Max Garcia, public speaker, coach, and retired Marine SgtMaj, shares some incredible insight on gaining traction with your life's situation and building confidence as you develop your leadership skills. He shares truths and principles that will resonate, regardless of level of seniority, that is sure to make an impact on your own leadership development journey.
Max Garcia, public speaker, coach, and retired Marine SgtMaj, shares some incredible insight on gaining traction with your life's situation and building confidence as you develop your leadership skills. He shares truths and principles that will resonate, regardless of level of seniority, that is sure to make an impact on your own leadership development journey.
You're watching America's Entrepreneur on Youtube. Welcome to the show. I'm your host Aaron Spatz. And each week we interview entrepreneurs, industry experts, and other high achievers as a detail their personal and professional journeys. Before we jump in, hit the subscribe button and be sure to hit the bell icon so you're notified every time we release a new episode. Thanks so much for tuning in to America's entrepreneur. I'm incredibly excited to welcome a friend of mine back to the show. So back in the day, when the show was the Veterans Business Podcast, I welcome this person on Episode Eight, it was audio only, I would encourage you to go back listen to listen to this episode incredibly impactful as it relates to goal setting and just tackling problems of life. tackling issues in your business, you will be incredibly credibly glad that that that you did so so incredibly excited to welcome Max Garcia. Back to the show. Max is a speaker. He's a coach, he's an author he he what's amazing is he's a retired Marine Sergeant Major spent a career serving our nation and now he lives in the in the wonderful land of Australia. We'll we'll talk about that I'm sure you'll have questions as to why and how that worked out. But he's also the the co author of the book The abundance factor with Joe Vitale, so you can pick that up, I'd encourage you to check out all that he's doing on max Garcia dot biz. And if you are an event planner, in fact, doesn't matter if you're an event planner or not. If you are looking for help either in your business, if you're looking for speakers for a conference, a gala, any any major events that are going on with your business, I would encourage you to reach out to max it would be an absolute thrill and an honor to have him and I know he feels the exact same way to be able to be a part of what you're doing. So without further ado, Max, man, I just wanna welcome you back to the show, man. Great to see you again.
Max Garcia:Thanks, Aaron. It's good to be back you say episode number eight, eight
Aaron Spatz:like our number we here today our I think this is when we released this I want to say this is gonna be 131.
Max Garcia:Wow, okay was a while ago then good stuff.
Aaron Spatz:It was a while I did a little bit of a sprint earlier in the year when, as I was running a different show. And so as I collapsed the shows together, it kind of helped it kind of helped jump my episode count up a little bit. But But no, man, it's great. It's great to see you. Great, great, great, great to hear that things are going well. So for those of you for those that don't know you are know a lot about your background, I'd love to just kind of give people a chance like to get to know you. So kind of walk us through a little bit of your life story as much or as little as you'd like to share in terms of like, where you came from a little bit of your journey into the military. And then and then kind of what you're what you're up to now.
Max Garcia:Yeah, for sure. So the short version is short as I can make it is that. Yes, I'm a proud American. But I was actually born in Mexico, and I was adopted by Americans have never actually met my biological family. My wife recently found my mother, my biological mother, I'm online for the very first time we've not met in person yet. However, like I said, I was adopted by Marines as a baby grew up on the East Coast, Maryland, Washington, DC, air even lived in West Virginia for a little bit. And yeah, joined the Marines at at 17 right out of high school, and stayed in there up until almost three years ago, for a total of 24 years. And somewhere along the lines, I married a gal from Australia. So that's why I'm here now. Yeah. And I got out and by the way, just because of the those times, that's what made me wanted to become a motivational speaker and coach. Yeah,
Aaron Spatz:that's awesome. Well, I mean, no doubt your your trusted with our nation's finest treasure. And it's, you know, it's the young hard chargers and young people, I get it done. And so one, I just want to thank you for your 24 years of service. That's quite, that's quite the commitment to our country. And thank you for all that you've done. And, and of course, a lot of people don't maybe that aren't or that are not as familiar with the military may or may not completely understand or fully appreciate the amount of access that people have your rank and even further down into, like, company level rank, have that level of influence that you have on on young people on on the, on the future and the decisions that they're making, and getting everybody on the same page. So I like it, if you'd like to, I'd like more than welcome to listen to you like in terms of like sharing kind of how this all came about? Because you've seen a lot, right. I mean, you've you've dealt with the 2am phone calls, you've dealt with the Monday morning disasters, right? And so like, walk us through a little bit of like, what that life was like, again, there's there's, there's a lot of military listen to this. So they'll understand, but there's also a lot of non military that will listen to this as well. So help help kind of set that up.
