What do you do when you experience Your Earthquake?

Posted by Vince Poscente on Thu, Jan 05, 2023 @ 06:15 AM

The following is a podcast interview with Vince Poscente on Michael Vickers' Becoming Preferred podcast. 

(Please pardon the typos as this transcript was grabbed from a Word dictation.)

Interviewer Michael Vickers: Personal catastrophes are like earthquakes. They leave us too shaken to know what to do next, afraid that every step we take might spark another upheaval. But we can learn to resist our human instinct to hide from challenges. If you want to learn how you can break through and thrive after a life-altering setback, you're going to enjoy my conversation with international bestselling author Vince Poscente. Well, hi, Vince. Welcome to the program. We're delighted to have you.

 

Vince Poscente: Good to be with you.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: You and I had a chance to visit this summer and have dinner and we talked about some of your latest projects in your latest books. And so I really appreciate the fact that you decided to come on and chat about your books and some of your work. Now, you and I have known each other for a couple of decades now. I was trying to do the math on this, so don't do the math. I know it's really scary. Well, we both started our careers and let's give a little background to our audience, how you got where you are. But how did you evolve from an Olympic athlete to becoming a world-class, bestselling, international, bestselling author, leadership, coach, and specialist? And obviously, you're speaking all over the world. Let's go there. Let's get some context to this.

 

Vince: Well, I think the biggest advantage was not winning in the Olympic Games because, no, that was my exit strategy. I thought, geez, I was ranked 10th in the world. I could win a gold medal and then be on the speaking circuit and I placed 15th, right? And yeah, it was 18 months until I gave my first speech and it was a cancellation. I'm pretty sure it was a networking event with 90 people. They asked if I would come in and speak at their event. And gosh, it was one of those inflection points, you know, in your life. Four people came up after and said, you know, you have to do this for a living, right? And it's a fact, a good idea won't go away. I didn't know it existed from the standpoint of somebody who has content and I really never thought of myself as having. That much content until I went back and went, wait a minute, I went from recreational skier to the Olympics in four years. So I took a big goal and cut the learning curve in half. Could that be useful for a sales audience or a leadership group?

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: And so turns out, yeah, I remember when, you know, I believe you were like 26 at the time, and you're watching the Olympics. Not 88 in Calgary. Is that the one you were watching? 88811 pics.

 

Vince: I was 26 years old. I had a ticket for the opening ceremonies and I watched buddies of mine who had raced against and in the sport of luge. They were on the Olympic team and I was in the stands in Calgary holding a ticket and went, wait a minute, this habit of walking away from uncertainty. It wasn't working. That sting of regret was enough to motivate me to pick up the sport of speed skiing, which would be a demonstration sport in the Olympics four years after Calgary.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: Well, when it comes to the speed skiing, I remember when you started and I remember seeing some of your early engagements, and there was a term of a real popular group called the Crazy Canucks and it was a nickname for a group of World Cup. Alpine ski racers from Canada who, many of these guys, they rose to prominence primarily in the 70s and 80s. We had jungle Jim Hunter, Steve Irwin, Dave Murray's Podborski, Ken Reed. These guys, you know, earned a reputation for being fast and crazy or recklessly skiing in the downhill event. And I thought, well, they went 80 miles an hour downhill and then I came across what you do and watched some of the work that you do. And in the races, when you tell our audience just the slight differences so we can really define what crazy looks like.

 

Vince: I knocked down the Canadian record five times, and the final time that I did it, I went 135 miles an hour down the mountain on skis in a rubber suit. That's crazy.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: Well, I remember watching when you talked about your training 135. You would. Right on top of a car. Yeah. And they strap you out to a station wagon or something and you had your skis on. Was that true story?

 

Vince: Yes. I would have to say it's twice true. Well, I couldn't get into a wind tunnel. I tried actually to get into the NRC, right, National Research Council in Ottawa. And I called him up and I said, can I get in? And they said, well, it cost money. I said how much? I guess it was something like $2000 every five minutes or something like that and I said can you sneak me in? He said what? Wait, what are you? And I said I'm a speed skier. He goes to listen, what is that? And I said well I wear a skin tight rubber suit and a Darth Vader style helmet and the guy says well that sounds kinky but this is Ottawa, come on down. And so anyway, ended up getting a buddy who was a race car driver, and we figured out how to strap the skis to the top of the car and ensure that the whole rig didn't fly off. And indeed, I had a pink rubber suit, like a hot pink rubber suit, and a lovely 100 miles an hour. You know, a hundred 200 kilometers an hour. And the top of the car. I forget about the speed was in kilometers, clicks, 160. Yeah, yeah, about 160 clicks on top of cars.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: Now, you really leverage that. You written a number of different books, but I want to talk about, first of all, the precursor to your latest book, The Earthquake and your prequel of the book was the Ant and the Elephant. And it was a huge success and celebrities endorsed. Talked about it. I mean, you did really well with that book. And the lessons that come from this are a little different from The Earthquake.

 

Vince: Yeah. Let's set the stage here a little bit on The Ant and the Elephant, because you may have a recollection of Doctor Lee Pulos? (Sure.) And he came into town and spoke on the power of the mind, that kind of thing. But. There was one bit of research that just I never forgot in a second of time, your conscious mind processes with 2000 neurons, while your subconscious mind is processing with four billion neurons. So 2000 conscious, 4 billion subconscious, the ratio that he used. Because if you took a golf ball and you put it on the top of the Houston Astrodome, the golf ball would be the conscious mind, the Astrodome the subconscious.

 

I always give credit where credit is due, but I also don't want to steal somebody's metaphors. So I changed it and I said, well, what if it was the ratio between an ant and an elephant, which is exactly the same. The ant on the back of the elephant is the conscious. Mind making decisions. The subconscious mind is the elephant also making decisions on direction, right. So you can intend on going West, but what if the elephant is headed east? And so that book sprang out of the first, the idea of that metaphor, but then saying, wait, that could be a parable. So in the early 2000s I wrote to the Ant and the Elephant. Self-published and it's been translated into like I've lost track. I think it's over 14 languages now. LeBron James quoted it in Sports Illustrated. FedEx used it as a leadership tool, DuPont used it for safety training. So this is a very sticky concept where we can intend on going in a direction. That end up in a different place.

