Tapping Into Your Decision Making Mechanism

Practicality dictates that everyone's results will vary as we are all unique and different. Basically, it takes hard work to make a substantial income in this business, and some people will make no money at all. The earnings of an Empower Network affiliate will be 100% dependent upon their skills, work effort, commitment, leadership capabilities, and market conditions. Common sense would suggest that in most opportunities, one would find exceptional individuals performing well above average, while others perform under the average. Empower Network does not guarantee any level of income or your success.

To see our full income disclosure, please visit our website at www.empowernetwork.com forward slash income dot php. You guys are awesome. Amazing. Well, thank you very much. My name is Layla Black, and as you can tell, I have like zero voice left after this weekend.

I am telling you, I have been to events after events. I've been to some of the biggest events, 20,000 people events, and I am telling you, the energy that happened in that room, the shifts that happened in that theater, it was monumental. It was monumental, guys. I am just absolutely so excited.

Like, people keep walking up to me, and they're like, well, aren't you tired? You know, you've been taking pictures, you've been cutting videos all weekend, you've been speaking on stage and shouting and jumping around like a crazy person, and honestly, I still feel so electric. I don't care that I don't have a voice. I am here, and I am ready to rock, guys. We are creating a movement.

And I had so many massive breakthroughs this weekend, personally. So many breakthroughs. I gotta tell you this story.

This gentleman comes up to me, and I was walking through towards the in-party. I was walking there, and he walks up to me and steps right in front of me, and it was really awesome. All the conversations I had today were so personal. They were so intense, looking eye to eye, so deep. And you know, when someone can look you in the eye and have a conversation with you, they have stepped into their power, because how many people do you know that can't even look you in the eye when they're talking to you?

They can't even look you in the eye when they're talking about their dreams or their desires. These people are so on purpose. It's absolutely crazy. So, okay, this gentleman walks up to me, and he is in a fancy suit. He's got a yellow tie on.

He's an older gentleman. He's probably about, I don't know, maybe 65, and I wish I could remember his name. I was really, really trying to remember everyone's name this weekend, but it was really challenging. But I remember the moment. And I want to share it with you.

So he steps in front of me, and he looks me in the eye, and he says, Layla. And he was from the UK, so he's got this British accent, right? He says, Layla, I've got to tell you about this breakthrough that I had, and how you have changed my life. And I said, well, I didn't really expect it, I wouldn't expect it from you know. So he looks at me, and he's kind of like an older gentleman in a suit, looking very professional, but looking very proper, with a sophisticated British accent.

And so I was interested to hear what he had to say. He says to me that if he had seen me, well, this is how he said it, actually. If I had seen you on the street, I would not have given any value to the words that came out of your mouth. So basically, he was saying, you know, if he had seen me, this girl in her maybe crazy superwoman outfit or covered in tattoos, kind of looking not like your typical businesswoman, I guess, if he had seen me on the street, he wouldn't have given value to what I had to say.

He said, thank you. Thank you. You have changed my perspective. I want you to think about that for a moment, that powerful shift that he had. But at that same time, he gave me this massive breakthrough.

Because I had kind of prejudged him. And how many people do we go in our life prejudging? I remember some company events that I used to go to. It just didn't have the energy. I saw something magical.

And I saw it, actually, I saw it from the Saturday night party when I was up on the DJ booth. And we were just all going crazy. We were all going wild. I saw something magical. I saw people of all different races, all different colors, gay, straight.

I saw 72-year-old grandmas. I saw a woman. I saw computer guys. All on the dance floor shaking their booty together.

Bringing the house down together. And something incredible has happened this weekend. And I shared it on my status with David Sharp. So I messaged him right away. And I'm like, I just got to share this.

I got to share this. Can I jump on the call? Something magical happened. And it came from another team member that shared their breakthrough with me. You see, if you were in Austin at the last event, you found your vision.

You got in touch with your purpose. There was a shift that happened in Austin, and we all felt it. We all know it. But what happened here is that purpose suddenly became unified. We're Empower Network.

And we all simultaneously, 5,000 people, 5,000 crazy weirdos from all different walks of life, just unified their vision in one path. Think about the power of that, guys. Think about the power. Maybe you're a guest on the line. Maybe you're thinking, okay, I just saw all this crazy stuff on Facebook, and somebody posted this number, and I wanted to see what it was all about.

People ask me that all the time. What is Empowered Hour? What is it? This is way bigger. This is way bigger than some Internet thing.

If you're looking for a way to brand yourself and to generate leads online, do we know how to do that, guys? Yeah, we know how to do that. If you're looking to rank your blog and get traffic from Google, do we know how to do that, guys? Yeah, we know how to do that. But none of that stuff matters.

None of that stuff makes that difference if you don't believe in the message that you're sharing, if you don't believe in your reason for existing. Guys, something crazy has happened this weekend. And one day, years down the line, we're going to be looking back at this Empowered Hour call.

