Capability Amplifier

Earlier this year, I got to check off one of my long-time “bucket list” items when I attended the 2019 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting with Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, and I gotta tell you ... it was a LIFE-CHANGING experience! I had heard about the Berkshire Hathaway meeting for years but I was under the illusion that you had to own a share of their stock (which is presently selling for around $222,000) to attend. I thought it was exclusively for super wealthy big shots. I didn't know that they sold B shares, which are around $220. If you buy ONE B share of Berkshire Hathaway stock, you can attend this annual event and get four passes. It's the best $200 I've spent in probably 20 years—and not for the reasons you might expect.  I believe the huge success of Berkshire Hathaway is because they’re the most principle-driven investment firm in the history of the United States. I flat-out felt different the moment I “met” Warren and Charlie. Here’s a tiny example of values and principles in real life ...  But first—the journey ...  I was on my way to the event, and my driver said, “Hey, do you want to drop by Warren's house?” To which I replied, “Hell yeah, baby doll!” ... This was one day before the event and there’s almost NO ONE there. Warren and his wife still live in the same home since buying it in the ‘50s. It’s not “over the top” or behind an enormous, guarded fortress. He doesn't travel around with a gigantic security team. He goes to McDonald's EVERY single day for breakfast, and he eats dinner at the same, predictable places in town.  Warren is one of the richest men in the world (Berkshire Hathaway has more cash right now than Apple by double—$200 billion in cash available!), but the bottom line is his fame hasn't affected him because he’s a principled person and he runs his business that way. They stick to their guns. They don’t subscribe to the “highfalutin,” Wall Street poppycock!  One of the key takeaways from the event for ME was to absolutely listen to my gut about people and values. For example, Warren WON’T deal with people who change a deal at the last minute or try to do “sneaky” stuff. He once made a deal where the agreement was off by pennies and when they went to sign the final paperwork, he quashed the deal. He said they showed their character and he doesn't work with cheaters ... period.  The event was so powerful and positive that next year, I’ve committed to taking my “SuperBeing Accelerator” clients as a group.  One of my favorite takeaways of ALL was seeing how great leaders like Warren and his partner Charlie Munger are great entertainers. The way the event opens up is, you sit down in the stadium, they play an opening movie featuring their companies, and as soon as it’s over, you hear crack, crack … that recognizable sound of a Coca Cola can being opened with the “fizzzzzz”… and then you hear “crunch, munch, munch, crunch.” The lights come up and there they are (Warren and Charlie) with a giant box of See's Peanut Butter Brittle and drinking Coca Cola before going to Q+A from the shareholders.  It was an absolute pleasure to sit there and experience old school values driven by two old men, saying whatever they wanted to say. It's not about being politically correct. These guys are respectful, decent human beings who just see things as they are and play by their own rules.  (I’ll have to admit that more than once I couldn’t help but think, “They look just like the two old men from the Muppet Show”!)  And while I sat there, puzzled for a while at these two geniuses—Warren, who drinks six cans of Coke a day, eats McDonald’s every morning, candy during the day, and steaks at night, wondering HOW IN THE HELL he’s still alive—it dawned on me after he said …  “Every day, I get to tap dance to work.”  Yeah,