 

Like I intend on going on a diet and then walk by the mirror, go, wait a minute, this is not working. Yeah. You talk about that, though. It's a major principle of your writing that you teach us that we need to align our conscious and our subconscious. Yeah, because if our conscious is going one direction and our subconscious is going a different direction.

 

How do we form that alignment? It starts with the emotional quotient. And I think a big mistake we make in our world today is we often ask, what do I do? So if we want to accomplish some goal, the first question automatically is what do I do? You don't start there. You start with the emotional quotient. Like, what's the emotional buzz? Or in that book, it's called the Elephant Buzz, which is when a thought creates a physical reaction. That is a litmus test for 2000 neurons and four billion neurons headed in the same direction.

 

That's alignment, right? And I think of that for a second if you had intention. And 4 billion neurons. Of Agenda going in, the exact same huge, huge things get easier. Stuff appears to you. It's absolutely beyond our comprehension, as much as it's beyond the comprehension of an ant to understand an elephant underneath it's six feet. It doesn't see elephant. It sees a gray landscape. And so this notion of having. That kind of alignment and emotional buzz, you could call it intuition, but it doesn't have to make sense.

 

So, for example, when I was 26, it didn't make sense to attempt to be on the Canadian ski team in a sport I had no knowledge of. Made no sense because I had no ski race experience. So that makes no sense. But the emotional buzz of marching in the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games was a clue. A litmus test for this is worth paying attention to.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: Now, we can never know what path to take, but we could certainly pay attention to the clues. How do you tap into that? So let's say we've got our conscious mind. Yep, we know where we want to go. We know we're objective. We use our intuition. You do a lot of. I mean, every mental exercise possible for meditation and visualization, you've added all of those things. Are those all ingredients of that as well? Yeah, they're all different means to the same end.

 

Vince: So in answer to your question, there's two universal truths. One, you'll gravitate towards your dominant thought and the other universal truth is you'll gravitate to that which you believe to be true.

 

We are often pedestrians when it comes to dominant thoughts and truths.

 

The truth is the truth. What do you mean the dominant thought? Well, the dominant thoughts are they just thoughts? They appear. So they're dominant. Right? Right.

 

Go from being a pedestrian to the architect of those dominant thoughts.

 

To be the architect of that which you believe to be true, because we could dive into the psychology of the cognitive model. But if I could say this simply, what we typically do in the order of things is say, well these actions will lead to these results, right? So if I do this, I'll get this result. If I go on a diet, I'll lose weight. If I make more sales calls, I'll be able to get more business. So this relationship between action and results is myopic.

 

Don't be so nearsighted in terms of focusing just on the actions and look that the cognitive model, which is basically set up with a filter. And we all have our own filter of our beliefs, our attitudes and truths. So we have conscious beliefs, attitudes and truths. The Wackadoodle part of all this was we have subconscious beliefs, attitudes and truths. And if you overlay the ant the elephant concept, there are 4 billion neurons of beliefs, attitudes and truths that are below consciousness.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: A big iceberg.

 

Vince: You don't know what you don't know. And so the notion of being the architect for your beliefs, attitudes and truths, for your subconscious mind is what I needed to be able to accomplish as an athlete because the conscious mind knew it was unrealistic to try and go for the Olympic Games. But if it's a universal truth that you'll gravitate to that which you believe to be true, and you can be the architect of your dominant thought.

Interviewer Michael Vickers: It's repetition bias, right?

 

Vince: It's the human condition. You repeat something enough times, it becomes true. And so it's just turning the tables on this human condition and being proactive about it. And so that's what the Ant, the elephant is about. It's being able to to align your aunt and elephant so that in the parable of the book they end up getting to the Oasis. And that formula in the book, the end the elephant, is the exact same formula that I used to get to the Olympic Games in four years, to be ranked 10th in the world after two years being medal contention in those Olympics. Because I started with that emotional buzz.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: I think you talked about with all the characters, whether it's a dear Elgo, Brio or Adir, the behaviors that changed and that alignment as it evolved into the earthquake, the proverbial hits the fan. And matter of fact, you talk about that in the opening preface, introduction of your book where life is going great, so you're according to plan. You achieved the objective, you got the Ant, the elephant moving in the right direction, and then all of a sudden something outside of your own condition that you had no control over kind of just slapped you down, right? Do you use the same formula to carry forward and do it again, or does it need to evolve again? \

 

Vince: Well, personally, I had to learn the hard way that no, it's not the same formula, right? This forming the the elephant I used not just to get to the Olympic Games, but being inducted into the Speaker Hall of Fame, for example, right?

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: Yeah, you achieved a lot on the for sure.

 

Vince: New York Times best-selling list. How'd that happen? It was all sorts of intention and subconscious agenda that was aligned, but the opening line of the earthquake reveals. The concept, which is that opening line, is there's no linear way of chaos when we are smacked in between the eyeballs, right?

 

With a personal earthquake, a financial earthquake, a relationship earthquake, a health earthquake, or just an earthquake? Right when your whole world from underneath you is yanked out is the hard way to learn this lesson. It's a cliche, but what got you here isn't necessarily going to get you there. And it didn't.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: A lot of people were hit by a financial earthquake in 2008 and some were able to thrive. I know you and your business thrived in 2008 because you were able to adapt and respond to a market in a way that the market went, we need you now. And the opposite happened for me. I want to go into that, but let's really take that quote because it's a great quote and I had it done in our notes. “There is no linear way out of chaos. What has worked in the past might not work in the future” and hard lesson and you are very, very transparent.

 

Matter of fact, I really appreciated your transparency and the introduction where things were going well and basically you've got a big slap down by the economy and by conditions outside of what you did. And I understand that what that did for you, the pandemic, did for me. So I totally could relate to it and love the principles and the tools that you teach in the earthquake. When it comes to Richter scale, there's different levels of I know it goes between three and seven and if you get above 7, it's a nasty one. People die, right? So the pandemic, we'll call that an 8 plus, it could go in there and I've been an earthquake, so.

