Dean Graziosi On Taking The Bold Action To Own Your Future & Why You Don't Need Permission To Succeed

I think people are under the misconception that if they see something once that they got it. It's like, not to oversimplify, but you can't go to the gym over a weekend and work out like crazy and expect to be in good shape for the rest of your life.

Welcome back to the Earn your happy podcast. I am so excited you're here because today we are interviewing not only just an epic freaking human and I'm to read all of his accolades, but he was also our neighbor in Arizona, which was so much fun because we got to know him so much better. And it's one of those moments where you've known somebody for a little while, they've maybe been a mentor of yours, and all of a sudden you get to really know them and drop in. We got to go over to his house and sit in his backyard and have one of the most amazing conversations. And let me tell you, I felt so seen because him and I have very similar childhoods just in terms of the mindset that we were brought up in. So you guys, Dean Graziosi is on the show today and Chris and I are interviewing him. We had a blast interviewing him. He's always so much fun to talk to. We just got to be on his show and it was incredible. Dean Graciosi, he is a multiple New York time bestselling author. He's an entrepreneur and investor. He's also a popular speaker and business consultant, speaking in front of audiences of more than, hold on, 200,000 people at a conference and live events. I literally can't even imagine what that feels like. That's the methods Dean Gracios teaches have been tested and proven to work by countless students and companies worldwide. He believes anyone can achieve success and create impact as long as they're willing to take uncomfortable, courageous action with the right tools and knowledge. To date, Dean has played a role in the growth and development of more than 14 major companies. And he's worked behind the scenes with massive eight and nine figure companies. And today we are talking all about owning your future, what you need to do right now to make sure that you have a future that doesn't scare you and in fact, a future that you look forward to. A future where you're thriving. A future where you are not only financially stable, but financially successful. I always love talking to him because he is somebody that we look up to so much because of the way that he lives his life and because of the success that he has had. And you guys, we talk about the own your future challenge that we were a part of last year. We're a part of it this year. All you have to do is go to future350.com that's future350.com to enter this incredible free challenge to be a part of this amazing own your future training. You guys are absolutely going to love it. Last year, I think there was millions of participants, and I'm sure it will be the same exact way this year. So let's get started.

Dean, our friend. How you doing, buddy?

I'm doing amazing. Good to see you, too.

Good to see you. Welcome to the show.

So welcome, welcome.

Here we are. Just like last time. I don't know if you remember, we were both at our respective lake homes or country summer homes.

Yeah.

Trying to get a dose of green because we live surrounded by brown mountains and cactus most of the time and just kind of going back to our roots. You know, this is where Laurie and I grew up, and you're close to where you grew up, and there's something so special about going back to create those memories. But there's one memory. There's one specific thing I saw this weekend that I want to start by asking you about, and that is I saw you post a post about taking Luca, your son, fishing. And I commented below it, I said, you know, I have memories from when I was Luca's age of my dad waking me up early in the morning, dragging me out into the boat and taking me fishing. And I still remember those today. And the reason why I want to start by asking about that is that's freedom. I mean, let's be honest. You've never been busier. You have more projects going on than you've ever had. You're swinging for the fences when you don't have to. You're running multiple, multiple massive companies at once, and you're still taking your son fishing. What does that level of freedom mean to you?

