Part 3 - Turning Pain Into Purpose Through Speaking

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Welcome to this edition of the Million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell.

Talk about how this seeking thing revved up. It took off. Here's one thing, I want to dig into that because I want people to be thinking about listening from a different standpoint. We have a lot of million dollar earners listen to this call. A lot of people are on their way up the line. A lot of people have influence in a lot of different areas of life. And if you're out there, there are people in need everywhere that need to hear a voice of hope, encouragement, especially when it's real. And I would encourage people listening to this, if they haven't yet thought about it, think about, take a look at Casey, you know, read a little bit about him. Take a look at the book the Shot Caller. And he's got a podcast, too. You got a podcast, right?

I do, yeah. The Shot Caller podcast.

And so pay a little attention and see Casey might be a great fit for some of the organizations you're in that you could encourage them to get him to come in and speak and make an impact. Because Casey makes a big impact wherever he goes. You know, this is a message of impact because it's real. And so talk about how the speaking thing started.

It was interesting because I ended up in circles that I would have never dreamed of. I got featured with Laura Ingram was one of the biggest opportunities, open doors that presented themselves to us. I did. She interviewed me on her podcast. And it was funny because the interview was I was being driven around D.C. while I'm doing her podcast for a whole hour or driving in circles, as you know, she's interviewing me. And then that same day, within hours after that episode, her producer called. I was with PR at that time and they called our PR guy Joel and he says, you know, this is. I just got off the phone with Laura's producer. She wants you live on her show and it's prime time. And now I have to call Harper Collins to see if. Because that night we were to fly out to New York to Fox and Friends and give them an interview. So we had to cancel Fox and Friends. All the airplane flights had to be canceled because at that time, Laurel Ingram was number two, you know, with millions of viewers. So it made sense to be on her show. And from that point on, then I got interviewed by Sean Hannity, Mike Cuckabee, and Just Adam Carolla. I've been on all these platforms, and then just the door. I mean, we. To this day, we have emails every single day with requests for me to go and speak at conventions, at business locations, in churches, you name it. So. And you're right. When the story is real, it'll have an impact, because everybody wants to hear, hear a good story of here's a mess. And now that mess has become this message of hope and redemption. And all of us, as America, as people, we like hearing redemption stories. And I think that when I hit the stage, I'm there to provide a service and to ignite and to impact and to move a crowd that perhaps some are in there and they're lethargic or they're hopeless or they keep hitting a wall and all it takes is that one good story that'll catapult them to something different in their own personal life. And that's what I like doing. And hitting these stages from A to Z.

And like we talked about before, your schedule fills right up. And you had, I think, 200 bookings that you had to cancel because of COVID and quarantine, Wasn't that right?

Yeah. And it was just. I would have been working endless. You know, there was times when we did. Where I was in a vehicle going and doing more than 25 interviews per day. Per day.

How do you do 25 interviews a day?

How do you do? So some of them are, you know, 20 minutes, some of them are 30 minutes. And you're just. I would be driven to one location to another. Put it this way. There was one moment where I forgot what state we were in, because we were going from it's. It's one airplane to another black car or. And you're just moving and going. And I remember we stopped for lunch and I said, where are we at? And we laughed as if, you're in Virginia, man.

Right now.

You're in Virginia. I said, oh, okay. I had no clue.

It's easy to happen around dc, but it is dc. You.

Yeah. Yeah. They're all so close. Yeah.

I figured the only way to learn the layout of that. That place, or any place, really, is to be the guy driving the car. If someone's driving you, they can. You can go 50 times and you still don't know where you are, but you still don't know where you're at.

That's right.

The one driving one time, you know, it gets programmed in your head. You know, that's right.

We love our drivers because those are the guys that take us from place to place.

Now, do you have, like, a PR person that's going with you that says.

Oh, great at the moment? No, because we're preparing for this film and this film is going to have us. Yeah, they're going to be the ones that will be booking me. And then at that point, I'm going to have to separate because of course, they're promoting the film and shows left and right. So they're already prepping me and talking to me about, get ready. Because if you thought that you were busy with your book writing, this is 2.0. Once the film goes up. So I'm trying to take it one step at a time. And right now, again, if. If you need. If you have, you're out there and you're a business guy who has the power and authority to pull the string and call a shot and bring me out there to stir your crowd up. Let's do it. Let's make it happen. I love doing that. I love what I do.

And a lot of this dealing with, you know, the problems of a speaking business, movie business, a book business. You know, business problems are business problems. And a lot of the ways we learn to solve problems is from the beginning. You know, when we first got out on our own and we were in charge and we called, we made decisions, and then they turned out bad, and we. Oh, I didn't know about that, you know, because you. You never know until you do something. They're like, oh, why did somebody tell me? And, well, nobody knew. Nobody knew to tell you, you know, and so what are. You know, you said you. You were. You were talking about when you started your. I'm really curious about what you. What's still on the top of your mind of lessons, failures that you had, disasters coming out of prison when it seemed hopeless, you know, because you gotta have, you know, you gotta go through a thing with yourself that you doubt yourself and you get down in yourself, especially with your background, you know, it's like, oh, everything's gonna be great for me. And, you know, you know, you have these people, they go through life. It's like, I don't know, something will turn out. You know, we'll just come up with something. You know, it's just like, no, they won't usually just turn up. Are bad ones. As you go, as you were starting your business, you were getting that on your own. You're trying to find your first successes. You had to feed a family, you had bills to pay. What were some of the toughest times you went through and maybe you caused, you know.

