Paul Martinelli on Investing in Yourself, Never Agreeing with Your Limitations, and Pricing Your Services

Episode Summary:
In this episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast, Paul talks about self-confidence, how his childhood experiences formed him into an entrepreneur, dreaming big, and making it big in his endeavors.

5 Key Takeaways:

1. He talks about how Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich helped him grow as a person.
2. Paul shares his beliefs surrounding risk. 
3. He discusses how Bob Proctor changed his life.
4. He highlights how crucial communication is to selling your value.
5. Paul gives advice to listeners about pricing your services.

About Paul:
 Paul Martinelli is an internationally acclaimed speaker, trainer, mentor, and coach who truly believes that if you can dream it, you can do it. His awareness and ability to apply the success strategies and principles that he has learned and taught to others, led to Paul’s success in life and business, including building 5 multi-million-dollar companies. He is the Founding President of the John Maxwell team and now leads the Empowered Living community, a global platform of more than 2.3 million followers, providing personal and professional development training and education to help individuals and businesses build and grow beyond their current results. Having worked his way up from mop bucket to multi-millionaire, Paul has practiced and proven what he preaches.

Quotes From the Episode:

“If I act on this idea, will it move me in the direction of my dream?” -Paul Martinelli

“Risk is just a perception of our lack of resourcefulness.” -Paul Martinelli

“I will never make an agreement with somebody’s limitations.” -Paul Martinelli
“Proximity is power.” -Paul Martinelli

“It pays to buy knowledge.”-Paul Martinelli

“Find one thing and master it.” -Paul Martinelli

Guest Resources Mentioned:

Think and Grow Rich: https://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Napoleon-Hill/dp/0785833528

You Were Born Rich: ​​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rPDhM-mIJI

Allbirds shoes https://www.allbirds.com/

As a Man Thinketh: https://www.amazon.com/As-Man-Thinketh-Complete-Original/dp/1523643536

Pyscho-cybernetics: https://www.amazon.com/Psycho-Cybernetics-Updated-Expanded-Maxwell-Maltz/dp/0399176136

The Science of Getting Rich: https://www.amazon.com/Science-Getting-Rich-make-money/dp/1516916816

De Lebrije: https://www.librije.com/

Kali’s: https://kalirestaurant.com/

Bazaar: https://www.thebazaar.com/

Your Invisible Power: https://www.amazon.com/Your-Invisible-Power-Genevieve-Behrend/dp/1603865136

Connect with Paul:
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey leader, and welcome to episode number 311 of the L three leadership podcast, where we are obsessed with helping you grow to your maximum potential and to maximize the impact of your leadership. My name is Doug Smith and I am your host. And today's episode is brought to you by my friends at Barung advisors. If you're new to the podcast, welcome. I'm so glad that you're here. And I hope that you're enjoy our content and become a subscriber. Know that Yukon also watch all of our episodes on our YouTube channels to make sure you're subscribed there as well. And if you've been listening to us for a while and the podcast has made an impact on your life, it would be the world to me. If you would leave us a rating and review on apple podcast or Spotify or whatever app you listen to podcast through, that really does help us to grow our audience and reach more, which is our whole mission here at HealthView leadership. So thank you in advance for that. Well, in today's episode, you'll hear an amazing conversation that I got to have with Paul Martinelli. If you're unfamiliar with Paul, let me just tell you a little bit about him. Paul grew up just outside of Pittsburgh, where he was raised with three other siblings by a single mom. He was raised in an abusive home. He struggled with a stuttering disability and ultimately became a high school dropout at the age of 16. Although early years were tough there gave him the fortitude he needed to push forward and become who he is today. And just a few years after leaving high school with only$200 in a used vacuum, he found it at your service cleaning company. This was the first business that he built into a multi-million dollar business and ultimately sold. And he has since created a built multiple multimillion dollar businesses. His latest being the co-founder of the John Maxwell team, a globally recognized public speaking and training organization with over 20,000 members. Now, Paul spends the majority of his time studying teaching and applying the principles of human potential, including leading the empowered living community, a social media following with more than 2.3 million people. He has shared the stage with such personal development master, such as John C. Maxwell, Seth Goden, Les brown, Jack Canfield, Wayne Dyer, Brian Tracy, and so many more. And he offers courses, coaching mastermind groups, and speak engagements for groups and individuals seeking personal growth, business success and overall fulfillment. And in our conversation, you'll hear Paul talk about how he overcame his, had to do what he's doing today. You'll hear him share about what he learned from the book think and grow rich, which is his favorite book of all time. You'll hear him share the lessons that he learned from giving Bob Proctor$300,000 to mentor him. And we talk about coaching sales. And of course we take him through the lightning route. You're gonna love this interview, but before we get into it, just a few announcements. This episode of the L three leadership podcast is sponsored by bear at tongue advisors, the financial advisors at Barung advisors, help educate and empower clients to make informed financial decisions. You can find out how Barung advisors can help you develop a customized financial plan for your financial future by visiting their website@barungadvisors.com. That's B R a T N G advisors.com securities and investment pro and services offered through LPL financial member, FINRA, and S I P C bar tongue advisors, LPL financial and L three leadership are separate entities. I also wanna thank our sponsor. He jewelers their jeweler and by my friend and mentor John, he, my wife, Laura, and I got our engagement and wedding rings through he jewelers and had an amazing experience. And not only do they have great jewelry, but they also invest in people. In fact, for every couple that comes in engaged, they give them a book to help them prepare for marriage. And we just love that. So if you're in need of a good jeweler, check out, he jewelers.com. And with all that being said, here's my conversation with Paul Martinelli. Well, Hey Paul, thank you so much for being willing to do this interview. And I just wanna start off talking about the way you raised, you were born here in Pittsburgh, same city that I'm from. And, uh, you have really interesting upbringing. You were raised by a single mom or a high school dropout and, and ended up becoming an entrepreneur. Can you kind of give us an overview of your upbringing and that story?