I know you guys know the answer. And everybody listening, you already feel the answer. It's worth dying for. I mean, literally, in my life, it's worth dying for. We all have our story. We all have our past. And first off, before we get started, I want to say to you, too, I appreciate you so much. I appreciate what you're doing for the world. Watching you guys grow, watching the impact that you're. You're delivering is fantastic. And for those of you listening today, I know you can listen to a million other podcasts. Spend 45 minutes or so with us. I promise you, you'll. You'll leave with Something that sparks. But here's what I want to share. Take what serves you, throw the rest rest away. And. But if something that you feel something, it's a spark, I'm just going to challenge you to go implement it. Go do it. Go get disturbed. Go blow the dust off that dream you once had that you stuffed in the closet. And just think, maybe someday, just do something today. And then it's worth all of us taking this time together. But back to that. What does it mean? We all have the reason that we work hard, right? We're either running away from something painful or we want to run towards something bigger and better. That's just the fact of life. It's why any of us do anything. And I still am that broke kid from this little town. In fact, if you're watching the video, most of you are going to listen to the audio. Behind me, out these windows, right behind there is the pond where I caught catching fish every night with my son Luca. As a kid, my parents in this little town were married nine times. Between the two of them, we moved 20 times. We didn't have money. We lived in the only trailer park in this. In this community, right until we were evicted from it because my mom's three jobs couldn't even afford that. And I just remember as a kid, Chris and Lori, I remember. And you guys got your own memories. Everybody listening or watching has their own. But I remember my parents were a slave to make enough just to get by. So they weren't in control. They couldn't come to my little league games or take me as fishing as much as they wanted. Not their fault. They never learned a skill that gave them the financial freedom to be in control of their calendar, to own their calendar, to own their future, to own their decisions. They just didn't. And you know what? The truth is, it's a blessing to me because if I didn't witness them not being in control, would I have fought so hard to be in control? Maybe not, right? So thank God that it wouldn't change any of it. My parents are both here with me in separate houses because they're still not together. But I got two houses. They're going to be in separate houses. But what does it mean to me, Chris? The answer is, I would die for it. You guys know me on a personal level. I am working harder than ever before in my life. I'm putting more time in than ever before. We got a big challenge coming up. August 1st. We have big, big outside projects. I help run Tony's company And my company and courses and training. We just did the big launch from Matthew McConaughey. We had 2.4 million people show up, day one. It was insane, right? But none of it compares. The reason I do all that is so I can be in control of my decisions. When Luca, my little boy, he's down. I can see the house he's at. He's out actually playing on the yard tonight. He knows at three years old, if you said to him, when do the fish bite? And he said, of course, he'll say, of course. When the sun goes down. So I taught him, when the sun goes down. So, Chris, next time you see my boy Luca or Laurie, when you see him, say, luca, when did the fish bite? He'll go when the sun goes down, of course. Right. So when the sun starts going down tonight, he'll walk up. If I'm up here working, which I'll be up here working most of the day, he'll walk up the hill and be like, yeah, we go on the boat. We go on the boat. I'm like, absolutely. I have video. I'll send it to you separately. Of him walking, carrying the big tackle box and a pole, barely dragging them, right? But what does that mean to me is tonight when he does that, there is nothing or nobody that I have to answer to that says, no, no, no, you can't go right now. You got to finish that project. No, you got to stay late. No, no, no, you got to go deliver this. That honestly, in my gut, guys has become. That would be death to me. So how hard will I fight to be able to take Luca fishing or take my big kids to school every morning or take my pick them up from school or go to softball or catch for my daughter? What does it mean? It's my life. It's what I live for. And I do all the other things in my life that buy me that freedom so I can do the things that are life and death to me. Like, if I had to go, sorry, Luca. My boss says I can't do this right now. I'm sorry. Could you go back down? Maybe your mom will take you die first. I might sound overly dramatic, but I happen to be in my little town where I grew up, where I felt lost and I couldn't wait to get out of this town. Who would have thought in a million years, 24 years ago, 23 years ago, I left. Left this town with no. I had no rear view mirrors, and I. I busted the rear view mirrors off. I was going one direction, like I heard a story once, people don't do it anymore, but when I grew up, there was a lot of dogs on a leash with a dog house outside. You guys grew up in an area where you saw a lot of that, right? Where we live now. Dogs are part of your family. They sleep in your bed. When I was a kid, the dog was on a leash and you threw hay in in the winter when it was freezing and it slept in there. Right. Do you ever see a dog that didn't want to be on that? And if you let the dog go, never turn around, just run 100 miles an hour in the opposite direction. Like, get me off that leash. That's how I left this town 23 years ago. I got off the leash and never looked back. And now I come back here with a different frame of mind. I bought 25 acre farm. We got buildings and gardens and ponds and golf carts and fun stuff. But I fought for all of it so I could make that decision to be in control. And I think that's what we're all fighting for. It's why Tony and I, you know, do the trainings we do and the courses we do and the, and the challenges we do. It's why we do the own your future challenge once a year. Because we want to help people be able to own their decisions. I don't want to overcomplicate it, but the fact of the matter is if you don't own it, if you don't own your choices, someone else gets to. And that's just not amen.

You are bringing up a lot of stuff for me because I feel like I relate to you in so many different ways whenever we get to drop in and chat. And you had just mentioned something about you wanted to get out of that town as fast as you possibly could. And what were some of the things that you recognized then? Like what were the mindsets that you or the mindset that you had? What was the mindset of kind of the area, maybe your family that you knew you would have to go pull yourself out of in order to go and change it. And how did you do that? Because I feel like a lot of people might feel like, well, when it's my family, what do I do if I feel trapped? Or what if it's my town and I feel trapped? What do you say to them? 2026 is the year that you launch your business. It's the year that you've become the boss, you become the leader. That idea that you have that has been eating at you forever that just will not leave you alone is going to come to life. Maybe it's something that someone tells you you should always sell or a store you've already designed in your head. And with Shopify 2026 is when you finally make it happen. Shopify gives you everything you need to sell online and in person. Millions of entre have already made this leap from household name to first time business owners. Just getting started you guys. I use Shopify for glossy and I remember when they sent me my little shopping bag celebrating my 10,000 sales and I literally cried because I was so scared to take the leap. And I'm so glad that I did and that I use Shopify. It gives you all the tools to easily build your dream store. You can choose from hundreds of beautiful templates that you can customize to match your brand setup is fast. With Shopify's built in AI tools that write product descriptions and headlines and help you edit photos so marketing is built in too. You can create email and social campaigns that reach customers wherever they scroll. So as you grow, Shopify grows with you. You can handle more orders, expand to new markets and do it all from the Same dashboard in 2026. Stop waiting and start selling with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at Shopify. Shopify.com happy go to shopify.com happy that shopify.com happy hear your first cha ching this new year with Shopify by your side. Too many people finish their workday feeling frustrated, drained and unfulfilled. I know that. I have experienced that myself. And the good news is it doesn't have to be this way and you don't need a new job to fix it. Patrick Lencioni, author of the Five Dysfunctions of a Team and one more than a dozen other bestsellers, created the Working Genius assessment to help you pinpoint the kind of work that gives you energy, the kind that lights you up, and it also shares the kind that drains it. So over a million people, including me, have taken it and completely changed how I lead and show up every day. If you're a CEO, an entrepreneur, or someone who just wants to level up in business and in life, working genius is going to give you the clarity and click confidence to operate in your strengths and find greater joy in what you do. Because confidence isn't pretending to be good at everything. It's knowing where you're truly gifted. Take the Working Genius assessment today and get 20% off with code earnworking genius.com that's working genius.

