27: Embracing Purpose and Impact with Dennis Dowdell

Transcript

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excited to the learn itall podcast we are Damon lmy andDarren Bridget Damon

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CEO of learn it I'm the VP in charge of our people skillsand we are joined

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today by Dennis Dowell we're very excited to have Dennisthank you for being here Dennis great to be here what

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an honor just a joy to be with you guys I hope you still saythat by the end of the podcast let's introduce you a little

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bit to the people so uh Dennis dowell's Journey began 44years ago when he was a school bus driver speaking more from

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life since then he has been a speaker on stages in 52countries 7,000 stages to

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audiences as big as 25 to 30,000 people he is a he has beena coach and a mentor

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he's currently speaking and he's got a great book out calledmaximize you stand

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on the shoulders of giants today we're going to get intoDennis's thoughts about personal growth uh the importance

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of emphasizing Clarity in your life and and how important itis um uh having the

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right people and helping people in your life can be thoseare just a few of the things that we're going to talk about um

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yeah great to have you here Dennis well it's an honor and uhyou know I I can do a little bit of research kind of looking

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through I didn't H catch your background there Darren but uhI looked up Damon

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and just was looking through your site and stuff just to seea little bit listen half one of your podcasts just to

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kind of get an idea of the flow but uh great great honor tobe with you guys and I I love I love what you're doing

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and and and I love what you said Damon where you know uhchange is the only path to true growth and and it's true

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just true and I I love that yeah well Dennis I I love not toget detracted

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right away but I love the fact that you got a 1.98 um gradepoint average in college

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because I feel like you and I have my wife's GNA kill mefrom saying we have something in very very in common see I I

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study people more than books yeah yeah it's good it hasworked for you um well

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this class is about learning and I think we can validatethat both of you are top Learners uh one I we're going to get

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into learning a lot of things about you but uh just to startcloser to the beginning um driving a bus Dennis how

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was that what can you tell us about driving a bus turns outyou actually really enjoyed driving a bus you know I

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did and and uh really the the way it worked was when whenwhen I graduated from college uh I I didn't want to be

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one of these people who went from job to job to job becauseI I saw how that worked and I thought you know before I

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really dive into thing I'm I'm just gonna get some temporarywork and then

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really look into what I could do that I would love to do uhthat I could stay at

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for the rest of my life and the two things that I reallywanted uh one I wanted to be able to make a difference

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for people that's just been in my head for year 55 some oddyears right uh

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since I was in high school and um and the other thing Iwanted to do is I wanted to

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travel so and at the time I was working with some collegekids and so I thought

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well if I'm working with college kids uh you know driving abus would be great because that way I would be off during

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the middle of the day and you know when they come to methey're in my territory but if I could go out to the schools I'm

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in their territory and then I get to see the real person youknow what I'm saying that real environment and so so that

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just worked out real well for me and it and it turned outthat I loved it because I I love working with with the kids I mean I I I spenttime with them I

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talked with them I I I learned the the meanings of theirnames and uh you know and things like that and it just uh it

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just made a real difference you talk about how you knowbeing a a student of people like that's

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that just s that's just been there for for you from thebeginning you even driving a bus huh yeah it really is I

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mean it's um and because people are fascinating we're allwhen I was growing

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up this is probably really off track but when I was growingup my mom I used to drive my mom nuts you know one time I

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said Mom can we go pick up Georgie and she said yeah sureyou know and I said Mom can can you unlock the back door I

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said well where's Georgie I says M he's there he says whatshe unlocks the back door Georgie Pops in the car Georgie is

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two and a half foot see but I didn't tell her because but tome it was no big deal

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it that was just Georgie we picked up a guy to go to the SeaScout meeting and the guy jumps in

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the back of the the car and she turns around to say hello tothis guy I just failed to tell her that he was a

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who had a glass eye you know because I never thoughtanything of it

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you know my dad taught me that everybody was equal everybodyhad value no matter

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if they were a superstar or not and so I got that ingrainedinto my head and so

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that's why people have always fascinated me because you knoweverybody has something you know to contribute and

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everybody has potential to contribute and I love that partand that's part of this idea of trying to make an impact

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for people to help them realize that they really too canmake an impact yes

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Dennis I like um one thing I like to say a lot is that youcould learn something from everyone

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you know in whatever situation you're in I think that if ifyou get curious and

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you just come in with open mind you can really learnsomething from everyone because everybody out there is more of an expert atsomething than than you are

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right I I I said Jim taught me many years ago he said youcan learn something from anybody if you ask the

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right questions I mean go down to the guy on Skid Row sayhey how'd you get

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here like I mean you I might learn something I could save myday one time you know yeah

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uh Jim you're talking about Jim Rome so yeah let's hear alittle bit of your story how did you go from from driving

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the bus all those years ago uh onto these stages with 2530,000 people well

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uh you know I I I was coming up on my 30th birthday and Iyou know like I told you I was just going to wait until I you

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know found something you know and here I'm coming up my 30thbirthday and I thought you know I better get busy you know I'm gonna find acareer and so I

