The Idea Climbing® Podcast

Designing and living your ideal life is possible IF you have the right strategies. A big part of that is creating fulfillment in your own life while positively impacting the world around you. In this episode I discuss how to do just that with my guest, Mo Salami.

 

 

Mo is a High-Performance Coach and International Keynote Speaker. He speaks multiple languages, fluent in English, French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.

Mo is a former Senior Mentor for World Class Peak Performance Guru Tony Robbins. Whilst part of his

California-based team, Mo generated tens of millions of dollars in sales for Tony Robbins' events worldwide.

Mo has done over 20,000 hours of 1:1 consulting; including consulting with over 8,000 business owners doing a million dollars a year in revenue or more.

We dive into topics including:

The three-prong approach of designing your ideal life.

How to move towards the result that you want even before you see the result you want.

How to know what opportunities to take advantage of and what to say no to.

How to train today for who you will become tomorrow.

How to blend fulfillment and financial success.

When the tough times hit how to keep on keepin’ on mentally and otherwise.

The “Three R’s” to reset your mindset.

The 60-second, three-part strategy to get into a high-performance zone.

The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to design your ideal life.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

Mo’s Origin Story

Mo came from a whole other world. The turning point for Mo came from seeing a sign and before we get to the sign, he’ll give this some context. Mo is from a family where having a degree is just the holy grail, if you will, of success and preferably a degree in the sciences.

Mo got his first degree when he was 20 years old; he completed a whole college degree. The first one. That was the only definition of success he had at that point. Looking back he realizes how naive he was.

He ended up getting three degrees and started his career in the medical field. He bought a nice house in a nice neighborhood, got a nice car, all that great stuff. The challenge was his nice six figure salary came with 16 hour work days. Mo had no free time, no “me time”, and work was his life.

When he got to the end of each year his life was just a blur of 16-hour shifts. Mo was a bit confused and unsure of his life choices because success didn’t feel like he thought it would. Then one day he was in a bookstore in Central London and saw a sign and the sign said “How to be Successful”.

It turns out the sign was an ad for a book called “The Success Principles by Jack Canfield”. Mo grabbed the book and started reading it right then and there.

Mo discovered a whole other world that he knew nothing about. He had a look at the chapters. Mo glanced at the back of the book and saw this huge list of other books, and he read all of them.

Mo says the pivot was instantaneous. He didn't even think about it. It was just an instantaneous pivot. It was literally that sign in the bookstore.

Those books led him to...

A Fork in the Road

The fork in the road Mo encountered was, does he stick to his current path of apparent success? Or does he pursue this new definition of success that he had just discovered? Mo chose the latter. He traveled to Europe, USA, Canada, Asia, wherever, to learn from the best success teachers he could find. Whatever the cost, whatever the distance, he decided he was going to be there.

Very soon he got a measure of expertise in online business, sales and marketing, personal development, and public speaking. He even went to work for Tony Robbins for eight years as a Senior Mentor. In that role he helped a lot of very high achievers and aspiring high achievers to get to that very next level as well.

Mo’s role as a Senior Mentor was also a sales role. Because of that he had the opportunity to put all the learning he had about sales into practice. One of the highlights was making a million dollars in sales in a 90-day period. That meant he had thousands of opportunities to help people get to the next level.

What he discovered was apparent success is when somebody else decides what success means for you; whereas actual success is success that you decide on your own terms. It's just as simple as that. What he does today is help people get to their own purpose driven success. Mo calls it “Lifestyle Design”.

You can also call it your own purpose-driven success. That’s for your own impact on the world and your own fulfillment as you define it.  Fulfillment in many cases was gained through personal development, coaching, and leveraging those avenues to get to design the exact lifestyle that you want.

Then Mo encountered...

The Pivot That Made All The Difference

He asked himself, “How do I get to be the best in this brand new, brave new world that I've discovered?” With some reflection, Mo realized it's not because he wanted to be better than anyone else. It was more about becoming the very, very best version of himself to help him help other people become successful to the best of his ability.

And that is just the beginning!

Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

About My Guest

 

Mo Salami is a High‑Performance Coach, International Keynote Speaker, and online marketing strategist fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese — a rare combination that allows him to connect deeply with diverse leaders and drive results across cultures and industries.

What sets Mo apart isn’t just what he knows — it’s what he’s proven:

Served as a Senior Mentor on Tony Robbins’ peak performance team, contributing to tens of millions in global event revenue.

Logged 20,000+ hours of one‑on‑one consulting, coaching thousands of business owners earning $1M+ annually.

Helped clients achieve measurable outcomes like 30–300% revenue increases within 6–12 months, improved decision quality, and better work‑life alignment.

Learn more about Mo!

Connect with Mo on LinkedIn!

Want more inspiration? Check this interview: "How to Turn Obstacles into Opportunities with Lasada Pippen"

Everyone faces obstacles; it's just a major part of everyone's life. They don't have to stop you in your tracks IF you have the right strategies. Obstacles can become hidden gifts that open new doors for you if you know where to look. In this episode we’re discussing how to turn obstacles into opportunities with my guest, Lasada Pippin.

Lasada was raised in an underserved community as a young African American and defied the odds to build a successful career in engineering and become a first-generation college graduate. His journey reflects the resilience and determination that now fuel his mission as an inspirational speaker.

 

Lasada’s signature keynote series, “Say It Better: Communicate with Clarity & Lead with Confidence” draws directly from that path: Empowering corporate professionals, educators, and youth to overcome obstacles and pursue meaningful growth. With a message rooted in grit, reinvention, and purpose, he equips audiences with practical strategies to lead with intention, rise stronger, and climb higher.

We dive into topics including:

How to make and support your decision to “burn the boats”

How to successfully step into the new space that you’re striving towards.

The importance of finding the finish line and keeping your eyes on it at all times.

What you need to do to build momentum to get to the finish line.

What to do to stay once you’ve “burned the boats’ and successfully gotten to your island of success.

The role of self-confidence in turning obstacles into opportunities.

Why it’s of the utmost importance to move towards something that you’re truly passionate about.

How to take action in “the moment of now” one small step at a time.

How to keep on keepin’ on after the initial excitement of your journey fades.

The reason you must really know and understand your “Why” on your journey.

How to get strategic about your goals instead of just riding high on excitement and love.

The power of starting with the end in mind.

The three questions you need to ask yourself and answer to turn obstacles into opportunities.

Why your journey never ends, it just evolves over time.

The importance of celebrating your small wins.

The importance of having a way to measure your progress and how to create it.

The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to turn obstacles into opportunities.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

Starting to Turn Obstacles Into Opportunities

Lasada grew up in an underserved community with low resources and not having a whole lot. He feels like during his entire life that he’s had to turn obstacles into opportunities.