Yeah. You know, there's moments in everybody's life, man, for me, I tend to lean on biblical truth that has helped me in those moments where you either get depressed or ashamed of something that you've done or a failure. Right. Because nobody wants to. When you start a business, when you start anything that, where there's, you have to write the vision, make it plain, where it's taking so much time and you don't see the fruit right away and you look at some of my mistakes is I think hanging out with the wrong people, that was one of my greatest mistakes. Even after I got out.

Even after you got out?

Even after I got out. And what do I mean by that? It's not that I returned to the gang proud, that I knew there's some people that surround your life that can't get out of small thinking.

Right.

They think small.

I'm glad we got to this.

Yeah, they think small. They think safety. Right? That's safety. And they're not risk takers. And just like that gentleman that you mentioned who was trying to give advice on billionaires, but he himself was not a billionaire. I remember walking into a karate studio for one of my kids when they were little and the karate guy, the instructor was quite overweight. And I looked at my wife and I said, this is not the school. And we walked away. And she said, why did you say that? I said, because we walked into his studio and he's eating a big cheeseburger and he shouldn't. And she listened. She goes, really? I said, yeah, I want someone that's fit. I want somebody that's been there, done that, bought the shirt. And that's an unique. That's not to shame anybody, but that's the truth. There's some people that just think smile, won't take risks, and they want you to partner up with their ideologies and you can't give into that. And so I had to break off. And this is even church people, these are even well intended people that you need to just separate yourself and go into a fold or a circle of go getters. And when you surround yourself with those kind of people that think big that, that you know, if what's in your mind is easy to achieve and it's anybody can do it, well, then everybody would be doing it.

Yeah.

But when your idea is huge, when your idea is beyond you, that's the kind of guys that I want to hang out with. The guys that go, I don't know how we're going to do it, but we're going for it. I get excited about people like that because those are risk takers.

There are people that have the impression that everybody's in church is like I remember my sons when they were little, I was asking what did you think about the people over this other church? You know, we went and visited. He said, well, he said all the people there look like they belong in the Star Wars Cantina. You know, they're like, they're all kind of weird. This the other, you know, you get all. In church, you get all kinds. You get people the very everything. But they're still pygmy thinkers when it comes to their own world. It's like careful, careful, careful. I remember, you know, and it's a proud. It's not necessarily they're bad people, it's the product of their environment. But you, yeah. Got to be smart enough not let that environment fall on you. I remember when absolutely we went, our company trip, we went to big, I went to Hawaii the first time. We're going to take my, you know, take my, my mother, my wife's mother, we take my boys. It was a phenomenal trip. Ten days, two weeks, something like that. And told my grandmother about it. We were down, down her place for some holiday or something before we went and I said grandmother. And she goes, well, I just hope it turns out all right. Well, since she came through the Depression, you know, this is, you know, this is a woman who, when I gave.

Her, you know, I'm so mad at.

Myself because I didn't realize this until like 10 years later for Christmas once I gave her like six or seven hundred one dollar bills, you know, I gave her a big thick water. She never had any money for herself but somehow she would scrounge up and every grandkid would get a dollar bill in the birthday car. She always makes sure you got a dollar. And I guess my grandfather gave it to her. So I was going to give her 600 of these so she wouldn't have to ask him for anything she took. She had never had that much money in her hand in her life. She grew up on a farm. And never dawned on me I felt so bad, Casey, because she absolutely, this is my 90 year old grandmother. She grabbed it up, she was giddy with joy, with the joy. It was just like she was on heroin or something. The farm, you know, we're out in the country in a farm. She got that. She looked, I'm rich. And she went running around the yard up and down the street. It must have been 20 minutes before she calmed down. But people are product of their environment.

Yeah.

And we better be smart enough to realize that we have different circumstances, different exposures. And there's no finer Christian that ever lived than my grandmother. But when it came to things about finances and stuff like this, like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you know, let's be careful. They can't, they're not going to change it. It's in their, their DNA is what their bad, their background is. And that's what's so great about you is you overcame that gang DNA, you know, that supermax DNA. But it's, you have to fight your way out of it mentally to talk yourself through it. You know, we all have to be our ultimately we're our own best self coach. You get mentors, mentors, advisors, read books and everything. But at some point you got to talk yourself through these things and keep yourself on track. And you had to go through that and that had to be some tough times to where you were really dark and wondering, am I going to pull this off? That's what I'm curious about people.

I think people would love to hear. For those of you who are sick and tired of fooling around and are dead serious about wanting to move up to fast, I've got something especially for you. I've combined the best insights from over 40 years in business and making $70 million in income and compressed them into a free webinar. That's right. It's a free resource. If you want to find out exactly what the concepts are that I use in coaching million dollar earners, Register now@widelonwinning.com you'll discover the 55 part framework used by so many to reach their financial, personal and professional goals. You can find that link in this episode's show notes.

