Robert Herjavec: “This Mindset Took Me From Poverty To Multimillionaire”

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Speaker 2 Welcome back, my friend, to the School of Greatness.

Speaker 2 If you are like me, and you love business and entrepreneurship, if you love how to turn creative ideas in your mind into a reality, into the physical world to be of service to other people, then this is going to be the episode for you.

Speaker 2 And for years,

Speaker 2 years, I have been watching a show called Shark Tank. And we've interviewed many of the sharks on this podcast over the years, some of my friends who we've had on here

Speaker 2 who have helped invest in small entrepreneurs and business owners for years on Shark Tank and also just inspired people through educating and informing them how to really grow a business.

Speaker 2 And today today I get to interview Robert Hirchevec, who I've always been inspired by. He's kind of like one of the nicest sharks, it seems like, on Shark Tank.

Speaker 2 And I've always been inspired by his insight and his generosity.

Speaker 2 And he is a powerful business leader, entrepreneur. And today we're talking about how to explore the deeper dimensions of building wealth and living a life of purpose.

Speaker 2 He's going to share intimate details about his journey, including a powerful story on how hitting rock bottom led him to rediscover his faith and joy.

Speaker 2 There are so many moments where Robert had to pause and think and really reflect about the questions in the conversation where we were talking about because he hadn't been asked some of these questions ever.

Speaker 2 So it was fun to have this conversation with him where a lot of these individuals who were on TV or doing a lot of interviews usually get asked the same questions.

Speaker 2 But as you guys know, I like to go off script a lot and ask things that I'm feeling based on how someone's energy is, how their heart is, and how our connection is before the interview actually starts.

Speaker 2 And he reveals game-changing insights about the difference between hard work and smart work, why real wealth requires more than just passion, and how to maintain joy while pursuing ambitious goals.

Speaker 2 He shared some, so many cool stories right off the bat that I think you're really going to love.

Speaker 2 So make sure to take notes, share this with one friend, just copy and and paste the link on Apple or Spotify and share it with a friend.

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Speaker 2 And again, big thank you to everyone who is just showing up for yourselves as well during these episodes, taking this information in, diving in deep, sharing with your friends. I appreciate you.

Speaker 2 I am grateful for you. And you deserve great things in your life.
Without further ado, let's dive into this episode with Robert Hirchavek.

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Speaker 1 Welcome back, everyone, in the School of Greatness. I'm very excited about our guests.
We have the inspiring Robert Hirchovec in the house. So good to see you, sir.
Thank you for having me. Welcome.

Speaker 1 I've watched you for, I guess, 15 years now on Shark Tank or 15 plus years. 17.
17 years on Shark Tank.

Speaker 1 We have many mutual friends that you're buddies with, that I've had on the show as well. And you just have an inspiring story and an inspiring life.

Speaker 1 And I'm glad we got to connect a little bit before this because

Speaker 1 you've been inspiring young and old entrepreneurs for many years to learn about how to grow their business, how to launch a product, how to package and position their product.

Speaker 1 And I mean, your story is pretty fascinating because you're an immigrant. you're an immigrant family.

Speaker 1 I think you came to Canada when you were eight,

Speaker 1 but you didn't have anything. Your dad didn't have any money.
You guys were living in extreme poverty.

Speaker 1 So how do you learn to go from, I guess, a poverty situation and turn it into an abundance mindset?

Speaker 1 Like when does that learn, switch for you of like, we're in poverty, whether you knew it or not, but you had a poverty mindset, or maybe you didn't, but you're in experiencing poverty.

Speaker 1 When does that switch on to abundance of wealth mindset? It's a great question. And that's a great question.

Speaker 1 Somebody asked me yesterday, because they knew my story, I went for a medical, and the nurse was like, oh my God, I read about your story and you came to Canada with nothing. Blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1 It must have been so hard. And the truth is, it wasn't.
I mean, it was my mom and dad escaping from a country. coming to Canada on a boat with one suitcase, and I'm the only child.
Wow. So for them,

Speaker 1 absolutely horrifically hard. Didn't speak the language, had no money.
My dad was in jail, could never go back, the whole nine yards. Wow.

Speaker 1 Comes to a country, doesn't know anybody, doesn't speak the language. Now, I'm eight years old, first time on a boat.
It's an adventure. It's an adventure.
It just means. Poverty wasn't my mindset.

Speaker 1 And I think that's a big difference. I think people that are born into poverty or encompassed in poverty, it's harder to get out of.
My mindset was joy. Really?

Speaker 1 So I grew up on a small village with my grandma.

Speaker 1 Like

Speaker 1 the traditional vision of poverty with dirt floors, we didn't have a phone. Like it was one of those, like it was a village.
There was one phone.

Speaker 1 If you wanted to get a hold of my grandmother, you called the guy with the phone. Right.
And he came on me.

Speaker 1 But I didn't know we were poor because everybody around me lived like we lived.

Speaker 1 In joy. Oh, I mean, everyone around you lived the same.
The same. So it wasn't you were rich, I was poor.
We all lived in a little dirt floor, outhouse.

Speaker 1 It was fine.

Speaker 1 But as a child, we had animals and it was joy.

Speaker 1 I didn't realize that we were poor until we came to Canada.

Speaker 1 And when I went to school, I remember this so clearly. Like, I don't remember the journey.
I don't remember any of it. My mom thinks I blocked it all out.

Speaker 1 But I remember the first day of school and kids picking on me and making fun of me and telling me I'm a poor immigrant. Wow.
First day of school. First day of school.

Speaker 1 Because you don't speak English either at this point, right?

Speaker 1 And there was no English classes. So they just threw you in.

Speaker 1 That must have been kind of terrifying also of life. Terrifying.
I don't know if it was his teacher saying kids

Speaker 1 And I came from an environment where I was really a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 My dad was the youngest of 15,

Speaker 1 tons of cousins. And I go into an environment where I literally don't speak the language and kids are making fun of me.
I really don't know why they're making fun of me.

Speaker 1 So I learned poverty and I learned poor

Speaker 1 as a situation. So I never thought I was poor.

Speaker 1 I just thought the situation we were in is poor. And I know it's a very subtle difference, but I think you learn your mindset.
And I think poverty is a learned mindset.

Speaker 1 And I think abundance is a learned mindset.

Speaker 1 I didn't learn a wealth mindset until later on. And I always think If I would have learned an abundance mindset sooner, I would be much wealthier today.
Wow.

Speaker 1 So what is a poverty or poor mindset versus a wealth or abundance mindset? What do they both encompass?

Speaker 1 The beginning for me is a poverty mindset is when you believe you're poor

Speaker 1 or you believe that you are the cause of the situation you're in

Speaker 1 or you believe that external circumstances have made you what you are.

Speaker 1 I never believed I was poor. I just believed our current situation was poor.
Really? So I just got to a point where I didn't want to be in that situation anymore. But there was nothing wrong with me.

Speaker 1 My mom loved me. I was a good human being.
I just had to get out of the situation. So, how do you learn then to get out of a situation

Speaker 1 of,

Speaker 1 I guess, poverty or not having a lot? How do you learn?