We're going to be looking back at this Monday night call after the most crazy event of our lives. We're going to be saying, that is the moment I made a decision. And so many decisions were made this weekend. It brought me to tears. And I'm going to have one more incredible story to share with you.

And then I'm going to bring out a man that has literally changed my life, spoken to my soul, invigorated my purpose and my passion. But before I introduce him, I've got to tell you this. I don't know why all these crazy breakthrough moments kept happening in line, but they did. I'm standing in line.

And a woman from our women's group comes up to me and stands right in front of me. She grabs my, she puts her hands on my shoulder and she looks right into my eyes. Literally inches away from my face. She says, I have to, this is the moment I have to share this with you.

And I said, okay, I'm here. Share. Let's go. I'm present. She said to me, I have five children at home and one on the way.

And she pointed, put her hand on her little baby bump on her tummy. And she said, I want you to know that what's happening here with Empowered Network, what happened this weekend is not only changing my life, but it's changing my five children and my own child's life and future. And she had tears streaming down her face. And we just hugged each other and cried because we knew that what we've done is created this army, this army of self-believers that are going out there and believe in their purpose.

And that has a ripple effect on all of these incredible families out there. I know that we have marriages that are happier, children that are learning new perspectives from their parents. They're learning new messages. They're learning new values.

Think about the impact that has on the world. Guys, this stuff just gets me so jacked up. And I realized those moments when you realize you're in the right place at the right time. And it's not just that. It's a crazy network marketing gig.

But you feel it in your guts. You feel it in your soul. You feel it in your passion, in your power. We're all feeling that right now. We're feeling it together, simultaneously, wherever in the world we are.

We are unified. Even though some of us have no voices left, we still have a message to share. We are unified. So I want to tell everybody, go out there, take this energy, take this excitement. Create a frenzy.

Create a frenzy. Because people need this movement. It reaches far beyond this little tiny speck. Or what are they called? Are they sharpay?

The pimple on the freckle on the speck on the gnat's ass. Yes. A little home-based business industry. What we've got here reaches so far beyond. Every single person in this world needs what Empower Network has.

So without further ado, I am going to get myself out of the way. But before I do, I've got to tell you this other story about the incredible guy that I'm about to introduce. It was, I think it was Thursday. Yeah, it was Thursday. No, it was Wednesday.

It was the day before all the leadership, the speakers, arrived. And Toby and I got into the hotel. And I just happened to, like, my peripheral vision just saw the crazy curly hair from the corner of my eye. I said, oh, there's Dave, Dave. So we went over there and we said hi.

And they said, sit down, sit down. After about an hour of sitting there, we hadn't taken our luggage. We hadn't changed, nothing. We just sat there and just talked and talked and talked. And I said, Dave, what's up?

And he said, hey, come to my suite in an hour. And we're like, yeah, awesome. Definitely, we'll be there. So we show up there and we get this opportunity to sit with Dave Wood's brother, who is, like, one of the top NLP trainers in the country, privately, in a four-hour session. So this is one of those moments that really, I feel, changed my life and aligned me.

It was my future. I was sitting on the couch. Dave Sharp was sitting on the couch next to me. And he was leading me through this visualization, this hypnosis trance. And we were staring out at the clouds, sitting side by side, both staring out of this crazy suite, this awesome view of Chicago, staring out at the clouds.

And as he led me through this journey, through my power, through my purpose, I tapped into something that was so strong and so powerful. He said, look into the clouds and start to see the colors. Start to see the different shades. And when I was staring at these clouds, I swear, suddenly they started to change and they started to shift and I started to see the faces. And I remember specifically, there's one face I always see, and that's the face of Metis O'Bennis, who's been battling cancer for the last 10, 12 years.

She's in my team and she's my heart. And I saw her face and I saw Lee's family. And I said, Dave Wood said, when you look through those clouds, I want you to look through the clouds and you will see your future. And I saw all of you guys. Honestly, I am so in love with Empower Network.

I am so in love with all of you. You have changed my life. Dave Sharp, I absolutely adore and admire and respect. And I am just honored to be walking side by side with both of you, Dave, and all of the leadership and all of the teams and every single person in Empower Network. We have one vision.

It's so amazing. So, Dave Sharp, if you are on the line, I think you are. If you are, then come on down. Hey, Layla, what's going on? Can you hear me?

Yeah, I can hear you. Could you guys not hear me? No, you're fine. You were cutting in and out a little bit when the call first started, but you're perfect now. And, you know, listen, I just wanted to tell you, and I like to do this privately because I did tell you this privately, and now I want to tell you just kind of out in the public, appreciate you.

Thank you. I'm proud of you, and I'm proud of the difference that you and Toby are making here. I'm proud of the difference that you guys' teams make in here. And more than anything, I'm proud of the way that you guys have united with people, regardless of whether they're on your team or not, regardless of what their goals are. Maybe their goals are a little bit different than yours.

