Barry Friedman juggles balls. Really, really well. In fact back in the 80s he was a world-champion juggler.
He appeared on the Johnny Carson Show, and toured with Billy Crystal and Robin Williams. He even leveraged that into doing corporate gigs.
But who knew it would lead to doing multiple TED talks and a high-end coaching career?
Barry Friedman juggles balls. Really, really well. In fact back in the 80s he was a world-champion juggler.
He appeared on the Johnny Carson Show, and toured with Billy Crystal and Robin Williams. He even leveraged that into doing corporate gigs.
But who knew it would lead to doing multiple TED talks and a high-end coaching career?
Doug: 0:05
My name's Doug Greene. This is "What Really Matters Interviews". And today I'm interviewing Barry Friedman. Let me give you a quick background on why I want to interview .
Doug: 0:16
I met Barry in the Nevada City/ Grass Valley area. He is a wildly successful ... he's successful on in many different areas. He started as a juggler. A juggler, right? How does a juggler become a multi six-figure income earner? There aren't many jugglers that are doing that,
Doug: 0:40
But not only that, he's parlayed that into creating online education. He's done six TED talks. He coaches, he does all kinds of things. And there's something ... so in interviewing Barry, what I found is he's got this approach - sort of this philosophy and this way of being - with moving forward and doing things that most people don't do.
Doug: 1:04
He's a bootstrapper. He just runs with it. He gets an idea, he tests it - and you read about that being the right way, you know: do version 1, test it, do, make it work, make it good. You know, that kind of thing? Well, he just does this.
Doug: 1:21
So I want to find out how he does it. What's going on his head? What kind of tips can you give us that maybe don't move as quickly and as fast on opportunities as he sees them. And I want to get into the inner world because one of the things I've come to believe is that we make decisions somatically, from inside of us - not in our head. And Barry seems to be especially good at this, and I think he can speak to that. So without further ado, Barry, welcome to the podcast. And, um, maybe you could just give us a quick overview of how you turned juggling balls into all these different things you do.
Doug: 2:03
So I want to find out how he does it. What's going on his head? What kind of tips can you give us that maybe don't move as quickly and as fast on opportunities as he sees them. And I want to get into the inner world because one of the things I've come to believe is that we make decisions somatically, from inside of us - not in our head. And Barry seems to be especially good at this, and I think he can speak to that.
Doug: 2:03
So without further ado, Barry, welcome to the podcast. And, um, maybe you could just give us a quick overview of how you turned juggling balls into all these different things you do
Barry: 2:09
I'm thinking, man, I wanna be that guy. I wanna meet that guy. So yeah, we'll get this out of the way away for the people watching the video. A little juggling. And if you're on the audio, I would run immediately to a video just to catch that little opening.
Barry: 2:22
Thanks so much for having me. Yeah. I mean, you nailed it. I'm a guy who at 15 years old, had a really crappy beginning in life. You know, physical abuse, food, stealing clothes, cheating lines. Yeah, I was trained in the bad arts by parents who had kids at a very young age and had no idea why they were having kids. You know, I think it's what people did in the late fifties, early sixties, when they wanted to have sex. That kid came out and there wasn't a lot of direction or a lot of thought and planning.
Barry: 2:53
My wife and I were married 15 years before we had our only child, so maybe there was a bit of going the opposite way there, right? There was some learning that happened in future generations. So, you know, I was told at 15 - a guy taught me how to juggle at the end of this little summer camp I was at. Me and another buddy who learned to juggle did this little show. People laughed. People applauded. And in that moment, I knew that life would never be terrible again. And I got obsessed with it. That was 15 years old. I think. I was 21 when I won my first world juggling championship.
Doug: 3:28
So let's let's I want to go back to that key moment first. It seems to me in most successful people, there's a key moment. There's like a switch turned on and it sounds like that for you.
Barry: 3:38
It was somatic. This was not a mental one. And I know you love somatic stuff. This was somatic. This was not a decision I made. This was something I felt when 300 people at this camp were laughing and cheering for the silly little juggling thing me and my buddy did. And a "click" went off in my brain that said "life will never suck again."
Doug: 3:58
So what did you feel? What informed you inside?
Barry: 4:01
It was a connection to reality. It was rush. Life before that was very much based on the mental, that the fear, the survival stuff and that just felt good. Something came inside of me and kind of went, "Wow, this is whole body. This is real." I had a smile on my face that was authentic at 15 year olds old. I actually have a picture of that moment, and I can share it with you for your viewers. Someone had snapped a picture and put it on Facebook about me and this guy Mike doing this very first show. There's literally, Doug, dug a sheet hanging. You know, you always say, Well, hang a sheet into a show. There was literally a sheet hanging up behind us.
Doug: 4:39
And let's see if you can pull that up. That'd be great.
Barry: 4:42
Oh, yeah, yeah, of course I could do that.
Doug: 4:46
Okay, so you have that moment and where'd it go from there?
Barry: 4:52
Well, then it went to the camp ending because that was kind of on the last night of camp. But I went home and told my dad who was an electrical engineer. By that time, I was already living with him, and I was kind of out of the danger zone. I was out of the volatile violence that haunted my life for three or four years after my parents got divorced. So I was living in a safe place, there was food on the table.
Barry: 5:13
And he was an electrical engineer. Very analytical. It works or doesn't work. It's black or white. And I had seen this shade of gray. A part of me wanted to be him. Part of me said, "Wow, this would be great." You know, we were building things. He was doing a home improvement project. I was the guy up running the electrical wires. He was telling me how to hook heating ducts together, and it felt good to be wanted. It felt really good to have a purpose in a need. And this guy showed me that at camp, and I heard the laughter and applause. Doug and I I knew I wasn't destined to be the electrical engineer guy. I, uh there was something that happened in there that just kicked my butt,
Doug: 5:51
you know? Okay, so just write juggling, like, how do you ever have that feeling? That Yeah, Theo, how do you move or that very young age 23 cars like which at the time, was the was the show.
Barry: 6:16
Very unlike today. And your listeners who are listening, we're probably under 30. Won't even realize the impact. But it was it was the equivalent of having a viral video that the entire world saw to be on the Tonight Show Now, nowadays equivalent of having a viral video that everyone seems. But there was. Ah.