Speaker 2: 3:37

Yeah, I, I, again, and, and great to be with you and, and all your listeners and congratulations on the success of the podcast. This is awesome. And, and, you know, anytime to help a fellow Pittsburgh, I mean, the guys from four, two have to stick together, right? So, you know, I like, you know, the, the, the, the, the home of my childhood was not a safe place to be. Uh, I grew up, uh, you know, with a single mom, but it was a violent home. Uh, we were physically verbally, emotionally abused. Um, and a, a as a result of that, I just, I, I, I developed a, a stutter. I, I stamped today, but when I was really young, it was really bad. And I didn't realize Doug how that would frame the first half of my life, because the, of course the, the speech impediment itself was, was a challenge. But what I didn't expect was the low self image that it would cause me to create of myself. Right. I mean, whenever, whenever we're picked on or teased, and, you know, we, we see ourselves kind of marginalized and diminished. It, it forms a, a, a self concept that ties both to our self image and our self-esteem. And so that really led me, cuz you know, you mentioned, you know, I, I fell outta school and what's interesting is, you know, my brother, my brother, Tom, uh, graduated, uh, from the university of Pittsburgh with the degree of microbiology. My brother David graduated from Carnegie Mellon university with the PhD in engineering. My sister Jeanie graduated, uh, number one outta Allegheny college in Meadville, uh, in nursing. And so I, you know, I come from good stock and for most of us, we were programmed to believe that kind of our DNA and our environment really form who we are, but really it's our self concept, our self-belief. And so I was always though an entrepreneur. I started my first official business, I guess when I was 22, a cleaning business, but I was always that kid in Pittsburgh and let's face it. Pittsburgh's one of those cities where if you're, if you're willing to hustle as a kid, you can make a buck. Right? I could, I could shovel snow. I could make leaves. I could cut grass. I could collect bottles. I sold peanuts in the strip district down. So, you know, I think we grew up poor as well. And so I think in that environment, um, the uncertainty of my own kind of safety emotionally and physically and the poverty, you know, poverty teaches you things, something prosperity, never will, you know, it teaches you a level of self-reliance and hustle if you allow it to. And so that, that's what really formed me into an entrepreneur.

Speaker 1: 6:10

Wow. And so did you, did you have self confidence when you started your cleaning business at 22? You, for those who don't know my understanding is you scale of that to be a multi-million dollar business that actually, uh, you ended up selling, um, did you just have confidence in your ability to be an entrepreneur? How did you grow in, in, in that journey?

Speaker 2: 6:26

You know, I, I had confidence in my ability to go door to door, you know, cuz going door to door to shovel snow, really, cuz you know, when I started my business, I had$200 in a drain, right. I, I bought a used vacuum cleaner about some pledge, some Windex and I went door to door businesses asking if I could, you know, be their janitor at night. And really my confidence was so low. It's why I started a cleaning company. I figured, you know, any, any dummy could clean a toilet and you know, I was any dummy and I mean the thing, I mean, I, I, I didn't have hopes and dreams of becoming Mr. Clean, you know that, and I, I just, I just needed to make a few bucks. And I, I remember in the south side where I lived, uh, when I was 17 and 18, I was cleaning bars on Sarah street and east Carson street late at night. And so I knew, I knew that that service existed. And so, you know, I, you know, kind of, you know, necessity pushed me in that direct. Um, I would begin to gain confidence. Uh, when I had my first mentor, I was 24 years old when my life changed. I was 22, 19 88 when I started the cleaning company in south Florida. And one day when I was out cold calling to build, build my business when I was in a place Doug of just struggle, like most entrepreneurs, you know, I was, I was on that, that wheel where, you know, you, you hire somebody and somebody quits, you get a new account and another account quits, you know, um, I was making probably 17 to$20,000 a year and I walked into a guy's business who was, you know, he probably was worth a hundred million dollars. His father was the chief legal tax account for Exxon corporation. At that time was the largest company in the world. He was a retired municipal bond trader on wall street. His brother ran the trading desk at Shearson Lehman brothers. And he pulled off a book from behind him, the book thinking we're rich. And he took me through that book word by word sentenced by sentence, the paragraph by paragraph page by page, chapter by chapter for the better part of three years and in think and grow rich in the chapter on desire. It's the second chapter in the book. There's, there's a formula, it's a six, six step formula to building self confidence, which is really, it's a goal setting process. But by having a goal, it develops confidence. And that's really where I think my, my confidence UNC certainty began to grow as an entrepreneur.

Speaker 1: 8:47

Yeah. I know. You've talked about think and grow rich all the time for those who haven't read it. What would you say are the, the top three takeaways for you that have, have impacted your life from the book?

