Episode 209: Dean Graziosi - NYT Best-Selling Author, Entrepreneur, and Investor

All right, guys, we made it.

We made it to 2023.

Happy New Year.

This is going to be the best one yet.

I'm not a big person in these new year resolutions because I don't ever believe in waiting till January 1st.

I believe in starting right away.

Finally, my book, Bigger, Better, Bolder, has been out now for probably a week.

And I want to say thank you to everybody who pre-ordered it because it debuted at number one in business.

And I'm just so grateful and thankful for you guys.

I really do believe that we all can be more bold and show up in our life in a real way with a little introspection, a little self-awareness, and we can design whatever we want for ourselves.

I believe in creating a rich life and that's not just money you guys.

That's about relationships, meaningful relationships, meaningful experiences.

Now if we're not born being bold, you can learn being bold.

I have a workbook in the back of the book so it keeps people accountable and you see yourselves getting bolder by doing these little bold moves.

So we are not just acquiescing to a good enough life, but we're actually

really

going after and chasing the life we want.

I want this to be a two-way conversation.

I want you guys to leave me reviews and comments.

Let me know what type of guests you want me to go after, chase after.

Let me know what you like, what you don't like.

Your words are valuable and they mean something to me.

So please let me know.

Check me out and Habits and Hustle on YouTube now as well and on Instagram.

Facebook now, we have a Facebook community.

Here's to 2023, everyone.

Let's make it the best one yet.

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins.

You're listening to Habits and Hustle, crush it.

Today on the podcast, we have Dean Graziosi, who is a New York Times bestseller.

He is an extraordinary internet marketer, entrepreneur, and investor, and also Tony Robbins' business partner.

And together, they actually created one of the biggest launches of all time virtually.

And now they're actually offering a free five-day challenge called Unshakable.

It's about planning your 2023 success with Tony Robbins, and it starts January 24th, and it's free.

So, guys, please, if I were you, I would sign up right now, right?

What's better than free?

Dean was a great guest.

We talked and he gave us so many tangible, practical things to do for marketing, personal branding, sales.

It was actually a really,

really

great podcast with so much valuable information.

So, listen and please leave me a review, comment, let me know what you think.

Sign up for the Tony Robbins free challenge and enjoy.

Thank you for being on Habits and Hustle.

I love your work.

And I want to actually ask you a question because I've heard your name for so many years.

And this is authentic, like this is real.

And this is when we were actually scheduling this.

And yet, like, I'm not 100% of what like your exact lane is.

I heard that you are one of the best internet marketers on the planet.

And people come to you, all thought leaders come to you to help them with that.

But then when I went into your background, you're also like a big real estate person and you were in the car business, the collision car business,

right?

Sounds crazy.

It's like it's all over the place.

So I think a really good place to start is why don't you kind of give us a little bit about who you are, your origin story, and we can kind of go from there.

Great, Jennifer.

And first off, pleasure to be on here.

You know,

with having so many different things and businesses, I don't get a chance to do as many podcasts as I'd like to do.

So it's fun when I get on with somebody and I know you're making a great impact out there.

So, and those of you that are listening or watching, thank you for spending time with us.

There's a million, you have a million options in today's world, but I promise if you spend the next 45, 60 minutes with us, I'm going to do my best to deliver some capabilities to help in this shifting world.

So everything you said is true in just kind of different decades.

It's in different decades.

In my 20s, in my 20s, I owned owned a collision shop and an auto sales and you know i started very blue collar esque i came from a family that didn't have much and lots of divorces my mom and dad were married nine times between them but and i went right from high school didn't go to college and i went into fixing cars and i'd fix cars during the day and i'd drive a tow truck at night and then i got into my first apartment building by the time i was 20 it was run down and i built that and then i got up to 20 apartments and then i used the money from the collision shop to start building houses and then something changed my life so that's like the kind of the first decade, the 20s.

Right.

But as I'm sure your listeners here, and I'm only going to tell my story to set a context for everybody so you know who you're listening to.

So please know it's not about me.

It's about you.

If you're going to spend time with us, know a little bit about

the frame I'm going to look through.

But I would bet to say the one thing I know 100% of us have in common today, if you're listening or watching, is you know you were meant for more.

That's just, that's a common thread, right?

We know you're listening to gain capabilities from Jennifer and Habits and Hustle because you're looking, is there something that could alter your life, empower you, allow you to go faster towards who you're supposed to be, right?

So the one thing in common, we're all meant for more.

In my 20s, I started having some good success with real estate and cars and collision shop, but I just knew I was meant for more, right?

We both of those voices.

You should be happy.

You should be lucky with what you have.

That's for other people.

And the other voice is like, hell no, you're supposed to do big, crazy, awesome shit, you know?

And we got both of these voices inside of us.

I had both those voices.

So I'd bet to say we have that in common.

And then in my 20s, I literally bought a course off an infomercial with Tony Robbins, personal power.

And I listened to personal power in my 20s.

And man, he just spoke to me.

And I was just like, damn it, I am meant for more.

I'm going to go for it.

So, so think of that first decade of what you said.

And then that second decade,

I wanted to do what Tony Robbins did.

I wanted to teach other people what I knew and be in that business.

And at that point, I had done real estate had made me successful.

So in my 30s, my late 20s and early 30s, I taught people how to invest in real estate.

How to get in there, not

multifamily, not

strip malls.

I taught people how to get into their first investment house.

And through trial and error, we ended up in my 30s, in some of my 40s, I taught real estate education and we became the biggest in the world on teaching real estate.

I have, you know, a New York Times best-selling book,

Be a Real Estate Millionaire, sold a million copies.

And that was in that era of my life.

How many years?

How old are you now?

You look very young.

You can pass from like 25 now.

I'm 54.

Wow.

I think we should get into your like what you do for your healthy habits because you literally look like you look like you're 25 years old.

That's amazing.

Yeah, no, I just turned 54 two months ago.

Well, happy birthday.

But I got to stay young because I have four kids and my youngest is two and a half months old.

Oh, wow.

Yes, I got to stay young.

in my 30s, that's what I did.

And then I'll tell you the epiphany I had and tell you how I'm here today and partners with Tony Robbins.

And, you know, that was the guy that inspired me.