Doug: 6:33
So how did you go from juggling balls at the Scout camp Thio? Eight years later, being on Johnny Carson. What? You said 23.
Barry: 6:41
Yeah, 15 to 23. All I did from the second I got home from that camp at 15 - I didn't want to do anything else. I barely focused on high school. I was smart enough to get very good grades without working very hard. I would juggle every day until this little flap of skin between my film and forefinger would crack every single day. And at 15 16 17 years old, you heal quickly. So in the morning, it was ready to go again. You know, some, uh, gasoline or whatever. Some kind of Spenco. I remember this stuff called Spenco Second Skin.
Barry: 7:13
At night I'd go back to juggling in the morning. It's all I wanted to do. Felt so good. I felt connected with it. I had I didn't have a great knack. In fact, this group of kids that were taught to juggle out by the pool one day - our group had an art bunk, had a choice between arts and crafts and juggling by the pool - and I chose juggling by the pool, figuring in 10 minutes we'd be throwing the balls down and I'd be in the pool on a hot day in Southern California.
Barry: 7:41
Not the case. Never stopped juggling. I was one of the last people in that class to learn to juggle. Honestly, everyone got it quicker than I did,
Doug: 7:50
So persistence.
Barry: 7:52
Yep. So went home, felt good, kept working on it, Kept working on it. Met a guy at a park, met a couple other people in town. And it just never stopped feeling good. It never stopped feeling wonderful. In 1982 or 84, something like that - won my first world juggling championship. There was no going back at that point. It was long gone. I had the talk with my parents that I want to be a juggler, you know, that we had seen some on TV.
Barry: 8:23
TV was very big in those days. You'd see someone on The Tonight Show or the Mike Douglas Show or Merv Griffin, All these shows that I eventually went to be on - they were like, "Wow, you can be a juggler! So heavy." That's the thing. No one told me I couldn't do it. There was no school for it. I saw it, and I made it happen. I just would not stop. No desire to stop.
Doug: 8:50
So that need to keep going, you know, to not stop ... that's what the heart of this, right? In any entrepreneurial thing, the ones that don't stop. So can you dig into that a little bit, Or maybe finish out the story here. You go to Johnny Carson, you get seen ...
Barry: 9:12
I can run you through the boring part of that. I keep this poster on my wall. This is a hanging on my office wall. There's me on the first night. This first time I was on the second. I forget. I got to do the Tonight Show twice, so Yeah, this is probably the second time, Uh, pretty cool to do that. So yeah, the Tonight Show in those days, that was the equivalent of a viral video as I was telling you,
Barry: 9:40
So the next morning after that, I think the guy who had gotten us on the Tonight Show had gotten a call from Billy Crystal's manager, and that Billy Crystal was looking for a great opening act. And he loved what he saw last night in the show. And that was when we were on. I think we started opening for Billy that summer.
Barry: 9:58
And these are guys who ... I don't have the other pictures. I can send you some though for your notes pages if you like. A few months before that, I was wearing tights at Renaissance festivals. My partner and I, who I still worked with for 34 years, we perform together. He and I did Renaissance festivals around. But to go from wearing tights at a Renaissance Festival in a dusty place in the middle of Texas to being on the Tonight Show in a couple months - that was a bit of a mind shift.
Barry: 10:25
But that was also great assurance that "Hey, Barry, keep doing what you do! Don't wait for permission." Everyone had told me "you can't make a living." My high school guidance counselor, when I ran away from high school in 11th grade, I went back to high school after a stint hitchhiking across the country and juggling. And he said, "Hey, if you pursue this dream, you'll be broken homeless by age 22" as if he had researched it. So age 23, walking out on the Tonight Show stage, all I thought about was "I hope Mr Pavelic is watching ." Mr. Pav was dead wrong. I'm not broken or homeless. I'm on the tonight show!
Doug: 11:06
So then you went on tour with Billy Crystal and Robin Williams and a few other deals. Right? So you were an opening act with some pretty big names.
Barry: 11:16
Everybody in the mid to late eighties and early nineties. Casinos, theaters, colleges. Every celebrity used an opening act. In these days that's not the case because people want everyone out in the casinos and it can be cheaper than I have an opening act. But everyone used them in those days. I think I got a list of long as my arm.
Doug: 11:35
So now let's get into this shift. How did you shift from just juggling to doing the online teaching? And it was kind of the path towards other to spreading open, having more versatility and adding to your repertoire of the things you do and Ted talks and all of us. I mean ... a juggler. You were a juggler!
Barry: 11:58
Juggler. But I have a great friend who came over and he was looking at my house. He liked my house. He had his own story and judgments about things, and I put my wall in the living room. I have all these autographed juggling clubs from everyone I've ever opened for. And he looked around and he's like looking to the house and he goes "Juggling! From juggling!" There wasn't a box in his brain that you could have a house and a life from juggling. He pictured it more of you're in a car and things aren't doing well.
Barry: 12:25
So, you know, juggling was interesting. We got a great leap on it through the Tonight Show, which was wonderful. Opening acts, which got us a lot of attention. Celebrity connections, things like that. And then one day, it was probably around 1988 or 1989, someone came up to us and said, "Could you guys MC a conference? And that was like music to my ears. Instantly I said, "Yes." I didn't even know what we were signing up for. But I have never really been in a business meeting inside a conference.
Barry: 12:59
But that invitation led to us doing very well MC'ing a conference - sort of introducing speakers, doing some of our act between things. And that led into 30+ years of corporate entertainment for any Fortune 100 Company or 500 company you can imagine. They've taken us around the world, to Orlando, Phoenix, etc. Now conventions are always in Orlando, Phoenix or Las Vegas. But they used to be all over the world for these corporate events - product launches, trade shows, mergers, acquisitions, sales meetings didn't matter. Whatever corporations are doing. And this was a budding market in the early eighties, and we were really frontier on the front lines of this.
Doug: 13:40
So you took your core skill set and then you found new ways to do that.
