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Networking for the Advanced Networker
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Niajae is an influencer and entrepreneur. She is a visionary. She adds art and creativity in her business approach which is one of the many things that contributes to her unique style. Her goal is to help people identify their true desires and build the confidence and sharpen their skills to go after the life they’ve always dreamed of. She is a master strategist and sales funnel expert. Niajae creates motivational videos focused on mindset and manifestation. She believes you can have it all with the right strategy and implementation. She loves holding people accountable. She’s fiery, she’s fashionable, she’ll make you laugh but also light that fire under your ass to get it done. There’s no question she’s unique and embodies the phrase, ‘When art meets entrepreneurship.’ With her unquestionable energy and spark, Niajae is dedicated to seeing as many people THRIVE as possible. She is living that purpose through the launch of her new podcast Abundance Hack and release of her new book #AbundantAF.
Jon Gordon's best-selling books and talks have inspired readers and audiences around the world. His principles have been put to the test by numerous Fortune 500 companies, professional and college sports teams, school districts, hospitals, and non-profits. He is the author of 18 books including multiple best-sellers: The Energy Bus, The Carpenter, Training Camp, You Win in the Locker Room First, The Power of Positive Leadership and The Power of a Positive Team. His latest book is The Coffee Bean: A Simple Lesson to Create Positive Change. Jon and his tips have been featured on The Today Show, CNN, CNBC, The Golf Channel, Fox and Friends and in numerous magazines and newspapers. His clients include The Los Angeles Dodgers, The Atlanta Falcons, Campbell Soup, Dell, Publix, Southwest Airlines, LA Clippers, Miami Heat, Pittsburgh Pirates, BB&T Bank, Clemson Football, Northwestern Mutual, West Point Academy and more. Jon is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a Masters in Teaching from Emory University. He and his training/consulting company are passionate about developing positive leaders, organizations and teams
Maestro Roger Nierenberg enjoyed long, successful tenures as Music Director of both the Stamford Symphony in Connecticut and the Jacksonville Symphony in Florida. Guest conducting invitations came from the National Symphony, the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the Detroit Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the San Diego Symphony, and many other great American orchestras. Abroad he has recorded with the London Philharmonic and conducted at both the Prague Spring Festival and the Beijing Festival. He has collaborated with many of the most renowned solo artists and composers of our time. During his tenure with the Jacksonville Symphony, the seeds were planted that would lead Maestro Nierenberg to a startling departure from the conventional, through the unparalleled creation of The Music Paradigm. Through his experiences engaging with community businesses and civic leaders, he became curious about the challenges and opportunities faced by organizations in times of rapid change. He quickly realized how crucial issues of organizational development could be powerfully brought to life within an orchestra. Thus was born The Music Paradigm, which has taken Mr. Nierenberg to the podium of over ninety different orchestras, before hundreds of different organizations in twenty-three different countries. Many of the lessons learned on this journey are presented in his book Maestro: A Surprising Story About Leading by Listening which was honored in 2009 as the Best Leadership Book from 800-CEO-READ.
Time management was not something that came naturally to me. I was always the wing it guy and then see what happens. This worked for me in sales because other people kept their processes and kept all my stuff moving. Get the workbook here http://successchampion.live/WorkLifeBalance But when it came to my schedule I was all over the map. When I launched my business I took that same mindset along for the ride. Guess what; it didn’t work and I had to evolve to the mindset of a business owner. I had to become something more. Through a lot of hard work, discipline and pure tenacity, I figured out some processes that worked for me and my business. I hope this helps you step into the business owner mindset and get you to that dream faster. - Donnie Boivin
Lorianne Speaks is an expert in the area of Speaker/Author support. She amplifies the visibility of Authors/Speakers/Messengers while they do what they love - SPEAK! Lorianne has helped spearhead multiple best-selling book campaigns - editing, proofing, through to launch and social media marketing to help authors create buzz and momentum throughout the social media platforms and increasing their message World-Wide. Lorianne and her team have made it their mission to empower speakers to deliver their message by handling the rest of the business details! Prior to starting her own Virtual Assistance (VA) company, Lorianne had over 15 years of professional experience supporting Top 100 Thought Leaders as they built their businesses.
Becoming a Champion Course http://bit.ly/2MYWs1e Champions Table Mastermind http://bit.ly/2YW00Yv Success Champions Podcast https://link.chtbl.com/R76Z4v0O Success Champions Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/Succe... Free Stuff http://bit.ly/2KGWwji Website https://www.DonnieBoivin.com Sponsors https://www.pointblanksafety.com/ https://bluefamilyfund.com/ Transcription: Here we go. Alright guys gonna be another fun episode, which you guys don't didn't get to hear. This is my second time trying to start this show because Bob got me giggling already. So I sound like a little schoolgirl over here, but this is going to be a fun show. So Bob and I talked a few weeks back and we just had a really good conversation and went all over the place. So I was looking forward to this one. But I'm Donnie Boivin. This is Donnie success champions. I almost screwed it up again. Bob say you're welcome to the show, my friend, please. Hey, Donnie, Listen, man, it's good to be here with you. You know, my story is probably you probably don't have enough time on your podcast to hear the long boring parts. Trust me, nobody wants to hear all that anyway. So now listen, you know, I think you're going to find this maybe to be kind of weird, and your guests might find this to be a little bit weird, but Had the the advantage of growing up on the on the border of poor. And you people look at that and go an advantage. And then listen, I don't mean we went hungry or anything like that, but man, there were no extras. And and so that inspired me. I still remember being 10 years old and asking my parents for something and then telling me you wish don't have the money for that. And I don't even remember what it was Donnie, but I remember deciding, well, you know what I want it. So I'm going to figure out how to how to make the money to buy it. And that was sort of that was sort of the start of my ambitious journey, I guess. And I, you know, out of out of five kids, I think I was the only one with an entrepreneurial gene. And I guess some people are just wired differently. But I mean, you know, my sort of entrepreneurial journey started. I spent six months selling new Oldsmobile. That was an interesting business. And frankly, I really didn't like car business a whole lot, mostly because it didn't really fit my core. And I think when something just doesn't fit, kind of your core values, personality, whatever, you're just not going to be as successful as as you could otherwise be. Nothing listeners at all. So long time ago was 1986 when I was in the car business, but one thing that I did like about it was I in that business, I started earning four or five times the money that I was used to earning. And I said, Man, I don't like the car business, but I could get used to making this kind of money. And so the car business led to my really kind of first chance I had to be in charge Myself, which is four years selling residential real estate. And then that led to a 17 year career in frankly, what I thought would be my career portal, which was in financial services, love that business. But I found that I would see both clients I work with, and reps I hired and trained sabotage themselves and their financial success. And the more I saw it, the more bothered me and it but it was kind of the impetus that led to me studying the psychology of what I call the psychology of human action in action. You know, what in the world makes people do the things they do, or not do the things that they don't do. And I learned a lot about what, what really are the drivers for people, and it helped me a lot personally. And so I ended up writing my first book, and after 17 years in that in History, I decided I was going to start my own company strictly to do personal achievement training. And wrote the book, it was sort of a has a basics of what that was all about. It's called discovering your greatness. subtitle, the higher level thinking and action guide. And, interestingly enough, a couple years into running a new company, we're doing okay. But okay, wasn't what I had in mind. And I thought, you know, we need some better ideas here. And I really started studying about creative thinking and innovative thinking. And what I discovered was teaching people how to do that. Help them get a better image of themselves. And when you're thinking better about yourself, and especially if you can have some During that process, it's just a whole different world. And so most of the work that we do now with spearpoint solutions, is really involved with innovative thinking, training on that. I do do some consulting with companies to develop strategies, you're using those principles that I teach. Because I find sometimes, you know, I talk to CEOs or managers and they go, you know, you're pretty good at this stuff. Why don't you just help us develop some strategies and instead of training our people, so either way, it's good with me, and it's kind of a long and winding road to get where I am now, but I you know, what I found there's almost nobody. Now almost no successful person that I've ever met, had a straight pathway and Okay, well, what's your experience been with that? No, it's the same brother. It's the same. Yeah, I'm really fascinated with this whole idea of these kids. Right, you know, because that wasn't me, right? That wasn't my story. That wasn't my journey. I, I didn't think about starting a business until I was 40. You know, I tell everybody, I'm a late bloomer. You know, so I'm really, you know, this whole idea that that you're born an entrepreneur really, really floors me kind of a bit because I don't fully wrap my head around how you got to that space. Do you think it's mean? I mean, I know you said it was because you were 10 years old. Right. And that, you know, there was something that you wanted to buy, you couldn't buy, you know, but how does that translate to years of creation? years ago? Well, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, no, that's a good question. And I don't know that I was necessarily born an entrepreneur. Exactly. But I think some people are common one. wired to be ambitious. And some people just are okay with just being okay. And there's nothing wrong with either, you know, whatever fits you and your lifestyle and your goals. I think what, that's fine, right? I make no judgments. I just know that, you know, for for somebody like me to aspire to average it's just not in my DNA. I love that phrase. Here's why I'm catching a lot of buzz because of something I say on stage. But I mean, you pretty much just said it. It's really just this quote, you either get okay being okay. Or you get in the game, otherwise Shut the hell up. Because because there's a lot of people that keep telling the world I'm going to be great. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But in truth, they're not Taking the action to do the things they need to do, to level up, scale up and go for it. So I, I wish people would, you know, stop taking on the world telling them how awesome they would be and truly just start enjoying the life that they have, versus making themselves feel miserable, because they're not doing the things they thought they should. That makes sense. Well, it does. And two thoughts come to mind as you're saying that I heard a long time ago, a phrase that stuck with me, says, When all is said and done, there's usually more said than done. True. Right. And look, talk is cheap brother. Nope. It's easy to do. It's way easier to do than taking action and getting your nose bloodied. Right, and tripping and falling, that it's much easier. So anybody can talk a good game. Yep. Right. But it's it, but it's people who it's the doers of the world. You know, I talked about a lot about developing better ideas. And I think that's a key critical component. Right? Because a bad ideas even perfectly executed is still a bad idea. Yes, but but, you know, I think you ought to start with with better ideas and better strategies. But having said that, the greatest strategies with the most perfect plan, not executed don't add any value to anybody. So you know, so you've got to have, you know, if I could make an analogy, in physics, you've got theoretical physicists and experimental physicist, and they're both necessary to move That field forward. So, so but the the theoretical, the theories of the theoretical physicists are only proven by the experimental businesses, right. But the experimental physicists are maybe not the best theoretical physicist. So it's sort of like the symbiosis between a songwriter and a gifted performer. A this is a this is a bit of trivia here. You know, Elvis Presley had I think 38 number one songs, or 38, top 10 songs. It was a bunch, right. Okay. And and how many of those did he write or co write? Man I don't and to have an answer that but but since you're asking I'm going to say zero It is zero. Now, you can become world famous as a performer. Right? And you don't have to be able to write songs. But the flip side of that is, you can write great songs and other people perform them. And you can be great that way too. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, the way I look at as a at creating winning strategies for people is, you know, I'm like the songwriter, and they're like Elvis Presley. Right? They gotta go perform those strategies in order for them to be great. Yeah, no, I love that. Yeah. Yeah. I there's and you I'm sure you've heard the hero's journey by Joseph Campbell. Oh, sure. Yeah. And I love this because one I grew up you know, watching the fantasy movies and reading the Lord ring books and all that kind of stuff. So I can totally vibe with this whole theory and philosophy out there. But but to what I love about it is this whole dynamic of the guiding the hero. And I think what you're saying is, in a sense when you're working with these companies, you're the guide but they're the hero and the hero is still gotta go slay the
