Capability Amplifier

The last three months have been unprecedented and unsettling to say the least, wouldn’t you agree? The entire world has changed FOREVER in almost every imaginable way in just the blink of an eye.  But rather than freaking out, wouldn’t it be amazing if you could embrace the changes and use them to benefit and improve, not only your personal life but your business as well? Think about it... people’s values and habits have changed. How is that going to affect the economy, business, buying behaviors, the value of talent, and other things? It’s truly extraordinary.  Dan Sullivan and I really dig in on this podcast to talk about the importance of virtualizing, digitizing, and dematerializing our businesses, and how the ones that DON’T are already on the mass extinction list.  Let’s start with Dan’s business, Strategic Coach, which has traditionally been an “in-person” experience (for over 30 years). In a matter of a few days, he took the entire operation VIRTUAL and IT WORKS. It was a really big deal, but he and his team put their noses to the grindstone and made it happen.  They conducted their first Zoom mini-workshop and it was a huge success. Since then, they’ve done 100 more Zoom workshops and, recently, for the first time, they had their first sales presentation on Zoom to fill their London UK workshops. So far, so good! The funny thing is, if you would have talked to his clients three months ago and said, “Hey, would you accept Strategic Coach as a virtual event?” a lot of them would have said, “No way! There isn’t the same level of value or intimacy and connection.” There are lots of members that I know personally that thought their businesses were completely over because they were 100% dependent on live events to get new customers. But ... they sucked it up, they virtualized their businesses, and guess what! Their “show up” rates have been higher, their conversion rates have been about the same or better, and the intimacy level in the perception of connection has, in fact, been higher as well.  Bottom line: more income, less work, fewer expenses, no travel, and MORE INTIMACY AND CONNECTION! I’ve been doing this for years; I flat out refuse to have enrollment or sales conversations unless we do a Zoom call. The reason for that is I demand to own the eyeballs, the fingers, and the ears of anyone I’m talking to. I don’t accept multitasking. If I can hear someone ruffling around with papers while we’re on a phone call, I simply end the conversation and say, “If this is the way you treat important things in your life, then we are not a match.” It’s a matter of how you value someone’s time and attention. I’m in the business of ruthlessly eliminating chaos, overwhelm, and low-frequency and low-quality relationships. Dan and I agree that the face of business has completely changed forever. Time and distance are no longer an issue, and we’re able to get an enormous amount of stuff done. We believe business has made five years of change in about three months.   

I Interview My Wife And Biggest Capability Amplifier Real talk: right now, life seems unpredictable, uncertain, and uneasy for a lot of people. In our current COVID-19 world, we’re dealing with things that none of us have ever dealt with before.But what’s coming next? How do we prepare? How are we going to cope, stay sane, and move forward?This week’s Capability Amplifier podcast is a very special one for me. I sat down with my wife, Vivian Glyck, as we celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary in the mountains of Idyllwild, CA, to talk about family, our son, our future together, our dreams, dealing with conflict, and life after COVID. Vivian and I are both in an interesting state of reinvention and transformation right now, as I suspect most of you are with the virtualization, digitization, and dematerialization that’s going on. (Vivian, specifically, is in a really fascinating turning point in her life and career.) On top of this, our son, Zak, just graduated from high school in the midst of COVID, which meant no ceremony or celebration. Weird. AND we had our first real confrontation as father and son. I had to get really, really firm to establish whose house this is and what behaviors are acceptable in our home. That was a really big deal for us. Vivian has run a non-profit, philanthropic organization for 14 years called the Just Like My Child Foundation. It was founded after the birth of our son, Zak, and two subsequent miscarriages (the whole story is in the interview).  She was so passionate about the potential of children that she thought, “How could it be that there are children who are just like my child that live or die based on where they’re born in the world?”  As she educated herself about the health and well being of children around the world, one thing led to another and she ended up in Uganda, East Africa. The very first night she was there, she watched a 14-year-old girl die in childbirth at a hospital. The girl left behind a very vulnerable infant baby girl, who was named Baby Christina, in the care of the baby’s grandmother who was also vulnerable, uneducated, and didn’t have the means to care for her.Fast forward. Just Like My Child Foundation did a lot of work to build hospitals, schools, and so on, and very quickly realized that nothing would change unless they interceded in the life of an adolescent girl before she fell off track and was forced into child marriage like that baby’s mother was. As her knowledge about international development grew, she realized that there are 100 million girls who are out of school like Baby Christina’s mother was.  Thus, the Girl Power Project® was born. The Girl Power Project is a replicable program that has been scientifically proven to change the belief system that girls have about themselves and enables them to get the community support they need to stay in school, have their legal rights enforced, and become leaders in their world. It’s an empowerment training program that takes place over a two-year period.  Vivian has been able to reach well over 20,000 kids and 200,000 community members. Just Like My Child has saved thousands and thousands of lives. But what they’re focused on now is how to take this work global so that every girl in the world has access to this information in a way that has massive impact and transformation.  And let’s face it. If more women were involved in leadership, what we’re seeing now in the way this pandemic and worldwide health issue is going down, the response, plan, and solution would be very, very different.