Barry: 13:46
Well, we took a great comedy and juggling act and cleaned it up a little bit. We got out of tights, put on nice clothes, found out a little bit about the companies. I became very interested in why some jugglers work at birthday parties and why guys like us work at corporate events for Monsanto, IBM, etc. Why are we at these big meetings?
Barry: 14:04
And what I learned is root sales training - how to talk more about what their interests are than about the awards we've won. You know how to give them something that they wouldn't have unless we were there. How to make them think. "Gosh, that was a brilliant idea. Who hired those guys?" So we not only got hired back next year, but the person who did hire us was the celebration of the company and would get good testimonials. We get lateral and vertical referrals within their company and to their network. And I was doing stuff like this way before the Internet.
Doug: 14:37
So this is still juggling, although it's also emceeing and a lot of other things. I could see you added extra skill sets onto your core thing. But at the core it's still juggling?
Barry: 14:50
Juggling is funny. Juggling is like anchovies. As a good friend of mine, Michael Davis, a hilarious comedian juggler, says - "If the pizza has a single anchovy, it's an anchovy pizza." Same as jugging. You do one bit of juggling you're a juggler. But the truth is, it was an hour act. I think if you measured the amount of time that things were actually flying over our head, it was probably in the 10-minute range in an hour. A lot of comedy, a lot of interaction, a lot of buildup, and creating a show that was entertaining.
Doug: 15:18
< Start here> Okay, and then you got into teaching. Yeah, you did a thing
Barry: 15:21
right here. I have it on my desk. I always keep it on my desk. This is this is called a rock would pin. This is what they put in your collarbone when you smash it into a bunch of pieces on a mountain bike. So I always keep this. This was the one that was in my arm. They took it out later. Daza. February, uh, 18th of 2007. Um, I was on a mountain bike ride with a good buddy of mine. One of my favorite hobbies in the world flew off my bike. Beautiful fall followed by a terrible landing. And I heard my collarbone kind of crunch up. Lost, Had the wind knocked out of me, couldn't talk, couldn't move the right side of my body. And I said to my buddy, who came over just to see how it if I was Okay. Wow, What a flight that with. And the first thing I said was I could barely talk. I go. I have a juggling show in Vegas on Wednesday, and he's looking at my collarbone, almost popping out through my skin and he said, No, you don't know. So doing honestly that lead that was a transition. I thought it was the worst moment in my life, that thing. But what it did was I was ready to stop. You know, even in 2007 I was ready to stop. I had Ah, I had been part of this team act. I had been doing it. It was paying great. And the truth is, I got bored. You know, I I wasn't looking to create new material. I was making good money, but I was just getting on an airplane. I had have that point. I had a five year old son. I was getting on an airplane, going to Orlando. Two and 1/2 days of my life. It took to do a one hour show, and yet it paid Well, it's great. I have no right to complain. Uh, I'm not complaining, but I wasn't getting off the stick. And on the easiest part of a mountain bike ride that no one would ever fall off. I'm still embarrassed when I ride by it. This is where I know, you know. It was time and I got the little push to move forward. So sitting with this thing in my arm for six months. I was unable to juggle unable. I didn't know if I'd be getting back to it. I lost feeling in my hands. I couldn't move my arm. And I just said, Man, what am I gonna do to make a living if I can't juggle? I never considered that And my wife had the great line of all great lines. She said, You're really good at selling a juggling act for a lot of money, and I was like, Oh, my God in it Lights went off in my head and I started thinking about all the entertainers. I know all the magicians, ventriloquist, jugglers, comedians, singers, dancers who I've worked with. You don't know how to make money. You know, I had left them. A lot of the acts were still the Renaissance Festival that I used to work out in the eighties. Some of stuck doing library shows somewhere, and they all had an ambition to get higher. But what was missing was the business genes of this six months. If this thing gave me, gave me time to start thinking about, what would it be like to teach some of what I know
Doug: 17:55
what you call it. The business gene,
Barry: 17:58
I guess because most entertainers don't have it. You don't like a lot of men have the sports, gene. I never even know what season it is. People go a world Siris, and I'm like, Oh, I love hockey. I'll watch that. Yeah, I I don't have the sports gene, so I called the business gene.
Doug: 18:13
All right, so maybe, um, expand on that. What is the business? Dean, if you could describe it, um, in terms that a non business Gina or somebody that doesn't know if they have it or not. What is it? What's it look like? It
Barry: 18:27
was listening to this thing. Entrepreneurs usually have one really strong strength, and that's the creativity, you know? And if they're smart, they'll build teams around them to take care of the other stuff. You know, the infrastructure, the admin, the outsourcing, the patents. You know, all these different pieces entertainers. Not so much. You know, entertainers go. Oh, I can learn to do this, or I can You know, I can fake this or I can get We don't We don't build it. We don't. A lot of entertainers don't look at it as a business. We look at it like I'm a great magician, and by doing that, it's the If I build it, they will come. Thing doesn't work in business ever. So the business gene, the way I call it was and I was part of a team match was, which was your wonderfully successful. My partner was he loved. He's a guy who young, he worked libraries. He, you know, he would have been working at Magic Mountain being a jugular in line if we had never met problem. And this is by his own admission, you know, he says he didn't at business, Gene. I was like, I didn't mind doing shows. The shows were fine, but I thrived in here and I love the business. I love meeting new clients. I loved of getting him on the phone, finding out what they needed, finding ways we could fill that gap, really painting that picture for them. So they went, Oh my gosh, I didn't know this was possible, so I called the business gene being able to take what you love your real sweet spot and surround it with an infrastructure that allows you to make a living. And boy, that's a That's a tough one for a lot of entrepreneurs.
Doug: 19:51
Well, okay, where to go from here? Um, so So you're juggling your wife's. As you know, you're really good at booking acts and making a lot of money doing this. So you put So you had a deadline. You forced yourself to keep producing, producing, producing. So in a sense, it goes back to that thing. Marissa Mayer said, Always be doing something that you're not ready to do. My
Barry: 23:10
gosh, Yeah, I remember finding that quote earlier, early in my career, she said it. Google were always doing something we're not ready to do. That was great. I think she's moved on since the Yahoo. And who knows what a big big CEO, big picture person. But yeah, I'd love that. Quote that boy, that's I've done that back since the beginning, Back when I was hungry and I go to the stores a kid and didn't know how I was gonna get food.