Speaker 1 this?

Speaker 1 Is it a skill? Is it a shift of energy? Is it a shift in thinking that allows you to get out of that situation? Is it a shift of, I need to act in a different way?

Speaker 1 I need to become something different in order to create abundance. What does that shift look like? Yeah, that's a great question, too.
I think.

Speaker 1 And how old were you when you were like, okay, I'm not poor personally, but I'm in an environment that isn't thriving?

Speaker 1 Probably around 12. Okay.

Speaker 1 Because it was just such a crappy environment. And we had no money.

Speaker 1 And at that point, I'd been poor in my mind for four years. And we constantly moved schools.
So, you know, when you're an immigrant, you make a little bit of money. You live in a crappy apartment.

Speaker 1 You make a little bit of money. You live in a better apartment.
And so on. So by 12, I'd gone to like three different high schools.

Speaker 1 And my dad worked unbelievable amount of hours, like two shifts and manual labor, I'm assuming

Speaker 1 hauler,

Speaker 1 factory, swept floors. I mean, eventually he became a millwright, taught it himself.

Speaker 1 Somebody gave him an opportunity, and, you know, they paid off their house, which was, you know, the immigrant dream. Right.
But I think at 12,

Speaker 1 I'd been...

Speaker 1 living like that for four years

Speaker 1 and we went to a better high school and every time we went to a better school the kids around me had more. They're richer.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 You're like, so when I'm like, I've got a little more, but they've got a lot more.

Speaker 1 So I'd be like, I'd be in this high school and we'd make a little bit of money and I was poor, but you know, the other kids weren't that much better off.

Speaker 1 And then we moved to a better house and now the kids were way better off.

Speaker 1 And I was just like, wow, this is, I'm never going to get out of this cycle. How do you get out of this cycle? And I think.

Speaker 1 Do you feel like you've gotten out of that cycle at this season of your life? Because now, as you start to generate wealth, you're around people that have

Speaker 1 million dollars, and then 100 million dollars, then billion, then billions. And you're like,

Speaker 1 do you find yourselves kind of still in that at some time? Very, very true. You know, there's an what's the saying? You are the net result of five people you hang out with.

Speaker 1 And I think it's really true. I think that you are,

Speaker 1 it's very, very,

Speaker 1 very rare and hard to raise yourself up on your own. I think if your environment, your parents, your friends are constantly pulling you back,

Speaker 1 it's hard to keep going. Like you think, I think back and I think

Speaker 1 none of my friends I grew up with ever made it.

Speaker 1 And it would have been

Speaker 1 so easy to stay there. But I think as you do more and you get more, your circle influence and your friends becomes wider.
Right. So when was that switch then for you?

Speaker 1 You're 12, you start to become aware that, okay, we're moving around, but I'm still in this poor environment compared to everyone else around me.

Speaker 1 Was it an energy shift? a thinking shift or an action shift that allowed you to say, I'm now creating abundance in my life. Yeah, that's a great question.

Speaker 1 For me, it was an energy shift. Now, I've always been pretty high energy, right? So I've always been like, go, go, go, go.

Speaker 1 What I didn't realize at the time was I was looking for external things to make me better.

Speaker 1 It took me a long time to realize

Speaker 1 I can't take external things to make me better until I become better.

Speaker 1 You know, I always say, show me a small business in trouble, and I'll show you an entrepreneur in trouble. Wow.

Speaker 1 It's very, very difficult to disassociate a

Speaker 1 lazy, unmotivated entrepreneur with a highly successful business, and vice versa. And that was me at 12.
I was just... pure energy bouncing off the walls, you know, like we talked about.

Speaker 1 I want to be a detective. I wanted to join the FBI.
I wanted to be an actor because immigrants think if you're on TV, you're rich. You're making money, yeah.

Speaker 1 Like I just wanted not to be poor, but I didn't know how to be rich. Interesting.
And I didn't understand that mindset. And it,

Speaker 1 as corny as it sounds, it always starts with you. It always starts with discipline.
It starts with habit. It starts with learning.

Speaker 1 So, what did you start learning to support you from going to poor to abundance mindset? Sales. Really? Yeah.

Speaker 1 sales. People always think I'm wealthy because I'm really good at computers, and I am.
I'm probably one of a handful of the top cyber people in the world.

Speaker 1 But I'm not wealthy because of my knowledge of a task. I'm wealthy because of my knowledge of sales and how to get how to sell what I'm doing to other people.

Speaker 1 What was the first lesson you learned in in sales or the first sale you ever made in life?

Speaker 1 You can't force somebody to buy something they fundamentally don't need. I was very lucky that way because if if I would have been taught to use car salesman in a schlocky way,

Speaker 1 I mean, I was just hungry for knowledge. Like, I would have gone any way.
Like, I always think

Speaker 1 if somebody would have taken me under their wing and they were like a con man, I would have been. I'm like a con man.

Speaker 1 I was just very lucky, like you and I talked about it. I got to learn from a guy named Harry Rosen, who was a legend in Canada, owned the biggest men's, and he was just a nice human being.

Speaker 1 So I went there to buy a suit and it was like, this is a long time ago, it was like $1,200. And you're like, this is crazy.
And I'm like, oh, my God, I can't afford $1,200.

Speaker 1 Like, there's more money than I'll make this month.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 And the salesman said to me, you know, if you work here,

Speaker 1 you get to buy one suit every six months at 50% off.

Speaker 1 So I was like, great. So I got a part-time job there.
And I get a job there.

Speaker 1 And the guy who owns the place called Harry Rosa, now it's a multi-billion dollar company, but Harry used to teach on Saturdays.

Speaker 1 If you showed up an hour before the store opened, he would teach you how to dress. That's cool.
You'll love this.

Speaker 1 So, like, the guy's a legend. It was like, even then, it was like the biggest shop in Canada.

Speaker 1 And he says, show up at 7.30, because the store opened at 9, and I'll teach you everything you need to know about dressing and how to sell to men.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, like, I am so excited. I leave.
It was like a Wednesday. I show up on Saturday.

Speaker 1 Nobody there.

Speaker 1 Nobody there.

Speaker 1 So it's just him and I. Wow, no one else shows up.
No one else shows up.

Speaker 1 So later in the day, I say to my buddy,

Speaker 1 hey,

Speaker 1 how come

Speaker 1 nobody showed up? You know what he says? No one's paying me to show up.

Speaker 1 Interesting. Isn't that interesting? Your friend.
My friend. Yeah, I guess I'm getting paid.

Speaker 1 I go show up at 9 because I get paid at 9. Yeah,

Speaker 1 I don't get paid. Interesting.
I don't get paid. What I heard is, I don't get paid.
He said, I don't get paid to learn.

Speaker 1 And I always thought,

Speaker 1 I don't need to get paid to learn. I'll learn for free.
I'll pay to learn. Yeah.
I'm the best. Like, I thought, I would have paid him to teach me.
It was great. Whereas he taught me everything.

Speaker 1 He taught me everything, how to dress.

Speaker 1 how to spot someone with money. So I've always been lucky to kind of found that.
Then I worked for Warren Avis, who started Avis Rent a Car. Wow.

