Tracey Walker and the Tale Of 3 Gents

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. All right, good evening, Empower Network. This is Tracy Walker, and I am super, super excited to be hosting, or co-hosting, I should say, this week's Empower Hour call. You know, there's something always, you know, new and just revitalizing with Empower Network. And, you know, one of those things is literally always being able to receive a text or an email or a call from David Wood or David Sharp asking me to participate in some shape, form, or fashion.

It's definitely an honor. And because I have such a great respect for our community, as well as our co-founders and the movement that we are all in, and the community that we are all in, amongst a host of you, it is definitely my pleasure to actually be here on the call with you tonight. So let me just give you just a little breakdown of what's going on. And, guys, listen, if you happen to be on the moderator line, I'll need you to at least mute your line a little bit. I know that I've got some guests on, but I can hear some background.

So just go ahead and mute out. I'll bring you guys out accordingly. So just to open up and give a little introduction, as to who I am and, you know, what's been going on in my world, what brought me to the world of Empower, I am originally from Chicago, Illinois. I'm born and raised on the south side of Chicago. I went to Hyde Park High School on the south side.

I graduated there with, you know, good grades. I'm a society person, went to college, went to Florida A&M University, graduated in the fall of 1999 with a master's in psychology. I graduated in business administration.

And so, you know, it was, I mean, I went right through school. I graduated magna cum laude, and I did pretty much everything, literally, that school taught me, that my parents taught me, and that what I perceived to be the right direction, the right path, well, that's the route that I took. So unfortunately, after graduating from college with this wonderful master's degree that, you know, you spend so much money on, and, in fact, still paying off some, you know, student loans, currently, just because of resistance, just wanting to, you know, strangle those people sometimes, I didn't have a job. And so I stayed in Tallahassee for a year. I finally got a position in Atlanta.

So I moved to Atlanta in 2000 for an energy marketing position. I worked 12-hour shifts. Sometimes I worked 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sometimes I worked 7 p.m.

to 7 a.m. My body was flipping. And sometimes I was eating lunch in the middle of the night, sometimes in the middle of the day. Either way, trying to go to sleep with the sun blaring through your window at 7 in the morning just wasn't a good thing for me. And then trying to go to sleep at times where, you know, the whole house is trying to go to sleep too, just that whole back-and-forth thing just had me completely out of whack.

I hated what I did. Now, was it cool? Was the money okay? Did I go to school and get a job in the area that I was working? And the answer is yes.

But was it worth it to me? Absolutely not. I couldn't go back to homecoming. If you guys, you know, went to college, you know what homecoming is like, right? And so especially after, you know, your first couple years coming out of school and graduating, homecoming is, you know, that's all there is, right?

And so my job, they wouldn't give me the time off for homecoming. They wouldn't give me time off for things that I needed. And I began to pray. I literally began to pray to be laid off for something to happen. I needed to do something else.

Well, during the time that I was making these prayers, I was actually working a real estate business part-time. Thankfully, my father had introduced me to real estate investing while I was in graduate school. And I had gone to a few seminars with him here and there and traveled different places. And I thought, you know, well, that, I'd rather do that, right? Because, I mean, I was making pretty decent money at my job.

But really, you know, a couple of those deals, and I'm covered for my entire year's worth of salary at, you know, early 20s, early 20s is the age I was at. So I began doing this real estate business part-time and built up some acumen with doing it. And then what do you know? The tragic events of September the 11th took place. And my.

Company, as well as the sector, which was the energy sector, went into, you know, a major crisis. The credit ratings for the companies went down. My company went into a massive layoff. And I believe it was maybe the second or third round of layoffs that my prayers were answered. And for me, it was a prayer.

It was a dream come true because I hated what I was doing. I wasn't happy. I was sick. I would have to go to the chiropractor. I don't know if I've said this before, but I would literally have to go to the chiropractor.

And my dad will tell you, he worked for an attorney's firm and knew chiropractors. I would have to go to the chiropractor to have my neck adjusted because I had been sitting at that computer and those monitors for so long that literally I had a pinched nerve on the left-hand side of my neck that just would not go away. And I had to consistently be adjusted to help with that pain. So I was thrilled. I was happy.

I was so excited. So they called my name. I ran up to the HR department, escorted by the police, or escorted by the security officers there. And, you know, the lady asked me a very simple question because I just seemed so happy. I'm assuming most people were not at that point in time.

And so she said, do you really understand what you're doing? And I said, do I get severance? And she said, yes. I said, well, do I get Georgia unemployment? She goes, yes.

I said, I understand exactly what I'm signing. Let's hurry this thing up. I've got to go. So I signed that paperwork and turned it back into her. I flew out of that building, turned in my ID badges and all this stuff, got in my car and drove back to Stone Mountain just thrilled.

Well, I took that severance and began to use my Georgia unemployment to not only sustain life, but to also start and fund my real estate business. And that's exactly what I did. Now, this had to be like March of 2002. So if we fast forward April, May, June, July, four months, fast forward four months, I received a phone call that I don't wish on anyone, ever.

And it was a phone call from my mother where she was saying to me that the doctors, she had gone to a doctor's appointment and they had diagnosed her with stage four lung cancer and that she had six months to live. So literally my heart hit the floor and, you know, felt just all types of nervousness running throughout my body, flashing forward, not really knowing, well, what is, what happens in six months? You mean my mom's not going to be here in six months. I didn't know what life was like without her. I mean, who does, who knows what life is like without your parent if you've had them around, right?

And then you now have this notice, right? You have this notice that this person isn't going to be around after this date, this point in time. It's literally that cut and dry. So in August of 2002, I packed up my car and I drove back to Chicago not knowing how long I was going to be there and took care of her and we did all that we could do and, you know, we were good, we were great and actually she lived longer than the six months. Imagine that, she actually lived seven months, the power of the mind, I tell you.

And after she passed away, it was March 2, 2003, I pretty much dug into my real estate business and never looked back. I built a brand new house in Chicago. I had cars and luxury cars and jewelry and trips and, you know, all the wonderful materialistic things. And because I had never had much of anything much, right? I've always been okay.

Like I wasn't drop dead poor or anything like that. Like my parents, you know, did well, right? And it wasn't like I didn't have food on the table. And that is a totally different lifestyle. So because I had never had.

Anything like that before, I wasn't that good to money, right? I treated money extremely, extremely, I don't know, like a stepchild, like I didn't care about it. You know, I spend it when I felt like spending it. I'd hoard it even at times because I was afraid to spend it, right? So from one side of the pendulum slinging from one side of the fence to the other, and this volatile cycle of how I treated money reflected in my lifestyle.

So some minutes we were up and other times we were down. And when I say down, we were down. My lowest point was when the real estate market began to crash. And we went from doing three deals a month, all those years until 2006, where we did three deals for the entire year, three deals for the entire year.

And in the way that my lifestyle was, it was literally traumatic. My house went into foreclosure. My beautiful home went into foreclosure. My cars, all of them, all of my cars went into repossession, filed for bankruptcy like twice. I filed for bankruptcy.

Once to stop the foreclosure and then filed another time to actually try to get rid of some of the debt, you know, went down to the aid office and qualified for food stamps, literally. And it wasn't the most comfortable time of my life. Literally, I would sit in my house and on the stairs, I'll never forget it. I would sit on those stairs and I would just cry, cry, cry. I would look up in hours, hours will have gone by.

And I am just sitting on those stairs, bawling out of control because I didn't have any vision. I didn't know where I was going. I didn't even know how the hell I ended up where I was. I thought I was doing everything just right. Well, after getting over myself and the pity party, which took a little while, right?

I mean, I'll give it to you. Everybody has their own time to heal, but I tell you what, better sooner than later or else you'll find yourself just spiraling downward even further. But I finally got over myself and the pity party, and I attracted, I would say what I know now, I attracted a call, a call from a good friend of mine who introduced me to the world of network marketing. This was January of 2007.

I took a credit card that I was living off of. You know, the electricity was rigged and the cable was rigged and the water and all this other stuff was rigged. And there are people that are on this call right now that know, right? I've got family probably on this call. I've got my best friends probably on this call.

My dad is even on this call probably. And they're on this call. They will all tell you that it's true. I took this credit card at this point in time where I didn't know where, you know, I was going to be able to come up with money to just put gas in my car. Now, some would say, why would you do that?

Well, here's what I knew. I knew that if I needed food or if I needed anything dealing with my person, right? Clothing or whatever. Something dealing, you know, a personal need that friends and family, if they had it, would probably be more willing to lend me their helping hand on something more reasonable like that, as opposed to me calling them, asking them for money for a business.

That was just me, right? So I took my chances on not having any of that other stuff just so I could try to get on my own two feet and start a business. And here's what I'll tell you guys. Here's what I will tell you about that. You know, there's a boxer.