Com.

You'll be glad you did it.

You know that one, that's a hard one to unpackage in one. You might be here for four and a half hours. Pull up a chair. No, you know, here's the thing. I didn't go to college. I wasn't that good in high school. I barely got. I had really bad dyslexia. I worked in a collision shop and I started getting momentum and I had a collision shop by the time I was 21. I had Dean Collision center in this little town. I built the sign. I remember building the sign. And I had some apartments and then I started buying raw land. I started getting momentum and I just knew. I don't want to oversimplify it, but I knew I was meant for something different. I don't want to say better. There's nothing wrong being in a collision shop. I'm not saying. But I knew I was meant for something different. Deeper, stronger, exponentially bigger. Bigger impact, bigger success. Who the hell you know when you're coming from a tiny town? And I was probably doing. By the time I was 25, I was doing better than most people in my town. I built my own house at 25 years old. It was the biggest house, most expensive house in this little town. At 25, I built. Right? But it wasn't. I just knew I was meant for something different. And this is in no way being critical, but my friends who stayed in this town and stayed in this environment, you only know you're only the sum total of your friends. I know that's been said a million times, but it's true. A lot of my friends were what's wrong and whose fault it is and get a job at the union. And that doesn't work out for guys like us. And we're. This is a very blue collar town, right? Great people, salt of the earth. But I knew that wasn't my destiny. And where I got lucky was two people in my life. A guy named Mark Miller. He owned the only winery in this town. He wasn't from this town. He was the most famous illustrative artist of the 50s and 60s. If you look at all the old romantic drawings, like if you ever saw a famous picture where a man's got a girl's pearls and he's pulling her pearls and he's giving her a kiss, it's a really romantic picture from the 60s. That's him. He drew those for like Time and People magazine and all that. And then in the midst of his career, his art was worth More in France. So he went and lived on a. On a wine, in a winery in France and. And just had this extravagant life, then came back to this beautiful little town, bought a winery or built a winery and made it look like the one he stayed in in France. And I wanted to buy his property, and I went to him. He was probably 80 when I was 25. Wow. And I went to him, and we sat on a bench and talked for two hours and became instant friends. And I went and saw him three, four days a week. I'd sneak up there to see him. He sold me two pieces of his property, and he let me see through a lens of something way bigger than this little town and these conversations. And then what I did. Here's one more thing I want to tell you. I did. So I had someone chirping in my ear on what's possible. And he didn't come from money, and he had a background like me, and he had dysfunction. I'm like, wow, people screwed up, weren't that smart. At least that's what I felt can still do cool stuff. All right. And I was young enough to believe it, Lori. I was young enough to go, oh, shit, if Mark did it, I can. Right? That's one. But then number two is this might seem counterproductive, and some people will disagree with me. I spent more money than I should have at a younger age. I didn't buy Lamborghinis. I didn't buy the fancy car. But I traveled. I went to Cannes. I went to Nice. I went to Italy. I would go, this is an hour and a half to New York City. I would go to New York City, and I'd go to a restaurant that. No way I should have been at that restaurant. Way more expensive. And I'd valet my car, and I'd go to a lounge after, and I'd get a bottle and sit with some friends and just sit and have a bottle of wine and talk. And I sat there like I was somebody more important than I was. But I saw a glimpse of what's possible. And then you get around people who are a little more successful, and they go, oh, yeah, I was like you. I went bankrupt at 32. I'm, like, bankrupt at 32. And you started over. I'm only 25. I didn't go bankrupt yet. I'm no better than where you worked. So I said the two things. I had somebody that allowed me to dream. Three things. I knew I was meant for more. I had somebody that allowed me to dream.

Yes.

I didn't stay around just the same surroundings. In fact, a lot of my friends, like, why are you friends with that old dude? He's my dearest friend. He was such a great guy. And then I put myself in situations to see what's possible. At 26, I went to the Cannes Film Festival and I just went and I stayed in a place and I remember just watching, I walked by, I saw all the boats. And then I drove to San Remo 1 San Remo, Italy. And then on the other day, I drove to Saint Tropez and in Santrope, there's this big inlet where all the most all the super wealthy people back in their monster yachts and then they land helicopter. I. I literally remember. I've never shared this before, Lori, so thank you for asking me this. But I remember looking at this yacht that looked like it was four miles long. It was just the longest. I was like, how did they park that? And every night I was only there for two nights. But every night when the sun went down, all the help lined up with sabers and they'd all knocked top off of a champagne bottle at the same time. And then they'd all stand there while they let the champagne just do an arch and fall on the deck. And they hosed it off.

