Latest / Beyond Fulfillment Podcast / He Bought a $1M Home. A Week Later, His Income Dropped 86%. | Dennis Dowdell

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He Bought a $1M Home. A Week Later, His Income Dropped 86%. | Dennis Dowdell · Beyond Fulfillment Podcast

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leadership is not as difficult as people think.
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leadership is simply knowing what to do next,
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why it's important, and then how to take the current resources to solve
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the problem at hand.
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that's one of the great principles,
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Strive to be interested more than interesting.
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if you help enough people get what they want,
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you can get everything that you want.
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I learned that, he who serves the many earns the money and a reputation.
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the problems are never the problem,
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it's the response to the problem.
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So when things change, the key here is how am I going to respond to that problem?
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All right, Dennis Dowdell. Welcome to Beyond Fulfillment.
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Well, great to be here. love the title of your show.
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So excited to have an opportunity to be with your audience.
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Hey, thank you so much, Dennis.
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We are excited to have you. so your your story is quite unique,
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Dennis, because up until age 30,
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as you said it, you were driving around going nowhere.
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you found network marketing and became a superstar in that industry
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and did extremely well over the course of 40 plus years.
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And even now into your late 70s,
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you're still continuing to reinvent yourself,
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started a speaking and a coaching business,
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wrote this book we'll talk about,
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and you're still vibrant, you've got so much energy and you're excited about
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the the work that you're doing as an entrepreneur,
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which is what this show is all about.
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So we we're definitely excited to talk to you.
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If you could, just to set the stage our for our audience,
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can you talk about your backstory and and how you came into entrepreneurship?
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Yeah, I mean I was driving a school bus.
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I was living in a house with six guys,
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fourteen hundred square foot home with six guys driving a school bus.
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And it you know, and I loved the job.
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I loved the kids, I enjoyed it.
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I was able to do things to encourage kids and and it was great.
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But, actually I was just coming up on my thirtieth birthday and I started thinking,
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I said, you know, if I keep doing what I'm doing
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Where is this going to take me in my life?
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And I thought, you know, it's not going to take me where I'm going to go.
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You know, it wasn't going to give me the lifestyle that I wanted.
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And so I thought, man, I I got to find me a career that I can you know,
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make some money, love what I do,
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make a difference, and then be able to travel the world.
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That was my ideal. And so after seven months of headhunters,
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employment agencies, newspaper ads,
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and everything.
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I stumbled across a little startup company and multi-level marketing.
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Not generally where most people are going to look,
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you know. And but I I tell you what happened,
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Dave. I I went up to this presentation and they talked about the products.
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That made sense. People need energy,
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people want to be healthy, so that made sense.
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then they started drawing squares and circles on the board talking about
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the marketing, and I thought, man,
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this sounds like sales. And I man,
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I hate sales, don't like sales,
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don't want sales, not doing sales,
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I'm out of here.
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and I would have left had it not been so crowded,
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but at the end of that presentation,
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the founder of the company, Mark Hughes,
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came up and shared with me and I said,
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you know, Mark, I says, great product,
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great plan, great vision. your vision just blows me away,
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but I just hate sales. And he said,
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Well, wait a minute, don't you work with college kids?
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And I said, Yeah, you know, I have a little ministry with college kids.
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And he says, What do you do for them?
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And I said, well, I just help them deal with problems.
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He said, what kind of problems?
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I said, all kinds of problems.
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Family problems, school problems,
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work problems, problems. And he says,
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Do they have financial problems?
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I said, Mark, they're in college.
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And he says, Well, do they have weight problems?
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I said, Mark, have you never heard of the freshman 15,
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the freshman 30? Of course you got weight problems.
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You know, they're out on their own,
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they eat anything they want, they gain weight,
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you know. And he says, Well, now you have two more problems to solve.
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Now listen, I had heard that concept before.
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but the penny dropped. I never have to sell a thing.
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The only thing I have to do is help somebody solve a problem they have
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up to that point in time not been able to solve.
