The Real-Life Wizard Of Oz: Steve Sims

And there's me, you know, a semi ignorant bricklayer from London that's doing all of these things with these amazing people. I'm being met by intelligent entrepreneurs, that our intelligence is telling them that they can't do it. It didn't make sense to me. The biggest way to insult an entrepreneur is to pay them well. I've taken people into prison and brothels, so I'm probably the worst person to be asking that, you know, I take them to current level 4 maximum security prison to meet people that want to change their world. Anytime you can shake someone up, anytime you can talk to someone that's got a different perspective, it will challenge you. And I think we grow when we can understand where someone's coming from. Just because you're seen stood there next to Richard Branson doesn't mean shit unless you frame it and work it and utilize it appropriately. So I realized at the time that there's a real danger when you meet someone's wiper, Kedia profile, or their fancy website or their fancy influencer status. For us to be able to meet people and actually converse with them, that there's real value in that.

Well, what if you could get married by the pope or serenaded by Andrea Bocelli or maybe meet a president or some kind of celebrity? I'm here today with Steve Sims. He's a good friend who's also founder of Bluefishing, or Bluefish, the company and Blue Fishing the book, the Art of Making Things Happen. So I'm just gonna dive right into it. Steve, thanks for being here.

It's a pleasure to be here, bud.

All right, all right. So one of the reasons I wanted to get you here is I'm actually gonna make you work. I told you that before the camera started rolling and asked you some questions because you're in the business of making dreams come. And I consider us to be birds of a feather. We've always had that in common, where I do it in a different way than you. But if someone were going to describe you.

To someone else, what would they say about who Steve Sims is? Because I want to hear that perspective first.

You know, it's. If they know me like you, you know, it'll be a case of, oh, you know, this guy's a strange looking fellow, but he makes things happen.

That would be the. If someone knew me, if someone didn't really know me, like Forbes called me the real life wizard of Oz, which was, you know, kind of cool. I like that. But it's hard. I'm the guy If I'm asked to introduce myself, I say that I give you more interesting cocktail stories and then hopefully that's a hook enough to go, wow, how do you do that? Well, I can say where your bucket list is and make it amazing and make you wake up two o' clock in the morning going, wow, I can't believe I did that. But that's been the beauty. I've not been very active until the book came out on social. It literally has been word of mouth. You know, we didn't even have a phone number or an email on our website. So it was literally a case of, hey, do you remember I told you that story of when I met Bocelli or, you know, played the piano with Ellen John? This guy's the one that did it. And that's how I've been introduced. So it really depends on what the experience it was that I gave you as to how you introduced me to someone else.

All right, that makes sen. And I think from a professional perspective, one of the first times we actually, I worked with you, meaning I used your service. I.

I had the Elton John experience. I went to the Oscar party and my wife and I took lots of pictures with a lot of celebrities. We got seeded with some really interesting celebs.

And it really was a magnificent event. Plus got amazing, amazing photos because everyone was. And made themselves super accessible. And that was a great experience. And it got me thinking a lot about creating bucket list experiences, bucket list opportunities. And that's really a big part of what I want to talk to you about. But the next question I had before that is, what is fascinating you right now, because you've personally had lots and lots of celebrity experiences yourself. And before we started rolling today, we were just talking about how you've changed your life around a lot, your business and what you're doing, what you're focusing on. Because in a way, it's sort of like you've outgrown it. You've outgrown a little bit of who you are, what you do, why you do it, who you do it for. So what, what experiences elevate you or amplify you or get you super excited now that you've kind of tasted all that.

So in the, should we say the old days, which was like, you know, pre2018, before the book came out, what used to excite me was people challenging me with something that was crazy. Like, you know, I want to close down a museum in Florence. I want to go down and see the Titanic. I want to play, you know, Tennis with Richard Branson, Necker island, those kind of things. They cost a lot of money. They were very exciting. They got it ticked off their bucket list and it was a challenge for me to do, but I worked with Elton John for eight years. You can only go down so many red carpets before they start getting a bit mundane. You start wondering which bloody event you're actually at. And, and especially in Hollywood, it's the same people going to order different ones, whether it be the Grammys or the Oscars. So when the book came out, I was suddenly found myself working with entrepreneurs that were held back by their own mindset, held back by the fact, oh, I couldn't possibly do that. And there's me, you know, semi ignorant bricklayer from London that's doing all of these things with these amazing people. And there are, I'm being met by intelligent entrepreneurs that our intelligence is telling them that they can't do it. It didn't make sense to me. So now I'm doing a lot of workshops, I'm speaking literally all over the planet, doing a lot of consulting, doing Facebook stuff, loads of different things which are shaking up entrepreneurs, getting them uncomfortable, and then getting them to discover their unicorn and their ability. And it's all mindset. I've heard before that the superpower of an entrepreneur is their ignorance. You know, the fact that they can't possibly perceive that they're going to fail. And guess what, with that mindset, nine times out of 10, they don't. So that's what's really exciting now. Seeing mortgage brokers, seeing realtors, seeing a yacht shot, agents, seeing car salesmen that I'm coaching and consulting at my events that are now suddenly being able to go out beyond where they thought they could.

All right, that's awesome. I think, you know, a couple of my clients that I'm working with right now are like really wealthy real estate moguls or developers or people in financial services, which on the surface doesn't sound interesting, especially when you come from the celebrity world and you think, oh, yeah, if I just arrive at blank, then this, it'll mean this. You find out that the, the best part of elevating people are taking normal people or what are perceived to be normal people and finding and figuring out what their superpowers are, their big passions and, and making dreams come true for them. So I really relate to that. So I promised you that I was gonna put you to work today. Okay, so now I have an idea and it's a question. So it's almost a Working session. But I think it's a great way to get to show people your genius and how you think. And it's super practical as well. So you ready?

All right.

