2016-02-11 Why Are You Here with Aaron Rashkin

Mr. Aaron Raskin! Am I turned on? Cool. Are you guys turned on?

Right on, baby. I'm in the right place, right time, right people. Most importantly, you all know why, right? For the right reasons. How many of you are here for the right reasons?

How many of you realize that this is not about blogging? Yeah, right. How many of you realize that this is not even about the money? How many of you realize that? You're such a bunch of liars.

Because you know what? I'll be honest. I came here for the money, and I stay for the feeling. How many of you are here for the feeling? How would you like to feel this way every single moment of your life?

See, I came here tonight with my best stuff ever. My best stuff. How many of you want to hear my best stuff ever? See, how many of you realize that everybody... Happy birthday, by the way.

Melissa, thank you for your friendship. It means the world to me. And happy birthday. And I heard the song and the dance. It was amazing.

I actually was in the gym this morning. And I took the time this morning to just really ground myself. Because when we come to these events, there's a lot of people. There's a lot of you. There's a lot of hands to shake.

There's a lot of hugs to give and get. And there's a lot of energy output. And sometimes we have to just take a moment to ourselves. Or a few moments. Sometimes special moments.

And just break the bonds from everybody else. And get completely centered. And just take stock of who we are. What we want. Right?

How we're going to get there. And how we're going to bring people with us. You guys with me? Say, aye. Aye.

Okay, because that's the most important thing. See, I'm going to give you my best stuff. But see, what has to happen is that you have to give me your best stuff for me to give it to you. It's a symbiotic relationship. It's a, yeah, you can clap if you like.

Because that energy, right? That energy that you put out, right? The energy that you put out is going to come back to you times ten. Sometimes times a hundred. And when you combine business and you combine marketing, right?

See, last night we had this great conversation. We were out at one of the restaurants and there was a bunch of really cool people around. And I was having a conversation with Brian Dixon. Where's Brian? Is he in the room?

I don't know if he's in the room. We were talking and there was some really great conversation going on. We were talking about how, and Adrian, where's Adrian? I just saw Adrian over here, right? Right over here?

Yeah, there he is. We were talking about how when you go online and you start networking and you're going through Facebook and you're writing your marketing and you're blogging and you're doing emails and you're syndicating and you're using OnlyWire and you're putting your message out there to the world. A lot of times what happens is we get distracted by this thing called networking and we forget to market. And a lot of time is wasted liking people's butternut squash and T-bone steak. We get caught up in what the kids did at the preschool that day.

We get into conversation with people about the best dress to buy for this wedding that they're going to. And we have these conversations with people and we're networking, which is great because we're having a connection. But the truth is that I know you guys came here to build a business. And some of you are building your business and you're getting a payoff financially. And some of you are getting a payoff emotionally.

How many of you are getting an emotional payoff this weekend? You had a little breakthrough. Sometimes we have to have a breakdown before we can have a breakthrough. How many of you have had a breakdown before? I just had one a couple hours ago.

I had a breakdown. I literally had to tune up my shit. Because I was breaking down. I literally was feeling all this pressure and all this anxiety. And see, you know what's really cool about it?

Is that it doesn't matter what level of success you've achieved. It doesn't matter what level of income you've earned. It doesn't matter what you've been through in your life. What matters is that you understand why you feel the way you do. See, a lot of you are telling yourselves a story right now.

A lot of you are telling yourself a story about why you can't be successful. Why things aren't working. Why somebody feels a certain way about you. Or maybe why you feel a certain way about them. See, a story is something that we want to learn how to tell.

But we have to get our story right first. We have to get ourselves right. And when you get comfortable with yourself, other people become comfortable with you too. And when other people become comfortable with you, they start to like you. They start to get to know you.

They start to trust you. And they start realizing that you have the power to influence them so that you can be a part of their story. And this is why people want to be around you. This is why people will travel miles, hundreds, even thousands of miles to come be around you, to come to your events, to come be at your Facebook page. They'll listen to what you have to say.