 

I was in the big earthquake in San Francisco at the time and just come off the bridge, the Oakland Bay Bridge. An hour earlier in the bridge, collapsed and down, watch telephone poles bounce and hit the ground. Before I know what it looks like, you feel helpless. Let's go into a little more detail of exactly where you were, because a lot of people can relate to that with the pandemic. Is italic on business, and what I want to show them is. You know, it's presenting your family along with your wife. Michelle and family moved from a being top of the totem pole to having to recreate, redefine after sweating bullets for quite a while and dealing with it because other people can share and relate to them.

Vince: Yeah, from 2008 on it was a long, long road to try and figure out how to get out of that chaos. And when the pandemic hit, I learned my lesson. It's just put out value. I pushed out value.

 

I thought the pandemic would last maybe three weeks. Yeah, right. So I said everything. I'm gonna put out a video to help other people, you know? Yeah, eight months later with 250 videos or whatever it was. I mean, on daily videos of pushing out value, hey, you get better if you do something repeatedly.

 

But B, you've got intellectual property, you've got some assets that you can repurpose along the way as well, so. Which I've done with all that. So I was able to kind of come out on top and then there's just been all sorts of headwinds that just don't matter anymore. It's being able to provide value. But man, in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 1213, it was just an insidious slide into why is this not working? And concept for the earthquake. I got it quite early. I got it maybe seven years ago, six years ago, but I hadn't figured out how.

 

I hadn't figured out how to get out of my own personal earthquake, so it took years. That ended up being the purpose of this book was once I figured out how I would share that was universal.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: Well, and and I love those true things. You see in the book that when we have an earthquake, our conscious mind searches for solutions that have served us in the past without accepting that this is no longer the past. So it becomes our new reality. And unpack that for us. Yeah, it's a concept that early on in the book where I call it grasp the contradiction. And the contradiction is, I know what to do. I've been here before. I know how to get out of this. The contradiction is the subconscious mind is thinking the exact opposite thing, and this is subconscious. So the subconscious below consciousness is going. This is painful.

 

Vince: Imagine if you had a knife in your leg and the advice you get? “Don't think about the knife. Just focus on what you want. Or let go.”

 

What? Are you kidding me? No, I'm not letting go. This hurts. Is a knife in my leg. And so this grasping, that contradiction, maybe a better visual would be, let's say in a relationship. You and Beth are in the same vehicle, right? (Right.) And you each have a steering wheel, and you've got your steering wheel. Beth has her steering wheel. And the contradiction is you're not going to get anywhere if you both have your hands on the steering wheel, right?

 

And there has to be a new steering wheel. There has to be almost a third reality and ability to discover. What this new solution is, which is off your radar, it's not part of your past. It's not even an option in front of you because you don't know. Cause the earthquake is so devastating. This divorce was so devastating. This bankruptcy was so devastating that the subconscious mind is deflated. It's in pain. It doesn't know what to do. It just wants to run for cover. And the conscious mind is going, I've got this, I'm going to do this, I'm gonna make this, I'm gonna will this into existence, right?

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: Yeah. It's not how it works.

 

Vince: No, it doesn't happen. So for each of you to take your hands off that steering wheel is a massive move in the right direction in chaos, which makes no sense.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: But that's the contradiction was that, and I think it's your good friend and mentor, Harville Hendrix. And he talks about the third reality. And it's an interesting point. I know we talked some relationships and other things as well.

 

Vince: Well, it's the reason that I was able to come up with a solution loop. We went out for lunch and I said I just can't wrap my mind around. He says, oh, that's simple, it's a relationship. Of course, coming from him been on Oprah 19 times and he wrote books on relationships was like, Oh yeah, yeah, it's a relationship between conscious and subconscious. Mind changed everything. Y

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: it's a great insight and you used the same characters. Your character key you've got your you've got Adir, Elgo, Brio, Chromia, and Valafar. It's built as a parable and you tell the story, which makes you really like the characters. And I know you use a I think I heard on one of your interviews somewhere that you try and follow up like a Pixar storytelling model. What if this was a movie? What if this is something we could watch? Is that how the framework for the story unfolded?

 

Vince: Yeah, it was. I cheated a little bit and I went to the screen writing world and they call it the beat sheet. And the beat sheet is basically a standard model for how a story unfolds. And so I looked at the beat sheet and I went, OK, because I'm a novice when it comes to storytelling really quick. I wrote The Ant and the Elephant, early 2000s and haven't written a fictional story since. But I knew how important character development was. I knew in, new characters show up like vultures when you go through an earthquake. It's absolutely shocking how people will come in for blood when you're just trying to survive.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: Valefar the Vulture shows up, you got Chromia, the wolf, who's just chasing it down because she wants to eat. And it's like, well, getting skinny here because it's not working right? There's all sorts of characters that end up showing up and being able to draw somebody through. That almost like the hero's journey. In a way.

 

Vince: I drew from that as well. When you look at examples like Star Wars or Avatar or any of the Pixar movies, they kind of paint by numbers a little bit the hero’s journey and then the darkest of times. And so I followed that formula, but it's a parable that has content attached to it. Yeah.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: The principles and the wisdom that they learn in the road maps and the analogies and metaphors that you use within the story are very, very applicable. And. And like you say, the hero's journey, you've got the hero and then there's the guide, right? And you have like Ella, I believe is the guide, the elephantine subconscious character. And you relate and you remember who they are. And and they'll go. There are just some wonderful characters. And I thought you did a good job, but you saying there when devastation gets in the way through the middle is the way. What do you mean by that?

 

Vince: If my kids remember one thing that I've taught them and it's the one thing I live my life by, it's this saying “Never make a decision based on fear.” And a fellow Canadian, John Amatt, said, “When you run away from fear, it gets larger. When you go towards it, it gets smaller.”

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: That's interesting. And so through the middle is the way it's in. The middle is where maybe the largest fears reside, but that's where the solutions are to pass through that, to stay away from it. And to be full of fear, to stay and stand aside, it's just going to get worse. No, I love that Ryan Holiday wrote a book called Obstacles Are The Way in which he takes a lot of his source material from the Stoics from 2000 plus years ago.

