MAXIMIZING YOU - Reaching Your Full Potential

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Welcome to the Legacy Leavers series on Success Secrets Exposed. Tune in live every Tuesday at 7 PM Eastern Time or Wednesday mornings in Australia on W4CY Radio and Talk4TV. The series showcases experts, changemakers, and disruptors

Good morning, good evening, and g'day to you all, and welcome to another episode of Success Secrets Exposed. In today's episode on Legacy Leavers, our topic is Maximizing You: Reaching Your Full Potential. And I'm thrilled to interview— introduce a very, very special guest whose life story reads like an epic journey of transformation and triumph. From steering a bus to steering lives, Dennis Dowdle has navigated a remarkable path to become a beacon of hope and change as a renowned speaker and trainer. Over a span of 4 decades, Dennis has not only left an indelible mark on the world, but he has also transformed lives of over 250,000 individuals through his unwavering commitment to unleash potential. Recognized for his extraordinary leadership, Dennis possesses a unique gift for igniting the spark of possibility in everyone that he encounters, from individuals to teams and to entire organizations. His life work, driven by the mission to infuse lives worldwide with hope, opportunity through transformative and magic universal principles. And today he's joining us on Legacy Leavers to share his insights on maximizing you, reaching your full potential. Please help me welcome to the show Dennis.

Wow, I could hardly wait to hear this guy, and then I came up.

Me too. Thank you so much for joining us, Dennis. I'm so excited to be having this, um, this conversation with you today. So thank you

Well, thanks so much for having me. What a great— listen, I haven't been down under since, uh, 2011, so it's good to kind of be back there.

Yeah, absolutely. And you're welcome here anytime. We'll get you around the, around the troops, so to speak. So yeah, you're welcome to come for real anytime. But thank you. So I'd love to start with one, uh, question, and I know I've done a little bit of a spoiler alert as to your backstory, but can I ask you to share your backstory in your words and the lessons you've learned legacy that you aim to leave?

Well, you know, actually, when I graduated from college, you know, and I was very lacking on my GPAs, I didn't graduate with any kind of honors. You know, they kind of threw me out the door, getting out, you know. But my real education in college really wasn't courses as much as it was people. And so I learned a lot about people, but they didn't grade me for that. You know, that was the problem. And when I graduated, I thought, you know, I don't wanna go out and get a job, you know, so per se, I wanted to be able to find a career where I could make a difference and then stay there the rest of my life. Right. I know that's a rarity in our world today, you know. In fact, it's almost a part of the process, you know, 3 to 5 years here, go to 3 to 5 years there. But, but I don't like that. The reality is, I really don't like change a lot. I like consistency. I like stability. You know, I like— that's, that's me. And, and so I thought, well, if I'm going to find a career that's going to last me, maybe I better find just a temporary job until I can really zero in and get a career that I wanted. And so I got this job driving a school bus, which was great because it gave me off in the middle of the day so I could go for interviews and do that kind of thing. But I got slacking and it was a number of years later and I thought, you know, I better get on with this. And so then I really, you know, focused my attention and I started looking for different positions. And I actually found 2 positions that would have paid me about 40% more than I was initially looking for. But the problem was it was a job. And so this was one of the first tests of my principles. You know, are you going to love or are you going to become a slave to a job? Or are you going to love a career? And so I had to make a decision. And so I turned those 2 positions down. And, you know, 7 months later, after strenuous looking, I came across a startup company. And it just happened to be one of those things that was, you know, it was like it was perfect for me, handmade. And it allowed me to develop my skills, my abilities, but most importantly, it locked me into being mentored by somebody who was, even though he was a 9th grade educated genius, you

know.

Mm-hmm. He was way beyond me in wisdom and business building. And so, and he was the first of what turned out to be 5 people over the next 5 years that I connected with. And those 5 men changed my life. Yeah. And so, you know, I made my commitment to what I wanted. I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to travel the world. And I discovered these men could help me make a bigger difference. And so I learned a lot. I was a student. I'm still a student.

Yes. Yes. I think that's true. When you, when you, um, come with that curiosity and you, um, want to be the continual student or the lifelong learner, I refer to myself as a lifelong learner. Um, it just creates all sorts of, um, possibilities and opportunities for you. Um, if you're open to receiving those sorts of gifts and things as well. Um, Yeah, that's amazing. So thank you for sharing that little bit of the backstory. I know there's lots of depth to it. So we're going to get into some of those questions as well. What do you think, from your perspective, with those 5 mentors that you had, what was the commonality between all of them that made the impact on you in the first instance?

