Produce More Results In Your Life And Create Your Entrepreneurial Mindset | Joe Polish

You've got to create a culture that really allows human beings to be creative and flourish where they feel a sense of purpose, they have a sense of meaning, they have a sense of belonging that they're cared for, people they care about, and that they can have some fun in the workplace where they can be fully human. We need to create workplaces where humans can be fully human, in a sense, their highest potential of being a human. You know, painting a picture, you're trying to create something to make a difference to other people's lives. You have a blank canvas, and you're filling in every little bit of that canvas to get every single little detail right. And if that canvas, you know, sings out at you at the end and it's, you know, it's a beautiful picture, you're business is going to be successful. If, you know, if bits of the canvas are not quite right, your business may fail. So if you set up a. If you set up to change people's lives, you've got to get every single little detail right. You've got to make sure that the people that you're working with 100% believe in what you're trying to do. And you've got to make sure that what you're trying to do is worthwhile spending your time on. Love it. Now, one thing I want to get into is the entrepreneurial mindset, but I want to ask you and Dean something as a way to kind of frame what we're talking about. One of the things I've been doing with my team is asking everyone to share daily what's the results that they're producing. And I'm seeing how difficult it is for some of them to articulate what is actually a result. So what was going on? You know, we had this daily activity report, and I wanted everyone to produce results. And then I realized, well, I'm calling it a daily activity report, not a daily result report. Maybe that's why they're reporting activities. Right. Duh. You know, I mean, words have a lot to do with it. Dean's always talking about if you couldn't get paid for what it is that you do anymore, like, if there was some sort of law tomorrow that said you can no longer charge for your products or services or experiences or whatever the heck it is you're selling, and you could only get paid for a result, or what would the result be? And I've been talking a lot about thought leaders. Everyone talks about thought leaders, but I like result leaders because anyone can come up with a thought, right? So Dean, how would you define a result? And I'd like to hear the same thing from you, Lee. How would you define a result? Because everyone here, they want to produce results in their life. And in order to produce a result, they need capability. So I think they're here with us today to, to see what sort of inspiration, encouragement, how to ideas, that sort of thing. And then of course, you know, Ben Hardy here with the who, not how this is a great thing to, you know, frame this conversation. I want to hear what is the result? What does a result mean? So that we know if we're doing it or not. So you go first, Dean. Okay, so I'm going to tie that back to what we were talking about. These groups. If you look at just what we've been talking about, I see in our screen right here, me and you and Lee and Ben, you were talking about those. Between the four of us, there's over half a million dollars a year that we've already just talked about between Strategic Coach and Genius Network of investment annually in our growth. Right? And if you don't come into something like that with a clear understanding of what is the result that you're looking for from, from it, then it's easy to get lost. It's easy to look at something like that as an expense. But when you look at it as an investment, that's what I look at it as, a capital investment that's sanctioned by the government that gives you a tax break for doing it. To invest in ideas and contacts and relationships and being in what I call an abundance neighborhood. You know, when we talk about this idea of surrounding yourself with the people who are going to be, you know, moving forward in the same direction that you're moving forward over the next 25 years. And I'm surrounded in three environments like that with Genius Network, with Strategic Coach and with peter diamantes with Abundance360. I look at those three Abundance neighborhoods as where I want to hang out for the next 25 years. And so what I'm looking for is what is the ROI that my participation in those neighborhoods and that investment that I'm making going to yield. And the truth is that I've been playing with house money in those environments for years. It doesn't take long before you get to a point where they're self sustaining. I'm going to show an infographic because I'm super excited about it, that if everybody can see this, this is a seven year case study that I just got the results for last week for September of 2013 till September of 2020, seven years that we were doing a case study with one of our real estate clients in Toronto. And this just to illustrate how I think about playing the long game on investments that you're making, both in capital, time, energy, relationships, environments, everything that you're doing. I'm looking for what's going to drive this so the components of it. And you can use this as a model for how you evaluate anything you're doing. Along the bottom are all the months from September 2013 to September 2020. The red dots along the bottom here represent the cumulative investment in postcards, newsletters, following up with the people who respond to the postcards. These green dots going up and to the right and gaining exponential traction here are the cumulative commissions that he's earned from people who have responded to the marketing that he's been doing along the way. And these yellow dots connected by these lines here represent when people first responded to the postcards that we sent out. And so if you look here, this was exciting this year, the top line, somebody responded in September of 2013 and in September of 2020 sold their house with Tony. And so that. And you can see every month in between here people are going, and if I zoomed in, he took. It was five months before he did his first transaction. But when he did that first transaction, he reached escape velocity and he's been self sustaining. All of this has been self funding for that ever since that first, that fifth month. And over time now it's been over a million 300,000 on $148,000 ad spend or investment at a 9.1 times ROI. When you start looking and evaluating your involvement in any sort of network, any sort of a mastermind, any sort of educational thing, you start looking at how much have I invested in this over time and then you really pay attention and look what were the ideas that I got or the people that I met or the relationship that I forged, or the supplier that I learned about that generated a real result in this. An ROI and ROIs of money are the easiest thing for you to track. That's really why we're in this game of business. That's how we keep the score for things like that. So that kind of mindset, if you look at it for something in Strategic Coach, how can you point back if you're honestly reflecting on things that you're learning and saying what was this? That what freedom did this bring me? Or what result did this bring me? Or what insight did this bring me? Or who did I meet? That led to this decision that got me into this outcome where I ended up with, with money. So that is certainly one of the ways that we keep scoring. If you start evaluating the relationships that you get into and you start looking at them and driving that roi, not just passively sitting in there to learn and to just take it all in, you've got to actually do something. You know, you gotta, you gotta do it, you gotta find a who or tell your who's to do what you learned. I surround myself in those environments to be exposed to what's and who's that I can deploy to get a result. I don't want to do anything. Love it, Love it. Thank you. So Lee, follow up on that one. What are your thoughts? I love it because Dean and I think a lot alike. Of course I'm going to look at return on investment in dollars, time, passion and relationships. Right. For me personally, the roi, I'm fully content with the ROI I have in my companies already. So now it's just adding extra value, adding extra ideas. But the relationship piece, that's the most important piece to me in the communities like Joe, if you look back to my first Genius X meeting with you, very first founders meeting, people that I met in that group are lifelong friends. And not just that we're doing business together. We're talking behind the scenes, we're talking about what's really going on in our life and how do we improve and support each other through it. So. So I think that the connections is really the most important to me. I'm looking at return on investment on connections, but also what can I give? I'm more of a giver. I usually come into the meetings not needing anything, but I love giving and sharing and giving people public relations ideas and just building relationships. And so that's my most important piece. No, totally. Well, you're a giver, so, you know, like my book Life Gives to the Giver. I mean this is really about being a giver and it's about making an investment. I mean, the graphic that Dean just showed is really a visual representation of an investment in learning ideas, applying them, taking certain actions. I think we all look at this from an investment standpoint. The deeper you go with anything that is producing a result, the better the results tend to be, especially in the long term. How do you say something really important though? Dean said he's looking at this and I am and Dan Sullivan teaches us this also, which is looking at it in a 25 year relationship. This is not just about one year. This is about building over time. And I think about my tenure in Genius Network from the first year to now. I mean, these are deep relationships that I have now, but it took years seeing each other, sharing problems, having hot seats, being in the meetings, going to Arizona. It took years to get to this point. And so now you could really see the difference between people just starting out and building those relationships versus already having them. So I think the ones of us that have been in Genius Network for years, we actually get to be mentors to the new ones coming in and shortening their learning curve and letting them know which are great contacts for them. And I think that's one of our abilities to help blossom this group even more. Is looking at it almost like big brothers, big sisters to the next generation, coming in and really connecting and being part of that. I see Ben doing that all the time. Ben is so great about sharing those little things that inspire people. And they're like, oh, they feel so much more included and so much more seen because he does share that with them. So I think we can all do that. Hey, I hope you're enjoying this video. And I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out, and if you'd like to get it absolutely free, there's a link below in the description. Or you can wait till the end of this video, or you can simply go to Joe's freebook.com and you can get a copy there. So, Dan, I've been in Strategic Coach at this point in time for over 13 years. Dean Jackson's in the program. It is the highest level coaching program in the world for successful entrepreneurs. And you've heard me say this a million times. You are truly the smartest entrepreneurial thinker that I've ever met in my life. You're brilliant, and you've coached thousands of some of the world's highest level entrepreneurs. And you know a lot about how to make them better, how to assist them. And so most of the people that are watching this video are either already in a business or definitely entrepreneurs. And so, you know, from the get go, what the heck do you actually do at Strategic Coach? Well, I think this is, you know, this is kind of an example of why great entrepreneurs become great, is that they hang around with with other great entrepreneurs. And I say that as if it's sort of a flipping statement, but it's really not. You know, there was a great motivational speaker in the states by the name of Charlie Tremendous Jones. And Charlie Tremendous Jones had this great line which to this day, I think is probably the bedrock of how you move ahead with your life. And he said, you know, who you are 10 years ago is rather a function of one, the books you read, you know, like the ideas that you expose yourself to, but who you hang out with. And, you know, so when I look at really great entrepreneurs, you know, you dig, you go a little ways away from them, and you notice that their networks are just filled up with other people who are really smart, who really challenge them, you know, who are constantly giving them new ideas. Ideas. And I wish there were more secrets than that, but actually, I wish that I could make some money on. But actually, those are the two secrets. All right, well, this concludes this interview. No, that's fantastic. That is true, though. I mean, really, what is it about learning? What do entrepreneurs really need to learn? Because when you say the people you hang out with and the books you read, I mean, you know, some people are readers, some people are not. Some people go to seminars, other people don't. I mean, what is your take on what do you really need to learn as an entrepreneur? Well, you know, I was talking to one of my groups about two weeks ago, and I'm going to take about a minute to set this up, but it's actually a very instructive thing because the really great entrepreneurs all have the quality that I'm going to describe here. And I went to Britain. I went to London one year and I went to Westminster Abbey. And, you know, you walk around, there's kings buried there, there's prime ministers. And, you know, you'd think with Britain being a great theatrical country, there'd be a lot of actors there. But there's only one actor, and his name is Laurence Olivier. And so I got interested. I said, you know, why only one actor? And I'd seen him when I was a kid, and he predated me by. He was quite a bit older than me, but I read his biography, and he had this trick that he did, and the trick was that he was very famous and he was very popular. And so when he was appearing on stage, everybody would go to see him. So the plays that he was in would last 150, 200, 200 performances. And the reputation he had was if you went to the 250th performance, it was just as fresh as his first performance. And in the book, it kind of describes how he did this, and that is that before the performance, he'd go out about 15 minutes before the curtain went up, and he'd look through A hole in the curtain. And he had this little ritual that he would say to themselves, this is not last night's audience. This is not last night's theater. This is not last night's play. I am not last night's character. The cast is not last night's cast. And he said, it's all new. And as he did this, he would get scared and he would get excited just as if it was opening night. And what I find, you know, along with the Charlie tremendous Truth Jones things, is that one of the things that really great entrepreneurs are always reminding themselves is that whatever they did yesterday, that was last night's play. But now this is a fresh play, this is new. And I think that really has to do with not taking the audience for granted, not taking that what you were doing before is going to work today. And you're always open to. Totally. I'm going to get surprised today. And I. I have to really be alert that there's something new that's going to come out of the blue today, and I have to really be fresh for this. That's fantastic. So as it relates to an education, I heard you say this very early on when I joined Strategic Coaches. There's two things that you need to become an entrepreneur in the beginning, one is courage. In the other other's, ignorance. And I thought, you know, it's really a great way to look at it because, you know, if I really knew all of the challenges that I would encounter going into business, some of it would have scared the hell out of me. Yeah, you'd be working for the government right now. Exactly. Which would have been. Only civil servants really know the true risks of being an entrepreneur. I mean, it's true if you really knew what you were getting into, you'd never do it. No, I mean, you're signing up for some insanity at some level, some risks, the levels of responsibility that you take as an entrepreneur, that sort of