Lasada says there always seemed to be some type of roadblock, some type of challenge. He has a background in engineering and technology where he spent his professional time for a decade. Making the shift from engineering and technology into the keynote and motivational speaking space was an obstacle. Lasada had to see the opportunity inside of that transitional moment if he wanted to get past that obstacle.

An obstacle can be anything. It can be fear, it can be anxiety, it can be procrastination, it can be self-doubt, it can be a lack of self-confidence. There are so many obstacles that we don’t realize are obstacles because they’re wrapped in a different type of clothing.

Because of that there are so many obstacles that we need to identify, and that’s the only way that we can turn them into opportunities. For Lasada it was getting over the fear, embracing it, learning how to coexist with it, and building up his self-confidence. He needed to develop the confidence that he could make each leap and go forward and operate in the space of keynote and motivational speaking that he operates in today.

It was the start of...

A Lifelong Journey

Turning obstacles into opportunities has been a lifelong journey for Lasada. He said that it doesn’t have to be a life altering, such as super darkness, but let’s just say “dark times”. When you hit the dark times, you hit obstacles. It’s then that you really need to see and focus on the opportunities and grab them whenever you can.

Lasada made...

The Decision to Create Opportunities

When Lasada was getting ready to leave Corporate America he was faced with a decision. His contract had ended, and so he had the opportunity to renew his contract. He could stay there and prolong the contract and continue being in a place that included a great income and great people. Nothing was “wrong” per se. OR he could take a leap of faith and go after what he really wanted to do, what he really loved, and what he really desired.

He said a lot of times you are so blinded by what’s good that it blinds you from getting to what’s great. If you are blinded by darkness in your life, it’s oftentimes going to be hard to see that light. You have to shift your perspective. You have to change the way you see things.

You admit the obstacle in the situation at hand, but at the same time realize there’s also an opportunity naturally baked into every obstacle. When you adopt the mindset that for every problem there is a solution, whether you have the solution at that time or not, that’s a whole different story.

You can adopt a mindset that within every problem there’s also a solution. Lasada made a mental shift, and when he left Corporate America and took that leap and put himself out there, he did something inspiring. He “burned the boats”. He decided there was no turning back. Lasada did that because he didn't want to give himself room to go backwards after making a leap of faith.

What does this mean for you? You want to give yourself the opportunity to move forward on a new path. Lasada made the leap and jumped out into the keynote and motivational speaking space. The way he burned the boats was by deciding he couldn’t go back into Corporate America and couldn’t go back into contract positions. In short, he couldn’t go back into engineering and technology.

The decision was made.

Lasada had to figure out where the opportunities were for him to continue to press forward. For every obstacle that he faced Lasada had to believe there has to be some kind of workaround and then embrace that pathway. He believed there had to be some type of solution to get to the island of success he yearned for.

Burning the boats needs to start from the moment that you make the decision. For Lasada, it was when he made the decision to leave engineering and technology and go into the keynote and motivational speaking space. The decision to burn the boats started right there at that moment.

And that is just the beginning!

Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

About My Guest

 

Lasada Pippen’s journey from the tech world to the keynote stage equips him with a unique and powerful perspective as a motivational speaker. A bilingual STEM professional, he spent over a decade thriving in the engineering field before realizing that his greatest impact wouldn’t be made behind a screen, but in front of an audience.

Lasada is a former engineer turned keynote speaker and communication coach. He helps professionals, teams, and leaders say it better—so they can lead better, teach better, and connect more effectively. Lasada’s mission is to help anyone who wants to improve their communication, regardless of their profession, background, or reason why. His journey from the tech world to the stage is rooted in resilience, reinvention, and a passion for helping others grow.

Lasada has delivered keynotes in over 38 U.S. states and worked with hundreds of clients, from national conferences to Fortune 500 companies to K–12 school communities. He speaks to both school leaders and students, corporate teams and emerging professionals, equipping each audience with practical tools to communicate with clarity, show up with confidence, and lead with purpose.

If you’re looking for a speaker who brings real tools, real energy, and real connection, You’ve found him!.

Learn more about Lasada!

Connect with Lasada on LinkedIn!

When entrepreneurs are on a winning streak it's called getting into a "flow state" (what athlete's call "The Zone"). They achieve more in less time. You can train your mind to get into flow states when you have the right strategies. That's what I discuss in this episode with my guest, Peter Wishnie.

 

 

In his younger years Peter purchased a medical practice and after one year, he made more money than the previous owner did in any one of his 17 years of ownership.

Peter has been in business for over 33 years and has made multiple 7 figures for 30 consecutive years, landing him in the top 1% in his field. During those years he has learned key secrets that have helped him work a lot less while growing his business year after year.

In 2022, he sold that business for $2 million more than he paid for it.

The reason he sold it is because his passion is now to help other entrepreneurs learn to live the life they deserve and desire. Peter believes people become business owners or leaders not to be slaves to their jobs, but to have the freedom to enjoy their families, hobbies, and friends.

We dive into topics including:

Why you have to know and write out you KPIs, your Key Performance Indicators for your business.

Why you have to review your KPI’s at least weekly if not more often.

How to maintain focus once you’ve gotten started.

How to survive and embrace the roller coaster ride of focus.

Why consistency every single day is king; it’s not about overloading your schedule.

The definition of and examples of flow state, or being “in the zone” as athletes call it.

How to stay in the zone and not get knocked out of it for short periods of time.

Why creative ideas come when you’re most relaxed.

The benefits and rewards of getting yourself into flow state.

What comes first; focus or flow state.

The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to get focused and into flow state.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

Peter’s Story of Focus and Flow State

Peter says he is far from the expert of ALWAYS being focused. After every video he creates, he says “stay focused my friends”.  It's a play on words from that beer commercial, “stay thirsty my friends”. He says that because getting focused and into flow states isn’t always easy. We’re constantly getting interrupted with calls and our electronic devices amongst a myraid of other modern distractions.

Peter says he’s constantly getting bombarded with messages, and he tries to keep up with them. He remembers when he was younger back in 1989, when he purchased his practice.

Peter didn't even have a desktop computer. People didn't have cell phones. It was easy to get and stay focused with few interruptions. At the time when the phone rang it was a great thing for a business owner because it could be a prospect.

Creating focus and flow state is something Peter has since learned. He loves to study. He loves to listen to and learn from people. Peter purchased his first Franklin Covey planner back in the early 1990s. Peter wrote down his goals for the year; exactly what he wanted to achieve. He wrote them down based on what he was going to do every single month, then every single week, which made staying focused easier.

There's a great book, “The One Thing”. It tells you to focus on the one thing that will make the most impact on your life. Peter adopted that principle. Then he adopted Michael Hyatt’s “Full Focus Planner” system. As a result Peter wrote down the three major things he needed to accomplish every single day.