They'll open your emails. It's all about how you feel about yourself. I know some of you are probably getting what I'm saying. And some of you are probably not ready for it yet. But I can assure you this, is that no matter where you are in your life, no matter where you are in your business, no matter where you are in your income, no matter where you are in your organization, with things going on in your family, no matter where you are right now, and how much joy you feel, and sometimes how much pain you feel, and how much exhilaration, and how much enthusiasm and excitement, no matter how much commitment.

How many of you made a new commitment this weekend? Right? How many of you made the biggest commitment of your life this weekend? How many of you feel extremely powerful? Say, I.

Okay, because you are powerful. And everything you require to be successful is already inside of you. It's already inside of you. So why did you come here this weekend? What did you come here for?

Why are you here? To unleash yourself, right? To release and let yourself be. Right? To let yourself be.

Allow yourself to live. Allow yourself to breathe. Allow yourself to feel. How many of you realize that you're walking around with a mask on? And you're shaking hands and you're networking, but you're still hiding behind the mask.

And you wear a costume and it covers you. It covers your heart. It covers all your chakras. It covers all your loins. Right?

And you're sitting inside this costume with a mask on, and you're walking around and playing what I call playing Amway. And you walk up to your friend you haven't seen since the last time and say, Hey, how's it going? And this other guy's like, Oh yeah, it's doing great. Oh yeah, I'm doing great. I'm doing great.

I'm doing great. And you know what? Meanwhile, some of you aren't making any damn money. And yet you're all doing so great. And some of you are struggling at home.

Some of you have spouses that don't support you. Some of you have kids that are dysfunctional and maybe they're causing a little bit of anxiety. Anybody have children? All right. How many of you that have children realize that the best thing you can do when you have children is just learn how to breathe?

All right. Learn how to breathe. Take a deep breath. How many of you have parents? All right.

How many of you realize that when you have parents, the best thing you can do is learn how to breathe? Right. You got siblings. You got business partners. You got friends.

And how many of you have friends? All right. How many of you realize that the best thing to do when you have friends is to learn how to breathe? All right. Because some of you haven't breathed yet.

You're walking around white knuckling it, holding that steering wheel of life, trying to force everything. I'm going to get to my goals. I'm going to get to my destination. I'm going to make sure that I'm successful because I want to show the world that I can do it. And let me tell you, when you try to show the world how you're great and how successful you are because you want to prove something, you walk around owing everybody something that you haven't yet paid yourself.

And that's the biggest problem that I see all of you guys out there dealing with. Is that some of you are walking around trying to look good for everybody else when, when you look in the mirror, you're not yet comfortable with you. Now, sure, some of us are built differently than others. Some of us have different skin tones and colors and shapes and sizes, and we come from different backgrounds, and we all have amazing stories. I guarantee you that if I asked every one of you to come up on stage, you could share your story.

Where you've been. How many of you have a past? How many of you have a past that has some skeletons that you want to kind of leave in the closet? How many of you have a secret that you've never told one person before? Everybody got one secret, right?

At least one. Maybe more. I'm sure you got plenty, right? We all have secrets, right? There's a lot of things that we have done in our lives that nobody knows about.

There's things that we've done in our lives that too many people know about, right? And so we go around this whole life hoping that people see us, yet we're not even showing who we are. We're not even showing who we are. We're still in the costume, and we're still wearing the mask. And you know what happens when you wear that costume and you wear the mask?

Nobody gets to see you and how you really show up. All they see is this little fake, this facade, this persona that you want people to see you as. I'm no different, right? When I was getting dressed this morning, I tried on three belts. Do you know that I tried on three belts?

First I wore like a reddish brown one, then I had like a brown one, and then I decided on this cool one. You want to hear something funny? About four years ago, I went to Austin, Texas, and I went there for a mastermind. Same place I met David Wood when this company was first launched. And Sharp, you know, I met Sharp and Wood at the same time.

And it wasn't that same weekend that I met them, but I went to Austin just a few months prior to that, and I forgot my belt. So I went to this little gift shop, and I'm wearing the gift that I bought myself. That was $110. Now I had a whole closet full of belts at home, you know, but I forgot my belt. I forgot all my belts, so I had to buy one.

