The Belief Mindset!

Folks, obviously the income examples discussed are extraordinary. The income claims presented are not intended to serve as a guarantee of income. Instead, they're designed to give you an idea of what's possible. Success in this business requires leadership, hard work, and dedication. Since we want to help you make an informed decision, we've gone above and beyond with our income disclosure document.

If you want to see the average earnings, please visit the page at www.empowernetwork.com forward slash income dot php. Hey guys, this is Lawrence Tam, and I want to welcome you to the Inner Circle Audios with Empower Network. You're here listening to this probably on your way to work or maybe on your morning run or maybe you're walking the dog. Whatever it is, the Inner Circle Audios are built and designed to kind of help you build your business from the inside out. And what I mean by that is listening to successful people, successful stories, marketing tips, different angles you can take to approaching your business, and on top of that, just making you a better person, making you a better person to work with because a lot of the business owners that we work with in Inner Circle are in direct selling, network marketing, affiliate marketing, and it comes down to being someone that you would want to follow, right?

Or be mentored by, or the Inner Circle is to grooming you to be an industry leader in whatever niche you're doing, be it real estate or selling. So I have an interesting interview today and it's pretty cool considering I actually did not know this was her background and I knew of her and I knew she's been very widely successful with her and her husband. They actually don't live in the United States and they've been traveling a lot and I'm not going to take up too much of her time in introducing her but definitely if you're, maybe if you're at work, you know, if you want to sneak outside and have your smoke or have your morning walk or, you know, if the kids are being rowdy, just, you know, crank up the Inner Circle audio on your stereo and just kind of have them hear this successful person talking about where she's been, how she's gotten there and how you can duplicate that same success. So let me introduce to you Erica Udano. Hi, Lawrence.

How are you doing? Did I butcher that or was that close enough? No, you did it really, really well. Yeah! Fantastic.

At 10 points, you did that really well. So it's actually Erica and Alex. And when I met you guys, I believe you were in the transition of like moving somewhere like really far away on a tropical island. Yeah. But I'm not going to dive in today.

We're in the process of moving to Bali. Yes, yes. And that's one of the places I wanted to travel to. And it's like, wow, she's building a business like halfway around the world. But, you know, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Like your story, your history. And, you know, I think you've made a good amount of money on the Internet. And, you know, just kind of bridge the gap between someone who's listening because I believe a lot of the points that you've sent in, they're very familiar with anyone who's listening, who's maybe starting off in their journey with building a business and especially doing it online. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Lawrence.

And thank you so much for having me here. It's such an honor and a privilege. Thank you. Thank you. And I remember, you know, when we were first getting started, you know, listening to the Inner Circles was, it was the lifeblood.

It was the thing that literally took us from being completely, totally clueless newbies to where we are today. And I must say they were the absolute lifeblood of our business in the very early stages. Of course, they still are today. But in the beginning, it was the Inner Circles that got us through. So it's such an honor and a privilege to actually be on one of these calls.

So thank you so much. So, you know, to start our story, you know, Alex and I are the least likely to people you would ever find online doing what we're doing today. And how we got here is by a series of really bizarre twists and turns. And, you know, I'm going to start the story kind of like at the beginning with our previous career. We were art auctioneers on cruise ships.

And we had the most glorious life. I mean, we just – Let's scoot back. Let's scoot back. That's not a very traditional – I mean, there can't be more than a couple thousand of those positions. So explain what that is and say the title.

The title of what you did again. Well, actually, there's only about 110 of us on the planet. So it was a very, very, very small niche in the art world. But we were actually art auctioneers. How do you say it in American?

Art auctioneers. Art. Oh, that's an – Oh, I love that accent. Art auctioneers.

So basically selling art, but you auction it, right? Yeah. Yeah. So basically we would have about a thousand pieces of art on every cruise ship. And, you know, our collections range from like Mickey Mouse cartoons right up to – to, you know, Picassos.

So we had really high quotas. But when things were good, you know, meeting our quota was easy. Our commissions were horrible. Not like here. I think our commissions, gosh, if I can remember, they were like between 8% and 12%.

8% to 12%. Yeah. So imagine that. But anyway, that's another story. But life was beautiful.

You know, we had a really privileged life. You know, we were on board basically as passengers even though we were working. So, you know, we had people cooking all our food. We had people making our beds. We had people serving us, you know, 24-7s until – life was beautiful until 2008.

And I feel really bad in a way because my husband and I, we'd only just got married right before the financial crash of 2008. And, you know, we'd just come off our honeymoon. We were on such a high and we were just about to build this most amazing life. And then everything crashed. Like literally everything crashed around eight years.

And, you know, Alex and I, we don't have any other skills. You know, neither of us have any formal education. We don't have any qualifications. The only thing we could really fall back on if we wanted to was, you know, restaurant work. You know, we both had a previous career in food and beverage.

