Bridging the GAP from Simple to SUCCESS

This episode is unreal. It's with the legendary Don Hobbs and Don Tell us what we are going to learn Glenn.

We are going to talk about attitude. We are going to talk about. Why would we talk about attitude? It is your attitude show. We are going to talk about attitude. We are going to talk about how big you really are and how you come out the other side no matter where you find yourself. In making it the biggest life you could ever imagine.

What is the roadmap to defeat self sabotage, negative thinking and learned helplessness. And these unprecedented at times you must get connected, get growing, get certain and get attitude. The Get Attitude Podcast.

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This episode is brought to you by KPMG Risk Services. KPMG believes that when you've earned the trust of all your stakeholders, that's when your business has a solid platform to grow. That's the trusted imperative KPMG Risk Service develop and put in place dynamic risk strategies designed to help your business earn that all important trust. Go to read.kpmg us trust to learn more. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a legend. Somebody that I didn't know impacted my life at such a high level. And chances are when you get to meet this guest you are going to sit there and go oh my God, this guy impacted my life and I didn't even know it. And who is this guy? Well, this guy, his name is Don Hobbs. Don began his seminar career at 18 when he went to work internationally with the renowned speaker and really people who feel that he was the father of speaking and personal development and I have listened to I don't know a thousand hours of Jim Rohn. He was one of the true pioneers in global development, set records, working with Jim. He worked his way to become president of Jim Rohn Productions at the early, early age of 25. In 1986, Don left that position and co founded what was known as Hobbs Herder, advertising and industry interrupter. And that's what we're talking about. We are interviewing in season two, innovators, right? And disruptors. And we have a true innovator and disruptor and interrupter in thing called the real estate and personal development business. He started this thing called The Soul Institute. 25 years, I think he worked in that. He worked with Gary Keller, right? He worked with Gary Keller developing bold. And I've been through the bold training, believe it or not. And also helped him with the one thing which, you know, Gary is a legend and unbelievable. He also has something called the Care Network and Wildfire Rescue. I'm going to talk to him a little bit about giving. Don has spoken to over 1 million realtors. He has developed and has completed. Right. One of the biggest massive real estate training gurus, bottom line in the world. The Realtor magazine named Don one of the top 25 most influential people in the real estate business. Now look it, I can go on and on and on about this guy, but you know what? Why don't we just listen to him and I'm telling you, hold onto your seats because this guy's, he's done it all. And he is now the new president of Success magazine and his new role, Success Enterprises. And boy, I can't wait to see what he does with this periodical something and I've been reading and subscribed to for years. So with that big long introduction, let's get some attitude with Don Hobbs. Don, welcome to the gap.

Oh my God, Glenn, I can't believe all that was in my description.

I'm totally impressed. I can take my bow and go home. So good to be here with you. Thank you so much for having me.

Yes, well, we go ahead.

I love the work that you're doing and I love that this revolves around.

Attitude because you mentioned Jim Rohn. It all started me early on, but that was really the foundation for my, my whole career, really. So glad to be here. Really. It's an honor.

Well, you and I had similar past. I was a division one athlete that I had a family start me at 18 and I got right into the business. So me and you were both hitting the streets early. And so, you know, I'd love to know, how does a guy at 18 years old take on and engage one of the Foremost speakers, like, number one, what was your attitude when you did that? That's going to be a great story. But number one thing I always like to start asking is this, I really want to know who was your attitude coach growing up? Right? Or like, who formed your attitude before we get to you being 18 and doing that?

You know, it's a great question.

Thanks for asking. I think the biggest thing, I would say Jim became my attitude coach. Honestly, he was. He was the start of that. And I'm not sure where it came from, but I had a winning attitude. I was not. I was not. I didn't play college sports. In fact, I Left School at 18 and all of that. But for me, it was about. My grandfather was a good influence. He was a fourth grade educated man who had a business and a bunch of real estate and whatever, and that was a good thing. He taught me how to treat people and how to be an adult. And they called me premature. I was kind of adult, like at age 12, 13. It was like doing stuff. But I think the biggest thing is I knew that I wanted more. And I knew that where I was raised was not how I was going to be. And that was a big part of it. You know, I was raised. I always say I wasn't raised on the other side of the tracks. The tracks were there and I was just this side of it. But it was right there in the, you know, the kind of the tough area of Los Angeles and, you know, didn't have a family that had a lot of money. And so it was really a challenging time. And I just knew that I wanted more. I became a great student. I became, you know, big at whatever I did because I wanted to excel. And I'm not sure where that came from. My dad wasn't like that. My mom, great heart, but, you know, that she wasn't a striver. And so I hit Jim Rohn and it was like. In fact, she was the one who bought me the ticket. And she said, this guy reminds me of you. Which I thought was really funny. Now I look back in hindsight and go, rowan reminds her of, right? And I'm like. So I went to see him and, you know, I remember walking into the west and South Coast Plaza. You've probably been there, this big hotel in a ballroom. And I'd never been in a hotel with chandeliers. I mean, that was way beyond my. Where I was raised and how I was raised and saw this guy speak, and I was just blown away. And I was like, I want to do That I want to be him. You know, I want to. I mean, I was totally taken. It was. You know, it was a date night, and I'm sitting there in a seminar. Like, who in the world wants to be in a seminar? I think it was a Saturday night, and I was taking copious notes and a stenographer's notebook. You know what that looks like?

I did the old.

Right. 19 pages of notes, and it blew my mind. And I was like, I want to do that. So that's how it all started for me there.

I've always said, especially when we train people, and I know you've heard this. You know, the best way to show someone you're listening is to take notes. And, my God, I have vaults of yellow pad paper from all the people that we've been. Now, you did mention this one guy named your grandfather. Interestingly enough, that. That just came out. I'd love to know his name. I'd love to. I know that you told me that he owned real estate and was a bit entrepreneurial, but is there a backstory? Is there something about when you think of your grandfather and again, give us his name, because I love to give credit to grandpas. It's a big name.