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And so that was transformational for me.
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That that single thought changed my whole perspective that my success isn't based
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on my performance. My success is based on the difference that I make.
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Being able to help somebody.
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solve their problems. And so that took all the pressure off.
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That gave me a foundation and a basis to build this business.
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And that's really what I did. And fortunately,
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you know, Mark became one of my first major mentors.
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and he taught me the principles of simplicity how to simplify things,
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not trying to perform to do complex things to you know make myself stand
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out and be a hero.
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But rather to simplify the complex things so that anybody could accomplish
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the things that I did. And so I learned to simplify the complicated,
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and as a result of that, I ran into,
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you know, became a protege of Jim Rohn for the 33 years and Rick Warren
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Bob Beale and some amazing people.
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And these mentors and the principles they taught me helped me
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to create this organization of a quarter of a million people.
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across fifty countries and help over 300 well actually now I think it's
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328 people reach the top one percent income bracket where in an industry where less
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than one percent of the people succeed.
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So the principles I learned worked.
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And what I realized is that they work for anyone who applies them.
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Their background, their education,
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none of that makes any difference.
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If you follow the principles, they work.
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And so now I'm just spending the rest of my life teaching the rest of the world.
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how these principles helped create the success and the difference
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so that people could truly go out and make a difference for others.
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Wow. Okay. Amazing. So let's get into that.
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you're 30 years old, you're driving a school bus,
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you realize that you're kind of in a dead end situation.
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You have all these ambitions for your life,
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but where you're at is not going to get you there.
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So you're looking around for a new opportunity,
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months and months, you stumble across herbal life,
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as they're just starting out, and you go to the meeting.
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And you just don't want anything to do with it.
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But that simple explanation from Mark Hughes really shifted your paradigm from going
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from hating or not wanting anything to do with sales to saying,
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wait a minute, all I have to do is help people solve their problems.
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and that's I can make a difference,
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right? So that that shifted your your whole paradigm in the situation.
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So when when you got into Herbalife,
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talk about the trajectory. Did you did things take off for you like right away?
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not right away. I mean I did fairly well in comparison to the rest
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of the organization. it and it grew.
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but after about three years three years into it my income had leveled off.
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and I just thought, wow, you know,
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there's there's gotta be something more,
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I'm missing something. And so
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were in Chicago going to an event and I went up and I said,
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Hey Mark, I said we just gotta talk for a few minutes and and he said,
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Well let's talk after the meeting so we're not rushed.
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I went up there about eleven thirty that night after the meeting.
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We were up until 3.30 in the morning and he went through everything that
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I was doing step by step and he just created another shift of really
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the importance and the value of not just bringing people in
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But bringing people up. You know,
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not just teaching them, okay, this is what you here's the opportunity you have,
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but really to show them and develop them as people.
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And so it wasn't the products and it wasn't the plan.
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It was really the person that made the difference because there's people you know,
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with the same product and the same plan and in real estate and insurance
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and all kinds of companies, right?
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Same product, same plan. One makes five thousand a month,
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one makes ten thousand a month,
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one makes twenty-five thousand a month.
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What's the difference?
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It's not the product and it's not the plan because that's equal.
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The difference was the person.
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And that's where I realized if I can develop the person,
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then the person can develop the business.
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And so my whole shift changed.
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And I began just really working on developing people,
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helping develop their purpose and grow personally to make the changes that they
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needed to make in order to fulfill that purpose.
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To create a mindset that eliminated distractions and then the the people skills
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so that they could, you know, actually work with people.
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And so as a result of that, then things really took off.
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And my income went up what seven times that next year.
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I had a 700% increase from that moment and over the next year and three months.
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so that worked. But then what had happened is we got attacked by
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the government from different issues and such like that,
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which were solved. But as a result of that,
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my income dropped 86% in three months.
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I did well and things grew, but now I said,
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okay, so now what? because I lost 86% of my team.
