Just Listen, And Prepare To Be Blown Away

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. Hey folks, what's going on? This is Dave Sharp, co-founder of Empower Network, and we're about to kick this baby off. It's 9-0-2 on March 18, 2013, and if you're on this call tonight, this is going to be a defining moment in your life and business. What you're going to hear tonight is going to blow your mind, and I'm not really one who loves to hype things up if there's no actual proof or documentation to back something up, but guys, tonight, I really should over-hype what we're going to be talking about and who we're going to be bringing out tonight, because tonight, it's really about what's possible when you make a decision, no matter where you're at in life, no matter where you're at with your business, no matter how much money you've made, it's really about what's possible.

What is possible when you make a decision to go all-in, take action, and do what people have told you to do who have got the results that you want? I know for a long time, I struggled in my life, personally, because I was too much of a knucklehead, and I'll just come right out and tell you that. I ran around for years thinking that I had all the answers. I left my house when I was 14 years old. I ran the streets for about 10 years, had a daughter when I was 16, ended up homeless, and ended up with a crippling drug addiction, and addicted to alcohol.

And my best thinking got me exactly where I ended up back in 2008, when I was in an old, dirty, disgusting bathroom, trying to soak up the last hit of dope that I could soak up to shoot into my body, because that's what my life had come to. And I can remember spilling the last shot of heroin that I had at that very moment onto the toilet seat, and looking at myself, standing up in the mirror and being so disgusted that I couldn't even look in the mirror at myself. And I knew right then and there that everything that I had thought, that I had said, that I had done in life up until that point, had got me exactly, exactly where I was at right then and there. And I remember having a decision, to make a decision.

I had two options. This is the really cool thing about life and business, is that you've always got choices. You've always got a decision that you can make, even today, no matter where you're at, what situation you're in, how much money you're making, and how much money you're not making, where you're at financially, where you're at with your relationships. There's always a choice. There's always a decision to make.

And at that point in my life, back in 2008, I had a decision to make. And that decision was to either, and I want you to think about this and put yourself in my shoes, go back and do it all over again, which is exactly what I wanted to do, because I was comfortable in the thinking that I had pretty much programmed myself to have over the course of the last 10 years, or I could make a decision to go and do something that I'd never done before. And fortunately, I made a decision to go right and to the left. I went up to my dad's house, asked him if he'd let me in, he did.

Five years later, I've been clean and sober now for five years. But I can tell you that it hasn't always been peaches and cream. Hasn't always been all blue skies, because over the course of the last five years, I've made a lot of dumb decisions. I've done a lot of stupid stuff. And I can remember when I got clean.

And I like to talk about this because I want to identify with you first and foremost on this phone call on a personal level before we get into talking about business stuff, because I truly have a belief that if you're not going to equip yourself personally, then how do you ever expect to equip yourself financially? And that's a big belief that I have personally because I've seen it not only manifest in my life, but in other people's life around me. A couple of the people that I'm going to bring on the call tonight are probably going to share similar experiences with you. And I want you to know no matter what you're going through, no matter where you've been, no matter how you're feeling right now or how bad you think you got it, that you can come up out of that through a simple decision of realizing, and sometimes somebody's just going to tell it to you like it is. See, a lot of you on this call tonight haven't been talked to straightforward in a long time.

And a lot of people on this call have been surrounded by people who have just basically sit in their own stuff, sit in their own shit, and just basically make excuses for where they're at. Every single thing that has happened in their life on somebody else. And I'm here to tell you that if that's you, you're welcome on this call, but that's not what you're going to hear tonight from me or from anybody else who pops on this call because what I thoroughly believe is I believe that if you want to be a champion, you've got to get around people who are going to talk to the champion inside of you. And I know that for me, I haven't had anybody, especially five years ago, talk to the champion inside of me in a long time. Ever since I was young.

When I was a little kid, I used to go out on the baseball field with my dad when he used to tell me, damn it son, you can do it. Get back in there and do it one more time. See, I had surrounded myself for ten years with people who basically co-signed everything, every bad decision, every bad way of thinking that I could possibly come up with. And every time that I came to somebody with a challenge, with something that was going on in my life, do you know what they told me? They said, oh no, David.

I can't believe that happened to you. Darn it. I can't believe that happened to you. And you know what? I started to actually believe those lies.

I started to actually believe that the things that not only I was starting to tell myself, but other people were telling me as well were actually true. And I can remember actually getting clean and I was walking around bumping my head every single where, every single place that I went. Every single situation that I got myself into, I was having a hard time getting myself out of. It had been a long time since I'd actually thought right. My head was so far up my butt for so long that I had a hard time putting a couple of good thoughts together.

And I can actually remember, and I just wrote an email about this because I was thinking about this story and thinking about this person who said this to me this one day when I was sitting at a coffee shop going over some of the things that were happening in my life. And a guy named Louis started to, and this was somebody who was in my personal life, a little short Hispanic guy, Puerto Rican. Very cool guy. Looked up to this guy like he was just the guru of all gods and spiritual, on spiritual pedestals sitting up on a white, furry cloud up in the sky and showering me with his wisdom. He said to me, hey look Dave, we've been going over the same things now for a couple of months.

You keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. Now I know that you're hungry because you're doing what it takes in life to stay clean, number one, but also to stay in the game and keep coming back to me with your issues. But I've got to be honest with you. You're either going to do what I'm telling you to do and you're going to get a certain result, the same result that everybody else has gotten when they've done what I've told them to do, or you're just going to suffer, you bastard.

The truth of the matter is that was the first time somebody actually said something like that to me in a long time. And I'll tell you, that hit me right between the eyes. I'm not going to lie. Because I realized that at that very moment, my happiness, my fulfillment, my success was my responsibility.

It wasn't somebody else's. I was not a victim of circumstance. I wasn't a victim of life. I wasn't a victim of my parents. I wasn't a victim of my upbringing.

I wasn't a victim of the economy or the president or the party that was in office. I wasn't a victim of my teachers or my schools or the judges or the police officers. Or my ex-girlfriends. I wasn't a victim of anything except my own thinking. And I realized right then and there that my best thinking got me exactly where I was at.

And if I wanted to do something different, then I was going to have to start thinking differently. And I was going to have to start listening to people who were getting the results in life that I wanted. Now, this was way before I even got into the home-based business industry. I was still swinging a hammer on a construction site, sleeping on my dad's couch. And I would go to work with him every day.

And he would pay me out of his paycheck. I wasn't even yet making a paycheck of my own. And this is when I started to learn the principles that have made me the most money out of anything that I've ever learned. It's the simple stuff. It's things that most people overlook.

I see so many people now that we're building an organization that's growing faster than anything that I've ever seen before. Now that we've surpassed 100,000 customers. Now that we've helped more people, and helped more people earn more money than anything that I've ever personally seen before in not only my network marketing home-based business career, but also anything that I've ever been involved in my entire life. And I want to just put this out there just before we continue the call because you're probably going to hear some figures.

You're going to hear some facts and numbers. Let me just give you a big-ass, ridiculous, obnoxious disclaimer. In no way does any facts, figures, numbers guarantee that you're going to make anything at all. I just want to put that out there for you just to hear before we even go on. We actually disclose the averages.

And our income disclosure is absolutely more detailed than any other income disclosure that I've ever seen in the network marketing home-based business, direct sales, or affiliate marketing industry, hands down. So you can actually see that at EmpowerNetwork.com forward slash income dot php. We disclose all of the averages. You can do your due diligence. We don't want anybody on this call who's thinking that there's any promises of income whatsoever.