Speaker 1 And like I've just been really fortunate to have great role models who are good human beings.

Speaker 1 I mean those two I guess mentors and people you worked for they both have billion dollar brands now right multiple billion dollar brands? Yes.

Speaker 1 That's kind of rare that when you're in your teens early 20s you you randomly how do you is it a random thing or do you just know oh this guy could be something one day that's pretty

Speaker 1 impressive. I just

Speaker 1 could have worked anywhere. I could have worked anywhere.

Speaker 1 I could have worked in a local restaurant or a barbershop or that wouldn't have been this, you know, mega-billion-dollar business, but you worked in the business.

Speaker 1 I think, how did I end up there, right? Because I think back and I think, none of my buddies got a job at a men's clear.

Speaker 1 And so, if I think about it, what I've always been

Speaker 1 good at is not lying to myself.

Speaker 1 I think I've always been brutally honest with myself.

Speaker 1 Like I told you, I went on my first sales call, I went to see a customer and the customer said to me, you dress like crap.

Speaker 1 I've never had an ego for success.

Speaker 1 So if somebody said something to me and there was even an ounce of truth to it, I would take it in. I would leave my ego at the door.

Speaker 1 So when somebody said to me, you dress like crap, it wasn't like, oh, I'm so offended. What are they talking about? It was like, oh, do I dress like crap?

Speaker 1 And then you go home and you look in the mirror and you're like, yeah, I dress like crap.

Speaker 1 How do I get better?

Speaker 1 And then it just looked up the best men's store. Wow.
So I've always had an ability, I think, to be honest with myself.

Speaker 1 There's a saying that the biggest lies in life we tell are the ones we tell ourselves.

Speaker 1 What's been the biggest lie you've been telling yourself lately?

Speaker 1 That I'm

Speaker 1 the biggest lie I've been telling myself lately is that

Speaker 1 I've made it.

Speaker 1 I got to a point where I felt like I've kind of made it. And just in the last few months, I've been thinking, hang on a sec.

Speaker 1 Because you you tend to you know, like I'm older now, I'm 62 and you think, oh, I'm kind of at the end of the road.

Speaker 1 Because I know a lot of older people who are super successful and they're like kind of encouraging and it begins to affect me and I kind of went a few months where I'm like yeah and then one day I'm like hang on a sec

Speaker 1 like age is a number

Speaker 1 and there's lots of people that can start something at this age and I have more capital than I've ever had so yeah I think I can still do it again. Interesting.
So you've the lie you've been telling

Speaker 1 yourself is you've made it.

Speaker 1 But what is making it? You know, when have you made it?

Speaker 1 If someone looks at you or watches this and they're like, if Robert doesn't think he's made it with all the money he has, all the success from multiple industries, from TV to personal brand to social media, everything you touch has blown up.

Speaker 1 If he doesn't think he's made it, I have no chance of making it. That's such a great question because you think about that.
When you're starting out, you always think, oh, if I had a bigger house.

Speaker 1 Like, you know, you live here and you drive by Bel Air. Sure.
And you think, oh, if I had a house over there, I made it. Or you have a, I don't know, a Corvette.
You think, oh, if I had a friar.

Speaker 1 And you think, oh, if I had a jet.

Speaker 1 And then you have a jet. And then you think, what if I had a bigger jet?

Speaker 1 Like when I sold my last company, In my mind, I had, what did I have? I had

Speaker 1 a G4.

Speaker 1 right right and I used to think I mean this is how shallow I was I used to think oh if I had a G6 come on

Speaker 1 then then I've made it I've made it because my G4 my G5

Speaker 1 and so I sold the business and literally within two weeks I bought a G6

Speaker 1 and this is a long time ago now I think

Speaker 1 I don't think

Speaker 1 in terms of things of making it. I think in terms of potential.
So when I think I haven't made it, I don't think I've reached my potential. So I don't,

Speaker 1 there is no car I want to buy or no jet I need to buy or no home I need to buy to fulfill me. What I need is I need to feel like I've drained every part of my potential.

Speaker 1 I want to feel like when I'm on my deathbed, that I say,

Speaker 1 I couldn't have done more. Wow.
And whatever that is, because I think it's different for everybody.

Speaker 1 So for me right now, it's really about getting super fit. It's about starting another business.
It's just about taking everything I've learned and applying it.

Speaker 1 You have a series on social media that's about the lessons you've learned from billionaires. And you've been around a lot of billionaires.

Speaker 1 And people can go on your Instagram and TikTok and YouTube and watch all these videos. I think they're really interesting interesting lessons.

Speaker 1 But if you could share the top three lessons you've learned from billionaires, what would those three lessons be?

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Speaker 1 While number one, knee-jerk is absolute, obstinate obsession about their skill set.

Speaker 1 Not about the world in general, but about that one thing.

Speaker 1 Do you know what I mean? Like, it's not

Speaker 1 all the billionaires I know

Speaker 1 wouldn't would struggle on Jeopardy. Right.

Speaker 1 General knowledge doesn't get rewarded. Interesting.
Specific knowledge. And so that's the first thing that comes to mind.

Speaker 1 Like, I don't know a single billionaire that isn't a world-class expert at a very narrow, singular task.

Speaker 1 I think the second one would be curiosity.

Speaker 1 It's hard to be abundant if you're not curious.

Speaker 1 Like, I love to learn. I love to,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 how did you start the podcast? How did you, like, I'm fascinated. And I think that comes into because

Speaker 1 people of great wealth tend to be problem solvers.

Speaker 1 You know, we tend to like problems.

Speaker 1 And I think the third one would be

Speaker 1 discipline.

Speaker 1 Now,

Speaker 1 discipline is different, right? Like, discipline to me is

Speaker 1 fit body, fit mind, fit business. But I have billionaire friends who are slops.

Speaker 1 Sloppy, right? Yeah. You know,

Speaker 1 they eat like crap, they're overweight, they don't care, but they're extremely disciplined about their business. Like, I think the discipline applies to who you are, and everybody can be different.

Speaker 1 I think those are the three.

Speaker 1 Here's a question for you that I think a lot of people, because I have a lot of fit people in my audience, a lot of fitness professionals and people in the health and wellness industry who struggle at making money.

Speaker 1 They're really good at taking care of their health and they're jacked or they're fit or they eat all the right foods, but they haven't unlocked how to create financial abundance.

Speaker 1 So if someone is healthy physically, emotionally, spiritually, but financially hasn't cracked that code yet, what is missing from them to create that financial abundance? It's a great question.

Speaker 1 I think it's the same

Speaker 1 reason why people who are wealthy aren't fit. What is that reason?

Speaker 1 They look at the superficial, easy ways to do it.

Speaker 1 So people that have a lot of wealth think that they can get fit by taking a drug

Speaker 1 or surgery or surgery or they look for placebo type band-aids. I think anything hard is

Speaker 1 discipline and habit.

Speaker 1 So people that are super fit have discipline and habit, but they're like me when I was a teen. They don't know where to apply it.