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spent seven months looking and actually turned down a couplecoup of jobs that would have paid me more than I was

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looking for uh but I turned them down because it would havebeen a job and I didn't want

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a job I wanted a career and uh and so I stumbled across thisuh Nutrition Company Herbal Life

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International it was it was the company was only four monthsold little holing wall joined up in Beverly Hills and um I

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went up for what I thought was a one-on-one interview and uhhe he threw me in this meeting with about 70 people

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that was big enough for 40 and I thought man what am I doinghere an hour and 15 minutes to get there and

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I figured better to sit here than sit in traffic in LosAngeles right and uh so they talked about the product that made

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sense uh and then they started drawing squares and circleson the board and I oh G I said this some kind of sales I

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hate sales don't like sales don't want sales not doing salessee you later right but it was so crowded I couldn't

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get out and fortunately I couldn't get out because at theend of that meeting

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this ninth grade educated kid and I was blown away with thisguy he closed the meeting the founder of the

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company and he's the guy who you know recruited me up thereand uh and I'm listening to this guy and I said dang I

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mean this guy's got passion he's got Direction he's got avision he knows what he wants and from what I can tell

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it appears like he knows how he's gonna get there that's thekind of guy I want to be around you know and and one of the

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things he said he said and you know I told you what I wantedand this is how he closed his meeting he closed one of

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the closing sentences was the two things I wanted he saidgang this is what we're going to do we're going to go out and

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make a difference customer by customer City by city state bystate we're going around the world and whoa whoa make a

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difference around the world okay yeah how does this workyeah okay you

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just hit my hot buttons right and so that was it and he saidDen he said listen he saidou don't have to sell anything I said what do youmean I said

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you got products he said' then he said' don't you work withcollege kids and I said yeah he says 'well what do you do with him he saywell Ihelp him deal with

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problems he says' whatat kind of problems I saidrelationship problems School problems family problems problems any kind ofproblem he says do they have

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weight problems I said Mark they're in college I said neverheard of The Freshman 15 freshman 30 and he said yeah

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he said well he said do they have financial problems I saidMark I said what are you getting at I said they're in college yeah and he saidwell then he

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says now you have two more problems to solve guys that thatwas the first penny drop that changed my life

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because all of a sudden it just I don't know why it didn'tclick before that but all a sudden it just did I said you know

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that's it all I have to do is help people solve problemsthey have up to that point in time not been able to

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solve if they don't like my product they keep their problemI keep my product we're both happy and so it just opened

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up the door for me and see that was the genius of of of MarkHughes he had the

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ability to simplify everything to its basic Essence and sohe became that

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first life-changing Mentor for me that uh really uh set afoundation for how I

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was going to approach everything well just so that I getthis clear you were actually already serving as kind of a

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mentor coach for college kids right and then he became yourMentor right coach

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moving forwards right yeah and it was uh I mean I hadmentors through books

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through you know different tapes things that I listen tothat kind of stuff but he was the the first person actually to

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take me under his wing say let me show you exactly what youneed to do and how to do it and how you need to think and

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then who you need to become in the process he was the onewho introduced me to Jim Ron yeah and then so I I met him

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a few times uh until 1986 and then 1986 Jim ran joined thecompany and then I

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spent 29 years with the guy and I mean brilliant brilliantman yeah well not

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everybody who goes down this path has done quite as well asyou so uh maybe

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with at the risk of of uh you know injuring your humilitybut but yeah what what's your secret how did you uh um

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thrive in this environment what do you think was the secretthere well you know when when uh when I taught these college

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kids a lot of them there uh you know in this uh church groupand and they were but I was in an area of town where we

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had the the CPS on one side of the street uh on that sideand and the the

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other it was like the boundary between the CPS and theBloods and I lived on the corner right so and so these were

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some of the guys that we uh you know that we worked with andso uh you know

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so uh when I understood how this system worked I said wellreally all I've got

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to do is help these people solve problems and then teachthem how they can solve problems which gives them

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value which gives them significance and so that was thisprocess and so that's

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really what it was all I did was do everything I could toduplicate what I did with them so that they could do it

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with other people and so that that increased the themagnitude and the

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significance of the reach I mean you know I mean I have overwell over a quarter a million people you know on my

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team but but I only deal with a half a dozen yeah and what Idid is I invested

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my life into them and then said okay you need to invest inthese and I would always work you know

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with a lot of people but but they were the key and so I thatwas my process and

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then I would just go out and teach what I did with thosehalf a dozen that made the

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difference that's kind of a an amazing connection to to takethat lesson and bring it into sales and I I think it's

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actually a pretty great call out that when people are insales there's so much pressure to deliver you know you've got

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your quotas and you you get very focused on your problemwhich is selling and making your quota but you're saying the

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answer is really like don't even you need to focuscompletely on just solving problem helping people solve their

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problems that's the key Darren I tell you if people heardwhat you just said

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right there that is so key in fact you know they have allkinds of promotion