Maybe somebody just comes in and they only want to make money. That stuff doesn't seem to matter to you or other leaders, and that's why. That's my Empower Network. That's the Empower Network difference, and I'm proud of you guys. I appreciate you.

Awesome. We love you guys, and it's because of your vision that this thing is a living organism and a force that is to be reckoned with. It sure is. And, hey, listen, I don't know if it's your last night in Chicago, but if it is, hey, you guys have some fun tonight. I'm sure you'll probably have the call on as you head out the door, whatever you're doing.

But, listen, have fun, be safe, and I will probably see you sooner, but I'll definitely see you in three months in Denver. Yeah, buddy, we'll be there. See you in Denver. All right, cool. Thanks.

All right, guys, listen, Dave Sharp here. Wow. That's all I can say is just wow. I'm going to talk to you tonight about a couple of specific things. I'm going to give you guys some news.

I'm going to teach you, if you're brand new, how to get started and get results in your business fast. Okay, I'm going to teach you what I've done personally with my partner, Dave, over the last 15 months to personally sponsor without actually even posting on my Facebook, without actually doing a lot of the wishy-washy nonsense that a lot of people have done or think that they need to do to build a business online, to personally enroll between 8,000 and 9,000 frontline members, to build a team of over 120,000 people, and to really literally go in and make millions of dollars on the Internet as an affiliate. I'm going to talk to you as an affiliate and a company owner tonight, so I want you to pay close attention to the things that I'm going to say. For those of you who are just kind of eavesdropping on the call tonight, maybe you're a leader, maybe you're somebody who's just kind of listening in to see exactly what's going on.

I'm going to talk to you tonight about a couple of specific things. I want you to listen closely to the real vision here because I think a lot of people, they get involved initially with us or they hear about us or they see what we're doing and they think it's all about the money. And the interesting fact is, and isn't it fascinating, that a lot of people get involved for the money but they stay involved for the feeling. And when they stay involved for the feeling, they make more money than they've ever made in their entire lives. Now, the cool thing is, is that we've began to really mature.

We've began to really grow into ourselves. We launched this company with a real vision and a dream to help our teams. And the cool thing is, and I saw my partner post this on Facebook a little bit earlier, is that for the first time in a long time, and for a lot of people ever, we're seeing people who have been in our team for a long time start to succeed. I've seen people at the events who have been in other teams of mine before we started Empower Network for years who just couldn't get it. Who just couldn't get it done.

Who just couldn't get out there and either make money or get results in their life or business. Because let's just be honest here, a lot of people, they get involved in this industry or this profession, and it's not just about the money. It's always about a lifestyle change. It's always about getting around people that you just sometimes can't find at a job or find out in society. We come into this profession sometimes not even realizing the power that we have in our lives.

And I think that's a really important thing that this industry holds when you really find the right people in the right opportunity at the right time. And the cool thing is that we're seeing people doing that. I'm going to tell you some stories, but first I'm going to tell you something just because I want to stretch your mind here for a second.

I got started back several years ago online. Now this is after work in construction. This is after getting clean, after being homeless for 10 years, struggling severely with addiction and alcoholism. And I was on a construction site, got involved with a guy who was pitching me hardcore on this construction site.

And at first I was totally closed-minded and negative to it. And eventually I got involved in it. That company shut down. And I got involved in another company and that company shut down. And I found myself kind of navigating around the internet, looking at an opt-in page one day.

And I decided to join. And this guy, I didn't really know who I was, so he put me with another team member, but I still considered him my sponsor. I still considered him the guy who I was working with because he's initially who I had sought out. I was brand new to the internet, never generated a lead, didn't have a blog, didn't have a website, had never sponsored anybody online, had built some teams and done some things offline. And really I had done that doing the same kind of things that a lot of people do.

I just didn't do them as good as most people. I thought that the secret to building my business offline was putting magnets on myself, on my truck and signs in my yard. So when I found this internet thing, and it is 2013, so if you're somebody who's on this call and you think that you can't make money online, friends, look, it's okay not to be right. It's okay to understand that somebody else might know something that you don't. And the fascinating thing is I never really understood this until the last six months, really.

And I want you to think about something that you've heard for years, but finally one day you were just in the middle of a situation and you said, ah, I realize what they meant, but I didn't ever really fully understand what people meant when they said, the more that I learn, the more I realize I don't know. And I've completely, and I'll probably have another level of understanding this, but completely had the next level of understanding what that really means because the more we grow, the more success we have, truthfully, the more I realize that I really don't know. So if you're somebody on this call that has been building offline or has been hammering the phones or has been beating the pavement, guys, there is a better way. And I'm going to teach you what that way is here on this call tonight. But when I got online, I found this guy.

He sponsored me. I failed in that business just because I was doing all of the wrong things. I had good energy. I had a good mindset. I had the heart.

I had the goals. I had a passion and a vision for myself because I'd been in places that I never wanted to go back to again. When I got in this profession, when I started in this business, I made a decision that I was going to make a difference. I made a decision. I was going to do something to get my family back.