Some people love to cross things out every day. They could be many things. One example is writing 20 pages in the book you're working on. If that’s the one thing, the other things on your list don't matter as much. You can also figure out what the top three things you must do are and write them down every day to get more done.

You must decide what’s important for your family, your relationships, your health, and so on. Then it’s a matter of putting those things first while you have a business to take care of. If you don't take care of those other things, take care of yourself, your health, and building up your energy levels you're going to crash sometime during the day. You might wake up totally fogged up, your brain's all fogged because you're not doing the right things to take care of yourself day in and day out.

That’s where energy comes into play…

Managing Your Energy

Imagine having a burst of energy. When you have that energy you can go longer during the day. The day goes by faster because you are full of pep. Peter believes flow states start with that. How did he learn to do that?

It came from medical school. Now remember going to college. In Peter’s case he always had those few hard classes, but he also signed up for some easier courses like history of rock and roll. Meanwhile, he was taking physics and chemistry as a pre-med student.

Peter had a hard time his first year in school and he read a book called “How to Study”. From that he learned how to organize and how to focus and then how to schedule times to be focused.

This lead Peter to discover...

The Importance of Writing and Journaling

Where do you start to get focused? Pull out a piece of paper or a journal. Write down everything that's on your mind. Everything that you think that needs to get done or everything that's bothering you. And just the things that are bothering you. Write down your successes and the things that you are grateful for. Just write down everything and get it out of your head.

Then divide your life into a pie. Things like health, relationships, friendships, finances, your business goals, relaxation time, and so on. Then decide what are you going to do and what you want for each of those areas? What are your goals? Just pick one little goal that you want to accomplish in the next 90 days. Pick the one thing and make it happen. Then tackle the rest.

And that is just the beginning!

Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

About My Guest

 

In his younger years Peter Wishnie purchased a medical practice and after one year, he made more money than the previous owner did in any one of his 17 years of ownership.

Peter has been in business for over 33 years and has made multiple 7 figures for 30 consecutive years, landing him in the top 1% in his field. During those years he has learned key secrets that have helped him work a lot less while growing the business year after year.

In 2022, he sold that business for $2 million more than he paid for it.

The reason he sold it was mainly because his passion is now to help other businesses learn to have the life they so deserve and desire. Peter believes people become business owners or leaders not to be slaves to your jobs but to have the freedom to enjoy your family, hobbies, and friends. Peter wants to help you live your best life.

Connect with Peter on LinkedIn!

Learn more about Peter's coaching and speaking!

Want to learn about "being in the zone" when it comes to money? Check out "How To Have a Successful Money Mindset with Robin Waite"

Everyone talks about the power of storytelling. But how do you cut through the hype and use it to create real world results? With the right strategies storytelling can become a profitable part of your content marketing campaigns.

In this episode I discuss how to create meaningful story-driven content marketing campaigns with my guest, Katie Wagner.

 

 

Katie spent more than 15 years as a journalist. In 2010, Katie realized that she could use the skills she learned in the newsroom to help business owners connect with their clients online and started her own agency, KWSM. Katie is a proud member of Vistage, Provisors and the Young Entrepreneur Council.

She has served as a member of the Advisory Board for Web Wise Kids, a non-profit focused on keeping kids safe on the internet and social media. In 2012, she was honored with the organization’s ‘Champion for Children Award.’

We dive into topics including:

How to use informational interviews with your clients to create your marketing stories.

The structure of a great informational interview.

Where and how to share your story once you create it.

How to get happy clients to share your story with their friends in their language.

Why learning why your happy clients are happy can help you learn a lot about your business and ultimately improve your client experience.

A deeper discussion into how to create a successful marketing strategy with your content once it’s ready.

An examination of the pillars of story-driven content marketing and how to expand that marketing process.

How to uncover how prospects discover you and make the decision to become your clients.

The definition of “nurturing content” and how to create it.

How to nurture your client relationships once you close the deal.

How to get qualified referrals from your existing clients.

Why case studies are the most compelling way to create story-driven marketing campaigns and how to create great ones.

The one thing, above all else, you need to do to create story-driven content marketing campaigns.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

Getting Into Storytelling

Katie was a journalist for 15 years before she started a digital marketing agency. She specifically worked in television and radio. She worked all over the world and retired from CNN headline News back in 2009 and opened her agency in 2010. She did that because she realized that nobody was going home to watch the five o'clock news anymore. They were craving relatable stories to consume and moving to other social platforms outside of television.

They started getting their headlines from places like Facebook and Twitter. As those mediums came to prominence, they became the way people wanted to get their information. Katie saw an opportunity to teach business owners how to tell their story using digital channels. She believed that founding a company in the tenets of journalism and knowing what attracts an audience was a good place to start.

Let's look at...

What Successful Marketing is Really About

First Katie defined brand journalism. To her that is the act of creating content that builds an emotional connection with the consumer.

It's about the humans involved in a business; not just the business entity. Brand journalism highlights the stories of the people that make or deliver your products or services. It highlights the stories of the people that benefit from your products and services. It's about emotionally connecting stories that we have to tell beyond just features and benefits also known as the marketing or the sales language.

It's really about human language. Those are the stories they tell at the her agency. Even during the early days of social media gaining prominence, they had to interview their clients to uncover the human side of their stories. When you ask somebody about their business they usually talk about the services they provide and what those services can do for people or their products and what the benefits are. They forget the most important parts. The relatable human parts.

What are they?

They're found in answers to questions such as what value do your products or services provide for people? How do they change lives? From there the story focuses on the transformation achieved from using your products and services. The first step with Katie's clients is to teach people to start thinking of their businesses based on the answers to those questions. From there they focus on the outcomes their clients’ are creating more than the products and services they are delivering.

Which leads us to look at...

The Structure of A Great Story

When Katie’s agency is telling stories for their clients there’s a purpose behind every story they tell. They think of it as the "transformation moment". There's what's going on with your clients before they meet you; what is life like before they interact with you? What are their pain points? Then there's engagement. They use your product or service. And then there's what happens in your clients' lives afterwards. That is the story arc you want to tell.

Look at it another way. What are their struggles? What are the fears and motivations they have? And then what happens at that moment they engage with your products or services? Then what is the transformation after that engagement? How is life different? How does life look better, safer or easier for them? If you can start creating content around that transformation point, those stories really resonate with people.

Even when Katie’s agency is creating website content for a client they paint a picture of the pain that prospects are facing and how their client's product or service solves that. Not through what dit does, but what is the emotional state their solution invokes? The before and the after. If you think of that story arc, that's a great place to start.

And then there are a multitude of different spinoffs from that. You can talk about individual types of pain. Is it philosophical or an emotional pain? Is it a physical pain? Is it a tactical pain?