And you know one of the people that I surrounded myself with very early on that the person that introduced me to sign making, I remember him saying this to me. And you know, sometimes people will speak into your life and you won't get it the first time and it's important that they repeat it to you over and over again. And at some point the light switch turns and the light bulb turns on. For me, I had that experience and I remember him saying this. He said, casey, you're going to get your first $5,000 job. And then he said don't get too excited about that because sooner they'll come and you'll have a $15,000 job. And he said celebrate that only for a Short while, but don't stay there. Then you're going to get a $30,000 job. And he kept repeating this, right? And I thought in my head, I thought, really? Until I bought his idea, internalized it, and the next thing I know, I went from that $3,700 sign and kept moving. And then it became a regular thing. It just became a norm. And I would celebrate it for a little bit, but I was ready for the next thing. And I think those type of people. And you. I have friends in batches, so I have the guys that I hang out with that are entrepreneurs, successful. One of our mutual friends is a very successful millionaire. I have breakfast with him twice a week. I sit down, I make time, and so does he. But he's my mentor in the financial area and he's also my business partner. But I make sure that when he says, hey, let's go out for breakfast, I'm there. And there's a reason for that, because, listen, billionaires don't just sit around and invite people over for breakfast like that.

So you.

You honor that because you know that there could be something that you're about to learn over a meal. And I have learned so much from this man. He's much older than I am, incredibly successful. And I sit, I listen to him. He's given me advice over and over again. And he's a guy that's. He's like this man. He's unwavering. He doesn't look to the left or to the right. This guy's. He's. He. He goes and goes.

Casey, you go out and you speak to encourage people, to help them. But one last question I have for you is from speaking, what is something or is there something that you can think of that has transformed your life and that you have learned from either one particular experience out there, that if you weren't out speaking or traveling, meeting people or meeting this particular person, or maybe it's just in general that doing that lifestyle, that your life would not be the same that you've gotten from doing it, because you go out there to speak and encourage them. But what have you gotten back from this that has been a big difference making you. I'm going to go ahead and steal the easy answer, which is my vision expanded. You know, I learned all these people are all over and they're hungry, and this, you know, I got a vision of all these people around the country. So I. I'll steal the easy answer and see what else specifically, if anything, you can think of that has made your life unbelievably better or simply because you had the privilege of doing it?

I think I have an easy answer as well for that. And that's on this earth that we're living in. When you pass away, when you expire, you take nothing with you. And the most important thing in your life, in my life is relationships. Relationships is what you do go with when you die. And I think that for me, greatest thing that I've gained from public speaking is hearing from people that have been affected or impacted by me going there. And then the emails that follow encouragement that is written out when somebody reaches out and says, I needed to hear that. And I don't like leaving that person just there. There's been many times where, when I have invited someone to lunch, there's been many times where I've invited someone over for lunch or a simple cup of coffee, and I've gotten an opportunity to make a new friend to hear their story. I think that's valuable. If it's anything that I've taken away from public speaking, is that the building of new friendships, the developing of relationships from, you know, one corner of the country to the other, and seeing, Seeing them make those baby steps, those tweaks in their own life for something better.

Absolutely fantastic. Thanks so much for your time. Looking forward to hearing about all the great steps forward that are in front of you and seeing you on the big screen, but. Or see the movie on the. Your story on the big screen. And I'm sure they haven't bothered to ask you to act in it yet.

No, no, I. I won't do that. I. I'll let the mechanic do what the mechanic does.

Yeah. Well, do you have a favorite actor that you're pitching for for the part?

Well, everybody tends to say that I look a lot like Brad Pitt. I don't know. I don't know. I think they're lying to me, Larry. I think they're lying to me.

I don't know. I see the. I can see the resemblance. Yeah. Little faithful hair there. I always like to give a guest, if you remember, a final word, to wrap this thing up and send us on down the road. For the people who've stayed with us the whole time, what would be on your mind that you'd like to send them away with?

Seek out. Always seek out something that's. That you haven't tried out yet. A new adventure that keeps you fresh, man. And also there's a moment when. Where you need to pause and just rest, you know, a lot of us that are go and go and go, we tend to, we feel guilty about resting. And resting is part of your success. Take some time to just take it easy, man. Breathe in, enjoy the fruit of your labor and spend some quality time with friends, with family, and just kick back and close off everything that has to do with business there. You need that. Because what happens when you come back from that, from that rest? There's a new freshness, there's new ideas that flourish from that. And we all need that rest. So don't feel guilty about taking rest. You need it, I need it. And I'm telling you, man, it feels so good to come back and then hit the ground running again. That would be my advice to those that are movers and shakers of this year.

Okay, well, thank you so much, Casey. You have a great rest of the afternoon out there in Los Angeles and I'll be looking forward to talking to you soon.

Thank you so much, Larry. Always a pleasure.

Thank you for listening to the final part of this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind podcast. Great ideas. Don't care who used them. If you're motivated to move up in a big way right now, I've created a free training video to remove the move mystery on how to set yourself.

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