Oct. 10, 2025

From Rehab to Rebrands: The Comeback Story You Didn’t Expect

From Rehab to Rebrands: The Comeback Story You Didn’t Expect
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Season 1

Joe Polish: Recovery, Marketing & the Business of Being Human

What if the same principles that heal trauma could also build great businesses? Entrepreneur and recovery advocate Joe Polish shares how connection, not competition, drives both healing and success.

He opens up about addiction, shame, and authenticity, then breaks down how ethical marketing works: educate, don’t manipulate. Joe’s ELF filter easy, lucrative, fun, shows how to build trust, design community, and create work that sustains you.

If this shifts how you think about business or recovery, follow, share, and leave a quick review to help others find it.

00:00 - Opening: Nerves, Fame, Intent

03:20 - The Psychology of Fame and Humility

09:00 - Trauma, Addiction, and Facing Secrets

17:45 - Intimacy, Safety, and the Stigma of Sex Addiction

24:30 - Recovery Principles and Family Systems

31:00 - From Addiction to Entrepreneurship

37:30 - Direct Response Marketing 101

45:10 - The Consumer Guide and Free Recorded Message

53:20 - Licensing, Case Studies, and Scale

01:01:00 - Pricing, Packaging, and Pride of Spending

01:09:20 - Building Communities: From Carpet Cleaners to Platinum

01:17:10 - Genius Network: Structure, Members, Standards

01:25:00 - Connection as a Skill: What’s in It for Them

01:33:00 - Boundaries, Integrity, and ELF vs. HALF

WEBVTT

00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:06.879
Okay, so welcome to our podcast.

00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:13.519
This is a little bit different today because this podcast is a spin-off of our radio show.

00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:30.559
Okay, so I don't even know how to start because I was telling Ty when I got here, I've interviewed a lot of people, but I'm so nervous about interviewing you.

00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:32.399
And I'll and I'll tell you why.

00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:39.840
Because I mean one of the reasons that I met you through Walter, but what happened was you popped up in my world like a year and a half ago.

00:00:40.079 --> 00:00:51.439
Uh and I got invited to go on a podcast, and I was doing the podcast as a guest, and your name came up, and then I got invited to go to another podcast, and I'm like, and then another podcast.

00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:52.799
I'm like, who are these people?

00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:53.840
They're inviting me.

00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:58.560
So when I go to their podcasts, you're like a guest on these people's podcasts.

00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:02.000
And your name just kept popping up and popping up and popping up.

00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:06.640
So I was one day, I was I was just kind of like, I gotta interview this Joe Paulish guy, right?

00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:13.200
And so then Walter invites me to this charity event, and you know, there's Prince Harry's there, right?

00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:20.400
You come walking in, and I see your I'm like, that's Joe Paul! Holy shit! I gotta, please, Walter, introduce me.

00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:23.439
I want to be and I couldn't, and I was like the famous, right?

00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:23.760
I couldn't.

00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:25.280
I was like, dude, you gotta come my podcast.

00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:25.760
Can you come on?

00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:26.239
You remember that?

00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:26.799
I was like, yeah.

00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:27.680
So now here we are.

00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:28.239
So awesome.

00:01:28.319 --> 00:01:29.040
Well, I'm scared you did.

00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:30.239
Yeah, I'm really glad you're here, man.

00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:32.319
So, what do you want to accomplish today?

00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:34.239
Well, that's a great question.

00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:35.599
I want to get to know you.

00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:36.799
I want to know your story.

00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:39.920
Because here's the rule I broke, and Walter knows this.

00:01:40.079 --> 00:01:42.079
I don't like to research anybody.

00:01:42.239 --> 00:01:44.719
Whether that's that's maybe that's good, maybe that's bad.

00:01:44.879 --> 00:01:51.519
I don't like to, I just like I always looked at my interviews like I'm on a plane from Phoenix to San Diego.

00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:52.400
It's an hour flight.

00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:52.799
Right.

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You're sitting next to me.

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We don't know each other.

00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:56.640
By the time we land, we know all about each other.

00:01:56.719 --> 00:01:57.760
That's how I've always looked at it.

00:01:57.920 --> 00:01:59.599
Sometimes that bites me in the ass.

00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:09.840
Um, but I today or a couple days ago, I I looked you up, and I'm so mad at myself for looking you up because I got in my own head and I was all intimidated by everything you've done.

00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:29.439
That's interesting because I do my best never to try to intimidate anyone, which actually could be if you're trying to posture or do a status play on people, which uh many people try to do, which annoys the hell out of me, uh, then let me say it this way: the people that become my close friends uh that are in my inner circle.

00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:33.599
I look at people that are more powerful, how do they treat people that are less powerful than them?

00:02:33.759 --> 00:02:35.039
How do they treat servers?

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Do they say thank you when someone opens the door?

00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:40.800
And the interesting thing about celebrity and fame, which I don't like.

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I mean, I I've never become famous.

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I mean, in the marketing world, people know who I am and stuff like that.

00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:52.240
But for for the most part, like celebrity level famous, I actually think it it I think it messes with people.

00:02:52.319 --> 00:03:03.919
And I think it it can oftentimes go to their head, or it could bring up some level of insecurity that could show up as arrogance, or they're just people that are narcissists, sociopaths, psychopaths, and they're they don't get they don't care about anyone.

00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:08.639
But I I really want people to feel comfortable around me all the time.

00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:14.000
Whereas some people, their way of getting things done in life is to intimidate the hell out of other people.

00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:14.879
True, true.

00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:23.199
Well, I'm comfortable around you, but I just intimidated, I got in my own head because I saw some of the people that you network with are people that I've looked up to my entire life.

00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:25.039
I mean, Tony Robbins for one, right?

00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:31.120
Like, I don't know the story with you and Tony Robbins, but or you you either look up to Tony Robbins or you and him have done stuff together.

00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:33.039
Well, I like Tony.

00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:35.840
Uh I've known him for I don't know, I've probably met Tony.

00:03:35.919 --> 00:03:40.800
Uh first time I met him was in the late 90s at QVC when he was pitching personal power.

00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:42.000
I have that cassette.

00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:44.400
Oh, yeah, no, I still have the original cassettes.

00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:47.360
You know what's funny about those original Tony Robbins cassettes?

00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:52.159
He at the time he was uh talking very highly about OJ Simpson.

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They've of course had to edit all that out.

00:03:54.479 --> 00:04:13.599
Uh, and then Michael Jackson and all these many people that later in life had these falls or ended up having, you know, you know, things happen that uh you know it's just interesting to watch over a few years and a few decades how people that are superstars oftentimes.

00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:15.680
Right.

00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:18.000
What do you think that I mean?

00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:24.800
Given your how you see what what what sort of common issues that they fall into.

00:04:25.279 --> 00:04:28.480
Well, I guess I uh would go back to my friend Dr.

00:04:28.639 --> 00:04:35.040
Don Wood, who has that great line if you understood the atmospheric conditions of somebody's life, it makes sense why they do what it is they do.

00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:39.279
So why do some people keep pursuing a bigger future?

00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:41.120
And how do some people uh fall?

00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:51.920
I mean, some of it is uh mental illness, addiction, uh oftentimes fame uh at a certain level can change you because it's very seductive.

00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:54.959
Uh I like well let me let me say this.

00:04:55.120 --> 00:05:07.680
Anyone that writes a book, goes on podcasts, goes on stage, which would include all of us, I believe, and I could be wrong, that there is a level of attention that we want.

00:05:07.839 --> 00:05:10.959
We want the world to like us, we want people to like our ideas.

00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:17.120
And what normal person or abnormal would not want someone to like them in a favorable way?

00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:24.639
With that, though, there's a certain level of insecurity because let's prove ourselves, let's get external validation.

00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:32.399
And so when people are constantly uh getting external validation, they start believing their own PR.

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And so I think the real key is if you believe your own PR, it can make you go sideways.

00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:41.439
Uh you familiar with the uh actor Glenn Morshauer?

00:05:41.759 --> 00:05:41.920
No.

00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:49.439
Okay, so Glenn, if you look him up, he's you'd probably recognize him because he's been in more military roles than I believe any living actor.

00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:54.560
But he's not like an A-level uh celebrity, he's he's been on all the Transformer movies.

00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:57.600
Do you remember the TV show 24 with Kiefer Sutherland?

00:05:57.759 --> 00:05:58.240
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:05:58.480 --> 00:06:06.399
Okay, so um me, I met I first met uh Glenn at Sundance in 2007, I believe it was.

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And he had all these people coming up to him throughout the lunch, you know, can I have an autograph?

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Can I take a picture?

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And he was super gracious, and he was uh he seemed to genuinely enjoy it.

00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:26.319
And I said to him, and it was a lot, after about the 15th person in the span of, I don't know, maybe eight minutes, I said to him, I go, does is is that ever difficult?

00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:27.279
Does it ever bother you?

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He goes, you know, sometimes if I'm you know with my wife and we're trying to eat, he goes, Yeah, but he goes, I wouldn't have a career if it wasn't for these people.

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I'm so appreciative that they like my work.

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And he would, he was just a nice guy.

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And so I became friends with him.

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A couple years later, I think it was in uh 2009, I guess, uh, we were both speaking at an event at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, big event.

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And I spoke first and he watched my speech, and then he spoke after me.

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I watched his speech, and then we went to lunch.

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We ended up spending four hours together just talking about everything.

00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:06.959
And at that point in time, if you you know, if you're not old enough, you wouldn't remember.

00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:10.000
If you are, social media was relatively new.

00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:15.439
The first iPhone came out in 2007, Facebook just became available to the public, not just universities.

00:07:15.519 --> 00:07:17.439
I think it was like in 2008.

00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:29.839
And Kiefer Sutherland, uh, who was uh Glenn Moorshauer on the show 24, was the only other actor other than the main actor, Kiefer, who was on every single episode of 24.

00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:39.920
And he was drunk in front of the Viper Room, which is the same bar that Johnny Dett used to be part owner of, and where River Phoenix died of an overdose.

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And it was like that famous LA bar where there was always celebrities and lots of ODs and all kinds of crazy stuff.

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And he was outside of the Viper Room with his shirt off, drunk, you know, paparazzi taking photos.

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It was on uh Us magazine, People Magazine, National Inquirer, it was all over the news.

00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:01.519
And I said, So what's the story with uh with Kiefer?

00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:05.519
And he goes, Well, now that he's been outed, I can kind of talk about it.

00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:15.120
He said, Great guy, awesome, shows up to work on time, does an amazing job uh, you know, as an actor.

00:08:15.439 --> 00:08:27.920
When we're done shooting, though, it's easier for him to oftentimes sit around in the trailer and hang out with the other actors and actresses and the crew and drink than it is to go back to his mansion alone.

00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:30.160
And he said this line to me and I took notes.

00:08:30.319 --> 00:08:37.519
He said, uh, a single piranha won't do much damage, but a swarm of them will take down a great creature.

00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:42.240
He said, at this point, Kiefer's fame is globally inescapable.

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There's nowhere in the world where he can go and not be recognized.

00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:50.879
So he really never has real privacy because wherever you go, someone notices you.

00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:58.159
And then he said the line that completely changed the way that I look at fame, the way that I pursue attention.

00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:06.480
Uh he said, if you go into this business, meaning the entertainment business, he said, if you go into this business without knowing who you are, it will misinform you.

00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:09.440
And I was like, that's an interesting statement.

00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:11.759
So you got young child actors.

00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:13.279
Look what usually happens to them.

00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:23.919
You know, people would say, Michael Jackson, he's so weird, he got all the plastic surgery and stuff, and I'll be like, Well, uh Michael, and this is not for or against Michael, it's just the reality of the situation.

00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:30.240
He's the lead singer of the Jackson 5, what, like five years old, famous at five years old, the rest of his life.

00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:40.159
He can't walk into a shopping mall, and if someone gets wind of it, there's Michael Jackson, then all of a sudden there's a hundred people throwing themselves at him like he's the Messiah when he's a kid.

00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:47.919
How does anyone grow up with that level of attention and be like, oh, let's just be a chummy person that try, you know, you never know.

00:09:48.080 --> 00:10:01.840
And so uh Shep Gordon, who is Alice Cooper's uh manager for now over 50 years, who I've I've had on my podcast, uh he you know, he he has this movie that was made about him called Supermensch.

00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:07.600
And he talks about how he's never seen anything good come out of fame, other than you get rich and famous, right?

00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:08.960
I guess that is good.

00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:12.799
Uh, but he says the people that rise the highest fall the farthest.

00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:19.200
And so I had talked, he he was Janice Joplin's manager early on, and Janice died of a drug overdose.

00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:26.480
And Janice had this line where she said, I go out and make love to 20,000 people, uh, but then I go back to my hotel room alone.

00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:27.759
Yeah, it's very lonely.

00:10:27.840 --> 00:10:30.559
Yeah, well, for me, you intimidate me.

00:10:30.799 --> 00:10:43.679
So after reading a handful, I mean I stopped reading stuff about you, but the part that got me is I believe you and I, like, we grew up in the same, like I went to Chandler High, right?

00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:44.720
You went to Dobson.

00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:45.840
Dobson High School, yeah.

00:10:45.919 --> 00:10:47.360
I think we graduated the same year.

00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:48.159
86.

00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:48.799
86.

00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:49.519
Okay, wow.

00:10:49.759 --> 00:10:51.279
Like, where'd you go to elementary school?

00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:52.240
Where'd you go to middle school?

00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:53.840
Well, I grew up in different parts.

00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:55.600
I was born in El Paso, Texas.

00:10:55.679 --> 00:10:57.759
Uh my mother died when I was four years old.

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And my father was crushed.

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He couldn't, he never, he never recovered from it.

00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:03.600
So he lost the love of his life.

00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:10.639
And every year to two years, my entire childhood, we we moved to different parts of Arizona, New, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

00:11:10.799 --> 00:11:22.879
And so I, you know, El Paso, I went to school with uh Apache Junction, Arizona, uh, lived in Demi, New Mexico, uh, yeah, just different parts of the valley.

00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:28.799
But I've been in Arizona most of my adult life, except when I was 18 years old, I was a a drug addict.

00:11:29.120 --> 00:11:47.840
So I went to uh Las Cucesas, New Mexico, lived in a trailer uh for a couple of years just to, you know, for one, survive, recover from being a drug addict, and then I came back to Arizona and been here ever since and started a carpet cleaning business in my twenties, and you know, that's a whole story.

00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:49.120
And you can ask me anything.

00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:56.080
I mean, I like there's there's nothing I don't think if there's if someone asks me something that I don't feel comfortable with answering, I'll just say I can't answer that.

00:11:56.159 --> 00:11:57.919
But for the most part, I'm pretty much an open book.

00:11:58.159 --> 00:11:59.200
So when did you go to Dobson?

00:11:59.440 --> 00:11:59.919
When did you start that?

00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:02.240
That was I graduated in 86.

00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:04.000
So uh It was a new school, wasn't it?

00:12:04.159 --> 00:12:06.399
Yeah, like 85, 845, isn't it?

00:12:06.639 --> 00:12:08.399
Yeah, 80 82, 83, 84.

00:12:08.639 --> 00:12:26.799
Well, so let's see, 83 because I went to um McCaymie Junior High, which is in Tempe, and then uh from there we were I was the first Dobson high school class that had a freshman, uh junior, senior, uh soft, uh freshman, sophomore, junior, senior.

00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:29.519
See, I obviously am clearly not very educated.

00:12:29.679 --> 00:12:31.279
Uh well see, that's what I'm getting at.

00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:36.159
It's like you and I, like I grew up in New Mexico, my parents moved around, I grew up in Arizona.

00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:39.759
Like I have the same, the same universe kind of as you.

00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:41.440
Were you a drug were you a drug addict too?

00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:42.480
I was not a drug addict.

00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:44.720
I was a cocaine addict.

00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:52.320
No, I was not, but I I uh I just feel like when I see you speak, I'm like, damn, you're like you're so good.

00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:54.080
Like like what was the moment?

00:12:54.159 --> 00:12:57.200
So you said you started a carpet cleaning business, but something had to happen.

00:12:57.360 --> 00:13:00.559
Somebody had to say, Joe, like who was that?

00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:03.840
What was that moment that you were like, boom, I'm changing everything.

00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:05.759
There was no one epiphany person.

00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:08.399
I don't know what it was because I I've thought about that a lot.

00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:12.320
Uh and and it's funny too, because I don't I stumble a lot.