Here’s an example using Katie’s own business.

People that hire KWSM do so because they want qualified leads for their businesses. The sort of surface pain point may be that their business is slow or they're not getting as much business as they want, or they need a better way to get business. But really the pain point is “My business won't survive unless I bring in new clients.”

That is the emotional connection they’re trying to get. People need lead generation not just to grow, but because they're afraid of what happens if they don't grow. Unfortunately, people don't usually admit that to each other. But if you dig deep, for example, if most of Katie’s clients are afraid in today's geopolitical climate, they fear that if they don't have a good lead generation strategy, their business may not make it through to the other side.

And that’s the pain point they have to step into and solve.

And that is just the beginning!

Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

About My Guest

Katie Wagner spent more than 15 years as a journalist. After graduating Magna Cum Laude from Boston University with a B.S. in Broadcast Journalism and a B.A. in International Relations, she began her career as an investigative reporter, and then spent a decade as a television and radio news anchor. Katie has worked at CBS, ABC, Fox, CNN and National Public Radio. In addition, she has appeared on dozens of commercials, educational videos and websites. She has hosted her own talk show, had columns published in major newspapers and blogs, and is a popular public speaker.

In 2010, Katie realized that she could use the skills she learned in the newsroom to help business owners connect with their clients online. She opened KWSM to help companies and organizations tell their story, building the agency with journalists, whom she knew understood how to establish a relationship with their audience and convey information in an engaging and educational way.

Katie is a proud member of Vistage, Provisors and the Young Entrepreneur Council. She has served as a member of the Advisory Board for Web Wise Kids, a non-profit focused on keeping kids safe on the internet and social media. In 2012, she was honored with the organization’s ‘Champion for Children Award.’ Over the years she has served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Chapman University’s Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics, a Mentor for Chapman’s MBA Program, and a guest lecturer for Chapman, California Southern University and California State University, Fullerton.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn!

Learn more about Katy's company, KWSM Digital!

Want to learn more about storytelling and sales? Check out "Story Selling: How to Know What Stories to Tell to Sell with Sylvain “Sly” Haché"

Your money mindset can make or break you as an entrepreneur. Where does it come from? How is it affecting your life? If it's not positive how do you change your mindset?

I discuss how to create a successful money mindset in this episode with my guest, Robin Waite.

Robin is a dynamic and inspiring public speaker, author, and international business coach. He has a passion for helping others succeed and reach their full potential, and his energy and enthusiasm are contagious. With over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and business coach, Robin has a wealth of knowledge and practical insights to share with his audiences.

 

 

I asked Robin about his story and he said “I've only been in business for 21 years, so maybe I'm a bit of a slow learner. I don't know. But I finally feel I've nailed it when it comes to pricing and money mindset.”

We dive into topics including:

Why how we choose to buy things is a reflection of how we price and sell things as entrepreneurs.

How to break through that pricing barrier in your mind.

The two financial things your business needs to be profitable.

The makeup of a successful business foundation.

The three questions you need to ask yourself to achieve your financial goals.

How and when to raise the prices of your service offerings.

How to attract the right clients at higher price points.

How to sustain a higher value, higher ticket price business model over time.

The challenge of “loss aversion” and how to overcome it.

The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to create a successful money mindset.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

In the Beginning...

Robin ran a marketing agency for the first 12 years of his career, predominantly doing web design and branding up until 2016. He ended up selling that agency. The timing was a greata because he was raising kids and it meant he could spend more time with his family and enjoy the money from the buyout.

Robin eventually needed to make a decision about his professional life; start a new corporate career or start a new business? Everytime he was networking the question loomed large in his head because the first question everybody asks you at networking meetings is “What do you do?” Robin didn't have a solid answer to that question.

While explaining the agency he sold Robin realized that the reason somebody wanted to buy his agency was because there was some value in the marketing space which he’d created through the agency.

During the 12 years of running that agency, with a bit of help from therapists and various mentors and coaches, he started to realize that mountain of value that he’d created. Robin also realized that he had gotten rid of the negative money mindset which he had inherited as a child. Robin had undone a lot of past trauma during those 12 years running the agency.

He decided to start a new business as a business coach.

What does this mean for you?

Your Money Mindset Starts in Childhood

Many people's money blueprints are formed before their earliest memories. You’re building emotions even as a toddler based on what's going on in your home life. Many people Robin speaks typically say most of the arguments were about money. They’ve adopted mindsets such as "money doesn't grow on trees" and "money's the root of all evil" and so on. A lot of home-based arguments are familial arguments around money issues.

Growing up in Robin’s home was a bit traumatic. There were fights between his mother and father over household bills, holidays, and things like that. It got a point where Robin and his brother used to go and hide upstairs during the arguments.

It was very volatile. So, you can imagine at a very young formative age Robin’s associations with money were scary. That's the same for many people. Much of the population are not necessarily born into poverty; but they're born into working class family homes where money is tight.

Then there's your...

Financial Mindset Growing Up

When you went into your teenage years you probably wanted some financial independence. You didn't want to rely on your parents for money, so you went out and got a paper route or you went to work in a restaurant or something like that.

Then you started to earn your own money. Then what you were teaching yourself is that money comes through hard work and getting paid a wage. Part of that is repeating what your parents did because many of our parents worked for a wage throughout their lives. Then your parents are trying to educate you about money. They start telling you to be careful and make wise investments and that you eventually need to buy a house with a mortgage and everything else like that. Then they tell you to plan for college. Robin was privileged to go to college but came out of college with a lot of debt.

So, you've got these amazing young human beings who are starting off their adult life in debt with a very poor attachment to money. They spend most of their twenties and thirties recovering from that and trying to get back into a state where they no longer owe money; or least have a lot less debt.

Then consider entrepreneurs. You can see how all of this baggage isn't particularly helpful when you're then running a business as an adult. Everything feels like hard work and how many times do you see frustrated entrepreneurs? That happens because they've ended up working fifty-plus hour weeks. They're scratching their head thinking “I'm not making the money that I thought I'd make.”

That's when it's time for a change.

And that is just the beginning!

Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

About My Guest

From the age of 18, Robin Waite spent four years as a systems analyst for a medical devices company, helping them increase their turnover by 50 per cent, from £1 million to £1.5 million.

From 2004 to 2014 Robin ran a successful design and advertising agency serving over 250 clients. During this time, he delivered workshops and masterclasses that helped over 1,000 business owners improve their marketing, product architecture, pricing, websites and digital advertising.

Robin loves helping businesses to become more successful and getting results for his clients is what gets him out of bed each day.

Robin’s practical, one-to-one sessions are grounded in hard work and a relentless focus on goals. He believes his coaching & mentor program can help ANY business become more profitable… and have a lot more fun while they’re at it!