 

Obstacles are the way, the path most people they look for the easy way around. They try and get out of that where the middle is the way so. Instead of resisting the challenge, you write about it. We want to ease into that space that every challenge provides. Don't panic and say embrace the unknown. Yeah, it's easy to say, by the way. Yeah, see, I was gonna say that's a tough one, but it is tough, right? Because that's where the pain is too.

 

Vince: Yeah. Wait a minute, that caused a lot of pain. And you want me to go towards that? Everybody should try doing martial arts a little bit sure, because you will learn something quite quickly that an oncoming force is not to be resisted, it's to be used to your advantage. (Take their energy off, yeah, take that energy and use it to your advantage.)

 

And so if someone were to come at you with a knife, the reaction is to resist and push back. Well, actually in any of the martial arts, it's to reach in and redirect that, that, that oncoming force and then bring it down that way. So it's just one of those life lessons that you either are going to learn the hard way or our human condition is like resistance. No, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: I believe it's chapter two of your book. You talk about using discomfort. Along these lines as a catalyst, because you never know what's next until you encounter what isn't so you can recreate that new reality and it's that path of self-discovery before you. It's before each of us. So I kind of checked that the line you had, the more stubborn I am where I will struggle with letting go. So discomfort will force me to create a new reality. Yeah, yeah. It's again, that part of that resistance, right.

 

 

Vince: Yeah. And I'm with you on that. I mean, so I just want to be comfortable. I just want to be comfortable. Cozy. You’re in an earthquake. Well, how's that working out for you? And so that really is the way to go through that middle of it. That discomfort is to be poked at. That discomfort is what's causing that, because you can put a Band-Aid on it or you can go, wait a minute, what if I put on knee pads and then went skateboarding? It's just this kind of lessons as we learn along the way well, and it's how we look at things.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: And I've been reading studies about anxiety and these people were there's a lot of anxiety out there and we all suffer from anxiety at different levels. And remember when COVID hit? I cried for a week. All of our engagements cancelled. I went, Oh no. My wife and I were in two different countries. It was on my going to get locked out. The boy, they were shutting down borders. Who knew how long this was even going to last for? We've got at the time of our recording here. We've got the stuff going on over in Europe with great Ukraine and Russia creates anxiety. We've got leaders. Talking to you is the big one, but that's just that anxiety. It could be related to our jobs, fear of recessions, all kinds of things. And you say we can interrupt that anxiety.

 

In the book, in Chapter 3, the characters talk about harnessing action to interrupt the anxiety and that we need to stop being the victim because that's a place of powerlessness and stop saying. There's a great line. You say something I 1000 times and it's locked in 1000 times. So how do we make that dysfunction, the new normal?

 

Vince: It's about being that architect instead of a pedestrian. This notion that when things are catastrophic, it's feeling of powerlessness. As I wrote this book, I definitely didn't want The Earthquake to be a cliché book. And it's so we're dancing around a lot of cliches right now because there is this resistance that we naturally have to say, well, I'm powerless. I'm a victim in this situation. I don't know if there's a better feeling than being able to act in the state of powerlessness. Because suddenly you aren't powerless, right? (Right.)

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: You've taken a step forward, and the whole book is not linear. There's no linear way out of chaos. Well, what is it?

 

Vince: Well, it's very much a vortex. It's… Does this work? Does this work? That's where we're headed. Is that space of curiosity!

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: And I think action. Whenever in my lifetime, I felt anxious, maybe feeling a little. I won't say depressed because I've actually talked to people who go through depression and what I experience is nothing like what they've gone through. But I always found action and hard work would always Get Me Out of that state. I couldn't be in both places at the same time. So the amygdala, I think, is responsible for our emotions and our feelings. But when I'm working on a prefrontal cortex and I'm busy focused on the task, I'm not even thinking about that. So you're not. Yeah. And you talk about what to let go of is, well, I was like to equate that. I want to hear your perspective of what we should let go of and how we focus on what we should let go. I call. Marie Kondo in your life, and if you're familiar with the Konmari method, Marie Kondo is this lovely Asian woman, doesn't speak much English.

 

She's got a TV show, I think it's on Netflix, and she talks about getting rid of everything that doesn't bring you joy and organize. Your husband, my wife, took on to that. And we have organized everything has a place, everything has a place, and it gets returned back to that place. And if we haven't used it in six months, it's basically toasted for not sure we wait one year, but it's letting go. And it's really hard to let go of things are well, I need that I I might need that tool one day. And when I need it, I'm going to really want it.

 

And her role is if it's 20 bucks and it's within 20 miles, get rid of it if you haven't. So learn to let it go. What do you mean by letting go and what we should choose to let go and how do we find. What we should let go of?

 

Vince: So there may be a better simple question to ask to know if it's taking you forward or not. And actually, I'm going to steal from the end and the elephant this piece, because there was a points in the journey where the Ant realized these thoughts weren't taking them towards the Oasis, it was taking them away. And it's a conversation that your conscious mind has with your subconscious mind. Now this is going to sound a little wacky, but it works. It worked in ski training.

 

If it's taking you further away from your Oasis where you want to end up that relationship or the self-image or the job or or that goal is. But that thought or that outside thought, somebody's criticizing you. Ask yourself, is this taking me closer to? That goal or further away, if the answer is further away, the Ant says to the elephant. Your conscious mind says, you silently say to yourself, “Thank you, (because there must be a reason why the subconscious mind is embracing this in some way. But say thank you) but that's not part of my vision. My vision is. …” And then you pivot from what that negative. Path is to where you want to end up and so do that enough times.

 

This is adaptive. I heard Tony Robbins years ago, gosh, years in the mid 80s, talk about scratching a record, he said. If you scratch a record, you've interrupted that pattern. If you scratch it again, you interrupt it. It's still going to play the same song. But eventually, overtime, you scratch that record enough times, that pattern is not there anymore. It's simply gone. So this thank you, but that's not part of my vision. And then the pivot on to not just what it is, but what it feels like.

 

What are the five senses? What are the smells, the sounds associated with? Bring it into an experience. I call this ‘experientialization.’ What the outcome is from this negative thought or negative. Somebody saying something negative or something comes in the mail, or some bill collectors calling you beat me up, ask is this taking me closer, this feeling taking me closer to her, further away? Then you go back onto your Emotional buzz. This is an extraordinary way to stay the course.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: You've got a number of different formulas that you share in your book. How did the 5C's fit into this?

