Doing The Impossible in Impossible Times

Foreign.

Welcome to Capability Amplifier. I'm here with a very special guest, a really good friend of mine. His name is Charlie Epstein. He is the creator of Yielded Dreams. And if you've ever wanted to answer that question, what do I really want to do with my life? Or what are you waiting for? Or what do you really want to do? This story about Charlie is going to answer that for you and it's going to take the cobwebs out of the attic that's preventing you from doing it because Charlie just made his moonshot come true. And this episode is all about that. Charlie, what's the big takeaway that people are going to get in this episode?

How big of a check would you be willing to write to get everything you wanted in life?

Now that is a great question. So now you've got all the reasons to stick around. This is Capability Amplifier. And let's talk to Charlie Epstein.

All right, here we are. I'm here with one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, Charlie Epstein. And this is, first of all, if you don't know Charlie, you don't know what this is about. Charlie and I have known each other a couple years. We started working together on one of those impossibly interesting, cool, fascinating dream projects called Yield of Dreams. So it has been a really fun collaboration. And Charlie just opened his one man show about two weeks ago. It was a big success and I wanted to talk about it here. So a little bit of the background is simply Charlie and I met each other at an Abundance360 event. We got into quick rapport. We sat around in one of the first exercises and I asked him some questions. And to make a long story short, by the time we connected again, we decided to do something really, really weird and unusual and it really turned into something pretty remarkable, which is a one man show, a documentary, an app, a whole course.

And.

I don't even know what else to say. Charlie, I want you to tell this story, but I really want to catch up on what's happened in the past two weeks because in the midst of all the crazy that's going on in the world, you managed to pull off the impossible.

You are going in and out. I don't know if you know your video.

You know what that all that is. It's a connection thing. So it has nothing to do with the quality.

It's recording at really high quality.

We're all about quality. So let's get that in there.

Oh, yeah.

That'S it.

So doing the impossible in impossible times. How's that?

I like it. I like it.

I mean, it's amazing. So you and I Met January of 2019 at Abundance360.

You know, I talk a lot with people about intentionality and you and Dan do a capability amplifier. But if you don't have an intention, then you can't put anything out in the world. If you don't put anything out in the world, you can't get any feedback. And if you can't get any feedback, you don't know what to do next. And then you're stupid. Then you're just stupid, which is basically 90% of the human population on the planet. Now unconsciously, everybody's putting something out there. They're just not conscious about it. And then they wonder why they get back what they get.

Which is shit or I didn't ask for that, I didn't want that. I didn't. You know the drill. So you and I met, but I had an intentionality at Abundance360 because I had a crazy idea.

And at the first session of Abundance360, which was the networking session, my intentionality was to. You were number one on my list. Meet and talk to Mike Koenigs about this crazy idea I had. And folks, 360 people at Abundance360, if you don't know Peter Diamantes most amazing program. I've been in it since the beginning.

And who sits next to me the first minute of abundance 360 at that networking session, but Sparkles. Mike Koenigs Sparkles. The sparkling suit, the sparkling sneakers. Everything was sparkling personality. Look at the smile. It was all sparkling. And he sits down next to me and I said, oh, you're just the guy I wanted to meet. And then he gets snarky on me and he kind of looks at me and he goes, well, who the fuck are you? You know about what? It was great. So we ended up having lunch where we had abundance. And I said to Mike, told him my story about always wanting to be an actor and entertainer, how I straddle both worlds. More time. I took off from my financial business to pursue my acting passion. From 2000, 1988 to 2001, the more money I made, 911 came along, stopped acting, created my 401k coach program, did that for 15, 60 years and was ready to go back and do stand up or something that had to do with performing in my passion. So that's what I shared with him. And Mike, the genius that he is, took that in and then for the next six months continued to reach out to me until he got to that place where the light bulb went off in his magically creative mind. And he said, charlie, you should be just like Leno and Letterman and Ellen and all the people that have their own TV show. Hire your own comedy team to write this show that you want to write. And I said, mike, that's a great idea. I've been out of the business for 19 years. And Mike said, you hire me to be your producer, Magic Mike and I will get you the comedians and put this thing together. Now, here's what I didn't know that's so great about this is Mike had no effing clue what he was going to do.

I mean, make some calls he had to deliver.

But thankfully, like any good mentor, he saw something in me that maybe I didn't even see in myself. He saw the possibility.

Of what I had ruminating in my head.

And October of 2019, after cutting a deal.

And there's a takeaway from this.

Don't play small.

That's true.

You got to write a big check.

So by writing this big check to Mike for the uncertainty of what I was about to do. I mean, folks, absolutely no certainty.

Six figure check. Absolutely no certainty, no guarantee, no. This is what you'll get. This is what will happen to you. This all possibility.

Fly out to La Jolla, California, hole up in my condo for two days with three comedians. Let's see what happens. Write the check. How many of you would write the check? This is pre Covid.

So I did and I flew out.

I learned a long time ago that when you write a check for possibility, the magic happens.

