The Biggest Problems That You Solved For Yourself Is Your GREATEST Opportunity

We're just stuck with these constant annoying problems. But you can. You're entrepreneurs. You make money, you solve the problem. Because every single person that gives you money, every person that gives me money, they're trying to solve a problem and they're just looking to hopefully whatever the hell it is we're doing can solve some of their problems. Same with you. Everything you're doing, you know, so you're trying to sell. See Doug Brackman, he helps driven crazy entrepreneurs that their own talents are also their nemesis. They're all juggling kryptonite all the time. But if these people weren't not driven and having challenges with it, Doug would not have a business. No one would read the book Driven. You know, if people were not looking for real estate, you wouldn't have a business. Right. So it's that sort of thing. So your problems are everyone's problems. And when you're talking about vulnerability, Brian, about vulnerability, who was it that said start with vulnerability? Was that Jeff? Jeff? Yeah, Jeff. You both said vulnerability, though. Is that what I've learned also is that that which seem most private is most public. All of those problems that we think we're the only ones that are dealing with it. There are tons of people that are dealing with it. They don't know how to put words to it. It's really shameful at times to actually express it or to think about it. Why is that trauma thing that often? I don't probably have a lot of people always interpret as what I learned. I did an event in 1999 called Transformation 2000, and it was the first time. I don't know, Brian, did I have you at that? I don't think I did. So it was called Transformation 2000, and I had Dr. Nathaniel Brandon, who was the father of self esteem, amazing human. He died a few years ago. It was all about self help and sort of fix your head sort of stuff. And it was so much harder to sell that event than how to make money. Because if you're like, we're going to teach you how to make millions of dollars or we're going to give you a million bucks, everyone's always going to take the million bucks. Like, you know, even though you could argue that it's a lot more valuable for the term of your life to do this stuff over here. So think of a problem that if you solved, it would solve like 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20 other problems in your life. Does anyone have an example of a problem that if you could solve it? There's this whole Cascade of other problems that would go away, that you could say out loud what would be an example of solve. I talked about sleep as being one of them, but what would be another? My name's Adam, and for me it'd be learning to turn my brain off. Learning to turn your brain off, which would help sleep better, be more present in my relationships and create more room for creativity in production in my business. Wonderful. On Friday is an example. So I'm just going to use this as an example because oftentimes, because we're going to do the tool, then we're going to put you in groups and you're going to talk about it. And in the group, the sounding board operates as, oh, I've solved this problem, or here's my thoughts and perspective on it. And that's the value of a genius network. Like on Friday, we put up my interview with Dr. Tony Nader. And Tony, Martha McSally was the first one that texted me after she watched it. And she's like, I want to learn how to do TM. So he's the guy that runs transcendental meditation. Like, 40,000 people work for that organization. And so he's the head. So Maharishi literally handed it to him. So he runs the whole thing. He's the top guy. And so we did an interview and it's like, this is not a famous person, but he's like one of the smartest meditation people in the world. And we were having that whole conversation of like, you know, the entrepreneur. Because I said, most of my clients are entrepreneurs. How do you shut your brain off? And there's a whole thing where he actually explains how to shut your brain off, right? How to. It's not really like shutting your brain off. It's more like, you know, the analogy, which, you know, David lynch is a big TM meditator. You know, I told this story about I saw Ray Dalio sitting in this VIP area, which I was luckily in because of the level I was at when I went to a TED conference a few years ago. And I know some people that Ray knows personally. So I went up to him and I mentioned these people because that's, you know, I kind of know how. I wrote a whole book on how to do this sort of shit. But I went up and started talking to Ray. But I asked him, I got out of all the stuff that you've done in your life that you've learned, what do you think is attributed most to not just your financial success, but just you as a person? Because you Know, Ray's a pretty smart dude, and he said, by far, transcendental meditation. He's like, I've been meditating for 40 years. He goes, that has helped me more with success than anything else I've ever done. And I was like, that's pretty damn interesting, you know, for a billionaire to say out of all the stuff they've done, that it was meditation. And so I. You know. But again, there's many ways to get. Like, Doug Brackman, you know, has a very unique. Like, I would definitely talk to Doug. Have you ever read Doug's book Driven? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, you got Doug right here. Right. And Doug would have a lot of perspective on that. A lot of people here would. How many of you are very busy? Active brains. It's hard to shut your brain off. And I would put myself definitely in that category. Okay, yeah. So that would be one. If you solve that thing, there's a whole cascade of other things that would happen. So, Jeff, you recently wrote the Entrepreneur's Mind or Brain. The Brain. What's something that if you solved one problem, it would solve many others that you can think of or that you've actually figured out how to solve?