And now he's my dearest friend and my partner.

But as I was teaching people real estate, it's the same thing you've probably realized, Jennifer, in your journey and helping people is you could give somebody

a strategy on how to sell $20 bills for 10 bucks.

And still your mind will get in the way, old beliefs will get in the way, focusing on whose fault it is, focusing on the negatives, focusing on letting the outside world control you rather than you controlling the outside world.

All the things that we've heard and,

you know, setting goals and all the stuff like that.

What I realized by the time I was in my mid-40s is,

man, I don't care how well of a strategy.

I can give someone the blueprint.

But if we don't work on their mindset, then they'll just stay in this hypnotic rhythm, this loop of drifting.

Next opportunity, let's try this, let's try that.

And it really, and it was the same time Tony Tony and I's friendship really started over a decade ago.

And I was like, I want to go upstream.

Yes, I love teaching people how to do real estate, but I want more people to have success.

So I need to go upstream and start working on their mind, right?

And then I wrote a book called Millionaire Success Habits that was, you know, that went on to sell about a million copies as well.

And what I realized in that journey

is, if I don't obsess on their mindset, if I don't shift this, I can't get any success.

But then one more piece.

So now you're going to get the whole story about all the things you heard.

Right.

As I realized I can't help people

unless I get them to buy from me.

If they don't buy my book, if they don't buy my courses, if they don't get involved in coaching, if they don't go to a Tony Robbins event or an event Tony and I do together, I can't help change their lives if they're just a spectator.

So for the last 20 years, I've really obsessed on marketing.

In my mind, I've turned marketing and sales into service.

If I get someone to buy my book, I serve them.

If they come to one of our events, I serve them.

If they get one of our courses, I serve them.

So I've shifted that.

And I have to say, I have obsessed on marketing and sales probably more than anyone I've ever met in my life for the last 20 years, obsessively for 10.

And it's resulted in, you know, we've done, Tony and I have done events where we put a million people into an event.

His collective genius of what he does, my collective of marketing and that

bond.

So that's the story of how you've heard all of it, because it's all true.

And it's kind of happened a decade at a time.

A decade.

Well, I have a lot of questions just from that.

I love how you reframe that, right?

Because I think that a lot of people get very uncomfortable with the word if they have to sell somebody or telling someone to buy something from them.

So that's the stop is in the start, right?

But you've kind of, right?

And you've kind of like figured out a way to reframe it in your own mind.

So when you are selling to somebody, you

believe that you are giving that, you are doing them a service.

And I think I've actually grown, I've grown to a part where I feel like I'm doing a disservice if they don't buy from me.

Right.

Right?

Because, right.

Because,

and, and here, hear me now, especially.

And I'm going to tell you a quick little story, Jennifer, I think you'll like.

But sales and marketing are the oxygen of every successful company in the world.

There is no such thing as I will create something so amazing, they will just come.

You know, there was that movie with Kevin Costner, A Field of Dreams.

If I build it, they will come.

That is the biggest delusional misbelief, wrong belief that has ever existed in the world.

It's why so many businesses fail.

But my coaching is so good, they will come.

My book is so good.

They will come.

Did you ever watch it, Walk Into a Barnes and Noble?

You want to hear a really horrible stat?

Do you know how much work goes into writing a book?

If you've ever written one, you know.

It is brutal to write a book.

So you know that tonight is my book launch at Barnes and Noble.

Oh, congratulations.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I'm fitting this in.

I'm actually leaving this interview to go to that right after.

Okay, so then you know how brutal it is to write a book.

It's a grind.

Honestly, it's a grind and people don't know.

So here's what happens.

So think about this, Jennifer.

You work so hard.

You spent the last year edits, re-editing, comes back from the editor like, no, you changed my voice.

That's not what the hell I meant.

And you're fixing and changing and you're reading it to your husband or your friend or your family members and you're trying to figure.

And you get all this done.

You put all the work, your passion, your soul.

And then people get done with a book and go, I'm done.

That's really where the work begins.

Did you know at Barnes and Noble, walk in any store, hundreds of thousands of books?

You want to hear something?

I'm sorry if I'm going to discourage you.

No, no, no, please.

80% of those books sell less than 1,000 copies.

Out of the 20% that sell over 1,000, 80%

of them sell less than 5,000.

So when you look at that, so many people wrote it.

And it's so good they will come.

No, they won't.

They will not come.

And go into a Barnes ⁇ Noble, you'll get a few sales tonight.

You are going to have to market your book or your words will never be read by all the people who need it.

So I'm telling you right now, it's not about selling your book.

You don't get to serve people with your words and your life experience unless you put together a kick-ass marketing team or a kick-ass marketing campaign and a sales campaign.

Because

I promise you, the publisher is not going to do it.

They're waiting for you to do it.

The onus is always on the author, 100%.

It's all about that.

And this is actually, this could be a whole other podcast because this really is a big thing that I've been talking about a lot, just on like sidebars.

And I've been doing it on an Instagram.

But you're absolutely right.

And every book you sell is a grind, period, end of story, unless you have a really kick-ass marketing plan.

So let me ask you something.

So you didn't go to college, right?

And so

that's the first thing.

So the question I have for you is, how did you get so good in this area?

Like, is it just from experience because you had to learn, you had to kind of be resourceful and have to kind of teach yourself like trial and error?

Like what is your, how did you become the person for this?

Yeah, I would say, you know,

you know, some of it could be like

original operating equipment, like born that way.

You're hard.

Like I don't like to do anything.

If I'm going to do something, I need to go all in.

And I don't want to dabble and I don't want to be a statistic and I don't want to hear how most people fail.

If I'm going in, I'm just going all in.

So I find the why around it always.

Why do I want to do this?

The space I'm at in my life, I am 54, I do have four kids, I have a baby, I'm married to the love of my life, I have all that.

And why the hell am I working harder today than ever before?

I'm blessed to be in a space where I never have to work again.

I have an amazing life.

I feel blessed.

And I'm working harder than ever before.

It's because I found a purpose behind it.

I truly want to impact lives.

I truly want to help people like my mom who struggled when I was a kid.

I want to deliver capabilities to people.

I'm not changing people's lives.

I hope to be a spark or ignite a new passion or give one tool that makes them shift the way they look at it.