All right.

I don't know if I am, but let's go.

I guarantee you are. So right before the we began, we're sitting outside and I told you about some of the stuff I'm doing with Dan Sullivan.

Yeah.

And just to frame our audience so they know what this is about is.

I'm on a mission right now to help Strategic Coach grow to be a $15 trillion GDP in 25 years. So Dan wants to celebrate his 100th birthday, May 7, 2040, with a $15 trillion economy, which in itself sounds insane. And you know, Dan has a book and a mission to live to be 156. It's his plan to live to be 156. So one of the things that I love about him is he thinks in terms of 100 quarters and 25 years and gives himself permission to fail along the way and succeed, however that may happen to be. So I really admire that. And we were doing an. An episode not long ago where we decided that that was going to be our mutual project, what he calls the free zone frontier. So right now my quest is to create and. And tools that recruit people into Strategic Coach to build this economy. And that means finding the right fit folks. So I'm going to pose an idea about how I want to do it and I want to throw it in your bucket. Because what I know you're awesome at is a you built an entire business with referrals and totally organically, you know how to create elevated bucket list experiences and making impossible things happen, but also inspiring people to see the world through a different lens and a different filter. And stop me if I'm inaccurate on any of these things.

Well, you haven't said stunningly good looking yet, so. Yeah, as well.

You know what, though? You're the guy who started out with this whole I'm a goofy looking guy business. I'm like, I wouldn't have gone there first. I, you know, I like now you could definitely be Mr. Clean.

I've heard that.

Yeah. Yeah. But I. You know what? I've never thought of you because you carry so much charisma and character with you. How you look is never entered into a story in my head. I don't think of you as being anything more than you are always, in my experience, the most interesting, charismatic guy with more stories than you can imagine in a room. I Hope you heard those are all big compliments.

They are massive compliments, especially coming from you and the rooms I know you're in. So, yeah, that's very humbling.

All right, well, so let me continue with the. With the framing of this. This idea. So what I am going to do, at least one of the plans is I'm taking artificial intelligence, machine learning, and I'm analyzing all of the people who are part of Strategic Coach, so building a system for doing that to effectively segment. And then I'm interviewing people in different groups. So there's, for example, the signature program, which is sort of the starter than the 10x, and then free Zone Frontier.

And my goal is to interview the spouses and the children of Strategic Coach just as much as the members. But mostly they're saying, what are the effects of what's life like because of Strategic Coach? And build stories that attract right fit people. But instead of going down the path of the traditional, let's advertise and market. I want to start by building a amazing referral program, and we've got all the team members inside Coach. One of the ideas I had is, and I asked Dan this because Dan loves a party more than anything. Yeah, he does.

Yeah.

And he loves a party about Dan. But also I started talking to a couple of members about, like, what is a bucket list experience that you would positively love, that you could do with Dan in a small group with high performers, and the idea of creating a recruitment system and let's call it a referral program that would be. We'd make available to maybe 20ish people and do two of those. So the only way to get in is by making referrals who you feel would be great, who you know would help build the $15 trillion economy. And I thought this would be an interesting conversation for you and me because you have so much experience with referrals, with incentivizing, creating bucket list experiences and what the results have been. So I'd be curious, what would you do if you were posed with that challenge right now of creating, like, two extraordinary bucket list opportunities and you know, this audience, you've been around entrepreneurs. Like, what would inspire you to send people to, like, if you got to design a bucket list experience, something money couldn't buy, but it only would be enriched by right people in the room, what would inspire you? What do you think would inspire this? And how would you put something like that together?

So you're working. You're working on two levels there, which are very good. Okay. And so you def You've definitely got the ingredients there.

Entrepreneurs.

The. The biggest way to insult an entrepreneur is to pay them. It sounds silly, but the, the most gratifying and the greatest ROI is to give them an experience. Okay? So if you're working with an entrepreneur and you go, hey, thanks for that. You give them a thousand bucks. That's it. You know, you give them 10,000 bucks, you give it. We're making that. You know, it's nice to get an extra 20 grand, but at the end of the day, you know, you've paid your mortgage for a few months and maybe a couple of car pay. You won't remember that in six months. But if you took that money and created an experience for them, something that you were able to use from your Rolodex, that would be something that would inspire them. So there's two things. One, you've got to feel as though what you're recommending to someone is going to create an impact on their life. And you've already said that you're going to be focusing on the kids and the wife. Okay. The beautiful thing about something that Dan does is, is the bleed effect. What happens to the person that's involved in it trickles down to everyone else around them. That's. That's what I like as well. At the moment or in the past, I would spend rich people's money giving them amazing cocktail stories. It would basically look after two or three of them and give them the ability to boast at a party. When you're working with an entrepreneur and you're impacting them on the way that they actually work, conduct and live, it's now impacting everyone else around them. Right. Okay. So the first thing is you've got to be able to identify is introducing one of your colleagues, one of your friends, one of your associates to strategic coach gonna impact them? Okay. And we all know Dan is more credible than credible himself. Okay. He is Mr. Credible. I'm a great fan of Dan and Babs and the whole strategy, always have been. So we can very hand on heart, say, and this isn't an advert for Dan, it's honestly introducing someone in the strategic is going to benefit them as long as they're the right fit. You've got to have that caveat there. So that's one thing. You know, what you're recommending and who you're recommending to is going to work them. Now, for you to be inspired and motivated and invigorated to keep going, to push it further, I would suggest Dan opens up something which has more value than anything in the planet above gold and diamonds, opens up his address book and delves in there to some of his masterminds. You imagine if someone said, hey, you're going to have dinner with, say, no more than 30 other people, with Dan and five of his top respected mentors, people that you could never normally be in a room with. You know, it's a one day and a dinner, you know, that kind of thing that would inspire you. You know those people. You see, a lot of people will kind of sit there and say, oh, I'd love to have dinner with Richard Branson. Okay. Because Richard Branson's made his story known. You know, there are ten, a hundred, a thousand people that Dan knows. The leaders of companies and organizations that you've just never heard of that could be as or more impactful than you sitting down and having dinner with Richard Branson. So I'm thinking if Dan Sullivan turned around and went, hey, I'm gonna do a dinner party series, you know, for all of those people that actually bring in the people. I'm going to reward you not only by my oath and commitment to look after the people that come into the group, but rather than insult you by giving you a check, I'm going to fly you up to my wherever and we're going to spend a day closed door, no more than 30 people. And I'm going to bring in personal, committed friends which are going to workshop with you through the day and to use overuse the word 10x 10x you per hour with a different master. That's, that's what I would say would inspire me. All right.

