Michael and Tanya's Storie, Their Why

Welcome, Equus. How are you guys doing tonight? We're getting close to dinner. Hopefully you can hold on for a few minutes. Has anybody seen Tanya? She's supposed to talk with me. She, she, she picked out a really great outfit today, didn't she? I mean, it's not bad enough she's already clearly better looking than me, but now she's got upstaged the outfit too. It's pretty rough. We are grateful. Usually in these settings I introduce myself as Tanya's husband. The thing that I don't usually follow it up with is she got my last name and I've been grateful. And it's been this year will be 24 years that we've been together. And as you can tell, I got a little Mike hall and Jonathan Rogers in me and I'll do my best to keep that to a minimum. But it's been a great ride that we've had the last 24 years. It was a little surreal for us. We were talking about the opportunity to visit with you guys for a few minutes this afternoon. And it was three years ago next month that we attended our first convention. And Tanya will go a little more into detail about what that meant for us and where we were. But it's real to stand on the stage today, less than 36 months later, to have an opportunity to visit with you guys for a few minutes about why we do what we do and why we're here at Equus.

You know, I don't think I can tell you our why without telling you a part of our story. Equus has changed our lives. And I tell you today that you are not here by accident. It is not a coincidence that you are here. There's a reason you're here today. It was just two weeks after we'd been introduced to Equus that my husband and I were facing one of the hardest trials in our lives. We came into this business just two weeks before our son passed away. Callan Hughes. He was my everything. I was a caretaker. I was a mom of six children, a stay at home mom and a caretaker for 13 years for two extra special children. But two weeks after joining Eclis, it became the hardest time of my life. I wasn't just kicked, I wasn't just punched. My life was shattered on the floor. And there's several reasons why we're here today. One, it was a way for me to be able to honor our son. Can I tell you something? I'm being very transparent and honest with you today. We had a had to have a GoFundMe, my friend. I'm grateful for her. I'm grateful for her that she did it. But I was that one. We were the ones. My husband and I looked at each other. It's hard enough to lose a child, but to look at yourself and go, how are you going to bury him? Guys, what we do, the value of what we do is real. It is not a sad sales job. It is real. We are changing lives. We are the same people. We came into Equus broken. I came in here on a glimmer of hope. But I'll tell you something. Barry Clarkson made a phone call to me the day our son passed away. CEO took the time to call little minion me of two weeks into this business. Do you know, that meant the world to me? And I still have that message today. And Charlotte Nicotri introduced me to this business. And do you know where she was the day my son passed away? The day we were sitting there not knowing what to do, she was on my front doorstep. She cancelled her appointments. Equus was there when we needed it most. It picked me up. I was beaten. I was devastated. But I came to convention back in the back, and I heard Barry say, are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? And as I got that message from my landlord saying, guess What? You got 30 days to move because you can't pay your rent on time. I was like, I'm done. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. Relationships is the reason we are here today. And not just Barry and not just Charlotte. It's all of you who helped me pick up the pieces that were shattered across the floor. And each of you who were here became a part of my life and put the band aid on my heart. And now we're here to help grow this company to $100 million company. We bleed Equus because Equus was there for us and we needed it most.

So why Equus? You know, I've always had my own business. We've gone out and done our thing. I always believed, I said in our why video that we. That we submitted. I just always believed that. I was worth more than somebody else was willing to pay me. And so why Equus? Why here? Obviously, there's other options to make money. We're here at Equus because of Barry Clarkson. They don't have Barry Clarkson. They don't have Rob Jones. They don't have Bill Martin. Another company thought they did, but we got him, too. And as we found out this morning, we joined a family together. And isn't that beautiful? I think Bill might be lying about that, by the way. I'm not sure. I think he saw Bill's 401k and said, hey, maybe I do want to be his son. He's looking a little thin. I was teasing him about that the other day at the pool. But they don't have these men. They don't have the vision that they have when they talk about core values. Relationships, respect, humility, ownership, attitude, toughness. That's who I want to be. I want those core values for myself. If you're out there in the audience today, my challenge to you, if you don't already have enough to do when you leave this venue in a couple of days, pick out the core value that you have tackled the most. Give yourself about 10 seconds and pat yourself on the back, and then pick out the one that you struggle with the most and spend the next 90 days working on that. Make it your mission over the next 90 days to make that weakness a strength in your life. And it will be amazing what it does for your business and what it does for you personally. See, I believe that we all have a divine purpose. We are here more than just to suck oxygen out of the atmosphere. We are here to protect families. We're here to change people's lives. Ty and I's journey is one that anyone here can have. It was less than 36 months ago. We were out there, and we didn't know how we were going to be able to pay for our bags. We had the plane ticket paid for, but I didn't know how we were going to get our bags home. It takes belief in yourself. It takes plugging into the system, and it takes getting around those who you want to become like. And as you surround yourself with those who you want to become, you will become that person.

So just three and a half years ago, we didn't have enough money to even bury our son. We have a daughter who's a quadriplegic with no explanation as to why. In the past, we've never been able to get her the treatment that we thought she once needed. I cannot tell you the freeing moment. It was this past year that when we knew the kind of treatment that she needed, the doctor says, well, it's going to be really expensive. In the past, I'm like, what, $100, $200? What is it? And barely trying to make it. In the past, it mattered. I cannot describe how freeing it was to look that doctor in the eye and say, I don't care. Tell me the number. I don't care. I'll write the check today. And he looked at me like, are you crazy? Do you understand what you're telling me? I said, price doesn't matter, guys. When we came here to Equus, and I know we don't have much time, but I want you to know I was sitting out there, and I remember Barry saying, 98% of this is between your two ears. And I thought, I got a problem, because what's here is not good. It's not good. I mean, I was broken. I was destroyed. It was awful. And I was like, I better get working on myself. And I threw myself into personally developing myself. And I remember at one of the second convention in Barry goes, if you want to know you're a leader, look behind you. I look like this. And I'm like, michael, we got no one following us. I knew that I had to change. So I challenge you. Look yourself in the mirror as I did, with tears streaming down my face, and be willing to say, I'm not happy where I'm at. I'm not happy who I am, and I'm going to make a change. But look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself, because that's exactly what it takes. You've got to own it. You've got to take responsibility for where you are. You've got to not be a victim like I was, of my own circumstances. You've got to get up. You got to fight. You got to give it all you've got. You got to let your brain be Barry's brain for 90 days. I told my husband, I'm giving Barry 90 days. He's not getting one more day. Not one. But you know what? 90 days. I gave him everything I had. And we watched our life changed. We are living proof this model works. We are living proof Equus can provide you financial freedom and can change your life the way you want it, as long as you're committed to the process, as long as you give it 100%, as long as you're willing to personally develop. And why are we here today? Our why has changed because Equis has changed our lives. We want to be able to find people to change their lives to. People just like us, people who are good people just wanting to make a difference. We all have a mission in life. Sometimes the Lord has to break us to build us.