Do You Have The Six Essential Traits Of An Entrepreneur? I’m a big fan of SYSTEMS (especially the ones that actually work).  The latest episode features Gino Wickman, multiple bestselling author of Traction and creator of EOS – The Entrepreneurial Operating System that helps entrepreneurs grow and run a better business. They’ve built it up to over 300 EOS implementers all over the world that are helping tens of thousands of companies!  An entrepreneur since the age of twenty-one, Gino is OBSESSED with helping entrepreneurs live their ideal lives and maximize their freedom and impact on the world. Know anyone who fits that profile?  At twenty-five, he took over the family business, which was deeply in debt, and after turning the company around in just three years, he and his partners successfully sold it after running it for seven years.  Through that experience, Gino realized that he had a knack for helping entrepreneurs, so he created EOS.  So what kind of BRAIN does Gino have that enables him to see the struggle of the entrepreneur and create a solution? The kind that has ADHD, OCD, and a touch of dyslexia. Kind of a mess, right? But Gino’s “AHA moment” came a year into monthly meetings with a group of entrepreneurs, when he realized that “these guys are as messed up as I am!” That’s when he decided to devote his life to helping people just like him and maximize their potential. It took five years of hard work but EOS was born.  His new book, Entrepreneurial Leap, is devoted to helping entrepreneurs-in-the-making, at ANY age, understand their genetic makeup and give them a huge jump-start, along with a clear, simple path to fully realize their potential. It’s ALSO a resource for the people who care about them: parents, teachers, guardians, aunts, uncles, and professors.  The book takes you on an emotional, psychological, philosophical, soul-searching journey of discovery and has three parts – Confirm, Glimpse, and Path.  Part one, Confirm, will help any entrepreneur-in-the-making confirm if they are an entrepreneur because, unfortunately ... most are NOT. You’ll also learn about “the six essential traits” of an entrepreneur because, according to Gino, you either ARE or you are NOT born with it – “entrepreneurship is nature, not nurture.”  So ... are you ready to take YOUR Entrepreneurial Leap? You deserve to live your ideal life! Take the first step by listening to this podcast.

A former NFL all-pro, acclaimed Broadway playwright and performer, motivational speaker, leadership trainer, and author — seems like impossible accomplishments for one man, in one lifetime, right? Well, prepare to be impressed and inspired ... Meet Bo Eason! I got to sit down with my friend Bo to discuss his first book, There’s No Plan B for Your A-Game. In the book, he shares the secrets of his many successes and shows anyone how to be the best in the world at what they do: the best leader, the best business owner, the best athlete, the best artist, the best partner, the best parent ...  But first ... let’s find out how the new book came about, shall we?  There’s No Plan B for Your A-Game came from Bo watching his mom. When he and his brother were kids, they had BIG dreams. They wanted to be professional football players but there were absolutely NO pro athletes where they grew up. There was no one to look up to or ask for advice. Parents of their friends would come over to try to talk his mom and dad into having a “plan B” for them so they weren’t heartbroken when their dreams didn’t come true. Bo’s Mom would physically throw these people out of their house, never to be heard from again. She told the boys, “You can have these dreams because there’s just one option. Success.”  Bo is an EXPERT at reinventing himself. He’s done it four times over his career, from NFL star to playwright and actor, to motivational speaker and now, author. Honestly … I think the man gets better and better with every evolution! Hands down, he’s the most amazing speaker I’ve ever seen. But how did he do it in a world that EASILY stagnates when people reach a certain level?  A simple declaration: “I want to be the BEST.”  If you’re going to be the best at something, no matter WHAT it is, then you’ve got to do one thing better than anybody else and that’s improve. You’ve got to improve day in and day out, and the ONLY way to improve is to go beyond your current capacity. That requires being OUTSIDE of your comfort zone. Even if you’re GREAT at what you do ... you’ve got to get better if you’re going to be the BEST. It’s a constant, ongoing process. Never quite get comfortable.  If you’re ready to accelerate your capabilities and work BEYOND your current capacity, then make sure you listen to this episode. You’re going to learn a whole lot about who you are and who you CAN BE if you’re willing to do the work.