And through your lens, like both of us have created dozens, hundreds of experiences, dinner experiences and also workshop experiences. But I want to turn to you right now and if you were thinking about the top one, two or three.

Let'S call it a dinner experience, and let's talk, call it a workshop experience. How have you seen them structured where people were like holy crap. That was so unique. And I haven't seen that happen before. Has there been a structure that you've experienced or seen or a particular story that pops into your head where it was like a holy crap.

Or did it all well to the, the people that made all the difference versus no.

It'S not, it's not the people you, You've got to make sure that. You've got to make sure you've got the right people in the room. That's, that's, that's one of the caveats. One of the, the, the, the rules of the ingredients. That's 101. Make sure it's the right crowd in the room. You don't want people trying to let you off of each other. You don't want people in there trying to JV the death out of the whole bloody room. So you've got to make sure that the people in the room are there to be a common community in order to grow everybody, and not only the one. So the, the people in the room, that's one thing. Okay. But the way that I like to do my speakeasies and do my events is to get people uncomfortable. And I've done that by putting them in rooms with, you know, like say, Tesla. I spoke to you earlier. I did a mastermind on the power of communication and I did that in a Reno brothel at the Bunny Ranch. It was an unusual place to have it. But where is the art of communication not used more than when people first meet and they're uncomfortable and then they go on to get extremely intimate? I've also held them and I think you know about this. I take people to prison, you know, I take them to current level 4 maximum security prison to meet people that want to change their world. Now if you can meet people that want to change their life in an environment that's heavily suppressed like a maximum security prison, then when you go home, you haven't got any excuses. Because how many times does the entrepreneur sit there and go, oh, well, I can't do that. And all my flows and my, my bots and my, my, my funnel systems and my Facebook, we excuse ourselves to death. So if we could put ourselves in an environment where there are no excuses, but there's every reason for it not to work, but it does, then you're out of excuses. So I like to put people in a room that's different to where they usually be. I like to also get behind the curtain. Like I've taken people into the Tesla plant. I've taken people into the Gigafactory Gower Studios, Tiffany. I've taken people into environments and gone, hey, this is what it looks like. You know, you're, you're so kind of, oh my God, I never could. This is how it's done. And so I like to shake people up. I like to get them uncomfortable. I like to have them in an uncomfortable situation. So if you're not in an uncomfortable room, make them uncomfortable. I was in a room once, I think it was about a year ago, where they, everyone sits down in the room and usually there's this. Without realizing it, there's a natural selection. When you walk into a room, you go and sit where you want to sit, where you feel most comfortable. Either your backs to the window or you're looking out over the window, because you will naturally select where you want to sit. So the guy had us all sit down. We all did our natural selection without realizing we're doing it. We're doing it. You know, I may see three or four people like you that I know and love. And I go, I'm gonna go and sit over there. Because I say, that's the cool kid table. You know, I'm over here. Straight away, he made every second or third person stand up. Okay. And then this was very uncomfortable. He made us change with another person. So we had to identify another person in the room that was also stood up. And then we were going to sit in that. That person's seat, and they were going to sit in apples. So it was a change up. But here's where it got very uncomfortable. We had to dance our way over there, and it had to take 20 seconds, so you couldn't do it quickly. But we had a dance our way over there. And here was the other thing. You couldn't repeat how someone else had danced over there. So by the third time, you know, you're doing pizzas or you're doing your. Your little crab dance or whatever. By the time the sixth person, the seventh person, they're having to make up. Dance moves have never been done before nor should ever be done again. But it was a very uncomfortable situation, especially for me, having a dance in public. Half of the room is sitting down. You're the only one dancing over there. But it got us uncovered, and it broke down a lot of barriers, and that was the whole premise behind it. So if you're not in a room to make you uncomfortable, make the room uncomfortable. Because it's not from success that we grow. It's from. Is from that uncomfortable failing. Kind of like, what are we doing now? Where our greatest growth comes from. I love that.

I love that. That's brilliant. And.

So right away, here's where I went with that is.

Let'S, you know, like what is too uncomfortable and too much of a stretch and where you really get into people's, let's say, their. Their rules, their. Whether it's religious rules or their perception of values, conflicts. I just wanted to spend a moment in there. What. What do you. What do you say about that?

Well, I've taken people in a prison and brothels so I'm probably the worst person to be asking that. I took. It was 30, I think it was 32 people I took to the Bunny Ranch brothel. And I've never heard a bus be so quiet as we were pulling up to a brothel. The downside was also that about 60% of the people on the bus were women. And this guy actually looked at me and he tapped me on the shoulder and he said, I know you like to stretch things. This is either going to go real well or real south fast. And we walked into the room. No one had said a word. Now, within about 20 minutes of being there, everyone found it funny. Everyone was lighting up and there was a lot out of it. But a lot of people got back onto the bus at the end of the other day going, I would never in my life ever have thought I'd have walked into a bottle. And funny enough, I still now know a few of those people that have kept in touch with some of the people in the. In the place because they've got different conversations, different communication, different perspectives. But I'm not sure.

