Connection, Networking and the Pursuit of Happiness with Joe Polish and Dave Will - I Love Marketing Episode #264

I'm dean jackson, he's joe polish. And this is the I love marketing podcast.

In this special episode of I Love Mark, Dave will interviews Joe Polish on the origins of the Genius Network. Why money isn't as valuable of an ingredient in happiness as is often perceived. How interpersonal relationships are the cornerstone of professional success and much, much more.

Joe Polish, thank you so much for joining me today. Welcome.

Great to be here, Dave.

Joe, you're president of Piranha Marketing.

Yeah.

Also the creator of Genius Network that has a few strings. We're going to talk about the Genius Network, but one element of that is what's known as the 25k group. And the reason it's called the 2025k group is I think that's the price tag to be a member for annually it's 25k, is that right?

Exactly. That's the minimum right now.

Now you're the co founder of 10x talk.com. that's one podcast that you do. The other One is Ilove Marketing.com, i think. Co founder because I know with I love marketing. You're in that with Dean Jackson. Then you have Dan Sullivan that you're working with on the 10x talk.

Yep.

You've stunned me. In the times that we've met and the times that I've seen you speak, it stuns me how you've become one of the most sought after marketers alive today, which is part of your bio. And I completely see it. I mean, I'm going to name drop for a second because it's just, it's absolutely stunning. And I know, you know this impresses people because you put it on your site. But in looking at some of your videos, you have pictures with you and Paula Abdul, Lucy Liu, Ashton Kutcher, Bill Clinton, Tim Ferriss, Lou Ferrigno, the Hulk, Sir Richard Branson. I mean, you guys look like your best friends. Tony Robbins, Patricia Arquette, Verne Harnish, who we interviewed actually not too long ago. Ari, myself, who we also interviewed. Arianna Huffington, Bill Gates. I mean the list goes on and on. So tell me this, a guy who runs a marketing company, why so many entertainers help me. Where's the bridge there?

Well, you know, to go to your thing. It actually surprises me too that I've accomplished anything with my life because my.

They love you.

Yeah, my upbringing was a little cr. I don't have a degree in anything. I mean, I failed owning and operating a small business at Chandler Gilbert Community College and I got a C minus in marketing. Part of it though probably came up from a little adversity or a lot of adversity in childhood and just somewhere along the way realizing that I really wanted to desperately connect with other human beings. And I managed to, through an immense amount of reading and studying and application to different ideas and a lot of personal therapy and a lot of personal development and a whole variety of just educating myself. I just learned how to really focus on being useful and valuable to a lot of people and doing it in a way to where I believe life gives to the giver and takes from the taker. So I've just tried to make myself immensely useful to a lot of people. And of course I'm a capitalist, so I love getting paid for stuff. Even though I put out a lot of free content and advice and strategies out to the world with no expectation that most people are ever going to give me anything. But I do that. And along the way I've developed a lot of relationships and I've done my best to seek out to use Dan Sullivan, one of my dear friends and founder of Strategic Coach. He's the one I do the 10x talk podcast with. I really have learned that money earned ethically is a byproduct of value creation. And if you operate that way, you'll meet a lot of people, you'll go to a lot of places, you'll have a lot of people that'll say great things about you. So I've gotten to position where I'm really, you know, happy for and I, you know, I mean, some days I'm.

Like, you know, how the hell did I pull this off?

You know, we'll talk about it and I'll share the things that I do know. Some things that I do, I just naturally do it. But it, you know, it's all a focus on what suffering does exist in another person's life. How can I alleviate some of that suffering? And in the process of doing that, I meet and get introduced to a tremendous amount of what I would call industry transformers. So that's a term that I got from Dan Sullivan, an industry transformer, and those are the most interesting individuals for me to seek out. A person who has changed the global conversation, innovated at a new business level, has made tremendous impact, is in the top of their game. So I tend to seek out and hang out with people that are game changers. Because I started as a dead broke carpet cleaner, living off credit cards was my first real introduction into world of entrepreneurship. Unless you include selling newspaper subscriptions door to door when I was a kid and painting addresses on people's curves and cutting people's lawns. I mean, I did all of that stuff early on as a kid trying to make money. But my entrepreneurial venture was just a service business and I had to learn marketing in order to eat in order to survive. And I fell in love with it and somehow turned it into a multimillion dollar publishing, consulting, advice giving company. And then fast forward to today. It's genius network and big groups of, you know, awesome entrepreneurs and, you know, meeting all kinds of awesome people and, you know, that sort of stuff. And yeah, there's a lot in between.

I haven't met very many people with the level of energy you have, and it's, it's, it's really positive. Which I think probably answers why there's so many people that are seeking you out for advice and help. But you mentioned very briefly, you flew over this comment that you're happy about, about where you're at in life. We've talked about Philip McKernan and he's an interview we did recently as and Philip's focus is on finding meaning in life which drives happiness as opposed to accomplishments. Clearly, you're probably the most accomplished carpet cleaner that exists. But let's talk about happiness for a second. Where do you find your happiness? Where do you pull this meaning from your life? What's meaningful to you?

Here's a funny way that I think about that and my thoughts about happiness change on a regular basis. Like Shawn Achor, who's one of the world's leading experts on happiness, spoke at my recent conference. Brilliant guy. He's been on Oprah several times and just has done a tremendous amount of stuff. So I've had a lot of conversations related to happiness. And for me, just the happiness for me is feeling of joy, feelings of excitement, things that make me the happiest in order to get to a certain level initially aren't very enjoyable in the beginning. Meaning I have this one handwritten sign that is on the wall at my office that has, throughout my last maybe 15 years of my life, has sometimes been on the refrigerator, sometimes been on a computer, sometimes been on a post it note where it's Nothing tastes as great as being lean feels and it's a reminder that, you know, I could consume really unhealthy food or food that just tastes really good, but feeling lean is just awesome. And so there's a peace of mind, there's a contentment, there's an enjoyment that comes with feeling that way. But I don't really like working out. Although I work out almost daily and have done a tremendous amount of interviews with people like Tony Horton from P90X. I was Bill Phillips marketing consultant for 13 years. He's the Body for Life author back in the late 90s. And just on and on. I just have so many fitness people exercise I don't really enjoy, but I love the consequences of it. So I'm willing to actually go through levels of pain and exertion because the result ends up making me feel good. And if you want to call that happiness, then that would be happiness. I'm an achievement minded entrepreneur. I'm not a lifestyle guy, so I'm willing to endure certain levels of suffering. But I get a tremendous amount of gratitude when I know that my work has created a result. And so the way that I for happiness for me, meditating, which I do, TM meditation, which is transcendental meditation. I got trained in it a little over two years ago and I could never meditate my entire life because I've like this grasshopper mind. And you know, you could easily peg me as like an ADD entrepreneur, you know, type A, you know, I mean, whatever labels and all those labels need to be taken with a grain of salt because so many mental conditions are invented by marketers, you know, whatever. The thing though is that sitting and just getting into a connected state and feeling peace is really happy to me. I mean, I don't need material items. I don't need, you know, I can't be starving, I need to have sleep, I can't be freezing, assuming I have, you know, the human needs of food, water, shelter. And I'm in a state where I can, you know, I'm not in incredible physical pain. The things that make me the happiest have nothing to do with, you know, who I know or how much money I'm making because that's all the ego based stuff. So one of my personal rituals is meditating. I do float pods because, you know, I love float pods. There's this company called True Rest which is like a franchise where they have, you know, these big saltwater chambers. It's actually Epsom salt, but it's filled with, you know, this, this water. And you can just be there for an hour and meditate. And I cannot tell you, some people will be like, that has got to be the most incredibly boring thing I've ever heard. But oh my God, I mean, what it does for my mental state and how I feel after I float it is incredible. After I feel doing a spin class or a Yoga class. I feel great. I got to tell you this story, Dave. I was about two months ago, I was doing a spin class with my girlfriend and I was tired that morning. I just didn't get good sleep and I didn't even really want to work out, but she dragged my ass there basically. And I was on the spin bike and about 45 minutes in because the chemistry shifts in your body. I mean, you got endorphins pumping. And I just felt so good. And I had a really busy day that was going to come up in about 45 minutes into this hour long spin class. I just had this feeling like I feel so damn good right now. This was so worth doing it. And I was really happy. I was ecstatic. So a lot of happiness also comes from just being in nature, using your body and things along those lines. I don't really think about it that much unless someone asks me. What I do is I try to build in rituals that I know are going to make me feel that way. Because no matter how much money I can make or who I meet, if I miss a workout for the day, if I have crappy sleep, if I haven't taken free days and rejuvenated, if I'm not eating healthy, nutritious food, I'm not very happy. So happiness is way beyond just a mental state. I mean, there are certain rituals and things that I think you do, and part of it is also protecting yourself from getting so caught up in business accomplishments and the need for applaud and approval from other people because then your life is really about impressing other people. When in the end of the day, you know, when you look in the mirror, at the end of the day, the person that you really need to be most connected to is the one.