And, you know, I'm in my mid-40s. I don't plan on going back bussing tables. So, you know, we, for the next three years, started searching online, believe it or not, for businesses outside of cruise ships that would eventually get us off cruise ships and back home doing something profitable. Both of us knew that we were completely unemployable. We both knew that there were no jobs out there that were going to satisfy our entrepreneurial spirit.

And we knew that – yeah. We could never be employed. It just wasn't in our mindset. You know, I've been an entrepreneur since I was a little girl. You know, I've never, ever, ever had a normal job in my entire life.

And so after three years of searching, we had still found nothing. And this is where the story gets interesting. I go and get my hair done one day. And I had a beautiful Filipino hairdresser. And he's, you know, blow-drying my hair all straight and looking all glamorous and everything.

And he goes, Erica, did I tell you? I have a travel business. And I looked up at him in the mirror. I'm like, what do you mean you have a travel business? Oh, yes, I've got a travel business.

And I have my own website. That's some good ad copy. Yeah. Do you know where I'm going with this? My ears were like – I could not believe my ears.

What am I hearing? And so, of course, he gave me a link. And I went and looked at it. And I saw – look, hon, I didn't even know this was MLM. I didn't know this was network marketing.

I just heard it was a travel business. Boom, I'm in. Tell me no more. I'm in. And I remember running back to the cabin.

And I said, honey, honey, I found the answer. I know what we're going to do. We're going to go home. We're going to sell these travel cards. And we're going to be rich.

And then it's going to grow and grow and grow. Oh, my God. Life's going to be so amazing. And luckily, my husband was a little skeptical. And he's like, really, Erica?

And so we actually checked this thing out for about six weeks. And we spoke to some people. And basically, everyone was saying the same thing. It's true. You just get five who get five who get five.

And you're going to make all this money. And I'm like, it can't be that hard. But anyway, my husband was still a little skeptical. And God bless him. I'm glad he was because he grounds me sometimes.

Now, I think everybody has a turning point. I think everyone has that turning point where they get to that moment where they just say, you know what? Enough is enough. I'm sick and tired of this BS. And our income had been steadily going downhill for three years.

And that one check, realizing that we hadn't even made a two-digit income for the week, that made me sick. And I snapped. And I remember, I'll never forget it. We're in the art gallery. And it was a horrible art gallery, if you can imagine.

We were 10 stories down. Like in this pit. And kids, we were kind of like under a buffet that was, you know, a buffet, sorry, that was 10, you know, stories above us. Kids could throw pizza and pasta on their heads if they wanted to. Oh, my goodness.

It does. The gallery, and it's like pizza, or sorry, spaghetti strips all running down your paintings. It's just disgusting. And I was at my wit's end. And we opened up this commission check.

And I grabbed the calculator. And I divided $9.38 by 50 hours. And I worked out that we'd been working for $0.17 an hour. And I grabbed my husband's hand. And I looked him in the eye.

And I said, hon, if we work this hard on our own business as we do this stinking job, we have to be successful. We have to be. And in that moment, we made a decision. We made a decision to go back to our room. We drafted our resignation.

And I think it was a Friday that we did that. And by Sunday, we were off the ship. And we were flying back home. That was it. We were going to go home.

We were going to save New Zealand with our travel cards. Everyone was going to love what we were doing. And we were going to make so much stinking money. And guess what? It didn't happen.

It wasn't until we got home back to New Zealand that we worked out that we were in the MLM business. We were in the network marketing business. We didn't know that there were any stigmas attached to MLM, multi-level marketing. We didn't know that people didn't want what we did. We didn't know that you can't just ring up all your friends and family and do these home meetings and everything's going to be fine.

We knew none of that. We burnt our bridges, actually, quite drastically. And now we're back in New Zealand, back in our home country with no warm market and no idea how to sell this business. We had no clue. And that's how we ended up online.

Because our, you know, hometown, there was just no interest, zero interest whatsoever because it was an American company, too. So building an American company in New Zealand, it just wasn't happening. And so we went online again looking for a way to now get leads for our multi-level marketing business. And that's how we ended up finding Empower Network. Because one search led to another search, which led to another search.

And I remember it was 4.30 in the morning. And I had stumbled upon this amazing couple. And they were teaching everyone how they were going to be famous on Facebook in 90 days. And I'm like, bam, I'm in. I need to know how to do this, right?

And so I listened to the entire thing for 90 minutes. At the end, I was as high as a kite. I was buzzing. I'm like, I found the answer. I know exactly how we're going to build this business.

I know exactly how we're going to do it. And I remember I ran into the poor husband. Once again, I ran into the bedroom, jumped up on the bed and said, honey, honey, I found the answer. Everything's going to be fine. I'm here on in.

And he goes, what are we doing now? I said, we're going to be internet marketers. And he's like, Erica, have you got any clue what internet marketing is? I said, no, no, but we're going to do it. And he goes, well, what do you need to start with?