And God, swami, whatever you want to call it, went to work from the moment I got on a plane from Bradley International to Atlanta and then Atlanta to La Jolla, California, San Diego. I sat next to two people on each of those flights. That was God's way of telling me, you are on the right track. Listen.

And by the way, I had nothing written. I had nothing, nothing. Nothing.

Jerry. But if you remember, Seinfeld walked in to NBC with my brother Larry David. My hair was longer. You'd get the connection with nothing. They pitched NBC an idea about a TV show about nothing.

Oh, my God. And they bit became the most successful comedy show in the history, right? So there I am.

Friday night in Mike's condo.

Thinking, what the frick am I gonna do? What am I doing here? Next morning I go down to the beach. I went to Starbucks for divine intervention. Nothing. I walked the beach of the Pacific Coast Highway. Nothing. Comedian showed up at 9 o' clock with Marissa Brassfield, the greatest curator of information and creativity on the planet.

And I just started telling stories and acting out my ideas in my head. And because we had this creative environment like Leno has, like Letterman had, like all the greats had, and the freedom the comedians were. So you want to do what? You want to do seminars? No. You want to do webinars? No. You want to do videos? No, I want to do standup. I want to do a one man show. What took about three hours for them to get through the. Of course. What I said to him, mike, you remember when we first sat down? I said, so what did you think when Mike called you up and said, hey, how'd you like to work with some old Jewish guy and make money? Funny.

They thought you were completely nuts. They thought I was completely nuts.

But I just told them, trust me, this guy is special.

There's something here. And I know it's wacky as hell and no one's ever done it before.

But by the way, folks, all of this is in the documentary that Nick Natton, 22, Time Emmy Award winner, created of the making of the show called Yield of Dreams, which is what we're talking about. Yield of Dreams.

I'm sitting on the field of dreams, field behind me, virtual. But.

I had a dream, I had an idea. And you know, we're going to get into collaboration and you can't do it alone and risking everything in uncertain times. But at the end of those two days, we had the show. Sticky notes all over the walls of the apartment. We had the framework. The comedians were blown away. You see it in the documentary, they're like, oh, my God, we actually have something here. Jesse learned how to invest his wampum and food stamps. I mean, you know.

And it's all about a collaborative creative environment. Getting the right people in the right place to create absolute magic. Now, that was the good news. We walked out of there. We had the framework of a show. Then I wrote, then we got back together. January of 2020.

Yeah, that's right. I was just looking at the dates. It was January 2020.

We got back for two more days, we filmed that, we created more. And then March, what happened? February. What happened? The world poofed. Hit.

That's when probably 80% of the people just threw their hands up and said.

Life'S over. I can't have what I want.

And then Zoom came along. We worked on Zoom. Like we're doing right now, we're zooming. And we did that we got the show down to a certain size. And then I said, you know what? I got to get this on its feet.

I hired a director. I hired a stage manager. Long story short, after almost two years of working on this show, the majority of it in Covid, in the most uncertain times where nobody knew if they were going to live or survive their business were going to survive. I mean, we all forget now, but think back.

Total uncertainty.

And I kept writing checks.

Oh, hire Nick Nanton, make a documentary film. Sure, let's do that. We went on the road, we went to seven locations in the middle of COVID hired a director, hired a stage manager.

And then it was, we got to put this show up. And two weeks ago, we finally went live. Live audience sold out. Standing ovation both nights. Showcased the show. It's a work in progress. Test, test, test. We got unbelievable feedback. I think out of a audience of 200 people, we got 130 surveys, handwritten surveys.

And it was all positive, including the criticism.

So. And I could not have been more satisfied in my life with how the show turned out. Now, yeah, I was the performer.

I had 25 people working on this show. That's double the number of employees I've had for 41 years in my financial planning business.

Chips were are all in.

To find out, is this real? Does it have impact? Does it work? Bam.

Standing ovation. And by the way, it's a show that is called a financially entertaining experience. So it's stand up, storytelling.

Finance, all mixed together. We're making money. Funny, but having an impact. And in the two weeks since the show.

I've had at least six to ten new client opportunities.

I need to talk to you. I'm selling my company. A client of mine that I've had for 40 years, she didn't even go to the show. She called me up, text me today, I need to talk to you. I have money to invest. Like, what the hell? I said to her, we run your 401k. I handle your insurance. You've never given money to invest because you've had a member of the family managing the money. It's time to make a change. You're the guy.

And she didn't even come to the show. But because she's part of the campaigns, because she's part of the communication, because she's seen the videos and the film clips.

Anyways.

So tell me a little bit about the.

Why don't you describe the show and what happened? I'd really like to hear that. Because the first time we've spoken since the program, and I want to make sure I caught it fresh and really understand. So here we are. You do the invite, the website goes up, you get app.

We created 400 people.

Yeah.

But we have our own app for the show. We're data collecting. Yeah.

And yeah, let's get into that because there's a lot of moving parts, but the show itself. So it's opening night. People are coming in first night. You've got lighting, you've got the slide deck. Like, what worked, what didn't work? What did you learn? What are you changing? Besides the fact that there's opportunities. Yeah.