Speaker 2: 8:56

Oh wow. That, that's a great question. Uh, he says he makes a promise in the book. He says that there's a secret in the book. And then if you can find the secret, you can, you can have anything you want. And I think if you, if you look at it, Napoleon hill, I've got a book, I've got a shirt here that says hill Alan malt and goes on to say waddles, that's the sign of getting rich and tr word Thomas tr word. But Napoleon hill studied the lives of 25,000 people. 500 of which were like the most successful Edison Ford, Rockefeller Alexander rebel Carnegie, who, you know, we've all been beneficiaries of Carnegie's work and certainly in Pittsburgh. And he is at the end of this, this 20 year study, he writes the book thinking grow rich. And there's a chapter in specialized knowledge where he says he came to the conclusion that it wasn't an abundance of generalized or even specialized knowledge that led these people to great success and achievement it's that they had developed their Intel intellectual faculties to such a degree that they could create manifest or attract anything they wanted in their lives. And I thought, hold it. So I don't have to be smart. See, cuz I was program my whole life that you know, you're not gonna get ahead unless you go go to college. And you know, I, you know, that ended for me in 10th grade, that that dream, I was never gonna go to college. And so I realized, you know, most people don't even know what the, you know, we know what our five senses are. We, we know all about our physical side, but we don't know much about our, you know, who we are as spiritual beings or much about our intellect. And so I didn't know what these six intellectual faculties are. And so I think that the fact that there was that there was this process that I could, that there were resources already within me, intuition, uh, imagination, uh, perception, reason, my the will the ability to focus these intellectual faculties. All I had to do was develop these. Right? And so, you know, I think that was, that was one was that there was this promise. I think the second thing really hit me. He was in the chapter nine, the chapter on decision where he said, after studying all these people's lives, he came to the conclusion that successful people had a habit around decision making. He said that they made decisions very quickly and they seldom have ever changed those decisions. They, in, in other words, they, they didn't take an opinion pulled, right? And they didn't wait for conditions and circumstances to change. When, when, when an idea came to them, they asked themselves one question. If I act on this idea, will it move me in the direction of my dream? I, I don't need to know how I don't need to know where everything's gonna come from. I have to start. And so that, that really helped to me. So many, so many entrepreneurs wait to start their website, wait to launch, wait for everything to be perfect. But if you look at the largest, one of the largest companies in the world, arguably apple, you know, it was the first to a trillion. They launch, they launch, they, they launch one of these things. Every what? Two or three years?

Speaker 1: 11:55

Every year. Every year.

Speaker 2: 11:56

Yeah. Yeah. When they know it's gonna fail, right. They launch it knowing they're not ready and people line up for a week waiting to buy it. And they know they, they, they, they know it's not ready. They don't wait to be ready. They launch. And they fix, I mean, that's, that's the, that's the genius of job, right? Steve jobs was like, we're going right. And then I think lastly, the, the, the third thing was, it's a chapter that most people don't read or understand. It's the chapter on the transmutation of sexual energy. And basically what he was saying is, is especially for men, but not only men, but so many, any people leading into their early fifties waste so much of their energy, their just creative energy. If you think about sexual energy, don't, don't forget about the act of sex. It's just the creative energy. They waste so much of this creative energy chasing things that don't matter, that are not in harmony with their purpose, that the, that lead to nothing. And I think what that did was it woke me up. It really woke me up to realize, you know, every day I have to make decisions and these decisions have consequences in my life.

Speaker 1: 13:08

You talked a lot about, you know, you build in scale in your lifetime, multiple multi-million dollar businesses. You talked about advice for entrepreneurs is a lot of times just start, start knowing that you're willing to fail. I'm curious, speaking entrepreneurs who, who may have a similar dream of, Hey, I wanna build a business, whether it's a cleaning business, a speaking business, a coaching business for this who wanna scale, what other things and advice would you give them, uh, as they start their journey or if they're in the middle of it?

Speaker 2: 13:31

Yeah. I think, I think there's a couple of things is, is that you, you, you have to have, um, I think it was Drucker who said, fail fast, fail first fail often. Right? You have to suspend the requirement of knowing how things are going to work. You, we don't know how to do anything. Right.<laugh> we Don how to do anything. We really don't. I mean like, like I couldn't tell you how I could stand up and I'm a professional stand uper. I mean, I've been standing up for, for 55 years, but what we do is we do something and then we tell you what we did. Right? Hmm. Um, so you've gotta, you've you've you you've you've, you've gotta, you've gotta kinda have this just personal self fortitude that you're willing to take a risk and what most entrepreneurs are risk adverse. And I believe that risk is a myth that there's no, there's no such thing as risk risk risk is just a perception of our lack of resourcefulness. And the moment we become aware that we're resourced myth, the risk disappears, like, think about it. When a young child, you know, wants to ride a bike, it's risky. They fall, they could shift their teeth, scratch, you know, scratch their knee, break their arm. And so they're, they're afraid to get on that bike. But as soon as somebody who's at a higher level of awareness comes alongside them. And I know you do this work in your mastermind groups where a group of a group of people create a collective consciousness, a collective level of awareness, and all transformation begins in awareness. When, when that child gets somebody who has a higher level of awareness of the principles needed to ride the bicycle. In this case, you know, hand, eye coordination, muscle dexterity balance. When, when, when, when they, when they enter, do those principles to the child's awareness and fortify that with belief, all of a sudden their, their perception of their own internal resources increases. They, they, they realize put it, maybe I really can do this. That's how belief starts. Then they begin to test it. They, they act on the borrowed belief of another person. And by the end of the day, it's like, look, mom, no hands. And all of a sudden, what was risky at eight o'clock in the morning is no longer a risk. It's the same activity, but the myth of risk has been changed by the awareness of the resources within you. And here's a universal law is absolutely true. It's it's based on the law perpetual transportation of energy. And it tells us that it would be universally impossible. The, the universe would clap. It's, it's kinda like, you know, if the sun wakes, you know, the sun rises on, uh, you know, on the west coast, it's a bad day for all of us, right? We got bigger problems. So one of the universal laws is, is that you would not be able to form the conception of an idea. Think about this. You would not be able to form the conception of an idea. So whatever idea that you can conceive in your mind, as soon as you can conceive that you are instantly and automatically connected to all the resources in the universe necessary for its fulfillment. Now that doesn't mean you won't fail. That doesn't mean it won't be easy. That also doesn't mean that you'll know how to access those resources. But what it does tell you is that that idea you have is not an express, is not just an idea of some, some future. It's an emerging future. It's a reflection of your potential. It's saying you can do this. When, when Edison, when Edison had the, you know, had had the idea here for the light bulb, he had all the resources necessary to do it. Same with Jarvi, with the heart, right. You know, same with the right brother. You know, the Wright brothers didn't have a, you know, a, a pilot's license, right? All they had was the blueprint in their mind. And they accessed resources that were the Wright brothers didn't make something out of nothing. Everything that was necessary for flight was already here. All the laws that governed space flight was already here, all they did was they expanded their awareness of their resource to tap into more ideas. And so this is the point, Doug, who you listen to matters, stop asking the plumber and the dentist for financial advice, stop asking people who who've never built anything. Who've never, who've never risked anything. Who've never created what it is that you want to create, what they think chances are. They don't think they certainly don't think the way you think. They certainly don't think the way you think, you know, God gave you the idea. God entrusted you this precious idea. And it's now for you to bring that forward. That's what desire is, desire is the effort of an unexpressed possibility within you seeking to be birthed through you, desire to give birth through. That's what it means. Hmm.

