In this interview, the author of Genius Within discusses the core principles of self‑leadership and how to unlock one’s “zone of genius.” He introduces the “5 C’s” framework, emphasizing clarity as the first domino that triggers confidence, courage, conviction, and commitment. He explains the concept of $10,000‑per‑hour activities and illustrates it with Michael Jordan’s branding success. The conversation references Dee Hawk, the 98‑year‑old founder of Visa, who observed that top leaders devote more than half of their leadership energy to leading themselves, a point illustrated with Tom Brady’s Super Bowl comeback. The guest highlights mastermind groups as the fastest path to personal growth, describing how a high‑performing environment elevates identity. He shares personal challenges, including shame, an Enneagram Type 3 struggle, and the creation of alter egos (“Weak Willy” and “Magic Mike”) to overcome trauma. Tony Robbins is cited as his most influential mentor, with over 1,400 hours spent in Robbins’ Platinum Partner programs. Practical resources are offered: a free copy of Genius Within (geniuswithinbook.com), an upcoming Audible version, a text‑based “6 Steps to Finding Your Genius” guide, and his Instagram. The interview concludes with rapid‑fire reflections on his biggest challenge, the impact of Robbins, favorite learning formats (masterminds), and advice to invest in a mastermind early in one’s career.
Chapters
If you design your environment so that you're automatically going to rise, that you cannot sink, you'll eventually get to where you want to go.
If you had like imparting words of wisdom, it could be from your book, because what I want to do, I want to do a couple rapid fire at the end, just pull some insights. Imparting words of wisdom for young entrepreneurs from your book or just you know, from your life experience, what would those final thoughts be if somebody wants to start their own business, move, you know, upskill, new job, new promotion, just level up in life?
Yeah, so in my book, Genius Within, I broke down a lot of these things that we've been talking about, including the $10,000 an hour activities. And when you have, know your genius, where you're one of the best in the world at, like, man, you know, Michael Jordan putting his name on Jordan sneakers that did really well.
Didn't do bad at all.
I'm wearing Jordans still because, uh, his name, right? And the brand is great. So you figure out your zone of genius, you leverage your zone of genius, be very, very intentional about it. Most of us are hap— most of us don't have enough clarity about our zone of genius. That's why it's the first domino to fall. You got 5 C's, and the first C is clarity. If you get more clarity, guess what? You're gonna show up with more confidence. If I show up with more confidence, guess what I'm gonna show up with? Also more courage. And because of the greater courage that I show up with, I'm also gonna lead and make decisions and act with greater conviction. And then when I have greater conviction, my commitment level is gonna rise. But the first domino to fall, the first C, is clarity. That's why Socrates said, "To know thyself is the beginning of all wisdom." To know thyself is the beginning of all wisdom. So, you want to be a great leader? You want to build a great business? Know yourself. Know yourself better than anyone else because then you can put yourself in extraordinarily right positions. So, go back to another guy, one of the oldest guys I've ever talked to, but still bright and brilliant. D. Hawk. Do you know who D. Hawk is?
I actually don't know who— you mentioned a couple that I know. I know Drucker, but I don't know who D. Hawk is yet.
Most people don't know him, but, but most have used one of his products. Do you have a Visa card?
I do.
All right, so he's the creator of Visa.
Really?
Founder of Visa. Yeah, so I talked to him last year. He was 98 years old at the time. He founded a little company called Visa, as in Visa credit cards, and, um, after he retired and sold his equity in Visa, he started writing Harvard and writing for all these other publications about leadership. And one of the things he found over and over and over again with the very best leaders in the world, they did something that ordinary leaders did not do, which was they focused more than 50% of their leadership energy on leading themselves. So we think of, oh, where's my best leadership energy? Leading others, leading up, Leading down, leading sideways. Nope. Leading myself. Emotional leadership. Putting myself in emotional self-management. Studying myself. Putting myself in the right position. Leading my company in the right way. Having that self-reflective moments. That's what the best people in the world do. Tom Brady goes to Tampa Bay, wins the Super Bowl first year with no Training camp, COVID pandemic, new team, new playbook, everything's going wrong. They suffer. He screws up a couple times in a public way and can't get in sync, right? But then they have a bye week last year. The bye week, he gets everybody right, and he had enough determination, enough confidence, enough self-leadership that he's like, We'll figure this out, guys. We will. And they did. So self-leadership.
