What Paul Gardiner and Kimberly Denise Do With Their Five Minutes on Stage

Paul Gardiner told the room he’d needed several trips to the bathroom before he could make himself walk up the stairs to that stage, and he compared the feeling to walking into a cage fight. Not because a talk is dangerous. Because some part of him still didn’t believe he’d earned the right to be recognized up there, even with a team behind him and real results on the board. Then he asked the room the question that mattered more than anything he was about to do himself.

Who still struggles with self-sabotage, belief issues? It should be everybody in this room, he said, and nobody argued. That’s worth sitting with, because the two people who’d just been introduced as a rising power couple in the business were about to spend their stage time proving they fought the exact same fight as everyone watching them.

Why does a leader hand his own stage time to five other people?

Paul says he only wants five minutes, and then spends nearly all of it calling up members of his team, TeamBlade, one at a time. Not to interview them. To let each one say, in their own words, where they came from and what they intend to do with the next ninety days.

Barry Housman, 27, a father of two from Minnesota, describes sitting in a cell at St. Cloud Penitentiary two years earlier, fighting an addiction, and deciding things would be different once he got out. A year of drifting between companies later, he found Paul posting results daily, day after day, and finally asked him what he needed to do differently. Rocky Vega, born Corey, had an eviction summons in court the day before this event and had to reschedule his flight just to make the trip anyway. He’d walked away from a steady job the previous March on faith alone, and his stated intention for the next ninety days is to build a team large enough that once he gets one person to their first real result, that person can turn around and do the same for the next.

Nadia, a military spouse working full time with two kids at home, wants to build something big enough to bring her husband home for good and keep him there.

None of these are Paul’s stories. That’s the point. As he puts it, bringing his team up instead of talking about himself is the whole reason he and his partner Kimberly Denise are on that stage at all, because somewhere along the way the two of them decided their actual purpose was contributing to other people’s lives, not collecting the applause for their own.

After each person speaks, the room chants the same four words at them seven times, not once, not three times. Paul’s reasoning for the exact number isn’t random enthusiasm. As he explains it, “the subconscious mind sometimes needs seven impressions before it accepts the truth.” Hearing it once is easy to dismiss. Seven times, repeated by a room full of strangers who mean it, starts to work on a person the way a single compliment never does.

What does two years with zero experience actually prove?

Kimberly’s turn at the mic near the end makes a point neither of them could have made about themselves earlier without it sounding like bragging. She reminds the room that she and Paul walked into this industry with no track record, no inherited team, no prior success to point to. Whatever they built, they built from nothing, in real time, the same way everyone she’d just watched cross that stage was starting to build theirs.

That reframes the whole ceremony. It isn’t a highlight reel of people who were always going to make it. It’s proof, cross-examined in public, that the starting point doesn’t predict the outcome.

the moment that you can feel that being natural to yourself and feel that it’s real to you, it will become real

Kimberly doesn’t tell the room to work harder or wait for the numbers to convince them. She tells them the belief has to arrive first, ahead of the proof, not after it. She backs it with a line from Ralph Waldo Emerson about building your own world by shaping your life around the idea already living in your mind, and ties it straight back to her own results: everything she and Paul have accomplished in the past year, they say they pictured clearly before it ever happened on paper.

What has to happen in your head before it happens in your life?

Paul closes the session with a guided exercise, asking the room to sit with their eyes shut and deliberately stretch their awareness past the walls of the building, past the sky, out to the moon and then the sun, before bringing them back with one short repeated line: I will win.

It’s a strange note to end a business session on until you connect it to the question Paul opened with. The fix for a room full of people quietly convinced they don’t deserve their own results was never going to be another tactic. It’s the same instruction Barry Housman, Rocky Vega, and Nadia had each just acted on in front of a thousand strangers: say the thing you intend to do before you have a shred of proof it’s true, then let the room repeat it back to you until some part of you starts to believe it too.

The full session goes further than what’s above, including the rest of the team recognitions and the full closing exercise. Watch it in full, free, when you Create your free account.

The full session transcript follows below.

Transcript

Come up on stage, Paul Gardiner and Keenan Lee! Gresham, you're a badass, man. You're awesome, bro. Good job.