And all of a sudden, they see opportunity rather than obstacles.

That lights me up every day.

So I find more energy.

That's why I don't, I'm so grateful that you said I look younger.

Some of it I don't think it's look, it's my energy.

I think I have the energy of a 25-year-old because I love what I do.

Like today, I had a super busy day, but I knew I was doing this hour with you.

Nothing else matters except this interview with you.

And hopefully, even one person gets something today that shifts their life.

Man, that fires me up.

I'm going to be full of energy.

I don't need a coffee.

I don't need because I love it.

So it started with, I know my big reason why.

I know the passion behind it.

And I don't like to be freaking second best.

And I also knew that the only way to be number one is I could write the best books in the world.

I could have the best courses in the world.

If I don't learn to be a a badass marketer, nobody's gonna freaking read them.

So

that connected really quick in my life, Jennifer.

And I just said, I need to be a badass marketer.

And you're right.

I get offered $250,000 a day right now.

I just did one five weeks ago in my office.

I don't have time for them.

$250,000 a day to give marketing consultation.

And

that's what I get.

I get $25,000 for one hour phone call and I got a line of people waiting for it and I don't have time to do it.

So I feel blessed to be able to say I can turn down $250,000 for a day or $25,000 for an hour.

It's because I learned the skill that's really the freaking, it is the gold at the end of the rainbow.

And here's the thing: there are good marketers who don't sell good stuff.

And there is a lot of good stuff of people that don't know how to market.

You want to know the secret to all of it?

Create shit so good that you feel bad if people don't have it.

And then become a badass marketer and get it in their hands.

That's when you have a, I have a 25-year brand.

Tony Robbins has a 45-year brand because we love people, we love our product, and we figured out how to market really well.

And that's the magic of a long-term brand.

Can you, that's great.

Can that's actually, I love that.

Can you give me, I mean, since you are that expensive, I can't afford you normally.

So, while you're on this podcast, can you give us a few marketing

tactics and tips that we can all use that maybe

we can glean from you that we don't have to spend $250,000 a day on your on your fee

yeah so um

let me start with a mindset around it if you don't mind I have a theory I know we're only going to know each other here for like 50 minutes and hopefully we get to check after this but maybe we can talk some other time too

but I always my philosophy is anywhere you see a thing that you want to do Always think of the evolution of how do I go upstream to find the thing to make this better?

Like I heard an example once about how doctors are overwhelmed.

And it talked about a doctor pulls in, you know, they don't have time to figure out how to treat the root cause.

They just got to fix the symptom,

they don't have time to dig in, right?

And it talked about how doctors are so busy that a doctor pulls in the hospital and there's a stream by the hospital and he sees somebody drowning and he runs out there and saves them.

And then there's another one and another one.

And every time a new doctor pulls in the parking lot and the doctor parking lot, he's like, come on, come help me, come help me.

All of a sudden, there's 20 doctors pulling all these people out of the, out of the stream.

One doctor pulls in, he sees it, and he goes to take off.

And they're like, hey, fool, why are you taking off?

Help us.

He said, I'm going to drive upstream and see who's throwing these people in and stop them.

And it's just a different philosophy.

So many of us are trying to save what's in front of us.

And if we just take a moment and go upstream, we could solve this problem.

So you asked me that question.

I'm going to give you what I think is the best answer of going upstream.

So I was doing a conference with, there was like 5,000 business women, all women, amazing crowd.

These women were on fire and I want to go to another level.

I want more, I want more.

And I said, who in here doesn't like sales or a little apprehensive?

And like 90% of the women raised their hand.

And I said, okay, so this is the problem.

So I said, okay,

raise your hand.

So I picked a woman in the second row.

She stands up.

I said, tell me what you do.

She's like, I coach moms through trimester four.

She goes, I had no idea when you have a baby, after you have the baby, you still look pregnant, your hormones are all messed up, you've realized your life isn't your own anymore.

I was losing my mind.

I was coming unglued.

And she goes, I did these five things, yoga, and she named them all.

And it got me out of this funk.

I felt beautiful again.

I was proud to be a mom.

And now I help women get out of trimester four and get them on track.

And I said, oh my God, do you love it?

She goes, oh my God, I love it.

I watched these women transform.

I said, tell me about something.

She's like, oh, I'll tell you about Mary.

And she told me this story.

And she thought her husband was going to leave her.

And she felt crazy.

She goes, within five weeks, she looked beautiful.

She felt alive.

So I said to her, I said, but you don't like marketing?

And I watched her whole like, oh, like her shoulders went forward.

She's like, no, I feel bad.

So I said, I wanted to shock her on purpose.

I said, why are you screwing women over?

And she's like, well, I don't understand.

I'm helping them.

I said, no, you're screwing them over.

I said, because right now, because you're afraid to market, because you're afraid to put yourself out there, there's women suffering in silence they don't know what to do with themselves and i said the only two things that can happen because you're afraid to put yourself out there is they do nothing and they suffer alone and you figured out a damn strategy to get out of it or secondly they buy off of some slick marketer who doesn't have the care and the love that you have so either way you are screwing these women over i said what if today you realized that you're doing a disservice by not putting yourself out there, that you won't, by putting yourself out there, you're stopping the suffering that you get to fall in love with your clients you get to help them give a path you give them the strategy you wish someone gave you sooner because you ought to figure it out and I watched the tears came out and I watched 5,000 women I just happened to be in a space that day just change their whole philosophy on marketing forever I mean they cheered I said who's afraid to market now not one hand went up I was just in a space and I said yes I want to teach you tactics and strategies today.

But if you don't have that philosophy first, that you are doing a service, that you must get them to say yes.

And if people don't pay, they usually don't pay attention.

There's a lot of free shit on YouTube.

Why aren't people using it?

Because they didn't pay for it.

Right?

When you cut a check, you're like, oh, I paid for this book.

I am reading it.

The book's free.

I'll get to it next week.

Right?

That's true.

So you start the philosophy with, if I don't learn how to get their credit card, I'm not helping them.

I'm doing them a disservice.

And then you start, the second thing I would say is what people do wrong sometimes we find our own narrative, right?

We think we, we, hey, I wrote this book.

This is what they need.