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this is a promotion business I mean they promotingeverything you know they got vacations they got this they got all all

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the stuff right promotion don't do anything for me they justdon't my

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thinking is wait a second so you think I'm going to do alittle bit extra so that I get this prize right I

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said why not just do extra anyway you know my thinking iswhy not just do the

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best that I can every month and then I don't have to worryabout it and so that

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that was really it I I just simply did the best I couldevery day Dennis is

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that teachable or do you think that that's just somethingthat that you're you're born with that that I mean that is like

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the amazing mentality right instead of instead of lookinglike trying to like I need a promotion what's my career growth

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what's this instead of you're what I hear you saying is youjust come into it like I'm just gonna do the best I can

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every day is there a way to help people evolve into thattype of

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mentality yeah it's a great question Damon because yeah andultimately the

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only reason I can do that and the only reason I think peoplewould be able to do that is if they're crystal clear on

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their purpose our purpose is is foundational who am I whatam I here for

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where am I going three big questions worldwide every countryevery culture right everybody wants to know the answer

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of those three questions but if you can get your purposedown and understand what that is then you take that purpose

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and you feed it into all the different areas of your lifeyou feed it into your financial life your family life your

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personal life your professional life your social life yourspiritual life all of it and and so once you have that

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purpose see then that's that's the the drive the drive isthe purpose and and

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so I'm real big on being cause oriented that's one of thethings I loved about this company when I got started this it

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was a cause oriented company and it just so happened youmade a lot of

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cash companies are cash oriented and try to bring in a causeto motivate you you

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see but I started with that see I got it reverse I want thecause first the cash isn't automatic the results aren't

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automatic so Dennis my question is if I'm somebody who'ssitting there saying okay I'm listening to Denis speak I'm a

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little confused of figuring out what my purpose is I meanwithout going into you I'm sure there's many steps but what is

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like the first step somebody could take to help them figureout what they what they're purpose is or should be uh well

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I I think there there's four questions the first one is whodo you want to be

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you know uh what is it that the what kind of reputation youhave what kind of person do you want to be what kind of

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image do you want to have in other words it's it's in otherwords it's almost like creating a brand for yourself like

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you create a brand for a company so you know what's my's bewhat's gonna be my

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brand what who who who do who do I want to be and then onceI determine who I

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want to be then I can say okay then what do I want to do seebecause once I understand who I

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want to be then I said okay what do I need to do to be thatkind of person see

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a lot of people get it backwards what do you want to do whatdo you want to have no that's secondary who do I want to be that's my

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purpose my cause right and then what do I have to do inorder to be that and

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then once I do what I need to do then I'll have what I wantto have and then once I have what I want to

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have then I the fourth question is who do you want to helpsee what are you g when once you

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have all those things what are you gonna do with them sowhat you know so the

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real question then comes you know who do you want to helphow are you going to use all that you are all that you've

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done and all that you have to make a difference for otherpeople which is why the fundamental principle for all things

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is the fact that it's not about you yeah everything that Ihave everything that I know it's not it's not for

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me listen I can do those things it's not from it's it itwhat it does is it feeds

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my purpose it allows me to make a contribution and everybodywould love to contribute if they thought they

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could you know and so that that's that process that I kindof walk people through I think that's what what we need

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to know but we need to have have the right order J when wewhen we were talking

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chatting before the the show started you mentioned this ideathat kind of in a nutshell it's not about you and that's

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such a powerful driving like if you almost had to hold on tojust one thing every that that helps inform all the

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other 45 um you know principles that you have in your bookfor example yeah that

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is a little bit almost ironic because you're it it looksfrom the outside like that can't be true because you're on on

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stage with 25,000 people staring at you and but you'retelling us it's not about about you I understand that actually

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weirdly from an actor point of view my background beforethis was that but can you explain to folks like how that how

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that makes sense that that those things aren't opposed itseems like everybody's looking at you but you're saying what

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you have to realize is it's not about you right well um yeahbecause basically

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and other words why am I on the stage yeah right uh what amI doing up there

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I'm only up there because I have some information uh or aperspective of

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working with information that can make a difference for themsee listen if if

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you're not if you get on if you get on a stage and you'renot thinking about the audience guess who you're thinking about

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yeah me yeah yeah yeah you know and if you're thinking aboutme man you know

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you know how do I look how do I sound I'm I saying the rightwords the right way and you know is it going to come across well are they goingto like me

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are they not going to like me you you've got all this stuffyou see and so that's

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where uh that's where people get off kilter and and thedirection is there

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and and it it applies in so many different areas in otherwords the process that we go through U most people

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you know uh they're in a survival mode you know think aboutit you know they live month to month paycheck to paycheck

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now they want more you know they have dreams but but they'renot there and and

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so what I and that's where most of the people that Iencountered most of the people on my team where I encountered

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and listen I had some you know uh senior Executives andcosos and attorneys and doctors I I mean I had all kinds but but

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the the majority of them are are everyday people who are ineven in a survival mode and now there's when

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they're on that and when you're in the survival mode guesswhat you're thinking about all the time yeah yourself me yeah