Staring back at you.

You know, a good friend of mine always says it's hard work having fun, you know, and this is when I'm complaining about moving the kids out on vacation and all the effort it takes to do this awesome RV tour out west or something like that. You know, it's hard work having fun and something I tell my kids, all three of them. Something I tell my kids frequently when they don't want to do something because it's a lot of work. Is the things I find most valuable, the I enjoy the most in life are the things that took the greatest effort to do right. And yeah, it's a really interesting perspective that you made there.

What you just said reminded me of. I'll just mention it. When I was growing up, I was I had a really shitty childhood. My mother died when I was 4 years old. My father never remarried. My father was a locksmith, never made much money. We lived in trailers half our life. I had an older brother. We moved around a lot. And my father worked really hard, but he also was broken psychologically. My mother died, he lost the love of his life, and he never recovered from that. He died in 2003 of lung cancer, much of it brought on by smoking. It was a coping mechanism. And I didn't have a very happy childhood. I was incredibly shy, incredibly introverted, and I had some bad stuff happen. I was molested as a kid. I never talked about it ever, as a kid. I tried to with some adults when I was younger, mentioned some things that were going on, but it just never was accepted right. So I lived in fear and spent a good portion of my life, even my adult life, just really with incredible angst. And so right Now, I'll be 48 years old here next month, and I'm at the stage where I feel better than I ever have in my entire life mentally. And it took a long time, but I was a drug addict. Between the ages of 16 to 18 years old, I started smoking pot. I started snorting cocaine, eventually started freebasing coke, snorting crystal, taking lsd, I mean, many times. And I just was completely not happy with anything. And I was afraid of life. I lived in a state of constant anxiety. And the drugs actually helped alleviate that temporarily, but then it got worse. Now, why am I bringing this up? Well, human happiness and contentment has a lot to do with biochemical reactions in your brain. I mean, addiction is a biochemical disorder. If you don't have enough dopamine, serotonin, all the chemistry that's going on, you could be going absolutely nuts. And so, so much of the rituals and sleep and nutrition and working on things that really excite, excite you and things that you really care about have a lot to do with your, you know, your human happiness. If you're in a toxic environment, you need to remove yourself out of that sort of environment. And that's exactly what I needed to do. I actually was raised, not intentionally, but I was raised in very toxic environments. And there was a lot of really bad conditioning. And so part of some of the things that led to me being, quote, unquote, having a successful business or being successful or however people interpret it, simply came out of really shitty situations, that I either am going to die in.

This situation or I got to figure.

Out how to get out of it and how to transform it. So a lot of my pursuit towards business and pursuit towards personal development and learning, the things that I've learned and reading were really, you know, necessities of mother of invention. So I needed to come up with ways to get myself out of a trap. And I think a lot of very successful people, if they really look at where. What was the impetus, what was the thing that. That got them started, most of the time, in my experience, it doesn't come out of inspiration.

It comes out of desperation.

And it's people's ability to transform very painful, negative experiences into something useful. And the people that aren't able to do that or don't pursue that are not willing to work through the burn, unfortunately, they just don't really have very happy, fulfilling lives. So I really always look for where's the suffering, where's the pain? And your whole point about it's hard work to have fun. I mean, one of the things that I do in my Genius network group is I have a lot of thinking tools. I have a lot of ways for people to think about their life and what's working, what's not working, what are the obstacles? And I certainly have a lot of conversations about this with Dan Sullivan, who's. Who's brilliant. And one of the tools I have is called a fun times tool. And we literally have entrepreneurs that are super successful. I have a billionaire in my group and people that are. They have all the money that most people would ever think you would ever need in order to purchase anything that would, quote, unquote, make you happy or make your life easier and give you access to entertainment and medical care and luxury and education. And a lot of these people, they literally have forgotten what it's like to have fun. I mean, do you like going to movies? Do you like going to comedy clubs? Do you like riding a bike? Do you like getting massages? Do you like drawing or painting or.

Anything in the arts?

Do you like listening to music and going to rock concerts? And people forget what it's like to have fun. And so part of it is giving yourself not only permission to have fun, but also realizing that you don't go and take a vacation because you earned it. You don't go and have fun because you earned it. And you've now done all your work. You do those things because by doing those things, you'll be more productive at work. You take free days, not because you've worked really hard and now it's time for a vacation. You do it because the rejuvenation allows you to be a more functional human being while you're there. And being an entrepreneur is really hard work. Most entrepreneurs deal with more stuff on a mental level between 8 to 9 in the morning on Monday than many people that are not entrepreneurs deal with on a mental level on an entire work week or sometimes in an entire year. So you're already dealing with high level stuff if you're pursuing an entrepreneurial endeavor. So the key is, how well do you take care of yourself? I interviewed this lady years ago about solo entrepreneurs. Her name was Terry Longye, and she wrote a book, I mean, this must have been 25 years ago, called Working Solo. And she made this analogy that if you had a million dollar racehorse, you had a racehorse and its job was to win races, and you wanted that horse to win because every time that horse won, there was a lot of money involved. You wouldn't never give this horse rest. You wouldn't shove fast food down its throat. You would never put it in a situation where it never had time to graze and to take care of itself. You would let the horse, you know.

Practice and you would let the horse.

Sleep and rejuvenate and eat very healthy foods. You would really take care of that horse because the income, the result of that horse's performance was totally based on.

How well taken care of that horse is.

But the question is, you know, do you treat yourself like a million dollar racehorse?

How are you treating yourself?

Are you driving yourself into the ground? You never let yourself have fun. So part of it is to just make that aware. And it's pretty simple. I mean, you know, when I do a Fun Times tool, what do you enjoy doing? What are all the things you have fun with? What are the obstacles that stand in.

Your way of having fun?

How often do you do these things in the last week, in the last.

Month, in the last six months, in the last year?

Who do you enjoy having fun with? And if I have someone fill that sheet out in 10 or 15 minutes, they have a one page like, wow. You know, it's funny because some people can immediately just fill out their Fun Times tool and, and really see what they like doing. And some people stare at it. It's been so long since they've done anything that was fun for them that they cannot easily connect with God. I just work all the time because work became what I do. And that's where workaholism comes in. Because workaholism is the respectable addiction. So the two groups of people that I want to help are addicts and entrepreneurs, and many of them are the same. There are a lot of very functioning addicts that are running around.

And I was one of those them.