It was $110. And I was like, you know what? This is so stupid. I'm just going to buy it, and I'm going to return it when the weekend's over. How many of you have thought about that before, right?

So I go to this mastermind. I'm wearing my cool new belt. And I was like, shit, I spent $110 on this thing, right? I was pissed. I'm like, I could have bought like a round of drinks, or I could have bought a big steak dinner, you know?

But I spent money on this belt. And I wore it the whole weekend, and I was thinking I was going to return it. Well, by the end of the trip, I realized something. I realized that this is somebody's business. Somebody had an idea to make this belt.

And they made a prototype, or they had some sort of a factory that had to pump out the brass or the leather and sew it all together. And it went on a truck and got shipped on a plane maybe, and it got taken to this little gift shop in Austin, Texas, where here I was, the guy who needed a belt. And I needed a belt, so I bought it. And you know what I realized? That the payoff that I got for buying this little belt right here was far greater than what it would cost me if I returned it after use.

And see, what you have to understand is that there's certain codes in life that you have to learn. And see, the first thing you have to do is you first have to seek to understand what these codes are. It's kind of like judo, right? I wear a little symbol around my neck. I don't have it on right now because it looked ridiculous with this really cool shirt I bought.

And I wear a yin yang around my neck, and yin yang is a symbol of balance. And you know, my whole life has been a struggle for balance. I was a drug addict when I was in college, and I was a personal trainer. I was using drugs. I was talking health and wellness at the same time.

So by day, I was a trainer. By night, I was a party animal. I took drugs. I sold drugs. There's a skeleton in a closet, but it's not really in the closet anymore because that's who I am.

Take it or leave it. Now, I'm drug free these days. I'm clean and sober. But it doesn't mean that I don't use. It's just that you need to learn how to use in moderation.

Right? Justin talked about it last night. I live in the state of Colorado. I am a big cannabis enthusiast. Take it or leave it.

It's legal, baby. You know, that used to be the excuse. It wasn't legal. Now it's legal, and we can buy marijuana in a store. You can go buy edible marijuana.

You can buy pot brownies. You can buy space cakes. Yeah. We buy gummy bears and worms and all this crap. Sour Patch Kids.

And you know what the truth is? It's no different than going over to the bar at the restaurant and ordering a drink. It's no different. And I'm not up here to talk about marijuana or drugs. I'm just here to let you know that when you get okay with you, the world receives you in a whole different way.

And when you get okay with you, when you see who you really are and you allow yourself to be who you are, without judgment, without worry, without fear, without concern, without giving away your power. See, how many of you went to the gym today? How many of you went to the gym yesterday? How many of you went every day since you've been here? Right?

Some of you. This cat over here, right? I always say that I only exercise in the days that I eat. You know why? And whether it's in my room doing push-ups or sit-ups or planks or whatever it is, I'm doing some physical activity every day because for me, I want to look good.

I want to feel good, and I want to have more energy. But you know why I do it? It's not for you. It's for me. So when I look in the mirror and see my belt, I'm like, okay, I like that, I don't like that.

But it's not for you. It's not to impress you. I don't care about what you think of me. It doesn't mean I don't love you. It doesn't mean I don't respect you.

It doesn't mean that I don't care about your opinion because I do. I care more about your opinion because you know what it is? It's yours. And when you own something like your opinion, you take full ownership of your life. See, some of you are afraid to speak your mind.

Some of you hold in a lot of the shit that you want to share with people, don't you? And you think, oh, if I say that, I'm going to be judged. How many of you realize that the only one judging you is yourself? Because while you're running around trying to look good for everybody else, they're doing the exact same thing. They're not thinking about you.

And if they are, if they're thinking about you, they're judging you. Trust me, they're judging themselves ten times harder. You're in nobody's prison but your own. Yeah, go ahead. How many of you have always wanted to be the first person to clap and then set the whole room off?

Well, go ahead. Let me hear you do it. See, that's what it's all about. It's about not caring about what people think of you. How many of you realize that if you left this room right now, how many of you got what you came for already?