Speaker 1: 18:25

So I, I've heard you say multiple times in hearing you speak that and may word this right wrong, but you say I'll never agree with your limitations or someone's limitations. Is that, is that the quote?

Speaker 2: 18:35

Absolutely. I will never make agreement with somebody's limitations. Never.

Speaker 1: 18:38

And I'm assuming, I'm assuming what you just explained is why, because limitations are, are not a reality. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 18:44

I, I, I, I also won't argue. I, I also won't argue with you about gravity.

Speaker 1: 18:49

<laugh> let's go. Uh, yeah. So when you talked about, think and grow rich, clearly, it's impacted you. Um, you, you, you had that meeting with your mentor changed your life forever, and then you got really interested in, in personal development. And my understanding again, is that we just lost Bob Proctor recently. I know you made a huge impact on your life, but he had impacted you somehow and you actually paid him, I believe$300,000. Yeah. Uh, to train you and teach you how to be a speaker leader, et cetera. Can you talk about that and then, and shift that into the importance of investing in yourself. Cause I'm really fascinating, cuz I mean, I'm sure that backtracked you versus everyone else who's paying$25 for his book, et cetera. Can you talk about,

Speaker 2: 19:31

Yeah, well, uh, you know, in 1988, when Patrick Hayes gives me the book think and grow rich, he introduces me to a program called born rich, uh, by Bob Rucker, they bought, had just created, it was a video series and, and I watched that and I watched it for, for years. And then I had an opportunity to meet Bob. Um, and I was on, you know, by this time time I had become a, you know, a multi-millionaire my cleaning business was very big. And uh, I had a desire to start speaking and training people on, on, you know, how I had transformed my life. You know, when, when you know, when, when you see a good movie, you wanna share it with other people. When you go to a good restaurant, you wanna share with other people. I can't tell you the number of books thinking or rich books I bought. I bought, you know, everybody a book. I like, I turned into an evangelist for the book. But the interesting thing is, is that most of the people I gave the book to nothing changed in their life. But then again, you know, they never read it and they were never mentored. So I understood the power of mentorship. So I had an opportunity to meet Bob and, um, Bob Bob asked me, he gave me a proposal. They said, look, why don't you sell your cleaning business, pay me$300,000. You can buy into my company and I'll mentor you. I'll mentor you. You wanna be a coach speaker. He said, look in about 10 years, you'll be pretty big in Florida, or I can put you on the world stage. Hmm. And so I sold the company, uh, and when I sold it, it was the largest sale of a, of an independently owned cleaning company in the Southeast United States. I paid Bob$300,000. And for the next four years, I was business partners with Bob. What did that do? Well, I'm for 56 years old right now, there are probably 0, 0 56 year old public speakers that shared the stage with Zig Ziegler three times that shared the stage with Wayne Dyer, Dennis Waitley, Jack Canfield, mark, Victor Hansen, Brian Tracy, Les brown. I was business partners with Les. I mean, I worked with all these guys. I was in the green room with them. I was in the back of the limousine. I was at the front of the plane. I was at restaurants at dinner with them. It, it opened a world to me that you could, you could never get it's how it's it? You know, it, it, you know, it, you know, the first time I met John Maxwell, who I was partners with for the last 10 years and generated, I think John and I, our last business, we probably generated about 350 million, about 350 million in that one business. Um, you know, the first time I met John, I had hired John to come speak at a seminar Bob and I were doing. And, and so, you know, proximity is power. Come on, proximity is power. I, I will pay for front row. I will pay for access. There are times. And I, I, I, you know, I have, I have, I have hired people for$25,000 for a day just to sit down with them, just to get answers, to questions that I wanted to learn. I remember when I had my first opportunity to speak in, you know, so, you know, if you, if, you know, if you're a public speaker, you know, the first time you're at a church group. Right. You know, and, and, and, you know, and, and, and maybe you're leading them in silent prayer. Right. You know,<laugh> right. And then, and then it grows from there and it's smaller audiences. And then maybe you do, you know, maybe you get to 12 and then it's 50, and then it's a hundred and maybe, maybe get a thousand or two or 3000. But this is, you know, this is the 15, 20,000 people in an arena. And I had never, I had never spoken in that kind of setting. And I had never sold from the stage in that kind of setting. And, you know, the way these things work is, you know, they, they hire, you know, six speakers, you know, general Schwartzkoff, you know, or a retired president. There's like six people in the lineup and you're, you know, you're one and everybody gets up for an hour and, you know, you get, it's kinda like a Peter Lowe seminar. You know, everybody speaks for an hour and, you know, everybody makes a pitch and I had never done it. And so I had hired somebody who had done it and their fee was 20 for a couple hours. And I paid it. I, I paid it twice. I paid it twice because, because I wanted to learn. And I'll tell you what is priceless? That, that, that first, that first day I sold$250,000, uh, from the platform. Uh, so I mean, what a, what an ROI. Right? So it, you know, it, it pays, it pays to, by knowledge, it pays an by knowledge. They say, you know, experience is the best, best teacher, but truly it's evaluated experience. Yeah. And I don't have to have the, is somebody who wants to learn how to, you know, create a number one, you know, podcast should probably pay you to learn how to do that. I mean, cuz you, you, you know, their next a hundred mistakes.