I mean, in my addictions. I'm doing a documentary on addiction. It first started with drugs and then I moved away. And I've done, I've been to 12 step groups. I'm a big proponent of hope heals and finding communities of people. But behavior, addiction, sex addiction, work addiction, gambling, Internet exercise, I mean, all of those things in the wrong way could become coping mechanisms that have negative results that, that cause your life to be unmanageable. Now that's a much longer conversation that we can probably go into. But the reason I wanted to bring it up is if there's anyone listening to this, you have to really ask yourself, what am I pursuing? Am I running away from something? Or am I chasing?

Am I chasing something that really is.

A calling for me, that I must.

Do, that I have to do? And is it functional?

Does it really make me happy? Is it, is it making me better as a person? Is it making society better? Is it creating value for me, for my family, for my community, for others? Or am I, you know, am I literally driving myself into the ground because of this demonic force that's inside me? So, you know, the more that you can be aware of the drivers, the more you can set your life up to be more functional. And, you know, every successful entrepreneur I know is really got areas of their life that cause tremendous angst and pain. And the more that they're aware of that, the better they can create ways to make themselves more capable and have less angst. Because I'm a big believer in. I like achievement entrepreneurs, I really do. I just don't want their achievements to be a sacrifice of their happiness, of their families, of their life, of their health. Because, you know, the number one thing for me, value wise is health and freedom. You know, my health is most important. You know, there's this proverb which is, he who has their health has a thousand dreams. He who does not have their health has only one. And if you the reason I have ambitions and aspirations and can talk to you on the phone right now and can go to lunch and can read books and go work out at the gym, and all the things that I do is because I'm not laid up in a hospital bed in chronic pain. But if I was, the only thing that would matter to me was to not be in that state. And so before you ever get yourself in that state, many people end up there. And they regret tremendously that they didn't do all the little things, all the rituals that could have prevented that. They would do anything. They would give all. Any billionaire would give everything, every penny he owns to be back in a healthy state. So the key is take care of your health first and look at why are you doing all this and make sure that you can look at yourself in the mirror at the end of the day on most days and have gratitude and confidence and be proud of what you're doing. And if you're not, make a shift. Because if you do have pain in some areas, it's nature's way of saying, hey, pay attention. And a lot of people don't pay attention to that stuff. And there's signals that are right in.

Front of us, and a lot of.

Times we ignore them.

So.

So, you know, anyway, that's. Those are just some of my thoughts.

Joe.

Yeah.

You know, first, thank you for your vulnerability and. And transparency. I think that's a huge reason why so many people are attracted to you, why you have so many friends and people that come to you for. For advice. Because it's very easy to connect with you when you're sharing your background like that with us. And then not just that, but then associating it or. Or helping us relate to it in another way. So, you know, what's interesting is somebody told me recently that everybody messes up their kids. They actually used a different word, but they mess up their kids. And something that I've noticed that comes out of that, though, is how resilient we are people kids are. And although it doesn't always happen, I think oftentimes characteristics that are driven from inexcusable and unfortunate circumstances like molestation and drug abuse and addiction and so on, some of those characteristics, when rechanneled, can create some incredibly accomplished people like yourself. So I think it's a really unfortunate thing. I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but I think they're naturally, in just about any scenario, you can find a golden nugget in there.

Yeah, totally. If anything, a lot of my desperate states in my life created a tremendous amount of empathy. I mean, I understand lots of different levels of mental anguish and feeling tormented in human suffering. And certainly, I mean, I'm very grateful I was born in America. I mean, there are people right now, as we have this conversation, that will have spent their entire existence starving in horrible states. You know, I mean, there's so much pain in other people's lives now. That doesn't mean that if you had pain, you should ignore it. I mean, if someone, you know, if you broke your ankle and you see someone that has two broken ankles, it doesn't make your broken ankle hurt any less. I mean, you still have to deal with your own stuff, but at the same time, you know, there's so many lessons that can come from it. And, you know, Dan Sullivan has this great line. Irritated oysters make pearls, and there's a lot of pearls that can be made, and some people that are irritated just. Just fly off the handle and they don't do anything creative. But all of you know, the. All of the things that have happened in your past is all the raw materials and the raw ingredients for creating your future. And most, you know, your life, my life, everyone who's listening to this, however you respond to the world, it's your current level of consciousness, it's your current level of evolution, it's your current level of mindset. And so I'm always striving to say, okay, all the shitty things that have happened to me, that's life's greatest teacher. I mean, those are the things that will teach you the most on how to transform it. And one thing I bring up Dan a lot, because I spend a lot of time talking to Dan Sullivan. And one thing I learned about entrepreneurship from Dan, and we've had a lot of conversations about this, is that most of the money that we're going to make in the world is going to come out of transforming other people's bad news into good news. And you have to understand that other people's bad news is your good news. There's a lot of people that walk around the world thinking that, oh, there shouldn't be any problems. I wish we had world peace. I wish we, you know, of course, so do I. I wish we didn't have any pain. I wish everything was sunshine and kittens. But the reality is it isn't. And so if you're hungry, that's bad news. But if someone has a restaurant, that's good news. If you broke your leg, bad news. If there's medical care that will help you, that's good news. If you die, that's not good news. But imagine if there were not mortuaries. Imagine if there were not, you know. Now, I would. This will sound really weird, but I'm.

Actually a big believer in the future.

Of cryonics, where you actually can chronically suspend a person and, you know, bring back. You know, bring back life, you know, what means death. Now, that will get into a really weird Conversation. But the point is, there's all these entrepreneurs that are focusing on transforming other people's, you know, bad news into good news. If you're bored, that's bad news. But if there's movie theaters and comedy clubs and, you know, places to go to, you know, to entertain yourself, that's good news. So as an entrepreneur, you want to accept the fact that most of the money you're going to make is out of bad news. And there's a lot of bad news in the world. And how do you transform that bad news? And a lot of people that will be listening to this, they have literally built their businesses around transforming other people's bad news into good news. And then there's individuals that have bad news and they just make it worse, like selling crappy, toxic food or many of, I would even consider evil drug companies that literally keep people enslaved and addicted to drugs. And they call it health care when it's really sick care. So, you know, thinking about having a.

Happy life, part of it is really.

Being able to transform good news into bad news, not making it worse. Because there are people that run enterprises and businesses that. That really enslave people. I mean, they don't add any value whatsoever. They make a lot of money. But are they really? Is it a value proposition? And so there are certain industries that I just won't even touch. I won't even get into them because they sell products. Like, if a tobacco company came to me and wanted to give me $10 million to design a marketing campaign, I mean, I'd want the $10 million, but I wouldn't take it because to me, it's a product that kills people. And that's not even a moral discussion about should it be legal or not legal. I mean, because I'm also a guy that believes that making drugs illegal causes, you know, a punitive system that actually is imprisoning people that have a really, you know, that have a lot of trauma and pain. And it literally, one of the biggest causes of addiction, drug addiction, is the fact that prohibition exists. And so that.

And again, so it's all your perspective on how you look at stuff.

But the takeaway things that I would want to leave big ideas for people because a lot of people, when I.

Have these conversations with them, they're like.

Wow, I never really thought about that. And look for bad news.

Look at all of the bad news.

That exist in the world.

And instead of saying, business, yeah, don't say, God, I really wish this didn't exist.

Say, well, yeah, if you don't really.

Think it should exist.

Can you actually transform it?

And do you have the ability to.

Shift it it and be okay with that?

Because if you don't come along and solve the problem, the problem ain't going to go away.

And that's the beauty of entrepreneurship.

I mean, the original definition of an.

Entrepreneur came from a French Guy in 1804. He coined the term entrepreneur, was a.