 

Vince: The 5C's are that linear path, right?

And so clarity, which is not just visual clarity but an emotional buzz. Clarity.

 

The second C is commitment. Commitment is simply not episodic. A couple walks down the aisle on a Saturday and they're done with commitment process. It's a process, yeah. And so re upping to that commitment is essential.

 

The third C is consistency, and I used the philosophy as an athlete. Do what the best aren't willing to do, do what the competition is not. Willing to do not what they're not doing, but what they're not willing to do. And So what are the best not willing to do? Well, typically those are the things you're not willing to do either. And that's great advice. What is the competition not willing to do? And just simply do it, whatever it is. And then if they think things, I mean could be going to the library and getting a book out of the library, well, wait. Who does that? Well, you you can do that!

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: Yeah, well, it's even getting up at 5:00 AM. I'm an early morning guy. My brain works best in the morning. For me after four o'clock, I'm pretty much brain much. But for me that's my discipline and it's a habit and I look forward to it. I've got 2-3 hours before I see or hear from anybody and that's my personal RND Yeah, and I know my competition isn't willing to do that. So they know they're going to get up when they feel like it or whatever.

 

Vince: Confidence is the 4th one. Confidence comes from experience. But what if you don't have an experience with a personal earthquake, right? What if you don't have experience with a pandemic and a supply chain management issue and rising gas prices? And maybe got a divorce at the same time. This pile on of wait, this is brand new. What the heck am I supposed to do? Confidence is the single most important thing for anyone to accomplish great results, but confidence normally comes from experience. So being the architect of those kinds of preparatory experiences. So that you have peak performance, I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, but it just basically building confidence is flipping the gap between fear and confidence where fear is low, not high, right, that confidence is high and then performance will go up and results go up.

 

 

The fifth C is Control. Those routines and you know at the last step on that. Routine is is a decision to enjoy this, to have fun, right? We just have fun. It was something that you can control, is how you react to all of these situations.

 

You decide, I'm gonna have fun.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: Now the book, even though it's a parable, is filled with lots of great principles. Matter of fact, you talk. One of my favorites in there is where you talk about when earthquakes do happen. And they will happen. So there's gonna be a small earthquakes, big earthquakes, massively big earthquakes, devastating earthquakes. But you talk about the solution loop and you use the petals of the flower to make the point. Let's chat about that just for a few minutes as a visual.

 

Vince: Yeah, well, as I wrote the book, I wanted the concepts to be sticky. And to picture a 6 petal plumeria. Now that does not exist. But I know there's four leaf clovers, which most of our three, so I'm going to make a 6 petal plumeria. Normally there's five, but with artistic license … there are six of them.

 

The first two petals start with “grasp the contradiction,” then “seek the alignment.” And being able to pave that alignment between your conscious intention and your subconscious agenda, which is scared and paranoid and you've gone through an earthquake. You're in pain, right? And then the solution loop goes on to the next two petals “stay curious” then “be creative.”

 

I mean, to have this curiosity, well, maybe this might work. Because now you're in this land of uncertainty, you just don't know what is going to work. And I think the reason people recoiled after during the pandemic, you just have to pivot. It's such a trite piece of advice. I'll just pivot, you know.

 

Well, what if you don't know what the pivot is supposed to be, right? Which is? For most of us, maybe all of us, but the curiosity followed by creativity, well maybe if it's this, could I be creative on how this is applied?

 

Could I volunteer at this certain area that was with my youngest and she was in college for parents’ weekend and we ran into one of her buddies. Who had graduated? He tagged along for parents’ weekend with his folks, and his brother was there. This big brother just quit his job, right? He was making the six figure and he said “it didn't matter. I just hated going to work. I just hated it.” And then he had to answer the question to himself, “what's next?” He didn't know.

 

This curiosity and creativity means - maybe this will work. And him volunteering at a nonprofit, his idea to say, OK, well maybe I can do this. That's perfect because maybe there's no compensation. But it's the mathematics of opportunity. You open a door and there's going to be another door that you can go. What's behind that door? And you open that door and guess what? Another door opens. Or you could open that door. So that curiosity and creativity can lead to the potential to take action on something.

 

Just look at any entrepreneur out there. Any entrepreneur will give you 10 ideas that did not work right and the one that did more than nine or the 8. We only hear about the great ones. How hard could it be? Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, right place, right place, right time. They'll even tell you that they were in the right place at the right time, doing the right things. Does this work, does this work, does this work and answer your question? You’ve got to go through sometimes weeks of understanding if this is going to work and then get to the point where we say, OK, well, no, but maybe there's something else in here.

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: So, well, knowing when to give up on that too. And I think in chapter eight of the book you talk about adapt or die. Elgo carries pain and suffering and so. Really, adaptation is good. So whether it's absolute grief or loss, there's no words that will take that pain away. And you talk about even moving on. Don't talk about your earthquake story.

 

I always hesitated even asking about your background in the introduction in the book, because it brings up the story again and you get all those feelings and emotions I know if I talk about. Things that happened, I'm not living back there. That's not where I'm at. So it gives you perspective, but that's not where I'm at.

 

So, if we allow it to stay in our head and to use your quote, rent free, it can demean as it can take away our confidence. So to change the results we need to first change our beliefs as you teach. I call this is maybe the most important thing for your listeners to embrace.

 

Vince: This was inspired by a conversation years ago. And I ran into a person, she's from Australia. She started sharing this story with everybody in the room and they were gasping from how extraordinary her personal earthquake was.

 

Her husband died and her in-laws hated her, so they never told her. I mean, there was all this story, right? And she relived it in front of all these people. I don't know this person, but I knew enough that I asked her. I said, how many times have you shared that story? And she said, oh, I don't know. I said would it be over 100? She said. “It's in the hundreds. I've shared this story a lot.”

 

I said, “You don't know me, but you have re-experienced something that happened once and you've experienced it over and over and over. You've embedded this in your subconscious mind so much that this is going to define your next steps in life.

