Capability Amplifier

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know that I’m a total TECH GEEK! I love learning about ANYthing new in the world of emerging technology: AI (artificial intelligence), ML (machine learning), VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), IoT (internet of things). The future possibilities are super exciting and at times ... can be scary as hell. Tech is a double-edged sword. It can be used for good or evil ... even though technology itself is neutral. Well, except for Facebook. On the record, I think it’s evil and not to be trusted any further than the Chinese government. That’s a whole different story and rabbit hole we won’t dive into today.  This week on the show, I got to chat with David Ewing Duncan, the author of Talking To Robots. It’s one of the COOLEST books I’ve read in a long time. It’s half nonfiction and half fiction, and chock-full of robots! Twenty-four to be exact ... from teddy bear bot to sex bot to Facebook bot to warrior bot and even god bot! Here’s the concept: David interviewed some of the greatest thinkers of our time (people like Kevin Kelly, Tim O'Reilly, and Brian Greene) and asked them, “What kind of robot would you want to meet or be afraid to meet in the future?” Then, he shares a story about each one. Normally, David is a nonfiction writer, but this story is actually told from the future. There's a narrator, but we don't know who it is. It could be a man, it could be a woman, it could be a robot who lives in the future and actually knows how things turned out! An overarching theme of David’s career has been writing about technology, mostly biotechnologies, genetics, and synthetic biology. Like me, he’s interested in the technology and the people doing it, but he’s MORE interested in how it affects society. The book is structured to give us some possible future scenarios. David’s opinion (and mine) is that we are at a pivotal moment in human history where we are about to have the power to build robots that we've thought about and are trying to understand ourselves. It’s about trying to understand our emotions and how things might play out in different scenarios. It's a little bit playful, it's a little whimsical, and at times it makes fun of our culture. Case in point: The chapter “Politics Bot” pokes fun at our current government and the unbelievable lunacy/soap opera in motion. Vladimir Putin makes an appearance too! It was an absolute pleasure chatting with David about his book at the Near Future Summit, and I HIGHLY recommend checking it out. We had such a great conversation and so much more we wanted to touch on, so there will be a follow-up interview in the future.

This Is MY FAVORITE podcast episode! What if you had just ONE MINUTE to pitch your product, service, company, or yourself to your perfect client? What would you say? What would make them BEG to work with you, buy your product, or invest in your business?  Have you wondered what a WINNING pitch sounds like? You know ... the one that could completely change the course of your life and business?  Recently, I had the incredible opportunity to be on “Elevator Pitch” with Entrepreneur.com. Have you ever seen the show “Shark Tank”? It’s a bit like that ...  It’s really well produced and was a SUPER fun experience. I got to listen to a ton of pitches (both good and bad), but completely blind to the deals and the other judges … that’s part of the fun! The judges can either cut deals together or screw each other over, and it happens. That’s TV. That’s drama. Gotta get those views!  I learned a LOT on this show—plus, it was the first time in 30 years that I had the opportunity to RELAX and JUST be “talent” instead of producer, director, writer, marketer, AND talent for my own productions. The whole experience brought up a burning question … what makes for a really great pitch?  This week on the show, Dan and I dive deep into this subject. Keep reading to hear the BEST pitch you’ve ever heard ... AND what Dan shared on the show ... IT WAS A ONE-WORD OFFER. And took place approximately 50 years BC! Intrigued? I’m not going to give it away ... but it’s awesome! A “pitch” is basically selling yourself, and there are two parts to selling:  * INTELLECTUAL – Engaging another person with a future desirable outcome that REALLY appeals to them AND is good for them. * EMOTIONAL – Supporting another person to make the emotional ACTION to give them their future desired results.  You HAVE to create rapport, connection, and trust with a potential client. Clarify their past in a way that's meaningful in order to enter the future. You can never have someone committed to a bigger, more confident future unless you let them have a more confident past. One weakness that a lot of entrepreneurs have is that they discount their past, trying to get away from it as fast as they can ... but there’s GOLD in the past!  Enjoy!

Do you ever get nostalgic for a simpler time when stand-up comedy was king and Johnny Carson was the BIGGEST star on the planet, like I do? Our next guest is one of the MOST recognizable and talented names from the heyday of comedy in the 1980s. But unlike most of the stars of that era, he’s still active, going strong, AND committed to massive self-growth. He went from humble beginnings as a poor immigrant not even knowing the language to living the American dream ... performing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, starring in countless TV shows and movies, performing for four U.S. Presidents, and obtaining his American citizenship in front of the Statue of Liberty in 1986. His mission statement is “to experience happiness and teach it with passion through comedy and sensitivity.” He has an ongoing quest for knowledge and understanding about relationships, and earned his doctorate degree in psychology and global leadership at Pepperdine University.  Meet Dr. Yakov Smirnoff!  Yakov is so fascinated with different ways to create happiness that his doctoral dissertation was called “Law of Laughter” (LOL for short). This was his way of looking for a formula or a law that most people were not aware of.  As a comedian, he was given a set of skills that allowed him to listen for happiness. Every time the audience laughed, he knew they were happy. Even if they were going through a difficult time … at that moment, when something triggered them to laugh, they became involuntarily happy for a moment.  Yakov realized that in his personal relationship with his ex-wife, laughter was there in the beginning, but it slowly disappeared, and he wasn't paying attention to it—something he normally did with his audiences. “If they don't laugh … the next day, there's going to be a different approach to the routine,” he says. But with his wife … it was too late by the time he discovered what was happening.  This became his focus for the next 20 years—figuring out that “formula.” In the end, he was able to prove and defend his formula with his dissertation, and it’s very basic: “It’s having complementary opposites.” If you picture the audience and the performer, one person is talking and the other is listening. In situations like a political debate, everybody is trying to talk at the same time, nobody is listening, and that’s not healthy. You need the performer AND the audience. You need the complementary opposites.  Then, you need to consciously understand what the needs of the other person are because in the beginning of a relationship, it just happened spontaneously, because Mother Nature wants us to procreate! She gives us hormones that make us happy, we laugh, and have a great time. Then a year later, all of those hormones check out and we start separating and finding other sources of creating happiness. Unfortunately, most of the time, it's very difficult to get back to the beginning.  Yakov is an endlessly FASCINATING, talented, and super smart guy. Did you know that he’s also an accomplished artist AND developing a residential community in Branson, MO, called “Yakov Towers”? Who knew?!

