Podcast Coaching Session with Sherina Hill and Paul T Neustrom - Jun 29 2023

I apologize for WIFI breaks. I only lasts for a few seconds in a couple spots.
Appreciate your patience.

Transcript

Impromptu Zoom Meeting - Jun 29 2023 (1): 0:00

So thank you for doing this for me'cause I know your time is very, valuable. But I'm so honored I get to talk to you and happy anniversary again. That's so cool. Thank you. It's been a blessing three years. I love, It's, I wrote about it, my book, so I can talk about that a little bit. Yeah, I wanted to talk about your book on the podcast, but we'll see if the wi and we can still do that another day if we don't get to it today because of the wifi. Alright. Alright, so let's talk about what you're celebrating in your business right now. I'm working with basically coaches to go next level with a lot of'em, want some kind of a platform that they can have to reach people. And I just had the experience of having two number one international bestselling books. That came out here in the last about year, and I've got another two books that'll be out before the end of the year, so it should make it four. And hopefully they'll, both be they do as well. But the power in, the books is, not the word. It's the speaking after. And so what I'm celebrating is the fact that, I've built a platform for myself that if you go to paul t strom.com, you can see what it's all about. But having a a, bestselling book is, great. But the thing is, that over 80% of the population wants to publish a book and only 1% do. Of all the people that do publish. Amazon has about a million authors a year, but the average number of books sold by those authors in the lifetime of the book is 250. To become a bestselling author, like in the top 10, requires about three to 4,000 downloads a day. And to be a number one international bestselling author requires about 10 to 12,000 downloads a day. So it's a difference. But then to go next level with just more than a book is Sena you and I both met in a speaking school, and to have the ability to speak to masses, like in a podcast, in a audio book, in an actual speaking platform like YouTube or, whatever, or even on stage then that, to me is how your message can reach the masses. Absolutely. Absolutely. So you have two more books coming out this year? I do. That's so gravy good. Yeah it was fun. The, next one coming out is called the first one is called Coaching Inc. And the lead author on, that's Ray Brim. You spell it b r e h m. And it's still it was, it floats right, right around the top 10 or 12 out of like hundreds of thousands of book in the coaching category. So it is a great coaching book. I wrote the chapter called Top Gun Coaching, and it has to do with all my years of coaching in sales. I, had high performing salespeople and what I taught. Was a one call close course by a top gun fighter pilot instructor, and he taught on internet on effective communication. I, speak a lot about that chapter of how to do the one call close, relate a couple stories of my two biggest sales, one virtual and one, one in a traditional sale. But the one that's coming out here in August is called Author Code. It's written mainly to authors of how to basically do what I, said in the first question of how to next level your, book, and how to really establish a speaking platform. And then the last book that will be out before the end of the year is called The Entrepreneurs Playbook. Nice. Grant Cardone better, move over. What's interesting about my story, and I think why my book called Death of a Yellow Page Salesman that did it did a lot better than I thought it ever would, and. My publisher came back after the, first week it launched, and said, Paul, the 1500 authors we've worked with over the last eight years, your book had"unheard of results." And I went, what does that mean? And it took a whole week before they scheduled a call to find out how it did. And they said, we've never had a book hit top 10 in 22 categories. And it hit like all of these different like, entrepreneurs and business and motivation and spiritual growth and all these different things. What, it was is I was telling about my own life story of having problems of transitioning from the old traditional Yellow Pages to the new digital like Google everything. And it, got to the point where I started out a book, I talk about the inspiration where, I felt like God was telling me to write a book on filled, overflowing. And I said, God, how can I do this when my life is so empty? So I start the book where I talk about the lowest point in my life, and it was not a good place. So it's not a good place for me to be after a whole career in Yellow Pages. But I rode the bus too long and so long story short is they said your book had, it was number one in 10 categories. We've never had that before. And it was fun because it was hard to put it out there the. Tough parts of your life, but it resonated with people.'cause people identify more with your failures than they do with your successes. Absolutely. Absolutely. My whole thing is I've helped people to get unstuck.'cause I was stuck for seven years. So that's why my podcast, skyrocket2success.com is, it talks about the rise up master growth method and the master stands for marketer, author, speaker trainer, entrepreneur, and rewarder of those that are doing good things. I couldn't come up with a better R word. I know, but the rise up is just a four step method of how you can basically get unstuck and go to the next level and do really well. So you don't have a al an offer with the author code? I do. I do it. It's, what is that? It's two, two different ones. One is a done for use service, which is my high ticket, where we actually help people to become a bestselling author. And they actually are in a book that's guaranteed to be a, bestseller on Amazon. And then we establish a platform that has the audio book, it has the podcast, it has a speaking platform that they can do. And then they have the whole platform as far as all the tech done for'em, because it took me a couple of years to be able to establish all this. Yeah. And so if somebody can do this and if they just wanna know how to do it themselves and they they can do it themselves, then you know it's, a 10th of the cost. And, what is the high ticket? What's the dollar amount? The dollar amount's just gonna be shy of 10,000 99, 97. Okay. And then, and the other option is what? The do it yourself is the 9, 9 7 where you learn how to do it. You learn how to, find like an anthology book, which I think is really a great way to do things because when you have 15 authors contributed once you, and it's a guarantee success. But yeah, the fact that to have it actually done for you because there, there's a real trick to having the right cover, the right title. To have your, subtitle. And one of the things why my book I, think did really well is there, there was a lot of inspiration that I had with the whole death of a Yellow Page salesman. And so I relate that, and if somebody can take that and run with it, go for it.'cause all I wanna do is help people to to get a to go where they wanna go. Yeah. And if you've got a message that you wanna reach millions, then this is the way