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my bills my pains my Agony my embarrassment it it it's allme thought

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so what I tell people I say you need to go from in order togo from survival mode you need to move into the servant

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mode yeah you need to become a servant and you know there'sthe old saying if you want to be the leader of

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all you got to be the servant of all but the reality isthat's magic see that's

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where you get loyalty from from your customers and suchbecause when when you

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become a certain by the way most of my people they say wellI don't want to be a servant I want to have a servant you

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know say well it's like Darren yeah but you know the thething is it

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it's uh when a servant for me and this is my definition sothis what makes it real for me as a servant is somebody

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somebody who simply gets excited about making other peoplesuccessful in what they do and what they want to become and

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have and if I can help them become successful in what theywant and who

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they want to become we both win see so the idea is takeeverything

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that I have and poured into everything that they they wantin other words it's

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not hey you know gu a lot of these people that coaches oryou know be all these things hey let me tell you what I

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can do for you wrong wrong thinking it's not what I can dofor you it's what can

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I do for you just a see what I'm saying but it it's

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radically different what can I do for you what what what isit that I have or I know and I've experienced that's going

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to help you in your journey and so that's the whole thingthat's the whole not about you thought process so and you

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know Zig Ziggler he's the one who said you help enoughpeople get what they want and you get everything that you

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want and I'm just telling you it's true you can't help allthese people become

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successful and not become successful yourself I defy anybodyto do that you

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can't you just can't do it and and the other point is as Ithink many people

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they have a very worldly concept of success you know theythink that success

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is position possession and Power Authority you know all thestuff

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right that's not true and I tell people all the time ifsuccess is your goal you

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got the wrong goal you know you're going to lose and how dowe know go ahead no no go ahead

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finish finish I mean I'm just saying I mean think about howmany Rich famous powerful people commit

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suicide they have all the position they have the possessionthey have the power they have the money they have the fame

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the fortune all the stuff they commit suicide why seebecause success isn't what it's all cracked up to be I mean

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how much is enough I heard one guy say just a little bitmore yeah right right

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goal what's the real goal significance that's what we wantin

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other words success isn't what I do it's what others do as aresult of what I do

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or have done here's a question for you around this somebodyasked me the other day how

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do you stop com comparing yourself to others you know do youhave any advice

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around that I love that if you been if you listen to mymessages or something

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here I mean you're just hitting all the literally somebodyasked me that the other it was it was it was an individual

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contributor on a sales team who's relatively new to thesales team and they said that their frustration is they're constantly comparingthemselves

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to other people on their team and they feel like it's it'sbeen hurting their

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their morale for one but also their productivity wellthere's no question about it because when you compare you're

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either not enough or you become arrogant yeah right and andand the thing is is

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you can only compare equals think about it you can you have

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to compare oranges to oranges you can't compare oranges tobaseball you know doesn't work right so uh and I have a

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saying that I tell people all the time when you compare itleads to

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Despair and and and that's why so and the point is iseverybody's different

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and a lot of people think well everybody's just like me it'sa very immature way of

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thinking and and and when you grow or you know like I saidbefore the show you know everybody's like me or they will be

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when they grow up you know and uh but the point is is onceyou begin to realize wait a second everybody isn't

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like me you know people are different and then you realizeyou grow a little

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bit more and you realize come to think about nobody's likeme and here's the most valuable part it's okay to be me

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yeah see because every single person is uniquely and

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distinctly different this is what allows every human beingto

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contribute you know no matter who they are or where they areor what they is because I mean think about it let's I

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mean and I use this illustration but it's it's it's powerfulwe know everybody's different

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because guess what everybody has different fingerprintsdon't they we can identify s billion people

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seven billion fingerprints they're all different yeah 1986they discovered DNA

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wow we're really different we're distinctly different youknow you also

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have uh distinct eye prints there's seven billion differentey prints that's

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how iridologists you know that's how they make their livingright because the eye prints is it's the you know the the

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window to the mind the window to the soul you know the eyesright yeah and so you know so uh and then guess I learned

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this here a couple years ago every heartbeat is differentwow so so what

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does that tell us how do I apply that for me that meanspeople uh people see

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things different people experience things different people'spassions different people feel things different

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so everything is different and so no matter what the deal isand this is why you've got to have a

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a variety of people you know around you you so that you canget that that

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different perspective and my uniqueness okay is allows me to

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contribute more significantly everybody's nobody's read thesame things seen the same things heard the

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same things and had all the same experiences nobody and allof those things

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contribute to my uniqueness and contribute to my potentialbecause nobody's going to see

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things the way I see things nobody's going to feel thingsthe way I feel have the same passion or heart that I do and

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so this is where we we get Gin Great Value Jim used to Ronused to say each

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of us need all of us and all of us need each of us yeah andand it's it's really

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true and and that's where you know Daman where you talkedabout earlier before the show you know we can all learn

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something from somebody you know if we just learn to ask theright questions and so there's Great Value there and so

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that's that process that uh you know so the comparing thingis uh it's