So we literally just had the production team an hour ago on an Experience Transformer call. I sent them all the Experience dance. Experience Transformer. What do you want to accomplish? What worked, what didn't work? Knowing what you know now, what would you change and what's the process that you put in place? We just literally did that call an hour ago with 2012 of the team.

The venue worked. It wasn't even a theater. It was a performance space that we created a theater. So it was so intimate. I mean, literally, the audience was right there.

And opening night, the opening night audience wanted to interact with me, like, right from the get go. Now, you have to understand, it was invited guests, it was invited friends, clients, people that know me, but know me at different levels.

You know, don't know all of who I am and know me in a certain light. So it's harder to play for that crowd than it is for strangers, I think.

Yeah, that makes a ton of sense.

But the space was so great because I could move around the audience. I could interact. Beautiful set that we created. The lighting was incredible. The slide, the graphics. You know, it was Fenway park with the Yield of Dreams sign, and it was the Yield of Dreams Airlines. And it was just elegant. Absolutely elegant, intimate, elegant.

We didn't do an intermission. What we learned is we're going to do an intermission. We did a Take Me out to the Ball Game. We did a seventh inning stretch. We sang Take Me out to the Ball Game. We handed out yielded dreams, Peanuts and Cracker Jacks. People love that. But we learned that an intermission is valuable. It gives people time to digest what they heard and learned, gives them time to buy merchandise, hats, shirts. Right.

Make a better ask.

Second night was interesting.

The way the show opens. Mike, we have a series of videos because we asked the question, what did you want to be when you grew up? And what happened to that promise? So we interviewed people on the street. And we started with three videos of three different people answering that question. Then I come on in my business suit saying who I am as a financial advisor. And at the very. And I. And I walk. I walk out on stage and watch myself with the audience live talking. And I get to the end of my whole bio spiel. My video freezes. I turn to the audience and I say, but I always wanted to be an entertainer. Light shift, right? Second night, I walked out on stage, turned into the light, and got standing ovation.

You know, I was just. Laurie and I were in New York. We went to see the Boss on Broadway. Same kind of thing. We walked out, everybody stood up and applauded. Second night, I walked out, turn. Everybody stood up and applauded. It was so cool. And I play guitar in the show, so, you know, it was almost like.

The Boss, just like the Boss.

We got a standing ovation both nights. At the end of the show is just heartwarming. And like I said, the feedback's been unbelievable. So technically, the show worked. Graphics worked, sound work, music worked. We had great music from the documentary that we incorporated. The atmosphere worked.

The guy who performed was pretty good.

He's a character. That's what I always say. First thing, Charlie's character.

Technology, the app. People couldn't get the app open. People couldn't download the app. Technology, you know.

A stronger ass. Getting people to.

Respond. It's funny, in the survey.

All the people we ask, the question, is Charlie the kind of person that you would feel comfortable working with.

Or want to work with? And it says something like, yes.

Put your contact. If you say, yes, I want to work with them, put your contact information at the bottom. Everybody that checked, yes, with the exception of one person, didn't put who they were at the bottom.

So the other thing that we found out is people wanted more financial talk.

Less stories about me, and they wanted more stories about other people. You know, I told at least three or four client stories that resonated, and we touched on money conversations that people have never heard in their life.

And open their eyes, and they want more of that. That was fantastic.

I was worried about the opposite, you know, that it would be too much.

Yeah. And so we're going to do. When we take the show on the road, like if we're in a city for a week, during the show, the following Saturday, we're going to do a workshop.

You know, the Miss the Money, Paychecks for Life workshop. So if you want more, sign up today. 495 for the workshop next Saturday, 8 to 3.

And we're going to go deep. The other thing is handouts. People wanted handouts. A workbook. Who has a workbook during a live show? They want a workbook, they want handouts.

I could go on and on.

No, that's great. So.

What I'm, what I'm hearing then is. And you know, when we were producing the content, I was just flipping through the script briefly while you were chatting. I was kind of getting back into the mode we did during our creative. We did capture a lot of transformational stories that we ended up taking out. So there's tons of. And I mean, it's not like you're gonna have any problem with that. But coming up with more lessons, that's easy. The workshop, great idea. And that doesn't have to be managed by you. That's something that your team can do and.

That'S.

It's great.

I was, I was thinking about in anticipation of our doing this today.

You know, if you're going to share this with your listening audience, you know, 99.9% of the people listening aren't going to do or create a one man show. So how is this applicable? Right.

And the big takeaways are.

That I was willing to risk it all in a period of time where any normal human being would say, not now, it's Covid.

Just, just wait, put it on hold. This isn't the right time. I mean, think about it, right? Yeah, this is the wrong time. And instead, Covid was a blessing because it gave me more time to incubate and iterate, rehearse. And I built a whole studio which I'm sitting in just for the purpose of being able to rehearse during COVID wanted to slip my wrist after about eight months of just performing for a camera. But, you know, and it gave me the opportunity to bring in an incredibly collaborative team.