Donnie B.: All right, guys. So I want you to strap it in today. So we're going to get pretty deep and heavy on this one. This is a hell of a story from a hell of a guy and my buddy, Patrick Mudge said, “Donnie, you got to sit down with Charlie and let him tell you his story and everything they're doing.” So just strap it in, guys. It’s going to be a really good episode. So I'm Donnie Boivin. This is Donnie’s Success Champions. Charlie Strange. Welcome to the show, my friend. Please, tell us your story. [Music] Donnie B.: Hey, before the show starts, I wanted to jump in here and let you guys know that I could not do this show without the support of Point Blank Safety Services. Stacey and Michael McGovern over there have been a huge asset for the show, the Success Champions Family and everything we do and it's because of their support, we're able to bring you such awesome guests and such awesome stories. So do me a favor. Go check them out. Man, if you're in Texas and you need security officers or you need active-duty police officers on off-duty hours, protecting your sites, construction, security sites, commercial offices, whatever, go check out Point Blank Safety Services. You'll be glad you did. Now, guys, I'm not kidding. Strap it in today. This is a hell of a story. Here comes Charlie Strange. Charles S.: Thank you, Don. My name is Charles Strange. I'm the gold star father of Michael Strange. Michael was killed in action in August 6, 2011 along with 38 other men and 29 Americans and Bart, The Warrior Dog. It was the biggest single loss of life in Iraq and Afghan War and it was the biggest loss of life in the history of America. 22 men from DEVGRU, Navy Special Warfare. And it was the worst day of my life. Michael is my oldest son from Philadelphia. He grew up in Philadelphia. Not too far for your audience. From the Rocky Steps, the famous Rocky Steps. Michael ran the Rocky Steps before he went in. “Adrian!” We're Philly and cheesesteaks and Michael joined the military right out of high school and he took off. He took off from there and went to the Great Lakes. I flew out, seen him graduate boot camp. From there, he went to Pensacola, Florida. And from there, he finished first in his class for cryptology. Michael was a code breaker. They actually gave Michael the National Intelligence Medal of Valor. Only 17 have ever been given out in the history of America since World War II and the windtalkers. Given that at the NSA with Admiral Alexander under about five floors underground. But he went to Hawaii because he was a crypto and Admiral McRaven was there and he loved it. We flew out to Hawaii, spent 15 days with Michael in Hawaii and he became a surfer and he got really into the intel there and he started getting deployed on different missions. His buddy, I also don't want to forget about, who died with him, John Douangdara was there. John was the dog handler for the Gold Team DEVGRU. And from Hawaii, he spent a little over three years in Hawaii and then they put him on DEVGRU in Virginia Beach where he had to buy a home and he was with SEAL Team Six, the Gold Squad. His call sign was GY4, Gold Yankee 4 and I said, “Michael! How are you affording a $300,000-house here, Michael? You're 21 years old.” And he loved it and he had to be by the secret base and we still take the train down, drive down. He drived back to Philly because he missed his family, his friends and I'll tell you what, like yesterday was the day we killed Bin Laden and a lot of memories going by one night and Michael called me before that, before the Bin Laden raid. Two weeks prior, he said, “Dad, everything's getting shut off.” I'm like, “What?” He said, “I'm not going to be able to talk to you, Dad.” And I tried to get information out of him and me and Michael had a little code. Even if it was January, he’d ask me, “Are the Phillies winning?” That means, “Don't ask me any more questions, Michael.” Because they would give them a lie detector test every two or three months. And the first question on the lie detector test was, when was the last time you lied? So he wouldn't have me ask any more questions. And he said, “Look, Dad!” He was getting mad. He said, “Dad, look, if something happens, I'm sure you'll hear about it.” And that was the Bin Laden raid and yesterday was, every day is emotional. But he loved what he was doing. He loved protecting and serving his country and his family and August 6th, he came home from the Bin Laden raid in June and it was his birthday, June 6th. It was his birthday and we had a big party, his friend, Kevin and Danny and all of them and the girls. They had about four kegs and a hundred bottles of Jameson's in the pool. But he was different. He was different after the raid and something was going on. A guy by the name of Joe Biden opened his mouth and after the Bin Laden raid at the Ritz-Carlton in Delaware and told everybody, “SEAL Team Six killed Bin Laden.” Nobody ever heard of SEAL Team Six before that. And I don't know if that was one of the things that was bothering Michael after the raid. But he was different. He was different in June when he came home. He talked about a will. He never talked about a will before. A couple of other parents were telling me about the guys in Michael’s crew and they talked about a will and something was going on. Something was going on, Don. He calls me up. He goes back and he's getting deployed back to Afghanistan. I still have his voice on my cellphone here and he said, “I love you, Dad. I'll see you for Thanksgiving for Eddie and Maggie.” That's my sister. We always do Thanksgiving in Philadelphia, in Fishtown and, “I'll see you for Thanksgiving.” And I knew something was up, something was going on and he was completely different. He had just told me about the will. He told my sister. He told his buddies, his brother, his sister and he got deployed in the worst day of my life, Don. August 6, they came knocking on the door. There was like four or five different guys, CAOs, Casualty Assistance guys and they didn't really say much about what happened. They didn't know. Some of the parents said, they ran into a mountain. Some people say, you know. The guys who came to the door, God bless them. They were very nice. They said, “Your son passed along with a tragedy on a helicopter in Afghanistan.” A couple of the parents I know, when you hear that, that's a piece of your heart. Donnie B.: Right. Charles S.: You get rushed to the hospital and I was screaming and yelling and crying and it's like a nightmare. It's a nightmare that actually really don't stop. You learn to walk with a limp the rest of your life, Don. And there was a lot of questions about that August 6, 2011 and the Taliban, actually, after they killed them guys, it was on the internet a half-hour later, bragging. “We just killed SEAL Team Six.” How did they know who was in the Chinook? And there's a lot of questions and we did the ceremony in Arlington. 17 to 30 men were in Arlington. In October 2011, we went down to Little Creek and a guy by the name of, Brigadier General Jeffrey Colt did the investigation on what happened and we were in the auditorium, the 60 parents and he was explaining about the pilots. God bless the pilots and some other things. He seemed like, it took a while due to the presentation, but he was only over there for two weeks to do this investigation for 30 men dying and I know and I still don't know today, Don, about the black box which is really orange. And General Colt put his hands up in the air like theatrically and he said, “A flash flood came and washed it away.” I said, “Oh, you didn't find it?” And they said, they never found the black box and there are some people who say, there is no black box in them CH-47. These are some kind of recording device. Then he said, “An RPG hit the helicopter from 200 yards in the pitch dark and it was a lucky shot.” So I stood up and the Philadelphia in me came out and I said, “Did you just say lucky shot and all our sons are dead?” And I threw a couple of F-notes out there and a couple of gentleman from the military grabbed me. Yeah. So it was, you got to be kidding me? And I asked questions. I had some of the other parents asking questions. When we left there, Donnie, they gave us a folder, a binder and you don't look at it. Just hearing about how your son died. They told me, my son burned to death because of the fire, the fuselage which was all a lie. My son wasn't burned at all. I have pictures of him. Four months, I called Dover and asked for the autopsy and a whistleblower in Dover, God bless his soul, I still don't know who it is, sent me a disk and the paperwork and my beautiful wife, Maryanne, she took the disk. She said, “Don't look at it. Don't look at it.” And she looked at it and I said, “Pretty bad?” And she says, “Well…” I'm like, “Well, they said he was burned beyond recognition.” And it was in all the papers. All over the world, 38 skulls, 38 c-spines. No identifiable remains. So I said, “I want to see. I want to see.” And not that bad and I looked at the pictures of my son and he wasn't burned at all, Donnie. He jumped out of the helicopter or got thrown out of the helicopter. They weren't that high. They weren't that high. I have pictures of the helicopter where they gave us this binder in October after Jeffrey Colt got done doing the thing and there was 25 pages in there. In the first page, you can look at, as you open it up, you can't read it. It ran out of ink. I know the government's doing bad, but they didn't have no ink. So I called Admiral Sean Pybus. He was Commander-in-Chief and God bless him and I said, “I got a bad copy here, Admiral Pybus. Can I get another copy?” He said, “Well, Mr. Strange, we had a lot of complaints about that.” I said, “Okay, good. Send me another one.” He said, “We can't. We burned it.” I said, “You burned it? Already?” But in that packet was a disk and I put the disk in the computer and as you can te
Donnie B.: All right, guys. I'm looking forward to this one. I'm bringing out a new buddy of mine, Brad Milford and dude, he's got a really cool story and I love some of the things that he's doing. So I'm Donnie Boivin. This is Donnie’s Success Champions. Brad, my new friend, tell us your story. [Music] Brad M.: I love that. You’re just like open mic day. Donnie B.: Yeah. All day long. Brad M.: I love it. I have a pretty interesting and fascinating story and I love speaking into it. So I appreciate you having me on. It's an honor to be here and let me just start out like, when I was like seven years old because I'm just a serial entrepreneur. When I was seven years old and I'm kind of a deep guy. So you'll talk me through that, I’m sure. Donnie B.: Yup. Brad M.: When I was seven years old, I came to realize, see, my Mom and my stepfather had an argument and this was one of those arguments that they ended the relationship and I also never knew my father and so when they split, I'll just be honest, I realized I needed attention. My mom was working all the time. So now, she was a single parent, four children. I just needed some attention. I really just wanted to be loved but the truth is, I didn't know how to get that. So I went on a path. I took a path and I became the class clown and I went through that stage and you know, I did all kinds of entrepreneurial things in succession with that. And perhaps, that's what has brought me here today. I went from there. I was that guy who was turning pop bottles and I had three paper routes and I was changing the marquee on the local movie theater. I mean, I did everything I could to generate, you know, to buying gum and selling it for twice the price. Those types of things, I went on to. At 16 and 17, I left home and went on to take a sales path up and down the East Coast. I hit almost all the beaches. Well, not all but a lot of beaches and that was fascinating. Then I went to the Navy. So what I came to find through this is that I was searching for something. I kept searching for something. First, I thought it was attention. Then I thought it was just camaraderie. That's why I went to the military for travel. Then I thought it was culture from around the country. Donnie B.: Wait. I can't let this go by really quick. You know, thank you for being my taxi service. I was a jarhead so … Brad M.: I love that. I love that. I knew it right away when you said that. Donnie B.: Just for our listeners and they know I'm going to do it but you know, I really appreciated being in the Department of the Navy which just happened to be the men's department. I'm sorry, Brad. Keep going. Brad M.: Great. I love it. I love it. Yeah. So I was fascinated by the Navy almost 6 years. I got out just a little bit early, a couple of months early. But it was fascinating. I learned a lot. But I also learned that it wasn't camaraderie that I was searching for and so I came out with a ton of experience. I was a cryptologist. So I studied, they call us ‘spook’. We were always in what’s called a SCIC, special compartmented information center. And they're highly locked up. We were locked up in rooms with no windows and that kind of stuff. But it was tremendous and I did learn a lot about camaraderie but I also learned that that wasn't the thing I was searching for either. Came out of the Navy, in a shortened version of this story, believe it or not, and I fell into building stadiums. So a buddy of mine from the Marines introduced me to building stadiums and I started out as a laborer. But then a year and a half into that, my entrepreneurial mindset, I looked around and said, “Guys, why are we working for a nitwit? We could do this ourselves.” And so we branched off and then two weeks later, we had our first $250,000-contract which was amazing and then we built that business. And then on to another business and a third business in that recreation industry. So playgrounds, tennis courts, basketball courts. Anything you basically have ever seen in a park, I began to become experienced in. And those businesses were awesome. But … there's always a ‘but’ in these stories, right? Donnie B.: There almost always is. Brad M.: But through this search, I still wasn't finding what I was looking for. So it came to over 14 ½, 15 years in that business which was amazing. It was extremely lucrative. It paid me very well. I made tons of money but I'm not the metaphorical guy that came to the top of the mountain, looked over and said, “Are you freaking kidding me? Is this all there is?” I mean, there's fun stories and I love telling stories. I mean, I had come from the military and I had come from a relatively poor family. I'm sure there's worse off but we didn't have a whole lot. A single parent, four children, we didn’t have a whole ton of money. I came from that poverty mindset. So I had a lot of stuff going on. I went from that to the military, heavy drinking environment, to construction, heavy drinking environment, needless to say, I had a relationship with alcohol. Not an alcoholic but I noticed around my circles that that's what everybody was doing. And I'm going to just be frank here, what I came to find when I came to the top of that mountain was, I was surrounded by people. So it looked to all my friends like I had an amazing life. I was making a ton of money. I had people around me all the time. I had a team of 22 people who work for me. They were all amazing. But I was so empty inside. When we go to the bars, there would be 40 people lined up and we'd all be “having fun”, but it wasn't fun. That wasn't real friendship and frankly, I was surrounded by people but I was empty and alone. So I knew something was wrong. I definitely knew something was wrong and I know that’s deep stuff but it's real and that's what I pride myself on is the reality of this. I mean, there's a lot of people in life who appear to us at times to be really happy or to have the greatest of this or the greatest of that. But they're carrying this thing inside them that does not represent that at all. So I went on a search, a different search to figure out what that was. So that was about 12 years ago and I gave up that company. So I was making a ton of money. I literally gave up all of that. Six-figure plus, the money is not important. But you know, high amount of income. I had no idea what I was going to do but I knew one thing. My son was just reaching his high school years. So those two things kind of came together at the same time and I decided to just make a massive shift. I said, “I'm not going to, 1, waste the time with him because I have one child.” So I'm not going to waste the time with him. I'm going to go home, be there with him through his high school and college years and I'm going to figure this thing out, whatever this thing is. So I did that very thing. So I went from high six figures to zero. Absolute zero and that was a struggle. So talk about overcoming some adversity. I knew there were a number of things going on. One, my character was and you said it was okay to swear so I love that. My character was shit. The one good thing that I had done along the way was, I had always listened to some kind of audiobook because I was traveling. Building stadiums, building playgrounds, tennis courts. You're traveling constantly. So I’m just a road warrior. So I listened to, I'm going back a few ways, so cassette tapes. Donnie B.: Oh, wow. Way back. Brad M.: Probably some listeners that don't