And maybe this is risking too much. I'm not sure you can go too far. Anytime you can shake someone up, anytime you can talk to someone that's got a different perspective, a different point of view, a different value system. Now, you may end up having a long conversation with that person and you may not agree with them, but it will challenge you. And I think we grow when we can understand where someone's coming from, what their pain points are, what their trend, what their, what their ancestry has taught them or made them think or, or force them to believe in. If you can understand how people work, I think it grows you, you may totally disagree with that point of view, but just by listening to it, you can pick up on little bits ago, ah, that makes sense. And I think, I don't think there is a point that you can make people too uncomfortable. As long as I think this must be the guiding rule. As long as the point of them becoming uncomfortable is for their benefit. Yeah. You know, if it's for your benefit to laugh at them, then no, you should never do it. Yeah, that is abusive. But if anything you can do to them benefits them, then I think then the rule of how uncomfortable is uncomfortable never exists.

That's great.

Yeah.

One of the things that I'm going to step up a level here that I. When you were talking about how to create the room uncomfortable. So one thing that I've seen work exceptionally well and people feel very taken care of is when they are asked a lot of personal questions and they feel like they're understood. And then matchmaking in a room. So imagine, let's say there's 30 people in this case. One thing that Peter Diamandis did@Abundance,360 this last time, that was really smart, is he partnered up with Eben, Pagan and Morgan, who wrote some code that as long as you answered some questions, it would give you a compatibility chart and give you 10 people a day that you should network with. And the first batch came out about a week ahead of time. And it turns out, interestingly, number one or number two on my list was Peter because he was in the pool. But then it went down and I ended up meeting some really great people. So I'm curious what kind of matchmaking you've done in the past that has added a tremendous amount of value in a room or in a workshop environment. And what have you done to make that happen? Do you have any insights?

Yeah, I go the less is more route. Okay. And it's funny because my speakeasies, and this isn't going to be a promotion on them, so I'll leave as. As vague as that. Whenever I promote a speakeasy, I promote the city, the date, and the button to purchase, which is $2,000. And so literally it will say. And I can say this one, because by the time this comes out, I would have gone, my next speakeasy in Vegas is in Vegas, and It's called Speakeasy LV Speakeasy Las Vegas. It's on the 20th and the 21st and the 22nd, and it's $2,000.

And there's a button to purchase. And so it's got no other information. It doesn't tell you where you're going to be. It doesn't tell you whereabouts in Vegas the things held. It doesn't take it. And we've done them in San Francisco, Francisco, Miami, New York. We've done them all over the place. And we never tell anybody anything than that. Now, once they pay, they literally get an email from one of our team and it says, you've just paid $2,000 and you know nothing about what you're involved in. Why did you do that? And we start a conversation for one, the payment validates that they. They're open, you know. Now a lot of it, to be boastful, is off of the credibility of.

Me, of course, okay, you are framed as being that guy already. There's a narrative that goes on in a brand of elevated experiences Exactly.

So you built, you built your credibility up there. But I had a. I had a guy that actually joined up for Vegas and He paid his $2,000 and he said, just to let you know, there's another conference in Vegas at the same time, there's $199 that I know when the speakers are on, I know where it is. I know what my secret would be. And I've been on and on and about spending 200 on that. And I spent $2,000 and I know nothing. You know, so it gets a certain kind of mentality in the room when you actually. Then I don't, I don't believe the payment is the end of the process. I actually use as the first filter. Okay, can you afford two grand to come and hang with me and my friends for two days? Well, that's out the window. Yes, you can. Now let's get into the value proposition. And the first question, why did you do that? Well, I've heard about some of the stories of what you've been up to. That's great, but that's past stories. I never repeat it. You know, I can talk about fantastic rooms, but why are you doing this? What's the core reason? What's the benefit? Now, I did one in Hollywood and it was over Oscar weekend. And I had a lot of people coming at me going, it's because I want to meet celebrities. Oh, I want to get photographs. I want this. Or that's selfish. Now I want you to be selfish, but I want you to be selfish in the fact that what I'm going to be able to teach you and the people I'm going to be able to introduce you to can impact your business, your life and your future. I want that kind of selfish attitude. I don't want the, hey, I could get my arm around so and so. And it can be on Instagram by Friday. You know, that that's a show off. You know, it's a field of dreams. Build it and they will come. Let's be blunt. Nine times out of 10, it doesn't. Just because you're seen stood there next to Richard Branson doesn't mean unless you frame it and work it and utilize it appropriately. So we actually ended up during the Hollywood one, giving so many people back that money, you know, and I remember going to Claire and saying, well, you know, we just got 14 sales yesterday. And she was like, yeah, it was, it was a good day. You know, made 28 grand just as a, you know, putting out that, the newsletter on that And I said, great. Ten of those have to be refunded. So you can refund. I said, absolutely. They're not coming. Why? Because it's not right.

Mm.

And so we had to get rid of those people. And you want anyone that's doing an event. The first goal is to fill up the event, but the goal above that is to fill it up correctly. Yeah. Because otherwise you'll do one event and you'll never do an event again. And we know of so many events that have done one event and never been able to follow it because it's been the wrong people in there. So I'm a great believer that you want the mindset to be correct. The mindset's correct. By challenging them about why that doing it. You paid two grand, why did you do that? And not be derogatory, but be very challenging on why they did it. And then you get the, well, I'm looking for this. And they end up dictating what they want to learn from this event. I actually had so many people going well, and I can't use the. Actually I can, because this won't come out. I had people going, well, I want to know how to scale my business socially. You know, I want to be able to understand our social platforms the way it should go. If I've got some intellectual property, how can I actually go beyond the people I can speak to? Because at the end of the day, you can only speak to a certain amount of people a day unless you've got some kind of automation online, some kind of scalability within your business. So everything that we've done in Vegas is based on social branding, scalability, online courses, how to get your voice, your message, and amplified into a wide enough scope where people can actually pay. You're getting more money, but you're reaching a wider audience. That's what it is. And basically by doing it that way, reverse engineering a normal event that telling me what I need to bring to the table to make them happy. They turned up.