Antonio Garcia.

Antonio Garcia.

Oh, really?

Cool.

Cool.

And so what was his deal? What was his fire? What did he say to you that maybe did it or what did. You know, when you look at him and when you think about it, it's time to give tribute to him. I'd love to hear about him and his story.

Maybe, you know, he was uneducated, right.

Fourth grade education. But he came over. He was Arizona. My grandmother was from the other side, from Mexico, and came up to Los Angeles and made that journey, and she just started making stuff happen. And way back when, working with his hands and working in somebody's bike shop, he ended up buying a Schwinn bike shop. And we all know Schwinn.

Wow.

And so he built Tony's bike shop, which, by the way, I don't know how many years later, because I think it was started in the 50s. It's still Tony's Bike Shop.

Are you kidding? How cool.

Yeah, Legendary. You know, he was the rock star of that area. But it was kind of fun because he was.

He was a very simple man.

So he had simple lessons, and he.

Taught me a lot about how to.

To. To treat people with respect.

And he taught me a lot about.

How to see the possibilities in opportunity and how, you know, that defeat was only defeat if you laid down and let it happen. Right. It was, he was the one that kind of spurred me on and we were actually involved in the trap shooting industry. I don't know if that makes any sense.

Interesting.

I was a professional trap shooter at 16, but he had trained me from the early age. And so I was around this men's sport. Yeah, I was around this men's sport and got a chance to play with some big time players and was really good at it. And so it looked like it was going to be a direction for me, but it was also about being around these adults and not acting like a kid, not being just a little boy and you know, all that stuff. It was kind of a chance for me to grow up faster.

That is. Don, here's what I want to know. I've never had or interviewed a champion trap shooter. What's the, what's the attitude. What is the attitude lesson of a champion trap shooter? What can people learn from a champ about their attitude?

You know, it's an individual sport and.

As many individual sports, it's all focus and concentration and in that game to win, you know, it's clay pigeons, right. So it's, you know, you, you can rank in, in terms of 100 shots. Right. That's how we did things. So at the high levels and if you miss one, you're out.

So you know, you've got to run 100.

So it's, it's never ending focus. It's, you know, there's no, there's no mistakes allowed. And of course, you know, weather conditions a lot of.

But you've got to see, wow. See the targets broken.

You've got to mentally see what you want to happen. I mean there was a lot of visualization. I visualize a lot.

Yeah.

So you're telling me that if you hit 57 clays in a row and you miss one, then they say you're out of here, dude.

No, but 99 isn't going to rank anything on the scoreboards when you're at the top level.

So you got to pop 100 in a row.

Uh huh. And then, and then have what they call shoot offs, like playoffs to shoot sometimes another 25, 50, 100 more. You have big championships where they had many thousands of people you'd have to go sometimes 2, 300 in a row to.

And you were a champion at this.

Yeah, I never did 300 in a row. So let's stop there. I was a state champion in California.

There we go. Okay.

And it was not a national deal, but I was, I Was, you know, my intention was to go to the Olympics. My intention was going to the Olympics. And, you know, in those days, we had amateur and professional, and I was. I was winning so much, and I'm going, I need to make that money. I want to make the cash. And I gave in and took the cash and gave up my amateur status.

Ah, so it was your success monetarily, that. Do you ever regret that, Don? Or do you just say, screw it, I made enough money, I'm good.

No, I absolutely think I made the right move for the time. If you think about the. The twists and turns and the forks in the road and, you know, I could have gone this way. Could have gone this way, man, I've been very fortunate. I've been very fortunate.

Do you ever skeet anymore and shoot anymore?

Hardly ever, because unless I can win, I don't like playing.

A very common trait among successful people. Right?

Yeah. I don't like just mediocrity, so it's hard unless I get back into a thousand. So that's really a funny question.

So the. Let's go to 18. You do this, Jim Rohn, and I was the same way. Right. Personal development complete nerd, can't listen to enough at all. And I have them all. Talk to us a little bit about, in seven years, you become the president of Jim Rohn. Right. Of his company. So, number one, I want you to tell me, how do you define attitude? And number two, tell me about those seven years on how you stood at the bridge as a new guy and then became president after seven years. So define attitude and then walk us through that journey and some of the big attitude lessons there.

Well, for me, attitude and, you know, I think I got some of this. I'm not sure if it's exactly what he said, but my takeaway from it was, attitude is the filter through which all of life happens. So all things good and all things bad are currently present all the time present. You know, if you watch the news and focus on that, you're going to go, the world's a disastrous place. If you focus on the right stuff and get around the right people, you go, wow, the world's an awesome place. And so to me, attitude is really about how we see the world and allow ourselves a filter through which everything comes and helps us to make the choices about what we believe. And so, you know, at an ultimate level, it's our beliefs, right? It becomes our beliefs.

I love it. And I'll rephrase my question because this will be better. Number one, I want to know the lowest point in those seven years you had with Jim Rohn. Right. And then number two, I want to know the highest point in those. And then that way you don't have to tell me the story, because I may ask you that later. So lowest point, highest point, getting to where you were going.

Absolutely. Right off the bat, I sold nothing. So I'm in straight commission, and I sold nothing. I mean, if I sold anything, I sold all the guns and gold and things that I had bought when I was making big bucks as a professional trap shooter.

Wow.

And so I sold everything to stay in the game. And I remember my mom calling me, going, hey, you should get a job. And I remember even a time and I discussed this. I've had her in audiences and said this out loud. And that is, I remember saying to her, I can't be around you right now because I have to keep my own attitude up, and I can't be around and hold mine and yours up. So right now I'm, like, out. And it was a little bit of time, just a few months, maybe a year or so before I kind of started getting my feet underneath me and started to see what was going on. I don't know if you know this or not, but during that same time, big, gawky kid came along and worked for Jim, too. His name is Tony Robbins. So we were there in those early days. Right. And we were both flailing and failing. But, you know, we had such an interesting group, and I absolutely saw that there was success in there.

