Robert Channing's In Search Of Entrepreneur
Heroes Interview
Hi, this is Ralph Zuranski!
I'm on the phone with Robert Channing.
He is one of the most amazing people that
I have ever met.
I met him at Joe Vitale's seminar Spiritual
Marketing Super Summit.
He had coordinated the entire seminar, complete
with the speakers and virtually everything
that you could possibly imagine that goes
with a seminar - maintenance and just creation.
Robert also is one of the most impressive
people that I have ever seen, using his mind
to bend spoons, to remember things and to
know what people are thinking.
It was incredible.
I've never been more blown away by somebody's
presentation than Robert's when he did a special
presentation at Joe's seminar.
So Robert, how are you doing today?
I'm doing phenomenal, Ralph, and thank you
very much for inviting me on this.
I'm very honored and I really appreciate you
having me on today.
You know, your company is called the Power
Performers and I know that you work a lot
with scheduling movie stars, business leaders
and some of the most important people in the
world today to speak at conventions and events.
Perhaps you could tell us a little bit about
your company.
Power Performers was created around nine years
ago.
How it came to fruition is I have been a performer
since I was five years old.
I started studying magic, mind reading, ESP
and hypnosis.
I studied with David Copperfield, Harry Blackstone
Jr., some of the top mentalists and magicians
in the world.
I learned by actually watching them do what
they do.
I learned from the best and I learned from
the worst.
I made it my life's goal to be a performer,
to be a mentalist, a mind reader, ESP motivational
person.
I studied Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon
Hill.
The first book I ever read on motivation was
by Glen Bland.
It was called the Glen Bland Method for Success.
It just taught me how you can change your
life.
You draw a line in the sand and by just taking
that step over; you can change your life by
changing your attitude and your strategies
with your mind.
When I was a child, Ralph, I learned how to
do magic tricks and it brought attention to
me.
I didn't have that; I didn't crave that.
My mother was fantastic, my father worked
all the time and I never saw him.
He was a great guy, never made a lot of money
but I never knew that.
I was a happy guy who played Army and Cowboys
and Indians.
But as I grew older, I was into sports, and
I was always into magic, how the mind worked
and I became an entertainer.
I performed at birthday parties for $15.
For my first birthday party when I was 11
years old I performed for $15 and I learned
I could make money doing it and people loved
what I did.
Then I began to performing all over the world.
I performed for different Presidents.
I performed for corporations and for a lot
of colleges and organizations.
At that point, the people at the organization
said to me, "Hey, Bob.
Your mind reading ESP show is phenomenal.
Do you have anybody else that can entertain
at our event or speak?"
At that point, I said, "I have a friend of
mine that can do human calculations.
I have another friend of mine who is a rock
star, Alice Cooper.
He can come in and talk about, for colleges,
drug awareness.
He can perform."
Then I created the company Power Performers.
So that was my unique selling proposition.
These were powerful people but are the best
in their industry, just like you are doing,
Ralph.
You're interviewing the heroes in different
industries that are the best at what they
do, the top 1%.
And that's what I did.
I created the speaker's bureau, or an entertainment
agency which is both.
I promote the top speakers, entertainers,
sports stars, and business leaders in the
world to corporations, associations, colleges,
private functions and organizations throughout
the country.
So hopefully that answers your question.
Yes, it definitely does.
Since you are working with the top people
in the industry, one of the major things I've
realized with doing the interviews of my heroes
is the real heroes are people that actually
provide a quality service to society.
They help put people to work and the true
definitions of those people are entrepreneurs
who are not afraid to step out on their own
to follow their dream.
What is your definition of heroism?
I just spoke to my wife about that this morning;
because I told her I was going to be on the
line with you, Ralph.
She said, and we agreed, it's the people that
make a difference in one person's life.
If I can make a difference in my neighbor's
life that morning or that afternoon, maybe
once a day and bring somebody up that's been
down or helped somebody, like I know you are
doing with your family, that's a hero.
To me, if I can change one life, I don't know
who quoted this before, but it's a quote from
somewhere.
If you can change one person's life, and make
them happy, make them feel better about themselves
or help them in any other way, you've actually
helped humanity itself.
That's my definition of heroism.
That's so true.
Helping one person at a time.
