The Journey with Mark Astor

Ep. 6 The Power Of Serving First: How Relationships Create Billion-Dollar Opportunities with Steven Ramona

• Mark Astor

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What does it really mean to lead with service in a world that often rewards self-promotion? In this episode, Mark Astor sits down with Steven Ramona to explore how genuine relationship-building, consistent value, and a servant-first mindset can open doors most people spend years trying to force open. Steven shares how serving others has shaped his approach to business, podcasting, and networking, and why the strongest opportunities often come from showing up for people before asking for anything in return. This conversation is a powerful reminder that meaningful success is rarely built alone.

Together, Mark and Steven unpack the difference between transactional networking and transformational connection, why mindset matters at every level of growth, and how podcasting can become a tool for authority, impact, and long-term opportunity. They also talk about taking action, learning later in life, building the right inner circle, and creating relationships rooted in trust instead of urgency. If you’ve ever wondered how to grow your business without losing your values, this episode will give you a fresh perspective. You may walk away rethinking not only how you network, but how you serve, lead, and grow.


Contact Mark Astor:

Website: https://mentalhealthaddictionlawfirm.com/

Phone number: 561-517-9405

Email: mark@astorsimovitchlaw.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markastor

TikTok: Mark G. Astor (@astorsimovitchlaw) | TikTok

SPEAKER_01

I love to serve. I got bills to pay. I've got a family to feed. You're not alone. Everybody in this space has that same scenario. But again, I started with serving or that service mindset should be part of water, drinking water and eating every day. You're not gonna be able to serve everybody. But if that's your first thought, I jump in every podcast meeting this podcast. What am I gonna do to serve today? How am I gonna uplift the audience and mark today? What can I what jewels can I bring? What have I learned? And share it with others.

SPEAKER_00

It's the journey with drug and alcohol attorney Mark G. Aster. Welcome to the journey with Mark Astor. I'm your host, Mark Astor. I've spent a lot of years sitting across the table from people during some of the most challenging moments of their lives. As an attorney, as an advocate, and as someone who understands that the road isn't always straight. What I've learned is that success, recovery, and growth rarely look the way we expect them to. On this podcast, I talk with people who are willing to be honest about their journey, what worked, what didn't, and what they wish they knew sooner. So I'm super excited to have as our guest and who has become a friend, and I'm very happy he's here. He's a much better podcaster than me, but that's okay. We're gonna get into this. Steve Romano. So Steve is a next level super connector, and I learned that from just the 20 minutes we spent a couple of weeks ago. He's created a billion dollars in project impact and over a hundred million in partner deals. Just by introducing people, amazing. What's his signature approach? Custom video intros that make every connection personal, purposeful, and profitable. As host of the top 20 Doing Business with a Servant's Heart podcast, now over 900 episodes strong and reaching 70,000 plus listeners per show. Holy smokes! Steve is a guiding voice in heart-led business growth. He also leads Together We Serve on E360 TV, where 1.6 million viewers tune in monthly to hear transformational stories from purpose-driven leaders. Steve doesn't just build networks, he's building a movement of meaningful collaboration and lasting impact. Wow. I feel a little humbled to have you on the show. But there are some interesting things. I think the first thing I learned about you when we spoke, and I think this is really important. You know, my father, who was not an educated man, he left school at 14 and my mom 16. And when they met on a blind date and both thought the other one was very, very wealthy, it turned out they didn't have two nickels to rub together. And, you know, my father built businesses with my mother. Some worked, some didn't, some made money, and towards the end of his life, unfortunately, Steve, he was left pretty close to broke. And that was a very hard thing to see. My dad was a proud man. But one of the things, one of the many lessons he he left me with is it's not what you know, it's who you know. And when we spoke, I mean, you just rattled off. When we f we were only, I think, talking for 15 minutes. You had like a half a dozen different people you wanted to connect me with. And I think really, if there's anything that I that I gathered from having my conversation with you, is that you are a master connector for other people and for yourself. Is that is that fair to say?

