The Networker Zone
The ultimate podcast for networkers in direct sales, network marketing, MLM or any sales side hustle. You’ll learn the skills for the how to and the mindset to make it work.
From the author of over 20 best selling books and over 25 years in the business here’s your host Keith Schreiter.
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The Networker Zone
Creating prospecting connections in dimensions with Ray Gebauer
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Networkers, the ultimate podcast for networkers and direct sales, network marketing, MLM, or anything else I think you'll learn the skills for the and the mindset to make it work. I'm the author of over 20 best-selling books and over 25 years in the business. Here's your host, Pete Schrider.
SPEAKER_01Alright, today in the zone, we have wow, uh legend in the network marketing industry, and he's also really big into personal development. Of course, we do preach. Shouldn't say preach, but we do talk a lot here about personal development because it's very important. Host of a radio show is Ray Gabourer. Ray, welcome. Yeah, happy to be here. Terrific. I know it's been uh a couple decades actually since we've uh seen and talked to each other back when I was in the office. And when I mentioned personal development, that's very broad. And a lot of people obviously are doing it right now. They're listening. What is something that every single person can do right away to get started? Something that's easy, something that will show just some results in personal development.
SPEAKER_03That's a good question. And the first thing that comes to mind that's simple and easy and can make a significant immediate difference is addressing one of the common weaknesses people have that sort of disables them, basically. And that's a lack of confidence. Because it's not about the information, it's always about the energy. And whether it's face-to-face or over the phone, people are much more affected by your energy, your tone of voice, your your mindset, your confidence. So when you lack confidence, it doesn't matter how good your product or service is, people can sense that, and you're not going to be have as much influence. I like to talk about the three eyes. You have to have influence, so do you so as to have more impact, which will give you more income. But if you want more influence, one of the foundational pieces is you have to have confidence. So when I used to do a lot of workshops, I always used to teach and how do you increase your confidence in just a few minutes? Of course, getting good results always increases your confidence, but uh it's a simple way to really sort of jump start the system and really increase your confidence. And I call it visiting, you know, doing some time traveling here.
SPEAKER_01Okay, all right, I like it already.
SPEAKER_03So, first of all, you want to make a list of at least uh 10, maybe like the top 10 or 10 things that come to mind of past successes, you know, where you've had wins, you know, whether it's in grade school or high school, college, business, marriage, whatever, something that's meaningful to you where you had success in some area. And when you get it out of your mind on paper, you see like your list of 10 or 20 successes in the past, you know, that's a pattern. And so that it immediately increases your level of confidence. In fact, before you do this exercise, it's always good to measure things. So what you measure and report gives you the best results. So you can measure like what's my level of confidence in talking to people? You know, it might be like a seven or a five or whatever. And so you want to do like a before and after. So before you do this, you know, what's your level of confidence right now? As far as the business, or maybe a particular part of it. So you want to do that first. Then your second list is say ten things going for you right now. What what are your ad what's in your favor? Maybe you have a great sponsor, maybe you don't, maybe you do, maybe because you have a great product, or you have a good company, or you have good communication skills, or you have a lot of contacts, um or whatever it is, what what do you have going for you right now? Maybe you you have a good voice, maybe you you're you know how to ask good questions. So what are sort of the advantages that you bring to the game right now that that is in your favor to have another win, another success. And then third, you want to travel to the future. And and visualize, of course, with some emotion positive possibilities. Like they say, like ten, you know, maybe five big wins that you would like to achieve in the future. And so even though the future doesn't exist, your subconscious doesn't differentiate that well between reality and what you're imagining. I mean Einstein said imagination is more powerful than knowledge because knowledge is limited, but imagination is unlimited. So you want to harness the power of imagination. You know, that's what goals are. You're imagining a positive possibility. So what are your big goals? What are uh what do you visualize you would like to have a success? Maybe just three. And and and think about how that would feel. And you gotta it's it's sort of almost worthless unless you don't have the emotion because the emotion is really the fuel, that's your rocket fuel, you know, the feelings behind it. So when you look at your successes in those three time zones, you know, the past, what and what's going for you right now, and future possibilities that will instantly dramatically increase your confidence level, especially if you repeat this on a on a regular basis. So then once you've done that, you do this in a few minutes, then just look aside and and and give yourself a number. So I was at a six before my confidence. Well, what is it now? Might be uh seven, eight, nine. Also, that's a real simple technique you can use to increase your confidence.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Well you're on a roll, but the whole past, present, future, uh just going into the past will make you smile. Like everybody has and it may take it may take a couple minutes. I get that. It may take a while because they haven't thought about it in a while, or they're stuck in a rut, or they're whatever life happens to all of us. But by going into the past and not living in the past, but just reminiscing, go, you know what, I I have had a lot of success in my past. Why not now? And doing the doing the present and of course the future, uh, that's that's all normally we focus on, which is great. But knowing that you've lived it, you've lived, you've memorized or relived the past, so you know that positive stuff, success, goals can happen uh in the future, which is really cool. I I love it. Um, so yeah, yeah. Everyone, you you you threw a lot in there, so but uh we gotta we gotta keep moving. So people definitely uh I guess people can really re-listen to that part because just writing it down, making the list, and uh celebrating what you've done in the past is absolutely amazing. The big thing is where did you learn this? Or did you did you live it and had to figure it out? Like did you always have confidence?