00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:15.759
I don't you I don't know the difference between a noun and an adjective.

00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:19.840
I ramble because I have ADD uh to a degree.

00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.960
So I I often wish I could say things tighter and and more concise at times.

00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:25.440
So I'm not sure.

00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:28.320
But you're speaking like you said you're at that convention in Las Vegas speaking.

00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:31.759
So do you have uh a speech prepared when you're gonna go speak?

00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:32.799
Like you know what you're gonna say?

00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:34.000
You here's what I have.

00:13:34.159 --> 00:13:39.200
I have riffs that I do today, which riffs are like a musician has the riffs.

00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:45.120
You can hear certain bands, like ACDC sounds like ACDC, and Led Zeppelin sounds like Led Zeppelin, right?

00:13:45.279 --> 00:14:09.600
So there's there's different bands that have riffs, and if you learn a skill or a knowledge, uh I will say a lot of the same things that are fundamentals of some of the stuff I teach related to marketing, or like my latest book, which is called What's in It for Them, I actually have a riff list of all of the different chapters of the key points, and I think of things in riffs like a comedian has riffs.

00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:15.039
If a comedian tells a certain joke, uh I saw George Carlin live four different times.

00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:23.679
In one of the shows I went to, he was preparing for an HBO special, and he literally had his notes in front of him and he was testing out jokes.

00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:29.759
So the more you get interviewed, the more you speak, the more you can see, oh, people like this, they don't like that.

00:14:29.840 --> 00:14:46.480
And what's really funny, and you guys will know this, having spoken a lot, there are things that you think are really important and really valuable and funny, and you'll say them to someone else, and you'll get you won't get like an amazing reaction, and other stuff that you're like, well, I don't think this is that profound, and all of a sudden people like lean in.

00:14:46.799 --> 00:14:54.559
So I never talk about I don't have a signature speech, not because it's not a good idea, I just don't know how to do it.

00:14:54.639 --> 00:15:00.480
I am too freaking distractable to actually say the same thing in the exact way.

00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:12.559
And I do know some speakers that can deliver the exact speech with the same, you know, PowerPointer, keynote presentation, and some that even know how to cry on cue.

00:15:12.639 --> 00:15:14.720
And I hate that because I think it's fake.

00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:16.879
Uh it doesn't seem authentic.

00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:24.639
Uh however, if you practice enough, because you know, you look at actors and actresses, what is the job of an actor is pretending to be someone that you're not?

00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:28.960
So it's like you can be good at delivering lines.

00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:34.480
Um, but my I'd rather just be I'd rather be interviewed and not know any questions.

00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:38.639
People say, I'm gonna uh you want to give me some questions that I can ask you?

00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:41.360
And I'm like, most of the time this don't want to do any work.

00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:42.960
But I'm like, no, just ask me anything.

00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:44.080
Like you can ask me anything.

00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:50.320
So, how do you go from carpet cleaning to the genius network and networking with all these massive successful people?

00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:50.879
That story.

00:15:51.200 --> 00:15:52.399
Baby Jesus really loves me.

00:15:52.799 --> 00:15:52.960
Okay.

00:15:55.679 --> 00:15:58.559
The way it started, I never intended to write books.

00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:00.960
I never thought I would speak in front of anyone.

00:16:01.039 --> 00:16:03.200
I was super shy and introverted growing up.

00:16:03.360 --> 00:16:09.759
So the the thought of having to publicly put myself out there was nauseating to me.

00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:13.919
Uh, this is a true and ridiculous story.

00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:21.440
I had to give a speech in high school in a psychology class, and I used to get high every day.

00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:29.200
I back in those days, they weren't there weren't metal detectors like you know there are, which is so unfortunate that so much of how the world has changed.

00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:32.639
And I had to give a talk, and I was a nervous wreck.

00:16:32.720 --> 00:16:40.559
And so I got high before the talk in order to give a talk on the dangers of THC in psychology class.

00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:42.399
I was stoned giving a talk.

00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:48.480
And I was a mess, you know, and and the reason I bring that up is that the human spirit is resilient.

00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:51.200
You can be in really dark places and you can turn it around.

00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:55.039
So I'm not I'm not here to glamorize or glorify that.

00:16:55.120 --> 00:17:03.919
I mean, there's a certain level of of junky pride that you can tell war stories and all that stuff, but I I was miserable if I was not high.

00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:06.400
Uh and and I was So why is that?

00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:08.960
Uh is it is it looking for approval from your father?

00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:10.480
No, no, unresolved trauma.

00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:12.000
Yeah, I from mom?

00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:15.519
No, I mean a lot of abuse in church, a lot of abuse.

00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:23.519
Yeah, I was I was raped and molested as a kid, and then I was paid money not to say anything about it, and that led to a lot of just internal grief.

00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:27.359
I had no self-esteem, I had no self-worth, I didn't know who to trust.

00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:33.200
Uh you know, I had caretakers that you know would manipulate me under the guise of God.

00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:40.559
Uh, you know, that would, you know, I had some things happen in a in a uh a camp that was a Catholic boys camp.

00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:42.079
And you're and you're not the only one.

00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:42.880
Oh, tons of people.

00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:43.440
That's ever.

00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:44.319
You know what I'm saying?

00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:46.960
So what what like isolating that?

00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:53.519
What do you somebody's gonna listen to this and they're gonna be like that happened to me and they've they've not dealt with that.

00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:55.759
What well they said he's so open about it.

00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:05.839
I know, but but what do you how do you for somebody that's gonna listen to this and has got that brewing but has stuffed it down, what what next steps do they take?

00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:09.119
Well, if I could go back and just rolled off your off your tongue.

00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:09.759
Yeah, yeah.

00:18:09.839 --> 00:18:16.000
Let me say this too for anyone that obviously most people don't know who the heck I am and they're just hearing some guys uh you know talk about this stuff.

00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:18.400
I I have an addiction recovery foundation today.

00:18:18.559 --> 00:18:21.599
I've written, you know, two books on uh addiction recovery.

00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:31.920
I've done a tremendous amount of therapy, I've done 30-day intensives, I've done you know, uh plant medicine journeys with highly trusted people in the right environments.

00:18:32.079 --> 00:18:34.960
I you know, I've I've done a lot of work.

00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:41.200
And if I could go back in time, I would face my shit a lot quicker because you're sick as your secrets.

00:18:41.279 --> 00:18:44.640
You know, you you will hear that if you go to recovery groups or 12-step meetings.

00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:50.640
And I heard that saying, but I had all these secrets that left me with a lot of guilt and shame.

00:18:50.720 --> 00:18:56.480
And when you're when you're in, when you feel guilty, you regret, you feel bad about something.

00:18:56.559 --> 00:18:57.440
I feel guilty.

00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:00.319
Uh shame is I am bad.

00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:06.000
So the difference between guilt is you feel bad, shame is you fundamentally feel you are bad.

00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:21.519
And so when you're in shame and you don't love, appreciate, or you may hate the vessel that is your own being, you will find all kinds of ways to inebriate that painful feeling.

00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:28.799
So addiction, as an example, is one of the ways that I uh dealt with my uh internal turmoil.

00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:32.720
Uh addiction, though, is a solution to pain.

00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:35.440
A lot of people view like, let's attack addiction.

00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:37.119
Well, the war on drugs.

00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:40.400
Well, the war on war on drugs, the drugs are actually the solution.

00:19:40.640 --> 00:19:41.839
Not a very good solution.

00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:44.720
Addiction is not a good solution, it can destroy your life.

00:19:44.880 --> 00:19:58.000
But in the moment, whatever level of consciousness I was at, cocaine was a solution, marijuana was a solution, uh, looking at porn was a solution, hiring uh a prostitute was a solution.

00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:07.200
And so when I was paid money not to say anything when I was abused as a kid, it wired in my mind that sex is shameful and dirty unless you pay for it.

00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:15.440
So everyone into, you know, whatever level of sexuality they have, they have a uh an arousal template.

00:20:15.599 --> 00:20:16.000
That's a term.

00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:24.480
I think Pat Carnes, who's one of the top doctors on sex addiction, I have a great interview I did with him on YouTube years ago, and he was the top sex addiction doctor.

00:20:24.559 --> 00:20:27.279
I think he's the one that came up with the term arousal template.

00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:32.079
And whatever someone's into, it's their first introduction into sex.

00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:38.400
So if it was introduced in a healthy way, it completely different than if you were physically abused.

00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:42.000
So you'll see a lot of women, and I've I've worked with, you know, quite a few people.

00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:43.200
It's all volunteer stuff, too.

00:20:43.359 --> 00:20:44.319
I'm not a therapist.

00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:49.119
Uh so anything I'm saying, you know, I guess I'll give a disclaimer for entertainment purposes only.

00:20:49.200 --> 00:20:52.480
There's a lot of great people out there that that know how to do this.

00:20:52.720 --> 00:21:01.119
I, you know, I I didn't know how to interact with my mother died when I was four, my father never remarried, I never saw sex as an intimate act of love and oneness.

00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:05.599
I just saw it as something shameful and something you you you do to get off.

00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:10.160
And so it wired in my head that sex is shameful and dirty unless you pay for it.

00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:24.480
So even though I was a cocaine addict, my core addiction was sex addiction, which is really an intimacy disorder because sex addiction could manifest as like, you know, it could be porn, it could be paying for sex, it could be having uh uh affairs, it could be exposing.

00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:37.599
I mean, there's Pat Carnes last time I had lunch with him, he was working on a Fulbright scholarship study of linking genetics to uh the way someone would act out sexually.

00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:43.200
And at that point in time, they had identified 240 different ways to act out sexually.

00:21:43.359 --> 00:21:57.039
I'm like 200, like I can maybe think of 20, but um the the the point being intimacy is the the issue when it comes to sexual addiction.

00:21:57.200 --> 00:21:59.279
Some people it's sexual anorexia.

00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:00.640
There's a lot of people listening to this.

00:22:00.799 --> 00:22:06.400
No one talks about this stuff, by the way, that their addiction is they can't be sexual with someone that they love.

00:22:06.640 --> 00:22:16.559
So they may love their husband or they may love their wife or they may love their partner, but they have a hard time being sexual with them based on you know if that person matters to them.

00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:20.480
And so some people they have a hard time having sex with someone that matters.

00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:21.680
So they go somewhere else.

00:22:21.920 --> 00:22:26.640
Yeah, or they look at porn or they live in fantasy, which almost all addiction occurs in the world.

00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:30.880
But in your case, uh I was not expecting you to say what you said, so thank you for being so vulnerable.

00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:35.759
But in your case, now did did you ever confront the abusers later in life as an adult?

00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:40.559
Um that stuff I don't talk about because I do know them, but yes.

00:22:40.799 --> 00:22:41.359
Oh, okay.

00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:43.279
Yes, yes, and that's very difficult.

00:22:43.519 --> 00:22:44.480
I bet very difficult.

00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:47.839
I I have an interview with uh Gabor Mate, who's this great trauma.

00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:53.519
But but how about the people that that that were co-addicts in that?

00:22:53.599 --> 00:22:58.400
So you confront the actual abuser, but how about the people that didn't protect you?

00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:01.440
Because there's all the there's always a circle around that.

00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:05.039
Yeah, let me let me say this because I'm gonna almost make the barrier harder, right?

00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:06.000
Yeah, yeah.

00:23:06.079 --> 00:23:14.240
So so to finish the thought I was gonna say when I brought so I did this interview with Gabor Mate the first time, and I I asked him, I said, because here I am in an audience.

00:23:14.319 --> 00:23:32.480
I did this live at one of my genius network annual events, which is my entrepreneurial events, and I said, you know, what do you do if you have to be in a situation, family member, co-worker, friends, whatever, and you still have to interact with the person that raped you.

00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:39.279
And like the audience is like, and he's like, eh, like how do you do that?

00:23:39.359 --> 00:23:42.400
I mean, there's no playbook on how to do that stuff.

00:23:42.480 --> 00:23:52.960
You know, it depends on so to go back to uh the family members and the co-addics, there's always um there's always co-addicts in any addictive relationship.

00:23:53.039 --> 00:23:57.519
I mean, that was figured out back in you know the 30s when uh Bill W and Dr.

00:23:57.599 --> 00:24:00.160
Bob started, you know, Alcoholics Anonymous.

00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:04.640
And they it was mostly men at the time, not all men, but mostly men.

00:24:04.799 --> 00:24:15.359
And the wives, prior to uh AA, you either institutionalized, you lived a life of suffering, you were thrown in jail, or you died, or you recovered, right?

00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:16.880
Those were the options back then.

00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:25.440
And they created Alcoholics Anonymous based on, you know, what started as the Oxford group in the 1800s and Carl Young and all this.

00:24:26.240 --> 00:24:39.039
There's a great history behind it, which is very instructional about addiction, and they created a community where people can come in, it's because of the mutual suffering, and they would uh admit they were powerless over uh you know their alcoholism.

00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:45.119
Uh and and if you were to ask any of the wives or partners of the addicts back then, do you want them to stop?

00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:55.519
They would be like, oh my god, this this person, if it was a husband, he's embarrassed, he can't, you know, take care of the family, he can't keep a job, he's an embarrassment to the community.

00:24:55.839 --> 00:25:00.880
Whatever the issues were, they would do anything to have the person quit drinking.

00:25:00.960 --> 00:25:06.559
And then what would happen is some of them started getting sober and they became different.

00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:14.000
And then the wives, in the case of a husband and a wife, if the husband was an alcoholic, a lot of them would start losing their shit.

00:25:14.079 --> 00:25:15.279
And they're like, why is that?

00:25:15.519 --> 00:25:17.359
Because they were addicted to the addict, right?

00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:19.839
And so the co so they created Al-Anon.

00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:23.759
And and it was a place to get support for the for the co-addicts.

00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:44.400
So I will have people all the time, like my wife, my husband, my son, my daughter, uh, you know, one of my employees, you know, they're they're they're it's mostly families, but they will be like, let's fix this son, and then you sit and look at the family unit, and you're like, My God, like this whole family's uh messed up.

00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:44.640
Right.

00:25:44.880 --> 00:26:05.039
So oftentimes when someone is seeking help and they want to do an intervention, what often gets discovered if they're if the family unit is willing to work together is that they're either enabling or it's this whole the whole atmospheric conditions of that family can often be messed up and a lot of people need help.

00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:18.640
So it's uh yeah, it's it's it's it's really difficult when uh I don't know why I have put such an emphasis on trying to uh do an addiction recovery foundation because it's one of the most complex things ever.

00:26:18.880 --> 00:26:21.200
There's no easy answer, but I get tricky.

00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:22.000
It's giving back.

00:26:22.079 --> 00:26:23.200
You gotta give back, you gotta give.

00:26:23.359 --> 00:26:25.039
In fact, that's the one thing I read about you.

00:26:25.119 --> 00:26:29.440
Uh one of the things I read about you was it what was the quote about giving and not taking?

00:26:29.839 --> 00:26:32.240
Well, yeah, life gives to the giver and takes from the taker.

00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:34.559
Life gives to the giver and takes from the taker.

00:26:34.720 --> 00:26:42.559
Yeah, I even have a giver bracelet that this uh my uh one of my members in Genius Network, uh his daughter uh Danny made this for me last week.

00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:44.240
It says giver, and I thought it was really cool.

00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:44.880
That's very cool.

00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:51.920
Well, the thing that's really amazing, and you you we you first talked about alcohol and cocaine, right?

00:26:52.079 --> 00:26:57.440
And I and I think anybody, you guys, would have a view of oh, that's that's fantastic.

00:26:57.680 --> 00:27:02.480
But then you then overlay that in the sex addiction, and that is looked at completely.

00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:04.720
It's an addiction, and it's very much the same.

00:27:05.039 --> 00:27:06.400
You gotta watch the Charlie Sheen documentary.

00:27:06.480 --> 00:27:07.039
Did you watch that?

00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:08.240
Not yet.

00:27:08.559 --> 00:27:10.160
It's you hit on all of it.

00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:17.920
But just way back in the day, I had some friends that yeah, I was uh so I've I've had a I don't know Charlie Sheen, so let me just say that.

00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:24.400
But I've been involved in certain things in the past of trying to uh assist him when he was off the rails.

00:27:24.559 --> 00:27:25.759
But yeah, it's uh it's let me.

00:27:26.319 --> 00:27:29.759
But the but the stigma, I mean, uh and can you address that?