Oh my God.

Beautiful, like presentation every night. Each of those bottles could buy me a week's worth, right? And I just remember thinking, man, it what's possible? And so those three things. And then the fortunate part for me is, you know, when I the same industry we're both in is what filled every part of my soul as what I left here. The last thing I'll say, I left here and went all in on this industry because I did buy Tony Robbins course. And I saw how successful he was and I said, could I get successful that successful by helping other people? I talk about magic. Like, you want to sell? I'm looking at a grill and I'm looking at, you know, chairs and tables. You could sell a lot of stuff and be wealthy and successful. But imagine sharing is what I felt. Imagine being able to share just stuff. You learn to help people, you empower them and they pay you. Like, imagine getting wealthy for impacting lives when that that got in my soul. Life was never the same.

You're showing me. And through a lot of other interviews we've done, there truly is a formula. Everything that you share is exactly how people got out of their situations. Like the three things you said is how we got out of our situations. And then what's Possible with or just better questions, like the fact that once you start getting around those people and when you took Tony's course and when you got into that arena, it was like, what are these people asking themselves? And so making it possible in that way. I love that.

Yeah.

I'll kind of keep you at this point in your journey. Right. So here you're, you're looking out, you're saying what's possible? Here's the course, here's the roadmap. What did you have to sacrifice or what did you have to risk at that point? Because a lot of people, they see the possibility. They are, they're listening to the podcast right now. They, they know where you came from, they know where Lori came from. I drove past the shipyard yesterday that my dad worked at, you know, back here. They know where we came from, they know that where we ended up. But sometimes they don't know what we had to risk or sacrifice.

So. Right in the invisible.

The invisible is the sacrifice.

Yeah. I have to tell you, the older I get, the word that really hits home is the invisible. The things that we do, you do in the invisible that no one ever sees. And that's, that's how I hear it. So what did I have to give up? Everything. The truth is I had to give up everything when I decided to do an infomercial 27 years ago. Because it was before the Internet. So now I was going to do, I was going to enter this industry, I was going to sell what I know, create a course. There was no Internet, so I had to film an infomercial. I had to buy product and put it in the warehouse. I had to get a call center. I had to do all these things, customer service, all of this, because it wasn't like just download my E course or my E book or, or my online training or my virt coaching. Look at us, we're. We're in completely different states. We can jump on a zoom and coach and chat with each other. Right. That none of that existed in 1996 when I was thinking to get started right. 97. So I had to use every dollar I had and I had to borrow money to get going. So what did I have to give up? First off, my sister drove from Virginia to New York. Seven hour drive, non stop to sit me down like an intervention and say, enough, Dean, enough. She's like, we're all proud of you. We know what you did. You have done better than any Grazioc in this town. You have your own house, you have this. And now you're going to lose everything. I don't care what debt you have, you figure out how to just stop and figure out how to pay the debt and get back to what you know. Stop it. Like she looked at me, she goes, dean, stop it. My dad told me I was insane and didn't talk to me for almost a year.

Wow.

I moved to Arizona. Truth is, I was in a relationship here. The person I was in a relationship with, it didn't work out because I moved to Arizona to get this started and I was going back and forth and she didn't want to come. Relationship ended.

Hey, I'm interrupting the Steam Graziosi podcast with my amazing husband, Chris Harder, because I want you to go get your seat for the own your future challenge. I just have to tell you who is in this. First of all, it's Tony Robbins, Dean Graciosi, Rachel Miller, Jay Shetty, Trent Shelton, Chalene Johnson, Cody Sanchez, Pace Morby, Barry Baumgartner, and Jim Quick. You guys, they're going to show up in their A game. They're going to bring their A game because they are speaking in front of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people and they are creating a master class just for you. I don't even know what the tickets would cost to go and see all of these people live or just to spend one hour with each of them. I'm talking some of these speakers can charge hundreds of thousands of dollars to go speak. Some on here. Millions, you guys. So are you going to take this time right now to go to future350.com that's future350.com and go join this free challenge. Chris and I are going to go listen, we're going to be a part of it because I am not passing up learning from people at the top who are doing it the way that we want to be doing it. So you guys go grab your seat@future350.com and we'll meet you there. There are so many challenges to business and that I don't want starting to be one of them for you. And when you want more, when you're starting a business, you need Northwest Registered Agent because you get access to thousands of free guides, tools and legal forms to help you launch and protect your business. And it's all in one place. You can build your complete business identity with Northwest today. Northwest Registered Agent has been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow business for nearly 30 years. They're the largest registered agent and LLC service in the US with over 1500 corporate guides. Real people who know your local laws and can help you and your business every step of the way. You can sign up for free account to begin managing your business hub with lawyer, drafted operating agreements, bylaws, resolutions, membership certificates, bills of sale and more at no cost. Northwest makes life easy for business owners. They don't just help you form your business, they give you the free tools you need after you form it like operating agreements, meeting minutes and thousands of how to guides that explain the complicated ins and outs of running a business. And let me tell you, this is life changing because I had no idea how much went into this. So don't wait. Protect your privacy, build your brand and get your complete business Identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Visit www.northwestregisteredagent.com Earn free and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest registered agent@www.northregisteredagent.com earn free. So that point for me is where if I was listening to you and I was my past self thinking like, okay, your dad or and your sister, like these very, very influential people are telling you that you're crazy, where did you have to go to like to still take that step, still do it? Like, why did you believe you could do it?