And I've said this over and over again at different times, but there's a boxer. His name is Floyd Mayweather. And I don't know if you guys are boxing fans, whatever. They call him Pretty Boy Floyd, right? And there's something about his demeanor, his certainty, his surety, his confidence in his skill of boxing that he literally dares anyone to step in the ring with him, right?

And his confidence exudes beyond the ring. It permeates through all the television screens and the big screens all across the world and the country that when he's fighting. But I will tell you this, there's one person that Floyd Mayweather, I guarantee would always, always bet his money on. And that was himself. He didn't care what the circumstance was or what drama he was going through or what type of circle or what type of obstacles he was facing.

Floyd Mayweather, as far as the public eye, has always bet on himself. And this was a time in my life where I said, you know what, I can't depend on anybody else. Only person I know who can do this is me. I'm going to bet on me.

I don't know this stuff that well. I'm going to have to learn it. I'm coming off of a, you know, a totally different lifestyle, right? I have to go back to a grind phase now. But you know what?

It's worth it. And the reason is because I am going to bet on me. So that's what I did. So I started this network marketing company. For a year, 2007, 2008, I did offline presentations every Tuesday, every Thursday.

Rain, snow, sleet, or hail in Chicago. Saturday morning presentations, doing all types of going back and forth to the home office and taking people with me to and from the home office. Doing all types of trainings and just random things and helping my team members and really wanting them to get it. Really wanting them to get it. And lo and behold, you know, if you can imagine, I got burned out very, very quickly because I was excited.

I was ready to go. And I was like, hell on wheels, right? Hell on wheels. No one could stop what I was doing. But I burned myself out doing everything for everybody.

I burned myself out feeling sorry for other people. I burned myself out driving all around the city of Chicago with snow to my eyeballs, 30 minutes in my car to even warm up. Another 30 minutes to put on a snowsuit and boots. Drive over to where I'm going to drive over to. Get there.

Take off all that crap for 30 minutes. You know, get some water. Hydrate. Stop the sweat. Because I'm sweating underneath the hat and the scarf and the gloves and the earmuffs and everything else, the thermos and the four layers of clothes.

Get to the person's house and it's one freaking person sitting in that living room. If you know what being pissed off is, that was it for me. That was it for me. And I said, there's got to be a better way to build this business. I had seen people in real estate do it.

At this point, I had been to conferences and companies where I'd seen people in home-based business do it. And I said, look, these people are no different than me. They're no smarter than me. They're no prettier than me.

They're no uglier than me. They're no skinnier or fatter. They're no nothing than me. I am just as good as they are. All I need to do is figure out what the hell they know.

And if I can figure out what they know and then I actually go to work in implementing what I learned, then I am going to be able to rock this thing. I know I'm going to be able to do it. So I got on the internet in 2008 after being burned out. And I found the world of internet marketing.

It went beyond me just wanting to automate myself and do a video and show a video presentation in front of people using Skype or something like that off-site. It grew into something. It grew into a way of life where literally I could prospect. I could generate leads. I could recruit.

I could train. I could encourage. I could inspire. I could duplicate myself. I could do it all from my computer at home.

And I didn't even have to leave my foreclosed house. So eventually I did have to leave that foreclosed house, believe it or not. 2009, I moved back to Atlanta and started over. Started everything over from scratch. I got away from home again.

I said, you know what? I am just going to be a sponge and be open to learning whatever I could. And that year, that year was when I ran into this gentleman by the name of David Wood. At this time, David and his wife, Ashley, were actually living in a van, right?

In Hawaii, on the beaches of Hawaii. And it's not so glamorous when, you know, a policeman is knocking at your window, threatening to give you a ticket because you are loitering or whatever it's called on the beaches. Like you can't sleep in your car on the beaches of Hawaii, right? And so I met this guy who joined the same program that I was in. And he literally went from, you know, no one knowing his name whatsoever because I happened to be on the leaderboard in that company at that time, one of the leadership people.

And he skyrockets to the top of the leaderboard and he does it so fast and he leaves so much space between him and second place after a while that it was literally, when I tell you, undeniable that this man was a genius and that he was someone that I need to actually start paying attention to. Now, I will tell you at the beginning, I thought it was a little quirky, right? I've said this before, you know, he wore these sandals. We met for the first time in LA.

We recorded a DVD together and we did a video. It's actually like on YouTube still right now. And we were both so new to this industry. Nonetheless, after working some years in this industry and in the field of internet marketing and with that company, he realized that there were some challenges, some things, wanted to fill the gap. And we would chat every now and again on Skype and, you know, he would get my opinion, you know, Trace, what do you think about this?

I had no idea that he was actually crafting up this little nice master plan at all. I had no idea what he had under his sleeve. And then I get to an event in October of 2011. We were both speakers at this event. It was a marketing conference.

And he goes, you know, I meet David Sharp for the first time really at this time. And he goes, you know, we think you're smart. You're sharp, right? And we want to share something with you. And I said, okay, that's fine.

He actually said it to me and my good friend, Nicole Cooper. And Nicole was eight months pregnant with her beautiful son, Carson, who you guys see so much now. But she was pregnant with Carson and she was running around with me, helping me. Like she didn't even have to be in Orlando, but she was just kind of helping me at my table and, you know, swipe credit cards to make sales and all these things we have to do, creating these products and all this stuff. And she said, you know what?

I'll go listen, right? I want to hear. And I said, I'm tired, right? I want to hear it, but not tonight. So she went, she heard.

Dave Wood and Dave Sharp shared some info with her. And Nicole was not interested. She washed her hands of it. I don't care. Don't want to hear it.

I said, well, I think I'm kind of interested in this, right? I'm at a point in my life where I was doing okay, not the greatest, but I was doing okay for internet marketing. I was making five figures a month, but my team wasn't. My team wasn't. And it was so disheartening.

It was so disheartening that you're working your butt off. And the people who are so loyal to you, the people who are sticking in the game, the people who aren't quitting because you're saying don't quit, the people who are getting to the events because you say get to the events, the people who are, you know, following the training because you're telling them to follow the training or buy the products because you're telling them to buy the products, these people were not winning. And it literally made my heart cry. Clearly, it made Dave have a similar type of feeling. I don't know if men's hearts cry or if they're willing to admit it.

Nonetheless, there was something going on, right? And then he came up with this idea, right? And so when it was shared with me, I jumped on it. So this was October of 2011, and as I can say now, the rest is history, right?

I went to work. I went to work my first month inside of this company. I got on the phone. People who I sponsored in the first few weeks will tell you we were on the phone. I was creating lead capture pages myself.

I was creating videos myself. I was creating any and everything that I could. Because we did not have the tools available that we do now. So many of you are so fortunate to have, you know, 13, 14 lead capture pages to choose from, autoresponder messages to import into your AWeber, videos you can leverage, success stories you can use, all this stuff, you know, the leveraging of the events and all the people that are running up on stage because of, you know, a certain level of income that they freeze, all of this to your advantage. And for us, we had none.

We had to create it. We had to create it. And the thing was, I just bought into the vision. I'm going to ask you tonight to just buy into the vision. I mean, there was just something about what I said to you about Floyd Mayweather, about how he always bets on himself.

And I told you I leverage that same type of thinking. And I decided back in 2008, 2007, I'm sorry, that I'm going to bet on myself. And then when Empower Network came around and I was given the opportunity to learn about it from David Wood and David Sharp, if there were another person I would bet on myself, because I knew it's hard, because I knew really what he desired, because I knew he could actually make it happen, because I knew that he was a literal genius walking amongst us, because I knew all of that, that other person I would bet on was David Wood. And I did. I said, if anybody's going to be able to make this thing work, if it does, great.

If it doesn't, oh, well. But I've got to try. I've got to try because if I'm going to run with anybody, it's going to be him. This man is a beast. I've got to run with him.

And thank God I did. Thank God I did. I've said before, who would have ever thought that an MBA grad with this prestigious little degree, a piece of paper, that her life would have been so inspired and so uplifted by an ex-homeless man in a van and a former drug addict? Who would have thought? Who would have ever thought that?

See, my friends, you just never know. You never know whose path you're going to cross, and you never know who can actually help you. And so tonight, I'm going to share with you a few people whose stories have evolved as a result of the movement, not necessarily because of me in particular or anyone in particular. I'll let them tell you their stories on their own. But I've got, you know, an all-male cast tonight.

Imagine that. I think I'm kind of used to that for the most part. But I've got an all-male cast tonight. I've got three guys, three gentlemen, whose names you may or may not have ever heard of. And that's the beauty of it because I want you to understand that a decision needs to be made tonight, one way or the other.