Because the truth of the matter is, is success at Empower Network, success in your business and your brick-and-mortar business and whatever you're doing is going to depend on the things that I'm talking about as well as your dedication and determination, your hard work, and your leadership. And I'm going to be honest with you. If you want to make a lot of money, you're going to have to work your ass off, if I can just be straight with you here on this phone call tonight. So now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's get back to the facts.

Let's get back to the fact that what I've seen so far in the last 15 months of building one of the fastest organizations that I've ever personally seen built in the home-based business industry is I've seen a lot of people fumbling around doing a lot of nonsense that they don't need to be doing. And I've seen a few people who have listened to what we've said, and we've said the same thing over and over and over again, and have applied it, and maybe they kicked and screamed and clung. They've been caught in scratch for a couple of weeks or a couple of months, and maybe they showed up to an event, and they sat in the back of the room, and they had their arms crossed, and they said, I'm just not doing this, and this just must not be right or true. And then they saw somebody else cross the stage, get a big check, get results, come on the Empower Hour call, talk about what they're doing, which is the simple stuff that we've been talking about, and start to work on the important things that I'm talking about here in the beginning of this call who are making money. And I'm going to tell you something, eventually that starts to eat at you, especially if you have the guts to stay in the game.

And I'm going to be honest with you, and I don't want to disqualify some people here on the beginning of this call, because the fact of the matter is, is to succeed in this business, you do have to have guts, right? Because you have to overcome all of the things that you're going to hear, that are going to be said to you, all of the weenie, wussy-ass comments that you're going to hear from people, because I'm going to be honest with you, if you ever want to do anything big in life, you're going to have to make some people mad. But what I'm going to do on tonight's call is I'm going to show you how to turn your haters into your motivators. I'm going to show you how to take everything that's ever happened to you and turn it into your greatest asset. Because I truly believe that our experience, no matter if it's good or bad, guys, no matter if it's good or bad, is our greatest asset.

Because you can take everything from me today, everything, and guess what? I wouldn't care, because I know that I love on people, and I use things, I don't love things and use people. I know that the things that I've been through in life are what's going to get me to the next level. I know that the experiences that I've had and the wisdom that I've taken from people, from situations, and other people's experience, which, by the way, is one of the best ways to learn. Man, it is, it blows my mind.

It reminds me of me when I see somebody coming in, and they are just determined to crash their head against the wall. When I just say, hey, Jimmy, or Johnny, or Mary, or Sue, hey, look, I don't want to steal your pain and your misery away from you, because the truth of the matter is, your misery is yours. And I don't want to take it away. If you want it that bad, the truth of the matter is, hey, Bobby just came before you and did the same thing, busted his head against the wall, and it didn't really look like it worked out too well. You might want to try something different.

But some people are just determined, because there's a couple of categories of people in life, and I'm going to tell you a really quick, really simple story that's going to illustrate this lesson for you. There was a guy named Bobby, and he just absolutely would not stop slamming his head. He slammed it, he slammed it, he slammed it. He was determined to get through the wall by just a pair of fours. He wasn't interested in blueprints or anything that he had to say.

He reminded me a lot of myself, be real truthful with you. And along came somebody and said, hey, Bobby, look, I don't want to steal your pain and your misery away from you, because the truth of the matter is, you are just determined to crash through the wall, but I've got an idea and it might help you out.

So he gave him a shovel and he started to show him how to dig under the wall. And I'll be honest with you, it wasn't the fastest way to get to the other side, but it was better than what he was doing because his head was about to literally fall off his shoulders. So he did that and after about a week of digging, he realized that wasn't the fastest way to accomplish what he was trying to do. So he went back to slamming his head against the wall because he just figured that was just the best way to do things. And along came somebody else and said, hey, Bobby, I don't want to steal your misery from you, buddy.

And I've been watching you here for a long time. I've seen the other guy come along and show you how to dig under the wall and I saw you get frustrated and I saw you go back to starting at square one. But I wanted you to stand back for a second because I wanted to show you something that you might not have seen. And I realize you don't see this, Bobby, because you're right in the middle of it. And if you're listening to this call right now, then you can put a piece of paper or a book right up to the front of your eyes and you can see exactly what Bobby saw, which if you try to read that page, you're not going to be able to see the words.

So Bobby stepped back with this old wise man and he looked at the wall and the wise man pointed over to the left and he said, man, look, there was an invention back in the day, and I'm not going to quote the year because I don't know, but it's a four little word. It's an amazing invention. It's called a door. It's that thing that's right under that exit sign over there. And he said, I bet you if you go over and turn that knob and step right through that door, you're going to be able to get to the other side of that wall.

So Bobby listened to him because the guy didn't have a beat. He didn't look like he was as miserable as he was. He looked like he had ate that day and looked like he was actually living the kind of life that Bobby was looking to try to live. So he went up to the door, opened the door knob, and stepped right through. And guys, that is a good example and illustration of what I see so many people doing, not only in life, but also in business, especially in Empower Network.

I see a lot of people running around looking for the secret. I see a lot of people on the Internet looking for the secret. I see a lot of people spending all day on Facebook trying to figure out what they're going to post at noon and at 3 p.m. and at 6 p.m. and at 9 p.m.

to let everybody know that they're living the life of their dreams and that everybody in the world should join them. I see a lot of people going and investing a bunch of money in different traffic strategies and listening to somebody else and relying on somebody else to build their business for them. And the truth of the matter is a lot of these people don't really take the time to step back and take a look. They don't take a look at what is really going on in their business. To step back and listen to the people who are getting the results that they want.

Because the truth of the matter is, is sometimes to listen to somebody else, it's a little bit uncomfortable. Because we're so programmed for a subconscious of life and the people that we've surrounded ourselves with, the parents that we were raised by, the teachers that we had, the police officers that we had. The people that we've listened to and all of the rest of society to do exactly what we think is right. And I'll be honest with you, is that the same thing that I had, a lot of other people have, which is this self-righteous attitude that I'm right and there's no possibility that I couldn't be right and I'm going to die right because I'd rather be right than successful or happy. And this is when the ego gets in the way of the bank account.

And I'm going to tell you something, that's a miserable place to be. The truth of the matter is, guys, is that every single person on this call tonight has what it takes inside of them to be successful. All right, you were born with it. You were born with a champion inside of you. Just like I was.

Just like Justin Verrengia was. Just like the young lady that I'm going to introduce to you on this call tonight was. Just like Tony Rush was. Just like Lawrence Tam was. But you know what?

Sometimes it takes somebody speaking to that champion inside of you to bring it out. Sometimes it takes getting around the right people and leaving all of your best friends and all of your family and all of the people that you feel connected to at the hip. Sometimes you just have got to cut the umbilical cord. And that doesn't mean that you stop and go and start telling your spouse or your partner that they're not supportive because, guys, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that sometimes you've got to disconnect from your way of thinking and let somebody else do the thinking for you for a little bit.

I can remember when I first got clean. I was the most ignorant SOB that you've ever met in your entire life because I hadn't made a good decision in 10 years. So what I had to do is I had to shut my brain off. I had to stop feeding it fuel, which was CNN and the news and sitting down in front of the idiot box every day after I got home from the construction job and going and hanging around. And I had to focus on the people who were basically their mission in life that day anyways to just find out how many different people, places, or things they could blame their situation on.

And I had to unplug from that stuff. And I had to focus on the people who had my best intentions in mind and, more importantly, the people that were going to tell me the truth regardless of how I felt about it. See, the fact of the matter is when I've got people in my life and they want my advice, they want my coaching, counseling, they want my perspective or opinion on something, I always just make sure that they can handle the truth before I answer their question, because we've been so conditioned to not be able to accept the truth because we need our diaper changed or our hand held or whatever the case may be, because we've been so conditioned by different people telling us, well, it's not your fault. Well, if it's not your fault, whose fault is it then? Because the truth of the matter is, is nobody else is eating the same dinner that you're eating except your family.