Well, I mean, it's very interesting. And as it turns out, that's a lot of what my book was about. You know, they all had a strong purpose. I mean, they all knew exactly what they wanted. They knew exactly where they were going. From what I could tell, they knew exactly how they were getting there. And so I realized, okay, purpose, vision is vital. You know, I mean, if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. Exactly. If you know where you want to go, then you can only pick the road that, you know, takes you in the direction you're heading. And so that was real valuable. But, and again, just kind of like we were just saying, they were all students. I mean, I'm amazed. These guys were so smart, but they were always learning. They were perpetual students. And they highly did everything they could to infuse in me the concept of personal development. And, you know, I had one of those 5 men was Jim Rohn, who's known around the world. And I got, you know, I got to spend 27 years working with Jim. We traveled together a number of different times. And, but, you know, so it was very, very valuable, you know, just seeing that. So that personal development was strong.

Yeah.

And then the other thing all of them, you know, taught was that focus, you know, creating a mindset. I didn't even know what a mindset was. That was kind of a foreign word to me until I got around these guys. But, you know, they said, oh, you got to create a mindset. You've got to create a philosophy. How are you going to view the world? How are you going to respond to the different obstacles that get in your way in the process of, you know, reaching your dream? And so that was, you know, real important. And then from there, there was people skills. Of course, That's where I spent most of my time in college and was working with people. So, but, but I learned things about dealing with people, uh, and motivating people that, I mean, was phenomenal. And some just real simple principles that anybody can apply. And, and, and it's so valuable to, you know, because when, when you begin impacting people, that's where the difference comes in. You know that that's where the satisfaction comes in. It's not what you do; it's what others do as a result. And so, you know those you know they fine tune those things. And then, of course, she says, "Well, now that if you know where you're going, if you're focused on getting there, you know focus always precedes success, right? Think about

it.

Focus always precedes success. You got to get focused, and then you can succeed. You can get a little bit closer." Right? And, um, but, but once you've got that and you've developed the people skills, then the key is what are you gonna do? Okay, I know what— I know what I can do, but how can I greater impact other people so that they can do it as well? That's the point. The point is for them to take what I've learned, what's helped me to grow, and apply it so that they can grow. And so it's, and that's leadership. Leadership is just, you know, reaching down and bringing somebody up and say, hey, let me show you where I've been. Let me show you how I got there. And so it's that leadership, knowing what's next. Okay. Understanding why it's important. You know, our purpose, making sure we're purpose-oriented and we're focused. Right? And so knowing what's next. And then knowing how do I take the resources that I have available? To get me ahead, you know, to solve the problems. Okay, and the beauty about today is, listen, resources are abundant; they're infinite, you know, in our world today. And so once I, you know, developed that leadership, then it was, you know, basically learning then to keep it all in balance, you know.

And that's that's a tricky thing now.

How do we maintain everything that we want in our life? And, and, uh, you know, keep it balanced. You know, I mean, I, you know, Sally, it's sad, but many times I see people and we hear it all the time. You know, they zero in on their careers or working, you know, 40, 60, 80 hours a week, you know, 6, 7 days a week and they're drive, drive, drive. And they want to create a lifestyle for their family. And they finally, you know, they, they create the success, but then the kids are gone. Their family's gone. They're divorced. And, and they're not happy.

Yeah.

You know, and so they've, they've reached the goal, but they missed the objective. The objective is lifestyle and freedom. The goal was the success in the position, but the goal didn't give them the objective.

Makes sense.

So we need to keep those things in balance so that we can actually enjoy the process. Otherwise it's just, you know, straight on and, and we miss so much of the joy.

Yeah, exactly. I think, and that's, that's one of my favorite words is joy, because I have a very exuberant dog and I love walking her in the mornings because she just expresses joy all over her face. And when she meets somebody else or one of her favorite humans when we're in the park, you know, that, that, that joy just, just gets so much bigger on her face. And that is—

And that joy radiates on your face.

Yeah, thank you.

It does. It's contagious.