Right on. That's good. That's good. So I want to shift this a little bit now towards.

Think about elevated bucket list experiences. And you already sort of answered through your lens. What you'd like is for Dan to open up his Rolodex and be a people move for you. That's what you would like more than anything. So let's talk.

Well, that's more valuable.

Yeah.

You know, and I'm, I'm. I'm a selfish son of a bitch that, you know, giving me, offering me a 10 grand carrot, you know, that's 10 grand, you know, but offering me insightful wisdoms by from people that would never normally be able to meet, that's 10 times 10 grand. So, yeah, that, that's more valuable to me.

Great. So I am going to go down the, the experience path for a moment. So I'm going to tell you a story about something that I did not long ago. And so here's the way it began. I. I've been a Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger fan forever, and I regard them as being like being able to see the Rolling Stones and the Beatles in concert at the same time before they die. Right. They're old dudes. Yeah. And last year I went to the annual event and I had an okay time minus five things. Okay. So I went alone on purpose because I literally did it spur of the moment. I bought a B share, I got my passes, blah, blah, blah. And.

The, I'm from the Midwest and it's a nice place to be from. I really love the vibe of the west coast now. So I went back to Omaha and I'm like, yep, it's definitely middle America. You know, it was like, it didn't resonate with me. But more importantly, I got a kind of a yucky hotel. There wasn't much left because I didn't have a lot of time.

Transportation was almost impossible. Food wasn't that great. It was hard to find a good glass of wine and I wasn't surrounded by people I really felt elevated by. You know, it was like I wasn't there with the crew. And this past year, I was actually at a coach meeting and I had this inspiration of, wow, I want to go again. But I really want to make it awesome. So I immediately contacted a friend of mine who's a master sommelier, who tried, who's traveled with me in the past. I thought, okay, I got wine covered. And I said, do you know any chefs in Omaha? She says, I can definitely hook us up. So that was great. Are the dates available? Yes, they are awesome. We reserved a couple mansions, I got transportation. And then I thought, well, how could I make this a totally elevated experience that would be easy and get rid of all the resistance. So, you know, getting picked up at the airport the two date nights before going, getting delivered to a nice mansion, great food, great wine waiting for you and a hand picked group of really cool people who are interested in the culture of Buffett and Munger, the mindset of those guys and the food. And then so we'd have a mastermind workshop the day before. And then great dinner, great wine. Then the day of, we'd have transport to the facility, spend our time there, and then get picked up, brought back for more great food and wine, and then delivered at the airport the next morning. So I made a little 10 minute video, I sent it out to a small group and bam, it was filled up in less than 24 hours. And I was like, why haven't I been doing this all my life?

Right.

I was thinking, man, and you and I kind of connected somewhere in between there and, and one of the things I swore to myself is I'm going to make a point of creating selfish bucket list experiences for me now and seeing if the right fit people show up.

Absolutely.

And that's part of where I wanted to get to the now, which is looking back, we talked about the experience itself, the workshop side, and what would brighten you up? What's an experience that money can't easily buy, especially with the right people in the room and the right wisdom? So think through your past history of really cool experiences or ones that you'd want to do. Again, if the right people were in the room, like, what would elevate you? And I want you to be selfish right now.

Yeah. So.

I'm, I'm the guy that's done everything from, from Walt walked the basements of the Pentagon to the, to the back roads of the Vatican. So.

I've, I've become very spoiled with the people I've been able to hang around with and the, the, the rooms I've been involved in.

To me now my greatest selfish pleasures are spending time with, with viewpoints. I love having conversations. You know, I've, I've done some wonderful things, but now I like to be able to talk to people about wonderful things. If I was to look at something that was my bucket list, it would literally, like your Warren Buffett example, it would be to find someone that I could communicate with in a conducive environment. And when I say conducive environment.

We all know the Dan Sullivan experience that I set up with Journey. When Dan Sullivan contacted me, his first question, his first request was that he wanted to meet the rock band Journey backstage. And because he wanted to tell him a story about how impactful they were to his life. When you meet someone in an environment where they have just performed and then they've come off stage.

They'Re in that kind of wild moment, that kind of no man's land where they're getting off of the euphoria of being Yelled at for the last two hours.

And now they've got to go back to their room, shower off, and either get on a tour bus and go and do it again or go home and put the kettle on. You know, it's a weird mindset. It's not the time that you should ever meet anyone.

Right? Okay, I'm so with you on that. I'm so with you.

And you get so many people I want to meet so and so backstage. No, you don't. No, you absolutely do not. Okay, you want to meet him before the show or you want to meet him in an environment that's completely away from it, like playing golf or something. Something, you know, gardening or learning to play the piano, whatever. But you never want to meet someone backstage after a show. Worst possible time. So straight away we were able to know that with Dan reconfigure it and we actually got down to to sing on stage with, with Journey. And he's now deemed as the shortest lead singer of the rock band Journey. But he performed with them in on stage. And yeah, Joe Polish and a bunch of our friends were there to actually see it happen. That was his bucket list. So you first of all got to identify what, what you want to do in the most conducive environment of it. So if you're gonna meet Warren Buffett or Richard Branson or Elon Musk, you don't want it be to be in an auditorium with 2,000 other people because it's not personal. But how powerful would it be to have a 8 minute conversation with Warren Buffett over an Old Fashioned in a quiet environment? You know, can you imagine if someone said you're gonna have that? So I'm thinking that with the people that Dan knows.