Let me explain ... ALL entrepreneurial growth consists of taking opportunities/unused capabilities and unused resources and putting the two together in a NEW way, therefore pushing the frontier of human ambition and capability into the future in such a way that you have a FREE ZONE. Free of competition and regulation ... the two main things that interfere with entrepreneurial activity and success. Download your copy of the Free Zone Frontier here.  The original concept came from a book Dan read called The Frontier In American History. It's the story of how the frontier in America went from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific Coast between 1620 and 1890, growing the population from 220 to 63 million people. The magic formula being, combining free people with (more or less) free land.  This geographic free zone lasted from 1620 to 1890, but WE grew up in the second free zone ... The Entrepreneurial Free Zone that started in the 1970s, right around the time the first personal computers came into existence. This time period created MUCH more of an exciting future than the geographic free zone.  Having been entrepreneurs for most of our lives, Dan and I have always made breakthroughs when we’ve used existing, underused resources and capabilities to create new opportunities to operate in areas where we can be exponentially more productive and profitable.  Our goal is to keep PUSHING OUT THE FRONTIER WHERE FREE ZONES CAN BE CREATED. We think podcasting is a REALLY great example of this. Think about it ... we would NOT have been able to do this podcast 35 years ago because it would have cost us more money to produce than it could produce. But because of technology and the internet, we can now create little Free Zones. Capability Amplifier is what we would call a “Free Zone Frontier.”  Looking forward to what the NEXT Free Zone Frontiers might be ... there are ENDLESS possibilities.  For Millennials, freedom exists inside of a machine. To them, being free is about being connected. There’s the virtual zone with augmented and virtual reality, the gaming world and kids trading goods in the digital world.  There’s the inner world. The world of spirit. Not just spirituality, but cognition and the mental worlds that I've been calling the #SuperBeing zone, having anything to do with the enhancement of human consciousness and expansion.  We also can’t forget about space! With companies like SpaceX and the privatization of space travel, we know that sometime in the not so distant future, we will most likely be populating Mars and mining asteroids in space for raw materials.  The new Free Zones that represent unlimited, infinite wealth, abundance, and opportunity are right around the corner, so if you want to hear more ... then tune in to this episode of the podcast. Your mind will be blown!

It’s NEVER Too Late To Pursue Your Dreams, Even If It’s Poop! Don’t you just LOVE an inspirational, “rags to riches” story? Someone that’s pulled themselves from the depths of despair to become SUPER successful AND help other humans at the same time?  From poverty, sexual and domestic abuse, depression, two bankruptcies, and a suicide attempt to being named one of “Forbes’ Richest Self-Made Women in America in 2019.”  Today’s guest on the Capability Amplifier show is Suzy Batiz. She was bankrupt for the SECOND time in her life at 38 years old — and didn’t sell her first bottle of Poo~Pourri until she was 43. But she believes it’s truly never too late in life to pursue your dreams.  Meet Suzy Batiz, the founder of Poo~Pourri and Supernatural ... a $500+ million empire.  What I love most about Suzy is that she is an extraordinarily heart-centered person. I was curious as to what TERRIFIES her most right now. Here’s what she had to say: “I just had a sales meeting, and sales this month weren't as good as we have projected and I felt scared. I am used to winning and being successful. I have that inner competitor. So I realized I'm actually triggered by this! It's not a usual space for me. Usually everything's wonderful.”  Just to get perspective ... Suzy sold her first bottle of Poo~Pourri in 2007, and the company grew by a million dollars each year for the first eight years. She was at $8 million in revenue and that's when she did her first viral video, which EXPLODED sales.  Within four days, she had sold ALL of her inventory and had $4 million in back orders. Because she’s an ethical person and didn’t want to rack up $20 million in orders she couldn’t ship, she shut down all ad spending that were driving sales in order to get caught up. This year, she’ll do around $100 million in sales. Putting ethics ahead of money pays off!  Suzy talks a lot in the world about energy and how to create your reality from your energetic state. What she is finding right now, with a company that’s had unbelievable growth, is that she’s REALLY having to put that practice to the test. Especially with millions of dollars on the line. Keeping the focus and faith because she knows how it all works. It’s all energy!  Suzy’s SUPERPOWER is that she’s an innovator and a visionary. Disrupting … breaking things apart and putting them back together in a fantastic new way.  So if you want to hear more about the #SuperBeing that IS Suzy Batiz AND her brand new endeavors like “Supernatural” and an upcoming Abundance Course, then you’re going to have to listen to the whole episode.  Enjoy!

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!