Speaker 1: 24:17

So, so talk to me about proximity is power. You've had access to some of, you know, these, and it sounds like you paid your way in. Is that the only way to get in with, with some of these names is to pay your way? Or what other advice would you have to, to networking?

Speaker 2: 24:30

Yeah, no. Um, you either have to pay your way in, or you have to go, you know, you have to go carry the bags, you know, uh, right. Open the doors. Yeah. You know, right. Servant leadership. Right. Get in. And, and, and, and you have to position yourself, you know, you have, you have to, like when I partnered with John Maxwell, John, you know, I hired John. And then about, about seven months later, uh, I was having lunch with him. And when we had lunch, I mean, he didn't even remember me from the event that I hired him at. Um<laugh> but I brought to John an idea, one idea. I said, you know, you've got all this, all this content, and you've got all these people who love it and you don't license them to teach it. And many of them are teaching it and they would gladly pay you to teach your content. If they had some access to you and a teaching team, you could put together, let me build it for you. I, I'm not looking for a job. I want a partnership. And he said, yes, he saw it. And we partnered 10 years later, we had the largest training company in the world. We we've certified over 40,000 people in 162 countries, all who have paid between three and$5,000 to be licensed to teach his world's content. And here's the difference. Jim Roan is dead. Zig Ziegler is dead. Wayne Dyer is dead. And so is all in their content. It's dead. Hmm. When John ma Bob Proctor is dead and his content likely won't go on when John Maxwell dies, there will be, there'll be 40, 50,000 people teaching his bus, teaching his content through a sustainable model as an independent speaker, teacher, trainer, and coach. It's the same thing that I do with my content. I license people to teach my content. My, my teachings will go on and on. Well, after I'm gone

Speaker 1: 26:24

So good. I I'm. So I got certified as Maxwell coach show. And I would just say that it was a world class experience from beginning to end. Thank you. Um, thanks. So, so 40,000 coaches, I think I was talking to Mark Cole once and I was just like, Hey, how many coaches actually do something? You know, with the knowledge that they're given. And I'm just curious, you know, I'm sure whether it's a 20, 80 rule, you saw coaches that took the material, ran with it and, and they exploded. And then there's people that do nothing. I'm just curious what, for people who are interested in getting the speaking coaching business, what advice would you have for them to actually, you know, make a dent and actually make a name for themselves in that space?

Speaker 2: 26:59

Yeah. Um, manager expectations, you know, look, here's a hint. Google's not gonna hire you. Okay.<laugh> Johnson, Johnson, and Johnson. Isn't gonna hire you. Right. One of the best books I read. And I'm glad I read this years and years and years ago, um, Stanley I believe is his last name. You were a book called the millionaire. Next door changed my life. Cuz I realize, you know, what you're looking for as a speaker is connect with connect, connect with that electrical contractor. Who's got, you know, 27 trucks on the road that they're all lettered because he cares about his brand. And he's got, you know, he's got a real, really nice website and all of his guys are uniform. Find that dance studio find that gymnasium, you know, that gymnastic feature that really takes pride in their business. They wanna grow their teams and they don't, they, they don't have the resources to hire a full-time trainer. And so manager expectations that that would be the first thing. The second bit of advice is this. You don't have to be great to start, but you've gotta start to be great. Hmm. So, you know, just start, just start, find one thing and focus on it. You know, the shirt Napoleon hill, right? So these, these are the guys that,

Speaker 1: 28:21

Hey, why is it Martinelli on there?

Speaker 2: 28:23

Right. Check. Because these are the guys that right. Napoleon hill thick and grow rich James Allen, Asman thinking Maxwell malt, psycho cybernetics wall wa science of getting rich Thomas Troward. Any word he ever wrote is, is, is, is, is, is brilliant. And if you notice what they all have in common is they're dead. Okay. And, and I say that, you know, kind of tongue in cheek, but you gotta remember in 1991, when I was studying dead masters, everybody else was going to seminars with the giant, you know, Anthony Robbins learning how to walk on fire. I never did that. Right. Because, because I, you know, I didn't have a big, hot coal problem in my life. You know what I mean?<laugh>, you know what I mean? I wasn't looking for that. And so, you know, I, I focused on one thing. I mastered thick and grow rich. I have the last time I publicly taught it for free. I over 50,000 to people registered for my course.

Speaker 1: 29:28

Wow.

Speaker 2: 29:29

50,000 people register for my course, the, the last time I taught it for free. Okay. But I've mastered it. I'm probably the, I, I I'm arguably the top teacher in the world on, on its philosophy. And I, I focused on one thing. So get, so here's my saying, get good first. Yeah, go good. First find one thing and master it, master it. If it's leadership. Great. If it's communication great. If it's, you know, how, how to build trust. Great. If it's emotional intelligence, great. If it's diversity, equity inclusion, great. Find one thing, find one thing, master it. And here's the last thing you must be able to communicate and articulate and transfer your value to the marketplace. Nobody buys coaching. Nobody buys training. They have to be sold it. And so if you don't know how to sell, reach out to me, I've got probably one of the best sales training programs in the world. And if you don't reach out to me, reach out to somebody, if you don't have this skill of how to sell, if you don't know how to sell in this business, you're unemployed. I mean, there's just because look, you know, Les brown doesn't have to sell himself now. Right. Right. You know, his reputation sells himself in the beginning. You're just trying to make your reputation. So you have to be able to communicate and articulate and then transfer your value you to somebody else. And if you don't know how to do those things, I, I don't know. I don't know that you're gonna really be able to transfer, you know, from, from your full-time job into being, you know, a six figure speaker.