I said, well, apparently we need a blog and we need a Facebook account and we need to know what Twitter is. So, darlings, if you're listening, I want you to know that Alex and I started out as the quintessential clueless newbies. We couldn't have been any dumber. We didn't even know this was an industry. We didn't even know this was a business.

We didn't even know this was a business model. We had zero clue. So, no matter where you're starting right now, if you're starting with a Facebook account, you had more than we had. So, I just want you to know that we are the quintessential clueless newbies. And, you know, it was just, what can I say?

I think the fact that we'd never tried anything online before, I think that was one of the best things that ever could have happened to us. Because we had no preconceived ideas. We had no negative baggage. We had no negative stories. All we knew was, here's a system.

If we do what they say, we're going to be successful. And that's basically what we did. We just plugged into the system, followed the eight core commitments, and did exactly what they told us to do. Now, you know, the first couple of months weren't easy. You know, we had our own personal struggles, you know, building the business from New Zealand.

You know, you feel isolated. You are at the, excuse my French, you are at the arse end of the planet. I mean, it is. Why not? You're at the bottom of the world.

Like, it's right at the bottom, you know. And, you know, Empower Network was brand new at the time. And Empower Network was right at the top of the world. It's in the United States of America. You know, all these, you know, legends and rock stars that are all rocking it in the U.S.

And here we are in little old New Zealand, you know, that little internet marketing business, so alone. So, you know, our first couple of months were really, really tough. You know, we were really isolated and we had our struggles. But this is one of the things I want to really impress. I want to really impress upon people listening to this call is that we had made a choice when we left ships that we would have no plan B.

Because as, you know, the famous Will Smith is so wonderful at presenting this concept, why have a plan B? Because it's only going to distract you from plan A. So we had no plan B. There was no other thing that we were going to do except make this successful. And our only options were basically to get a job in New Zealand, which just wasn't going to happen.

And the only other option, even if I could have sweet-talked my way back onto ships, was to get back on ships. But one thing that a lot of people don't know is that I actually developed an autoimmune disease on ships in the last year. And I developed that because I couldn't get access to healthy foods. I couldn't get nourishment. So my body was literally breaking down.

So for me to return to my old job, even if I could have got my old job back, for me it felt like a death sentence. It was like, I will never get healthy. I will never get well if I have to go back to ships. So I had a couple of reasons why I was going to make this work, no matter what. But, you know, the main thing I want to get across is we decided to have no plan B.

It was this or nothing. And, you know, we came close to a few breaking points, you know, during our first six months where we nearly actually divorced. The pressure was so intense. And the desire to win was so strong. But it was literally ripping us apart.

And I remember it was May of 2012. You know, we had some really, really dark, dark days. And you know what? It would have been so easy to quit. It really would have been.

But when I kept thinking about my why and why I was doing this and what it would mean to have to give up, I just kept digging my toes in deeper and deeper and deeper. Yeah. And it's really funny. The first event was coming around.

And this is actually where I finally got to meet you, one of my heroes. The first event was coming around in June of 2012. But I was being such a wussy. I could not justify jumping on a plane all the way from New Zealand and going all the way to the other side of the planet for an event, for something that, you know, really hadn't taken off the way it was supposed to for us.

And this is how powerful the moment was. And the first thing that came to mind is I actually had made myself believe that the event had passed so I didn't have to go. And I remember – how awesome was that? And I remember because I was getting mad at David Wood because David Wood kept saying, you know, if you don't come to this event, you know, you're not going to be a success in your business. And if you don't come, you're a wussy.

And if you don't come, yada, yada, yada. And I was getting really mad at this language. And I'm like, how dare he call me a wussy? He doesn't know what I'm doing. He doesn't know that I'm blogging 12 hours a day.

He doesn't know I'm doing all this stuff, right? How dare he call me a wussy? And I'm like, I was determined not to go. And I'll never forget there was one comment made where someone said, you can't just build this business from your computer. You've got to get out there and meet the leaders.

You've got to get out there and meet the business owners. You've got to get out there and meet like-minded people who are doing what you want to be doing and who have the results that you want. And I was, oh, man, talk about pig-headed. I was like, I know better. I had not emptied my cup.

I was absolutely determined. I could build this from my computer from New Zealand. And I'll never forget I received two emails in the space of one week. And one was from a guy who had been building his business from Australia. And he talked about the value of getting to his very first event.

And he said he didn't want to go. It's from Australia to Las Vegas. It's so far away. I just don't want to go. He was making all these excuses, very similar to the excuses I was making.

And he decided he would go. And he said it was the biggest breakthrough of his life. And he went on. And it turned into like a $25 million company. So that kind of annoyed me.

Like, oh, wow, I've messed up big time. And then I got a second email that week from someone who was actually in Empower Network. And he was discussing the very first event that he was trying hard not to go to. And he was making every excuse in the book not to go. But he went.

And he went on to make a ton of money. And I got so angry at myself. I'm like, Erica, you are so... Such a foolish woman. Like, everyone's telling you what you're supposed to be doing.