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destructive it's destructive you know you know who you needto compare yourself there's only one think about it

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with everybody being so unique and you have to compareapples to app you have to compare

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equals there's only one equal to you and that's see in the

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mirror yeah that's you that's the only thing I can comparemyself to every day Mark you know the the founder of herbal

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he he just tell me he said hey he said all you got to do isget a little bit better today than you were

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yesterday only compare myself to myself Dennis at this agelooking in the mirror I'm not sure I can say that

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[Applause] anymore but that's only pH that's only surface umI'm looking a little bit

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different now too uh Dennis um so here's I I think we

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should get into the book in just a little because you haveyou know 45 principles in the book that that are

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organized to help people through some of the trajectory ofthese ideas that you have yeah but I have just a question

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first because something like uh you know you really don'tcompare yourself to

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others you know compare yourself to you that's the onlyequal that you have and this idea that you want to live from

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purpose first instead of thinking about what it is that youwant to have think about what it is that you can you can

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help people with right how do you get people to commit tothese ideas though

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because for example there are plenty of of successful peopleout there who don't have that mindset frankly they're

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they're super they're not they're not a Serv they're notthat's not how they got there and there are other people who

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have purpose who maybe didn't be become as successful solike how do I even

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though I know it's the right thing to do how do peoplecommit to these ideas in a way that actually changes their life

29:26

well interesting enough and you probably heard thisdefinition of success success is a

29:32

decision first of all you just have to decide and that's whyyou have to start with purpose yeah so once I have that

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purpose once I understand you know who I want to be what Iwant to do what what I want to have and who I want to help once

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I understand that then I say okay so who do I need to becomein order to do that so the the most famous say from Jim Ron

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that I know is for things to change you've got to change youknow for things to get better you got to get better yeah

29:59

and so and when I first heard that man I wrote that I tooknotes you know when I went to seminars I took notes but the

30:06

difference with me is when I got home I read them I didn'tput them on the Shelf I I

30:11

rad them I said hey and I'm I'm looking at this saying I'mthinking wait a minute why is it for things to change I

30:16

got to change and then I began to realize it wait a secondthings don't

30:23

change people do yeah you know do do we have poverty todaydo we have wealth

30:28

today do we have corruption today do we have all thesethings going on today sure did we have them 100 years ago

30:33

thousand years ago 2,000 years ago things don't change butsee the key here

30:38

is it's not what happens to us it's not the circumstancesaround me you know

30:44

that affect me it's how I respond to the circumstances seethat's the key

30:50

circumstances happen to all of us some become bitter somebecome better we

30:56

choose see and that's why I say it it begins with thatchoice so once I choose okay I

31:03

I'm going to get better in order to make this happen Okay soI'm gonna have to start changing some things and if I'm

31:10

gonna change it begins with that decision but then it beginswith input

31:16

I've got to start down and this is why our purposedetermines the things that

31:21

we see the things we read the things we hear and the thingswe experience see I listen there's people

31:27

look at I mean the learn at all podcast what a brillianttitle guess what we know about everyone

31:33

in your audience they're all eer to learn yeah you see andso so that's

31:39

brilliant so it starts with that decision okay I'm GonnaLearn but what do I need to know in order to do what I

31:45

got to do and and the Beautiful part about it that there'slots of people out there

31:50

willing to share their information see that's the beauty ofit

31:55

I mean I've called an author of A book I never knew the guynever heard from me I said listen I'm I'm reading your book I

32:01

said I'm enthralled with this thing I said man I said I'dlove to get together with you he says when you finish it he

32:07

says give me a summary we'll get together I mean I meanthink about that

32:12

I mean most people would love to help you if they thoughtyou were really serious and you really uh earned the

32:18

right to be heard earned the right to spend time with themand that's a big part you know listen you do

32:25

this you achieve this and then we'll take this and so that'swhere and you talking about how do you get people in

32:31

that process one little step at a time yeah know it's likehow do you eat an elephant one bite at a time yeah right

32:38

you know we're in such an instant oriented world we wanteverything yesterday you know and so it's just it's

32:44

just a step at a time you see Dennis another question thatpeople ask me that I think that falls right in line with

32:50

this and I agree I want to talk about your book but a lot oftimes people say well everybody says find mentors

32:57

uh get mentors what's your advice as far as one what kind ofmentors you should

33:03

look for and two how do you go about finding a mentor uhwell I first of all you know

33:10

um you know you want to find somebody and follow somebody uhwho has the

33:18

philosophy and the thinking and the lifestyle uh and the uhcharacteristics

33:25

the character the integrity that you're looking for right soyou start there

33:31

because if they don't have that whatever they have to tellyou is going to be fragile anyway so you want to start

33:38

there in other words I tell people you got to know who doyou want to be well

33:44

then you need to look for somebody who has those characterthat characteristics

33:49

you see and so that's where you start and then and andthat's why I'm just saying most people don't realize that

33:55

you know if if you were really serious you could just youknow write them a letter send them an email or you know