Guy named John Baptiste, say, who said that an entrepreneur is an individual that.

Takes resources from a lower level of.

Capability to a higher level of capability. So whenever you're creating a more capable.

See, a lot of people think of, oh, entrepreneurship.

Here's an axe to chop down a tree and someone invents a chainsaw. So they invented a more effective, efficient.

Way to cut down a tree. I think of someone's mental state.

If you take someone who has a certain level of confidence and you can increase that confidence, if you can change the way that they think, the way that they perceive the world, there's entrepreneurship in action there. And so everyone that would look listen.

To a podcast to try to get insights or strategies or learning or different perspective. I mean, the mere fact of taking.

The time to do that versus sitting and watching a soap opera, their amount.

Of time spent in whatever they're spending.

It on is going to yield a certain result or a certain way to think and interpret the world. And so the same things with your actions, where are you applying your action? And my thing is find the deepest source of pain and suffering that people are willing to pay money for, and you can build an incredibly successful business.

I mean, I've made millions of dollars by focusing on how to transform, you.

Know, other people's angst. And there's other areas where, like in the addiction platform, I don't even have an in a monetization model. I just want to put stuff out.

Into the world because I just want to help people.

I don't, you know, I didn't care about me making money in those areas.

I just care about changing the global conversation about how people think about the treatment of addicts, why they treat things.

And then the final thing here, since.

I'm kind of gone on a bunch of different directions, is when it comes to learning how to do what it is you do, one of the most useful things, I interviewed this guy named.

Roy Nelson who wrote a book called.

Love Notes from Hell. And he's a guy who's in his 70s and he helps addicts with their recovery. And he said, you know, one of.

The challenges with a Lot of self help.

And even where people will go to 12 step meetings or they'll try to go to a therapist is they're always trying to learn what to do. They're always trying to learn what to do. And one of the things that is required to recover from addiction is you have to excavate.

You have to get to the core of all of the shit that's going on inside you that causes you to medicate in self destructive ways.

And he said, what happens is if.

You don't excavate all of the crap.

Out of your past, your thinking, your.

Ego, and you just try to learn what to do, or you read a bunch of books, it's like putting whipped cream on top of dog shit.

And you need to clean out the.

Crap or you're never going to enjoy the taste of the cream.

It's just going to be disguised. And so unlearning is actually more important.

Than, in my opinion, than learning.

You know, as I pursue my life, I read a lot.

I've read over a thousand books. I spend over 100 grand a year on seminars, consultants, advisors, coaching. I mean, I'm a big believer. I'm a convert in my own system. I mean, I have no qualms about telling people to invest money, you know, being an EO member, you know, joining my stuff, you know, those sort of things because, because it's useful. And I'm a big believer in telling people, yeah, invest in what you're going to learn. However, in the process of learning, you want to unlearn things that don't work for you.

I mean, your not to do list.

Is infinitely more important than your to do list. There's so many people that are just so overwhelmed with all of the stuff that they have. And I understand that state. I'm really good at getting myself overwhelmed and putting more stuff on my plate than I can ever do. However, I've learned to look at it on a regular basis and say, okay, you know, is this really necessary? As my friend Arianna Huffington says, you know, sometimes the best way to complete a project is to drop it. And so, you know, there are sayings that I have like, you know, be willing to destroy anything in your life that's not excellent. And if people are like, I don't have time to exercise, I don't have time to spend with my family, well, what are you two busy doing that you don't have enough time to focus on your health or the most important things that bring you joy? And that's where you have to really unlearn some of the habits and the patterns and the things. And if you do that, then you will have, you know, all the time. You need to focus on what is most important.

The key is if you can get.

Yourself to really understand and get clear and give yourself space to do that.

So isn't that the philosophy of the monk who sold his Ferrari?

Sharma yeah, Robin's a dear friend. Robin SHARMA yeah, he's in my Genius Network group. I'm. I mean, it's the whole philosophy of that.

One thing that we haven't talked about that I think is really important for our listeners to understand if they don't know this about you. What was unique about you as a carpet cleaner back in the day when ponytails and acid washed jeans were in, was your approach to content marketing. Of course, there wasn't a name for it then, but you were one of the pioneers of. I don't want to go so far. Maybe you did, maybe you invented it, but at least say you were one of the pioneers of content marketing in carpet cleaning now. And I'm curious about if you can tell me about that. Tell me about how you think content marketing has evolved, because I don't know that it's evolved much from where you were in the 80s with it. And then I'd also be curious on what you think about a lot of these marketing automation tools that have popped up in the past 15 years or so.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I'll try to explain it in a short period of time in a way that it applies to everyone that's listening. So let me put a couple things in context. No one typically grows up and says, I want to be a carpet cleaner. So it's one of these accidental industries that you sort of stumble into or you work for a company and you end up starting your own. There's a low barrier to entry, but it's still a business that requires enormous amount of professionalism. A real professional cleaner or professional anything to really be a skill skilled craftsman requires education, requires learning what to do and being able to deliver, you know, a service. And there's a lot of people that suck at it and there's a lot of people that are incredibly good at it.

So here I was with this carpet.

Cleaning company and I was struggling and I didn't really know what to do. And I'll tell you a real quick story that happened. This is the first mentor that I was exposed to.

I had a friend I went to.

High school with that called me up one day when I was you know, about a year and a half into my carpet cleaning business. And he said, hey, you know, there's this guy that owns. He's a multimillion dollar real estate investor and we're going to go jet skiing in Seguro Lake, which is here in Arizona, which is. I still live in the Phoenix area. I have a home in Tempe, a business in Tempe, and I have a house in Tempe and in Paradise Valley. And so basically back then I was broke and I had this carpet cleaning business that I had a friend talk me into getting in into. And I had gone about $30,000 in.

Debt on credit cards. And I was frustrated and I was.

Going to, you know, school at night to get my Series sevens and series 63 license so I could be a stockbroker, you know, glorified on the phone, you know, selling people into investments.

What year was this, though? That was in 1992.

Yeah. Okay.

Okay.

And so I started my carpet cleaning.

Business in late 89.

Beginning in 1990, I had this carpet cleaning business.

I took all the money that I had saved up delivering newspapers and having odd jobs, and I bought a portable.

Steam cleaner and got a business card.

That said, you know, professional carpet upholstery.

Cleaner, residential, commercial, you know, phone number. You know, here I was overnight, I'm in professional carpet cleaner.

And so my friend invites me on.

This Jet Ski trip and I said, no, you know, I don't really have time. But he's like, you know, this guy that owns the Jet skis, he's worth a lot of money and real smart guy. And that, of course, piqued my interest.

And so I ended up going on this trip. And so there was me and my friend Pat, who I went to high school with, and then this guy that was the real estate investor and one of his friends, I can't even remember.

This guy's name, although he was the.

Most influential conversation I had on business at that stage in my life, which I'll get into in a second. And so we're, you know, we're out at the lake and I have this pickup truck and this guy has his jet skis. And so we're sitting on the tailgate.

Of his pickup truck and there's two jet skis. And I finally had an opportunity to.

Sit down with the rich guy and.

My friend Pat and this guy's friend were on the two Jet skis. And I said to him, well, I hear you do really well in business. And I have a small carpet cleaning company And I'm wanting to get out of it and going into another industry where I can make more money and do better. And I was wondering if you have any suggestions. And he says to me, well, is there anyone in your business that's making money? And I said, yeah, you know, there's a couple companies in the Phoenix area that do over a million dollars a year. You know, to me, that's a lot of money. And. And he said, well, if there's other people that are making money in your industry and you're not, there's nothing wrong.

With the business you're in.

There's something wrong with you. And I said, well, no, no, you don't understand.