Speaker 1 You know, interesting story for you, years ago, because I've always been a pretty fit guy. So years ago, the Army Rangers reached out to me and asked if I'd like to go to a training camp.

Speaker 1 And, you know, I think I'm pretty fit. And so I was like, yeah, raw.

Speaker 1 Anyway, long story, I went, completely kicked my ass, huge amount of respect for people in the military, the discipline.

Speaker 1 When it was done, I sat down with the guy who ran the training program. And he kind of did an analysis of over the last couple of weeks what you did well, what you didn't.

Speaker 1 And I said to him, people in the military

Speaker 1 must be great at business. Because think about it: discipline, habit, like

Speaker 1 no one has that more

Speaker 1 than Army Rangers or most people in the military. He said something very interesting, which was, it's very rare that people in the military do well in business.
Why is that? Why do you think?

Speaker 1 I think because they're used to be following the rules and taking orders probably and saying, what do I need to do to make sure that my boss is happy and staying in line with the team.

Speaker 1 That's part of it.

Speaker 1 And that was my answer. Because you can't break the military mold of how things are done.
This is the way it's done.

Speaker 1 We're not going to change because you have a different opinion about how to run our unit. So I said the same thing.
Okay. And that's part of it.
But he said there's a bigger reason. Tell me, yeah.

Speaker 1 And the bigger reason is purpose.

Speaker 1 People join the military because they have a need to do something greater than themselves. Think about that.
You're joining the military. You're willing to lay your life down

Speaker 1 for our country. Like think about that commitment.
Like that's not a, gee, do I, you know, am I kind of into it or not? Like that is an all-in, passionate commitment. I am willing to die

Speaker 1 for my cause.

Speaker 1 So then they leave the military, they get a job in sales, and their boss says, if you don't make your number, we're not going to make it for the quarter

Speaker 1 and they struggle with that they're void of purpose when you have that great a purpose and that leaves you

Speaker 1 it's very hard to replace it with a different purpose you would think they could but he said that was the reason wow and so I think it's it's both. Yeah, yeah.
Right?

Speaker 1 Like, I think people with great wealth don't have a purpose to get fit. And people that are are super fit

Speaker 1 really at the core show me somebody who's done great things and I'll show you somebody with unbelievable purpose. Interesting.

Speaker 1 Have you ever had a point in your life where you tied your self-worth with your net worth?

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 Yeah, probably my 20s,

Speaker 1 to admit it. Yeah, I was very

Speaker 1 I was very superficial because my understanding of wealth was very external. It was everything that I saw other people.

Speaker 1 So my definition of wealth was how other people spent it, what kind of car they had, what kind of a house I had.

Speaker 1 Because I never really met anybody who had great wealth.

Speaker 1 You know, I always say there's superficial wealth, which is you live for the way you think

Speaker 1 you should.

Speaker 1 You buy a nicer car, you get a bigger lease, you get a bigger mortgage, because you think those are the things that you need in order to be successful.

Speaker 1 And I think once you really achieve great success, you begin to realize, I don't actually need another car, you know, I don't need these things to fulfill me.

Speaker 1 But yeah, I think in my 20s, I was very...

Speaker 1 How does someone today not

Speaker 1 tie their self-worth with their net worth? Maybe they're not making a lot of money right now.

Speaker 1 How do they not let it affect their identity or their core of who they are and the way they feel about themselves because they're not making 100,000 or millions or you know these things?

Speaker 1 I think

Speaker 1 your net worth is not a reflection of your value.

Speaker 1 Poverty and wealth are situational.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 somebody listening to this could be making 50 grand a year, but they're a high power, high value individual.

Speaker 1 Everybody's at a different stage of their journey. You just got to believe that you're learning the skill set in order to get there one day.

Speaker 1 And you've got to have a greater purpose in order to get there. So I

Speaker 1 never

Speaker 1 thought

Speaker 1 I was going to end up where I was. You never thought you'd end up where you are now.
Well, I never thought I'd end up like I am now,

Speaker 1 but even when I was poor, I never thought I'd stay there. Gotcha.
I seriously. It's just that the scope of my dreams wasn't big enough.
My dream in my 20s was to make $1,000

Speaker 1 for my age. So when I'm 50, to make 50 grand,

Speaker 1 to buy a house and pay it off in my lifetime. Wow.
And to buy a Corvette. That was your dream.
That was my dream. That was my, like, that was the, that was my vision board dream.

Speaker 1 Like, that was my, like, knock it out of the ballpark dream. Because we didn't

Speaker 1 know anybody

Speaker 1 who had done those. Wow.

Speaker 1 How did you begin to expand your mind to shatter that limit?

Speaker 1 Again, super curious, super honest with myself.

Speaker 1 So, you know,

Speaker 1 when I bought a used Ferrari and I moved into my house, I was so proud of it. It was a 1986 Ferrari Testerosa, and it was used, and there weren't that much money at the time.

Speaker 1 And I brought it over to my garage and I put it in. And this was my superficial state.
So I moved into this neighborhood and I see my neighbor across the street.

Speaker 1 And his name is Richard, still a friend of mine. So I go over and I'm like, hey!

Speaker 1 Blah, blah, blah. Oh, by the way, look at my garage.
Did you see that Ferrari? So he comes over, I open the garage, and I'm so proud of it. I've never been arrogant, like,

Speaker 1 let me show you why I'm better. I was just so happy.
So I show him my Ferrari, and he's like, oh, my gosh, that's amazing. I love that year.
He says, come to my garage.

Speaker 1 So we go across the street to his garage. He opens up the garage and he has two Porsches.

Speaker 1 And...

Speaker 1 You know, it's those moments in life that something happens. You're ready to learn it, but you don't know what you need to learn.

Speaker 1 And then something comes in and those two things fit and it's an aha moment. And I remember it so clearly.
Hilton's the garage, there's two Porsches.

Speaker 1 And I worked my ass

Speaker 1 off to buy a used Ferrari. It took everything I knew

Speaker 1 to get that car. And it wasn't like...
It was one of many.

Speaker 1 It was

Speaker 1 that.

Speaker 1 And I walked across the street and that guy has two.

Speaker 1 and I couldn't fathom how that could happen like I was like how could he do that interesting and so I walk back and I was thinking there's something I need to be better at because the the road I'm going I'm never gonna get there really because you're like I've worked as hard as I can work and this is what I got every piece of knowledge Every bit of hard work, every bit of discipline I had got me one our now here's an interesting thing I think everyone needs to pay attention to and

Speaker 1 and be mindful of what you're about to say because I think what you're about to say from this question I ask you is going to break everyone's minds open

Speaker 1 because a lot of people are thinking I work 15 18 20 hour days already and for years I've been working hard at a job and I'm not getting the exponential growth I'd like, barely making incremental growth, and I don't see a way I can't work any harder to create more wealth for myself.

Speaker 1 What is the thing that you learned then in that moment about hard work versus creating wealth? Because yes, you need to work hard, but what is the thing that broke you open from saying,

Speaker 1 I'm going to work a different way that's going to unlock wealth? That's such a great question.

Speaker 1 My dad worked in a factory his whole life, two shifts, paid off his house in his lifetime. Super successful guy in his world.