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and so
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Rather than focus on the things that had changed,
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because you know our image had changed,
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you know, people's perspective had changed,
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there's bad news, there's all these different things,
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circumstances. But then one of my mentors said,
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Don't worry about the things that have changed,
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zero in on the things that haven't changed.
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And so I said, Okay, all these things have changed,
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but the product hasn't changed,
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the plan hasn't changed, my dream hasn't changed,
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the vision hasn't changed.
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The principles haven't changed.
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My commitment changed. And so I haven't changed.
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And so all I needed to do is zero in on things that hadn't changed
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and take the things that I did have in order to create the things that
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I didn't have. And so the company came back and did real well.
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But the thing was, as a result of going through that process,
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in reality, I had changed. My perspective changed.
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My understanding of resilience changed because it's easy to go up,
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but the key is to get back up again.
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You know, there's an old proverb that says the righteous man falls seven times,
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but he gets back up again. and we look at so many successful people they've created
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something, they became a millionaire and then they they lost it all.
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They became a millionaire and they lost it all,
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and and and the millionaire and they lost it all.
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And then finally, guess what happened?
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And this
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Validates what my thinking is is working with people.
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See, they made the million dollars,
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but they hadn't become the millionaire.
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It's not what you do, it's who you become.
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And once you've become, the doings automatic.
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And so once they became the millionaire,
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they kept the million dollars.
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And they did even better. So I learned to focus on the individual,
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and that's that whole process of building the person and then the
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person can build a business and the person will then succeed.
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Because our success is really based more on who we are because who
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we are determines what we do and how we do it.
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And that's what makes the difference.
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Yeah, I love that. And I can hear the Jim Rohn in that story.
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reminds me of his quote, he's like I think he said specifically
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is become a millionaire not for the money,
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but for what it will make of you in the process,
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right? paraphrasing there, but
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Right. Right.
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and speaking of resilience too,
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and you told me this off camera,
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but after having that seven X increase in your income and having
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the best financial year of your life.
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and you closed on your first million dollar home.
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And then I think you said seven days later,
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the income dropped off by like eighty-six percent or something like that.
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Is that right? when
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Yeah.
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that's happening, right? cause like you said,
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it's easy to be positive and and all that when times are good and you're
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on the upswing. But when you get hit with something like that,
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what was your initial reaction and how did you like
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make it out in terms of like practically from that standpoint where,
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you just close on this home and then next thing you know,
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your income is slashed dramatically.
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Like how'd you deal with that internally?
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Well, you know, Dave, that's it's such a great question and it is something
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I think people need to understand.
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One of the first principles that I learned after I started that company that night
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is I kept hearing Mark would always say,
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everything was no problem. No problem.
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No problem. And he had gone through the same thing.
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the second month of the business,
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half of the company left to another organization.
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And so he went through it.
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but the idea he would say everything is no problem.
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Now that doesn't mean that problems don't exist.
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They do, they're everywhere, right?
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But the point being was everything is no problem because there's always a solution.
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We just have to find it. And so what he taught us in that principle,
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the no-problem principle, was spend 5% of your time focused on the problem,
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and then 95% of the time focused on the solution.
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Interestingly enough, after that being embedded and beat into my head,
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for three and a half, four years,
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when this happened, I just thought,
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okay, no problem. we just got to figure it out.
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I mean, listen, I started with nothing and created all this.
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I said, certainly I can start with nothing again.
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But now, starting with nothing,
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I'm starting out with nothing but this time I'm starting out with experience.
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Before I had no experience.
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Now I have got experience. And so now I can take that experience and then
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use what I did have and start creating what I didn't So I just had to work twice
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as hard. I had to be twice as focused.
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I zeroed in on exactly what I needed to do and then created the vision
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and then to transmit that vision to other people.
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I think that's really the key,
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you know, because the product worked and the plan worked.
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I just had to get the people who worked.
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And if they worked the product,
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then work the plan,
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The problem wasn't that the product or plan stopped working.