Here’s a super interesting statistic ... 82% of the American population wants to write a book someday but VERY few people ever do it. It’s a topic that befuddles a lot of people. The irony is that right now, more books are being written and published now than ever before. Thank you, Amazon, for that! But … have you ever been in a position where you’ve been thinking about writing a book and haven’t gotten around to it? OR ... you started writing a book and it’s been sitting on your computer for years and years? Well, don’t feel bad. You are NOT alone.  In this episode, my friend and co-host, Dan Sullivan, and I share with you how we can help you through the process. Dan is working on his 31st book right now, and I’ve written 13 myself and helped over 1,800 business owners become best-selling authors!  Let’s talk about books and why Dan and I think they’re MAGIC!  If you’ve written a book, regardless of whether anyone has read it, you are automatically an authority in people’s minds. Because they can imagine what it would take for THEM to write a book, when they see that you’ve actually done it ... you become like a “SuperBeing” to them.  The MOST important thing you need to realize is that a book represents YOU as a package. The title and subtitle need to declare to the world who you are, what you do, who you do it for, and what benefits and results they’re going to get when they buy your book.  Your book title and subtitle embody a feeling or an emotion that people want. So if someone reads your title and experiences clarity and confidence, the process of buying that book actually gives them the same feeling. Notice I didn’t even say “read” the book ... Their transformation begins when they make a commitment to buy it ...  Stephen Covey wrote The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People. He owned that category so if someone came along after the fact and said, “Hey, I’ve got this book about the habits of really successful people ...” it wouldn’t fly. Your goal is to own a category, to become “a category of one,” that’s of intense interest to your potential reader and position yourself in a unique way in the marketplace. And now you are positioned and packaged as the problem-solver. Be careful about what you call your book because as Dan Sullivan says, “The person who names the game owns the game.”  Something else to consider is becoming the AUTHOR of your book rather than the WRITER. Stephen Covey didn’t have to write The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People, but he was the author, and if you’re the author … you’re the author-ity. I write my books by speaking them—“presenting them”—as if I’m speaking on stage. I’m a performer, not a natural writer.  Here’s another super effective strategy that I use with my best-selling clients to motivate them to finish. Create your book cover FIRST, before you’ve even started writing the book. Wrap it around a real book and put it on the desk in front of you. Now, to your mind ... it’ll mean you’re done. Visualizing and SEEING it breaks through a massive barrier because now it FEELS possible, and that’s really a big part of writing a book. Like most great things in life, it’s a mindset game!  So if you’re ready to take the leap, make the commitment, and finally get your book into the hands of people who NEED to hear your ideas, then you’re going to want to listen to this episode!

Let’s be real for a minute… we ALL had dreams of being big ROCK STARS when we were little kids! Well, my recent podcast guest, Jason Flom was no different. Jason turned his dreams of Rock and Roll stardom into reality while making the world a better place at the same time. I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with the leading American Music Executive, CEO, Philanthropist and Entrepreneur, Jason Flom and wow, was it interesting!  Jason started in the music industry when he was 18 years old, putting up posters at record stores, worked HARD, worked his way up and eventually became Chairman and CEO of Atlantic Records.  With his strong beliefs, instilled by his dad from the time he was a kid, “Do whatever you want to do, try to be the best at it, but just make the world a better place”, Jason went on to start The Church of Rock and Roll. Here are a few snippets of our conversation ...  “I started the music business when I was 18, putting up posters at record stores. I started at Atlantic Records on July 31, the hottest day of the year, they gave me a staple gun, roll of double-sided tape, Led Zeppelin posters and a ladder and I went off to the record stores and was climbing around and I thought it was the greatest job in the world. $4 an hour AND they let me have as many free records as I wanted. I thought to myself, ‘this is COOL!” That's when I gave up my Rockstar dreams and decided I wanted to be in the music business.”  -Jason Flom  “The origin of the story is that I was on my couch, where most of my good ideas happened. I was watching John Oliver do his remarkable diatribe on televangelist and I had this idea that I wanted to start a movement for people to come together under, these principles that I think Jesus really stood for. Without any of the dogma or negativity and create a new way for people to gather and work together to do good things, and feel good.” -Jason Flom  So if you want to know how to make it in the music industry AND help people by doing good at the same time ... then check out this episode!