And that's what initially attracted me to this particular guy. But that didn't work out for me. I didn't have my daughter at this time. She was still living with a family member because for several years when I was out on the streets and homeless, I couldn't take care of myself, let alone my daughter. So I didn't have my daughter back.

I had really beaten myself up and I wanted to get my family back in one piece. And that was one of the things that also attracted me to this particular person who I'm talking about. And to fast forward a couple of years, that business didn't work out. I didn't end up staying in that business. I went and I hopped to four or five other things before I really started succeeding online.

And over the course of about a year, I actually started to really make a lot of money. Why? Well, mainly because I was working long, long, long hours. I had more heart mentality. I certainly wasn't skilled.

I certainly wasn't a stage speaker. I wasn't a great copywriter. Actually, the majority of the times I would write an email and people would send it back to me and say, please don't ever send me anything like that again because it just is so painful to read. That's where I started out and that's where I was when I first started in this profession. So fast forward another year, we start this company because of the pain that we went through, because of the complications and the lack of vision from company owners and for the fact that we wanted to build the company more than company owners wanted to build their own company.

They would break a fingernail and shut down the doors or get overwhelmed or make bad decisions or not be honest with the field or they would terminate people for selfish or egoic reasons or we had no communication or all of the other kind of just situations that you find yourself in, and all of a sudden you find yourself second guessing yourself if this is really the right vehicle. We started this company because we wanted to make a difference. My initial vision personally was to teach people how to take all of the liabilities that people had always told them were the reasons why they would never succeed and show them how to turn those into their greatest assets. But we started this company back in October of 2011, and the fascinating thing is that same guy, that same guy who I joined a couple of years back previously, my very first sponsor online, ended up making five figures the first month that we launched Empower Network. That guy is now making close to, he has surpassed but close to six figures each month.

His name is Lawrence Tam, and isn't that fascinating that six months ago, six to nine months ago, it's probably been a little bit longer than six months now, that I walked into a courtroom and I had my daughter with me for a little while but it wasn't finalized, and the judge looked at me and he looked at my daughter, he looked at my family, he looked back at me. There was no real war. There was nobody who was opposing it. It was only the judge's decision. He looked back at me.

I felt a little bit insecure there for a moment because I just didn't, I had no idea what he was going to say and he looked me in my eyes and he said, son, I'm proud of you. Take your daughter home where she belongs. Now, isn't that fascinating that over the course of two, two and a half years, I went from joining a guy and I went from failing. I went from company hopping. I went from searching for the secret, right?

And then I went and I started a company with a guy who was actually in Lawrence's upline, Dave, back in that company back several years ago. Started a company with somebody in Lawrence's upline and now Lawrence is making close to or over six figures a month in this company now. Guys, I want you to stretch your vision for a second and I want you to understand what's really possible. I want you to realize as you're listening to the sound of my voice on this call tonight that everything that you think you can do, you can do 10 times more. I was talking with Erin, who's just the love of my life, right?

And a lot of you saw her on stage this weekend if you were in Chicago, and we were talking about what she really had as a vision for our family back four years ago or so. And remember, she met me when I was at one of my lowest points. I had just gotten clean. I was just trying to get my hair done. I was trying to get my life back together.

I was really, really trying to figure out what my role on this planet was. And I can remember back when we would talk and we would talk about our future and she would say, Dave, man, one day if you could just get your contractor's license and we could just have a construction business and maybe flip houses or something like that, man, life would be good. Her vision for our family, her idea of what we could really do was one day I could have a construction company, right? And it just proves, it's not that she's not a big vision person. It's not that she doesn't have a big heart.

It's not that she doesn't want big things. It's just sometimes, no matter how special, no matter how loving, no matter how intelligent you are, no matter sometimes how smart you think you are, right? Because I've oftentimes thought that I was the smartest person, knew everything, right? And then somebody comes in and just shows me that, hey, I've got a lot to learn. Maybe just maybe be able to afford our bills and not have to worry about going out to dinner on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays, or occasionally go out on a date or afford to be able to take my daughter to Disney if I want to.

I do live pretty close to Disney there in Orlando, Florida. And isn't it fascinating what happened? Isn't it fascinating what can happen when you stay in the game and you make a decision? Guys, I don't know where you're at listening to this call tonight. I don't know if you were at the event or not.

I don't know if you saw or heard what the people or the speaker said this weekend. The stories, the things that really went on if you were paying attention, if your awareness has really grown to be able to realize what's going on around you. But I'm going to tell you something, friend. You are 10 times more powerful than you know. And you have 10 times more capabilities, if not 100 times more capability than you even realize.