Robin works with ambitious businesses in Gloucestershire, the south west of England and beyond, his goal is to help as many business owners as possible by sharing his 19 years of experience through his talks and workshops, business books, and one-to-one coaching.

Learn more about Robert and Fearless Business!

Connect with Robert on LinkedIn!

Want to learn more about successful money mindsets? Check out "How to Create a Millionaire Mindset with Cole Vandee"

Today we’re discussing how to sell your services without being pushy; because nobody likes to be sold to but everyone loves to buy. My guest is Eric Schulman.

Eric brings over 5 decades of business experience to the table.  A “Serial Entrepreneur”, he’s worked with both tangible and intangible products and services in B2B and B2C environments.  After building 5 businesses on his own, he started Consultants Can Sell! specifically to work with Business Owners, Consultants and Sales Professionals to provide sales training that really works.

 

We dive into topics including:

Why most salespeople default to high pressure selling.

How to develop relationships with prospects whether or not they buy from you.

How to break down the wall of resistance with prospects so they’ll trust you enough to speak honestly with you.

The real reason prospects are coming to you, and it’s not to buy something.

How to discover the real reason prospects are coming to you.

The process of “Building radical empathy” of how to leverage it in your sales conversations.

The three steps of diagnosing your prospect’s problem.

How to navigate the road between creating a safe space to talk and closing a sale without being pushy.

People buy based on emotions. How to get your prospects to emotionally want to buy from you.

Why you should discuss money early on in your sales conversations.

The principle of scarcity and how to leverage it in sales conversations.

The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to close more sales without being pushy.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

The Accidental Salesperson

Eric believes sales is an accidental profession and not everyone in sales planned to be in sales. His story of accidentally falling into sales happened when Eric was young. He would sell stuff door to door (do you remember door to door sales people?). In 1963, when Eric was 12, his parents opened a record store in Levittown, New Jersey.

Six months later, there was a group called The Beatles that was on the Ed Sullivan Show. Eric was the 13-year-old kid in Levittown, New Jersey, whose dad owned the record store. Most people’s parents teach their kids things such as children were seen and not heard, don't talk to strangers and so on. Eric’s mom taught him something different.

One busy day Eric's mom told him to go wait on a new customer. She effectively said “Go talk to a stranger”. What that taught Eric was don't talk to strangers until you're old enough to earn a commission. That’s how Eric accidentally got into sales. He found that he was good at it. He connected well with people. All through high school, Eric was one of the only students who always had money in his pocket.

In addition to commission Eric also earned an hourly salary. That was nice and he liked having the money. Eric likes to say that salespeople are coin operated; they do what the money tells them to do. If his mom and dad hadn’t opened a store he probably would have wound up in sales anyways, but not at such an early age.

That was...

The “Official” Start of a Sales Career

Eric says his sales career “officially” started in his early teens because by the time he was 18 he had been accepted to three colleges, but he didn’t want to go to college.

Eric liked what he did. He was making decent money as a kid. He was making hundreds of dollars a week in 1969. When you were making that much money you could buy a house back then. Eric believed he didn’t need to go to college. He was very, very well read and he went to college but wound up dropping out after one semester.

Then he gave college another try one year later and stayed for two semesters. He achieved a 3.9 GPA. His parents sold the store in Jersey in 1973 and moved to Orlando to open a chain of stores.

Eric was the heir apparent to the family business and decided that was his career path. So consciously around the age of 19, he decided that’s what he wanted to do. He didn’t need to go to school. Eric worked for the family business until I was 29 years old.

Let's look at...

Sales as an Adult

Eric came to an interesting realization. At the age of 29, he did the math and realized he was never going to get rich in the family business. So, he made the decision to leave the family business after doing their marketing for eight years. Eric wound up forming a direct marketing agency in 1980 and bought a computer when they cost $30,000.

He mortgaged the house and started providing direct mail services. In five years he grew that business to 54 people in a 17,000 square foot facility. Eric was doing 90% of the sales. He sold that business in 1993. Eight months later, he met Sharon (who would eventually become his wife), and she owned a wedding cake business.

Eric bolstered the value of her business and they sold the it in 1995. They moved to upstate New York and Eric took a job where he became the number one salesperson in the company.

From there he opened a Sandler Training franchise in Orlando, Florida. He made more money in eight months than he had made in the previous year and did that for almost two decades. He sold the business just before the pandemic and struck out on his own as a sales trainer. Eric created a sales system called truth-based selling that showed people how to create a place where people can feel comfortable being honest with you.

And that is just the beginning!

Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

About My Guest

Eric Shulman started his career helping build and run a successful chain of music stores in NJ and FL.  He started National List Council, a direct marketing company in 1980.  Over the next 12 years, he grew the business to 17,000 square feet with over 50 employees.

When he sold NLC, he joined his new wife’s business: Sprinkles Custom Cakes!  In just 6 months, Sprinkles grew from doing four wedding cakes per month at “grocery store” prices up to 15 to 20 per week at double the price!  After selling Sprinkles in 1995, he led a national sales force selling Business Consulting Services in NY, Boston, DC, NJ, VA, and FL.

His close ratio was five times the company average.  When his earnings potential capped out, he opened a Sales Training Business in 2003, and was named Rookie of the Year in just eight months.  After almost two decades in that field, he sold in 2019.  ConsultantsCanSell.com is his latest venture:  Putting his 50 years of business expertise to work for others.

Learn more about Eric's company; Consultants Can Sell!

Reach out to Eric directly: (321) 301-5700 [email protected]

Want to learn more about sales? Check out this Idea Climbing Podcast episode: "Story Selling: How to Know What Stories to Tell to Sell with Sylvain “Sly” Haché"

Servant leadership will take you a long way as an entrepreneur. When you practice servant leadership people want to get to know you through your "origin story". Sharing it will help you boost your brand and enhance your marketing while attracting more clients. I discuss how to create and develop your origin story in this episode with my guest, Adrienne Wilkerson.

 

 

As Co-Founder and CEO of Beacon Media + Marketing, Adrienne is driven by a passion for developing people and fostering a culture where innovation thrives. In her early 20s, she realized she would make a much better boss than an employee, which led her to found her own company in 2001. Today, she is a visionary leader who’s company has earned it a spot on the Inc. 5000 list of Fastest-Growing Private Companies for three consecutive years.

We dive into topics including:

Why it’s ok to say “no” to servant leadership opportunities if the people involved don’t fit your ideal client or ideal partnership profile.

The structure that makes a great origin story.

Why you need to start with your “Why”.

Why it’s important to include your failures and what you learned from the challenges you overcame.

How your origin story shapes your servant leadership journey.

Why if you’re not failing you’re not trying enough new things.

Knowing when sharing your trials and tribulations becomes oversharing.