to do it. Awesome. So when it comes to this, what is your biggest challenge? My biggest challenge is, just finding the time to reach to work with all the people that are responding. And so I'm finding that the one-on-one coaching is becoming a lot more limited, and the group coaching is becoming more of a thing. And I don't mind that. I've always liked one-on-one. When I was in my sales career was always with me and the business owner, but then I graduated to instructing 60 salespeople. And when we were having we had 380 phone directories across the country and we had the, top five performing directories. It was fun. But we were working with groups in that case, and so can do either to me there's more success in seeing my students do well than, actually even myself. So currently you're doing one-on-ones and you wanna do groups. That's where the high ticket comes in and where you have more of, my time. And if you're having trouble really to, come up with a really good title there's some tools that, that really work well. And it's not necessarily ai. I'm not a big believer in AI because it's very generic information. This book that I just wrote here a couple weeks ago, I actually used AI to come up with kind of the framework, but then I also have an editor that I worked with.'cause I have all of these content and all of these quotes that, I wanted to incorporate that are my own quotes. And so how do you integrate all this information on a framework called Skyrocket to Success that people are gonna relate to? They really identify with the struggle. How did you break through? How did you become a number one international bestselling author? And how, did you establish a speaking platform that you can actually reach the masses, right? And it's, all in the it secret sauce, so to speak. So you get the secret sauce in the one-on-one, or you get it both. You get it both. It's just you get more time, you get more access with, them. So. right now, how many group clients do you have? Or do you have any groups going right now? I actually have close to 35 Facebook groups right now. Oh, okay. So, you mentioned the time, like you have limited time serving all the people. So I effectively retired here about two years ago and but not yesterday, because that was my anniversary. I didn't schedule any appointments. But the day before, I had actually six hour long appointments with individual, with clients. Yeah. Okay. And then some discovery calls but, some are existing clients that I work with. Okay. We've got some exciting things that we're doing. We have Growth Coach International, that's where we actually coach people their life or growth coaches. And then we have Empowered Leaders International as well. Yeah. You have all of these online brands. So how do you see yourself managing at all when they all blow up? You have two books coming. You're, creating so much lead generation, you're already ha at capacity. You had six calls yesterday. Like, how do you see yourself accommodating the demand that you're creating? I'm a big believer in teamwork and actually bringing people on to effectively the way I really would like to do my high ticket offer,'cause I, it's not fully formed yet, is to have other coaches join in to where each has a segment of it. And to me that would be fun. It'd be fun to do that. And also to do like an actual five star exotic location. I, don't think international be, I love Mexico port Varta. It is just, I love it down there. But it's just I, think it would be good to, to actually do a two to three day done for you. Come in. I, interviewed on my own podcast on skyrocket to Success, Ray Jupiter, who was a Grammy nominated singer songwriter. And she works with people's voices to be able to, heighten and have a better voice. And then there's some others like you yourself, you work with people that are just high performers, not your average high ticket performer, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. So you have a strategy for this demand that you're creating. That's what you're telling me. I'd. You do, you just said it. Yeah, of course you do. You have a strategy. Let's just say like for example this the Empowered Leaders International is actually something that I'm doing with, a a partner. And so I, I saw that I had like over a hundred students that I just, you know, to plug them into that I was gonna need help on the back end. And I've got my wife and I've got my son, and then also we have he's a pastor in a church here in Minnesota that he's just a he's, he could be full-time except for on Sundays. With this short con congregation. But and, then the whole growth Coach International, it's the same thing. To me I, like to operate on the philosophy of Les Schwab Tires, but he's my he's this guy out in the Pacific Northwest. He was based out of Oregon, and he would set up a tire store in a small town and he would go find just a, an entrepreneur type, that guy that would be just a great manager and he would tell him, say, I'll set up everything for you. I'll set up the store, I'll stock it with tires. I'll give you all the equipment, and at the end of the, month or everything, we'll split the profits. And then if you hire any assistant managers or other managers, then that comes outta your portion. But effectively Les Schwab was making 50% of that profit. And so he had over 400 stores in no matter of 10 years, which is, it's big. And to me, if you incentivize people they perform for you. Yeah. Yeah. That is absolutely true. That So you do have a plan and you have a plan that is incentivized. That's right. Just for example, to be a part of the Growth Coach International and to have a profile on a Growth Coach directory, that's a brand new website, so it's still being built, but anybody that actually brings somebody in, it'll be an affiliate, is you'll make 50% of whatever they buy. So effectively, if you get two people in, you're in for free. Yeah. And it's just basically to, to get people to the site because if you have a lot of active thing and the commissions pay for itself, it's basically grassroots marketing. Absolutely. Abso very much very grassroots and community. Because you're bringing in your people with you you're bringing, you're gonna share it with the people you care most about. And people who are like-minded people who are doing, who would benefit from the same thing. So, that's amazing. So how much longer before that site gets billed out or when's your lunch plan for that? What's the plan for that? It actually launched a couple weeks ago, but I still have to update it. So it's work in progress. Okay. So can people go there right now and sign up? They can, but it's not fully functioning, okay. I, would say it you, can look at it, but it's, probably gonna be, I would say mid-July before it's fully functioning. Okay. Okay. So is all the, all of the other things up and functioning or, some things that need tweaking or. The Growth Coach International, that site is being built. So that's not up yet. It's gonna be similar to, what the site is for Growth coach. Yeah. That, that, that site's up empower empowered Leaders International, that site's not up yet. Okay. My partner has to do some things with that, but, so the Book Coach Inc. I'm imagining that will probably be launched at the same time as Growth Coach International. Maybe. I don't know. Like you could have a joint launch. I think that Inc came out a year ago in July. Coach Inc is already out. Did I miss that? Yeah. Did you tell me That Author Code is the one that comes out the end of August. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. So my bad. And then Entrepreneur's Playbook comes out the end of December. Okay. Okay. My bad. I was just, putting the two together, streamlining your time, just helping you out with your time here. Great. What would you like to create or have created in with those platforms a year from now? What would you like to see with the my goal is to help 10,000 coaches to, next level. And to me, my, my niche or the real passion is to take people that are place that, that they're just like, like stuck and they wanna move forward. And it actually took me seven years to write my book and that's way too long. And it's because I couldn't find my purpose. I couldn't pick it out what do I do after Yellow Pages? I ended up in a monastery for two years, praying and just writing. I was writing all these stories and the, it's a good portion of all the Book of Death of Yellow Page Salesman. And I talk about how in my past life I was like a super high performer. I was like on the top team in the nation in college and gymnastics. We were seven time national champions. I was a five time state champion in tumbling and vaulting. And, but I hit this point when I was 60 years old when I just couldn't go on with Yellow Pages.'cause I rode the bus too long. I went from Good mid six figures to like 110,000, to 70,000 to 50,000 to 30,000 to 18,000. And I just wrote the best Long, and I talk about this in my book. But the thing is, I was really the bottom line is I was afraid to move forward. Yeah. Yeah. And there was all these things that were holding me back that I identify as the major roadblocks to growth. That was the whole inspiration behind Growth Coach International, is that you can do better with somebody to coach you to success rather than trying to do it yourself. Absolutely. Lo and behold, I spent a lot of hours in the monastery praying for help, and you know what, if I would've talked to you, Sena, you would've got me stuck in a matter of probably an hour or two. I would've had you unstuck. Absolutely. Yep. And all your way. So 10,000 growth coaches with that. And then as far as people that went to next level their, books or speaking careers, then I'd like to help at least a thousand people with that. Yeah. So what, you've said is being a high performer has always been in your blood and even you got stuck. Yep. Very, competitive. Yes. Even you got stuck. And it was not a good place. It was not a good it, I was almost I, talk about it at the lowest point in my life. I was looking at homelessness. Yeah. That's a scary, site. That's, really why I checked into my monastery. Yeah. And, my first year in the monastery, the webpages and stuff, I made$1,500 total for the year. So how do I come back to, to be able to do things that just are with this past year to two years? What's happened in my wife and i's life since we retired and these books and speaking is... wait a minute but, I have a question to ask you before you go there. I have a question. When you think about the helping the 10,000 people, what would it mean to you to actually create that? One of the highlights in my life was the day that my Yellow page career actually ended. They came in and I thought I was actually gonna get promoted, and they had the vice president of the company. They had the regional director come in and all of the sales reps, we have 60 of us in the room. And I thought I was gonna be actually be promoting to a participating manager but like profit sharing and all that. And they said we just wanna let you know you have two hours to have all your stuff and be out here. And the next day I got 27 phone calls from all of my reps asking what I was gonna do'cause they wanted to follow me. And to me that was such validation and I was so honored that they would do that. Because to me, when you're a coach and you are helping somebody to succeed, and my whole philosophy is first let's have a lot of fun and then let's make a lot of money. Because freedom is all about yes. Lessening your time burdens. Yeah. And so if you can make more money and less time, that's what it's all about. And it's all about working smarter, not harder. I'm not a big believer in hard work. I'm not. But if somebody could close two yellow page contracts by 10 o'clock, I told'em go golfing, just have fun and take your wife to, lunch or something. But to me, that, that would be the highlight to see people that hit six figures, seven figures with their, whole platforms and everything. And to, to me it's, all about taking your message to the millions. Because you think about it is one of the reasons I'll, give you a big, this is a big tip, is how my book did so well, is I actually went on to LinkedIn and I have 5,500 followers on LinkedIn. And I went in to the key marketing groups and posted that the first day my book hit number one and it was available for 99 cents, and you could pick up the number one bestselling book on, on in coaching and entrepreneurship and all this. And, but you had to act now. And that post in, in, I think it was like eight groups hit 6.5 million people. And that's how it did so well. And it hit so many categories. I, told the guy that was responsible for the categories. I said, as soon as it hits. Number one, because it, has to do like 10 to 12,000 downloads soon as it hits that, go to another category and see how many categories we can hit. That's, that's how we hit so many. And so when you take your message to millions and things happen I, talk about this in my book about like surfing is, I actually grew up in Kansas and we would go surfing on these reservoirs because the wind blows like 30 to 40 miles an hour. And you get these waves that are like a foot to two feet high, that'll carry you right into the beach. Okay. But it's a far cry from Los Angeles or San Diego where the waves are four, five feet tall. Yeah. And I, went to I, went to Maui on the North Shore. They're like 25 to 30 feet tall. So, where do you wanna go? What can you handle? How much is too much? Because Absolutely. It's unlimited out there. It truly is. It truly is. And I'm gonna ask my question again. Not answer it. You didn't answer it, but it's okay. I, love the response I got, but I want you to really allow yourself to imagine what it would be like when you've helped, the 10,000 person that you helped get unstuck or to go to the next level. It's really not the 10,000, because I figure if I can help each one of those coaches reach another a hundred people, that's a million. So it's not really the coaches it's the effect that it has with the a hundred or so that they can really help. Because you think if you're a lifer growth coach and you could grow your practice to have a hundred new clients, That's huge. And especially if they're the right fit clients. And what I do mainly on my calls is, to just qualify and make sure it's a good fit. I, would say about seven out of 10 