And isn't it interesting when you get around the right people and you stay in the game and you don't quit no matter what, what can happen? I know people like Tony Rush, who I was just texting with and spent a lot of time over the course of the last weekend with, that was almost burnt out. And a lot of people think that Tony just walks on water and shoots lasers from his eyes, and I'm here to tell you that he does. But I'm also here to tell you that it was 15, 16 months ago that he was frustrated and in a financial burden. He was in a situation to where he had been burnt out by this industry, burnt out by owners that he didn't have an open line of communication with, burnt out by the fact that he was calling on the phone and having to prospect in order to build his business, burnt out on the same old, same old, and got involved in this company because our products are great.

And he wanted to learn how to market his other business, which we used to make fun of and call his pay cut. And there's lots of great companies out there. But I'm just going to keep it real because I don't have time to BS. The truth of the matter is Tony got in and his mother passed away. And he was still making money inside of Empower Network because he signed up as an affiliate.

And his wife looked at him and said, gosh, what are these deposits? Which Jessica's a great friend of mine now. What are these deposits? Tony said, I have no idea. Jessica said, they just keep coming in.

You might want to take a look at what that is. He said, oh, that's that little internet thingy. I signed up to try to learn some marketing, figure out how to build my list faster and build a bigger business online. Jessica said, like any smart woman would, and believe you me, she's a very smart woman, she said, well, you might want to pay attention to that thing.

And he did. And isn't it fascinating that 15 months later he's doing over six figures a month? Isn't it interesting, guys, what can happen? And isn't it fascinating where we all start? Because you know what?

I think some people think that some of us come through the back door or the window. And I'm going to tell you something, friend, that we all come through the same way, which is right through the front door. We've all got to start at the same place. As a matter of fact, Tony built his business from scratch with no list, built it all over because he had some other things going on and he didn't want to mix up his different list in his different business. Now, isn't it interesting that now he realizes what's really happening here and has now for a long time been building a huge business that's focused here and he's got a life beyond his wildest dreams?

Isn't it fascinating? Isn't it fascinating that a guy with four young boys, I didn't know he even had that many kids, who's only 29 years old, came in back in mid-December because he'd been building business on ClickBank and promoting different products and kind of out there in the info marketing world, very intelligent, kind of watched us on the sidelines for about 12 months and said, eh, I don't know about these guys. Back when we were going through the merchant issues, I want to make sure that they make it through this because I've got a big team and I've got people relying on me and I want to make sure that these guys are the real deal and are going to be able to persevere through the challenges. And isn't it fascinating that he really, I don't think, had any idea what his real potential was. Now, I'm not saying that he didn't realize he was a confident, intelligent, extremely talented guy, but I have had conversations with him and I know exactly how he feels about this.

The fact is, Vic came in back in mid-December and did close to a million in about three or four weeks. Now, guys, let me be very clear and just up front since I am talking about money here. There is absolutely no income that's guaranteed and we do have people that make no money at all. We actually publish our average earnings and we have a whole income disclosure at EmpowerNetwork.com forward slash income dot php. But isn't it interesting, guys?

Isn't it interesting how when I had a conversation with Vic that he said it far exceeded his expectations more than 10 times? And isn't it interesting how sometimes as you're sitting here listening to the sound of my voice and realizing and remembering the things that you've said to yourself, isn't it fascinating how you can remember times when you've really shortchanged yourself? And then, isn't it fascinating how you can remember times when you've really stepped into your own power? You've stepped out on a ledge and it kind of reminds me of a story about a guy, and this is an old story about a guy that was kind of an underdog. He was kind of somebody who would really go out there and work for people who were being taken advantage of back several hundred years ago.

And there was an army that was protecting this king inside of this village. And this guy rode up on his horse with his few kind of scraggly gang members, and he rode up because it was time that he really stood up for what he believed in. It was time that he really stood up for the people in the village that he knew were being taken advantage of. It was time that he really walked in and said, I'm willing to die for my cause. And the king sent the army after him and he didn't back down.

As a matter of fact, he stood up on a wall. And as the king's army threw arrows at him and stones at him, he was so powerful because he believed in what he was doing so much that the arrows just bounced off his body and the stones just bounced off his body because he was in his power. And I want you to remember a time when you've really been in your power and you've really been confident about a decision, and then I want you to realize that whatever you want to do, whatever your dreams are, you can achieve them right here, right now with the right people, but you've got to make a decision. Guys, I'm going to tell you something. There's a lot of you who want to make more money.

There's a lot of you who want to pay your bills and not have to struggle financially, and I'm going to tell you something, that you can have that and you can do that when you use the right system and when you get around the right people, but I also want you to realize that you can have any lifestyle that you want to have, and that life is also going to give you whatever you're willing to settle for. I want to remind you that for the majority of a lot of people's lives, we spend a whole lot of time getting ready to get ready. We spend a whole lot of time putting things off, procrastinating. I'll handle it tomorrow. I'll take action tomorrow.