If the event ended right now, you go home and go make your first million dollars. Who's going to be a million dollar earner in a power network? See, that's a bunch of bullshit. Because you already are. You already are the ring earners.

You guys realize that? You already are. How many of you are million dollar earners in this room? Say, I. I.

I. How many realize that now all you got to do is just go out and get it? I. I. True or true?

True. Mark Anthony, where are you, my friend? There you go, buddy. How am I doing? You're already where you're supposed to be.

Hi. Your sister drove all the way from Toronto to be with you today. Wow. That's awesome. Thank you for coming.

How many of you drove from Toronto to be here today? Awesome. Congratulations. How many of you drove from Australia to be here today? Just kidding.

I know we have people that come from all over the world, right? Who flew the furthest to get here today? Where are some of you from? Zealand? Germany?

Where? Malaysia? Yeah. Netherlands? Cool.

Portugal! You guys are like Spain, like the Portuguese and the Spanish and even the Brazilian team. They're like a, it's like a hop, skip and a jump now because it's so like, who was I talking to? Rui? Rui and Melissa.

I don't know about Melissa, but I know Rui's been here for events. Silvio, Miguel, Paula, right? Joao, Cesarino now. Some of you have been here ten times in the last two years. Is that awesome or what?

And you want to know, and you want to know why they make a half a million dollars in two years. How many of you realize that if you put in the commitment that Silvio and Rui and Miguel and Paula and just the whole team, Mario and Carla and Sinead and I, you put in the commitment that these guys put in, you can make a million dollars in two years too. How many of you realize that if you match their commitment without having to travel 24 hours to come to an event? airports, having layovers, spending all that time preparing, going sometimes two or three hours to get to the local airport. If you match the commitment that they have to get on a plane and travel for 24 hours, some of you in New Zealand, Malaysia, Germany, Dusseldorf, is that right?

Right? Some of you come from all over the world, halfway around the world, right? If you that live in Charlotte, Nashville, New Jersey, Texas, California, right, you get on a plane, you travel two hours, you drive an hour or two to get to an event. If you match the effort and energy and passion and commitment that these lazy millionaires have and you did that in your own backyard and you did that on your own computer and you did that in your own local neighborhood, you could get those results. You could get Brian and Rhonda's results.

They travel all around the world living out of a duffel bag, I think, a backpack, right? The Unstoppables. They literally travel and you watch these guys, no wonder they're making the most money in the company because they are so passionate about living their dream. When I was getting dressed this afternoon before I came down, the film crew came into my room and they are the most awesome people. They're from Lithuania, right?

And you know, I broke out some Lithuanian. I busted out my Lithuanian. I was just like, yo, that was it. That was my Lithuanian. It was awesome.

And I don't even remember the beautiful young lady's name that followed me around with the mic. What's her name? The pretty blonde girl with the shaved head? Jumanji? Yeah, that.

We talk. Okay, so she said to me, what are you going to talk about? And you know what I said? What I really said is that I don't have anything planned, however, I'm going to give my best stuff ever. How am I doing so far?

Here's what I'm going to tell you. Here's what I'm going to tell you. Is that there's no playbook. Sure, we have online training, we have all these courses, we have these little walkthroughs in the back office. How many of you know that there's walkthroughs in your back office that will teach you how to set up everything for your business?

Literally from setting up your blog, uploading photos, images, banners, there's every kind of walkthrough. Setting up your autoresponders, right? There's pretty much everything that you need to set up. Now it's time to get up. To get up off your ass and do something.

Who's ready for a breakthrough? Say I. I. I. The more you read, the more you listen, the more you model, the more you mentor, the more you plug in, pay attention, do the work, things shift for you.

They change. And see, when I first got started in this industry over 20 years ago, I sat in the back of the room. Matter of fact, when I first launched my very first info product, it was an audio CD, and at that time, when I first put this product together, I was just learning how to prospect and connect with people. And I made this little info product, it was a little audio CD, and I'll never forget, when I went to my very first event, I didn't sit in the front row, I didn't have a sofa, I didn't sit in a comfortable chair. I was kind of skeptical, not sure what was going on, I just knew that there were people making a lot of money and living a great lifestyle, but I was in the back of the room.