Exactly. And I think that's one of the elements that is, if I look back at my career of, you know, that focus and that objections where it's not been purpose-driven, it's been goal-driven. And I have burnt out at times in my life. It's, you know, that joy, the joy is the first thing that dissipates. Well, it was, that was the that was my experience when you sort of just get stuck in that drive, drive, drive. You just sort of, you just, I feel I closed myself off and I missed out on those, all those opportunities. And I think for me, listening to what you were sharing there is around that mindset and resources. You can, and I'd love your insight on this, you can utilize other people's resources. but you're not to become the cardboard cutout of the person that you've collected all those sorts of things. And if I come back to your book title and your universal principles, it's about maximizing you and arming you with tools and resources. It's not about you becoming somebody else. And we— I talk about cardboard cutouts. You know, you don't need to be a cardboard cutout of the guru at the front of the room. Right. So this is why I've loved your principles so much, because it is all around maximizing you as the individual and creating that balance and that type scenario as well. So from that perspective, if we look at the mindset, the focus, and the balance, how do you help people balance all of that out?

Well, I mean, I think that's, you know, it's, it's the old principle of, you know, taking the rocks and you put the rocks in the bucket first. In other words, what are the non-negotiables? What are the most important things? In other words, you know, they say, you know, if you don't plan your day, someone else will. If you don't plan your month, someone else will. If you don't plan your life, someone else will. And so we've got to plan our life, you know. And, and so we've got to start it really at the beginning of the year. You can't really start the year until you've finished it. You can't start the day until you've finished, you know. And so I finished it. I know what I want. Now that doesn't mean you're not going to run into obstacles, and that's, that's a certainty. We know that, right? But, but so at the beginning of the year, you put in those rocks, those non-negotiables. Okay. Family vacation, non-negotiable. Okay. Marriage retreat, non-negotiable. You know, I've got certain events, non-negotiable. So I put the big rocks in first. And so that way, anything else that comes up, that's all those, those dates are already gone. You know, and so it's there. Then you put in, you know, the other activities, you know. Then you put in the, you know, the the pebbles, and you get the pebbles in there, and you and they kind of fit around there. And then you pit, you know, get the sand, and then you finally you pour in the water, and that way everything fits. Now take note though: the rocks are larger, take up may take up more space, more time, and that's in in our day. You know, we need to keep these things balanced. There's There's seven areas in our life that we need to keep balanced if if we're going to maximize our potential for love and life and living. You know, we've got to have these seven areas. You have our family, okay? We have the financials. We have the the personal. I have the the professional. I have the physical. You know, if I don't take care of my body, I mean, you know, I mean, it's real important. You know, I'll take care of me for you. You take care of you for me. But But I'm gonna take care of me, you know, because I've got to be able to perform. I mean, you know, if I'm, if I'm planning on, you know, if I'm scheduled to die at 90 and I destroy my health by 60, I got 30 years of misery. So, you know what I mean? That's my perspective. So the physical, and then we have the, uh, the social and the spiritual. Mm-hmm. And so all of those things need to be a part Of every day. Now, that doesn't mean they each get equal time. Okay? Because my job obviously is going to take me, you know, 8 hours a day. Right? You know, sleeping takes 6, 8 hours a day. So, you know, that, that leaves me about, you know, 8 to 10 hours, you know, to fill in the blanks with all the rest. But we've got to get that laid out. And, and when we do that, You know, that's it. It seems so fundamental, but if you live that way, and and you'll never know if you can live that way until you start, until you get tested, and the tests will come.

Yes, very very true.

Um, just a thought. Okay. Yeah. And I don't know. Maybe this is early. I kind of throw this in at the end of my book a little bit, but. But think about it. We have our spirit, our soul, and our body. All right? Our spirit, that's our conscience. You know, that overall governing factor as to what we're going to do with our mind. It tells our mind, our soul, mind, will, and emotions, tells them whether it's right, whether it's wrong, whether it's good, whether it's bad. You know, is this going to be productive or not? You know, This gives us the you know that conscience kind of thing, right? But you know, and then you have the mind. You know, I make decisions with the mind. I fulfill the decision with my will, and then I experience you know the feeling. See, people in today's world, they get it backwards. They want if it feels good, do it. No, that doesn't lead to a productive life, right? And then you have the body. So if people today, you know, if they zero 100% on their mind, will, and emotions because we've got You know, personal development seminars, the Tony Robbins and you know the Grant Cardones. I mean, you've got you got all these people. I mean, you know, you can fill your mind with that, and you're the best shape of your life, right? But if you don't pay attention to that spiritual side, think about it. You've got 33, 33, 33 percent, right? Spirit, soul, body. If I max this out at 100 percent. And I max this out at 100%, and I don't pay attention to this, this—that means my potential. Because I'm into the full potential, not partial potential, right? If I'm 100% and 100%, and if I if I leave this one out here, I'm only going to maximize about a 66% potential factor. See, even if I'm 100%, but are we 100% of our mind? Are we 100% of our bodies? No. Which means what percentage of potential am I living? Yeah. We need all three in each. Each performs their own function, you know, own responsibility and part of the puzzle to maximize our life and to be able to enjoy life. Life was meant to be enjoyed, you know.