Either you're going to bet on yourself against all odds, no matter what. Or you're going to fall subject to blaming somebody else for your failures and or your successes. The choice is yours. These gentlemen have bet on themselves. Maybe Empower had a little bit of inspiration in that, a little bit of a spoonful, a dose of that.

But when it was all said and done, they had to go to work. And so the first person that I want to bring out tonight. I hope that he, I believe that he's on the line, but you know, I met him because he is the teammate of one of my teammates, right? How about that? A woman that I worked with in a previous company before, a few years back, saw me rocking and rolling and empowering.

Guess what? Did not join. Oh no. This is a lady. I knew she was a leader.

We had traveled all around together, her husband and her son, and we shared some of the same mentors and went to the same trainings and all types of things. They helped develop us as leaders in this industry and as producers even, and team leaders. And she did not join. Why? I don't know.

But one day she did. One day she finally said, you know what, Trace? I just, I can't take it anymore. I've watched you go from point A to point B. And you know what I want to do?

I want to get in this and I want to see what this is about. She then decided to wholeheartedly get started. And when she did, she began to bring some of her team with her, letting them know that this is what she was doing and that, you know, maybe they should evaluate it for themselves. And one of these gentlemen who did that, his name is Terrence Freeman. And, you know, let me just tell you a little bit about Terrence really quickly.

See, when Terrence first got inside of Empower Network, he started in January, January of this year, but like a lot of people, you know, and I may be talking to you right now, so glad you're on this call, that he did nothing. He did nothing. And he said he didn't do anything because he actually felt a little guilty, right?

He felt a little guilty because of leaving the previous company he was with. I don't know if you've ever felt that before, but you felt a little, oh, not sure. You feel a little tormented about that whole thing. But then, between March and January of this year, he saw everybody else was still moving. Everybody else.

Everybody else was still moving, and guess what? He was sitting still. He couldn't resist or deny the movement with or without him. And so he started implementing in March. He started implementing in March.

Now, he's been in our industry of network marketing as a whole for the past four years. But, you know, he was chasing people down, right? He was, you know, hounding them. You got to get in. You got to do this.

You got to do this. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Doing, you know, all the those other things that, you know, if you still want to do them, that's great here.

We just don't teach them to you because there's other more effective ways to do it. But he was doing all that stuff. And he literally said that he felt like a recycling bin. He felt like a recycling bin. So, I am going to ask Mr.

Terrence Freeman to go ahead and unmute himself. And Terrence, are you there? Hey, how are you, Tracy? Can you hear me? I hear you loud and clear, Terrence.

How's it going tonight, brother? Hey, sis. I am so blown. Honestly, I did not even expect this. I was just coming out.

Like, when you hit me up, I was coming out of the subway, going into my apartment, and I'm like, and I got that inbox, and I was blown. Like, you heard, you saw the inbox. I said, I am nervous. But you know what? I am a leader in charge, and I am here to basically come up from my heart, say basically what happened to me and why I am an empowered network.

And this is it. This is it. So, I am taking full advantage of it. And I know that.

There you go. There are a lot of leaders on here like Dave and Dave Wood. I mean, Dave Sharp, Dave Wood, Tony Rush. I mean, you guys are massive. I am just blown, and I am just going to take advantage of it.

I hope you guys can understand my nervousness, though. I hope. Oh, you know what, Terrence? It is absolutely normal to be nervous, right? Because that is the butterflies, right?

Some people call it nervousness. Some people call it excitement. Whatever. Either way, just embrace it. And really quickly.

Before I even turn it over to you for a couple minutes to share your thoughts and bring out the other guests, guys, to get on this call tonight, just really quick, you may have seen a post that David Wood put up. And it was a picture. He just kind of threw this up at the last minute, this picture, and said to click share on it, right? Like, if you like Tracy, click share. And next thing you knew, he was sending me a Facebook inbox and was like, oh, my God, we are already, you know, over 420 shares in like 15 minutes.

Right? And so he goes, I bet, I bet we could get over to 1,500 shares. And so what I'm going to ask you to do, you guys know David Wood is a marketing, a pure marketing genius, right? And he literally gets a kick out of seeing how we react as people in marketing and things of that sort. And I just want to remind you that if you have not shipped, you've seen the photo, if you go to his page on Facebook and you find that picture that he's got there talking about the call, the time, I think it's a picture of me.

I think it's a picture of me with my check from Denver and the call in phone number. Please, head over there, you know, and share that, right? Let's see what we can do. I'll make another announcement in a little bit of time. But right now, let's get back to Terrence.

So Terrence, I'm going to turn the call over to you, sir, and just let us know what it is about Empower Network that is now, you know, soaking into the point where you are now taking action and getting results. Okay. Basically, guys. I'm, you guys already know my name, Terrence Freeman. I previous getting involved with this, like, I'm a belly to belly type of person.

I have no problems speaking with people going, well, I did have a problem before even getting involved with multi-level marketing. But before I even get involved with that, you know, my dream, honestly, because we all know that we are, we do network marketing, we do direct sales, we do multi-level marketing for one thing only. It's to fulfill our dreams. Now, my dream growing up, honestly, was to be a wide receiver in the NFL. I was the fastest guy in the block.

Well, actually, maybe in the 10 block radius up here in upper Manhattan in Washington Heights. And in 10 blocks in New York City is a lot of kids. Trust me. And I used to tell guys back then when I used to play, in fact, I'll say it like this. I used to play the wide receiver position.

I had the defensive back. Now, for you women who don't know sports, like a defensive back is the guy who intercepts and goes after the ball. The wide receiver is the one that has to make sure he gets that ball, you know. Now, I played that position as a defensive back. In other words, when I went out to receive the ball, I knew that I was going to receive it only because of my speed and because I had good hands and not to just be, you know, boastful about it.

But you know what? I was, that was my sport. And that was my dream. But guess what? Sometimes you make the wrong decision.

You start hanging out with the wrong crowd. You start deciding to make money a quicker way. In fact, you know, I'm going to be straight up with you guys. I did say I'm going to come straight from the heart. And, you know, it's ironic that Tracy inboxes me and asks me to be on this call and started on.

I believe Friday, I started listening back to the inner circle, September 5th, 2011, influenced and inspired. And then, you know, today started, you know, I went to the beach this weekend and so forth. And then I was listening to the power of you. Now that right there, it's like hit me massively. That reminded me of when I wanted to play football and be, you know, fulfill my dream.

The reason why that didn't happen. Again, like I said, bad decisions, you hang out with the wrong crowd, but I got cut. Like when I got cut for one point that I did not make grade, that was the decision that changed my life where I decided to make bad decisions. In other words, had I gotten that one point, I probably would have been in the NFL right now because that was my inspiration. That was my dream.

Now we are only human out here. And yeah, we, it's easy to say, ah, you know, we can't block our dreams or stop from dreaming. Yeah. You know, but discouragements and discourages get in the way when it's something that you really want it to happen. You know, when it's something you really want to happen, it doesn't happen.

That first feeling you get, it's a big discouragement. And to get over that alone is massive, you know? And, but that's, you know, a little story of me. And, you know, again, I made bad decisions. I went through high school, didn't get through that.

Tried to get my GED, didn't get through that. I mean, again, it doesn't even matter who you are. As long as it's what you believe that you can be capable of doing. Like I could have been, we, I mean, again, I could have been locked up, done up. I mean, done.

Like as many as, you know, the majority of the people in the United States are, you know what I mean? And, but again, it's, I decided when my son was born, you know, I went to high, again, I went to high school, so forth, blah, blah, blah. I was working on and off. And, again, I almost, that was the scare of my life.

I almost got locked up. I decided to, yay, you know what? Let me start working and implementing just having a job. You know, the quick money ain't the way. And that, that was just the way I was thinking.

You know, born and raised up here in Washington Heights. I mean, it's not easy. You know, this is what you get. You know, it's hard for a lot of the kids up here to even get over that. You know, and, so I, you know, I did the high school thing.

Didn't get, didn't get through that, so forth. Started working, so forth, and my son was born. And I was working at that time for New York City. I was in the Department of Finance. I was supervisor for adjudication.

Which is, parking violations. So I, it was good for me. And mind you, I did not graduate high school, but I managed to get a supervisor job, in the city of New York, for the city of New York. No high school diploma, only because I communicated well with people. You know, I was a bit shy, but I knew that the only way you're going to get around is you got to open your mouth, you know?

And you speak what you, you speak straight from the heart. And, like I knew that, like, I knew that I was going to get a job. I knew that I was going to get a job. My father died when I was nine years old. Like, I had to start ironing my own clothes.

I had to take care of my little brother. My mom's who works for the government now, who's retired, God bless her soul. She's still here with us. Guess what, guys? It ain't going to get no better.

It's not going to get no better. And, so yeah, so that happened. But, you know, I went into that, and I got laid off. After five years, when Mayor Bloomberg became mayor, I got laid off. Once I got laid off, I went back to what I should not have been doing.