And the collaboration part was just huge.

You know, I know you and Dan talk about all the time on capability amplifier, but who not how. Unique ability team. I mean, this is the ultimate in who not how and unique ability team. I remember we were about a month away from doing the show and I turned to my director and I said, you know, we need someone to do the lights.

Oh yeah, we need someone to do sound. We need someone to. And she went, okay, let me go into my database and boom, next thing I know, I got this woman who's 20 minutes up the road from the theater, owns her and her husband, her own lighting company. They have all the equipment and I said, what's your background? Name is Amber. She said, well, I did all the lighting design and toured with Bill Shatner's one man show.

Captain Kirk. I said, oh, you're hired.

I mean.

The world just started putting people at my doorstep.

And if we needed better.

Somebody found better. Like my two executive producers that I hired to manage the whole production process. Oh, my God. So I didn't have to deal with a lot of that. They said, you know, you need a better graphics person. We have the guy. You need a better sound person, we got the guy. I'm like, go. And the other thing is you got to be willing to write checks for the unknown.

Well, I think looking from the outside in.

As far as why it worked, and I want to get more of your perspective because I know a lot of folks would be like, okay, I'm not an actor, I'm not a comedian. I don't have a one man show. I don't, I don't, I don't. The truth of the matter is, I think inside of all of us, there is that category of one unique ability, way to express yourself in a way that no one else has before, package yourself in a way that no one else has before. And sometimes just mustering up the courage to say yes, like what you know how to do as an actor is, you know, you are really incredible at playing. Let's pretend. Let's just try this on for a moment and pretend it and sit into it. And, you know, I interviewed someone earlier today and he said something that was pretty amazing. It's, you know, we're all in a place of fear or love most of the time it's one or the other. And what this guy talks about is we also have unconscious and unconscious blockers on all the time. The I can't do that or I don't know how to do that. And.

He just came up with something about basically creating a living prayer, which is when you just create it in your mind and you have a conversation. People do show up to help make that happen.

My friend Gay Hendricks, he says, you're living in the easy world at that point. And I think what I saw you do is just stand up over and over again and do what all great improv people do, which is they play yes and.

Stack it. So tell me a little bit about what your yes and collaboration mind says.

Well, you know, I think it starts with when we were in the condo, you know, in October 2019.

That was the first yes. And is this real? Does Charlie really have something you know, you didn't know. You know, you were on the skinny branches going, jesus Christ, you know, what have I. What have I offered to create here? I knew in my heart of heart I had something.

Because I'd been doing it for 20 years as both an actor and a financial advisor. Interesting combination. I knew my financial stories. You know, I'm the Antichrist to Dave Ramsey and Susie Orman. And it resonated. It resonated with people that told me they love Susie Orman, but they never heard her talk this way. I said, well, she's never going to talk this way, and neither is Dave.

So to sit with the comedians and you and Marissa and test out the stories and the concepts, and because you're all at different financial levels, it resonated at all levels. So those two days were the reality that there was definitely something there.

But that's not enough. And how many times, folks listening to this, have you had an idea and you just didn't do anything with it? Or you had an idea and, you know, you took it along a certain way and you stop.

So you first got to be, you know, it's like Dan's four C's Courage, commitment, confidence, and capabilities. So I had the courage.

To stand up and write a check and try it out. Writing the check was the commitment, and I had the confidence in myself and you.

That we would create something, but I didn't have the capabilities. And, you know, and I know you can hire and pay for capabilities, and that's where people stop. I don't have the capabilities. I don't know how to create an app. I just. And I knew in my mind the app was essential and unique. It's not working yet, but that's okay because we're gonna get it to work because we're getting the feedback.

So.

And then by bringing in more people to collaborate, I could let go of things that I didn't need to be a part of, and I could get feedback and information from different views. Like, we're already talking about bringing in a new writer to rewrite with me, a new director to get more out of me than we already got. You know, the technology will solve figuring out how to put the show on the road. You know, we're going to solve all that.

So I don't know. I guess what I'm saying is now is the time. If you're listening out there, now is the time to go big. Now is the time to take the risk. Now is the time because most everybody else isn't.

You know, it's funny, you talk about what holds people back in the show. There's a whole section where I talk about, you want to doubt something, doubt your doubts. You know, people go through life with baggage full of doubts. Why? They're not good enough. I'm not good enough. I didn't have enough money. Nobody loved me growing up. My parents divorced when they was three. I mean, fill in the fucking doubt blank.

And then I look at the audience, I say, you want to doubt something? Why don't you doubt your doubts? You made those up anyways. When you start doubting your doubts, when you doubt those excuses, you'll see your life expand before you. Like I did, like Ray Kinsella in Field of Dreams. I had to go the distance.

And you know, the other thing that comes out of the passion, Mike, is everybody that's part of the project was transformed.