Nobody else is shopping at the same places that you're shopping except you and your family. Nobody else is going on the vacations or not going on the vacations that you're going to or not going to except you and your family. So the truth of the matter is it's not only is your thinking your responsibility, but also the results that you're getting as a result of your thinking is also your responsibility. And I want to tell you something, there are probably some people that are hanging up this call saying, boy, this guy's rude. I can't believe he would talk to me like that.

But the truth of the matter is, is there's somebody on this call tonight who's saying, damn it, I'm tired of being worried about that. I'm tired of thinking and feeling and acting the way that I've been thinking, feeling, and acting. And I'm ready to release my inner badass, which, a.k.a., is release your inner champion, which is a.k.a., live up to your potential, which is a.k.a., start taking responsibility for your life, which is a.k.a., start living a life beyond your wildest dreams. And it doesn't matter if you have a college education, because, hey, look, I dropped out in ninth grade. Every single teacher, every single counselor, every single judge and police officer, the majority, and I love them, God bless them, and they're the best family anybody could ask for, but the majority of my family lost hope on what I was going to be, if I was ever going to do anything in life.

And that's okay, because it took what it took for me to get where I am today. I'll never forget, I was sitting around building my business. Now, by this time, I'd actually gotten started back in the home-based business industry. I had joined a company. The company went down on me.

I stayed in the game. I didn't quit. I went and put a used computer from Best Buy on my girlfriend's credit card, because that was the only money that I had. Well, it was actually not even my money. It was her money, and I paid it off over the course of the next six months.

And I went and I figured out, because I was super intrigued by people who were making money on the Internet, well, I was running around putting magnets on my old Ford 1990 F-150 with paint peeling off of it, and I thought the secret to my marketing success and how I was going to build a huge organization, and I shit you not, it was to put a big banner, a big six by nine or whatever, you know, the big ones, the big banners that you see hanging on the front of, like, nonprofit organizations and stuff like that, mostly because they're cheap. It's like a good alternative for an expensive sign. So I lived on a main drag in St. Petersburg, Florida, and I said, because I'd come out every day, I bought those little four by two signs that you put on the side of the road.

A lot of times you see, like, the real estate, the homes being sold with handwriting. It's like, you know, 4-2, 23,000, whatever. It's just a little four by two sign. I put those in my yard every night because I did live on a main street. There was a lot of traffic.

But every morning that I got up, I would come and the sign was tipped over or stolen or whatever. I was so frustrated. I thought to myself, man, I am determined. I'm going to do this thing. I went to Vistaprint, which was the only place that I knew to get stuff for free because I didn't have the money to actually invest in my business at this time.

And I said to myself, because I had seen somebody back at a company that I was in back in 2005 do this. I went over to their house. It was the very first opportunity presentation I had ever been to in my life. And I went over, and this girl had the big banner on the front of her house. And I just thought to myself, because I was having flashbacks, I thought she was successful.

So I said, God, I live on a main drag. If she was successful, God, I can imagine how successful I'm going to be because thousands of people drive by my house every single day. And a girl looked at me with this look in her eyes and said, you ain't putting no damn banner on the fence out in front of our house, David. And at that moment, it just hit me. What I'm doing is not working.

So I did other stuff. And I didn't give up. And I remember actually making enough. I didn't have enough money to go full-time in my business. I was still, right, when I went full-time, mind you, when I went full-time, I was still driving the old 1994 F-150 pickup truck that I had.

I bought this thing for $1,000. It had more rust on it than anything that you've ever seen before. I'd roll down the highway, and big chips would just fly off the front of it, hit other people in the windshield. I'd just keep going like I didn't know, but I knew, and I just kept going. I'd go to business meetings, and I'd park three parking lots over because I had to pop the trunk and start the engine with a screwdriver and sparks would fly everywhere.

But I didn't quit. I didn't give up. And eventually, I made enough money and had enough money coming in that I made the biggest decision that I'd ever had to make so far in my life up until this point, which was, am I going to go full-time inside of my business? And I did. And I survived because I got outside of my head, and I started to realize that my best thinking wasn't, and I started to listen to other people and follow other people's advice, whether they were standing in front of me telling me or not.

But I was full-time in my business. And I'll never forget, it was about six months later. I was making good money by this point. Maybe six to nine months later.

I was making real good money. I'd had another company. I'd built a team, I had a couple thousand people in the organization. The company went down. I still didn't give up.

Do you see a pattern here? Do you see the adversity? Now, this was way before Empower. And I was still in the game. By this time, I just said to myself, man, I'm just sick and tired of being in companies to where I want the company to succeed more than the owner wants the company to succeed, and I'm just going to make my own product, and I'm just going to help people, by coaching them and selling masterminds and stuff like this, and I'm just going to sell my own info products online.

Well, there were some other people who happened to have some of the same experiences and ideas that I had. One of those guys' name was Dave Wood. And I saw him. He was putting on this event for 3,000 people, or excuse me, 3,000 ahead for about 10, 11 people down in Costa Rica. I didn't think nothing of it, right?

Because I yet didn't really realize, and I had been to events. I had been to a few events. But I wasn't really in the game. And Dave said, why don't you come down as a guest trainer? I want to connect with you.

Let's talk. We've been talking on the phone a couple of times, just kind of strengthening our relationship. Let me get some water here. You know something? He invited me down, and I tried to come up with every single excuse not to go down.

The dog needs to be walked and fed. My daughter needs to be picked up from school. You know, the trash needs to be taken out. Oh, God. How is my woman going to survive for a week without me?

And the truth of the matter is I had an opportunity staring me right in my face and I had no idea the power of it. Now, I've had lots of these situations happen, but I'm telling you something that is actually affecting you if you're on this call today and shows the power of what happens when we either talk ourselves out of it or we step out onto a ledge that we've never been on before and take a leap of faith. Do something that we've never done before. My girl looked at me. She said, David, don't you dare be a wussy.

Get your butt a plane ticket. You go down there. I said, yes, ma'am. Got myself a plane ticket and went down there. I almost didn't go.

You know what it's like and how easy it is to not do something when you're invited, to just stay in your PJs at home and pull the covers over your head and give yourself sheet therapy, to just lay in bed, to just do nothing, to stay in your comfort zone. But I went down there. And from that event was born the conversations and the ideas and the phone calls and the late night, 12 midnight to 3 a.m. caffeine masterminds that later turned into a company that did over $40 million in sales, generated over 100,000 customers and helped more people in more states and countries around the world start getting results, having success in their life and business than anything I've ever seen before.

And it all came from a decision to get out of my comfort zone. It came from a decision to do something that I didn't want to do. Even though the opportunity was so good, it's so funny how our head works against us sometimes to try to keep us stuck, our subconscious really backs us in the corner sometimes that we can't get out alive. Over the course of the last 15 months or so, I've seen the same thing happen. I'm going to bring on some people here in a second who are going to give you proof of the power of getting to events, proof, the power of listening to somebody besides themselves, the power of just taking some simple suggestions and getting out of their own way.

The first guy that I'm going to bring out, his name is Justin. And a lot of you know Justin, but I'll never forget. I didn't know who Justin was, I didn't know who his wife was until I saw this cute little black girl and you know, if you know Deva Rangia, I mean, she could be mistaken for an 18-year-old girl, truthfully. She just exercises a lot. I don't know what they're eating or whatever, they both look young, like 18, you know how old they are.