And you think you know better, right? You think, no, no, no, I can do it my way. You can't. You have to follow the system. And so I don't know what made me do it.

Remember, here I am believing my event's already gone. I've lost this massive opportunity to do something for myself and for my business. But I went into the back office. And I looked up the dates of the event just to prove, you know, that the event had gone, right? And I saw that it was one week away.

And I'll never forget it. I picked up my purse. I opened it up. And I pulled out my credit card. And I threw in my numbers.

And I bought my ticket. I then went on to kayak.com. I bought my plane ticket. I booked my hotel. And five days later, I was gone.

That's crazy. That is... Wow. I was gone.

I was on that bird. And you know what's really funny? Before I left, I made a video. I went down to the beach in Napier, New Zealand. And I sat on the beach with my video camera and my little iPhone.

And I was so angry. I was just so... I don't know what I was angry about. I was just furious. Furious at this potentially lost moment and just how much of a small player I was being.

And it was just really bizarre. I posted this video all over YouTube, put it on my Facebook. I put it everywhere I could. And I started getting sign-ups all the way to Atlanta. Every time I got off to...

You know, I stopped at my next airport. I'd hook up my phone on Wi-Fi. Oh, David Wood, congratulations. You just signed up a new member. Congratulations.

You just signed up a new member. And it went on all the way to Atlanta. I think by the time I got to Atlanta, I think I had about 17 new members. And I'm like, oh, no. All I had to do was go to an event.

That's what he meant. He meant if you go to an event, you'll get sign-ups. And I know it's not exactly how it happens. But there was something. My message changed.

The conviction in my voice was that everything was different from that one video. And it's that one video when I was super mad on the beach that I posted on my Facebook wall that just changed everything. And so by the time I got to Atlanta, I had a very clear idea of who I wanted to meet. And I remember, oh, Lawrence, I was so nervous about meeting you. I saw you on the Friday, on the Saturday, and finally on the Sunday, I said, stop being a wussy.

You've flown all the way to meet this guy. And I remember I caught you outside the doors on the Sunday morning. And I was so nervous. And I kind of, you know, edged up beside you. And I'm like, hi, I'm Erica from New Zealand.

And you said, from where? I said, I'm from New Zealand. From where? And you were just so... I was so impressed that I'd gone all that way.

And, you know, I think we've been friends ever since. You know, you found out that I'm in your downline. And it was beautiful. And I'll always remember the last thing you said to me on that Sunday night. You pulled me aside.

It was so simple. It wasn't like you gave me some, you know, magic strategy, you know, to get traffic or anything like that. You said one simple thing. It's just so basic. I don't even know why this stuck in my head the most.

But you said, go home, cut videos, and build your business. That's all you said. So I went home, I cut videos, and I built the business. You know, it's just like, wow, you mean it was that simple? Oh, stop it.

And that's one thing I want to say, too. I think a lot of people, they try and overcomplicate this. And one of the things that Alex and I are famous for is not being complicated at all. We blog, we cut videos, and we tell people what we're doing. You know, we keep it super simple.

You know, I think we only started trying paid traffic when ITF came out, Internet Traffic Formula came out. And I think it's just so simple. In April of 2014, that's the first time we, you know, tried paid traffic. So we got to where we were. You know, we hit that 100K figure without doing paid stuff, you know.

And that just blows my mind. Income disclaimer, you know, our results are not typical because we're not typical. We actually follow the eight core commitments. Go to empowernetwork.com forward slash income to see average earnings. But, you know, we just followed the system.

And that first event was a massive breakthrough for me. Because I saw 1,200 people in a room, 1,100 of whom all stood up saying, yes, I made a commission. I'm like, that's a lot of people in one room. That's a lot of people.

It's unheard of. Unheard of in the industry. Yeah. And I started talking to, you know, old-timers, you know, those veterans who've been around for like decades. And they're like, Erica, that doesn't happen.

I'm like, what do you mean it doesn't happen? What are you talking about, Willis? And they're like, it doesn't happen. And I'm like, okay. Well, this is pretty cool.

I feel really, really good. And so I went home. My husband came back to me. And for the next three months, we just went crazy. We just went hell for leather.

And there was a competition going. And we said, you know what? We are going to be in the top 200 of the next competition in San Diego. And we're going to have 10 team members at our event. And bam, we got into the top 200.

And we had 10 people from our team sitting with us in San Diego. And this is my second big breakthrough. We got to meet Dave Wood on the Saturday night. And he asked us about the business and what we were doing. And we told him the numbers we'd done so far.

And we hadn't hit a five-figure month at this point. And he looked us dead in the eye. And he said, next month, you're going to hit 10K. Well, guess what happened? Next month, we hit 10K.

So four months, after four months of just going absolutely full bore, steamy ahead, we had our first five-figure month. And, you know, if you go through the Inner Circle training, I think, you know, Dave Sharp's got one of the best trainings in there about how to break out of the newbie zone. Always be promoting your last result. Well, I'm telling you, sweetheart, the minute we hit that 10K month, bam, that was all over everywhere. I wanted everyone to know we've done it.