Speaker 1 I will never work a day in my life harder than my dad worked.

Speaker 1 Ever. That man was the hardest working human being I'd ever come across.

Speaker 1 Just because you'll work hard, though, doesn't mean you'll be rich. Oh, man.

Speaker 1 What it means is you won't be poor.

Speaker 1 And there's a fundamental difference between the blue-collar poverty mindset and the wealth abundance mindset. And what I learned in that moment is I

Speaker 1 literally friggin couldn't give more. I was sleeping four hours a day.
I was great at my task. I was driving my company as hard as I possibly could.

Speaker 1 And it gave me one Ferrari.

Speaker 1 It's still cool, but yeah. Super cool.
Nothing wrong with that. But you didn't see how you can get more.
Yeah. And the first part was, did I want more?

Speaker 1 Ah.

Speaker 1 Did I, was that important to me? And people misunderstand that. They're like, oh yeah, I'd like more Ferraris.
It was never about more Ferraris. It was just about, how do I get more?

Speaker 1 How do I get more value, more worth? How do I get a better life?

Speaker 1 And so I said, yes, I definitely want more. Why not? Why not me?

Speaker 1 And so

Speaker 1 that was the first part.

Speaker 1 Big lesson for me, though, is you have to pivot.

Speaker 1 Hard work is absolutely foundational,

Speaker 1 but smart work

Speaker 1 is pivoting. Right.
So what did you learn from going to hard work to smart work to create more financial abundance?

Speaker 1 Value. What I learned is

Speaker 1 markets and people will pay for value, not for time.

Speaker 1 People will pay you for your knowledge,

Speaker 1 not

Speaker 1 for how long you've been doing it or the amount of hours you're going to spend on it or those kind of things. And what I realized is I wasn't creating enough value.
Really?

Speaker 1 For your customers, your clients, or for my customers. Yeah.
For my customers. And for me.
I wasn't learning enough and it's funny I actually ended up going to a Tony Robbins seminar right

Speaker 1 which was really eye-opening because I'd never experienced that and I thought I was a pretty motivated high-functioning guy

Speaker 1 and then I went to a so interesting story how old are you then 26. Okay I want to hear this story because I have a similar story and so I write about this Tony Robbins.

Speaker 1 I mean, this is the early Tony Robbins when he was like, you know, bigger than life. And he was coming to Toronto.
And me and four buddies went to buy tickets.

Speaker 1 Only one of us bought a ticket and showed up. Wow.
Wow. All my buddies were like, oh, it's a waste of time.
So I go there. And I bought like the super expensive ticket, right? Like the one.

Speaker 1 And Tony walks in.

Speaker 1 And it's like,

Speaker 1 boom

Speaker 1 And I was like

Speaker 1 wow Like I'm high energy

Speaker 1 That guy is transformational energy. Wow

Speaker 1 what I realized was all my energy was internal. I was doing a great job of influencing me, of making me better.

Speaker 1 I saw Tony and I realized I need to make other people better.

Speaker 1 So I need to make my employees better. I need to make the people I work with, like I need to make them

Speaker 1 that.

Speaker 1 And then I need to bring transformation to my customers. And

Speaker 1 what

Speaker 1 started for me was an

Speaker 1 outward transformation of my energy. Before that, I was highly motivated on my own, but if you met me, you wouldn't have walked away and said, oh my god, that guy's like, boom.

Speaker 1 After that, if you met me, you would have said, that guy's full of joy.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I started changing our sales pitch to our customers away from product focus

Speaker 1 to a subconscious focus.

Speaker 1 I started thinking about why people buy and not what they're buying. And so many people watching are so focused on product features.
Why is my product better?

Speaker 1 We said

Speaker 1 those things are important, but until we engage people, until we open their minds, they're really not going to listen to us. So we started in our sales calls,

Speaker 1 why did they say that? How did they say it? How were they sitting? What did you say? All those things.

Speaker 1 And none of our competitors, like keep in mind, we're in a very, very technical field and we're out talking to people about how they feel.

Speaker 1 Interesting. In order to sell them really technical stuff.
Can you give an example of what that slogan or

Speaker 1 line of marketing material might look like or if someone's speaking about it to a potential customer? You're not selling tech or cyber technology, right? Or cybersecurity software or tech.

Speaker 1 What are you then selling? We're We're selling comfort and we're selling safety. You know there's a good salespeople sell features, great salespeople sell outcomes.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 really great salespeople sell feelings.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 we I pivoted our company and I said, if the only thing you get out of the sales call is that the customer feels better,

Speaker 1 we've achieved something. Because that gives you the opportunity for another call.

Speaker 1 And, you know, there's a, I didn't come up with the same, but the saying is, people never remember what you say, they remember how you make them feel.

Speaker 1 And when I sold my first company to ATT, interesting story.

Speaker 1 So everything I've learned about business, I learned on my own. I don't have a business degree of degree in classical English literature.

Speaker 1 So I sold my first company to AT ⁇ T for, I think, $32 million. More money than I could have imagined.
I was a long time ago. How old are you today, roughly? 35, 34.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I mean, 32 million for a kid that wanted to make

Speaker 1 50 grand for a lot of money. A lot of money.

Speaker 1 So AT ⁇ T does the due diligence on the business. They hire an external company.
Anyway, long story, they bring me in. and they say to me, we have a problem.

Speaker 1 I'm like, what's the problem? They say, well, you know, we hired this external company. We looked at your systems.
We looked at the way you do ticketing, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1 And we measured it with all your customer response and it's not great.

Speaker 1 And so I'm thinking, oh my God, I'm not going to get the $32 million.

Speaker 1 So I'm scrambling and I'm like, hey, did you ask those customers if they would buy from me again?

Speaker 1 And they're like, yeah, actually, we did. So they flipped to the last page and they said, 97% of your customers said they would buy from you again, despite all of these things.

Speaker 1 And I said, you ask them why? And they said, yes. And they said, two reasons.
One,

Speaker 1 you made them happy.

Speaker 1 And two,

Speaker 1 they believed if they had an issue, you would take care of them. Wow.

Speaker 1 And so you think about how many people are starting a business, how many people have a product that

Speaker 1 doesn't emotionally connect with their customers.

Speaker 1 That's beautiful.

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Speaker 2 This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

Speaker 2 As the seasons change, the shorter days can sometimes cause you to isolate yourself without even realizing this season better help encourages you to reach out check in on friends reconnect with loved ones and remind them that you're there and don't forget about connecting with yourself and your emotions during this time too sometimes reconnecting with yourself and others takes a little courage like calling that person you haven't talked to in a while or setting up your first therapy appointment but it's all worth it in my opinion.

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Speaker 2 With over 30,000 fully licensed therapists better help is one of the world's largest online therapy platforms they'll do the initial match work for you so you can focus on your goals with your growth this month don't wait to reach out whether you're checking in on a friend or reaching out to a therapist yourself better help makes it easier to take that first step and our listeners get 10 off their first month at betterhelp.com slash greatness that's better h-e-l-p.com slash greatness yeah and especially like in a whole tech world like how can you humanize it or making a feeling come from that type of a product or a service where it may not seem like it's supposed to make it?

