Weekly Wisdom #212 - From Broke to Blessed

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Weekly Wisdom. I'm Dean Graziosi. If you're new to this site, welcome. We love having you here. Browse around, check out all the amazing people. You can watch old blogs over here. You can take a test drive with our Insider Elite membership up above. You can get one of my free books. Either way, register, do what it takes to get your name and email with us if we don't have it so we can remind you of these videos and every single week. Okay, so you guys know, a couple weeks ago, you know, we ran a little something here. I said, every post below, I donate $5 towards, you know, Hurricane Sandy that just devastated the east coast. And I was just back in the east coast last week, and it's still horrible there. I know for those of you that live near it, you know it, but, you know, I'm out here in Arizona. I don't see anything on the news. I don't see even on the Internet anymore, but it's horrible. And there's so many people hurting. So last week, Carol Stenson, I want to talk about her in a second. One of our students did me a favor because I couldn't get to Staten island where we wanted to donate some money. She did me a favor because she suggested the pastor who was helping so many Staten island people that were just devastated. She went and handed a $15,000 check to the pastor, who's doing such a great job down there on the ground. And I have that video that I want to show you guys. I think it's really cool. And we're doing a lot of other stuff. We're helping out some other families, and we'll. We'll keep you updated on that. And I just don't want to keep those thoughts and prayers and money, if you can, sent to the people who really need it. But, you know, it made me think of Carol. I haven't talked about Carol in a while, and so many of you know her. And if you're new to this site, Carol is a mom of seven whose husband lost his work when the economy tanked. This is probably five years ago now. And they were literally down to their last $30. When Carol bought my book, she said they literally ate peanut butter and jelly for a week because she spent $30 buying my book and getting rush delivery or whatever it was at the time. And Carol gets very emotional. If you've ever seen her on stage or any of my Edge events because she said what her biggest fear was, they were going to shut off her electric that's how broke Carol was. Couldn't barely afford food and she was afraid that if the electric went and they didn't have anything that they'd take her kids away. I mean, even I say it and I get goosebumps because I can't imagine how bad that must have been, especially with her. Youngest is challenged and he's got some problems that she takes ownership of and loves that little boy. I met him, he's a great little kid. So she's got a lot on her plate. So imagine that. Husband losing job, electric getting shut off down to your last $30, no food in the house, and she gets a book on real est. Kidding me. But she did it. And the reason I'm sharing this, because I don't know how bad your back is against the wall or maybe it's not at all. You just want to take advantage of it. But when you hear stories like Carol, who got my book, got my education, was on dean graziosi.com at first doubting it, doesn't know if it can work. Because she was also thinking a little differently back then. Thinking, you know, a lot of people around her were negative. Everybody around her was negative. Are you crazy? You're broke. You buy a book with your last 30 bucks, your kids are eating peanut butter and jelly. Are you nuts? But she went at it diligently, like no one I've ever seen. In the first 60 days. She did her first wholesale deal. She matched a buyer and a seller and made $5,000. $5,000 to her back then. How she shares it to me might have well been a million dollars. Well, years later and so much hard work, Carol has gone on to take vacations. You know, it was really great. She talks about the Jersey Shore when she won. One year, she won our send me away dean contest. Three, four years in, she won it. And we paid for a week vacation for her and her family to go to the Jersey Shore. That was the first vacation she ever took with her family in her entire life. Well, she's been going there on her own every year since, renting a house, the whole family going down. Not that many years ago, she took her kids to a mall, okay, a mall to go school shopping. Prior to that, she literally used to shop at the Salvation army and get hand me downs. This is someone is such a rags to riches story, for lack of a better word. And she's just an amazing woman and I love her. And here's the thing, what I love about what we do here, and I want to tell You. Carol's gone on to average 20, $30,000 a month. And she bought a house. She has a. She told me, I think we were on the phone the other day talking about donating this money. And she said her. Her new Cadillac got wet when the water rose. Look where she went. Her kids are all going to school and colleges that she's paying for. She's training her kids to work with her. Everything has transformed for her because she stepped out of the box, tried something crazy and went for it. And all I did is provide the wisdom and hopefully the motivation through this site. And she took the massive action. Now, her back was against the wall, but does your back have to be that against the wall to want to make that difference? And here's one thing I thought about this morning when I was thinking about Carol and thinking about this video is when Carol first started, she was on dgraziosi.com all the time. I watched. I watched so many of the posts and not negative, but concerned at first this could work. And then watching her evolve over the years, and then she sends in her home video and you guys voted. She was the winner one year of the Send Me Away contest. And I got to meet her and shake her hand and become friends with Carol and learn to love Carol for the amazing person she is. And met her husband, met her kids, and we stayed in contact a lot. And I think it's almost like kids like, you want to help your kids. And this is how I feel. You want to help your kids. I used to see her on DG.com all the time. And I'd talk to Carol once a month. And Carol and I don't talk that much anymore. And I have to tell you, I feel amazing because. And she's not on DG.com as much as she used to be. Still there. Thank you, Carol. Because she's gone on. It's like raising a child, giving them the opportunity. They go off and do what you want. That's what life's about. I hope to do that with so many of you. I never want you to leave DG.com because I want you to help others like Carol is. She made that suggestion to do it in Staten Island. Great suggestion. Let her do it. But if you think about it, she was a part of this site nonstop. I was talking to her, but then she got the capabilities along with her action. And she's gone on to make an amazing life for herself. She's helping other people. She's helping on this site. And if we don't talk that much, that's okay as long as I see her always progressing, getting that new house, getting a car, taking those vacations, helping people in need and changing her life forever and changing the destiny of her children. I feel amazing. And that's what I want for everybody. Single person watching, whether you're on your 20th deal. Hundredth deal. Or struggling to get that first one, if Carol can do it, I know you can do it. And again, I know it's not easy. And some of you may feel like you're banging your head against the wall. Well, take a breath, go back to the education, get in the game. Find out the other outside determining factors that are holding you back. The biggest thing Carol always told me what was in her way when she first got started was, was this. So if you know, if you're having trouble with that and you haven't, make sure you take a test drive on the Insider Elite because we work on making sure this doesn't get in the way of making this. So anyway, Carol, thank you for being you. Love having you as a friend. Love everything you've done. Love the inspiration you give to everybody. Make sure you stay on this site forever because you're a great inspiration. Now let's watch that video of her handing that check off.