We did it in four months. Basically, from committing in June of 2012 up into October 2012. So in four months, we had our first five-figure month. And that's when everything took off. You know, when we were able to say, we've done this, and now we're going to leave New Zealand, and we're going to go traveling.

And then, you know, we made that video that we're going to Bali, and we were so excited about going to Bali. And then the internet didn't work. So we had to leave Bali. But then the next event was coming around. And the next event was in Austin, Texas.

And we looked at each other and said, okay, they've got this huge competition for top 35. Let's go for top 35. Let's go for a black lanyard. And we kind of wondered if we could. We're like, oh, let's just put it out there.

Okay, so we're going to go for a black lanyard, right? And we worked our tails off. I mean, I think we alienated every living human being on the planet that knows us because our noses were just grinding into our computers, videos and videos and blogs and blogs. And we were just talking to anyone we could like we did not rest, right? And come January of 2013 in Austin, we were on those white couches.

You know, we had that black lanyard. You know, it's like, dang, what can't we do? Do you know what I mean? Like when you set your mind to something and you just go for it, and you block out all distractions and you just go forward, what can you do? I mean, it just, it blows my mind.

It blows my mind, the power of intention, the power of what you can do when you set your mind on achieving something. You put it out to the universe and you say, by this point, this is what I'm achieving. And you just go for it. And you completely block out any possibility of failure. Failure is not an option.

I mean, it's just, it just blows my mind. So, of course, you know, then the next goal was to hit 100K. It's like, man, if we can hit 100K, we are solid, you know, and that was the next goal.

So it's kind of like if there's one thing I want people to get, you know, take away from this call is the fact that this is the first thing we've ever tried. And all we did was follow the eight core commitments. That's all we did. We did exactly what they told us to do, you know. And it just, yeah.

It's just the system you have in your hand. It's phenomenal if you simply believe. If you simply believe that, yes, if I do exactly what they tell me to do, this will work. And to completely remove any doubt from your mind. And I think that's the key factor, too.

We had no doubt. Doubt was not an option. It was we are going to succeed. Yeah, and that's pretty powerful. I mean, being able to just say, look, there is no other thing that we're going to focus on.

And you'd laser target. You did exactly what you wanted. You were being clear and concise. You had a time frame. You knew exactly what you wanted to hit.

And you didn't allow your excuses of, well, we're new. We don't have a list. We don't have a pedigree of network marketing background. No, that's all excuses. And once you made a decision, you just started tearing it up.

Tearing it up. Yeah. And I honestly believe.

The fact that we were so clueless, the fact that we simply believed in what everyone was telling us. I think that was our greatest asset. So for me, building from New Zealand and not knowing anything about anything out there in the big internet marketing world, I think that was our greatest asset. We knew nothing.

We knew nothing but what Empower Network was teaching. And I think that is the strongest key to our success is that we had a completely empty cup that only Empower Network could fill. I honestly believe that's the key. Yeah. And see, that's a really good point because there are some people who come into the Empower Network to learn how to market.

And let's say they know a little bit about internet marketing and they feel like, oh, that's not the way I'm going to do it. And then they don't succeed and then they blame whatever system that they're using or Empower Network for not succeeding for them. But they didn't even do exactly what we're telling them to do in the eight core commitments. Go to events. I mean, literally.

I think every single person I know who's made over a hundred thousand, there's probably a rare few, there's some underground guys, but the majority, I would say 95 to 97% of everyone who's made over a hundred thousand in Empower Network have been to an event and continue to go to events. And the cool thing is a lot of it's just the belief level that, I mean, when you see a room of people and the majority of them stand up and have made a commission, it kind of rattles.

Your perception of what's real because you go to anything else. I mean, anything else, the majority of the people is never the ones producing anything because it's just the way it is. I mean, if I remember, I went to high school, we had 1,400 freshmen, 700 graduated in four years. That's half graduating high school, that's not something hard. So it's just one of those.

Now, some probably moved away, but guess what? Some people moved into... Why would half of the student body not graduate high school? And so I think a lot of us are conditioned to having backup plans, like getting a, in the States, we have something called the GED where you take a test and that's like the equivalent of passing high school without actually, you know, going through four years of high school. And I think a lot of people just want these shortcuts because they had just been groomed to consider like, well, if it's too hard, there's gotta be something else for me. And the thing is, what is exactly hard?

And I think once people find things that are actually difficult, things that actually push them, they will be shocked on how far or how fast they can achieve something as long as they just put some effort into it. It's like someone who's never lost weight before, and when they firmly dedicate 90 days to it, they will be in the best shape of their life. Now, maybe they won't have a six pack, you know, maybe they won't be like Mr. Olympia, but in 90 days.