I totally agree.
Did you ever create a secret hero in your
mind that helped you deal with life's problems
when you were young?
Yes, I did.
Well, God was my hero.
I was brought up Catholic.
I was an altar boy for 11 years.
So was I.
I remember sitting in a small church.
I came from a little town called Newport,
New York.
There were probably around three people in
our little town, one blinking light, one Catholic
Church and one Methodist church.
I remember doing my services in the evening,
the Stations of the Cross.
There were maybe like five or six people in
the church.
I'd be there myself before the mass would
start.
I'd be there, present with a Being and that's
what I believed that yes, there is a God,
there is some Higher Power.
I think that by being by myself in that big
open church and just thinking and being open
to thoughts in the Universe and to God, is
what opened my mind to reality and what I
could do.
I can't describe it any more than that, it
was just a feeling that I had come over me.
What is your perspective on goodness, ethics,
and moral behavior?
I know everybody has struggled with that.
I have.
I would say that I'm 90% ethical and moral.
There's that 10% where sometimes you get tempted
by money or greed or temptation of any kind.
Sex, drugs, rock and roll, whatever you want
to call it.
I think my integrity is up there with the
top people in the world.
I think integrity is very, very important.
If you cheat someone, you are cheating yourself.
It's a multiple effect.
If you want to track that in business, if
you do something well for someone, I've heard
this, they are going to go out and maybe tell
one or two people.
But if you would hurt them in any way, or
take advantage of them, it's going to multiply
over 100 times backwards.
You can track that as well, Ralph.
A friend of mine, Scott Holmes that I hired
as a business coach taught me that and we
tracked it one day.
It's better to do well than it is to do badly.
I've learned that all my life, you learn by
trial and error as well.
I think integrity is the number one pursuit
of happiness in a balanced life.
You know, it's funny that you'd say that about
the 90% doing good and the 10%.
One of the heroes that I interviewed is Gregory
Allen Williams.
He's the black cop on Baywatch; he actually
saved a man's life during the L.A. riots.
He said there is a little bit of bad in the
best of us, and a little bit of good in the
worst of us.
When anybody steps up to help someone, they
too can be a hero at that moment in time.
So he was willing basically to sacrifice his
life if he had to, to help others that were
in difficulty during the LA riots.
What do you think are the principles that
you are willing to sacrifice your life for?
The principles that I'm willing to sacrifice
my life for?
I've been struggling with that.
Only because I give so much; I give, I give,
and I give, Ralph.
It seems a lot of the time that it doesn't
come back to me by the people I give to.
I've learned that you should not ask for it
back.
Or expect it back from the people you give
it to, although you would love to have that
back.
I've learned from studying different books
and the Bible as well is that if you give
it to someone; don't expect it back from them.
It will come from somewhere else.
It could come from a baby's smile that you
just had, a newborn baby of yours.
It could come from, someone gave you a kind
word on a plane or a smile or a thank you.
Maybe you just won the lottery, you don't
know.
But it's going to come somewhere else.
When was the lowest point in your life and
how did you change your life path to win a
victory over obstacles?
The lowest point in my life?
You know what?
I'm an optimist.
There were two low points in my life.
One was when I became a professional entertainer,
and I was very optimistic.
I studied all the best people in the world,
and then I performed my show and I had another
gentleman that was jealous.
I was probably only about 18 years old and
this gentleman was 36.
I was in the same market that he was in.
He would try to shut me down and put me down,
because he saw how strong I was when I was
performing.
People were attracted to me and they loved
what I did.
It was the same type of mentalism that he
did.
Although it was different, it was my personality
and he had a different personality.
He was jealous.
Actually, it hurt me.
My own true feelings, I didn't want anyone
to feel bad about me.
I didn't want anybody to look down and say
this guy was bad, or this guy is doing something
wrong.
I almost felt guilty because I was doing so
well for myself that people become jealous
of what I've done.
Ralph, have you ever dealt with that before?
Have you done so well that people get jealous?
How do you deal with those people?
Well, again, what you have to realize is that,
what you said earlier, the consequences of
their actions and their personal integrity.
They are providing service to their client,
realizing that you only succeed to the level
of quality of your products and your service
to your customers.