I'm certified, I've gotten trained, I know how to do a good job. It's just a lot of these companies have been around for a while. They have technicians, they're established. And he said, look, he goes, you're like most people, you think that grass is always greener on the other side. And what's going to happen if you try to go into another industry? You're going to spend another, you know, six months, another year, another two years learning the technical skills of another business so you can go out and repeat the same bad business habits that have caused you to be a failure in this business.

And I'm like thinking, you know, this is not the pretty uplifting, huh? Right, Right. That's not the motivational speech that I was looking for. And I said, well, I go, look, look, I go, some of these companies do bait and switch advertising.

They use a low price to get.

In people's homes and then they high.

Pressure them into more services.

I don't do anything like that. I treat people really well.

And he goes, look, he goes, what I suggest is you need to learn fundamental business skills. Because until you learn how to make a business work, it doesn't matter what industry you go into, you're going to carry those same habits with you and you'll bounce around your whole life trying to figure it out, thinking it's the industry you're in that's the problem. And it really made sense to me. He goes, so you just need to learn fundamental business skills, because once you learn them, you can take those skills to anything and be successful anywhere. So what happened is I got a mind shift change. Now, everything that I just said is not profound. I mean, everyone's probably had some version of that conversation in their own head or they've had someone tell them that, or they've read a book along those Lines. But what it did for me as I drove back from that trip, and I was really sunburned that day, but I had this thought when I was driving back that I remember distinctly, that, you know, I live in America. I'm not the smartest guy in the world. I don't have any college education, you know, and. But I'm not a dumbass either. And I'm, you know, I got my health. And there's other people that seemingly don't seem. I don't think they're as smart as me, but they're making a lot more money than me. They're doing better than me. They know something that I don't. And that. That was my first venture on saying, okay, I am not going to get out of this business until I figure out how to make it work and figure out what are the recipes that actually caused some people to have success. And that's what opened up my mind. Now, it didn't give me any of my answers, which eventually I learned very quickly because it was just a couple months after that that a friend gave me my first newsletter on direct response marketing. And that's where my education on marketing started. But I left that trip saying that I'm not entitled to anything. If I don't figure out how to make. Make this thing work, I'm never going to have success, and that I've got to figure out how to do it. Other people have done it. So it really put me in the right mindset to say, I am going to figure out what other people have done, and I'm not going to abandon this business because this is my opportunity. This is my slate that I could use as a lab rat. I could use it as a testing ground. And so when I was introduced to marketing, I read it and listened to it in a much different way than many people I think haven't. So to give people specific strategies, I'll share something. Why I did so. Here I was in the business where everybody was advertising price, and every conversation that someone would call me, the first thing out of their mouth, if they called me at all, was, how much do you charge? And I hated that question because I would be describing how my cleaning method is the most effective, what I do, how I guarantee my work. But I'd have to talk to people over the phone. Now, there was no Internet back then. I had my first website in 1990, but at that time, there was no, you know, there was no Internet, There was no Google, there was no Yelp, There weren't reviews. There Wasn't Amazon, you know, there wasn't any of these things we were running Valpak type coupons, yellow page ads, direct mail letters, you know, tv, radio, telemarketing. I mean, you know, magazines, newspapers, those are the ways that people would generate business, you know, word of mouth, that sort of stuff. And so I, I literally hated the whole question, how much do you charge? And I came across this whole concept of like any problem in the world could be solved with the right sales letter. And it was by a guy named Gary Halbert, who I originally started reading his newsletter. And then Gary ended up becoming a dear friend of mine and he passed away almost a little less than 10 years ago. But basically I started studying his marketing strategies and I bought a $2,000 set of VHS tapes of a three day seminar on credit card because I had this belief that I'm going to figure out how to write a sales letter. I'm going to figure out how to take compelling words and influence people to do business with me. So I hired a copywriter for $1,800 to write my very first marketing strategy, which was A Consumer's Guide to Carpet Cleaning. And I know this off the top of my head.

I mean, I've said this a million.

Times, but I had this. I was sitting there thinking to myself, okay, in order for someone to hire me on things other than price, and if I don't want to advertise price, I need to educate people on how to make a buying decision. Because if you don't have a system.

For selling your products or your services.