If someone just made a dedicated effort to making a change and had it on the forefront and it's like, that's exactly what I'm doing every single day, it's kind of hard. It's, I mean, not saying impossible, but it's kind of hard not to see results. And that's what you did. You put your head down, you absorb the information and you just went to work at it.

And a lot of people I see who don't have results, one of the things that you've done that proves it works is you actually did the work. A lot of people go, well, I bought the products and I still haven't made my first thousand dollars. And the question I always ask is how many blogs do you have? How many blog posts specifically do you have?

And I had a gentleman yesterday say, well, you know, I've been in the business for a little over a year and I blog every single day, sometimes twice a day. And I spend literally five to six hours every single wakey moment blogging. And the question I ask is, okay, so how many blog posts do you have? Do you have over 365 blog posts?

And the answer was no. I go, well, how close are you to 365? He's like, well, it's like under 50. So people have this conception that they're working and building their business and they're telling themselves, I'm working hard. I'm working hard.

But see, Erica actually produced the work and you must've heard the saying, you know, talk is cheap, you know, physically do the work. What we teach you in Empower Network, and especially in Inner Circle, I have multiple people who sell cars for a living. And the things that we teach them inside of the 15K, we're teaching them how to use proper words to connect with people. And you were talking about it too. You were talking about how you're selling art with different selling modalities.

Why don't you explain that? I mean, that's the type of stuff that we teach and it applies to any business. Yeah, that's an interesting thing when, you know, when you're actually dealing with someone, you know, face-to-face on the cruise ships and you're selling different levels of, let's call them products, you know, different levels of paintings, different level of products to different types of people, you have to know what kind of modality you are talking to. And one of the best things, you know, we do when you're working face-to-face, it's all about rapport and noticing, you know, what type of personality you're dealing with. You know, a lot of people...

They're going to be, you know, either, you know, auditory or they're going to be, you know, kinesthetic. They're going to have different ways of connecting with you. And for us on, you know, when we were selling, you know, basically, you know, larger scale items, we need to be really, really cognizant of the type of person that we were dealing with. You know, we would need to work out, you know, what kind of background they had. We need to work out, you know, what their kind of income level was, what their tastes were.

You know, we had to ask lots and lots of leading questions to get them to where they wanted to go with a certain work of art. We also had to be very, very up on our, you know, our selling cues. You know, we had to, you know, ask the right questions, you know, alternative choice questions. We had to just be very, very specific in our language patterns to help them get to where they wanted to go and also to help us sell what we wanted to sell.

And it's very, very similar to what we do here in Empower Network as well. You know, you have to be listening to pick up on all the cues that your people are telling you when they're coming into your world with Empower Network. And I say this so often. A lot of mentors here in Empower Network teach this.

It's like we're not really dealing with products here. We're dealing with people. And once you understand people and what their needs are and how they are expressing those needs to you, you know, you will have massive success when you understand human psychology in anything that you're doing. And I think that's something that, you know, Empower Network teaches very beautifully is how to really understand what your prospects are, what your prospect needs from you and how you get, you know, that out of the prospect when you're talking to them.

So does that kind of answer your question there? Yeah. No, it definitely does. And so that's pretty cool that you can bridge some of your past experiences into your business. And everyone should be bridging past experiences like how I was an engineer and you selling art.

You can bring over the things that made you money in past industries. You can bring over jobs, occupations into internet marketing. Internet marketing, I think a lot of times gets a bad rap because it sounds difficult. It sounds like, oh, I don't even know what that is. Really, it's just connecting with people and solving their problems.

And people are just afraid of the unknown. And this is kind of what the inner circle does. And it kind of breaks down the barriers of what you believe is true or just something that was told to you because you had nothing. And now it's to fill that void. You just had some unknown.

You're like, I don't know what it is. So I'm scared of it. And so that's kind of like one of some of your major struggles, right? We were talking about earlier before this call, you know, you were saying, I guess everyone gets this. I got this too.

People are probably, I've asked you, why don't you just get a job? Oh, don't get me started. Oh, Lord. Oh, it's crazy.

It's crazy, right? I mean, like you're a grown woman and people are giving you advice on how to live your life, and now, seeing what you've accomplished, but before you've accomplished it, it's just crazy how many people will give you advice on how to make money. But it's like they're not making the money they want to make.

So it's kind of interesting. It's an interesting situation that when someone who doesn't have a good system on their own end of generating income, they want to give you something. And that just trapped them. So why don't you talk about that? You know what?

This has been one of the most painful parts of our story. And one of the most painful struggles for us is, you know, we, and I'm sure a lot of people listening, you know, are experiencing this as well. So I'm glad you did bring this up. Family and friends, you know, they don't understand what it is that you're doing. And in the first instance, you know, they may be fearful that you're, you know, being taken advantage of, you know, you're doing something that they don't understand.

And oh, my God, you might get into this and that and yada, yada, yada. And I mean, I've been accused of being in Scientology. I don't even know what Scientology is apart from something Tom Cruise does. It's just bizarre. And they're fearful for you because they can't see you getting results initially.