I'll make a decision tomorrow, and the truth of the matter is if you would have made a decision back when you first began thinking about it, you'd probably be way far ahead than you can even imagine by the time you finally make a decision to get started. And I want you to think back to the time that you really procrastinated like that. I want you to think back to a time when maybe you wanted to lose some weight or maybe you wanted to get ahead of paying down some of your debt or maybe you wanted to just get back into the gym or start eating healthy or spending more time with your kids, and you procrastinated and put it off, and then one day you started doing it and you said to yourself, man, I should have been doing this a lot longer. It was a long time ago when I first started thinking about it. As a matter of fact, I know some people inside of my life right now who have done that.

I'll tell you a quick story. Back two, three years ago, I was smoking, smoked cigarettes for many years. And one day I was out cutting wood in front of my old house, and my dad, we were working together, this was probably, I guess, probably three, a little over three years ago, and my dad came back from the VA hospital and he said, he told me how he had to have stints put in his legs and that the doctor kind of recommended that he quit smoking, and he was kind of talking about that as if it wasn't really that important. And as I stood there and I watched him light up a cigarette as he flipped on the saw because we were milling wood in front of our garage, I thought to myself, and I made a decision in an instant as I was watching him smoke and run this wood through the saw and I was catching it on the other side, I made a decision in an instant that I was just done, and I haven't had a cigarette since.

Unfortunately, my dad still smokes. There was another time that I was at one of the houses, the same house that we lived at, and Aaron and I had just begun dating. This was probably over five years ago. And my dad was acting a fool. I was tired.

I was kind of taking a nap. He was cooking some dinner. This was when I still lived with my dad and I had Aaron over and I was tired, laying on the couch taking a nap, and he was ranting and raving and yelling and making a fool out of himself. We've all done it. He got up the next day and something was different about him.

I didn't really realize what it was because he'd been the same for decades as long as I can remember. And then I got up the second day and I realized something was still a little bit different about him. And then the third day passed and I realized something was still a little bit different about him. And I woke up and I said, Dad, I don't know what it is but something's different about you. And he hesitated a little bit at first.

He didn't really want to tell me because I think that he wasn't sure that he was going to follow through with it. But I could see that clearly something was different, so I insisted that he tell me, and he said, Dave, I hadn't had a drink in three days. I made such an ass out of myself the other night, and we've all done it. We've all done this. And this is my dad's story and he tells it freely and openly.

He said, Dave, I just couldn't stand the way that I acted last night. And I could relate because I'd been there before. Interesting enough, four and a half years later or so, five years later, my dad still hasn't had a drink. He's been absolutely clean and sober for over five years. But I want you to remember back about the fact that he chose not to quit smoking.

And I'm openly saying this because I hope my dad does hear this. God bless him. I just saw him a couple hours ago because I want his ass to quit smoking. But isn't it interesting how in one area of our life we can make a decision to stop doing something, and in another area of our life we can make a decision to not stop doing something. And I want you to be honest with yourself on this call tonight because over the next three months you have an opportunity to make some major life changes.

And I'm going to teach you exactly how you can not only achieve your financial goals, but you can also change your life in an instant, and why change happens in a flash. It doesn't happen over time, just like you don't learn over time. You learn in an instant, which is why if you're taking notes I want you to just put down your piece of paper and your pencil for a second, and I want you to listen and let what I'm saying sink into your subconscious because when you learn it happens in an instant, just like when you change it happens in an instant. And I want you to really be honest with yourself about where you are with your life right now. And I want you to ask yourself, is there an area that you could make a change but you haven't, and an area that you have made a change.

And I want you to really feel right here on this call tonight. I want you to really think about the area of your life that you haven't made that change. Now whether that's that you're already in Empower or you're not in Empower yet, and you know that if you are in Empower you really should be getting to the event and you really should be bringing a team. Why? Not because Dave Sharp says so, because if you don't, you don't have to listen to me if you don't want to, but because every single person who gets to the event is doubling their income every 90 days or at least increasing it drastically. And not only are they increasing their income drastically, but they're also experiencing things like Layla was talking about at the beginning of the call that are absolutely changing people's lives.

I had people come up to me this weekend who had children who had committed suicide who have a new meaning of life again because they got around people who lifted up and inspired them. I had people come up to me tell me that they had just done their last line of coke or just taken their last drink or they just decided that no matter what they were going to do whatever it took to lose the weight that they had been trying to lose for the past 10 years. I had people come up to me that said they just have a new outlook on life. I had people come up to me that said they've been depressed for years and they finally, finally realized that it's not the medication that is the solution. It's not going to the doctors and sitting through therapy and spending dollar after dollar after dollar trying to fix their issues.

And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, and don't take medical advice from me because you might die if you do. But what I'm telling you, friends, is we've got people who are coming around who for so many years couldn't figure out what was going on with them, and they got around the right people in the right place at the right time and things started to change. I want you to now step into a place, into a situation, into a memory that you can remember about a time when you took action. And I want you to think about this right now. I want you to stop what you're doing and remember a time that you were in your power.

That you made a decision and it felt good. When you were confident about what you were doing and you felt like, oh man, I'm in the zone. I want you to think about a time when you felt like you were in the right place at the right time, and by you making a decision it was absolutely the right thing to do. I want you to think of a time that you were inspired. I'll tell you a time when I was inspired and it was just recently.