Max Garcia:Right. It is very, very hectic. And so before my last duty station, I was the sergeant major as the most senior enlisted guy for the largest battalion in the Marine Corps worldwide. So it's about 1200 people, and they're also scattered all over the place and time to time we have Marines on the Meuse Marine Expeditionary units. For those who don't know, we haven't In Twentynine Palms Marines at Camp Pendleton rains in Okinawa, we're always again, we're the we were the largest operational battalion in the in the Marine Corps. And so yeah, it is it is pretty hectic. There's a lot of you know, phone calls late at night. However, it's real. It's a real honor and privilege. I mean, whenever I have one conversation with a company commander, or one conversation with a company first sergeant, well, I loved it, because now I'm influencing somebody who's in charge of anywhere from two to 500 people. And I absolutely love that kind of influence. So I can be a positive influence, if you will. Loved it. Yeah,
Aaron Spatz:we, we, we need we need as much positive influence in this world as humanly possible. So glad glad to hear that, you know, not only your experience in the Marine Corps, but then punching out you, you moved to the land of Australia got set up there. And so now you've been like you've kind of run, run just 100 miles an hour ever since. So I can take us through take us with the Genesis story of your business and kind of how that how has that journey been? Like, how has it been? You're going from zero to where you are now. And in terms of building that up? And like, what's that been like?
Max Garcia:Right, so um, it's it's been really hectic, it's not easy. I tell you that. Since you're talking about transition, I tell you the the hardest thing. Well, for me, first of all, I had a good transition because I wanted to get out of the Marine Corps. When I did, I was really happy with my career, I got to do everything. Three combat tours, the tours, the drill instructor, at Parris Island, I did a tour as the drill instructor, or did two summers at Officer Candidate School. I was stationed in Spain, which was pretty cool. For a couple of years, I was stationed at University for three years, I did it all. So I was really happy with what I done. And I felt that my little girl needed a father more than I needed another metal. So I decided, you know, hey, I'd already, you know, achieved the highest rank possible. You know, what do you do when you're at the poker table? Or you're at the I should say, blackjack table and you're up? You know, what you do? You walk away. So I did not. And I was real happy about that. The most challenging thing for those out there who are active duty military, the most challenging thing for transition, especially for the senior people out there, the most challenging thing is guilt. And what I mean by guilt is, there comes a point in time that you have to balance, hey, I'm about to get out. And so I need to make all these doctor's appointments and get all my aches and pains documented, I need to take time out to go to the transition readiness seminar, I need to take time off to go to the resume writing seminar I need to and these are like weeks long, by the way, I need to take time out to hunt for a job or take leave and prep and look for house and do all these things. And that is a massive challenge, especially when you have 1200 people worth of leaders knocking on your door because the phone calls don't stop coming in the emails don't stop coming in. And you have to balance Okay, is this really urgent? Or can they take care of this, and I need to take care of myself and my family. Because for all my active duty people out there, if you're getting if you're two years out that or at least especially for my careerist for the short term, guys, for four years, it's not as big of a transition. But for anybody who did 20 years or more, that is a massive transition. And not only that, it's not just about you. And we hear that a lot as leaders. It's not just about you, it's also about your people. But however, it's not just about you, but it's also about your family. Because when you get out, you have to live with that same body and that same family. And once you retire and get your flag or once you get your DD 214 Nobody cares about you, nobody cares how many hours you worked, or the great things you did for the battalion because they are all going to rotate to no one cares. However you serve your same family and serve your same body. So I recommend that you strike a balance in taking care of yourself and, you know, do all those things. Take the resume writing class, the transition, readiness seminar, whatever else is available. There's a business business to boots class available, I took that in Okinawa, Japan, that was really, really helpful. Take care of yourself. And I'll tell you this, too, for those out there. I would never ever say fraud, the medical system and those things like that, because but a lot of veterans, they say things like this, oh no, I'm not going to make a claim, you know, from my back or from a PTSD because I don't want to take away from somebody who's wounded in combat. We'll keep in mind that you also put your life on the line. And again, it's not just about you, it's also about your families. So keep in mind that as you get older, those aches and pains that you had or have while you're in the service, they don't go away. They in fact get worse. In a lot of cases. In many cases they will get better because you'll have more time to Exercise, take care of your health, take the right vitamins investigate healthier lifestyle, so you should do that. And you can, however, some things will, will get worse, like almost instantly after you get out. So keep that in mind when you're thinking of just walking away.
Aaron Spatz:Sure. I mean, that's, that's some solid, solid word of wisdom, especially, especially for those that are still still in service. Let's, let's shift gears a little bit Max, let's talk a little bit about leadership. Um, you've, again, you've had a front row seat to personal leadership development for hundreds 1000s of people. And so contrast that against where you are today and some of the things that you've seen with the people that you've worked with, whether it's in a formal relationship, or just some of your general observations, like what, what are some things that people should be thinking about in terms of personal leadership development?
Max Garcia:Right, for sure. So um, so leadership development, first of all, this is really, really broad. Where you're hitting me with here, Aaron. So let me ask one question back real quick, go forward. Are we talking about people in new leadership positions, shift managers, Corporal level Sergeant level type leadership? Are we talking people who who are managing? You know, yeah, that's a people 100 people. So I know who I'm talking to you? Yeah,
Aaron Spatz:no, that's a really good question. Why don't we Why don't we focus in on somebody like, so I feel like this is actually a more common occurrence than not. So for people that are that are put into new leadership positions. And it you know, they may have been a software developer, right, for a number of years, they may have, they may have done any number of things worked in a fabrication facility, and now they now all of a sudden they find themselves in a situation where they're, they're, they're tasked with being in charge of production or projects, but also people and so what what are what are some things that people can do for themselves, to help them be more effective leaders for for, for their teams?