And

the thing that I always tell myself, and I would say, Jennifer, incorporate this, is people buy from you when they feel understood, not when they understand you.

Most people go on stage.

Most people do presentations.

You do a book at Barnes and Noble.

It's like, understand me.

I went through this.

I went through this.

I lost everything.

I started this book.

I started this podcast.

I did this.

And now I have this.

And now I have that.

And my relationship is good.

And my kids are good.

People admire that, but they don't buy from that.

People buy.

You've seen the difference.

You ever watch a speaker?

You're like, oh, that was cool.

And then another speaker, you're like, oh my God, she gets me.

And you're writing notes as fast as you can.

One made you understand them.

The other one made you feel understood.

And when you market and somebody on the outside goes, damn, this girl Jennifer freaking gets me.

Is she looking at my journal?

you you win so people buy from you when they understand not when they understand when they feel understood not when they understand you secondly

you have to meet people where they are enter conversations that are already going on in their mind so many people are trying to sell you something that they think you need i know this sounds like marketing one-on-one but most people miss it.

I watch it every day.

People don't buy what they need.

Everybody hear me.

No one buy.

Who needs to go to the gym more?

Who needs to stop drinking three glasses of wine a night?

Who needs to stop eating too much bread?

You don't do any of that shit, excuse my language, until you want to.

You could need to quit smoking.

You don't quit smoking until you want to quit smoking.

You don't become more of an active listener with your spouse until you want to become an active listener with your spouse.

We all need to do a lot of crap.

And what happens, I watch most people in their presentations, like they're saying it in a way like you need this you need this you need this but if that conversation isn't going on in your mind and you don't want it you don't give a crap if you excuse me if you're not ready to go to the gym i don't care what i say about you needing this gym membership you are not buying it so you have to meet people where they are and enter conversations going on in their mind now the last thing i'll say for everybody is Think about this.

Jennifer, at your house with your friends, your family, are you having the same dinner conversations today as you did even just six months ago?

It's different, right?

It depends.

Yeah.

I've got two small conversations.

I mean,

when it comes to the economy, possible recession, where business is going, right?

Before the pandemic, after the pandemic, before inflation, after inflation, before a recession, after a recession, polarization, you know, the super right, the super left telling us we should all hate each other when I feel like we're way more in common than people try to say in the media.

Conversations are different, but in most cases, people will keep their same narrative based on what they think you need.

Oh, you need my book.

You need it because of this.

It's like, no, no, no.

Enter where they are.

Do you feel people are going into 2023 a little more uncertain than they've been in a really long time?

Where is the economy going?

What is going to happen?

Are we going to go into a recession?

Will it rebound?

Right.

If people are uncertain and we need to meet them where they are, right?

So people right now kind of want safety and security.

Three years ago, no one gave a crap about safety and security.

The economy was going straight up.

They were aspirational.

They wanted the second house and the speedboat.

Now they want to make sure that they can pay their mortgage, right?

So we need to meet people where they are and enter conversations they're already having, let them feel understood, and help them see that what you have is what they want.

That's amazing.

These are really great tips.

And I think it's you're meeting me and my audience, I'm hopefully, where we are, because you're giving us tactical things that are important.

My question is:

there's so, I think another problem is that every, there's, we've a lot of information overload, right?

Like, we have so many different thought leaders.

We are just bombarded with people who are doing these sales funnels, saying that they have the answer, that they're meeting us where we are, they're giving us what they believe is the best program.

How do people decipher between what is good and what is not?

And when something is a really great marketing scheme versus a really great product, because there's a lot of great salespeople, snake oil salesmen, who are selling a lot of garbage.

True story.

And I've been in this industry for 26 years and I watch them.

I've been watching them come and go for 26 years.

Right.

And they'll rip off your marketing funnel and use the same, you know, because especially if Tony and I do a big launch, all of a sudden six months later, I'll see 20 copycats, right?

Right.

Well, more than 20.

I mean, that's the problem.

It's way more than 20.

It's hundreds and thousands now.

Yeah.

And here's what I'd say is if you're in this business, you just have to be the true, authentic you.

There's a book that I absolutely love, Agmendino's book, The World's Greatest Salesman.

If you never read it, read it.

It's only two and a half hours long.

And he's got 10 scrolls.

And scroll number two is,

now this is going to sound, some of you might find this a little far-fetched, but it changed my life.

And before I read the book, I only read the book in the last year of my life, but I've been marketing this way for a long time.

Scroll number two is, I will greet this day with love.

And the whole essence of this six-minute scroll or chapter is that don't just love what you do.

Fall in love with your client.

Fall in love with their results and fall in love with whatever it is you're selling them.

And I don't mean like, I mean fall in love with them like they're your family.

And that authenticity is hard to fake.

And people can see through it.

And I truly believe that people who buy my books or become part of our courses or take one of our challenges like we're doing here in a couple weeks, I truly believe people feel that authenticity.

They feel the depth of caring.

And when I sell to them or they buy a book, we over-deliver at every level possible because I truly have found a way to fall in love with my clients, to fall in love with their results, and to fall in love with my product.

And I think if I watch through the years, the people who've made it more than 26 or 35 months of just schlepping some or hawking some product, it's the ones that truly care, not the ones that pretend to care.

So that's if you're selling, fall in love with your client.

On the opposite side, I would say really understand if people have the depth and the breadth.

Have they walked the walk that they're saying?

You see a million coaches that

they get off a jet they probably chartered with a watch that they spent every dollar they have on and telling you how to get rich overnight.

Just do a little research.

Did they really start a business?

Did they run a business?

Are they just someone talking about it or do they actually do it?

And then

I would see, I would find a way to get into a forum or get on their social media and see how they reply.

I'm not, listen, I feel blessed to financially, I'm doing better than I ever could have imagined possible.

I get to do things I never thought I could do.

And I see, I'm going to share this.

Please no, I'm not judging.

I just really want you to hear this.

I'm not judging.

i have my own plane i've had it for years and it's a big one and i get to fly all over the world wherever i want to go i could jump on my plane here and fly to europe without stopping i am blessed that's you will never see you will never see me post a picture of my plane on social media ever i live in my dream house 16 000 square foot house i lived in i i've never said look at my house i that's not me and i'm not saying and it sounds like i was humbly bragging i'm not i that's just not who i want people to know me and my heart, how much I care, my depth of knowledge, my information.