It was amazing to hear each and every person, from the person that did the sound to the lighting, the direct. They all said this process of working with you was transformational. My stage manager said, I learned so much about finances that I had no idea about. Thank you. I know how to invest properly now. My lighting guy said, you know, my producer, you know, 10:1, now I know what I got to do. And everybody was impacted.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I'm going to give you a couple reflections here because when I listen to you.

You know, you're. You're definitely a unique one. The way I describe you is you're great clay to work with. And.

When you talk about being on the skinny branches, for you, it's financial.

I don't know if this enters in. You certainly did talk about it, but reputational for sure. There's lots and lots of risks. And the more factfinder Brain gets activated, the more risks you start experiencing in your mind.

I got up and I've been on stage in 19 years and I chose to get up in front of people that knew me.

Yeah. Didn't know me this way.

How ballsy is that? I mean, anyone in my business would be like, oh, my God, what if somebody doesn't like me and they'd stop doing business with me?

What if they learn this about me and they go, I don't want to do business. I don't want you handing my money anymore. And you know what? I am certain that there are people I can actually pinpoint a couple that during this process left me as a client.

Bye, bye now.

Yeah.

Well, if he's going to go do that, then he's not taking care of my finances. And he's not looking out for me.

As opposed to the people that went, oh, my God, he's able to do that. And this.

You know, during the. I didn't share this, Mike, but we had a talk back each night. Oh, my God, I hope we recorded the talk back. I think we did. A client of mine stood up and said, I've known Charlie for 30 years. He stood up in front of an audience of strangers. I've known Charlie for 30 years. I retired. I'm 72. I retired at 58. Because of this man. My wife and I don't have to worry about money ever. I had another client stand up and said, you know, watching you do this show.

Has made me trust you more. And I said in front of an audience of 100 people, I said, bill.

You haven't trusted me. He said, it's taken a while, but this has definitely solidified my trust in you. I mean, story after story of people standing up, vendors that were there that stood up and said, listen, we work with financial advisors all over the country. Nobody holds a candle to what this man just created. You know, it was just waves and waves of just wow.

But I hope you captured all that. I pray and I hope, yeah, yeah.

But that would have never happened if I didn't risk it. All.

Right. And I think the polarization.

Positive polarization is the greatest way to create long term.

Loyalty. And for someone to see a risk like this, if it turns them off.

Say that again. Positive what?

Okay, so.

To me, I believe that positive polarization is the greatest way to create long term loyalty.

Define positive polarization. Polarity.

Polarization. So if you play, I call it patty cake if you're always nice, and if you got this, like, people don't trust that being a polarizing character creates extreme loyalty. And it either turns people on or turns them off. But.

Polarizing people have found that they don't have to appeal to a lot of people to have massive momentum and longevity and strength and loyalty versus being pretend nice all the time. That being a softie.

Doesn'T always. Maybe for the extreme mainstream, but polarizing characters. And I'm not saying you're a polarizing character, but when you talked about a couple people who left versus the one who stand up and they see the courage, they see the confidence, they see the commitment and this willingness to put yourself out.

I believe at the end of the day, whenever you go to a concert, you can't help but say to yourself, God, I wish I were up there either singing or playing guitar or Drums or whatever that place is. You got a whole bunch of people saying, oh my God, what if I could be doing this? Or they imagine themselves doing that performance. And I think that kind of projection is just incredibly powerful. And because you're doing this in such a rare way, I personally believe that the opportunity to bring theater to business, to bring entertainment to business more and more, in a way, it's always been there, but this is a new kind of show business that you've created. And I think it's one of. There will be many like this in the future, but you get to be one of, if not the first.

Yeah, yeah. I was thinking about the polarization part, and, you know, it comes back to that notion of scarcity and abundance.

Right.

I mean, so many people in my business have a scarcity mentality in the financial world and the theatrical world. I mean, come on. 96% of all actors are unemployed at any given time now. It's 100% because of COVID Yeah, right. And 96% of most financial advisors are desperate for the next sale.

So.

Where is the. Where's the abundance in that? As opposed to, hey, let people self select. They're going to do business with who they want to do business with anyways.

And, you know, you just don't take it personal. No, never means never. It just means not now.

Yep, very true. So I'm going to tell you a couple other things that I observed. So I have a filter that I run everything through, Charlie.

And you know, for both of us, we're sitting on the skinny branches. For you, you took the big financial risk. For me, it's like, okay, I said I could do this thing, I got to deliver.

Whether it's external or internal, I have my reputation on the line and I have the trust and confidence of all the people that I bring into this, who.

I can't bring them into bad deals with people who aren't capable of delivering. So I told you right away, to me, the attraction when you and I started talking and I pitched you on the idea in the first place, it was like, this is a big moonshot, which is, Charlie, you should have your own show. That's essentially kind of how it started. And the rub would be if you'd go to anyone in the entertainment business and say, yeah, we're going to do some entertainment with a financial advisor. It's like, wah, wah.

But what I knew in my heart, first of all, is I thought you had the right stuff. Meaning you're charismatic and funny and coachable. You know, Great Clay. And the fact that you're part of strategic coach as long as you have been speaks volumes. And you're an implementer and also a quick start. What are you on a quick start? Fact finder. Tell me what your numbers are.