I saw this cute little black girl sitting down in the front of the stage and I thought to myself, oh, that's interesting, she looks engaged and I don't know where she came from. It was Sunday and she hadn't been sitting in the front Friday or Saturday, but she was sitting there and Justin was probably next to her, I don't remember, but it's Sunday, there was a bunch of people who were sitting out in front of the stage in Atlanta at our first event that we called Don't Be a Wussy, which I think is not only obnoxious, but also ridiculously funny and cool at the same time. And they both came up to me after that event and said, this event changed our lives. And I hear that a lot. I hear things like this every day.

What happened between Atlanta and San Diego proved that what Justin said was actually true. And the things that Justin, the promises that Justin was making, not only to himself, but probably also to other people putting it out into the universe, he actually took action on. Don't you know, one of the biggest heartbreaks that you can give yourself, and nobody else does that, nobody does this to you, we always do it to ourselves, is to actually put something out into the universe, to actually say something that we're going to do and then not do it.

That is one of the biggest ways to create a limiting belief system. And I see people doing it all the time. I actually learned what I will do and won't do. And I just won't say that I'm going to do something now that I know I'm not going to do, right? Well, Justin said he was going to do something and he did it.

Justin started following our advice, following our suggestions. He started just working the system the way that it was built to be worked. And he started to build a team. And he started to get those teams to the events. And his name started popping up all over the leaderboard.

And his income started to shoot up from 4,000 a month to 40, 50, 60, 70,000 a month. Again, let me be clear, not a guarantee of income, okay? Just showing you what's possible. Well, today he's number two in the contest here at Empower, which, by the way, guys, if you're not working to win these contests and show up and place in these contests, I don't know why not. Some of the biggest breakthroughs that I've had were from placing in contests and being able to show up at different masterminds and events and connect with people that I would have never been able to connect with.

Well, Justin's placed in every single event that we've had. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure he can tell his story, I'm not going to tell it for him. But he placed in the last event, I think third or fourth, last time. I'm not sure.

Right now, he's number two. And I can guarantee you he's going to be in the top five at the end of this contest if he doesn't win it. There's one thing that I can tell you about Justin is he keeps it simple and he just, guys, just got out of his own way. And with that being said, hey, Justin, I just want you to confirm that what I'm telling here, here's the truth and I want to make sure you're on the line, brother. Are you there?

I am here, my brother. Can you hear me? I can hear you loud and clear. And just for the record here before we even go on, am I telling the truth or am I telling lies? You always speak the truth.

You and David Wood are the truth. That's why we are the Empower Network, brother. That's it. That's it, man. Well, hey, listen, you know, there's a couple of things that are on my mind tonight as you can probably tell.

Number one, it is the truth. It is telling people exactly how it is because the truth of the matter is life's just too damn short to love each other and lie to ourselves. And there's a lot of people on the call who are the truth. And they just need somebody to tell them that they can do it, that it's possible if they stop listening to their own limiting beliefs and get out of their own way. But also, it's getting to the events, big, big, big deal, and boiling that down to basically the system that we've created here, which is get to a day, get to the events, get your team to the events, right, and follow the eight core steps.

And people who are doing that, it's weird, it's funny, Jay. I'm not a guru, I'm not a prophet or a philosopher, but we've been saying that now for over a year and it just seems like the people who are doing that are the people who are getting the biggest results and making the most money. And it's just weird to me. It's weird that, you know, some people are still trying to bang their heads into the walls or still trying to dig under the wall when all they got to do is step back, and we're telling them to step back tonight on this call, and just realize that there's this fascinating and brilliant invention called the door that they could just walk through if they made the decision to get out of their own way. So with that being said, brother, you're number two in the contest right now, man.

So we've got three weeks left of the contest. You always kick major ass, man, but I wanted to bring you out, show you some love, get your thoughts tonight on, you know, you don't have to talk about that, talk about whatever you want, but just lay it down for us, brother. And I'll be here, man. Appreciate you, bro. Glad to have you on the call.

I appreciate you, Dave. And I just want to say I owe a huge part of the success that I have today to plugging into the Empower Hour every Monday night. I've been plugged in for like 13 months and even when we're on vacation, like we were at the event eating dinner, having a private mastermind with our team and then we're like, crap, it's nine o'clock, and we actually told the owner or the waitress or whomever was working in the restaurant, and they played the entire hour over the loudspeaker so the whole restaurant could hear it, and that's the type of commitment that I have to this call. And what I want to encourage everyone to do is get back to the person who invited you here, check your email and lock arms, because it will change your life. I remember one year ago struggling, I'd been trying to make money consistently on the internet for years because I'm one of those guys that dropped out of college and I started to become aware and awaken to some of the harsh realities of society, and why things are the way that they are, and I decided I wanted out, I didn't want to be a slave anymore, and it was my dream to unplug from the matrix so that I would be able to help other people unplug so they can reach their full potential and live a destined life to be who they truly came here to be. Because I had to do it bigger and better.

I was already doing well. Part-time, top 150 in San Diego, went full-time in October, top 35 in Austin. How can I do it bigger and better? How can I reach more people and change more lives, right, without doing any more work? You know, and one of the things that my team has coined me for, and I say all the time, is I never told you it was going to be easy.

I just told you it was going to be worth it, and it's worth it. Look at me, 10 months later, stay-at-home mom, never marketed in her life. I didn't come to this game with a list. Everybody's like, I don't have a list. It's not going to work for me.

I don't have a list, and they whine. No, that's for wussies. I didn't have no list. It's not about a list. This is about changing people's lives.

And I've got to tell you, the first week, and my sponsor will tell you this, that I worked in Internet marketing, even though it wasn't, my main focus wasn't Empower Network. It was the other little thing on the side, right? I beat my head against the wall, and I did. I was working 12 hours a day, and I was marketing, and I just knew I was doing what I was supposed to be doing, but I wasn't getting any results, right? And so it doesn't matter that it wasn't Empower Network.

The bottom line is this, and this is key. When I realized, and I stopped worrying about making money, and I started worrying about helping other people change their lives, that's when I started to make money. You know, people say, oh, I've got to find a boyfriend, or I've got to find a girlfriend, I've got to do this, I've got to do that, and they're trying, and they're trying, and they can't, and then, the funny thing is, when they stop, it happens.

It's the same concept. I was so worried about, you know, I want to get to where I was, I want to have an income like I had, so my husband and I can live the way that we used to live, before we had kids, and I left my job to be a stay-at-home mom, I want all that back. But it was, but see, I've learned it's about more than that, because it's not about the money, right? It's about changing people's lives. But when I first started, because I'd never marketed before in my life, I had no idea.

I had no idea what I was doing. All I know is that I'm the type of person that when I know something is real, and I know something is right, I want everybody else to know it too, and by golly, I'm going to do what I have to do to make you believe it. And I had to learn, and really quick, that you've got to have tough skin in this game, right? You've got to have tough skin, because you're going to have haters.

Just like David Sharp says, the game is called. There's going to be people who hate on you, who tell you that's a scam, who call you names, who whatever, who bring you down. And with friends like that, who needs enemies, right? You have to get over that, and you have to move on, and you have to believe. And the thing about Empower Network, and David Sharp said this, and Austin and I love it, it's not another marketing business, okay?

Empower Network is the business, period. This isn't just about marketing. Come on, guys.

This isn't just about marketing. This isn't just about blogging. This is about changing your life, and changing the lives of those people around you. Never will you understand how it feels until an 8-year-old boy calls you on the phone in tears, thanking you, because they didn't lose their home, because their mommy found you with Empower Network. Tell me that's not powerful.