Doug: 23:34
So what's going on inside your head when you're doing this or your body or whatever? How do you find that? Kind of, and maybe it's part of this entrepreneurial gene you're talking about. But, you know, not everybody has that. A lot of people would like to have it. And my hope is that people that maybe don't have it real well can cultivate and develop it.
Barry: 23:57
There's a level of trust I think we have to Really. I mean, I trusted myself so in such a big way, I even wanted making bad decisions. I trust that this is what I have to do. You know, you and I had a little talk about gut intelligence, you know, versus this thing in our brain. And I mean to me, the gut intelligence has always been such a leader, and it's hard. I mean this this thing in their heads. It sounds convincing with its very fancy verbs announced, doesn't it? It's like, Wow, that should make sense. It's Ah, it's forming full sentences and it's using logic. But, boy, all the good decisions came from ah, feeling on overwhelming feeling. Like when my wife said, you're really good at selling a juggling act for a lot of money that was had nothing to do with my head. That was just a I was like, Yeah, I mean, I get goose bumps right now thinking about it. That was That was my body going. That's the truth, man. You are really good at selling a juggling act for a lot of
Doug: 24:50
money. So what did you feel inside? Where did you feel it? I've heard people describe it is like a full body. Yes, Um,
Barry: 24:58
and this is going back 10 years, and I'm not sure exactly where I felt my body, but the full body, yes, is like, yeah. And I mean, when I talk about it right now, my arms, both my arms shoot up with hair, so yeah, full.
Doug: 25:10
So it's like an energy going through. So some people may not have that ability to tap into her. They may not know they may not get that full body. Yes, but they should still like. I'll bet a Google Marisa Meyer like a lot of this stuff that they're not ready to do. They just did it anyway. And it may not have been stuff that they got the full body. Yes, to or the full corporate? Yes. To wear the full team. Yes. To they just like you know what? Let's push in this direction. We don't know where it's going to go. We don't know if it's gonna work. Um, but we're going to go anyway.
Barry: 25:38
Yeah, I don't know about that big corporate level. You know, there's always a committee Red tape, board of directors, investors. There's always a lot that I'm not sure how long, how far full body yes, takes them. But boy, I can tell you, is an entrepreneur is Ah, you know, individuals in this remarkable time in history where we literally have the chance to create our own our own reality. That has to be what we lean into if we wait for approval for yes is for committees for permission for a diploma. Just stop. Go get a job.
Doug: 26:12
So let's say you don't have the full body. Yes, but you don't have a full body. No, you have a Let's call it a kind of body. Maybe
Barry: 26:18
I'll say you're also you're ah, you're lying to yourself. There's never been anything. There's never been a There's a hell, no, And there's a hell. Yes, there's never no one's ever said Hell, maybe that's a padding that we put on top of the actual gut feeling that we're afraid to trust. And I'll just doing all that. That would be a padding. I would put on top of a gut feeling that I was afraid to trust. I don't got sat on to anybody else, but no one ever says hell Maybe. Um, no, I never hear that. Especially with the people I work with. Now. I don't I don't do that.
Doug: 26:49
So you wouldn't push forward into anything that you didn't have a full body. Yes. On
Barry: 26:53
even. Say, if you're gonna do entrepreneurial work and you're gonna don't even hunt around if it's not a hell, yes, Don't do it. And my goodness, you know, if you're someone who needs every single light to be green before you start the car and go, this isn't the right business for you. If you know you've had some success or if you've felt that hell, yes, and done it and felt what? It comes out on the other end, then? Yeah, just go for it. I mean, Hell knows. Could be really clear. They could be They could be wonderfully clear. And they're great. Hell, yes. Yeah, that's that's in the body, man. I don't even think Hell, yes. Needs words.
Doug: 27:32
Okay, so you have the hell. Yes, but you have a lot of trepidation. Maybe they don't have the, um, the series of successes you've had. Okay. And they're like, Ah, they can't. They can't not do it. And they can't. They're kind of like on the fence about it. Anyway, despite the full body, Yes. Where do you go with that? How do you dissipate that energy? How do you move through the you know, the head going? Oh, no, you can't do that because, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, And it comes up with a whole list of reasons and all of that. What's your advice to?
Barry: 28:06
Yeah, we could go back into the head to solve that, you know? And in a way, we have to, because if the bodies of hell, yes, but you have no idea what to do. It's what's the smallest thing you can do? There's a really funny idea. There's a really funny theory in math. You know, we can multiply zero, which let's just say we're starting at zero with an idea. That's a hell. Yes. We can multiply that times a 1,000,000 it's still zero, right? So basically, white knuckle this stuff, we have to find the smallest step that can get us from a broken collarbone where I can't move my arm to, uh, you know, now leading global community of entertainers around the world who have changed the way they run their businesses, the tiniest step in that was just hearing my wife say you're really good booking a juggling act and not rejecting that letting that in, taking a breath, holding that. Yeah. At that point, you're no longer a zero. You're a least a 00.1 point Lynn. We can multiply a hell of a lot of times to get Theo do some math with. And when we get to a stage one, when we've at least come up with a name for something, maybe gotten a domain name may be written one piece of content. We've gone from 0 to 1, going from 0 to 2. That's only 100% man. That's easy. After what you've just done, you really have to do is break this down. What's the smallest tangible thing we can do that gets us from feeling love this power like I have nothing right now. Sometimes it Sze reaching out on the phone, looking at, ah, length and finding an expert reading a book, writing an article, commenting on a block post. It could be so tiny that it feels like, Oh, that's nothing. But the truth is, it's monumental. It's Everest from where you are right now to just getting that tiny thing done. So, uh, trusting the full body feeling this is a hell, Yes, for me, I can feel it. I can feel that inside of me. Uh, the next piece. What's what's a really tiny step I can take right now? This all goes back up into the head so it gets out of really where we like to play on this stuff, but we can use the body. Is the truth detector we can go. Wow, If I If I just read this book, does that bring me one step closer to at least understanding for my big thing was spending two grand on Jeff Walker's product launch formula was like, Man, that felt huge to me, getting these modules which for so barbaric in 2007 Jeff talks about those all the time right now his first version of that. He's like, embarrassed when I see it, But, uh, you know now in his book, I'm on chapter four of his book launches New York Times Bestseller book Launch. I'm chapter four. Uh, you know, the message that sends to me is very Keep listening to your gut. You got cleanup position in the New York Times. Bestselling book, huh? Okay, What else? Well, I don't need yourself talking. I didn't know if you wanted to go different ways. I
Doug: 30:49
yeah, I want to keep coming back to this piece about moving forward. You know, like there's different ways I've heard it explained There's fail forward. There's, you know, don't they talk about doing three versions of the product? Like, let's say, just within this product area creating digital products, the 1st 1 is to just get something up, right? Just test it, Um, see what happens and you'll make up. You'll make a lot of mistakes, but at least you have something up. You can throw tomatoes at and change and alter and do whatever you need to do. Just make it work, and then the 2nd 1 has come in. Refine it. 3rd 1 is. You know, by that time you'll probably have a really cool product from the feedback from the 1st 2 But, um, I'm still I want to go back to the somatic side because my my belief is that if you don't feel it, you're probably not going to do it. If you don't feel that full book look is you're saying full body? Yes. Maybe that has to be coupled to the entrepreneur Gene. Maybe you have to have the entrepreneur Gene to have that. I don't know. That's what I'm exploring. I'm really looking for your