Max Garcia:Yes, absolutely. So first thing is for those newer leaders confidence, I believe is a huge issue, especially if you're working in the same place where you are a worker B. So if you're a worker B, and then you got moved up to be in some kind of leadership position, whether it's a McDonald, shift manager or a corporal in the Marine Corps, it could be anything, a lot of times you're working with the same people who are used to being your peers, very, very difficult situation transition, if you can ask to be moved to another department or another company, do it, because then no one will know you other than that leadership position. Next thing, I highly recommend doing whatever it is, you have to do to work on confidence. If you contact me, I'll send you some very quick and easy things you can do to build your confidence right away. Because if you're uncomfortable in your own skin, people are going to step on you people are going to talk about you people are going to maybe even disrespect you either behind your back or in your face. And one way that you can help yourself get confident right off the bat, if you're going into one of these new leadership positions, is to really, really break the books and read up on everything that is you're going to be doing, even if you've already been doing it for a while, but because you've been doing for a while, but you're doing it this level. Now moving up here. You want to be able to crack the book, standard operating procedures to manuals, whatever it is, so that you can also understand your boss's point of view. And you can when you're leading when you're giving directions when things come up, because they always do. You can be comfortable in your own skin and speak from a point of certainty speak from a point of knowledge. That's a lot of the times where, you know, someone's unsure if they don't know their job, if you will. And one of the ways to do this because you so you can intelligently say no, absolutely not. I know I've seen it before the policy says, we can only do it during this hour to this hour. But I'll go and research a policy just to be sure when you speak like that, you're going to sound more confident, you're going to feel more confident. And yeah, it's just going to make everything go that much smoother. Also, you need to get comfortable speaking in front of people, whether it's a small group of people, or whether it's just two people, it's gonna it's gonna sound funny, but you almost want to rehearse some of the things you have to say before you save them so that you hear if you sound like you're going. Or you're going to hear what you sound like when you're giving directions. So if you're in a position where, hey, you have to password give instruction to five people, 10 people, even for people while you're at home, you want to say that practice saying that word, passing that information on by yourself because then you're going to hear what you sound like you're going to hear if you have too many US or does or are going making that noise with your lips. And if you really want to humble yourself if it's a long instruction or a presentation, then I even recommend going as far as video recording yourself because then you're gonna see if you have mannerisms that that display Under confidence, such as I call it praying people, your talk like this, or washing the hands who will talk like this. It's these are signs of lack of competence, low self esteem. And by the way, I'm telling you this, because I grew up with really, really low self esteem. You know, I was the adopted kid, and I even got made fun of it made fun of for it, which is ridiculous. But I really didn't gain true confidence probably until, probably until I finished my tour as the drill instructor, if I'm being totally honest with you. And yeah, so these are all things that everyone has has to learn it good. Aaron, I know. I
Aaron Spatz:mean, it's this no, this is this is great. Now this is this is solid. The the issue of conference, I think is so so key. And I think that's a tremendous topic, to even spend some more time on, because I think leaders of all levels, whether they are a new, like a newly appointed leader, for a for a small group, or even leaders at higher levels, and there, they have a lot of responsibility put on them, whether it's financial performance, operational performance, risk management, I mean, any number, any number of things. Confidence is something that I think that I've seen it I've experienced myself, when you lose it, you've got it takes a lot of work to get it back, and and to really work on really fixing your mindset. And so you hit on this like really well, but like, are there other things that people can do? And maybe maybe this is appropriate to kind of address those that have been in leadership roles for some time? And maybe, maybe they had a tough project, or they had a tough experience or company downsized? Or like I mean, any number of experiences that people go through? What what are some things that you feel like would help people to kind of remember their value to the organization may? And maybe that's the answer, right? But But what are some things people can do to help get themselves out of that slump?
Max Garcia:Right? Yes. So first of all, I highly recommend everyone, find a mentor, find someone who is, is doing what you're already doing. No need to reinvent the wheel. That's what we do. Especially I'm just gonna say it men are the worst at this, we have our egos. I don't need anybody's help. I can figure it out all on my own, even if it means absolutely killing myself, doing it and working, you know, 20 hour days when I could be working eight hour days. So men are the worst for this. Ask someone who you can, who you trust needs to be somebody, right? You can even reach out to me. Because then they're gonna say, hey, alright, you're checking in new this new place. Okay, make sure you do these few things. Which by the way, if you want me to earn I'll go into a few key things that will help for someone going to somewhere new. Good. Yeah. Okay, I tell you, what, are why not? I'll dive into this right now. If you're going to new leadership position, here's the biggest, biggest thing to establish your own authority, if you will, it's a little bit different. If you're working in the same environment, if you are reach out to me, because there's still a way to do it. But if you're checking into somewhere new first thing, this is really important. Counseling, I can't say enough great things about it. Because the number one challenge I coach, I do a lot of leadership coaching, executive consulting, I was even on the phone last night with with the CEO of a massive company here in Australia, New Zealand, and several states across Australia. And I can tell you with with bosses, whether they're in charge of one person or 1000 people, their biggest challenge is performance, employee performance, personnel performance, people showing up late backstabbing, backstabbing, bickering, quitting, all of a sudden without, you know, without much notice, you know, high turnover rate. Even even stealing, slacking, you name it. And a lot of times, I'm coaching someone who's very senior, and they say, Hey, I'm, you know, I'm thinking of firing this person. This happened to me a lot as a sergeant