Tell me that wouldn't make you cry, right? That is why I do what I do. That is why I love this business, you know? And like I said, when I was sitting there in San Diego, and David Sharp was walking towards me, I said, my heart fell to the floor. You guys can understand that feeling when someone really big is coming towards you, and you're like, oh, my gosh, they want to talk to me.

They want to talk to me. Listening to audios and listening to the Empower Hour, I've got to tell you, it reminds me of the story that Tony Rush told about him and his wife, Jessica, when they got to go hang out in the pool and hang out in cabanas, you know, with the big wigs, right? And then as they were walking back to their area, Tony said to Jessica, man, it was so cool that they let us hang with them.

And Jessica said, she's a smart woman, guys. By the way, I love you, Jessica. I know you're on the call. My daughter loves the math help, too, that you helped me out with, so that was great. But Jessica said to him, you've got to stop thinking about them as different than you.

You have to stop thinking about yourself as different than them. You know what? David Sharp is no different than me. David Wood is no different than me. David Sharp is no different than you.

David Wood is no different than you. The only difference that they have, that the other leaders have, that I have, is we have a vision and we have clarity and we know what we want. And we've learned that we can get that through the business, through the Empower Network. We talk about, and David Wood talked about so grandly last Monday about listening to successful people and following in their path. They're not always going to tell you what you want to hear.

Sometimes the truth hurts, but it's still the truth, and you've got to listen to it, you know? People, when you think about your history, and David Sharp was talking about this tonight, about where he's been, and the alcohol and the drugs and the jails and the police, hey, guess what? I've been there, too.

I've been there, too. Alcoholism is a horrible disease to have. As a matter of fact, today's the 18th. This Wednesday, the 20th, I'll be celebrating two years sober. But I've got to tell you, and this has been said on the calls by the other leaders, too, people don't follow you because of where you've been. They follow you because of where you're going.

Where are you going? Are you saying you're going somewhere, or are you actually doing something to get there? What vehicle are you using? Because I can promise you, if you use Empower Network as the key to your car and you plug it in and turn it on and put the gas in it to make it go, it will run for you. You've got to work it.

You've got to want it. You've got to believe in it. People talk about the secret. Everybody wants to know the secret. People ask me the secret all the time.

People ask all the leaders the secret all the time, and especially since I've done so well up and coming. Even before the contest started, I was moving up on the main leaderboard of Empower Network. I was number one in most ops for seven days, and I flowed over to the top 30 days, and eventually it will flow over to all-time, because that's where I'm going. But people were already starting to contact me. What's the secret?

What's the secret? You know, all leaders pretty much say the same thing because it's the truth, because we understand it, okay? The secret is inside of you, and people who don't understand it say, what does that mean? What does it mean the secret is inside of me? I'll tell you what it means.

Here's the deal. Truth be told, I could give you everything that I do. I could give you everything that I write. I could give you everything that I say to someone.

I could tell you exactly where I market, exactly how I do it. I can give it all to you. It doesn't mean it's going to do anything for you, because if you don't believe in what you're doing, and if you don't believe in yourself, and if you don't have a passion for this business and a passion for your vision and your goal and your why, it's not going to do anything.

That's what we talk about when we mean the secret is within you. You know, I came back from Austin. I stretched outside my comfortability zone a little bit, and David Wood talked about that. You know, when you stretch outside of your comfortability zone a little bit, that's when things really start to pop for you, right? I was still doing what I'd always been doing with my marketing, but I said, how can I do more?

And I stretched it a little bit. And the next day, I had 16 sign-ups. Holy cow, 16 in one day. I couldn't believe it.

Everything they say is truth, is gold. I want what they have. I'm going to do what they say. Do you want what I have? You have to do what I say.

If you want what Tony Rush has, you have to do what he says. If you want what Justin Verrengia has, you have to do what he says. If you want what Aaron Raskin has, you have to do what he says. We're not telling you to do things for our benefit, because we have learned the secret. We have had the mindset change.

We know that if you want to change your life, what you have to do is have passion and believe in yourself. And what the Empower Network really is about is lifting you up until you can believe in yourself. Because that's what it did for me. If you would have asked me 10 months ago, hey, Laura Parrish, are you going to go to a San Diego event?

And this is very similar to what David Sharp was talking about, about going down to Costa Rica. If you would have asked me 10 months ago, Laura Parrish, are you going to go to a San Diego event? You know what I would have said? There's no way in hell, because guess what? I've got two kids.

I've got a husband that works 60 hours a week. I can't afford a plane ticket. I can't afford to stay in a hotel for six days. Whatever it is, I just can't afford it.

I can't do it. That's exactly what I would have said. But because of Empower Network, I have learned to change the way I think. I no longer base what I do in my life, for my family, for my business, on whether I have the money to afford it or not. I base my decisions for my life, my family, my children, my business, on what's good for them.

If it's good for my family, I'm going to do it. If it's good for my business, I'm going to do it. If it's good for my children, I'm going to do it. If it's good for me, I'm going to do it because I'm worth it. They're worth it, period.

And you know what? Because of Empower Network, I have the means to make the income happen, period. If it weren't for Empower Network, I wouldn't think that way. Our brains are trained to think. We're born.

We go to elementary school, middle school, high school. After high school, you have to go to college, right? You have to go to college. If you don't go to college, you're not good for anything, right?

And then you go to college, you spend $40,000, $60,000, $80,000 to go to college, you get an education to turn around and work a skill or a trade for the rest of your life. And I'm not knocking college guys at all. Not knocking it at all. I'm just giving an example. You spend the rest of your life working at a job that you could possibly hate behind a desk, and then when you retire 40 years later, you have a small pension, you've barely paid off your college loans, and now you're trying to come up with money to put your kids through.

And then what? That's what we're expected to do? That's what our brain has taught us that we're supposed to do, how we're supposed to live? There is a better way. So for those of you out there who have been thinking, there's got to be something better.

I need to do something with my life. I want something better for my husband, for my wife, for my children, for myself. I just don't know where to go to get it. I got to tell you, if you're on this call, you're here. You've arrived.

You've come to the right place. This is where you go to get it. These people, David Sharp, David Wood, all the other leaders, myself, we're here to believe in you, to lift you up, to lift each other up, to hold each other up, to take care of you until you get there. You can do it for yourself.

That's what this is about. This is about being a part of something bigger. That's why when I talk to people and they say, what is it? What is it? What is it?

It's not just a blogging platform. It's not just marketing training. This is a community, a movement of people that will change the world. Patrick Malone on my team struggled for six months. On my team, now getting three and four sign-ups.

Jennifer Papadematos, an airline pilot, flying airplanes, working full-time for Empower Network. Kurt Salkhausen, also new, getting two and three sign-ups a day. There are people out there who are doing it every day.

I'm no different than you. You can do it too. You have to get to the edge. You have to get to the event, all the events.

So what you need to do is whoever brought you to this call, whoever told you to come to this call, you need to get back in touch with them. And when you get back in touch with them, make sure you have your credit card in hand because you need to get in to Empower Network and you need to get all in. Don't do what I did. Don't wait to get all in.

Get all in from the beginning so you can have what I have a lot sooner than I had it. This is the business that will change your life, the business that will allow you to give to your family and to your friends and to yourself the way that you want to give, that will allow you to inspire others, to motivate others, and to lift others up the way that you have been lifted up. There's nothing better than this. So please, get with your sponsors. Whoever brought you to this call, whoever told you to come to this call, you need to get back in touch with them.

Get their link, get your credit card out, sign up, get all in, buy your event ticket to Chicago. I want to see you all in Chicago. I want you guys to come up to me and say, I heard you on the call. That way I know you listened, right? Get to the event.

It's the most important thing. David, I appreciate you letting me be on the call tonight. It's been a wonderful, honorable privilege. Thank you so much, brother. Hey, thank you.