know what those are. Donnie B.: Brad, I'm just curious, were dinosaurs really that big? Brad M.: They sure appear that way to me. Donnie B.: All right. Cool. Brad M.: No, that's awesome. So I had some mentoring via audiotape, if you will back at that time. But I had traveled so much. So from the time I was 16 to that time, up to like 12 years ago was consistent travel. In the stadium industry, one day, I was in Reno and the next day I was in, Staten Island, New York. I mean, it was real, heavy travel. So I don't like to waste time. I'm a maximizer. So that was a way that I could continue my education. So I knew based on that foundation, I knew something was seriously wrong. I just, I couldn't put a finger on it. I just couldn't put a finger on it. But I knew it had something to do with character and it had something to do with leadership. What I know now that I didn't know then is I had, yes, I was “successful” but there are levels of success. I've defined those. At least my definition of those. What those levels are, I'm happy to share those with the listeners. But I came to find that my leadership lid, as I said, was capped. So that was a successful business but quite frankly, I couldn't have taken that any higher because I didn't have the capacity to be able to do that. Even having three, you know, I was doing about $7 million for each company which is an incredible feat for a guy with what I’ll say, a piss-poor background. Not bad at all. And I think people can do that. But there are some levels of success and I'd love to share those with your listeners to drop something really practical. I believe the first level is struggle. So I see now, today, looking back, we tend to come through a thing and have a breakthrough and then that gives us the ability to look back through it and see others in that space, if you will. And so struggle is the first and I think people are reaching out because there's so many pieces to the puzzle and that's the first level, struggle. Then the second level is structure. When we begin to build a business, we begin to structure systems, all these things that people talk about, they're not so sexy. But they're real. Once you begin to get to that structure, then it becomes a real company. The third level actually is striving. So here's how I describe striving. When you wake up in the middle of the night and you have these ideas and your mind is just turning like a million miles a minute, that's what I call striving. And so
Donnie B.: All right. So a lot of you guys have been asking for this one and I'm looking forward to bringing Landon on. This is going to be a fun time. You should see his eyeballs right now. I got them all wigged out. But this is going to be a fun time. I'm bringing on the Sales Gorilla himself, Mr. Landon Porter and I think we're just going to have a killer time. I’m going to make fun of him a lot because I dig his hairdo and everything. So I think we're just going to have a fun time with that. I'm Donnie Boivin. This is Donnie’s Success Champions. Landon, welcome to the show, my brother. Tell us your story. [Music] Donnie B.: Hey, guys! Before we get rolling with Landon, I wanted to jump in here and say thank you to Point Blank Safety Services and Blue Family Fund. They've been with us for almost the entirety of 200 episodes on this show and they've just been amazing and their message and what they do in protection of our freeways, our buildings and I'm honored that a company that takes care of our police officers and their families has been such a gem in supporting our messages, this show and everything they do and what they're doing for police officers and their families is truly a beautiful thing. I mean, we all know the stories that teachers, police officers, military, they're all underpaid for what they're sacrificing with their lives. And I love the fact that Stacey and Michael found a cool way to get them additional income so they could take care of their families. It's really a beautiful thing. So if you’re looking for security services or you're looking for highway protection and patrol, those type of things, man, do me a favor and reach out to Point Blank Safety Services and you can find them at PointBlankSafetyServices.com and tell them Donnie sent you, you heard it on the Success Champions podcast. But man, what an amazing company, amazing people and guys, do me a favor, follow them on social, follow all their stuff because I couldn't do this show without them. Here comes Landon. Landon P.: Thanks for having me on, man. So back in late October of 1977, right? My story is not the typical sales guy or finally made it big in business story or whatever. I learned early on that I was really good at a couple of things but I didn't really like doing them for a paycheck and I ended up in sales in my early to mid-20s and really out of necessity and I figured out pretty quick that the way sales is done doesn't feel very good. Is it possible? Sure. Is it easy to learn and if you put enough practice in, get good at it? Absolutely. But it didn't feel good. And even though I got really good at doing it the way that it doesn't feel good, I eventually figured out that I just don't like everybody and that eventually turned into, if I don't like everybody, there's something in there that causes some people to want to say yes to me more and other people to say no to me more. And I went about figuring out what that was and it turned out that relationships, right? This thing that us salespeople have figured out how to engineer, this relationship thing, if you understand the parameters of how it works naturally for you and who you want to deal with and you just leverage that, it's so much easier and it makes so much more sense and I'll finish that all by saying this, that's from the stance of a sales guy who was tasked with bringing on new clients, but the money wasn't in bringing that client on. The money was in dealing with that client long-term because all the money was long tail. So I had to bring on clients and then I had to deal with all their bullshit and like, I don't really want to do that. So long story short, after about 15 years in sales, I decided, “Okay, cool. I want to go do something else.” My wife and I went into a parenting thing and in that process, I was asking some people about running ads and they were asking me about, “Okay, cool. What about the sales thing?” And within a week, about five people were like, “Dude, you need to fucking teach this.” And I was like, “Dude, no the fuck, I don't.” Here we are almost two years later and our take on sales is it's all relational. Welcome to the relationship economy. People are tired of being sold to and sold at and it's a whole lot easier for business-owners and people that have a cool thing to sell to just figure out who you want to deal with and just be open and honest with the public like, “Hey, I'm a little off. I cuss. I'm weird and if you don't like that, it's okay. Go away.” So that's kind of the, that’s me! Donnie B.: I love it. I love it. So here's what's interesting about this, man, is I grew up in the sales game as well. And to me, sales success early on was, you had to talk a certain way, act a certain way, be a certain way and I got really, really good at being that asshole. And here's the one difference in my story and yours is, I get really good at the transactional sale, right? I could get the deal done. This whole concept that you talked about, it's a long tail, that was not me. And my sales cycles were so wicked because you get the deal done, you’re rocking it out and then you're like, “Okay, I'm on to the next one.” And I’d pass it off to a company. So my CEO, they always encouraged me, like, “Get it done. We'll take care of it. We’ll take care of it.” Well, they weren't taking care of it. So my cycles would be way high, then all of a sudden, you’d bottom out because you had nothing sitting behind it because you were just killing deals. And it wasn't for me until I stopped being that egotistical asshole that didn't give a shit about people, who’s just trying to get the deal done that I found relationship sales. So this is just an interesting paradigm to find somebody else that kind of went the same path that I did. So here's the thing, I knew part of that story, right? Because I saw a video of something of yours somewhere and I knew part of that story. Didn't you sell like in an almost pit-like setting like it was more boiler room type thing or something along those lines? Landon P.: Yeah. And actually, you bring up a good point about the whole relationship thing and cycles up and down and I will tell that story in one second. I want to preface this for everybody that's listening. There are salespeople and if you're listening to this podcast because you're a salesperson and you're actually, your job is to go sell a thing for somebody else, do it however the hell you want to do it. I'm not here to tell anybody how to do something. What I do is I take business-owners that aren't really salespeople and I un-brainwash them from all the shit they think they have to do to get the sale done. So with all that said, yeah, let's actually talk about that. In right about the time the crash happened, I went to work for a company called COFAS and we sold commercial collections all the way through to commercial credit. And this is like business to business asset management protection and I was literally hired as a sales monkey, right? There was 30 or 40 of us on the sales floor, full-on boiler room style. You said whatever you had to, to get the deal done and it was such a turn and burn. Literally, it was like this. Every week, they hired seven people. At the end of 30 days, there was one of those seven people left. At the end of the next 30 days, there was one of those seven people left. I was in that industry almost a decade and there was one guy that I was hired with, same training class, we were hired on the same week. The next closest person that we knew in the three companies that the two of us worked for in ten years had been in the industry for like 3 years. It's just one of those industries that people can't hack it. I kind of came in and this is what I wanted to say about the relationship thing. I kind of came into that. There's an interesting story about it. I had a client that was household. They were Fortune like 10, Fortune 12. They were big. Everybody on the planet has something in their dwelling. If you live in a hut with a dirt floor, you've got their products and I had a 45-minute conversation after having them for like ten months and this guy is just m-effing me for 45 minutes, screaming and yelling and pissed because the idiot who sold them told them something that we could do that was just absolutely against company policy and it was a little itty-bitty thing and it took like eight months for it to happen and I had to tell him, “No, we're not doing that. We won't do that.” And I walk out of my office, I walked down to my buddy, Billy. He was the guy that was, we were hired together and I opened the door and he looked at me, he's like, “Feeling awfully gorilla today.” And I said, “Yeah. Because these stupid fucking monkeys will say anything they need to, to get the deal done.” That's great for getting money on the frontend but if you're trying to get money on the backend and build a sales business, it doesn't work. Donnie B.: No, I love it. I love it. I love it. So talk to me about this a little bit because you said a phrase that I haven't heard thrown around the sales game. Because typically, when you get these sales gurus through, right? They’re, “Let me bath you with my bullshit. Let me tell you how awesome I am, the millions of dollars I sold and I flew into my Learjet with my slicked back ass hair and let me 10x your ass,” right? That's the shit that gets thrown around on a regular basis. You just said something that's powerful as hell when you said, “I try and take business-owner and reprogram from all the bullshit that they've been programed and all the stuff that they've learned.” Dude, talk to me. I mean, because that's not an approach you see in the marketplace at all because you're supposed to be the grease ball. You're supposed to kill it. You're supposed to be the transactional guy and we all know in this day and age, if you do that, you're going to lose but they're teaching it still anyways. How do you take a busines
Donnie B.: All right, guys. I got to tell you, strap it in for today because I met this gal at a freaking summit and her whole presentation had me cracking the fuck up. I just love her vibe. I love her energy. This is going to be a fun one. So I'm bringing in Rachel Kaplan. I'm Donnie Boivin. This is Donnie’s Success Champions. [Music] Donnie B.: Rachel. Okay. So my dear, please, tell us your story. Rachel K.: Oh, thanks for having me and botching my name. I love it. Donnie B.: It's awesome. It's awesome. That's how you know you got a professional podcast host when he just totally blows your name completely up. Rachel K.: Love it. It doesn't matter, right? Yeah. So my story and I'm assuming you mean like the deep, dark, real story, right? Donnie B.: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, can you do me a favor? Rachel K.: Sure. Donnie B.: Because you just launched a really badass podcast. Rachel K.: I did. Donnie B.: What's the chance you could pull off your pitch for our listeners really quickly? Rachel K.: Oh my God. I know it by heart. Donnie B.: Fucking, guys. Listen to this. Absolute fun and let it rip. Rachel K.: We're going to start with the pitch. I'm going to take my mic out of the stand for this one. Okay. So success folks, what did you do to make that feeling go away this morning that you had to poop? Did you buy something? Eat something? Did you post something on social media to try to get enough likes? Or did you go to the nearest bathroom and take a poop? I'm guessing you did number two, literally, because you're potty-trained. So you know that that is the only way to make the feeling that you need to poop go away. But unfortunately, you are not emotionally potty-trained. So you, like me and so much of our culture waste countless hours, money, energy, effort trying to medicate and distract yourself out of your painful human emotions and it just doesn't work. When instead, you could just learn to let those hard feelings move through you like a good poop. I'm Rachel Kaplan, a successful psychotherapist and the host of the new and noteworthy podcast, The Healing Feeling Shit Show and I've got sad news, happy news and amazing news. The sad news is that when I was just 14, my first love committed suicide and that loss devastated my life. The happy news is it set me on a relentless pursuit to study the world's healing technologies. And the amazing news is that I have streamlined the single most effective and necessary skill that you, Donnie and your listeners need in order to have real well-being, true healing, let go of imposter syndrome and live the life of your dreams and it's as simple as fucking potty training. Let's collaborate. Join the feelings movement and let's flush this shit out together. Donnie B.: Oh, that's so fucking awesome. All right. So imagine you're in a room where you got tons of people pitching to try and get on your podcast and somebody like Rachel steps in and drops that on you. If you got a show like mine, you're fucking bringing her on. I mean, that's all there is to it. Rachel K.: Yeah. Super glad to be here and that was an amazing experience. It was a powerful thing to meet so many people really at the heart of their story and their mission and then to see how people do under pressure because it’s a lot of pressure to do something like that in front of 200 people and it really showed me, “Buckle up girl!” Donnie B.: Or as my people would tell you, “Suck it up, Buttercup. It's about to get real.” Rachel K.: Nice. I like that. Donnie B.: All right. Rachel K.: I mean, I just referenced my story but really, I mean, I was your average semi-secure, sensitive, awkward, almost teenager. I would say that this is not where all of my challenges and issues started. I was just growing up like everybody was growing up. But the first person that I really became obsessed with, in love with, just wanted to be with all the time, he was