And that was a short-lived moment. And I decided to work with my hands. I became a mason. I started building fireplaces. I was making some serious money, great money, doing my own contracts out in Park Avenue, down here.

And it was great. But, again, I got laid off after 2000, it was 2008, I got laid off. I was not working for a whole year until a friend of mine came to me in 2009. Hey, there's this great opportunity for you. You need to check this out.

And me being the person I am, you know, I was like, well, what is left? I mean, I have to see what my mom's gone through and what I've gone through, maybe because of the bad decisions. And honestly, it doesn't really matter, because you heard it. I heard it from Tracy Masters. Mind you, she's getting knowledge from a guy who managed to make money from the back of a van who was homeless, along with a partner, Dave Sharp, who was a drug addict and a homeless man, too, in his teens.

I wasn't even gone through that. Most of us probably haven't even gone through that, honestly. You know? Seriously, it takes a big heart and that soul and that strength to really come over there. And I commend these guys.

I mean, I joined Empowered. You tell them, my God. Guys, I know I'm a little all over the place, but I joined Empowered Network in 2011, in September, in the pre-launch. I put in, but I never submitted the $25. Now, had I done that, and I saw Dave Wood.

I saw the video. I was like, who is this guy? But I did not implement it, because at the same time, I was so passionate about what I was doing already. You know? The first year was great.

Going into the second year, it started dwindling, but I wasn't smart enough to understand comp plans or understand the fact that you might end up recycling people, like you might end up being a recycling bin. Seriously, because honestly, I was blowing, blowing, blowing, and then as many people as I was getting people in, people were signing off because they couldn't afford whatever they had to pay on the monthly auto ship. And again, Tina, who's my sponsor, Tina Marie Williams, who, you know, she came to me in January and said, hey, you've got to check out this Empowered Network and told me about Tracy Walker. I looked up Tracy Walker. I read some of her stuff, and I was like, wow, she bought a Mazalari, and this is online.

I've never done anything online like that. Anything I did online was on Facebook. Everything that I did online was on Facebook, and that's how I promoted my business. My multi-level marketing opportunity that I was at before, that's how I did it. A lot of people know that.

That's how I got over 4,000, 4,500 friends in my Facebook. It's not because of the friends I have. Most of those people in my Facebook are people who are networkers, and I've networked with a lot of people. And every time I've gone into these events in the previous company, I've always put myself in the mix. And interestingly, I've introduced myself to the leaders.

Like, I've made that decision to do that. Because if you're going to get somewhere, you've got to speak to the leaders and pick up from them. You've got to let them know that you're there, you know? And, but it's, again, it's, you know, you've got the comp plan. Some comp plans work for some, and some don't.

But when I saw the Empowered Network, and I joined in 2011 and so forth, I didn't do anything. I just let it ride. A whole year and a half. I didn't pay no mind to it because I was still doing my business. And here comes 2012, and, you know, I'm seeing this in a lot of Empowered Network stuff, and Tina hits me up, and I was like, you know what?

Okay, I'll do it. Because I already knew who Dave Wood was. I mean, I didn't know him, like, exactly what it's all about, like blogging. I never blogged. Guys, within three, within the, when I started in March, from within March and June, I already got 67 blog posts.

I mean, I don't think that's bad for someone who's never done any blogging or done any online marketing. I've never done no online marketing the way it's supposed to be done, you know? I've always done everything through Facebook. Again, that was my online marketing. And, again, Facebook is massive because it is a tool, you know?

But, again, I'm with Dave Wood, as he said, and Dave in Denver. But I'm not. I'm not going to say it on the call, though. But, you know, guys, seriously, I'm excited, and I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to get on this call and give you a little story about me. I'm no one special.

I'm just a person who wants it just as bad as you do. And we all know that it's not easy because it's not meant to be. But as long as we continue with the consistency of just connecting with people, guess what? I mean, it's like Dave Wood said in The Power of Unity. It's like you can have your story, right?

And that's what killed me. Like, even me, like, it's ironic. Like I said, I get the opportunity to make, to do this call for the few minutes that I have and tell you my story and be authentic as I can because that's the way you have to be and just take advantage of the opportunity. This is where you want people to know who you are because this is where you are. This is where you're going to start connecting with the people who are connecting with the story you're implying.

You know, everybody, all of us have a story. And that's what I love about Empower Network is that it taught me how to market me. It's teaching me how to market Terrence Freeman. It's not, I don't have to go out there and market a product that I'm only going to make volume points on. That didn't make sense to, well, back then it was making sense to me because I was excited.

But, like, later on, like, it didn't make sense. It made me, like, wow, you know how much product I done sold for the company and how much little money I got, you know? And Dave Wood and Dave Sharp come up with a system, a platform, where the average person who even works the nine to five part-time can actually come home with at least three grand a month and doesn't even have to do anything. And then comes the closure, guys. Results may vary, you know.

If you guys who are not in Empower Network now, you know, just because I'm saying it doesn't mean you're going to make it. It's all up to you. You've got to have that drive, that passion. It's like any other thing you want to get into for yourself. You open up a business, you open up them gates, what are you looking for?

You put the grand opening sign in front of the business, and guess what? You're waiting for people to come into the business, right, to walk right in. And even if you've got somebody handing out flies out there, you want to lure them in. You know, and that's the objective right there. You know, and then with this platform, which is so affordable, I mean, someone can actually start with 25 bucks and just not do anything.

But if he's a good promoter, oh, my God. Oh, my God. Could you imagine? You're not a salesman in this. You're not selling them products.

Basically, it's like telling them, hey, you didn't finish school? I got a training for you that's going to pay you more than you would have went through your four years of college and got your math. Within six months, as long as you follow the steps. I mean, you could even go that far and tell them like that, you know? But, yeah, you know, hey, I'm excited.

I'm just so glad that I was able to get on this call. And, you know, again, I just want to touch base on just one thing about the power of unity and how Dave Wood says, you know, guys, if you're in Empower Network right now, right, and if you're over 60, you're going to be able to do it. I mean, I've been in Empower Network for six months going into a year, right? I only got five months now. I mean, but I know I'm all in.

I've been all in for the past two months, month and a half. Maybe I think more than that, but it took me, I had to make a drastic decision to do it, and I did it, but I got it done. A partner of mine who saw me do it, who's on my team, Anthony Reed, went all in. So, guys, when you start making those steps, believe me, people will follow. They will follow you.

If they believe in you, they're going to follow you. You know, and I know Anthony Reed a very long time. We were in the previous business before. This guy is massive, you know. But I just want to say that, you know, we are definitely where we're supposed to be, you know.

And as long as each of us lead by example and we lock arms and we unify that message along with Dave Wood and Dave Sharp, guys, it's like Dave Sharp said, this is the new chapter of the Internet. We are the new chapter. I mean, you've got guys who've been blogging before Empower Network who definitely are getting involved in Empower Network because of the simplicity of it. And who does not want to make 100% commissions? Seriously.

On products that's only going to enhance your skill. Have you done things that you probably never thought you'd do?

I love making videos, man. I've never thought I'd be making videos. I get all excited when I start doing a YouTube video. That's why when you see my videos in YouTube, it's like they're all over the place. But again, I'm still learning.

I'm learning to become a leader. I'm learning to become like Tracy, like David, like Dave Sharp, like many, Tony Rush, Aaron. These guys are massive. John Chapman. You know what I mean?

Guys on the dream. Team Adrian Hines, Nicole Cooper. Guys, we are massive. This is a community of people who are definitely going to make a difference in the Internet game because we're going to change the lives of so many people by showing them that they can make money online by marketing who? Yourself.

You don't have to wear a brand. You don't have to put on a, you know, blah, blah, blah, and so forth and get a little money for it. Ten percent, 20, doesn't make sense anymore. This is it right here, guys. We are massive.

This is where it's at. And if you guys are not in the Power Network and you're listening to this call, guys, get in. If you can't get all in, you can get in for $25 because you'll spend that on a Saturday night in a half hour. And celebrating, having a good time. Then Sunday, from Sunday, you wake up, you're like, oh, my God, I spent $120.

$150. Why'd I do that? Oh, my God. You ain't going to have to be worrying about that if you decide to take action. If you decide to, just like Eric says, man, you know, how bad do you want it?

How bad do you want it? I know how bad I want it. And I know that we can drown underwater. That water will drown you. So you better come up and swim up hard to breathe.

Tracy, I want to thank you. I'm just like, I know I was all over the place. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, guys.

I hope I didn't take much of the time. Because I know there's another guy who's coming on to the call. And who's definitely massive and definitely going to blow your mind. Also, he's got a lot of nuggets to say. And Tracy, again, I want to thank you.