They don't understand what you're doing. And you don't have time to explain it all to them because you're so busy trying to make it work. Right. And so they get worried for you. And then they start projecting their fears onto you, saying stupid stuff like, you know, this internet marketing thing is never going to work.

Why don't you go and get a real job? Or they see you just sitting at home all day long and they go, you're so lazy. Why don't you get a real job? You know, the worst one I had was just get real. Will you just get real?

And I'm like, I can't be any more real than I am right now. I am doing this. God damn it. Just be real.

Get real. This was the hardest thing. You know, when we made the decision to quit our jobs, I actually did make the mistake of, you know, ringing home and advising my family what I was about to do. And the response I got was a very stony, cold, get real.

And I'm like, oh, that was like a dagger in my heart. And I remember I couldn't really breathe because, you know, we don't have a lot of time. I didn't really have these conversations in my family. And at the moment, you know, things are still very, very strained because I chose to not get real.

I chose to not, you know, go home and get a real job. I chose to not go home and work nine to five. I chose to do something unreal. Surreal.

I chose to do something surreal that no one understands. And given my choices, like given my time again, if someone said, would you do the exact same thing the exact same way, I'd do it. Heck yeah. I wouldn't change a thing because I've learned so much about myself that I never knew before. I never knew I could be this strong.

I never knew that I could stand up for something I believed in. I never knew that I could be bold enough to go against the grain and say, you know what? You guys can stay all the way over there. And when you're ready, you know, you can come back into my world. But this is who I am.

This is what I'm doing. And, you know, you can either like it or lump it. I really don't care. And this was a huge awakening for me because I've always been the pleaser. I've always been someone who has done what everyone has wanted me to do, basically.

And this is the first time I've ever had the power that I have been empowered to be me. And I wouldn't have got that if it hadn't been for the personal development side of Empower Network. You know, I started personal development back in my 20s and I'm really lucky. I got to see Tony Robbins a couple of times in my 20s. And there's one thing I learned from Tony in my 20s.

It was one statement. I'm big on these one statements that stick with me. He was up on stage and he said one thing. If you want to go out and do something and someone else has done it, I want you to remember this one sentence. Possible in the world, possible for me.

It's just a question of how. And it stuck with me for 20 years. When I wanted to be an art auctioneer, I was actually told, get real. You can't be an art auctioneer. And I'm like, watch me.

And so basically within two years, I was in the top 10 of the company. Like I was the top, you know, top producer. And what I did was I watched someone who had the results I wanted. I modeled what they did. I did exactly what they did.

And I became one of the top 10, right? So when it came to this, I just remember Tony Robbins' statement. Possible in the world, possible for me. It's just a question of how. And so when I went to Atlanta and I saw all of these normal people up on stage making this ridiculous.

I'm like, dang, possible in the world, possible for me. It's just a question of how. And the how is in the products, okay? So I know I've gone off on a bit of a tangent, but, you know, I did a lot of PD, a lot of personal development work in my 20s. On ships, it was just a riot.

I mean, for 10 years, I did nothing but have a good time. And then back in my 40s, you know, I'm back to personal development again. And, you know, a bit of me regrets, you know, stepping away for 10 years. But, man, I'm so happy to be back, you know. But if Empower Network had not forced the eight core commitments, with one of them being read daily, I wouldn't be who I am right now.

I wouldn't be on this call. I wouldn't be talking the way I'm talking. None of these words would be coming out of my mouth. And I certainly wouldn't be standing up for what I believe in.

I'd be playing small and just being who everyone else wanted me to be. You know, that small little safe mouse doing what she always does, you know, just going with the flow and, you know, getting a mortgage for 40 years and just doing that thing. That would have been me, you know. But no.

Empower Network gave me the strength and the power to stand up, step into my power, step into the most beautiful, truest, authentic version of myself and say, hey, world, here I am. My name is Erica and I'm okay doing what I'm doing. And if you want to come and join my world, you're most welcome to do so. So, you know, yeah, yeah. That's killer.

That is killer. And so let's think about this. Okay. So not having a plan B, going straight forward.

And so a lot of that comes down to the way you've been able to succeed is the fact that you knew exactly where you wanted to go. But also, really, people don't fail in the industry. There's no real failing. It's more of just a learning curve. You learn from mistakes.

You grow as a business owner. But people really fail in the industry because they quit. Exactly. And since you did not quit. Exactly.

You just kept going. You actually, I mean, in a very short amount of time, generated ridiculous results for somebody who has no experience. And it just goes to show us, like, man, if you really wanted something, I mean, how bad do you want it? And I believe, you know, your why, right? Why don't you talk about this?

Like, your why of how that pushed you. And why, I mean, most people would just be like, yeah, you're right. You know, I'll just get a job. Because it just makes sense because everyone tells me the same story. But you had a why that basically made you do and become successful.

