From Homeless to Founder: The Story Behind Empower Network (Part 2)
David Wood opens the second video in his series by telling the audience that this is normally the moment where a company founder talks up his own vision. Instead, he says, the vision that matters here is not his. It is theirs. To explain why, he tells the story of how Empower Network began, starting from a green 1996 Dodge Caravan parked on the beaches of Oahu.
He named the company after what it does
David explains that he learned in marketing that process plus results equals the best name for a product or company. For Empower Network, the product of the vision is the results people want, which is why the company carries that name. He describes it as a network of entrepreneurs, employees, contractors and leaders who exist to empower people 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with the goal of helping them build the business and the life they want at the same time. He calls this the simultaneous creation of time and money, or lifestyle, and says the belief driving the company is that people can have their cake and eat it too.
From a van by the river to a $12,000 night
David dates the start of his journey to 2009, when he was broke and homeless, living in the Dodge Caravan and sleeping on different beaches, mostly on the North Shore of Oahu. Each night the police would wake him and he would move to another beach. During the day he worked at Greenpeace, which he says was the only job he could get since he had no physical address beyond telling people he lived in a van by the river. He suspects his boss was high when he reviewed the application and never noticed he was living out of a vehicle. He admits he did not even know what Greenpeace was and did not much care at the time.
He was fired for being late to a street corner where staff asked passersby for donations, leaving him broke, homeless and jobless. He says the biggest breakthroughs come from the lowest points of despair, and that is what happened to him. After being fired, at around 27 years old, he started looking for a different way of doing things and learned a series of strategies that let him create new results faster than he ever had before.
Within 90 days of living in that van, I had a single night. One night, I made over $12,000.
That single night was more than he had made in the previous three months combined. He says he did not arrive with a big list or a track record that would explain the result. He was, in his words, just a homeless guy who stumbled on some secrets and finally learned to do it right. That same month he went on to make over $30,000 total, a bigger month than any previous year of his life except one, in which he had barely cleared $30,000 for the entire year. He was 28 at the time.
A year that became a month, then a life in Costa Rica
David asks listeners to imagine their best year ever, then imagine that year happening every month. That is what started happening to him. He moved to Costa Rica, began living on the beach, and drank out of coconuts just as he had told people he would. The following year he made over $300,000 working from home, picking coconuts off the trees on the beach.
In 2011, while walking through the mountains, he asked himself how he could help his customers get rich the way he had, and how he could pass that on without the technical complexity he had to learn to get there. He describes what came next as a flash of insight, a flood of images connecting together, that in a single second showed him exactly what he wanted to build: an army of people living their dreams and stepping into their own vision. That, he says, was the birth of Empower Network.
What that vision has produced
Since that moment in the mountains, David says the company has done over $200 million in sales online and helped more than 15 people make over a million dollars in commissions, doing business with over 400,000 customers in more than 100 countries. He calls it pretty good for a homeless guy, then quickly turns away from taking credit for it himself.
I’d like to say that I did it all myself or that I’m like the best person ever but really I’m just a weird ex homeless guy who has visions in the mountains and got rich on the internet, and I did it because of the fundamental skill that I learned that helped me break through in the first place, and that’s how to build teams of people and get the right people working on the right part of a vision.
He says he is good at having the vision but not at implementing every part of it, which is why the company runs on a full staff of employees, contractors and leaders working toward one goal: helping people walk into their own vision and build the lifestyle they want, on their own terms, and starting now rather than on a two to five year plan. His preference, he says, is a two to five week plan, or failing that a two to five month plan, or failing that a year, but always aiming to move fast. He closes by inviting viewers to meet that team in the next video, describing it as the team that is now theirs.
Written up from the original recording. The full transcript is below.
Read the full transcript (7 min talk, 1,517 words)
Hello and welcome to video two. Again, this is David Wood, the founder of Empower Network. And normally, this video would be where a company owner or a CEO would flubber about with words about their vision, about how big and amazing it is, how many people it's gonna change, the world's gonna change. But I'm gonna get to the actual vision that matters here and that's actually not my vision, it's yours. And why is that? Well, let me tell you how this company started, where I come from and who it actually started for and as I do, what you're gonna start to realize is that you're in the right place at the right time because you're with the people who are here because they want to empower you to actually get what you want in your life.
In fact, it's why we exist. See, I learned it in marketing that process plus results that you want equals the best name for a product to service a company. And for us, the product of our vision is the results that you wanna get, which is why we're called Empower Network. See, we're a network of entrepreneurs, employees, contractors and leaders who are here to empower you 24 hours a day, seven days a week with the intention of helping you build the business that you want and also create the life that you wanna create at the same time. We wanna help you do those things at once. We like to call the simultaneous creation of time and money lifestyle and we believe that you can have it like that.