Small like speed date. You know, we're spitballing now, but you asked me to be selfish if I could peek in a Dan's Rolodex and select eight people and then with a good Old Fashioned in my hand and I'm a picky little bastard. It's got to be a good Old Fashioned. So like your Somalia, it's gonna be.

It's gonna be a smoky Old Fashioned.

It's got to be a smoky. So I'm on about a, a just you wanted my bucket list. So here, here for it is a good bartender gives me a barrel age smokes Old Fashioned. Then I go through eight tables and I get to speed date question eight incredible people. And then when the buzzer gets up, I pick up my Old Fashioned, what's left of it. And I go to the next person and I get told ahead of time who these are going to be because I hand picked them. And then at the end of the 30 minutes or one hour, I've met six masterminds. I can sit down in front of Sarah Blakely and go, okay, what was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it? You know, go to the next person that I know, Dan Bazerian, you know, you, you focused on social, you know, so much before you had a product. Why did you do that? You know, go to Warren Buffett and go, what should people be looking in? You know, go to Elon Musk. What problems out there that we need to be focusing on solving? You know, just be able to have my, my list up there. Go to Dan and go, hey, why do you think you're gonna live this long and what are you doing to make it happen? Being able to ask one or two questions tops to each expert on a speed Dane environment. That's what would be my bucket list.

All right, that, that I know is very possible. So.

It is possible. That's why I said it. Yeah, yeah. And with Dan and with you. Damn, hell yeah, that'd be. And who would wouldn't want to do that? Just imagine if you could ask someone that you were in awe of an impactful question and, and use it as a speed date. And literally the buzzer goes, you get up, you move to the next one.

And to know also that you, you outright earned the place at the table on top of it in this case, you know, the, the goal, our central goal in this particular case. And again, I'm. What, what I think is important is this is and isn't about Dan necessarily, because what I wanted to have is a learning experience, which is I want to really decode the incentivized referral world and creating experiences that money can't buy that go beyond the.

The shallow. And even when you talked about.

Never getting someone off stage, I have a rule which is I never want to meet a man on his own battleground.

Yeah.

In positive or negative.

Yeah.

And I also feel the same way about after a performance because you're just meet at that point in an obstacle towards just what you really want is I just want to slow down and rest.

Absolutely.

But it's about being in a truly elevated environment, in an amplified environment. And part of what makes that are right fit people. And I love the drink side of it as well. That's one of the reasons why I've made a point of traveling with my Master Som friend Laura, she's incredible at that. She's an amazing storyteller and she elevates every environment she's in. I was talking to a friend of mine this, this weekend who lives. So his name is Stuart Emery. He's one of the founders of est. Okay, really interesting guy. So Landmark Forum, of course, came out of that and he was one of the three people who made that that happen. And he's 79 years old. He's got the most incredible home. It's right across. It's on Belvedere island across from Sausalito. Through his front window is the Golden Gate Bridge and the city. You just can't. It's like one of those. Yeah, money can buy its views, but money can barely buy it these days. Yeah. And then we, we're hanging out, had breakfast and makes great coffee and, and, and he, he's a foodie. And I was asking him some of these questions and in a way, he doesn't have any bucket list items necessarily. He's in a different phase of his life. Oh, and by the way, Mike Rowe, the dirty jobs guy, is his next door neighbor. He's there all the time. So I'll just give you an idea of the neighborhood. So anyway, I said, so what's on your bucket list? What's something that would wake you up if you knew it was coming three to six months from now and just get you excited every single day leading up to, to that. He thought for a moment, he said, what I want is to have dinner with six or eight chefs, all of them being chefs, right? So like Michelin rated. And he told me this incredible story. So his wife Joni worked for.

Famous director Scorsese and actually worked on the Godfather movies. So fascinating. Lots of experience, exposure. And they were at Sergio.

The composer's home.

He who does all of the used to do spaghetti western.

Movies, soundtracks, etc. Etc. Okay, Sergio, I forget his last name right now. Marconi, something like that. It's mayor something or other.

Anyway, works with Tarantino, a lot of soundtracks and stuff. So he's at their, his house, this is back probably in the 70s.

And seated at one of the tables was Sergio and a very, very well known writer who wrote for all the tabloids and the Hollywood stuff and then.

Some other very, very famous wealthy person and also at the time the most famous European prostitute. And.

Stuart was in another table, again, highly elevated people. And he was watching one person in particular who was, who helped get him there. And he said afterwards, he says one of the things I love doing is just watching the interaction. It was obvious you all loved each other, respected each other, and even though you're in completely different businesses and industries, you know what was going on there. And he turned to Stuart and he said, you know.

We all appreciate and admire each other because we're all the best at what we do in the businesses we were in.

That makes sense.

And. And at that moment, the aha. Experience I had is.

How do you create an experience where you find your superpower? You narrow it down in such a way that you are recognized and appreciated for your unique best in class thing and experience that kind of a table experience. So again, I tell you that story because my goal is just to maybe get a reaction, a response or a thought from you there. Do you have any?

So there's. I don't know if you do you know John Levy?

Yeah, of course. So I've been to a bunch of his experiences.

Yeah. So he does a similar kind of thing where he has these dinners and he invites incredible people and no one's allowed to say what they actually do.

Or who they are. Just for the record.

Yeah, yeah. They can't, they can't mention anything like that. And usually he does it around a cooking experience, doesn't he? So you end up cooking a meal together. And you're allowed to know that. My name's Mike. And my name's Steve. And the whole thing is you're like, oh, what do you do? And you're not allowed to say, so you're allowed to ask, yeah, where do you come from? And that's the same kind of experience that's a valuable event that you can't create anywhere else. And if you forced. Created it, it wouldn't give you the euphoria. Aha. Moment that you get from it. When the revelation comes along that I'm a prostitute, I'm a writer, I'm a. I, I invented this, you know, and that's the kind of. Oh, wow. You know, the downside now with today's world is that we actually meet People's wiper Kelly. A profile before we meet them.