Yeah, and we were talking a lot earlier before we came on the show about, you know, the amount of change that's going on and these universal principles and coming back to what I'm going to call fundamentals. And you, you call them universal principles. So I'd love to explore that a little bit more, especially from the perspective of how you've seen your life and others evolve when the penny drops around those universal principles. So I know you've got lots of stories, and I know you've impacted lots of people. So I'm going to let— I'm just going to drop that little nugget in there and let you take it wherever you'd like to take it. So I'll just repeat it again. Is, you know, I'd love to understand how those universal principles and purpose in general you've seen evolve, and what's happened for, for people when that when that evolution or installation or integration of those principles have come into play.

Yeah, it's, uh, you know, that's so, so important. If, you know, you can build a 130-story building, you know, but that building's as strong as what? The foundation. And the taller the building, The deeper the foundation. So that that foundation is basically you know everything rides on the foundation. Everything rides on those basic fundamental principles or concepts. You know now once you have those concepts, you can utilize whatever strategy you want. And and the and the strategies evolve. The strategies come and strategies go. They'll evolve. They'll change. Strategies change. Concepts are constant. They don't change. There are certain fundamental basics that just don't change. And what I've done, you know, with my book, what, in fact, it was one of my mentors, he said, what are those fundamental principles, concepts that you built your business on that applied to every country, every culture, every philosophy, and every religion you encountered? How did they all, you know, utilize it? And I said, well, I said, there's a number of them. So I went and I just wrote them all down. And finally, you know, I reduced them down and I said, hey, I said, Bob, I said, here's the principles and concepts that I've used. And he said, good. He said, then he said, I think you have a book there. And I went, whoa, what do you know? Yeah. You know, Sally, it was so valuable for me, you know, just to look over the last, you know, 4 decades and say, what were those constants? What were those concepts that I used everywhere I went? Hmm. And that's really where, you know, when you go in, regardless of somebody's background or education or anything else that, you know, it's Okay, so, well, what's your purpose? I mean, listen, everybody wants to know 3 things: who am I, what am I here for, where am I going? So, so in other words, people want to— they want their purpose. Problem is, a lot of people just don't know how to find their purpose.

Correct. Yeah,

so I, I spend a lot of time making sure they understand Okay, you know, what is it that you want? You know, and, and one of the key things in purpose is, is when we look at our purpose, we want to look at who do I want to be? Most people think of purpose, they think, what do I want to accomplish? What do I want to have?

You

know, where do I want to go? No, no, no, no. It's, it's who do I want to be? Do I want to be a good Father, do I want to be a good friend? Do I want to be honest? Do I want to be loving? Do I want to be peaceful? And I want to be patient. Do I want to be kind? Do I want to be? In other words, it's the being. We're human beings, not beings. So so it's real important. So the process that I start people on says first determine who you want to be because. Who you are will determine what you do. If I'm a kind person, I'm only going to do kind things. I'm going to make sure that everything I do is done in a kind way. So it's who I am. Who you are will determine what you do. So it's be, then do. And what I do, following fundamental basics, following principles of purpose, which we'll get to in a minute, I guess. But that will then determine what I have. See, what I do, how I do it, will determine what I have. And then what I have— people think that's the end. No, that's not. No, that's just the beginning, really, because then what I have determines who I help. That's my, that's my bed of resources. See, it's those experiences. It's those lessons. It's the obstacles that I've overcome that now I can continue to feed on to other people. It determines who I can help. That's, that's the real joy.

Yes. Yes. Yeah.

You know, the, uh, the whole idea of purpose— a lot of people, when they think of purpose, they think, okay, what do I want? Okay, what do I want to be? What do I want to do? What do I want to have? You know, and it's I, I, I, I, I. And, and one of the things that I start all, all my protégés, any of my team members out, I said, listen, if you'll get just this one principle, just this one principle, it will change Everything. It will change your direction. It will change how you do things. It will give you a stronger purpose, and it'll give you greater joy. And and that's this: that when it comes to our purpose, it's not about me. It's it's always about others. You know, so I'm thinking about nature is a great teacher. Right? Oh, we can learn so much from nature. We can learn so much from animals, you know, and, and all the different things. But, but I mean, I mean, think about it. A river never drinks its own water, right? Trees don't eat their own fruit. The sun doesn't produce heat for itself. Flowers don't create fragrance for themselves. See, in other words, what nature, nature shows us Is whatever they have, whatever tools, whatever abilities, whatever they have, it's it's designed to make a difference for others, and therein lies the secret of everything. Everything.