stuff. But courage is that, you know, that whatever happens, that you'll have the ability to respond to it. I think that's where the courage part comes into. Well, yeah, totally. So, I mean, obviously there's a of lot. A lot of things to learn for someone that would be watching this video out of all of the stuff that they could pay attention to in this day and age, most entrepreneurs that I know are extraordinarily overwhelmed, very busy, don't take any free time, got into the business, I think, because they wanted freedom, they wanted to make money because they really don't have any freedom, and they're still trying to. What do I pay attention to? What business book should I read? What seminar should I go to? If they even do that at all? How would you advise someone on how to have a functional, balanced life with some freedom, but also to be as productive as they could possibly be? There's a lot to that. I know, and it's not maybe a one word answer, but what do you tell them? Well, there's a couple of questions that you asked there, but the first one is, and this is where I've seen a lot of entrepreneurs really burn out. And that is they forget after a while that they're actually in a brain business, they're not in a body business. In other words, it's not how many hours or days your body is at work, it's what's your brain doing. And so probably the biggest distinction that my work has made in the marketplace is really the emphasis that I put on free time is actually having lots and lots of free time so that you can give your mind a lot of rejuvenation and a lot of rest and a lot of refreshment. Because when your brain is really at its top function, you can achieve things very, very quickly. You can come up with ideas very quickly. And so it's not like you're a factory working where, you know, you get paid for putting in hours with an entrepreneur. It's just being really alert to new opportunities and taking advantage of them very quickly. And your brain really has to be fresh for that. So I actually put an enormous amount of emphasis. You know, I'm sort of very contrarian here. As you know, it's, you know, if you take 20 or 30 weeks off, you can be a, probably a much more effective entrepreneur than someone who, who's putting in 50 hour. There's a distinction too what you do though, because you're an advocate for putting the free time on the front end as opposed to work till you collapse and then take the free time. You're saying take the free time as rejuvenation and approach then the work. Yeah, and I think the reason is, and it goes to the kind of work that I've noticed that you do, Dean, is that is that you're testing. I mean one of the big things that I'm so fascinated with, and Joe, you've kind of introduced me to this world, is the whole world of information marketing, especially those who are using online capabilities. And what I'm so impressed about this world is the willingness to fail really fast. I would say that the secret of this world is, is to get an idea out and immediately set it up as a test to see is there any take on it whatsoever. And if there isn't, change and get out there and do something new. Well, your brain really has to be really, really fresh to be first, first of all, just to have the emotional courage to say, you know, I thought this was a really great idea. Whoops, didn't work. Let's change real quickly, but then have the stamina on the spot to come up with a new thing. I'm so impressed with you guys because I've been dean, I've been doing this interview series with really, you guys are kind of like the giants of this new world. And I'm so impressed with the speed with which you're willing to fail. The success is almost just fail enough and then there isn't anything more to fail at. And then all you're left with is something that really works. This question, one of the things you said is you really can't motivate anybody else. It's a lot easier to select enthusiastic people. And once you create a conscious culture, it selects for its own kind, which is interesting. A company has an immune system. And the people that don't fit into the culture, the immune system begins to select them out and get rid of them. So what should entrepreneurs look for and do in order to better select talent instead of trying to motivate people? And what can entrepreneurs do to cultivate and encourage self selecting cultures? Cultures? Well, of course we can inspire people. So I don't want to say you can't motivate anybody, you can inspire people. But I consider it kind of like a bucket with holes in it. If people are dependent on you to fill them up with energy and it's all going to leak out. So they eventually have to be able to create their own energy. So again, I kind of talked about it already. You've got to create a culture that really allows human beings to be creative and flourish where they feel a sense of purpose, where they have a sense of meaning, they have a sense of belonging that they're cared for, people they care about, and that they can have some fun in the workplace where they can be fully human. We need to create workplaces where humans can be fully human in a sense, their highest potential of being a human. So I've always had that perspective and I've tried to model it and then I try to instill the values and get the culture. I spend a lot of time thinking about the culture. I sometimes think it's like a gardener, you got to look around. If there's a few weeds that you got to pull out, you got to pull them out. There are the things you need to plant is. And if you're the entrepreneur of your business, what you'll find out as your business grows, that the business begins to take on a lot of your own personality. The things that are good about you and the things that are not so good about you, and they just unconsciously model on the leader. It's just the way it works. Just like kids model on their parents and then later their peer group. That's what we are, human beings. We copy each other. So once you realize that, then you got to get your own shit together. Because one of the things that I learned in leadership is that when I got stuck somewhere in my own life, oftentimes the company got stuck too. And when I got unstuck, that let the company move forward. So personal growth is very important. It really is. And it used to be seen as sort of narcissist. We focused on that. Now you grow not just for yourself, but you grow for your whole organization. So one of my goals is to continue to learn and grow until the day I die. So you're very transparent about many issues, and sometimes it makes people mad or they criticize you. And the company can even become, you know, Whole Foods can become the subject of resistance or boycotts. And so what can entrepreneurs here learn from you about handling criticism, dealing with the media, and dialoguing with people who may disagree with their perspectives? Well, it's a tough question for me because, I mean, I tell the joke that I failed media training at Whole Foods Market three separate times. In media training, they always teach you to look, decide what you want to say, and then just whatever they ask you, just bridge to it. Just bridge to. But person asks me a question, I try to answer it truthfully and honestly and authentically. And that gets me in trouble sometimes. And I don't even care about people attacking me personally. You're welcome to attack me, I don't care. But they attack my baby, they attack Whole Foods, and they try to hurt Whole Foods. And for those of you that are parents, you know, nothing upsets you more than having your kids attacked and beat up by bullies. So I've learned the hard way that I just cannot be as open, particularly about politics in this society as I once was. I wrote an op ed piece in the Wall street journal back in 2009 that led to about Whole Foods alternative to Obamacare. And it Led to massive boycotts. Still going to Facebook. 350,000 people signed a petition to boycott Whole Foods Market. There were petitions in our stores. There was thousands of letters that were sent to the board of directors demanding that I be fired. So we live in this incredibly interesting society now where if you say things that people don't like, they just smear you and they attack you. And it's made me, I don't want to say it's made a chilling effect, but I'm a little bit more careful about giving my, at least my political opinions in public, at least until I retire. Then I'm going to go on a rampage. Yeah, I want to do the interview the day after you retire. That would be great. You know, I have a question I want to ask both of you guys. See if I can phrase this correctly. Where would you put ethics and ethical behavior in. In the world of entrepreneurship or marketing? You know, because a lot of times we think that success equates to unethical behavior. Right. You always see a lot of people that are cheating and lying and so on and so forth, whether if you're too ethical, you're out the door. Right? So. And I know that you guys each have a real kind of deep take on this. Let me ask you, Dan, start, start off. Where do you put ethics and ethical behavior in the realm of marketing or success? Yeah, it's, you know, it's really interesting. And I, you know, I'll, I'll join another word to ethics, and that's morality. You know, that the, the two go together. Ethics, you know, I mean, morality has to do a lot with your mindset, you know, the values that you have. But ethics is really about your behavior. How, you know, really the ethics is your morality in action. And but one of the things I've noticed, I read an article once about inner city kids, you know, who are, you know, who could be dead at 8, they could be dead at 12. South Chicago. So part of the year, I live in Chicago because our main US Company is right near o'. Hare. And. But it's a war, war zone down there. You know, there's two postal zones. America is really organized. If you go to any big city, you go to the police, you know, police headquarters and police headquarters. And you want, you talk to the officer in charge of violent crime, you know, in the city. And you bring a map and you give them a marker and you say, where should I not go in this city? And they always do it by postal zones. And in Chicago, it's two postal Zones. Isn't it interesting how Americans organize crime according to, I mean, what a country, you know? And anyway, so those kids do not have enough certainty about life that they can think more than 24 hours at a time. So when there's a possibility of stealing something, their first thought is, can I get into trouble in the next 24 hours? So what I came to is that ethics is a function of your time perspective. Okay. If, on the other hand, you have a time perspective, if I do this now, what's it look like 10 years from now? The behavior that you will exhibit during the next 24 hours will be ethical. And the reason is you don't want to be doing something today that costs you ten years from now. And so my sense is that ethics is really a function of time perspective. Ah, very interesting. One of the things I really admire about both of you guys, Dan, is you guys both have really interesting perspectives on stuff. You know, it's not just the usual that you read in books, you know, like, who else would come up with that? I mean, I think you're absolutely right, you know, but over to you, Joe, what's your. What's your take on ethics and business? Yeah, you know, it's. It's considering for even the carpet cleaning industry, which is where I started off. I created a thing called ethical services. And I tried to. I've always tried to use the whole concept of, like, Dan. I asked Dan years ago, Let me start with this, and I'll try to share several different ideas in a little riff that I'll do here. So I asked Dan what's, you know, what's your favorite definition? What's your definition of selling? And he. He just blurted out, and I don't know how many years ago this was now, Damn, probably like 15 years ago or something. And he said, selling is getting someone intellectually engaged in a future result that's good for them and getting them to emotionally commit to take action to achieve that result. Now, I have that memorized because I thought about it quite a bit when he said it, and I. Yeah, Dan always has these very interesting quotes that he shares. And let me just say this, too. I probably should have said this early on. Do you know, between both of you, do you know how many, God knows how many hundreds of thousands of people, maybe in the millions range, that both of you have inspired, encouraged, have them show up to face incredible difficulties with, you know, maybe not in the funnest of ways, but just the ability to get through life when life is very difficult. I mean, Both of you have been such incredible mentors and role models. If you've intended to be that or not. It's just what you are. I mean, by the very nature of. I mean, Jesus, just look at how many reviews the War of Art has, right? And how much both of you impact people. And so, you know, everyone has something to sell. You know, part of it is a bigger future, though, in a way, to look at life. And so when I asked Dan that definition, I started asking my clients, you know, what do you think are the most important words in the definition? Getting someone intellectually engaged in a future result that's good for them and getting them to emotionally commit to take action to achieve that result. People would say engage, they would say action, they would say commit. And most people didn't get the three words good for them. And I always thought you can get someone intellectually and emotionally engaged in porn and shitty food and doing something damaging. I mean, what I've liked about the War of Art is it's always about the higher self, not about the lower self. I mean, you can, you know, yeah, you can be a degenerate and you can get involved in vices and all that. That does. There's, you know, that, as you say, you know, resistance will give you a free pass on that sort of stuff. And so as it relates to ethics, I always think of what's good for someone. And would you sell it to your best friend? Would you sell it to your mother or your father with the assumption you like your mother and your father? For someone that you really care about, if you're in a situation where someone's going to go down a bad path or something that could be damaging or it could be rotten or it could be scandalous or not good for them, and you cared about that person, you would try to intervene. You might use words, you might use a challenge, you might use an intervention. You might try to block them from harm's way. And so who are we in the best of terms, when we care about someone? We're selling, we're being persuasive, but we're doing it with the mindset of we're trying to care for this person and we're trying to protect them. So when it comes to. I think everything in my life is about connecting. Connecting other people with ideas, with each other, with things that make them better, not always feel good. Like, for instance, you wrote the. The Warriors Ethos, which you recorded in 2011. Everyone would be very. Their lives will be enhanced if you download that book and Listen to Stephen read it. It's called the Warriors Ethos. Like, I think it's less than 90 minutes, and it's great. And you talk a lot about, you know, Spartans and you have such this deep knowledge of so much of history. But anyway, you know, there's. The whole goal of making someone better is not always going to make them feel better. It's not always about happiness, right? And we live in this culture. Everyone wants to pursue feeling, you know, sweet and loving and all that sort of stuff. But the fact is, human progress oftentimes takes enormous effort and in many cases, sacrifice. And so when it comes to connecting, there's true connecting, because you're either in communication with someone or you're trying to escape, you know, and when you are connecting with someone, you care about them, you're operating from a good place. Connecting, though, is when you're conning people and making it look like connecting. So there's connectors that use con artistry, and they con people and they blow smoke up their ass and they sell crap and they make promises and they. They don't that they have no intention of delivering on, or they're selling crap on a box, and the very best thing you're going to ever see from them is sales pitch or their marketing. But then there's real people that when they sell something to somebody or when they offer something to somebody, they actually really care about that person being better off as a human. So for me, I don't. There's