In the very first episode that started it all, Dan Sullivan and Mike Koenigs set out to help you expand your business and your personal life, and provide helpful tips, ideas, and strategies with examples to get you there. Every human being has a natural desire to increase their capability, however possible. As someone increases their skills over time, they don’t always perceive their own value as having increased as much as their customers’ perception of their value has. The truth is, if you double your prices and get better customers, you’ll have more time to think, create, and manifest. A worldwide survey showed that when organized by profitability, the bottom 80% of customers that accounting firms worked with were actually costing the firms money to work with them. By dropping the bottom 80% of your clients, you not only free yourself from something unprofitable and uninteresting, it also lets you jump into bigger opportunities and play a bigger game. Looking at your most profitable clients, figure out what activities you love doing most and if there could be a business in doing only that. This formula can be applied to anything. So ask questions that reveal what someone is interested in and passionate about and, more importantly, what they see value in and where there’s a history of repeated value. In any capital-intensive, evolutionary, entrepreneurial business, you’ll either outgrow your customers or your customers will outgrow you. You have to decide to elevate, escalate, and evolve on an ongoing basis. If you admire someone else’s growth, and they reciprocate, the relationship will last forever.

Welcome to Part 2 of my interview with the incomparable Dean Jackson. During this episode, we discuss removing your mental blocks in order to get more quality referrals without feeling gross about how you got them.  We show you how to build an army of referral partners and grow customer relationships, and we provide lots of tips and strategies that Dean has never shared before. Let’s get into it!  Dean has been fascinated by referrals for a very long time, and it’s something he’s spent many years studying. He sees the practical applications of “how to orchestrate referrals.”  Through his study, Dean figured out that “the reason that people often don’t get as many referrals as they could is because they have a mental block about asking for them.”  They think that’s what they’re doing. They’re actually asking for referrals, and as soon as you say that, you’ve automatically put it in the category of “somebody is doing a favor for you.”  But that’s not at all what’s happening. That’s not why people refer.   A lot of times, people who are business owners or service people feel reluctant to ask for or even bring up referrals because it feels like showing weakness or it feels like they’re saying, “I can’t get business on my own and I need you to help me,” so they block themselves.  Let’s clear up this misconception right now. The reason that people refer anything is not as a favor to you, but as a favor to their friend. They want their friend to have the result or the experience that they had. And the only way they’ll do that is if they feel that you are definitely going to make them look good because what they want out of it is to feel good. And how they feel good is when they recommend something to somebody and are acknowledged later for having recommended it.   There’s no difference between this and the way we recommend books, restaurants, and movies. We are social creatures. We’re genetically wired and predisposed to share good things with our “tribe.” It goes back to our tribal instincts, and the reason we formed a society was so that we could pool together for raising the quality of life and the productivity of the whole group—everybody using their strengths and what they’re good at for the benefit of everybody.   There’s a motivation that Dean calls the secret psychology of why people refer. It’s that moment when I recommend something to you that you have never heard of, and it brings value to you and you acknowledge that value. What happens is, for that moment, I am now at a higher status in the tribe than you are. It raises my status right away because I’m bringing value.   If I’m a taker, I’m not bringing value; I’m not contributing anything new and that puts my position in the tribe in jeopardy. We’re wired to continually add value among our friends and closest people. We want to do that.   