Follow me because of what I'm trying to do in your life, not because, because anybody could film in front of a jet.

Anybody could film in front of a big house.

Anybody could fake a freaking watch and do it.

But if I speak to your heart, if you know that I love you, the results you get, you'll stay with me.

So what I'd say is be careful for the flash, right?

And look for somebody that resonates with you.

Now, you and I both see a lot of people out there with the planes and the this and the that, and they have a lot of followings.

If that aligns with you, then I say you should do it.

Please, I'm not criticizing that.

That's just not my tribe.

My tribe, the people who follow me, don't know

what I just shared.

I never share that.

I'm only sharing it because I want people to follow me for my words and my actions.

And I would just find somebody who aligns with you.

And easy, just go to their social media and see how they reply.

See what they say.

If you want that, then that's who you should follow.

And just make sure that they really built that wealth off of something they did, not just showing it so they could get money from you.

And I think that's the only thing you can do.

How did you become partners with Tony?

So you said you went to his seminar.

How did you create a situation where you guys became partners?

And what are you guys partners in specifically?

Are you just 50-50 on lots of different things?

You have a fund.

What do you guys do?

Yeah, great question.

So I I did buy Tony's course off an infomercial, I don't know, 25 years ago.

And then about 12 years ago, a mutual friend introduced us and we were going to meet for a half hour and we ended up spending the whole day together.

And we just had so much in common.

His mom and my dad are like the same human being.

We struggled in the same classes.

I mean, it was...

scary how similar everything was.

And we're like, and Tony had meetings booked all day.

He's like, cancel the next one, then cancel the next one.

He ended up canceling the whole day.

And we really hit it off and became dear friends.

And then I watched so many people trying to do business with Tony that I said, I am not, I'm doing great.

I'm financially, my business is doing good.

I am not doing business with Tony because everybody is trying to get a piece of his list or endorsement.

I'm like, man, I just, this guy changed my life.

I just want to be his bud.

So we spent about six years just building a really incredible friendship.

Never doing anything.

Never doing anything.

No, no business at all.

Golf together twice a year, meet up, talk.

We literally talk almost every single day till still to this day.

And

about five years ago,

we decided to do, to teach people what we do, right?

Because there were so many people trying to build a course or be a coach or write a book.

And there was so many people just teaching crappy stuff.

What you said earlier, and Tony has 45 years of doing this.

I have 25 years.

Together, we have 70 years doing this.

So about five years ago, we're like, why don't we just pull back the curtain and teach people how we are in the self-education industry, how we took our knowledge, sell it to people, impact their lives, and grow a brand.

So we partnered with a company called Mastermind.

We own Mastermind.com and we've done some amazing launches.

And that company went from zero to,

I think we're probably the biggest in the space.

And we have a tribe in 160 countries doing amazing learning how to sell what they know, writing books and building courses and becoming coaches.

So we started with that and that business took off.

And then we invested in some other companies together.

And then COVID came.

And Tony's been in the live event business for 45 years.

And all of a sudden, there was no live events.

So as a friend, he said to me, Brother,

I don't know,

we can't do live events.

We got to cancel all of them.

What do we do?

And my expertise in marketing and online, I went over to Tony's company.

He asked me to be CEO and president.

And I just, I did it as a favor, but we converted his in-person company to a virtual company.

And so now I've been helping run that.

So that was you who did that.

Oh, okay, okay, okay, yeah.

Yeah.

So we built that studio where he could see thousands of people.

We, we converted, we started doing challenges, and we converted that.

So we took Tony's greatest brand in the world and my marketing strategies, and we married him in his baby, RRI Robbins Research International, his company, his baby, I helped him just convert to virtual.

So I've been there about two and a half years helping run that company for him as well.

And now we get to do cool things.

Like I said, we're doing a challenge next week.

I think we'll probably have 800,000 people show up.

And so you're doing this free challenge, right?

Yes.

Next week.

So before I even talked to you about the upcoming free challenge, because I'm curious about it, you said earlier that when you give somebody something for free, they don't take it seriously.

So why are you doing a free challenge?

Yeah, so I'll tell you why.

So about four years ago, I said to Tony, you know, he is the busiest guy you'll ever meet.

And he's hustling harder than ever before and doesn't need to.

He just wants to impact as many lives as he can before he leaves this earth.

I mean, that's when people say to me, why is that crazy bastard work so hard?

I'm like, he wants to change as many lives as humanly possible before he dies.

Like, I don't know any other way to say it.

The guy is driven.

We talk every night.

He leaves me a message about 4 a.m.

every day.

He goes to bed about 4.

I wake up at 4.30.

So he does a voice memo at the end of the day at 4.

I get it about 4.35 and reply.

So we do a voice memo pretty much seven days a week, every single day.

And everybody's like, why are you two work so hard?

It's because it's addicting.

Right.

So that, that's number one.

Number two, when the world shifted, I said, Tone,

so many people know you, but so many new generation of people,

they're like, oh, Tony, the rah-rah guy or the firewalker guy,

the tall guy, the shallow howl guy.

I'm like, let's do something you've never done before.

Let's do something free to introduce what you do to a new demographic.

And it was kind of a hard thing for him to do at first.

He's like, I've just never done free, Dean, just never in 45 years.

I'm like, let's try it.

And it went so well.

And here's the crazy part.

70% of everybody who came to the challenge was brand new.

They weren't a part of Tony's world.

And 63% were women.

And all of a sudden, since we've been doing these free events, the demographic of Tony's company went from about 60% men to about 62% women.

It was an older demographic.

Now it's the 30 to 50s that are coming in.

And it's this free challenge has given people that never would have been exposed to Tony in 180 countries the ability to go, let me take a test drive with Tony Robbins.

And the guy can't help himself but to over deliver.

So it's five days, about two and a half hours a day.

Sometimes he goes three and a half hours a day, but he goes all in.

Like he's been prepping for this for, I don't know, nine weeks.

He will over deliver and crush it.

And there's a whole new group of people go, I need more of this guy.

You know, it's funny.