Very good. If people want to get more of this book, if they want to connect with you, where do they go?
You can go to thegeniuswithin— it's geniuswithinbook.com. I've got a free copy there, guys. Just have to pay the shipping and handling, or you can get it on Amazon. I will also have an Audible version very, very soon. And then you can also get a 6 Steps to Finding Your Genius guide. Just text the word geniusu to 474747, and that's where we'll start. And of course on my Instagram, I have a link and all that jazz too.
Okay, cool. And most important question, are you doing your own Audible?
I am, yes, yes.
Good.
Well, because most people want the author to actually read it, so that's why. I don't necessarily like to read it as much, but yeah.
All right, let's do a couple rapid fire just to close this out. So biggest challenge that you've had in your personal or professional life, what was that? How'd you overcome it?
Shame. Shame of failure. I'm a Type 3 on the Enneagram. Man, when all that stuff hit in 2018, 2019, dude, I wanted to be the dog with the tail between his legs. The ostrich with the head in the sand. And I was at times. There was moments where I was just hiding. I wanted to hide. I was embarrassed. I was frustrated. I was sad. I was despairing. All the juicy stuff there. But battling through that, that's where I went really deep on— I was like, I got to fill my tank. I got to fill my tank. And I know this is going to be a seed that becomes a setup, a setback that becomes a setup, a setback that prepares me for my comeback. And so, but I had to really train myself and overcome those fears and traumas. And I also had to create an alter ego. Like I had, I called my shameful self Weak Willy. And then I called my badass self Magic Mike because I had a client nickname me Magic Mike 'cause I was creating magic in her life. So I had to redo that whole identity.
If you had to choose one person, although there's been many, but one person who's had the biggest impact on your life, who was that person? What did they teach you?
Hmm, living-wise, I would say Tony Robbins. I mean, besides parents, of course, but Tony Robbins. I spent 1,447 hours with Tony going to his Platinum Partners, other mastermind experiences. The dude is a gem. I think he's a saint. He's a force for good. No one more impactful in my opinion than Tony and inspiring and imprinting upon me belief.
It's funny, you know that program that you mentioned from Tony Robbins? Everybody who— I can't remember the name of the program you just mentioned at the beginning, but everybody who I know, yes, anybody who's taken that program has said that's been the single most impactful powerful thing they've ever done in their life. Like, that's like what just like changed the course of their life. So something to be said for that. He's been doing this for a while too, so he's— yeah, he's been doing it for a minute. Um, okay.
Yeah.
Uh, your favorite source to learn or grow? A book, podcast, um, something you'd recommend that you, uh, that you like?
I love mastermind experiences, are my favorite. That's why I host my own masterminds. I think there's nothing faster for growing because you grow in identity when you're around a select group of 15 to 20 other high achievers. And you see that, hey, I'm learning from them. I can do just as good as them. But also the collaboration and the synergy, it opens up your, like, your tribe. When your tribe lifts and rises, guess what? Your identity rises. By default. One of the things I ask my mastermind members in my symposium mastermind, which is for the successful thought leader, what I ask is, hey, what does my environment have to look like for success as I define it to be inevitable? Because if you design your environment so that you're automatically going to rise, that you cannot sink, you'll eventually get to where you want to go.
I love that. Very good. That's a good recommendation. No one's ever said that. They always default to a book or podcast, which is not a bad thing. But yeah, I know people—
I love books and podcasts too.
Yeah, I know, I know you do. I just, I appreciate that. That's good. If you could tell your 20-year-old self one thing, what would it be?
Invest in a mastermind, being a part of a high-level mastermind sooner. Because, you know, I was reading books and doing seminars and online courses and all that, but it wasn't until I got real relationships and that my identity and my belief barriers were shattered. Like when I was in Tony Robbins Platinum Partner, the first 2 days I was there, I was like the youngest guy. I squeaked in on my credit cards. It was a $100,000 a year program. And I'm like, I don't belong here because of the guys, you know, second guy I had dinner with, he had just sold his business for $110 million. And then, but by the end of that week and by the end of that first year, I was like, yeah, I do belong here. They're no smarter than me. I can figure this out. They just, they just use their genius at a higher point of leverage.