Yeah.

And we, we come along and we're like, oh, you're going to meet so and so. And you're like, oh, he done this. And you get flustered and you then meet the person you're going to. Oh, it's always a pleasure to me. And you got your P's and Q's about you, and you're kind of dancing and you're not being. You and the person that's meeting you is kind of like, well, this person's a prick. You know, you can't even just relax. You know, he's like, flapping all over the place so you don't actually get. To me, it's almost like an interview situation when you're interviewing for a job and then you go away with an artificial idea of the person. So when you meet someone that you don't know, or you're meeting someone that you want to meet but you don't know, it's that person, you're kind of more relaxed. You're like, I'll so hurt you. I'm Mike. What do you do? Well, I can't tell you until later that you bond and you get to meet the person. And I'm going to take this even further and give you a true example of that. So I got contacted 10 years ago, and the Australian crowd, they contacted me and they said, we want to go to Sorell and John's Oscar party. And I was working for them, you know, even back then, unofficially, by just getting tables and selling seats, and they wanted a table, and they were going to bring some of our top people. Now, I didn't really care what that top people were. I didn't even care what industry they were in. I was just helping out Elton John's people by selling a table. So I turned up on the Saturday, and the party is always on a Sunday, as you know. And I gave them all the tickets. Now, these boys, they were drunk, okay? And in the corner was this older fella, looking very dapper, and all these Australian guys were completely slammed. I gave him the tickets. I'm thinking to myself, they're probably going to forget the tickets. So I said to him, do you know I'm gonna put them with the front desk and have them delivered to your room.

Yeah.

And they were like, oh, yeah, great, great. You gonna kick around for a beer now? I was riding the bike as usual. So I said, no, I'm on the bike. No alcohol. And they were like, oh, well, we've got a couple of other people coming they want to meet. And I'm like, great. I'm gonna stand over here in the corner. Because, you know, these guys were already elevated. They were already having a good time. I wasn't up to that level, and I didn't want to be drinking. I stood in the corner with this older fella, okay? And he looked very dapper. He looked like an extra out of Downton Abbey, okay? And I said to, hey, how you doing? He's oh, it's a pleasure to meet you. And he had these rose tinted glass and you're probably already guessing already who it is. So I started chatting with the guy and he was very eloquent. He said, so where are you from? And I swear I'm from England. He said, what are you doing? I said, well, you know, I get people what they need. And kept it very, you know, blank like that. I said, what do you do? Oh, I've been invited along as a friend of theirs. Oh, good. Are you looking forward to it? Have you been to the event before? No, I haven't. Oh, what are you looking to get at? We started communicating and doing this thing weirdly called have a conversation. I left him. The other people that were supposed to come up, they didn't make it. I left. He went to the party, then we stayed in contact. And then I went to an event in New York and I can say the go the guy's name that did the event. It was Joe Polish, his Genius Network annual event. And it was at the Marriott in New York. That's how far back it was.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

And it was.

That's probably the first time you and.

I met then, was it? I bet it was the Marriott. It was there. We jokingly called it a Death Star. Yeah. Because it was one of the horrible is bloody places. But at this massive ballroom in Times Square. And I was there and I'm sat at this table and I knew Joe and I was friends of Joe, and I was glad to come along and be in this environment of challenging people to me. And I'm at this table with, you know, like eight other people that I didn't know who they were. And this guy walks up behind me and rubs my head. Now, I'm not a small fella and being. And anyone that's listening to this on a podcast and not seeing the video or whatever, you know, I'm a big bald fella with, you know, tattoos and earrings and stuff. You don't kind of do that, you know, unless you're really friendly with me. So, you know, and you've obviously got that. So these guys are kind of looking a bit weird because this guy's touched my head. I'm sorry. Thinking, who the bloody hell do I know here that's comfortable enough to do that and not risk a slap? And I turned around and it was Jay Abraham. Oh, yeah. So the guy that I had met at this drunken Australian group was Jay. And I knew Jay. I didn't know the J. Abraham. Yeah, I just met this dapper, cool, intellectual, articulate guy called Jay. Seemed a cool cat. Started helping him out with a few things. Knew nothing about him, but because of that, I got to know him. Him. When he turns up at this event, he sees me, rubs my head. I'm like, dude, what are you doing here? I said, you know, Joan? He's like, yeah. And I'm like, oh, you know, are you in this kind of world? And he's like, yeah. And I said, oh, so what are you doing? He said, well, I've got a few things to do here, but we will hang out later on. I'm like, hey, cool. You know? And he walks off, and I turn back around to my table, and my entire table were like a deer in headlights. And I. I don't know which one of it was, but they turned and went, you know Jay Abraham. And I said, well, obviously not. I know Jay. You know, I know we both love whiskey. You know, he's more of an Anglophile than I am. And so we're always talking about England and Paris, But I got to meet Jay before I got to meet the J. Abraham profile speaker. And I left that table, went over to Janice. Jay, I thought I knew you, but. And we'd known each other for, like, a couple of years. I said, but obviously I don't, because there's a. There's a bunch of guys over there, like, doing headlights. I said, you know, who are you? What are you doing? He went, we'll get to that. We'll get to that. And I remember him saying at the time, we've already met. Now I'll introduce you to what I do, right? And I realized then that we had become friends, because I hadn't. I hadn't come across Jay as the big intellect that he is and the big profile. And in the world of entrepreneurs, you know, both me and you know that if. If. If they don't know Jay, then they're pretty much not at the top of the tree, because everyone from. From Branson, Tony Robbins, anyone you can think of that's an influencer that you admire has more than likely probably worked with Jay. But I didn't know that. So I realized at the time that there's a real danger when you meet someone's wiper, Kedia profile, or their fancy website or their fancy influencer status. There's a real danger in meeting them. So the John Levy and this dinner series for us to be able to meet people and actually converse with them, that there's real Value in that.