SPEAKER_01

That is, I'm not a big label guy, but I've been called super connector, master connector, crazy, a lot of great things. But here's something, and let's dive into who you know. And my Angelo quote popped up in my head when you were talking. It's how you make them feel. I don't know the whole quote, but the end is how you make them feel. Give them all so much money, you can give them so much, you can walk in the door, you can open a door, but how did you make them feel? Because I could open the door for somebody and say, hey, move your butt, get into the door. That just ruined a nice gesture, a nice thing of gratitude. So to show up for people, how you do that is build those relationships by bringing them value and uplifting them.

SPEAKER_00

So if somebody meets you for the first time and they say, Hey Steve, you know, what do you what do you do? What's what do you tell them? What's your response to that?

SPEAKER_01

How can I help you?

SPEAKER_00

Okay. I mean, I I think I would describe you as not just a master connector, but a master entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_01

Is that that's accurate? I'm very passionate about business. Um 64. I've learned a lot over my 40 years, and I'm learning today. I don't think I started learning till I was in my late 50s. So probably five, 10 years. And audience, if you're younger than 40, be learning. If you're over 70, be learning. I don't care what age, you wake up, and the first thing you should be excited about is what am I going to learn today? Because you can take that and serve others. Everything I've learned that I shared with you when we met, I may have learned from one of my podcast guests or somebody I met on a one-on-one.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you know, it's so true. I mean, I just turned 59. I don't think I got my act together, at least professionally, until I was 49. I've had this law from 10 years. I was 49 years of age. When I started this law from out of the library, I had nothing going on. I was broke. I had nobody special in my life. And I think that the one thing you just said that really resonated with me was that I did not have a group of people that I was helping. And and I tell other lawyers, what we're really here to do is to serve. And it's okay to charge for sometimes for your service, but the idea, the idea here is we are here to help people, to solve their personal problems. Because as lawyers, we look at it as a legal problem, but it's it's not, it's a personal problem for the for the for the client. And I'm I'm so happy that you said that. But it took me a really long time to figure that out.

SPEAKER_01

It does. And audience, again, if you're under 40, me and Mark, Mark are gonna smooth that curve out for you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Because you probably get asked, I do, what would you say to your younger self? I'd say, shut up, listen, and bring value. And I've got a great principle called ASLA, ASLA principle. One of my podcast guests came up with it, it was beautiful. It stands for ask, shut up, listen, and then ask. And they ask or ask questions on both ends of that. And the shut up and listen, people can't bridge that sometimes. They laugh, they smile. Hey, shut up. Aren't I listening? Absolutely not. And the image you want to put in your head is when you're in a Zoom room or a room, a virtual room with a bunch of people on video and their screen goes black. Are they listening? There's no judgment here. Maybe they go in the bathroom. I've had to leave, get a drink of water, whatever. But if Mark is talking and I'm black screen, I'm probably away from the computer. That's why I turn the video off. I'm not really listening. I'm only using it as that image again to show you. Yeah, you could shut up and start pitching people. And the person has no pain point for you to help them. Now you look like an, to be honest, an idiot. And I get pitched all the time.

SPEAKER_00

You know, it's so funny you say that. You know, one of the things that I had to learn when I first opened up my the business of my law firm was how to really have a sales conversation with somebody. And the traditional model for most lawyers is you bring the client in, right? You don't pre-qualify them, you bring them in. And for me, pre-qualifying means not just that they might be a client for us, but I might be the right lawyer for them. They don't have that conversation before the client comes in. They sit them down, and for at least the first half of the conversation, the lawyer is busy telling the client or prospective client how brilliant they are, right? And how many, how much, you know, how successful they've been. And the client's sitting there saying, Well, that's nice, but what are you going to do for me? And see, what happens is they don't sit there and listen to the client's problem and shut up long enough to actually hear if help hear if they can actually help this person. And I had to learn that. You know, it's part of, and I hired a sales coach to teach me how to do that. And he'd say, Listen, Mark, ask a question and then just shut up and listen.