Now, we need to look at the mechanics of how referrals actually happen to bring it down to something actionable. What Dean has discovered is that all referrals happen as a result of conversation, and in those conversations, three things have to happen.   First, the person needs to notice that the conversation is about your category of business. Second, they have to think about you. And third, they have to introduce you to the person they had the conversation with. These three things all have to fire in order for a referral to take place.   For example, Dean used to do big real estate seminars all over the country and had the opportunity to do live testing. He would ask 10 people to stand up and tell the story of the last referral they got. A typical scenario and response would look like this: “I got a call from Joan who said that she was friends with my client Bill,

It’s no secret that the world is changing rapidly, requiring us to adapt and pivot in ALL areas of life, especially if you’re an entrepreneur or business owner. Virtualizing your business is more important now than ever before. What does it take to transition your business and teams to work remotely and efficiently? How do you reframe your offers in a way that you can deliver without coming into direct, physical contact?  RIGHT NOW could be the greatest opportunity you and your business have ever seen. Chaos and confusion can translate into establishing your leadership, creativity, and innovation skills that your clients and customers will remember you for in the decades to come.  My guest on the show this week, Dean Jackson, is excited about what we’re seeing right now AND what the future holds for business and marketing.  Dean fell in love with marketing as a young boy when he first realized that selling stuff on commission was way easier than renting himself out by the hour for a regular job. He’s carried his distaste for real work into his adult life and has focused on a lifestyle-centered approach to business with marketing as the ultimate lever to a life of freedom and fun.  Right now, he’s excited about what he’s calling “the great migration to the cloud” and the concept of virtual gatherings. We were forced into it with the COVID situation and this is the by-product.  The silver lining is we’ve become a virtual gathering-enabled and -accustomed population.  Not the leading-edge businesses, coaches, or online marketers that have traditionally been online and used to meeting like this. Instead, you’re going to see now, on the backs of the kids having to be equipped for virtual schooling, hundreds of millions of households in the United States are overnight equipped for virtual gathering.  Parents may have never been exposed to it, but because of the kids, every household in America has a computer, a webcam, and the ability to access Zoom, Skype, or some other online visioning tool.  You don’t have to be tech-savvy these days. Kids are Zoom chatting with their grandparents. Families and friends are gathering virtually, and most are AMAZED at the quality of the video and audio. So much so that they’re realizing there’s an intimacy you can achieve in the absence of being able to be with someone in person that’s almost equal.  Of course there’s a fear that we’re going to lose our intimacy without actual, physical contact, but the truth is that when you’re doing larger virtual meetings where there are 60 people, you can have a direct one-on-one relationship with each person simultaneously through chat and so the intimacy in the side conversations increases.  Another silver lining moment that I wasn’t expecting to come from the current situation happened a few weeks ago. A bunch of my wife’s and my friends, including JJ Virgin, who usually go to Burning Man every year decided to do a virtual music night. We had a virtual DJ and all danced together from our iPads and TVs. It was a total BLAST! Even my 17-year-old son was completely captivated and had a great time.  From that dance party, a few fundraisers have developed, supporting several charities, including Native Americans and people working in the bar industry. Nothing I planned, but something I’m super proud to be able to do.  Dean and I feel that people are going to find that this is a superior experience without having to deal with things like traveling, especially when the information can be conveyed in a great way.  What’s going to come out of this is the creativity in generating a ton of new experiences, like what a lot of musicians are doing right now.