major, you know, hey, pace, and as a First Sergeant, a First Sergeant, I'm thinking of firing up a tune sergeant. What do you think I should do? Hey, Sergeant Major, I'm thinking of firing a company commander, a my company and my, I'm thinking of firing a battalion XO, what do you think I should do? I'm used to having these conversations. And the first thing I'll say is, okay, sir, Mr. CEO, whoever it is, I'm dealing with, you know, you want to fire someone, so okay. I support you. It doesn't sound like it's good. But hey, before you fire that, that marine or soldier or person who's been working with you for a while in your company, can you show me the pieces of paper that say they've been they haven't been performing? Well, can you show me the pieces of paper that they signed, saying that they're not meeting your expectations that they signed showing what they screwed up? Most of the time? At that point? All I hear is crickets. Nothing. No, there's been no counseling saying, hey, you've been late for the third time today. And then I say okay, now that's all right. Mr. CEO, sir, battalion commander Come in Command, whoever it is no problem. I still support you. This is the same, by the way for small business because I work with a lot of small business owners as well. And, you know, you're gonna fire your area manager or whatever. And I say, Okay, no problem. You don't have that document, you didn't counsel them on their deficiencies. No problem, I still support you. In that case, though, can you show me their last evaluation, their last evaluation that you gave them that says, hey, you're doing great at this? You're absolutely sucking wind at this. And hey, I liked it when you took initiative and did this thing. So do more of that. Can you show me that last piece of paper that you gave them? They signed? You signed? We signed this file away? Can you show me that? A lot of times, all I hear is crickets or it was a year ago, six months ago, and at best in a lot of cases. And it should be every 90 days, every 90 days. Barn I don't just mean a verbal, hey, we're walking back to the, to the parking lot conversation. I'm talking like, Hey, sit down. And, again, use the sandwich method to make it less intense. You're doing awesome at this, you're sucking wind did this. And I like hey, took initiative with this, keep doing that. Whatever it is, again, should be every 90 days. But back to the scenario. And if the person says oh, well, last evaluation was we only doing once a year. So it's been nine months. It's been eight months. It's been six months. And I go okay, sir, no worries, I still support you. You want to fire this person? And then I'll say, can you show me the piece of paper the day signed, when the very first day they started working with you that says, here's your roles, responsibilities. Here's your job description, if you will. Here's what my expectations have are of you, you will show up everyday on time, brush your teeth, shave, look, you know, turn these reports in on time, whatever it is. And I'll say, before you fire this person, he has to go home to his family until his family there's zero income going to be coming in. For you find that person, can you show me that document that they sign that you sign that was filed when they first got there that laid out your expectations? And a lot of times all I hear is crickets nothing whatsoever. So I'll say sir, ma'am, Mr. CEO, Mrs. CEO, you know, I support you. However, you're not giving this person a fair shake, even if they are terrible. Even if they deserve it. You've not given them any written documentation whatsoever, or the documentation has been weak at best, or because you're you didn't have the moral courage to tell them what they've been doing wrong. The documentation that you have says nothing but good things. So you don't have the right to fire them. And if I were coaching them, I would advise them to go to their lawyer or union, HR, someone else. Sorry, I'm rambling on a lot. You get me excited about other things. And it's just one way to nip these issues in the bud before they even start
Aaron Spatz:this but this is why exactly why we're here. So no need no need to feel bad whatsoever. This is this is this is fantastic. So so we're you know, we're on the topic of people just building building their confidence and you know, as they're as they're moving from organization to organization or or they've had setbacks. So like, are there some other tools or some other things that people can employ to help build their confidence? Maybe if they're just coming kind of coming out of a slump or something?
Max Garcia:Yes, so the first thing, this is gonna sound funny, but I want you all to talk to yourselves. For everyone listening out there, talk to yourself. Now, don't act like you don't talk to yourself already. Because I know you do. But I'll preface with this, can I I'm going to ask you a question if that's all right, Aaron. Okay, I'll sure people, people who have finished my sentence for me is really what I'm going to ask you to do. Okay. People who complain about being broke all the time, they complain that their wages are too low, the taxes are too high. The government the economy, people who complain about being broke all the time, typically tend to stay broke finger, people who complain about being sick all the time people complain about their ailments, that there's so much there annoying, annoying to be around, could be an old lady could be a friend. People complain about being sick all the time, typically tend to stay. Look. Yeah, for sure. So in that case, my recommendation is why would you ever think or speak about anything other than what you want? So here's what I here's right here leaders really are anybody. kid in school is going to take a test and they say things like, I hope I don't fail it which causes their subconscious mind to hear the word fail it and test or, you know, they say, Okay, well Today's my first day on the job. Oh, hope it goes okay. I hope I don't screw it up. Okay, or they do make a mistake. And they they make a mistake and they get off. I'm such an idiot. Sorry about that. Okay, be careful how you talk to yourself because you just agreed with me at least you did. Aaron. I'm sure all the listeners would as well that you least agreed that people complain about being broke all the time tend to stay broke. People complain about being sick all the time tennis They sick. So leaders or workers, when you complain or speak of yourself in any other terms other than with the highest respect it causes. It causes a, an effect in your performance. You see, we think approximately 50,000 thoughts a day 50,000 thoughts a day, whizzing through your mind telling you who you are, who you're not what you can or cannot do. And if you don't mind, Aaron, I'll ask you one more question back. You can we can at least agree that we think a lot of thoughts a day. Is that right? Everything? Sure. We're thinking about work family, kids, Facebook, tick tock Instagram, Britney Spears, JLo, whatever, whatever it is that you're into. And we think a lot of thoughts a day. Now, Aaron, in your opinion, do you think your thoughts affect your life, your future, your performance, your confidence in any way, shape? Or form? Do you think they're just random, they have no effect?