SPEAKER_01

And there's a lot of noise out there, Mark. That's the problem with the world these days. There's social media and friends. There's so much ways people communicate with us with that noise. We get fearful. We get scared. I talk to people all the time. I love to serve, I get bills to pay, I've got a family to feed. You're not alone. Everybody in this space has that same scenario. But again, I started with serving or that service mindset should be part of water, drinking water and eating every day. You're not gonna be able to serve everybody. But if that's your first thought, I jump in every podcast meeting, this podcast. What am I gonna do to serve today? How am I gonna uplift the audience and mark today? What can I what jewels can I bring? What have I learned and share it with others?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you have so much great stuff I want to talk to you about. So I'm just gonna try and cover as much as I can with you. Okay, your network is your net worth. Talk about that. I love that.

SPEAKER_01

Let's change that. Your network is your quality net worth. What does that mean? You can go network with a bun, and I did this for five years, running networking groups with people struggling, trying to make it. And now you're around people struggling. It's hard for them to help you or even help yourself. So your network should be mentors, people much more successful than you. Build relationships with them, have them part of your network. You'd be able to have access to them. I have access to probably five billionaires and probably 200 million or more successful people. And I use only dollars because of success. I know they've done it. I know they've had the bottoms and the tops. But here's the power of serving because my everything I talk about comes back to serving. When I have a mentor like Eric Collette, who's built this great brain academy, I call it, where he helps people with Alzheimer's and done great things with them. He actually got me off diabetes medicine and lost 45 pounds with his mentorship. Now, what's cool about that? I'm healthier. That's why I love podcasts. He was on my podcast, and that's where I met him. It's a powerful tool to build your quality network. But guess what? I've shared what I've done, my story through Eric to 20 people. And they, a lot of those people have lost weight, have gone off medicine. So you see, I took Eric, my mentor, took his information, I took action, which is very important, and then I shared it off. And I still to this day share it off to others.

SPEAKER_00

I'm so glad you used the word action. You know, one of the things I did over the last couple of weeks is I I re-listened to Think and Grow Rich. And so I listened to Think and Grow Rich. And my mentor, somebody who 11 years ago completely changed the direction of my life. If I've never if I'd never met him, I don't know, I don't I'd probably be selling insurance or used cars at this point. He or he wrote a he modified a book and created uh Think and Grow Rich for Lawyers. And I, you know, I think that at different stages of your career and your financial progress, the book means different things. But one of the things I I got out of it was at the end of the day, I mean, you have to take action. And if you're starting a business from ground zero, you have to take massive action. And just, you know, lately we've decided, you know, I want to get the business from here to there. And I'm like, you know, I have to take massive action again. It may be different massive action, but I got to take action. Because if you know, I might be the world's greatest lawyer, but if nobody knows I'm out there to help them, then how do I serve and how do I grow my business?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And it really is about taking action. You got, but the key is to try and take the right action, right? What's the right marketing for me? How do I reach my target audience? And that's maybe a different conversation. But that brings me to the next topic I want to run by you, which is podcasting your way to goals, which is ironic because this is sort of the second iteration of the podcast. We did it many years ago, and then I sort of got fat and happy doing other stuff. And I realized that part of my massive action to get us to the next level is going to require podcasting. So this is a you know sort of a brand new endeavor for me. But I saw that and I was like, okay, I gotta talk, I gotta talk to Steve about that because I know you have a kick-ass podcast that I could only hope to get to. So talk about that, that that philosophy.