So when I created my very first info product, I wanted to ground myself and remind myself that being in the back was for the birds. And so I named my very first info product Upfront Prospecting, Upfront Prospecting, because you want to be upfront with people. You want to be real, you want to be in the space with them so that they get to feel you and know that you mean your best for them. No matter what they want for themselves, but you want to make sure that you can serve them the best way possible. And when I got started, and I was cold calling leads, sometimes out of the white pages in the phone book, you want to hear my pitch?

Okay, I did this the other day for a dude named Will, I don't know, Will are you in the room? I don't know if Will's here, it wasn't Will I am, but it was Will. And Will, he was, because he was a cool cat, wearing a little button down, or a button down shirt and a tie, and we were talking about how to stand out in the marketplace. And he said, well, what would you say to people? And I would say, you know, I would call people off the phone book list and I would say, hey, I just got your name from a, I would call up and say, hey Joe, this is Aaron Rashkin, how's it going?

I'd say, I got your name off a list of people that might be looking for new ways to make money. Is that you? Right? Is that you? See, you ask a question at the end of your statement, and you learn how to qualify people.

And when you qualify somebody for your time, and for your attention, what you're doing is you're sending an unspoken message that says, I am the leader! It says, I am the leader! But you don't have to yell it, and you don't have to scream it, and it doesn't have to be in all caps, it's just a simple question, you can even ask it quietly. You can say, is that you? I am looking for people who are looking for new ways to change the quality of their life.

Is that you? Is that you? I'm talking to you people, is that you? Great. So tell me, how can I help you today?

How can I help you today? This was the pitch, this was the script. We used to ask people, how can I help you? And they say, well you called me asking if I'm looking for a new way to make money in a new business. Why are you asking me how you can help me?

And I say, because I know that you're looking for a new way to make money. I can match you up with the right opportunity. Are you looking? And they say, yes. Or they say, no.

And the key is to find out who you're talking to, so that if they're the right person, you stay. If they're the wrong person, you move on. And you keep sorting, spending less time with more people. How many of you know you are stuck on one or two people in your life, in your business, that are holding you back? Raise your hand if you know somebody in your life that you are stuck on, and you cannot move forward until you release them from your world.

How many of you realize that? I don't really see much going on. If you guys have somebody in your life that you know you need to move past, because they're keeping you from doing the things that you want, say I. And for those of you that didn't say anything, you're probably not being honest either. The truth is, that those of you that just said I, who were you thinking of?

Right, spouse, family, friends. Some of you are stuck on business partners, but you know what the truth is? Is that the only person who has full control over your forward progress is you. It's you. You're blaming somebody else.

How many of you know when you point the finger, you got three more pointing right back at you? Yeah, go ahead, you can clap if you like. My time was short today, my glass was empty. Some of you got that. Some of you picked that up.

I didn't pick it up, you did. I came here clean and sober today because I wanted to make sure that my message was clean and sober for you. I want to share something with you before I go, and I told myself this for as long as I've been in this business, and for as long as I was looking for excuses, and I was looking for reasons, and I was looking for the exact why I wanted to be successful. I told myself this from day one. I didn't come here for the money, I came here for the feeling.

I told you this when I first came on stage, and I'm going to leave you with this. I didn't just come here for the money and stay for the feeling. I came here for the money and for the feeling that I know that I could change the way you feel about yourself, and I could change the way that you guys see how you could be successful. And part of my life's mission is to project onto you that if I can do this, if a kid who is a burned out, smoking, drinking, heroin addict, who lived literally day by day, digging through his sofa, trying to find change so he could go down to the local taco shop and spend 99 cents on a burrito just enough so I can get by one more day, if I can do this, if I can do this, I don't care where you are in your life, I don't care when you got started, I don't care who your sponsor is, I don't care what your story is, if I can do this, you can do this too. How many of you agree with me?

Say I. My friends, that's all the time I have, thank you so much for having me up on stage.