Good job. Gresham. Thank you. All right, all right, all right.

Stay up, guys. Let's cut the music down a little bit. I'm really random, by the way. I don't know what's going to come out of my mouth.

Some of you guys know that I don't really plan much of anything. You know what I mean? I'm going to kind of up here, and I'm like Tracy, just going to let the divinity speak, you know? So for all the spiritual people out there, holler, all right?

But first and foremost, you know, I train Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Some of you guys have been seeing this little purple belt. A little random fact, like people that speak from, like, Portuguese and stuff, they can't say the word R or the letter R in their speech. Like, where's Roger Solera?

Where's he at? Oh, what's up, man? Yeah, so the way you say his name in Portuguese is Hodger, right? So.

So, Miguel, couldn't pronounce Kimberly's name, but obviously she's the secret weapon. So everybody give Kimberly a round of applause. Thank you. Right?

So, yeah, so we're definitely the second version of the power couple because there's a ton of power couples in here. And isn't it interesting that your vision, once you unite it with someone else, typically female energy, right? You can accomplish anything, right? So we're up here.

And, you know, we did have this video. And, unfortunately, we're not going to be able to play it. But I will tell you where you can go to find it. For those that still need a little bit more faith and belief in what you guys are doing.

Now, let's just be real, right? Who still struggles with, like, self-sabotage, belief issues? And it should be everybody in this room, right? Yeah.

Yeah, because, like, you know, earlier in the event, I was just walking around just like, man, I'm so undeserving of even being recognized. And Kim, I know, can agree. I know a lot of us also feel that way, right? Like, I'll just be honest with you.

Like, you know, getting on stage, I had to, like, take ten pisses before I came up here. You know what I mean? It was like, because it reminded me of, like, getting. Oh, you're playing the little screen things.

Yeah. I got you. So it just reminded me of, like, getting in a cage fight, you know? I'm so pumped up.

I'm ready to go. But the video that I'm talking about is basically this village. I believe in Jesus. Anyone else here?

Yeah. You guys can believe in whatever you guys believe in. This is just, you know, a video that I stumbled upon and thought I would share, but you guys can YouTube it later. It's basically this village that uses the name of Jesus to basically stop a tornado from, like, killing their homes.

It's pretty cool, and it instantly stops on video, you know, for all the spooky quantum physics people out there. You know what I mean? Like, there was something powerful about that. So if you still need some more belief and faith, I mean, just look at videos like that, and then start paying attention to the small things in life, and you'll see all this evidence kind of just show up that you're on the right track.

So that being said, Kim and I are only up here for two reasons. Honestly, we came here to learn. Both of our intentions were to be the dumbest people in this room, you know, because we're so hungry to learn and we're so open that you just got to remain completely humble and take the ego out of the door, right? Take the ego out of the door.

And because it's not about Kim and I and we found our major purpose in life, which is contributing to other people's lives, we want to bring some of our TeamBlade members up, and I'm just going to call them by memory. Some of you guys know I'm kind of like a hippie. I've been hanging out with Justin a little bit and, you know, but it keeps you in a relaxed state. You know what I mean?

So the first person that I want, it is what it is. The first person that I want to bring up, because I only want to do five minutes, honestly, and recognize some of the leadership that we've been able to cultivate and just some of the decisions that some of these individuals have made that has proven that they not only want to be a part of the team, but they also want to be a part of the team. They want this, but that not only they can do it, but they're also worthy of it, right? Because I know for me personally, the hardest part about being up here and being on the leaderboards, it's feeling like you're not good enough to be up there, even once you get there.

But isn't it interesting that it's like those people that have those belief issues are usually the perfect candidates and vessels for the God force, the universe, the energy that's holding everything together to flow through that person and things just start happening in their lives. You know, I've been telling everybody, for me, like I'm definitely not the smartest person in the room. And for me, it's just easier to keep God in my thoughts every five seconds of my life. You know what I mean?

So it's like you don't got to worry about anything if you just keep God in your thoughts every five seconds. Somehow, someway, the universe just starts bending to your will. You know, it's really weird. So anyway, Cesar, come on up here, brother.