Yes.

And so even though I was not there, I knew that was what I wanted, and I saw where I was going. And literally, you know, there was a part where I was like, I am around all these players. And there was some big. I mean, we, you know, the kind of the founder verbal life came out of there. There was some really big players that came out of our. Our core, and it was just cool to be around them. And I began to see a path and, you know, learn from each experience and learn from each person, and it was. It was awesome to be in that environment. And of course, you know, and I know that being around, you know, winners and people that have that kind of attitude is a big piece of success. Right. It's hard to be the only one with a great attitude.

Sure.

You know, if you're around a bunch of people that are pulling you down. The crabs, as we like to call them. Right. The crabs in the bucket.

Yes. Yes.

But I was around a bunch of winners and. And we Had a chance to really start growing. So that was the beginning of it. And it was hard. I mean, Glenn, I'm telling you, I thought, like, I didn't need my mom telling me to quit because I was thinking about quitting. You know, I'd say. I won't say daily. I'm sure it was not that because we had some wins, but I would say monthly. I was definitely going, is this really what I should be doing? But I kept seeing a longer picture. A longer picture, A longer picture. I kept thinking, I want to do that. I want to be him. I want to be like that. You know, and plus, we got to hang him around with Roan after all the seminars and all that stuff. And it began to formulate not only a relationship, but also, you know, a greater, deeper understanding, personal development. I'm reading more books. I'm beginning to evolve. I took a speed reading course. I was devouring books, which is a large part of my growth at an early, you know, at a young age.

Wow.

A lot of it was other people's experiences because I didn't have them. Right, right. What did I know about stuff?

What. So go ahead.

No, go ahead.

So, you know, obviously, Tony's crushing things, and did he leave before you came president, or was he.

Or were you.

So he was he. Did you just kind of. Did, you know, he was maybe special, or were you like. I mean, what was your gut instinct on him? And what was his attitude back then?

Oh, my gosh. He was undefeatable. He was. He was a renegade. A bit of a renegade. You can't imagine that. I'm sure, knowing him as you probably do.

Yeah.

And, you know, he just. He fought big. He went big. And for that reason, he fought huge. You know, he. And he's tall, so, you know, when he falls, he falls big.

Right.

But, you know, he was always determined. And I've got a. Somewhere I found a picture in a move. Not this move, but the move before this. I found a picture of he and I training a group when I was literally 21 and he was 20 something close to that. Oh, my gosh, you know, nutty stuff. But I think that. I think his departure was very similar to the. The time when I kind of moved into that role, because I do remember him calling and going, hey, I want you to come and take my firewalk. And I remember Ron and I kind of glance glancing at each other, going fire walking. Really, Tony? I mean, really, you know, no, hey, I'm busy that day. I've got to do my Hair or something. You know, I got laundry to do. I can't. I can't come and walk on fire.

Yeah.

And we kind of chuckled at the whole thing until, of course, it began to get a lot of publicity and, you know, the rest is history. As they say, he's done incredibly well. He's still a very good friend of mine. In fact, we just got him booked to speak for an event of ours and all that.

So that is. Okay. So you used to go around and sell tickets for Jim Rohn Seminars, correct?

I did, yep. Absolutely.

And do you remember. I mean, this. Just because I'm a nerd and our. Our listeners and watchers may not like. Do you remember the clothes? Like, ladies and gentlemen, I want to let you know that these tickets used to be 999, but if we can get 10 of you, just of you today to buy. Did you do anything like that? Was there any. Was there any canned stuff that can come back to you? I just love to hear. No. Okay.

It wasn't. It, first of all, was $35. 1976 was like. Must have been. I mean, by today's standards, 200 bucks or whatever. Yeah, $35, right.

So you were selling $35 tickets to Jim Rohn Seminars. Holy crap.

Evening programs. But I think the biggest thing there is. I don't. I just remember that we showed a funny part. We had a. An 8 millimeter film, an 8 millimeter projector that we would carry. So we had to do the intro, had to remember your name, you know, have to remember me enough to introduce. And then go watch Jim. And then you push the button and it went for 15 minutes. And then we had the close. And, you know, if you're ever thinking about the things you're not getting accomplished and, you know, some of the. Just kind of went after the pain points and then whatever it was, and we're doing it the South Coast Plaza, and you could come and join us for only 35 bones. It wasn't that, but it was something like that. It was a pretty simple deal.

I'd have loved it, though. I'd have loved it. And. And then you used to go from market to market, right. Would you go stay in crappy hotels?

I did that in my other company, my next company, we did the same thing, only we had travelers staying in hotels and all that. No, we. I lived in Orange and LA county and was able to just stay in Southern California my whole life.

Right. So when you look, you've, you know, obviously been surrounded by lots and lots of excellent people. And there's lots to learn from people who are excellent, but there's also lots to learn from people that aren't excellent, that maybe are hurting, that maybe have had a financial reversal. I'd love to know, what did you learn from failure? And the second thing I'd like to know is who have you worked with in your life where you went, man, that person's hurting. And then boom, it all turned around for them. Like, who's the greatest example of positive attitude for you that's been a success? We may or may not know them, but what I'm looking for is a story of turnaround for our gappers, our listeners, where they go, oh, boy, I'll never forget Don told me about somebody that was in the shitter and now they're killing it. Right. I'm sure you know plenty.

Yeah.