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:46.240
Because there's I mean, the sex addiction, the porn, the infidelity is so rampant, and yet people have such a hard time coming out or talking about that because of the stigma that's associated with it.

00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:54.319
Like you, you're you're you you drink too much or you're an addict, and hey, I'm an addict, I'm gonna go into re-every, oh my god, high five, you're you're doing such a great job.

00:27:54.400 --> 00:28:04.000
But you you throw that one on there and what's your yeah, there there was what was that one movie that had uh I can't remember the Mark Ro what's his name?

00:28:04.079 --> 00:28:05.599
Uh it was about sex addiction.

00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:06.559
Mark Mark.

00:28:06.799 --> 00:28:08.559
No, no, Mark Ropriello or whatever.

00:28:08.640 --> 00:28:10.160
The go play the Hulk.

00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:10.720
Exactly.

00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:15.279
Him and I think uh Gwyneth Paltra were in the movie, and he was a sex addict.

00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:16.640
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:28:17.119 --> 00:28:24.799
There it and you know, I've never yet the only movie I've ever seen, not that they're not out there, that's I may not have seen them.

00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:32.160
The only actual movie that depicts sexual addiction uh accurately is is a movie called Shame.

00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:33.359
It's called Shame.

00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:36.480
Uh, and it's not a recovery movie, it's it's not a feel-good movie.

00:28:36.559 --> 00:28:39.920
It's actually quite a painful movie to watch, but it it they they do a good job.

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:50.799
But in the movie with Mark and Gwyneth, um there's a scene where she has cancer, he has sex addiction, but he ends up admitting to her the essay.

00:28:51.119 --> 00:28:59.759
She's like, you know, why why didn't you tell me, like all angry that he never confessed this to her when he was first starting to date her?

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:10.160
He said, Well, because I think it's some some line that where and I may not have this exactly right, he says, with your disease you get sympathy, with my disease you get judgment.

00:29:10.319 --> 00:29:19.839
Uh and and and that's why people don't talk about it, because it's uh so many people suffer from sexual addiction, but there's a shame and there's an embarrassment, there's a stigma.

00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:29.599
And so my favorite definition of intimacy was given to me over a decade ago by at the time an 80-year-old uh gay man who devotes I never met him in person.

00:29:29.680 --> 00:29:41.839
I just had a guy that I had uh helped early on in his recovery who who had met this individual, and and he was this guy who was sponsoring him, and he said, You should really talk to him, he's incredibly wise.

00:29:41.920 --> 00:29:48.160
And so I had a couple conversations with him, and he gave me a definition of intimacy that I think is pretty uh pretty profound.

00:29:48.319 --> 00:29:53.279
And he said, intimacy is a mutual exploration of a shared safe place.

00:29:53.599 --> 00:29:59.759
Uh abuse is anything that takes away the safe place, and addictions are what we do to make ourselves feel good when we don't.

00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:01.359
Have a safe place.

00:30:01.599 --> 00:30:06.000
So intimacy doesn't need to be sexual, but it's a mutual exploration of a shared safe place.

00:30:06.079 --> 00:30:09.359
So when we got sit down here in the podcast, you're like, I want to get to know you, right?

00:30:09.519 --> 00:30:14.400
It's like, yeah, you you when you get to know someone and you build rapport and you feel safe with them, great.

00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:20.079
But some people you talk to them more and you feel unsafe because there's there's something off, right?

00:30:20.319 --> 00:30:26.160
So dangerous people put out vibes, safe people put out vibes.

00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:32.240
Oftentimes we misread the vibes, sometimes we notice the red flags, other times we don't.

00:30:32.400 --> 00:30:36.000
Sometimes we completely don't even know that yellow flags exist.

00:30:36.160 --> 00:30:40.880
And when people ignore the red flags, they don't even notice the yellow flags half the time.

00:30:40.960 --> 00:30:43.599
And then you get yourself into dangerous sort of situations.

00:30:43.759 --> 00:30:50.400
But to go back to uh intimacy, if someone does not feel safe in the world, they're gonna look for a way to feel safe.

00:30:50.559 --> 00:30:58.880
You could be the strongest, the richest, the most famous, complete badass eight-degree black belt, and not feel safe in the world.

00:30:59.039 --> 00:31:09.359
And go back and you know, not feel good, so you're gonna, you know, masturbate to porn, or you're gonna snort crystal meth, or you're gonna gamble, or you're gonna do something if you don't feel safe in the world.

00:31:09.519 --> 00:31:14.720
So ultimately, um that line by Johan Hardy, the opposite of addiction is connection.

00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:27.279
So uh uh addiction is a connection disorder, and whenever you're trying to scratch the itch through sex or through you know, social media or whatever video games.

00:31:27.440 --> 00:31:27.839
What's that?

00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:28.400
Video games.

00:31:28.559 --> 00:31:28.880
Absolutely.

00:31:28.960 --> 00:31:30.160
Gaming is a huge one.

00:31:30.319 --> 00:31:34.640
Uh, you know, cryptocurrency trade day trading, it it all mirrors gambling addiction.

00:31:35.119 --> 00:31:40.000
So now, can you, after going through all this abuse in your childhood, can you have an intimate relationship with somebody?

00:31:40.240 --> 00:31:40.400
Yeah.

00:31:40.640 --> 00:31:40.720
Yeah.

00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:42.799
Like you're safe, you feel my partner.

00:31:42.880 --> 00:31:49.759
You know, it's funny, my my current partner is the top it, you know, life's cosmic joke.

00:31:49.920 --> 00:31:53.759
Um my partner is the top vaginal plastic surgeon in Arizona.

00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:04.720
And uh, you know, and it and it's funny because I've early on addicts have oftentimes as a defense mechanism a pretty twisted sense of humor.

00:32:04.799 --> 00:32:06.960
It's one of the ways that you deal with the pain.

00:32:07.119 --> 00:32:16.880
So some of the I don't know if you've met many comedians off stage, but some of them are just great and awesome, friendly, optimistic people.

00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:26.079
Some of the funniest comedians are some of the darkest, depressed, and I cannot tell you how many famous comedians I've met in high-level recovery groups.

00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:26.240
Right.

00:32:26.480 --> 00:32:32.960
And they're funny though, because they're trying to transmit that pain and angst into humor.

00:32:33.119 --> 00:32:35.279
Uh but yeah, I I mean it took years though.

00:32:35.359 --> 00:32:42.880
So to go back to the thing, if I if I was early on, I would have uh gone into 12 steps and done the steps earlier.

00:32:43.200 --> 00:32:53.519
I would have uh really dealt with the the pain, but you know, I I didn't because my level of consciousness took me to where I'm at.

00:32:53.599 --> 00:33:15.200
I mean, I I when I'm thinking from my higher self, which is not most of the time, and what I mean by my higher self is when I'm uh when I'm connected with what I think are being present, you know, making good, honorable decisions for myself, forgiveness is giving up the hope that one day you're gonna have a better past.

00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:17.839
You know, as you gotta forgive yourself.

00:33:18.240 --> 00:33:22.640
And we take our members to prisons before all of our meetings.

00:33:22.799 --> 00:33:27.039
Uh, we take our members to the Perryville Women's Prison here in Arizona on a regular basis.

00:33:27.519 --> 00:33:30.559
Your recovery genius recovery uh and genius network.

00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:32.000
We take our genius network members.

00:33:32.079 --> 00:33:36.880
We also started a group called Genius Youth, and we're gonna start taking them to the prisons starting next year.

00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:38.799
Kind of do a scared straight program with them?

00:33:39.039 --> 00:33:46.880
No, no, it's actually to just sit and be present with people that their life decisions got them into uh where they're at.

00:33:47.039 --> 00:33:54.480
And many of the people that sit in prison are doing things that many people that are visiting them did also, they just didn't get caught.

00:33:54.640 --> 00:33:54.960
Right.

00:33:55.200 --> 00:33:55.920
That's powerful.

00:33:56.079 --> 00:33:56.160
Yeah.

00:33:56.480 --> 00:33:58.640
Okay, so let me go back to your career for a second.

00:33:58.720 --> 00:33:59.839
So how do you go?

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:01.839
How how does Genius Network start?

00:34:02.079 --> 00:34:04.640
Uh Genius Network started in 2007.

00:34:04.960 --> 00:34:11.519
Uh to to go back to the early days, I was a Deborah carpet cleaner living off credit cards when I was in my early 20s.

00:34:11.760 --> 00:34:20.639
And I learned marketing because I needed to eat, I needed to survive, I uh had no intention of teaching seminars or doing it.

00:34:20.880 --> 00:34:21.920
I mean, it didn't even occur to me.

00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:23.760
Uh all of I I just needed business.

00:34:23.920 --> 00:34:30.960
And so I started studying marketing and I learned a type of marketing that is called direct response marketing.

00:34:31.039 --> 00:34:34.000
That's like the you know, they they come up with different terms today.

00:34:34.320 --> 00:34:43.280
But um it's it's education-based marketing, it's using powerful sales copy headlines, offers in order to uh like clickbait type of back in the day.

00:34:43.519 --> 00:34:49.119
You could use direct responses, clickbait, but I never did like cli clickbait.

00:34:49.440 --> 00:34:57.199
I I guess I became the biggest uh anti-bait and switch person in the entire carpet cleaning industry.

00:34:57.280 --> 00:35:09.360
In the 1990s, after uh, you know, building up my carpet cleaning business, I then started teaching other carpet and upholstery cleaners and people that do fire and flood restoration how to market their businesses, and I sold a course.

00:35:09.760 --> 00:35:12.239
But when you said you studied it, what what books did you read this time?

00:35:12.480 --> 00:35:15.679
Well, Derry Halbert was the first guy that I he he was a marketer.

00:35:15.760 --> 00:35:30.000
He ended up becoming uh one of my best friends, and I started studying uh all kinds of great uh marketers, uh, especially from back in the early 1900s, like Claude Hopkins, who wrote scientific advertising, and Robert Collier, all these copywriters.

00:35:30.159 --> 00:35:40.880
So I was learning how to market carpet cleaning services by studying people that were in the direct mail business, and I also had to figure out how to successfully sell something nobody wants to buy.

00:35:41.039 --> 00:35:47.360
So one of my dear friends to this day, he's actually running his event at my office next month, is uh Dr.

00:35:47.440 --> 00:35:50.000
Robert Cialdini, who wrote the book Influence.

00:35:50.159 --> 00:35:58.719
So he's the godfather of influence, he's the OG before you know there was even a term influencer, which I think is kind of funny when I look at influencers today.

00:35:58.800 --> 00:36:00.239
It's like, what are you actually influencing?

00:36:00.480 --> 00:36:02.639
So you know, you could be influencing nonsense.

00:36:02.880 --> 00:36:08.000
But um Robert Cialdini wrote the book influence, and that book, everyone should read that book.

00:36:08.159 --> 00:36:11.360
And what I love about Robert is the ethical use of influence.

00:36:11.519 --> 00:36:14.719
So the term clickbait, yes, you want to get someone's attention.

00:36:15.039 --> 00:36:16.800
Uh I'll I'll make this distinction though.

00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:21.599
Hype used ethically, if you want to use the word hype, which usually has a negative connotation.

00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:25.679
Hype used ethically is massive enthusiasm for what you're selling.

00:36:25.920 --> 00:36:30.880
Hype used unethically is lying, misleading, exaggerating, bullshitting people.

00:36:31.039 --> 00:36:33.360
So you want to get someone's attention, yes.

00:36:33.599 --> 00:36:40.480
Uh it doesn't matter how good your product is or uh or your service or what it does until after somebody buys it.

00:36:40.960 --> 00:36:49.119
So, you know, uh you you want to definitely get attention and anything that you put in front of somebody is uh marketing.

00:36:49.199 --> 00:36:52.800
And if you put you know, only the hungriest fish are gonna snap at the crappiest bait.

00:36:52.960 --> 00:36:56.480
So you gotta put something that they want, not what they need, you know.

00:36:56.559 --> 00:37:04.320
That whole find and eat and fill it, that's kind of nonsense because people need to eat healthier, but many don't.

00:37:04.639 --> 00:37:13.280
People would be, you know, they they they need to have uh unpro you know not unprotected sex, but protected sex, but they don't.

00:37:13.360 --> 00:37:16.079
Uh people shouldn't drink and drive, but some people do.

00:37:16.239 --> 00:37:18.559
And so it's fine to want and fill it.

00:37:18.719 --> 00:37:29.039
So people are wanting machines, they're looking for feelings, and so the the think of um selling as influence, think of marketing as storytelling.

00:37:29.199 --> 00:37:33.519
And if you become more effective at influence, uh you'll be more effective at selling.

00:37:33.920 --> 00:37:35.119
Was you were you doing print?

00:37:35.280 --> 00:37:36.159
Yeah, print ads.

00:37:36.480 --> 00:37:38.000
There was no internet back then, right?

00:37:38.079 --> 00:37:44.239
So that's how you would when you that and so you would put together a print ad and and look, okay, the this word the sale free.

00:37:44.400 --> 00:37:46.079
You were using buzzwords in your marketing?

00:37:46.400 --> 00:37:56.960
Well, my first my first uh successful campaign was I hired a copywriter because I heard this term from Gary Halbert that said, any problem in the world can be solved with the right sales letter.

00:37:57.039 --> 00:37:58.079
And I'm like, is that true?

00:37:58.159 --> 00:37:59.360
Well, what is a sales letter?

00:37:59.440 --> 00:37:59.840
What does that mean?

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:09.440
A sales letter has a headline, uh, it has compelling copy, it has bullets that talk about you know the reasons why someone should do business with you.

00:38:09.599 --> 00:38:15.679
Uh, it uh it has an offer, it creates a sense of urgency by having an expiration date.

00:38:15.760 --> 00:38:20.159
You know, like the old sales rule, ADA, attention, interest, desire, action.

00:38:20.400 --> 00:38:23.840
Instead of doing that in selling, you do that in print.

00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:27.679
Because no matter how good of a salesperson you are, you're limited by the clock.

00:38:27.760 --> 00:38:29.840
You can only talk to so many people in a day.

00:38:30.079 --> 00:38:33.760
So what selling is is when you're on the phone or face to face with somebody.

00:38:33.840 --> 00:38:49.119
What marketing is, is get getting someone on the phone or face-to-face with you properly positioned so by the time they're talking to you or visiting your website or coming into your store, they're pre-interested, pre-motivated, pre-qualified, and predisposed to do business with you.

00:38:49.280 --> 00:38:53.119
So you want to position yourself effectively in advance.

00:38:53.280 --> 00:38:58.719
What marketing is, is selling in advance, so that you don't have to rely on sales techniques.

00:38:58.880 --> 00:39:01.280
You don't have to be a pushy salespeople person.

00:39:01.440 --> 00:39:03.679
People love to be sold, they hate to be pressured.

00:39:03.840 --> 00:39:05.199
So, how do you present things?

00:39:05.280 --> 00:39:08.239
So, my very first tool was a consumer's guide to carpet cleaning.

00:39:08.400 --> 00:39:11.360
I hired a uh a copywriter.

00:39:11.440 --> 00:39:13.599
Uh I didn't, I wasn't yet making any money.

00:39:13.679 --> 00:39:16.960
All I had was this carpet cleaning business and credit cards.

00:39:17.039 --> 00:39:23.920
And so I went$30,000 in debt because damn it, I had this entrepreneurial fantasy that I wanted to build this carpet cleaning business.

00:39:24.079 --> 00:39:29.440
And so, you know, which that shit is not trained.

00:39:29.599 --> 00:39:31.360
It's you either got it or you don't.

00:39:31.440 --> 00:39:34.000
You're either batteries included or batteries not included.

00:39:34.480 --> 00:39:36.159
At this point, had you already been cleaning carpets?

00:39:36.320 --> 00:39:36.559
Oh, yeah.

00:39:36.960 --> 00:39:39.119
So now for two years, like just not making money.

00:39:39.440 --> 00:39:41.280
In Arizona in the summertime?

00:39:42.079 --> 00:39:42.480
Yes.

00:39:42.960 --> 00:39:49.119
I I would I was like I was the very first summer I had in Arizona, and and by the way, I'm allergic to cats.

00:39:49.280 --> 00:39:55.280
So I start wheezing and I would be going into these apartment complexes because the only place I could get business.

00:39:55.360 --> 00:39:56.960
I would knock on doors and say, Do you have any?

00:39:57.119 --> 00:40:02.800
And so they would literally pay me 20, 25, sometimes$30 per unit.