34:01

find a way to communicate to them go to their seminar talkto them afterwards you know I mean that's how Jim and I got

34:07

real close I mean golly it was it was just amazing you knowand because he was more than willing to share and uh and

34:14

and the thing that I think people need to understand aboutmentors mentors it's

34:20

it's not about information and and programs it's a it'sabout people it's

34:27

about relationships you see in other words I have alwayssaid and and this is I found

34:33

this true is that there's far more caught than taught andeven the five mentors that I talk about in the book

34:39

who made that huge influence on my life that allowed me toto accumulate all these principles you know I heard the

34:48

principles but I saw them in action through their lives andthat's where you

34:54

get it see you hear it you understand it but

34:59

you really learn it when you see it in action yeah that's areally great point you can't catch cold from somebody who

35:06

doesn't have one yeah if you want to if you want to catchsomebody's character make sure it's the real disease you

35:14

know what what are some of the other things that we shouldknow from your book yeah again there's I know you've

35:19

organized these principles into some categories you got acopy

35:25

yeah yeah there we go maximize you yeah standing

35:32

on the shoulders of giants and and that actually leads rightinto what you're saying is that you you have to you have

35:37

to be around it and you have to see it like you can hear theideas but when you actually live it in the presence of

35:42

somebody that's when it makes it the it really sinks in yeahI mean listen if

35:48

you have the dream of being you know the Michael Jordan ofbasketball you know then you know I wouldn't study

35:54

architecture yeah sure you know I mean doesn't make senseright now so my purpose is listen architecture is great

36:01

I love architecture I mean it's beautiful look at all thethings we see in the world but if if that's not your purpose then it it itdoesn't fit it

36:08

doesn't work and so it all comes back again and who hasthese these characteristics so that that I can get

36:15

around so it determines what I read where I go who I spendtime with and and

36:21

that type of thing and if they're not your type listen II've never given up friends now given up me some of them but

36:29

I I I never give up on people and uh but you know you start

36:34

moving into the direction and guess what you beginsurrounding yourself then with people that are like you want and so

36:41

that's why I start with a purpose and then we've got tobecome that person so once you understand your purpose then

36:46

it's that personal development who do I need to becomethings change I got to change I've got to learn to respond to

36:52

problems differently you know I've got to learn you know uhto to dream and uh

36:58

you know and go after those things and once I've got thatdown I said okay here's the things that I need to change

37:05

then I've got to set my mind to it you know mindsets apopular word today right

37:12

but what is mindset I'm pretty simple mindset is what youhave your your mindset

37:19

on what what what are you thinking about what are youreading what are you doing see see and and that's vitally important

37:25

because thoughts control our minds thoughts control ourthinking right

37:31

thoughts control our mind but we control our thoughts see soI get to choose what I'm

37:38

gonna think about and if once I choose what I think aboutthat's going to determine what I do our thoughts turn to

37:46

actions so I got to get people reading the right thingsseeing the right things experiencing the right things and if

37:52

they're around that then they're going to start thinkingabout those things and then see then then you can talk talk about okay now howdo I apply those

37:58

things once you begin applying those things in other wordsit gets into action it's not truth

38:04

known listen listen I know a lot of educated idiots theyknow a lot but they don't do anything so you know so you

38:12

know now I begin applying the things that I know and onceyou begin applying the things you know you apply them until

38:18

you become consistent at it until you create the habit of itsee and and the habits you know it becomes just a part

38:25

of Who You Are see uh hard habits okay they're hard todevelop but they're easy

38:31

to live with easy habits you know and they're easy todevelop but they're hard to live

38:37

with so pick your habits see and so you develop those habitsand once you

38:43

develop those habits where it it's just habitual you don'tthink about it it's just it's a part of who you are then

38:49

your habits create your attitude see then you begin thinkingabout things different your perspective is different

38:56

because of your experience see and then that is whatdevelops your character

39:02

yeah and and that's that's really what we need see we needcharacter a lot of

39:08

people say well oh they're so charismatic yeah they can becharismatic but if they don't have character you

39:13

know it's just a sideshow I like that you know yeah I thinkit's kind of disappointing that we

39:18

don't really ever talk about characters so much anymore butit no um Dennis so

39:25

you've you've uh you've been down this path you know for uh44 years according

39:31

to you um and learned a ton of great lessons you've codifiedit into these

39:37

principles that you have in a book and everything and atthis point so much of it must be second nature for you what do

39:43

you still have to remind yourself on a daily basis just tokind of stay in a to

39:50

stay to keep being the person that you want to be everythingthat's in my book I have

39:55

to remind myself self it's a battle Zone the world is

40:01

vying for your attention they're vying for your mind youknow listen we hear

40:06

about you know false information misinformation man theworld is filled

40:11

with it yeah and so there's there's the battle for the mindand so uh yeah you

40:17

know I mean listen as I'm going through this process youknow D and we were talking about you know writing the book

40:23

as just a small part then all of a sudden the real workbegins you know and I discovered how much more I have to