And I'm trying to think of, you know, some of the best stories. I mean, we did have a lot of people that did turnarounds, but, you know, I ended up spending a lot of my time in the real estate space. And in that world, people that were struggling, I mean, just struggling, have many years and finally turned around one of them. That is just a remarkable story, and I just talked to him about a month and a half ago is Jay Canone. But Jay was this fun story. He came to me when he was struggling, had, I remember, five kids, I'm pretty sure five kids. It could have been six, but it was a lot of kids living in an 1100 square foot home for all his life, working his butt off in real estate. And his dad was in real estate, so he always thought he should be there. And he also thought he should be a success. And the reality was he was not. He was not knocking out of the park. He was getting his butt kicked. And he came to one of our programs, and one of the things that happened is he invested heavily. What he didn't have. He just started running up credit cards and like, I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe. And I remember one night he called me and he goes, I'm starving, I'm starving. Like, I don't know where I'm going to pay any bills. I don't know how we're going to do any of this stuff. And I said, honestly, Jay, you've come this far and I know you're on a great path, and I'm just telling you, stay the course. Just stay the course and work. Do what you're doing and keep working what you're doing and watch what Happens. And two months later, he calls me. He goes, all right, you got to call me. This call is not like those other ones. This is a different call. And he said literally that the faucet just opened and his, you know, listing, listing, listing, listing, and it just went crazy.

I don't know if you can see.

That on yours, but.

What's that?

Can you see that? Okay, you can't see that up on my screen. I've got a code, an Apple ID code that came in. Oh, technology.

Yeah, it's all good.

No, so, but he. He really hits this thing, and just like, it explodes. So the funny story is he goes from 1100 square feet with all his kids, and three years later, he buys a 9000 square foot home.

Oh, my gosh.

And when he calls me, he goes, you got to see this. You got to see this. He said, you know, fountain in front of Caesar's Palace. Mine is bigger.

Oh, my gosh. Unbelievable. And he was. He was a student of yours?

He was a student of mine, yeah. Yeah, he was a student of mine. And a fun ending to that story, too, because he was a friend and we, you know, kept in touch for all these years. I mean, it's been 20 years. But one of the things that he did is he really wanted to meet Jim Rohn. And when Jim was doing his. What we assumed would be his last final public program in Phoenix, Arizona, I said, jay, fly out. Bring your wife. And we went down and I introduced them and got them to meet. So he was a huge Roan fan, a little bit like you were saying.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

What do you think? What is the difference between success and failure? For most people.

A lot of it.

Is the determination, that attitude. I mean, attitude is the major function period. Skills come and go. You can be great. I know people with lacking skills that kill it. I know people with awesome skills that are not making it. And the biggest difference is going to be attitude. So honestly, that's not because it's your show. I'm just telling you that in the end, that's exactly what it is. And I think the biggest thing that I saw with people like Jay is a lot of it had to do with their own internal beliefs. We still deal with this all the time in our trainings and programs. And of course, success, it really becomes the inner. And when they believe it on the inside and they start changing on the inside, the outer results have to change. They just do, right? They just do. So it first is an internal job, then an external job, and most of us and, you know, Roan said, work harder on yourself than you do on your job. Most of us are working harder and harder and harder and harder on our work, but we just put in a few more hours, but just do another thing or two. And nothing wrong with that because the perseverance and the hard work pays off. But if you still don't believe inside, it doesn't matter. You know, when it pops for you, you get luckier and luckier when you put yourself in the right mindset.

Attitude booster, number eight, love adversity. And we all know that perseverance, right, is the mother, or actually adversity is the mother of perseverance, right? We cannot become perseverers unless we love adversity, which we talk about. And we did four shows how that begs the question then, how does somebody change their insides, Right? Somebody that's struggling right now, that's listening. What's your advice to them when they're going, yeah, Don, that's great. I need to change the way I think inside. Appreciate it. How the hell do I do that? So tell me some of the ways that you found other people have done it, or maybe you yourself.

Yeah, yeah. A number of things. But I will tell you, reading influences of those around you. And in our today's world, we got podcasts like yours. We have shows and podcasts and YouTube. I mean, good grief, we have so much content that we can absorb, and people just don't watch. And it's because they, you know, if you really want it today, it's super simple. Then you had to go find a guru. You had to go find somebody that was going to be in your life today. It's like they're all around. And even the gurus of guru or the followers of gurus, I mean, even the three and five and 10 generations down, they've got something to say that we need to hear if we're really in that place. And I think that we've got to read. I remember, in fact, we were just talking about this the other day, this little teeny book. It was probably that big and was called Think. No, not think. Grow Rich. That too, as a man thinketh. You remember that book? Have you ever seen that?

I have it in my library.

Okay, so it's a little teeny book. I mean, it's like you could read it in 30 minutes, like, even if you're a slow reader.

30 minutes?

Yep.

And I used to carry that in my jacket pocket, that red jacket that you've got, the beautiful jacket. I put it in my coat pocket, and I pull that sucker out and. And literally, it was like. Like the Bible. People said, just open it up and boom. There's a magic message that has to do with exactly what I'm going through with today. And I found that that was true so much of the time, and that was my little book for keeping on track. But, Man Think and Grow Rich. I mean, Glenn, let's face it, you know, Think and Grow the founding. Nothing better. And.

And little tough to read. That's why I love. I love your caveat on As a Man Think. Who wrote that? Was it Swift? I. I'm. I.

No. James Allen.

James Allen.

James Allen. James Allen. Think and Grow Rich Gaffers. Go buy it.

No, no. James Allen. As a man thinketh.

As a man thinketh. That's what it was. Right, right, right.

And I did the same thing.

Yeah.

As a man thinketh the sweetest little book ever. And. But, I mean, honestly, it was about reading. It was getting around. I mean, one of the things that Roan said was, you know, it's about the people you're around, the influences of the people you're around. And, you know, we've heard it many times. You're gonna. Your income's gonna be the average of the five people you hang around most of the time. I mean, there's a lot of cliches, but the reality is, look at it. I mean, if I told you we were living in Puerto Rico, and part of that is you look around and go, wow, look at who we're around here. It's like our expectations just begin to grow because we're around people that are playing, you know, at a big level, but at a bigger level and then a bigger level. And I think that's really what it comes down to is how do we. How do we get around the people? And if you're not around the people, then you have to. You're going to go buy the book by the people. You're going to go listen to the podcast by the people that are doing this.