00:40:02.960 --> 00:40:07.440
Some of the apartments didn't have electricity in them, so it's like a sauna in there.

00:40:07.599 --> 00:40:15.760
And I had to run an extension cord in my portable steam cleaner until I had the money to buy a truck mount, which are the ones that are in trucks, those are the best ways to clean carpets.

00:40:15.920 --> 00:40:26.719
But ultimately, like I had this little portable uh steam cleaner to go into these apartments, and then they would pay me, you know, 60, 90, sometimes 120 days later, and I would work my ass off.

00:40:26.880 --> 00:40:42.719
And later, after I learned how to make things work, you know, never in the moment, but you know, several years later, I would say to carpet cleaners, like, looking back in my early days, if you want to go broke, one of like a way to go broke is watching TV, maybe eating potato chips or something.

00:40:42.880 --> 00:40:48.400
A stupid way to go broke is doing hard manual labor, cleaning carpets all day and paying money to do that.

00:40:48.559 --> 00:40:49.440
That's what I was doing.

00:40:49.519 --> 00:40:55.840
I literally, but I had that fire of like, damn it, I'm gonna figure out how to I didn't want to go work for someone.

00:40:56.000 --> 00:41:00.239
I wanted to figure out how to make my business work, and I was frustrated with it.

00:41:00.400 --> 00:41:02.800
And so it's instructional to the listeners.

00:41:02.960 --> 00:41:09.360
I'll I'll share the most uh profound conversation at the time that changed the trajectory of my life.

00:41:09.440 --> 00:41:10.639
Because you asked what I was asking.

00:41:11.039 --> 00:41:12.159
Was it with addiction?

00:41:12.239 --> 00:41:12.719
I don't know.

00:41:12.800 --> 00:41:13.840
It was a variety of things.

00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:15.760
With business, this is what it was.

00:41:15.840 --> 00:41:17.519
So I had this carpet cleaning business.

00:41:17.679 --> 00:41:19.039
I'm living off credit cards.

00:41:19.119 --> 00:41:24.320
I had gotten trained, I'd gotten certified, uh, I knew how to do a good job cleaning carpets.

00:41:24.400 --> 00:41:33.920
I wasn't doing bait and switch, you know, I was just a caring carpet cleaner, did a good job, worked hard, uh just trying to make it work, and I it still wasn't working.

00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:35.119
And it was so frustrating.

00:41:35.199 --> 00:41:42.159
So I was looking at getting my series seven license in series 63 so I could like sell stocks.

00:41:42.239 --> 00:41:58.559
Because I had a friend I went to high school that had gotten into that business and he was doing relatively well as a glorified you know salesperson over the phone selling securities that he had no qualification to talk people into doing, but he was doing that, and I'm I'm just trying to figure out how to how the hell to make a living, right?

00:41:58.800 --> 00:42:02.079
And so uh I have a friend named Pat who called me up.

00:42:02.159 --> 00:42:08.800
He goes, Uh, I have uh gonna go jet skiing in Seguoro Lake, which is you know out here in Arizona for people that don't live in Arizona.

00:42:08.960 --> 00:42:11.360
And he's like, Do you want to go jet skiing this uh weekend?

00:42:11.519 --> 00:42:14.960
And I, you know, when you're broke, you have no discretionary money, you know.

00:42:15.039 --> 00:42:17.360
So I was like, no, I, you know, I got things to do, I got to work.

00:42:17.440 --> 00:42:23.280
And he's like, uh, you sure the guy that owns the jet skis is this multi-million dollar real estate investor.

00:42:23.360 --> 00:42:24.639
And that piqued my interest.

00:42:24.800 --> 00:42:32.159
I'm like, oh, maybe I can go talk to the rich guy and you know get some advice on how the hell to get out of this trap of my carpet cleaning business.

00:42:32.400 --> 00:42:46.559
So I decided to go and I drive my piece of crap, you know, uh truck to uh um Segura Lake, and there's two jet skis, this rich guy, which I never remembered his name, and one of his friends, and then my friend Pat.

00:42:46.719 --> 00:42:47.840
There's four of us total.

00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:57.599
And I have my pickup truck and I'm sitting on the tailgate of the truck, uh, and I finally have a chance to sit down with this rich guy where my friend Pat and this other guy's friend were out on the two jet skis.

00:42:58.079 --> 00:43:18.480
And uh so I go, you know, I I hear you do really well in business, and I've got a small, you know, carpet cleaning business here in Arizona, and I'm wondering if you can maybe give me some advice on some other business that I could go into because you know this carpet cleaning business is probably something I don't want to do, and you know, it's tough business, and wonder if you had any advice.

00:43:18.639 --> 00:43:24.000
And he's uh he said to me, He goes, Well, is there anyone else in your business that's doing really well?

00:43:24.239 --> 00:43:33.199
And I said, Yeah, there's a couple of companies here in Phoenix that uh, you know, make over a million bucks a year, and you know, at that time that was a lot of money to me.

00:43:33.440 --> 00:43:41.119
And uh, but you know, they they've been around, they're established, and and you know, I'm relatively new and just only been doing this a couple years.

00:43:41.280 --> 00:43:47.280
And he said, Well, if there's other people that are doing well in your business and you're not, there's nothing wrong with the business you're in.

00:43:47.360 --> 00:43:48.480
There's something wrong with you.

00:43:48.639 --> 00:43:52.400
And I was like, Jesus, this is not the motivational talk I was looking for, right?

00:43:52.639 --> 00:43:55.199
And uh it I go, well, I'm certified.

00:43:55.280 --> 00:43:58.800
Uh, you know, I carry a lot of these companies do bait and switch advertising.

00:43:58.960 --> 00:44:00.400
I don't do any of that sort of stuff.

00:44:00.480 --> 00:44:03.679
It's just a really, you know, tough business if you're not established.

00:44:03.760 --> 00:44:08.639
And I I was just filled with excuses, but I, you know, they were it was harmless.

00:44:08.719 --> 00:44:10.639
I I I thought that was the case.

00:44:10.800 --> 00:44:21.440
I I thought success had something to do with, you know, how long you've been in business, which, you know, people like 30 years experience, like you know, one year experience doing the same shit 30 years straight.

00:44:21.679 --> 00:44:28.719
But it's um so I said, you know, I was just making, you know, what I thought were reasons, excuses as to why I wasn't doing well.

00:44:28.800 --> 00:44:33.599
He goes, well, young man, he go, and I told him, I said, I I've gotten trained, I've gotten certified.

00:44:33.679 --> 00:44:40.400
I told him how long I've been in the business, and he said, he goes, you're like many people, you think the grass is always greener on the other side.

00:44:40.559 --> 00:44:54.239
He goes, if you're gonna go into another industry, you're gonna spend another six months, another year, another two years learning the technical skills of another business, you can go out and repeat the same bad business habits that have caused you to not be having this one work right now.

00:44:54.400 --> 00:44:57.039
And I was like, damn it, this guy won't let up on me.

00:44:57.360 --> 00:45:02.239
And he said to me, he goes, What you need to do, young man, is he goes, you need to learn fundamental business skills.

00:45:02.400 --> 00:45:10.239
He goes, because once you learn how to make a business work, then you can take that to any other business you decide to go in the rest of your life.

00:45:10.480 --> 00:45:24.480
And, you know, so I can tell you about other businesses that you can maybe go into, and that may be in answer, you might get lucky, but for the most part, you know, you're not having success in business because of what you know and what you don't know.

00:45:24.559 --> 00:45:26.480
It's it has nothing to do with the business you're in.

00:45:26.639 --> 00:45:27.840
And I was like, what the hell?

00:45:27.920 --> 00:45:30.960
I was and so I drove home that night and I was really summer.

00:45:31.280 --> 00:45:35.440
That's one thing I remember, and I was thinking to myself, I've got a lot of personal problems.

00:45:35.599 --> 00:45:49.199
Uh, you know, I just a few years prior, I was, you know, a drug addict and I was a hard worker, I was young, I had enthusiasm, I had no idea what the hell I was doing, but I was like, I live in America, it's you know, for the most part, a free country.

00:45:49.519 --> 00:45:50.960
Did he give you anything specific?

00:45:51.039 --> 00:46:00.639
Or no, no, he gave me what he gave me was uh the the insight to quit blaming my circumstances on anything anything other than myself.

00:46:01.119 --> 00:46:01.679
That was a shift.

00:46:01.920 --> 00:46:02.800
Oh, huge shift.

00:46:02.880 --> 00:46:07.760
The epiphany was I am not gonna get out of this business until I figure out how to make it work.

00:46:07.920 --> 00:46:08.880
And it became a game.

00:46:09.039 --> 00:46:20.559
All of a sudden, the business I hated that I was trying to figure out how to escape became a Labrad experiment for me saying, I'm gonna learn how to make this business work and I'm not gonna get out of it until I use it as a testing ground.

00:46:20.880 --> 00:46:22.079
And that's when you hired the copywriter.

00:46:22.400 --> 00:46:28.639
That's when I had the mind shift change, and then I started reading uh books uh with from a different lens.

00:46:28.800 --> 00:46:30.159
It's like a new pair of glasses.

00:46:30.320 --> 00:46:35.760
There's a there's a great book on uh, you know, on for people in recovery, a new pair of glasses that was this old timer.

00:46:36.079 --> 00:46:36.960
Chuck Chamberlain.

00:46:37.119 --> 00:46:37.599
What's that?

00:46:37.760 --> 00:46:38.239
Chuck C.

00:46:38.559 --> 00:46:40.079
Yes, Chuck, yeah, exactly.

00:46:40.239 --> 00:46:42.159
And uh it's it's a great frame though.

00:46:42.239 --> 00:46:46.239
Um like you know, does the world change or does your view of it?

00:46:46.320 --> 00:46:49.599
You know, the you took responsibility and then you saw it.

00:46:49.920 --> 00:46:55.360
Yep, yep, and I started becoming a voracious reader and I was cleaning carpets and I could be universal for anybody.

00:46:55.599 --> 00:46:58.400
Yes, yeah, personal responsibility and yeah.

00:46:58.559 --> 00:46:59.920
Well, I'll tell you too, though.

00:47:00.079 --> 00:47:07.840
Part of it along my search though, is I had a friend give me a newsletter on direct response marketing written by Gary Halbert.

00:47:07.920 --> 00:47:13.039
And that is what really opened my eyes, is that any problem in the world can be solved to the right sales letter.

00:47:13.199 --> 00:47:16.480
So I started studying this and I learned, well, how do I get a sales letter written?

00:47:16.559 --> 00:47:22.239
So I hired a copywriter to write my very first sales letter, which was called a consumer's guide to carpet cleaning.

00:47:22.320 --> 00:47:31.039
And I spent 30 days talking to this guy, multiple phone conversations, paid him$1,800 that I had to get on my credit card, because I didn't have$1,800.

00:47:31.360 --> 00:47:35.119
It seemed like all the money in the world to pay someone$1,800 to write a letter.

00:47:35.360 --> 00:47:37.599
But it was like a small consumer awareness guide.

00:47:37.679 --> 00:47:40.000
It was 1 by 17 paper, folded in half.

00:47:40.079 --> 00:47:42.400
It ended up being about 10 pages.

00:47:42.480 --> 00:47:46.800
And it said consumer's guide to carpet cleaning was the headline, title of it.

00:47:46.960 --> 00:47:48.079
Then it had bullets.

00:47:48.159 --> 00:47:52.079
It said, Read this guide and discover, because it didn't say read this guide and learn.

00:47:52.159 --> 00:47:54.239
People don't want to learn things, they want to discover things.

00:47:54.400 --> 00:47:55.280
That's marketing.

00:47:55.440 --> 00:47:56.960
So read this guide and discover.

00:47:57.280 --> 00:48:19.840
Uh uh eight mistakes to avoid when choosing a carpet cleaner, uh, six costly misconceptions about carpet cleaning, uh, crawling critters and crud, a guide to the slime, grime, and livestock that's seeping, creeping, and galloping through your carpet, uh, how to avoid four carpet cleaning ripoffs, um, the difference between value and price, uh, how to get your carpet cleaner to 100% guarantee their work.

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:21.519
There was another one then, but I can't remember.

00:48:21.599 --> 00:48:26.800
Then they would open up the guide, and it said, Dear homeowner, choosing a carpet cleaner isn't easy.

00:48:26.880 --> 00:48:27.119
Why?

00:48:27.199 --> 00:48:33.360
Because you're bombarded with confusing claims, simply bad information, near worthless methods, unqualified technicians.

00:48:33.519 --> 00:48:36.320
How do you ever find a qualified, competent carpet cleaner?

00:48:36.480 --> 00:48:41.440
You start by reading this guide, and then you know, and you'll learn blah, blah, blah, all the same things I just said.

00:48:41.519 --> 00:48:42.239
It I repeated it.

00:48:42.480 --> 00:48:43.760
Were you shoving that mailboxes?

00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:44.639
Well, yes, yeah.

00:48:44.719 --> 00:48:49.280
But then it said, and with this information, you can make an informed, intelligent decision.

00:48:49.440 --> 00:48:50.320
And that's the key.

00:48:50.480 --> 00:48:55.199
People don't want to make an uninformed, idiotic decision, they want to make an informed, intelligent decision.

00:48:55.360 --> 00:49:04.239
Because if someone wants what you're selling or needs what you're selling, uh, the only thing that stands in their way of getting it, if they have the money, is fear.

00:49:04.400 --> 00:49:06.559
And if you remove the fear, they will buy.

00:49:06.719 --> 00:49:11.519
Even if they don't have money, if someone really wants something, they will figure out how to get it.

00:49:11.679 --> 00:49:13.199
That's where credit comes in.

00:49:13.360 --> 00:49:16.320
People will even steal, people will kill to get the things they want.

00:49:16.400 --> 00:49:17.920
So work right away?

00:49:18.480 --> 00:49:21.599
Well, no, not right away, but it worked pretty well.

00:49:21.679 --> 00:49:23.039
So you were saying direct mail.

00:49:23.119 --> 00:49:29.039
So what I started doing, once I had the guide, I then needed to figure out how do I distribute that guide.

00:49:29.199 --> 00:49:31.199
Because a lot of it is just distribution.

00:49:31.280 --> 00:49:36.159
So you may have the best book in the world, the best whatever in the world.

00:49:36.239 --> 00:49:42.480
Uh, you may be the best in the world, but there's no relationship between being good and getting paid, unfortunately.

00:49:42.639 --> 00:49:46.400
There's a big relationship between being good, being a good marketer, and getting paid.

00:49:46.480 --> 00:49:51.599
So I had to crack the code on how do I get people to read it, how do I get people to request it.

00:49:51.760 --> 00:50:04.800
So instead of running what I back then I would call name rank serial number, name of the company, you know, uh what you do, and your phone number, because there were no websites, there were no social media, there were no QR codes back then.

00:50:04.880 --> 00:50:06.480
Uh smartphones did not exist.

00:50:06.559 --> 00:50:08.079
This was literally 1992.

00:50:08.400 --> 00:50:08.960
Yellow pages.

00:50:09.199 --> 00:50:10.159
Yellow pages, yeah.

00:50:10.400 --> 00:50:18.159
Val pack, money mailers, postcards, direct mail, you know, local TV advertising, newspaper ads, Penny Saver.

00:50:18.239 --> 00:50:19.519
Remember Penny Saver?

00:50:19.679 --> 00:50:22.000
Um, and so everything about radio.

00:50:22.079 --> 00:50:22.559
Come on, man.

00:50:22.800 --> 00:50:23.760
Well, I did radio too.

00:50:24.159 --> 00:50:24.719
I did radio.

00:50:24.880 --> 00:50:25.920
You know, it's funny too.

00:50:26.159 --> 00:50:29.599
Like I did some radio in Phoenix, and Phoenix is a big area.

00:50:29.679 --> 00:50:43.039
And I lived in, you know, I had a place out in Chandler, and I was getting calls from people out in Glendale, and I realized, you know, you kind of got to identify the target markets because if you're a one-person operation, you don't want to drive an hour to go clean someone's carpet.

00:50:43.119 --> 00:50:44.960
And there was no uh GPSs back then.

00:50:45.039 --> 00:50:49.199
We're using Thomas Guide maps to figure out how to drive, you know.

00:50:49.440 --> 00:50:53.360
So what I did was I started advertising the consumer awareness guide.