You'Re at the mercy of the customer. Or consumer system for buying, which everyone has a system for buying. It's called price. And if you don't give people another reason to do business with you other than price, they're always going to default to how much you charge. Because that's the only way you get something in a capitalistic society is you pay money for it. So I created a consumer's guide to Carpet Cleaning. Read this guide and discover seven questions ask a carpet cleaner before you invite him into your home. Eight Mistakes to avoid when choosing a carpet cleaner. Six Costly misconceptions about carpet cleaning. Crawling critters and crud a guy to the slime, grime and livestock that's seeping, creeping and galloping through your carpet. How to avoid 4 Carpet Cleaning RIP offs the difference between value and price. How to get your carpet cleaner to 100% guarantee their work. Now I have to pause and say if you're listening to this and you're not in the carpet cleaning business, you're like maybe thinking, well, what the hell does this have to do with me? I'm a surgeon. Or you know, I build websites, or you know, I have a manufacturing company or name the industry. Well, the fact is the people that are your clients and your prospects, they don't live, eat and breathe your business like you do, so they don't understand what it is you do. And if you have competitors that sell something similar to yours or perceive similarly as yours, you need to position yourself differently. Selling is what you do when you're on the phone or face to face with somebody. Marketing is what you do to get someone on the phone or face to face with you, properly positioned so that by the time they talk to you, they're pre interested, pre motivated, pre qualified and predisposed to do business with you. And so that consumer awareness guide, when someone would call me up on the phone and say, how much you charge? I say, well, I've created this consumer awareness guide on how to choose a carpet cleaner. Let me mail it to you and it'll teach you everything you need to know on how to hire a carpet cleaner. And then while you're at it, if you'd like to do business with us, we do a thing called a carpet audit where we're coming to your home, we'll clean one room up to, you know, 2, 200 square feet absolutely free. And we'll give you an exact, you know, quote on what it would cost to have the rest of your home done if you'd like. But there's no cost or obligation at all. And we just want you to see the quality of our work, you know, and so I literally put all of that in print. Now today those are on videos, they're on YouTube videos. I've been on ABC's 2020 with Barbara Walters back in 1999, teaching people how to avoid bait and switch carpet cleaners and how to hire an ethical question carpet cleaner. Abc, way back then, before Google existed, literally put my consumer awareness guide on the abc.com website where they link to ethicalservices.com which is something that I created for people to choose an ethical carpet cleaner. Millions of people and thousands of carpet cleaners all over the world. I have over 7,000 cleaning companies worldwide that became members of Piranha Marketing using my education based marketing methods. And that's only one out of hundreds of strategies that I would teach service businesses. By the late 90s, every major city in the United States, their phone book had one or multiple versions of my education based marketing ads offering consumer awareness guides or the second scenario. See there was a challenge with the consumer awareness guide. If someone called and they wanted their carpets clean the next day because back then there was no Internet, you couldn't email it to them, you couldn't direct them to a website, you had to use snail mail. If there was not enough time to get the consumer guide to someone in the mail, how would I get them that information? So the next transition I made was a consumer awareness message which is using a 24 hour free recorded message. So I started running ads that said warning, don't call any carpet cleaner until you listen to this free recorded message. Call anytime 24 hours a day and learn seven questions. Ask a carpet cleaner before invite him into your home and how to avoid for carpet cleaning rip offs. Call anytime 24 hours a day. And so people would call a recorded message and they would hear me explaining, dear friend, thank you for calling this free recorded message. If all you're looking for is a cheap brush the dirt off cleaning, we respectfully ask that you look at another carpet cleaning company. However, if you want to learn how to do it right, I'm going to walk you through. And I would say the same exact things. When they would open up the consumer guide, the printed version, it would say, dear homeowner, choosing a carpet cleaner isn't easy. Now let me explain what I just said in a way that everyone listening can use it in their own business. Say you're a graphic designer. Dear blank, you know, choosing a graphic designer isn't easy. Why? Because you're bombarded with, you know, unqualified people, near worthless, you know, technicians, you know, all kinds of websites that promise, I mean you can go into it. So like my. And you can use it as a template, you know. Dear homeowner, choosing a pest control company isn't easy. Why? Because you're bombarded with confusing claims, simply bad information, near worthless methods, unqualified technicians. How do you ever find a qualified competent blank? You start by reading this guide or listening to this guide. And with this information you can make an informed, intelligent decision. Because the number one question going through all consumers minds is who can I trust? And so your job as a marketer, your job as a business owner is to establish trust and rapport and comfort so people feel comfortable doing business with you. It's simply about telling your story. Marketing is literally storytelling. Selling is influence. And so when people are like, well I don't like this marketing stuff, I don't like selling. I say to them, well, you know, and I would encourage everyone to type into Google, is selling evil? Is like, they asked me this question when they were filming me for a documentary, is selling evil? And I went on this like 3 minute and 50 second rant and someone watched the B roll footage of this, this footage of me being interviewed for this documentary that didn't make it on the movie and they actually put it on YouTube. And now it's become something that has been shown in colleges and that's been shown thousands of times all over the place. I had lunch with John Mackey, the founder of Whole Foods, and I showed him my selling evil video and he said, me and you think very much alike and it'll give my perspective on selling. But when people say I don't like selling and marketing, well, selling is influence, marketing is storytelling. If you tell a better story, you're going to get more buy in, you're going to get more enrollment. So the job of doing marketing effectively is telling a story that engages people, that compels people. A compelling offer is 10 times more useful and powerful than a convincing argument. As my partner in I love marketing, Dean Jackson says, so you want to make what you do compelling. And when no one wants to hire a carpet cleaner, there's nothing sexy or exciting about hiring a carpet cleaning company. So I needed to figure out how to take a service that nobody wants to buy and present it and package it in a way for people to make an informed, intelligent buying decision. So I started using consumer awareness guides and I started using 25 free recorded messages. And with the free recorded message, I created elf marketing is what we call it today. It's easy, lucrative and fun. And I think of it, you can have an elf business, which is easy, lucrative and fun, or you can have a half business, which is hard, annoying, lame and frustrating. And the ways that most people market their businesses, the way they train their salespeople, the way they present themselves is so much like complex and difficult. And it's like, you know, just make it easy for people to understand what it is you do. And one of the most, most ethical ways to sell something to someone and do it effectively is education based marketing. Educate prospects on how to make a buying decision and tell them how to hire and do business with your industry with a company like you. Because the reason is since you're the one providing them with the information, they're going to trust you. Anyone could say anything over the phone and make all kinds of promises and claims, but when you're willing to put it on a video when you're willing to put it out there. I mean, you asked the question about, what do I think about all of these automation systems? Well, for one, I love it. I mean, you can do things on Facebook and, you know, through social media and through YouTube and all kinds of. I mean, the mere fact that you can record a video and have it out in front of millions of people, literally in a matter of, in some cases, seconds, if you're doing it live, you know, like Periscope or with Twitter or something, is unbelievable. I mean, people bitch and complain how hard it is to get messages out to people. You have to remember back in the 70s, if you wanted to run an ad, you're going to run a newspaper ad. If you wanted to lay it out, it could take two or three days to lay out an ad because there was no spell check. You would have to use an exacto knife to cut out something and use whiteout in order to correct it. And people today are like, oh my.

God, it's so hard to put something together.

It's like, Jesus. I mean, if I had some of the technology available to me when I was first starting this stuff, it would have made my life infinitely easier. But the reason I think I actually learned how to be a good marketer is because of that exact reason. I mean, people can be very promiscuous with their marketing messaging today because they think it's free to send out an email, so they don't put a lot of work and effort on it. When you have to put a stamp on an envelope and you have to spend your own money in order to train, transmit a message, selling something or offering something that most people don't even want to buy, they just simply respond to it because it's the necessary evil of owning the stuff. It taught me a lot about how to be a good marketer. And that's why if you look at some of the most successful people that back in the day when they had to sell encyclopedias door to door or vacuum cleaners, those people have an insight and an understanding about selling and about packaging and about presenting and about showmanship that people that have never done that simply don't have because they've. It's been too easy for them just to, oh, let me sit behind my computer and figure out how to control the world. So, you know, going out and doing the stuff that I did and being broke and struggling was a great primer for me to figure out. Because given the choice of eating or starving, I Didn't want to starve. So I figured out how to sell my services effectively. I turned my small carpet cleaning business around and then I realized, you know, there's other carpet cleaners out there that are going through the same thing as me. How do I package that up and teach it to other cleaners? And so when I was 26 years old, I started selling my first marketing program and you know, within three years I was running a million dollar plus business and I became a millionaire by the time I was, you know, 30. And you know, prior to that I was a dead broke carpet cleaner living off credit cards, trying to overcome all of this angst and, and stuff in my life. But I owe a tremendous amount to the study of marketing, the reading of a lot of books and a lot of the applications. And then, you know, over the years I've just, you know, I just turned it into all of these skills to, you know, help, you know, thousands of other businesses and make a lot of friends and develop what is now, you know, Genius Network and bringing together some of the top entrepreneurs in the world to continue to share best practices and strategies. So that's kind of.

So don't, don't stop there because that's the, that's the thing I want to end on actually. And there's, there's a lot of places people can find you. You mentioned Periscope. For those of you not familiar with Periscope, it's a instant broadcast tool. Fantastic. To at least explore. You're on joe polish.com. there's a great video on YouTube which is where you can get a good introduction to the, the glitzy side of Joe Polish, which is the. Who is Joe Polish? There's your two podcasts, 10X Talks, and I love marketing.

Yeah.

And then there's this thing that I'd like you to tell us about the Genius Network. And also tell me about this phrase you use, return on Genius. Tell me what that means. Tell me about the Genius Network. Tell me why the heck this is worth $25,000 a year.

Well, you know, it's funny. I have two people that have already paid me for the $100,000 group that they're egging me to start.

The hundred thousand K group.

Yeah. We have 100 K group that we're going to start too, which is, but I'm not going to do a tremendous amount of marketing for that. And here's the thing with, with what I mean by that is I think of everything as a 10 times return. That's why you Know, me and dan Sullivan do 10x talk. It's like, how do you build and grow a business 10 times? And so when I started my Genius network group, I started it 10 years ago. And the way that I did it was I had a client named Robin Robbins who is a marketing guru for the IT industry, and she's a total badass. And she hired me for two hours of consulting. And at the time, I was charging three grand an hour, and I was doing a minimum of two hours. And so she paid me six grand. And at the end of two hours, she said to me, you know, why don't you create a platinum plus program, which was a coaching group I had at the time that was a thousand dollars a month, and I was doing it for carpet cleaners. And she's like, you know, why don't you start a group, like a platinum group for info marketers, people that are coaches and speakers and book authors and stuff. And I go, well, it's not that I have. I haven't thought about it, but like anything else, you know, it requires putting it together, delivering it, marketing it. I go, however, if I did do something like that, what do you think I should charge for it? She goes, well, I just paid you six grand for two hours, and I got tremendous value out of that. She goes, I would easily recommend $25,000. And I said, well. And so I repeated back to her, so if I started this, something like that, you would pay $25,000?

She goes, Absolutely, and I would recommend.