Aaron Spatz:No, 1,000%, they definitely they definitely affect and will overshadow for negative or for or for or for better? The remainder of that day?
Max Garcia:Exactly. So and that's the exact reason why I'm going to recommend your listeners right now. Be mindful of how you talk to yourself. Again, we just establish approximately 50,000 thoughts a day, that means you had if you believe that your thoughts affect your life, your health, your wealth, your relationships, your next promotion, whatever it is, if you believe your thoughts affect that, that means you have approximately 50,000 opportunities a day to shape the future that you want. And this is something I work with companies a lot. That means you have 50,000 opportunities to shape the future that you want. However, comma, most people are using this opportunity to their disadvantage instead of their advantage. They're saying things like, I hope I don't screw it up. Oh, I'm not good at ABC. Oh, I'm such a klutz. My mistake. Okay. They're defeating them. They're defeating themselves. Does this answer your question a little bit? You get me? Okay. Yeah,
Aaron Spatz:I don't know, this is perfect.
Max Garcia:I love when people are self development. And there's, there's a method to to solving this, I won't be able to get into the whole thing here. But if you if anybody reaches out to me, I'll be a love to help you. But remember, the same goes true for the opposite. So when you tell yourself, so people love to say things like this, I meet them. And then I meet them again, they say, oh, yeah, good to see you again. I'm sorry, what's your name? And then they say, I have a bad memory? Or they say, I have? I have I can't remember names. They say things like that. Well, you think that we think on two levels consciously and subconsciously, the conscious mind being the mind you're listening to me with right now, deciding if what I'm saying works for you or not. The subconscious mind, though, on the other hand, doesn't know how to make judgment. It's like a computer. So when you say something, when you claim that you have a bad memory, it's almost like programming your subconscious computer, if you will, to have a bad memory, because it's only going to look for the validation. Again, you agreed with me, and I hope all listeners do as well that that people complain about being broke all the time tend to stay broke, people complain about being sick all the time tend to stay sick, or whatever it is people who say, I can't take tests. I'm not good at math. That will become true for them people. But then the flip side goes true for people who do the opposite. Don't you just love people like this? People like this? Who say, oh, yeah, I can eat all day, and not gain a pound. Don't you just want to strangle people like that? Well, they're able to do that because they say it. They it's like they reprogram their mind. You know, the subconscious mind controls everything from your heartbeat to your central nervous system. So when you say something like, every day in every way, I'm getting slimmer and slimmer, I can eat all day and not gain a pound. Well, your mind will literally change the chemical makeup of your body to be able to make that come true. So if you have next time, something's bugging you, if your elbow or something's bugging you, it's hurting. Try going, my elbow feels great. I hope it feels great every day in every way. I'm getting healthier and healthier. I feel great, even if you don't. And you'll experience an almost instant shift. If you if you send me an email, any listeners, if you send me an email, I'll send you a playlist that will practically do it for you. Wow, very powerful process.
Aaron Spatz:Wow. That sounds amazing. And I couldn't agree with you more on the power of self talk for both better and worse, right. And there's there's so much that we can feed ourselves. And to your point, what like what are we feeding ourselves? Are we are we reinforcing? Good Behavior are good things, good ideas, things that we aspire to be or are we reinforcing? shortcomings, areas that maybe we could have done? I'm better, all these and it's it really is. Like it can really, completely alter you for a very long time. Like, because I've seen people I've, I've had, I've had people, thankfully it was, it was only a season of time for them. But I mean, they were, they were in a pretty, pretty rough spot, right. And so some of that was just kind of building that confidence back up getting it to a place where they believed in themselves again, and once that, once that happened, when like, you could kind of see it like, it's like the difference between your brain and your heart. And I don't know, and there's somebody way smarter on this topic can clarify this for me. But they had all the knowledge, like up here, like they, they knew it. But once they finally actually believed it for themselves. I feel like that's where it all changed, like and so I think kind of to your point, again, I'm I'm making some leaps here, but you're, you're making your brain start to do things that you may not quite, maybe you don't fully believe it just yet. But like eventually it's it's gonna it's gonna stick in. Am I saying that right? Or am I like way, way off on that?