Sure. Sure. Sounds like I need to get your whole neighborhood on my podcast when it's all said and done. Okay. I just. Hey, so there was old rumor. Did Jim Rohn like to have a scotch every now and then after he spoke? I'd heard that before. I know he couldn't have been a big drinker as successful he was, but they said, oh, yeah. He used to like to have.

Yeah.

At all.

I never.

I never knew him to have scotch. He usually had, like, Grand Marnier or a cognac.

Oh, no kidding.

Something in that range.

Well, there's.

That was my smoking cigars or whatever. That's what we used to do together, right?

You used to smoke cigars. No kidding. Talk to me.

Not all the time, just every so often.

Right. Moderation.

Moderation. I don't make it a habit.

Tell me what it was like or what was the attitude when your real estate training company went freaking berserk, right? I mean, like, you guys like a million realtors, right? And Hobbs Herder, and you were producing Tony Robbins content, if I remember. Is that right or. No, no, but Hobbs, who were some of the big wigs that you did and just like, tell me about that whole experience, man, you guys were crushing it.

Well, you know, Hobbs hurt was a first, an accident. And then, you know the old thing about preparation, meeting, opportunity. Right. Yeah, because we, we. Honestly, when I left Roan, you know, I left under tough times because I didn't want to leave Jim at all. And he married a woman who I just didn't care for. We've. We've healed since then, but he married a gal and he would come home or he come back to the office the next day and go. I've been thinking about the decision we made yesterday. And I've been thinking we should do it. I'd be like, you're not thinking. It's. It's, you know, it's somebody else thinking. Yeah. Anyway, we. We. I couldn't get through that. And honestly, I didn't even know how to deal with it. Communications wise. I just resigned.

Interesting.

And then I was off trying to figure out what the heck am I going to do now that I don't have a job.

Yeah.

I don't have a thing that I love doing and all that. So a partner and I got together and we started a company and, you know, we were looking for some. Something that was like, what are we going to talk about that isn't zigs and roans and nightingales and, you know, all the, all our heroes. How do we have an original thought? And we started down a path with some unoriginal stuff that was kind of put together. You know, that's what part of what makes it original is just the way you frame things. Right. And so that was good. But we had a piece on personal branding and personal marketing and in real estate, that was unheard of.

Right.

People were. People were joining Century 21 to wear a gold coat and they were wearing. Joining ERA to wear a powder blue, you know, a polyester piece of horrible clothing. And they were going with the company brand. And we came along and said, you know, if they don't call you and ask you for, you know, if they don't call you directly, if they don't ask for you, you're with the number one company in the world and you're still broke. And so we really started down that path and people started to, you know, like, wow, that's it, that's it, that's it. And we just kept growing that. So part of it was we lucked into it, and then secondarily, we kind of saw it and saw what the trend was happening, and we saw the explosion and went. Put everything into that. So we built an ad agency that was going to do the personal marketing, personal branding of all those people. And we started having, you know, we were doing 15, 20,000 campaigns a year for individual realtors and having 50,000 people and more a year going through our programs. And we charged outrageous money by considering what was normal in the industry. We were outrageous in our prices. And people just heard we were so good that they had to come. And so, you know, we kind of walked into that one and it turned out great. It was phenomenal. And of course, the success was, you know, we didn't expect it. And I remember telling my partner one day, I said, if I ever get, you know, we knew a lot of the big speakers, and I said, if I ever get, you know, that ego attitude, you know, just slug me, which would just pop me in the face and remind me that I'm, you know, just a guy. And. But we managed to keep most of that humility and did pretty well during that time. So we were.

It was fun.

It was kind of like being a junior rock star. We didn't have.

Go ahead.

Tony Robbins said to me one day, you know, several years back, because he's in a different place now, but at that time, he said, you know, I've got just the right amount of fame. Like, I can. I can go into a restaurant and eat, and I don't get bugged by everybody like an actor might. But he said, you know, it's nice to have some fame. And I think we were kind of in that place where, you know, we had enough that I could be in Europe and somebody would walk up and say, I went to your program back in. But I didn't have to live under the, you know, duress of people bugging me forever.

You know, it was great as I entered into the real estate business at 18, right. And did The Mike Ferry superstar retreats and Howard Britton and all those guys. And I mean, when you just said. And hopefully you're okay with me saying this, but you guys were the fathers of personal freaking branding. Like, when I was 22, I bought my company when I was 23, like, it was big personal branding, personal videos. I found one of my old VC architects, you know, with me on video. Hi, this is Glenn. You know, wow. So that's a big deal. Like, that's still happening, personal branding. But I almost wonder, change the industry.

Change the industry.

Completely Change the industry. Do you see personal branding continuing to be the driver, or is there something now that's changing things like social media, like celebrity? I'm a big believer. What I try to do is make agents famous. I teach agents how to become famous in their market. So celebrity is a big one too. Anything like that or any tweak of what you were doing?

Well, it is. It's the same thing. I could do the same program. The difference is the methods are different so that the mediums change. You've got more opportunities. It's still the brand called you. It's funny because you're asking a great question, Glenn, because, you know, if you've got listeners who are building a small business, whatever, I mean, social media, and they go, well, you got to be personal and, you know, you've got to make it, like, show your heart. And we were like, we were saying that in 86. That's what it was always about. It was always not, let me tell you how great I am. It was always about, let me tell you who I am.

Right?

And when you tell them who you are and they go, wow, I really like him. I really like her. I really like their style, like what they stand for, you know, the life messages and all that stuff, that's when people bond. And in today's world, it just spreads faster because it's of social media. Right. We've got more methodology for that, that viral stuff to happen. I mean, I was laughing the other day. I may have said this to you. Even I, you know, viral marketing, or shall we say social media, back in the day was, my gosh, we went to Cleveland, spoke for 500 people and told them to tell a lot of people that they liked us. I mean, that was social media.

Yeah. I mean, it's crazy.

There was nothing. Today we've really got the ability to use those personal marketing skills and, and tell a story and make the connection on a human level. And that's where people bond and become Your followers. I mean, I hate to say that. I don't mean that in any.