Other people to the group. And I said, well, you know, let me think about that. And we hung up the call.

How long did that take to think?

Well, no, I thought about it, but I spent a month really kind of thinking about it. And what I realized is that every. The most valuable way for me to learn something is by having a discussion with other people. And I thought to myself, because Dan Sullivan and Babs, they run the Strategic Coach program, which is the highest level coaching group in the world for successful entrepreneurs. And they had hired me because I've been in strategic coaching since 1997, and they hired me to help them with this, one of their communities where people would get together and have conversations. And in a conversation with Dan, I was like, you know, what are you guys selling?

They're like, well, it doesn't sound sexy.

But we're selling the discussion group. But it dawned on me, every freaking thing in my life where I've had the most insight came from a discussion. I mean, you take the Jet Ski story that I Explained earlier, it was a discussion with someone, and it gave me an insight. Me and you right now are having a discussion. When I go to dinner and have.

Discussions, I learn a lot when I'm.

Meeting with groups of people. That is my favorite form of exchanging knowledge. Insight, perspective strategies is discussion groups. So I thought, you know, I'm going to create my own discussion group for highly successful entrepreneurs, but let me see if anyone else will join it, because Robin said she would. So I started calling up people that I actually would call for advice. And I would always put together these brainstorming groups, meetings where I would have Brian Tracy or Bill Phillips or marketers like John Carlton and Gary Halbert. They would all come to my office. I've been doing it all the time, but I didn't have any structure around it. And so everyone I talked to, I said, if I start a group and I do it, you know, several times a year, three or four times a year, one or two days at a time, would you actually pay $25,000? It'll be really valuable.

I'll guarantee that.

I'll, you know, everyone.

I will filter everyone that comes in. So. So it's filled with really smart people. And I was going to do it with 20 people. And so every person I talked to, except one, said, yeah, I can join that group. I'll join that group. And so I had them all write me checks. So that the letter that I put together, because I had about eight people originally commit to this, and then other people were kind of on the fence, and I had these eight people send me checks, and the checks were made out to me. And what I did is I blacked out the account number and.

And we photocopied and created a sales.

Letter with all of these checks and people's names, but the account was blacked out because I didn't want them to see their account. And I actually showed that these other individuals are paying me $25,000. Would you like to join? And so I got 20 people to join, and I started the first Genius network group. And I thought, I'm just going to create a school for myself, and I'll get paid half a million dollars a year to facilitate it. And, you know, I'll teach them and connect them with each other and I'll bring them them together, because left to their own devices, they're not going to go out and organize something like this. But I'm really good at doing that. I mean, there's a lot of things.

I'm not very smart at, but I'm.

Really good at facilitating smart people together and then, you know, creating, you know, incredible conversations between bright people. So I did it, and lo and behold, it was the funnest thing that I did. I would have done it, you know, and I still would do it, even if I didn't get paid for it. But if I didn't charge for it, you wouldn't have the right people in the group. And part of people investing. Investing in Genius Network is not about giving Joe Polish $25,000. It's about putting $25,000 of their money and then six days a year of their time, meeting three times a year, two days at a time, committing to having really powerful discussions. And just like the term any problem in the world can be solved with the right sales letter, I realize that almost any problem in the world can be solved with your Genius Network. Who are the people that have the capabilities, the skills, the knowledge? And not just a bunch of Facebook followers, not just a bunch of friends, but who are the world's greatest geniuses in a particular area. And if you could bring all these people together and then get them to meet each other, it's not even about what are they going to learn at the meetings. It's about connecting in the relationships that developed. And it became my favorite thing that I did. So over the years, I started building it, and I really focused on high level stuff. You know, I mean, I'm Richard Branson's largest fundraiser razor. I've done six week long trips to Necker Island. You know, so I've interviewed Richard probably more than anyone on, you know, audio or video. And, you know, I started doing things like that. But really the core became Genius Network. And Today we have 245 people that, you know, invest $25,000 a year to be a member of Genius Network. And then once a year, we do an annual event called, you know, Genius Network. We hosted it this year. We added, you know, 300 people in the main ballroom. We sold it out, and we put another 30 people in the overflow room, which we call the Genius Lounge, which is actually, you know, many people like the Genius Lounge better than being in the main ballroom, because this is really set up very nicely. And the last two years, I've done the highest level marketing industry transformer events in the world. And it's the only event that I do that people that are not a member of Genius Network could come to. And it's $10,000 a person to do that. And we sold last year's event out a Month in advance. And this year we'll probably sell out several months in advance. And frankly, I love TED talks. I'll be going to TED next month. And TED focuses on all kinds of different people and they have technology, entertainment and design. They have a tagline, which is ideas worth spreading, which I love. I had a brief lunch with Chris Anderson, the owner of ted, at Google Zeitgeist last year. And then earlier in the year I spent six hours with Richard Saul Wurman, who's the original founder of ted. I've always liked that stuff. What I created several years ago at my Genius network events are 10 minute talks. And people have to share in 10 minutes a best practice or strategy that's been worth a minimum of $250,000 or more to their business and they have 10 minutes to share it in. And if they, and if they meet the cut, if they actually deliver, then every minute of a 10 minute talk is worth $25,000.

Because what I learned from very successful.

Entrepreneurs, they don't have any time. Now they do, but they think they don't and they perceive. So I needed to figure out, how do I, if I'm going to take the most successful people in the world, not only get them to pay me money and fly on a regular basis to meet, I have to give them some of the best content on the planet. So we focused on short, condensed, powerful practices and strategies and methods. And I actually pulled it off. And now, you know, at last, the last event I did, you know, from the time we're doing this, this, this podcast, you know, two and a half months ago, I, you know, I had Tony Robbins that I interviewed on stage, John Paul DeJoria, the billionaire from Patron, I had a, you know, another two other billionaires that were there in the group. You know, I've had Dariana Huffington speaks, Steve Forbes, Richard Branson, I mean, you name it. Dr. Daniel Amen, Daymond, John from Shark Tank, Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank. I've had a whole slew of just amazing people that come and speak at the annual event. No one gets paid. They all show up. I have a list of over 100 world class speakers that want to speak. We filter everybody. They all have to go through a process and it is just really powerful. And I'm getting ready to launch, launch a Genius Network platform where I'm going to put a lot of that content just out to the world for free because I know it'll be incredibly helpful for entrepreneurs. But my focus is entrepreneurs. I don't focus on institutions. I Don't focus on government. I don't focus on any sort of bureaucracies. I focus on entrepreneurs. And so my whole thing is, how do I create a genius network of content and individuals? The people that gesture, badass entrepreneurs can go and meet each other because I, you know, I mean, you can hear. I'm enthusiastic about it. I love. I love entrepreneurs. They're the ones that make the world go around. So, you know, the more that I can make them more capable and have more fun and develop an elf business and focus on things that will actually make them better entrepreneurs, like sleep. So I do a ton of, you know, ton of conversations and talks with my members around health, around sleep, around the brain, around human confidence, around happiness. That's why people like, you know, Shawn Achor and talking about happiness and Daniel Amen talking about the brain and, you know, that sort of stuff. Because I don't want. I don't want Joe Polish to be the brand. I don't want Genius Network to be known for me. I want it to be known for the people that are in the group. And thankfully, it's gotten to the point where it's actually transcended me. And, you know, I don't really care about people saying, oh, yeah, it's Joe Polish's group. As a matter of fact, the more that I can take myself out of it and just highlight all of my incredible members, the better, because I have people that are in the group that are smarter, more articulate, more accomplished than me in all kinds of different areas. But everyone has their unique ability. You know, I have Dan Sullivan speak at every one of the meetings. He's been a member for five years. I have Peter Diamandis speak at all my meetings. He's been a member for four years. I've Brendan Bouchard, who has one of the biggest followings on female Facebook and YouTube, speak at all my conferences. He's been a member for about three years. I have a guy named Dean Graziosi who, when he started, was doing between 12 million to 20 million a year. He hit over 200 million a year in sales. And he would say that, yeah, most of these relationships came out of the people he met in Genius Network that he ended up working with. And so I just wanted to be a place where the best entrepreneurs go. So that's my pitch, I guess, on Genius Network, but also explaining what it is. And even if someone never comes across me, I think every person should have a Genius Network. I think EO is a great Genius Network for a lot of people like Vern Harnish has spoken at my Genius Network event. He stayed at my house a couple months ago and we just did an interview that was put up on. I love marketing with Vern and I'm going to actually re release that on the new Genius Network podcast that we're starting. Same with Kevin Harrington. Kevin Harrington was one of the, the first founders of EO with Vern. And it's, it's, you know, it's funny how full circle this all comes around. I mean, I was an EO member for the first time back in, I think it was 1998. Yeo, it was called back then Young Entrepreneurs Organization.