SPEAKER_03No, I I grew up in with a my father died before I was born, and so I had a stepfather that was not very good, it was abusive, and so I was very insecure. I used to stutter, I could not talk in front of a class hardly at all. I was just super insecure. So I compensated by by just focusing on knowledge and you know, became you know pretty smart, I became a speed reader, and I got straight A's, and it was super analytical. Uh, but I didn't know how to relate to people. You know, like okay. Uh so I've come a long way. I mean, I I was clueless. I would I'd still be stuck now if it hadn't been for connecting with the right people who helped me see what I couldn't see. You don't know what you don't know. And you can't figure all this out yourself. And if you did, it might take you a couple hundred years. And so if you want to you know accelerate and you know, have the breakthroughs to get rid of the limiting beliefs. You've got to get coaching. You know, like for me, Jim Rohn was number one back in the 70s. I used to go to one of his live meetings every Friday night in Anaheim, California, you know, for a couple hours, you know, a few hundred people there. And Mike Smith, I did a lot of training with him, um, T. Har Vecker. So anybody can go from zero to hero, from being uh nobody to somebody, but it doesn't happen. This isn't like falling off a log. You've got to be proactive, like Stephen Covey talked about in seven habits of highly affected people. What's the first habit? You gotta be proactive. But most people they go the other direction, they're too passive. Well, we'll see what happens. We'll give it a try. Um in fact, I'll I'll comment on on commitment, you know, because that's this is a real simple uh distinctions. And nothing much happens with commitment. So I I I came up with well three levels of commitment.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03And I think it's really useful to have these distinctions. The first level is, well, I'll give it a try. Well, that's better than I'd rather die. I mean, well, something might come out of that, but it's it's weak. But you know, it's a place to start. I'll give it a try. Uh level two is okay, I'm gonna do the best that I can. You know, that's a whole lot better. So the odds are much more in your favor if you commit, like I'll do the best I can. But for some people, that's still not gonna work because they don't have what it takes, even if they do their best. So the third level of commitment that's really where you want to be. Uh, do you want to make a guess what it is?
SPEAKER_01Uh okay. So well, first of all, yeah, let's dissect it. First of all, they say I'll I'll I'll give it a try.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, uh sometimes that's kind of a I don't want to do it.
unknownYou know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01I don't want to put the effort.
SPEAKER_03Like well, yeah, that's that's true. But you know, some people, you know, it is a low-level commitment.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Like a 1%. Uh the second one is um, I'm sorry, repeat it again.
SPEAKER_03Um second one is well, okay, well, I'll do the best that I can. You know, that's a whole lot of things.
SPEAKER_01I'll do the best that I can.
SPEAKER_03And the third level, you want to make a guess.