 

“And you could start hating me right now for this, but I just, this is my sandbox. And the second you stopped sharing that story is the second you're going to be free from that story.”

 

Interviewer Michael Vickers: So that's why that appeared in the earthquake. Yeah. Lots of great things in their events. We're going to put all your contact information in the show notes. People get hold of you, find your book, go to the website, this percentage.com, and again, we'll have that in the show notes. But if you're really looking to accelerate your breakthroughs and leave all those setbacks, which we all have behind us, awesome book, great parable, entertaining story. You've really we've some great principles in there, and I love at the end of each chapter how you've got the key learnings that go, that the characters can apply. And really appreciate you making time for us and our audience, Vince, and sharing some of these strategies with us and your story.

Tags: Goals, Self Development, Motivational, Business Leadership, Changing Times

Beginners Luck for Better Sales

Posted by Vince Poscente on Wed, Sep 28, 2022 @ 07:30 AM

How does beginner’s luck work when subsequent and more informed efforts are subpar? It all has to do with your elephant. 🐘
Beginners Luck Mojo by Vince Poscente
Credit Dr. Lee Pulos’ research: in one second, your conscious mind processes with 2,000 neurons while your subconscious utilizes 4 billion neurons. To remember this amazing ratio, it’s like an ant 🐜 who thinks it decides direction while riding on the back of an elephant. Who’s really in control of where they end up?

You make a decision to go west, get fit, meet the partner of your dreams, add a comma (or two) to your bank account, and sign up five new clients before month’s end. But, alas, you end up east, out of shape, dating a doofus, distracted by a scary bank balance, and no new clients within miles of the bookings board. It’s time to understand the mojo of beginner’s luck.

Simply put, your elephant doesn’t know what you don’t know. The ant is busy trying to figure out the top-line basics while the subconscious mind is given complete autonomy. Imagine 4 billion neurons’ only measure - is the outcome.

Hit the ball in the middle of the fairway. Close that sale your 1st time out. Get a Standing O your first time on stage.

You’ve started in flow. Non-thought. Your elephantine subconscious mind guides you without the annoying, fear-based part of the conscious mind interrupting with second guesses. After a few tries, you start to “think.”

Right? 🤔 No? 🤔 What the heck?

It gets worse. The ant screams down at the elephant.

What was I thinking? 😖 That was stupid. 😖 I suck!

Meanwhile, the elephant is listening and reacting.

Was I thinking wrong? 🤨 Am I stupid? 🤨 Did I let myself down again?”

Presto, a downward spiral of misalignment and negative patterns. It vortexes from bad to worse.

Bring that Beginner’s Luck Mojo back. Next time:

✅ Under-Think It
✅ Trust the Inherent Power of Your Elephant
✅ Relax, Step Forward, & Save Uncertainty for Another Day

You got this!

#beginnersluck #powerofsubconscious #antandelephant #setbacktobreakthrough

Tags: Goals, Self Development, Sales, Team Building, Motivational, Business Leadership, Changing Times

A Unique Approach to a Better Mindset

Posted by Vince Poscente on Mon, Sep 26, 2022 @ 08:00 AM

Infinite possibilities are like leaves on a stream. Some float by without a second dedicated thought. Some eddy and remain within reach. Based on recent research, a human being has about 6,200 thoughts per day. That translates into about 170 million thoughts in a lifetime.
Mindset with Vince Poscente
Which thoughts of yours are worth grabbing and turning into action?

Hold onto those marquee thoughts that light up your insides. These ones flip a switch and tingle the spine.

What thoughts can’t be ignored?

What resonates with your life purpose?

1️⃣ A good idea won’t go away. If you wake up and that pesky thought keeps popping up. Pay attention. Poke at it. Talk about it.

2️⃣ A thought that excites you AND scares you is meant to be honored. If I’ve taught my kids anything it’s “Never make a decision based on fear.” Honor those thoughts that need your focus.

3️⃣ Some thoughts are born out of negative patterns. These ones need to be interrupted until they stop appearing.

Interrupt these ones:
·     I’m not good enough.
·     I’m not worthy.
·     I’m too young/old/tall/short/overweight/skinny etc.

Consistently interrupt thoughts that don’t serve you. Replace them with those thoughts that inspire you. Eventually, the toxic pattern will dissipate and disappear.

Be the architect of your dominant thoughts and establish a truth about yourself that inspires others.

You got this!

#mindset #positivity #saleskills #leadershipskills #setbacktobreakthrough
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Tags: Sales, Motivational, Inspirational, CustomerExperience

What Role Should Humor Play after Tragedy?

Posted by Vince Poscente on Sun, Sep 25, 2022 @ 06:30 AM

Chautauqua Institute after the stabbing.Recently I was asked on Wbap News Talk 820 if Mr. Rushdie’s family thanked me for helping subdue his attacker. “No. I’m just glad he’s okay. But I do know, he owes me a beer.” This cracked up the radio hosts and leads to a good question.

What role, if, or when should humor happen after tragedy?

💡 Note: There's an entire section in Jamestown’s National Comedy Center dedicated to answering "Too soon?"

Think back to 18 days after New York's 9 11 tragedy. One quandary was to postpone or proceed with SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE's 27th Season Premiere. Paul Simon opened with The Boxer. Next, the executive producer asked, “Can we be funny?” New York's mayor said, “Why start now?”

This was a pressure release for an entire nation. An inflection point for mending hearts as we each stumbled forward.

MLK Jr. said, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” Silence in tragedy is deafening. Laughter amidst pain is medicine.

Immediately after Salman Rushdie’s near-fatal stabbing, I came back shaking. As one of a few who subdued the assailant, I later returned to friends at a writer’s retreat. Before I broke the news of Mr. Rushdie’s attack, everyone was excited for the day ahead. The room flipped into quiet and sustained shock. After a time, Jon, who is inherently kind and funny, said, “Vince, I came close to joining the event this morning. But… it’s probably good that I didn’t because while you were heroically jumping on stage, I would've feverishly ran the other way.”

Jon's humor did more than interrupt the traumatized mood, it was a salve for the soul. It was a catalyst for healing. It allowed us to embrace the process of recovery rather than stay frozen in the quagmire of stuckness.