Give Cesar a round of applause. And if we can get a mic. Anyone want to? Turn Super Saiyan and give us a mic.

All right, awesome. What's up, bro? All right, cool. Give him another hand.

Come to the middle, bro. All right, so we're just going to give some recognition just for some powerful decisions that we have made, Cesar. Come on. Just tell everybody where you're from, what your story is about, and what it took for you to get here, and what your intention is now since you finally made it so you can make it happen for your kids the next 90 days.

Here you go. For those of you that know me, for those of you that don't know me, my name is Cesar Chavo de Phoenix Hernandez. I'm 22 years old. I was originally born in Guadalajara, Mexico.

I was raised in Dallas, Texas. I've lived in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. I've been staying recently in Nashville, Tennessee. And yes, I do have kids.

I have three kids. I have a six-year-old son. I have a four-year-old son. And I have a one-year-old daughter.

She's my princess. I love her to death. I'm sorry. This is really emotional for me.

This has been a long time in the making. And, um… Thank you. Thank you.

See, yesterday technically marks the two-year anniversary that I started Empower Network. My first event was actually Austin, Texas. That was January 23rd, I believe, 2013. And that's why I had my first breakthrough.

Right here, bro. Thank you. You're good. You learn something new every day.

Just tell everybody real quick a little short story and then tell everybody what you're going to go out and create. All right? About 15, 20 seconds, so… All right.

You know what happens. You know, you get the mic and then all of a sudden… He did that last time. It was hilarious.

I did. Remember that? I did this in Austin. I'm sorry.

He was holding that mic. He's like, I'm going to take up this stage time. You know? Okay.

Anyways. Okay. So it marks two years that I've been following this crazy, annoying vision that I've had since I was born. I've always been different.

I've always been thought upon as crazy because, honestly, I want to change the world. I want to build a team that is going to change the world because we live in a world full of hypocrisy. We live in a world full of bigots that they themselves create all these rules that we should abide by, that we should follow when they themselves truly aren't happy. They're not who they want to be.

You know? They're just selfish. And I'm tired of the big guy picking on the little guy. I represent that little guy.

I love a good underdog story. Who doesn't? You know? I believe anything is possible.

You know? And I'm willing to do whatever it takes. And my problem is I would have been here much sooner. My problem was I didn't make a decision.

I didn't decide to do whatever it took. I decided to accept the experience. I decided to accept excuses, to just think of reasons to come up why I couldn't, I wasn't able, I wasn't worthy. But for a while, for the longest time, I actually gave up on my vision.

But when you see success happen right in front of you, you know, we used to work at that same kiosk, 14 mobile. We both got ripped off. When you see success happen right in front of you and you're like, this guy's no different than me. What's the difference?

Well, he wants it. He's hungry. He's sacrificed. He's willing to do whatever it takes.

Once you see that happen in front of you, you realize that you've been telling yourself a lie. You've told yourself a BS story. You know? You are worth it.

You can do whatever you want. Hey, real quick, man. Thank you. But here's what I want you to do.

Here's what I want you to do. Give him a round of applause, all right? What's your income goal? What's your income goal?

Just think about it for a second. All right. So what he's going to do is he's going to claim his income goal into the universe. And you know how the subconscious mind sometimes needs seven impressions before it accepts the truth, right?

So what you guys are going to do is you guys are going to, he's going to state his goal and you guys are going to say, you can do it seven times and then you're going to receive it like this. Allow all the energy in this room to just penetrate the old energy because isn't that the reason why we're here is to change the way we're doing things, right? So go ahead, bro. State it out and then everybody, you can do it seven times.

My income goal within this year is going to be $50,000 a month. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get there to make it for my kids. By when? Go ahead.

Have a seat. Have a seat. All right. Let's bring up Barry Hoosman.

And let's make a snap. All right. Let's go Super Saiyan and come up here quick. All right, Kim.

There you go, sir. I was going to tell you, don't Indian chief this, all right? All right. I laid off the hobbit herbs this morning, so I think I'm good.

Well, man, this is crazy being up here. So real quick, tell everybody who you are. All right. Short story before you joined and what your intention is now.