Boom!

Yeah.

Wow.

Zig Ziglar said, "If you help enough people get what they want, you get everything that you want."

And

it's just true. I mean, think about it. You know, suppose that you're, you're a concert pianist. I mean, you are like the best of the best. Carnegie Hall, you know, sellout crowd, right? And, and you go and you perform and you get a standing ovation. I mean, does it feel good? Oh, unbelievable! Are you proud of what you've accomplished? Oh, all the hours and time and practice. It feels just— I mean, it's just unbelievable. And all of a sudden you get that reward You got the place, you got the standing ovation, and you feel great, right? What could feel greater than that? What could be better than that? Having a protégé that you teach how to play, how to practice, how to form, and they call you up and they say, I'm going to Carnegie Hall.

Oh, you've just given me goosebumps, really big ones.

And they play and they get a 5-minute standing ovation. Now, what feels better, your ovation or theirs?

Yeah, absolutely theirs. Wow.

When you think about it, see, it's just, it's just so much common sense. It's just common sense. And, and it's, uh, and the thing is, is You know, it's not as difficult as people think to succeed and accomplish what they want. You know, we, we make it a whole lot more difficult than it is.

Do you mean to say we overcomplicate stuff? Did you actually say that?

Isn't it amazing? Yes, it is so true. We have an amazing ability to complicate, complicate just about anything.

So true.

Oh my, that's what they would send me around the world because countries that, you know, they get started and they get going and then all of a sudden they get, they get down so many rabbit holes and, and they complicate and everything gets convoluted and stuff like that. And so they said, you know, well, they send me in and I'll go in for a weekend and I say, okay, listen, okay, let's get rid of all the fluff. Let's get, let's zero in down to the basic fundamentals. You know, what are we here for? Where are we going? What is it we want to accomplish? Okay, now let's, let's zero in on just these things. Build on this. Everything else will take care of itself.

Yeah, and that's talking about the foundations again. And that was actually going to be my next— was one of my next questions, which was, I know from our prior conversations that you did get sent into all of those different countries all of the time. And I was going to bring it back to people what were, what were the overarching people skills? Because I know that's one of, one of your elements as well, especially when you're going into— and what I love is that you were going into other countries and you did not know the language, um, and those, those sorts of things. So I'd love you to share a little, continue this conversation and this thread that we're on, and just sort of tie it back into some of those things of where you've gone into countries. Not only was it complicated because of all of the stuff that had been involved. But from the perspective of language barriers, and then you've got the other scenarios that you've mentioned briefly as well. So I'd love you to continue the thread of this conversation because there's gold in it.

Well, I mean, it's so true. And again, it all comes back to that very first principle that it's not about me. All the talents, all the skills, all the gifts, all the abilities that I have—they're not for me. It's not to make me look good. Those are my—that's my tool belt that God has given to me to invest into other people who don't have what I have. And by the way, in the process of me giving them what I have, I'm taking what they have. You see, I mean, I go into a place and I may work with you know a dozen of the leaders. You know, for the country or whatever. And and so I'm pouring into them. But what they don't realize—it's one way out, twelve ways in. I'm getting twelve times as much as they are. See, so I mean, it's just win-win. But but what? Why does that come into play that way? Because it's not about us; it's about us feeding others.

Which is another thing.

And and so so that's that beginning. So as As you develop your people skills, the people skills always comes in making sure that our focus is on other people. And, you know, it's hard for people to realize sometimes because the only place they see me is on stage, you know, or in front of a camera, right? And so they think, oh, look at this outgoing, vivacious, you know, you know, you know, sparky live person, right? What they don't realize, I'm really an introvert. I love being alone. That's why when I get off the stage, I go to the green room and hide.

You

know?

Yeah.