really kind of all I cared about and it started when I was 12, was this boy, this young boy named Keith and we were together for a couple of years. We were friends. And he was like, handsome, athletic, sarcastic, hilarious, the class clown, popular, all those things, right? And then in 1994, when we were both 14, this whole kind of situation unraveled where I thought he was going to maybe go to a drug rehab for a couple of months. But and I'm not going to spoil this story because actually, Episode 4 of The Healing Feeling Shit Show is the narrative in full glory. Donnie B.: Nice, shameless plug. Rachel K.: I mean, I don't get anything from you hearing that. But you’re going to have a much more beautiful, you're going to have a big, old, sappy cry kind of poop that day. When you listen to it, you're going to have your heart broken for your 14-year-old self. Anyway, basically, I was the subject of his suicide note. Donnie B.: Oh, fuck! Rachel K.: And yeah. He killed himself and I actually put my life on the line. I felt quite trapped in the situation. It's funny. I'm kind of like leaning over to the left because I'm trying to avoid this glare in my room. If I look like I'm falling over, it's just the light. So I did everything I could. I didn't know what to do. I was a child but I basically discovered that I thought that the best option to try to stop him was to tell him that I would kill myself also. And so I did that. I told him that. I told him I'd never forgive him and still, the next morning, I woke up to, and it took me some effort to find the suicide note because it was left in his house and his family didn't understand it. It was cryptic. Only I understood it. But basically, his suicide note meant, “Make sure my sun still shines.” Our nicknames were sunshine. So make sure that I don't commit suicide also. But no one knew that but I did. So that, I mean, talk about, I'll fuck you up, right? Donnie B.: Yeah. Real quick. Rachel K.: I think suicide is just utterly devastating for anyone at any age. It's really, and I'm not going to get into how far out and metaphysical I am but just so your listeners know and if anyone's drawn to this, it's also devastating for the person who does it and I do think part of my mission now as I harvest the gifts of this brutal journey that started in so much pain is to plug for the whole world that maybe suicide actually isn't an end to the pain. We won't go there because everyone believes what they believe about what death is and what's on the other side or not. But it's devastating for everyone involved and it took me a while. For a lot of years, I just felt like, “Well, I had to do this. I had to kind of start studying these healing modalities. I had to move toward relief and wellness.” But it was really a choice. I should give myself credit. I could have become a drug addict, right? I could have committed suicide myself. I could have … I did try things like moving into the recesses of my very quick mind for a few years. That was fun. Became bitchy and jaded and sarcastic and all kinds of methods to avoid this pain. But basically, I'd say, by the end of high school, I started coming back down the long 6 inches, 8 inches, what do you think? How long is my neck? I'm not sure. Donnie B.: 24. Rachel K.: 24 inches. We got a giraffe over here. I just started descending the length of my neck metaphorically back into my body where I really was pretty devastated and in pain and that was the beginning of a long journey, a very long journey and what's cool about what I'm doing with this and feel free to just wink at me if you want me to shut up. Donnie B.: I got you. I got you. Rachel K.: Okay. Is that, it really did lead me all over the world and part of in the last year, it's been almost exactly a year since I've been making my podcast and getting it out. What I've harvested, what I've realized in the kind of offering this into the world is like, I really have been at this for 25 years and my journey specifically brought me to, I lived in Nepal for a year. That's the little tiny country between, where Mount Everest is, between China and India, for anyone who doesn't know or didn't understand what I said. There, I started studying yoga and the Eastern traditions pretty young. Started teaching yoga by 22. Majored in Eastern religions, learned all kinds of like, what does the East have to offer as far as healing? And then I have a master's in counseling psychology and did all the training. I've done all the cutting edge modalities and trainings in Western psychology. And the person who is the most fucking helpful, really like the person I owe my well-being, my happiness, my life to, is someone who calls himself a traditional song healer. You’re probably like, “What is that?” Donnie B.: I have no idea what that even means. Rachel K.: Yeah. I mean, the best thing, the word that will peak the closest association for your listeners and for you is shaman. He’s someone who’s become deeply initiated into a native path and who is like a very gifted healer. I'd say he’s one of the most powerful healers alive on the planet. But he would hate that I'm talking about him on the Internet. I've agreed to him to not use his name. But really, the work I did with him, which was pretty badass. I mean, I have brought forth fire with a bow drill set that I fucking carved myself. I've been like on international like rock and roll tour by myself and bringing forth the fire, carving a set and bringing forth the fire is still the coolest thing I've ever done. The healing technologies that he had and the way he confronted me and showed me all the ways that I was still in pain and still acting out from that pain really changed my life. And there's a whole magic to it. Just one thing, I already mentioned this. This is a side note, but I happen to be a divorcee which I highly recommend. Donnie B.: I highly recommend. Wow! Rachel K.: And just one thing is, if someone says they’re divorced, probably the right answer is, “Congratulations.” Because we're also conditioned and s
Donnie B.: It's really, really fun when you get somebody on the show that has done some really cool things in their life. And when I'm talking to Nancy, I got to tell you, I love her humor. I love her wit. You can tell she's been in the acting scene and working in that customer service world for years. And I just love her spirit and energy, man. So as we dive into this week's episode, I want you to really listen because she dropped some real gems on really, how to be a great person, but it's all under the guise of customer service. I really enjoyed this one. And as always, man, this show is brought to you by Point Blank Safety Services. And I got to tell you, as I continue on and learn more about their company, their business, I spend time with Michael and Stacey over there. I'm just really honored that they are supporting this show for as long as they have and the amount of love they've given us. They are really doing a lot to change the game in Texas. We all know there's a ridiculous amount of construction going on, on a regular basis out here. Freeways are getting shut down, lane changes and everything else. And as those workers are out there, there's frustrations on both sides of the table of, the workers are frustrated because the cars are not slowing down. The drivers are frustrated because the workers are there. Somebody’s got to keep both sides of those safe and Stacey and Michael with Point Blank Safety Services, their company, their officers, their off-duty officers do amazing things keeping everybody safe on there. So do me the favor, guys. Go visit their website at https://www.pointblanksafety.com/. Send them a message. Follow them on social media and say, hi and let them know that you heard it on Success Champions. It would mean the world to me. [Music] Donnie B.: All right, guys. This is going to be a killer episode. I'm so stoked and excited about this one. I'm bringing on Nancy Friedman, man and she has got just an awesome and amazing story. So sit back and enjoy this one. But I'm Donnie. This is Donnie’s Success Champions. Ms. Nancy, welcome to the show, my dear. Nancy F.: I am here and I am excited and I am glad that we got together. Thank you for the opportunity, my friend. Donnie B.: Absolutely. Absolutely. So tell us who the heck you are. Nancy F.: Well, I'm Nancy Friedman, the world's only Telephone Doctor. But I didn't just jump in and be that. So the little background story is a fun one and a good one. And I don't know how far you want me to go. But the bottom line is, I was born in Chicago, Illinois. You are not entitled to the year but I was born there, raised there and did a nice stint there. Married my husband and while he was working, he and my brother got together and said, “We're going to buy a radio station in San Diego.” Well, that sounded like a good idea at the time. And we moved to San Diego and when I got there, Donnie, I was a young bride with a 6-month old baby, didn't know a soul in San Diego. It was a navy town then and very cliquish, if you will. I don't need to tell you. You've been a marine. They stick with their own. So the bottom line is, I got, not clinically depressed, but it was like, I want to go home. I don't like this. How can you not like San Diego? So I thought I was nuts. My husband bought me a book that changed my life and it’s by Dale Carnegie, ‘How to Stop Worrying and Start Living’. And the book is, you can pick any page and start it. You don't have to read it from front to back. So the bottom line is, I opened a page and the chapter was, ‘What is the worst thing that can happen?’ Well, that’s a challenging question to ask somebody. What is the worst thing that can happen? Well, the worst thing that can happen in his eyes and mine too was death. That's the worst thing that can happen. Well, I'm not going to die from being in San Diego. A lot of people lived there and they had fun. So I said, “Okay. I can deal with. What's the next worst thing?” I went through the steps myself and I thought, “Okay.” And shortly after he got me the book, I happened to see a little tiny one-inch ad in the newspaper and it said, ‘Midway Theater for Adults’. What the heck is that? Well, it was a high school who at night, turned theater classes into adult theater. And I said, “Okay, I'll go.” He said, “Why don't you go? You'll meet some people. You’ll meet nerds in this theater, weirdos.” “Okay, I’ll go.” So I went and the first night I was there, they did an improv. Here's your subject and go up on stage and do a little, a minute or two improv. Well, as I get up on the stage, there was enormous laughter. Maybe 35, 40 people in the room. And every comedian will tell you, the minute you hear laughter on the stage, you are addicted. It’s worse than any, yeah. It's worse than any drug. Donnie B.: Podcasters were the same way. Just so you know. Nancy F.: By the way, you cannot see me, but I can see you and your beautiful blue eyes. Donnie B.: Oh, thanks, honey. I appreciate that. I call them my baby blues. They’re my moneymakers. Nancy F.: Yeah, of course. I have them too but you can't see me. Anyway, bottom line, I was addicted and I went through that and we did a couple of shows for the Midway Theater School and then somebody told me, “Well, you know, there's a theater here in San Diego called the Old Globe Theater. Why don't you try out for that?” Well, it was not a professional theater but it was high-tech, high-fun and very, very popular. Anyway, I got the part in San Diego and lo and behold, at the end of the year, they have their awards ceremony and little old Nancy Friedman won the old Globe Atlas Award for Best Comedic Actress. Charlton Heston had presented it to me. So it didn't go to my head. It didn't go to my head. Very little goes to my head as my husband will tell you. But very little egotistically goes to my head. But anyway, I knew I had something. Some people draw. Some people played bridge. Some people played tennis. I played theater and it really filled a niche for me. So when we moved from San Diego from owning that radio station which I also helped run with my husband, the sales and service department, we moved. He bought another radio station with my brother in St. Louis and we moved to St. Louis. And by this time, I was real good at the office helping him set up the sales and service department. And in St. Louis, they had a theater, professional theater. So I had to join Equity. And the bottom line there was my first show in St. Louis was with Gig Young. So I am a professional actress and I've appeared with Gig Young, Dan Dailey, Cesar Romero, Forrest Tucker, Don DeFore, Virginia, the list goes on, because they brought in, they're all dead now, so I can say this, B-actors who were like not through with Hollywood but they didn't have good parts for them. So theaters across the country would bring in those good actors, some of them great actors and put them in a theater and support them with the local talent, if you will. And that's what I did for many, many years throughout the season. You'd have a six, eight-week run and two weeks of rehearsal. So if you did four or five a year, you had a nice healthy life. And I was working and I was raising two kids but I was a very happy camper. So my husband started a company called Weatherline and that was the largest private provider of weather information by phone in the United States. We had over a hundred cities where we installed weather information machinery. We worked with radio stations to do the updating and we sold the sponsorships. I won't say it's a confusing business but nobody really understood it. We always got, “Oh, okay. Well, that's nice.” Nobody understood what we were doing. But having owned a couple of radio stations, it was just in his blood. So bottom line, that was very successful and he brought me in to work with the advertisers and keep them on the Weatherline system. So I became the one-woman renewal department, if you will. And my job was to make sure we never lost a client. Never lose a client was our motto. And so we had the highest retention of clients that Lord, I've ever heard of. Well, not ever heard of, but it was pretty high. 70%, 80% people stayed with us. Why did they stay with us? Because of how they were treated by me. I mean, the sales people go out and they sell and then what happens afterwards is up in the air sometimes. So we created this customer service department for just them and we kept them year after year after year and some of them stayed with us for 30 years. 30, 35 years. So that's an attest to, A, how good we were. Donnie B.: Well, you’re either good on the phone or just really good-looking and charming. It's one of the two. Nancy F.: Well, thank God I'm both. Anyway, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But bottom line, I had a knack and it is a knack. Not everybody can talk to strangers about and I don't want to say nothing but about things they like and the ability to pop on a phone call and make sure we've asked them for time to talk and to set up those things. We didn't have email when we started at Weatherline. So it was, you did pick up a phone and you were an interruption and you still are an interruption when you’d call somebody. But we didn't, there was no email that say, “Can you talk Thursday at three?” There was no Outlook invite. There was nothing like that. Are you thinking I'm old now? Donnie B.: No, honey. I grew up in the sales game, okay? And I literally grew up in the kicking in doors and cold calling. Nancy F.: Tell me. I love that. Tell me what happened. Let me interview you. Donnie B.: Well, but here's what's interesting about this is, I love the fact that you said not anybody can just pick up the phone and get into the small talk stuff because you're 100% right. And I usually dive into the more technical stuff on the backend of this but we're going because I just love your energy. But most times, when people get on a phone, they're so consumed wit