a difference between situational behavior and situational ethics. I mean, you might tell really crude, dirty jokes to your buddies that you would, you know, were in the military with. That could be vulgar, that could be inappropriate to many people, but you might not say that to someone's grandma. Most people have drank beer. Most people have gone to church. You usually don't drink beer in church, although I'm sure people drink beer in church. There's a difference between situational behavior and situational ethics. And I like people who understand the distinction and who operate that way because we've all met people that, man, they just put on a great show. They really act like they care about you, but they're using narcissists or sociopaths or they have just created a value system, you know, that is different than, you know, the ones that we made it adhere to. And the weird thing, and I'd like to ask you guys about this, you know, as I'm rambling here when I'm thinking in my mind, is that I think most people Think they're right. It's that saying that, you know, we judge others by their actions, we judge ourselves by our intentions. And I, I first heard that when. I don't know if you bought. Well, Dan, I know you know Harvey McKay. Do you happen to know Harvey McKay? No. Stephen, he wrote a book years ago, his most famous book, he's written a bunch of books was called how to Swim with the Sharks without being Eaten Alive. And I've heard of the book. Yeah, yeah. Sold millions of copies. And he's now 90 years old and he's a dear friend of mine. And so Harvey, he was doing the small event that he invited me to. It was like kind of a brainstorm with a bunch of, but a bunch of business owners. And one guy was, Chris Widener was talking and he said to the, to the group, he's like, how many have ever been ripped off by someone? About half people raised their head and he's like, how many of you ever ripped off anyone? And no one raised their head and he said, he goes, huh? He goes, that's interesting. He goes, you know why? He goes, because, you know, the reason you've been screwed by someone, but you don't think you screwed anyone is we judge ourselves by our intentions. We judge others by their actions. And I thought about that quite a bit and we all, like you could intend to do the right thing, but do your actions actually show that? So I think it takes a deep level of awareness and looking at the byproduct of your behavior and your, you know, because all of us have times where we're loving and we're caring and we're doing well in life and others where we're desperate and we're self centered and we're tired and we're exhausted and we're maybe taking advantage. And so part of it is not that there's some perfect, you know, angel human that's always operating out of, you know, perfect ethics and morality. It's just being able to set up a way you operate and way you behave and the way you conduct yourself in your character. Like, my whole book is not about capabilities, even though I share a lot of them, it's about character. My goal of my book is to not just build, you know, Hitler had enormous capabilities. I'd say it'd be really hard to say his character was a good character. I mean, look at the destruction that some of these people. You know, when, Dan, you were talking earlier with Stalin and Mussolini, I mean, they all had capabilities. You don't rule a country. You don't do what these people did without capabilities. Some of the smartest marketers I know have enormous capabilities, but their character is kind of shed. And so, but that's my opinion, because if you were to ask them their intentions, they all think their value system is their value system. So there's a lot of den of thieves. It's. I, I grapple with this, you know, one person's freedom fighters and the other person's terrorists. So, you know, what is it? But those are my thoughts. That's, that's at least some of my thoughts about ethics and morality is what's the byproduct of what your life is about and where it leaves people? Does it leave the world and people and, you know, around you in a better place or does it cause destruction? But I think you would say, Joe, that like as a, as a marketer or an entrepreneur, that the more, and I'm sure you would say the same thing, Dan, the more good you can do, the better it is for you. For even for your, your own selfish interest. Would you agree with that? I would, I would totally agree with that. And Dan, I'd love to, love to hear your thoughts on it. And I have more thoughts on it, but I want to. Yeah, I'll kind of. Yeah, sure. Well, I think the, the other thing is that, you know, that there's a matter of, you know, leading a very complicated life or a simple life. And, you know, I'm a straight ticket Republican ever since I could vote. And in Canada, I'm a state straight ticket conservative. But one of the, one of the presidents that I admire most was Harry Truman. And after, you know, because he's the one that had the big decisions, you know, I mean, so many big decisions. And you know, and I remember there's a story, it might be apocryphal, but the day after Roosevelt died, of course, he was sworn in as the president. And he met with Roosevelt's cabinet. And he came in and he said, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, you know, you know, here comes Harry, a hick from Missouri. And he said, and you're used to Roosevelt, one of the great gods of American politics. But he says, here's the facts of it. I'm as powerful as he is because I'm President of the United States. And, and guess what, you're still cabinet secretaries and I can fire you just as easy as he could fire you. And it just put everybody straight because he knew they were gonna scheme against him. He knew what they were doing because they schemed against Roosevelt. They do that. But he's had a great saying. He says, always tell the truth. It's more economical. You only have to remember one version. And I think that ethics is a form of truth and that is you can be the same person in all situations. And I think that, you know, a lot of people, they have to check out their surroundings to figure out who they're going to be in that situation, or they have to figure out who they've told, what, what, make sure that, you know, they're keeping their story straight. And their story is so complicated, it's very, very hard to keep it straight. Yeah. And I said that that all comes at the price of what you're really good at. You know, that comes all that. I mean, if you do that, you're totally non creative, you're a totally reactive human being. And I think that ethics gives you a very simple, energizing path into the future where you only have to be the same person all the time. Yeah, I mean, another way of looking. I haven't really thought this one through. I'm going to be blathering as I say this, but another word for it, it seems to me, could be authenticity in the sense of when you open your mouth and you speak, you're really saying what you really think and not what you think is the other is going to create a, you know, a favorable impression in somebody else's mind. Yeah, one of your, you know, in the, in your current book, the book's coming out, you were talking about what your attitude has to be when you're writing and you can't think about, oh, this is, is this a great book? Is it, you know, is it, you know, am I, you know, is this really going to move people? You say, I'm going to throw myself completely in it and I'm going to finish it, you know, and get the book. And I remember Reagan. I'm kind of a Reagan type of writer. And when Reagan, you know, got to governor more, I don't think so much when he was governor of California, but when he became president, people say, yeah, everybody laughs at me because of the movies I was in, you know, what about crappy movies? And he said, well, I have to tell you, back then, they didn't tell us that the movie had to be good. They said they didn't want the movie good. They wanted the movie Tuesday. Yeah. And it's kind of like that. And I think that's a copywriter's attitude. You know, in other Words, you got a deadline. I mean, people say Shakespeare, you know, Shakespeare. Oh, I could be like Shakespeare. I said, there's two things you have to remember. He did it for money and on deadline. Yeah, yeah. And Dickens, like Dickens, too. That was writing, you know, install. He did for money. And so my feeling is that. And Joe brought it up at the beginning. Joe brought it up, or you brought it up, Stephen, that the best way to be really good in yourself is have it be for value for other people. In other words, that you have in mind who you're doing this for. And so is it going to make a difference in that person's life? And how are they going to feel after? You know, I mean, how are they going to feel about the value that they got from you? If you have your emphasis on that, you're taken care of. You know, your friend who was in 24 that you visit with in Sundance, the actor Glenn Marshaw. Glenn Marshaw. And he's fascinating guy. And I have to say that if you looked at his life, you know, he's, you know, Hollywood. Hollywood actor. He does movies, he does TV and everything. I bet he is the most fully employed actor in the history of the United States over the last 50, 50 years. And he was telling Joe, he said, well, you know, he says, you got to look at it from the standpoint of a director. He said, he says, you can't look at it from any other standpoint of the director. And the director needs two or three stars to even get on the board. He said, so I'm not a star, okay? And then he comes down to about number five. And he said, who am I going to put in number five? And he says, I'm always number five in the directors. And he said, I always prepared. I always show up on time. I'm always a great team member. And he said, I'm always grateful and thankful for every role I get. And then he's employed nonstop for 50 years because it is about him. It's about the. It isn't about him that when the director gets to number five, oh, we'll put in Glenn, because that's an easy one. And my sense is the other thing is also to know your value to other people and what can they always count on you for? You know, I spend a lot of time saying it can be a hard one, you know. Yeah, what can. You know, I always show up on time. I'm always prepared. I always come up with something new, and my team just depends upon that. My clients, by the way, I was going to ask you, Stephen, do you know who Glenn Morshauer is? No. No. Yeah. So he's not like Dan said, he's not like some, you know, a list celebrity, but. No, that's why he doesn't. That's why I saw his. His face. I'm sure I would know, but every director. Every director everywhere knows who he is. Yeah. Let me share a story that Dan knows this one, but years ago, me and. Me and Glenn were speaking at an event in Las Vegas, and it was. I think it was 2009. 2000. Yeah, I think it's around 2009, 2010. And Glenn has been in more military roles than any living actor. And so he's. Yeah, he was on every episode of 24. Other than Kiefer Sutherland, who was the main star, he was on every episode of 24. And at the time, there were pictures of Kiefer Sutherland on People magazine, I believe, National Enquirer, basically all the tabloid type of magazines on the COVID with him drunk on the sidewalk outside of the Viper Room in la. And I was asking him, I said, so you were asking Glenn, correct? Yeah, I was asking Glenn, what's the story on Kiefer? He goes, well, now that he's been outed, he goes, you know, I can maybe, you know, say a few things. He said, a great guy, super professional, shows up, does a great job, Everyone likes working with him. Awesome guy. And he said, at the end of, you know, at the end of his. Of the day, he finds it sometimes easier to sit and hang around and, you know, drink in his trailer and on set than go home to his mansion alone. That's. He said. And at this point in Kiefer's life, he goes, his fame is globally inescapable. He said, there's nowhere on the planet that he could go without being recognized. And he said, you know, a single piranha won't do much damage, but a swarm of them will take down a great creature. And he said, if you get into this business, he was referring to the entertainment business. Without knowing who you are, it will misinform you. That was the statement he made. And I was like, yeah. I go, that's really interesting. And when I first met him at Sundance, we were having lunch, a friend introduced us, and all these people were coming up to him asking for autographs. And I said to him, I go, does that ever bother you? And he said, he goes, you know, sometimes, you know, if you have to really be somewhere in a hurry, it could sometimes be challenging. He goes, But I am. He goes, I wouldn't even have a career if it wasn't for these people. He's like, I am so appreciative that anyone likes what it is I do. He goes, how would I even do it, what it is I do without these people that like what I do, like my work. And appreciative. He goes, why on earth would I have anything other than gratitude for these individuals? And he had an incredible work ethic and he was genuine, and I've seen him in many situations. And he is always loves his wife, is just a super caring, grateful, appreciative person. And therefore he gets roles and gets opportunities that others do not, because he just comes from that place. But he also has done it tremendous amount of work on himself. And he's really quite aware of, you know, don't take yourself too seriously. You know, like my dear friend, you know, Dave Keckage, who unfortunately passed away at 78 years old last year from kind of a malpractice surgery. It was horrible. And Dave wrote, you know, he was my friend who was paralyzed from the chest down for half of his life. And he had one of his credos. He had 100 credos called kekich Credos. Credos. He had an interesting last name. And he said, things are seldom as bleak as they seem when they're going wrong or seldom as great as they seem when they're going well, lighten up. You'll live longer. You know, just having the state of mind on how you approach things. Hey, I hope you're enjoying this video. And I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out, and if you'd like to get it absolutely free, there's a link below in the description. Or you can. Can wait till the end of this video, or you can Simply go to joe'sfreebook.com and you can get a copy there. If we can go back and pick up on the ethics, the ethics topic. So I, you know, I looked at your biography. So I looked and I, you know, I got to the end of your biography and I said, oh, another guy who. To a university. And these were all the classes he took, all the, you know, the different occupations you were in the oil fields, you know, you were a fruit picker, you know, and you did Airbnb. Airbnb in your own car or somebody else's car and everything else. So lots of different kinds of people, lots of different kinds of situations, including Hollywood, you know, being in Hollywood and You know, being in the, you know, movie, writing scripts and writing books and everything else, but from the standpoint is that ethics in one area of life is the same as ethics in another area of life. Definitely. There isn't any industry that's more ethical than any other industry. No. And like. Like you were saying about the actor, your actor friend. I mean, showing up and being ready to, you know, hit. Hit your mark and say your lines and. And not, you know, be shafting anybody else is at least as important as talent, you know, and. Because somebody will bring you back, you know, and you will bring them back, you know, that's really like. Joe, you. One of the things you've always said, and this actually comes from Dan, too, that part of being an entrepreneur is not only doing what you want to do, but doing it with the people you want to do it with, you know, and so in. In order to be with those people, you have to be for them what you want them to be for you. Right. You have to show up for them and deliver the goods for them and be somebody that, you know, that's. That's ethical. Right. That's not gonna throw their buddies under the bus when. When the heat gets applied, you know? Well, I mean, I just want to say this before I forget it. You were talking about how we judge other people by their actions, but our own selves by our intentions. Yeah. And that one of the axioms in. In screenwriting or also in novel writing, in any kind of story writing, is that the villain never thinks he's the villain. From the villain's point of view, he's doing the right thing. Right. And that's. That's, you know, if you think of any of sort of the great villain speeches, like Jack Nicholson's one in A Few Good Men, you know, where he says, you know, you can't handle the truth. And he, you know, he's the guy that, you know, basically, you know, okayed the murder of this young Marine. Right. But from his point of view, he goes, this wonderful, great speech that Aaron Sorkin wrote about, we have to stand on a wall. There are bad guys on the other side of the wall, and God damn it, you need people like me on that wall, you know? No. So it was one of the finest movie speeches of all time, by the way. It's a great one. Yeah. But that's sort of ethics, too, in a crazy way. Oh, it is. I'm sure, you know, if we had Putin on the. On that show right now, he would say, God damn it, the Worst thing that ever happened was when the Soviet Union broke up. My people were crushed mentally by that. And psychological greatest tragedy of the 20th century. I'm going to bring the USSR back, and I don't care who I have to kill or what I have to do to do it. And I'm sure that in his mind, he's a saint. And to, you know, tens of millions of Russians, he's a saint, too. Yep. Not to the Ukrainians, but to the Russians. It's an interesting thing. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, but it's just a thought. No, here's. I mean, I think it's a lot to ponder about. Like, what do we believe and why do we believe it and what are we really trying to do? I mean, I remember some of the greatest marketing that I ever learned in my business when is when I started listening to you. In the early 90s, I got a hold of these. J. Abraham, Australian boot camp for a genre. Yeah, it was amazing. And so for those of you that don't know, Jay's one of the greatest marketing minds on the planet and just super brilliant and really good at asking amazing questions in the Socratic method. So I'll ask you first, Damon, how do you personally keep growing and evolving as an entrepreneur or in human being? Because you're now in a position where you advise millions of entrepreneurs? I think it's still activating, as I call the Power Broke and putting my hands directly on what's going on and learning what's going on instead of yes, of course, I can hire a lot of people who I think are experts in the field and know the field, but I don't. I tend to seek mentors. You know, of course, I've asked you many times to help me and work with me. Jay Michael Pirelli is here somewhere. Ryan Dice and certain people that actually most of them I've met during or through the Genius Network, or if I didn't meet them through the Genius Network, I called up Joe to find out if they were anybody that was worth doing work with. So I'll get the mentors to work with me in this sense, but then I'll hire young millennials who will walk through the product and work with me on it, and I'll learn it at the same time. I think that that's the value of Shark Tank. If I wasn't on Shark Tank, I would not be doing business like many of you in this crowd are doing today. I would have been doing the traditional Shimada business I would have been making a shirt and selling at the Macy's and hoping this individual walks by and buys it. And I have no idea who bought it. Was it the mother buying for herself? The kid buying it for herself? Was it a gift? Why did they not buy it? I wouldn't have the analytics. And most of my industry still operates the same way. So there's a huge digital divide. There are the people 30 and under who are converting on social media and on Snapchat and Insta Stories, and then my colleagues who are 50 and older who are manufacturing, but they're manufacturing and they just. They're either licensing a famous name or trying to sell it to a store. And retail is dying. So I learned by basically keeping a lot of the younger individuals around, finding how they're converting, and then a good series of mentors that are from all facets of life. And I still call people to mentor me every day. How about you? I think what I've tried to do all my life, pardon me, is put myself in very uncomfortable situations with people who were above my intellectual and financial pay grade and forced myself to not master, but to, you know, to really understand their worlds. And I mean, just as an example, I'm doing stuff with a big hedge fund. I wanted to learn about big data. People who know me know that I get by being technophobic. And I met two top people and they became. Became friends. I wanted to learn about private equity, and I went to the top people and one of them became a friend. And I listen and I ask really interesting questions. And I have great humility and respect, but I try to understand. Somebody taught me this. You got in this room 350, 60, 80 people, and each one of you is listening to me or Joe or Damon or Dave or Peter. You're all having a different experience. You're all having a different reality. You're all interpreting it based on different reference and definitions. And I've always been obsessed with understanding, maybe not the totality, but how many different realities there are concurrently going on. Well, many, many. How many of you got a copy of Power Broke? Yeah. So thank you. Thank you, by the way. Just a plug for that. It's such a wonderful book to teach you. I'm obsessed with getting people to think differently. And it gives you 15 different ways to think differently, irrespective of whether you're rolling in prosperity, whether you want to try to set your children on a path, whether you're trying to force yourself to. To be more inventive, efficient, resourceful, innovative. I love his book so. Well, let me ask you some business questions. Well, no, these are actually all tied together. How did you deal with failure? And what advice could you give to entrepreneurs going through difficulties or struggling? Because certainly you've had a shit ton of that. Okay, I'm going to try to explain this because I had to download about this a couple months. Months ago. One of those downloads. It's one of those things that sounds so simple, yet it's so profound. I know. And I haven't quite the magnitude. Okay. So I saw success and failure, what we consider success and failure, like as a yin and yang, you know, like this energy. And what I saw was that at the same rate you fail. So the amount of failure that you put into, let's just say failure is the black, you know, part of the yin and yang. It's the yang part. And the success is the why that the amount of energy that you put into that failure is the amount of energy that you can have in success. And I suddenly saw why my life, I'm like, my God, most my life was failure of what people consider. Right. So now I've had to see success that's so big. And then I thought back to like a concert violinist. Think about how much failure there is and how many years. That's the 10,000 hours. Those 10,000 hours aren't 10,000 hours of success. Right. So there's something energetically that I haven't quite figured out. But do you guys understand what I'm talking about? So I think that we should all be aiming for failure all the time. Lots of it. Lots and lots and lots and lots of failure. Because you're going, I believe that we have a natural propensity to learn. Yeah. And that we're not gonna. It's just like, you know, oh, fire. Like we naturally know not to do things. And that is going to actually increase the magnitude of your success. Yeah, that makes good point. You know, this thought's coming to me about. I'm trying to. I have a friend who actually talked about how we measure success in let's say love relationships more so over not depth, but duration. Like if you've been married for 50 years, well, it could have been 50 years of total misery. But if you were married for 50 years, you're like, Ah, it's a successful couple versus maybe you're only in a relationship for one year, but that one year had enormous depth in growth and things like that. Or you've been in business for 20 years, but you fucking hate it. You don't let you know, I mean everything about it's been miserable versus you had a certain period of time where you just, you were winning and you were connected and that sort of thing. So I think depth and just squeezing the much juice out of life in all areas is a far more to me admirable than just long drawn out duration. I think that's great. We have a saying that we just have to win more than we fail. Because I want my team to fail. I want them to because we don't take those long shots. You know, I want to take the long shots and I know, you know, you know, I'm debt free, I don't have any loans so we're all self funded. So I make sure it doesn't hurt the organism. But I want them taking these risks because the only way, you know, I. And it might not work. And what's the worst thing that happened? You know, I think here's like, I think the entrepreneurs that get rewarded the most in life is relative to their ability to take those risks and put themselves. And this could be totally taken out of context where it's like, oh, that means be crazy. Because when people hear the word risk they sometimes think, oh, that just means do crazy shit and be willing to lose it all. When you can point, point to those sort of stories. I mean, I remember in a meeting with Elon Musk, there was about 20 of us there and Peter Diamandis had set it up at SpaceX and one of the guys had asked Elon, you know, how did you have, you know, how did you become successful? And he said, you know, I'm willing to endure more pain than anyone that I know. That's what he said. And he also said that he was borrowing money from friends and sleeping on couches and he would bet everything that he had and had that rocket not flown, he would have just been done. But he was willing to do that. And you know, and I don't know if that's necessarily a smart thing, you know, because you know, there's now looking back, everyone's like, of course, you know, and it's super admirable, but for every one of those things, there's so many, so much human wreckage. And so. Yeah, but the thing with risk though is your thing on failure. No, the thing on failure though, what you're saying, here's what I'm getting at, is that every time you're willing to put yourself out there, you're building that muscle. And by doing that you develop an endurance and a Stamina that cannot come any other way. You can't just think yourself into successful entrepreneurship. You have to just do shit. You don't build a great reputation by talking about what you're going to do. You build a great reputation by doing shit that ends up leading to a great business or a great whatever. Yes. And I would say, and maybe, hopefully, that idea was so alive within him. And that's what I tell entrepreneurs. Wait till the idea's alive. We will literally go eight months without making a video. And we've had hundreds of millions of views. And it seems like a long time in marketing. You know, you would think content, you have to have all this strategic content. But we wait until that idea is so delicious that you can feel the energy and you can feel the aliveness, and then we go towards that campaign. So that's the way we operate. And so hopefully it is worth the risk. So for me, if everything failed tomorrow, which I've been in that situation before, like, I'm happy, right? Like, I. There was nothing that I didn't go for that I wanted to go for, maybe love. Okay, so we already talked about that, so let's take that one off there. But as far as business, there's nothing that I really haven't shot for in our business. So that's what I want everybody to feel. Hey, we went for it. Because to me, the worst thing is when you didn't go for it. You held back, and then you sold out. And I mean, that shit, it doesn't feel good. I gotta tell you, it sucks. Really bad. Well, you're either winning or you're learning. That's one thing I learned from Tony. And I remember telling that back to Tony when he was going through some media shit that he was dealing with. And it's like, yep, you're either winning or you're learning. He's like, yeah. The two areas to protect as an entrepreneur are your confidence and gratitude, because you will do things much more, more effectively once you have confidence in something. If you don't have confidence, then you have to rely on courage, which never really feels good. Confidence feels good. Courage just is like, you got to kind of go through it, but you can have all the money, all the relationships, all the access, but if you don't have gratitude, you can be a very miserable human. And what you were saying reminded me of this. When I was speaking at Ryan Dice event a few months ago, I asked the audience, I said, how many of you in the room are worth a million dollars? You know, a few People raised their hand. I'm like, is anyone here worth $10 million? And I think like one person raised their hand. Anyone here worth a billion dollars? I said, how many of you would like to be a millionaire? And everyone raised their hand. I said, well, how many of you in the room would like to be a millionaire? If you're not already, I'm asking you. All of you. Okay. Yeah, okay, so what I said, I said, well, how many of you. Would anyone here give me your eyeballs for a million bucks? Would anyone here just hand over your eyeballs for a million dollars? What about 10 million? Anyone give me your eyeballs for a million bucks? 100 million. What about lop off your thumbs? Anyone lop off their thumbs for million bucks? Or maybe cut out your tongue or, you know, just what's that? 10 million? 10 million you'll cut off your tongue. Shivan. I'd almost do it if I wasn't so mortal I got a knife. But the point is, like, all these people want to be millionaires, you know, they want to have all this stuff. And you're walking around with assets on your body in your life that people just take for granted that the fact that you can see and that you can hear and that you can talk and that you can eat. And it's that whole proverb which is, he who has their health, he or she who has their health has a thousand dreams. He who does not have their health has only one. And if you have aspirations, you're sitting here right now, you're able to do the things you're doing because you're not laid up in a hospital bed. And eight days ago, Prior was on a 14 day liquid diet. I didn't eat food for like 14 days. And I'd never done anything like that in my entire life. I probably lost like eight pounds in the last three weeks. And basically the first day was the most difficult. The second day was pretty difficult. But what on the first day, like, I just got a whole sense of gratitude. Like, I can't believe this, you know, in my soft, cushiony life that I have and I have my challenges like anyone else, that's still a problem. Totally. What it made me realize is like, man, I mean, how painful it must be to just like, I wake up every day and I can eat mostly what I want, you know, it's not like, am I going to eat today? So I want Mexican food, do I want Chinese? You know, and it just got me in touch with God, how many millions of children go to bed every Single night starving, you know, and how painful that is. And when you get in touch with gratitude, it actually makes you appreciate everything you have that much more, but it actually gives you the ability to do something about it. I mean, Kevin talking about his surf and serve, if he didn't have gratitude, he wouldn't be doing that shit. I mean, that like value creation and contribution and being of service actually comes from a place of appreciation. I would even say generosity is gratitude in action. Yep. When we're generous, it's actually the activity of abundance. Throw them. So I was saying generosity is gratitude in action. So that's what's so great when we're face to face to poverty. And some of these folks, you just talked about the pain of hunger. I mean, just to get an idea, they huff glue, they'll pay 5 cents to get a coffee cup full of glue, and they'll huff glue to get themselves high enough. Not because they want the high, because they want to forget that they're starving to death to get rid of the pain. And so, like, that's what, you know, I say when you give, I've been in the presence of that, where you hand that person food and you realize they haven't probably eaten in the last few days. And like you said, all of your problems disappear. And then I'm in awe. Like, it's a funny, selfish thing because what you're talking about is so great. I'm in awe of my own, of the possibility of my own generosity, like at that moment. And then Jennifer and I were looking back at the photos, we're like, my gosh, like, we created this and these kids are smiling and laughing, even if it's just for