I mean, you know, but the thing is, is I know that if an introvert like me can work with not only the people I know, but then people that I don't know, you know, then they could take this and really go. And so being the introvert, one of the things that I discovered was if I want to be interesting to the people, because, you know, people buy you, right? Any sales team program tells you that. They don't buy your product. They buy you first and then they'll take the product that you have if it meets their needs, right? That's the idea, you know? And so how do we make that first impression? And so, being the introvert, I thought, okay, I really don't talk much unless I'm asked questions, right? Or unless I'm giving a message. Apart from that, I'm the quiet guy in the back of the room, right? So I discovered, but unfortunately, my position, my business puts me in a lot of social positions, you know, environments, you know. So what am I going to do? And I, so my mentor, From the very beginning, he said, "Denny," he said, "Here's a key for you. Here's a key to your success." He said, "One of your keys is learn to ask questions." Okay? If you ask profound questions, you get profound answers. If you ask simple questions, you get simple answers. If you ask no questions, you get no answers. Then he told me, he said, "So Dennis," he said. Collect questions. When you hear a good question, write it down. I've got pages and pages of questions, you know, that I teach people, you know. And so one of the first things is, is if, if I'm going— and this is one of these never-ending, forever principles that always works, and especially with, with regard to people skills, and that's Be interested, not interesting. See, they think if I'm going with people that I know, or if I'm going especially with people that I don't know, oh my, I've got to make sure that I'm, you know, I come across very interesting and understanding and knowledgeable. And, you know, and so, you know, and so I started thinking, okay, well, I better get my hair right and my clothes right and my words right. I got to say the right thing the right way to the right person. You know, and but what am I thinking about there? I'm thinking all about me, right? It's all about me. And I think, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wrong. Okay, it's not about me. It's about them. Oh, wait a minute. It's about them. So what I learned to do is I learned to ask questions about them. See, in other words, by being interested in them, by the time we finished, I asked these questions. Right? All of a sudden they come, you know, I'll go, I'll go away and, you know, walk off. And, and later on people say, hey, you know, they just thought you were the most interesting person. I hadn't said anything. I just asked a few questions, right?

Yes.

By being interested, I became interesting. And, and so that's the brilliant part, you know. And so, uh, I mean, and some key questions, I mean, just to something for your audience just to, to remember the next time go out and meet somebody new. You know what, when you meet somebody new, you say, oh, hi, I'm Dennis. You know, they say, I'm George. I say, hi, George, nice to meet you. And what's one of the first questions people say? Where are you from? Right? Well, if you say, where are you from? They say Chicago.

Yes.

Now what? Right? So I learned instead of asking where somebody's from, I say, well, so What brought you to this area? There's a whole story behind that. It could be a job, it could be a marriage, it could be a relationship, it could— I mean, it could— there's a whole story behind that. And guess what? Nobody likes you to ask a question they don't have the answer to, but everybody has the answer to that question.

Yeah,

they know that deal. And you know something? They don't get to share that story very much. And so now they've got an open ear. Somebody wants to know how I ended up coming here, everything that I had to go through. I mean, we had to pack everything up. We traveled across the country. We had the dogs in the back seat, you know, and this whole thing. And so it's just brilliant, you see. And then, of course, what's the second most popular question? Oh, yeah. So, so what do you do for a living?

The cringeworthy one that everyone hates being asked. What do you do?

I never asked that question. See, instead of asking, what do you do for a living? I ask, so what do you live to do?

Oh wow, you can feel the difference in that one. Whoa.

And it opens up a whole nother story.

Yeah.

And they just go on and they get to share this. Oh, you know, I, I love fishing. I live to fish. You know, I live for sports. I live to travel. I live to paint, you know, whatever it is. Right. And guess what? They're all excited about it. And you learn stuff. Yeah. You learn a lot about them. And, and, and this is the key, because if you, if you really want to make a difference for somebody else, it's not as important for them to understand you and where you're coming from. As it is for you to understand them and where they're coming from.

Hmm.

You see? And so, you know, so this is the thing that makes all the difference in the world. So it's the principle. It's a never-ending principle. It's a lifelong principle, no matter where you are, no matter what you're doing. And that's always seek to understand more than be understood. Because if I don't understand— see, if I can understand them, who they are, where they're coming from, not just what they believe, but what they believe is minor, why they believe it is major.

Yes, yes.

I understand what you believe, but how did you come to that? How did you come to that conclusion? Why do you— how did you come to that, those results? How do you come— how did you come to that position? See, it's the why. And now when you get to the why, all of a sudden there's another whole story in that, isn't there? And now you want to see what, what we understand by those questions is we understand what motivates you. And they're telling you that, but they don't even know

it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so it's just so valuable. And now, now you can better appeal to the need. See, the idea is to meet their need. See, if you offer a solution to a problem they have up to this point in time never been able to solve, you become extremely valuable.