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It was the people who had the product and the plan stopped working because they
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bought all the lie. They bought the lie of the press.
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and the press was just about as bad then as it is now,
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as just was undercover back then.
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the idea here is that they they bought it.
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So I just had to create a new team of people.
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But now I had the experience of developing people.
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So that I could do it. took me about a year and a half to bring it back up.
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and then after that we superseded that.
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we passed that over. and now, I mean,
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it's it's just been amazing, you know,
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the experiences that I've had and the the men that I've had a chance to be with,
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and of course these men carried me through so many of these things.
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I mean, 1986 and two years later was when
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I really got hooked into Jim Rowan and I was I mean I traveled the world with
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Jim and spent time with him and from nineteen eighty-six until two thousand nine.
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And so when you're around a guy like Rick Warren who started with nothing,
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little church of 400 when I got there,
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when I left there was 74,000, I watched and got to participate
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in developing that and being a part of that.
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And so I had some great mentors who
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had phenomenal success and overcame unbelievable circumstances.
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And so that was my model. I couldn't become who they became.
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But I could follow the same principles that they used to become who they were.
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And so that's what I did. I stole all their principles.
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And I wrote them down. That's how I wrote my book.
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No,
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Ha ha.
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no, I'm serious. You know, one of my mentors,
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Bob Bill, they probably the most wisest.
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human being I've ever met. we were on the phone one day and he said,
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Denny, he said, you've built this a phenomenal organization,
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a quarter million people all around the world.
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He said, how did you do that? And I said,
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well, there are just certain principles that I've learned to follow and they work.
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And he said, well, what are they?
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And I said, well there's a lot of them.
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And he said, well make me a list and get back to me.
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I said okay so I started writing these things.
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I I wrote 50, 60 you know different principles,
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kind of narrowed it down to 45.
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I sent him the list. And Bob says,
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Denny, he said, I think you have a book there.
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Now I had a book on my bucket list,
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Dave. I mean, it's been on my bucket list for 15 years to write a book,
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right? but I flunked English twice.
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it really wasn't on my skill set,
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right? But he said, then he says,
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You got a book there. And I said,
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Bo, what are you talking about?
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He said, Listen, he said, Don't you teach all these principles?
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I said, That's all I teach. And he said,
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Well then write a chapter for each principle.
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And that's what I did. I just wrote one chapter on how to apply each principle.
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and that's the book, 45 Principles That Led Me to Success.
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and it became an international bestseller.
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it was a life experience. You know,
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they say a message from the mind reaches the mind,
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but a message from a life reaches a life.
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And so that's what I want to do.
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I want to help build people so that they can.
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Share from their life experience because that's so much of where their value comes
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from. And if people understand how much value they have,
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most people don't understand their value.
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But it's huge because there's nobody like them.
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And so that's really where the book came from.
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Message from the mind reaches the mind,
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but a message from a life reaches a life.
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And that's what I'm in. I'm in the life-changing business,
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not the mind-changing business,
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although it begins with the mind.
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The end result is to change the life.
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amazing. So you you flunked English twice.
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and you know, Bob Beale, and for those of don't who don't know,
15:48
like what what's Bob Beale's background and who is he?
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Yeah, he he got his masters and such from psychology from Michigan university,
15:56
Michigan State, I think. but he's been an executive mentor for probably fifty years
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now. He's been on the board of focus on the family and a number
16:04
of different bank boards and school boards and stuff like that.
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and now he's an executive mentor.
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And he helps people overcome problems and he has a perspective like
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no other human being I've ever heard.
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I mean that the Tony Robbins, the Jim Rohn,
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the Grant Cardones, they've all got phenomenal stuff.
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But he has some principles of leadership that I have never heard from
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any human being anywhere. They're so unique they're so powerful,
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and it it really helped to create the leadership skills.
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That allowed me to apply the different principles.
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you're having this phenomenal success through network marketing.