And then same thing. You can do it. You can do it seven times. Okay?

Go. All right. All right. All right.

All right. All right. All right. All right.

All right. All right. All right. All right.

All right. All right. All right. All right.

All right. All right. Very good. All right.

All right. All right. All right. All right.

All right. Well, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Varrie Housman. I'm 27 years old, father of two beautiful girls from Minnesota, Minnesota. And man, two years ago I was actually sitting in a prison cell in St.

Cloud Penitentiary. And I was sitting there. um just battling a drug addiction kind of similar to uh david sharp's story and uh you know i was sitting there and i realized that i didn't want the lifestyle that had brought me there in the first place and uh you know i made a decision that when i got out that i was gonna do something different and uh you know uh fast forward to uh you know two years later or a year later um you know market online um you know company hopping jump from this this and that and i come across paul who is consistently posting consistent results and i see that day after day after day and i finally got fed up with struggling and not listening and just not getting any results and i asked him you know what do i need to do and uh you know from you know from day one you know i've always believed in paul paul's always believed in me and that's one of the reasons why like i have no problem doing anything if you ask me for anything any favor i would do it so god i have a favor for you bro okay would you tell everybody would you tell everybody will you tell everybody your intention bro yeah over the next 90 days yeah all right well uh my intention over the next 90 days is to um is to bring in you know at least i want to work close to at least 10 people um but i want to bring as many people as i can and and show them uh give them the same belief give them the same hope uh for the future that i see now um you know like two years ago like i didn't believe that any of this was possible like i didn't believe that i was worthy um of you know getting any sort of recognition i didn't believe i was worthy of uh actually having anything um worth having you are worthy bro and here's what i want you to do man spread your wings and get ready to fly away like this and receive all the energy that's going to come your way you're all ready one two three you can do it you can do it you can do it you can do it you can do it you can do it you can do it you can do it okay so quickly if i can have nadia and nicola come to the stage quickly as possible round of applause nicola came all the way from uh i think australia or new zealand i think it was australia she's from new zealand yeah yeah 14-hour flight yeah i didn't know that they would indian chief on the mic like that so you know nothing ever goes yeah like me is a is a mother aspiring stay-at-home mother and we're going to retire her this year there you go you're welcome there you go so your income goal yeah all right so just tell everybody who you are uh where you're traveling from more importantly and uh what your intention is in just like you know 30 45 seconds but if you go over i love you anyway i know um so i'm nicola hinman uh people call me pixie so you might remember that better um i'm from new zealand um yeah kiwi's man we're awesome right um but i'm living in australia so i flew all the way here i'm still catching up on the dj like so you know sorry for the insane amount of eye goggling um cool so my dream for the longest time um for me i i've been through some things and um i know what it's like to be like stuck in and um feel like Like, you've got nothing to offer anyone else and you haven't…

I just know what it's like to be not free, you know? Like, really not free. And for me, that's the biggest thing. So for the longest time, I've been wanting to create a movement of, like, performing artists and creative artists that use their talents to bring freedom to people that have no option of creating it for themselves.

That's what I've been wanting to do. Haven't had any idea how I've been able to, like, how I can do that. Money-wise, no way. When I came across Empower Network, I was like, OK, this is going to work.

I haven't been in it very long, but I'm like, I'm going to make this happen because it's not just about me. It's about all those people that are waiting for me to step into my destiny so they can step into theirs. All right. Now, tell everybody your personal intention over the next 90 days and we're going to repeat the process.

So, so far, I've made $9. $4 commission. That's it. Yeah.

Mainly because I was too scared to do anything about it. But I want to make $10,000 in the next month. All right. So at the count of three, and go ahead and open up your arms and get ready to receive as you slap me in the face.

I probably deserve that multiple times this weekend. All right, y'all ready? One, two, three. You can do it!

You can do it! You can do it! You can do it! You can do it!

You can do it! You can do it! You can do it! You can do it!

Good. All right. I think we got time for one more, yeah. Just kidding.

What's going on? How you feeling? You okay? Yeah.

Anxious. There you go. Holy crap. All right.