Well, mine is very content, very specific thing. And it's just I have my year of transformation, and I want to zero in on the perfect offer.

It's called A year of Transformation.

A year of Transformation.

Yeah. And you want to zone in on the perfect offer. Okay. You know that I recently acquired the website, which I've wanted for over 20 years. Transformation.com. yeah. It's a big one.

Well, partner, whatever.

Yeah. Here's the thing, though. I'm going to really sit on it because I don't want it to be. I don't want. Right now it's redirected to genius recovery, and I really am going. It's funny. One of the reasons, and it cost a lot to get this site Oprah wanted. You said that like Trump, huh?

It said it just like Trump.

No, but it's like Oprah. Oprah wanted to. Oprah wanted to buy the site from. But they wouldn't even sell it to Oprah because they didn't want some shitty thing being done with it. And so whatever that means to them. But one of the reasons I acquired it is I really want to think, what the hell does transformation actually mean? Like what? You know, because I could turn it into some marketing course, which I'm not going to. There's a lot of monetization things that I could. It's A freaking great name. I mean, I could sell the name for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know people that would buy it. But I really was like, it's going to make me really think about. Because there's been areas of my life that I've transformed and a lot of areas of my life where I have a lot of work to do. Right. And I really want to just ponder, what does that actually mean? What does transformation actually mean?

What does transformation mean to you, Joe?

Well, no, it means many things. And the reason I say, because I don't want just a can, you know, I have the ideas where you change form. Right. Because I even have, like, the, you know, pull up the term transformation, the way that the dictionary defines it, Mike, and put that up on the screen so we can see how, you know, I mean, I think I've transformed my behavior, my thoughts, through addiction recovery in a lot of ways. But there's many forms of transformation. You can. Let's see what it. I think we're all going through our forms of transformation all the time. A thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance. If I got a big tattoo during the life cycle of an animal, the induced or spontaneous change of one element into another by a nuclear process. Yeah. So. But, you know, I've always said, you know, I want to be in the transformation business, not the transaction business. But, you know, what does that actually mean? You know, we can think we can transform someone, but do they see it that way? You know? Yeah. Well, you know, I think we can transform others, too, if we're violent or if we're destructive or if we're enormously caring, I think. But, you know. But yeah, but ultimately, we are. The one person that we are responsible for is ourselves. And the world is in the middle of a massive transformation right now, good and bad. All right, so I'll get off that wagon for now. What's one more problem that if you solved, it would solve many others that you can think of? Because I'm just trying to get the brain thinking so that when you write down what needs solved, you actually don't just solve one thing. You solve many things.

Do you want just, like, a logistical one?

Could be. Whatever. Yeah.

Just figuring out. It's okay.

Yeah, let's come to you in a minute. Let's do. I'll do yours, then we'll come. Is that Russ? We'll come to you in a moment, Russ. Thank you. Just a second.

Oh. It's a logistical one. It's figuring out how to get through the different FDA like organizations in other countries.

Oh, interesting. Okay. How to get through. Okay.

Like if you could do it once, you might be able to kind of do a rinse and repeat if you like. It's such a huge, confusing world.

Yeah, well, this is not going to be the exact same example, but how many of you know Dean Kamen? Okay. Dean Kamen invented the Segway. And so I met Dean years ago and I've been to his. He has an island, his house, and I was talking to him. So he invented this device called the Slingshot. And it is a. It's basically a water purification system that you can put dirty, disgusting, like, filled with oil germs, you know, sewage into one end and out the other end comes surgical grade purified water. And this thing will run on less of for a month on half the electricity to power a hairdryer. So all of these countries in the world that have difficulty with dirty water, clean water, he created a solution for it. The problem was he couldn't get into some of these countries because of bureaucracies. And so. And this is where I have sort of a crazy issue with it. He partnered with Coca Cola because Coca Cola is one of the few companies that can actually get distribution in countries because of all of the. Which I was like, okay, I go, this is so complex for me. So Coca Cola positions themselves as a health care company and they license it. It's like so fricking. Is that the Slingshot? Yeah. And so when you go to certain, like restaurants, self serve, where like a Chipotle or something, I don't know, I think they have it where they have those condensers for sodas that actually came out of his machine that he created, but they're not. So. And I said, I go, man, Dean. I go, I'm just confused by it because on one hand that's great that these water machines are getting to some of these places, but aren't they just going to serve them water so they can get them addicted to sugar water? And he said, he goes, you know, Joe, he goes, if you saw the horrible conditions of some of these places, you would realize, you know, Coca Cola is actually a luxury. Didn't answer it in the way that I am still okay with it, but it's just very interesting. But to your point, the key is, okay, if you're trying to get to these places who already has done it, that you can somehow partner with and solve that, because it's. Yeah, well.