He came on this podcast.

it was i think it was for that first uh virtual what was that called the that event during covid or oh um oh yeah the uh comeback challenge was it the comeback yeah i think it was that yeah and i had a lot of people who were like who knew who he was but they didn't really know who like they weren't followers they were like they um dm me after because of this other thing i think i think alone i must have sent a few hundred ladies there and men there because it's true like i think in markets are different like in person versus virtual.

And then you have to keep on expanding and growing, growing.

But so you're saying in a situation like this,

where you are, where you kind of, you give something for free to kind of introduce people to something.

So it's a, that's a different mechanism.

Yeah.

And the other thing, too, is the reason we call it a challenge is because we challenge people to do something every day.

And really the way we frame it is if you're you're not paying, then you pay us back by taking uncomfortable action.

So, every day at the end of the challenge, Tony challenges somebody to take an action they never would have taken before.

Go in the Facebook group and go live and share that belief that held you back, that'll never held you back.

So, people are taking this uncomfortable action every day, and they feel like they're paying.

So, we found ways to subtly get them to commit.

And I think it's a really great way to

get people to preview and understand who you are.

So do you give them that accountability piece basically by keeping them

because when it's virtual, and I know this from my world, you know, it's very, very difficult because once someone hangs up or stops doing this type of interaction, they're very easily able to be like, okay, next, and then like move on.

How do you keep them virtually accountable for a challenge?

Yeah, so I think, I think is entering people's conversation, meeting what they are, letting them understand that you know them.

And I think a lot of it is it's great marketing to get them there.

And then it's great content to keep them there.

And it goes back to what I said earlier.

It's like you got to market like a badass, and then you got to deliver so good that they can't click off.

Like,

I believe when we do challenges, people are like, I can't leave.

Honey, shut the door.

You're watching the kids.

I am not missing a second of this.

And that's how, that's the experience Tony and I both looked through is like, how do you make it so good that they're like, I'm not making dinner tonight.

I am watching this entire thing.

So fend, go do postmates.

Right, right, right, right.

So do you, when you did that, when you were the one who were kind of overseeing and created this whole challenge virtually, right?

How did his business or your business with him grow?

Was it grow exponentially?

Like, was your revenue?

Like, like

100x, 20x than it was?

Yeah, significantly.

It was, Tony's been in business for 45 years.

And last year and the year before were the two best years in 45-year history.

Unbelievable.

We need to get more deans around the world here helping people.

Oh my gosh.

So what is, what is this event and this challenge about?

This is called, you said the unshakable challenge.

Is that what it is?

Yeah, become unshakable.

Tony loves that word.

He's got a book, the name of it, is because

in times like this, your confidence is kind of, when people are uncertain, their confidence is down.

And you can't approach anything in life unless you're bold and confident.

And that's why he loves the word, unless you're unshakable.

If you're letting the outside world control you, I know this is is a silly analogy, but think of the difference between a thermostat and a thermometer,

right?

When the world is crazy on the outside, if you're the thermometer, it's like bad day, good day.

Oh my God, you see what happened, you see the economy, you see the stock market, see interest rates.

Oh my God, you see what the president said, you see what the old president said, oh my God,

you're the thermometer.

Compared to someone who has certainty and they're unshakable, it's like they're the thermostat.

I'm adjusting the temperature.

You might see obstacles in a shifting economy.

I see opportunity.

You might see what you've lost.

I'm going to see what I've gained, right?

And it just, as subtle as that sounds, most people look through the wrong lenses and they're waiting for someone else to fix it.

They're waiting for things to get better and they wait their whole lives.

So, the reason we're calling it unshakable is because Tony's just got a five-day process to take you through a journey of understanding your identity, understanding your belief, your story, how to match it in today's shifting world, how to build relationships, and how to thrive in this new world.

And you leave with a blueprint.

It's an amazing five days, days and he gets passionate about it and that's why we're calling it unshakable.

How do you start?

No, I was gonna say, how does how do you sign up?

Do you just go to Tony Ross?

If you go to become

becomeunshakable.com

and here's what I'd say.

It's January 24th through the 28th.

Your life is worth two hours a day.

Like literally, come if you've never listened to Tony, this is your chance to preview him for free.

This is a guy that's got a laundry list of people that want to pay him a million dollars a year for a once a month call and he can't afford, he can't afford the time to do it so you get this guy who's coached every living president he's coached half of the professional sports teams that you don't even know the from the golden state warriors to every other team you could possibly imagine and a list and and the financial people you know the top financial experts in the world the ray dahlias and the paul tudor joneses that manage you know trillions of dollars and billions of dollars.

You get a chance to preview this guy and he comes at it from a heart.

He doesn't speak over your head.

I'll be speaking on day five.

We have Jamie Kern Lima, who built cosmetics.

You know, she went from Denny's waitress to selling her company.

She's going to be there because she has a great strategy for becoming unshakable.

But really, it's mostly Tony.

It's Tony giving you the blueprint on how to make 2023 an amazing year.

So I'd say two things.

I'd say commit the time.

Go to becomeunshakable.com.

Reserve a spot.

And then what I do, and I tell everybody to do this, take the link and text it to someone in your life that could be your accountability partner.

Go through it with somebody else, whether they're sitting next to you or on the other side of the country.

Get them to go through it.

And then at the end of each day, call and say, all right, what are you going to be held accountable to?

What changes are you going to make?

What part of what Tony said are you going to share?

And I promise you, I've just watched the results of these challenges.

If you spend, you know, two hours a day, it'll change your life.

And then the purpose is, I mean, I would imagine, you can tell me,

what is the percentage of people that upsell to do Date with Destiny or any of the other big programs?

Yeah, I'll tell you exactly what we do.

We offer simply just UPW, Unleash the Power Within.

That'll be offered in a subtle way on day three and day five at the best price ever.

I mean, it's a ridiculous price to go.

And here's the definition of a good challenge.

People come and they buy UPW

and they change their life forever.

Or people come and they don't buy UPW, but they got so much value, they appreciate Tony and these strategies for the rest of their life.

The part where people get upset is if it's just you come, it's like, oh, I dedicated the time and it was a two-hour pitch fest.

I hate that word pitch fest, and so does Tony.

So that's why you won't even see an offer until the end of day three, and Tony doesn't even make it.