I want to thank you, Team Massive. You already know, sis. Hey, by the way, I want to thank you for the free Entrepreneur TV. Because when you were talking about the Yoda, Yoda being the mastermind. Because that's it.

Yoda is the mastermind, guys. Straight up. Well, Terrence, you know. Oh, man. Thank you so much.

And I do have to give credit to Justin and D. Varengia for that. Because that is their brainchild, the Freedompreneur TV. And I was asked to be part of it. So I'm glad to know that so many people were actually tuning into that and got some value out of it, including you.

And, Terrence, let me just say that. I absolutely loved the way that you broke down how someone could share the value of our products. Essentially saying, hey, listen, you know, even if you never finished college or any of that, look, I've got some training for you that can actually be better than had you gone to college. I had never even thought about it that way. I mean, I may think maybe you've said some things that kind of danced around that, but never as eloquently and literally as.

Gut-punching as that. Because as soon as you said it, I thought I've got these stupid student loans still, right? And what if someone had shared with me this information when I was matriculating through school or earlier on, you know, in my early 20s or, you know, mid-20s or late-20s even? What if someone had shared this with me? How much further along would I have been?

So, Terrence, thank you so much for sharing your story. Bro, I, you know, you said you were nervous. Not one bit of nervousness. That I, you know, pulled from your voice tonight. You delivered the message just like a champion from your heart.

And I truly believe that the Empower community felt that. Felt that. Felt that you were being as real as you could possibly be. And thank you for sharing your story because there's nothing without the story, right? Well, honestly, I just want to add that, you know, I solely appreciate that, T.

And I just want to add that, you know, seriously, you can't outline the story, you know? So, it's like you want to attract people and you want to be real with what it is that's coming out of your mouth. Especially when you know that there's hundreds of people on the call. You know, like right now, what you did for me, T, was push me through that door. Like, I was like, let's say I was maybe halfway through the door, right?

Or correctly opening it. And maybe being a bit hesitant on coming, you know, coming through as a speaker or even as trying to inspire minds. But what you did for me tonight just put me three levels up. Three levels up. Where I already busted through the door.

And I've already busted through three more doors. And people already don't see me whoosh right by because they're still standing on the sidelines. That's right. Well, you know, hey, you keep busting through all those doors. Oh, I love you too.

I love you too. You keep busting through all those doors. And, you know, it does not take any, it doesn't burn any of your light to light somebody else's candle, right? So you make sure you go and you pass the torch and you light the candles of the people that you influence and inspire. And, Terrence, I appreciate you so much.

Thank you. Will do, sis. Thank you so much. You got it. All right.

So, Terrence, you make sure that you go ahead and mute yourself back out. And, guys, just as a reminder here, I don't know how that picture is going. I'm not on my computer. I'm literally on the phone. I'm walking around in my living room and I'm not looking at the computer.

So if you have seen the photo promoting tonight's call on David Wood's wall, but you have not shared it yet, I want you to head over to David Wood's Facebook wall and grab that picture and share it. We want to see how many shares this photo can get. And I tell you, you know, David Wood is just, you know, he's a gremlin like that. He just loves to see this type of stuff. He goes, he says to me, you know, I should have thought of this earlier.

Well, who knew was what I said to him. Who knew that, you know, it would spread. People love what we do here at Empower and especially our calls that we do weekly. So the next person that I want to share with you tonight is a person who has been in Internet marketing. Now, you heard Terrence gave, you know, a 180-degree story of that, right?

He had never been in Internet marketing before. Yet he's finding success as well. And there's an income disclaimer with that. Of course, we don't know exactly what you will do. The results will vary.

And these are names you've never heard of before. Why? And it's because our company is doing so well. And it's my pleasure to be able to showcase just a few that I know with you guys tonight. So anyway, this guy has, you know, been in Internet marketing, started back in 1998.

And the cool thing is he was actually like an IT guy, right? He was or is a network engineer. But he always wanted to make money online. So he got online in 1998. And you didn't even really have a system possibly for doing it and duplicating it for other people.

And maybe you spent hours and hours and hours doing it. You just didn't feel people were going to follow that suit. Right. Right. Jumping around from program to program to program and really just diluted all of his efforts.

And he did, made no consistent money. And I can relate to that, right? Not making anything consistent until you kind of buckle down a little bit. He's married. He's got three kids.

And I'll tell you what, with his three kids, he's been at every event. Amazingly enough, his wife lets him leave because he lives here in Atlanta too. And he gets to go to every event and hang out with us to build his business. So Carlton Riddick, if you can go ahead and unmute yourself, bro. I want to make sure you're there.

Hey, Trace. What's going on? Hey, Carlton. How are you? I'm doing awesome, doing awesome.

I just appreciate the opportunity. All right. That's good. And you guys, just so you know, Carlton, he is literally, you might have to listen very closely. His speaking voice is just above a whisper.

That is his normal everyday thing. So if you guys, if you're having a hard time, whatever, you turn your volume up because this is about being authentic. And so you might have to turn your volume on your ears in a little bit too, because Carlton always has things great to share. And I tell you, if you don't listen closely, you just might miss it. So Carlton, I'm going to turn it over to you before we bring out our last guest.

And just whatever you want to share, bro, that's on your heart. What do you want people to know about you, about Empower, about themselves, whatever you want, bro. That's on you. Oh, man. Oh, wow.

Let's see. We got how long? Oh, wow. Well, you gave a little background and just I guess I could fill in the gaps there. One of the things that is pretty incredible and pretty awesome about Empower and really removes all of the excuses that you can come up in your mind for not succeeding with Empower is the fact that you can find your story or whatever you have gone through in somebody else that's in leadership that's actually, you know, really cranking out and doing it big.

And of course, I mean, I'm just have the, it has to be God. It has to be some kind of orchestration of the universe for me to be on the team with you. And I think that's what I'm trying to do. And just to give you a little background, like you said, I was doing some Internet marketing, you know, since like the infancy of it in 98 where you could just throw up a bunch of links on a website and, you know, make a little bit of money, which I literally did make a little bit of money.

And that $100 just like popped out of, popped into the mailbox. But obviously, I didn't take that seriously. So, you know, me and Tracy have a similar background. I went to school, went to College of Johnson Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, and majored in computer science and then came to Georgia to go to Georgia Tech. So I was actually on the same track, you know, getting a master's in computer science.

And actually, I was thinking about getting a PhD. I don't know what was crossing my mind with that. But anyway, so I was on the same track. So, you know, we were doing, I was doing the same thing, you know, following the same plan that, you know, you're taught from a kid, you know, I'm a product of a mother who literally is still teaching to this day. I'm trying to get her retired.

I'm working seriously to get her retired. She is now at least 35 years teaching. She's an elementary school teacher. She teaches first grade, and so, you know, of course, education and going to school, getting a good job, all that was drilled into my head, and so, of course, I followed suit. Well, and actually was employed, got employed in the IT field.

I've been in the IT field now 15 years, and actually, just a side note, a lot of people, you know, you see me at the events, or you see me online 24-7 and all over, and a lot of people think I'm like Tommy from the show Martin, if you're familiar with the show Martin, and I don't actually have a job, but literally, I am still employed. Yes, I am still employed, so technically, I am part-time with Empower, but really, I work, you know, like any full-time person does, so I just wanted to put that in there. I know a bunch of people are laughing right now when they hear that, but anyway, so, but like she said, I jumped from program to program. In 2008, I actually ran into Tracy, and that's why it's so funny when she tells her story that she was actually getting cranked up and getting started in 2008 because when I saw Tracy in 2008, I was like, wow, she's doing it big, you know, because I was, you know, struggling the whole time with internet marketing, really, to take it seriously, and I saw her doing some things online with her network marketing career, and I was like, wow, I gotta, you know, I gotta get connected to her, check out what she's doing, so I had a little radio show where you could probably find, if you Google it, probably find the interview out there somewhere, where I actually interviewed Tracy on in 2008 on what she was doing online, and that was like my introduction to her, you know, got connected, and, you know, we lost connection after that, and I went off and started doing the jumping from program to program, and really just not having any success. I knew affiliate marketing was a good way of doing internet marketing, and if you're not familiar, it's literally what we're doing in Empower.

We actually sell a product that someone else created and make a commission. That's what affiliate marketing is. So I did that, you know, I have really, I had no real success with that, no consistent money. A lot of times, even old, still old to this day money, but that's a side note. And so, you know, I still saw Tracy really cranking it out on what she was doing online, and I was like, wow, you know, she's doing it.

She was in the program, and the program that she was with, with David Wood, and I said, well, you know, let me just see what, you know, this is, and I hit Tracy on Facebook, and she was like, well, you need to check out Empower Network. I was like, what in the world? Who? You know, I was like, automatically, I was like, oh, boy, here's another program. I'm literally, I'm going to tell you what I said.