SPEAKER_01

You started with, I believe it's your first podcast re-restart, right? Is the first one. Remember, I started with my first one back in October of or January of 2023. We're all there. Elon Musk didn't just wake up and be a trillionaire. He started from ground zero. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Mark Cuban, one of my favorite guys I like to watch. We all start somewhere, but with podcasting, especially is consistency and staying with it. Right now, the numbers are drastically terrible. After seven episodes, 95% of people quit podcasting. You said my bio, what I've done.$100 million in partnerships. I'm closing a multi-million dollar deal. I'll make a million dollars this year. And that was tied to the podcast, building that quality network, net worth to a network. Take that phrase you mentioned earlier. What a great way to jump on a meeting with somebody, meeting you for the first time, and you're doing a podcast. Here's some of the things high energy, you get to know somebody deeper than a one-on-one call or a sales call. You get to grow with them for an hour. And then at the end, most of the time they go, Man, how can I help you, Steve? What can I do to help you? This was fantastic. That doesn't happen all the time. But then, as you built that relationship, I can go out to these podcast guests and ask for anything I need. Like a perfect example, I need$100 million for a project. I reached out to 20 podcast guests, and I had 10 emails back within 24 hours of referrals for$100 million.

SPEAKER_00

That is amazing. And how do you promote the podcast?

SPEAKER_01

Tell all my friends. So you starting a podcast like Mark is, and this is good for Mark. If you're starting a podcast or new, go through your contact list and reach out to everybody. Hey, everybody, I launched my podcast. Well, like right now, especially. When I started, they were they were around, but today everybody knows what a podcast is. So the marketing is pretty simple. And I'll give you an example. I launched my podcast. A year later, I launched a newsletter with the podcast. I had 5,000 people on my contact list. Reached out to about 4,500, 500 were people, family and stuff, or weren't part of my were not around, or I didn't know them that well. So I took 4,500 people. I sent them all an email. Hey, I'm excited. I've launched a podcast. It said quick question in the subject. I've launched a podcast. Here's my newsletter. I'd love for you to subscribe. 3,000 subscribers within a week. Data. Subscribers are data. That's gold. And to this day, I'm up to 3,600 subscribers after a year. So it works.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I have about 11,000 people on our newsletter that goes out every week. But I, you know, I never thought about telling them about the podcast. And I'm sure they'd want to know because we're talking about some of the stuff that applies to the families that we work for. So I appreciate that. I just learned something.

SPEAKER_01

And take the numbers with this. I know you're going to jump on some other. So you have 11,000. I use a 10% rule. 1,100 subscribed to your YouTube channel. Most people have less than 100 subscribers. You just 10 times your subscriber base. Again, more eyeballs on your business and on you.

SPEAKER_00

This is an interesting one I saw here. How to network correctly, right? Because I've noticed, you know, I one of my mentors used to say to me, if you go to the same networking event three times, one of and you don't get any business out of it, one of two things happened. Either you didn't really network, or it's just the wrong audience for you. So I wanted to get your idea on the thoughts on that because it says here how to network correctly. Tell me what you mean by that, and how do we network correctly?