are, not good fits. Especially with a high ticket. Yeah. But if they wanna, come in and do it yourself, but, really the high performers I, saw this when I would recruit for Yellow pages, I would ask people that were applying to work all pages, I would say what is the thing that you're the proudest of? And so I would say, oh my kids, or the fact that I was a magna cum laude or but there was this one gal that said I was a national karaoke champion. And I'll tell you, that gal just lit it up. I felt like I, as a manager, I was like water skiing behind her. And there's a lot of fallout because she was like a dynamo. But to find those people that really wanna go for it, not everybody's like that. Yeah. 5,000 a month, that's fine. And some people just wanna go from four figures to five figures. To me, it doesn't matter where you're at because it, it's all about how you wanna help people. And if you're looking to help people and it's not all about money then because I, what's the sense of being sold out to money? Because our life here on earth is, limited. Absolutely. But, our life eternal is unlimited. Absolutely. I got a couple more questions for you. My first question is, who is your hero? Who is your hero? You're doing all these things, impacting all these lives. Who's your hero? The actor that I really like is Kevin Costner. But I, just like the image of him. I like how he's a rugged guy. He's a cowboy type. If you look at my picture on my bestselling book of death of the yellow paid salesman, I actually have a cowboy hat. It's actually a real hat. I've actually, it's actually from a picture that was rendered as an artist thing. Okay. But, as far as an actual person that I, I would have to say it's Eileen Wilder and Harrison I've, learned so much from Harrison Wilder and because the thing is, they've got it dialed in, what works, and I love that if you have a formula that's guaranteed success. I, actually work in franchising for a short period of time, and I loved being in franchise sales because it's a guaranteed 95% success rate. If you follow a plan, it's just like stepping paths across a pond. But if you go it yourself and try to do it just on your own and figure out your own formula, yeah. It's a 95% failure rate. It was just so inverse. I said, is this real? And it was real. I was just like, wow. But so that's, probably my answer. Awesome. I love that because I love them too. My next question is what's a habit that you have every day that helps you maintain your level of high performance? I think it, it's I. Being intentional and it's a matter of having the right focus, that you're doing something to advance where your dreams, your goals, your desires are. And to be intentional is that I don't schedule a lot of things that are extracurricular activities. To me, I have one, maybe two days off that I do a week. That's it. But the rest of the time, I mean from nine to three, I am like all in. And to me it's all about it is that dedication. But to me, again, it's not the hard work, it's the strategy, it's the doing it smart. And it's trying to, I, I love it. I might offend some people by saying this, but I love the way Donald Trump thinks. Tell me more. He has this book that, that I read a long time ago. I, was probably like 25 years old, and it is"The Magic of Thinking Big." And he goes, the difference between a big idea and a really big idea is just the number of zeros behind it. So just add another zero or two. And you think about that. If, you're at a hundred thousand dollars level, what does it take to get to 1,000,000 million? My grandfather was a banker and when he passed away, he was worth$10 million to me. That I, would love to be able to do that, not necessarily for myself.'cause I'm retired and I only can earn like 2000 a month without I to pay 50% tax. And so to me, I can give away a lot of stuff. A lot of and, help people. And to me that's what it's all about. That's what it's all about. Helping the people. Yeah. Last unusual question. What's the last movie you saw? It wasn't Nefarious, but that was a pretty good one. Hey honey, what was the last movie we saw? This was last night. I'm terrible at this. Oh. The"Sum of All Things." That was really good. Yeah. What did you like about it? It's very much action packed. But it was the fact that there were a lot of working parts to it, and we were facing like nuclear fallout with Russia, but they were being set up by somebody inside of Russia because there was a coup and all of this drama and working parts and fast decision making and it was like high adrenaline. But the thing that was so cool about it is there was somebody that, kept their cool in the whole thing, and they really thought it through as far as what was actually happening, who was pulling strings. And they followed the leads to the point where they figured it out person that was trying to upend the whole how, where did I cut off? Okay. You said one person. Was trying to cut it all off or something and then you skipped that. That was pretty much it. It, it was one person wanted to be in control. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome sauce. Thank you for doing this and you've helped me out tremendously. How did I help you out? Because the person that I serve, the more I know how they think. The more I can be in alignment and congruent to their goals and, my client i, coach a lot of man. Okay. And I don't know what they think. Okay. I'm not ama I have to ask. What do you think about what, are you doing? So, you help me.'cause I cannot even think about what they're thinking. I don't know what they're thinking about. So, just having the conversation during the interview to see what my people think about is helpful for me to be congruent, to have rapport with my people. That's good. That's good. I, talk about that in the first book coach Unique and how the top down fighter pilot instructor said people only listen to 9% of what you say. And he says, people only listen to 9% of what you say. The other time. They're like daydreaming, thinking what they have for lunch. That you gotta take the kids you gotta pick'em up and you're thinking about all this stuff, but you're not listening to what they say. So the, key and why the Top Gun fighter pilots were is so critical was listening, but it's, understanding what's in the mind of the other pilot. Because if you're flying in formation and you're doing all these maneuvers and stuff, You wanna be on the same page. So the only, way to know is to ask the right questions so you understand how they think, how they feel, how they respond, and if you're actually working with clients, then just like you did asking the right questions is you can actually guide people with your questions to success. Yeah, absolutely. One thing Sina, I love about coaching is, the fact that more than counseling is the counselor will ask you how you feel about stuff and they ask you questions so that you'll drive the answer by yourself. But, and tell me if I'm wrong, that a life or a growth coach will tell you Paul, what I really think you need to do in this situation is you have this goal of like 10,000 people, but you really need to think about the people that are gonna reach it's the million people, not