That's good.

Your followers. Yes, because they love who you are and they love what you expose and how they know you and the heart that you have.

And that's called shared values. Right. It's like it's all about really creating that shared value between you and a prospect. And yeah, that's a whole nother thing that I love to discuss is you can build a real estate business today for free. Like why people pay anymore, why they even pay to do their real estate businesses, beyond me. So I. All you realtors that listen to me go to source of sales I've been doing. I don't know if you've been seeing. I know you joined. Thank you. But I still do how to build your business for free every day. Stop paying people. Because my God, the times we're in are unreal.

Let me Videos big and those, those VHS are. Now we can just pop a quick YouTube or a quick, you know, shoot a quick live and we're off to the races. And again. Let's do it.

So Don, what I'd love to know is what was the biggest sale, the funnest sale, or the biggest presentation you've ever done?

I'll tell you the funnest. I'll tell you one that I think you'll like a lot on the funnest side. And that was a guy who I'm still friends with. He's in his mid-70s, mid to late-70s, still friends with him. He was vice president of a big real estate company way back in the day. This is the Jim Rohn era. I walked in to sell him a program and I had never received a check this large because it was going to be like a thousand dollar check. I mean, I never had gotten that. All my checks were $35. And I was about to get $1,000 check and I walked into Steve's office. We had a conversation. He goes, you know what? I really want to think about it. I said, do you need help making a decision? And he said, yeah, I guess I could use some help. And I reached into his briefcase, which was sitting open on his desk, days of briefcases. Reached into his desk, pulled his checkbook out, sat it in front of him and said, write the check.

Wow, really?

And he wrote the check. And we're. And we have been friends and I've spoken for his companies like I can't even tell you how many times, like 20, 30 times through the years. He probably long time Friends.

He probably loves telling that story, I would think.

You know, for me it was like, oh my gosh, it worked, right? It was crazy, right? Well, biggest, biggest presentation was, you know, speaking for conventions. 10,000, 11,000, 12,000 people. Very fun. You know, when you hear ladies, ladies and gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen. You hear yourself and you're seeing yourself on the big screen. That's always fun, right? That stuff.

Yeah.

Just pumps me up. So we have a lot of fun with things like that.

Well, hopefully we can get you back on the stage. And then, you know, I wanted to just touch on everything that you had done. And I know we're running short on time, so I'm going to make.

I'm watching that.

I know you are. I want to know your thoughts on the challenge that is set before you today becoming the president of Success magazine, Success Enterprises. What's your attitude with that and what do you hope? What's that indelible change that you want to use with that medium, with all those followers and subscribers?

Well, we're fortunate. We have a lot of subscribers. We have a whole bunch of social media followers. And Jim Rohn's part of that. We bought. How weird is this, right? All these years later, the company ends up buying Jim Rohn's library when he's getting sick and preparing to pass and Kyle Wilson and he sell the library to Success. So now we've got that. So I go from starting my career to unbelievable career. But it is unbelievable, right? And I think there's, there's people don't know this. It's 123 year old publication.

Yeah.

123 years of history. The biggest names in the personal development field, when it was not called personal development, when it was almost mystical, when it was weird thought, new thought, all those words that were used, that's what was going on with Success. And we're really excited about the success.com brand. I mean, obviously that's not a bad domain to have, right? It's a pretty good one. And what I really think is that we need to honor the tradition of this publication because it has changed lives. Anybody I talk to that's in like you and I, any of us in that of that era, they're all like, oh yeah, I've been reading that for years. Oh yeah, I was still subscribed. Oh yeah. It's like it was part of my early day reading. It was every time, every month, I guarantee Tony Robbins and I were reading that book, reading that magazine and talking about the articles. And so for me, it's like coming home. And there's a huge responsibility that I feel. But I also see the opportunity because we have so much that we can give from the resources and we're building a coaching company. We're building so many new courses. We've got a lot of things. I can't spill the beans on all of it, but there's some really cool stuff coming that nobody will see coming. That will not be, would not have been natural in the mind and yet will be such a great way of holding this brand up and letting people be part of the. I don't say legendary, but this historic and awesome brand. So we're excited about it.

I can't help but think God has a touching this, considering the life you've had, the people you've touched, the audiences you've spoken to, that you are now the captain of this ship. And as a subscriber and a reader and a listener, I'm thrilled that you're at the helm and I'm really, really excited to see what you do. So, gappers, if you are not subscribed to Success magazine, you need to get on this. You want to change your attitude. You want to get from who you are to who you want to become, from where you are to where you want to be. I'm telling you, Success will do it. Now, Don, I mentioned. Go ahead.

I want to say one thing. Glenn. Yes, one thing. There's another Glenn in my world. And his name is Glenn Sanford. And I think you know Glenn.

I do. He's on our podcast.

Glenn was the one.

I thought so.

Glenn was the one who made this thing happen. He's the one that saw the vision for success and brought me to it and just said, hey, hey, let's put these two things together. So I really want to acknowledge that because, man, if it wasn't for that, there would not be this opportunity. And I'm just so enlivened by it that I just wanted to give that acknowledgement.

Yeah.

And I can't. You know, Glenn was fabulous. We really talked about innovating and influencing with him. I did more of a history angle with you, but. And I would love to know, why don't you just give me a quick sentence if you can. What does it mean to be an innovator? Right to you.

Well, I'm telling you, you know, he's great example. I said the other day, you look at Glenn, you look at Glenn and you say he's out of the box. Well, in fact, he's so far out of the box. You can't even find the box. Well, the box is over there, and he's over here. You know, innovation is about thinking about what hasn't been done. And I always ask the question, you know, first of all, who do you have to be to achieve what you want? And the second part is, how would you beat you at your own game? How would you beat you? No matter how good you are, how would you. You beat you. Because that conversation leads to innovation. It leads to, here's what I would do different than what's been done already. And of course, in real estate, I've asked people for a long time, if you didn't know there were buyers and sellers, and somebody said, boy, these people want to buy and some people want to sell. And you know what would look like if you were to build the business from scratch? It would look very different than it does. So innovation sometimes is trying to get a fresh picture of what it is you really do and not just following along the path that's been done for years.