Tony just teaches, and it's a subtle offer, but so many people upgrade because they see what they got in five days over two hours a day, and they imagine four days of complete immersion at an event.

So the uptake is unbelievable, and it'll end up resulting in the biggest UPWs ever, which is in March.

You know, it's amazing to me because now everybody's like a, is a close second, let's say, to Tony Robbins, right?

It is amazing to me that he's still, with all these years, all these people trying to emulate him, he truly is like the best in that space.

There's nobody who's more.

like who's better there's no one better there really isn't

he's the he is the goat he is the greatest of all time it's and not even by by like, there's nobody in close seconds.

There's no Tony.

Yeah.

And there's a million other people doing it.

It's not like Tony and then

it's unbelievable.

Like after, there's so many wannabes.

It's unbelievable.

And there's, it's like a different, he's just, he has an innate talent to connect to people in a way that I've never seen a human being being able.

When he goes on to do that.

And the other thing, too, doing it for 46 years, you wouldn't imagine.

I'm not kidding you.

It's crazy.

He will prep for a week straight like he's never, he's been doing UPW, Unleashed the Power Within, for 40 years.

And he will prep for a week straight, obsessively, not sleep.

You think 40 years, he just pops out there and does what he does.

He takes each of it personal.

He'll read comments and he'll be like, what are people feeling right now?

How do I serve them right now?

How do I adjust this one little thing so it anchors right now?

Like no one would.

ever imagine the work this guy puts in and how much he truly beats up his own body because he cares so much.

I mean, the guy will go on stage for 10 hours without coming off to take a pet.

I know,

no, no, no.

It's no, believe me, I've had people who've like who heard him on here actually, who DM me later, who ended up upselling and buying these, like, I don't even know what they're called, like these year programs.

They're like very expensive.

They're going to Fiji, they're doing this, they're doing that.

They're like, I had no idea who he even was.

And all of a sudden, now they're spending a fortune, quite frankly, on him.

But because like nobody has been able to like resonate as well, and they know and and you really could tell that the guy cares and then you go to his course you're like I feel like I ripped Tony off like people don't feel like oh I got underserved they're like

wow this is the greatest investment of my life that's why I love being his partner because people go and they're just like thank you for pushing me to go to that event do you know that I've never actually been to a live event ever Ever.

I've seen the virtual, but that's it.

Well, here, I'll tell you right now,

definitely show up for the challenge.

You're going to absolutely love it.

He's going to light it up this year.

But if you want to go, if you want to go to a live event, you're my guest.

So you just reach out to my team, and

you could be our guest at Tony's event.

Don't forget that you said that, Dee, because I'm going to be following up.

Just you have my assistant thumbnail.

When you want to go, you let me know, and I'll make sure you get a ticket to go.

I was going to say, I wanted to go to this one last time.

I was supposed to go with a friend of mine who got invited, and I couldn't go because of this book situation, right?

So

which so let me ask you something.

So, of the people who do the program, because I get this question a ton, what is the percentage of people that actually stay motivated to kind of like after the whatever, not the challenges, but overall the programs?

How many, what's that percentage of people?

You know, it's really cool.

Yeah, that's a great question.

So, um,

Tony had a study done that,

oh my god, I'm going

blank here for a second on what

Mike find out what the study was that what company what college did the study on Tony

but they did a study originally to say who's this guy jumping up and down going to an event and they did a blind study with like 50 people who attended the event And they originally, in my belief, originally did it to say, see, this isn't working.

And they compared it to a placebo.

They compared it to medication.

They compared it to everything.

Nothing was remotely close.

The percentage of people a year later that weren't depressed, that were on fire, that found a different state a year later, no placebo, no medicine even came remotely close to the results people had after attending.

I think they went to Datewood Destiny and they modeled these people.

It had such powerful results that it flipped them all.

And they went from what is to, oh my God, what are you doing?

And they're doing another study with another blind, like 200 people.

Literally, it was the numbers were off the charts because Tony is not about, that's why he did that, you know, that documentary, I'm not your guru.

He's not about motivation.

He hates if somebody said, oh, Tony's a motivational speaker, he freaking hates that.

He's like, no, I'm not a motivational speaker.

I go inside and give you tools so you can find the best version of you.

I'm not, Tony's just the spark and a guy that gives you a framework that he really does climb into your soul.

I mean, you'll see it when you go to the event.

He climbs in, it's like readjust things, and then you got this anchor that you can lean on forever.

Yeah, no, it's funny.

Before you came on, a girlfriend of mine, who I told her about him after I saw this, did this whole, she goes to every, now she goes to every single one of these events, everywhere around.

She just came back from the date with Destiny.

It is remarkable.

And so, for people who are listening, this is not just us talking to sell you.

This upcoming challenge, it is free.

You guys should listen and go because

you'll get something out of it.

There's no way you don't get something from it, right?

That could be beneficial.

Absolutely.

Why do you think, and we can like wrap pretty soon?

I know it's getting tight on time for both of us.

Why do you think people don't typically stay with their, it's like New Year's, right now it's January.

Everyone has new resolutions, new year, new you, whatever.

They fall off.

Like, is it because they have the lack of accountability, the lack of a plan, a program, in your opinion?

Yeah, I think we live, I mean, it's always been that way, but I think right now we live in such an instant gratification world.

Like we want instant results.

And when people don't get it, they drift to the next thing and drift to the next thing.

You know, in that book, I refer back to Agmendino's book.

Another chapter is, I will persist until I succeed.

Right.

And I think that word persist is the only word in the English language that guarantees your success.

If you keep persisting, eventually you get the results you want.

Most people give up too early.

But there was something he said in the book that always sticks with me.

And he said, the prize is not at the beginning of the journey.

The prize is at the end of the journey.

And we don't know how many corners we have to go around until that success is there.

And it's not us to judge.

Some people might invent something the first time they try and become wealthy and sell it and you admire them.

And some other person has to go through 27 failures to finally find that next level.

And it just said, if we don't, it's not our job to know how many corners we have to go around we just have to keep persisting until we succeed I think if you combine modeling someone who knows success with persistence there's no way you can't get there and I think what Tony does really well is climbs inside to get you like I need to finally do this.

I'm sick of dabbling.

I'm sick of wishing.

I'm sick of complaining.