Because one of the greatest things I learned was if I do what other people do, I will get what other people have. Oh, my dad has never made more than $30,000 in a year. He was married five times. He was miserable. He fought with his neighbors, fought with his friends. He had 11 brothers and sisters that he didn't talk to. He didn't talk to his dad when his father died. He was broke. He was. He caused me to have an ulcer when I was 12 years old because he was so mad at the world. He didn't physically hit me, but he tortured us because he hated his life. So if I listened to my dad, I would get what my dad had. If I listened to Mark Miller, the guy who was an artist who lived an abundant life, or my friends in New York City, I have the chance of living in a life of freedom and joy and abundance. I will take the risk of freedom, joy and abundance. Then the definitive, definitive outcome of being my father. Yes.

That is so good. Yes.

I'm so glad that you shared what you were willing to risk, what you're willing to sacrifice. Like I said when I opened that question. So holds everybody back. They won't risk that relationship that you referenced. They won't risk that savings. They won't risk going into debt they won't sacrifice, you know, what their family thinks of them. And those are the. Sometimes the very chains that keep them exactly where they're at.

Chris, I got something I have to share, and I've shared this before, so. But I have to share it again. And I don't care if I share it. A million times I've asked people, so think of that. Think of something you said. My, My father's respect, right? My sister thinks I'm crazy. My friends thought I was nuts. I financially seem like a dumb move. I was starting in something. I had to borrow money. Think of all those things. And I asked people, like, label them on a 1 to 10 on how scary that is. Everybody always say, in my life, oh, that was a. That's a 10. That's a 10. My. My friends will think I'm crazy. That's a 10. My parents will look down to me, that's a 10. What if I lost the money I had? That's a 10. I said, okay, that's a 10. Now let's pretend it's the end of your life. And you stayed in that small town. You never took a risk. You ended up exactly like your father, exactly like your mother. You ended up miserable, you were sad, you were on antidepressants, you were 70 pounds overweight, because you just didn't care about life. And you didn't care that you were getting diabetes. You didn't care you were sick. And you're at the end of your life and you die and you meet your maker, and you get to see the man or the woman you could have been. You watch a video, you see a snapshot of who you could have been if you took that bold move at that point. That's not a 10, that's a 10,000, right? That's the worst on the planet. Your only wish would be, could I go back and do it again? And when I ask people that, now go back and say, now go back up. What was that again with your friends? You might look stupid in front of your friends. Like, it's a one doesn't exist. Screw my sense, right? Like, it's all perspective.

It's.

What set of glasses do you want to wear today? Do you want to take a little bit of a gamble today to live into the man or the woman God designed you to be, or you're meant to be, or do you want to just. Because if we don't do anything different, we can surely predict our future. That's a fact.

So a lot of people are waiting for Some form of permission from their family, from their friends. How do you just give yourself permission? Is it through just really, like, hunkering down on that pain that you're describing or what did you do?

Yeah, you're. You're really good. Because you get it. Because if I talk to people who are, like, way more emotionally intelligent than me, that's what I'll say. I. I think I'm pretty emotionally intelligent, but people who have, like, transcended, like, no, no. You want to focus on that ideal outcome in a peaceful place and not disturb your soul. People I feel are more aligned than me, and I'm of them. I hope to get there someday. For me. I heard Tom Bilyeu said it once, I had to go to the dark side. Like, for me, I just didn't want to be my dad. Like, if I want to be broke working on cars the rest of my life, making $37,000 a year, can't keep a relationship. Don't grow into the man I want to be. My dad was the smartest kid in his school. His sister got a perfect first person in the state of New York. My aunt, the first person in the state of New York to get a 100 on her SATs. My father's side, is just insanely intelligent. My dad, still to this day, at 87, is the smartest guy I've known. He's had dreams. He's literally drawn up 20 or 25 patents over the last 50 years, and all of them are good and has never done anything. He's written six books that he's never tried to publish. My dad is this frustrated, super intelligent dreamer, but because he left the cap on his life, he lives through the lens of frustration and angst. And when he talks about my dad right now, will literally look at me and apologize and start crying. Or he'll. He'll start crying all the time now and we're in a really good space. But literally he'll look and go, I'm so proud of what you've done. And I. Deep down I knew you were right, but I was just too scared. And he'd start crying. He cries all the time at 87. He's getting towards the end of his life. I just got to be realistic. He is littered with guilt. He is littered with regret. And I hope he can get most of it out before he closes his eyes for the last time. And he has regret because he held back. He let someone else tell him, you're not smart enough and you're from a small town. It takes money to make money. It'll never work. Bullshit. I was not going to be that man. So you want to say what got me off the couch? Listen. You know how many times I was like, you're an asshole, Dean. You're a freaking jerk. You risked all your. I know you guys have felt the same way. You risked all your money. It went sideways. What if you lose it all? You're going to start from. And I literally have yelled at my. And punished myself and said, why would you just go get a job? You're not really an entrepreneur. You think you are. I've had all those horrible conversations with myself, and then 18 minutes later I go, I'm glad to get that out. Now can we get back to who we really are? Right.