SPEAKER_01

It's a powerful tool. This is for online, in person, at the grocery store, whatever. So I've talked about be transformational, not transactional. That's the first. That's a mindset thing. Be transformational in your mindset. How can I transform this people person? And then the ASLA principal, of course. But here's a tip that I learned from Shelly Goldstein, who's a master speeching coach. He teaches people how to do TED Talks and all that. You walk in when you introduce yourself. Don't go Steve Ramona, I do this and this, and the features and benefits of what you do. You do this. I work in renewable energy. So I would come up to Joe Smith and go, Joe, what's your name? What do you do? And he'll tell me, Hey, I'm a lawyer and I work with divorce divorcees, and I've been around 20 years. That's great. That's talking about himself, which most people do. Here's what I do. I go, hey, Joe, that's great. What do you do, Steve? Joe, imagine you wake up tomorrow morning, your computer doesn't go on, your phone doesn't work, all your electronics are dead. What would you feel? Oh my God. I would struggle. My business would have a problem. Did you know in Spain and Portugal in 2025, the whole country went out of power? The whole country had no power for 24 hours. We solved that problem with renewable energy, finding landowners and projects, putting renewable energy in and data centers so people's phones and websites work. Did I talk about features or benefits? Did I talk about me at all? Except this is what we do. So you tell a story when you're networking with people because it's the Mile Angelo called. How do you make him feel? I just made Joe Smith feel scared. It's a feeling. Well, how can I? And the next thing you know, he's gonna go, how can I help you? Who are you looking for? It starts generating this energy of man, I can help. Man, you are become that person that's walked somebody's world. You haven't even talked about yourself at all.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you know, I think sometimes there's sort of this this misnomer that when you go to a network networking event, you have to meet everybody in the room. You want to speak to everybody. And and I've always had the philosophy that you for me, I'd rather have two or three quality conversations with people than speak to than have a you know 30-second conversation with everybody in the room who's probably not gonna remember me anyway. And you think that's an important part of networking and meeting the right people?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, absolutely. And let's add to this because the other mindset should be people do podcasts, and I'll jump off a real quick tangent here. And it takes sometimes it's five months later, and they mention to me, hey, your podcast is available. Can you share it? And I do, but I've probably forgotten about it. What I do is when I do a podcast within a week, it's out. I don't wait months. So I call value at mouth level, chin level. That's good value. You've brought value, but always thinking how I can go next level to the chin to the nose. And when you're networking in a group, especially in person, it's great. And you meet Mark Astor and he works with lawyers, your mind should be going, and right away it's going with me. Hey, you know what? Tony over there, Mark, let me introduce you. He's a lawyer. I think you guys have a great conversation. Now, people get scared doing that because does it benefit them? Not directly, but I call God or universe, whatever you, you know, spiritualists, will reward you. We just don't know how, when, or where. So networking also includes you networking other people, partnering them up together. Because again, you won't be forgotten.

SPEAKER_00

I like that. Let's talk about mindset for a second. You know, so part of my journey was I worked for a company about 11 years ago that teaches lawyers the business side of Pratt's in law. And that's not something they teach any lawyer at any law school, anywhere in the country, which is why, for the most part, most lawyers are terrible business people. And I'm and I met the founder, a guy by the name of R. John Robbins, at a breakfast meeting that I ended up going to by pure chance. So, and after I saw I heard him speak to a group of lawyers about being an entrepreneurial lawyer, I basically begged him for a job. But what I didn't know was was that what what his company really is at their core is that they are a personal growth company. And they believe that personal growth has to be, has to precede financial growth. And I'd never been exposed to that. So R. John Roberts is basically the Tony Robbins of the legal profession. And I just, you know, so when you talk about mindset, you know, for most people they're like, well, what is that? And so maybe you could talk about that because I think that, you know, we have our mindset has to change, right? If I want to go from, say, a seven-figure business to an eight-figure business, I have to become the person that runs an eight-figure business, right? I can't be the person who, you know, had a seven-figure business, or, you know, when I was struggling and, you know, couldn't pay my bills, I'm a different person now than I was then. And so maybe you could talk about mindset because I think that is a very, very important subject when it comes to growing a business.

SPEAKER_01

Guts. Have the guts to go up to this gentleman like you did and ask a question. Here's why. Those people are gonna teach us, educate us, be our mentors. Our mindset's gonna change because they're gonna give you belief that you can do anything. I had a gentleman on my podcast, Rami, who's passed away, unfortunately, who speaking of Think and Grow Rich, wrote used Think and Grow Rich to go from 17 and homeless to a billionaire. And on my show, he literally sent$100 million to an owner. He had to leave the show because he had to take the call to take a wire. He's building a city, a homeless city in California. I learned so much from him. His book is incredible. That's the other thing. Mindset is about personal development. I'm so confident today, which I wasn't five years ago, because I've learned from people, from books, from watching videos, just building yourself up. Try to get better 1% every day in personal development. And your business will grow. Your network will grow. Because I have no problem growing up talking to people now. Where before it's all that guy's, he's like, I wouldn't have a billionaire in my podcast. What am I going to ask him? You ask him anything because they have a story and a message to say. What's your challenge is Ivan Meisner, founder of BNI? Millions, multi millions of dollars. Very successful. We had the greatest conversation. Because let's let's look at this in the mirror, Mark. They're human, like we are. They're just labeled as successful, millionaires, billionaires. That's all. Those are just labels. But you break it down to the bottom. They're human as we are.

