People of Influence

Hi, guys. My name is Donnie Rouse, and you are listening to the podcast One Life. So interesting thing just happened. Talk about a day of technological blunders. So I just had my really, really good friend Cynthia here. We were doing a podcast together, and at first we couldn't get the Facebook Live because the signal on the library was weak, so we couldn't stream the video. And then we said, you know what? Let's forget that. Let's just do the podcast without the video. And we started recording. We spoke for a good. Probably a good 45 minutes, thinking that the recording was recording, but the memory card was never placed into the soundboard. So I think the only thing you can do at this point is just laugh about it. But I'm going to recap what we spoke about, and I'll have Cynthia on again. The subject of the podcast was appreciation. Cynthia has been a friend of mine. She's inspired me in my schooling, in my business, as well as in my path of personal development. And I had her on because I kind of wanted. Sometimes she gets a little bit tense when she doesn't know exactly what's going on to happen. And I was even. I'm proud of her for even coming on and choosing to do it because I was initially supposed to stream it live. She doesn't really do live streams. And she came on and sat down here with me without knowing a single idea of what I was going to talk about. So kudos to you, Cynthia. But the topic was appreciation. And I went into some of the areas of my life as to where she touched me, and I'll kind of go over those now. So Cynthia was a former college professor of mine. I took my first class with her and Global Financial Markets. And at that time, when I was in school, I was on the verge of failing out. It was my sophomore year, and I was dating a girl for about six years while I was in school. So that had something to do with a lot of my time was going towards that relationship. But in my sophomore year, I kind of did this 180. All right, well, I got to do a complete 180. If I don't turn this around. Now, what is my. What is my career gonna look like? What is my life gonna look like? At that time, I wanted to be in the financial markets. I wanted to be a stockbroker, which, if you know me at all, that does not fit my personality, although I do enjoy learning about the financial markets. And in that class, I met Cynthia and ended up taking three more. Two more other classes or three total with her. And the reason why I had taken three classes with her because I knew it was an easy A. No, just kidding. She was actually one of the toughest I had. But the reason I took three classes with her is because she expected more from me than I did myself. She believed in me. And at the end of my college career, I asked her to write a recommendation which she was more than happy to do. And in that recommendation she said, donni has the unique ability to create genuine rapport with people. And she went on and on and on and on. And I remember interviewing for different companies, majority of which I had gotten offers but I didn't want because I wasn't really interested in that type of position, but just doing for practice. And then there were the some that I really, really wanted that I got turned down. And then I remember I would take that sheet of paper out, that recommendation that you wrote for me, and I would read it over and it made me feel good. It uplifted me and allowed me to push forward. Fast forward. In 2009, I was in a relationship with my. With one of the girls that I would say my first love because the feeling was more than the immature feeling I had in that six year relationship. But then something I had still felt off. So when that relationship broke off the few days following, I was the lowest I had ever been in my entire life. I doubted God, I doubted everything. The thoughts going through my mind were, well, if everything is for self fulfillment, what's the point of life? And it wasn't enough for me. I couldn't see, I had a hard time. I couldn't live, I couldn't exist in a world that was just about fulfilling one's own needs. Luckily, three days after that breakup, I kind of got that footing. I said, okay, I believe there's a God. Thank God. Because that allowed me to put the footing to say, you know what? There is a reason to do good. There is a reason to want to change the world. In 2010, Cynthia gifted me a ticket to Tony Robbins. Unleash the Power within was his first seminar. And I ended up going on to purchase a string of his seminars, which was quite expensive, but thank you, Cynthia. But it was through that seminar and she had mentioned, you know, I was very proud, not many people will go. And even if they do, not many people get changed because they're not willing to put in the effort in. So she commends me and I kind of loop it back to her was because she was one of those influential people in my life, that kind of opened that door and like that, when I say that door, that opened my world to personal development. Because I started to now and look internally as to how the beliefs were that were in my mind, how I am creating the reality that I'm currently in. And it's been a journey, probably one of the biggest and longest journeys I've been on in my life. And I've been to 49 countries so far, and we'll probably make it 55 by the end of this year. And she had started that for me, so I was very grateful for that as well. And then lastly with my business. In 2010, I went over to Cynthia's house. I was invited to her daughter's birthday party. And she's like, you know what? I don't want. Don't bring a gift. I just want your. We just want your presence here. I insisted. I was like, I have to bring something. I'm coming. I can't come to a party empty handed. She says, fine, if you want, bring something for everyone to enjoy. That's it. So I concocted. I had lived in Rome three years earlier, and I was like, all right, let me try making espresso granita. So I had done all these different things. I had infused different flavors and was just kind of testing. I brought it over. We put it in her freezer. For some reason, it never froze. I insist that there was something wrong with that freezer. She said there wasn't because they still have it today. Maybe I just