Appreciate it, Laura. I'm sitting here just by the door. I'm just blown away.

I appreciate you, girl. I'm looking forward to seeing you on stage in Chicago. Thanks, brother. All right, guys, dang.

Boy, sometimes you just got to sit back. It's fascinating. I was down hanging out with Eric Worre. He's sort of like an ambassador and a mentor to a lot of people, puts on big events, has a big social media following and a blog. And it was fascinating because he invited Dave and I and a few other top leaders down to a place he was staying at a couple of weeks ago.

And I just got a text from Tony, sorry, I got a little distracted there. Tony, if you're on the call, man, just pop out if you are, to say I'm here in a sec. I just want to ask you a couple of questions just to get your thoughts. I'm here, but I'm so blown away by the call, dude.

I'm just asking. I'm around. I was trying to tell you, Ben, I mean, I was almost just about to say that's it, folks. What could I possibly add to this call?

What could a guy who's, possibly add to a call like that. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, man. So, guys, fascinating.

Just to wrap this story up, I'm down there. I'm hanging out. And here's what a lot of people think. They think, oh, those guys, they're probably walking around, chest puffed out, talking about all of their houses and cars and how much money they got in their bank accounts.

First of all, I couldn't possibly see myself spending that much for a rental house in the first place. Tony, you got me going here because I know you're on the call. I'm just loving the way that most people think because I used to think that way, too. It's fascinating because for the majority of the full day that we were down there, because we had to take off, we had some other people to get with and some masterminds to do together, for the majority of the day, all of us were sitting around with pens and paper in hand, taking notes.

It's fascinating what happens when you let go of the ego, when you let go of the know-it-all attitude, when you step back and take a look at what you've really been doing to get where you're at and what happens when you start listening to people who got what you want and when you start getting around people who have a different mindset, a mindset for success, who think differently. And I always used to think that these sayings were crap, Tony. It's funny. You know, the whole, your income is going to be an average of the five people who you hang around most. I always used to think that was just some stupid saying that people said.

Network marketers. When I was struggling, couldn't sponsor anybody, was driving the old truck that I used to drive thinking that the secret was putting the banner on my fence, I told that story there at the beginning of the call, Tony. And I used to hear people saying those things and I never used to believe them, right, because I had a limiting belief system. And now, I look back because I've got a different perspective and I realize that all of those funny, stupid, silly little sayings are all true.

And they all haven't been around for a hundred years for no reason. The truth of the matter is, is when you keep it simple and you listen to people who have what you want, amazing things happen. Tony, I'm going to turn it over to you just for closing thoughts, man. Who knows, I might come on for another two hours, probably not, because, honestly, there's not much more I can add to that. The fact, I was actually just looking at this, Tony.

I was looking at the competition leaderboard and looking at the prizes that were given away. And I started to scratch my head and I said, damn, we're paying people to do what pays them anyways, by giving a bunch of cash away and stage time and exposure just for getting people to the events, for people to get to a day. It's fascinating, man. And you know the funny thing is, and you know this as well as I do, that some people would just do that whether that was there or not.

And other people, no matter how much is there for them to get or win or deposit in their bank account, they won't do it no matter what. It's fascinating. And I know you have some interesting perspectives on that stuff, too, man. But I'm just going to turn it over to you.

I know you're at a kid's play or something. You were hanging out with the family a little bit earlier or something. Yeah, you know, all three of my boys are in community theater, so they had auditions tonight. But for the last 45 minutes, I've been sitting at the kitchen table putting together Lego Minecraft toys with two of my boys, listening to what I think is the most powerful conversation I think I've heard lately, dude. And it's funny you said that, too.

And I'll be really brief because I'll say I don't even have to be here. Such powerful language. And I don't even know who all was on the call because I rarely miss even part of this call. But I was occupied earlier. But I heard Justin knock it out of the park.

And, of course, Laura Parrish is just a rock star. It's just so amazing to see what she's creating here. But you said something just a moment ago about how it almost seems as though some people will absolutely cling and hang on most tightly to the things that they say they don't want in their life. And it is interesting.

You and I have had many a conversation for hours sitting after dinner talking about what causes people to take action. Why would one person walk into a gold mine and just completely grab it, everything with every bit of energy, and just create an amazing thing? And somebody else walk into the very same gold mine and complain about the price of a shovel.

You know, it's just amazing how two different people can have the same opportunity. But if I have anything to add, I think it would go along to the core of the conversation tonight, which is what Laura laid out, I think, beautifully. And you mentioned as well, there's no difference. There's no difference between what Laura is doing and what anybody else is doing.

There's no magic. There might be things that people look at as magic. But ultimately, there's no velvet rope. Anybody can choose to come here and find a level playing field where if they're willing to take the actions and make the decisions that we've made, they get to have all the same experience.

There's nothing worth keeping secret. You know, like when Laura Parrish says, here's how I did it, just go do what she did. Just go take the actions that she took. And I was having a conversation, I'll make this very brief.

I might talk about it maybe in Chicago. But it's a little bit like this. I think a lot of times, this is an analogy that has worked for me, is operating with a sense of certainty. And I think there's a lot of times that people walk into the gold mine and all they see is it's going to be hard, or I've got to sweat, or I've got to do some digging with a shovel, one thing and another. And they're looking at the obstacles.

They're looking at the things that they perceive are going to be hard. Whereas somebody else walks into the gold mine and they're like, holy crap, I'm getting ready to be a gazillionaire, you know. And here's a handy little shortcut that anybody can tap into. And I'll use the analogy of a DVD. It all starts, every bit of this success, everything that we teach here at Empower Network can be related to this core concept of seeing the end in advance.

So I want you guys to just kind of imaginarily do this for me. So say the movie The Hobbit. It's coming out on DVD tomorrow, I think. Big, hot movie. I was a big fan of the book when I was a kid.

Loved the movie. So the DVD's coming out. And I dare you to do something. It would be really interesting to watch somebody do this. But pick any movie.

Pick any DVD that you haven't seen, any movie. Go pop in the DVD player. And don't press play. What I want you to do is hit chapter selection.

And go to the last scene right before the credits. Go ahead and watch the last chapter of the movie. You know, the one where they save the earth from being hit by the meteor. The one where Gandalf and all the dwarves and the hobbits get away from the orcs. The one where the guy gets the girl and she forgives him, right?

So watch all that. And then press the menu button. And then go back to the first chapter and start watching. And you have a very different experience, don't you? Because you've seen the end.

And nothing can change it. You know, the ending. So if the movie's any good at all, if the actors do anything that they're paid to do, sure, you're going to get engaged in the drama. You're going to feel it when she slaps him across the face for some misunderstanding, she didn't understand what she was seeing and now she's mad at him and she dumps the guy.

You're going to get it. You're going to feel it. But you don't get caught up in that drama because you already know. You know the ending.

And when you see all the meteors falling all over the planet and all the buildings, the special effects are awesome and you love the story, but you're not going to be wringing your hands wondering if the world's going to come to an end because you already know Bruce Willis saves the day. You know? And here's the thing, guys. I don't, when I decided that I was going to become a millionaire in the home-based business industry, I didn't have to get up every morning and decide whether to do another day of it. I didn't run an ad and then sit back and wait and see how it was going to do before I could decide whether to take action again tomorrow.

I didn't say, well, I'm going to buy these products and even though I could go ahead and get the rest of it, I need to prove to myself that this thing works before I go all in. I didn't do any of that because that's not what this is. See, this is a place where people come to play big in life. If someone wants to stick their toe in the water, there's a million other companies where they can do that and get nice, good, mediocre results that somebody will cheer at. But this is a place where people can choose to come here, see the end in advance, and be on the same level playing field as every top earner in the company, looking over their shoulders, modeling exactly what they're doing because we don't keep secrets.