And even we've. Sorry, we've even thought like, well, maybe we're going out about it all wrong. Maybe what we should do is just go start a company in those countries, right? And then we're already in the country and we're, you know, so it's like. But I'm just wondering if there are people who have. I mean, this must have been solved a hundred times, at least thousands of times.

There's that line I say all the time from Anthony Greenback, the Book of survival, written in 1990. He said, in order to get through an impossible situation, you don't need the reflexes of a Grand Prix driver, the muscles of a Hercules, the mind of an Einstein. You simply need to know what to do. And so whenever I'm faced with, like, this is impossible, someone maybe knows how to navigate. And some things you're just not going to do, it's just going to be too hard. The juice ain't going to be worth the squeeze. But for the most part, almost everything that is doable has a answer if you know what to do or there is a connection that knows how to do it. So hence the whole point is here. I'm not trying to solve anything right now. I'm just trying to say, like, how do you. Dan Sullivan has that line, the problem is not the problem. The problem is how you think about the problem. And then up on the wall there, the green one says, what's it say? If you haven't made money, Wayne, go ahead and read that one. Throw Wayne a mic, if we could. This one's so great because this, by the way, the reason I have this on the wall is to remind myself, if you have enough money to solve a problem, you don't have a problem, Right? So that's from Dan Sullivan. And the greatest problems I like are the ones where you cut a check or crypto or whatever currency it is and it goes away. 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'sfreebook.com and you can get a copy there. So a lot of this stuff is like, we're just stuck with these constant annoying problems. But you can. You're entrepreneurs, you make money, you solve the problem. Because every single person that gives you money, every person that gives me money, they're trying to solve a problem and they're just looking to hopefully whatever the hell it is we're doing can solve some of their problems. Same with you. Everything you're doing, so you're trying to solve. See Doug Brackman, he helps driven crazy entrepreneurs that their own talents are also their nemesis. They're all juggling kryptonite all the time. Right. But if these people weren't not driven and having challenges with it, Doug would not have a business. No one would read the book driven. If people were not looking for real estate, you wouldn't have a business. Right. So it's that sort of thing. So your problems are everyone's problems. And when you're talking about vulnerability, Brian, about vulnerability, who was it that said start with vulnerability? Was that Jeff? Jeff? Yeah. You both said vulnerability, though. Is that what I've learned also, is that that which seems most private is most public. All of those problems that we think we're the only ones that are dealing with it. There are tons of people that are dealing with it. They don't know how to put words to it. And it's really shameful at times to actually express it or to think about it. Why is that trauma? You know, this Dr. Don Wood here.

What did we talk about? My brain doesn't work that well sometimes, but it was about. Syndrome.

Imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome.

Okay.

Imposter syndrome.

I thought you were gonna say Trump derangement syndrome. Tds.

I have that. But, you know, imposter syndrome is like that because you. Because, you know, we used to do the boardroom dinners, which you used to attend.

Yeah, they're great.

We had, like, the best doctors, the best marketers, these people, like, the experts and the experts. And they come to the dinner, like, and they say, I don't belong here. It's like you have a CV that's 25 pages long. Like, what do you mean, you don't belong here? And then we had people who came. When Michael Fishman came to his first dinner, he really didn't belong there.

He doesn't belong here anymore either. We just kicked him out finally, after.

Michael belonged there, and he came to many boardroom dinners, but he never said that when he came because he got an invitation. You're invited, and then if you're there and you play full out and you're vulnerable, you can get so much more out of the group. I mean, we had people who. Their financial expert who ended up talking about autism because of his son suffering from autism. And he got people in the room to gather around, you know, to come up with a fundraiser for him. I mean, vulnerability. But again, if you come into a room and say, I don't belong here, that's like the worst thing you can do. So the first vulnerability is you have to look at yourself and say, okay, I'm going to be. I'm just going to say I belong here. Not because I'm better than everybody. In fact, I may be the stupidest person in the room. It's fine. But you need to know that you belong there because you either paid to be there, which is good enough, or that you were invited and everybody belongs, basically.

Awesome. And if they don't, we'll kick them out. And by the way, Michael, he was just talking about how you don't belong in the room. Did you hear any of that?

I qualified.

Yeah. Now, Brian is a very vicious, hurtful person. I don't know why he asked to go there, but.

I heard I resemble that room more.

Yeah, yeah, totally. All right, Russ. I apologize for that tangent. Russ Palmer.