So I have just one tiny tangent to go down, which I completely agree. And that's a great distinction. First of all, about meeting the person versus meeting the legender. Yeah. And I was invited to Levy dinner experience as well. And of course, you're not told anything it took place. I won't give away the person's place because she's very private but exceptionally wealthy. Now, a very, very good friend of mine's home right in Santa Monica, it was a highly elevated experience. And inside there, same thing. You're only allowed to say your first name. They lay down the rules, were cooking well. So the people who were in the room and I had. I didn't even recognize them. It was Logan Paul, who at the time, when I finally was talking to him, I'm like, yeah, what do you. You know, I just thought he was some little punk, you know, YouTube guy. He was making $20 million a month selling T shirts and stuff off of his merch, you know, And I'm like, what the hell? You know, why don't I know? This guy took a picture, sent him to my son, and my son replied, giant douche.

You know, oh, yeah, he's done a good job of that. Yeah.

But, you know, unbelievable.

He lives around the corner for me now.

Okay, so the other one was Apollo Robbins is the world world famous pickpocket guy. Really entertaining. And of course, when he revealed who he was, he had. He had two people's phones in his pocket and their keys and a watch. It was amazing. And then.

A couple Hollywood writers and an Olympic athlete. But it was, it was then my eyes were really open to what a truly elevated experience would be like. And everyone was so excited. But it was nice to meet the people first. And clearly, again, he finds people with charisma and personality who he thinks would fit in first of all, but, yeah, extraordinary. And then one other thing, just along this line, before I ask you one more big question, is this weekend my wife and I got invited to Tim Draper's house in Nob Hill. And you know, and again, I didn't recognize most of the people there. I wish I would have, but it was not the kind of place where you wear a name tag. But it's more billionaires per square foot than you can imagine, but very fascinating. And again, I love these sorts of experiences. So now I'm going to flip the script a little bit and ask you this question, which is we've known each other now, I'm guessing we've probably gone deep, starting maybe four or five years ago. I'm pretty sure I met you at Joe's the first time, so we have that in common. I'm guessing maybe 10 years ago.

Is there something I can do to help make your dreams come true?

Oh, God.

So for a start, anyone that knows me knows that I am a very dull person. Oh, yeah. I live. I live up in the. The hills because no one can be anywhere near me. And I'll tell you what I've been most excited about over the past couple of months. I bought an old house, and I've been planting trees around it, and I've been putting these. These fence nets that look like vines so they give you your privacy. And then when you put the trees on it, they obviously fill out. But going out to garden centers and picking out what ficuses I want has been the most exciting part of my life. And it's been funny, you know, because one minute I'll be talking to someone at the Vatican while Googling fake ficus hedges, which have really been turning me on. So I'm actually a very dull person. But something that I like, that I think we're coming down to. The hidden trend within this conversation is you talk about the elevated experience, and both of us have talked about it is the reveal. You know, my speakeasies, people come to it, they don't know what they're going to get. You go to John Levy's dinner, you don't know who's going to be there. The event, you went to a Nob Hill, you know, the people that were there is the reveal, I think, today. And people have actually said this to me. They've said to me, have I ever failed to get anything a client ever asked for? And I've always been able to turn around, say, I've never failed because I've never given them what they asked for. I've given them what they needed, lusted, and desired for. And usually there are two different things. The guy that wanted to meet Journey, I could have met, given it. He would have been so upset if I'd have given him what he asked for. Okay, so you've got to ask people now, why is that important? And get to the core, get to the dream, get to the desire, and then give them that. There's the real ROI in that. So I'm a great believer it's the reveal. And I think in this whole conversation, trying to find out what really gets someone turned on is to first understand what motivates them, what pushes them forward, what invigorates them, what entices them, what engages them, and then allow that to be revealed at the end of them accomplishing it. So I think while we've come at it from different angles and different stories in here, it's the reveal that all of your hard work has taken you to a new level of that you never thought possible. And in your words, elevating the experience by giving them a reveal. For me, being in a room with people that challenge me to think differently, look at things differently, like you, you, you paid me the compliment of saying about my character. You know, you walk into a room and everyone knows that you've walked. I know you've walked into a room before I've seen you because the mood changes because of the way you are so elevated with your charisma, your the weirdest shoes. You know, if someone doesn't know this guy, me might and look at his feet, there's usually some kind of God awful, garish, illuminated, flashing color shoes going on and they pale to your character and charm. You know that the quietest part of you once people get to know you. So I like to be in a room where people are doing things differently. And that's what, that's my bucket list. It would bother me to not be in a room where I wasn't challenged. And that's why I love being in Joe's strategics, hanging around with Dan. Dan always will quietly say something that is just like a silent smack in the head.

I love that. I love that. So does that mean you don't have a specific ask other than obviously I'm going to tell everyone to head on over to stevesims.com learn more about you, but is there any way I can elevate you and what you're doing or make your dreams come true? Anything pop into your head?

You know, it's funny, you know, two or three years ago when I was asked if I wanted to write the book and they offered me a bunch of money, my first thought was great, I can buy another motorbike and me and the wife can go to Japan. And I never thought it would be anything. Now my excitement is getting people to think differently. So I don't have an ask. My ask, I suppose, would be to ask people to get uncomfortable, do something today that makes, makes you uncomfortable, whether it come to jail with me, whether it be to go and force yourself into a group that challenges you, whether it be just to try an appetizer that sounds weird and freaky on a menu that you don't understand, just try and do something that makes you uncomfortable.

Right? Well, one of those uncomfortable things is just hanging out with Steve soon.

Thank you.

All right. Awesome, man. Well, I love you. Appreciate you. Thanks for coming down.

Look out. So.

Pow.

Bye.

All right.