00:50:53.519 --> 00:51:11.440
And I would uh, you know, I I would run ads uh that would uh you know request uh a free can you know free guide to carpet cleaning, um, you know, four reasons, you know, to hire a carpet cleaner, you know, and I list those and then saying, and if you want more information, request this consumer guide to carpet cleaning.

00:51:11.679 --> 00:51:20.880
So what's funny is that prior to having that consumer guide to carpet cleaning, people would call me up and they would say, uh, how much do you charge?

00:51:21.360 --> 00:51:29.840
And I would uh talk to them, and sometimes it'd be 20 minutes on the phone, and half the time they're like, you know, let me talk to my husband and I'll call you back.

00:51:29.920 --> 00:51:38.239
Because it was, you know, 90% of the time it was a female that was making the decision because guys are often slobs and they don't think about the cleansiness of their carpet like a woman does.

00:51:38.480 --> 00:51:50.480
And so um I I hated that, that they would call me up and ask how much you charge, and then it occurred to me when someone says how much you charge, it's because they have no other criteria on how to make a buying decision.

00:51:50.559 --> 00:51:54.400
They're just trying to figure out how do I get one of these things or how do I hire you.

00:51:54.639 --> 00:52:05.760
So if you don't have a system for selling, what it is you're selling, you're always at the uh you're always at the mercy of the consumer system for buying, which is always, they all have a system.

00:52:05.840 --> 00:52:06.639
It's called price.

00:52:06.719 --> 00:52:07.760
How much does it cost?

00:52:08.000 --> 00:52:10.239
So this thing, this applies to dating.

00:52:10.320 --> 00:52:14.079
If you're running a singles ad, this applies to getting a job.

00:52:14.239 --> 00:52:17.440
If you're trying to get a job, how good of a job are you marketing yourself?

00:52:17.599 --> 00:52:21.519
If you have a podcast and you're promoting a podcast, what is the messaging?

00:52:21.599 --> 00:52:22.239
Who is it for?

00:52:22.400 --> 00:52:22.960
How well are you?

00:52:23.360 --> 00:52:25.760
You know, you want a message-to-market match.

00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:44.800
And so um, you know, and by the way, there's this really smart marketer who's kind of a curmudgeon guy named Dan Kennedy, who for years uh I would speak at all his events, he would speak at my events, we had several niche businesses together where I would take my marketing program and he would write uh the ads and promotions for it.

00:52:44.880 --> 00:52:54.000
Because after I built the largest training organization in the world for carpet cleaners, within a span of three years, I was the most well-known person in the entire world in the carpet cleaning industry.

00:52:54.159 --> 00:53:06.000
I was on the, I'd been chosen per now, this never got me dates and bars or anything, but I uh, you know, I was on the cover of a magazine called Clean Facts Magazine in 1997, uh voted by the industry.

00:53:06.079 --> 00:53:09.360
It wasn't paid for PR, it surprised the hell out of me.

00:53:09.519 --> 00:53:14.320
But I had impacted so many people because I would write articles for the magazines every month.

00:53:14.480 --> 00:53:19.440
I put out so much free information, and what I learned is make your advertising valuable.

00:53:19.599 --> 00:53:27.360
So when I when someone requested a consumer guide to carpet cleaning, even if they never hired me, I taught them how to make a uh how to hire a carpet cleaner.

00:53:27.440 --> 00:53:37.760
And and people would call me and say, you know, uh, they would say, you know, I'd like to get your consumer's guide to carpet cleaning, but I want to have my carpet clean tomorrow.

00:53:37.920 --> 00:53:42.719
And I was like, okay, so I back then there's no email, there's no website I could send them to.

00:53:42.800 --> 00:53:45.039
I'm I'm having to do all this through direct mail.

00:53:45.199 --> 00:53:47.519
So I was like, what the how do I handle this?

00:53:47.599 --> 00:53:50.159
So I created a consumer awareness message.

00:53:50.320 --> 00:54:01.039
So I spent 20 bucks a month and I had a 24-hour day, seven-day a week free recorded message, and I started running ads that said, warning, don't call any carpet cleaner until you listen to this free recorded message.

00:54:01.199 --> 00:54:09.039
Call anytime, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and learn seven questions to ask a carpet cleaner before you invite them into your home and how to avoid four carpet cleaning ripoffs.

00:54:09.119 --> 00:54:10.480
So I started running those ads.

00:54:10.559 --> 00:54:16.960
I started stamping the back of all my business cards, warning, don't call a carpet cleaner until you listen to this free recorded message.

00:54:17.039 --> 00:54:25.840
Uh, I put it on the back of my van and the side of my van with a magnetic, I would go literally magnetic straight warning, don't call any carpet cleaner until you listen to this message.

00:54:25.920 --> 00:54:28.239
And people would would take down that phone number.

00:54:28.320 --> 00:54:31.119
And to this day, everyone's so excited.

00:54:31.280 --> 00:54:32.480
You know, I own a VR company.

00:54:32.559 --> 00:54:38.079
I would like right before this podcast, I was on the phone with Nanea Reeves, who has a VR company called Trip.

00:54:38.239 --> 00:54:40.719
Uh, you know, Kiana Reeves is her is her cousin.

00:54:40.880 --> 00:54:44.320
And I've a you know, I'm I'm involved with some pretty technological stuff.

00:54:44.400 --> 00:54:48.079
I have investments in over 35 different companies, AI companies.

00:54:48.320 --> 00:54:51.039
Everyone driving has a freaking phone on them.

00:54:51.199 --> 00:54:57.440
And sometimes they're not going to type in your social media handle or your website or a QR code, but they will call a phone number.

00:54:57.519 --> 00:55:01.679
And so I tell anyone that's in service businesses, put a free recorded message.

00:55:01.920 --> 00:55:04.960
Warning, don't call a plumber until you listen to this free recorded message.

00:55:05.119 --> 00:55:09.840
If you're looking for a home and you want to know how to buy in Phoenix, call this 24-hour free recorded message.

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:12.480
It still works, but people get so bored.

00:55:12.559 --> 00:55:14.320
They want new, new, new, new.

00:55:14.480 --> 00:55:17.280
And what marketing is is applied psychology.

00:55:17.519 --> 00:55:23.920
You know, the what Steve Jobs said in uh I remember this because I remember dirty jokes and quotes.

00:55:24.159 --> 00:55:33.679
Um, he in 1997 at the Worldwide Developers Conference, he said, we focused first on the user experience, then we focused on the technology.

00:55:33.840 --> 00:55:38.559
So technology is important, but psychology is infinitely more important.

00:55:38.719 --> 00:55:41.760
Now, today, you can create consumer awareness guides.

00:55:41.920 --> 00:55:54.079
You could take what it is I've said on this podcast and you could feed it into Grok, or you can feed it into Perplexity or Chat GPT or whatever, and have it map out a consumer awareness guide for any business that someone's in.

00:55:54.239 --> 00:56:09.519
But if you don't understand the psychology of why this matters, you're probably not going to even place significantly, because what I just described here, for anyone that's a business owner, has made several billion dollars for all the clients I've taught this stuff to.

00:56:09.679 --> 00:56:15.039
Bill Phillips, who built EAS, the sports supplement company, I was his marketing consultant for 13 years.

00:56:15.199 --> 00:56:18.880
You know, that book, Body for Life, exists because of the work I was doing with him.

00:56:18.960 --> 00:56:22.719
I gave him an idea to donate money to the Make a Wish Foundation back in the 90s.

00:56:22.880 --> 00:56:26.320
He became the single largest individual contributor in the history of the world.

00:56:26.480 --> 00:56:28.400
He was running free recorded messages.

00:56:28.559 --> 00:56:31.039
I became Richard Branson's largest fundraiser.

00:56:31.199 --> 00:56:34.000
This doesn't have to be done for business, it could be done for causes.

00:56:34.239 --> 00:56:42.719
Education-based marketing works, but the biggest problem people have with marketing is they underestimate the value of the importance of it.

00:56:42.800 --> 00:56:50.079
So they they associate marketing with some scummy uh salesperson or some scummy marketer, and there's many.

00:56:50.239 --> 00:57:01.840
There, I I really have a love-hate relationship with the people in the marketing business because the entire pandemic was marketing used in the wrong way in the form of propaganda and lies.

00:57:02.000 --> 00:57:14.239
And so people, rightfully so, do not trust many marketers because there's many that are just simply unethical, and they use methodologies and techniques in order to manipulate people or sell people garbage.

00:57:14.320 --> 00:57:28.559
But if you have something really valuable and it really helps people, you are doing yourself a disservice if you do not use every form that's legal, uh ethical, and effective in order to highlight what it is you do and how you do it.

00:57:28.639 --> 00:57:31.360
And it can't be about you, it has to be about them.

00:57:31.599 --> 00:57:36.800
Brand building, so much brand building is such a load-of-horse shit.

00:57:36.880 --> 00:57:39.679
Uh, it's like personal brand, build a personal brand.

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:43.599
If you do good work, you're gonna build a personal brand for doing good work.

00:57:43.840 --> 00:57:53.519
Some of the best marketing in the world is not an ad or a promotion, it's actually a really good product that people really get value out of, and then they tell other people about it.

00:57:53.679 --> 00:57:59.039
So, you know, I I have a different view of marketing than a lot of marketers.

00:57:59.119 --> 00:58:01.280
Uh, I I would be broke had I not learned marketing.

00:58:01.519 --> 00:58:03.599
But your pre-recorded message, that's it.

00:58:03.679 --> 00:58:05.679
It's not leave a message at the end of the tone.

00:58:05.840 --> 00:58:08.719
Call a number, that's gonna give you information, and it's gonna hang up.

00:58:09.519 --> 00:58:10.719
Yeah, what do you somewhere else?

00:58:10.960 --> 00:58:16.239
The the way that I had it is so my first free recorded message started, and there's many iterations of it.

00:58:16.320 --> 00:58:28.960
I still have people all over the world that use my free recorded message because it in the 90s, uh, every major city in the United States had one or multiple versions of my free recorded message inspired ads running in every phone book.

00:58:29.039 --> 00:58:38.480
Uh we we licensed my materials to uh pest control, heating air conditioning, printers, painters, florists, jewelers, auto sales, hair and nail salons.

00:58:38.559 --> 00:58:39.519
Did I say pest control?

00:58:39.840 --> 00:58:49.679
So I had 10 other industries that were using this um to uh it in in the the the the one for my carpet cleaning business said, hello, my name is Joe Polish.

00:58:49.760 --> 00:58:52.800
I'm the owner of, and I I had two different companies I I owned.

00:58:52.880 --> 00:58:58.559
Uh and um uh one was called Superior Carpet Care, the other one was Fiber Tech.

00:58:58.639 --> 00:59:10.000
Uh I and I sold those companies years ago, and unfortunately, uh one of the people that I sold the company to, uh John Del Favro, he had a weird last name.

00:59:10.079 --> 00:59:11.760
Uh he ended up ripping me off.

00:59:11.840 --> 00:59:14.719
I didn't know how to sell a company back then, so I let him pay.

00:59:14.960 --> 00:59:15.519
They had to learn.

00:59:15.679 --> 00:59:16.480
Yeah, you know, it's funny.

00:59:16.559 --> 00:59:25.119
I I've never said the guy's name really, because it's like, you know, whatever, his punishment is his own existence, but you know, it's but uh people that rip you off, that is their punishment.

00:59:25.199 --> 00:59:30.320
I mean, when people are unethical, you whenever you take from someone, you think you're getting away with it.

00:59:30.559 --> 00:59:31.920
Karmically, you're never getting away with it.

00:59:32.320 --> 00:59:32.960
I'm glad you believe that.

00:59:33.039 --> 00:59:33.519
I believe that too.

00:59:33.760 --> 00:59:33.840
Yes.

00:59:34.079 --> 00:59:36.800
And then how did you then segue into Genius Network?

00:59:36.880 --> 00:59:43.360
How did was that just a was that a natural no, definitely not natural, but I'll tell you the transition.

00:59:43.440 --> 00:59:50.079
But let me finish the thought on so the first free recorded message was you know, uh, you know, thank you.

00:59:50.480 --> 00:59:51.119
My name is Joe Polish.

00:59:51.280 --> 00:59:52.400
My name is Joe Polish.

00:59:52.559 --> 00:59:58.400
Uh you know, welcome to this free recorded message, which is gonna, you know, teach you how to choose a carpet cleaner.

00:59:58.559 --> 00:59:59.840
If all you're looking for is a cheap.

01:00:00.320 --> 01:00:04.079
Brush the dirt off cleaning, then I respectfully ask you to call another carpet cleaner.

01:00:04.239 --> 01:00:10.079
But if you want to know how to get the most thorough cleaning ever or it's free, then listen to the rest of this guide.

01:00:10.239 --> 01:00:15.199
So I would say the headline in the beginning, the most thorough cleaning ever or it's free.

01:00:15.360 --> 01:00:21.519
Um, and I would position that, but then I would go fully into edge, kind of like a sponsorship at the beginning of a podcast, right?

01:00:21.679 --> 01:00:24.559
You do a little commercial and then you share the information.

01:00:24.719 --> 01:00:31.119
And so I said, at any point in time, if you would like to talk to us live or schedule a call, press zero.

01:00:31.360 --> 01:00:33.840
So while they were listening to it, we gave them an option.

01:00:33.920 --> 01:00:36.480
And then I had people that were air duct cleaners.

01:00:36.559 --> 01:00:48.000
Uh they they they did you know uh other services, and there would be a menu where press one if you want water damage, press two if you want air duct cleaning, press three if you want janitorial services.

01:00:48.159 --> 01:00:51.760
So there could be a like a a decision tree, right?

01:00:52.000 --> 01:00:52.800
Uh back then.

01:00:52.880 --> 01:00:56.880
And and you know, sometimes it was leave a message if you'd like us to call it.

01:00:57.039 --> 01:00:59.280
But you're saying that methodology still works today.

01:00:59.360 --> 01:01:00.159
It's the best one.

01:01:00.480 --> 01:01:01.760
But what about it's one of them.

01:01:02.079 --> 01:01:03.119
What about price points?

01:01:03.280 --> 01:01:08.000
Is it's is it in a low-cost commodity business or it spans kind of the universe?

01:01:08.320 --> 01:01:08.880
Doesn't matter.

01:01:09.039 --> 01:01:09.280
No.

01:01:09.760 --> 01:01:14.000
Actually, the the higher price you are, the more, the more you tell, the more you sell.

01:01:14.159 --> 01:01:17.679
Uh, you know, the do you want to know the formula for how much you charge for something?

01:01:18.000 --> 01:01:18.239
Yeah.

01:01:18.400 --> 01:01:20.719
Yeah, because a lot of people are like, how much you charge for something?

01:01:20.880 --> 01:01:24.559
All right, so this is the formula for how much to charge for anything.

01:01:24.800 --> 01:01:32.320
Louis Vuitton purses, Rolexes, coffee, you know, um asphalt um repair, whatever.

01:01:32.559 --> 01:01:37.199
The formula for how much you charge for something is based on your ability to sell it.

01:01:37.840 --> 01:01:38.880
It which is true.

01:01:39.039 --> 01:01:42.800
So the more effective you are at selling something, the more you can charge.

01:01:42.880 --> 01:01:44.800
Like we're all wearing watches right now.

01:01:45.039 --> 01:01:47.679
So there was a book, uh, what was it called?

01:01:47.840 --> 01:01:57.119
Um uh The Experience Economy, written in the night, I think 1999 by Joseph Pine as one of the authors, and I can't remember the other dude's name.

01:01:57.280 --> 01:02:01.920
And they were talking about remember Starbucks back in the 90s, like when it was really new.

01:02:02.079 --> 01:02:22.480
Howard Schultz, who was an employee at Starbucks, then he ended up buying the company and he was in Italy and he saw like the baristas and he saw the social aspects and decided to, you know, transplant, you know, Italian, uh, you know, like the the the uh the model of coffee and in uh into America and now they're the large one of the largest drug dealers in the world.

01:02:22.800 --> 01:02:32.480
So uh he took a two-cent commodity and he changed the name of packaging from small, medium, and large to I I really don't go to Starbucks.

01:02:32.559 --> 01:02:36.719
So Venti, something sort of tall venti uh grande or whatever.

01:02:37.039 --> 01:02:38.639
And so he changed it, right?

01:02:38.719 --> 01:02:47.119
And then he took a two-cent commodity, and uh prior to Starbucks, you could go into the four seasons and maybe have expensive coffee.