40:29

learn seriously I have to go back and read my own principlesjust to remind

40:35

myself because it's so easy to get distracted by things youknow I have to

40:40

remind myself okay you know you know listen you know TonyRobbins is Tony Robbins because he's been there doing

40:46

all this stuff you know I can't compare myself to TonyRobbins or you know they all these different people you know I

40:52

compare myself to me you know I have to go through the thethe whole thing of okay I've got to develop the disciplines

40:59

you know that it's going to take and so I have to stayfocused on my uh on my

41:05

purpose you know Focus always precedes success think aboutit no matter what

41:11

what what you're involved whether it's a sport a musician acareer or whatever it

41:16

is you know Focus precedes success Dennis I I was thinkingabout this when

41:22

I was going through your stuff there's so much out there inthe world of soci social media and everything what is one

41:29

tip do you have for somebody to help improve their

41:35

focus uh well just improve what you download You Knowdownload make just

41:41

make sure literally if we want to focus on Things downloadeverything that pertains to the thing I want to focus on

41:47

I always say that you know uh once you get that focus andyou decide what you

41:52

want you know what we do is we're we're wanting to do dosomething that's going to improve my life so I'm ex I'm

41:59

exchanging where I am for where I want to be what is goodfor I mean what is

42:05

bad for what is good and then once I start doing the goodthings then I need

42:10

to exchange what is good for what is better and once I getinvolved with a better then I exchange what is better

42:17

for what is best here's the problem the good is the enemy ofthe better the

42:25

better it's the enemy of the best and so that's why we haveto keep

42:32

moving say because it's easy to be distracted by good thingsI could be doing good things

42:39

valuable things but if it doesn't help me to get what I wantit's it's

42:45

out it's going to be my enemy it's going to prevent me fromor slow me down from

42:52

reaching my goals right I see yeah um we have listeners

43:00

who some who may be interested in speaking you know a careeruh doing that

43:05

and I think you already offered a tip in a sense to peoplewho who want to be a a public speaker which is to make to

43:12

remember it's not about you that's some of the best adviceyou can have in terms of managing your nerves realizing it's

43:17

not about you it's about you helping other people with thestory you're telling or the problems you're trying to solve um do you have anyother tips for

43:25

people who might want to uh you know follow in yourfootsteps and get up on a stage and or have to maybe have to give

43:32

a big keynote coming up and that they're they want to do thebest what what tips do you have for people who want to be

43:38

doing some public speaking well you know I think really itcomes down to the idea of uh others you know in other words

43:45

when I understand my uniqueness what I want and I developmyself into my unique

43:50

self you know and understand what's different about me whatmy talents give

43:56

skills gifts and abilities are those Talent skills gifts andabilities again they're not for me listen if I'm the

44:02

greatest musician in the world and I'm playing up on someMountaintop by myself who benefits from that yeah you see so

44:09

in other words I'm a talented skilled musician so that I canbring pleasure so I can contribute to others so that's

44:15

where you know that comes in but um you know so I I thinkwhat what and how can

44:21

I contribute best to others and and why not listen peoplewant to wait to get on

44:26

the stage why why do that why why not begin with yourneighbor yeah why not

44:32

begin with the guy down at the club or down or the personover the gym why not just contribute every day my goal for me

44:39

is every day to make an impact with somebody for something Imean that's why would I want

44:46

to wait you know see and and that's where I get my practicewhen you're practicing with people aren't expecting

44:52

it then I get the right feedback say well maybe I better Xthat one you know

44:58

that didn't work good but um really what it is it's it's ourlife message yeah

45:04

and in fact that's one of the reasons why I ended up writingthe book initially was just you know my family

45:09

watched me to go from Zero to Hero they watch me going frombeing dead broke you know holes in my clothes and all this

45:15

kind of stuff to the million-dollar Mansion to having theboat and the cars and all the stuff right most of which

45:20

I've got rid of now because I you know better things thanstuff but um but so

45:25

they saw what I did yeah but they had no clue how I did ityeah you know and so I

45:31

thought you know the book is a way to to leave that Legacyit's a way to to get that you know leave it for them so that

45:37

they not only understand what I did but they understood whyI did it and how I did it yeah that way the Legacy

45:44

continues how long do you want to do what you do how long doyou want to do what you love to do yeah and what impact

45:51

do you want to make and how long do you want it to last doyou only want it to last until you die or do you want the

45:56

last blo after you die yeah that's the value of the speakingthat's the value

46:02

of um you know the book see there there's two things youwant to invest in you know uh and the main one is other

46:10

people and why is that you want to invest in things thatwill Outlast

46:16

it Outlast life and one thing that outlasts life is anotherlife

46:22

so people when I'm gone they're still here here yeah see sothat's the best

46:28

investment that we can make that's why people skills are soso valuable it's

46:33

the most valuable asset that we have yeah and and you knowlisten I mean I we

46:39

all know that people are our biggest problems for the mostpart it's more people than things right

46:46

personalities but uh but they're also our biggest solutionyes I learn those Talent skills