SPEAKER_00

And if they don't want to talk to you, you go next. I've read a lot about mindset and you know, and and I'm always saying to myself, okay, what separates, say, somebody from like an Elon Musk to maybe somebody like me or just a regular person? And I'm always trying to figure out what that is. And I saw an interview once with Elon Musk. They asked him about Tesla, the cars. And the interviewer said, you know, when you started, you know, Tesla cars, what did you think your chances of success were? He said, I figured it was about 10%. And the guy and the interviewer said, 10%? That doesn't seem like very good odds. He's like, no, the odds were terrible. But I did it anyway. And now we have all these electric cars on the road. Whether you like them or not, this is a different conversation. But the point is, I mean, there was a 90% chance in his own mind that he was going to fail. And yet he did it anyway. That's mindset. Believing that he could do it and get it right and be successful, even with an only only a 10% chance. Right?

SPEAKER_01

The other mindset about that is you're gonna fail. Moran Buffett failed 40 bankrupt companies. He's a trillionaire. He's one of the richest guys in the world. He tells you he's failed. They've all failed. Nobody's climbed like straight up the ladder. There's always dips in that graph. Always gonna be dips. How you handle those mindset-wise, I think is even more important to failures. I lost a$20 million deal in October of last year for my company, me and my partner, from things that wasn't out of our control. I learned a lesson from one of my guests, is he said, Steve, be human for 24 hours. What does that look like? Pity party, eat pizza, do an out two-hour work, beat yourself up for 24 hours or less. Because you're going to be human, because that's a fact. It was life-changing for me and my family and my partner's family. But you know what we did? We moved on the next day and found more projects for even more money.

SPEAKER_00

I read a very interesting book. It was written by Michael Jordan's personal trainer, Tim Grover. And you know, he talks all about Michael's mindset. And I mean, he's, you know, but Michael and Kobe had the very similar mindset. And they, and you know, one of the things that Tim Grover said about Michael is that Michael didn't want to just be the best player. He wanted to be the best player ever to play the game. When Michael got done with the game, whether they won or they lost, I'd go to Michael and I'd say, okay, 5, 6, or 7. Meaning, am I going to see you in the gym at 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock, or 7 o'clock? And Michael would shout back a number, 7. Okay. 6.55, bang on Michael's door, they're ready to go. And he said, you know what's interesting? The most successful guy on the team was also the hardest working because at 7 o'clock, when I was in the gym with Michael, you know where the rest of the team was? They were sleeping. They were sleeping. So I said, Wow. You know, and he said, Kobe did the same thing. That's mindset. Right? And, you know, I know in my own business, I mean, there have been times where, you know, you know, a certain marketing thing, like pay-per-clip, would work, and I'd be like, oh, it's working. I don't have to, I don't have to go out and meet people. And then it, of course, Google changes the algorithm and things slow up. And I've noticed you you have to always be trying to move forward. And there's going to be certain things that work, right? My YouTube channel is starting to work, right? But a year from now, it may stop working. And I think you always have to be evolving and paying attention and making sure that you're reaching your target audience so you can serve more people. And sometimes I've noticed that the I always say, well, that stopped working. And what's really going on is that the universe is giving me a kick in the butt and saying, okay, you need to go in a different direction. And I think the biggest thing for me when it grew in the growing the business was, as you said, is sometimes just listening and shutting up and listening to what the universe is trying to tell you, right? Yo, papercleck's not working this month. Do something else.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's another thing. Act of listening with the universe. Absolutely. And I'm a big Kobe fan. And a backup that story, I don't know, you're going to love this, the Dream Team. I watched the video, the documentary, and you probably saw it too, where Kobe is going to the gym. The rest of the players are coming back from partying. Within three days, they stopped partying and they were meeting him in at the gym at five in the morning. So mindset not only affects you, but can affect others. But you actively have to work at it every day.