Donnie: Alright was this is going to be an amazing episodes we are going to sit down with mike Michalowicz, We didn’t spend whole lot of time on a back story, we just started jumping in a lot of the philosophy of business, entrepreneurism and there wasn’t any flop, it was a pretty cool conversation, I really enjoyed and I know a lot of you guys asked for me to get him on the show you could more of an intimate conversation with him so I think you are really going to enjoy this one. And this show has been for a quite few episodes now, is brought you by point blank safety services, so Stacy and Mike are doing awesome and amazing things for the freeways and highways and everything they do by protecting the constructions workers, drivers and just keeping everybody safe while helping police officers that we know aren’t just paid enough to do what they do and put their lives on the line every day for us, so they are really helping this police officers not only protecting us in the afterhours but protect their families financially by giving them additional jobs and work they can do on a regular basis, these guys are doing just tremendous work. And I love that they have taken their business success and turned it out over to the nonprofit they started which is called … family fund you know that organization is giving scholarships and is helping out the families of fallen officers, you know it’s really cool to see a company remember really where they came from and really giving back to the community as a whole, so do me a favor guys, go follow them on Facebook, go them out on Instagram, check out their website, send them messages and let them know Donnie sent you , you can find almost everything that they are at either at … family fund or point safety in almost all platforms, say hi to them, I couldn’t do this show without them. So I know a lot of you guys have been harassing me about get mike on the show, so I’m bringing on Mike Michalowicz and this going to be a lot of fun, we already smoke and joke about two Polish guys on a podcast, what could be wrong? But this is going to be interesting, I’m Donnie Boivin this is Donnie’s success champions, mike tell us your story brother, welcome to the show! Mike: Donnie thank you for having me, I’m an author, I’m excited to be here and I’m on a missing to eradicated entrepreneur poverty, there are so many elements I struggle with entrepreneurship and some many fellow entrepreneurs struggle with and my goal is to fix that for all of us. Donnie: I love the whole phrase, entrepreneur poverty, because that was my business for a long time you know. Mike: Well you know what it is, Donnie when you started your business I suspect is the same as I started mine and everyone listening, you star your business and his friends who never own a business, they look at you and they who “oh you started a business, you are millionaire and you sit in the beach and all you do is sit and all you do is drink margaritas” There is this perception as that if you are business owner, you are wealthy and you got all the time in the world, the reality is the opposite, so we have no time, we work our ass off, we sacrifice family, we don’t go on vacations anymore and we make no money! As the general population we are struggling financially, so there is this gap and I called entrepreneurial poverty and so my mission is to resolve that, to make us what we are envisioned to be and when you have wealth and you have time you can be of impact you can serve others, I mean we need to do this. Donnie: No I love this, because Ii think there is one more twist on that whole entrepreneurial jump, because if they don’t think are automatically super wealthy the other questions is, what the hell do you actually do for a living? Laugh Donnie: So you are not only battling how much money you are supposedly making and all this freedom that you have, you know my wife, people still ask her, what does Donnie do? And she’s like, he kind of does this podcast, speaking, I don’t know what he does. Mike: Is fine, so when I sold my first company I go proud, I came home to my dad and said “Dad I sold my business” and told them what happened, and he goes “congratulations, so you are gonna have a really job now” and I’m like what? And he’s “yeah because your security and all that” And I love my parents, they have been extraordinary to me, they love me, both of them tho are in trap in their perception of what success is, get a job, stick to a job for entirety of your life, and I think we are surrounded by that perception, spouse, have other perceptions, as entrepreneur the rule is to break the rules, to challenge industries, to bring in our concepts, is new to everyone, Everyone’s is like “what the F are you doing?” is not comprehensible. Donnie: You know is all interesting, I don’t about you, but when I launched my business, it took me a long time to realize that I spent so long as an employed so when I launched a business I kept constantly trying to almost create a job for myself vs a company and I get lost in the business because it was so hard to make that shift, that is why I tell people that entrepreneurs a made not born because you get punched in the face a lot by life to start figuring things out, was that kind of the same thing to you or you just stepped in gold and riches fell from the sky? Laugh Mike: Oh of course that was exactly my journey! I started the business and people where throwing money at me like what= Is this real? NO! No of course, my first business was in computers system, I was a computer guy and I open the door. Donnie: Where’s your pocket protector I don’t see it? Mike: Yeah well yeah, actually Donnie that’s what happens , I made a few phone calls and said I started a business and the money will flow in, I called a few people and they were “Oh congratulations, but I’m already taking care of” I said what? You know! I’m your friend! “No, I’m taking care of” and at the end of the day of and they didn’t mean, the holy crap moment kicked in, I think, in the beginning stages, and actual motivators for us entrepreneurs is fear, the first few years of my business I was terrified and what that terror does is kept me awake, I would wake up at 4 in the morning and get to work whatever it takes and I worked until midnight and repeat the process all over again because I was scared I was desperate as parent, the challenge tho is that fear in certain point becomes detrimental it gives you energy but it also gives you stress and start breaking you down, so illness kicks in or exhaustion so of course is a flip side, you don’t want to live in fear for the entirety of your life, use it as a spark and the over time you need to convert that idea was to confidence and when I started to get a bit of a routine I started to see some results, I said ok I’m gonna trying and repeat on that and I started to focus on what was working and doing more of what was working. Mike: But of course for none of us, you don’t start a business and the money falls in your laps and if it does, you are lottery winner but is actually a curse because then you believe that you don’t need and effort to make this money and so I think when you see on the cover of Ink Magazine “Oh started a business when she was 23 years old and by 24 is a billionaire” In many cases that becomes detrimental because they don’t understand the real journey of an entrepreneur, which is the struggle on the valley to get to the peaks. Donnie: Yeah Jim Ron when back to as far as motivational speakers go, he’s got a great phrase, he said, the first thing you done when you are handed a million dollars is you mentally have become a millionaire because most people will go through that ride and journey to whatever success they get through and is all those lessons that mold and prepared them for that success and I looked on people that entrepreneur is the new multilevel marketing thing because people go into multilevel marketing or neuro marketing and they are like “Oh Imma be a millionaire tomorrow you know, this I the greatest thing, I can sleep whenever I want t and do all that” so they launch businesses thinking along the same lines and I was just guilty of it, when I launched my business I thought the heaven was going to open up and everybody was going to be “Finally Donnie show up, let’s make a lot of money together” not knowing that you have to learn to run a business before you can try to find any sort of success but is a really interesting twist that how much you have to personally evolve along that journey to become a better version for yourself Mike: Holy F and true, and I love it you called the multilevel marketing but I sort of had a sentiment of it about a year ago kicked in, everything I talked about is entrepreneur and entrepreneurship and all the books I write, everything’s is of the entrepreneur, I’m sort started to becoming convinced that the word entrepreneur I a dastardly term now, I think is actually hurting us because entrepreneur has been equated to hustle and grind and I hate those terms, I hate them, so I understand the sentiment tho, I understand hustle and grind means you gotta make effort, like when I started my businesses fear was my motivator, I had to hustle and grind, here is the problem I think people are interpreting that entrepreneurship is perpetual hustle and grind and ten years into you belter be grinding out, in twenty years you better be grinding harder, you gotta carry this business on your back and this is the antithesis of what entrepreneurship is, the true definition is identifying n opportunity, taking a risk to make it happen and the choreographing all these resources, people, technology and even your clients to make that vision a reality, is not doing the work is the choreographing of other resources. I tell people, I was speaking yesterdays at an event and I’m on a room as an entrepreneur and I say yeah I got a challenge for you, when yo
Donnie Boivin: Hey, hey guys how's it going man this is gonna be a killer episode. I gotta be honest this is probably one of the funnest episodes I've done because for the first time in the history of Success Champion somebody's going to rap on the show. And I gotta tell you, it is bad ass; old school; just hit you raw clean you know lyrics man. I really really enjoyed it. This conversation with Freddie Fri was one of the gems man, I gotta tell you we talked about of course his life growing up and what he’s doing for a lot of the youth in Oklahoma and his career the things he's doing the voiceover space, inspirational motivational space, I took a ton out of this one and I bet you guys as you listen to this one you will as well And I tell you I couldn't do the show without Stacy McGovern and Michael McGovern over at Point Blank Safety Services. Now what they're doing to protect these freeways throughout the state of Texas is absolutely amazing. They’re employing off duty officers to keep our highways and freeways safe, you know the construction workers that work out there and the people driving the freeways. Everybody’s just trying to get these freeways built as fast as possible and get everybody home safe and when you see those patrol cars out there on the freeways, keeping traffic slowdown so the construction workers can work, that’s Stacy's company taking care of everybody So if you’re ever in a spot where you’re looking for, you know off duty officers to help you with safety, security, protecting your assets do me a favour and go to pointblanksafety.com and reach out to Stacey and guys do me a favour follow them on all the social media outlets, give him some love show them that you're there and enjoy the show Alright guys this is gonna be a fun f***ing episode, I am telling you strap it in and just hold on for the ride. So I’VE had a chance to talk with Freddy Fri for a little just bit prior to the show. I’m stoked it’s gonna be a good one so with this week it’s Freddie, I’m Donnie and this is Donnie’s Success Champions — Freddie my brother welcome to the show my friend tell us your story Freddie Fri: I am excited to be here and let's take a chapter or a mindset of the things you never thought you might see or hear on this podcast Donnie Boivin: (laughs) Freddie Fri: ...cause I’m going in, I'm telling my story in hip hop, and I’m go in hip hop. My thing is hip hop, I’m going to go in hip hop Donnie Boivin: Alright, let’s do it Freddie Fri: Let’s go. This is my hip hop form, poetry form, spoken word form. I tapped into my wildest dreams of being great, demons threw the hook I almost took the bait. Was hungry for Success but couldn't get a plate. I wish for greatness early but my genie only granted late. Mama sick, doctor's diagnosis faulty. Prescription messed her kidneys up that still haunts me They told her not to have me but she wouldn't abort. She said, “No!” Even if it cut her life short. In the car with mama slumping, daddy speeding. Final breaths were taken left my heart bleeding. Age 4, my mama got her wings early. I still question why she didn't live to see 30 yall. Papa scooped me up and took me from that drama. At least it wasn't until he met my step mama. Crazy is crazy does she took the cake. I broke down cause I felt like couldn't catch a break. Another tale of a lost soul, study said that I wouldn’t live to be old. Shy boy this world is so cold they used to bully me but then I finally struck gold. 1-2 and you don't stop, I fell in love when I got introduced to hip hop. My new release it gave me good release when I put that pen to pad it gave me total inner peace. So let me introduce the new me to me, confidence erupted I was truly thankful, blessed. I no longer just the guest in my mind. my friends you gotta watch men. That greatness in you so go retrieve it in your mind Keep pushing to be patient, it will happen in due time. A fish can only bite if you keep casting out your line Believe in you ,block out the shade and let the sun shine on through. Because That's exactly what I did. Donnie Boivin: That was f***ing [laughing]… that is an absolute first whee somebody rapped on my show Freddie Fri: There you go! Let’s go! — In a nutshell that's a lot of my story too [laughing] Donnie Boivin: Yeah that's the rap I can get behind man, there’s a story behind it Freddie Fri: Yes sir, yes sir, yes sir Donnie Boivin: I love it, I love it Freddie Fri: I appreciate it Donnie Boivin: I'm about to charge you because nobody dropped a 40 y’know... Freddie Fri: No here's the thing, here's the thing it's so funny because I'm the original founding father of.hip.hop in Oklahoma. Like I was, me and a few of my guys were like the first to… Donnie Boivin: You’re the founding father of hip hop in Oklahoma?? Freddie Fri: Well yeah! In Oklahoma now… hold on now, I didn't say New York, I didn't say everywhere [laughing] Donnie Boivin: There’s like 2 rappers in all of Oklahoma I mean…[laughing] Freddie Fri: Hey, it’s a lot of em. Maybe nobody just blew up but it was a lot of em but i'll say that to say- Donnie Boivin: (inaudible)... in Oklahoma that’s all. Freddie Fri: Man, I’m telling you. Listen to me, I’m telling you. We got it - we get it in out here. But it's so funny because you know I never drank and I never smoked and so I was like basically an oxymoron of hip hop. What Idid, it just didn't fit you know [laughing] Donnie Boivin: Right, that is so awesome Freddie Fri: Unreal, unreal Donnie Boivin:What a tough story though I mean… you know I’m not a big fan of rap unless it’s done that way. And what I mean by that way is, I can understand the lyrics right. I can understand the story behind it, I mean that’s why you know for me Eminem his old school stuff was so solid right. I could get behind that because if you’re not doing things to inspire someone else's story, why the hell are you doing it? Freddie Fri: That’s my thought process Donnie Boivin: Right Freddie Fri: You know, that is totally my thought process and so for me even- I always look back when I was first rapping it wasn't a major but I had a national distribution deal. And my hip hop before I gained custody of my children, I used profanity, I cursed in it. But it was always saying something, there was always a message. There was always a problem, there was always why the problem was and there always was a solution to the problem in the end, even when it wasn't REALLY cool to do that. I might have been cussing, I might've been saying some hardcore stuff but I was really saying something. And so when my children got a little bit older, I never really let them listen to my old stuff cause it had profanity in it Donnie Boivin: Tell them never to listen to this podcast [laughing] Freddie Fri; But