What DOES it take to win a major political election in today’s world of tweeting presidents and Russian-hacked social media? Blech! ? ?. That’s exactly what Dan Sullivan and I get into in episode 21. And lawdy, Lawdy, LAWDY this subject IS REALLY polarizing … but I think you’re going to find where Dan and I sit after this episode in the political quagmire the U.S. is in (not to mention England and every other country that has a bully leader). Dan loves politics and is an avid history buff. I am ENDLESSLY fascinated with the “cartoon character” that is Donald Trump. So if you’re even the slightest bit interested in what’s going to happen in November 2020 … you’re going to LOVE this episode!  First off, I’ll just come straight out and say I pay attention to politics purely because I love marketing and figuring out what the rules and strategies are for influencing and persuading hundreds of millions of people. I see politics as entertainment and comedy.  It’s been reduced to a race-to-the-bottom shouting match appealing to the lowest common denominator and low-frequency bottom dwellers. Welcome to the world of Instagram and the Kardashians.  What I’m about to share with you is my point of view and not intended to be an endorsement of any political party or individual.  Having said that, I know this episode of our show is going to raise hackles and fluff some feathers. So be it.  America is a country where people have extraordinarily strong political views clashing with one another, which has created new political policy, new political foundations, and new structures. Nationalism is driving apart the fabric of our society. And with a major presidential election a little over a year away ... there's so much at stake.  So ... what DOES it takes to get elected?  We live in an absolutely fascinating time. El Salvador has a new president who is 39 years old and got elected because he figured out how to USE social media to get elected. Trump knew and leveraged the power of social media—for better or worse—and figured out how to gain an unfair advantage. Future elections for the foreseeable future will be determined by who masters social media, nails a message, aligns a following, and remains noisy and visible.  Market – Message – Medium. Just like marketing ... except ...  Outrage sells. Truth and trust are on the extinction list ...  Trump figured out how to leverage Twitter, a platform with no editors or editing. He broke every rule of “press meetings” and a code of conduct. No rules. He just ignored them.  He had direct access to millions of people. He was already well-recognized. Polarizing. Entertaining. A master of “reframing” conversations. A bully. He's a caricature, a cartoon character, which all great politicians are. Whoever screams the loudest, has the most ears, and casts reasonable doubt … WINS.  So whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal, OR you don’t care OR you’re not even an American ... you’re really going to appreciate this episode! Maybe you’ll hate us!

This is the future of technology. Do you GEEK OUT over stuff like quantum mechanics, artificial intelligence, predicting the future, robotics, automation, and self-driving cars? If this sounds like you, you’re in for a real treat!  Recently, I attended The Near Future Summit in San Diego, CA. It’s an AWESOME event and community of “entrepreneurs, activists, inventors, and investors who enjoy helping one another achieve lofty goals.”  At the event, I had the incredible opportunity to spend time with and interview Steve Jurvetson. Besides being endlessly fascinating and brilliant, he is one of Elon Musk’s best friends.  I was super psyched to speak to Steve and have the chance to pick his brain about the future of technology. Steve is a businessman and venture capitalist, an early investor in Hotmail, founder at Future Ventures, and a current board member of SpaceX and Tesla.  In short: He’s been really successful at predicting trends and opportunities and is way ahead of the curve. I trust his predictions and perspective. Steve has been on my “must interview” list for years, and now YOU get access to his brain in a condensed interview on the show today!  Check out a few of the things Steve is excited about:  “Well, I have never been more excited. I love learning. I love technology, I'm a geek at heart. There's more learning and more frontiers than ever before. Specifically, there's a lot going on, obviously, in autonomous vehicles and driving that will touch all of our lives when we switch to these robo taxi fleets and urban equivalents where you just imagine Uber or Lyft experience, but without the driver, without the smells, with a car that has no cockpit and you have all the room in the world, and it's just a better experience in every way, three times safer, three times cheaper ... we’ll have a million robo taxis on the road by 2020.”  “Quantum computing is as weird as the name implies. It uses quantum mechanics as the fundamental basis of computation in a way that is unlike any computer you've ever heard of before. The important thing to keep in mind is it's not just ‘another supercomputer.’ It engages the computational resources of parallel universes. Now, if you're only competing in this universe, how could you compete with parallel universes of trillions of refractive echoes across these computational resources that are replicated across parallel universes? I mean, like, your mind explodes.”  Enjoy!