You're a walking, living example that you don't have to stay where you're determined to stay. Lori, you're the same thing I like to think that I am. Tony Robbins is certainly an example of that as well. One of your best friends in the world and your business partner. You guys take several days out every single year to help shake people by the shoulders and not let them have that regret. And some listen, some don't. But you never stop trying. Is that because of the life that you've been gifted, you feel like you have to pay it back? Like, why do you and Tony take these days out of your schedule to give back for free in the form of the challenge?

Yeah. It seems crazy, but for that exact reason, I'll be really transparent. Year one. Tony and I have been friends for a decade. Yeah. And I decided I wasn't going to ever do business with Tony because every time I was with him, everybody wanted to do business with him. Ah, we could do this. If I could email your list. And I'm like, man, I just want to thank this guy. 27 years ago, he changed my life. So I just decided, no business. I golf twice a year, both times with Tony. I go to his house a couple times a year. He comes to mind. We talk every night. We leave each other a voice memo. We've been doing it for a decade. And I said, no business. I'm fine. I don't need to do business when he doesn't need to do business with me. Let's just be friends. But about seven years ago, six years ago, we were on our once, twice a year golf trip. We were golfing, and he said, what if we did do business? What would we do? And we just came to the determination that Jim Rohn helped change Tony's life when he paid 47 to go to his event. Tony changed my life when I bought his course. And we just said, why don't we help other people find freedom, joy, control, passion, purpose through the same industry we're in. Dean. We were talking about the tens of millions of meals we donated and the children we are able to help through slavery and millions of dollars for this and millions of dollars for that and building schools in Africa and he's planting trees and he's. I mean he's heading towards a billion or you just passed a billion meals. Like we got to do all this through helping others with our own life experience. He started off teaching what he learned from Jim Rohn. I started off teaching what I learned from him. We saw that talk about a next level purpose. Let's leave this world better because someday he's going to be gone. Someday I'm going to be gone. But if we can help others extract what they know and pass it on, that's why we started doing this. So I'm going to pull back the curtain completely. We decided to create a course and help people. Year one, five years ago, we created a course called the Knowledge Business Blueprint. And it was the biggest quote, if you guys remember, it was the biggest launch in the history of the world. Like by 10 it was a monster launch. And we did about three hours of training and everybody loved it and they went crazy and it sold like crazy. And three hours we were done. And what did Tony and I do? 800,000 people showing up the next year and we're like, if 800,000 people are coming, this is Tony's exact words. He said, brother, is three hours enough to change their life? Three days enough? I said, no, probably not. He said two, two and a half hours a day, five days. What do you think? I said we leave them better and we found them no matter what. If they decide to work with us, amazing. We hope everybody does. But if not, they leave with a deeper purpose, with insight, with clarity, with knowing they're meant for more and how to achieve more. So the truth is we don't need to do five day challenges to sell something. We do five day challenges to get back to the world and deliver people opportunity to leave better than we found them.

To that point. Can you give an example or two of real tangible change that you remember making for somebody who's been on those challenges?

Oh, just, just three days ago I got a. I have a picture in my phone. I think I ran into this woman. And now we have people in over 100 countries, tens of thousands at this point. It's. It's become a movement.

Right.

Because we're doing it for the right reasons. Tony doesn't need money. I don't need. Like, I'm not saying I love business. Please, no. I'm a. I'm an entrepreneur. I love business. I love compa. I love that we, between Tony and I, we employ 400 people. I love all of that. But what drives us is people's lives. So this woman's. She met a woman. She's a Chinese immigrant. English is her second language. Two and a half years ago, lost her job, down to nothing. Didn't know what she was going to do with her life. She saw the opportunity to come to the own Your Future Challenge 2021. She saw it online, just didn't even know what it was for. She signed up figuring, I'm a Chinese immigrant, I'm here, I lost my job. What the heck could I share? And over those five days, we showed her on day one that she is enough, she knows enough, and she could do this if she knew where to start, that this industry is the perfect time because of the opportunity to be communicating with everybody, that people are making it cool to buy a course, to have a coach where it wasn't 25 years ago. This industry's at a billion dollars a day. So day one, and then Tony comes on day one and just destroys old, limiting beliefs. Like, I love watching Tony. Day one, for me, this day, I still watch day one. I'm sitting alongside of him, like, literally, like, writing like crazy, right? And he's my partner. So we destroy limiting beliefs. Day two, we identify what you could be sharing with other people. What life experience do you have that's valuable and who wants it. Day three, we teach how to serve and sell through love and through service, not through some cheesy sales tech. Day four, how to lay out your curriculum. And day five, how it all comes together. Anyway, I run into her. She gets tears in her eyes. She goes, this is my dream. Can I take a picture with you? And I figured, oh, maybe she sold a course or two. Now, I don't say it if I'm going to tell you what she told me. And she's sending our team the documentation. In the last 12 months, she's collected $1.8 million. What?