Speaker 1 It's not even just tech, though. Like

Speaker 1 you look at retail today. I just did an interview with Forbes or somebody about this.

Speaker 1 And the reporter said to me, they think retail is dead. And I don't think it is.
I think we're going to see a resurgence in retail.

Speaker 1 But not, I don't think people are going to go to the mall to look around. You know, like, oh, I'm here.
What shops are here?

Speaker 1 I think people that depend on location to survive are going to be in trouble. But I think brands that have an emotional connection, like I will drive to a mall to buy Lululemon.

Speaker 1 I will drive to a mall to buy canned goose. Because those brands speak to me.
So I think it's in everything. I think it's in tech.
I think it's in fashion.

Speaker 1 We see it on Shark Tank. Yeah.

Speaker 1 There's a few questions. This has been fascinating, Robert.
I'm so glad you're opening up.

Speaker 1 I've got a handful of questions left for you. There's so many things I would like to talk about, but there's a few things I want to make sure we get to.

Speaker 1 One is

Speaker 1 faith. How much has

Speaker 1 faith in

Speaker 1 God or in religion or in the universe played in your life from childhood to now?

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 how much do you put awareness around your faith

Speaker 1 and also

Speaker 1 into what you're going to create for the future of your life?

Speaker 1 Yeah, great question. So I've really struggled with my faith in my lifetime.
Started out very religious, altar boy for many years.

Speaker 1 Became very cynical about it.

Speaker 1 Became a

Speaker 1 superficial Christian,

Speaker 1 meaning

Speaker 1 I believed in my God and my faith when it was convenient for me.

Speaker 1 And then went through a horrific

Speaker 1 time

Speaker 1 and found my faith again. I kind of left cynical.
Little, cynical,

Speaker 1 believed that I didn't need God or faith or anything else in my life. Believed I was in control of my own destiny.
And we are,

Speaker 1 but there's a greater plan.

Speaker 1 What was this season of time where you were feeling that was a rough season for you?

Speaker 1 2014.

Speaker 1 I was going through a really, really difficult time.

Speaker 1 Like, I mean, like

Speaker 1 to the point I didn't think the sun would rise again.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 like suicidal thinking? Yeah, yeah. Like

Speaker 1 contemplated suicide

Speaker 1 came close. Like it was.

Speaker 1 And you know, I mean, you know me a little bit now. I've always been a happy guy.
And I've always believed like I was Superman. Wow.

Speaker 1 And I lost it all. Like I realized I had kryptonite and I was just like downward, downward, downward.

Speaker 1 And a good friend of mine, John,

Speaker 1 saw me spiraling like

Speaker 1 I was a shell of what I was. Is this emotionally? Is this like alcohol or drugs, or is this just like you know, panic attacks? This is

Speaker 1 anxiety, depression.

Speaker 1 I was going through a horrible divorce and

Speaker 1 just family stuff and like

Speaker 1 just

Speaker 1 horrible.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 John, thank God,

Speaker 1 he's a priest, he said to me,

Speaker 1 I need you to go somewhere and

Speaker 1 you have to have faith in me

Speaker 1 to trust me to go here. And so I did.
I flew to Seattle on my super fancy plane

Speaker 1 and got off the plane and I met one of his friends who was a pastor in Seattle and he took me to a homeless mission and I spent the next month or so there.

Speaker 1 Spent the first couple of weeks at the mission, then I got a hotel

Speaker 1 and it was

Speaker 1 absolutely transformational. Wow.
Yeah. Being in service for a month to the homeless in that city.
Well, I think the first thing,

Speaker 1 as horrible as this is going to sound,

Speaker 1 I felt so sorry for myself

Speaker 1 that seeing people who were worse off than me was just a bit of a wake-up call. Sure.
Like, of course, like perspective. Like I'm going there on my jet,

Speaker 1 have thought about suicide.

Speaker 1 contemplated suicide, didn't think I had any value left to give in the world.

Speaker 1 Flying on my jet. Sure, sure.

Speaker 1 Meeting a guy who literally has nothing.

Speaker 1 Not nothing because he doesn't know if his life has meaning, like, literally has nothing. And Union Gospel Mission is a Christian, like, you have to go there for a year.

Speaker 1 It's for homeless, addicts, and so on. So I think that was the first thing is, like, I just like, wow, these like,

Speaker 1 what am I complaining about? kind of thing.

Speaker 1 then the second part of it was just

Speaker 1 getting

Speaker 1 back to purpose

Speaker 1 if you don't love yourself and you feel like you have nothing to give

Speaker 1 you can't give to anyone else interesting and I was void of me

Speaker 1 going there was a wake-up call and getting back to my faith getting back to seeing value in me. Like I went there broken and I left there like, whoo!

Speaker 1 And people have a funny,

Speaker 1 because I meet a lot of people with faith who believe in God and other things and they always think,

Speaker 1 how can you be so motivated and have so much faith? And people don't understand that Faith doesn't mean that you give up control of your life to someone else.

Speaker 1 Like I hate when people say that, oh, my life is in God's hands. And I'm like,

Speaker 1 yeah,

Speaker 1 but you got to do something.

Speaker 1 Like I think we were given this opportunity in life and we've got to make the most of it. And I think that was the greatest thing I got out of that month is just the feeling of back to joy.

Speaker 1 How does someone

Speaker 1 learn to know they are valuable? Like you got to a place where you were broken, right?

Speaker 1 You were broken, but you had, I don't know, hundreds of millions of dollars, private jet, you had success, you had you're on TV, you're doing these things that people would dream of having.

Speaker 1 How does someone learn to know that they are valuable, whether they have lots of money or don't have lots of money? Such a great question because I always think about that. Like I think about

Speaker 1 how

Speaker 1 arrogant was I

Speaker 1 to have all this stuff

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 feel so sorry for myself. Like, why couldn't I have on my own figure that out? Like why couldn't I have used some of my wealth

Speaker 1 to do good? Like how shallow was I to focus on my own misery?

Speaker 1 It took the misery of others

Speaker 1 for me to realize that.

Speaker 1 And I always think, how arrogant and shallow is that?

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 I think it's hard. I think it's really hard to ask for help

Speaker 1 when you feel you're in control of your own destiny.

Speaker 1 I think powerful people and strong people have a hard time asking for help.

Speaker 1 And I just needed help. I mean, it could have been anything.
What do you ask God for today?

Speaker 1 Peace.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 I pray for peace. I pray for joy.
I just want

Speaker 1 my family to feel fulfilled.

Speaker 1 And I think about,

Speaker 1 I also think, I was just talking to somebody about this. They said,

Speaker 1 do you worry about your legacy?

Speaker 1 And I think, no, because once I'm gone, I'm gone.

Speaker 1 But what do I want my kids to remember about me?

Speaker 1 And I want them to remember the joy and the love. That's beautiful.
I mean, I think that's what every human being wants, love, joy, peace.

Speaker 1 And I would also add financial success.

Speaker 1 Because I think

Speaker 1 those aren't separate. I think if you live in North America, you have to make a certain amount of money to take care of your family.
I mean, that's just reality.