I was like, oh, boy, here's another program. But I said, all right, I'll take it out. And I like what I saw. Obviously, you know, it was what I was doing, but it made it much, much easier than what I was banging my head against the computer over and over again trying to do. So I said, hey, let me jump in.

And that was November 2011, so like she said, I was right, really right after the launch of Empower Network. And, you know, like you said, the rest is history. I got to, you know, meet with Dave and Tony Rush when they came down. We started their first event in Atlanta. I got to meet those guys and really just saw the heart of the people who were involved.

I was like, oh, this is going to be awesome. You know, this is going to be incredible. And it's just been an awesome ride. I'm totally stoked about what Empower is about. You know, it's reignited every dream that I've ever put to the side.

You know, because really, when you're going through and you're really working hard, you're not seeing a lot of success. You know, those dreams start just, you know, they start fading. It's almost like faded jeans when you wash them too many times. They just start fading. You know, they're still there.

You know, but they start fading because you're like, dang, you know, am I going to have to work this job? You know, because I'm, you know, obviously in IT you make good money. Am I going to have to work this job forever or like this 20 years? And literally, you know, the retirement is still going to be nothing when I get out of there. You know, yeah, you got 401K, you got all this other stuff, but it's like, you know that you're not going to be making as much as you're making.

Like, do I want to work this for 20, 30 years? That's a whole other story. So, it's like, you know, those dreams start fading, but, you know, Empower has just reignited every last dream. The only dream that Empower has not touched is my dream to play in the NBA, but at least I get to play in my little leagues every now and then. But other than that, I mean, you know, Empower has done so much for me.

I just can't, just emotionally, just I can't even put into words a lot of times. I know, you know, I've always been an avid reader. As I said, I'm, you know, a son of a teacher, so I've always been an avid reader and read all the time and really, but even that started waning. You know, just my reading, you know, I've read tons of personal development books. I was a student of personal development since, like, 17.

You know, reading all of the books, really understanding success and what you need to do. All that stuff started, you know, waning because of what was going on in life, you know, because when you, you know, the dads out there can really feel me on this. When you start having a family, you start having kids in school, I look at it and I'm like, I'm looking at you and depending on you because what, let me just backtrack a little bit. My wife actually was an IT professional for a while. When we got married, she worked for a particular company, I won't mention names, and then right before we found out she was pregnant with our first child, you know, they wanted her to start traveling.

They said that they had no more, you know, work and contracts here in the Atlanta area, so they wanted her to do a ton of traveling. And I was like, what? And then I, you know, we found out she was pregnant. I was really like, no, we just can't do it. And I just looked, you know, I sat down with the numbers and I was like, well, it's going to be tight, but we're going to have to, you know, let that job go and it's just going to all be on me because, you know, I can't see you traveling, you're pregnant, and we're trying to figure out what we're going to do with daycare because daycare, anybody out there that has kids knows daycare can be ridiculous.

Daycare can be like a house note, especially if you have multiple kids. So, you know, we decided, so God, you know, bless her that she's been able to be home now for all this time, you know, since our first child, our oldest child is 13 and our youngest child, the baby girl, she's two. And, you know, really, I haven't had that, you know, the pressures of paying for daycare and stuff like that, but still, you have the pressure of making sure that you have everything taken care of because now you're the sole breadwinner. Okay? So, and Paul has allowed me to not have that pressure anymore because now I understand that money's coming in.

I see it consistently. You saw it even a couple days ago. You know, we were just sitting around, hanging around. And, you know, we were talking about, oh, let's cook some Chinese food and blah, blah, blah, and ping, thousand dollars pops up on the computer. You know, of course, income disclaimer, your results may vary.

But, you know, it's those types of things that reinforces your dreams, reinforces what you're doing and all the effort that you put into the business. It reinforces that. Empowers, it's like, I just love the name of it, obviously, because it really empowers you. But as a dad, as a provider, and as a person that's trying to succeed in life, I mean, every aspect you can think from financial to personal to spiritual, you know, you're getting pushed and undergirded because of this company. I mean, I've never seen anything like this.

And I've seen a ton of things online. And I've never seen anything like this. And I've never had any kind of success like this until I got involved with Empower Network. So I just thank Dave Wood, Dave Sharp, Tracy, everybody that I can think of for Empower Network. Thank God, of course.

And, you know, I'm just excited. I mean, I hope I didn't take too long, Tracy, but I'm just excited about what's going on. And that's my story. Well, Carlton, you know, you never take too long, Carlton. In fact, there's so many times I'm like, Carlton, keep going, keep talking.

Keep talking some more. But absolutely, it did not take too long. And, you know, I really heard more about your story tonight than I had in a lot of times that we worked together, because we know the gist of each other's stories a lot of times, right? But this was, I think this was my first time ever hearing you say that, you know, at the time that your wife was getting ready to have you all's first child, that you were faced with a decision as to whether or not she should continue working or not, and whether you should, you know, be the primary income provider in the home. And to hear you say that and know that after, you know, 13 years, your oldest child, after 13 years, that you guys have been able to sustain that, and sustain a marriage, even, right?

And sustain a two-parent household where you have kids growing, and they've got mom and dad, and all these wonderful things. It's just so wonderful, Carlton, that you may have put your dreams on the back burner before, but it's just so wonderful that Empower has, as you said, helped to ignite those things, because no matter what, you deserve to still have your dreams, too, right? True, true. Well, that's awesome. Carlton, thank you so much for sharing that.

And for all the dads that are out there that may have heard something that you can actually connect with or connect to from Carlton, use that. Use that. Hold on to that. And know that there's someone in Empower just like you, or very similar to you, that can inspire you to keep pressing forward and keep moving forward as well. Carlton, I so appreciate you.

So if you go ahead and mute back out, I'll go ahead and get our last and final story sharer, I should say, out on the line. And as a brief little announcement, one more time, guys, if you're just joining us or recently just joined in and you didn't hear the announcements before, I want you to go over to David Wood's Facebook page. And he had a picture, a picture there where he was marketing and promoting this Empower Hour call tonight. And he started sharing it and he said some things like, hey, if you like Tracy, share this photo. And this photo went viral like in 15 minutes.

There were over 420 shares of this photo. And so the goal for David Wood is to see, just to see if that photo can actually get over 1,500 shares. And so I'm going to ask you to head over to David Wood's Facebook page. Head over to his page, his wall. Find that photo and share it.

All right? Just share it because the genius marketer that he is, you know, you never know. See, there's always something brewing with Empower Network. You don't know what David Wood's got going on in his brain. For all we know, there could very possibly be something that can be instilled into our Empower Network blogs as a result of what he sees tonight.

I don't know. I'm not saying that there is. He hasn't shared a secret with me. I'm just saying, you know, when you work with a genius like that, you just never know what things are possible as a result of what they experience and see happening in the marketplace. So who knows?

So make sure you share that photo. Let's get it to over 1,500. And the final person that I want to bring out tonight on the call, this person you may know, right? This person you may know. And the reason you may know him is because A, he's pretty much been to every event since he has been in the company.

And he actually used to pick up chicks. He's an ex pickup artist. And, you know, he says he could always pick up the chicks but could never take the girls on dates. Now, the irony of that. But he wanted to find a better life and found the world of internet marketing.

And it was kind of like Carlton from the standpoint of jumping from deal to deal. You know, there's always something better over here, right? It's this product is so much better. Yes, yes, yes. It's this.

Oh, no, this company is better than that. Oh, you know what? It's the pay plan over here. It's this, it's that. And maybe, maybe some of those things are true here and there, but usually there is something lying dormant in the human being, the personal development side of things that no matter where they go, the results are still mediocre at best, right?

So, this guy was trying to figure this whole thing out. He decided, finally, thank God, he finally decided to do this thing that we call focus. He decided to focus, right? You know, I don't know if you're going to focus like this guy focused. And so, as I said, you might know him.

He happens to wear this furry hat on his head all the time. Like, I've never seen him without the furry hat. You know, my stepkids are like, oh, is that Tom, the furry hat guy? They know his voice. They know the furry hat.

They know the video. They know it all. And I'm sure that at some point or another, you have seen this wonderful rock star across your screen at some point. So, without any further delay, I want to bring out, Mr. Tom, the furry hat guy.

Tom, are you unmuted so we can hear you? I am, Tracy. Can you hear me okay? You are loud and clear. And so, Tom, you know, as I shared with Terrence and as I shared with Carlton, the floor is yours, right?

There's no premeditated something. I'm not going to put you in a box in reference to what you've got to talk about. But I just want you to share some things that you feel from your heart that will be of value to all of the people listening in to you tonight on this Empower Hour call. I'm going to turn it over to you to just do what you do, bro. Awesome, awesome.