I asked my daughter where she wanted to go for spring break, and surprisingly this child said she wanted to go to Washington D.C. Now I've been doing these a lot with my daughter because even though I got legal custody of her nine months ago, she's actually been in my life now full time with me for quite a while now, one and a half, two years. So I like to take her on these daddy-daughter vacation weekends and stuff because they're just so cool. Erin stays back. I take her and we've gone to Orlando, Universal Studios, we've gone to a couple of other places, we'll go sometimes and stay at different hotels, do different things, just hang out.

Well, this time she said she wanted to go to Washington D.C. And I said, why would you want to go to Washington D.C.? She said, because daddy I want to visit the museums because I'm interested in the Holocaust, which I knew she was. And she wants to go and she wants to see the Holocaust Museum and she wants to go to the different Smithsonian museums, and I said, boom, we're there. And Friday night we arrived and we had this very strict itinerary that Erin had made for us because she's very detail oriented and very good at that kind of stuff.

And Bailey's actually extremely responsible and likes to kind of stick to the schedule and the rules, and so we got there a little bit early because our plane landed a little bit early. And we had a dinner to be to. I had a dinner date with my daughter in D.C. at like 8 o'clock and it was like 4 o'clock or something. And I said, honey, let's go do something.

We've got a little bit of time. I'm too amped up to take a nap and I want to hang out in the hotel room, so I just called us a limo and it came and picked us up and we were driving around and I was like, just take us somewhere cool. And he said, well, the first place that I've got to take you is the first place that I take everybody, which is the memorials, and if you haven't seen them, or even if you have, you've got to see them again. And I said, no. As a matter of fact I haven't been here for like decades.

I mean, last time I was in Washington D.C. it was like I was 5 or 6 years old. It was one of those family vacations that we piled into my mom's Econo Lodge van. And I don't know if you've ever seen one of these things, but it literally makes a tank look like a Cub Scout. This thing was huge.

It was a big green van, and when I played baseball all of my teammates would just pile in the back and there would be like 10 of us all the way in the back and we'd be screaming and hooting and hollering, and this thing was so big it didn't even distract my mom at all as she was kind of driving this massive tank down the road. But we stopped at the Lincoln Memorial and we got out and we walked up and I was walking up to this thing and I was like, oh my gosh, I had no idea, I didn't remember how big it was, and I was walking up to this thing and there was like probably 500 people that were up at the top of the peak, and as we walked in we stood there and looked up at Abraham Lincoln, which I'm extremely fascinated by. I've studied him a lot. I think he's got a lot of great leadership qualities. He never yelled.

He never raised his voice. He didn't get all amped up. He didn't rant and rave like I do. Those of you who know me, I'm passionate. I like to, and I'm obnoxiously loud when we go out to dinner.

It's hilarious because the restaurant owners or hostess or waiters or waitresses will come over and ask somebody, do we have to cut that guy off or tell him to be quiet, and they say, that guy hasn't had a drink in five years, he's just always this loud. So Abraham Lincoln was the exact opposite of me. He was very soft spoken. I think he had some great leadership qualities. So I'm sitting there and I'm staring at him.

I'm here to tell you that somebody believed in me when I didn't believe in myself and it made all the difference in my life. I'm here to tell you that when you get around a group of people that will lift you up and will believe in you and will tell you, when the rest of the world is telling you that you've got to look like a certain way and walk like a certain way and dress like a certain way and talk like a certain way, I'm here to tell you that you don't. I'm here to tell you that the best gift that you can give your family, yourself, and the rest of the world is to just be yourself. And I learned that a long time ago. After years of trying to be somebody that I wasn't, after years of trying to do things that I didn't need to be doing, after years of walking around in a fog of low self-esteem, confused about what was really going on in my life and what my real purpose was, which is why I wandered the streets for 10 years, couch surfing and living in places that I don't even want to talk about on this call tonight because I don't want to talk about it.

Because there just might be somebody who's listening who just is not ready to hear some of those things. But I'm going to tell you something, friend. It doesn't matter. Because one day I woke up and I realized that the best thing that I could do was just be myself. And one day I was struggling in my business.

And I just could not figure out the secret. I was buying all of the info products and getting involved with all the guru launches. I was getting sucked into all the good copywriting and all the good marketing. I was spending my time trying to learn all of the different language patterns and all of the different things that I thought all of the people were doing that was making them so rich.

And you know what? One day I got on a webinar and I just told my fucking story. I just told people that I was a drug addict. I just told people that I was homeless for 10 years.

I told people that I had two or three years clean at the time when I did this webinar. I was completely honest. I was completely honest with people about where I was. I was completely honest with people about where I'd been. And I'm going to tell you something.

All of the fear went out the window. All of the worry that I had about what the world was going to think left in an instant. And it didn't matter anymore. And people started to be attracted to me and they just pulled out their credit card and they bought on the spot. They joined my team.