What business are you in? What do people call you? How do you introduce yourself? How many competitors do you have? If you don't have competitors, you’re what I call a “Category of One” brand.  How many people today would you consider to be a “Category Of One”?  Oprah? Elon Musk? Warren Buffett? Richard Branson?  I consider myself and my co-host, Dan Sullivan, to be a “Category Of One” because for the past 30 years, we have both been in the business of making dreams come true—for ourselves, our employees, our families, and our clients—and it’s something we’re both very passionate about.  It’s like this ... if someone asked me to create the perfect profession for myself, it is and always has been to make dreams come true.   In this episode, Dan and I dive into how we are able to accomplish making dreams come true for our clients. Bottom line is that we’re both in the same business but have different methodologies.  We’ll cover a few client case studies, including:   * Charlie Epstein, a mutual client who had been in the finance business all his life, who we helped turn his dream of performing stand-up comedy into a moneymaking, fulfilling reality. He “makes money funny” with a one-man show called “Yield of Dreams.” * Brett Kaufman, a very successful real estate developer and visionary, who we helped figure out the best messaging, launch a podcast, and decide on a platform for his greatest creation to date, The Gravity Project (an incredible live/work lifestyle facility that has affordable housing). * Both are in a “Category of One.” * Dan started Strategic Coach® because he was a horrible student who barely passed high school. He was incapable of staying awake in a classroom environment. He needed to TEACH in order to stay awake, or be really engaged with activities. * Thus, Strategic Coach was born—a place where performance is appreciated and the lesson materials are about YOU. You never get bored with yourself, right? It’s everyone’s favorite subject. * Dan created structures and processes so that everyone is able to amplify their Unique Ability® and have a community where they feel “normal.”   In our experience, most entrepreneurs feel like misfits, outsiders, or aliens because of their unique way of thinking, processing information, and just being in the world. Both Dan and I have been there, and it’s not fun. To have a place where you feel understood, welcome, and appreciated is life-changing, and that’s why we both do what we do. We’re thinking about starting a school called ALIEN UNIVERSITY! What do you think?   * True freedom is what most people say they want, but freedom is only created from the inside out. It takes A LOT of courage to be who you imagine you want to be and block out the people telling you that you can’t. * In order to lead a whole future, you have to start with a whole present, and you can’t do that if you have a half past. You have to go back and complete the unfinished business from the past before you will have confidence to create an entirely new future.  

There is no denying it. We are living in a world where we are inundated all day long with horrific news of the global pandemic and economic crash, and it’s unclear when it will end or how quickly we will recover. Needless to say, we are all navigating some pretty overwhelming emotions, so in light of the current situation, I wanted to send you a ray of sunshine, POSSIBILITY, and HOPE. My friend of more than 20 years and guest on the show this week is Arielle Ford. She’s known as “The Cupid of Consciousness” and “The Fairy Godmother of Love.”  She also represented Deepak Chopra and launched the careers of 11 New York Times #1 Bestselling Authors (when you actually had to sell books for real), including Wayne Dyer, Jack Canfield, Louise Hay (founder of Hay House), Don Miguel Ruiz, Neale Donald Walsch, her sister, the late Debbie Ford, and many more. For years, she was “the gateway” to get on Oprah.  Arielle is a leading personality in the personal growth and contemporary spirituality movement. For the past 30 years, she has been living, teaching, and promoting consciousness through all forms of media. She is a celebrated love and relationship expert, author, and speaker.  She’s also a gifted writer and the author of 11 books, including the international bestseller THE SOULMATE SECRET: Manifest The Love of Your Life With The Law of Attraction (published in 21 languages and 40 countries).  Arielle and I have been “career soul mates,” cheering each other on and supporting each other through every major reinvention in our lives. We’ve been in almost perfect sync for over 20 years. When one of us goes through a major reinvention, within six months, the other does too. It’s weird AND awesome at the same time!  Here are a few of Arielle’s many reinventions. How many of these mirror your own?  In 1987, she started her own PR firm, the Ford group, focusing on commercial real estate, residential real estate, art galleries, hotels, and non-profits. The business took off from the moment she opened the doors. She was hugely successful, making gobs of money. That lasted for three and a half years until a recession hit.  In the span of six weeks, she lost 80% of her business and it didn't look like it was coming back. In two months, she went from 4,000 square feet of office space on Wilshire Boulevard and eight full-time employees to a small 250-square-foot closet office with a half-time employee and a ton of credit card debt. She was depressed, her boyfriend dumped her, and she hit rock bottom.  But it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to her because during this time, she discovered that she hated her clients. She was only in it for the money, and she didn’t want to reinvent that business. Boom. Done.  So what now? She was lost, asking, “Who am I? What do I do? What's my purpose?” She struggled for seven or eight months until she went to lunch with a friend who asked, “If you could represent anybody or anything, who would it be?”  She said, “There's this guy. I'm sure you've never heard of him. He's pretty unknown, but I think he's the best-kept secret in America. His name is Deepak Chopra.” Her friend said, “Not only do I know who he is, my friend Penny works for him!” Later that day, Penny called and said, “This is so funny. Dr. Chopra called this morning and asked me if I could find him a publicist. And here you are!”  A week later, they met. Deepak said, “I've only got five minutes,” and she said, “Great. I only need two.” Then she said, “If you're half as smart as I think you are, you'll hire me,” and he said DEAL.  Suddenly, she was on this new path because her next client was Louise Hay, then Wayne Dyer, then Neale Donald Walsch, then Don Miguel Ruiz.