But yeah, yeah, we're not so young anymore.

No, that's what happens. You get older.

So Joe, we're going to wrap this up now. When we hang up here, you're going to say, I can't believe I didn't ask me about this. What, what did I forget to ask you about? What's important that I'm missing here?

God, you know, that's a question that I.

And we could talk for. It sounds like we could talk about stuff for hours. I literally have about a dozen more questions that I wanted to ask you that I'm not going to get into. But I mean, I could keep going.

Let's make a deal. If anyone actually likes this stuff or.

They'Re like, did this guy say anything that I really resonated with that we could do a part two in the future.

So I would love to hear.

I'll take you up on that.

I don't know if you have or wherever this goes, but yeah. So what did you ask me that, that I wish you would have asked?

Well, didn't I?

Yeah, yeah.

I would say let me think of something really, really important.

Like you don't have to.

If nothing stands out to you, that's cool. We'll, we'll.

No, I would say this. I'll just make a statement. It's about how do you, how do you deal with things when they're not, when they're not working or where you're feeling completely overwhelmed because you know, there's.

A lot of stuff having and having been an addict. I've sat in many rooms.

I was in a high profile group.

In the early 2000s with Academy Award winning actors and actresses, famous politicians, musicians, athletes that couldn't go to 12 step meetings or group therapy because they were too famous. I have sat with people that are so admired in the world and so successful and so broken at the same Time. So I've had a unique process perspective of how I've sought out trying to better my life when it was out of control. You know, I've done 30 days in rehab centers. I mean, you know, I've been through the ringer on stuff and I'm glad. I mean, some of it was useless and cost a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of it was, you know, probably saved my life. So, you know, I have perspective. And there are times where you're going to wake up and you just like.

You don't want to go.

I mean, you are out of bat, your battery are completely depleted, your relationships.

May be a wreck.

You may have a partner you don't even want to, like a life partner or a business partner that you would do anything just to rid yourself of. I've learned that feelings are not facts. So you may feel real shitty. That doesn't mean that the world is really shitty. Some of the things that have been helpful to me is that amateurs wait for inspiration. Professionals do it with a headache. And so there are times where you may get to and hopefully you don't. But I've been around a lot of pain and there are times where you just may not want to exist in spite of all of the success. And so what I would encourage people to do is I have a friend named Ned Hallowell who is one of the top ADD ADHD experts. I've interviewed him a bunch of times, he's written a bunch of books and he has a three step worry plan.

That I want to share and then we'll wrap up.

You could apply this personally and professionally. So three step worry plan. If you're ever in a position where you just don't feel great, first thing is don't worry alone. Reach out for help, call someone, get outside, move. But don't worry alone. In isolation, if you're in pain, it doesn't get better. Rotting food doesn't get better. With age, it gets worse. So don't worry alone. Second is get the facts. And the third is have a plan. So for instance, if you had cancer, first off, don't ignore it, okay? It's best to know so, you know, don't worry alone. That would be terrible. Second is get the facts and then have a plan. But you can apply that to anything and stay connected. I mean, the biggest thing that causes angst is you're just disconnected from yourself. You're disconnected with your friends, you're disconnected from your business. So connection. Vitamin C, as Ned calls it is really critically important. So, you know, the things that I think will make the biggest difference is your attention. Like everyone, you know what, after you leave listening to this episode that we're doing here, your attention is your most valuable asset. What gets your attention? So put your attention on things that are going to give you the greatest return. And if something just sucks, creatively, destroy it. I'm a huge. Again, that saying I said earlier, be willing to destroy anything in your life that is not excellent. And do that. And also, also just congratulate yourself on taking on. This is an EO sort of inspired podcast, but it's all about entrepreneurship, and most people are not entrepreneurs and most people don't understand it. So find your genius network. Develop your genius network, and nothing feels good in the middle. Whenever you're going through a hard workout, if you're going to work out for an hour and you're 30 minutes into it, the 30 minute mark does not feel good. Well, the same thing with any type of. Of progress, any product building a business. In the very beginning and every day. This is the shit that entrepreneurs sign up for. They sign up for pain.

They sign up for let me do something.

And it never feels good in the middle. And sometimes the middle is so hard and so confusing that people want to give up. And sometimes it is best to give up. But don't try to figure it out on your own. I mean, the people that cause the most suffering is they think they did it all themselves. They don't hire people, they don't reach out and divide relationships, and they do this stuff in isolation. So the big takeaway of, you know, just don't isolate yourself. So if you were to ask me that in a question, it would have been like, hey, what would you say to people that are in a lot of pain? And I would say, you know, just connect with other people. Connect with something that has meaning, you know, sometimes. Like my friend Kathy Colby, the founder of Colby.com, she says the time to.

Quit working is when working is no longer working.

Don't listen to all this shit that so many successful entrepreneurs say that you have to work really hard and you have to be willing to make all of these sacrifices to a certain degree. You know, don't take it out of context, what I'm saying, but you know what you can accomplish, the work you need to do in 250 days a year, if it takes 365 days a year for you to do what it is you need to do, you're probably not being Very effective. And that's something I learned from Dan Sullivan. I mean, figure out how to take free days. Figure out how to give yourself enough sleep every night, you know, and if you're working, you know, 10, 12, 14 hours a day, never taking vacations, you're being really inefficient. It's not about you need to because you built a big, you know, hell, I've, you know, I've clients of mine that have tens of thousands of employees and they know how to take vacations and stuff. So don't buy all of this you got to work all the time crap. It's all nonsense. Certainly you can get that way. And there's plenty of successful people that work, swear and beat up and down on their chest that this is why they're successful. And yeah, but you're not them. You're you. And so create the best you that you can create and have the most fun that you can create. Stay the most connected. And the last thing I'll say is protect your confidence and protect your gratitude. You'll feel better and operate better with high levels of confidence and you can have all the money, all the relationships in the world. But if you don't have gratitude, you're going to be a miserable person. So protect your confidence and develop and protect your gratitude and I think you'll just have a much more enjoyable and hopefully happy Life.

Joe Polish, Joe Polish.com Joe, you're awesome, man. You rock. Thank you so much for this.

You are absolutely welcome. So good luck to everybody and hope to cross paths soon.

We hope you enjoyed this episode from Joe Polish and Dean Jackson on I love marketing. Most of the episodes are based on Joe and Dean's eight profit activators. To grow your business, Joe and Dean have put together together a free report called Breakthrough DNA 8 Profit Activators you can trigger in your business right now. Visit ilovemarketing.com DNA to get instant access to that report and put the eight profit activators in place for your business today. Again, that's www.ilovemarketing.com DNA.

Sam.