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Like you said, you traveled the world with Jim Rohn and being around
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all these high level entrepreneurs,
16:43
movers, and shakers. and then Bob is telling you,
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he's wanting to know your principles,
16:47
how you became successful. You wrote them all down for him,
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sent them the list, and he's basically encouraging you to write this book.
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And like you said, too, these are principles basically you just took from
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the people that you were around,
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you applied them.
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And continue to apply them. So that's how you got your thesis on success,
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so to speak.
17:03
Yeah.
17:04
Right. And so he's encouraging you,
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you don't even think you can do it because you flunked English,
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but he's saying, No, you got a book here,
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just write a chapter for each principle.
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And you do that and you you put it out and the book becomes
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an international best seller.
17:16
And now I know you did s I think you said seven thousand plus stages you've been
17:20
on total in your life. Is that right?
17:22
Over the four decades,
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four plus decades, yeah.
17:25
Yeah. And so now you're doing not just within Herbalife,
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but you're doing keynotes for for other companies outside of that,
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correct?
17:32
yeah, really I'm just now in the process of getting that out.
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I've been out a few different times,
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but yeah, so now I'm just taking what I did in herbal life and I'm taking
17:39
it outside of herbal life and expanding it out to the outside world.
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Okay. And so let's just go for a few of those principles too,
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because this show is all about entrepreneurship and the journey itself.
18:16
And clearly you have a unique lens on that.
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And even in your late seventies,
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there's so much energy you're transmitting.
18:22
You're so excited about what you're doing.
18:24
And particularly too in this day and age,
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right, where we're in a state of change and AI is disrupting a lot of
18:30
industries and a lot of people are confused and maybe even discouraged,
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right? We see that everywhere in terms of where they're going in their life.
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Give us some of the principles today as you see the world that entrepreneurs
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can can really use and apply to become successful.
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Well, thanks for asking that because that's that's just so vital because
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my overall purpose is to be able to help people discover their purpose
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and direction, and to be able to recognize their unique value and how to
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be able to take that to the marketplace and then to be able to adapt
19:01
to the changes that occur all around us,
19:03
which are constant and changing faster all the time,
19:06
and be able to be resilient and adapt to those things.
19:08
So that they can continue on the process.
19:11
because a lot of people want to change,
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they know they need to change,
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but they don't know how to change.
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and one of the key principles in change is just the idea is for things to change,
19:20
you've got to change. for things to get better,
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you've got to get better. And it all builds on that,
19:25
validates that founding principle of building and helping people,
19:29
When I first heard that, you know,
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for things to change, you've got to change.
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I wrote it down. And I got home that night,
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a lot of people take their notes and they put them on the shelf.
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I actually go home to read my notes.
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And I'm reading this thing for things to change,
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you got to change. I'm just saying,
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why is it for things to change that I got to change?
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And I started thinking about it,
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and then I realized, well, wait a second,
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things don't change.
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I mean, do we have poverty today,
19:48
corruption today, exuberant wealth today?
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hunger today? Yeah. Did we have it a hundred years ago,
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a thousand years ago, two thousand years ago?
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Things don't change. I thought,
19:56
wow. But what changes? And Rick Warren taught me this when he says
19:59
the problems are never the problem,
20:00
it's the response to the problem.
20:02
So when things change, the key here is how am I going to respond to that problem?
20:07
You know, am I gonna zero in on the problem or I'm gonna zero in on the solution?
20:10
And so I learned early on, okay,
20:12
zero in on the solution. And so that's really what took things off.
20:16
but one principle that Rick Warren taught me,
20:19
and it's the foundation for virtually everything,
20:23
and it's so counter-cultural that it's unbelievable when people hear they
20:27
go no no no no, right? But and the principle is this,
20:29
It's the principle of it's not about you.
20:33
See, we're embedded. Look out for number one,
20:35
be the best, do this, if it's gonna be,
20:37
it's up to me, and it's all this stuff,
20:39
right? And we think it's all about me and my power and my image and
20:42
my position and my money accomplishments and my achievements and
20:46
my possession and my position and my power.