The responsibilities of a servant leader.

Why people won’t always follow what you say but they will follow what you do.

How to create an environment of trust, or a safe space, within your business.

Why putting other people first pays dividends as a servant leader.

The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to create and live your servant leadership origin story.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

The Origin of Adrienne’s Servant Leadership Origin Story

One of Adrienne’s favorite things about having conversations with founders and business owners is that there's almost always a powerful story behind why they're doing what they're doing. Why did they start their business? Why did they become successful?

That “why” has created them as leaders and created their success in the business world. Adrienne believes that's why their origin story is so important. It's a powerful connection piece. Entrepreneurship is a lot of Adrienne’s origin story. Her father is an entrepreneur and so was her grandmother.

Adrienne has a lot of entrepreneurs in her family and hence she had a lot of excellent examples of entrepreneurship in her life. Her grandmother together with a partner started the very first art gallery in Anchorage, Alaska. She was just an entrepreneurial person. Adrienne’s father started one of the first combined counseling and medical clinics. The idea was to take care of the whole person; the medical and the counseling worked together. It was a beautiful vision. Those origin stories and what both of them accomplished spoke to Adrienne as an entrepreneur and as a leader in business.

Growing Up Entrepreneurial

Because Adrienne’s father was a therapist there were a lot of times when she would have to tell her dad, “I need you to be my dad and not my therapist right now”. Then we would laugh and switch gears. He passed on his insights on to people and his understanding of what drives people and how people work and tick and interact with each other. He was sharing his experience and knowledge that he learned through school and working with business leaders.

That's how he passed a lot of his insights on to Adrienne organically. He was a natural teacher. Even with the circumstances that Adrienne would grow up in, such as dealing with personal conflict at school, at college, and just even in relationships, he would just walk her through a lot of resolutions. He would tell her you must ask yourself insightful questions to understand what’s really going on in every life situation.

He told Adrienne if you're going to lead, there's a guiding relationship there. She remembers coming back from high school one day very frustrated. She was the year book editor in chief and they were just coming off a big deadline; and Adrienne did a lion's share of the work. She was venting that her team didn't do this and that. Adrienne had to take over for that them and had to do their jobs for them.

Her father’s feedback was: You met your deadline. You got across the finish line. But how many from your team came across the finish line with you? Or did you just plow through and make it happen and leave the rest of them in the dust?

That was one of many...

Leadership Lessons Learned

That was one of those moments that proverbially hit Adrienne upside the head and shifted how she viewed leadership. Adrienne learned it's not just enough as a leader to accomplish a goal. You have to try your best to guide your team to accomplish the goal with you. Now granted, not everybody will choose to walk across that finish line with you. But you have to try.

If they choose not to, that's their decision. As long as you are doing everything that you can to create the kind of environment where people want to grow with you, you're doing the right thing. If you do everybody's job and cross that finish line by yourself, it was a great hike, but that's not leading.

There are stories such as those that Adrienne’s father wove into Adrienne's life lessons. They shaped how she chooses to lead now. Adrienne definitely doesn’t nail it on the head every time. That's part of the process of learning and growing.

Let's look at...

Creating and Leveraging Your Origin Story

As an entrepreneur, there are smaller stories that make up your overall origin story. Those are powerful because they connect with people and make them want to do business with you. They hate to be sold, but they love to buy. You probably know this concept in business: Who do they want to buy from? They want to buy from somebody they know, like, and trust.

In this digital age, how do we as entrepreneurs connect with our audience, with our ideal client profile? We do it in part through our origin story. Through those stories that shaped us and shaped our company because people connect with those stories.

There are facets to that formula, and that's why sharing your origin story, including the really raw and emotional parts of your story (your failures, your setbacks and so on) is so important. That's what makes you human, and that's what creates the opportunity for people to connect with you because they feel like they know you. That means they're going to trust you.

And that is just the beginning!

Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

About My Guest

As Co-Founder and CEO of Beacon Media + Marketing, Adrienne Wilkerson is driven by a passion for developing people and fostering a culture where innovation thrives. She is a visionary leader who guides her team to find opportunity in every challenge, pushing creative boundaries to deliver impactful results.

This approach has established Beacon as an award-winning digital marketing agency, renowned for its work in the mental and behavioral health sectors. Adrienne believes that investing in people is the key to success, creating an environment where her team can learn, excel, and build with purpose. Her forward-thinking leadership has earned Beacon a coveted spot on the Inc. 5000 list of Fastest-Growing Private Companies for three consecutive years.

A respected voice in the business community, Adrienne extends her influence as a sought-after speaker, published author, and podcast host. She shares practical insights on leadership, ethical marketing, and adapting to industry shifts like the rise of AI, encouraging leaders to use technology to deepen human connection.

Beyond her professional achievements, Adrienne finds balance and inspiration with her family on their ranch. This life fuels her belief in hard work and resilience—principles she applies to both her business and her commitment to building a legacy of positive impact for the next generation.

Check out Adrienne's Podcast!

Connect with Adrienne on LinkedIn!

Get Adrienne's book "Digital Marketing for Mental Health: From Complex to Clarity" here!

Want to learn more about servant leadership? Check out "How to Embrace Servant Leadership with Andrew Kolikoff"!

As an entrepreneur you need to surround yourself with successful peers, mentors, and other people that suppor you. That's why creating a circle of trust can create explosive business growth for your business. I discuss how to do that with my guest, Jonathan Hung.

Jonathan is a successful VC and entrepreneur. He has evolved from his role as a prolific angel investor with over 150+ pre-seed and pre-IPO investments under his belt to becoming the Managing Partner for Entrepreneur Ventures.

 

 

We dive into topics including:

The definition and examples of a circle of trust.

How you can start to intentionally build a circle of trust.

The types of people that should be in your circle of trust.

Why nobody that’s successful has done it by themselves.

How to approach the right people to bring them into your circle of trust.

Why you should practice being a “giver”.

How to maintain a circle of trust over time once you’ve built yours.

The role vulnerability plays in building your circle of trust.

Jonathan’s philosophy of “living your life in quarters” and how to embrace it.

The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to build a successful circle of trust.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

Jonathan's Story

Jonathan believes that everyone thinks entrepreneurship (especially in the tech space) is all about fundraising. That's one aspect of building a business; but there's a LOT more to it. Entrepreneurship is about building trusted relationships from successful peers to business partners to advisors and mentors.

The Importance of Being Real

Jonathan’s perspective on life is that you're going to meet a lot of "fakes". Those are people who try to sell you an idea by telling you it’s all going to be unicorns and rainbows, but really, will that philosophy be helpful to you in the long run? You must find people that you can trust to be honest with you especially when everything isn't working out perfectly. You can easily like somebody, but can you actually trust them? That's why the subtitle of Jonathan’s upcoming book is “Why trust drives venture capital success.”