I know. Crazy times. This episode is really special. We know these are challenging times, and if you or your business isn’t doing well, it’s going to be extremely relevant.  How are you using or spending your time right now?  Amplifying anything requires amplifying time, and one of the things that amplifies time is getting VERY comfortable with what you do. But the moment you think to yourself, “I don’t want any more risk or fear in my life,” a message goes up to the universe and they put you on the list for pickups.   On this show, Dan Sullivan and I focus on the importance of fear, courage, and commitment in your business and life in general, especially in uncertain times like we’re experiencing now.  I recently read a statistic from Harvard Business Review about men in particular. It said that if they retire at around age 50 and they’re not back in the game within 18 months, their chances of succeeding ever again go down into the single digits.   What I believe is that without enough tension, hunger, and fear, your courage disappears. When you’re comfortable without anything to do, sitting around and not taking risks, your courage dissolves. You almost need to have fear on your side to amplify your courage.   Dan relates courage to goal setting. Lots of people have goals, but they’ve got the process of how you achieve goals backwards. Ninety percent of people say, “I can’t achieve that goal yet because I don’t have the confidence to do it.”   Confidence is a result of doing the thing you think you cannot do, and it’s the process of achieving the goal that gives you capability. You have to start BEFORE you actually have the confidence or capability. You have to take a risk when you’re not guaranteed up front you’re actually going to pull it off. That’s when FEAR pops us and wakes up the whole system.   How do you do that? You make a commitment. Whatever you have to change or go through to make the commitment to get to your goal is what you need to do. Is it scary? You bet. This is where courage is required.   Courage is a skill that grows through practice. It’s like a muscle you have to work out. There WILL be a resistance that’s going to scare you because you don’t YET have the confidence and capabilities, but if you commit to being amplified, even though you’re not sure how that’s actually going to happen, you’ll reap the rewards in the end.  Okay, I’m gonna get a little metaphysical on you here: the way that I view the universe is that the universe loves life and whenever it has a chance, it’s gonna pack and fit and squeeze life into every crevice it can find, just like moss.   There are UNINTENTIONAL thoughts and INTENTIONAL thoughts.   I think of ideas and thoughts as objects, and the clearer they are, the faster you can realize them and make them true. When you’re on target, on task, and doing what you’re meant to do, the universe will help you find ways to make things happen. The right people and opportunities show up.  On the opposing side, when you’re not specific about what you want, the universe is going to give you what it thinks you want, which could include pollution and noise. Specificity is really key.   The way I would build my courage when I knew I had to sell something in order to survive or get to the next level was to imagine myself performing the speech in front of the audience. I would VISUALIZE it. I would smell it, taste it, touch it. I could look inside the audience’s eyes and see their souls. And it works. Every. Single. Time.  It’s the combination of commitment and courage that creates a new capability, and confidence is the reward for doing that.   