SPEAKER_01I would say, uh, would it be I'll do what it takes or something along that line?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the third one is I will do whatever it takes. Even if I don't have what it takes now, I don't have the resources, I don't have the skills, I haven't read enough of the big Al books yet. But but the resources are there. So you so you you say I I've committed to make this happen no matter what. You know, I I learned a really uh a nice rhyme from Tr Vector. I went to one of his uh uh warrior camps, it was like one week up in Canada. It was pretty pretty brutal. Went to all of almost all of his trainings. He was a good trainer. And one of the things he taught us, and and before we walked on the coals and we made the fire and walked on the coals, you know, uh he taught us this phrase and I've used it ever since, you know, hundreds of times. It goes like this over, under, around or through, whatever it takes, I will do. So it's a nice rhyme. Over, under, around, or through, or whatever it takes, I will do. And you know, that was the original version, but I've learned since then that the studies have shown that it has these affirmations have more impact when you rather than saying I, because like your brain says, Oh, yeah, okay, I've heard that before. If you said you sort of like speaking to yourself, so you say you you know, over, under, rounder through, whatever it takes, you will do. And so the studies have found that that has more positive impact. And even better than that is when you use your name, like over, under, rounder through, whatever it takes, Ray will do, or whatever the affirmation is. Rather than saying I better say you or or you actually your name. But but the point is the highest level of commitment that put this doesn't guarantee anything really, but it puts the odds really much more in your favor is when you make sure you're at that top level three, I'll do whatever it takes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy when you put the name in there, it it definitely becomes real or becomes way more emotional. It's almost it's talking more powerful and the sub and the subconscious, it's talking everything.
SPEAKER_03So that that's yeah, the name it's more believable, it's more believable to your subconscious when you use your name or even say you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, every everybody could do that. Everybody knows their name, they don't have to search out a name, they're good, they're good to go. Um, and then they can use that for everything, really. I mean, insert your name for everything as as much as possible. So, yeah, you went from going straight up knowledge or focusing on knowledge because you probably have control of knowledge. I mean, you can control how much you seek, and then you just surrounded yourself by people that probably believed in more than you did, and that probably had the same, if not more difficult, backgrounds and and all the things, and the next thing you know, uh you're on stages, you know, you got the the big checks, your top of companies, all the cool things. Was it was there one particular event or one particular book or one particular thing that you remember that made a major difference? Was there like one turning point? Was there with uh several turning points? Obviously, there's several, but there's like one big one that was like this made sense, it really clicked.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, I'll give you a good answer to that. Uh you know, we we talk a lot about being at the right place at the right time, and I like to add and with the right people because the who was more important than the what. You might have the best product or compensation plan in the world, but it doesn't matter if you're with the wrong people, like the wrong owner. Um so it but so it's not in it's good, but not enough to be at the right place at the right time if you're not ready. And so what worked in my favor was that I've been investing a lot of money in my personal development. Over the years, I've spent well over a hundred thousand dollars in my personal development. So when I was uh presented with a solid opportunity, which I said no to several times until I got convinced popped into it. But because I was ready, I had enough personal development under my belt, not only was I at the right place, right time, but I I knew what to do. And and you know, knew how to talk to people. And uh so that made the biggest difference. Along with the other factor and I didn't realize this at first, you know, people started telling me this, and then I finally realized, yeah, they're right. Well my other big advantage once I started having some some success which uh I'll bet this is sort of interesting. I'll mention this first. Um my first uh 10 weeks with this company, this manitech. Uh I was working about 80 hours a week on the phone. And uh my first check was seven dollars. Um next month, it was a little discouraging. Uh next month went to 700, then to 2700 next month, and then after six months, I was making 10,000 a month, and not 30,000 a month by the end of the year. But one of the big advantages I had is I had a good story. You know, like you know, your your father says, you know, you start with, well, let me tell you what happened to me. So so people like stories, you know, they're much have more impact than um good information, logic. So my story, my true story was when I started, you know, I was broke. I I was virtually homeless. I was living someone else's unfinished basement. My car was getting repossessed and got repossessed. I got it back. But uh so I was, you know, I just gone through a divorce and I, you know, I'm I had no income. And so I went from you know being really down, really way down to having success. But a large part of my influence with people, especially once they had some success, was you know telling them that that's that story. I find out later some some top leaders joined the company, not in my group, but they joined because of my story.