So some of y'all may have heard her on the inner circle call that we did. Who was on that call a couple weeks ago? Brand new. Brand new.

Brand new. Brand new. Brand new. Brand new.

never no experience at all right go ahead and just tell everybody a little bit about you and where you're from and a little bit of your story and then what you're gonna create over the next 90 days okay my name is Nadia I'm 33 I am a military spouse I have two kids and I work full-time so I do this on the side but my goal is to do this completely to basically bring my husband home from deployments to never have to miss time with his kids anymore so go ahead and tell everyone exactly what you're gonna do to create that and what specifically are you gonna do over the next 90 days so when you you know when you're somebody who sets goals is held accountable in front of thousands of people on a live recording now it's the time my intention over the next 90 days is to do whatever it takes and my income goal is to replace his and mine so that I can bring him home and I can bring him home and I can bring him home and I can bring him home if he chooses to come home and never have to go away again there you go all right so stand right here open up your arms and take all the energy that people about to give you ready one two three you can do it you can do it you can do it you can do it you can do it you can do it you can do it thank you guys so you know that's what empower network is about you know let's get it together okay see all right so thank you by you getting clear on what your goals are and making your vision bigger than yourself bigger than your own bank account bigger than your own personal goals and all of that you get to affect other people like that so what I want to you know I've like one minute left but I wanted to share a quote with you that basically sums up what we've done in the past year inside in our minds and really quickly Paul and I you know most of you guys are maybe maybe some know of our stories but what's really really important to know is that we had no experience succeeding in this industry at all no we didn't come from another company we didn't have a team or anything like that and so for us to create the results that we have it just goes to show that everyone here whether he joined empower last week yesterday a year ago two years ago seven year, maybe you've been in the industry for a really long time, you can do it, okay?

And so this quote is from Ralph Waldo Emerson, and it says, as I lose all the saliva out of my mouth, it says, build therefore your own world. As fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, that will unfold its great proportions. And everything that we've done from getting on the leaderboard, getting sales, you know, passing that unbelievable threshold of can I really get two sales a day? Can I really be up on that stage?

Can I, you know, win contests and do all this amazing stuff that you all really aspire to do? You have to see it in your mind first. And all of this stuff that's happened to us in the last 12 months, we've seen before it happened. So if you see yourself now up here, if you see yourself on the leaderboard, if you see yourself at home with your kids, if you see yourself wherever it is that you dream of seeing yourself, the moment that you can feel that being natural to yourself and feel that it's real to you, it will become real.

Damn right. It's just a matter of time before it catches up. Damn right. Hey, good job.

Thank you. I love it. All right. So we did run out of time, but time is an illusion and I refuse to believe the zeros on the screen.

Right? So, yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to actually recognize one more person, whether he has a mic or not, it's all good. So Rocky Vega, come on up here, bro.

Rocky, Rocky, Rocky, Rocky. All right. So Rocky, stage is yours, sir. Tell everybody, tell everybody.

Oh, nice. Okay, cool. That works better. Thank you, man.

Here you go, bro. Tell everybody where you're from, what your story is all about and what your attention is over the next 90 days. All right. Well, just to give everybody some clarity in here, my name is actually Corey.

That is my birth name, but most people call me Rocky Vega. That is a, uh, it was actually a stage name that I chose because before Empower Network, I was pursuing a music career. Um, but I just kind of stuck with it and use it as a professional name and just, you know, most of you, I'm sure you recognize me by these. So I took these off.

So when I walk into a room, you still know who I am because I've had that issue before while I walk in and they're like, who is that? And then I put these on and it's like, oh, hey, it's Rocky. What's up, man? So this is what I really look like.

This is my secret identity. But, uh, you know, we're transparent here. So, you know, just so you know, but, um, what else is that supposed to say? Yeah, just tell, I mean, you can keep going or tell everybody a little bit of your background and then your intention for the next 90 days.

Okay. So I am a 29 years old. I am from Chicago, Illinois from Terror Town. Same place as Tracy Walker.

Interesting thing is, before this company, the last network marketing company I was in, I was also on a team called the Dream Team and our colors were also red, black, and white,. Which is crazy but, you know, we'll go with that. I have a three-year old daughter. Her name is Cora.