Here’s to Rushdie's recovery as we face life's challenging earthquakes and aftershocks.

#Rushdie #ComedyTragedy #setbacktobreakthrough

Tags: Goals, Self Development, Motivational, Business Leadership, Changing Times, Safety

You Might be Looking in the Wrong Direction

Posted by Vince Poscente on Fri, Sep 23, 2022 @ 07:45 AM

When Your Focus Goes Up, Everything Changes.
 
Twelve months before competing in the Olympics I seized a chance to train with some of the best speed skiers in the world: The French. During this time, there was one day that changed my life.
 
It was a snow day. This means it snowed too much for us to train outside.
 
Near the base of Les Arc 2000, 22 athletes assembled in a gymnasium.
 
Remember, these are amazing human beings in peak physical aptitude and condition.
 
Allow me to translate what the coach said. “Get on this rope and walk the length of it.”
 
Each of us took a turn a mere 18 inches off the floor. Zero progress. Only side to side flopping of arms that would make Kermit the Frog envious.
 
Phillipe Goitschel (next year he won the silver medal) flailed. He couldn’t stay on the rope.
 
Finally, after 45 minutes, as everybody had multiple tries, no one succeeded.
 
The coach bided his time until his teaching moment broke the frustration.
 Raising Your Focus Changes Results
“STOP! Stop looking at the rope. STOP LOOKING AT THE ROPE!!” He stared at each person surrounding him. “Look at a point where you want to end up. Do not take your eyes off that.”
 
Phillipe pushed to the front and hopped up. He alternated between looking at the rope and looking at a point on the wall. He failed to advance.
 
“STOP!” urged the coach. “Just look at the point on the wall where you want to end up. The rope will always be underneath you. Your feet will always be at the end of your legs. Just focus on the point you have chosen.”
 
Phillipe locked in on a peg at eye level. Et voila. He virtually glided to the end of the rope.
 
Within ten minutes, 22 athletes went from being unable to walk even five feet on the rope, to walking the length of the rope, turning around, and coming back.
 
Just by changing the focus.
 
Are you laser-focused on the exact point you wish to go or are you concerned about where you may fail? Look up and go.
 
#focus #leadershipskills #salesskills #inspiration #setbacktobreakthrough
 

Tags: Goals, Sales, Team Building, Motivational, Business Leadership, Inspirational

Build Confidence WITHOUT Experience

Posted by Vince Poscente on Mon, Sep 19, 2022 @ 06:45 AM

Without experience, how will you have confidence? Without confidence, how can you expect great results?
 
Adapt the old-school flashcard technique in the safety of your mind. Use Stressful Scenario Flashcards to ‘experience solutions’ to nerve-racking situations. Rotate flashcard scenarios until you instinctively have more confidence.
 
More confidence means better performance. Better performance translates into optimum results.💡
 
🐘Your elephantine subconscious mind doesn’t differentiate the difference between imagined or real experiences.

🐜 Your ant-like conscious mind might know you only visualized a certain situation, but your elephant-sized subconscious believes it happened.
 
🤬 Example: Think of a time when some guy said something nasty to you. He only said it once but you repeatedly reimagined the experience. You even fantasize what you should have said in reply.
 
😤 It only, happened once. But you experienced it multiple times. Therefore, small setbacks seem bigger than they are. Your active subconscious believed it happened recurrently. Use this experiential phenomenon to your advantage.

Stressful Scenario Flashcards are a Tool to Build Confidence. 

Here are important insights for Stressful Scenario Flashcards:

1️⃣ ‘Experientialize’ how well you’d handle a bad situation.
2️⃣ Your “stressful situation” doesn’t have to be realistic.
3️⃣ Your imaginative solution doesn’t have to be realistic. Use all 5-senses. Imagine expertly handling a stressful situation.
4️⃣ Create dozens of stress-inducing scenarios. Write each one on a flashcard. Don’t write solutions. Use your fertile imagination to conjure real time solutions.
5️⃣ Every day, run through an imagined, stress-free solution.
6️⃣ ‘Experientialize’ multiple scenarios each day.
7️⃣ At the end of each imagined experience, lock in on the feeling of confident satisfaction.
 
Over time you’ll have more confidence and optimum results.
 
#confidence #salestools #leadershipskills #businessadvice

Tags: Goals, Motivational, Business Leadership, Inspirational

12 Breakthrough Choices for 100% Freedom

Posted by Vince Poscente on Sun, Sep 18, 2022 @ 06:00 AM

Twelve breakthrough choices that will lead to 💯 freedom.
 
💡We’re each susceptible to what we take in. Be the architect of your thoughts as you stay in ‘choice mode.’ Here are 12 Breakthrough Choices.

You decide…
 
1️⃣ When someone judges you, they’re telling you about them — not you.
 
2️⃣ When someone judges a situation, they’re telling you about their truth.
 
3️⃣ When someone expresses what they fear, they’re admitting what’s possible in their future.
 
4️⃣ When someone expresses what angers them, they’re triggered by what they see in themselves.
 
5️⃣ You don’t have to own a version of truth voiced by someone you admire.
 
6️⃣ You don’t have to own a perspective of reality from someone influential.
 
7️⃣ You don’t have to embrace someone else’s repetitive messages.
 
8️⃣ You don’t have to be polarized by your own narrative.
 
9️⃣ How you step back from a situation will reveal how to step into understanding.
 
🔟 How you make active listening a priority will develop next-level relationships.
 
11. How you choose to run toward, or from, fear will expose the size of that fear.
 
12. How you prioritize awareness over snap judgement will define your life.
 
Dear reader, be the architect of your mindset with each deliberate choice you make.

Which breakthrough listed above speaks to you?

Which person in your life would be open to these breakthroughs?
 
#mindset   #freedom   #ease   #lifehack

Tags: Goals, Motivational, Business Leadership, Inspirational, Changing Times

Cynics Kill Corporate Cultures. Skeptics Heal These Cultures.

Posted by Vince Poscente on Wed, Sep 14, 2022 @ 08:45 AM

Cynics can kill a corporate culture. Skeptics can heal it.Leadership by Vince Poscente

What is the definitive difference between a cynic and a skeptic?