a few days. And so our moonshot is like, how could we do that longer term? But really, generosity being that gratitude of the abundance that we have and sharing with people who have no way of paying us back. Yeah, And I'm a huge believer in abundance. I. I truly believe there's enough of everything to go around, especially if we're generous with what we have and, and share that. And to your point, if health is everything, how many, how many other cancer survivors, warriors in the room? Oh, that's unusual. Super unusual. Anyone in your family? Yeah. Yeah, it is. A lot of people ask if it changed who I was. It didn't. I already was a happy person, but it gave me a bigger depth of gratitude and to understand that every day is a gift and especially in this country. You know, we do have first world problems here pretty much. And when you've seen what you've seen. So what if we have to go around an accident or something? On the one on one we have cars, you know, and we have, we can eat in our car and probably talk on our phone too. So, yeah, like Lee Brower, who's a buddy of mine from Coach, he said, you know, he said, how many of you hate to take out the trash? You know, a handful of people raise their hand. He's like, you know, do you know how many people in different parts of the world would love to have someone come to their home or where they live and pick up the trash and take it away? He's like, you don't have to take out the trash, you get to take out the trash. He goes, what? I mean, it's a fricking luxury for somebody. And the point is not to get all touchy feely or whatever. I mean, I know a lot of people are going through their own private silent battles and life is difficult. I mean, look, everyone has their own shit and their own crosses to bear at all different times. It's just as much as you can keep yourself in the mindset of gratitude and appreciation, you're simply going to be a better entrepreneur. And when you're in that particular state, you're going to make more money. And I think one of the best ways to help the poor is and not be one of them. And secondly, people that say money can't buy happiness are idiots. Because I buy happiness all the time with money. I mean, there's all kinds of shit. I like nice dinners, it makes me happy. I like going to the movies, that shit makes me happy. I like staying in nice hotels, it makes me happy. So the people that say that money can't buy happiness haven't given enough of it away. Because even if you're a miserable person with a lot of money, I mean, I've had people that have been really struggling in my ability to help them medically, education wise out of challenges, access to people they can talk to has helped make their lives better. And so, I mean, there's so much you can do with money. So it's not the money, it's what it gives you access to and how you do it. You know, the experiences that it can give you. So I'm all for capitalism. I'm a capitalist. And Hayek says the biggest problem with capitalism is it was named by its enemies. And so capitalism in its purest form is simply collaboration between individuals exchanging money for value. And we live in a world where there's A lot of anti capitalist behavior and people will attack you because you're actually doing. And there is crony capitalism, there's corporatism, that is sometimes called capitalism, and there's bad aspects of everything. But most entrepreneurs that I know are really hard working people adding value in the world, just doing good stuff. I mean, most entrepreneurs I know are not evil, exploitive people. They're just good people working their asses off trying to do stuff. Anyway, thank you, Genius Network for sure. Totally. Yeah, totally. Thank you. In coach, you've talked about two attitudes that entrepreneurs need to have. And, and I think for who not. How could you talk about those two entrepreneurial attitudes? Because I think they play in to something that's really important, especially for younger entrepreneurs to get and understand this because it'll help you forge your way through life. Yeah, well, they're just two simple ones. So I personally, since 74, I've coached 6,000 entrepreneurs where I've dealt directly with the entrepreneur. And at any given time I'm coaching 500 to 600, you know, in a workshop program. And I really interact with a lot of people. And Zoom's actually being, you know, a big jump for that. You can interact a lot more easily with Zoom. And, but I said that when you decide to become a entrepreneur, you're making two fundamental decisions. And if you haven't made these decisions, you're not really an entrepreneur. The first one is that I will depend entirely on my own abilities for my financial security. And most people in the world can't do that. They need someone to give them a job and guarantee their financial security. Entrepreneurs depart. And I have to tell you, it's only 5% of the population, adult population in the world that ever makes that decision. And the other decision is I will expect no opportunity until I first create value. So you have to lead with that. You have to be the first one to create the value. You can't say, somebody give me an opportunity, you know? You know, and you know, I mean, there's an attitude among a lot of people, you know, I would become an entrepreneur if the government would give me a forgivable loan. Yeah, yeah. And there's a ton of that. So I mean, so here's the thing too. You said something which I've repeated a million times, I say it all the time, that early on, this is probably 22 years ago, I think I heard you say this, where we were in a conversation and you said, all money earned ethically is a byproduct of value creation. And when it comes to developing relationships and finding who's. If you want to have a lot of who's in your life, just be really useful, just be really grateful, be generous and be helpful. And if you can produce a result for somebody, produce the result. Don't talk about producing the result. You don't build a great reputation by talking about what you're going to do. You build a great reputation by actually doing stuff. And so, you know, I'm the highest referring person in the world to Strategic Coach and I don't do it because I have some sort of affiliate arrangement with Dan, because we don't. I do it because it's a really good program and it helps people. And the same way that Dan's the highest referring person to Genius Network and that's what a collaboration is. Whereas in my experience a lot of people, they think that there's like this limited supply of usefulness that they have and they're the ones that hold it. And God forbid, don't tell someone else about someone else's useful book or program or whatever. I mean, yeah, we are telling you to go buy this book and read it and share it because I know that this book will be helpful to the entrepreneurs that actually do read it and utilize it. And, and so a lot of people use people, other people utilize people. That's what I think collaborations really are. And so I want. Joe, can you give the little two step. When somebody can't decide between Genius Network or Strategic Coach? We have a little two step routine that we do. Yeah, yeah, both of us. So someone asked me which program should I join? Should it be Genius Network or Strategic Coach? Now the real answer is you should do both because they both reinforce each other. But I always say join Strategic Coach because I don't want to be in a position where I'm ever having to pit one thing against the other because they're all really useful. Because I know if people go to Strategic Coach, they're going to bring back a really good Genius Network member to me. Because Strategic Coach does a great job with helping people identify their unique abilities, getting their, their skills and life together, building a unique ability team, creating a self managing company. And so it. Whenever I can send people or my clients into something that's going to make them a better client, they're not a better person, they're going to come back to me as a better client. Now will every one of them? No, but that's the way it works and that's that. And Dan does the same again. Yeah. Well, I say well, first of all, you're probably just a really good salesperson, but you're not a great marketer, and you have to be a great marketer to even have a sale these days. So go, go and spend time with Joe and become a greater marketer. And therefore. And after that, the price of Strategic Coach will just be an instant decision, you know, then you'll come in and you'll cause a lot of. A lot of entrepreneurs are really, really good salespeople. But the world, the way it is, it's getting harder and harder to be in front of someone to actually sell, and that requires marketing. That's a whole other. It's a whole other skill in the marketplace is marketing, you know? Yeah, you can sell when you're in front of someone, but can you get it in front of someone? Hello, this is Joe Polish, and this is a very historical moment. And you'll know why in just a moment. I'm sitting in a very nice restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona, with three of the most fascinating and coolest people that I know. And that was would include Kathy Colby, the creator of Colby.com, which many of you have heard about and have done. Mr. Dan Sullivan, founder of the Strategic Coach program, the highest level coaching program in the world for successful entrepreneurs, and Bab Smith, who actually runs a Strategic coach and is phenomenal. And so we're here today, and the historical moment is this. Dan actually showed Kathy Colby for the very first time this the multiplier game, which is a series of cards of some of the world's greatest thinkers and Dan's twist on it, which I'll ask Dan about in just a moment. But I first want to ask. Kathy Colby has created this cool thing called the Colby Profile that literally God knows how many people have done the Colby. You have any idea, Kathy? About a million. About a million. Okay. And we're all quick starts at this table. At this table, all of us, quick starts. And what does your call be, Kathy? I am a two, in fact, finder, itty bitty when it comes to details. I'm a generalist. I'm a six in follow through and an eight in quick start. That makes me the theorist and a 4 in implementer. So I'm in my jeans today. I'm going to go garden shortly. Awesome. Now we're all quick starts, which means we're very much idea people, low follow through from my standpoint, where I have lots, you know, come up with a lot of ideas, but I don't get anything done without having a team around me, and that's what you help people do. And I was first introduced to Colby through Strategic Coach. And so are quick starts. Are they crazy? No, we're just insanely original and come up with ideas that may or may not work, and we need other people to sort through them and figure out what the good ones are. This is a good one, Dan. And so we need collaboration, but so does everybody. Well, there you go. We need collaboration, and we all want to. So now Dan here has created the Strategic Coach program. So real quickly, Dan, a strategic coach. You know, anyone that knows me has heard me quote you a bazillion times. I think you are the most amazing thinker I've ever met in understanding entrepreneurial thinkers and how to make entrepreneurs better. And that's what Strategic Coach does, right? Pretty much. Well, really, I looked at the most productive people, and the most productive people were entrepreneurs, and I just decided to spend my whole life making the most productive people more productive. So that's our mission statement. And one of the things along the line that we've taken a look at is how do entrepreneurs continually multiply themselves? So that's really the reason why I created this game for entrepreneurs, but I think it applies to everybody. And so Babs and I in our company that what we're looking at is we're constantly trying to multiply ourselves inside of our companies so that our company has greater impact in the world. But the best way to do that is to actually help all of our clientele multiply themselves. Awesome. Awesome. Now the Babs. In a moment, I'm going to ask you, and I don't want to be too sneaky on you, what it's like to be married to Dan Sullivan. So are you ready? Are you ready for that? Okay. What's it like? What's it like being married to Dan Sullivan? Because I have a lot of great ideas, and he and I collaborate a lot on all these different ideas. So when I met him, I was really into helping good people get better, and I just wanted to help a whole lot of people, and I loved all the stuff he was creating, and so I thought we could get together and do it for more people. But it's a lot of fun because I'm a 2, 2, 3. Sorry, I'm a 3, 3, 9, 2. So our Colbys are really, really similar. Dan, did you say what your phone was? No, I'm a 2210 4. He's a 2210 4. Well, for the record, I'm a 5293. Okay. Yeah. And so, you know, we just have lots of fun because we have people surrounding us who can help make things work. Right, right. Because otherwise we'd be in trouble. And you guys have created, literally, Strategic Coach has some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs helping them become better. And what Dan refers to them as is industry Transformers. And so if you're an industry transformer or you have the making of transforming your industry or uniquely packaging yourself, that's what Strategic Coach is all about. So going back to the historical moment, the multiplier game, Dan created this thing called the multiplier game and showed it to Kathy Colby for the very first time. What are your thoughts on it, Kathy? What did it do for you? It is so neat. It is so fascinating. One of the things that's tough for people, with all our quick start and our ideas that flow out, it's being able to synthesize them into something that we can focus on and make them work and be able to share our process. And what Dan's done is taken the historical wisdom from so many people. Yeah. Way too many old white guys about some women in here. But aside from that, it's taking these wonderful philosophical points of view and helping us pick narrow and discuss just how we need to do what we're doing. And it's au courant because it's what do I need to do today? We just had the best time. He put me through it, and when I say through it, he let me play. And we've had such a good time, and it was so meaningful. It brings out the kinds of things you're thinking about but need to put on the table. And it's on the table right here. Yeah. Well. And what's really cool is there's probably going to be different variations of this, and so far, only 10 of the cards have been shown to the world, and there's going to be 50 in total. So if someone wants to play the multiplier game or get more information about this, what do they need to do, Dan? Well, we go to our website, which is www.strategiccoach.com. and. And that's basically it. The information about the multiplier game will be on the website, and that's the best way to do it. Or join the Strategic Coach program if you're an entrepreneur and you can get that information by calling 1-800-387-3206. I like it. Yeah. You know, hey, look, I am a marketer. Piranha Marketing. What do you expect? And Kathy Colby, if they want to do a Colby, they go to colby.com. yeah, I forget the WW, but it's k o l b e.com kolbe.com and what would be the first place for people to start with Colby? Just the. I start with the Colby. A Colby A. Find out about yourself and then you take the B and find out what's causing you stress. What are you trying to do that works against your grain, but use it with your co workers, your collaborators, your team, your family, because it's the interactions that really tell us whether we're going to get it done. Because we need the differences around this table. If we were all to work together for very long, we'd have so much fun playing, but we wouldn't get much done. So we would all have and we do our teams that we work with and I think that's incredibly important. Every human being is equally capable of creativity, but we do it differently. This conative stuff is as important as you're thinking and you're feeling it's with you do. So these guys are our number one client at Colby. The strategic coach is our number one. We've been working together for over 20 years. You had what, four people when you started? When we first met you, it was about four of them. And we said to them, hey, you two are great, but you better bring in some others to fill in the gaps. We have had a 20 year collaboration of friendship and it's been built on what everybody should have. Clients