And so what it looks like is somebody gets started in here today, well, they get to go ahead and decide in advance what the experience is going to be. They've seen the end of the DVD. So sure, they're going to have the ups and downs of any business. I ran an ad last week, totally sucked.

I don't even know if I got any, not even a single sale off of it. And it was very mediocre results in terms of leads. It might shake out to be a profit, but from where I'm standing at the moment, I would say that ad was a waste of money. But I'm not going to go slit my wrist about it. I'm not going to go call up David.

I'm not going to go to Sharp and be like, I don't know why I ran this ad. No, because I've seen the end of the DVD. And the end of the DVD is that by December of this year, I'm a quarter million dollar a month earner, which is doubling my current income. Income disclosure, income disclosure. But I've seen the end of the DVD.

So I don't get caught up in the momentary drama. It's just part of the game. It's part of the movie. And so the beautiful thing about everything that's been talked about that I've heard so far tonight is all related to this thing of just operating and moving with certainty. Not letting the past dictate your future.

Not buying into that little whisper, all that little monkey chatter that tries to tell us that we're not good enough, or that, well, I know David Sharp can do it, but you're different, you don't have his great story, or you don't have Justin's story. None of that's real. All of that is made up self-talk that keeps people stuck. And they move very quickly.

To the 40s and 50s and 60s, wondering, what happened to me? Where did my life go? Why was I never able to really live the life that I wanted? And all it was, was these paper tigers.

These things that looked so fierce, and there was never anything to them, and it held them back. So the beautiful thing, which I don't want to leave you on a low note, because here's the beautiful thing, and I'm done, is you get to create whatever you want here. I had no idea when I signed up for $25 that this thing was going to put $900, something, $1,000 in my bank account in 14 months. I had no idea. I've never enrolled more than 10 people in a month doing anything, ever.

And last month, over 100 people. I signed up personally over 100 people last month. If I can do it, you can do it. But it has to start with you deciding what the end of your DVD is going to look like. And what a great time to apply this.

You've got all the time in the world between now and Chicago to create something amazing, create a job, bring a spouse home from work, earn enough money to go on that crazy honeymoon that you always said you wanted to go on that you haven't been able to make good on yet. I know one of the big payoffs for me several years ago was to take Jessica to a jewelry store and buy her the ring that I couldn't afford when I asked her to marry me. I gave her mom's old engagement ring. Her mom said, hey, look, when you ask Jessica to marry you, you can give her this ring. Couldn't even afford a ring.

But four or five weeks, whatever it is now between now and Chicago, all the time in the world for you to create something from scratch that will give you such an amazing payoff, you will never settle for anything less than earning what you deserve. So you know what? I hope that's a value to somebody. I firmly believe that everything that gets said on these calls is said for someone, for some reason, at the right time. But I appreciate the opportunity to even have a couple words on this because this has already been an amazing and powerful call.

Sharp, thank you. Thanks for having me out, man. I'm so stoked by the leadership that we've got here. It's amazing. What a treat.

What a treat to be here right now where everything's possible. Well, I appreciate you too, brother. I'm just sitting here kind of listening to what you're saying. By the way, tell the family I said hi, and I'll see you guys in three or four weeks, okay? Right on, brother.

All right, man. So fascinating. I was sitting here thinking as Tony was talking, and it's interesting to actually really see what goes on behind the scenes because I think a lot of people have a misperception of what's really going on, right? So easy to build things up. For those of you who are still on the call, I want to give you a little insight into what's coming here over the course of the next couple of months.

And I'm going to show you. I'm going to tell you what the end of that DVD actually looks like. But the other day, because I love that analogy, by the way, that was just a magical perspective for everybody to see. Guys, maybe a week ago, I was emailing a couple of leaders saying, hey, give me some times when you guys can get together and want to chat.

And, you know, the fascinating thing was every single response that I got, it was weird. I'm not used to this, guys. Every single response, and I can specifically remember Tony Rush's response, was, hey, man, besides my usual lunch date with my family, I'm pretty much open during pretty much every afternoon of every week.

You know, guys, I can remember what I did to be able to show up and get somebody in my business. I can remember the things that I would try, the work that I would put in. I can remember when I wasn't full-time in my business and I went to work all day. I went to work all day long on a construction site and came home and would work all into the night just trying to set up something, a campaign, an advertisement, some sort of a funnel, because the truth of the matter was, all of the companies that I worked with, marketing sucked. It's not the same here. I've talked to, met with, got phone calls from, truth of the matter is I don't call anybody. I'm not actively prospecting.

Dave and I have. We've still brought in over 5,000 people personally. But I'm not actively prospecting, right? We're just doing the same thing that we tell everybody else to do, which is focus on marketing, focus on advertising, whether it's free or paid, simple. Focus on getting to a day and get your team to the events and get your butt to the events.

That's all we do. Listen to audios on a daily basis, market on a daily basis. We blogged for the first 18 months and we still do. But now we've got Aki who's blogging on a daily basis with us and for us. Doing all the same things that we tell you to do.

Because this is, again, not a company like everybody said on the call tonight, or a product or a comp plan, but a movement. And it's a movement that's built by real people who are marketers for real people who are marketers or who are just getting started as marketers. Guys, right here, right now. It's your opportunity to really do something big with your life. You've heard all of these stories.

You've heard these stories from Laura Parrish, Tony, Lawrence, Chris Daugherty. I mean, all of these people who just a year, year and a half ago, a lot of them were in a financial situation that they may not have seen a light at the end of the tunnel. I know for me it was just a couple of years ago when I was in a situation that I didn't know if I was going to get out of alive. Did you know that?

And all it took was a decision. Change is always made in an instant. I can remember when I quit smoking cigarettes. My dad came home one day, and he told me all of the different health issues that he had at the doctor, all of the reasons why the doctor told him that he needed to quit smoking. Now, this was when I was still working construction.

We had to run a bunch of wood through the saw one day, and I was waiting for him to get back. He's sitting there telling me all these things and kind of trying to justify it. Now, God bless my dad. I love him, but he's had a hard life, and it ain't because somebody else did it to him. It's because he did it to himself, and he knows that, and he'll tell you that, telling me all the different reasons why the doctor said he should quit smoking.

But justifying why it wasn't that bad, or the time wasn't quite right yet. Well, we started running wood through the saw, and in an instant, in a moment, I decided to quit smoking. That was three and a half, four years ago. I haven't had a cigarette since.

Guys, right here, right now, tonight, can be a fresh start, a new day, a new business. You can start all over again. And I'm going to tell you something. If you do, if you decide to start playing big, if you decide to start believing in right now, if I can just give you this or offer you this, know and believe that I believe that it works. If you can't quite believe yet, that's fine.

It's cool. I know what it's like to be in that place. I've been so pessimistic. I've been burnt before. I've been in a situation to where my thinking just sucked, and I thought that every single thing that was happening to me in life was somebody else's fault.

Some person, place, or thing did something bad to me. If it wasn't for them, then I wouldn't be in the situation that I was in. And that's okay. Look, because I can work with you if you've got bad thinking. I can't work with you if you're not hungry, though.

See, there's a difference there. Somebody comes to me, and maybe they've got some ethical, maybe they've got some thinking challenges. Maybe they've got some perspective or limiting beliefs. Maybe they've got some things that they've just developed over the last couple of years.