Speaker 1: 31:16

Yeah. So talk about not just the selling your value. I know one thing everyone gets caught up on is pricing. Yeah. So I wanna, I wanna talk to you about money as well, but what advice do you come? What advice would you have when it comes to pricing your, your product and services?

Speaker 2: 31:29

Pricing is boiled down to one thing. Price is all price is all determined on an exchange of value, full stop, full stop. And so if you don't know your value, and if you don't know what buy your values, you won't know your price. When somebody gets on the phone with me and says, I'm not sure how much I should charge for, you know, my speaking engagement. I dunno how much I should charge for my coaching. What they're telling me is, I don't know my value. Let me just ask you a real quick question. Doug, would you go into any McDonald's today right now? I mean, this isn't a trick question. Okay. But would you go into McDonald's don't pay$20 for a hamburger yes or no?

Speaker 1: 32:06

No.

Speaker 2: 32:07

No. Would you go to Ruth, Chris and sit down and pay$20 for a burger?

Speaker 1: 32:12

Yes.

Speaker 2: 32:13

Yes. What's the difference? There's burgers, right? Right. It's the value, right? It's the experience. Yes. Right. It's the experience. And so this act at getting good first and so Christ is all about your level of awareness of your value and your ability to uncover what the client values and then the, the differential, the, the connecting point is your, is the price of your service? Does that make sense?

Speaker 1: 32:46

Yeah. Yeah. You, when you were here in Pittsburgh and we were all having dinner, I think I asked you the top three things that you learned from Bob, which I would love for you to reiterate now that we, we just lost him. Geez. Um, but I think the first thing that you, you came up, the thing you said was unless Bob had a mic in his hand, he wasn't making money. And so that was an issue. Can you talk about that for, for those who are in the speaking and coaching, et cetera.

Speaker 2: 33:07

Yeah. I mean, you think about it. If you're, you know, Les, Les brown, um, you know, gets paid about$75,000 of speech. Um, but if he's not speaking, he's unemployed, he doesn't have a business. When I met John Maxwell, John, uh, was basically an unemployed speaker and an unemployed author. I mean, unless he was writing a book, uh, he was unemployed. He didn't have a business, he didn't have a business. Most of these, most of these older school, you know, speakers, but Brian, Tracy and the Brian is probably the one outlier. Brian Tracy is a pretty sharp business guy. So he's had businesses all along, but most of these guys, Les brown really doesn't have a business. He doesn't have a machine. John now has a machine every single day. He's got people who are being certified. I have a machine every single day. You know, I've got, I've got a full-time sales team that sells content that sells training itself, license content. You know, it's a machine, it's a business. When I wake up every single day, I grab a report of how many people bought product overnight. You know, we're, we're generating thousands every single month on digital products. And so one of the things that I realize is that, you know, you could be a great speaker or are a great coach, but you're unemployed. So, you know, one of the things that the cleaning company taught me was duplication. Once I sold the cleaning, you know, contract to the dentist, no, the, their trash can kept getting full. The bath bathroom kept getting dirty, good economy, bad economy didn't matter. Right. And so I had a reoccurring revenue stream from that. And so you have to recognize that if you're a coach or you're a speaker, you've gotta build a sustainability, you know, model that, that keeps you employed so that you can stay creative enough when, when you're not hired, because you could, you know, you could, you, you could only have one gig in a month. That's great if it paid, if you know,$15,000, but after tax, what do you have? Right. You might as well go get a job where you get benefits.

Speaker 1: 35:11

Hmm. We're talking about money. I would love to hear your advice on money. You know, I heard, um, one, you said you grew up in poverty and that, that actually was benefit to you. And then I think when we were at dinner, you also, I mentioned about, you know, the money mindset of, you know, you start thinking about hunt money in hundreds, then you start to think about money in thousands, then millions, and then, you know, beyond that yeah. From that journey from poverty to, to where you are now, financially, what would you say? The top three pieces of advice when it comes to money would be for people.