SPEAKER_01Okay, people were sharing their story. Awesome.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So we so, regardless of your story, what your story is, it it's really good to share it because it's more personal. People like stories, it gives them hope, gives them confidence. Even if you don't have a lot of success yet, you always wanted to share something personal, your story. You know, yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_01And and just that you mentioned that other leaders had joined because of your story. Well, you could borrow other people's story. You think, well, my story's not interesting. It it is, but if there's one that's more powerful, let me tell you about my friend XYZ and and your exact so that's proof right there. Just keep putting it out there, if not, share another story. Obviously, you were more business focused, but I I think a lot of people, especially now, industries have to go more customer focused than business focused, or they need everybody should have customers as well. So, yeah, share, share it's not a testimonial, share testimonials as stories. So so powerful.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, actually, back then in 1994, everybody led with the product.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, question hey, have you ever heard about DHEA? Well, let me tell you about it. Well, we have this precursor, here's the results people are getting. So, and so because of the product, that's what made the opportunity exciting. So we actually did lead with the product.
SPEAKER_01Okay, well, yeah, that's right. Yeah, but it was um yeah, big company in the 90s, and I I remember, yeah, you guys were definitely pretty solid because of leading with the product. Again, there's there's a balance there, and everybody's uh gonna be uh different. And speaking of the 90s versus whatever this decade is called, 2020s, I have no idea. A lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same. What one is there something that you recognize like this is for Evergreen, besides obviously personal development and things like that. Is there anything else in the business in life that you see is constant? Evergreen will never change or has not changed in the last 30 years.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. I was hoping you'd ask me that this kind of question. There you go. Oh, excellent. Yeah, this is sort of like my life story, my life mission. And uh that just to give a little bit of interesting context to this, you know, when when I lost my business and lost my freedom, you know, I uh I didn't know the iris didn't play fair when I went to court, you know, thought I would win, I lost. They don't play fair at all. I wasn't guilty, but you know, then they you know they don't play fair. Anyway, I went to prison for three years. So I had time to if I said, well, this is my sabbatical, you know. So I had a lot of time to think and reflect and pray and read and read a lot of books. But so during that time when I had a lot of time to think, I I dove into um a question I've had since I was a teenager. I used to read books as a teenager on this trying to understand what love really was. And I had this revelation that it's been life-changing for me. And this is what I've been, this is what I teach every week on my radio show.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03To some extent. And this, I think, is the most foundational thing to have a better life. I'd like to say everybody wants the same thing. You want to be happy, you want to be healthy, and we want to have a better life. So, what's the highest level secret or strategy or method to have a better life? And for me, it's having a correct understanding and of course implementing what I call the four dimensions of love. Because unfortunately, our culture has very misdefined love. You go to the dictionary or ask Google, they all say the same thing. Love is a feel is a feeling, is is an affection. Well, you know, the greatest commandment of the Bible is to love. And it wasn't talking about, you know, just having a feeling, you know. Um so, you know, for my my studies and reflection, I came up with the four dimensions of love that apply very much to business and and to life. And they all start with the letter C. And in parallel, just the great commandment, which is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. So, what's the difference? Loving with your heart versus your soul and your mind. So having those distinctions makes it much more useful and practical because love is sort of a vague thing. So you say, you know, I love ice cream, I love pizza, I love my dog, I love my car, I love my business, I love God, I love my wife, and and I love vacations. That's not love, it's that's you like. So they've really downgraded what love is. So loving with all so there's four works basically that cover the four dimensions of love. And they all start with the letter C, like communication. So the first word is caring. So would you love with all your heart? That's the caring element. That's the most obvious one. If you really do love, you care. So in business, if you want to have success, you've got to care. You've got to care about your success, you've got to care about other people, wanting to help people. You know, that's really foundational. And these four elements are like four wheels on a car. It really works best of all four wheels. You know, playing a baseball game. It works best when you cover all four bases. Not first base is good, second base is better, but you don't score until you get through all four bases, right? Home play. So the first C is caring. Second C based on loving with all of your soul, that's the connecting element. So we've got to connect. Authentic love, and it like I said, applies to everything, including business. If you want to have success, you've got to connect with people. You got to care and you got to connect. Otherwise, you're not going to follow you if there's no connection. Like you think of a train, if the cars aren't connected, you know, it it is left behind. So want people to follow you and believe you. You got to connect. You have to have rapport, you have to know, like, and trust you. You got to think rapport. How do how do I connect with this person? Get to know who they are, how they feel. You know, so connecting. The third element, love will follow your mind, but for mind we commit. We already talked about that a bit. So to have success in life, in marriage or business or with your health, whatever, you've got to be committed, particularly at that level three. You know, uh do whatever it takes. So if you want to build the big business and make a thousand dollars uh a month or ten thousand a month or a million a year, whatever it is, you've got to be committed. Along with the other first