who are friends, they trust. We work together, we build ideas, we share. We want Dan to come and speak at our professional growth seminar because everyone we work with and train needs to know what he does. We're going to play this game. It's this kind of energy that makes work and makes everything you do so much fun. I mean, it's been fun great working with you guys. So I want to give it up for Ms. Shannon Waller. Thank you. Hi. This is awesome. Can I tell you how glad I am that there was a break between me and Brendan and I got to follow Joe's hair. That makes me feel good. So I am really excited to share with this. So you guys all get just got handed out the team success handbook because one of the things that I have learned after working with strategic coach clients and their teams and trying to bridge the chasm between you and between them. So I have been endeavoring for the last 22 years in different ways, shapes and forms of how to close that communication gap and get you on the same page. So to that end, I have written the first book, which is for your team. This book will tell them how to have what I call an entrepreneurial attitude. I'm going to tell you how it started, then I'm going to talk about you and I'm going to talk about them. So one of the things I realized really early on after I came up with the idea for the team programs, which Bab's actually, I actually did ask and Babs said, actually I told her that, that this was originally a school project. I got back to school because I was excellent at sales, but not unique. I was making a very good living. But at some level I was bored and I realized that I need to do something more stimulating. So I went back, took a training and design program and came up with the idea of coaching team members on the concepts of strategic coach. And the reason I did that is because two things were happening. Either our clients would call in and say, could you please explain this to, to my team because I'm not doing a very good job. Or the team members would call in and say, what have you done to my entrepreneur? They're acting different. And they needed to know the formula. They needed to know what had changed. So I went back to school, came up with the idea for a one day workshop. He said, hey Babs, I got an A on my project. She said, great, let's do it. I'm like, huh? Anyway, with Dan's help, the next November we actually started that and that was in 1995. So I started coaching team members, but I realized I was coaching them on unique ability and the time system and it was sinking in about this far. And I realized that the mindset that they were coming into the coaching with and how they were working with you was not entrepreneurial. They did not have an entrepreneurial attitude. They did not know what, what they needed to be, how they needed to be in order to be successful working with you. So this has been my passion. I love nothing more than strengthening the connection between you and your teams. I love you. I love them. I hate the gap, I hate the chasm, and I love creating those connections and the communication tools and, and the strategies to really strengthen it. And to my mind, this really is a $250,000 idea because when your team has an entrepreneurial attitude, they create value, they leverage you, they free you up, they protect you from dangers you don't see. They create new products, new revenue, new speeches, new content, new webinars, you know, lots of examples. Actually, a lot of people up here have Talked about that. So there's way more than 250k available if your team has natural attitude. So before I jump into what they're all about, I want to talk about you. Because part of the danger is you're a fish swimming in water and you don't know the water. It's just so natural. It's the air that you breathe. So there's a real big difference between organizational mindset. So an entrepreneurial mindset versus a bureaucratic one. It's really interesting. If there's one swear word in strategic coach, it's bureaucratic. That is just bad, wrong, evil, you name it. So entrepreneurial is the way that we go. So here I just want to draw these distinctions before I get into the different strategies. So entrepreneurial versus bureaucratic means learning by doing versus learning by researching. How many of you? Your only form of research is market research. You put it out there and you see what happens. That's how you do it. You don't research. You don't go to a book that's old. You go and make it happen right now. Unstructured versus structured. How many of you are allergic to structure? You intentionally bypass it as much as possible. Yes, you do. Fluid versus rigid. Rigid feels like death. It's like, ugh, that feels like constraint, handcuffs. Whatever analogy you want to use, that's not how you live. That's not how you think. Ambiguity versus certainty. How many of you just love not knowing what's going to happen next and. And then forcing it, or I'm going to say manipulating, but making it happen the way that you want it to go. That's powerful. By the way, this is all on page seven of the book. So for those of you taking pictures, you have it. The other thing that I really love and appreciate about entrepreneurs is the fact that they value emotion as well as reason. It's not just intellectual. It's your heart. You know, I love what Dean said yesterday about passion. I'm like, yes, I sign up for that. You know, I love the fact that your heart matters as much as your head and your gut. That's really what matters, not just the intellectual reasoning behind it. Contribution versus status. Brenda did a great job just talking about that. How are you creating value? How are you impacting the world? That you actually your status comes from contribution, not just because you have a degree or you've been doing something for a million years. Who cares? You're as good as your last piece of value creation. Value driven versus time and effort. Time and effort is nice, but if it doesn't produce the result again, who cares? It's irrelevant. And then relationship focused versus transaction focused. Great conversation about that already today. And then change, change is a good thing versus stability. How many of you things stay the same for too long, you think something's really wrong and you have to go break it just so it feels comfortable again. But here's the deal. When you're engaging with team members, guess what world they're probably coming from. They're coming from the right hand side and you're coming from the left. So one of things that I did when I sat down with our team and it's okay, some of us have figured out which environment we want to be in and how to be successful in that entrepreneurial one. So what are we doing right and what are the best team members of our clients doing right? And that's where we came up with the 12 characteristics or the 12 strategies and attitudes of successful entrepreneurial team members. Now, this is actually a quiz. It's available at strategiccoach.com teamsuccess it's in the back of the book. And occasionally I've handed out the quiz to people, to entrepreneurs, and the entrepreneurs have filled it out and they go, well, I scored really highly on each of these. I'm like, well, I hope so. You're an entrepreneur. It's actually not for you, it's for your team. But I want to help you cultivate an entrepreneurial attitude with your team members so you can bridge that gap. Because I have to tell you, when you have a team that is alive and contributing and shares your value system and in alignment with your results and passionate what they do, you're on fire. You're killing it even more than you are now. So this is amazing. When you can engage people and I don't care whether or not your team is outsourced in India or if they're in your office, it doesn't matter. But these characteristics, these are the people you want to attract. And I want to give you a lot of confidence about measuring people on these characteristics and helping them develop them. So I'm not going to go through, well, I'm going to go through all 12, but just talk about a couple. So create value. People aren't doing that. That doesn't matter. Taking initiative. This is a very big issue. A lot of people in more corporate structure are always waiting for permission. They're waiting to be told what to do. Well, you don't actually know what always needs to get done. So how are you going to Tell them that is the challenge. So one of the things we recommend to team members is to really say, okay, you know what, take initiative, take action, be in motion, learn from doing, be willing to experiment. If you see a problem, say something. Because if they don't, you're going to get caught with your pants down somewhere. There are dangers out there you don't see. Your team does, but they sometimes go, I'm not sure if it's my place, oh my Lord, get going. You know, so give them the assurances that it's okay to make small mistakes. Coach them on your thinking and on your standards. One of the most important, other than having an ownership attitude, is to be in alignment. I think a lot of times we assume that people share the very same value system that we do. One of the people I couple team I have the pleasure of working with is sitting at the back table. Hoetsi. They're all fabulous, just so you know. And one of the things that is absolutely mesmerizing about this team is how in alignment they are on their values. They have a lot of, they do this, they recite a five minute statement of values and purpose every beginning of every single meeting and they have it all memorized. That's really powerful. So be a partner, take action, be open, communicate. So the interesting thing with communication is this is where entrepreneurs tend to score themselves low. Learning how to handle strong emotions because you feel things very powerfully, have patience and compassion, and finally to not give up. Resilience is part of your DNA and it needs to be part of your team's DNA. So I hope that this textbook, this roadmap, helps you help your team to cultivate an entrepreneurial attitude so that you can do less and make a lot more. Here's to your team success. Thank you. Out of if you can. One of the best ways to build rapport with someone is to identify an area of mutual suffering and pain. The reason 12 step groups work is because there's a community of people that have been through pain. And when prisoners of war would go to therapists and psychologists and stuff and they would not get any help, but then they would take those same people and put them into a room with other people that have been through the horrible situations they've been, there'd be inside instant rapport. Now, to put that in a positive light, one thing that I do with a lot of people that I meet, and I've met some very famous people and I'm good friends with them, I haven't just met them, I've developed relationships with them is I have the understanding that most human beings are just insane and completely fucked up on many different levels. And I'm not saying that like, to be just for effect. It's true. I mean, people are people and they have issues and they enjoy having fun. They like building rapport. And I just like goofing around. I don't think that someone is like God or some messiah unless, you know, I run into God or messiah. So Evan, you know, shoots an email over to Tony. How do you pronounce his last name? Shea Shay, Because I always say his last name. Tony Hsieh. He's the guy that's the CEO of Zappos. And I've met him before, but, you know, he had dinner with Eben, went had dinner with him, with Joe Sugarman, who's a good friend of mine, the founder of Blue Blocker Sunglasses, and sends back an email to Tony saying, you got to connect with Joe. And then he also demeaned me in the email in a very funny way. But that built instant rapport because he just knew, yeah, it's cool to talk shit, you know. And so I shoot back another email, kind of doing the same thing. And all of a sudden, you know, now we're going to do a tour Zappa clothes and, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. Going to do an interview with them. And that's just a real simple quick connection. So when you meet other connected people, just become buddies and, you know, they'll introduce you to everybody. And one of the things, just some stuff that everyone can do. If you want to meet someone, first off, find their birthday. Know everyone's birthday that you want to meet. Send them cards, send them gifts before the holidays, send them stuff. Robert Chaldeans, who's a good friend of mine, he wrote a great book called Influence, and there's a chapter on reciprocity. Learn to use reciprocity. Giving things to people will help you tremendously. But don't just give them goofy, silly things. Find out things that they really would find valuable and interesting in terms of, you know, gifts, if they have any sort of pieces, you know, Hang on a sec on that. Just to give you a window inside of Joe's mind and how he thinks. Just an experience that I had with him. I was out with you. I think it was after one of your big seminars a few years ago, and you needed to buy. You need to buy a ladder for something. And we're out driving around to find a ladder. You want to change a light bulb or something. And I'm like, why don't you just have somebody else do it? And you're like, because I want to buy a ladder, and I want to. I know it was after a seminar, so you were just winding down, and, like, I just want to get out and be a regular person for a little while. So we went over to. I think we went to Costco. And do you remember this? No. I'm trying to figure out what the hell you're talking about. Okay. Okay. No, I really want to give you, like, the model of how a genius thinks, all right? Just, like, a window inside of his mind, like a perspective you wouldn't normally get. So we're walking down the aisles in Costco and trying to find a ladder, and. And we're looking at a bunch of different things. And, you know, whenever, like, two people that are interested in the world go out, we're talking about what's going on in Costco. And we come around one of the end caps. It's, you know, the huge piles of goods and stuff they have there. And Joe's stand there, and he's like, wow, look at that. That's, like, that's awesome. And I'm looking, and it's these boxes that are. Whoa. They're probably about, you know, 2ft wide and 3ft tall and about 8 inches thick. And they're these big porcelain Dutch figurines, like, yard figurines. And it was a big box that, I mean, probably weighed, like, 40 or 50 pounds. And Joe's like, that's great. He goes, you know, that's the kind of thing that you, like, send to someone on their birthday or for Christmas with, like, a really thoughtful card, and. And they go, what the hell am I going to do with this? And then when. When you come over, they've got to, like, put him outside on their lawn. He's like, just. He was mesmerized. He was like, I could see the wheels turning. Like, this is amazing. This is great. Because they were, like, 20 bucks for the whole set. You're absolutely right. I mean, I set Marty Edelston, one of those little samurai guys. You see those in the airplane magazines, the sumo dude, like, 95 bucks. I've probably sent 10 of those to people. What the hell do you do with it? You gotta. They're always forced to have to think about you. That's actually, you know, I don't remember that, but that's the sort of stuff I do all the time. So. Yeah, Marty Edelston loves that thing. He's the Guy that owns Boardroom Inc. Now he sends me a personal letter at least every three weeks and his done so for at least three years. And this is a guy that's running a hundred million dollar year company that's just a great dude. But it all started with sending goofy stuff to each other. Yeah. Every three weeks Joe gets a letter that says where'd you get the Dutch figurines? No, no. He writes, you should see the crazy shit that Marty sends me. He's twisted but yeah. So you know, find something that they would really find interesting. Send them weird gifts, send them cool stuff if they have any sort. You know, let me do like the strategic stuff. Being a marketer, I learned a lot of. I learned marketing from Gary Halbert who was brilliant and demonic and neurotic and weird, but just a genius. And he said that one of the things that lacks in most marketing is theater. So you want to be theatrical in the stuff that you do. So for, for instance, if I wanted to meet a big wig, I mean I've never had a situation where I've wanted to meet someone that I've not been able to meet and it's gotten me into, you know, I mean the stuff that, what I