Come on.

Helping women become coach Inches. Wow. And she was in tears. And. And here's the best part. She was at my office. She came in, we invited her over to the office. She said, do you with her, with her Chinese accent. She's so sweet. She gets on the whiteboard like a freaking boss. She's like, hey, we do this free training and then she draws a value ladder. She goes, we do a free training and then we bring them in for a thousand dollar three day event that blows their mind. And just like you taught me, Dean, deliver everything for that thousand bucks. But at the end of the three days, some of them go, hey, I'd want more of a mentor. I want one on one. So she's, we offer a $10,000 full immersive certification program for six months. She's like, we've done eight, $1.8 million in the last 12 months. And next year I think I can get to 5 million bucks.

Wow.

Okay. Those five days are worth it because that's only that her name is Hui Hui. If I say it right, it's like we. It's H u I. H u. I. She said, hoi Hui. And I'm like, we're doing it for we we this time. Right? And we're doing it for all of the those same people. And that's why we do it.

I want to point something out about that story, though. If she didn't show up to the five day challenge, that probably wasn't even on her radar, much less.

She said she had no clue. She said, I just trust you. And she said, I saw you and Tony and I trust you guys. Because I had listened to some of your stuff in the past and I just went, that's the importance of showing.

Up these things that, number one, they're freaking free other than the time you invest. And number two, you don't know what you don't know. And this is one of the most important concepts in life. We all have blind spots. You can't know something until you know it. And when you get on for a few days and you have that moment, I call it that popping moment. Something pops for you and all of a sudden you're exposed to something you didn't even think about a minute ago. That becomes, in her case, that $1.8 million idea or even $180,000 idea, or.

Even 18,000 even, even $1800 a month.

Extra idea that would change the heck out of people's lives.

Yeah.

Chris and I have had major, major breakthroughs from different Tony Robbins things that we have taken and obviously listening to you as well. But I can literally track back some of our biggest breakthroughs, which Dean, I. I want everybody listening to know these drop ins every Year or even more than that, obviously, for personal development, for these different challenges that you guys host, I always get, if I could look at my trajectory, the last 15 years of personal development, it's like every single one gives me like one nugget that really changes for me and unlocks a little bit more. So I can remember specifically times at different Tony Robbins events where all of a sudden you get in a room and when somebody is up there or a lot of people are up there and talking. And I know that the events are always so many different people. And being able to see the comments and all that fun stuff. When you see other people doing it, something happens in your brain. It just unlocks for you.

Especially when you see someone who looks.

Like you or comes from the same background as you, and you're like, if they did it, what? Why is this not possible for me? That's why I love that you guys do these.

Is. It's.

It may not be that thing that's just like, whoa, after this, everything's open. But I think it's really important to have these things keep unlocking one by one.

I couldn't agree more. And I have to tell you, after year one, it's a heavy lift doing five days. And after year one, after the first year, and then we, we do one on the self education industry. What we're doing for own your future is how to. How to get in this industry, how to be a part of it. And then we do one with Tony separately on personal development. So that's 10 days just between those heavy lifts. And each year we're like, should we do it again? This might be our last year. And the way, as long as people still keep turning out, you know, our last event with McConaughey was 2.3 million. The one before that was 1.3 million is if people are still turning out, we'll do it. If people get to a point where they're like, nah, I got it. Like that, that is the thing. You know, I think people are under the misconception that if they see something once that they got it. It's like, not to oversimplify, but you can't go to the gym over a weekend and work out like crazy and expect to be in good shape for the rest of your life. I remember somebody said something to me once. He said a guy was asking him advice. He said, what should I do about this thing? And he said, well, what did you do with the first bit of advice I gave you six months ago? Nothing. He said, then why would I give you a second bit of advice? And it's kind of that same thing. Like we say, oh, it's that thing with Tony and Dean. No, it's brand new this year. It meets people where they are today. We're going to show you how to use AI to, to get off the blank page. But not expected to do all your work for you. Like there are things that have changed in the world and Tony and I are at the forefront of. And maybe last year didn't work for you. This is your year. Maybe you're done waiting for that thing to come through that's never going to come through. Maybe you're done waiting for permission by your friends and family. Maybe you're waiting not to give yourself permission. Like whatever you are waiting for, this might be the year and it's the reason we continue to do it. And when we see year after year, the success that we have, it just, it drives us to keep going.