that anybody did that it's just but the compound effect is very important, right? To, look at the impact and, also when in sales the opportunity costs. If, because are you really looking at when I think of high ticket, what is it costing you not to do this? So looking at that on both sides, the pro and the cons, of what's really happening. Amen. Yeah, co coaches certainly do that. At least great coaches do that. Good coaches do that. I love it. I love it. You've helped me so much? Okay. There we are. I saw you move there. You're okay. So my challenge last year was staying in my business when I wasn't with the client. I had, my grandmother had passed away. The previous fall. My mother had some health issues and I was just really overwhelmed with it all, managing it at all, grieving my grandmother like who was like my mother. And Leading my business was not on my forefront. It was literally coaching my clients when I was with my clients. It was amazing. When I wasn't with my clients, I just gave myself permission to grieve and, to be and honor what I was feeling in the moment. So that was my biggest challenge last year. And I just gave myself permission to, be I have a successful business, I have great clients. My business has been word of mouth, and I just allow nature to just do what it does. And I didn't stress about it, but I gave myself space to grieve and to just do what I needed to do for my own inner healing so I can be very present with the people I'm serving and with my family, yeah. So how about. Next year, I'm looking forward to growing and expressing myself in, creative ways. I, by nature, I'm a creator. I'm, I used to have a photography business and used to do a lot of art painting and stuff, and I wanna incorporate that into the living of my business. And sometimes we can be very sterile in life. Things are very sterile and like this and I just think it's important to express all of who you are and allow some of that to, come into your business and'cause we can get very serious about things. So I'm looking forward to my YouTube channel. I used to interview people all the time. Like in 2017, I used to interview people constantly. And constantly doing Facebook Live, just interviewing people just like this, live on Facebook Live, just, it was like sa sation tv. And and then I stopped. And so just bringing more of that and, just like you said, having fun and making money 80% fun makes all the money in the world if you have a enjoying it. Enjoy. Yes, absolutely. So, that's what I'm looking forward to and continuing to work with my one-on-one clients. I love my one-on-one container and I do also wanna eventually do some groups because I think personal growth and development is so important and we master all these things outside of us, but nothing within us. And it's what is within us that God has already given us that will help us go to the next level. And so coming back to home and doing that personal growth and development and waking up those things that are just waiting beneath the surface for the next level of our life. And I'm 52, so what's next? And, I think those things take us to the next level'cause it's a new season. So I'm looking forward to experiencing that within myself and in my business as well. That's cool. That's cool. 52 is such a great age. All, the ages are great ages. I'll tell you right now though, for you, the next 15 years are gonna be just some of the best. Because you have such good traction and you have good knowledge. And you have good connections. But tell me, I'm really curious about how you got the inspiration for your title, for your podcast, not your average high performer. So actually I, so I had another idea to make it like the what was the other idea? It was the Happy Performers podcast or something like that. And I thought that was very Mary Popin and I love Mary Poppins. I have nothing against Mary Poppins but, when you are a coach or you are a high performer, or trying to go to the next level, you're going to encounter adversity. Adversity is a given. And so I'm, a little Muhammad Ali, like when I'm coaching my clients when I'm in my one-on-one container. And like Muhammad Ali said I'm the greatest. He, said it before anybody else said it, so said, having the identity and the self authority to own and claim and take agency over your power to create what you want in your life that's what separates performers and the ones that are not your average when because we're always performing, but what's the difference maker? Like what, what will be the difference maker so, I was just sports is such a great analogy because you've got your high performers and then you have your not so average high performers like, like you think Dennis Rodman, he is not your average high performer, but he was like the rebounding champion. I mean there was nobody better at rebounding than Dennis Rodman. But, and then you look at like LeBron James and Michael Jordan, I mean they were not your average and Kobe Bryant, Rena Williams and there's so many good examples of not your average high performer, but there's so many high performers. If you're in the b a, you a high performer. Yeah. Yeah. Every basketball middle school, grade school, high school dream to be in the N B a to be a high performer. But for those that are like the Muhammad Al Ali the, Michael Jordans, the LeBron James, they wanted to be not your average high performer. They wanted to be like the best. And there's, a desire, there's a drive within, and it, does it, not everybody has it, but there's just something that, that drives people. That's I don't know what it is but I, can remember when I was racing cars and I wanted to do well with it and ended up, I won nationals in car racing. Never done it before. Wow. How did I, do that? Tell me, how did you do it? You figure out a way to win. Yes. You learned the rules. Master the rules. Yep. To get to nationals, I had to beat a guy that had a faster car than me. And I knew that there was this one corner that if I took out a cone, it was a two second penalty, but I thought I would gain more than two seconds by taking it out. And so I just took it out and I ended up like four seconds ahead of him and he goes, you cheated. I said, no, I didn't. It was a very calculated move. I took out that two second coat, so I'd win. Absolutely. Absolutely. Man. I love that. Absolutely. That's playing the game. You have to use the cards that you've been dealt with to your maximum to the maximum. And praise God, you have con we set up cones on on airports and it was it, was just it's SS e c a, which is Sports Car Club of America. Oh, okay. So it's fun. I love that. Fun. That's so fun. I, think that with, a lot of the online and entrepreneurship is you have your, people that are like leaders in certain segments. But to me, the pinnacle is to become a thought leader. And you think about who are the thought leaders in our industry, you think about Russell Brunson, right? Yeah. I was actually working for the publisher that was the publisher that published my book when he published his first book. Oh really? Yeah. It was back in 2015, 16, right there. And it was his first book and it came out and then he launched from there. Take what he said in his book