5. Fact finder. 2. Follow through. 9. Quick start. I'm not an implementer. I'm a three implementer. I know what a toolbox is. I can use it if I have to, but I'll pay. Paid dearly for people to use the toolbox.

Yeah. So we're. We're pretty close. Yeah.

By the way.

Because I'm a 3295.

Right. Just. Just to plant a seed.

Yeah.

So.

We need to turn this into a TV show.

Duh.

Well, that's your next call to action, which is you found the comedians. Now we need to walk into. I don't care who it is. Netflix prime, NBC, abc. Listen, there's the TV show the Profit. Okay, and what does he do? He goes in and fixes businesses and makes them profitable. So now we need the TV show that's paychecks for life or whatever we call it that goes into families.

So this is nothing more than a TV show where I go in and fix people's financial myths. And my ministry, I mean it's right there. Is to ease people's pain and suffering about their money so they can have what they want. It hasn't been done, but everybody's watching shows about reconstructing their home or cooking a cake. So there's all the food shows, there's all the house shows, there's the profit. That's only one. Where is the let's make money funny, entertaining and impactful TV show. So I'm just gonna slip that under the covers.

I got two guys already for you. So I haven't had a chance to tell you about this, but someone just landed in my lap. I'm working with in similar way to you doing something completely different, but it is a show and she's tied to the Emmys and knows some of the biggest reality TV show producers. And so I'll make that hookup happen.

Done. Done, done, done. Okay, so we've got a follow up, but I want to finish telling you why you are successful here through the filter system. Okay, so first of all, it starts with mindset for sure. And I think your ability to suspend disbelief, put your fact finder on hold and say, we'll figure that out the same way you do about the app, which is it's not working right now, but High fact finders can't pull this stuff off because they're gonna howl themselves to death and they're gonna ask so many questions. And I've said this for many years, like I did a feature film years ago. And when we went out and raised money, I realized when we finally raised the money, I could have earned it twice as fast and never had any investors. Okay. So you can spend.

Asking a bunch of how questions, but in the same amount of time you could probably get everything done. So at some point you just gotta realize you're just driving over your own hoo hoo.

Next one from the Eagles. You can spend all your time making. Was it money? Or you can spend all your money making time. Oh yeah.

God, yeah. That's good. Shoot. Awesome. Next one. So we start with mindset. Second one is market. Now we knew there's a good market for money and you were already making money in that space. So that'll be one of the things is I knew there was credibility in history. And the model, well, the model really in this case, how are you going to make money on the back end is get a bunch of people to get exposed to you and your work through whatever media possible. But in this case, it's a one man show to raise their hands and go, I, I want that guy. He's the only one like this. So rarity and novelty has so much value in from that perspective, the message is, well, let's see here, we got the play, the show, now there's a TV show. I can totally see it. Duh, easy.

There's the documentary, there's the app, there's the animations, the training, the curriculum. I mean this is a, this is a multimedia message multiplier machine. It really is.

But it all starts with it being entertaining and what I believe makes it work. And what became abundantly clear when we started capturing what became the story is we just, you know, we just start asking questions. It's like, Charlie, tell a story about. Tell a story about. Tell a story about. And that gave us the script. And it was, it was two days and we had about 90 pages, if I remember correctly, of stuff. And we all looked at each other and we're like, there's a show here, there is a show here. And I think every great business, I look at it and I say a great business needs to be a movie starring your perfect client with you as their hero, their Yoda, their Gandalf, their Moses, their Jesus, leading them to the promised land. And to me that became absolutely apparent to Everyone, no one could have bullshitted their way through saying, yeah, Charlie, there's something here. If there wasn't something here, it was just real and we got to play it. And I think that's the other thing that worked is being able to put on your six year old hat or your six year old pants and say, let's pretend. And every great movie is that way. Yes.

The other thing he reminded me of is, remember what I said after those two days is there was no ego.

I mean, this is huge.

You know, because, you know, ego will kill almost anything. Yes. And what was just amazing was. And maybe I set the tone because I didn't come in there with any ego either. I was the curious kid. I was, you know, like you said, the six year old in the sandbox, which I talk about in the show. Imagine living a life where all you did is what is fascinating and motivating to you. Imagine living a life with this infectious spirit bound freedom for wonderment, joy, laughter and playing discovery for discovery sake like you did as a child. Imagine waking up every day playing in your own personal sandbox. Those are lines, folks, right out of the show yielded dreams. And that's what we did for two days. Your sandbox was the condo. And your comedians were so gracious. There was no ego. I mean, these guys had no ego. You had no ego, Marissa. No ego. And we set the tone with it's a, it's, it's a. We're going to find out if we have something here or not. And everybody was curious and willing to dig, dig, dig. You know, they kept scratching. Well, is it this? No. Is it this? No. Do you want to do this? No. Do you want to do what do you want to do? I want to do stand up. Yeah, but don't you want. No. And then when they finally got. Wait a minute, this guy is serious, he wants to do a show, a stand up with these stories. Well, then it was like, well, what do you got? Tell us your stories.