needed more time and I was a little bit bummed. So were at the end of the party, and the espresso still hadn't frozen. So her husband was like, well, you know what, we'll just pour it over ice. We'll have it as iced coffee, and we'll serve it like that. They did. They added a little bit of cream. And everyone at the party went crazy for it, including Cynthia. She made the recommendation, you know what? You should really bring this to the farmer's market. At first, I thought they were just kind of trying to build me up and make me feel better about this blunder I had with the espresso. But then for some reason, she kept pushing. She's like, you know, it was really good. You have to do it. I went back and for three weeks, I tested to figure out what exactly it was that I did, because I never wrote down the recipe. About three weeks in, I brought some of the espresso to her. I said, cynthia, is this what you tasted the first time? I made it. She goes, yes, that's it, that's it. And I brought it to the farmer's market. Weeks later, I had lines of people, literally lines, going down the alleyway of the farmer's market with people coming to taste my espresso. I remember one day, Louise Levin, one of my best customers today, too, she brought in a bottle. She goes, here, can you fill this up? I want to take it home so that I have it for the week. Other people in the farmer's market saw her bringing that bottle, and week after week, I had more and more people bringing bottles for me to fill. And then I kind of clicked. I was like, I think I have something here. And I started bottling my espresso. So you can still get my espresso. That's my little plug. You can go to Ralph's Coffee R A U S C O F F E E and get the cold groan there. But my point behind telling that story was she was at the influence. She influenced me to even step out with this new product. And there's a million other things in ways in which he's influenced the travels, but those are just some of the biggest three. And I tell you this story, because even as I sit here, I mean, she influenced this podcast as well, is that we have so many people in our lives that we just kind of go by and we take things for granted. We don't acknowledge, like, the impact that they've had. Or if we did at one moment, we might not look back and say, you know what? Wow, because of that person, this is where I am today. Or maybe they made one little change years ago, and all of a sudden now the repercussions, you're at a completely different space, different place in time, was because of this one touch point you had with somebody 10 years back. So saying this because I want to make you see your day in a different light, I want you to think about your day differently. Cynthia was just here, and while she was here, she was saying that whenever you feel angry, I'm paraphrasing, whenever you're angry, it's because of the thoughts going on in your own mind. And she went on to say, look at your environment. Who were the people who were around you, and why do you even spend time with them? Because if it doesn't serve you, why are you putting your energy there? She commented on our friendship and how when she's with me, we joke around, we laugh a lot, we have a lot of the same energy. We inspire others because we see the Infinite possibilities. We believe that we're capable of so much more and we're proud of one another. So those are just some of the thoughts that feel fuel our friendship. What are they for you? Who are those people in your life that you might meet or you might hang out with, you might talk to, but you don't really feel good when you're talking to them? Why do you talk to them then? Is it because you feel like they might get mad or in some way they're. Maybe they're killing, you know, kind of wasting some time that you're. You wouldn't know what to do otherwise if you hadn't been talking to them. Why is it. And just be responsible for the energy, the actions that you're putting out there, taking the responsibility for how you feel right now. Going back to the first question again, who is it in your life that's kind of guided you at some point in your life? Maybe they did a kind gesture when you needed it the most. Maybe they inspired you to take direct or gave you the confidence to step forward in a new business endeavor. Think about one person. It doesn't have to be. It could be something small, too, like someone who brought you to a doctor's appointment. Whatever it may be where you wouldn't have been able and you found out that your checkout was okay or your checkup was okay. Whatever it is, it doesn't have to be big. But just think of someone that's impacted your way in some small way. And your job or your homework for this podcast is to just kind of reach out to them and thank them, bring up that moment, tell them to say, you know what, I know this is really random, but remember that time when you did ABC for me? It might seem really significant, but I was having such a horrible day that day. And that interaction I had with you really made a difference to me. And I want to say thank you. What kind of effect do you think that would have? How do you think you're going to make them feel, first of all? And how are you going to feel yourself? So that is it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this session. This is just a portion of the talk Cynthia and I had. Like I said, we were recording for probably about 45 minutes only to realize that there was no memory card. So I guess if you want to follow me, want to shoot me a message, you can check me out on Instagram. It is onnydony rous R A U S and you can also ping my coffee brand RouseCoffee. R a u s c o f f e e and if you are the least bit curious about trying the best espresso beverage in the world, no BS, you can go onto my website rousecoffee r a u s C-O-F-F-E-E.com use the discount code onelife and you will get 10% off your order. Highly recommend the 3 bottle of cold Roman. Very limited qualities. I do everything by hand. Once they're sold out, they're out for good. That is it. Guys, thank you so so much for tuning in. I hope this makes you think about your day and the people in your life a little bit differently and kind of put you in that positive mindset. Thanks again. See you next week.