20:48
And we think that's what's gonna give us fulfillment.
20:50
And it may for a short time.
20:52
But that's why the title of your show got me.
20:54
Okay, so what happens when you've done that?
20:56
Now what? Now what are you gonna do?
20:58
If you've already accomplished it,
21:00
okay, what's next? You know, it's just like the guy says,
21:02
he's talking to billionaire and he says,
21:04
How much is enough money? the guy says,
21:06
just a little bit more. See, you know,
21:08
so I mean, so what is it? how are we gonna get satisfaction out of our life?
21:12
And the satisfaction doesn't come in the position,
21:15
the possession, or the power.
21:16
The satisfaction comes when I realize that it's not about me.
21:19
Think about it. Every principle for success in life and in business hinges
21:25
on understanding that principle.
21:27
It's not about me. Zig Ziglar said,
21:29
if you help enough people get what they want,
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you can get everything that you want.
21:34
I learned that, he who serves the many earns the money and a reputation.
21:39
So what I realized is
21:40
It's not about the position, possession,
21:42
power, all that stuff. If I can figure out how I can serve the many,
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it's just like Mark said that very first day.
21:48
Then you all you have to do is help people solve problems they've never been able
21:51
to solve. And so every principle of success will hinge on taking all my talents,
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all my skills, all my gifts, and all my abilities and use them for
22:00
the benefit of others. nature is a great teacher,
22:02
right? Rivers don't drink their own water.
22:04
Trees don't eat their own fruit.
22:06
The sun doesn't give off heat for itself.
22:08
Flowers don't give off fragrance for themselves.
22:10
They take all they have, all their resources,
22:12
in order to create something for the benefit of someone else.
22:16
And therein lies the secret of success,
22:18
That's the foundation. It's the first chapter in the book.
22:21
Because that's the principle upon which every other principle is built upon.
22:24
And when I do that, see, guess what?
22:26
And I experienced it,
22:28
You can achieve it all, accomplish it all,
22:29
get to position, possession, power,
22:31
in one month, 86% is gone. How many times have we seen people rise to
22:35
the top and it's gone? the stock market changes,
22:37
it's gone. And so position, possession,
22:40
power, it can all disappear, But what you do for others doesn't.
22:44
Success isn't accomplishments.
22:47
Success is based on influence,
22:49
influencing others to the point of impact.
22:51
And the beauty about that is when you influence somebody to impact their life,
22:55
that never disappears. It's yours forever.
22:58
that's what real success is. Success isn't what I do.
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Success is what others do as a result of what I do.
23:05
That's my success. my great joy isn't what I've done.
23:08
It's what all these people, these guys coming out of prison,
23:11
with no hope, no future, and all of a sudden you you help them.
23:14
Look at life different, learn to make better decisions so that they
23:17
can solve problems that they hadn't solved before and all of a sudden they begin
23:20
succeeding and then impacting other people.
23:23
That's what it is. So many people think my talent,
23:25
skills, gifts, and abilities, they're for my image to make me look good,
23:28
so that I can be impressive, but that's not it.
23:31
Those are simply tools for the tool belt,
23:34
so that I can take those tools to influence somebody else's lives,
23:38
and then they take their talent,
23:39
skills, gifts, and abilities.
23:40
And they influence my life. That's why Jim Rohn says,
23:43
you know, each of us need all of us,
23:45
and all of us need each of us.
23:46
That's why. Because I don't have it all.
23:48
I only have a small portion. When I do my talks,
23:51
and I'm halfway through, and I'll just say,
23:53
Isn't this just great stuff? And people kind of look,
23:56
they say, Well, that doesn't sound that sounds kind of countercharacter of him.
23:59
I've never heard him talk like this before.
24:00
He's talking about his own stuff is great,
24:02
And I said, okay, so take a note.
24:04
Only steal the great stuff.
24:07
Ha ha
24:09
Everything I've
24:09
got, everything I've learned has been from the the mentors that I've
24:13
had and the principles that I've learned.