two, you gotta care, you gotta be connecting and committing. That's loving with all your mind. Loving with all your strength or all your might, that's the action element of love, which is the word is creating. In the beginning, God created us, God's the ultimate creator, but he designed us in his image. We create too, we create results. So we want to be creating value. So the fourth element or dimension of love for me, in my model, is creating value. So those are the four dimensions. So creating value means you're doing good, you're making a positive difference. Everybody wants to make a difference. You know, the terrorists they want to make a difference, but it's you know pretty negative, right? You know, but we want to be making a positive difference. So the best strategy in personal development, in business, marriage, relationships with your children, grandchildren is to understand these distinctions, these four dimensions, and to live them. You know, it it's basically the the ultimate answer to every challenge, every problem. If people really understood and lived these four dimensions of caring, connecting, committing, creating value, we didn't want to even have war. Most of our problems would go away because if you're coming from that mindset of caring, connecting, committing, and creating value that empowers you as a strategy and as a way of life to best handle any situation. You're more empowered that way. When you think love is oh, yeah, it's important to be loving. And most people think, well, it's like being nice or you you you you like things. But people really need to upgrade to the truth of what love really is, and that's it has a very practical application of those four four words. You know, the caring, connecting, committing, people know what that means. You you say you need to love people. Well, what is that? That's still pretty vague in our culture. But when you have those clear distinctions, what what does love mean? Love is caring, connecting, committing, and creating value. And then along with that, I have what I call the three gateways to love. You know, uh even a little more practical, it's even a little less abstract. Uh I call it my triple A formula. So these are the three gateways to love. First of all, is attention. You gotta give people attention. Everybody wants attention. You know, your your pets, even your plants, they need attention. You know, the people, babies, you know, adults, the your grandparents, everybody wants attention. So, in a business context, that's where it starts. You gotta if you don't give attention, well, there's no room for caring, connecting, committing, creating value. So it's like a gateway into love. Give people positive attention. The second A is appreciation in on two levels. You need to appreciate people, it needs to see the value. If your house appreciates value, it means it's going up in value. So when we appreciate people, it means we see their value, we see their potential, often which they don't see. So the first uh element of that is to believe that they have value and look for it, and then to express what you see, to reveal it to them. Okay, you know, you know, Jim, I mean, you really have it, uh you may not realize this, but you're really good at connecting with people, or you're really good at listening. You're really good at explaining, you know. You know, I appreciate that you have that. Yeah, you uh you need to learn a bunch of skills still, but you're really committed, you know. Do you want to express what you appreciate about people? And and if you don't appreciate people, you can't really love them that well. If you don't appreciate and see people's value, why would you bother taking time to care and connect and commit and commit for win-win and create value? And the third third A, I don't know, I'm saying talking about a lot here, is affirmation. People need to be affirmed. And like say, well, well, see how it works out. You know, good luck. If you have any questions, give me a call. People need affirmation. Like, you know, John, you know, you can do this. I believe in you, you know, because because is always a good word. You know, because um because you care about people and you want to make a difference. And uh and you're you're pretty smart and and you know how to listen, or whatever it is, you want to affirm people. I mean, you you're John, you're committed. You're so so when you think of how do you better love people, you can also think of the three A's giving them positive attention, appreciation, and affirmation. Uh, but ultimately I like the four C's, you know, the caring, connecting, committed, creating value, but they all all sort of fit together. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, that's that's a lot. It's it's amazing. And I'm just thinking that everything you've talked about and what a lot of guests talk about is if you just zoom out and go, should I focus more on what I have to say, or should I focus more on the prospect? And it's always focus on the prospect. They have questions, cool. Let's share a story about uh the product, let's share a story about uh success or what could happen to you. It's always focusing on the prospect. You're gonna win more than not easily than trying to impress people, try to show them fancy things, uh, try to you know manipulate versus uh giving value, focusing on prospect. And you you said it really quickly, but you said win-win. And the I'm 100% have a episode on win-win. It's all about win-win. If it's win-lose, it's not gonna last. Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly. And that's how I always clarify when I say you gotta be committed, you gotta be committed not just for your win, but for a win-win. Because if you end up only winning it all in the long run, it's usually a win-lose. And when it's a win-win, you feel better about yourself because not only are you ahead, but they're ahead. So you people have have to know and feel that you are committed to their success, that this is a win-win. You know, for me to win bigger, I've got to make sure you win bigger. So we're in this together. We're partners. I'm here for you. But you know, like I said, when you really like four wheels in a car to most to optimize, that's my favorite word, optimize. You want to optimize life, optimize your business, your marriage, or whatever, you you've got to cover all four bases. Your first base is the caring, second base is the connecting, third base is the committing, fourth base, where you you actually score. You know, that's that's the creating value. So when you have that as your mindset and as your strategy, that's your method. Uh, if you want to really want to help people, if you want to make a lot of money, you got to help a lot of people. Well, you can't help people if you don't care, connect, commit, and create value.