Max Garcia:Yes, no, you're completely right on the money. You know, like attracts like. You mentioned earlier, I wrote the book with Joe vitality who is featured in the movie, The Secret, which is an amazing movie, I highly recommend everyone watch it, they talk about that a lot. Like attracts like, you know, if you if you all sudden decide you want a yellow Corvette, and you look online on Craigslist at a yellow Corvette, and then out of nowhere, you'll just start noticing Corvettes popping up all over the place. Like attracts like, what we think about most we bring about what we speak about, we bring about what you focus on expands. So like I said, guard your thoughts. Guard what you allow your your mind to indulge into, if you will. So for me, I watch very little news. But yet there's, I watch very little news, maybe enough to keep informed I listen to it on the radio, but I don't dive into it and really indulge into it. And you know, it's funny, people like talking about the negative things in the world so much. Even if I don't watch the news at all, or don't listen to on the radio, I don't miss a thing. Because people are more than more than excited to tell me about the doom and gloom that's going on in the world coming to an end. Because the COVID or whatever else, I don't miss a thing with and even if it's on social media, I never miss a thing without and I don't listen to music that, you know, all my dog died last night. And you know, my wife left me and took my truck are you that's where you're at down there in Texas for sure. Taking a stab now, Aaron, amazing. I don't I stay away from that. And I don't watch movies that are doom and gloom. Because I mean the world is, is challenging enough place to be in as it is. And doing things like that make it even worse. However, I do recommend this. For every listener out there. If you're going to a job interview, if you're going to meet someone and ask them for the business or ask for a date, or do something that's difficult, it's going to require a peak performance for yourself. I highly recommend. And I learned this by the way, the Tony Robbins, Unleash the Power Within seminar, I highly recommend recommend doing what he refers to as putting yourself in a peak state. By peak state, the best way I can explain it is if you've ever been in the gym, especially if you're doing cardio, and you get pumped up and you get the music playing, you feel like man, I feel awesome. You're cranking the weights out or you're running, oh man, I just feel like I could run forever. I feel like I can conquer the world. And your little problems in the back of your mind, you start going, hey, you know what I can deal with that person, I can deal with that finance situation I can I can do this, you start feeling like that in the gym, especially with the music. Well, that's that's a peak state. And the more you can be in that state, the more powerful your you will be in your life. And for that reason, I specifically recommend to my clients, so if you're going to a job interview, or to meet someone, ask for the business, ask for a date, you're nervous or you're going to give a presentation. You're like oh my gosh, you know, I mean public speaking is the number one fear in the world. Maybe I got something wrong with me that I like to do it. When I get I get intense just like anyone else. But I recommend putting yourself in a peak state. So if you're driving to go give that that presentation or meet that person to ask for the business, crank up the playlist that you have for the gym or someplace that makes you feel like yep, I'm gonna knock it out of the park today. These people are going to bow down to me and I'm going to they're going to give me the job they're going to be begging me to take their offer to work for them or whatever you start getting yourself pumped up if you start saying things like hope I don't screw it up. Then you automatically put yourself behind in the race again the the mind is the most is powerful. All the answers are in somewhere. We can do so many things with our mind if we only access it right and I'm just giving You barely the wave tops now. Sure, welcome. Reach out to me for further information on this. Remember, remember your religion too. Um, I'm not going to preach to you or anything like that I'm not a. But however, I'm a good Catholic boy. And, you know, most of us in the world, we're attacking our problems alone. Where, if you if you're a believer like me believe in God that you can like that with no effort, and most of us are attacking the problems on our own. So that's the other thing that helps me get into a peak state is prayer, music and movement.
Aaron Spatz:Yeah, no, I mean, that's that that is so so solid. Yeah, I mean, you get get me pumped up, man, because I'm like, don't, don't get me started preaching, because I'll start preaching to you to about about this, because it's the just one, just one the, the power of prayer. And we I mean, I'll save that maybe for a totally separate episode at some point. But, uh, but no, the that, that. So really, what you're doing here is you're showing, showing us we're talking about the power of self talk, right? We're going through, we're talking about building confidence and getting yourself into this peak state. So that you're, you're setting the conditions for success, and you're setting the conditions for, like, great for progress, right? And so if, if, if you're anticipating things to go poorly, then chances are they are I mean, it's, it's like the illustration, again, there's like a million of these illustrations, right. But the, the kid who's just learned how to ride his bike, and he's afraid of hitting the tray will guess, guess what he's guaranteed to do, and he's going to plow into that tray. And so focus so much on avoiding it that you end up smashed right into it. So I think that's, I think it's tremendous. Then shifting your focus to like, what, what it is going to be where, where you are going and reinforce that to yourself. And so I can hear the cynics out there already sending me hate mail about this. So it's like, so I'm gonna go ahead and ask the question for them, which is going to be something along the lines of, okay, great, but how do you get your like, if that's not your reality today? How, like, How can you call it into existence? And like, how do you survive that? Like, if it doesn't, if it doesn't work out the exact way that you want it to? What's the next step? Right, that's, I'm trying to anticipate some of these different and then address that and then we'll move on to some other things that people can be doing to help to help drive forward in a direction of their life that they that that they want to go.