24:15
And they're free for everyone who will apply them.
24:18
See, that's the beauty of it. And I just so encourage the people that
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I work with and the people that I teach,
24:24
find a mentor. Find somebody who has the character that you want,
24:27
that has the success that you want,
24:29
who has the integrity that you want,
24:31
and go after a mentor who has the integrity.
24:34
That's the key in character,
24:35
And then say, hey, can I buy you lunch?
24:38
They're the multimillionaire. You're broke.
24:40
Can I buy you lunch? What's that say?
24:42
It says, I value you so much that would love to have lunch with you.
24:45
And you know what you'd be amazed at?
24:46
How many people say, sure, I'd love to.
24:48
most people love talking about themselves and what they've done,
24:51
And I say, hey, listen, can we just buy it?
24:52
Can you just tell me your story?
24:54
Tell me how you did it.
24:55
Tell me what I need to know in order to do what I gotta do.
24:57
And that's that what you were talking about.
24:59
It's that constant state of learning,
25:01
being a perpetual student. Two years ago,
25:04
I launched into study, called the Colson Fellow Study.
25:08
This thing is the most comprehensive study on worldview on the planet.
25:13
And this thing is so intense, it was like going through a four-year college program
25:17
in 10 months. And I'm telling you,
25:18
my wife and I, we did it together.
25:20
And we launched in, and man, I'm telling you,
25:22
it was unbelievable. We had a dozen books to read,
25:24
and I think maybe 160 pages was left.
25:27
The shortest, there were some up over 400 pages.
25:30
And we had to read through the books.
25:32
We had to go to webinars. We attended,
25:34
there were seminars, all kinds of things,
25:36
articles we had to read. I mean,
25:37
it was intense, right? But we did it.
25:40
And it and it made me sharper it.
25:41
And it sharpened me and it gave me a better perspective as to what's going
25:46
on in the world so that I can make a bigger difference.
25:48
that's one of the great principles,
25:49
Strive to be interested more than interesting.
25:52
So many times, especially if we're in a new crowd,
25:54
we think, I want to be interesting,
25:55
And so I need to make sure that I say the right thing,
25:57
do the right thing, respond the right way and wear the right clothes and
26:00
Make sure my hair is right, my makeup's right,
26:03
or my clothes are right, and all this stuff.
26:04
And I'm all concerned about me,
26:06
right? because I want to be interesting to other people.
26:08
Wrong. Strive to be interested.
26:11
See, it listen, I'm an introvert.
26:13
When I'm not on a stage, I'm an introvert.
26:15
when I get off the stage, I don't go out in the crowd,
26:17
I go back to the green room. I love being alone,
26:19
so to be interesting to somebody.
26:22
What I discovered was if I'm more interested in them and ask them questions about
26:27
them, that's one thing that they know about.
26:29
I can't ask them a question they don't know about,
26:31
but if I ask them about them, that's one thing they know about.
26:34
And so when I'm interested in them and ask them questions about them,
26:37
they talk, they answer these questions.
26:39
All I do is ask four, five, six questions.
26:41
We walk away and they think, God,
26:43
that's the most interesting guy.
26:44
And I haven't said anything. I've just asked a few questions.
26:47
And so that's one of the principles I teach people too.
26:49
Collect questions. Learn how to ask questions.
26:52
Don't ask somebody, where are you from?
26:54
Chicago. Okay, then it's over,
26:56
right? You know, say, hey, what brought you here?
26:58
Guess what that does? That opens up a whole new story where they get
27:02
to talk about something, an experience,
27:05
and a part of their journey. You see,
27:06
don't ask people, you know, what do you do?
27:08
Well, I'm an electrician. Okay,
27:11
now what? And I say, no, no, no.
27:12
But not what do you do, but
27:14
What do you live to do? What do you love to do?
27:17
Now, whatever that is, it's their passion.
27:20
Guess what people love talking about?
27:22
Things they're passionate about.