Right. And that's defined by a lifetime innovator for season two on the Get Attitude podcast, which is all about influencing and innovating. I want to do knowledge through the decades. Do you have five minutes for me?

I do.

Nice. Thank you. So I talked to you a little bit about this. This is kind of our trademark here at the Get Attitude Podcast, where we walk you through your life to learn the attitude lesson. Now, some of our guests are eccentric enough to believe they remember the day they were born. But what we want to do is walk you through your life and get the attitude lessons at certain benchmarks, which are basically the decade. So whether you remember or not, I'd love to know the attitude lesson that is there when you think of birth or childbirth.

Earth.

New beginnings, fresh, everything, start from scratch. And by the way, we get a chance to be rebirthed every single day.

Right? Right. So that's a profound thought. Ladies and gentlemen, gaffers, grab onto that one. You know what? Every time you open your eyes, it's a new day, it's a new birth, and to truly feel like you were born again every day. Don, that's good. Nobody's gotten there. I want you to think about yourself when you were 10 years old old, that would have put you in third or fourth grade. And I'd love to know if you remember your teachers, your schools, whatever. What do you remember about being 10 and what was the attitude lesson that you learned?

I was a great student. I loved being a brown noser.

To the teachers.

I knew that if they liked me, that would make it much easier.

Sales guy. There you go.

Right.

Who needs Myers Briggs?

Frankly, that's really funny because I used to win all the chocolate selling contests and all that stuff.

Oh, did you?

I swear to God I did. And so it's very funny. Yeah. I think for me, it was about. That was a little bit of a tough time. However, my parents were divorcing in that range, and so they were. You know, that was a messy time.

And my.

My dad was kind of a tough character. He had a real rage challenge. And. And so, you know, it wasn't an easy, easy part of my life during that time, but that I remember special times about it, and mostly around teachers.

Oh, that's cool. Right? So the power of an influencer to you. How about that coming out? That's great. Do you have siblings?

I don't. Only child.

Only child. I'll be dog gone. All right, so now you're 20 years old, you're not in college, and you're sitting there rocking it with Jim Rohn. Wow. Like, what was the attitude lesson? I mean, I can only imagine you have a hundred of them, but what. What's the attitude lesson at 20? That hits you over the head.

I. Between 20 and 21. That year, I made $100,000, Glenn.

Oh, gee.

And. And so again, you know, everybody else went, I want to make six figures. Even today, I want to make six figures. I'm like, it's not worth anything anymore. But anyways, it is, for sure, of course. But I made $100,000 that year. And I remember Rowan saying to me, great job, Donald. And he always called me by my full name. He always, great job, Donald. And he said, now figure out how to do it in half the time.

Wow.

So what I learned in that moment was the value of time. If I hadn't already discovered how important time was, the biggest difference between the most successful and the average is the way they use their time.

Sure.

And that if you can figure out how to do something once, you can compress that into less. And so once you've done it, you can, you know how to do it, do it faster.

Yeah.

Right. And it goes for everything.

Yeah. And as Tony says at the many upws I've been to. Right. Is it possible. Is it possible to make ten times the money in the same amount of time?

Right. Absolutely.

So. So powerful. And the key to getting rich. Right. At least financially. Let's talk about 30. Right. So now you've left Roan you're 30. You're probably right. God, 30. Doesn't it seem so young? Oh, my God. What were you doing at 30? I think you were Hobbs Herder then. And what was your attitude lessons at 30?

Oh, my gosh.

Do you remember your 30th birthday?

I don't.

Yeah. Isn't that crazy? Nobody does.

Isn't that weird? No, I don't. I definitely was on a big cycle at that time, and I. And I think probably that era. I don't know about that year, but that era would have been largely about figuring out how to keep growing. I'll give you my hindsight lesson, and that would be to keep growing to keep up with the financial growth. Right. So Ron used to have this line about if it grows out, if it expands and you don't grow out to be where it is, it'll come back where you are. And I think that was a time when I was really feeling that, like, there was an element of expansion and retraction and contraction, and it was a lot of, I'm not big enough, I'm not good enough. I'm not enough to do this and allow this success to happen. So for me, that was a lot of the learning around that time.

That is, like, life changing. So what you're saying is, especially for real estate agents, loan originators, especially during this time, I just closed 800 grand. Right. And I think what you were saying is that you have to grow as a $1.6 million person in order to take that 800 to 1.6. Is that what you're saying?

Yeah. You've got to grow to keep becoming the person that would earn that money. And then in large part, there is a part of that which is the inner beliefs that you're having to, you know, take the layers of the onion and peel back and peel back and peel back to get to the core of how great you really are. We are, you know, we are created by God to be just amazing, and then we start believing stuff that we've been told. Right. So to keep allowing yourself to achieve more, to allow yourself to earn more than your parents or to whatever those beliefs are, those things we hold ourselves.

Yeah, that's. I was at an open house Sunday down in Florida, and the agent at looked looks at me and he goes, I almost feel bad considering how bad everybody's doing. They're in southwest Florida. I just got back last night. He's like, God, I almost want to apologize to these people. And I'm going, ooh. So the successes that we're having, chances are half of those people are going to pull back. Let's go to age 40. Wow.

Rocking and rolling. Keep your sanity and keep your humility.

For sure.

We were at the, you know, I won't say the peak, but we were darn close to a peak of that era for me. And it was about keeping humble and not letting our heads get big and making smart moves, not like the brash, bold, don't you know who I am? I'm invincible. Because, yeah, yeah, we had those thoughts. We did have those thoughts.

I'm sure it's natural. What's the number one lesson on humility? Quote on humility, or just give us something, Don, I know you got it in you that we can take about being humble.