The greater the service, the greater the quality,
the greater your success.
When people strive to spread evil or not spread
good, that has its own consequences because
it's their thought process.
If you have negative thoughts, it's going
to ultimately generate negative in your life
and it's the seeds that you sow.
Negative thoughts, negative actions will always
reap a horrible harvest somewhere down the
line.
Positive thoughts and positive action, you
get rewards but it might not be from the source
where you actually did those positive things.
But the universe is impeccable, it never fails
and good will always be rewarded with good,
somewhere down the line or maybe immediately.
Evil will always be rewarded with evil; it's
an exponential type thing.
I agree.
It just came to my mind that when I was a
child, when people got mad at my mother, when
people had something against her for some
goofy reason, or somebody said something,
she would always wave to them.
She would always say hi.
She would always have a kind word to them.
My mother, I call her a saint, she was phenomenal,
and she still is.
She always does well.
And that's what I've learned to do, even when
these people are trying to tear me down in
some way, I've always come back by being nice
to them and have a kind word for them.
Even though, in the back of my mind, I'm like,
I'd really like to do something.
But by forgiving them and having peace with
yourself, you're actually helping yourself
as well as them.
Because they don't have anything to go back
on, they can't keep their momentum going with
trying to get feed off of your emotions.
Just let it go and keep working with it.
But what I learned from that experience is
to keep moving ahead.
I became stronger from that, and I got into
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
It says; don't ever mind what they're thinking,
because they don't know what you can do.
You only know what you can do.
Don't mind the people that are pulling you
down or are trying to.
Just ignore them and have your own schedule
of events.
Schedule your time.
Schedule your goals, what you want to do in
this life.
They can pull at you all you want, but at
the end of that, if you draw a line from here
and 100 yards from now and saying that's the
end of your goal, in between you are going
to have all the obstacles.
But remember; keep your eye on the target,
at the end, because you will get there.
It makes it easier.
What is your dream or vision that sets the
course of your life?
My dream and vision that sets the course of
my life would be to create, plant seeds, grow
trees that I could shade my family and friends
with when I pass on.
So they can live off the fruits of my labor.
Also to provide information and success and
knowledge to people like you are doing.
That's why I'm on the line with you as well,
is for the people that struggle all their
life, not knowing where they want to go.
I've performed for hundreds of colleges a
year.
People come up to me after my program and
always say, "What do you see in my future?
What should I do with my life?"
Tony Robbins always says, "If you don't know,
pretend that you do know."
What would you do?
And most people will come up with the answer.
At that point, that's the toughest part in
the world is trying to find out what you want
to do with your life.
Once you know, you can plan your course of
action.
So, by planting those seeds in these students'
minds or the minds of people that are listening
today, it's probably one of the toughest questions.
Wouldn't you agree, Ralph?
What do you want to do with your life?
I absolutely agree.
I'm just listening to Earl Nightingale in
The Strangest Secret of the Mind of Man.
That's what he says, 95% of all the people
who strive when they are young to become a
success end up failures because they never
set any goals.
They are not working for anything or in any
direction.
They are like a ship without a rudder.
If they don't have a rudder, they are just
going to wash up upon the shore or the rocks.
If you have a rudder, you can steer your ship.
You can steer your way through the seas and
as you coast along, the winds blowing your
sail, you have learned to work for that.
Then you are going to get into some rough
waters again and you steer your way through
there.
It's interesting that you say that, because
the next question is, is it important to take
a positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and
mistakes?
It definitely is.
Believe me; even the most positive person
in the world has their setbacks.
You can be a positive thinker but you have
to take control.
You have to say to yourself, you need time
to grieve if something happens.
I forget the steps in the grieving process,
but you need to get back off the floor.
If you get knocked down, you're into martial
arts, Ralph, and I have been too.
When you get knocked down, you need to pop
back up.
It's going to take some time after you get
the wind knocked out of you to get back up,
but the reason you have to get back up is
if you don't, you stay down.
You're going to lose.
Don't ever give up.
Always get back up, dust yourself off, and
keep moving forward.
You will get ahead, you will.
You will learn.
You will take the bumps and bruises.
Just study as well.
Keep the positive, motivational talking coming
through your mind.