Speaker 1 And that's one of the things I worry about in America in the last few years. It's become becoming wealthy almost became like a dirty word.

Speaker 1 It's one of the things I love about Shark Tank is you have six of us self-made, relatively nice people.

Speaker 1 And we show people every week that anybody can do it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Why do you think so many people people tie wealthy people with stingy, mean

Speaker 1 people?

Speaker 1 And why do they, you know, a lot of people will say, you know, they want wealth, but they also are afraid of wealth because they've seen how some people who are super wealthy maybe treat people poorly or are angry or whatever it might be or stingy, not generous with their wealth.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a great question. It's like sales.
If you ask most people about sales, they would say to you, oh, I don't want to be a sales rep because they think use car salesman.

Speaker 1 But I'm sure, with your experience, the greatest salespeople you've met are probably super nice and super helpful, right?

Speaker 1 Sales is the ability to help someone, not to get them to buy something they don't need.

Speaker 1 And it's the same thing with wealth. Wealth is not the creation or the subjugation.
What's the quote I read a long time ago?

Speaker 1 Power is not the subjugation of the weak.

Speaker 1 Power is the ability

Speaker 1 to

Speaker 1 get the powerful to see your vision.

Speaker 1 And I think it's true. I think most people that don't have wealth want an easy answer as to why they're not doing it.
Yeah. If you could go back

Speaker 1 a year before 2014,

Speaker 1 a decade back,

Speaker 1 a year before you're about to go through your darkness.

Speaker 1 The sadness, the depression, the divorce,

Speaker 1 the horrible feelings you're feeling.

Speaker 1 And if you're who you are now, and you could speak to that younger version of you 11 years earlier and only give him three pieces of advice with everything you know he was about to go through,

Speaker 1 what three things would you say to that version of you right before you went through your darkest times?

Speaker 1 The sun always rises tomorrow.

Speaker 1 I think the reason I went there is,

Speaker 1 you know, and not just personally, but in business, I tended to have these horrific, like, oh my gosh, if we get this one deal, the world will change, good or bad.

Speaker 1 So I think that's the first thing I would say is the sun always rises.

Speaker 1 Like, don't make mistakes that'll kill you. Don't bet at all on one thing, kind of thing.

Speaker 1 I think the second thing I would say is

Speaker 1 the world is your oyster.

Speaker 1 Like it really, like you think about like somebody owns this building

Speaker 1 and sure they may have inherited it but let's go back to the first like somebody bought this land, built this building, somebody created it.

Speaker 1 The world is incredible. Like the things we can do.

Speaker 1 And I think the third thing is you are all-powerful.

Speaker 1 You are all-powerful. There is nothing we cannot achieve if we believe and we're willing to work hard enough.
That's beautiful.

Speaker 1 Again, there's a lot of things I would love to ask you, but I want to be respectful of our time, Robert. I have two final questions for you.

Speaker 1 Before I ask them, I want people to follow you on all of our social media and your YouTube because you in the last few months have been starting to share these stories that I don't feel like people have been able to see unless they watch Shark Tank.

Speaker 1 And they edit that stuff down into 30-second moments, and there's six of you, and so they don't get all of you.

Speaker 1 But the wisdom you're sharing here, I feel like, is just scratching the surface about what you've been sharing online.

Speaker 1 So I want people to follow you on YouTube, I want people to follow you on Instagram, it's your name.

Speaker 1 We'll have it all linked up. But how else can we be of service or support to you today?

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Speaker 1 No, I think this was great. I mean, I'm a big fan.
You've had some amazing guests on here. I appreciate you having me in that

Speaker 1 same company. I think this is great.
Cool.

Speaker 1 This question I ask everyone, there's two final questions. This one is called the three truths.

Speaker 1 Imagine you get to live as long as you want to live in this world, but it's your last day eventually in the future.

Speaker 1 And you get to create and accomplish all of your dreams from this moment until that last day.

Speaker 1 But on this last day, for whatever reason, hypothetically, you've got to take all of your content with you.

Speaker 1 So all of your social media content, this interview, your books that you've written, it's all gone. So no one has access to your information anymore.

Speaker 1 But on the last day, you get to leave behind three truths.

Speaker 1 Three things you know to be true, kind of the three lessons you'd leave behind for everyone, and that's all we would have to remember your content by.

Speaker 1 What would those three truths be for you?

Speaker 1 Number one, my family, because

Speaker 1 they are, especially my kids, they're the embodiment of,

Speaker 1 I hope they're the embodiment of what I am.

Speaker 1 Number two is joy.

Speaker 1 Without joy, there is no life.

Speaker 1 Like, there is no misery

Speaker 1 in,

Speaker 1 you know, there is no wealth in misery. How many successful people are miserable, right?

Speaker 1 And I think you can spike to success, but if you don't have joy, it fades.

Speaker 1 And how many successful people commit suicide and drugs and alcohol? Joy is everlasting.

Speaker 1 And I think the

Speaker 1 third one

Speaker 1 is

Speaker 1 empowerment. I think if

Speaker 1 you would hope that when you leave, that you've empowered somebody in their life

Speaker 1 to do something better.

Speaker 1 It's one of the great things about Shark Tank. Where was I just the other

Speaker 1 day? And

Speaker 1 somebody gave me a card and thanked me for being on the show and how much it affected them and their family. And I think, how great is that to be on a show that inspires

Speaker 1 so many people for 21 years? Millions of people, millions of people. Before I ask the final question, Robert, I want to acknowledge you for the joy you brought today.

Speaker 1 I think there's,

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 I think a lot of people can learn from you, not from the lessons you share, but the energy you bring.

Speaker 1 And I've heard the word joy and written it down and highlighted it multiple times from this conversation. And for me, that's what I feel like what you embody is joy.

Speaker 1 And I believe it's probably one of the main reasons you've been successful in your...

Speaker 1 TV career, in your business career, is because you've brought the joy consistently. Maybe I need to be more miserable because Mark is pretty miserable and he's worth more money than I am.
Doctor.

Speaker 1 But is he living a fulfilled life than you are?

Speaker 1 Probably.

Speaker 1 You're like, dang it. He can wear whatever he wants.

Speaker 1 But I want to acknowledge you for,

Speaker 1 you know, overcoming the pain and creating great perspective. And I feel like you're living a life of extreme purpose by sharing your knowledge now in a bigger way.

Speaker 1 I know we talked off camera about how, you know, is it even worth doing this social media stuff? And it's like, I can't really quantify, like, is there money here?

Speaker 1 You know, is there opportunities for business? But you never know how much of an impact you can make on someone when you share a story.

Speaker 1 And you are incredible at sharing stories, whether it be on TV, here, but also in your social media. And the people will remember the feeling of the stories you share for a long time.

Speaker 1 And so I acknowledge you for diving into this chapter, whether you do it for years or a few more months of social media.

Speaker 1 But sharing your knowledge for free is an incredible gift that you're giving to the world, and I acknowledge you for that. And I acknowledge you for bringing the joy when you share.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 Of course. My final question, Robert.
What's your definition of greatness?