Wow. Just come from service instead of coming from the ego and, you know, come from a place of giving instead of from a place of taking and come from a place of remembering why you're here, why I was here, why I was here to give and help people change their world and to influence, not to collect and, you know, not just to be a taker.

Cool. Cool. Yeah. Joe Wright said, I'd rather he was a professional football player. We interviewed. He said, you know, I had coaches that were transformational, and I had coaches that were transactional. That was his answer. And he said, I always try to be a transformational person. Okay. The big five zero hits. The big five zero hits. Do you remember your 50th birthday party? Did it mean anything to you? And what's the attitude lesson at 50?

It did. And it was a time that I had just in essence, stepped out and retired.

Wow.

So I was. I had really come to a place where I wanted to get off that treadmill and take a couple days to think. And it was powerful. It was hard because I didn't have, you know, there's the question, Glenn, that who are you when you don't have this? Who are you when you don't have, you know, the success adornments and everybody going, oh, you're awesome, and you rock. Whatever. Who are you when that's not happening? And I was dealing with a lot of the internal, like, who am I going to be when I now grow up? And that was happening at 50, the stage I was in.

And so that, again, you never stop growing. But certainly our gappers fight through the same thing. You know, who am I? At our next step, we have people that are listening, that are involved in personal reversals, financial reversals, emotional reversals, relationship. You're going to, you know, it's a constant reinvention and redefinition of who you are. So very, very powerful. How about. Are you 60 yet?

I am. And I want to say one thing, because you talked about the gappers that are. That are making their comebacks and are doing great work now to get to make that happen. And I lost a ton. I mean, I lost a lot of my financial wealth during that next little gap right after that time.

Really?

Yep. And it was a very challenging time to think, okay, now I thought I was done. I thought all this stuff was, you know, going to be super easy, and it was not. And, you know, having to dust myself off and then even more than that.

To.

Get back into performance, not. I mean, performance like performance, like stage performance. I mean, get back into gear. When. When my. When I started going down, it was almost like, oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. I started coming from a place of fear instead of from a place of certainty, which is where I live my whole life.

Sure, sure.

And. And so it took a number of years to get back out of that, and it wasn't until my mid-50s, and now I'm 62. And, you know, we're. We've climbed, you know, climbed back into some fun stuff, and here we are in Puerto Rico enjoying a different life and have a very successful real estate business. And we have a lot of things, you know, I've got the love of my life upstairs and two puppies, one of which you've heard very clearly.

The last.

She made her first dog appearance on the Gap. I love it. I love it.

And, yeah, and a kitty. And so we flew them all over first class, and it was anything but first class. But we love our little family here, and we've got friends in a very big life, and it's all been remarkable. And that's happened in just the last maybe four, five.

That's cool. So the attitude lesson at 60, your message of hope for our gappers who are listening from the great Don Hobbs. This guy has been around. Guys, tell us your outlook for not only your life, but the life of the people that live that are listening to you today, that are saying, this guy might have just closed the gap for me. What's the message of hope for them?

You know, you have to remember this is my message at the end of almost every one of my talks. Remember who you are. Remember who you really are. I mean, the hard part is we get lost in what's happening and think that's who we are. By the way, Success or failure, either one. We think, this is who I am. And success and failure, these are not who we are at a core level. Heart, soul. And we were made in God's image and God's likeness and given such great gifts. And the life that we've been given is such an amazing thing. And so we lose sight of that. Getting lost in stupid little things and judging ourselves against other people. And boy, I'll tell you, that was one of the biggest for me, was judging myself against myself. Previous, yes. Beating myself up over the stupidity of certain moves that I made and then also comparing myself to others. And it's really tough. You compare yourself to others. You will be. It's one of the challenges with social media is if you look at the lives that are all shown there, which is kind of the best of film.

Reel, your sizzle reel. Right?

It's everybody's sizzle reel. And if you really compare yourself to the. That generally speaking, you will feel less than if you're inclined at all that way. And so I would say, remember who you are. You're way bigger than you know. I promise. You're way bigger than you know.

That is so cool. That is so cool. Don Hobbs, I want to thank you for giving us just a killer, killer podcast today. And I think your message of be true to yourself. I want to know, is there a question you can ask yourself besides who am I? Because we all know the quality of our life determined by the quality of questions we ask ourselves. Do you have certain questions that you ask yourself that make a difference? Or at least one more?

What more can I do with this situation? If it's a tough one, what more can I do with this situation? What's possible in this moment? What can I do? I put the emphasis on what can I do? What can I do now? What can't I do? Because a lot of people get lost in. Well, you can't do. And you can't, you know, even right now with masks and virus and stuff, right? It's a lot of I can't. And I'm telling you guys, if you really. Look, we just went through an election, and I made a big point of this, Glenn, coming into it. I said, I'm not going to take sides. I'm not trying to be political here. I'm just saying we have survived 246 years of presidents, right? And we have been with Democrats and Republicans. We've been through every possible socioeconomic cycle, every economic cycle. And I'm telling you, what goes on out there has nothing to do with your choices about yourself and what you will do for yourself and your family and the people that are most important to you. Absolutely nothing.

Yeah. Amen. There is the world and there is your world. So I suggest everybody start working on their world. I suggest everybody go follow Don Hobbs on social media. Get to his website if you're looking for a keynote speaker. I don't know. I'm sure you still will keynote whenever the things come up. I've heard him speak. I actually had to speak after him. It was always, always a little intimidating when you get old legend in front of you, but hopefully I pulled it off. But follow, follow Don. Look at his stuff, consume his content, and I promise you your attitude will improve. Don Hobbs, it was great having you on the gap for season two and maybe.

Thank you.

Hey, may God bless you and much more. Much luck with Success Enterprise or Success Magazine. I know you're going to do great.

Yeah. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

All right.

Keep doing your good work.

I will. Don't you worry. We'll see you, buddy. This podcast is a part of the C Suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c suiteradio.com.