? Ideas Are Cheap … Execution Is Expensive! What’s the secret to getting and keeping attention in the zero-attention-span world we all live in today?  I have a great NEW podcast for you, ESPECIALLY if you LOVE comedy, entertainment, and movies!  Have you imagined yourself either BEING a comedian or actor on stage or in theaters?  Maybe you’ve wanted to write, direct, produce, or invest in movies, music, or entertainment?  What does it take to think like a talent agent, director, or producer in Hollywood and MAKE IT?  Or maybe you just want to know what the big secret is to elevating your value as a business owner, entrepreneur, speaker, podcast host, interviewee, or writer?  I had the privilege of interviewing Emmy Award-winning talent manager and producer Joel Zadak. If you haven’t heard of Joel before, you’ve definitely heard of and seen his clients including A-list comedian Tiffany Haddish, Randall Park from ABC’s Fresh Off The Boat, Ant-Man and Aquaman, Ronnie Chieng from The Daily Show and Crazy Rich Asians, Jimmy O. Yang from Crazy Rich Asians, Adam Conover from Adam Ruins Everything, and many more.  Joel is going to take you behind the scenes with some fun Hollywood stories, and you’ll love this episode because you’ll learn how Joel THINKS and what he thinks about. His wisdom will rub off on you and you’ll realize, like I did, that we’re all in the entertainment and talent business—no matter what industry you’re in.  Let’s meet Joel Zadak!  Joel grew up in Chicago and always enjoyed comedy, appreciating movies like Animal House and Cheech and Chong. His dad introduced him and his twin brother to R-rated comedies on cable far earlier than the average parent would allow, and that made him feel special. After college, he frequented The Second City Comedy Theatre where some of the greats, including Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Steve Carell, performed. That inspired Joel to take creative writing and screenwriting classes at Second City. He wanted to write the next BIG comedy hit.  His next move was to Los Angeles where he got into a grad program for screenwriting at UCLA but dropped out once he landed a job assisting a manager in the entertainment industry and realized Hollywood was a full-time job in and of itself. Shortly after, his boss left to start his own company and Joel was promoted to manager in just four months. That’s when his next-level comedy adventures began!  Fast forward to today. Here’s Joel’s philosophy on the ONLY people he’ll represent and work with: “It's pretty much a prerequisite for me that they have interests and talents in multiple fields. That means they are writer/performers, writer/directors, director/performers, stand-up comedian/actor. I really think it's IMPERATIVE that they are content generators. They're not just what I call vendors, vending their acting services or writing services. I want them to direct or perform because I really love multiple points of entry. I love those artists who can be not only the visionary, but also the implementer. The person who comes up with the idea and then also executes the idea. Ideas are cheap ... execution is expensive. And if you can do both, then you will have a long future in this or any business.”  It doesn’t get much more succinct than that. And it really is true, no matter what industry you’re in.  Two of Joel’s “superpowers” are networking and LISTENING. So, if you’d like to have the same kind of success in your own career, you’re going to want to hear this show!