I'm sick of thinking someone else is going to come save me.

No one's coming to save us.

It's on us.

And I think those that stick are the ones that realize, shit, this is on me.

I'm going to model what this guy told me to do, but I have to do the work.

So if you're willing to model success and do the work,

and I don't think there's any better place you could be.

So that's a great answer.

One other question, because I started this podcast with saying that I really kind of knew who you were, quite honestly.

I knew the Tony Robbins connection too, but it's because I felt like you were the go-to guy for all this marketing stuff that you've been talking about.

So how do you help other people if they're not paying $250,000 a day or $25,000 an hour?

Is there another way that you can help people?

Like, I mean,

like all those other people I know that you're friends with, Ed Milette and all these other people.

Do you help, are they clients of yours as well?

Or?

No, some of them are just friends and it's reciprocal.

Okay.

You know, and I love, I love people who truly care.

Like Ed Milette truly cares about people as well.

So I'll help that guy as much as possible and we become dear friends.

So, you know, Brenda Brichard's a dear friend and Jenna Kutcher became a dear friend.

And I helped her and consulted with her a little bit and helped her as much as I could.

Yeah, so some are friends and some, that's why we create courses.

Tony and I created a course called Project Next and I don't have a link and I'm not trying to sell it, but Project Next has gone on to sell tens and tens of thousands of people and it lays out a marketing plan.

It lays out how to sell more of your books or if you create a course or a coaching program, that whole course is created to show somebody not only what to sell, how to really serve people, but then how to market it in a way that you need to market to get the results you want.

So I think that's why that course is probably the best selling, you know, how to sell what you know course that's ever been created.

Or people can become dear friends of yours and then they can get.

Yeah, exactly.

That's the other way, too.

Wow.

Okay.

And the other thing you said is mastermind.com.

Tell people what that is, just for people who weren't familiar with what that is.

Yeah,

that's part of the same thing with our course is mastermind.com is a place where you you can get it out there.

It's a platform to launch your course or sell your e-book or sell your coaching program.

We just wanted to create a real simple way, mostly for beginners.

The hardest part is getting your first sale.

So everything we've created with Project Next helps those in the game go faster.

I mean, Lewis Howes uses so much of what I taught him, right?

And then there's people, and Jenna Kutcher uses so much, but then there's the majority are 65% women who've been dying to sell something, how to be better on Etsy, how to fix your love life, how to be better at yoga, how to eat vegan, and they've just been dying to sell something, didn't know how.

And we really helped that new group get their course and their program out to the world.

So you don't have a mastermind that you're involved with?

Or like,

do you have your own mastermind?

We just started a mastermind for people that are in business, ready to go to that next level.

So we just started that recently.

We call it the Legacy Mastermind.

I've been putting that off for a while.

I always have had masterminds.

Just the last three years of running Tony's company and my company and having a new baby and a two, we have a two and a half year old and a two month old and

end and so I've just kind of been putting it off.

But we just launched something we call our legacy mastermind and we'll probably have a higher level mastermind in about a year from now.

Wow, you're busy.

How do you have time to do all this stuff?

Yeah, great teams and I'm passionate about it.

Wow.

Well, this has been actually, this has been very informative.

You've given us some great tips and tricks, which I love.

I love things that are practical that people can actually use in their, you know, in their life.

This is for entrepreneurs.

Well, a lot of entrepreneurs who listen.

So is there, so basically, it's basically a free program starting at January 24th.

People should try it out.

And everyone here, remember what Dean said, I'm going to be his guest to the next.

to the next

unleash event.

Yes.

Unleash the power or date with destiny.

What's the difference between date with destiny?

Yeah, date with destiny only happens once a year and it just happened last week, two weeks ago.

Damn.

Okay.

And when's the next one to unleash the power within?

How often are those?

March, there's one in March, July, and November.

There's one in person in Dallas, Texas.

Okay, and the next date with Destiny is next year, basically.

Yeah, next December.

All right.

I'm going to hold you to that, and I'm going to

be forgotten.

You'll get to choose.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Indeed, tell us about you.

Tell us where they can find you if they want any questions or want to follow you.

Do you have all your social?

Obviously, you do.

I saw it, but please do.

Yeah, you can go to Instagram, at Dean Graziosi on Instagram.

Probably a great spot to get started.

And then if you look at the link, there's a couple different links of books and free, free.

I do a Monday live that's free.

So I would say go to social.

Go to at Dean Graziosi on Instagram.

And we want to know one anti-aging secret from you because you look so young.

One.

What do you do?

What is your daily habits?

You got to tell me.

Oh, that's funny.

I like every morning, I love to spend just a few minutes on the wins of the day before and the win that I wanted to have that day, a little bit of gratitude within minutes.

Then I've been drinking a green drink with MCT oil and some apple cider vinegar.

I've been drinking that same thing for like 20 years, and then I immediately go work out.

So I've been doing that for, I don't know, 20 years.

I think youth comes from, I truly believe your success comes from your beliefs, and I also think youth does.

i just refuse to allow myself to have any less energy at 54 than i had at 24 and i don't want to i don't want to skip a step i also have a 16 year old and a 14 year old i don't want them to run faster i don't want them to think their dad's getting old so uh i think the mindset about wanting to be young is is probably the biggest battle so no plot no cold plunges no saunas no trampolines no supplements just this green smoothie is that's with mct that's it what are the what are the exact ingredients I want to know.

I do get, okay, so I do get my blood checked every year obsessively and do my genes and find out which vitamins I need.

And my vitamins are tailored towards me.

That's probably the most obsessive thing I do.

Tony is a biohacker extreme and he's bought me every tool that he has.

I have at my house and I need to use them more.

But I'll get to that next year.

Well, whatever you're doing, it's working.

So keep it up.

Keep it up.

Thank you.

Pleasure to meet you, Jennifer.

This was fun.

It was really nice to meet you, too.

Thanks for being on this podcast.

Habits and hustle, time to get it rolling.

Stay up on the grind, don't stop, keep it going.

Habits and hustle from nothing into something.

All out, hosted by Jennifer Cohen.

Visionaries, tune in, you can get to know them.

Be inspired.

This is your moment.

Excuses, we ain't having that.

The Habits and Hustle podcast, powered by Habit Nest.