Hey, everyone, I'm standing here with Pastor Dave from New Hope Community Church in Staten Island, New York. And right now we are giving him the donation from Dean Graziosi and the DG family to help some people here in Staten island that have fallen victim to the hurricane. Pastor Dave is in these communities rebuilding these homes and helping people get back into their homes. He's providing a lot of the necessary needs for the people here in Staten island. And right now I am giving him a check. $15,000, which you helped raise by commenting on Dean's video. So we are going to give this.

To you, Pastor Dave.

Thank you so much.

And guys, this book is actually all the comments that you left on DG.com and in reality, they're all prayers that you've given to the people for the hurricane here. All of your comments are also being given to Pastor Dave to give him a little bit of support and encouragement along the way in what he's doing here in Staten Island. Pastor Dave, you want to say anything?

Sure. I want to thank you so much for the kind donation. It will be put to excellent use. We've been working together with a group of about 30 churches and ministries and adopting different areas in the flood zone. So far, the coalition of churches has cleaned out about 1500 homes and helped so many people. But I want to thank you also for these prayers, because as we meet the people in these regions, we're finding that their greatest need is spiritual. And more than their homes being destroyed, their hearts, their emotions have been just devastated with the storm. So I'm looking forward to sharing these prayers. To see thousands of prayers being prayed for them is amazing. So thank you for being a part of rebuilding their homes, rebuilding their lives, and rebuilding their hearts. We treasure your partnership with us in this endeavor. God bless you.

Thank you.

Okay, guys, thanks.