And thanks, Tracy, so much for the awesome introduction. And I have to turn the stage on to you for just one second here or a few seconds. And to say thank you for being such a light in this world for us to really just see your passion to give back to us as a community because we're so honored to have you as a person that just, you know, you really don't get paid to do this stuff. But in essence, you're just giving back to us because you know it's so important for us to get that inspiration to take us to a whole new level. And like I said, my friends, there's a few reasons why you're on this call tonight.

And one is you want to find out more about Empower Network to sign up. The second reason is you want to, you're already a member and you want to find the value or the golden nugget that I'm about to share with you tonight. Or number three, you're just chilling on here because, you know, you love us so much. Well, guess what? I'm going to cover all three things.

I'm going to hit all of those three things because I know that you guys are out here looking for that. And if you all are wondering, like, about myself, well, who's that goofy guy with the furry hat on? And I know that I've gotten that, you know, why are you wearing that furry hat? You know, is that like your story, Tom, the furry hat guy and all this stuff? And no, there's a deeper story that goes into this whole thing of the furry hat.

And the deeper story was about me on a journey to find my why. And I always heard from different mentors out there that had told me, you know, if your why doesn't make you cry, then it's not big enough. Write that down. If your why doesn't make you cry, then obviously it's not big enough. And that really struck me for a second because I was thinking to myself, well, what makes me cry?

I'm a manly man, you know, and all this, and I don't know what makes, you know, I know that I've cried at sad movies, but that's not why I'm doing this business. You know, there's a movie I've cried in four times before, but that's not why I'm doing this business. What is the why that makes me cry? And I really had to look back into my history right before I got started in internet marketing. And the history was, I remember a time when I was back in my freshman year of high school, and I was one of the, I mean, I was following in the footsteps of my brother.

He actually was a, you know, a football star. You know, he was actually playing sports, you know, most popular guy in school. And then I'm like the younger version of him coming up through the ranks, and now I'm a freshman, and he's just graduating. Well, what I did is I became the vice president of the student council. I then became a varsity wrestler in my freshman year, and then I became a varsity cross-country runner guy, and I became, like, one of the most popular kids in high school back in my freshman year.

Well, check this out. What happened was, is my mom, God bless her so I love her to death, what happened was she was actually really foolish with money. Like, really foolish. Like, just, you know, she had gotten a settlement for $400,000, and then she started to spend a lot. Like, she, we had a three-bedroom house at the time in the city of Orange, California.

Right? And right down in the city of Orange, California, I remember a park that was, like, right about two blocks away from me, and I remember going on this park and being surrounded by trees, you know, beautiful scenery, lakes, creeks, ducks, geese, all over me, and I remember riding my skateboard, enjoying my life, having the lifestyle that I wanted, and just being able to create, just enjoy my childhood at the time, right? Well, she was not happy with the house that we were at, so she kept building and building and building more stuff. She built an extra room to it. She built a hot tub in the backyard.

She built, like, a pool in the backyard. And I'm like, what the fook, right? I was like, dude, so, I saw her, it was like I was 15 years old, just getting ready to start my sophomore year, and her head is lying on the table, crying. And I just look at her as I'm 15 years old, going, mom, why are you crying? And she goes, I can't pay the bills.

And I said, what? What do you mean you can't pay the bills? And she's right in the front, and there's, like, these bills for final notice, and all these poor bills, and all over the place, and I'm going, what's going on? She's all, we gotta move. And I'm like, what?

Are you kidding me? We're gonna move? Mom, I love this place. Mom, there's, there's, the park is here. My school's, like, a block away.

I'm the most popular kid in school. I mean, they're taking me away from this. She's all, we can't afford it. We gotta go. And then, so then, like, the process started, like, two months, and we stayed in that home just for a little bit, and I started my sophomore year at my school, but after the first quarter, we actually found a house that was in, like, Riverside, California that was, like, way far, like, 45 minutes away from Orange, California, and I remember that time that she was crying on that table, and I was, like, so heartbroken right there, leaving, right?

Because she didn't have enough money. That was the factor. So I left, and I became, and we went, I went to this new high school, and all of a sudden, I became, like, this loner. I didn't have a lot of friends. I was trying to tag along, trying to make friends, and people were just, like, really judging of me.

And finally, it just came down to where I said, you know what? Screw these guys. I'm just gonna study my butt off, and I'm gonna graduate and just get out of this school. So I did. But I didn't tell you about this in the process of doing that.

I ended up not being social. I ended up not ever having a girlfriend. I ended up not ever being a person that could have people around me because of this whole little chain of events that happened. So when I was 19 years old, I found what's called the pickup community. And the pickup community was where I saw this guy on a talk show.

And this guy was talking about how he had unlimited confidence with women, how he had unlimited confidence with, you know, being able to be a pre-selected man, and being able to be the man that women want to have. Because I was not, I was never given that ability being that I was a loner. So I said, I gotta dive in this pickup community. And I just went and dove in, and I didn't know it yet, but I was actually diving into my first journey of personal growth. Because I didn't even know what I was getting into.

All I know is, I wanted to be just like my parents were. Married. I wanted to find the girl of my dreams. I wanted to be a one-woman man. So I dove into this stuff, and I was really like insecure at first, but I started doing it, doing it, doing it, and I got really good.

I got really good at going to bars and clubs, getting six phone numbers within a night, people, women kissing me on the cheeks, and all of a sudden becoming like this stallion at picking up girls, right? So what happened is that all of a sudden the community I was a part of were, they had this private forum group where they were posting on how they were getting won over on women. Getting won over on women. And I was like thinking to myself, dude, I didn't sign up to get won over women. I signed up for this because I want one good gal.

And I actually did find a really great gal at the time when I was 21, and we started dating, and I actually even got engaged to her at the time. You know, and the thing was I actually succeeded in what I wanted to do, and I was still a part of this community, and I said, you know what? I don't want to be a part of this community. I'm getting out of this community. Which started the ex-pickup artist thing.

Because they were looking to get won over, and that didn't fit my values and my belief system. I'm a one-woman man, and I didn't want to do that. So I got out of it, and then what happened was I soon found out that I wanted something like better in life. I wanted to reach my goals and dreams. I wanted to get my why.

Which still, I didn't know what my why was at the time. So I literally found different businesses online. I actually found this gas pill business I was doing in 2000. And my mentor, well, he wasn't really a mentor. He was kind of just a sponsor.

He didn't really mentor me on anything. He just kind of sends me a little link and says, you've got to plug into this woman. And I said, okay, what do you mean? You've got to just go to this website and plug into her. And I said, okay.

So I went into this website, and this woman was teaching one of my first motivational speakers of how to run a true business online. And how to make this business work. Because I was just kind of fluttering all over the place. And how to make this business so it's not a hobby. And that really stood out to me.

So what I did is I said, okay. And then I noticed that she was having a live event. And I went to this live event not even having barely any money for a hotel room. I didn't have any money for a hotel room. I had money for a plane ticket and to go to the live event.

And I brought a body pillow. I was that destined to go to this live event. So what I did is I actually laid outside the seminar room with my body pillow. There's like 12 other people out there, you know, as homeless as me. You know, without a hotel room too, because they were motivated to succeed.

And it was cool. We were out there, you know, holding hands, seeing Kumbaya, wanting to get a front row, which I call the spit section. That's when you're, you know, you're in the front row and then if the speaker like says their P's and their S's, you know, you get that millionaire spit on you. And I'm like, oh God, I got to get this millionaire spit on me. I'm going to get in the front row, right?

So finally I get in the front row. And this is like before I even put a furry hat on, by the way. I didn't even put the furry hat on. I was just running up there. And then finally learning some stuff that really stuck out in my head.

What really stuck out was to make this business work, you have to be a person that is willing to give more than you're willing to get. And that meant by like I was willing to drop my ego become humble and be the type of man that was going to be able to give back. Because most people get started in this business, my friends, I'll just tell you this part, and they are about me, me, me, me, me. And she told me this. She said, it's not about you.

You need to get you out of the equation and put the focus on others and then you will be successful. And it was funny because now this is leading up to when I met Dave Wood. Check this out. You guys are going to laugh about this one.

Dave Wood was at that seminar. And I didn't even know he was. And it was day two of the seminar. I had the furry hat on. And they started like doing this whole personality thing, right?

And then like I was kind of the fun personality. We're all dancing in the middle. And I go up to this analytical lady and I start giving her a lap dance during the middle of the thing. And the whole room just starts going crazy, laughing their butts off, right? And then Dave Wood was, I didn't even meet Dave Wood personally, but he was off in the section like laughing because he saw me doing it.

And that like stuck out in his brain. So fast forward to when I actually had met Dave Wood face to face. I was actually at an event, a Jonathan Budd event on Stoppable Millionaire about two years ago. And Dave Wood comes right up to me face to face and just says, dude, you're Tom the Furry Hat Guy. And I said, yeah, who are you?