trust me they listen to plenty of my old stuff now. But you know so when I came back - when I got back into it, I took a hiatus, when I got back into hip hop. I knew that I was going to be clean, I knew there was going to be a message, there was clear 2020 vision you see your life the older you get; the clearer you can see life and the younger you can see life clearer, the more you can be successful at an early age. And that was kind of my model, my philosophy and so now i’m in a mindset of anything that that I put out hip-hop-wise, anything that I put out motivational-wise it’s trying to help people overcome and win everyday battles and everyday struggles of life Donnie Boivin: We’re gonna dive into your story but I wanna keep on this for a second but here's what I love about your music in general. We’re not going to get into a religious discussion but this is why I think there's so many religions, this is why I think there's so many different styles of music is cause you can hit people where they’re at, right? You’re not gonna come into the country and blare in classical music and expect to hit the people right so I think i’m not gonna bring it Hillbilly Bluegrass into the inner city and expect to you know help those people hear the message Freddie Fri: Right Donnie Boivin: Right? Well it’s that same thing, that’s why I love it. So let’s dive into your story a little bit — it's a tough one dude. At 4 years old you lose mom... Freddie Fri: So 4 years old man, I lost mom it was so crazy, I basically have 3 memories of my mom. I remember being in my home and my dad was working on his motorcycle and I guess I was sitting out in the garage like on the stair watching him and I don't know what he did but somehow his motorcycle caught on fire and he caught on fire I remember her pulling me back in and rescuing him, my dad now had burns all over his body he had to get a whole bunch of skin grafts and everything and you can still see the scars on him today. I remember that. I remember being in the car, like I said, “With momma slumping daddy speeding.” I remember being in the car as he was taking her to the hospital and that was the last time that I saw her alive. And then my third memory is at the funeral, and I was just sitting there didn’t understand what was going on I just remember thinking why was everyone taking turns crying over my momma. You know going up crying and all that stuff And so moved in with my dad, and of course in that day and age I’m pretty sure my dad was kind of like ima do the right thing, and take my son in but I have no earthly idea what i'm doing but let me find a woman, let me get a woman that can take him. And unfortunately that choice wasn't the best lady because it was my eventual step mom who I spent the next 14 years living with that was… nothing physical thank goodness but it was a lot of mental abuse Unfortunately she was a druggie, smoked weed while smoking crack, drank a lot and was very verbally abusive. And so it was just one of those situations where, it was just a tough upbringing so what it did to me is and now I give her credit because I think that the way she was instilled a certain fear in me which I think I needed
Full Show Transcription (An Idea I picked up from Neil) Donnie Boivin: A great conversation, we’re gonna talk about SEO and how to get higher ranked on google and everything else but it was fun we talked about our farms, his ranch my farm you know and we just talked about what kind of entrepreneurs and the journey and just the things that he’s done in his short time working with businesses - a couple of things. I was surprised to find he wasn’t the CEO of his company, he really likes being with the tinker so really really fun episode guys Dive in and have a lot of fun and you know do me a favour I couldn't do these shows without Stacy McGovern and her company Point Blank Safety. You know they are doing just awesome things for police officers and their families but they’re also doing great things to keep us safe on the freeways such as when we going about. I mean you know, you’ve been driving along there’s an obstruction up on the freeway, there’s usually a cop car sitting there to help keep the workers safe so everybody gets home well that’s usually Stacy’s company, so if you’re ever in a spot where you need safety services to help with your construction projects, your... whatever that you need safety for. Reach out to Point Blank safety services, tell them that Donnie sent you and watch how awesome and the cool things that they do and can do to protect you, your employees and us as we’re driving along the roads. Enjoy this episode guys, gonna be a lot of fun Alright guys, it’s going to be a fun killer episode. I’m bringing in Neil Patel man. I know a lot of you that follow the show have been asking me to get him on here for quite a while so it should be a lot of fun to have this conversation so this is Donnie and this is Donnie’s Success Champions, Neil my friend, welcome to the show brother please, tell us your story. Who the heck are ya? Neil Patel: I’m Neil Patel. I’m a serial entrepreneur. I’ve created a few marketing technology companies, I blog at neilpatel.com I have one of the most popular marketing kills on the internet called Ubersuggest which funny enough, is free. That’s pretty much a bit about me you know, that’s - I was 15 and half, I was 16 and now I’m 33 years old. Donnie Boivin: Yeah no, it’s awesome. I mean I actually have used a couple of your tools that are out there I mean but how did you get into all this? I mean did you wake up one day and say I was going to be this technology influencer or what? Neil Patel: I don’t know if I’m an influencer but the way I got started in all of this was, I was 15 and half and I was picking up trash and cleaning restrooms, not the best job. But I did it, it paid money. I wanted a higher paying job so I was searching the web on much.com for high paying jobs I realised I wasn’t qualified for any of them at 15. I just wanted to get to 6 figures. So I ended up creating my own job board, ‘cause I’m like if you can’t find a job what do you do? You create a job board. Probably not the right logic and reasoning but that’s how I thought as a 15 and a half, 16 year old. Created a job board - popped it up, paid someone to help me out took all the money I saved from picking up trash and cleaning restrooms and guess what? It didn’t work. I created a sh***y ME2 version. And I was like, I thought you created a website and people just come! You know this better than anyone else, no one just comes to your website you gotta do marketing. And then at that point I learned about marketing, paid a few marketing firms. Got ripped off, lost my money. I was frustrated, I was broke at the time, learned it on my own - did a good job, still made no money but I got traffic. Then I was like hey, why not help out other people with marketing. I don’t know how to create a job board but I do know how to get traffic. Donnie Boivin: So you’re the traditional entrepreneur, not the one that you see hyped in all the media that you become an entrepreneur and hey, you’re a millionaire tomorrow type thing that you see online Neil Patel: No that wasn’t me, I wish that was me. Donnie Boivin: (laughs) You and me both. So most things are created out of necessity right? We go on a journey, we buy into some sort of pipe dream you know that this is all we have to do and we’ll sail off into the sunset type thing. But in reality, you like most of us got your teeth kicked in - realised what you did better than some, you just figured how to turn that into a business with the knowledge you had. And some might say you’ve had a little success of doing that so far. But you know, it’s fun to watch someone who’s created things - what are probably some of those big lessons as you were starting out, figuring all this out that you know maybe were a little tough to learn while others came pretty easy? Neil Patel: Yeah a few of them were one, you need to focus, I kept trying to do too many things you know, even at 16. When I was doing marketing for other companies I was doing (inaudible). I was 16 years old, got myself to 20 grand a month really fast. Which is good money, even today it’s good money. And then I lost it all and then I lost the money I made on top of that and what I ended up learning is you should focus. What I was investing in back then was considered cloud computing. There was no AWS or anything like that but I had the idea. I’m not saying that I was the first but I was one of the first to execute on it and I did a sh***y job. And I quickly learned that hey, you should focus. If I just focused and continued to do marketing because even if I was investing then maybe I got that 20 grand to 50, to 100 and I was eventually making over a million dollars a year just doing marketing and then I started expanding into other businesses. Like why, I should have just kept going in the vertical that I was in and that was a big mistake that I made. You know, as I was generating all this income and growing the business, I quickly learned that just because you do one thing really well, and you can even provide results - it doesn’t mean that you’re going to keep making money. So to give you an idea during the recession in 2008 I lost a lot of customers. When you do SEO and marketing for people they considered that WTF (inaudible). What the heck is this? And I ended up losing quite a bit of income from that as well. And another hard lesson that I ended up going through was as you’re creating these businesses no matter how smart you are, it’s about people. Funny enough I have a blog coming out on this tomorrow, I don’t know when this goes out and it’s discussing if I had to start over, what would I if I had to do it all over again. And it’s funny in there I talk about I would spend 9 years working for other people before I became an entrepreneur. See I’d work at a really large corporation like at Microsoft just to see how large companies work. I’d work at a really small startup and not a sexy one like that’s steering fast like Uber or Airbnb, I’m talking one that struggled because then it teaches you how to be creative and think outside the box and make this happen and it teaches you how to be scrappy. I’d also work at a startup that is doing really well and is skyrocketing, that’s raised over 10 million and just growing really fast - reason being, it shows you what companies growing really fast are like and how to keep up with them and how to deal with the mess that scaling fast causes and how to clean it up often. I”d work for a company that was doing somewhere around a hundred million, but not at a billion and see how they work cause organisationally they got to scale up, they got to improve themselves every time - it’s not that easy. Donnie Boivin: One interesting thing on that Neil is I spent 20 years as an employee before I launched and became what they call an entrepreneur right. I was in the sales game for 20 years, here’s the difference, now I love your idea of going to work for somebody else but to do that you’ve got to go in with the mindset that eventually you’re going to start your own business. +Cause I never went into that game - I always thought I was going to do the “make a crap tonne of money being a sales guy” and retire until I realised how much more money money the companies were making than I was. It just took me 20 years to get there Neil Patel: You hit the nail on the head, this process only works if you know you’re going to start a business cause the key to working at all these different company sizes is to learn specific skills from them. From hiring to recruiting, to dealing with bullsh** problems and internal politics, because if you want to build a big business and I learned this one the hard way, this is why I tell people to work for others is people is what grows the company. It’s not just your idea, it’s not the CEO it really comes down to your kingdom. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, you could be the next Elon Musk, or Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates. If you don’t have an amazing team, you’re not going to do well. And I didn’t learn that lesson until - I kid you not - this year. It was actually last year but close enough. And this lesson was really hard for me because it taught me that if you have the right people, you just grow super fast. Like this year without getting into my revenue, we’ve had 3X in growth. Donnie Boivin: I mean making an extra 10 bucks a year, that’s pretty good bud - well done. (laughs) Neil Patel: Really? And we’re well into the millions right, I’m not talking 2, 3, 4 or 5 million we’re substantially more alright, we’re a 8 figure plus business. But to 3X, technically more than 3X but to 3X our size being bootstrapped, self-funded. That’s crazy growth Donnie Boivin: Right, well but I mean going back to the days, they always taught Henry Ford his genius - his only genius was hiring people that were 10 times smarter than he was in all these unique fields and categories, whether you love Henry Ford or hate him. I love the idea behind it is, there’s a whole in
New York Times Best Selling Author of Push, Chalene Johnson is a lifestyle and business expert, motivational speaker, and podcast host. She and Bret, her husband of over twenty years, are the founders of the SmartLife movement. Today, with her husband, Chalene runs a fun loving, collaborative team focused on helping others live a healthier, more simplified life through their online academies, membership sites, and live, sold-out seminars. Chalene, with the help of top dietitians, doctors, researchers and experts, she founded the 131 Method and new Book - a nutritional program that’s turning the diet industry upside down. She hosts two top ranked podcasts, “The Chalene Show” and “Build Your Tribe” with over 1 millions monthly downloads, Huffington Post recognized Chalene as one of the “Top 50 Female Entrepreneurs to Watch.” Website – www.chalenejohnson.com Twitter - @chalenejohnson Instagram – chalenejohnson SnapChat – chaleneofficial Push Journals - www.smartlifepushjournal.com 131 Method - www.131method.com Show Transcribed Donnie Boivin: Alright guys, it’s gonna be another killer episode, i'm really looking forward - I know that a lot of you have been asking for me to get her on the podcast so I'm really excited To bring on Chalene Johnson to the show and let her tell us her story. I’m Donnie Boivin and this is Success Champions. Miss Chalene, welcome to the show my dear please tell us your story. Chalene Johnson: Well thank you so much for having me. Where do I begin right? Donnie Boivin: You know, you like long walks on the beach and… (both laugh) Chalene Johnson: Well I think probably much like you, most people know me from fitness. So I've had three number 1 fitness infomercials; the infomercial that’s on TV right now called PiYo. That’s the number 1 fitness infomercial, actually this week it was the number 1 infomercial over all categories. Donnie Boivin: Oh wow, good for you. Chalene Johnson: It was the number 1 infomercial in 2017... Donnie Boivin: Is that the whole, “but wait there’s more” thing? Chalene Johnson: Totally. Donnie Boivin: Alright, cool. Chalene Johnson: Yeah, i'm a student of those things. And I hosted it myself and filmed it myself on my iPhone. Donnie Boivin: Right now that’s killer, well done! Chalene Johnson: Yeah, thanks. Well the interesting story about it is, to kind of take listeners back for a little bit which is why I kind of said it’s odd to me that people know me from fitness... that’s just where i'm known, if you will but it’s not who I am. It's certainly not what I expected to have success. I've been a serial entrepreneur all my life. My first business, I started doing at age 15 informally. Flipping cars like buying used cars and fixing them up and having them painted and then reselling them and making enough money to be able to pay my way through college. While I was in college at Michigan State this turned out into a more legitimised business if you will and I rented a lot of land from the state of Michigan and I held these big; I guess you could call them almost fares where on a Saturday private owners would come in, they’d park their vehicles and they would be the sales person for their own vehicle and then private people who wanted to buy from a private individual would come to the lot as well and I used to take a cut on both ends and that was called the Michigan Auto Swap. Donnie Boivin: Fantastic. I gotta ask, so you were flipping cars to get through college? Chalene Johnson: Yes! Donnie Boivin: That had to be a hell of a pick up line at a bar, right? Or at a party or anything… living on flipping cars Chalene Johnson: Yeah, you know and we talked a little bit about my mindset before we started and that was my mindset was always like, “Ok, so this is the problem, I should solve this problem.