to launch click funnels. And so to see how, where he started and how he became a thought leader, it's so huge. And there's, so many good examples of, thought leaders that, you know, and you, probably coach a few. Yeah. And, the thing is, I think when it comes to thought leadership, I think a lot of people, a lot the, people who really put their thoughts out there and own their thought leadership, they understand that there's nothing new under the sun. It's just the person that claims their territory. And it's important because I said it and, when, some of my clients I coach, they are ruthless entrepreneurs. I, love how using that term, together, they are ruthless entrepreneurs. They. Know what they know, and they are ruthless about it. They, are intense like gazelle intensity about entrepreneurship. And I think part of that is what separates high performers. When, you are that intense about something, when you are very focused and you know the ground that you cover. Like you're not trying to cover all the tear. You like, this is my thing and I'm the number one at this, or I'm one of the greats I can, I'm one of the greats. But owning that authority and, owning what you know and owning the talents that, are within you, I think that's powerful And just and when you do that, you can be almost homeless and end up anywhere if you just own your little territory, your little. On the game of Monopoly, you just own your block and, say, Hey, it's valuable because I said it was like, because I'm doing this. It's the belief and the intention and that self-leadership that comes with that makes your product what it is,'cause there are a lot of products but, not all of them have the same leader or the intention behind them. And it's the why that's behind the product that makes the product what it is. I think so. Amen. I, think it's, hard to, differentiate yourself from the whole crowd. And one of the things that, that I tried to do it was funny because my book went through quite a few edits because I'm not a writer, I'm a storyteller. And so I would submit like a quote of mine. And I was very careful about not to research my book about coming up with content. And I actually wrote my book before ai, so it's probably why it took so long. But a lot of the quotes I have were quotes that I came up with. And so when I was actually putting it in, I was putting quotation marks around all my quotes, and he said, why are you doing this? And I said, because it's my quote. He said, it's your book. You don't need to quote yourself. Yeah. I said, can we at least put it in, in italics because it's really good. And when I actually went to research it I, would put in the quote, I never saw it, so I just wanna make sure I wasn't plagiarized something with my own creativity. But even the title for my book, death of a Yellow Page Salesman, is one morning I woke up in the book, I was actually gonna name it momentum Marketing is what I was gonna name it. And death of a Yellow Page Salesman was something that just one day it was like a download from the father. And I'm going like, wow. And I asked my author, coach, I said, what do you think about this title? And he goes, it's genius. And I went, okay God knows. And but I'd never read the book, death of A Salesman By Arthur Miller. And it was a hugely popular play back in 1940 when he wrote it. And it's a tragedy. I'm thinking, do I wanna turn this book into a tragedy? I'm thinking it is a comeback story. And so having not read it, he goes, why don't you do a comparison between your story? And with Willie Lowman, who's the character of, the contrasting similarities and then the contrasting, because it's a comeback story with actually a good inning where it doesn't have a salesman, wasn't necessarily a good inning. So I'd say I don't want to end up like Willie Lowman in this situation. Absolutely. But, the comeback to what you just said about but that plagiarize them or using other people's words. Have you, this is quite interesting. I've been thinking about this a lot because something that I used to say in my coaching sessions a lot is this and that The casket is a one. See, And lo and behold, I had a client who's franchising his company and they went and they were talking to somebody and that person said, the casket is a one seater. And she comes back to me and she's oh. They said, It's been a book somewhere. I was like, no, I just came up with that off the top of my head. And perhaps that person did too. I don't know what prompted them to say it but, I've noticed some. Do you ever wonder if the things that come to us or, why things that come to us may come to another person as well? Have you ever thought about that or experienced that? Have I have one of my favorite shows, shark. And how you have all this innovation and all these things that people have done. And then they'll come up with something and then you'll hear somebody say, oh, I thought of that. And there's also a verse, I think it's in Ecsi Ecclesiastes, that says There's nothing new under the sun. Yeah. And I've heard this. Is that any, at any one time, an original idea is actually thought about by 10,000 people. So the only way to protect it is to trademark it. Yeah. Yeah. 50 bucks, you trademark it. But the thing is you also have to enforce it or protect it. Yeah. Which means have an attorney and the whole thing. You can send out a cease and desist letter. It's just like my skyrocket to success. Nobody's using that. It's one of the reasons why I chose it. And that's why I also protected the skyrocket, the number two success and then the skyrocket to success. Yeah. So however you do it I didn't do t w o because that didn't make sense, but yeah. But then the, registering, the trademark is an important step in that process to, to not just have the.com but also'cause somebody could register that trademark and send me a cease and des list and I'd have to take my.com down. Calm down. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. One of the things is that once you publish your book is people read it and then you get feedback from it. And I had several people like one guy I didn't know at all I met him, it was at Christmas Eve service and he was 84 years old and he was sharing about his life that he was really having a hard time and his wife had passed a year ago and he just wasn't recovering from it. I said his name was Curtis. I said, Curtis, I'd like to give you my book and when you get done with it, call me and let's talk. Next day at three o'clock he calls me and he goes, I'm done with your book. And he goes, it meant so much to me. And I said, let's get together. And so we talked for four hours and I asked him, and I had all this feedback of somebody that just read my book and he goes, I love the part in your book, the middle of the book that talks about going from empty to full. Because I, divided all these stories up into three parts, and the first part is going from lost to found because I was lost in my life. And how did I get back to where I had some semblance of order when I ended up in the monastery, right? And then the middle part is where I'm trying to like add fuel back into the tank, be a productive citizen again. And he loved that part. And that feedback