“A CYNIC is a faultfinding captious critic; especially one who believes that human conduct is motivated wholly by self-interest.”

A SKEPTIC is “inclined to question or doubt all accepted opinions.” (Merriam Webster)

Cynics are like cancer to culture while the skeptics are like a warning light on a vehicle. If the engine isn’t running optimally, there will be issues down the road.

True Story: A CEO hired me to speak at their “All Hands” meeting.

➡️He saw me speak at YPO.
➡️I visited the company HQ.
➡️They published books.
➡️They’re now out of business.

“Vince, can you help?”

One of the SVPs was clearly a cynic. He was an angry, vindictive person who was a massive distraction during their meeting. Meanwhile, the culture was struggling. Revenue was declining.

The response to my speech? From everyone, except Mr. Cynic…“Bring this guy back.”
To fully prepare my consulting and coaching services, I flew back to HQ to interview all company levels, even Mr. Cynic.

Findings: There were two main offices separated by two buildings. Executives were in one building. The rank and file were in another. Employees didn’t feel appreciated or listened to. Executives couldn’t figure out what “The employees’ problems were?”

Meeting with the CEO, three recommendations topped the list:

1️⃣ Mr. Cynic needed to be fired.
2️⃣ The CEO and executives needed to office amongst the rest of the staff.
3️⃣ “Management by walking around” was urgently needed.

From a Consultant: The skeptic’s approach was necessary.

Result: I didn’t get hired for an extended contract.

Moral of the story?

If you don’t hire me, you’ll go out of business! 😜Nah, too cynical.

Let’s go with: Protect your skeptics. They may be a warning light worth paying attention to.

#consulting #coaching #truthtellers #ReservoirLLC #setbacktobreakthrough
 

Tags: Motivational, Business Leadership, Changing Times

Cement Your Brand Impressions with Audio Branding

Posted by Vince Poscente on Mon, Sep 12, 2022 @ 02:36 PM

Audio branding impact isn’t just for large corporations. Entrepreneurs who seek distinction from their competition are in on the sound logo advantage. A sound logo will elevate your brand and better connect with your customers.

Audio branding is not new. If I were to quiz you on the following sound logos, chances are you’ll be able to sing them immediately.

Intel CorporationNetflixHBOMcDonald's.

A good logo resonates with the sense of sight and is meant to elicit an emotional response. Adding the sense of sound further elevates a customer’s experience of your product or service.

Audio branding is next-level entrepreneurship. Just ask GaryVee (Gary Vaynerchuk) about the Rise of Audio Branding as a competitive advantage. He promotes audio branding as important.

"Sonic branding is about how your brand sounds and how it gets recalled or remembered — like the little jingle at the beginning of video games or the sound when you boot up your computer. It’s about to become dramatically more important for every single brand."

Note that jingles are the predecessor to sound logos. In fact, there's anecdotal evidence that Elizabethan musicians, wandering from town to town in the 16th century, were known to be sponsored by local entrepreneurs to come up with catchy tunes. Over the centuries, music has been used to enhance a company's brand image.

The next iteration of sound branding is audio logos. With the addition of sound and the subtle difference of a moving logo, your audience (or customer) is trained to get a shot of endorphins. Think of THX prior to a movie. That bone rattling wwwwwwwoooohhhhmmmmm sets up the audience for a "This is about to go down." 

Where can you get a Champagne Sound Logo on a Beer Budget? ➡️ Max

Full disclosure, Max (25) is my son. I learned about the impact of audio branding from him. He produces audio branding and sound logos for companies of all sizes who are wanting to elevate their customer experience. If you'd like to learn more about how a sound logo would benefit your business, call Max at 214-240-9987.

In the meantime, continue to implement ways to connect your brand promise with a memorable experience.

#customerexperience #soundlogo #businessgrowth #audiobranding #aboutyou

Tags: Sales, Motivational, Business Leadership, Changing Times

Met a Monk, Who Knew a Monk, Who Knew a Monk

Posted by Vince Poscente on Sun, Sep 11, 2022 @ 08:00 AM

“How did you get the Dalai Lama to endorse your book?” I Met a Monk, Who Knew a Monk, Who Knew a Monk.

The detailed answer is more about how you may find the perfect person who’ll help your cause.
 
Are you looking for a better job? The best architect?  A Whale Client? The Dalai Lama to endorse your book? Don’t stop at one connection. Put yourself in a position until there’s a metaphorical monk, who knows a monk, who knows a monk.
 
In 2019 I organized an expedition to the Himalayas. A tendon in my ankle snapped just a few days before the trailhead. It was tough to see the team and my daughter Alex leave without me.
 
“What happens now?” I wondered.
 
Ankit Sood (destination host and friend) decided we would tour through Northern India. En route to some fascinating locations, we ran into a friend of Ankit. Raj was part of the security detail for The Dalai Lama.
 
“Would you like to meet the Dalai Lama when you’re in Dharamsala?” Raj asked.
 
While his offer never came to pass, I had met a monk, named Tenni.
 
Tenni tracked down Monk #2, the secretary of His Holiness. He knew Monk #3, the US point person for The Dalai Lama.
 
Meanwhile, after I returned to the US, Ankit took my spot in meeting the Dalai Lama with a draft of The Earthquake in hand.
 
Over time Monk #3 made it clear the Dalai Lama’s quote
 
“Life has its ups and downs; however, we should never give up hope… The Earthquake will inspire many to meet the difficult challenges of life,”
 
was not an endorsement, “It’s a blurb.”  
 
Getting the blurb is that easy. Organize a trip to India. Change your plans. Meet Ankit’s friend Raj. Befriend Tenni. Find, two more monks, ship books, send 48 emails, and there you have it. A Dalai Lama blurb on the cover of your book.
 
*Team: Lindsey Max M. Patrick Capetillo Sydney Ace Kirina Mike Alex and Chris
 
#DalaiLama #Connections #KevinBacon #TheEarthquake #setbacktobreakthrough

✔️ To get The Earthquake signed for you by visiting our store link above
➡️ Or get the book faster at www.Amazon.com 

Tags: Goals, Motivational, Business Leadership, Inspirational