And you know, the big story was the conversation on the airplane with Mr. Yield.

Had I not gotten on the plane at that day, at that time and sat next to that guy, we'd have no show.

Yeah. And retell that story. Because that I actually can't remember now. If you. Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

That's what I mean. That I'm trying to share with people is being open to what you can't see and you can't hear. But when you say what you want to do, God, the divine, whatever the spirit is for you we'll start to put in front, we'll start to whisper, we'll start to. I got on a plane from Bradley to Atlanta. For two and a half hours, I sat next to this Jewish guy, super successful, probably worth $100 million, fascinating conversation, 75, traveling the world, happiest guy. This was what everybody wants to be. I was like, wow, that was interesting.

I get to Atlanta, I'm going down to get to my seat. I actually was on the phone buying a car. I look where I'm gonna sit. There's this, you know, well dressed guy, he's in a, you know, the power suit, the power cufflinks, the power hair, the power skin. I sit down, we start talking. As soon as he finds out I'm a finance, I find out he's the CEO of a capital markets consulting company. As soon as he finds out I'm financial advisor, he starts asking me about yield. How do you get yield today? How do you get. I said, what's with yield? I said, what do you really want to do? Wants to make an enormous impact in the world. He wants to work for charity. Why don't you do it now? No, no, no. I need 10 to 12 years to get the yield on my portfolio in the right place. And then, then, then.

So I tell this story to the comedians and you And Marissa, these two stories, and it was about 11 or 12 o' clock when Ryan, one of the comedians, goes. Because I also tell them how I love the movie field of dreams and how everybody's suffering from something and longing for what they want. And Ray Kinsella, Kevin Costner's character, cuts down his livelihood, his only source of income, to build this field of dreams, which is behind me, and risks everything. Now, he doesn't wait. And Ryan goes, I got the title of your show, Mr. Yield. It's Yield of dreams. Bam, the door opened.

And we were now into that. Is the driver and everything fed off of that. It was like that match. I can only imagine it's like when McCartney and Lennon went into the studio and wrote and created. You know, when Jagger and company went into the studio, when anybody goes in anywhere to create, they got little notes, they got scribbly, they got words.

Yeah, we just.

Well, I think the what I just got out of this, and actually I think it should be the name of this episode is what are you waiting for? That really captures the essence of this, which is, you know, do what you.

Love and the money will follow.

Yeah, yeah, so true. But, you know, when we were talking and I Don't know if you had turned 61 at the time, but when we were talking, you said something along the way of. Because we were brainstorming for a while. And I go, well, what if you did this? And he's like, nah, I don't want to do that. Nah, I don't want to. He goes, Look, I'm a 61 year old, blah, blah, blah. I don't remember exactly how you describe it.

Old Jewish white guy.

Yeah, old Jewish white guy. And.

You know, it's like you didn't exactly say this, but it was something along the lines of blow my mind, give me something that'll blow my mind. And it wasn't moonshot, wasn't the language. I don't remember the exact language pattern. I wish I had that now. But that's when, you know, it just took that, you know, the dialogue we had. And I did have that little seed, which is, I gotta go talk to Kyle, who used to work for me, who. And I had so much respect for him because he was doing video for me and started doing doors at the Comedy Store in La Jolla. And then he was doing open mics and then, and then, and then, and you know, next thing you know, he's hanging out with a listers, befriending them and he's playing alongside him and he's a full time, well at the time, pre pandemic, but a full time working standup comedian.

And that's when I realized what this project needed, the magic was we needed a writer's room. That really excited you. It excited me too. And I had always dreamed of it, but of full time working standup comedians, because then, you know, they got skin in the game, they got a lot to lose and for them to even set aside the time to work on something like this. And no, they said yes before the pandemic, that they could get behind it and risk the time investing in writing their own jokes. That took some doing. And you know, everyone had skin in the game and something to lose in an idea that could just turn out to be dumb.

But I think once we got everyone in the room for that John Lennon and that Paul McCartney moment that you just described, which really you summed it up well, which is everything came together in 48 hours. And that is for sure what I see. Because again, you had said, how do you make this relatable to anyone listening or watching this? It's, I don't care who you are or what you do, there's something inside of you that you've either suppressed or you've buried.

Your unique ability, your unique capability that is screaming to get out of you. And it usually is underneath the layers of what I really want to do is or what I'm going to do when I finally block blank, then I'll finally do it. And what you articulate so well is what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? We're all going to be dead soon.

I'm about to take.

That's a great shot by the way. Yeah, say that again. That was a great shot. With you on the field. It genuinely looked like you had your head over.

Not a bleacher but you know, a chair in, in the theater. It was a great shot. Anyway, go ahead, say what you're going to say.

Yeah, that one I'm about to take. My 94 year old mother, my mom turns 94 tonight. Jewish today, you know, it's Rosh Hashanah, the new year.

Woohoo.