Barry: 31:53
offer that if someone is still listening to this conversation, I don't know where we are 20 minutes in. They have the gene. It's the gene is probably a hell. Yes, The fear, the stuff that happens up in the head is the stuff that's bringing it back down. You know, out of a full body into the well what a what with my parents think, what with my friends. Think what my boss think. Where do I have time to do this? I'm raising it. Yeah, the excuses are long, the list goes on forever, and I'll tell you, it's honestly pouring it's hell. It's the same excuses that everyone's using himself Small. The entrepreneur that breaks out of it, learns to listen to the body, learns to take those tiny micro steps, build on nose so that every time they double them, they're a little bit bigger. They're a little bit bigger, you know. 1/10 plus attempt is ah, fifth and and the fraction keeps on getting bigger. And then we're in the whole numbers, but yeah, we're not going to be at zero on Sunday and you know, a 10 on Monday. We've got to get rid of that. And we live in a society that is so big and you see something you don't even have to go onto the computer to hit something out. To get this little Amazon echo thing, you just say, you know, I need more trash bags and somehow magically, a U. P s guy brings into your door in two days. So we're dealing with this instant gratification. And the truth is the development of the human being, the growth of a business, us understanding how we can actually help prospects how weaken, Give them something. How we can bless their lives. How we can offer them an opportunity for transformation. Slowly show them that. Hey, I was just like you. I mean, this is the stuff Jeff teaches. You know, I was just like you. Here's what I discovered. Here's what it did for me. Here's why I'm sharing it. That's a process, man, that's not yelling at your Amazon. Echo what you need, what you need. And, boy, we have to do some deep work around that stuff and and there is a computer work. There's personal work. There's, ah, you know, coming to terms a lot of stuff and it all bases back to the body. Is this a hell? Yes. Should I be doing this? Um, and we can study, weaken, dig in. We can get diplomas. Weaken. I know this guy who's an amazing coach, And you just told me he's starting coaching school. It was like, what? You know, I mean, I've been in a group with you for five years. You're unbelievable what you do. And something in him didn't feel good about charging forward unless he had some certificate. I'm like I've been in business, Coach. I mean, I coach entertainers for good, good money. I mean, I get I got a nice sideline of private coaching and group coaching businesses. Yeah, Whoever told you that the people who told me I could do it are my clients who have doubled and tripled their income from me working with him. So
Doug: 34:29
All right, so somebody's they've got this. Yes, they got the apprehensions. Um What What are your tips for them? Let's let's take this down into Ah, nuts and bolts stuff.
Barry: 34:41
Couple second. You know, from what we said before, find the smallest thing you can do. That'll move you forward. And if it scares you, it's the right thing. The smallest thing you can d'oh, that will move the needle for you. And if it scares you, you've nailed it. If it doesn't scare you, if you think I could do that, it's not the right thing. You need to do something that gets you back into the body. I mean, exactly what I was talking about. Something that just goes, Oh, gosh, I don't know if I could do that. You know that first time I walked on stage of my buddy at the end of that summer camp and my heart was pounding, my heart was banging. Now I go on stage in front of Ah, the biggest show I ever did with 60,000 people at the Georgia Dome for an Amway conference, you know. Anyway, I used to hire us to come into these big mega meetings and do an hour of amazing entertainment between George Bush and Robert Kiyosaki. You know, they were just like speakers. And then we do an hour comedy act in the middle of it. But, you know, my heartbeat didn't change. That's massive growth, but the first time I did it, you have to feel in your body if you're not feeling it. If you're not feeling shaky, if you're not almost crying, if it doesn't bring you to your knees to think about this first little task you have to do, it's probably not the right thing. Keep digging. But, boy, if you're sitting somewhere with a strong idea with a desire like I have to do this wanted this so badly, just find the smallest thing that gives you. It gives you a little maybe a heart arrhythmia. 1st 2nd That's your truth, Detective. You don't have to get into books. You don't have to talk to coaches. You you have a truth detector built into you. Use it. Lean into it,
Doug: 36:14
huh? Okay, Um, I like this. That the scary part if it doesn't kind of what's the word to use? Scare fear if it doesn't get you, Ah, heart arrhythmia. It's probably not big enough,
Barry: 36:27
but you know that they always tell people are lying when that little thing on the lie detector does that spike and honestly, what our body should do when we say the one thing we really need to do. That's the spike we should see. We should. You know, I have things like that. You know, we didn't even get in talking about, but the that get more corporate gigs lead to having a couple 100 clients who have gone through that thing, and we're asking for more, you know? What else can we do? The book. I created a 10 week group coaching program and that just is finishing its 11th session right now. For the last three years. I've run it once a year, and for the 1st 2 or three years, I ran a two or three times the years up the 11th session of it is ending. Now it's ah, it's a bigger investment of time of money for people to join it. I take 25 people at a time and people come into it and we go deep into, you know, their work, what they're doing. It's kind of picks up right where Get more corporate gigs like this bachelor's degree. This is the master stuff and then PhD level people. Sometimes I work with them privately or in small groups. So, yeah, I love sharing that stuff. I love helping entertainers who are just have these great acts and don't know how to book. That led to me thinking, Wow, what's it like to help people who aren't entertainers? And this is great. This is more just along. This is Ah, this is Maura. Me just leaping off before I have any training or authority to do this. But I, um leap Day 2012. My son asked, what you gonna do for leap Day? What are you gonna leave for Leap day? And I said I'm gonna lead sugar. I was eating so much crap in those days, Doug, that led me to writing this book. Amazon bestseller I Love Me More Than Sugar That led me that lead. No, actually, I wrote this to help support an online program I have done to coach people through 30 days. Sugar free at 30 days. Sugar free dot com. We run a challenge on the first of every single month, and there's people around the world have been affected. About 18 months into that, someone said, Hey, write a book and go on TV wrote this book. Did all the stuff Thio Get it out in the world? It sells copies every day. I went on 25 TV shows jumped on Southwest airplanes. No training? No. Did you know Coach on how to do this? I just called TV stations. Got on booked on, got him booked on 20 for every major network had had me on. And I use this to bring people into my online program for 30 days Sugar free coaching. Some of those people turn in the long range coaching clients. Oh, no, it's
Doug: 38:50
and just just IQ to be clear here. This is not your area of expertise, sugar. Maybe it is now, But when you started It was like
Barry: 38:58
I was a guy who ate Reese is peanut butter cups and snickers every single day in real life. I mean, every day in my life. I love the junk food. I mean, I was horrible and I felt so sick when my nine year old asked me what I want to leap. I was like, I just said Sugar one day.