Jonthan built his career based on people that he trusted, and who have trusted him. That's how he’s built success.

First, let's look at...

How to Build Trust

It's the simple things. It's not just saying “Let's go into business together, I'm going to write you a check.” It's about both parties communicating openly and meaningfully. That means doing things like giving each other regular updates. Jonathan believes having great communication is the most important rule. It also means asking for help when you need it. If you don't ask for help people won't assume that you need it. You have to ask for the sale. The number one rule in sales that you must ask. You have to keep going, you can't give up when you get discouraged. Getting turned down is part of being an entrepreneur. You might have to hear a hundred no's before you get to that one yes. But when you got to that yes, it was all worth it.

For Jonathan building trust starts with showing up. It's doing the hard work. It’s not about just executing, it's also about showing the people that work for you how you did it so they can duplicate your success. For Jonathan it’s also about growing as a human being and helping others grow too. It’s about finding those people you can trust that you know you can count on.

Jonathan is a big believer that you don't over promise and then under deliver. He’s always about under promising and over delivering because he’s had people in his past who he’s invested in give that gave him crazy numbers. He would think, “How are you going to do that? How are you going to 10x your business in a year?” Sometimes promises like that don't make sense.

Jonathan also loves people who give him a plan. It's all about the execution. It's how you successfully go through with something to get to your desired results. That's one amazing way to build trust, in his opinion.

And is just the beginning!

Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

About My Guest

 

Jonathan Hung is a seasoned venture capitalist and entrepreneur with a proven track record in governance, strategic growth, and financial expertise. He led his family’s textile business across the U.S. and Asia before transitioning into venture capital, where he has invested in more than 250 companies and 50 funds.

Today, Jonathan is the Managing Partner of Entrepreneur Ventures, a fund he co-founded with Entrepreneur Media, deploying capital into innovative startups and helping founders build profitable businesses. He also manages his family office fund, J Heart Ventures. His success in raising millions for venture funds, combined with cross-border operational expertise, positions him as a leader in capital growth and value creation.

Learn more about Jonathan!

Website / Portfolio

LinkedIn

Want to learn more about entrepreneurship? Check out "How to Create a Millionaire Mindset"!

Today we’re discussing how to write copy that positions you as a thought leader. There are subtle nuances that separate the average copy writer from the excellent copy writer. I discuss strategies to become an excellent copy write and therefore an excellent thought leader with my guest, Kristen Sweeney.

 

 

Kristen is a content strategist who has helped over 100 organizations communicate more clearly, especially when the subject matter is complex or highly technical. She’s the founder of Every Little Word, a boutique content and communications agency that believes great ideas—and the people who power them—deserve a bigger voice. Her team builds expert-led content programs in industries like life sciences, higher education, and B2B services.

We dive into topics including:

What “The curse of knowledge” is to experts and how to overcome it.

The ever present “blank page syndrome” and how to get started with writing copy.

How to create a content creation strategy and integrate it into your professional life.

A few definitions of thought leadership and how to decide which one applies to you.

How to create value for your audience through content creation.

Why “basic” is a really good place to start to establish thought leadership.

Ideas for types of structure for your copy.

Examples of copy writing best practices.

The case for creating long form copy assets and how to successfully do it.

How to consistently write great copy for thought leadership.

The project management approach to writing great content and how to implement it.

The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to create great content for thought leadership.

…and other golden nuggets of advice

Getting Started with Copy Writing

Kristen did not come up as a professionally trained marketer, but she considers herself as someone who's always been a writer. For many years, freelance writing was one of her many side jobs that she worked while she was an actor in New York City and while she was a yoga teacher in New York City and Boston.

Over the course of those years she started to learn more and more about marketing. What happened for her was that classic situation where you hand over something to a client and then you see that the website copy never got launched or the asset was never created or they're not using something. Something fell short somewhere.

She started to ask questions such as what does it take to put these ideas and this information out into the world in a way that's going to make impact? That led her to learning more about the disciplines of marketing and communications. In 2019, her first daughter was born. Long story short, like for so many people, that was a pivot point that changed everything. She started taking her writing and content work seriously and the rest is history. It's certainly been a range of ups and downs, but she’s been running her business and team for over five years with over 15 years of experience in the copy writing field in general.

Let's look at...

The Origin of Great Copy Writing

Kristen believes copy writing starts with good ideas. Her company's mission is to share great ideas with the world. The way they do that is through their approach to creating content and copy. To her, it's all about the thinking that goes into the perspectives and the opinions and the ideas that people and companies can share. It should be something of substance.

She believes that content for a lot of people and companies has become more like “containers”. It's a container to try to get somebody to click through on your website. It's a container to try to get someone to stay on the page longer. It's a container to be able to track them, cookie them and start following their journey. Kristin’s mindset is that the great ideas and the meaningful substance, or the content of content is what we're really after.

Here are some...

Characteristics of a Great Idea That's Worthy of Creating Content Around

Kristen has a piece on her company website explaining thought leadership. Great ideas tend to come from a place of someone who's taken the time to really develop a unique perspective. That most often comes from their life experiences. It can come from their belief systems and their values. It can come from understanding their space or their industry and taking the time to think deeply about it. In general, Kristen believes it also comes from a high degree of caring.

Her team has had situations in the past where they’ve tried to partner with someone to make them a thought leader. What happened was they were there to do their job day in and day out and they weren't really invested in sharing their knowledge publicly. It takes a lot to be that kind of collaborator and that’s why that caring piece is really important.

It's important to ask...

When it Comes to Writing Copy to Become a Thought Leader, Where Does That Process Start?

Kristen likes to think of a thought leader as someone who leads with their thoughts. That might sound obvious, but what she means by that is a lot of people define thought leadership by the external markers such as they have a huge following. The ideas come first. You can be a thought leader alone in your room all day long. The problem is you need to have the right platform to share those ideas and spread them and help them grow to get your message out there.

When we think about thought leadership, again, the kernel of it is making sure that you are developing and forming your own perspectives and opinions. Ultimately that you're finding the right messages that align with whoever it is you are trying to reach. Many companies, when they think about thought leadership, they think of trying to reach their customers.

Other times you're trying to reach peers. Think about people who sell to their peers, such as a marketer who sells their courses to other marketers. They want to be seen as a thought leader among their peers who also happen to be their customers.

This means that you must...

Know Your Audience

Understanding your audience and how your perspectives align with and provide value to the people you want to be speaking with is important. That's different from some common approaches to content where content is generated from the outside. Your content's main goal should be to answer your audience’s questions.

Kristen likes to think of thought leadership as answering questions. That includes questions your audience hasn't even thought to ask. It goes beyond helpful into something that is thought-provoking, insightful, that gives them some kind of shift in the way they're thinking about a particular topic.