Speaker 2: 35:39

Number one is, um, man, we've created a culture, Doug, uh, you know, at the time of this recording, um, we just saw the state of the union, uh, by, by, by president Biden. And I don't wanna, you know, this is in politics. Um, but if I hear pay my fair share one more time, I think I'd take a bridge. I mean,<laugh>, um, we, we have to stop demonizing the rich, you and I are benefactor of rich. I mean, in Pittsburgh we have Carnegie museum, Carnegie science center, car carne, I mean, carne library, Carnegie, you know, it's, it's called Carnegie because he endowed it. He funded it. You know, you know, you go to, you go to Silicon valley and you go to the Zuckerberg cancer center, uh, wake up, you know, somebody wrote a check for that. Right? So all these, all these, all the, all these services that are provided to people in these, you know, Philips park and all the Sheley park, you know, there was a family named Sheley, right. I mean that, that's where Carnegie Mellon university, where do you think the money came from? Right. And so we've gotta stop demonizing the rich. See one of the big things we have, uh, uh, the challenges we have about money is we have the, is competing commitment. So here it is, you know, I want to get rich 22 years old. I want to get rich. But my programming says is that rich people are bad. That the only way people get ahead is by, you know, taking advantage of other people and doing bad things. That's not true. Look do, do rich people do bad things. Sure. Are there good and bad? There's good and bad in everybody. But here's what I know is on the whole, on the whole rich people do a lot more, a lot more, create a lot more value if you, if you really understand what money is and just think about this for a second money is an idea. That's all it is. It's an idea. It's an agreement that, that you have, I have in the, of consciousness of the world of the world have for value. When I, when I pull out, you know, when I pull out a hundred dollars bills, that's a hundred dollars bill, no matter where I go in the world. Why? Because there's a collective agreement on the idea of what this is worth. Okay. Now that a hundred dollar bill is exchanged for value. I can, I, I, I can buy food. I can buy services. I can buy products with this. It's exchanged for value. In other words, if there's no value, all of a sudden this a hundred dollar bill turns into a$1 bill really quick, right? I mean, you're, you're, you're not gonna pay. You're not gonna pay$15 for a hamburger. Why? Cause of the value, the, the, the collective consciousness doesn't match that. And so if we understand that if money is exchanged for value, and it only is, as a matter of fact, wherever there is deceit, wherever there is corruption, wherever there is bad mojo going on, the first thing to leave is money. That's the first thing, ask the Venezuelans. The first time there's a problem. Money goes away. It's the first to leave the party. It won't be around where there's deceit, not for long. I mean, Bernie Madoff made lot of it, but as soon as soon as there, as soon as his deceit showed up, what happened to the money disappeared? It's the first thing to leave. So if that's the case, then money is exchanged for value. And if you've got a lot of it, that must mean you provide a lot of value. And if you don't have a lot of it, Maybe you're not providing a lot of value. And maybe it's time you take inventory of what you're doing with your life.

Speaker 1: 39:31

Well, Paul, I'd love to take a few minutes and take you through the lightning round is just a bunch of fun questions that I always ask leader. And the first one is, if, if you could put a quote on a billboard for everyone to read, what would it say?

Speaker 2: 39:41

Um, If you can conceive it, believe it, you can achieve it.

Speaker 1: 39:49

What's the best advice you've ever received. And who gave it to you?

Speaker 2: 39:53

Uh, Maxwell mall, psycho cybernetics in the book where you said, you'll never outperform your own self image, the image you hold of yourself, you reproduce again and again and again, until you change it.

Speaker 3: 40:08

Hmm.

Speaker 1: 40:09

Best purchase you've made in the last year for a hundred dollars or less

Speaker 2: 40:12

Best purchase I've made.

Speaker 1: 40:14

Yeah. For a hundred dollars or less.

Speaker 2: 40:16

Uh, there's a new kind of shoe called all birds, uh, that came out and, and I bought a pair of all bird shoes and they were, they're really good, really comfortable. Great art support.

Speaker 1: 40:29

You you've talked about a few books throughout the, the course, I'm sure you would name think and grow rich is the top book that's influenced you. Are there any others that come to mind that you'd wanna share with our audience

Speaker 2: 40:37

As a man? Think if by James Allen Psycho-Cybernetics and all of these, all of these are the original texts. Don't go buying the ones that, you know, other people kinda take in the book. Right. So, you know, don't buy Maxwell Maltz with, you know, Dan Kennedy, right? So you want, you want James Allen, you know, uh, published in 1910, uh, man, think of Napoleon hill published in 1937, you know, thinking we're rich, um, Maxwell malt in 1960, psycho cybernetics Science of getting rich by Wallace de waddles. I think we've published in 1910.

Speaker 3: 41:15

Wow.

Speaker 1: 41:17

You, uh, you've gotten to spend time with some incredible leaders on the planet. I'm sure people would love to. I'm I'm curious when you get to, when you get a, a lunch with a John Maxwell, do you have a go-to question or two that you always ask in those meetings?

Speaker 2: 41:30

Um, I usually ask them what they're thinking about right now, because you know, I, you know, I, I, the historical achievements, you know, you know, I, I can go to Wikipedia. I wanna know, you know? Right. I wanna know because these kinds of thinkers are on the bleeding edge. Right. They're on the bleeding edge and they've got access. I mean, you know, John John's got access to the Supreme court, the presidents, I mean, he's, you know, so I wanna know what they're, you know, what are they thinking about right now? What are they, what are they, you know, they, they can see around corners. What do you see coming? What do you see about where the world is going? You know, I, I, I asked them to play the futurist.

Speaker 1: 42:13

Hmm. So, so what does Paul Martinelli see right now?

Speaker 2: 42:18

Well, I think, uh, a, a lot of chaos right now. Um, and I see a lot of dissension right now, and I'll be very honest, Doug, you know, I, you know, prior to COVID, I was on the road two or three weeks, a, a a month and traveling all over the world. Um, and I've been more concerned about our country, uh, in the last 18 months than I've ever been in my life. Um, I think that we are under assault on our freedoms and our democracy. Um, and I, I, I think Liberty is under attack. And, and I think, you know, the, the quote that the only thing for evil to prevail is for good men to sit back and, and do nothing, uh, is screaming right now. And, um, it scares me when I see what happens in Canada. Um, and it's accepted. It's just been really scary.

Speaker 1: 43:18

Yeah. What's your, what's your greatest leadership at peeve?

Speaker 2: 43:23

Um, you know, you know, politicians who pass NAS mandates and come to Florida, I live in Florida.<laugh>, You know, so, so, so they all come to Florida and party on our beaches. We other people are, you know, locked down and masked and they're all on our beaches, you know, having cocktails and doing the limbo.

Speaker 1: 43:44

That's a good one.<laugh> yeah. You've, uh, you've gotten to travel over the world. You've you can pretty much have any experience that you want. I'm curious, what's something you've done that you think everyone should experience in their lifetime.

Speaker 2: 43:54

Go to a Michelin, you know, a three star. Miss,

Speaker 1: 43:58

Do you have a, a favorite?