We believe you can have your cake and eat it too if that makes sense. Why is that? Well, let me tell you my story which is where all this started and then we're gonna bring it back to you. See, I started my journey in 2009. When I was broke, I was homeless. I was living in a green 1996 Dodge Caravan parking on different beaches, mostly on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.
And what I did is each night I'd park at a different beach and the cops would come wake me up. I'd moved to another beach and I was working during the day at Greenpeace. So why'd I work at Greenpeace? Well, it was actually the only job that I could get because I didn't even have a physical address aside from saying that I lived in the green van by the river like the movie, right? And I think my boss was probably a little high when he read my application. He looked like he was high at least and he probably didn't notice that I lived in a van and I didn't even actually know what Greenpeace was nor did I really care at the time, right?
Well, I got fired from that for being late to a street corner. We used to sit on the streets and ask people for donations and then I was broke. I was also homeless. I was also jobless and I lived in a van by the river. Not a very fun place to be especially when you need food and there's no more coconut trees and you don't need gas. But as I've learned, the biggest breakthroughs are always gonna come from the lowest points of despair and that's exactly what happened to me.
I got into a state of despair. After I got fired, I started looking for something different, a new way of doing things in my life. I was 27 or something like that and just totally broke. And what I did was I learned a series of strategies and those strategies allowed me to create new things really fast that I'd never been able to create my entire life before. And within 90 days of living in that van, I had a single night. One night, I made over $12,000.
That was more than I ever made in three months. Now, I'd like to say that I came to the story with a big list or with past success or with something that would possibly explain how I could do something so ridiculous. However, I was really just a homeless guy who stumbled on some secrets, learned to do it right finally and that month I didn't just make that 12,000 which is more than I had ever made in four months. That month had expanded and I made over 30,000 in a single month. In fact, that was a bigger month than any previous year except for one and I barely made over $30,000 in a whole year, one other time in my life. And that was in 2009 so I was 28 years old.
Now, what I want you to understand is that I was broke. So I had never made money in any big way. But what about you? I want you to imagine your best year, the best year in your life. And then imagine what your life would be like if that's what started happening to you every month, your whole year in a month. That's what happened to me.
It was insane. It was like my whole year in a month. So what'd I do? Well, I moved to Costa Rica. I started living on the beach. Started drinking out of coconuts just like I told people I'd do.
And the next year I actually made over $300,000 from home drinking out of coconuts that I'd pick off of trees on the beach. So in 2011, that year came along and one day I was walking through the mountains and I was asking myself a question and that's how can I help my people get rich? How can I have all my customers get rich like I am? And how can I empower them to live like I do but without all this technical nonsense that I had to learn in order to do these things? And then I was walking through the mountains and literally this is how it happened. I had this brilliant flash of insight coming in my mind like a flood of images connecting together.
And in a second I knew exactly how to create what I really wanted to create in my life which is an army of people like you living their dreams and stepping into their vision and creating the future they want. And that my friend was the birth of Empower Network and since then we've done together over $200 million in sales online and helped more than 15 people make over a million dollars in commissions. In other words, I've helped 15 people make over a million dollars themselves and that's doing business with over 400,000 customers in more than 100 countries around the world. Pretty good for a homeless guy, right? Well, how did I do that? I'd like to take credit.
I'd like to say that I did it all myself or that I'm like the best person ever but really I'm just a weird ex homeless guy who has visions in the mountains and got rich on the internet and I did it because of the fundamental skill that I learned that helped me break through in the first place and that's how to build teams of people and get the right people working on the right part of a vision in order to create that vision because I'm great at having the vision but I'm not that great at implementing different parts of it. So it's not just me who's involved in this. We have an entire dedicated staff of employees, of contractors. We have leaders and we all have one vision together and that's to empower you to walk into your vision and to help you to create the lifestyle that you want, the way that you want and help you do it right now, not the two to five year plan. I like to skip ahead and say two to five week plan and if you can't do that, the two to five month plan and if you can't do that, the year plan but let's get it done fast and here's my question for you. Would you like to meet them?
Well, when you're ready to meet the team, go ahead and click on the next video and I'm gonna introduce you to them and you're gonna learn exactly who's here to help you to get the results that you want and most importantly, to create the life that you want. I think it's important for you to meet the team that you're gonna be utilizing to create your dreams because isn't that why you're here? When you're ready, go ahead and proceed to the next video and I'm gonna introduce you to my team which actually is now your team. So when you're ready to meet your new team of people that's gonna help you to create your goals, to know who's behind the scenes of your new business, I want you to click.