27:24
And so there's those kind of principles,
27:26
that really make a huge difference.
27:29
Communication is vital. when we have conversations,
27:31
a lot of times it's especially you're discussing different things,
27:34
and we want people to understand us,
27:37
we're doing everything we can to get them to understand me and my point
27:41
of view and my perspective. Wrong.
27:43
it's the principle of opposite.
27:44
Sometimes you've got to do the exact opposite of what you think.
27:47
Don't try to be interesting, be interested.
27:49
Don't try to get people to understand you.
27:51
Do everything you can to understand them.
27:54
now, how did you come to that conclusion?
27:55
When did you first discover this?
27:57
when you get those kind of things,
27:58
now all of a sudden they begin sharing more.
28:00
And you know something? it's amazing how much you learn about a view that
28:03
you disagreed with that now maybe you don't disagree with,
28:06
when you can actually discover,
28:08
how did they come to that conclusion and what proof do they have?
28:11
and then all of a sudden you say,
28:12
Wow, okay, well so now that makes sense.
28:14
So it's things like that, those people skills.
28:17
That are are so valuable. And when we develop those people skills and
28:21
we become the person necessary to fulfill my purpose.
28:24
See, I need to discover my purpose,
28:26
then I need to become the person necessary to fulfill that purpose.
28:29
I get a strong mindset, set my mind on the things that's going to help
28:32
me fulfill that purpose, that eliminates the distractions.
28:36
I develop the people skills because I'm going to be dealing with people.
28:39
And when I develop the people skills and begin helping other people succeed,
28:42
that creates in me leadership.
28:45
So that now it's not what I do,
28:46
but it's how I can help them do what I do and more.
28:50
leadership is not as difficult as people think.
28:52
leadership is simply knowing what to do next,
28:54
why it's important, and then how to take the current resources,
28:57
as plentiful or as rare as they are,
28:59
how to take the current resources to solve the problem at hand.
29:02
That's it. Whoever does that's the leader.
29:05
and that's how I created leaders.
29:07
The key isn't just creating leaders,
29:08
but is to create leaders of leaders.
29:11
And when you can start getting people to create leaders,
29:13
not followers, I don't want followers.
29:15
Followers weren't going to help me in my multi level business.
29:17
Leaders helped me in my business.
29:19
So I developed leaders who could create leaders.
29:22
my goal, and I would tell people when I would recruit people,
29:25
I said, Listen, I want you to know what I know and do what I do.
29:28
Because when you know what I know and you can do what I can do.
29:31
I don't have to do it anymore.
29:32
But I still get paid. And now if I want to continue growing,
29:35
I just go develop another leader.
29:36
And that's what I did. I just went from leader to leader to leader to leader,
29:40
and they did the same thing. And so it all multiplies out.
29:43
You know, it's like you say, take a penny every day and double it.
29:45
What do you have at the end of the month?
29:46
I think it's like three million bucks.
29:48
It's accumulation. Success is accumulation.
29:50
most of the time it's not a big thing.
29:52
It's an accumulation, it's a consistent practice of habits,
29:56
and we are a result of our habits,
29:58
those are things that I've I've just taught people that have made just a
30:01
a a huge difference.
30:02
Amazing. All right. And Dennis,
30:04
if people want to learn more about your company,
30:07
about your speaking, your book,
30:08
everything you're doing, what's the best way people can find you online?
30:11
Well, they can go to maximizeyou.com because that's what I want to do.
30:16
I want them to maximize you. So it's maximizeyou.com And you know,
30:21
all my information's there, information about my book,
30:23
my speaking, different articles,
30:25
things that I've done. So yeah,
30:26
everything's at maximizeyou.com
30:29
Okay, and we will link all that in the show notes for everyone.
30:31
right, Dennis, thank you so much for taking this time to to share
30:34
all this incredible wisdom from your journey with our listeners.
30:37
We greatly appreciate it.
30:38
Well, it's been a great joy. Thanks for the privilege and the honor.