Yeah.

See, and the marketplace pays for value.

It does very well.

I don't know if you're familiar with Harvey McKay. Guy's a public speaker. He's written a dozen different books.

Yeah, he's got a book on hairdress— a hairdressing salon.

He could. I mean, he has the funniest title. One of his first books was How to Swim with the Sharks and Stay Alive.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it's very interesting. He had an envelope company that was failing that he took over. And he developed what he called the McKay 66. Every single one of his team members, his sales guy, they have what they call the McKay 66. There's 66 bits of information that they need to collect on every single customer they have. So what then when they get ready to, to call in that customer, they pull out that file with the 66 things. They have their birthdays, their anniversaries, their favorite foods, what they like to do. I mean, they've 66 things. So when he calls them up, it's like, hey, you and I are good buddies, and I know everything about you. See? And so there it establishes that relationship. See? And so it helps. Yeah.

Fundamental. Absolutely. Yeah. Beautiful fundamental. We are getting to the not quite the end of the show, but we're fast approaching, as I knew we would. It would come around. way too quick for us. I'm going to ask, as a bit of a recap, and I know we've talked about purpose, mindset, and people skills, and we've talked about your universal principles. So I'm going to ask you, what do you believe the cornerstones are of making that lasting impact and creating long-term change? For yourself so you can for others?

Well, and it, it comes back to that fundamental, that, that foundation, that purpose. Okay, um, we, we don't design our life for pleasure. We design our life for purpose. And when you fulfill your purpose, it brings great pleasure. So, I mean, it's just, in other words, that's what I'm saying. It's just, it's a natural, it's just a natural flow. Mm-hmm. And so I developed that purpose. And then who do I need to become? That takes personal development. And for things to change, I've got to change, you know, for things to get better, I've got to get better. So in other words, I need to become the person necessary to fulfill that purpose. What kind of purpose can do that? What kind of person can make that happen? That's the kind of person I need to become. That's how you determine who your mentors are going to be. Who's already done that? Who knows that? I got to spend time with that kind of a person. And then they can, they can help me stay focused. Okay. Create my mindset. See, here's the interesting thing, because our mindset, our focus is vital because thoughts control our mind. Right? Thought— our thoughts control our mind, but we control our thoughts. I determine where my thoughts— where do our thoughts come from? Our thoughts come from the things we see, the things we read, the things we hear, and the things we experience. And I get to choose each one of those. So I just need to make sure that I choose the things I see, read, hear, and experience are in alignment with my purpose and the person I want to become.

Yes.

And, and so that's where that goes. And so now I've got my— now once I've got that, now I can create my people skills. Now I can learn to enlist people in my vision, enlist purpose so that, you know, we align ourselves with those who are moving in the same direction. I can't help somebody who's going in a different direction. I just say, you need to find another person. I'm not your guy.

Yeah,

I'm

just not.

But if you want to do this, I'm your man, right? And so that's where we, you know, go. And then we lead those who are moving in the direction that we're going, just like my mentors led me.

Yes.

And so, you know, so that's where it is. And it's— and, you know, leadership's not tough. I mean, you know, a leader is just the guy who's one step ahead of you. I mean, you know, I mean, for the most part. And you just need to follow, you know, reaching his hand, say, come this way, right? And so, and like I say, leadership is knowing what to do next, why it's important, and then how to take the resources that I have available to solve the problems. See, that's how it all works. We start with our purpose, right? We have to go through the process, right? Even though we have a purpose, okay, Okay, you know the goal is way out there. You know I have a five-year, ten-year, twenty-year plan, right? But I still have to go through the process to get there. Every process involves what problems?

Yeah.

Every process has problems. So I've got to learn to over. You know that's really what personal development is. Personal development is simply learning to overcome the obstacles between me and my goal. When I've overcome that obstacle, I have developed myself to becoming the person who can do that. And so now I haven't— I've expanded my capacity. But here's what I've learned about problems. Every problem generally involves people. It's rarely products or plans. It's generally personalities, right? I can see you've been through this. I know. I can see that, right? It's what it is. But, but here's, here's the interesting thing. People are generally our biggest problems, but people are also our biggest solutions. The person who's been there before, the person who has insight and has been somewhere or seen something has another perspective that can enlighten me as to how I can make progress. So the people, you know, the good people help me, you know, overcome the bad people, which gets me through the problems, which carries me through the process to fulfill my purpose. So it's purpose, you know, process, problems, people, people, problems, you know, process, fulfill my purpose. So that's that idea.