Doug: 39:12
So what was the process of turning that leaping sugar into this whole this program in the book and then all of
Barry: 39:17
that, that was, Ah, February 28th. When that happened in 2012 that was a leap year. The next day was leaked day. My son and I had just finished eating this chocolate yogurt with all these things on it. I literally felt sick to my stomach. He asked me what I was gonna leave for leap day. I said, I'm gonna leave sugar. He a great line for a nine year old. He said, I'm not going to do that, but I will. But I won't pick my nose for the day. That was what he was, which I love. So I went February 29 2012 with no sugar, Nothing with added sugar in it. I did eat fruit, but if it had sugar under any of its 50 plus names on the label, I didn't touch it. March 1st, I woke up and I said to my wife, the same woman who told me, uh you're gonna fill you going after a lot of money, we confessing each other the way I said, I don't know what happened yesterday, but I feel so empowered. I mean, just like I feel like I made all these great choices about life and who I wanted to be. And all this from 24 hours of not eating any sugar. I said, I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna keep going for a little while. I just said I'm to do another day. I think about a few days into that, I said, I'm gonna go 30 days without sugar. I think around 21 days into that Doug, honestly, I would have had to have been at gunpoint. I slept better. I had already lost weight. My skin had cleared up almost completely. My anxieties were gone all of a sudden. I mean, I'm kind of high energy now, I don't even drink coffee or do any sugar. I was a nightmare when I was eating all that sugar.
Doug: 40:39
You'd probably be dangerous to those people around you if you did drink coffee,
Barry: 40:44
video myself a lot on TV from, you know, early light, midway to thousands. I just Who was that guy? It was incredible. Just how I looked in those days from all the sugar I was eating. So how did that turn in? Let's see then. I think I was about 15 months with no sugar. I had passed a year, and someone said to me, How do you do this? You know, people started asking me and I only know how to put up together an online program, so I just Literally it was September. It was August of 2013 and I said, Well, I told Annie I'm gonna So I was a Yeah, It was a year and 1/2 into the no sugar thing, and I said to my wife, I'm gonna I'm gonna put together this. I built this little simple page that said 30 days sugar free. I bought this domain name. My son was in a play. I launched the page, put it on Facebook or something. Went to take him to the rehearsal, looked at my phone, and someone had already signed up for the program for for the next month, starting on the first of month. So I said, Oh, my gosh, I guess I'm gonna do this. So I stayed in great form, which we're finding here, which I'm sure will be the title of your podcasts. I don't know what it is, but I stayed two days ahead of those people. September 2013. I ran the first program, and on day one I was for them. Day one. I was writing Day three, Day two. I was writing Day four. I was just looking with people. I had about 80 people in the program the very first time I ran it, and I was I was staying two days ahead, coaching them and for the most part, without with with the exception of some, uh, grammatical changes, some stuff that's happened in the meantime, where I could help people more. The program's 80% the same as it was when I wrote it September.
Doug: 42:17
So just to recap, what started as a challenge by your son has turned into this multi year program that's helped hundreds, if not thousands, of people,
Barry: 42:27
uh, a 10 by 10,000 by now gone through. And, uh, it's getting to an interesting point. We have a Facebook group with almost 60,000 people in it now, and you know that little hockey stick is starting to turn vertical now. But it's a long you know. It's a long time loving what you're doing. And I meet so many entrepreneurs that same is juggling. You know, I could have quit after the first time my hands start to believe. But you know, there's that thing. If there's that thing in us, just keep going. You guys don't stop. Do what it takes to go from 0 to 00.12 point 5212
Doug: 43:02
Okay, So what are some other tips you give to folks?