SPEAKER_01Yep, absolutely. And it's a good word picture because every time we watch a baseball game, every time we see a car with obviously four wheels, we're gonna remember those fours, the four C's.
SPEAKER_03I hope so, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow. Well, uh Ray, I appreciate your time. We could go hours, and I'll probably pick your brain later on uh this this year as well, because uh so much knowledge and it's practical, easy to use, easy to implement, and uh yeah, definitely look forward to uh another conversation uh with you. Um, but I do always ask three bonus questions, kind of a lightning round. Just first thing that pops up into your mind, Ray. Are you ready?
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, I'm ready. Yeah, whatever, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Here's one thing. What is one book, audio, you think everybody should read? It doesn't have to be business focused, it can be people focused, uh, whatever first thing comes to your mind.
SPEAKER_03Uh I'm tempted to say the Bible, you know. Um but but one of the pivotal books for me, other than the Bible, is um I still remember what I it was such a huge paradigm shift for me back in the 70s when I read Think and Grow Rich. Excellent. You know, it's an old book. Um of course it isn't just thinking and grow rich. You have to think intelligently, like Jim Rohn says, you gotta think intelligently, you have to change your thinking. For things to change, you've got to change, like Jim Rohn said. But you gotta think differently, like in my my model of the four dimensions of love. That's a different way of thinking about it. And so, so anyway, so that that's a good book, you know, that comes to mind. Seven happens to highly affected people, that's really good too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, yeah, a lot of the classics, as you said, uh, we talked about here evergreen, uh, very uh simple and and easy to to read. Well, you've been involved in the industry for decades. But what is one piece of advice you wish if you could go back a time machine, give yourself advice when you first got started? Well, what's one piece that you would say?
SPEAKER_03You don't most people make the mistake that uh you know I used to make at the beginning. So I went through like 40 different companies before I had any big success. But you don't know what you don't know. And it's sort of I was literally sort of too arrogant. You know, I was smart, I was intelligent, I figured, well, yeah, I can figure this out. And but you don't want to depend 100% just on what you get from the sponsor or from the company. Uh it might be good, but I think everybody would benefit tremendously from having a coach or some kind of mentoring, you know. And nowadays you get a lot of it for free, whether it's you know Tony Robbins, the old videos with Jim Rowan, you know. Yeah, it's a lot of good resources. So the mistake people make is they think, well, it's simple. You just you know if you sh if you care, you share. And you just talk to people, and then they do too much talking and not enough listening, and they don't establish rapport, they don't tell their story, don't give people options. You know, and you need to start with you've got two options, you know. Option one is uh you take advantage of what I'm showing you and have a better life, or option two, you can well actually option one that used to say, just do nothing, you know, just see how life works out. And option two is we take advantage of what I'm showing you. But uh we can't figure all this out ourselves. We gotta read the books and go to the workshops and take seminars. I remember the most life-changing workshop I went to, I almost didn't go because it's funny when it I was being presented, it was presented like I thought it was like a free workshop. Yeah, I'd already paid a thousand dollars for the freedom course of Mike Smith, and that was transformational. So this was the mastery of coaching, so it sounded really good. And then they told me the price $25,000. I said, What? Are you kidding me? And but what here's what got me uh they said, but you don't know what you don't know. That's what got me. And fortunately, I was in a place where I could afford it. So I said, okay, well, I got a lot of value already from the freedom course and put my mother through it and my sons through it, and my sister. You know, I got great value. So, like, this is going to the next level. And that was like the best thing I ever did. You know, the best 25,000, it was like a three-year coaching program. So, so the big mistake people make and that I I used to make for years is trying to do it all on your own or just depending just on your sponsor. You gotta