Max Garcia:Yep. Okay, great. That's a outstanding question, Aaron, and it just was on top of my head too. If you're going through a difficult time, or even if you just want to achieve something awesome. One of my favorite motivational speakers to listen to it without getting into religion is Joel Olsteen. Absolutely love them. Some people like them, some people don't. To me, it's it's really, really positive reinforcement sIaps we love it. I mentioned that because you're down there and good. Oh, god bless Texas. And he's in in Houston. Yeah. I absolutely love Texas, great, great state. Love the American people there. But in people are a bit touchy talking about religion. I'm don't worry, I'm not going to ship to this subject. I know. It's kind of a touchy subject. In Australia. It's not in Australia. They even have religious class in public school. Well, this teach the basics so that kids are aware instead of you know, back then all funny about it. But the answer your question. So part of the things I'm telling you all how you talk to yourself, listening to the music, putting yourself in a peak state, these are all things that are caused an instant shift. Okay, so if you're going through a difficult time, look for ways to cause a shift wallowing in your sorrows. Don't stick to it too long. I mean, yes, it is necessary. Have yourself one good cry if you if you broke up with your lover or you lost a bunch of money or whatever. I mean, have one good cry, and then just Okay, next, and go forward. I realized that but don't stay stuck, if you will. Again, this is why I'm telling you all to listen to things like Joel Osteen rather than the doom and gloom news read then then Facebook and Instagram and all these other things, which I love. Because it will cause your shift, get out there and do your exercise, get the music going. Because it's going to cause you to feel like okay, I can do that. It's going to cause you to be inspired. It's going to cause you to feel like you can get through it once you believe you can, you will you will be able to a couple other things is I love the quote from Winston Churchill. If you're going through hell, just keep going because you'll eventually come out on the other side. The worst thing you can do is stop and do nothing. In Napoleon Hill. Persistence is key. Especially if you're wanting to accomplish something great. And, you know, the greater the thing is you want to accomplish, the more challenge you're gonna face if you you're happier just working at McDonald's, then that's probably not going to bring you as much stress as somebody who's wanting to build a big business, and invest or something like that. And if you're going through a difficult time, the other thing is, look for two things. Look for the hidden blessing and look for the lesson. Okay? Because there's a good chance that you're going through this difficult time because you have a lesson that needs to be learned, possibly, you're going through this difficult time, because of a mistake that you made, you know, you made it, or you maybe have some bad karma, stored up, because if you did some, some bad deeds, when you were younger, or whatever else, I mean, I'm openly saying that I've done plenty of stupid things when I was young, and I felt like I paid the karma price for it later. That's just Garcia's opinion, I'm a big believer in karma, the law of psychological reciprocity, the law of cause and effect, whatever it is, you want to call it. But once you've learned the lesson, once you should learn the lesson, I feel like that's when the problem goes away, not only learn the lesson, but act on it. And if you look for the hidden blessing, I mean, so for example, you may ask me earlier about being in Australia, as sad as the Iraq war is or was, you know, any kind of wars, obviously, sad people are dying. However, without the Iraq war, I wouldn't have met my wife because we were on the way home from Iraq, and we stopped in Sydney, Australia, and I met my wife on the last day in the whole book and movie will come out. But um, the point is that look for the hidden blessing, trust, trust God, every now and again, or your Creator, whatever it is, you believe in, trust God, that there is a hidden blessing that, you know, we've heard the expression, everything happens for a reason. So look for the lesson, look for the hidden blessing. And when you're looking for the these things, keep in the back of your mind to about how you can help someone else who's going to go through this as well. Because a lot of times, as people, we only think about ourselves, that's it. So if you're going through, if you're going through hell, you're going through a difficult time. You know, think ask, why? What am I meant to learn here? Who am I meant to help out later on from this lesson? Because half the things I've shared with you here today, Aaron, it's not just because, oh, Allah just had good luck. And somebody planted these things in my mind. No, I had to find these things out of very difficult despair to get over severe PTSD and stress and health issues and stomach surgeries, you name it. This is why I was able to reach out and find and learn these things. If, if I hadn't gone through difficult times, I wouldn't be stronger, wouldn't be able to help as many people as I help now. So keep that in mind. The hidden blessing, the lesson is supposed to help really, I guess it's three things.
Aaron Spatz:Oh, it's so good. It's so good. I'm like, Yeah, preach it, dude. Like, it's go. So good. Because no, there there are things that we go through in life. And we and again, I'm going to avoid, at least for this segment, going to a deep theological slash spiritual tunnel here, I would point you to people like Rick Warren, who teaches on the purpose driven life and he and he has, he has some amazing teachings, about about exactly what you're just talking about Max with, like, if when you're going through difficult times, when you're when you're looking for the lessons to be learned, but then also, in this in this as this is a thing, and it sucks, right? Like, like, doesn't it stink? Looking back on it, that you had to go through some of those difficult times, but then you're able to see how it's been able to be leveraged to integrate way later. So it's like, maybe in the moment, of course, nobody, nobody likes to endure the pain or the suffering or the hardship or whatever the situation is. Unfortunately, that's, that's a lot of these things happen in our lives. That's the nature of our world. And it really does suck, at least some of these things have to happen, or that they do happen. But then moving beyond that is then focusing on okay, how can I take this? How can I use this to help help somebody else to help help other people and I love what you said also, about growth. And I've had a friend of mine was telling me we're having a great lively conversation about this, which was just maximizing these opportunities in in, turn it into a growth moment, rather than a defeat or focus instead of focusing and I love your I love your feedback on this, but rather than focusing on it as a shortcoming, or as a failure, you can call it whatever you want to call it, right but but using that as like, Okay, well that that was a that was a growth opportunity in my life. That was a growth moment that occurred. This, it maybe they don't all have to be painful, but they often are. Right, a lot of these can be painful, but they turn into just amazing growth opportunities. And so I'll I'll stop there and let you What's your response to that?