This was back well before we started Empower. Life has not been the same since. When we started this company, I had a vision to not just help people make more money than any other company out there. I had a vision not to go out there and create the best products.

I didn't have a vision to go out there and be the next billion dollar company. I didn't give a damn about taking the company public. I wasn't interested in building for acquisition. What I wanted to do was show people that all of the things in their life that they thought were liabilities were really their greatest assets. I wanted to tell people and show people that no matter what they've been through, they can do what they want to do in life and they can achieve their dreams regardless of what anybody else has said or what they've said to themselves.

I'm going to tell you something, guys. When you meet us in Denver, let me just tell you this right up front, is that we sold almost 2,000 tickets in 39 minutes the other day at the event. We've got almost 3,500 tickets sold as we speak and sit right here right now. I don't know how much room we have. We're almost halfway sold out.

We're going to have some overflow space, but I can promise you, I can promise you want to be in that room. I can promise you want to feel what's going to happen in that theater because, guys, we're going to have between 6,000 or 7,000 people all there invading Denver in July, and I'm going to tell you something. It just might be you who realizes that you can do much more than you thought. It just might be you that finds yourself on stage turning around looking at 7,000 people, realizing that when you made a decision listening to Dave Sharp on that call rant and rave and talk about things that most people would never fathom even discussing, you made a decision to get your ticket, to get all in, to meet us in freaking Denver, and to do something to change your life and the people around you's life, and that regardless of what anybody said to you before that point, you dropped it all, forgot about it, stepped into your power, and you made a decision, just like that guy who was standing up on that wall when those people were throwing those spears and those stones at him, and for some odd reason, in that moment, they just bounced off of his body. Guys, I love you.

I appreciate you. And I'm more pumped up than I've ever been in my entire life. And I said that a year ago, and I'm 10 times more pumped up than I was then. I'm more absolutely inspired right now than I've ever been in my entire life. I'm in a position right now to where I'm more humble.

And I realize that where we're at is just the start. I realize that just like a pregame warm-up in baseball, we're in that same situation. The game hasn't even started. And I'm going to tell you something. I don't know who you are listening on this call.

I don't know what you're doing or what you've been doing or what your plans are if you're just kind of dipping your toe. But I'm going to say something to you, and I'm going to be real frank with you right now, is we're going somewhere big. And I know exactly where that is, and we're going with or without you, but we'd love to have you. And if somebody sends you a link tonight to get on this call, I want you to do one thing and one thing only, and that is go to that link, and I want you to click on that link, and I want you to open that buy page, and I want you to put your information right into that page, and I want you to hit that add to cart button, and I want you to get your credit card out and join, guys. And I want you to get started and make a decision and step into your power and realize that you're in the right place at the right time with the right people who are going to lead you to the right places.

Why? Because we have your best intentions in mind. Why? Because we started this company for a different reason. Why?

Because we were tired of the bullshit. Why? Because we were tired of company owners who broke a fingernail and decided to shut the doors. Why? Because we were tired of going around and selling products that we didn't believe in.

Why? Because we were tired of compensation plans that were started and built for the company and not the distributor. Why? Because even if we were succeeding, our teams were having a hard time succeeding. Why?

Because we have a dream and a vision that's bigger than ourselves. Why? Because now we've locked arms with leaders and badasses from around the world who have your best intentions in mind. Why? Because we have not a company, not a line of products, not a comp plan, even though all of our products, comp plan, and company is the most badass thing that this profession has ever seen.

Why? Because we have a dream, because our hearts are bigger. Our vision is bigger. And most importantly, that vision has room for you. I'll talk to you guys soon.

See you in Denver, guys. Let's do this. Although you're listening to a private recording in a non-disclosure Empowered Network customer training, the principles and strategies in this audio can be applied in any business. Although these techniques, philosophies, and strategies may have worked for others, no one can guarantee that they will work for you. We report real average earnings, updated daily, at empowernetwork.com forward slash income dot php.

The purchase of this or any other audio is not required to earn money in our affiliate compensation plan, and you can decide to not continue to buy these forever, at any time. We hope, however, these ideas and strategies will assist you in building a profitable, long-term business. Success takes hard work, determination, skill, and consistent effort. Please refer to our average earnings at empowernetwork.com forward slash income dot php. Although you're listening to a private recording in a non-disclosure Empowered Network customer training, the principles and strategies in this audio can be applied in any business.

Although these techniques, philosophies, and strategies may have worked for others, no one can guarantee that they will work for you. We report real average earnings, updated daily, at empowernetwork.com forward slash income dot php. The purchase of this or any other audio is not required to earn money, and you can decide to not continue to buy these forever, at any time. We hope, however, these ideas and strategies will assist you in building a profitable, long-term business. Success takes hard work, determination, skill, and consistent effort.

Please refer to our average earnings at empowernetwork.com forward slash income dot php.