01:02:47.280 --> 01:02:56.719
Every once in a while you'd have a you know, a coffee house, but you know, you you got Folgers Crystals, you go to Denny's restaurant, you're paying 50 cents a dollar back then for a cup of coffee.

01:02:56.880 --> 01:03:03.199
He figured out how to charge$2 to$5 for a two-cent commodity because he packaged it differently.

01:03:03.280 --> 01:03:06.000
So good marketing is unique packaging.

01:03:06.159 --> 01:03:21.760
And so what he learned is that he could have sold coffee for$2 and$3 and massively expanded the market because the margins were so high, but he still maintained a high price point because there's a concept called pride of spending.

01:03:21.840 --> 01:03:27.599
And I did my very first general marketing program was with an audio company called Nightingale Conit.

01:03:27.760 --> 01:03:30.320
At the time, they were the largest audio learning company in the world.

01:03:30.400 --> 01:03:35.920
And so I did a program for them called uh Piranha Marketing, which is my parent company, Piranha Marketing.

01:03:36.000 --> 01:03:40.320
Uh, the seven success multiple multiplying factors to dominate any market you enter.

01:03:40.400 --> 01:03:44.559
And I tell this, they still sell that on Audible, but it's over 20 years old, right?

01:03:44.719 --> 01:03:56.320
And so um what what I what I talk about with private spending is there's a segment of the population that does not feel psychologically good unless they pay the most amount of money for something.

01:03:56.480 --> 01:03:58.960
Uh so back then there were no Apple watches.

01:03:59.039 --> 01:04:03.920
So if someone paid a hundred bucks for a Timex, they're buying a watch to tell time.

01:04:04.079 --> 01:04:09.039
If you're paying 10 grand for a Rolex, are you really buying a watch or are you buying status?

01:04:09.199 --> 01:04:16.480
Now, people will logically explain that they're buying a watch because you how do you justify you need to spend$10,000 to know what time it is?

01:04:16.639 --> 01:04:16.880
Right.

01:04:17.039 --> 01:04:17.760
It makes no sense.

01:04:18.000 --> 01:04:24.400
So Louis Vuitton Purses, uh Mer Mercedes, all very high exclusive brands, Richard Mill.

01:04:24.480 --> 01:04:26.159
Like I'm wearing a swatch right now.

01:04:26.400 --> 01:04:28.239
Someone gave me a Richard Mill watch as a gift.

01:04:28.400 --> 01:04:29.519
You know, it's expensive watches.

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:40.719
So I I I like I don't like expensive stuff though, because that to me it's it's I I think it's dangerous because someone could want to cut your arm off to get your damn watch, and and and this is an easier watch to put on.

01:04:40.880 --> 01:04:41.599
But there is quality.

01:04:42.000 --> 01:04:42.320
Of course.

01:04:42.400 --> 01:04:45.440
I mean, no, but here's the thing it's what you're into.

01:04:45.519 --> 01:04:52.159
I'm not here to tell so if you if you love watches or Mont Blanc pens or you know, Italian shoes that cost$3,000, more power to you.

01:04:52.239 --> 01:04:57.199
You know, if if you create value in the world, quit making excuses as to why you want what you want.

01:04:57.280 --> 01:05:02.800
People are constantly apologizing for what the only time you like, let's take the term give back, right?

01:05:03.199 --> 01:05:05.039
I believe in giving.

01:05:05.280 --> 01:05:09.440
I don't like the term give back, though, because give, I understand what it means.

01:05:09.519 --> 01:05:15.679
And even when you say it, and and I even use it once in a while in a certain context, it's coming from good intentions.

01:05:15.760 --> 01:05:18.719
It's like I'm, you know, I I've I've had great things happen.

01:05:18.880 --> 01:05:22.320
I have, you know, whatever, I've had I've had a blessed life.

01:05:22.480 --> 01:05:25.679
I don't have I'm not laid up in a hospital, I'm not born in a war toilet.

01:05:25.840 --> 01:05:26.880
I know why you don't like give back.

01:05:27.119 --> 01:05:28.480
Well, no, here well, go tell me.

01:05:28.800 --> 01:05:30.639
Well, because it insinuates that you were taking.

01:05:30.960 --> 01:05:31.440
Exactly.

01:05:31.599 --> 01:05:35.039
Yeah, if someone says, like, if I took your shoes, I should give them back.

01:05:35.199 --> 01:05:35.360
Right.

01:05:35.519 --> 01:05:38.159
But if I've not taken anything, what is there to give back?

01:05:38.320 --> 01:05:39.519
So I'm all for giving.

01:05:39.599 --> 01:05:42.400
I just don't like being guilted into giving back.

01:05:42.639 --> 01:05:48.880
And by the way, the stuff I do for addiction recovery, people constantly give me compliments and say, it's so great what it is you're doing.

01:05:48.960 --> 01:05:54.320
And I will say, look, yeah, maybe it is, uh, but it's not because I'm some philanthropic angel.

01:05:54.480 --> 01:05:56.320
Like it helps me with my recovery.

01:05:56.559 --> 01:06:01.039
If you want to feel better in life, go help people that are hurting.

01:06:01.360 --> 01:06:09.280
You know, whenever I'm depressed, if I get all sucked into my problems, my issues, uh, then I don't pull out of it.

01:06:09.360 --> 01:06:18.320
But if I can go put that effort and energy, which is hard as it sounds, when you are so depleted, sometimes like, oh, you have to go pay attention to someone else.

01:06:18.480 --> 01:06:22.880
But one of the keys to being a great giver is you also have to be a giver to yourself.

01:06:23.119 --> 01:06:27.039
You can't, it can't be a one one-way street where you're constantly bleeding yourself.

01:06:27.280 --> 01:06:28.639
So giver to yourself in what way?

01:06:28.800 --> 01:06:29.199
Around you.

01:06:29.360 --> 01:06:30.480
You have to take care of yourself.

01:06:30.719 --> 01:06:31.920
Yeah, you sleep.

01:06:32.079 --> 01:06:32.159
Right.

01:06:32.320 --> 01:06:34.960
Uh, if someone gives you a compliment, don't brush it off.

01:06:35.119 --> 01:06:36.880
Try to take it in if it's sincere.

01:06:37.039 --> 01:06:45.039
If it's flattery, I mean you can be nice and you know they're kind of blowing smoke up your ass, but for the most part, flattery even works for most people because people like being complimented.

01:06:45.199 --> 01:06:46.239
Is your dad still around?

01:06:46.400 --> 01:06:55.440
No, he died when uh he died in when he was 73 years old in 2002, and I was his primary caretaker for uh a year, the last year of his life.

01:06:55.679 --> 01:06:57.119
Did he see any of the success you had?

01:06:57.280 --> 01:06:59.119
Yeah, he was very proud of that's it's crazy.

01:06:59.360 --> 01:07:00.480
He was he was proud of it.

01:07:00.559 --> 01:07:04.079
And my father had we had a we had a tough relationship.

01:07:04.559 --> 01:07:11.760
Yeah, because my father uh unfortunately didn't have a lot of the resources that I sought out and that were available now back then.

01:07:11.920 --> 01:07:16.800
I mean, he he he really uh he he really lived a pained life.

01:07:17.199 --> 01:07:19.599
And he never uh he was a hard worker though.

01:07:20.239 --> 01:07:23.199
Did he see Genius Network or he saw the success of you selling the carpet business?

01:07:23.440 --> 01:07:24.320
Uh just the carpet business.

01:07:24.480 --> 01:07:26.480
When did Genius Network Genius server sorry 2009?

01:07:26.800 --> 01:07:27.199
2007.

01:07:27.440 --> 01:07:28.239
2007, 2007.

01:07:28.400 --> 01:07:31.039
Yeah, so I so you to answer your question, how do I go into genius?

01:07:31.519 --> 01:07:43.039
So what when I started creating kits for carpet cleaners, I started going out and speaking about it and then um uh presenting my I would do these one-day events uh called How to Double Your Business in Six Months or Less.

01:07:43.119 --> 01:07:52.719
And then I would offer my uh marketing program uh that I was selling for$497 for a basic package and$597 for a gold package.

01:07:53.039 --> 01:07:56.480
And uh So you were just like a Tony Robbins, selling selling.

01:07:56.880 --> 01:08:03.039
Yes, except in the carpet cleaning because the the the carpet cleaning industry cannot afford the talent of a Tony Robbins.

01:08:03.119 --> 01:08:07.599
So whenever you go into uh a particular niche, uh there's always opportunity.

01:08:07.760 --> 01:08:12.320
So when people are trying to go to the general market, so there's a couple of young people that are sitting here, right?

01:08:12.400 --> 01:08:25.520
We have my friend uh Justin and Madeline uh Butcher, and he has a new podcast, and this is for like anyone to to better themselves in in in different areas of life, and he interviews all kinds of really smart people.

01:08:25.760 --> 01:08:36.159
And um if he just did that podcast for financial advisors and it became just about them, it would take on a whole different meaning.

01:08:36.399 --> 01:08:46.720
And but it's really hard to niche things uh if you're A, not in the niche, B, if you don't uh come from that niche, C if you don't have an affinity with that niche.

01:08:46.800 --> 01:08:56.640
So my friend Dan Sullivan, who I've been doing, you know, a podcast with since 2012, uh he I've been in his uh he he he started a company called Strategic Coach.

01:08:56.800 --> 01:08:58.800
And he's one of he's in Genius Network.

01:08:58.880 --> 01:08:59.680
I'm in his his group.

01:08:59.760 --> 01:09:00.880
We we're great collaborators.

01:09:01.119 --> 01:09:01.600
Is he an author?

01:09:01.840 --> 01:09:02.319
He sounds familiar.

01:09:02.399 --> 01:09:03.439
Oh, yeah, that name sounds familiar.

01:09:03.840 --> 01:09:04.560
Over 40 books.

01:09:05.119 --> 01:09:05.279
Okay.

01:09:05.600 --> 01:09:07.439
I feel like I met his daughter.

01:09:08.319 --> 01:09:09.279
Well, they don't have kids.

01:09:09.520 --> 01:09:13.119
He doesn't have any sure sounds like Dan's yeah, Dan Sullivan.

01:09:13.199 --> 01:09:15.359
What the hell was I gonna say uh about him?

01:09:15.520 --> 01:09:18.560
Um I lost my train of thought.

01:09:18.720 --> 01:09:20.960
Let me think you speak in his groups, he speaks in your groups.

01:09:21.199 --> 01:09:21.520
Yeah, yeah.

01:09:23.920 --> 01:09:25.119
Oh, okay, I know what it was.

01:09:25.199 --> 01:09:27.119
Uh who do you want to be a hero to?

01:09:27.600 --> 01:09:39.279
So he has this great line where if people are trying to find themselves and you're frustrated with your business, you're frustrated with your job, what there's always going to be frustrations.

01:09:39.520 --> 01:09:43.760
Like for business owners, what a business is is solving problems for a profit.

01:09:44.159 --> 01:09:47.520
If there's no problems in the world, there's rarely any business.

01:09:47.680 --> 01:09:53.840
You know, there's businesses that make money by not solving problems, but I could look at almost every business.

01:09:54.079 --> 01:09:55.680
We're sitting on a couch.

01:09:56.000 --> 01:10:02.079
The people that make this couch, the problem is if we didn't have any place to sit that was comfortable, where would we be sitting?

01:10:02.239 --> 01:10:08.960
We'd be sitting on the floor, we'd be sitting on some uncomfortable chair, but we have a, you know, we're t we're talking into a mic right now.

01:10:09.199 --> 01:10:14.239
If there were no mics and there were no cameras and there were not like how would we distribute this stuff, right?

01:10:14.399 --> 01:10:17.920
So uh if you break your foot, that sucks.

01:10:18.159 --> 01:10:21.600
But if you are able to go to a doctor, that helps, right?

01:10:21.680 --> 01:10:24.640
So other people's bad news is your good news.

01:10:24.960 --> 01:10:31.600
So uh almost all money in the world is made transforming other people's bad news into good news.

01:10:31.920 --> 01:10:49.760
So if you are an unethical marketer and you promise that you're going to solve a problem and you you get money from people, you take money from people, and then you don't deliver something that has a reasonable or preferably a more than reasonable chance of helping them solve their problem, then you're taking advantage of somebody.

01:10:49.920 --> 01:10:56.560
And so with uh I look at everything through the lens of uh what are the problems that need to be solved.

01:10:56.720 --> 01:11:00.159
So with my uh carpet cleaning, I niched it, right?

01:11:00.239 --> 01:11:08.239
So I went into the carpet cleaner, I just sold marketing for carpet cleaners, but I did it because I had success in my own company doing it.

01:11:08.479 --> 01:11:16.479
Like I discovered that I had an opportunity to teach other people how to solve a problem that I solved for myself.

01:11:16.720 --> 01:11:19.520
So I understood what kept them up at three in the morning.

01:11:19.680 --> 01:11:32.880
With I used to have this visual of like, if you could imagine someone you're selling something to, and they need to hear or buy or utilize what you have figured out because it will change their life, it will help them.

01:11:33.039 --> 01:11:48.720
And what keeps someone up at three in the morning with bile coming up from their esophagus because they're so fucking stressed out, and you happen to have something that can give them direction, confidence, capability, and clarity that could help them in some area of their life.

01:11:48.880 --> 01:11:53.119
And if you have it, how do you communicate that it's available to them?

01:11:53.279 --> 01:11:57.039
And if you got it to them and they used it, and it would transform their life.

01:11:57.119 --> 01:12:03.920
So so my the the way I got into the business goes back to that consumer awareness guide and the 24-hour uh free recorded message.

01:12:04.159 --> 01:12:14.399
So I'm in speaking or attending a car, not speaking, attending an event uh in Colorado uh for a carpet cleaning association.

01:12:14.479 --> 01:12:21.119
And I had volunteered to be the Arizona director of the Carpet and Fabric Hair Institute, is what it was called.

01:12:21.359 --> 01:12:27.119
Volunteer work just so I could hang out with people that were twice my age that knew more about running a business than I did.

01:12:27.279 --> 01:12:35.039
And so here I am at this uh event just trying to, you know, learn stuff from another association because I was the Arizona director of this other association.

01:12:35.199 --> 01:12:37.439
So I would go to all these learning events.

01:12:37.600 --> 01:12:47.840
One thing about me, I'm always trying to learn, read, put yourself in in you know, in proximity of people that know more about something than I did.

01:12:48.079 --> 01:12:49.279
Still do that to this day.

01:12:49.439 --> 01:12:50.640
Never too cool for school.

01:12:50.880 --> 01:12:53.600
People that are too cool for school are morons.

01:12:53.680 --> 01:12:54.960
I mean, they just think they know everything.

01:12:55.199 --> 01:13:00.880
So um I was at this event, and we're in this this guy's speaking.

01:13:01.439 --> 01:13:13.840
Uh he was a big wig in the carpet cleaning industry back then, and he was like teaching seminars and all this stuff, and he had this, his name was Matt Clark, and he said, you know, 40% off is the best way to get business.

01:13:14.000 --> 01:13:19.920
And uh, and here I was running free recorded messages, and people weren't even calling me based on price.

01:13:20.079 --> 01:13:26.000
They were, you know, uh they would listen to my free recorded message and then they would call up and say, When can you book the job?

01:13:26.239 --> 01:13:32.640
Because the free recorded message got them pre-interested, pre-motivated, pre-qualified, and predisposed to do business with me.

01:13:32.720 --> 01:13:33.920
It was no longer about price.

01:13:34.079 --> 01:13:43.600
So the reason I said prior to spending is this go to the low end or high end, if it's especially high end, the more that you educate and build rapport, the better.

01:13:43.760 --> 01:13:48.880
You know, Apple didn't just start selling, you know, thousand or fifteen hundred dollar iPhones.

01:13:49.039 --> 01:13:53.119
Louis Vuitton didn't start just selling three three thousand dollar purses.

01:13:53.199 --> 01:13:56.319
You know, they had to build a particular reputation.

01:13:56.479 --> 01:14:04.239
The average small business owner, especially in carpet cleaning, doesn't have the advertising budget of Coca-Cola or Apple or some of these big brands.

01:14:04.319 --> 01:14:05.600
So they have to do other things.

01:14:05.680 --> 01:14:12.159
And what we do is we build rapport with people by educating them, guaranteeing our work, doing a good job, that sort of stuff.

01:14:12.399 --> 01:14:17.119
And so um, so here I was at this event, and this guy says 40% off.