Max Garcia:Now, I appreciate that, you know, we all go through failure, defeat, stress, you name it. And Napoleon Hill said it best in his book Thinking Grow Rich, every disappointment, every failure, every adversity, every defeat brings with it a seed of equal or greater benefit. You see, we go through the stress, we go through these difficult times, we have these failures, because, you know, it's simply that's how we learn and grow. If you didn't go through that you wouldn't learn much, you'd have the same mind as a kid as you knew as an adult. And I like to use this analogy too. I find that when people have a stress case, something bad has happened, or they're going through a difficult time. If they accept that this, okay, this is my challenge. This is my life challenge. And I'm going to make the most of it, what am I supposed to learn, and they move up the ladder of life if they learned a lesson and move up. However, if they get mad, curse, destroy things, drink, excessively, use illegal drugs, things like that. And that's how they cope with it that it's almost like they're going to move down the ladder of life. You know, if nobody feels great all the time. If you did, you wouldn't even know it. Bob Proctor.
Aaron Spatz:That's awesome. That's awesome. I appreciate I appreciate your, your insight and your playbacks of on these Mac's I really do. And like I look up, I'm like holy cow. Where did our time goes is amazing.
Max Garcia:One more thing about that. Yeah. And the other thing is that as people, we tend to look out outward and see everybody else, they have their smiling face, they have their best look on Instagram or whatever. And it looks like everybody else is living their best life. But us. But that is not true. That everybody is always excuse me, everybody has always everybody has gone through something. Everybody is going through something, and everybody will go through something. That's how we learn and grow. However, the challenge is that we don't have it written on our forehead, or on our T shirt that I'm going through this difficult time. So when we see that person, they look good. And we do the same. How are you? I'm good, how are you? We go through that. We think that they really are good, but they're not telling us what's going on in their mind at night, what's keeping them up, or whatever stress case they're, they're onto. So never ever think you're alone. And it applies to even your celebrities that look like they have it all going on. They have a ton of pressure. It applies to everybody from whether they're poor, or whether they're rich, that skinny you name and everyone has their own different challenges that all put on probably the same amount of stress.
Aaron Spatz:That's it man that's so good. It's so true is like I mean every everybody is everybody's going through this journey of life and ever. There is a certainty that you're going to face headwinds and challenges and things a life and you know, social media is a is the worst place to go for self encouragement at times, right? Because you're going to see people play the comparison game. And that's an that's where you lose because it's it's always going to be what's the word I'm looking for, like featured content, it's always going to be curated was the word I was looking for. It's always going to be selective. And so it's, again, what are you feeding yourself because it goes right back to your earlier point like fill your social media stuff up with great inspirational motivational content. You know, fill your your your vehicle or your office with new great positive music or, or talks or anything else. So I mean, this this has been it's been absolutely terrific Max. Again, I just want to thank you for spend so much time with me. But I'd love I'd love to just turn the floor back over to you just real briefly to just let everybody know what's what's the number one like best way they can get a hold of you. If there were any other things that we hadn't gotten around to talking about that you really wanted to, to share this, this would be the perfect time to do that.
Max Garcia:Yeah, I appreciate that, Aaron very much. Whether you are looking for a speaker for your next event, or for a team building day, train day could be online or in person, or you're looking for some help some individual coaching, leadership coaching, any kind of coaching I help everybody with everything you can imagine. I'm very easy to find, you can just Google Max Garcia or you can google Max Garcia motivational speaker that will pop up my website is max Garcia dot biz. I'm easy to find on all the social media platforms. And since you mentioned social media, Aaron, I agree that there's a lot of negative stuff on social media out there, but that's why you follow positive people. So if you follow my use of follow Max Garcia dot biz on Instagram, you're going to get a nice dose of reminding you why you can as well as well as other positive people. So it's all about the place you put yourself in. And last but not least, I'll say this, whether it's You're going through a difficult time with something you're stressed or whether it's you want to get that next promotion, you want to make that next number in business, you're reaching for this stars. Look, especially for my my fellow brothers out there, set your ego aside, find a mentor, ask for help, okay? Because you don't know what you don't know if you can set your ego aside enough to say and by the way, this needs to be from the right people. Don't ask the people who are having conversations down here complaining about the price of gas or talking about the sale at Walmart or don't, don't consult those people consult people who are up here, okay, they're gonna expect you to offer something to the relationship. But that is how you get ahead. I also have a mentor, guy that I pay a ton of money to, to help me to teach me how to book speaking engagements and business things that we don't learn in the Marine Corps that we probably should before we get out. So the point of the matter is, don't attack it alone. You don't know what you don't know. And thanks so much for having me here.
Aaron Spatz:So such such sage advice, Max, I just, I appreciate you spending time with me my friend it's been been great to reconnect thanks for sharing just a lot of your hard fought and hard earned wisdom. And and I know for certain that it can make an absolute impact in the lives of people. So if you're listening watching this, thank you know, thankful for you to tuning in. But I would encourage you to check out all that Max is doing Max Garcia dot biz and be a tremendous impact for you. So, Max, thank you so much. Thanks. Thanks, Aaron. Appreciate it. Thanks for listening to America's entrepreneur. If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review or comment on your preferred social media platform. share it out with friends, family, coworkers, others in your network. And of course, you can write me directly at Erin at Bold media.us. That's a Ron at Bold media.us So next time