would do, for example, if I wanted to meet someone and I had a message I needed to convey to them, I would get a little mini DVD player, I would shoot a video of yourself, put it in the DVD player. I would send them a mini DVD DVD player with a post it note on the top of it that said open this up and press play. And I would send that DVD player to them by uniform courier that they personally have to sign for. So it gets through all the gatekeepers and everything, it gets right into their hands or at least their key right hand person's hands and just get it to them that way. Stuff like that, simple to do, might cost you 100, $200, but, but to me it's a more effective use of time than calling someone 50 times. But what Evan was saying is, yeah, be persistent to a point, but be persistent in a smart way. Do things, send them letters with a hundred dollar bill attached to them. Always be willing to pay for someone's time. If you want to talk to somebody sometimes just hire them, cut a check. I mean I've always been willing to, to cut a check. What you said here is that you were having, I don't know the person but you said when you were wanting to find out how to expand in foreign markets, you talked to someone and you said tens of Thousands of dollars is rolling out of their mouth. I think that's something that you just said 15 minutes ago. I wrote a picture of mouth, a head with diamonds rolling out. And I'm going to have my artist actually illustrate someone talking in all these gems just coming out of them. And one conversation could be worth a million dollars to you. And people are so cheap. I mean, they're just not willing to cut a check. And if you have enough money to solve a problem, you don't have a problem. That's what Dan Sullivan says. And so be willing to. To cut a check and meet the person. Another thing is, you know, people come up to me all the time and they're like, oh, let's do this, let's do that. First off my filter immediately is, well, have they ever bought anything of mine? Do they. Have they done any research whatsoever about what? They want me to sell their dog food, but do they eat my dog food? And so one of my criteria is I have a $25,000 person coaching group, and people come to me and they're like, oh, yeah, we're going to make a ton of money together. It's like, well, you know, then one of the filters is, if we're going to make so much money together, then join one of my groups, and then we'll spend time together. And don't do it, because that means we're going to do a joint venture. Do it because you sincerely want to work with me. If not, then all I am is a financial target and access to a list or something. So I try to think about, do they actually really care? Like, if someone wants to meet and do something with you, you know, I mean, you're going to respect someone more that's an actual client, someone that really appreciates you. And, you know, they study your work, so pay for their time. Always say please and thank you a lot. Really acknowledge people. Thank them, you know, and this applies to anyone, even if you want nothing out of it. I mean, people that are rude to waiters and people that are just rude in general, they really don't get that far. You know, it's like the whole saying, be nice to the people you meet on the way up because they're going to be the same people you meet on the way down. You know, just start living your life that way. And the one thing that you have got to protect more than anything else is your reputation. Just constantly create value for people and operate and live that way. And by living that way in a very karmic way, opportunities will just present themselves to you. That won't exist for people that aren't that way. So connect with their friends, with their. You know, for instance, one of the people that I want to. I met Bill Gates at All Things Digital earlier in the year and I took a picture with me and Bill Gates and I talked with him for just a couple minutes about doing an interview. But I know that Bill's like in another world, as are most billionaires. And so I talked to his wife, wife Melinda, and I'm going to do my best to set up an interview with her about the foundation that they have, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And that will eventually lead to something with Bill. Very much the same way that I ended up developing the relationship with Richard Branson. I really admire what he was doing with Virgin Unite, his charity, which he fully funds and supports out of pocket. So 100% of the money from that charity goes to the front lines of all the different things they do, from homelessness in America to teaching entrepreneurism in Africa to all kinds of stuff. And I interviewed the lady that ran Virgin Unite, Jean Olwang. And of course, Richard really liked that. And that eventually led to me doing an interview with Richard, him speaking at one of my conferences. And now we're doing trips to Necker island once a year in raising money for Virgin Unite. But find out who they're top people are and do something and work with them. Another clever technique which everyone could use because it is a technique. There are some things you just sincerely do because you're talented and skilled and there's other ways to trick people into talking to you. So if you've got no ability to talk to anyone and you just want to use marketing tricks, that works to a certain point. One of the things you can do, and I learned this from Brad Anton years ago. I teach carpet clean cleaners how to basically sell carpet cleaning services. That's how I got into my marketing business. I was a dead broke carpet cleaner living off credit cards and I needed to eat. And so I had to figure out how to learn how to sell stuff in order to survive. And all of the stuff I do today is purely an accident. It's a strategic byproduct of having to figure out how to make my carpet cleaning business work. And it's weird where life takes you, believe me, that and enough drugs, you can go anywhere in life. And so one of the things that I've taught a lot of my carpet cleaners to do, because they need to go in and do bids in commercial Buildings. And they need to talk to the right person. They always have these gatekeepers. So what I have them do, and I learned this from a couple of marketers from years ago named Brad and Allen Anton, is you call up their assistant and you find out the person that you want to talk to, he or she, their shoe size, and say, you know, I want to send them a pair of shoes as a gift. Can you find. Find out the shoe size for me? Now, they always. They will do this for you because they think it's kind of cool. No one calls up and says, hey, what's the shoe? They're like, all right, what the hell? And so you find out the person's shoe size. Say it's like size 10. What you do is you go down to, you know, any store and you buy, like, a pair of Nikes or Reeboks for 70 or 100 bucks, and you take one of the shoes and you write a note that says, Dear Mr. Bigwig, Mr. And Mrs. Bigwig, I have something really important I want to share with you. And I felt the best way to get my, you know, my foot in the door was to send you a shoe. And I'd like to meet with you. And when we meet, I'll bring the other shoe. And then you send one shoe to them with a little handwritten note. Send it uniform courier, so it goes directly to them. And here's the deal. Anyone that's an entrepreneur has no one that works for them that thinks like that. And they just appreciate career creativity. Isn't it true? I mean, honestly, when you go out into the regular world, not places like this, where people actually think, you know, it's like, amazing to see, like, creative people. And every carpet cleaner I've had, I've taught that to so many people, everyone that actually does it. I say, if you send 10 pairs of shoes to any big commercial account, I guarantee you you're going to land a 10 or $20,000 job always. But here's the deal. One out of a hundred people that I'll tell that to actually will ever do it. But the people that do it, they always get in. Send coffee mugs, send anything, but just that's theater. That's what I mean by being. Sending theater. Send in a DVD player, send in a little flip video with a recording of yourself saying something. You know, Bob, I wanted you to have this really cool camcorder. But press play. Every single person here could do something like that. That's something. And then, of course, I have to come back to demean them in front of their friends when you can. I have built more rapport with people with very sick, twisted, really bad, very bad forms of humor in front of them just to know that, hey, the person's really chummy. And it instantly breaks down walls because people are constantly walking around trying to be awful, professional. And I know that everybody, no matter who they are, is a hosed up human being that has some area of their life that's completely dysfunctional. And the moment you can get into that, it just takes down walls and just be fun. I mean, people just love people that are fun and be a ray of sunshine as best you can. And Evan, I don't know, I want to underscore a couple things you said. Contacting someone and saying, I'd like to hire you to do something. I'd like to buy an hour of your time. Very powerful. I mean, I can think of three people that come to mind, all of whom, you know, that I've hired to do an hour on the telephone. The lowest in the last couple years. The lowest cost one was $1,000 for an hour, and the highest one was 2,500 bucks for an hour on the phone. And you know what? They gave me great information, they gave me great advice. And you know what else? Now I can call any one of them anytime I want and talk to them because I made friends with them. Do the math. Another thing, you recommended Gene Landrum's book, Profiles of Power and Success. Get Gene Landrum's book, Landrum. L A N D R U M. Gene Landrum, Profiles of Power and Success. That's a very intense book. It is. It's like the alternate perspective of the lives of highly successful people. He profiles a bunch of just, you know, super successful people, like Walt Disney and can't think of Maria Montessori, the Aviator, Frank Lloyd Wright, Howard Hughes. Yeah. And you get to just see, like, all the common denominators of these people. But what you realize is that they're way more screwed up than the average person. And Joe has an intuitive sense of that. He knows that the geniuses are way more screwed up than the average person. And he goes right for the jugular. And I mean, that's honestly because I'm as a. About as dysfunctional as a person could get. And when I say goes right for the juggler, I mean it in the funniest way because he makes fun of their foibles. And I mean, if you find something that they're insecure about, he just makes fun of Them in front. I mean, it's like amazing, but it's the most profound instant friendship formula that I've seen. Now I tend to mess with people too. And that's why when the two of us get to Richard Branson on Nino tape, I said, you, you know, if you were to get in a fight with Al Gore, you think he could take him? And I mean, you say, and when I talk to Rupert Murdoch at All Things Digital, you know, I'm talking to him like in front of huge audience, I'm like, do you believe in God? And he's like, yes, I do. And then I had a drink with him after the speech, you know, because who the hell says shit like that to Rupert Murdoch? Yeah, so those are just kind of underscoring a couple of your points. If you treat, if you meet one of these people and you treat them like they're some perfect high status being and you start acting weird around them and you become all formal and stilted, what are they going to do? Right? They're going to feel weird. Exactly. They're going to be like, okay, another person acting weird around me. On the other hand, if you do what this guy does and says, hi, I'm Joe Polish, do you believe in God or mess with them in any one of a million ways? It's like instant rapport. No, like one thing, which I do in elevators a lot. But you could also do it with really well known people that everyone's always serious around them is. The best thing is try it here in an elevator with people you don't know. When it's all silent and there's a room, just turn around and say, can I ask you all a question? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your savior? Now just pause enough to say, no, I'm kidding. Because there's a difference between goofing on people and being cruel. But you know, your own version of that. Because some people, that's already offensive to them. But you know, you know, as an alternative, you might try if the money were right and it could fit into your schedule. Do you have a minute to take a look at an opportunity? I learned that from my friend Sean back there. And it's a good one. No, but see, the weird thing too is I've had to figure that out because, I mean, I am a introvert. I am not an extrovert. I have forced myself to have to go out and have to talk to people. Especially when you get into the public speaking thing. The first time I ever had to do a public speech, I Mean, now I've actually spoken largest crowd I've spoken in front of as, as far 5,000 people. But man, when I first had to do it, it was just nerve wracking. And the second time I had to do it, it was nerve wracking and it was nerve wracking. But, you know, eventually you just kind of. But I realized that if I want to get checks, you got to talk to people. You know, that's what entrepreneurs have to do. So there's one thing that my good friend Dan Sullivan says is, you know, two things you need to be successful as an entrepreneur. You need career courage and ignorance. And I had a lot of both in the very beginning. And so I still do. So, you know, first off, be willing. And I've also reframed the thing about rejection and stuff. You know, it's not rejection. It's taking a survey of who has good taste and who doesn't. You know, stuff like that. But also remember the Wayne Gretzky thing. Always remember when you're thinking about it, you know, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. And just go out there and take the shots and just do it. Because the world does not reward people that don't go out there and do it. And you only lose if you fail to lose the lesson. Stupid little cliches. But here's the other thing, too. I never ask anybody to do anything for me without creating value for them first. And sometimes that value is simply wanting to make them laugh. Even with my goofy jokes and the way, I mean, it's truly. I'm just trying to. To be fun with people. I'm trying to make them smile. I'm trying to just have a good time. And if I can't do any of those things, at least I amuse the hell out of myself. But always create value for people. I never ask anybody to do anything for me. Give me, do an interview with me. And I've interviewed some great. I mean, next week I'm interviewing Hugh Downs on video. I've got a verbal agreement from Tiger woods to do a genius network interview. Part of it is. But I always think of how can I create value for this person? And if you show up with that attitude, you know, the whole. I don't know who originally said it, you know, you can get anything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want. So always think about what is the value that you could create, provide, give, offer, link them to. And if you use that approach, you can pretty Much meet a lot of people. And when you, you don't know anyone in the beginning as a marketer, you have to manufacture your own credibility. That's where learning marketing techniques and things come in. But after you've interviewed someone that's really famous or you know, someone that's really connected, it just builds upon it. So in the beginning, you're going to have to build up the momentum, but it's a lot easier to maintain momentum than it is to create it. So just be willing to spend a little bit of time creating it and doing some things in the beginning and just, you know, your life and your income and everything will grow as a result of it. And I mean, I could say more, but I don't want to hog the mic. Thank you. So let me ask you this, Chris. So what's the most valuable negotiation technique or strategy that you've ever learned and why is it so valuable? Because you know, a lot of them, you know, one of the simplest ones is. All right, let's go with simplest mirroring. Repeating the last three words of what someone just said. The last three words? Yeah, you know the last three words. Just repeat the. Nice job, Dean. I know what you're doing to me. How dare you sell for it right away without even, how dare you put me on me. Nice. No, if you can master that skill. Because a lot of times you just need some time to think. You know, everybody says, boy, you know, now that I'm thinking about it, I know what I wish you would have said. And now that I'm thinking about it, now I see what I missed. That mirror technique, the last three words buys you that time in the moment without the other side realizing that's what you're doing. Because they're going to go on, they're going to talk some more, they're going to add a lot in. One of the crazy things about the mirror technique is it's a preferred move of the people that possess both a high IQ and a high eq. Now, I cannot explain why that is the case. I can speculate on it. I think if they are high in both areas, they love the simplicity of it and the lack of effort and the data loving people. So they, they love how little they have to do to get a bunch of information out of the other side. But that's probably the single most valuable thing that you could learn. Simply. Very good. Very good. Well, so we've talked about this one before, but it's always so important because you've shifted, you've helped so Many people just with this one. So why is the word no more important than yes? And if you could give an example. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Okay, so the key to negotiation, it's not about you. You know, we hear this all the time, but here you hear no and you go like, oh my God. Oh my God. I hate no. I hate being told no. I think we get that conditioned every child on earth, regardless of the language. What's the first word they learn? No. Because they get told no and they get pointed at them and no, don't do that. No, no, no. So we get it beat into a hardwired into us. So when we hear it, something horrible has just happened. But the flip side, the person who's saying it feels protected and safe and they calm down and they relax. They feel like they just protected themselves. The other thing too is you can say no when you're tired and then immediately contribute to the conversation and think things through really quickly. So it's completely different if it's about them. People love to say no. They feel. And they're gonna say a bunch more afterwards. You know, I got a couple no stories that I love, but I'll tell one of my favorites. Robert Herjfik. We're negotiating with Robert Herjavec's crew over how many tickets are going to buy for one of our training events. I've already offered him one. His response for free? His response to the one for free was how many can we buy? Not how many more free ones can we get? I'm a huge Robert Herjavec fan. Based on my interaction with him, I find him to be a generous, decent human being. So we're going back and forth and the event is getting ready to sell out. And my son Brandon, who runs my company, he calls me on the phone late in the day. I'm in la. He says, you get Herjavec to commit. How many tickets are gonna buy now? Or they're gonna be sold out by the time the sun rises in New York tomorrow, because my son's on east coast time. We're getting ready to sell the event out. And Brandon says, and if he doesn't buy any, I'm giving away. I'm selling a ticket that we're supposed to be giving him for free. So I'm like, all right, I gotta cut this deal now. That's five o' clock in la. When was the last time you tried to get a hard decision out of somebody? 5 o' clock at 5:03 and also an email at 5:03 I sent a two line email to Robert Herjavec. Is it a ridiculous idea for you to commit to buying three tickets now? Second line. Are you against paying for them before the business day starts in New York tomorrow? Again, we're three hours behind New York. The time stamp on his email response is 5:04 one minute later. No, we'll commit to the three tickets right now. No, it's not a problem. We'll pay for them right away. Send me a link. We'll pay for them right now. Within the hour I send him the link. We got the money at 523. Get people to say no. You'd be shocked at the responses you get. Fantastic. So there's some questions that people have, but what I'm going to ask everyone, save your questions. When we open it up for Q and A, I might ask you to repost them because it's sometimes hard for me to track everything and be present here too. So Chris, how might an entrepreneur use these strategies and techniques that you teach to better understand and serve their clients? Well, yeah, I mean, first of all, in simply understanding them better will help you serve them, you know. Alright, so let's say you're the favorite and let's say that they're elf they're not half. They want you to dial into them. You know, you, you want to be open to a better deal which is you tailoring your services to them so that it better serves them and it's more lucrative for you. Because first of all, I'm going to presume that everybody on this call believes the same thing that I do, that you over deliver. So first of all, if you're over delivering, you were bargaining whatever you were charging anyway, which means if you tailor your service, you're good of service so that it's a better delivery for them, you're worth even more. Yes. You want to get what you do. No, don't, don't be greedy, don't grab with both hands. But when you provide a service that's worth it, you are entitled to be paid. So the more that you listen to them and understand them, and I'm here to tell you there are ways that you can tailor whatever you're providing that would be easier for you to provide it, which means it would be more profitable for you and it would be better for them. So be willing to engage in conversations and be open to that. And then, you know, the other crazy thing is there might be something really counterintuitive that'll make it profitable for you. In unexpected ways. And one of my favorites is, you know, our mutual friend Dan Sullivan. He's talking about his book deal. He's talking about listening to me. Never split the difference. And we pay. Sorry, I pushed the wrong button. We pay people what they ask. No, I don't. I don't pound people on price. So Dan turns around and gives every dime of the book proceeds to Dan and Tucker. Ben. Ben and Tucker. Sorry. And then Ben and Tucker. Tucker says, dan got the last drop of my blood. When you're not greedy on the price term, what the other side gives you back might be worth 10 times what the dollars were worth. And those guys, I think those guys. I think Ben and Tucker would die for Dan. Yeah. Yeah. And that's. See, the beauty of Dan, too, is. And I think it's one of the reasons. I mean, heck, me and Dan have done podcasts on this is we like reciprocal people. You know, we like people that are generous. We like people that are useful. And. And it's just so much easier to. That's what an ELF person is. People keep asking, what does ELF mean? ELF is easy, lucrative, and fun, and half is hard, annoying, lame, and frustrating. It's actually a term I got over 20 years ago from my friend Mark Schneider, who unfortunately passed away earlier this year. But I heard him say elf years ago. And I said, I'm going to develop that into something, because I started thinking of all the different business methodologies you can use in terms of marketing and the stuff that me and Dean Jackson teach on. I love marketing. It's ELF marketing. It's automated, it's robotic. But then I started thinking, how do you. You can filter everything through an ELF filter. What are people? What are projects? What are things that you're doing? Are they easy, lucrative, and fun? Or are they hard, annoying, lame, and frustrating? Sometimes people can be hard, annoying, lucrative, and frustrating. Not all money is created equal. So ELF is a really great filter. And I'm super happy, Chris, that you're. You're referring to that, because I think it just offers some framing. So, yeah, I mean, this is. Once you. Once you become skilled at utilizing what Kris is teaching and what he's talking about here, you will find a lot of things in your life that were difficult become more elf. And that's the whole goal, is to bring ELF to people in all areas of their entrepreneurial endeavors. I'm going to jump in real quick because there's one more tangent I want to go on to on half. And now before you fire your half clients, and we just shifted into this recently. We got a couple of deals that were proposed to us, and they were half deals before we walked away. And I had this conversation with my son Brandon and everybody else in our company. When it came up, I said, what's the counteroffer that would make this an elf deal before we walk? Maybe they don't know that this is half. Maybe they don't understand it. And there's a pretty good chance of what you know, the chances are that they're going to offer you a half deal because they don't know any better. They can't help themselves. There's a whole bunch of reasons. I said, let's counter with what would make this an elf relationship. At that point, there's no doubt in anybody's mind what we're looking for. And they had the option to take it or leave it, and we have the option to take it or leave it. And we turned a couple of deals around with that by simply countering. Instead of saying goodbye so long, we said, all right, here's what would work for us. Here's what would make us want to do business with you forever and make us want, 10 years from now, look back on the last 10 years and say, that was cool, and we threw it out there. And the batting average is actually pretty high on that. You know, we don't counter offer their offer term by term. We construct what would be great for us and how we would love to do business with them before we walk. And you'd be surprised at how many people will embrace that because they just didn't know any better. Do you ever have situations, Chris, where you look outside of the. The scope of what will be, the immediate terms that are on the negotiation, to see, to draw in other things that might tip things some way or be an influence? I was just thinking about how, you know, that's a great question, man. I'm glad you brought that up. We're trying for that all the time. And, you know, how do you know what you don't know? What we'll do is we'll start to see. Say, let's brainstorm this a little bit. Like, here's some ideas that people have gotten in the past. Start throwing out wacky stuff that people brought up, and that will kick their brain into gear. So, yeah, try to kick them into a collaborative brainstorming process to look for how to get outside the scope. But, I mean, I love that question because that's absolutely what everybody should be doing. What makes a successful producing entrepreneur and I'll let Marie do the honors. Ah, gosh. What makes a successful entrepreneur? I'm not sure that. That somebody will know that they're an entrepreneur from the beginning. I think they will have a desire to make a difference to other people's lives and, you know, they'll see that, you know, that something's frustrating them, there's a gap in the markets, they feel they can do it better themselves and they'll try to fill that gap in the market. And that's. And then they almost become an entrepreneur by default. I don't think you can sort of set out to become an entrepreneur. I think you've got to set out to make a difference to other people's lives. Well, what are the business principles that have stood out for you, that just have worked really well for Virgin and for even building any sort of organization or cause? Well, again, I don't necessarily think of them as business principles. And I think the word, you know, I think the word business, it becomes the business. But what you're doing is you're. You're, you know, painting a picture. You're trying to. You're trying to create something to make a difference to other people's lives. You have a blank canvas, and you're filling in every little bit of that canvas to get every single little detail right. And if that canvas sings out at you at the end and it's a beautiful picture, your business is going to be successful. If bits of the canvas are not quite right, your business may fail. So if you set up, if you set up to change people's lives, you've got to get every single little detail right. You've got to make sure that the people that you're working with 100% believe in what you're trying to do. And you've got to make sure that what you're trying to do is worthwhile spending your time on. And at the end of the day, you want to be sure that, you know, the people's lives you've affected, you've. You've really been. You've affected them and benefited them. And, you know, if you get all that right, you know, hopefully you'll be able to pay the bills at the end of the year. Well, you know, I know you've started so many businesses, Richard. I mean, you have, I think, 300 some companies right now, and, you know, so many entrepreneurs. I work with a lot of entrepreneurs who are startups, who are in their growth phase, who are even in their, you know, legacy phase. And if you're In a startup mode. I mean, you just talked about this painting the canvas. That's really incredible. Is there like one tangible piece of advice that you wish that you had when you were just starting your first business? I mean, the absolute key and like an old stuck gramophone record that existed in my day is how, how good you are with people. And if you, you know, if you genuinely care about people, if you can surround yourself with people that, you know, genuinely excited about what you're doing, if you, you know, if you can draw out the best in people, if you're, you know, if you're good at, you know, praise, lavishing praise on people and not criticizing your people and, and inspiring your people, you know, that's something you just have to do from day one. You know, never use the I word. I mean, it's, you know, you're a team, we're doing this, we're doing that. Just never ever, you know, let it sort of center on yourself and just be a great, great leader of people. And, you know, if you can do that from day one, even if you've got one other and perhaps person working with you or two other people working with you, then, you know, you can enjoy the good times together. But there will be bad times and your people will pull around for you. They'll work day and night to try to keep whatever it is you're creating alive and make sure it survives. So the number one lesson is be a great people person. That's great. And I got a quick follow up and the follow up would be, you know, so now you started to, to make it as a business owner. So now we work with a lot of, you know, seven figure, eight figure, nine figure business owners. What did you do to take it to really the whole, whole next level? Well, I think, I think the next stage is, you know, is to be a great delegator and not try to do everything yourself. Try to find people who are better than you all the time. Try to find people who are better than you to put you, put you out of business effectively. So whatever you're spending all your day doing, try to find someone who's better than you to do that, to replace you at it so that you can go off and think about the next big picture. An entrepreneur is not a manager. An entrepreneur is somebody who is great at conceiving ideas, starting ideas, building ideas, but then handing over to really good managers to manage the businesses. You know, the moment you've got more than one business, you can't be hands on doing everything you know, if, on the other hand, you are, you know, you're not really a great entrepreneur, but you're a really good manager, you know, then fine, just immerse yourself in the business. You know, worry about every. Every detail. Don't worry about having to, you know, move on to other businesses. So it slightly depends on what kind of person you are. You know, in a strange way, Steve Jobs was more a manager than an entrepreneur. I mean, it sounds slightly strange to say that because, you know, but I mean, he. He was somebody that, you know, focused on, you know, you know, almost specifically on. On one subject matter, you know, immersed himself in that business. He second guessed everybody with everything. No bit of artwork could go out without his approval. And he built a formidable business, but pretty specific business in one area, and it worked very well for him. But if you want to be a true entrepreneur and build a lot of different businesses, you've got to be a great delegator. Okay. I hope you found that video awesome and useful. So if you want to get a free copy of my book, I want you to click here. And if you want to watch some more videos that will be useful and awesome, click here. Go ahead. They're over here. Do it now. Come on. Thank you. Watch them.