01:14:17.199 --> 01:14:25.600
I raise my hand, I have long hair and a ponytail back then, and I said, you know, I'm doing this thing with free recorded messages, and I don't price discount my services at all.

01:14:25.760 --> 01:14:49.520
I just have people call a free recorded message and I teach them what they need to know about carpet cleaning, and they end up, you know, just wanting to hire me because I tell them everything that they need to know and what's the difference between uh and he says he goes, Well, young man, if that works for you, that's fine, but we know that 40% off is the best uh offer you can make, and just totally shun me while I'm sitting in this event, and you know, I was like, all right, whatever.

01:14:49.680 --> 01:14:57.279
And during the break, two guys come up to me, they're twice my age, and they're like, You were talking about what's that free recorded message thing you're talking about?

01:14:57.439 --> 01:15:12.720
And I said, Well, I go, I paid a copywriter$1,800 to write a consumer awareness guide for me, and I paid him another$250 to turn that um consumer awareness guide into a um into a free recorded message.

01:15:12.880 --> 01:15:22.159
If you pay me$250, I'll send you the whole script to the consumer awareness guide and the free recorded message that has cost me over uh two$2,000.

01:15:22.560 --> 01:15:29.600
Just pay me$250, which is what I paid him the right uh to turn the consumer awareness guide into a script, and then report back to me the results.

01:15:29.760 --> 01:15:33.600
One guy's name was Don DeLu, the other guy's name was Andy Gallagher.

01:15:33.840 --> 01:15:40.960
The reason I remember their names is they ended up becoming clients of mine once, you know, within a year and a half, I'm off to the races.

01:15:41.119 --> 01:15:49.840
So Don DeLu literally is getting ready to run a half-page phone book ad in the Denver phone book, because he lived in Golden, Colorado.

01:15:50.079 --> 01:15:52.800
And he uh he's like, Can I do a phone call with you?

01:15:52.880 --> 01:15:53.600
And I go, sure.

01:15:53.680 --> 01:15:56.720
Uh so now as I do a phone call, he goes, I'm running a half page ad.

01:15:56.800 --> 01:15:58.560
I don't know what the hell it was costing him.

01:15:58.720 --> 01:16:02.000
He goes, and you know, and it barely makes breaks even.

01:16:02.159 --> 01:16:04.560
Sometimes I lose money, but I've been doing it for years.

01:16:04.720 --> 01:16:08.319
And he goes, Would you run a free recorded message in the phone book?

01:16:08.399 --> 01:16:13.279
And I said, Yeah, put warning, don't call any carpet cleaner to listen to this free recorded message.

01:16:13.359 --> 01:16:14.800
Run it as an in-call him ad.

01:16:14.960 --> 01:16:20.159
I took him from a half-page phone book ad down to an ad smaller than the size of a business card.

01:16:20.319 --> 01:16:23.600
It quadrupled the response he was getting in the yellow pages.

01:16:23.680 --> 01:16:29.359
And off of 200, I charge him 250 bucks for the free recorded message script and the consumer guide.

01:16:29.520 --> 01:16:35.359
And uh he was paying too he went from paying, I don't know, like some several thousand or a couple thousand.

01:16:35.439 --> 01:16:35.680
I don't know.

01:16:35.920 --> 01:16:37.359
The yellow pages back in the day was a lot.

01:16:37.680 --> 01:16:42.399
Yeah, it was and I took it was it was only 250 bucks a month, is what it cost him.

01:16:42.640 --> 01:16:50.479
From that free recorded message ad and the yellow pages, way back then, he ended up doing$62,000 in business that first year.

01:16:50.640 --> 01:16:50.960
Wow.

01:16:51.199 --> 01:16:55.840
And at that point, I was like, I could probably package this stuff up and sell it to other carpet cleaners.

01:16:55.920 --> 01:16:56.800
And so that's what I did.

01:16:56.960 --> 01:16:58.720
And he was uh my very first client.

01:16:58.880 --> 01:17:01.600
The other guy, Andy, didn't do jack shit, which is normal.

01:17:01.680 --> 01:17:09.600
A lot of people buy your stuff, they shelve it, they don't read the books, they don't do anything, until two years later when I was like now this big, then he bought my whole course.

01:17:09.840 --> 01:17:21.439
And he ended up, and then I started Platinum, which is a$1,000 a month program, and I started coaching people in 1998, and it was a$247 a month coaching program called 2X Plus One.

01:17:21.600 --> 01:17:25.760
We would teach them how to double their business and how to take it an extra day off per week.

01:17:26.000 --> 01:17:33.600
And then in 2001, like Bill Phillips, the Body for Life author, had given me a convertible Jaguar because I helped him make millions of dollars.

01:17:33.760 --> 01:17:42.399
And I had this Jaguar I was driving around, and I wanted to do a contest for entrepreneurs because I had helped him with his physique transformation body for life contest.

01:17:42.560 --> 01:17:50.159
And uh, but I was like, I need to take after I drove the car around, I was like, I need to turn this into um some sort of PR event.

01:17:50.239 --> 01:17:50.800
I don't know what.

01:17:50.880 --> 01:18:12.720
So I came up with a better your best contest, and I was gonna give away my car, uh, this car that he had bought me to whoever did the best job of taking a three-month uh period from the previous year and a three-month period of the current year, and they could either enter uh, you know, systemizing your marketing or advertising or increasing your net or gross profit.

01:18:12.880 --> 01:18:16.800
And they had I created a whole contest around this with rules and regulations.

01:18:17.119 --> 01:18:21.840
To your clients, to my yeah, to my carpet cleaning clients, and then I announced it.

01:18:22.000 --> 01:18:25.199
Uh, and you know, you can't give away prizes.

01:18:25.439 --> 01:18:32.960
Back then laws change on this all the time, but you can't just like charge someone to be part of something and give away prizes because you're running a lottery.

01:18:33.279 --> 01:18:33.359
Right.

01:18:33.520 --> 01:18:42.079
But if you do a spokesperson contest where they win the spokesperson that could happen to come with prizes, vacations, whatever, that's how you could actually do it.

01:18:42.239 --> 01:18:56.479
So um what what we did is we uh you know I I put that car up and I I I launched a program called Platinum Plus,$1,000 a month or$12,000 uh$1,000 a month,$12,000 a year, or if they pay in full$10,000.

01:18:56.640 --> 01:19:02.079
And I announced it and um only three people signed up, which the car was worth$80,000.

01:19:02.319 --> 01:19:04.399
And I was like, this is not gonna work because that's right there.

01:19:04.640 --> 01:19:12.159
But we took a month and we called everyone that had attended that event, and uh we ended up getting 35 people to join the first year.

01:19:12.319 --> 01:19:13.359
And that was my platinum.

01:19:13.840 --> 01:19:16.239
So did they get uh conference calls with you?

01:19:16.399 --> 01:19:19.279
Yeah, monthly conference calls with with everybody on one call.

01:19:19.439 --> 01:19:20.000
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:19:20.079 --> 01:19:26.000
Everyone on one call, and then um, and then uh we we would meet uh quarterly for a day at a time.

01:19:26.159 --> 01:19:30.000
And then after a couple years of that, we started meeting three days, two days at a time.

01:19:30.239 --> 01:19:32.560
So today, Genius Network is an example.

01:19:32.720 --> 01:19:34.399
They come to three meetings a year.

01:19:34.560 --> 01:19:37.199
Uh two of them are two days at a time at my office.

01:19:37.279 --> 01:19:38.479
We do them almost monthly at my house.

01:19:38.640 --> 01:19:39.359
From all around the country?

01:19:39.680 --> 01:19:40.159
All over the world.

01:19:40.319 --> 01:19:41.199
All over the world at the end.

01:19:41.439 --> 01:19:52.239
Yeah, this last week we had people from uh uh Dubai, um Australia, Netherlands, um you know, many from Canada.

01:19:52.640 --> 01:19:53.279
Do you have a number?

01:19:53.359 --> 01:19:54.560
Like how many people are in the program?

01:19:54.800 --> 01:19:55.600
A couple hundred right now.

01:19:55.760 --> 01:20:01.840
A couple between my 35k group, which is Genius Network, and between my 100K group, we have over 200 members.

01:20:02.079 --> 01:20:05.199
Uh and are the names businesses we would know, we would recognize?

01:20:05.439 --> 01:20:05.840
Yeah, some.

01:20:06.000 --> 01:20:06.960
Are you allowed to share those names?

01:20:07.039 --> 01:20:07.520
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:20:07.840 --> 01:20:12.479
Chris Voss, you know, the top former international FBI hostage negotiators in my 100k group.

01:20:12.640 --> 01:20:13.760
Oh, I think I've had him on my show before.

01:20:14.239 --> 01:20:14.319
Yeah.

01:20:14.640 --> 01:20:17.439
He was on doc, he was on the um I had him in the studio.

01:20:17.520 --> 01:20:18.239
I'm almost positive.

01:20:18.319 --> 01:20:18.960
He lives here, right?

01:20:19.119 --> 01:20:20.239
No, no, he lives in Vegas.

01:20:20.399 --> 01:20:20.960
Oh, he must.

01:20:21.119 --> 01:20:22.640
But he's I'm almost positive I had to.

01:20:22.720 --> 01:20:24.640
Do you know Tommy Mello who's here with A1 Garage?

01:20:24.880 --> 01:20:25.760
Oh, I want to talk to that guy.

01:20:25.840 --> 01:20:26.239
I love that guy.

01:20:26.479 --> 01:20:28.000
Yeah, he's in my 100K group.

01:20:28.159 --> 01:20:30.159
Dan Sullivan's in my 100k group.

01:20:30.239 --> 01:20:33.840
Uh, Cameron Harold from 1800 Got Junk is Ingenious Network.

01:20:34.000 --> 01:20:36.640
Uh, 28% of the members are women.

01:20:36.800 --> 01:20:39.920
Uh we have some incredible uh members.

01:20:40.399 --> 01:20:43.680
Um yeah, I mean, people can look it up online.

01:20:44.000 --> 01:20:44.960
That's fantastic.

01:20:45.039 --> 01:20:45.600
What a story.

01:20:45.840 --> 01:20:46.079
You know what?

01:20:46.479 --> 01:20:51.119
Talking to you and hearing everything, you you I mean, whether you like it or not, I mean, you are a public figure, right?

01:20:51.359 --> 01:20:52.159
Yeah, yeah, to a degree.

01:20:52.640 --> 01:20:53.119
I feel that you are.

01:20:54.079 --> 01:20:56.000
Hopefully, most more people like me than dislike me.

01:20:56.239 --> 01:21:07.520
Well, one one thing I know we're we're sort of short on time, but a fascination that I have is your ability to make connections with people and build a network.

01:21:07.920 --> 01:21:15.520
Can you and kind of walk us through how you do that from I don't know this guy to where I've just met him?

01:21:15.760 --> 01:21:18.479
What what's what are the things that you do?

01:21:19.920 --> 01:21:26.640
Because every everybody wants to build a a bigger network, a better so walk us through what what works and them, what what doesn't.

01:21:26.720 --> 01:21:29.199
And I know a lot of stuff is in your book, but yeah, yeah.

01:21:29.279 --> 01:21:32.079
So so part of it, yeah, I wrote a whole book called What's in It for Them.

01:21:32.159 --> 01:21:34.319
So it starts with asking the question I bought that book.

01:21:34.560 --> 01:21:34.880
Thank you.

01:21:35.279 --> 01:21:35.600
Thank you.

01:21:35.680 --> 01:21:36.479
Uh have you read it yet?

01:21:36.640 --> 01:21:37.359
I'm halfway through it.

01:21:37.520 --> 01:21:37.680
Okay.

01:21:37.920 --> 01:21:38.000
Yeah.

01:21:38.079 --> 01:21:39.199
It's I I'm a slow reader.

01:21:39.439 --> 01:21:41.039
No, I'm reading five books right now.

01:21:41.279 --> 01:21:41.680
I am.

01:21:41.840 --> 01:21:43.279
Well, yeah, I'm I'm the same way.

01:21:43.520 --> 01:21:45.600
But I've been reading the same five books for about 10 years.

01:21:46.159 --> 01:21:47.279
I just added your book now.

01:21:47.439 --> 01:21:48.640
So now I'm reading six books.

01:21:48.880 --> 01:21:49.199
That's true.

01:21:49.359 --> 01:21:50.640
I have it on Audible too.

01:21:50.720 --> 01:21:52.239
I recorded it in my voice.

01:21:52.399 --> 01:21:54.319
Um, so that's the question.

01:21:54.479 --> 01:21:55.279
What's in it for them?

01:21:55.439 --> 01:22:02.000
So you want to position things so that uh it is not about you, but it's about them.

01:22:02.079 --> 01:22:14.720
Uh there's that famous Zig Ziggler line, you can get anything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want, with the caveat that you can help some people get what they want that not only won't do a damn thing for you, they won't appreciate you and they will abuse you.

01:22:14.880 --> 01:22:18.000
So part of it is aligning yourself with people that are aligned with you.

01:22:18.239 --> 01:22:30.000
So making connections is if I could go back in time, uh be a giver, but be selective on people that actually are ethical, people that always lead first.

01:22:30.159 --> 01:22:36.000
But if people do not reciprocate, meaning they violate the Dan Sullivan referrability habits.

01:22:36.239 --> 01:22:41.600
Show up on time, do what you say you're going to do, finish what you start, and say please and thank you.

01:22:41.760 --> 01:22:50.479
If people do those things, then I'm all for, you know, I don't like people that don't appreciate services of others.

01:22:50.560 --> 01:22:54.880
Uh I don't like people that don't utilize when you give them something useful.

01:22:54.960 --> 01:23:02.479
Uh I don't work with anything or anyone that isn't elf, easy, lucrative, and fun versus hard, annoying, lame, and frustrating.

01:23:02.640 --> 01:23:05.680
So I only want elf people in my life, not half people.

01:23:05.840 --> 01:23:14.000
So I always put everything to is is is this project, this person, this strategy easy, lucrative, and fun, or is it hard, annoying, lame, and frustrating?

01:23:14.239 --> 01:23:17.840
Definitely has to have integrity, uh, has to be ethical, has to be aligned.

01:23:18.079 --> 01:23:19.680
Have you ever denied anyone in the group?

01:23:19.920 --> 01:23:20.720
Oh, yeah, all the time.

01:23:20.880 --> 01:23:21.279
Oh, yeah?

01:23:21.439 --> 01:23:21.760
Oh, yeah.

01:23:22.000 --> 01:23:23.840
Because do you tell them why, or is it your own?

01:23:24.239 --> 01:23:24.640
Yeah, yeah.

01:23:24.720 --> 01:23:31.920
Uh there there's one time where I actually screamed at someone to kick him out of the group because he was such a horrendous uh narcissistic asshole.

01:23:32.159 --> 01:23:34.000
Like they were in the group in the meeting they had paid.

01:23:34.239 --> 01:23:35.680
Well, I didn't yell at him in front of everyone else.

01:23:35.920 --> 01:23:37.199
Right, but you said you need to get out of here.

01:23:37.359 --> 01:23:37.840
Oh, yeah, yeah.

01:23:38.000 --> 01:23:48.000
And refund them, or is it just and I I recently gave one person their money back because I looked at all these FTC, uh not FTC, uh, Better Business Bureau complaints.

01:23:48.079 --> 01:23:57.039
And there were like, and I heard this person's story explaining it, but after digging deeper into it, I'm like, you're not gonna, you're not gonna excuse this one away.

01:23:57.119 --> 01:23:59.840
I mean, there are large companies where people attack them.

01:24:00.159 --> 01:24:04.560
And if you're gonna do anything of size, I mean, even Mother Teresa got hate mail.

01:24:04.800 --> 01:24:09.199
However, you know, there there's a point where it's like, you know, you look at the reputation.

01:24:09.359 --> 01:24:12.159
So what I what Genius Network is, is it's a connection network.

01:24:12.319 --> 01:24:20.319
I don't call it a mastermind because way too many masterminds have been polluted by idiots that are unethical, calling them mastermind groups.

01:24:20.479 --> 01:24:23.600
And a mastermind is a dialogue, it's not a monologue.

01:24:23.840 --> 01:24:27.039
So a lot of masterminds are like speakers speaking.

01:24:27.119 --> 01:24:28.960
That's a seminar, that's not a mastermind.

01:24:29.119 --> 01:24:32.399
And so we do masterminding in the event, but it's a connection network.