Speaker 2: 44:00

Yeah. Well, de lebri is in, is in, um, is in, uh, Holland. Uh, it's the number one restaurant in the world. Maise, Maise in LA, um, on San Monica Boulevard, one of the best per se in, uh, Columbus circle, New York.

Speaker 1: 44:17

Okay.

Speaker 2: 44:18

It's my goal to eat it. It's my goal to eat at all of them.

Speaker 1: 44:21

How, how many are there and how, how far along in that goal, are you

Speaker 2: 44:24

About 165? I've been to 23.

Speaker 1: 44:27

Okay. Are you gonna make it, you gonna hit'em all

Speaker 2: 44:30

<laugh>, you know, I'm trying, man. Uh, you've gotta, you've got, you know, they're hard to get into. Uh, and so I've, I've, I've worked my leverage to be able to get into'em. Uh, there's there's one in the DC, uh, called bar by chef Jose, Andre, which is fabulous. He has one in, uh, in the, uh, uh, S SL in Beverly Hills called bizarre, which is, uh, en Somi, which is unbelievable. And most of these only seat 10 people, right. Or, or 30 people. So, um, they're, they're hard to get into you. They're, they're seven or$800 a person, um, with a wine pairing for dinner. But if you really, you, you owe it to yourself, logistics experience, the best the world has to offer, you know, it's a three or four hour meal, and it's the best of everything. The best service, the best eating utensils, the best food, the best ingredients, the best presentation, it's it's spirit of opulence.

Speaker 1: 45:27

Well, you just added that to my bucket list. So I'll tell my wife, we have 165 a restaurants to hit that's right. So, uh, I usually, I I've been asking, I'm trying to change this question. I usually ask if you could have coffee with your 20 year old self, what would you tell him? But I'm curious, is there an age that you wish you could go back to and have coffee with yourself at that age? Because if you would've intervened and told him something that it would've made a significant impact.

Speaker 2: 45:50

Yeah. If I could go, if I, could you go back to when I was, you know, 22, 23 years old, when I was really in deep struggle, right. All of my demons were coming up because I was trying to break free from my old self. Right. Mm-hmm<affirmative>. And so, you know, as you're trying to break free, it's, it's the, you know, it's the caterpillar and the cocoon, it's a painful struggle of a process. And, you know, as you, as you move out of your comfort zone, out of the zone of your own, knowing every fear is realized, you, you have to break that boundary. The, the old you must die in order for the new you, life is a fight for territory. Doug, if is a fight for territory. And if I could go back to myself and say, you know, it's gonna be okay, you know, and just give myself some peace that, you know, all of this Genevie B ran, wrote a book, your invisible power. And she says, in the first, first paragraph of the book, she says, when you're understanding can grasp your power to visualize your heart's desire and hold it with your will. You will attract all things requisite for the fulfillment of that picture. She doesn't say all good things. In other words, all things are necessary. I was, I was embezzled, you know, uh, in, in, in year seven of my business, you know, I've had people steal from me and she sheet and I've been deceived and I've been taking advantage of, and every single one of those, my motto is harvest the good harvest, the good and go on your first loss is your best loss, right? Pick up your mat and go, that's what Jesus taught us to do. And I think it's, I think it's a, it's probably singularly one of his best teachings, right? Just pick up your mad and go. You don't stay in the conditions and circumstances of your woundedness and brokenness and disability pick up your mad and go. You've been healed

Speaker 1: 47:43

So good. Uh, and then, you know, you mentioned several times throughout, uh, the interview of, of heroes that you had that impacted your life that are dead. They're no longer here. Um, and you know, the legacy that they left behind, I'm curious, you know, at the end of your life, what do you want Paul Martinelli to be remembered for? You've made an impact on a lot of people.

Speaker 2: 47:59

I, I, well, thank you. I, I, I, that, that, that I walked my talk, right? That I, that I live the I, that I, I, that I live the best version of, of my level of awareness of truth.

Speaker 1: 48:13

Anything else you wanna leave leaders with today?

Speaker 2: 48:16

You know, I think there's a massive responsibility and I'll go as far as obligation that you carry. If you've been gifted, um, the ability to have resources and awareness of those resources to lead other people, whether it's children or adults, whether it's one person or whether it's millions, there's a responsibility, but there's also an obligation that you have. And I think you, you need to hold yourself to the highest standard of that, of that commitment, to that obligation and responsibility that it convicts you of every single day of your life.

Speaker 1: 48:59

Wow. Well, thank you for living that out. Thank you for walking your talk. Uh, I've admired you from a distance and, uh, from afar for a long time, and it was a pleasure to get to meet you here a few months ago in Pittsburgh. And, uh, this conversation did not disappoint either. So thank you for adding value to me and everyone that will listen to this podcast, Paul. Appreciate

Speaker 2: 49:14

It. Thank you, Doug. Thank you all. You welcome.

Speaker 4: 49:17

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 49:19

Well, Hey leader, thank you so much for listening to my conversation with Paul. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did. You can find ways to connect with him and links to everything that we discussed in the show notes@lthreeleadership.org slash three 11 and leaders. Always. I wanna challenge you that if you wanna 10 X your growth this year, then you need to either launch or join an L three leadership mastermind group. Mastermind groups have been the greatest source of growth in my life over the last seven years. If you're unfamiliar with what they are, they're just groups of six to 12 leaders that meet together for at least one year on a consistent basis to help each other grow, hold each other accountable, achieve goals together, and to do life together. So if you're interested in learning more about masterminds, go to L three leadership.org/masterminds. And as always, I like to end with a quote and I'll go, Dave Ramseys today. He said this, he said, change hurts, but staying the same hurts even more. The leader, I hope you are encouraged by this episode. Know that Laura and I love you. We believe in you, don't it. Keep leading the world needs your leadership. We'll talk to you next episode.