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 Geez, that's such a great question because

Speaker 1 my dad was a great man,

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 my mom was a great person.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 my definition of greatness

Speaker 1 would be

Speaker 1 fulfillment of potential.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 my dad never made any real money. But I think considering the pain and life he had,

Speaker 1 That man wrung every moment of his life.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 if I did nothing but what my dad did, that wouldn't have been greatness because I was given more.

Speaker 1 Those that are given more need to do more. Those that have

Speaker 1 been given more need to find greater purpose. So I never think that

Speaker 1 It just wasn't enough.

Speaker 1 Like I couldn't have achieved any level of greatness if I just simply did what my parents did. And I think a lot of people listening, it's the same thing is you've got to find your own purpose.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Right. That's beautiful.
What's your definition of greatness?

Speaker 1 I'm trying to see if it's different than what I had a couple years ago. For me, it is to

Speaker 1 discover your unique talents and gifts that you've been given

Speaker 1 and pursue those gifts

Speaker 1 to live your dreams and in the pursuit of those dreams make the maximum impact on the people around you.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Because we've all been given different talents and gifts that we need to learn to cultivate.

Speaker 1 And then we are, I think we're given

Speaker 1 cues,

Speaker 1 feelings of what dreams we might have.

Speaker 1 There's a curiosity, there's something that pulls us into an idea for a potential dream, something.

Speaker 1 Whether it's God or an intuition or a feeling that's pulling us or making us think about something.

Speaker 1 I'd like to create that, I'd like to build that, I'd like to overcome that, I'd like to help this thing, I'd like to make this thing. Something that pulls us.

Speaker 1 And then we need to cultivate the talents and gifts within us to pursue that dream.

Speaker 1 And in that pursuit, I think it doesn't have to be changing the world, but it needs to be changing the world around you, impacting the world in a positive way around you.

Speaker 1 And if that's five people, your family, that's beautiful. Sounds like that, which is what your mom and dad did.
They impacted you and the people in their community because that was their reach.

Speaker 1 And you've been given different gifts and talents that you've cultivated and maximized to this level. And you feel like you've got to maximize more to the next level.

Speaker 1 And in that pursuit of the new dream,

Speaker 1 how will you impact people around you? The people closest to you, but also the platform you've been building, how will you impact those individuals as well?

Speaker 1 So well said, because I think, you know, it goes back to God and faith. I think that

Speaker 1 there's no one external that's going to do it for you.

Speaker 1 But the signs are there. Yes.
And you never know how the dots connect until you look back. That's true.
When

Speaker 1 I first, when Kevin and I first got on Shark Tank, we started in Canada, we started a show called Dragon's Dead. And the very first day, they put me in a room,

Speaker 1 you know, just to see how you'd react on TV like this. Sure, sure.
And they threw these fire questions like, tell me what Ebida is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But they were random questions.

Speaker 1 And one of the questions was, why do you want to be famous? Mm.

Speaker 1 What did you say? Just to see what you'd say. What I said is, so I can get on dancing with the star.
Shut up. You did not.
And everybody laughed. I did, 100%.

Speaker 1 Everybody laughed and thought that was a funny. What people didn't see was

Speaker 1 10 years before that,

Speaker 1 my mom's favorite show was Dancing with the Star. Wow.
So imagine little Eastern European immigrant woman,

Speaker 1 horrible life, watching this beautiful show with these beautiful dancers. Like if you called my house on a Monday when the show was on, my mom would like answer the phone and go, like, why you call?

Speaker 1 You know, I watch show.

Speaker 1 My mom ended up getting ovarian cancer.

Speaker 1 And she went to the hospital and she was there for a year. And every Monday, I would go to the hospital with the other women who had ovarian cancer.
And we'd all watch my dancing with the starters.

Speaker 1 Wow. And one day,

Speaker 1 my mom says to me,

Speaker 1 Robbie,

Speaker 1 you're so beautiful. Why not you, Biancho?

Speaker 1 And I say, without thinking about it, if they ever ask me, I'll do it for you.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 And my mom passes away.

Speaker 1 Ten years

Speaker 1 before

Speaker 1 I even had an inkling of being on TV. Fast forward 10 years later, I'm sitting in a room.
They throw that question at me.

Speaker 1 First thing that comes to my mind.

Speaker 1 Fast forward another 10 years, I'm going through this horrible time.

Speaker 1 I come out of it, fix myself, finally begin to think I have value in life again.

Speaker 1 Three days later, the producers of Dancing with the Stars ask me to be on the show. Oh my gosh.
Like, before they're finished asking me, I say yes. Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 1 I walk in,

Speaker 1 meet the woman I'm going to marry, and today I have this unbelievable life.

Speaker 1 I didn't create those dots. I believe

Speaker 1 life or a greater force or God, whatever your faith is, created those things.

Speaker 1 But it was up to me to connect the dots. And I think for anybody watching or listening,

Speaker 1 You have the power to connect those dots. Wow.
You have to have enough faith to believe it all connects,

Speaker 1 but

Speaker 1 you still got to get up every day, work your ass off, and make it happen.

Speaker 1 We have some similarities in life. I mean, obviously you're much more successful than me, but when I was sleeping on my sister's couch, I would watch that show.
Dancing with the Stargirls.

Speaker 1 And I was like, I was living in Columbus, Ohio. And I was like broke.
And I was like,

Speaker 1 but I loved to salsa dance.

Speaker 1 I started learning how to salsa dance one after our

Speaker 1 you know when I was on my sister's couch this is one of the things I was talking about beforehand I learned public speaking and salsa dancing because they were big fears of mine

Speaker 1 and so I'd watch this show and I traveled the world eventually salsa dancing in clubs like social salsa dancing not ballroom not joking you for like 18 years I've been traveling the world you must be the biggest salsa dancer biggest gringo salsa dancer ever right

Speaker 1 and um and i remember thinking gosh, wouldn't it be amazing to be on this show one day? I wasn't famous.

Speaker 1 You know, I had no money, but I was like, you need to become famous in order to get on this show. And that was like,

Speaker 1 since I've been in LA for 12 years, I've always wanted to be on that show. It's a great thing.
I've always wanted to be on the show. So maybe one day I'll fulfill that as well.

Speaker 1 I'll introduce you to the producers, dude. The cats, right? Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 I've done better. I've tried to pitch and stop myself.
I'm there.

Speaker 1 Many years I've tried. I mean, obviously, greatest experience I'm sure.
I've never had. sure.
And the hardest experience. I can imagine.

Speaker 1 But people don't realize how hard. Eight hours a day of training and the whole thing.
And yeah.

Speaker 1 I know a lot of the dancers as well. And yeah, they're friends of mine.
I love the show. It's a great experience.
One day, maybe I'll be... If it's still on air, maybe I'll make it more like...

Speaker 1 Oh, it's good to have a dream. Exactly.
Exactly. Robert, this has been powerful.
I appreciate you so much for coming. Appreciate it.
Thank you. Thank you.
Amazing.

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Speaker 1 Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links.

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Speaker 1 And I want to remind you: if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something

Speaker 1 great.