want to pull back the curtain and show you how you could do the same thing. This interview won't be up for long since it is truly behind the scenes and the opportunity to learn from Tony and I live will of course go away. So if you enjoyed this, if you're curious in any way, if you're looking for another level, then right now go to deanslink.com and reserve your spot. Make sure you get in the chat and towards the end when we do Q and A, make sure you say hi and ask us any question that you'd like. And remember, all success starts right here.