What do the pope, Andrea Bocelli, brothels, maximum-security prisons, and Elton John all have in common? They’ve all been a part of Steve Sims’s cutting-edge luxury concierge business. Wait ... WHAT?! My friend and guest on this week’s episode is Steve Sims, the creator of “Bluefish,” the internationally famous company that makes once in a lifetime events happen for the rich and famous. Steve is in the business of making the impossible possible. With his help and expertise, his clients’ fantasies and wildest dreams come true. Getting married by the pope in the Vatican, being serenaded by Andrea Bocelli, and connecting with powerful business moguls like Elon Musk and Sir Elton John are just a few of the many projects he has worked on. Steve is also the author of the New York Times bestselling book Bluefishing: The Art Of Making Things Happen in which he shares his practical tips, techniques, and strategies to help YOU break down any obstacle and turn YOUR dreams into reality. He shares a lot of those techniques during our conversation.  But WHO is Steve Sims? If you know him personally, he’s “a strange looking fella that makes things happen.” Forbes called him the real-life Wizard of Oz! He’s the guy that will give you more interesting cocktail stories. He can take your bucket list and make it a reality so that you wake up at 2 a.m. going, “Wow, I can't believe I did that!”  Steve built his entire business by word of mouth. He didn't even have a phone number or an email address on his website. It was literally a case of, “Hey, remember I told you the story of when I played the piano with Elton John? This guy's the one that made that happen.” And it grew from there.  Before his book came out, what used to excite Steve was people challenging him to make seemingly CRAZY things happen. Like closing down a museum in Florence, going down to see the Titanic or playing tennis with Richard Branson. Those things were exciting, expensive, and a challenge for him at the time.  When the book came out, he suddenly found himself working with intelligent entrepreneurs who were held back by their own mindsets telling them there were things they couldn’t possibly do.  Now he’s doing a lot of workshops and speaking all over the planet, shaking up entrepreneurs, getting them uncomfortable, and changing their mindsets. “The superpower of an entrepreneur is their ignorance”—the fact that they can’t possibly perceive that they're going to fail. And with THAT mindset, nine times out of 10 ... they don't.  One of the things that Steve really likes to do with his clients is to get people uncomfortable by putting them in environments they’ve never been in. He’s held masterminds at The Bunny Ranch Brothel, Maximum Security Prisons, and the Tesla Production Plant.  Once you’ve met people who want to change their lives, in an environment that's heavily suppressed like a maximum security prison, you have no more excuses for why your business won’t work. We tend to excuse ourselves to death. Steve is one of the most fascinating, passionate, and principled individuals I have ever met. I cannot WAIT for you to experience this episode.

Welcome to Amplifying And Multiplying Your Time PART 2! This episode is all about focusing on YOUR unique capabilities to amplify your life and business and using real-life time hacks to make the MOST of the time you have.   This episode of the podcast focuses on something I call Folding Time. Think of it visually, as if you were to take a piece of paper and fold it like an accordion or in a stack. You can pass through time by getting through a lot more stuff by stacking or folding time. Here are some “time folding hacks”:   #1 - Personal coaching. This means having someone on the outside look at your life and say, “Here are some horrible behaviors” or “Here are some ways you can get rid of the ‘noise’ in your day-to-day life.”  #2 - Ego death. This essentially means, “What are your worst unconscious behaviors?” Sometimes they're stacked traumas or trauma resolution that comes from getting supportive help, possibly through a spiritual or personal guide. Meditation is the “slow path” toward ego death.   Right now, it’s very popular for executives and professionals to practice “plant medicine” (psilocybin or “magic mushrooms,” ayahuasca, LSD, and many other tools) that rapidly allows you to “see” parts or elements of yourself and rid yourself of them quickly.  Another time compressor is creating less or not over-creating. What I've learned after coaching and advising hundreds of business leaders and executives who feel stuck is that rather than selling more and increasing their value, they go back to creating more “stuff.”   Soon they're surrounded by 40 products that aren’t being sold or marketed. What they should be doing is picking the top three and putting ALL of their effort into those. This isn’t fun or attractive to “quick start creatives,” but it’s necessary.   With 100 percent certainty, I know this to be true and I am completely guilty of doing this in the past. My typical behavior historically is, instead of solving the problems that exist in the current product, to just create a new product with a different message and get that out there. What I wound up with was an overwhelmed and confused audience of buyers. NOT good.  During this episode, Dan and I each talk about and identify our top three unique capabilities—the three things we’re really great at and focus on in order to increase our value and grow our businesses. You’re not going to want to miss those. Enjoy the show!