All the videos and audio courses that I have
taken in the country meaning like Dreams Don't
Have Deadlines by Mark Victor Hansen, has
a great audio course.
Where you are reading right now and listening
to Ralph now, is phenomenal as well.
Think and Grow Rich.
There's a lot of information that you need
to keep filling your mind with, and the top
1% of the country, the people who are top
in their field keep trying to get better,
better and better.
CANEI, Tony Robbins says the acronym for CANEI
is Constant and Never Ending Improvement.
You just have keep working and moving ahead.
Well, you know that is so true.
A lot of times I sit down, I wake up in the
morning and sit down at my computer and just
think, gee, how many new software programs
do I have to learn today?
It's hard to do it.
Sometimes you just don't feel like doing it.
I know that you probably agree with this,
it takes a tremendous amount of courage to
pursue new ideas.
What do you think about that?
I agree.
I would say there is another way to look at
it.
I get excited about new ideas.
I'm excited, I know we spoke before this interview
about a marketing plan that I'm working on.
I'm so excited about it.
I think that if you work up that fire in your
belly and the excitement about it, it is challenging.
You get a little afraid sometimes.
But once you get into it and you see it starting
to work and the fruit comes off the trees
that you planted, that's what makes me move.
That gives me juice, Ralph.
It makes me feel like what I'm doing is working.
But also, Ralph, I study the top people in
their industry.
If I know someone in marketing, if I have
to learn marketing, I will go and find the
best marketing people in the world.
I'll call them up and go to their conferences,
just like you do, Ralph.
That's what we are doing right now on the
phone.
If I need to know something in the medical
industry, well, you just told me today a few
doctors that could help me out with some blood
pressure problems that I have.
So I'm going to go and search them, and track
them down, the top 1%.
So always strive to find the answers from
the top in their field.
You don't want to learn from someone that's
just starting out, although you can learn
by their mistakes.
You want to take that learning curve and cut
it in half, if not more and learn from the
top people that have been studying all their
life.
Would you agree?
I totally agree.
I know that you have done a lot of different
things in your life.
A lot of the time it's very uncomfortable
to pursue your dreams because of people in
your peer group, your life and even in your
family that don't want you to change.
They don't want you to make transformational
decisions in your life that may leave them
behind.
Do you think it's important to realize that
you are going to be uncomfortable a lot when
you are making quantum leaps in your growth
in every area of your life?
Oh, sure, Ralph.
I remember when I was getting out of high
school, my father told me, "Why do you want
to make a career out of this?
Go out and get a real job!"
I understand that he came from a narrow minded
search, because that's how he was brought
up.
He was brought up to go to work, work hard,
come home and feed his family and provide.
I thought to myself, I was working, in the
summertime I worked at a drapery company in
Newport called Reynolds Draperies.
They are still there.
They service all the east coast for stage
and scenery curtains.
I was working there.
I probably earned $150 a week and I probably
worked 50 hours.
I would go out and do a show and earn $150
for a 45 minute show and I would say to myself,
"Why would I work 50 hours a week if I could
just do a show?"
That was my dream, that was what juiced me
too was saying, "This is my passion.
This is my dream."
No matter what, if anybody said stop to me,
it gave me more juice to keep moving.
I'm the type of person if someone says you
can't do it, I want to do it even more.
I love it, I like when people say it to me.
I guess it was the way I was brought up.
My mother was always supportive, my father
was always trying, he was a supporter, but
he tore me down a little bit, and I think
that was a good thing.
That's what created who I am today.
So, you are going to have times that people
knock you down.
You are going to have it during the day and
during the nighttime.
You are going to have it when you are on the
road, you are tired, you are exhausted, and
you don't want it to happen.
At that point, you have to look at yourself
and say, you know what, here are my goals,
and read them every day.
Write them down.
Put them in front of you, put them on the
mirror.
Read them before you go to bed, when you wake
up in the morning.
At lunchtime, when you are just relaxing,
you are going to feed your subconscious mind
the direction you want to go in.
It's going to move you.
Ralph, you and I spoke before about the four
principles that you went over, how the mind
works.
The mind works on what you concentrate the
most on.
You will get that in your life.
So if you can plant positive seeds and positive
emotions, you will reap those.
Everybody has doubts and fears.