go beyond that. You know, like I said, read the books, go to the workshops, you know, live training is best. You know, but but you gotta get the skills. You know, you should you should read at least you know five or ten of big Al's books. I mean, that it has great information. I mean, if you don't have the skills, commitment without skills probably won't get you there. You know, so you gotta be committed to personal development, committed not just to successfully to do whatever it takes. Well, part of what it's gonna take is is personal development. And sometimes you know, we get a lot for free. You know, I sp I spent a lot of money. This is the best money I ever spent, you know, all myself. You know, when you when you get better, like if you want things to change, you've got to change. And but changing doesn't happen automatically. You you gotta invest time and money. And people tend not to do that. They think, oh, this is simple. You just tell two people or three people, they tell three people, they tell three people, and before before you know it, you're rich, you know. Well, the the numbers work mathematically, but people are not numbers. I mean, it's a lot more complicated. So does that answer your question?
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And we got obviously some some bonus nuggets on there. I love these conversations, uh, because you just never know what's what's gonna pop up. One last bonus question is obviously you've uh lived in the US, now you're in Thailand. Is there a place you just like to go and relax? You know, is it the beach? Is it the mountains? Is it just staying at home? Uh, do you have a you know what is like your go-to way of just de-stressing and relaxing?
SPEAKER_03Well, that's a good question. Yeah, I think about this a lot every day because I'm feeling not only am I optimistic, no matter my situation, and that's a real poor people who live who are optimistic live on the average 10 years longer, by the way. But I'm really very, very grateful every day that I'm able to live right here in the ocean. I mean, I can walk out my front door and 30 seconds I'm right there at the edge of the ocean. I can hear the ocean 24 hours a day. So the first thing in the morning I go for like a 30-minute walk along the ocean, or I go swimming in the ocean. So I really, really like the ocean. People who live close to water, especially large bodies of water like the ocean, live longer. You know, you you know part of it's probably negative ions, some of it's just the energy, the information in the water. You know, the water resonates with your water and your body. I mean, but you know, that's that's what I really enjoy most about where I'm living now in Thailand, right? I'm interested in all of this thing. It's a big blessing, you know. So if you can't live on the ocean, look at pictures or videos.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, there you go. Yeah, there's always screensavers. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Well, Ray, again, I appreciate uh all your time and you're you're busy, and uh definitely appreciate you giving back to the industry, and of course, all the amazing nuggets.
SPEAKER_03Well, thank you. I appreciate the opening, the opportunity to share some gold nuggets because, like I said, we all want the same thing, we all want to have a better life. And um, some people that are in a really bad situation that it might even get worse for a while. But if you commit doing whatever it takes, along with optimism and getting the kind of help you need, you know, coaching or mentoring or whatever, you know, it really can be true that the rest of your life could be the best of your life. Um, but it doesn't happen automatically, it takes time and energy, commitment. You don't have to sell people on this idea. You want how can I convince you that for you to have want to have a better life? No, we they already that's a good word, they already want a better life. So you want to be promoting and selling what they already want. They just not may not realize that your product gives them what they already want. They may not see the connection. That's where you come in. You're connecting with them and explain how they have a problem, you have a solution. Yeah, so anyway, I probably said enough.
SPEAKER_01No good stuff. Always appreciate the bonus tips. And of course, hey, we'll probably catch you on another future episode. Appreciate it again.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for visiting the networker to get all of the networking tips delivered directly to your inbox. Or for more information about the book, audiobooks, online training, including Zooms and Master Collections, make sure and visit bigalbook.com.