46:53

and and all that I've learned my attitudes and these thingsand all these principles from other people so they may

46:58

be their biggest problem but they're also our biggest tooland our biggest asset our biggest contribution and so

47:05

people's skills are vital we second that here at learn it I

47:10

like that there Dennis we have uh one final signaturequestion we'd like to

47:16

ask people uh you ready we again you Dennis has had nochance to repair for

47:22

this here we go uh what is so a lot of people now know a lotfrom this podcast

47:27

listen to you and probably a lot of other things about youwhat's something that a lot of people don't know about

47:33

you it might be a little bit surprising I'll give you acouple of examples we had somebody share a love of meteorology

47:39

we just had a guest talk about how much they like landscapepainting I mean is there you know do you do you secretly

47:44

speak Italian nobody knows what's something Dennis about youthat uh you

47:50

know maybe a lot of people don't know well you you probablyfind this interesting

47:57

because most of the people who know me uh know me from thestage they know me

48:03

from doing trainings or doing you know uh virtual trainingsor all these

48:08

different things and what people don't realize is I'm I'mvery much an introvert yeah you know funny right and

48:16

in fact my wife uh she was one of my customers and so youknow when I met it

48:22

was this one-on-one deal going on right yeah and uh and soshe got you know she

48:27

got some results with our products and then she says youknow I think I want to work with this business this sounds very

48:32

exciting and fun so I said okay and so I started working andtraining with her and after a number of months you know we

48:38

had this big training I said well you know I think you gotto come on down to this training and and she said okay you

48:44

know and I was speaking at it and um so she comes down tothis training and she saw sees all these people and stuff like

48:51

that of course I mean I know everybody there and um and thenyou know they call me up to the stage you know so I get up

48:57

to do my deal and she's like she's kind of looking aroundshe say who who is

49:02

that guy you know and it's this funny thing it's like whenit when I get on a stage

49:09

it's like the light switch goes off and and and part of thatis because

49:14

one of the most important things I want to do is is make adifference for people and I can say listen most of the things

49:21

that I say people have heard it before there's very fewthings that I ever say that people haven't heard and and and

49:28

that's because most of the things I say it's something I gotfrom somebody else I mean I'm when I'm speaking I say hey

49:35

isn't this great stuff yeah people think well that seemskind of counter characteristic of who this guy's you

49:43

know appeared to be you know and then I say I said so take anote only steal from the you know only steal the good

49:49

stuff yeah right right but so so that's that's what excitesme so when I get up

49:55

there I said here's my chance to say something maybe eventhe same thing a

50:00

little different way so that it sinks in a how to so thatthey can actually walk

50:05

out of that room that day a changed person here here's ahere's a simple

50:12

thing that that is that way I'd like to tell people replaceall shoulds with

50:17

coulds we were talking about how do you develop this processand that's one of the key little

50:23

principles that you can use instead of saying you know youshould go to this event you know say no you you could go

50:30

to that event you know you know you you should do this noyou know you could do

50:37

that see it's a whole see when you say should they're sayingyeah why should I

50:42

yeah right when you say you could they say really how thatthat doesn't work

50:48

with my two-year-old son Wally though when I

50:54

tell you could choose a different path I get you're say Ilike that I like that approach yeah but any I'm I'm a real

51:02

introvert you know and in fact when when I get off the stageand a lot of people want to get out front and you know shake

51:08

that man I'm going back to the Green Room yeah you know wellso Dennis really inspiring to

51:16

have you on the show I mean just one one inspiring nuggetafter another and um we

51:23

want to let people know how to get in touch with you notimmediately because you got to go to the green room and be alone for butshortly after this how

51:31

could people get in touch with you or or get your book welluh easy to get the

51:37

book on Amazon or um you know uh what is it Barnes &Noble you know so the place

51:44

you can just look up the look up my name uh look up the bookum and um and the

51:50

best way really to contact me is through my website which ismaximiz

51:55

you not maximizing but maximize you.com and um and that'sthe

52:04

goal Max people's lives better you're available for speakingengagements and

52:10

in particular but also you know I suppose Retreats andthings like that yeah speaking Retreats conferences lunch

52:18

and learn staff meetings uh you know that type of thing uhyou know I I will

52:23

take on um some uh coaching or mentoring uh people but uhbut that that

52:31

would be a a hard process to get through because i' I'd havevery strict requirements yeah yeah okay well this

52:37

has been great Dennis you've been very inspiring my friendvery inspiring thank

52:42

you so much what an honor I mean you know they talk aboutwhat's your ideal audience your podcast attracts the ideal

52:51

audience for what I love to share with you know uh and so uhwhat a brilliant

52:57

title uh what a brilliant process and philosophy that youhave and and putting all these things and making this

53:03

available for so many people and u i I didn't know it wasaround but now I do so I'm going back through the history

53:11

well well Dennis you're gonna have to watch some future onesbecause you're gonna be you're gonna be seeing your book on my on my shelf Ihave right here

53:18

pretty soon thank you thanks everybody

53:23

cheers

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