Maybe they've got some things that they developed as a child. It doesn't matter how bad it is, because I still go and work with, talk to, and sometimes coach, counsel, and mentor people who are the lowest of the low, because I still go back and work with, speak to people who are in the same situation I was in just a couple of years ago, five, six, seven, eight, nine years ago, when I was homeless, when I was trying to get clean, when I was trying to get my life together. Can you imagine? I want you to think about what Laura said on the call tonight.

Can you imagine if somebody would have said, Dave, man, I just don't believe in you anymore. Guys, I've seen more people change and transform here just because somebody believed in them. Laura just said it. Somebody believed in her when she couldn't believe in herself. Guys, I believe in you.

Even though you might not believe in yourself right now, and I know this works, and I believe in it so deeply that I haven't missed a call in almost two years because we were doing these calls before we launched Empower. We have made sure somebody was here every single Monday night. We have thrown the biggest, baddest events in the industry. We have paid out more commissions than anything I've seen before, and we've made a decision not to build this company for us, but to build this company for you, because I know what it's like to be down.

I know what it's like to be in a situation that I don't know if I'm going to be able to think myself out of, if I'm going to be able to get myself out of. I couldn't breathe financially. And to be real truthful with you, there have been times so long in my life I didn't know if I wanted to go on. So I know what it's like to be down. But guys, right here tonight, you can decide to leave everything behind you because I love what Laura said.

You're not judged about where you're from. You're judged on where you're going. And I'm going to tell you something, guys. If I can just be truthful with you, because I believe, like I said at the beginning of the call, everybody's got a champion inside of them, and the problem is most people just haven't had somebody in their life that talks to the champion inside of them in a long time. But guys, here's the cold, hard truth.

We're going where we're going with or without you. And it'll be much more fun if you come with us. But I'm not going to lose any sleep if you decide not to. Because I know, for some people to live, other people got to die.

And it's just the cold, hard truth. Again, some people are saying, whoa, that's a little too harsh for me, Dave. Back it up just a little bit. But the fact is, is if we can't tell you the truth, then what can we tell you? More bullshit, more lies, more nonsense, more things that are going to keep you lying, keep you down.

The truth of the matter is, there's a stage in Chicago waiting for you to stand on it. There's a check in Chicago with your name on it waiting for us to hand it to you. And it is there. The cardboard's being made right now. It's at the print shop.

It's just waiting to see what names need to go on it. And we're willing to pay you to do something that's going to pay you to do it. And there's going to be, I don't even know how many people can fit in this thing, but there's going to be 4,500 or 5,000 people waiting to hear what you've got to say. And the truth of the matter is, it's open for the taking. It's there for you if you want it.

But I'm going to tell you something, guys, is you can make money and get results, or you can make excuses, but you cannot do both. There's been defining moments in my life where I could have said yes, or I could have said no. And if I would have said no, I wouldn't be here talking to you today. If I didn't get clean, I wouldn't be here. If I didn't decide to go all in my business, if I didn't decide to take action and go full time, for me, that's what it took, right?

I'm not saying that's going to be your story, but if I wouldn't have done it, then I wouldn't be here as well. And if I wouldn't have gone down to the event where Dave and I connected, we probably wouldn't be talking on this call tonight. At least I might be here. I might not be talking to you, but I said yes. And then tens of thousands of people ended up saying yes right behind me.

And the truth of the matter is, that same choice, that same decision is there for you too. And guys, nobody can force you or make you do it. And you have absolute free decision, willpower to do whatever you want. But the truth of the matter is, guys, is what's coming over the course of the next couple of months is going to be the same thing. It's going to make a lot of people wish they would have said yes.

What's coming over the course of the next couple of months is absolutely going to change and flip our profession on its head even more so than we've done up until this point. And guys, all of the people who have had their toe just kind of dipping and playing in the water, that pool is going to fill up so fast with bodies jumping in, doing bombs, and doing dives, that there is going to be absolutely some fear of loss going on and some regret in a lot of people's hearts that didn't decide to take action. And that's not a hypey claim. That's just a promise because, guys, I know what it feels like and what it's like to not take action. And I'm going to tell you something.

It sucks when you realize that there's nothing special here. There's no difference between me and you and Tony because the fact of the matter is, five years ago, I couldn't put two sentences together. And a couple of years later, when I started writing and started marketing, people would send emails back to me saying, Dave, that's the worst thing that I've ever read in my life. And I haven't unsubscribed from the link, but I'm just emailing you to make sure that I'm not going to get any more of those emails. And today, it's not like that.

Why? Because I believed. And the truth of the matter is, I didn't believe at first. I just saw videos of people who believed and I decided to believe in them. And I didn't quit.

I decided to play big. And here we are. So guys, I'm going to challenge you. I'm going to talk to you in ways that you've probably never been talked to before. I'm going to say things to you that nobody probably ever said to you before.

And the truth of the matter is, it's going to offend a lot of you. And it's going to put a lot of you back on your heels. But for some of you, you're going to stand up. You're going to say, damn it, I've been waiting for somebody to talk to the champion inside of me. And you're going to rise up to the occasion.

You're going to do what Laura Parrish did. You're going to do what Tony Rush did. You're going to do what Dave Wood did. You're going to do what Lawrence Tam did. You're going to do what Toby and Layla did.

You're going to do what all of the other people in here who are no different than you are have done. And you're going to find yourself in a place that you never thought that you could be. And I'm going to tell you something, that starts with a decision. It starts with deciding to go all in tonight. I want you.

I command you. I'm telling you that it's the best decision you've ever made in your life to get to one of our events. Log into your back office and buy your damn ticket now. Meet us there. And if you ain't all in, get all in.

If you ain't all in, get all in. If you ain't in yet, I don't even know what you're doing. Get back to the person who referred you here. Get out your credit card and just get in.

Because, guys, I'm telling you, where we're going is the most badass place that I've ever seen, you've ever seen. And I'm telling you something, it's going to be beyond our wildest dreams. So, guys, I love you. I appreciate you. And I could rant and rave all night, but the fact of the matter is it's real simple, right?

It's already proved and it's already worked for thousands of people. Everything you want and need is right on the other side of the decision, all you've got to do is make it tonight. And if you do, I'm telling you, friend, I'm promising you that if you take action, you make the decision, that things are going to happen that you just did not think were possible. And the last disclaimer is I ain't here to sell you, tell you, or convince you, because the truth of the matter is if you're not going to do it, there's somebody standing right behind you that will. And life is full of people.

Life is full of people who decided to just live comfortably and sit back on the heels of their feet. But I'm going to tell you something. There's a small population of people who decided to do more, to give more, to put more skin in the game, to take more action. And I'm going to tell you something, those people who have done that are doing things right now that other people only want. They only wish that they could do because they decided to do things that other people weren't willing to do.

And that's the payoff in life, guys. There's always a payoff to everything. The payoff if you decide to just kind of sit back is, well, you can be broke and miserable. Or the payoff if you decide to take action and do a little bit more and make a decision and take action and do the things that aren't comfortable to you, the payoff to that is you can do things that other people only wish that they could do.

You can be in front of people, inspiring them, sharing your story with them, impacting, inspiring people all over the world. You'll find yourself in places that you didn't think you could go. You'll find yourself talking, hanging out, masterminding with people that you never thought you'd meet. And I'm going to tell you something. Before you know it, in an instant, that can happen.

But it starts with a decision tonight. Guys, I'm inviting you. This is your cordial invitation to join us on stage. I believe in you. I believe in you more than anything I've ever believed in my life.

I love you guys. I appreciate you. I'll see you guys at the top. I'll see you in Chicago. I love you.

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, at any time.

We hope, however, these ideas and strategies will assist you in building a profitable, long-term business. Success takes hard work, determination, skill, and consistent effort. Please refer to our average earnings at EmpowerNetwork.com forward slash income.php.