was good. Another guy personal friend I know I've known for 50 years, he was in a bad place in his life just, not a good place. I gave it to him and he read it and he goes, Paul, your book changed my life. And I said, really? I said, what was it? And he goes, it was all the stories and all the quotes. He goes, it was just so original. And he goes, I loved how you, just contrasted Willie Lowman's life and how I so identify with where you are at and where I'm at right now. And I thought that's the key. Is, when you can, as a author or a speaker, help to identify with where they're at in that bad place. Where they, wanna because the, they're not gonna identify with a Grant Cardone that's talking about that. He wants to add another zero behind his 500 million zillion net worth. It's, tell me how, do you get out of the trenches? How do you get out of the war zone? How do you, feel like Absolutely. You're, you've got something to give because when you feel like you have nothing to give, that's not a good place. It's absolutely, it is not a good place. It's and, people are hurting and people want solutions. When, you're in that place, it's hard to believe when you're in that place. It's very hard to believe. And, it sounds like that's why your book is trans transform, transforming lives, because haven't read it yet, I've gotta read it, but obviously you illuminate the situation so they can believe because without beliefs they, form and shape all of our decisions and they fuel us And, for me personally, when I was in that place, it was my beliefs that held me. It was, I held onto the belief that wait a minute, I believe God. I believe God. I don't know what's happening to me, but I believe God. And so I gotta figure this out. I gotta figure it out. I kept me doing too, and it's really kinda what led me to the monastery. Yeah. But one of the things that I thought was key was understanding is trying to figure out I did so well in the past and why am I struggling so much now? Absolutely. And then the things that I overcame in the past, but I couldn't seem to overcome now. Absolutely. And how do you break free from fear? How do you overcome fear when you've been so good at, overcoming fear in your past life, but now it seems and how do you overcome being abandoned and where you're in a marriage and all of a sudden they up and leave? No reason, no explanation. And you get an email two months later saying they're done. And where your bank account was big before, but now it's nothing. And I think the, biggest realization for me, I'm gonna just give you everything right in a box right here, is this is a gift to you. Is that when you understand the difference between being a victim and a victor, it's two different mindsets. Oh, absolutely. And unless you're willing to let go of the victim mindset, you'll never be a victor. Absolutely. And you know what, Paul? I was a mom the first time when I was 16. And in the moment that I realized I was pregnant, I was 15 Lord at Mercy. And in that moment I remember sitting there and I was crying. I was so upset. And I was like, I was gonna go to Harvard and Yale and now I gotta go to some crummy community college. I was thinking about all these things. And then I finally realized, and I said this out loud to myself, I said we can't cry or spill milk. And immediately I planned this whole strategy and graduated with honors, went to college, all the things. My son is now almost 36, and I have two younger ones who are almost 12 and 13. But but in that moment, I decided I never have, I been at the mercy of life. I've always been part of abundance. And in that moment I said not going to college is not an option. You just gotta go to college. But the baby, whatever you were gonna do before, you just have to do it with a baby. So obviously it's gonna turn out just fine because this was already your plan. I, truly embodied that, of course, because I created that. But but at no point did I ever make myself a victim to my circumstances. At no point. But there's a point though, that you were at, that's a scary place to be. And that scary place is oh my God, what am I gonna do now? And that sense of doubt that you have, because that's, what people are going through right now, is they're not sure what to do. They're up against the wall. They may have bills coming in that they don't have enough money. And I'll tell you, you have to be a really good money manager when you don't have enough, when you have all kinds of money, it's no big deal to be a a good money manager. Yes, absolutely. You've got like,$1,500 worth of bills and only 1200 coming in. Then you gotta figure out a way to produce that extra 300 bucks. But the thing is, that anytime that you communicate with your audience, whether it's writing a book or speaking to'em, you speak to that place, that's that vulnerable place. Michelle, in our speaking group I, remember her or, actually it was Karen, Was talking about the fact that her husband got injured and he was the sole breadwinner and she took care of horses and raised horses and, but all of a sudden she was looking, she had to become the entrepreneur in the family. And it was like six months of okay we're, gonna do this. And, but there's that, that six months, that's an incredibly trying time where there's a lot of self-doubt. And there's a lot of, things that can I do this? Yeah. Yeah. And it's, we always talk about the su the success in rising up and above it but it's also I think the, thrill of victory is how you actually drug through the trenches to do it. It is not always getting through the finish line. It's the race. It's the pain of that 26 mile that you're just not sure if you can take another step, yeah. It's, that decision you make in the moment when you're most doubtful, right? And maybe you stopped along the sideline and quit for five minutes. You, I just can't do it. I can't. And have a temper tantrum. And have a temper tantrum. Yeah. Motivate absolute to come back. And part of the process though, I really believe it because, When we get to the end, it's worth it because we did pull over on the side of the road. We, remember all those times when we did wanna quit, when we did wanna give up, when we didn't think it was possible. When, we didn't know how we were gonna feed ourselves. All, to me, those moments enrich our lives. That's when you really know what you're made out of. I'm getting emotional just thinking about it, but that's when you really know what that if it was really easy, we wouldn't need any life or growth coaches. Yeah. We just do it ourselves and life would be pretty boring. Can, you imagine if we were happy all the time, the brain would just it's like eating ice cream all day long, all the time. Who wants that? Your dentist? That's the gospel truth. But even we would get sick of it. We would be like, oh, I need some cornbread and buttermilk or something, yep. Or some pizza. Yeah. Or some pizza. Yeah. Yeah. It's that struggle. It's that struggle. I just heard something yesterday. Is that a lobster Actually the, cup the, encased, their body is so hard that it's smaller than their actually body. Their body grows and so they actually are forced to go down in the rocks and they actually change they, sli her