What Successful People Say When No One's Listening
In this motivational keynote Dean Graziosi introduces his "Three Cs" framework—Change, Courage, and Confidence—as essential pillars for launching or scaling a sustainable business, especially in uncertain times marked by rapid AI advancement. He begins with Change, urging listeners to view change as a constant and to adopt a Kaizen mindset of tiny, incremental adjustments (the "quarter‑inch" shift) rather than massive overhauls, illustrated with the "Who Moved My Cheese?" parable. He then moves to Courage, defining it as taking bold action despite fear, encouraging the audience to identify and rate the stories or beliefs that hold them back, and to imagine a future regret if they remain inactive. Finally, he discusses Confidence, presenting pragmatic ways to protect and build it: eliminating confidence‑robbing inputs (negative news, toxic people), focusing on strengths, surrounding oneself with supportive mentors and communities (e.g., Mastermind.com), practicing gratitude, and continuously reinforcing empowering language. Throughout, Graziosi blends storytelling, rhetorical questions, and actionable exercises to inspire immediate implementation of the Three Cs.
Chapters
Do you know the three Cs that are needed to start or scale any business, especially if you want it sustainable? I'll share those with you here in a minute. I just want to tell you, in times like these, to really have the nerve to go all in, to launch that business that's been on your mind or the one that's just been hovering and you know it's time to take it to the next level, you need another level of you. You need another level of clarity. You need another level of ambition. You need another level of innovation. And these three three Cs in my 40 years of being an entrepreneur have saved my life. Listen, we are in uncertain times. We got AI come in. Is it going to replace what you do or is it going to enhance what you do? Are you out in front of it? Are you way behind it? All these things can create confusion in your head. And if your competition isn't confused, then they're pulling ahead. And it sucks to be left behind. It sucks to miss out, because playing catch up is almost impossible. So I want to share with you these three Cs that when I look back in the most difficult times of my life, they got me through. In the times that I had to innovate, create something out of nothing, they got me through. So let's jump right in. The first one is change. Change is one of those things that it's probably the most constant thing in your life and the thing that sometimes we avoid. I mean, change can either decide if you're happy, scared, annoyed, frustrated, or elated and can't wait because it can be scary. But the fact of the matter is, if you're not embracing change, then you're sliding. Because if we don't grow, we die. If we're not climbing, like I said, you're sliding. And even though we might need to change, we want to change. It's easy to get stuck in a hypnotic rhythm of life. We look back, we're almost driving our business and our life, looking in the rear view mirror of what worked. And we're trying to make tiny little shifts to get a little more when we might need exponential change, we might need radical change. You might need to break something so you can have a breakthrough. If we want something different, we have to do something different. If you remember the book who Moved My Cheese? The whole concept is there was two little mice and two little men in a maze, and they found this area where there was so much cheese. There was so much cheese that was brought to them every single day. Like maybe a certain strategy in your business or in your life or the career you're trying to get away from. But the cheese was just brought every day, and there was an abundance of cheese. They became the mayor, they named the town, it was Cheese Town. And every day they just got cheese handed to them to where they got entitled to where they expected it, and they built their life around it until one day the cheese stopped. Now the little mice were like, hey, I'm not sure it's coming back. The two little men were like, it's definitely going to come back. I need it to come back. We deserve this cheese. We've been getting it for years. It's our cheese. We're going to stand here till it's back. And the mice were like, I don't think so. We're going to go out in the maze, we're going to change our circumstances. We're going to take a chance, we're going to take uncomfortable action. We're going to jump out of the plane and grow wings on the way down. They went out to. Did they find cheese right away? Heck, no. They found a little bit. They ended up coming back. And the two little men were starving. Still no cheese. So they left again. Now, though, they had to go through the maze. Though they got lost, though they got hungry, they finally found a new sustainable supply of cheese and flourished. The whole moral of the story is to go to your next level of life. We have to change. We have to adopt new policies. We have to decide, is AI for us or not? Is my leadership the way it should be? Am I the man? Am I the woman that can carry us through? What do I need to read? What do I need to be more in control of to move forward? Who do I have to stop listening to? Who do I have to listen to more? So what if we shifted the meaning of the word change? What if a tiny little adjustment could actually shift everything? What if it was just a quarter of an inch? Could a quarter of an inch change? I think most people think when they have to change or do something new, they got to make a 180. Got to change everything about your life. What if it was just a quarter of an inch? You see, like Kaizen, change could have a different meaning when. When we fall in love with it and realize we don't have to do it all overnight, we have to make tiny little quarter inch shifts that can change everything. And once you realize this, you'll realize that you can get out of the rut. Doesn't mean the Rut of life. Just the hypnotic rhythm by making small little shifts until you start embracing change. So you look forward to change. And once you do that, that's the culture you breed. That's the way your team will follow you. If you have a team, great. If you don't have won yet, then that's the team you built. So the first C is change. The second C is courage. Ah, courage. That's a fun word, isn't it? You see, Confidence. I'm going to just give you a little sneak peek. The next C is confidence. We're not going to talk about that one yet. Hear me on this one. People always say you need the confidence to move forward. No. Confidence comes after you are courageous and you build the muscle to move forward. Courage is the precursor of confidence. Courage is being bold. Courage isn't moving forward because you lack fear. Courage is moving forward even though you're scared. We find courage in a lot of different ways. One is by borrowing it from the past. Listen, courage can be robbed with all the craziness that's going on in the world. Courage could be robbed when you're obsessed with maybe AI or shifts or the economy or who's president or who's in the Senate or all the all of a sudden, courage can slowly start to dwindle because courage