SPEAKER_00

What Tim Grover also said is that, you know, after Michael retired, a lot of the Bulls players, they went to other teams and they got these massive contracts. And he said, you know what? They went to play for these other teams, and the other teams were like, what the hell happened to this guy? This isn't the guy we saw playing for the Bulls. And he said, you know what happened? No Michael. No Michael, no pressure, no pressure. They just reverted back to their normal self. It was Michael who was relentless about winning and being a champion and playing as the best you could every single night.

SPEAKER_01

True leader. That's a true leader.

SPEAKER_00

So I really related to that. And I try to listen to those books and read those books because I think when you don't, when you don't constantly work on your mindset, it's easier to revert back into your old self.

SPEAKER_01

So too much noise out there. Social media, back to that again. Too much noise. You have to deflect it.

SPEAKER_00

Talk about, it says here, how to build an inner circle that grows your income. Talk to me about that. Because I thought that was very interesting.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's back to the mentors. I'm using a podcast. I think everybody should have a podcast. I know not everybody can do it. It's such an easy way to bring mentors into your world by inviting them to tell their story. Like you've invited me to tell my story. But if there's other ways, is you reach out to these people. I've got an inner circle of three or four people I meet with monthly. They're always picking my brain how I can help them, how they can help me. A mastermind. Think and grow rich. That's what Napoleon Hill talked about. Mastermind. That's that inner circle where people get together and do great things. Tony Robbins, I was listening to a podcast with him. He's got five obviously multi-billionaires. They meet monthly. You know what Tony says? He says we can't be comfortable with our successes. He may, and if you watch the video with Alex Ramosy audience, just search it. It's unbelievable. He started coaching Alex. But what he said was, I fed 24 million people, poor people, in 20, I think 23, whatever year it was. He started to be satisfied. Hell of an event. Talk about legacy he's leaving. But what he found was when he woke up one morning, he says, Can we do more? Can we do a hundred billion? And that's how keeps you keep building that inner circle, building yourself. Because you know what he did two a year later? No, so he did it in a year, 24 million or a few years. In a year, he did 20 billion. And he just keeps leveling up.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Are you are you familiar with Grant Cardone? Oh, yeah. I figured you would be. You know, I learned a lot from him. I know he's sort of an out there kind of guy, but you know, I think what what I really related to him was he's in recovery. And he talked about his recovery journey. And, you know, his he's he's into, you know, he's that he's Mr. 10x, right? It's ironic, you know, after my father died, you know, my siblings and I got my mom an apartment, and the building had a it was called Altice. Now she lives, now my mother lives in a 10x building because Grant came moved to Florida from California and he built up, he he bought all the apartment buildings, and my mother lives in 10x. But you know, he he talks about the idea of mindset, right? He doesn't use that well, but he talked, I think when he's talking about 10x, that's what he's talking about. And he was saying, you know, you're you're thinking too small, right? You don't need you don't need$100,000 a year, you need a million dollars a year, you don't need a million, you need 10 million. He's like, You gotta t you gotta multiply that number. You're thinking too small, right? You know, and he's like, well, it takes just as much effort to make 10 million as it does a million. So why not make 10 million? Or whatever your goal happens to be. And I really, I really related to that, you know. And there's just people out there who just somehow and and look, he's a guy that came from nothing. He his father dropped dead when he was a kid. He got into drugs, he got he got his head split open because he was in the middle of a drug deal, somebody pistol whipped him, and that woke him the hell up. But here's a guy who came from absolutely nothing and has built this multi-billion dollar real estate portfolio. And it's easy to you know throw stones and criticize him, but you got to give him credit. It wasn't given to him, you know, it wasn't. And I I just admire people like that, you know, like guys like Joe Rogan who have this amazing podcast. Again, Joe Rogan's a guy that came from nothing, it wasn't given to him. And I always try to look at people like that. So I don't know, when I hear your story, I I I put you in that light because you're in it, you're just amazing. And yeah, we only have a few minutes left, but maybe with the time that we do have left, talk about some. I know that you you you told me that you just got this big deal done. Maybe talk about some of your recent successes and and what you hope the future will look like for you.