No, no, no, it's totally a great tangent. So you always talk about, like, a man with a self has a thousand dreams, and he who doesn't only have one, and she's got a new kidney. And so, like, my biggest problem that I need solve right now is my health is back. So how do I start dreaming and living again?

Wow. Wow. Well, first off, congratulations. How long were you in the queue, per se, waiting to get a kidney, not knowing if you're going to live or die?

Well, you kind of live through dialysis. There are some treatments. It's not really a good way of living, but from the time I started dialysis to the time I got a kidney was exactly one year because my brother donated it to me. So that made it a little bit easier. But typically it could be five to seven years for. If you're just waiting for a random donor.

Well, I mean, look through this period of time, knowing you, I mean, you know, without. You know, like, every time I saw you, I wasn't like, boy, you're going through hell in your life, Russ. But it seemed like, you know, you're. I admire you. I mean, you are dealing with some constant, continuous health things. And I'm so freaking happy that you got the kidney transplant. And that's a really big question. I think it's a good thing to reflect on, too. Imagine that you're in a position where you still have to run your business, run your company, raise your family, but you couldn't really dream. And what he just posed here. How do you now approach. I can start dreaming. It's almost like a certain fear or conditioning of, like, I couldn't do this before. Now all of a sudden I can. And how do you approach it? You know, that's a very interesting and kind of awesome question.

It's even been more than that because I knew about this kidney condition and I'd been in really low function for 23 years. Kind of. It's always been on my mind that this is going to have to happen or something's going to come up. But I had a little bit of time to plan. But it's also limited. Like, the dreams. Like, what. You know, what. What can I do? You really have to focus a marijuana. Like, what's important, because, you know, the kidney condition or whatever, you may not be there.

So.

But now it's like, there's a lot of energy, a lot of opportunities. Now it's like, shoot, I don't know what to do now.

Have you ever considered, like, competitive kickboxing maybe? No, I'm kidding. So, yeah, that. That is awesome. Yeah. Well, hopefully the people that we put you in groups with will have some good perspective and insight. But, yeah, thank you for sharing that.

Kicked out of the bald club. Hair's growing. So anybody who's bald and wants to know, just a new kidney will probably help.

Wow. So your hair is growing back as a result of a new kidney. Damn.

The doctor said it wasn't. You know, I've had haircuts now, and I have to, like, do my hair and do all that kind of stuff.

But, yeah, I wonder if it's a genetic. Does your brother have an extra kidney? He'd be willing to. That is awesome, though. Seriously awesome. Thank you. Yes, go ahead.

I would love to connect you with my dad, which is so random, but he had a liver transplant, and I don't know where to look because you.

Yeah, well, the camera's right here. We'll pick you up so he can see you from the cameras.

He had a liver transplant in 1987, which was, like, the first year people could survive them. And his dreams, I think, largely revolved around our family. So he wanted to see. I was 10. He wanted to see me graduate high school, then college, then walk my sister and I down the aisle. And he's had to create new dreams over the years. He's a really wise guy. High, high integrity. He might be helpful because he hits these points in his life where he's like, well, I'd lived long enough to see all the things that I wanted to see, and now what? And so he now does these bike trips with my mom. They're still married. They've been through a whole heck of a. Sorry you're over here so much together, and they're there. And. Yeah, just. I think it's a process, and he has to keep creating new dreams of what he wants to see in his life. You know, he's retired, and then he's kind of like, now I feel kind of useless and like, nobody knew. So I call him up and I'm like, we have this problem with, you know, what do you think about it? And, you know, if you're interested, he loves to talk to. I mean, it's not the same organ, but he loves to talk.

That's a much harder one. So no, congratulations to him.

Yeah.

Well, look, if you guys want to connect, then. Happy to connect you both. We can definitely do that.

He's a good. He's a good business. He's an ops person, so he's like integrator. He's a great one for that purpose as well.

Awesome. No, we'll have Mike connect both you and Russ and then take it from there. So awesome. Thank you.

I'll go because these guys are awesome.

Which way? Wait, who are you talking about?

I had Devin and Brian.

Really? Which one was the least awesome?

They're both so good. So good. But without going into all the details, I think we come into this expecting everyone to go, yeah, that's an awesome freaking idea. Run with it. Do this, do that. And it's not that they didn't do it. The idea I have is good, but they gave me insights to really think. Like, do I have the time and attention to put to this new idea?

Right.

Is this a good idea? Could I lose money on it? Even though it could be brilliant, it could be a million dollar, multimillion dollar idea. Do I have that time and attention to give to it right now? So getting kind of the other side was as valuable as getting a rah, rah, rah, let's go do it.

Right, right, right.