01:24:32.479 --> 01:24:34.800
So to you to your question, how do you connect people?

01:24:34.960 --> 01:24:40.159
Just be useful, be grateful, be generous, uh, look for what they need solved.

01:24:40.319 --> 01:24:42.720
Don't just say to someone, how can I help you?

01:24:42.880 --> 01:24:46.319
Actually do a little bit of thinking and be like, just help them.

01:24:46.479 --> 01:24:50.800
You know, one way to help them is if you don't have anything to offer them, give them money.

01:24:50.960 --> 01:24:59.920
If you don't have any money to give them, give them time, attention, effort, and energy, only to the degree that you are actually helping them, not being annoying.

01:25:00.000 --> 01:25:11.680
Uh, you know, you and and you know, when you're young and you don't know what the hell you're doing, uh, my friend Dave Kekich, who spent half his life in a wheelchair, he's you know, enthusiasm covers many deficiencies.

01:25:11.920 --> 01:25:19.279
Be a likable person, uh, figure out, you know, it's so easy today to find things about people and companies.

01:25:19.680 --> 01:25:22.640
Freaking, you know, do an AI search, right?

01:25:22.800 --> 01:25:30.479
But really don't just do a summary on AI five minutes before you meet someone and then pretend you actually know anything about them.

01:25:30.640 --> 01:25:45.119
Like, you know, if you're if you're trying if you're trying to get a job as an example, and you know how to you have skills that can produce a result, sales skills are always valuable because there's there's rarely few companies out there that don't want more business, right?

01:25:45.520 --> 01:25:55.760
So uh if you offer to just work for free for a period of time and prove yourself and then say, and if I can produce the result that you're paying other people to do, then you can offer me a position.

01:25:55.840 --> 01:25:56.960
And if not, then you won't.

01:25:57.039 --> 01:26:02.000
Now, if you don't have any money and you have to like pay the rent next week, you may not be able to do that.

01:26:02.159 --> 01:26:08.079
But the thing is you can you can work, you know, there's this whole don't work hard, work smart.

01:26:08.319 --> 01:26:13.520
The real thing is work hard on smart things, work hard with smart people.

01:26:13.760 --> 01:26:16.960
Don't just, you know, work don't work hard, work smart.

01:26:17.039 --> 01:26:24.880
I I don't know anyone that starts like even elf, easy, lucrative, and fun, it's often very hard in the beginning to build an elf business.

01:26:24.960 --> 01:26:26.640
You have to build a foundation.

01:26:26.800 --> 01:26:29.680
You you get paid in the beginning for what you do.

01:26:29.840 --> 01:26:33.279
If you get really good at what you do, you then get paid for who you are.

01:26:33.439 --> 01:26:37.840
And a lot of people rest on their laurels because they get paid more for whoing than whating.

01:26:38.159 --> 01:26:44.159
But never, if you're really skilled and you become famous because you know, you can be Richard Branson and not say anything.

01:26:44.239 --> 01:26:50.399
You're still gonna have someone give you, you know, half a million dollars to show up and like talk in an event because he's Richard Branson.

01:26:50.640 --> 01:26:54.399
Uh, however, and I've I've I've interviewed Richard more than most people in the world.

01:26:54.479 --> 01:27:07.680
I've got I spent six weeks of my life on Necker Island, and I've also interviewed people that are infinitely more valuable with what they share than what Richard does about business, but they hear they don't hear it because he's not they're not Richard Branson.

01:27:07.920 --> 01:27:17.359
And so part of it is listen to what the person has to say, uh, what sort of skills do they have, and then and lead them into what it is that they want.

01:27:17.439 --> 01:27:21.359
And oftentimes you just can simply ask them, What do you what do you need solved right now?

01:27:21.439 --> 01:27:31.359
If you could wave a magic wand and have something happen, uh, what's some pain that you want taken away that if you would really love if someone just came and handled something for you?

01:27:31.439 --> 01:27:34.399
And if you're a person that can do that, handle it for them.

01:27:34.479 --> 01:27:42.399
And you know, because think about all the people that are your you're you're gonna get how many text messages or phone calls do you think you'll get the rest of the day?

01:27:42.720 --> 01:27:44.479
Uh hopefully not a lot.

01:27:44.960 --> 01:27:46.800
I mean, I don't know, let's say four or five?

01:27:46.960 --> 01:27:47.439
Four or five.

01:27:47.520 --> 01:27:52.880
Okay, we're we're getting towards the end of the day, but let's say in a whole day, how many, how many uh I don't know, 15, 20?

01:27:53.119 --> 01:27:53.359
Okay.

01:27:53.600 --> 01:27:58.079
So so uh I I on average get over a hundred to two hundred a day.

01:27:58.399 --> 01:27:58.640
Jeez.

01:27:58.880 --> 01:28:02.880
Now now, granted, I'm able to do that because that's my cockpit.

01:28:02.960 --> 01:28:04.720
I know how to navigate relationships.

01:28:05.039 --> 01:28:05.760
That's just me though.

01:28:05.840 --> 01:28:08.000
Some people it would drive them bananas.

01:28:08.159 --> 01:28:10.560
Uh I have like a hundred thousand unanswered emails.

01:28:10.800 --> 01:28:11.359
Oh, well, there you go.

01:28:11.600 --> 01:28:15.680
Like I'm I'm a little yeah, I don't, I I I'm I'm a little different that way.

01:28:16.000 --> 01:28:18.399
Yeah, no, I I know so here's the point.

01:28:18.640 --> 01:28:22.560
You look at everyone that texts you, you either get woo or you get ah.

01:28:23.039 --> 01:28:26.319
You know, because what people want is more woo and less ah.

01:28:26.800 --> 01:28:34.960
And if you're a person that could add woo to some people's lights, not everyone, but you need to know not only who to attract, but who to repel.

01:28:35.119 --> 01:28:39.920
Because good marketing doesn't just attract who you want, it repels who you don't want.

01:28:40.159 --> 01:28:41.760
I am not all things to all people.

01:28:41.920 --> 01:28:42.960
Genius network.

01:28:43.119 --> 01:28:45.439
Most people that come to my group as an example.

01:28:45.600 --> 01:28:47.600
There's famous people like last year.

01:28:47.760 --> 01:28:58.159
I sold the event out three weeks in advance, and I didn't even tell anyone that I was having Tucker Carlson, Jordan Peterson, and Bobby Kennedy come and do interviews with me.

01:28:58.239 --> 01:29:01.520
They're the first post-election interviews that all three of them had done.

01:29:01.600 --> 01:29:05.359
Then I brought them to my 100K dinner and did a panel for everyone.

01:29:05.520 --> 01:29:08.000
We recorded it, but we never distributed that video.

01:29:08.159 --> 01:29:11.680
But I put the other videos up on YouTube and I surprise people.

01:29:11.760 --> 01:29:15.359
I wow people, I exceed their expectations.

01:29:15.520 --> 01:29:19.600
Uh, and you, you know, so I'm always trying to one-up myself.

01:29:19.760 --> 01:29:22.800
But if you go back in time, I was a drug addict.

01:29:22.960 --> 01:29:28.880
I didn't know how to talk to anyone, I was scared to ask anyone out on a date, so I never went to prom in high school.

01:29:28.960 --> 01:29:40.000
Uh, the night of my high school graduation, I was like overlooking uh the Dobson High football field, which is where the graduation was while freebasing cocaine.

01:29:40.159 --> 01:29:41.279
I was an absolute mess.

01:29:41.359 --> 01:29:44.319
I've had guns in my mouth and being suicidal and stuff.

01:29:44.479 --> 01:29:46.960
Life is a series of a lot of ups and downs.

01:29:47.039 --> 01:29:54.319
So as long as you don't kill yourself, uh as long as you don't completely destroy relationships, you know, you can learn skills.

01:29:54.399 --> 01:29:56.800
You ambition is a capability.

01:29:56.960 --> 01:29:59.680
Uh, and so, you know, with Genius Network, people.

01:30:00.239 --> 01:30:04.159
come to the group not for who's in it but for who's not in in the room.

01:30:04.560 --> 01:30:07.279
So some people will sign up for things because they want to meet people.

01:30:07.600 --> 01:30:10.239
But do you have functions that non-members go to?

01:30:10.479 --> 01:30:12.720
Or is that the annual event that I do every year.

01:30:13.279 --> 01:30:15.279
And that's the one where you had Tucker Carlson and those guys come in.

01:30:15.439 --> 01:30:15.840
Yeah, yeah.

01:30:16.159 --> 01:30:20.800
And this year I have other amazing people equally as amazing, but I'm not going to tell people who they are.

01:30:20.960 --> 01:30:23.199
And then every year they're like, why didn't you tell me they were coming out?

01:30:23.279 --> 01:30:25.039
And I'm like, well you should have signed up and you would have known.

01:30:25.279 --> 01:30:31.520
You know what's interesting I was going to say I feel like um you're like one of the most authentic public figures I've ever met.

01:30:32.159 --> 01:30:34.159
Like it's not like you don't there's no bullshit.

01:30:34.479 --> 01:30:34.960
You know what I mean?

01:30:35.039 --> 01:30:36.000
It's pretty cool that you're not going to be able to do it.

01:30:36.720 --> 01:30:40.720
People say that to me and it's funny I have a hard time understanding that because I'm just saying whatever I say.

01:30:41.039 --> 01:30:41.520
That's what I'm saying.

01:30:41.600 --> 01:30:42.159
That's what I'm saying.

01:30:42.319 --> 01:30:44.239
Like you're not you're not trying to be cool.

01:30:44.399 --> 01:30:47.920
You're not trying to be whatever you're just you and it's pretty damn cool.

01:30:48.399 --> 01:30:48.720
Well thank you.

01:30:48.960 --> 01:30:50.800
Yeah like I'm really glad you said that.

01:30:50.960 --> 01:30:59.760
I have to ask this though this is so random but your partner that you talked about you said she's an OBGYN what is she's a vaginal plastic surgeon and she's an integrative doc.

01:31:00.079 --> 01:31:00.319
Okay.

01:31:00.560 --> 01:31:14.239
So she does like she's expert in peptides uh exosomes uh but she's a vaginal plastic surgeon plastic surgery yeah she does labia plastia okay but here's what I'm trying to figure out because I've gone to her before I do not have a vagina.

01:31:14.640 --> 01:31:15.920
Well are you sure?

01:31:21.199 --> 01:33:43.680
You might have enough no but she she has uh she has a handful of uh it's really cool that she could have did some of my hair with her did you I don't know I'm trying to remember well she's she's collaborative with other plastic surgeons and she uh she also used to be a trauma surgeon so she does she's done all kinds of procedures she used to do uh breast augmentation and a lot of it was breast cancer reconstruction but it's such difficult work so she now just niches uh no pun intended she focuses on vaginal plastic surgery is the only thing I remember I think she injected my head with like uh growth something because my hair I was losing my hair okay could that be could that yeah yeah it has to be some some sort of uh peptides or something I don't know it was a long time ago okay but when you said that I was like wait a minute that's not I I used it for something but that's entirely possible how long you guys have been together uh five years oh wow yeah yeah I think you're freaking amazing man I've thank you I've learned so much from you like I want to rewatch his podcast immediately well good because there was a lot of information like when you said at the beginning you talk in riffs but you speak your riffs are full of knowledge well good I hope I hope and my whole thing is I hope it's useful for I I try I I go on a lot of tangents and I weave things around but I usually try to close the loop and what I will say so we can wrap this up uh is that uh if anyone's struggling with addiction uh geniusrecovery.org is our uh we don't sell anything uh eventually we'll have physical first aid kits for recovery that are going to be sold in pharmacies and stuff because we can guide people to uh places to get like uh to get help yeah yeah no one recovers though I've written two books on addiction recovery I give more of them away than I sell uh but no one recovers just from a book it's that's a seed it's a starting point it'll help someone start their journey and that's my goal but someone if they're really struggling with addiction you you know you you need a plan so it's there recovery services here that you recommend yeah yeah yeah there and it depends on the situation I even have a recovery clone and if anyone has any marketing questions I have uh askjopolish.com it's my AI clone and currently we don't charge for it people can ask like how do I write a consumer awareness guide because I'm dude I'm gonna be all over that I don't know how to write an I I spend so much money on social media ads for my radio show yeah and I don't think it's working and doing it ask my clone people are writing marketing plans using my AI let's see what it's we'll see what it says then I'm gonna send it to you and you tell me if it's a good idea or not.

01:33:43.840 --> 01:33:49.199
Yeah and also you don't even know this I own the ghost town of Cleater Arizona with a couple of friends 40 acre ghost town here.

01:33:49.359 --> 01:36:15.840
Oh really and people can go visit our ghost town it's on the way to Sedona where you exit where it says Bumblebee and we have uh like we have a big event going on there this weekend uh the next weekend we have a uh like Halloween stuff golf tournament oh yeah we'll have Halloween stuff there happening too but we just did a uh HGTV just uh featured us on Zillogone Wild and it won the uh the unique property of the season oh uh award and then uh yeah so so I I do all kinds of wacky sh wacky stuff but ultimately uh everything I try to do is about connection if you need uh ever need help promoting the ghost town events you know it's right up that's up right up our alley I will talk to you about that that would be great wait I want to go back real quick something I know we're wrapping up real quick but I'm gonna go back to Tony Robbins because when you said did you listen to his cassettes in the early 90s yeah because for me when I first started in radio as an intern a guy gave me his cassettes and I listened to those religiously even at night remember the cassette that had the music on it it was a cassette that's just music I would listen to that it's supposed to be subliminal and one day I'm at a restaurant in uh in La Hoya at a restaurant um and this red Ferrari pulls up and Tony Robbins is in the Ferrari and I like shit my pants there's Tony Robbins and he gets up he stands in line to order food and I start talking to him and he was so awesome and I was quoting his cassettes I mean do you remember can I constantly so I'm saying I go can I constant and never ending improvement do you remember that and he goes yes I made that up I invented that kaizan yeah I was doing all that stuff to him right so anyway he invited me he he invited me to go to his date with destiny in Florida and I went and spent six days there in West Palm did you get sick afterwards no what do we have the people get catch cold well you know you know I'm not your guru that movie yeah I was in the VIP section the whole time of the filming and I'm in three very quick scenes I was so happy I wasn't like uh because Derek Hoff and Julia what's her the dancers yeah I just interviewed him last week oh did you okay so I'm dancing with them the entire time in the VIP section at this silly date with destiny event and I'm like going where in the hell is this video footage going to show up it was on the document thank God it's not that it's somewhere but let me tell you that that that documentary I'm not your guru when he jumps into his cold plunge do you remember that he goes cold plunge 57 degrees he jumps in the cold plunge I screenshot I took a recording from another phone I sent it I was I was at his West Palm thing my pool was being redone I said I want this exact same cold plunge so I have the exact same cold plunge that is funny in fact I did it before I came here today.

01:36:16.000 --> 01:36:20.560
Yeah well so no and I have a cold plunge in my backyard and you know why cold plunges are great?

01:36:20.720 --> 01:38:10.239
Why and this is for a whole nother conversation like so my friend Anna Lemke who wrote dopamine nation she understands the biochemical aspects of addiction so on mice uh chocolate 55% increase in dopamine cold plunge 150% or no uh sex 150% increase in dopamine cold plunges 200% uh increase in dopamine cocaine 225% methamphetamine is a thousand percent that's why drugs are very addictive for for people uh but cold plunges are actually healthy dopamine unhealthy ways are continuously looking at screens social media so when you do a cold plunge it's not just good for you physically it's good for you mentally how long do you have to be in the cold plunge to get those benefits by the way I'm not a total expert in this although you know I've I have a lot of people that are that I've spoken with um two minutes is is is the magic number that Huberman and and and Wim Hof and you know people that are real experts in this speak to so yeah uh I mean I've spent uh 13 minutes in uh 38 degree cold plunge and that was tough that's that was the most that was the longest I've spent I've spent 20 minutes in uh 50 degrees and I've spent uh four minutes in 32 degrees freezing up to my neck but it if the more frequently you do it and it's not about getting in the cold it's integrating the the breathing uh in the heat and the cold together you kind of get a I do all that stuff I did the sauna and the cold plane before I came here to meet with you I had to mentally prepare that's awesome I wanted to be I wanted to be ready like I was but it's so great to talk to you I'm so grateful that you took the time out of your busy schedule man so thanks man you're welcome okay so welcome to our podcast this is a little bit different today because this podcast is a spin off of our radio show