“ And the beautiful thing about solving a problem is that it usually solves a problem for a lot of other people and then that becomes a business Donnie Boivin: Yeah Chalene Johnson: And so for me, being a 18 year old petite and 5’2 blonde girl living in Michigan, mof my transactions were in Detroit. So I would drive down there, you know by myself with a purse full of cash to look at a title in some strange dude’s apartment in like the worst part of Detroit, it just wasn’t safe. It wasn’t convenient, it was a hassle, people make an appointment to see your vehicle and then they cancel. They show up and they’re shady. So for me it was like a convenience, like I can do this all in one day. I can look at a tonne of vehicles and this would be a convenience to the buyers who were also trying to get directions to go see someone’s vehicle. We didn't have cell phones then so we were solving a problem at the time and that kind of led to my each and every business after that. I was like ok, everyone in my family is obese on both sides or overweight I should say, struggle with their weight and I don't want to be that and they all diet. So dieting must NOT be the solution, i'm going to exercise. But I hate exercise? So I started creating these really cool, kind of funky workouts that took music and sound effects, and hip hop, and taekwondo and I kind of blended them all together and solved my problem and eventually, it solved a lot of other people’s problems. But I didn't get into that because I was an expert in fitness, or in nutrition, or diet or kinesiology. I got into it because I was solving my problem. Donnie Boivin: That’s awesome, you got a Billy Blanks Taebo back in the day kind of vibe… with the punching, kicking and everything else workout so… Chalene Johnson: Yeah, totally. And I really tried to capitalise to be honest, on that craze because it was at the time the number 1 fitness craze. I developed a program for health clubs called Turbo Kick, this is in 1999. And eventually I started teaching other fitness instructors how to teach this format, we grew to have certified over 60 000 fitness instructors. In I don’t know how many countries. Eventually that caught on to major health clubs, now all the major health clubs all around the world and at the time because Turbo was such a huge cultural success, all the infomercial companies were looking for the next program that didn't require equipment... Donnie Boivin: Right, right. Chalene Johnson: ...so it was just timing and business savvy and we just started getting phone calls from infomercial companies that were interested in bringing what I was doing for fitness clubs and wanted to bring that to consumers. Donnie Boivin: Well thank you for number 1, not bringing another piece of equipment in the house that people are hanging their clothes on. You know so, you should know people buy all that crap and it ends up in some corner of the house and so, that’s awesome, So you literally go from hustling cars, flipping cars - excuse me Chalene Johnson: I know, I was hustling. Donnie Boivin: Right, right. To developing a huge swap meeting for cars, to a fitness craze then to slowly I understand building an empire… Chalene Johnson: Well you know, it’s always just taken on it’s normal progression if you will, except that I think it’s important to say that because I never intended to be in fitness and I always attributed my success not to my knowledge on fitness but my knowledge of business so I always felt really insecure around “the fitness industry”. I kept thinking they were going to call me and ask for my credential and so I got certified by I don’t know, probably like 20 different organisations because I wanted to over qualify. I was so insecure about the fact that I didn't belong there and then there came a point where I had so much success where people knew me for fitness, that I was defensive and angry about it because I was like, “it's not who I am…’ i'm here to because I understand people and I understand solving problems and there’s a point at which I became resentful and also uncomfortable with the fact that, that’s what I was known for Donnie Boivin: Yeah, that’s interesting because I find this quite often with entrepreneurs is that they get this natural gnat of constantly creating something, doing something, they’re always fiddling, what's the next thing, what's moving forward but they always seem to get slammed in some success from niche, right? That’s a lot of what the brand becomes. It's an interesting conundrum So you didn't start flipping cars until you were 18... Chalene Johnson: No, I started at like 15. Donnie Boivin: Okay, alright - younger. Where does the entrepreneurial bug come from? I'm always curious about where people start getting the end of the game. Was it a lemonade stand, was it the mowing lawns, was it selling girl scout cookies and or was there a moment where you were like ok, I got to start making money? Chalene Johnson: Yeah, I don’t know about you i've interviewed 100s of entrepreneurs and I often find that they were either raised by an entrepreneur or influenced by someone; someone’s father was an entrepreneur. For me that was, and I know your story is a little bit late if i'm not mistaken... Donnie Boivin: Yeah, yeah it is. I'm a late bloomer, it took me ‘til forty so… (laughs) Chalene Johnson: ...that’s awesome. For me it was being raised by my father; my mom and dad. My father was an entrepreneur and a really positive money mindset so the people out there listening who have children… things he never said, they never said like, “Money doesn't grow on trees”; “We can't afford that.” My parents would say well, if that's what you want that's exciting. Let’s put together a plan and you can figure out a way to earn that and once you earn it you can decide if that's what you want to spend your money on And so it never crossed my mind that my parents must buy me a car, or buy me clothes or anything. From the time I was about in 6th grade I didn't ask for even lunch money, maybe out of a sense of guilt? I just believed that oh, whatever it is I want, I can figure out a way to be resourceful; to rake lawns,
Angie Leigh Monroe is an International Speaker, Strategist and Consultant whose expertise guides people to identify and obliterate obstacles. Her innovate approach will ALIGN you with strategic partnerships, ACTIVATE your purpose and CALIBRATE your potential to encounter even more opportunities. She a has founded: Angie Leigh Monroe, Inc which is the parent company for her consulting and speaking business as well as her legacy projects. https://angieleighmonroe.com D.I.V.A.S. Impact - Which Empowers and Equips a global community of women change-agents making a positive impact in the world we live in. https://DIVASimpact.com Veteran DIVAS – Which Empowers and Equips veteran women as they tackle the next big thing in their life. Angie is a native Texan, Navy veteran and Executive Director with the John Maxwell Team. This year she celebrates 27 years of marriage to her husband Michael who she met while in the Navy, they have 3 children and 2 grandchildren as well as several other bonus kids who call them family! Episode 199 Donnie Boivin: So I got a buddy Chad King that told me I need to talk to Angie, so we’re finally getting her on the show. I harassed her a little bit and she agreed to come on. Looking forward to this so Chad I owe you one I’ll probably buy you a beer next time I see you. I’m Donnie Boivin and this is Success Champion - Angie Monroe; welcome to the show dear please, please tell us your story. Angie Monroe: Well thank you for having me, I absolutely love Chad and his wife Shelly. I grew up with them so we knew each other prior to the military. And then he went to the marines and I went to the navy after high school. I think we both were just trying to find our ways. We both had things we were great at in our younger youth, but we still just wanted something that's a little bit more. And I think I see something in my friend Chad that I resonate with is, he wants to be significant in his journey through life. He is really always out there networking and investing in worthy causes and being a part of the community around him and I love that because that's what I was raised with. My dad was a police officer in our local town, my mom worked for the government and that's why we joke that I had to go halfway around the world and into the military to find a husband because nobody would marry me with a dad that was a police officer and a mom that worked for the government. So I found a West Virginian hillbilly and CB in the navy and we got married and started our family. I really came out of the military struggling to find my identity, I was great at being an aircraft mechanic and I loved that but that didn't translate too well with mommy playgroups. Other women just didn't resonate with that. I don't understand why they just can't get along with a girl that's used to throwing wrenches at people because they're talking back to ‘em or that can change a generator in less than 30 minutes on a P3; they just didn't get me. And I was really struggling with finding that place to belong. I worked for a local church in the Dallas Fort Worth area, I had a woman's pastor come up to me one day and say, “Why aren't you in a life group?” I said because there isn't one that fits my schedule, there isn't one that fits my lifestyle, there just isn't one that's good for me. Then she goes, “Well maybe if you can't find what you’re looking for, others can't find what they're looking for and maybe you just need to create it.” Donnie Boivin: Well when you give a new veteran a task and you're kind of like hold my beer and watch this, right? Angie Monroe: Exactly. First off, I told her I didn't like her very much; Second off I don't need another thing on my plate. I was the mom, my husband works 24/7 as an on-call commercial plumber. What he did in the navy translated into his work life but I worked umpteen hours and I was constantly shuffling kids outside of work, there was nothing that fit my lifestyle. So I started sending out little daily inspirations to my group of girls I then worked with because I could see and I could hear them all feeling some of the same things I was feeling. Maybe not the same specific things but they were all feeling disconnected and not able to connect with women in real life. So I just started doing little daily inspirations, that little daily inspiration email list grew and grew and grew and grew to where finally I was asked to not to send it from the church anymore because it was crashing the servers. So then I was like what do I do, this was over 10 years ago. I kind of pushed pause for a little bit, “Ok that didn't really go as I expected, how do I get where I want to go?” And I kept seeing Real Housewives of wherever, Girls Behaving Badly; The Bad Girls Club and I'm like I don't relate to any of them. They're great psychology studies but they're not really great for building long-term sustainable relationships and they're not really people I want to put on an idol. Then I started talking to other women and they’re like, “Yeah, we just don't know how to be good girlfriends anymore. We're too busy with our own lives and consumed with our own lives to be good girlfriends and we get made fun of by the guys because they just see the surface level.“ And I said, “Well, we can't fix what the guys see until we fix what we see.” Donnie Boivin: True, well said. Angie Monroe: We really just started talking with a whole bunch of women, I travelled across the country for a year talking with women in all walks of life. Professional and Fortune 500 company women, all the way down to girls that are going from highschool to college and getting their first job and asking what it is they were missing in their lives and that birthed our organisation called DIVAS Impact. DIVAS Impact stands for: Destined, Inspired, Victorious, Accountable Sister and making a positive impact in the world. Just recently rolled out our Veteran DIVAS Tribe because we realised that our women that have served our country have some special and unique things that have happened to them and working alongside brother's like you... somethings are great and some things are not so great. Little so-and-so that goes to church with me will not understand the things that I went through. Donnie Boivin: Or all the things that come out of your mouth (laughs). Angie Monroe: Right, the random pops in my head that pop out, they don't understand why I was so violent when I was in the military and I'm like it wasn't being violent it was being toe-to-toe to and not backing down, that was a sign of weakness. Donnie Boivin: I mean at that point you were kind of like being a dude with long hair because you had to. Angie Monroe: Exactly, that's how you had to be accepted and I was a girl's worst enemy when I was in the military. If a girl wanted to come into our shop and work at our shop I was much harder on them than any of the guys were. Donnie Boivin: That makes sense. This is fun, you go and do the whole navy thing I'll try not to hold that against you too much Angie Monroe: That's alright, I know your department of the navy. Donnie Boivin: Absolutely, the men's department. Angie Monroe: Men's department, I love that (laughs). Donnie Boivin: You’re an aircraft mechanic, that's fun. I was a Motor T mechanic when I was in the cooler and you guys had a hell of a lot more fun playing with planes and we getting put on trucks. We just drank a little bit more but you go through that and the transition process, a lot of people in the military do. I love how you started off, I went to the military because I didn't know what the hell I wanted to do when I grow up, right? That just seemed like the next move. But you get out of the military and you are more still in the same spot, now what? I love the fact that you've gone through that and you figure it out through process of elimination if you will, you're kind of role in life but I also like that somebody kind of said hey, do this and it helped you figure it out. I'm curious if they wouldn't have said hey and you do this, do you think you'd be where you are right now? Angie Monroe: It would be really interesting to find out if I would, just simply because I'm a strong personality... Donnie Boivin: Nooo... (both laugh) Angie Monroe: ...my girl that manages the office here for me, she even made the comment that's like you intimidate me at times. She's a strong girl, she's an athlete; she went on college to be an athlete she can hold her own but she told me you intimidate me at times. And I realise that. It also take another woman just as strong if not stronger than me to say that to me. If anybody else had said that to me it would have gone in one ear and out the other but because of the weight that this woman carries with her presence and with her authority. It was going to eat away at me for the rest of my life if I didn't do something, you know. Then I start realising the thing I was looking for was working with women, which created a whole other issue because I didn't like women. Donnie Boivin: Yeah, as I said. Angie Monroe: Normally where your greatest calling is, the area where you need the most work in. (both laugh) Angie Monroe: That was biggest hurdle right there. Donnie Boivin: It's funny I do a lot of private coaching and and most of my clientele are women as well and I don't know why, it's just how it worked out and I've had a couple of them say why don't you do this group coaching session. And I said, “Have you ever put a bunch of alpha women in one room? Yeah, it doesn't usually go very well because it'll take you 4 days to get through the hand pecking order right before everybody gets settled down.” How did you take that strong alpha personality and be able to handle the none alphas? Angie Monroe: The part I didn't realise, the part that took me by surprise is how many people sit back and watch. They don't say anything, they don't interact; they just watch. Then when they want, when they need; wh