And it made me pause and go, okay, I need to think about that. I definitely do. I might need to hire people to help me if I want to move forward and not take it on myself. So it was gold.

How many of you. It just pisses you off when you have to put on pause or slow down on something that you really want to do. I mean, look, I swear, I think we live in that space a lot. And I mean, you know, I have to give myself slack because I think I'll probably. You know, and this may not be the best self talk. I'll probably get myself in these traps all the time, unless I am very diligent about keeping people around me. Is that Joel Weldon, like, watching porn again or something? I should have never shown him those. Anyway, it starts with a real innocent meme and then.

Sycophants on a hot seat are death.

What's that?

Sycophants on a hot seat, when you're on a hot seat are death. You're going to go. You're just going to keep going and going. And I'm not saying we were. We weren't.

First off, define the word sycophants.

So basically, I'm going to agree with everything you say, and I'm going to flatter you, and I'm going to. And we started. I mean, she's a rock star, right? I mean, that was established at the beginning. So it wasn't about her. It wasn't like. And it had to be an idea for her stepdaughter. So it was a little distance, but she wants to invest in it. So, you know, to give her the alternate initially. And I felt like I was being like, you know, Debbie Downer, but I was really trying. And Devin did the same thing. It was all about, you know, asking questions about, like, when a copywriter works with a marketer, they're the best interviewers because they have to ask the questions like, why do you want to do this? What is. And we came up with, like. We came up with her. If she wants to do it. We came up with the lead for her sales letter. She told a story about her stepson, and it was like. It was. It was riveting. And we said, oh, if you want to do this, that's your lead. Right?

But the thing is, you get. Yeah, no. So here's what I was going to say. The trap I get myself into is I like new things. I just like new things. And I get bored with stuff, and it's like, there's a dopamine hit. I mean, if you've been around me enough, you've heard me say, whenever I get really overwhelmed, which I'm masterful. If you want to know something where I'm mastery in. I'm masterful at putting more shit on my plate than I could ever do in a lifetime and being oblivious to the fact that I'm doing it while I'm in the middle of it. Right. But what I've learned through lots of conversations with Sam Qurachi is that what causes the most grief for me in my life is saying yes. What gives me the greatest joy in my life in the moment is saying yes. Because if I say yes to something or we're going to do this, we're going to do that, it does something biochemically to me called dopamine, you know, is probably the neurotransmitter of anticipation. I get excited, but I am oblivious to the fact that there's all this follow through that needs to be done and that I have a mountain of shit already on my plate. But when I'm really stressed out from the mountain of shit on my plate, this new thing makes me forget about the mountain of shit on my plate. And then I take and then. And oftentimes I want to be accommodating. So people's like, hey, we should talk, or hey, can we do? And I'll be like, oh, okay. And then Eunice constantly has to remind me like, dude, do you see your schedule? You can't schedule another appointment with this person. You got a hundred people that are trying to schedule stuff with you. So it's like, I have a deal with Eunice is like, let me run it by you first before I obligate myself. And just by trying to be nice to people, like, they'll interpret it like, oh, we're going to go into business together. It's like, no, I just like, say, well, try to talk. It's not a business. But, you know, so. But what I've learned though, is that if you, you don't want people that are going to squash your ambitions, but you don't want people that don't have the critical thinking to help you evaluate it, you know, because we constantly like, what does a great copywriter does? They edit.

They edit, but they have feedback loops of people at their level. Every great copywriter I've ever met, they have to write with a closed door. Devin brought that up in our meeting. But you have to do it with a closed door because creative in writing copy is not a group effort. Usually it can if you're writing scripts for a comedy show or something like that, but you have to write it alone. Copy is written by committee. However, once it's written, you need people. The best copywriters. Gary Bensivenga, David Deutsch, Paris Lampropolis. Yeah, Every single great copywriter I've ever met runs their copy through a gauntlet. At least one or two of copywriters at their level or above, and they reciprocate because they're going to tell them the truth. It's like what I said before about John Carlton. Those of you who don't know, John Carlton is one of the great copywriters of all time. He was once a genius network member.

Now he's just an old dude. I talked to him just like few weeks ago.

I got in touch with him also. He doesn't want to travel or anything, but he still is as sharp as ever. And he will not, he would swear by this. In terms of having feedback loops, I have these seven keys to every great copywriter I ever met. It's in my book. The seven keys to every copywriter I ever met. They have these characteristics, every one of them. And one of them is feedback loops. Only the best know that they need their copy critiqued by the best, right? And if you're not gonna. And if you want to get it critiqued by a bunch of people who are your fans, good luck.

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. You're over here. Do it now. Come on. Thank you. Watch them.