Barry: 43:05
The very, very, very And I'll just keep saying very but very protective of the seven holes in your head. This has been one of the greatest survival methods for me in my life. You know, we have this mouth ese to nose holds these two eyes in these two years and what you allow into those seven holes defines who you are defines how you feel. Um, you know what? You believe in the actions you take, the results you get And these holes are especially in today's world, there too available there too vulnerable. So you know what? You read who you talk to, who you tell your ideas to offer the love of God, I'm not religious. It takes everything in me to say that. But whatever it is, spread your ideas on the people who are gonna crap on them. My gosh, Just be so careful of your ideas. Have a mastermind group, have a consortium of people you trust who are also playing bigger. Don't be the most interesting person in the room. One of the worst things you can do. That's why I love I've been invited back starting in 2006 Ted conferences. I'm like a piece of carny trash there, and I love it when I go somewhere else. And I'm the most interesting person in the room. My wife sees me. I'm just like I'm fidgeting to get out of there. You know, I want to always be challenged. I want I want to hear what other people are doing that excites me. And I want to be in mastermind groups have been six years in two different groups. And what we share everything in there but boys first, putting things out into the world, having an idea and telling somebody about it telling your buddy at work about it your brain goes through the entire process of having done it have done the work. Having seen the reward just when they say, Oh, that's a great idea. The dopamine released You kill an I D. On contact. So, you know, be careful of what you do. Don't start thinking that I'm gonna do this thing. I'm gonna tell everybody about it, everything about it, and that's for me. That may work really well for other people, but boy, from me, I just found I have to be so protective of what comes into these seven holes all the way from food to the air. I breathe. So when I look at read, so what I hear from other people. So what? Go ahead. Now you know, I can keep going with other.
Doug: 45:12
All right, well, so social media so controlling what you take in. I think that's a big one. Um, it's so easy in r a t h d society to get sucked into the latest news cycle Politics, religion and on and on and on had Yeah, I remember. I think I heard you speak it. A, um, Oz want Maybe Nevada County online and you were talking about Really? Be careful about what you take in a sw far. So the news and social media you still on pretty tight on that which you
Barry: 45:44
fast off mainstream media and there's nothing I don't know about. You know, I I know Hillary's our president. Okay, I know, but I know, uh, you know, I know everything that's going on just from being in this world. What I what? I'm 18 years or so at least into Ah, no network news. I couldn't imagine doing anything like that to myself. In fact, in showbiz blueprint in my group coaching program, my higher end group coaching program, people signing the agreement that for 10 weeks of the 10 weeks of this it is imperative that you don't I say I'm not gonna be there in your house to watch you But I want you to sign this and tell me that you're not going to watch mainstream media news. It's impossible, Doug to create a vision. The visions that live inside of us is entrepreneurs. We are entrepreneurs were here, as Jeff Walker says, to save the world, that is our work. And it's impossible to do that if the soundtrack that's playing behind you is how bad things are, how negative what kind of bad economic system were in I. The truth is, I don't listen to that stuff, and for me, it's not. Things have never been better. You know, I I helped cripple people create. I leave people in creating their biggest dreams ever, and it always happens because they turn off the news. They're not listening. That bed soundtrack. They're doing the work. They're going from 0.12 point 22.42 point 8 to 1.6 and just doubling So. And if you're listening to the news and watching these eight different angles of something being blown up, you know, I know when things get blown up and yeah, and it's it's not in my scope. It's not the light I see at the end of my tunnel. So if you're if you're creating something of your that entrepreneur, be so clear on what you're seeing and on Lee, do what serves you and support you and getting to that light so that at the end of that light you can enter a new tunnel and see what's right out there. And, boy, if we get complicated in beautiful men and women who are telling us about murder with that little glint in their eye, we're done. Get a job stop.
Doug: 47:29
Huh? What else? What other tips?
Barry: 47:38
Man covered the holes in the head. You know, protecting what goes in our ideas, our work ethic, listening your body.
Doug: 47:47
How about how about play? How about, um how much time do you put in working versus how much time you spend, just like family. And
Barry: 47:55
let me go. Let me give you speak on that for one second year because I think this is a real entrepreneur trap. You know, the next the next great WordPress widget, the next great microphone. The next thing you have to have the next this all these things to be expert says, you know, I'm really clear on what I'm working. I'm 1000% when I'm not working on the fouls percent. I like running, biking, swimming, the triathlon sports. And when I'm doing those things, I'm 100% all in. So, you know, what do we have to do? Have a list together? You know? No, the top three things you need to do today. Huge. I call the forties Top three things today, you know? And there has to be like one of my things today was to show up big for my buddy Doug, who's running this podcast. And that's one of things. And I'll check that off. Okay, I showed up big for that one. There's a couple other things from a business that I'm gonna do today. And then so, you know, moneymaking activities. Mm. A. You hear these talked about what? Your moneymaking activities. I spend 75% of my day on moneymaking activities. Those are things that I'll realize financial income from in 90 days or less. That's fine money making the other 25%. That's big picture stuff. That swinging for the fences that's going on the Lincoln and contacting a number one best selling author and saying, Hey, I'd love to talk to you I'd love to have you speak to my group That's contacting Guy who just wrote an article for The New York Times on Sugar that's gotten millions of hits and shares and saying, I have a community. I'd love to just do an interview. Um, it's dreaming about the next big project. It's It's scaring myself is waiting for that little blip on my radar to kind of go. That's one. So 75% on mm, 25% swinging for the fences. And honestly, the rest of it is Ah is playtime, man. It's, ah, setting up life, taking care of business. And there's a difference. You know? Let me straighten that also for entrepreneurs. When I see 75% inmate time, you know, I may I may be entrepreneur. I don't go to a regular job, but I know like today I'm gonna have six hours in the office. So 75% of that will be MM, a 25 and maybe there's two hours after that that our life stuff, you know, it's ah, paying bills. It's going to the doctor. It's It's taking care of life stuff dealing with a an insurance company that I'm dealing with some right now. So, you know, we are. We have to be so precious with our time is entrepreneurs. It's insane to me the the idea that we build something and we sit on a beach. You see all these pictures on squeeze pages of people in the laptop on there? I don't want a laptop on my lap at the beach. You know, I really don't breath be in my hand. You know, I want to be riding on a big wave. I don't want a laptop on my lap of the beach. Uh, sorry if you're that guy and that girl, Um And I hope you have a nice laptop, uh,
Doug: 50:31
and its sand
Barry: 50:32
proof of its sand fruits and And you can see through it. Yeah.
Doug: 50:35
So this piece about hiring out what you're saying is no, uh, you know, you you don't want to do it yourself. A lot of a lot of people think they have to do everything. They don't have the budget, they don't have the time, you know, whatever it is the control that nobody else can do the work like they can, whatever it is, Um, you're saying, Find your core thing, do what you do best and hire out the rest. Take it away. Barry.