Yeah.

So I mean, those are— that's just, uh, and that's pretty much what I do. You know, the thing about people think I'm that smart. I'm not that smart. I only got half a dozen things. You know, I don't— you know, I'm setting up an online training program and I'm thinking, you know, I see all these and, you know, It's we compare ourselves. I think, oh, Tony Robbins, Grant Cardone, you know, and Jim Rohn and all these people. Oh my God, I can never be like— and then wait a second, I don't want to be like that. I just got to be me, you know. And, and I learned a long time ago, don't compare. When you compare, it leads to despair.

Yes.

And so, you know, you can only compare equals, right? So anytime you compare, one of two things is going to happen. You're going to be less than or more than. More than leads to arrogance. Less than leads to depression. So don't compare.

Yeah, so sick.

Just compare with the guy in the mirror. Yeah, you know, that's it. And, and so, you know, so that, uh, that kind of thing is, is just, you know, real, real, uh, been real, real valuable for me.

Yeah, thank you. That's awesome. And so the best— and I know you've just touched on, uh, your online course. At the moment, we've got your website going across the bottom of the ticker, which is maximizyou.com. And that's the best place for them to find and grab the copy of the book. The next best place to find you is on LinkedIn, because that's where we've connected and come through from there as well. Can you tell us a little bit more about the upcoming online course in the last minute or so that we've got, or if there's another best place people can connect with you, I'll let you provide the invitation to them.

Oh no, great. Actually, you know, the website's the best. You know, they can get every— all my information is there. They can get a free ebook on how to change. A lot of people want to change, they just don't know how to. They can get a free ebook on how to change, and, and, and all, you know, they can book, you know, I'm able to get booked for speaking or trainings or whatever is necessary, you can find all that there. But my online training program, and we're just in the process of getting it, you know, put together, but it's going to be an interactive training online where they'll, they'll be able to listen and then they'll stop. I'll have assignments for them. I'll give them tools that they can implement in the process so that when they finish a section, They're going to be changed before they get to the next section. They're going to learn simple little things and tools to utilize. So by the time they walk out, because a lot of people say, I just don't know enough, you know, I'm just not good enough. And they're going to discover that they, they do know enough and they're more than good enough. You know, I mean, it's just so, you know, that's why I love talking to people about their potential. You know, and that'll be the kind of the course maximizing your potential. That'll be the name of the course. You know, because your plan is is what you want to do, but your your potential is what you could do.

Yes.

And and and people can do so much more than they think they can. And I've seen it. I've seen it for the last four decades. I've seen people who never in their wildest imaginations, you know, could believe that they're where they are today. And you know who that? Began with me driving a school bus, all of a sudden traveling the world doing all these things. I mean, unbelievable. But I want to— it's so practical. And you know, the thing with my course is when you finish my course, I'm not going to sell another course and then another course and then another course. You know, all these, they get a course and a course and a course. Success isn't that difficult. Listen, don't get it all. I mean, but it's not even— it's half a dozen things, they don't need another course. They just need to apply what's in that course. Well said.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for saying that because I think that's one of my biggest bugbears is the next course and the next course and the next course, which is then not about them. It's about the individual that's selling those courses. So thank you for expressing that. That was absolute gold. It's been a pleasure speaking to you and I can only encourage everybody to connect with you and reach out to you because my experience of today has been transformational for me. I've got lots of little notes. You've seen me squiggling. And when I've got circles around things, that means it's something that I'm wanting to do or wanting to implement. And I've got 6 circles on, on my sheet of paper that I've got lots of notes all over the top. So there we go.

Thank you.

Yeah, transformation and increasing potential in action there. So Dennis, thank you so much for sharing so much with us today. I absolutely encourage everyone to grab a copy of that book and And do connect with Dennis. You are in safe, capable hands to reach your maximum potential. Thank you very, very much.

Remember, if you want to be sought after and sold out, as well as being known as the obvious expert in your industry, you need to speak with Sally, our host of Success Secrets Exposed. Sally is the founder of Monetize Your Content, a done-for-you content marketing agency that helps you be easy to buy. See you next week on another episode of Success Secrets Exposed. Tune in live every Tuesday at 7 PM Eastern time or Wednesday mornings in Australia on W4CY Radio and Talk4TV.