And that is just the beginning!

Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

 

About My Guest

 

Kristen Sweeney is a writer and content strategist who has helped over 100 organizations communicate more clearly, especially who has helped over 100 organizations communicate more clearly, especially when the subject matter is complex or highly technical. Her agency, Every Little Word, develops expert-led content programs that use an organization's expertise to build visibility, credibility, and trust.

Every Little Word is a boutique content and communications agency that helps organizations in life sciences and pharma, higher education, and B2B professional services. The company is founded on the belief that great ideas—and the people behind them—deserve a bigger voice. Because audiences don't need more filler content; they're hungry for real substance.

Connect with Kristen on LinkedIn!

Learn more about Every Little Word!

If you want great things to happen in your life you have the opportunity and power to manifest them. You just need the right strategies. I discuss some of them in this episode with my guest, Francois Lupien.

 

 

Francois Lupien is a dynamic executive coach, mentor and speaker whose experience includes successfully working with Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People) and as a consultant with Bob Proctor (Movie: The Secret).

Achieving excellence in everything he puts his mind to, Francois has been a Tae Kwon Do Gold Medal Canadian champion, a Top Real Estate agent for 11 years with Remax, and a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful 6-figure businesses.

We dive into topics including:

Why people pay more attention to help and advice that they pay for.

Examples of habits you can develop to manifest greatness.

The power of embracing decide, commit, succeed.

How to keep on keepin’ on during the dark times after you make a commitment to excellence.

What your reticular activating system is and how to engage it to see and manifest success faster.

Why you get better answers when you ask better questions and how to do that.

How to change your thinking and habits if they’re hurting you.

How to stay focused on success and manifesting what you desire.

The argument for not taking short cuts on your path to success.

How to find your “Why” to stay on your journey to manifesting greatness.

The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to manifest greatness in your life.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

The Beginning Self Confidence for Francois

Self confidence was introduced to Francois when he was just six years old. His mom had, when she was young, roller skates, not roller blades, four wheels, two in the front, two in the back. She them on cowboy boots of for Francois. She told him to try them out. He tried this thing and he fell and it hurt like crazy. He came back home and was not happy. Francois’ mom looked at him and asked “What's the matter?” He told her it hurts, and he didn’t want to try skating any more.

Francois remembers, as if it was yesterday, his mom having an adjustment key. She took those roller skates, put them on her feet, and demonstrated how to roller skate on the street with Francois sitting on the sidewalk. Then she came back to him and and said with a smile “You can do anything you want in life if you really want it. Are you ready?” He said “Yes”. Then as Francois started skating, she said, “You got this.” Then she went back into the house as Francois skated all around.

That's Just the Beginning

A week later Francois attached a rope to one of his friend's bikes and he was water skiing down the street with his roller skates. From then, it's just been on and on with his self-belief journey. His mom always told him “Whatever you want in life, you go for it, you can make it happen.”

This opened Francois' eyes that believing in yourself is the first step to manifestation.

How can greatness be created? Francois would say by someone believing in yourself first, then, as a result of that, other people end up believing in you as well.

That means first you must learn...

How to Find That Someone to Believe in You

Francois was blessed that his family that believed in him and supported his dreams. Yet for anybody else, search, dig, knock on as many proverbial doors and ask for help. A wise man once said “Knock and it shall be opened and ask and it shall be answered”. You just need to ask. The good news is there's people in this world right now that you can easily get access to. Once you find someone, try to get an understanding of what that person is doing that you want to do. Research how they might be able to help you and vice-versa.

Francois believes that everybody is good in some way, even if it’s deep down. The quote “Be kind always” applies here. If you encounter someone having a bad day or they're not feeling well, yes, there's something broken inside of them for now. So don't be the one that kicks them while they’re down. Be the one that uplifts other people.

You Must Give in Order to Get

As you do that, one of Francois’ great mentors, Bob Proctor always said, leave everyone with the impression of increase. Make everybody feel better after they met with you than before they met you. You want to help others as much as you want others to help you.

The important thing is to remember here is that you can't achieve your dreams alone. We need other people to help us along our journey. Some people will see things in you that you don’t see in yourself. Their perspective on you can enable you to refocus and make things happen in a new, better way. It's the same thing for each and every one of us. There's things that we don't see and we don't know that others can help us discover.

Now you can start to understand...

How to Build Relationships When You Find Those Special People

Francois believes you build relationships by having conversations and asking the real (and sometimes tough) questions. You need to go deep and not be superficial. If someone looks good on paper, that's fine, but go deeper. You need to discover what the essence of your conversations and your relationships are as a whole. Is it just fluff or is there some substance to it? Once you do that, you'll have that thing called “a gut feeling”. If it feels good in your gut, go for it.

As you develop that relationship and you feel good, the more you pay attention to that person. This thing of having the greatness revealed in you by watching YouTube videos, is not going to happen. You need to have someone that's been there, done that, sold the T-shirt to the event and is able to help you to get to the next level. That is key to your pivotal relationships.

And that is just the beginning!

Listen to or watch the interview to continue this story and get more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

 

About My Guest

About Francois Lupien

CEO's Secret Weapon and Gold Medalist!

Helping High-Performing CEOs Reclaim Clarity, Confidence & Leadership Power

Francois Lupien is a dynamic mentor, executive coach, speaker, and presenter whose experience includes working with Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People) and as a consultant with Bob Proctor (Movie: The Secret).

Achieving excellence in everything he puts his mind to, Francois has been a Tae Kwon Do Gold Medal Canadian Champion, a Top Real Estate agent for 11 years with Remax, and a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful 6-figure businesses.

Why CEOs Call FrancoisTheir Secret Weapon

For decades, he's worked alongside driven, high-achieving CEOs who have built incredible companies but found themselves trapped in isolation, overwhelmed by decision fatigue, and burdened by relentless expectations.

I tell them what no one else dares to say.

I bring relentless energy and mindset mastery

I shift their perspective instantly.

Learned from the Best in the Industry

Francois offers CEOs a confidential and trusted partnership, drawing on his experience being mentored by some of the most influential figures in the industry.

National Trainer for Tony Robbins – Mastering the art of high performance and peak psychology.

Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (13 years) – Helping leaders across North America implement transformational leadership.

Personally mentored and coached by Bob Proctor for (6+ years) – Becoming a master in mindset mastery and the science of success.

Canadian Taekwondo Gold Medalist – Bringing the same relentless discipline, focus, and mental toughness to coaching that it takes to win at the highest level.

This rare combination of elite mentorship, business acumen, and gold medal mindset is what makes François an unstoppable force for CEO transformation.

Francois Lupien

The Performance Enhancer.

613-662-8377

HowToBecomeMore.com

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