Yeah, the Jewish New Year is all about and you know, to life, living life and.

It'S all about the sweetness of life. My mother, after seeing the show, and we all know my mother is the star of the documentary, even though I tried to get Nick to edit her out. But yeah, yeah, right on the next day I called my mother up after she saw the show and she said, you know, I've been sitting here thinking, what's next for me?

94.

You know, like life is still there for her. I had one of the rabbis here in town with his wife come to the show. Orthodox rabbi, okay. They run a shoal, they run a school, I mean, most amazing hard working people you ever want to meet, you know. You know what he said to me? He said, first of all, he said, what courage you had to do that documentary and you know, tell people your story. I don't know if I could do that. But he said, my wife and I left your show in. The whole ride home, you know what we talked about? I said, no. We looked at each other and said, what do we want to do with the rest of our lives?

I'm like, well, what do you mean? You're a rabbi, you have a show, you have a congregation, you have.

Oh my God. I was like, wow, if we're getting in at that level, right?

Yeah.

Just think about the people that hate what they're doing. These people are passionate about what they're doing. It's what they were thrown to. It's in their blood. And now they're questioning, gee, what's next for us. That's incredible.

So.

Yeah, let's go pitch the show.

Yeah.

Well, it's time to make two calls. It's time, folks. You know, if not now, when?

To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against the sea of troubles and by opposing end them.

Boom. What a way to end an episode. So, Charlie, can we put. Is it okay if we put the documentary into the show notes and spread the faith. So spread the word.

Absolutely. Yield2Dreams live. You can go to YieldoDreams live. The documentary is right there on the website.

Download the Yield of Dreams app. You have to do it from the website. It's a app that's attached to the website. It's not an Apple app, so I don't have to pay them all their fees. On the app are all my podcasts.

Are my desirement playing cards for you to find out what you want out of your future is the entire Myths of money series. All 15 myths and videos are there. There's a chat with Charlie button if you want to reach out and chat with me.

Got it all.

You have taught me how to create a platform.

Yeah. Bless you.

This is. Well, it's. Thanks for the. Thanks for being freaking amazing and saying yes because that's.

You can't get anywhere without a big yes in the beginning. And the only thing that'll make me happier is that we just create more stuff together. Because this is. You know, I always tell Marisa, where do we. Where do we find more Charlie's. You know, who are hand raising, suspend disbelief, let's go out and play. And you know the last mastermind we did when we were in Mexico together.

When I asked everyone round robin, how do we make this experience an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10? And you. Do you remember what you said?

Yeah, I did. What did I say?

Here's what you did. Which was total Charlie. So we're in a room of about 10 people, very successful business owners, entrepreneurs. And you said, I'd like to see if we could find a way that all of us could create something and collaborate while we're here that are bigger than all of us individually. And I thought, now that is an abundance mindset, human being. And I was like, damn, where do I get more Charlie's? And the world needs more Charlie's.

Thank you for that. Did I tell you? So Zach came and Benson spent a week with us.

Oh, yeah.

But here's the Best part, I got him when I'm street busking in the London subway. I got him to break dance live on stage.

Oh, that's great.

He wouldn't do it Thursday night. He said, well, you know, I haven't done in a while, I might hurt myself. Then he saw the show and Friday, Kim comes up to me and says, do you still want me to do that?

Little bit of inspiration, baby.

Unbelievable. Howard. Howard was there with his, you know, logical mind, breaking the show down for me. He said, you know, there's three Charlie's out there. Let me tell you, the Charlie that people like, the Charlie that people don't seem to connect with, and the Charlie that's okay.

That'S Howard.

I said, did your AI do that for you?

Uh huh. Yeah.

Yeah. Yep.

It's nice to have a robot in every audience.

Our next move. Mike, you want to take this? Bigger, bigger, bigger, brighter, let's go. Pitch.

I got just the person, so. And by the way, she was gonna. She's gonna be on the wine trip that you're not gonna be able to make too, so.

All right, well, I'll make it happen anyway, so I'll make some intros happen. So here's what we're gonna do for everyone. You listening? You watching? Head over to Yielded Dreams live. Watch this documentary. It's freaking hilarious. And it'll really show you the pathway to making dreams come true. And if you're ever wondering, what are you waiting for? This is a great way to get those cobwebs out of your attic and start thinking about now, now, now, now. Not stay, stay, stay, stay.

Keep an eye on this. As soon as the show is in your town, you definitely want to get tickets. You want to watch it? Of course. Reach out to Charlie Epstein. You can go to charlie epstein.com also if you want to learn about Charlie the man or what's the.

Yeah, download the app. Just download the Yielded Dreams app. You can chat with me on the chat button. The easiest way to get to me.

Yeah, get the app. It's got everything there. All the goodies are free. Get it while it's free because it ain't gonna forever.

Good job. Good job. All right, well, Charlie Epstein, I appreciate you, I love you, and let's keep on making magic.

Thanks for taking a shot with me. And folks, all I can say is if not now, when?

That's it.

That's it. All right, thank you.

Love you, brother Sam.