outta their body like three times. But it's that struggle that produces some of the good flavor and what really makes it so delicious. And if they never had a struggle, then it end up being like tasting, like flounder, so if you want the difference between lobster and flounder, then you look at the struggle in your life. So if you're looking for Main Lobster and another nice delicious steak to go with it, then that's called next level where coaching next level to that, that good place that you wanna be. Absolutely. Amen to that. Amen. Coaching is a game changer. It can be, yeah. If you let it absolutely. If you let it. If you have you ever experienced a client being resistant and not allowing it to happen? Yeah. And a lot of it comes down to self-belief, and I found this a lot with the sales reps I dealt with, is when they convinced themselves that they're not that's not them, is they're not a yellow page salesman or they're not a growth coach, or they're not an entrepreneur, or they just need to be a teacher or they need to drive a school bus or something. It's just too intense for them. Yeah. That but it really comes down to the belief of yourself. Yeah. And when you actually believe and desire it. One of the, one of the verses in the Bible that completely changed my, whole trajectory in life and really got me on the road back indefinitely salesman, I quoted in my book, it's Psalm 37 4, and it says, delight thyself for the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart. So it's first delight, die. And but because it's all about him, life is all about him. Eternity is all about him. But for me, I had desires. I knew that being in the monastery, I desire companionship. And my love language is touch. And you don't get that in the monastery. At least you don't want that type attention. But so when I got out, I met my wife within six weeks. And you know what? We just hit it off. It was just like right place, right time. And I was looking for three things. I was looking for somebody that was compatible. We liked the same things, the food, the movies and all that. The communication was. The second thing that was key is just could we talk and really just click. And then the third thing was commitment. Was she ready? Is it gonna take three years or is it gonna take five years, or because I, thought it should happen in a year. If it's the right person. You don't need time. I got married in five months, so Yep. When that's it. And, you're still married to him. Yes. Yes. Some things are just meant to be, so what happened and when you were 15 years old was providential. God knew. God knew that love would last and it would sustain you for the rest of your life. Yes. And if I could just speak word into you, Serena is as that, that sustaining love that you have, you give to others because that, love is the bedrock of your soul. Thank you. Yeah. You, think about your subconscious and how it dictates about 90% of what, 98% of what you do is Yeah. That bed bedrock of love, that sustaining love that you have, it's not only helped your life, but all your clients too. Yes. Thank you. I, believe that 1000%, and in that moment I felt like God loves me. I never felt separated from him or, from what was gonna happen for me, so thank you so much. What a great time. Thank you so much. Thank you, Paul. I love our conversations. You have the best spirit. Oh, praise God. Because couldn't do without him. Yeah. He, takes care of us all and hooked you up with the bestest. She's wonderful. And one of the things, the recording has stopped, one of the things I wanted to tell people with my book is how much of an inspiration God can be in our life. And there's some stories I tell on the end of the book that are just like, so key. I'm going to get my copy'cause I haven't did it yet, all the things, but I know it's gonna be yummy. I'm gonna go and download it today. I'll tell you what, if you download it, it's only 2 99. And when you get done with it, send me a message of what spoke to you and then I'll send you an autograph Copy. You got it. Deal. That means you gotta read it and then give me some feedback. I definitely will. I, and my pleasure. It's on down line. If it's on Amazon, that's great. But yeah. I, it my pleasure. To me it's more personal about what spoke to you. I definitely will do that. Thank you so much. My pleasure. I been at Harrison in, 10 minutes. I can't wait. Alright. This about the website. Yes. Yes. It's our last, time. I'm so excited every, everything's pretty much together and I just need to see how he did something and it'll be perfect. This'll be great. So I can't wait to see when you get yours moved over. And who knows, maybe I'll move mine over too. Who knows? But I'm gonna try it. Don't tell them I'm doing that. Don't tell them I'm doing that. Here's something I do, Paul. I don't tell anybody else's business. My life, is so simple when I stay in my lane. So I would never, tell him. It's not even none of his business what you do. And it's not my business to be a messenger. Yeah, yeah. I, stay right here in my little lane. So one, one thing that if you could pray about is that they're, talking to me right now, Harrison and Eileen, about being a chapter leader in the Million Dollar MA Mastermind. So that's something that's currently going. And with the speaking goal, we had four at one point. Now I'm the only one. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting to see what's happening with that is that it seems like they're drawing me more in, and the thing with Jackie she's just so phenomenal. Yeah. You're part of you're, part of the Million Dollar Mastermind. No, I'm not in there. I'm not in there million. It's and the thing is, that they, kind set it up to where all the virtual and all that, it's dialed in for you. So it's$2,000. And they, do a, one-on they do a group session every other week. But the behind the scenes is pretty good. I'll, it's 2000 a month? No, it's 2000 total. Okay. And I think it's for six months you get speaking school for six months and which 300 times six is what, or yeah, three times six would be 18. I dunno how they keep all these offers straight. It'll drive me crazy, of course I'm, mistaken too. They did a million dollar thing with Russell Brunson and you remember right after we did the Two Comma Kit and there's all this flurry of all these classes and stuff. I think they're trying to raise a million. That's just, this is my own thoughts. So are you gonna do it the Million Dollar Mastermind? Yeah, I've already done it. Oh good. So you're gonna be a group leader in it. It depends. They're, thinking about it right now. Okay. So that's awesome. You are a great leader. And so this is, they posed the question to me. They said, would you wanna be like an affiliate where you send people a link, they sign up to get a percentage, or would you act actually, like to private label it to where you do all the instruction, you take the content and then coach people through it? So I'd be interested in your thoughts on that. Doesn't have to be right now, but you can think about it. Yeah, I'll think about it. And, you think about it because you, have a lot of assets and so yeah, we can talk about it. I'll be happy to share. Thank you!