What would it feel like to receive a check or wire transfer for $5, $10, or $100 MILLION when you successfully sell your business? HOLY SHIZZLE! I’ve done it FOUR times, and I can tell you from experience, it can either be a horrible experience or an exhilarating one depending on whether you know what you’re doing.  This week on the show, my co-host, Dan Sullivan, and I talk about something that can really feel like a near-death experience in the entrepreneurial world … SELLING your company! We’re talking about your BABY! Something you nurtured, grew, and put all of your focus and energy into. Then sometimes you get to a point where you're actually thinking about selling your baby … NOW WHAT?  In Dan’s and my experience, nine out of 10 times, the entrepreneur doing the selling has a VERY negative experience. There are a ton of reasons for this that we get into in this episode. Plus, I share my most valuable secrets for having a super successful and profitable exit.  Okay, let’s talk about the fact that MOST of us, myself included, have NO clue how to exit our first business. As a matter of fact, my first business cost me my first marriage, my sanity, and near bankruptcy. And my third business was a MAJOR contributing factor in my getting cancer because of the stress it put on my body.  We get into this thinking that we're going to get to a “certain point” in our business where everything will be just “hunky-dory,” so in the beginning we trade time for money and compress all our energy for the big payout ... the “BIG CHECK!” The thought of, “Wow, what would it feel like to have my ‘f*#k you number’?!” The number where you’d actually have financial freedom and everything it represents, and so often … THAT becomes the driver INSTEAD of having what I regard as the “pure thought process.” That’s experiencing pure GRATITUDE for being able to provide great service and great value to an audience who loves you as their hero and being rewarded for THAT instead.  That’s really what the game of business is all about.  Some of the key points that we cover in this episode:  * How I successfully and NOT so successfully sold four different companies (what to do and what NOT to do). * How I woke up one day and knew I was done (with my last company) so I made the decision to get rid of all the things that didn't serve my body, family, marriage, son, and purpose because it just didn't feel right anymore. * How Dan has only ever had ONE company and plans on keeping it that way because it serves him and his mission well. * EXACTLY what buyers are looking for in a company when they buy it. * The ONE BILLION dollar sale of one of Dan’s clients’ businesses and the correct motivation behind it. * How to approach the sale of your company like you’re the BUYER. * How important it is to TRAIN your audience how to buy from you. * How passion and experience play a BIG role in the success of most entrepreneurs’ first businesses and those sales. * The BEST exit mindset to adopt for success. * The importance of taking time off after you sell a company to HEAL, but why getting back in the saddle within a year is important too.  Two of the most VALUABLE pieces of advice I can give you as someone who’s owned and sold four businesses is:  * When selling a business, make SURE you have complete and total detachment. The moment you hand over the keys, if you're attached in any way to the “baby,” you just allowed someone to adopt knowing that you may never see them again ... you're in trouble. * The investment is never actually in the product. The investment is in the entrepreneur. Our smartest investments are ALWAYS in people.  As usual, there’s always MORE. Dan and I LOVE elevating and amplifying your life!

When you're the most interesting person in the room, you're in the wrong room! I recently had the pleasure of sitting down to interview Rich Litvin, “The Accidental Entrepreneur,” for my podcast. In case you’re not familiar, Rich is a hugely successful author of three bestselling books, he runs a high level mastermind group, and is a highly sought after business coach who only works with five clients per year and gets $100,000 per client!  Why is Rich “The Accidental Entrepreneur”? Well ... because his dad was an entrepreneur and did his best to persuade his three sons to do anything BUT become entrepreneurs. But it turns out, many years later, guess what all three sons are! Yup, you guessed it. They’re entrepreneurs!  He was a high school teacher for 15 years and eventually a vice principal because that is his passion. But he lost his job in 2005 and began a new career as a coach. He didn't know you were supposed to have a business plan or how to write a business plan, so for the last 14 years his one-line business plan has been, “Meet fun and interesting people.”  During our time together, Rich and I delve into some pretty interesting subjects that I know you’ll get a lot out of. Have a look:  * The 4% Rule: • The way to get better when you're an extraordinary top performer, and in an arena where you could die, is to only push yourself 4% beyond your current capabilities. * The Three Traps (that leaders get themselves into in their evolution as business owners, people, and SuperBeings): • One – The Isolation Trap: "I'm not lonely, but I feel very alone." • Two – The Imposter Trap: "People admire me, but I feel like a fraud." • Three – The Emptiness Trap: "I have everything I ever wanted, but I feel empty. * Serving people SO powerfully that they never forget your conversation for the rest of their life. * The power of LISTENING and the willingness to sit in the uncomfortable silence. * Serving people vs. pleasing people. * “The dream behind the dream”: The difference between what people SAY they want vs. what they ACTUALLY want. * "When you're the most interesting person in the room, you're in the wrong room." * What are you tolerating? * Who are you being right now in your life that if your child grew up to be that way, you’d feel like, "How did I miss that?" * What's the legacy you would leave today if it were your last day on earth vs. the legacy you’d like to leave?"  These are just a few of the incredible highlights from our conversation. Rich has some AMAZING stories to share. You DO NOT want to miss this episode!