Rich Redmond is one of the world’s most influential and in-demand drummers who has worked with the “who’s who” of the music industry. A successful entrepreneur, Rich is a true “renaissance man” in the entertainment industry.  Rich has toured/recorded/performed with: Jason Aldean Garth Brooks Bob Seger Bryan Adams  Kelly Clarkson Ludacris Florida Georgia Line Keith Urban Trace Adkins Miranda Lambert Eric Church Cole Swindell Tyler Farr Thomas Rhett Michael Tyler Hank Williams, Jr Jewel Vince Gill Travis Tritt Montgomery Gentry Alabama Joe Perry (Aerosmith) Terri Clark The Pointer Sisters  Thompson Square Marty Stuart Thompson Square Parmalee Frankie Ballard 1,000 Horses Lee Brice Steel Magnolia Emily West OAR Phyllis Diller Steve Allen Lit Lindsay Ell Rushlow  Pam Tillis  Gene Watson  Susan Ashton  John Anderson  Doc Walker  The Roadhammers  Deana Carter  Jedd Hughes Patricia Conroy  Chuck Wicks  The Lost Trailers  Andi Griggs  Earl Thomas Conley  Hank Williams III  Mindy McCready  Robbie Nevil  Emily West  Jo El Sonnier  Jim Brickman  Deana Carter  Crystal Schawanda  Anita Cochran  Patricia Conroy  Earl Thomas Conley  Big Kenny  Stan Lynch (Tom Petty, Don Henley) Lila McCann  Michael Peterson  Ronna Reeves  Regina Regina  Lucy Woodward  Lane Turner  Crossin' Dixon  Lee Brice  Steel Magnolia  The Stellas  Hot Chelle Rae, and many others. Motivational Speaking Clients: Cisco Johnson and Johnson Hewlett Packard Microsoft Presidio Embassy Suites Hard Rock Hotel Katalyst Technologies Sigmanet Information Transport Systems School Of Rock Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp Herff Jones Omnience Hershey Park The Arts Institute Grammy Camp Active Data Comm Education: Bachelor of Music Education, Texas Tech University, 1992. Master of Music Education, University of North Texas. Teaching Certificate, State of Texas 1993. Rich toured with the 1:00 Lab Band, the most prestigious collegiate jazz band in the world. On the radio: Rich has recorded 23 #1 hits you hear on the radio every hour on the hour around the world. Hits like “Big Green Tractor” and “She’s Country” helped pave the way for a new sonic brand in music and have earned their place as radio classics. On the video: Rich has appeared in 20 #1 music videos on networks like CMT, GAC, AXS TV On stage: Rich plays to sold-out amphitheaters, arenas and stadiums around the world to over two million fans per year! Rich has played sold out shows at the most iconic venues in the world: Madison Square Garden, The Hollywood Bowl, Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Red Rocks, The Gorge, Texas Stadium and most every Major League Baseball and NFL Stadium. On TV: Rich has appeared multiple times on hit tv shows like: The Voice, American Idol, The Grammy Awards, The Tonight Show (with Leno, O’Brien and Fallon), The Today Show, Conan O' Brien Show, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Ferguson, Good Morning America, Ellen, The CMA Awards, ACM Awards, CMT Awards, ACA Awards, The People’s Choice Award, etc. As a host: Rich hosts his “Pick Rich’s Brain” Podcast on Itunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Youtube. Awards: Rich was awarded “Country Drummer Of The Year” 2015, 2017, 2017, 2018 by Modern Drummer Magazine, the world’s most widely read drum publication. Producer: As a music PRODUCER, Rich has helped popular radio acts THOMPSON SQUARE and PARMALEE garner 3 #1 radio hits which included the most played song on country radio for 2011, “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not”? Author: Rich’s book “FUNdamentals of Drumming For Kids” has a 5-star rating on Amazon and is a best seller in 5 countries. Rich is also a regular contributor to magazines such as Modern Drummer, Drum!, Rhythm, Music Insider and many others. Songwriter: Rich has had #1 songs with the Australian pop-country band "The Wolfe Brothers"....entitled "You Got To Me", "That Kinda Night" and "When I Was The One". Educator: Rich has appeared twice as a featured performer/speaker at the prestigious Percussive Arts Society Annual Convention. Rich is also a popularly featured artist with collegiate ensembles, such as The University of Northern Iowa, where Rich’s drum set was placed on a moving riser with a 400 piece marching band. -Rich appears regularly in trade publications and interviews discussing the value and importance of music education in America. Other clients include: Musician’s Institute in Hollywood, The Los Angeles Music Academy, Belmont University, The School Of Rock, Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp, The University of Texas San Antonio and many others. -Rich was the drum set professor at The University of North Alabama for the 2017-2018 school year. Actor: Rich is an active on screen and voice actor in Hollywood and the Southeast markets. He can be seen playing the role of “Lieutenant Paxton” in a new horror film called “Reawakened”, an over-caffeinated radio DJ in “All Light Will End” and a copy of SYFY Channel’s hit show “Happy”. Product Design: Rich has designed specialty products for global companies like DW Drums, Promark Sticks, Prologix Pads, Gator Cases and Humes and Berg Cases. Link to products: Rich Redmond SIGNATURE ACTIVE GRIP 595 Drumsticks: http://www.promark.com/pmMediaDetail.Page?ActiveID=3906&MediaId=10355 DW BLACK SHEEP Beater: http://www.dwdrums.com/factoryaccessories/fa.asp?sKITNAME=dwsm104W Mentor: Rich teaches musicians in one on one and group settings to help them further their skill set, confidence and career opportunities. Rich uses the MEETHOOK app to mentor drummers and musicians around the world. Expert: Rich is frequently called upon to lend his expert opinion on the subjects of music, motivation, marketing, and success. Alright, guys, this is gonna be a really, really, really fun episode. You know, I'm having a lot of fun with bringing so many different guests on here. So this would be a little bit of a twist. Today I'm bringing on you know, a musician from the Nashville scene and, you know, so I'm sure I'm gonna bust his chops about being a drummer. So that'll be fun. I'm sure he's caught his entire career but you know, so I'm bringing on Rich Redmond. I'm Donnie Boivin. This is Donnie success champions Rich buddy Welcome to the show, my friend. I've played drums for 42 years. I'm originally from Milford, Connecticut. So I'm a little New England boys and the first 10 years of my life there fell in love with the drums my dad ended up moving to El Paso Texas when I was 11. He did that for 20 years and he ran the factories that made Victoria's Secrets underwear. Ladies just sewing underwear all day across the border. And then and so that was a great thing for me because Texas has a strong culture of music education, the great state of music, education, very healthy scenes. So I kind of, you know, nurtured My, chops, and my musicianship there ended up going and getting a master's degree from the University of North Texas, the Eagles you know, those are actually the Eagles were formed. Then in 1997 I moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and so I'm celebrating I don't know 23 years so of navigating the Music City, USA and so yeah, and so, since day one, I've been playing drums for a country rocker Jason Aldean. Just, I just celebrated playing drums on 25 number one songs which are really fun. We're working on our 19th record, I should know. Finishing that up, and then we'll have enabled and had a nice tour this year. Then we'll probably get into some other things. But I just have embraced the entertainment and education fields and I do some speaking. I author I, I do a little voiceover and little acting out here in Hollywood. I like to mentor and educated from camps, produce records, write songs, I'm in the game of entertainment and just have just love and light and that is awesome. That's awesome. I mean, Louis last night, I went to my niece, she plays saxophone or high school. And they this whole for a program that started off I did the drum corps. Yeah, that's what I was going through high school. You know, you know, a couple of guys banging on drums. Nowadays. It's like an entire flipping show. It's insane what they're doing with you and these kids into it, it was that you know how you could jump to this whole thing with your high school into the game? Yeah, it was a fifth grade I was actually in 1976 or 77. I was you know, six, seven years old and I was listening to kiss records and may I was restless my parents got me drum lessons I was studying with a guy in Connecticut and so I got some skills together and so then when I was enough hasn't tenses and they join the fifth grade band was already headed the other kids, but I knew that while I have this cool skill, it was an icebreaker people were interested in he was a way to be socially acceptable, you know, and that awkward period of your life especially when going into high school and stuff. And so it was great. It was you know, it was my calling, I recognize that and 93 police came out with a record called synchronicity and then the very next year, Van Halen came out with a smoking Angel on the cover of a record called nice name for and I just resonated with me and I said, this is what I'm going to do with my life and then I didn't know About Malcolm Gladwell and the 10,000. Our theory of mastering a craft Matter of fact is so funny. I was in my favorite West Hollywood eatery the other night, and I don't get starstruck, but Malcolm Gladwell was ordering a drink next. He's a very unique looking individual. But, you know, five best sellers. I mean, his books they just full meaning, you before you know, you've learned so much the book is over. What what I'm a big fan out over that I wanted to be like Malcolm high five. You're not supposed to do when you read but I didn't. I just walked away. I left them. But I didn't know about the 10,000-hour theory at that time, but was, you know, I was passionate about it. So when you know you're passionate about something, it's so easy to work hard, and the harder you work the more successful in attracting yourself. So I h
Brad Burton, Founder of 4Networking, the largest joined up business network in the UK, 4 times highest rated and reviewed business author on Amazon and the UK's #1 Motivational Business Speaker. 1973, born, Salford, Dad left, primary school, BMX bikes, role-playing games, computer games, class clown, no qualifications, shop boy, girls, chalet cleaner, nightclubbing, more girls, games journalist, became a Dad, shot at, moved to Somerset, depressed, dole, shop manager, blagged CV head of marketing, dole, Director, dole, 3 days away from bankruptcy, Dad again, depressed, maisonette above a chippy, married, employed, shove job up arse, self-employed, depression, skint, skint, skint, whinging wife, Dad again, 4Networking, bluffing, struggling, speaking, author, still skint, skint, skint, Dad yet again, 5,000+ events a year, uh oh, UK’s #1 motivational business speaker, bought dream Range Rover Sport, still waiting to be found out, sold dream Range Rover Sport, author again, people are buying them, scratches head, stabbed in the back. Twice. Burned out, near divorce, crisis averted, just, snapped up by top publisher for 3rd book, still waiting to be found out, Dad again, a daughter this time – uh oh, Audi driver, BradCamps, Ferrero Rochers, buzzing, blue tick, more 5 stars on Amazon, still UK’s #1 motivational business speaker. Time to quit? Now What? 4th book, no longer skint, no longer depressed, actually quite balanced and happy. Wife still whinging. FFS. If you enjoyed this episode, please Comment Share and leave a review... Want to start a podcast? https://www.facebook.com/groups/SYWTP/ Join the Conversation in our Facebook Group Success Champions
Tony Whatley is a business mentor, best-selling author, podcast host, speaker and entrepreneur. Tony is best known as Co-Founder of LS1Tech.com, a massive online automotive community which grew into the largest of its kind. This website has over 100,000 visitors per day, and 300,000 registered members. This company was later sold for multiple 7-figures. That was just his part-time business. Among other companies, Tony’s latest venture is 365 Driven. This business consulting brand helps clients become more process-driven and profitable. With his corporate background in managing 9-figure international projects, he understands that small businesses also benefit from these processes. Tony is an accomplished speaker, and has also had his articles published in numerous magazines. His mission is to help people gain the knowledge and courage to take action. To help others become the best version of themselves. What was the biggest turning point in your life? The year 2000, and having an unplanned child at age 28. In the middle of an oil downturn, which left me unemployed for six months. Going severely into debt, then working 3 jobs. Imagine you woke up tomorrow and you had to start all over what would you do different? Seek out better people to surround myself with. Big thinkers and dreamers. Find mentors and coaches. Learn to ask for help. Do you have anything you would like to promote? Book, Podcast, workshop... Book: Sidehustle Millionaire Podcast: 365 Driven If you enjoyed this episode, please Comment Share and leave a review... Want to start a podcast? https://www.facebook.com/groups/SYWTP/ Join the Conversation in our Facebook Group Success Champions
"Matt Gagnon is a professional Co-Active coach certified by the Coaches Training Institute, credentialed by the International Coach Federation, a member of the Forbes Coaches Council, keynote speaker, author, and brings 15 years of corporate sales and leadership experience.   Matt believes in living a life aligned with your values. We all have up to five core values - that when honored, evoke the best in us. The problem is that many people live life with values defined by others leaving one feeling empty and like they are never enough. Matt was living what looked like a successful life with a six-figure job, nice house, nice car, nice clothes, etc. Behind the curtain, he was actually spirally out of control resulting in chronic illness, depression, addiction, and attempted suicide. His lifestyle eventually resulted in disability and losing the only career he had ever known. After leaning into his faith, Matt stopped being a victim and chose to see his adversity as a call to adventure. With a purely grass-roots effort, he built a thriving international coaching business. He focused on protecting his supply lines (prayer time, sleep, nutrition, fitness, an inner circle of friends) and rediscovered his core values. He chose to write his own comeback story. Today Matt is helping transform lives across the globe by encouraging people to rediscover their core values, regain control of their lives, and empower them to live the life they have always wanted. That is called Living With a Courageous Heart." What was the biggest turning point in your life? 3 chapters really stand out for me: Attempting suicide by the time I was 30 - this kicked off a series of events that would lead me to where I am today. 2013 - the birth of my son and the death of my dad 2015 - Being diagnosed with several chronic illnesses, going on disability, losing my job, my mental health dramatically changing, falling 5 months behind in my mortgage, and starting a new business. Imagine you woke up tomorrow and you had to start all over what would you do differently? Learn how to love myself, not let anyone else define who I am, how I should dream, what my success should look like, and what I should value. If you enjoyed this episode, please Comment Share and leave a review... Want to start a podcast? https://www.facebook.com/groups/SYWTP/ Join the Conversation in our Facebook Group Success Champions Each Sunday we send out an email with the 5 episodes that aired along with this interview Sign Up Here
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