So what is with the why and how can people take their own why to reaching their own goals? I had a why that ripped my heart out. You know, they say that you will do so much more for someone else than you will ever do for yourself. You know, my why for me personally was, I had a negative why. Basically, my negative why was I can't go back to ships, otherwise I'll die.

Because basically, I won't be able to feed myself with proper food. I won't be able to get nutrients I need to beat this autoimmune disease. And so my why was I can't fail, otherwise I'm going to die. So it's pretty strong. However, that wasn't the image that was my true why.

I love my husband more than anything else on this planet. You know, I've waited a long time to find Mr. Right, and I was very fortunate to find him. I met him in Venice one day, and he is my fairytale romance. He is my soulmate.

He is everything I never knew I wanted. And I could see that us working on ships, it was killing us. It was absolutely killing us. When the money wasn't coming in, you know, you can't have a good quality of life. You can't have fun because everything is so unstable.

You know, we got to the point where we were living off our savings on ships, like we were paying to have a job. Like we were dipping into our savings to pay our staff. We were dipping into our savings to pay for our life on ships was just ridiculous. We were going into a negative.

And so we had to get off ships. And then we had to go through this massive, massive learning curve. It got stressful. And there were moments when it was 50-50. It's like, oh, man, really?

This thing might not work out. And on this one image, there is one image that I will never forget for the rest of my life that was my absolute why, was watching the man of my dreams, the man that I love so much, put on his suit, put on his tie on the ship, getting ready for work, right? And he's got this tie, and he's yanking it tighter and tighter and tighter around his throat. And you can see that he just wants to freaking strangle himself.

And his face is going red. And you can see how much he hates what he's about to do. And his fist clenches. And you can see the blood, like, pumping in his veins.

And he thrusts his fist into the ceiling of the cabin and punched a dent into the cabin ceiling. I don't know if you've ever taken a cruise before, but they're not very strong, these ceilings, right? And he punched it. And he goes — expletive.

I hate this job. It was pretty intense. And he stopped. And he slammed the door shut, and off he went.

And I'll never forget being home thinking, if we ever go back to ships, I'm going to lose my husband. Like, this is just not going to happen. This is just not going to work out. So he was my why, you know? And I think you have to have a why that rips your heart out, because you're going to be challenged.

You know, you're going to have those moments where you're going to look at the computer and just want to throw it off the freaking balcony because stuff isn't working. And then you have to go to your why. Because your why is the only thing that's going to pull you back to that computer and make you learn one more thing and make you apply one more thing and make you tweak one more thing until you get it working. If you don't have that why that rips your heart out, if you don't have that why that makes you cry, you are going to cave in to an obstacle that may come across your path.

And believe me, as an entrepreneur, you're going to have obstacles. And you're going to cave in and go, you know what? My job's not so bad. Yeah, I can do that for another 40 years. Yeah, I can do that.

It's okay. I'm going to live the rest of my life in quiet desperation, just, you know, hoping I just get by, you know? But if you've got a why that makes you cry, trust me, your fire will burn so deep inside your belly that you will just keep going no matter what. And you will just pray day in and day out.

But you are three feet from gold. And trust me, every single person who keeps trying is literally three feet from gold. You don't know when the miracle's going to happen.

But trust me, if you quit, that is the only certain way to guarantee failure. That's the only way. That is key. Because, I mean, if you don't exactly know why you're doing something, guess what?

You're going to stop. Why am I losing weight? I don't know. Well, let's go have some buffets. You know, why are you reading a book?

Well, it's because I like reading. I like to, you know, learn new things. And so when people's ideas go from like, well, I'm in school to learn, but when I graduate, I stop learning, you have to have some drive to encourage yourself to move forward and to grow. And if you're in a job that doesn't allow you to grow, or you're basically just kind of like coasting, is that what life's about?

And that's not a good way to live. And I truly believe everyone has the ability to have massive, massive success. And this is what the inner circle's about. The inner circle's about really, where do you want to be? And is this what life is for you?

Because, you know, making just enough money to kind of cover bills, that doesn't make sense. It just doesn't make sense. And one way to realize, really, you know, kind of put that in perspective, go to a cruise ship, go to Las Vegas, go to a really nice beach resort. You'll see people who actually don't just live just to pay the bills.

Like people actually have found ways to be ultra successful. Now, how did they get there? And if you're not there right now, what do you need to change in your life? What do you need to achieve something much greater and, and Erica hit it on the head. Sometimes it's not just you.

It might be something external to yourself. Just like myself. If I was a single guy, I would not be in this industry. Why? If I'm an engineer working for myself, I'd be still an engineer making enough money because I don't really have anything else that I really need.

So figure out what you really want. What is your why in building your business? Understanding that, you know, depending on where you're at, you're going to be able to do a lot of things.

I don't know where you want to go and how fast you want to go. The inner circle audio is here for you, helping you tap into your inner greatness. So signing off, Erica and Lawrence, thank you for listening. See you on the next inner circle audio. Peace.