She turned three actually right after Orlando, for those of you who went to the Orlando event. I left my job of almost three and a half years after June last year, and I started in March last year, and I left my job on faith. It's not been the easiest ride, but obviously I'm here. I'm still making it happen, and I'm sure we've all had struggles to get to the event.

I had my own struggles myself. I actually came from an eviction summons yesterday in court, and I had to reschedule my flight just to make sure that I could still get here yesterday. I'm sorry, the court day was Thursday, and I had to get here yesterday because of that to reschedule. But my intention is to create a team of at least 100 six-figure earners, and the reason being is because…

Because I figure if I can get you to six figures, you can figure out how to get to seven, because at that point, it's just about scaling it up. So my vision is to manifest the Firebirds into reality, which is the name of my team. Awesome, man. Stand right there, bro.

With the most amount of energy that you guys have to give, right? Because if you guys want to be on the stage, you've got to celebrate success. Wait, wait, wait, let him bust a rap real quick. Who?

Me? Rocky. I mean, you've got to give the people what they want, huh? Or do you just want to get the energy?

Mad genius, venomous Peter Parker, symbiotic, spitties mathematics, lighting matches, going psychotic, bombs dropping like comets, released by sonic atomics, flow hypnotic, symphonic, get bubonic to uniting, step inside of your head and make treads like supersonic, give you a chance. You lifted off this tonic like you speak like Guatemalans, rappers talking moronic for profit, dropping some garbage, make me want to put two inside my head and simply vomit. Nice. All right, stand here, bro.

All right. All right, ready? One, two, three. You can do it.

You can do it. You can do it. You can do it. You can do it.

You can do it. You can do it. There you go, buddy. It's all yours, man.

You got this. All right. So let's, you know, it's funny how people say, you know, people don't do what you say, they do what you do. And, you know, I've been complaining about them, you know, chiefing on the mic and I'm just going to do the lead by example and do the same again, you know?

So no wonder they're doing it because they're like, hey, you do it too. You know what I mean? But all right, everybody close your eyes. And as you're sitting there listening to the sound of my voice, I want you to remember one truth.

And this truth is going to take us a little bit to get there. So this is just going to be the last 45 a minute little mental exercise here, I promise. Second. All right.

What I want you to do is keep your eyes closed and as you relax and pay attention sitting down on the chair, I want you to imagine your awareness being this lavender energy that is around your head floating above you now. And as you sit there, I want you to stretch your awareness beyond this room and imagine the outside of this building. As this lavender energy penetrates the building and the walls, you're now realizing that your awareness and your mind is expanding a little bit. Sounds like a little.

And as you sit there, I want you guys to imagine that lavender energy that is around your head now expanding and bigger all the way to the sky. And your awareness is looking down with this beautiful lavender energy in this building. And as you become more self-aware and your awareness is increasing and you're going higher and higher, I want you to bring that lavender energy all the way to our moon. Realizing now that your imagination can stretch you far beyond with where you are now.

And as you bring this lavender energy, you realize one thing, that you can only, stretch more. And as you're sitting there, listening to the sound of my voice, you're increasing your energy and you're stretching it and you're bringing your awareness all the way to the sun. And it's in this place where you discover who you are. Because it's when your eyes are closed is when the reality is.

Because your dreams are the reality. And as you close your eyes and your awareness is around the sun, This is the place where you can program something new, about you and about what you used to believe up until today. And we're gonna kill the old programming that has stopped us in this moment. Because it's whatever we put in this space, in this void, is what our realities are.

And as you sit there, I just want you to repeat after me, I I Will. Will. Win. Win.

I. I. Will. Will.

Win. Win. I. I.

Will. Win. Win. I.

I. Will. Will. Win.

Win. Open up your eyes. Stand up. Round of applause for all of you.

All right. The amazing Super Saiyan of the company, if you guys don't know who that is yet. Jonathan Cross is coming up back on stage. We just want to tell you we're grateful.

We appreciate you. And at the count of three, we're going to do our chant. Ready? One, two, three.

Now! Thank you very much, guys.