He's all, I'm Dave Wood. Dude, I saw you at the Danny Johnson. Oops, sorry. I mean, I saw you at the Danny event and you were dancing on some like emerald lady like and then we were freaking going nuts like laughing our butts off seeing you do that. And I'm like, oh, you were there?

He's like, yeah. So I'm thinking in my head, I'm thinking Dave Wood's trying to sell me on something because I think he was using his hypnotic skills on me, right? So anyway, so we just like networked out the entire weekend after that. And then like a couple months later, there's this deal going on with a leader out there who had this blueprint party thing going on in Austin, Texas. And guess what?

Dave Wood and Dave Sharp are there. And they were, this is the time they were actually planning Empower Network. And I was there and, you know, I was like, hey, what's up, Dave Wood and everything, you know, talking and everything. And then I just, I kept feeling like in my mind that he was going to try to sell me. So I'm like, no, I'm good.

You know what I mean? Because he just had this way about him, right? And then after that, a few months later, I go to this event in Orlando. This is actually where I met Tracy for the first time in person. And then Dave and Dave Sharp are there again.

And then, you know, they're like, there's like this secret thing coming up. You know, you've ever watched, you know, it's going to be coming up. And I'm just thinking to myself, nope, I'm not doing that. Not doing that thing. Nope.

You know, and I'm just, you know, just totally resisting the process. And then finally, you know, obviously, I sat back. I saw things going well with the company. Actually, I saw things fall down with the company at first. But then I saw everything go back up.

And I was like, oh, okay, well, they fell down. They're not going to last, right? And then, like, boom, they got back up. And that goes to show you right there that when people fall down, they can get back up and make things happen. Because here's what happened.

And I'm like, what's going on here? Your company's going up? Okay, let me look at this a little more. And then one of my friends that I met at this event in Las Vegas, he actually was doing very well in the company. And I actually went up to him.

I said, well, dude, what are you doing? He's like, well, I'm doing this, this, this. And I said, you know what? I need to do that, too. And at the time, I was, like, working, like, five different businesses at the time.

So Empower was not my main opportunity. I was thinking, to succeed online, I got to work five different things. So what I did is I said, okay, I'll bring Empower on. I'll just be at the $25 level, right? I'll just be at that $25 level.

So I didn't do anything for a while. I went to the San Diego event last year. And boom, I was around that energy of, oh, my God, this is, like, the real deal. These guys are really making it happen. My belief just went skyrocket through the roof.

And then finally, last November, I just decided, I said, well, what if I were to push all those five other businesses aside? Focus on just Empower and not do anything else. Just do Empower. That's it. Focus my time building a team, giving value back, and doing whatever it takes to help them succeed.

Well, the phenomenal thing was ever since then, my income started to skyrocket. My first 30 days of focusing back in November, I had 51 signups in Empower Network after the Empower Network has already been around for over a year. And not only that, but afterwards, I started having $12,000 weekends. I had $10,000 days. And then I figured, wait, I can't like, this is before, now, before I had the $12,000 and $10,000 days.

It came to a point where I said, you know what? I can't just, if I'm going to dedicate my time to Empower and that's it, I can't be at this $25 level. I have to upgrade, and I have to get committed. So what I did is I didn't even have the money to get all in. I actually found a credit card that was actually in a drawer of mine, and I said, oh, this is cool.

I got a credit card. And it was actually a credit card I had used in the past, and I paid it off, by the way, right? So I checked out how much I was on the balance. It said, you have $4,100 on this. I'm like, what the fook?

So freaking, I just like, called my sponsor and said, dude, you better get all in, because I'm coming all in right now. So he like, rushed to find the money. He didn't know how he was going to find it. He found it, got all in, and then I took that credit card, boom, got all in, and then got fully committed. Because that's what happens when you get all in, my friends.

You get fully committed. The $25 people on this call right now, ain't got no time for that. Because you're only at that $25 level, and you're not fully committed. You were like me before going, eh, got five other things going on, then just going to try it out, when you don't even recognize that freaking at those higher levels. You've got education.

Whereas, if I want to make six figures being all in, I only need 22 people. Duh. Hello? Anybody home? So, here's the deal.

And I'm going to tell you this before I end my talk here. The way that my why made me cry now was remembering the time that my mom's head was on that table. And my why now, is to realize that I will work as hard as I can and do whatever it takes to help people never have their face on that table crying over bills and why they can't freaking pay the bills and make money. And I've got to leave you with this valuable nugget right here. The money you create is based on the value that you are willing to give.

Thanks for letting me share, Tracy. Wow. I am literally blown away. Again, won by some more detail of your story.

Never knew that, you know, that was what really inspired you, was to never have people have their heads on that table. You know, I've seen my mom's head on that table before, you know, before she passed away. I've seen my friend's parents' heads on that table. My head has been on that table before.

And I don't think that it's a coincidence that you ran into David Wood as many times as you did along with David Sharp. I don't think that it's a coincidence that you decided to take action with Empower when you did with your sponsor when you did. I don't think that it's a coincidence that you decided to get focused. I don't think that it's a coincidence that, you know, you've earned a substantial income in, you know, less than a year, the short period of time that you've been here overall. And I don't think it's a coincidence that you were, that you and I were attracted just even tonight, right?

I mean, we talk pretty often and we work together, but tonight to share what you had to share, I don't think that it was a coincidence. There's someone that's listening tonight that needed to hear that specifically from you. So thank you, Tom. Thank you for sharing from your heart. Thank you for being transparent.

Thank you for letting us take a deeper look into your world to help us all realize that, you know, at some point or another, all of us have been faced with some hard challenges, some difficult decisions that we have to make, not really being sure what we're going to do, how we're going to do it, exactly the way it's going to work out, but we have to move forward anyway. And Tom, you are a pure representation of that. Thank you. Brother, thank you so much. I appreciate you.

You're welcome, Grace. All right. So guys, listen. You've heard it from the all-male cast tonight, right? Except for me.

The all-male cast, and what a wonderful cast this was of people from varying levels of experience, varying backgrounds, totally different levels of thinking, and challenges and obstacles in life, all to end up right here together with us. Now, I do want to say, before we close out the call tonight, I just got an email or a Facebook email from Dave Wood a couple minutes ago, actually, 1028. He goes, 1,640 shares. He goes, that has to be a record for a non-funny picture. Right?

Because really, what gets all these shares on the social media, right? You've got a cat with his eyes sticking out singing or something, right? But we've got something that can actually help people in a picture that's going viral, and it's the power of what we can do at Empower Network. If you didn't know how powerful a group of people who are focused and positive going in the same direction can be, you should see that tonight. You should be able to see how we work together and support one another, how we can help lift up people one at a time, each of us, all across the world, and we can do it succinctly, we can do it in order, we can do it with love in our hearts, and we can do it with a true intention of healing hearts, healing lives, healing families, healing bank accounts, healing physical bodies, healing whatever needs to be healed.

Empower Network is a movement. I started this call off by saying that. The only question I leave you with tonight is will you help us continue on with this movement, or will you bow out? Will you bow out because things got rough? Will you bow out because others are telling you, you know, it's not real or it's too good to be true?

Will you bow out because you get scared? Will you bow out because you lose faith? Will you bow out because you're not getting the types of results that you think you deserve right now? Will you quit? Will you quit when the going gets tough?

Well, here's what I know. Empower has been through some challenges, and the leadership that you see, the Tony Rush's, the Lawrence Tams, the Chris Records, the Chuck Marshalls, the Aaron Raskins, all these people and so many others that you see, when the tough, when things got tough for us and Empower at the beginning, we didn't quit. Our co-founders, David Wood and David Sharp, guess what? They didn't quit. So my charge to you, regardless of what you're facing, is that you stand strong and you stand firm.

You plant that flag in the ground. For some of you, it's going to be with Empower. For some of you, it's leveraging the knowledge that we teach here in Empower to go do things great somewhere else. Either way, I want you to remain empowered, and I want you to remain uplifted, and I want you to understand that at this point, as a result of listening to this call, you have forever been changed. Will you walk into that greatness?

Will you step into that greatness? Or will you revert back to the mediocrity? I hope tonight has actually been a chance for you to make a decision in your life to go forward for the better and to only envision the dreams that you really, really, really do want. Not so much focus on the things that you don't want. Create the life that you want.

Be empowered. Be inspired. And our community will be here to help you do that so long as you never give up. So Empower, I want to say thank you for joining us this evening. Thank you, Terrence.

Thank you, Carlton. And thank you, Tom, the furry hat guy. Guys, this has been Tracy Walker, and this has been your Empower Hour call. See you on the beaches of the world. Good night.

Although you're listening to a private recording in a non-disclosure Empower 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.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. 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.php.