SPEAKER_01

I'm gonna start with the recent successes of serving. I get multiple emails in January and December from people thanking me for spending time with them and helping them grow, bringing value, uplifting them. Though those, I get more and more of those every day. And then on the flip side, because of my podcast, this is why people should have a podcast. Is you build I built my brand where people are reaching out, asking me to do things like TV shows, articles written about me, stuff I never thought would happen. I wasn't that kind of person. But building my brand of serving, he's the super connector with a servant's heart. It's a powerful legacy I want to leave. And that's audience, how you leave that legacy. You want to build your brand because the more money I make, the more people I meet, guess what? The more people I can serve.

SPEAKER_00

I like that. I do, I like that. And I think that's all really down to mindset, right?

SPEAKER_01

I think service is a skill, mindset's a skill, but service practice every day. And here's a tip for your audience: you want to be a better service or a servant's heart, go to grocery stores, restaurants where people have counterclerks, whatever you call them, whatever you live, and say their name twice. Tony, hey, how's your day going? Hey, Tony, thank you for packing my bags. Have a wonderful day. You will change your universe so fast. But more important, Mark, is you're impacting that person and changing their lives. A quick story I was at. I tell people ask me, what do you do when you have a bad day? And I do. We all have bad days. Real days. I say, go serve. And so one day I took my advice, two o'clock, left the office. I never do, went grocery shopping. And in front of me was a lady with a baby. And I had this feeling I'm gonna serve her today. I want to help her. So I tell the clerk who was a I'm in California, a long-haired surfer dude, good guy. I've seen it multiple times. Dude, I asked to pay for her groceries. People do it on Starbucks and things like that. And finally he said, Okay, I'll take your card. And she said, No, so just let me do it. Uh, it was a small amount, and she had a baby in her arms. So I pay for mine, pay for hers. We walk out together, she's tearing up, and I go, Found her name is Debbie. I said, Debbie, what's going on? I'm so sorry. And she said, she said, I'm not crying because I'm sad. I'm crying because my husband lost his job last week. And you just bought the groceries, we didn't know how we were going to pay for it. Did I know that? No, because my mindset was service. I wanted to serve, I wanted to make that effort. And that's what saying people's names are a minimum of two times. If you don't know their name, ask them. Excuse me, Mark, excuse me, I met you a couple, what was your name again? Oh, Mark, Mark, man, it's great to see you. I've never had anybody call me an a-ho for doing that.

SPEAKER_00

I like that. All right, we're almost out of time. If somebody wants to get a hold of you or just find out about more about you, how do they do that?

SPEAKER_01

Reach out to me at Steve R1961 at Gmail. That's Steve R1961 Gmail. And everything I talked about today, I have a community I've built. And doing business with the servants heart podcast. Just search that. You'll see the blue logo with our podcast.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. I love that. If you want to find out more about what we do, our main website is mental healthaddictionlaw firm.com. That's mental healthaddictionlaw firm.com, or just Google me, Mark Astor. I don't have as much content as Steve out there, but I'm working on it. So you should be able to find all of our YouTube videos which are free and which give you the information you'll need if you want to decide whether or not you want our help. And we'll see you in the next episode of the journey.