Barry: 50:59
Who area to areas that have really big to focus on that is present for what I need to be present for on screen interviews, cameras, and I'm president for things I want to be present for. Sometimes I love sitting in on an editing session. Sometimes I love, you know, doing my my life. Q. And A's with my community like Those are things I love doing, and I have to be there for really anything else in your business. You can't go from zero to having that 100% outsource. But what are the big things that are wasting your time? You know, if we can, The 80 20 rule always comes back. You know, what's the 20% of the activity with you that's responsible for 80% of our income for our for our impact? Yeah, it's all out there. Get honest with yourself and define it like I I dissed recorded all the 10 modules for my showbiz blueprints. Again, I hadn't done him in two years. So I wanted to do him fresh again with new content stuff I'd learned, you know, updating some stuff. So I went into a studio, literally. A camera guy operated the camera and the teleprompter, but not a teleprompter. Just the bullet points. I was in front of the camera, and from there it got uploaded to a drop box. From there, a guy in Serbia did all the editing. Well, actually, from there a gallon in Portland, Oregon, went through the videos, Did the time cuts for the editor to D'oh said, Come in here, out there. Put this on the screen. She sent that to a guy in Serbia whose my video editor, whose amazing and then the next thing I got back was the final version of my video. Could I have done the notation on the screen? Could I have done video editing? And I used to, and I used to, and I knew for sure that was had nothing to do with my 80 80 20 rule. Honestly, right now I'm living Maurine, the 95 10. I'm 95. My I should work on math. I'm working more five range I mean, really, there's 5% of the stuff I do that affects 95% of my life, and I will wager as your entrepreneurial business grows bigger and bigger, you'll go from 80 20 to 85 15 to 90 10. It just keeps going, and there's less unless you need to be present for. And all of that is hiding under the lizard brain, which is a part of you inside your brain back in the brain, this little almond shaped part of your brain that will do anything in the world to keep you safe from change. And it sees change as the number one fear. So if we're thinking of changing something, we gotta battle something that's really in effect, helping to drive us. And that's why I go back to the what's the smallest thing you could do that triggers you cause we have to start beating this thing up a little, tiny bit of a time in a good way of respecting it, but also taking back control of it because if you have an idea, it's too big and too grand. Lizard brain will shut that down and start giving you a list of reasons as long as your body about why it won't work, why it's not right. Annual sabotage you It'll jump into it. Changes one of its greatest coat cozy blanket. You don't get you hooked on a new TV show on some food on on porn on a bad relationship doesn't matter. It just it just wants something to hold on to. That starts to keep your real small.
Doug: 53:57
Well, we have covered a lot of territory here. Um,
Barry: 54:03
is it still Wednesday yet? It's okay.
Doug: 54:05
It is still and say so if people want to learn more about you and ah, so there's a few things I'm looking here for, uh, looking here for one or some references where you send people to learn more about you about, um, what you're doing about your sugar free program. If there's entertainers out there that want to learn more about how deliveries that and then the second part might be books. Resource is websites, um, places you recommend to sort of. That's books that have been important to you. Personal growth courses, whatever things he would say, you know, put your attention here. Not over here on the mainstream
Barry: 54:42
of that. Well, to get in touch with me, you can go to AA 30 days, 30 days, sugar free dot com. Um, that's a good one. Raspy in e r A s p Why? And I the word raspy with an eye at the end dot com, You can see my world of throwing things in the air, kicking them, and, uh, and showbiz blueprint. If you're an entertainer or you want to see what it looks like to reach into a community, you know it's funny. Jeff Walker, who we spoke about during this interview, he really loves to focus on people who were doing successfully online, who aren't in to make money online business. That was always a big focus for him. So I think he made me Chapter four of his book because he found out I was selling a using his product launch formula to sell the program. Thio, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquist and clowns he could not like. He was like, Oh, that's the epitome of the It was really need to talk to him and do that, but you can see what that looks like in Children's blueprint dot com. Um, wonderful sequence that his work has taught me to do so that some places to get in touch with me also unlinked in And, uh, I was an early adopter. So most most social networks in the world you could do slash Very f Barry f in. It'll get you to me, Facebook and twitters and you know all those things and then, yeah, resource is to read, You know, if you're an artist, if you're into ah, entrepreneurism, which I consider it is art. Being entrepreneur is being an artist, a book that you can grab and pick up any time you're feeling low. You know, if you just probably on my shelf over there, it's called, uh uh, the War of Art. It's by Steven Press Field, and it is just short little essays. His main character in that book is a person called Resistance and whatever one you happen to open two and Reed is exactly what's happening with you and resistance right now. It's really nice to have to deal with that and howto hold that part of yourself, which is not a bad part. It's not a part that needs to be sliced. It's a it's a part of you that needs to mature. It's a part of you that needs to quit driving your life from behind and brought out in front of you so you can look in the eyes and kind of say, Yeah, I hear you saying that. Scary. I hear you saying that no one will probably read the 1st 10 block post I make, and I'm going to do him anyway.
Doug: 56:59
Okay. Any other books? Recommendations?
Barry: 57:02
Sure. Depending on where you are in your business. Ah, all kinds of great people to study, You know, um, Jeff Walker PLF. I love that I love ah, cycle freedom. F r E e D. I am Ah, great guy Ryan Lees that he started that It's kind of a Netflix of online businesses. It's very inexpensive and it's got literally when he says the Netflix of lifestyle business, he means that it's ah, if anything, you could want to learn the only trap I'll give you their The only trap is don't get caught up in learning. Get caught up in doing okay, make the mistakes. You making mistakes is 10 to 1 more powerful than reading about somebody else's mistakes.
Doug: 57:43
Okay, Barry thank you very, very much.
Barry: 57:49
You're a good man, Doug. Thanks for doing great to chat with you.
Doug: 57:53
Yeah, you too. And, um again, you can probably look somewhere around this page for more. Resource is from Barry and triggered a 30 days sugar free dot com. That's the number 30 is a good place to. Ah, really start and get yourself healthier and the whole shebang again. Thanks, Berry. And this is Doug Green with what really matters. Interviews dot com. Thank you for listening.