I, I call them tune ups, right? I teach everybody that asks me, hey, how do I, you know, get better in business? How do I, you know, increase my chances of success? I say you've got to get to either an in person or a virtual event every 60 to 90 days. You can't do those tune ups on your own, just like I can't tune up my cars on my own. You need somebody else to go speak life into you. You need someone else to change the oil, so to speak, to give you those new spark plugs to spark new ideas. And you got to go in for that tune up every 69. This is a chance for people to sign in for five days and do it right from home if they don't have the luxury of traveling the way other people do.

One more quick thing is we do do these for free. And this year we were literally going to charge 47 bucks just so people and we were going to donate it to charity. But just so people commit. And what I want to share with you, just because it's free, don't devalue it. This is Tony Robbins has a waiting list of people that want to give him a million dollars a year. He gets being transparent, he gets hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars just for a 90 minute presentation or three hour presentation. Day one, Jim Quick, I think he gets 100 grand a speech. Day two, Jay Shetty, he gets over 100 grand a speech. Trent Shelton, I think he gets around the same amount. Shaleen Johnson, I mean just because it's free, don't devalue it. It's because Tony and I have built financial equity. We built karma equity. Like we, we know these people. We've done things to them, we love them, we adore them. And what we've done, like this should be a $10,000 event. So like at least a thousand dollar event. So please, just because it's free, don't discredit it. Like, I, I know you guys, we have a link set up for everybody@future350.com future350.com write that down, go register, reserve a spot. But when you're done, literally right in your, in your journal or on your, in your phone. Right. I paid a thousand dollars for this event. Let me plug it in. I can't miss it. And that's, that's the urgency you should have when you attend this.

Yep. Yeah. You should pretend in your mind that you paid a thousand even though it's free because then maybe you'll show up and you'll pay attention. You know, there's always that saying, you got to pay to pay attention. Yeah. And people, like you said, sometimes discount things when they're free. They have to understand this is an act of kindness. This is an act of service. All the individuals are participating. You know, we're all in that friend's circle and we know how much it means to them to show up and deliver on behalf of you and Tony because you built up that reciprocity. So they want to give their all and serve you guys by serving the audience. And these things don't just happen. These things don't just appear and materialize. This is a rare, rare opportunity to plug in and either discover knowledge you don't have or get a tune up on knowledge that you forgot that you had. Because of the fact that everyone's willing to pitch in and do this, you can't miss this kind of thing.

Yeah, I couldn't agree. And I appreciate you guys so much, everybody listening today. I hope you got something that sparked an emotion, a thought about your past, about your future, about watching that story that creeps in, that creeps into all of our lives, about your past and what your opportunities are and what your outcomes are. And I think there's nothing better than being around like minded people who let you realize that anything's possible and at any time in your life and it's never too late and your past doesn't determine your future. All the things you've heard a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times, but are you actually living it? I love that we need these tune UPS just to remind us what's possible. Listen, I've failed miserably. I've had many sleepless nights just like the both of you. I've almost gone broke twice. And I wouldn't change one bit of any of it because I also know people that took the supposed safe route. And when Covid came, they lost their job. They had the same amount of stress, they had the same amount of worry, and they wasted 20, 30 years without having the same amount of freedom or their or control of their own decisions.

So August 1st through August 5th, it's the free own your future challenge. All they have to do is go to future350.com that's future350.com sign up. That's the link to get it for free. And Dean, any closing push or closing encouragement for somebody to take this serious?

Yeah, just. We have a huge demographic. It's not all of it. 40% are men, but we have a huge demographic of 60, 62% women. And our most successful students are women. So men, we got to step up. So you guys got to show up just to step up. But so many of them will come and end up being in our programs and I get to meet them. And they all have a common thread. I knew I was meant for more, but I didn't think I was enough. I didn't think I knew enough. I didn't think I was. I had enough. I didn't know where to start. So therefore I didn't. And I found myself living life for other people. For my children, for my spouse, for my significant other, for my boss, for my co workers. And the big message is thank you for letting me see that I am enough and that I can do this. And I just want to say, whether it's coming to the own your future challenge or anything, go learn from somebody who's already been where you want to go.

Yes.

And then take the most uncomfortable, boldest action you possibly can to follow that. Because you are enough. You know enough. And life is too short to settle.

Yeah, Dean, I couldn't agree more. You're. You're a real one. You're one that has been there, done that and that, and you give back. That's why Lori and I love and appreciate you so much.

So grateful. You're always such a reminder for me, especially on this particular podcast, of just. Life is so cyclical and you have to get back. You have to get back on the horse. You have to get back up there. It's worth fighting for every single time. And I think people forget that, that no matter where you're at, you kind of go through these cycles where you have to go plug back in, you have to go get around the people. You have to go and be on these different things to remember or it's.

Really easy to forget the future 350.com dean thank you brother for being on. It means the world that you're willing to take some time and just come help me inspire and motivate everybody.

Thank you so much. Enjoy your summer. I can't wait for us to connect the next time and have dinner. Let's make sure we get that on the books. And everybody, I'll see you on August 1st. Appreciate you.

Until next time. Bye everyone.

Take care everybody.

Sam.