is an inside job. When your inside starts to get insecure, when imposter syndrome, or can I really scale to that level? Can I do my own thing? Starts to come in, you start to shrink and you don't take the bold actions you need to take. We have to flip it around. We have to get disturbed with our own inaction. We could go back in time and remember times in our life when we were scared. We did it anyway. And on the other side of that was our next level. So let me ask you something. What's the story or the belief that stops you from taking action? Is it you failed in the past? Is it the economy? Is it family? You feel like you're alone? Let me ask you something. If you were writing down, what's the thing that stopped you from starting that business or scaling to the next level? What is that story? It takes money to make money. My husband doesn't support me. It's the economy we're in. Technology's moving too fast. I failed before. I'm scared. And okay, only you are going to see this. And I'd love for you to really think about that. And when you think about that holding you back, do me a favor, give it a 1 to 10 out of how strong that is, is it an 8 that your husband doesn't support you or you feel too old or you're not good with technology or you don't have the money to launch? So I want you to park that for a second. I want you to park that feeling. I want you to park that thought, that thing that has robbed your courage to move forward. And now I want you to think about something else. What if you got the chance to meet your maker at the end of your life? You lived a long life. Now you're sitting down and talking to your maker, and he pulls out his iPhone and he plays you a video of the man or the woman you could have been. And you realize you missed it. You missed your shot. You held back. You never unleashed. You never hit your full potential. You played small and you watched this video of you being courageous, and you had more love and you had more freedom and you had more control. It was more the real you. And you're like, oh, my God, that could have been me if I just didn't let that story stop me. If I took the uncomfortable action, if I was more courageous to move, move forward, I could have been that. But you missed it. You didn't take the action. Let me ask you something. If you had one wish, one wish at that very moment, what would it be? Maybe you said this. If you had one wish, people say to go back, to do it over. Is that what you're thinking? I'm going to share something with you. Wish granted. You're here right now. You can come back in time and not let that silly story and call it silly, because there's nothing compared to missed out and regrets. Right? Get to the end of your life and realize you missed it. That's scary. So you could decide in this moment to be bold, to be courageous. Be courageous, I should say, and not let that old story stop you ever again. Now, if we have the courage to move forward, follow me over. If we embrace change, I've already kind of given it away. If we're courageous moving forward, even when we're scared, we're. When your courage and you're in the game and you're doing the work, guess what? The third C comes into place. Confidence. Confidence comes after courage. And confidence can be handled in a very pragmatic way. Now, I know this might sound a little simple, like, hey, I'm watching this video and you're going to give me this secret formula to find confidence, but it's really simple, and it's simply this what are the things that you do that rob your confidence? Have you ever watched the news and had more confidence when you were done? Ever watch the news like, oh, this was amazing, honey, if you missed the news, you should watch it at 7. It's going to fill you up, make you want to take action? No. You watch the news, it robs your confidence. Makes you go, oh, the world's going to hell in a handbasket. So does that add to your confidence or take away? If it takes away, why not go a month without news? Does certain thinking about the things you lack or the things you missed or the things that are gone, a certain thinking robbed your confidence, maybe change your thoughts? Do certain people rob your confidence? Is there that friend or someone you spend time with and when you do, they question everything about you? You dim your glow around them because you have these aspirations and they're telling you you're crazy, so you play small. Does that rob your confidence? I got one for you. How about working on your weaknesses? Biggest lie we've ever been told, Work on our weaknesses. The hell with that. We don't work on our weaknesses. We empower our strengths. Let's get great at what you're already good at. Let someone else do the things you're weak at. What actions do you take that rob your confidence? If we discover the things that rob our confidence and we stop doing them, I told you, very pragmatic, very simple. Then on the opposite side, what are the things that you can do that build your confidence, that make you say, I can do this? Get out of my way. It's my turn, my time. I'm going to live and do. I'm meant to be. I'm starting this business. I'm scaling this business. I'm hiring. I. I'm putting the money down. I'm making it real. Could the right people be something that builds your confidence to be connected in the right community, to surround yourself with mentors who inspire you, not make you dim your glow? That's why Tony and I created mastermind.com. we have people entering the knowledge industry becoming knowledge entrepreneurs. And we put a community together where everybody supports everybody to say, you can do this. Stand up at your family's house, say, I'm going to make a million bucks next year. They want to. Oh, crazy dreaming again. Do that in the right group of room and they say, how can I help you? Yes, you are. Are you reading the right books? Are you listening to the right podcasts? Are you absorbing courses? Are you getting a coach? Are you a part of a community. Are you doing things that put the right people around you? We all know that you are the sum total of the people you hang around. And that'll lead to. Are you having the right thinking? You got to watch your language because words matter. I can't believe I lost this. No, this is what I have. Oh, I got so many obstacles. No, no, no. Where's the opportunity in this? Practicing gratitude. Hey, 170,000 people die every day. We didn't today like we were talking about, right? We're here. So if we're here, can we find a way to be thankful that we get to start fresh, that we have the desire that you're watching a video like this to start a business, to scale a business, to do your own thing. Can we focus on our strengths? The opposite of focusing on your weaknesses. Stop doing the things that rob your confidence and start doing the things you that empower it. The three Cs. To start and scale a business and have sustainability. Embrace change. Take it on as a challenge and fall in love with it. Build that culture. Be courageous. Jump out of the plane. Grow wings on the way down. Be bold. Take action. And once you learn and you're in it, then confidence starts to show. And don't let anything that takes away your confidence come into your life and do the things that fuel it.