It seems that's an inevitable part of life.
How do you overcome your doubts and fears?
I have a confident in my wife.
I ask her some things and she is my psychiatrist/psychologist
sometimes.
I have friends like you.
I have mentors, peers and coaches.
Also, I go inside myself, because education
means you learn from the outside, but you
bring it in.
You translate it and it comes out of yourself
as a process.
So, by learning to be with myself, to pray,
to ask God to take my concerns, my heartaches,
my wishes and give them to Him, that's the
release process that you have to do.
It comes back to you, just pray and have faith.
Does that make sense?
That does make sense.
I think probably one of the hardest things
in the world to do is forgive those that upset,
offend and oppose you.
How important do you think that forgiveness
is?
Very, very important.
That was my second challenge.
You asked me before, what was one of my toughest
challenges?
Well, the company Power Performers, I hired
a few people to help me out, top sales people
in my industry and I hired consultants to
come in and train them in my office.
I respected them.
They asked me to be in their weddings, they
asked me to be part of their families, and
I have generously given to them.
Over given.
I would buy them lunch every week, almost
three or four times a week.
I would take them on trips, give them bonuses,
and buy them color televisions because they
did so well.
What they loved to do was selling entertainment
and speaking to celebrities, and I gave them
bonuses them because we would have monthly
goals, weekly goals, yearly goals, they would
hit all the goals.
After three years, they decided to, two of
them, I won't mention their names because
I don't want this to get out, but two of them
actually stole all my business.
They stole my company and downloaded all my
information.
They put up a website while they were working
for me.
They came in on a Friday afternoon and both
gave me their resignation and said, "Bob,
we loved working here.
Thank you so much for the opportunity.
It was the best job that we have ever had
but we are going to go work for my father
in another industry."
This other gentleman who was a friend of his
left as well.
They gave me this big story Ralph.
I found out a week later from one of my clients
who said, "Did you know, Robert that they
have their own website and they are in competition
with you?"
At that point I had a 24 page employment agreement
that every word in the agreement, Ralph, they
went against and they just totally raped and
pillaged my company.
I was depressed.
I was down because these were friends of mine
that I lived with for three, three and a half
years, every day.
We laughed, we cried.
We went through 9/11 together.
Different things, one gentleman had eye problems;
I went to the hospital to see him.
Two weeks before this, the other gentleman
was having a baby and I brought gifts to them.
You can tell, it hurts me right now talking
about it, but that was about a year, a year
and a half ago.
Since then, Ralph, my business has tripled.
I've hired more people, and I've learned that
these people were planning and plotting against
me and I had that faith.
I believed in them.
I gave.
I was blind.
What I learned form that was yes, give, but
to leave my eyes open a little bit, to protect
myself.
Like I said before, when people say I can
do something that's what inspired me to motivate
this business, to move higher and further.
I've gone further, and it's going to go further.
I'm going to build this so that people who
work for me can benefit from the fruits of
my labor.
I hope that answers that question.
Did you actually forgive those people for
what they did to you?
I have forgiven them.
It's a challenge, because from day to day
I'm in competition with them.
Although we are in a lawsuit because my attorneys,
friends and mentors said you can forgive them
but it's like, for example, Ralph, if you
had a child, or if my child, God forbid, got
hit by a drunk driver and was killed, I could
forgive the drunk driver.
It would be hard but you have to serve due
diligence and justice, so they wouldn't do
it again.
That's the reason for the lawsuit.
That's to hopefully stop them or make them
feel...
What they did was wrong.
Exactly.
There are consequences for actions.
You always need to stand for the right thing.
If people promise and say they are going to
do something, they need to be held accountable
and you can forgive them for the offenses.
But still, they are consequences for actions
that don't have integrity, that's for sure.
Too many people that should be held accountable
are not.
I respect that you are doing that, because
people that do that, if they continue to do
it and nobody calls them to accounting, they
just continue on and on.
They do it to more and more people, that's
what I've found.
Too many people, once they get screwed by
somebody they don't say anything and people
that they know wind up getting screwed by
that same person.
It's hard to tell the truth about people that
aren't doing their jobs with integrity and
honesty which is what the Heroes program is
all about.
It's to show people just from asking hard
questions what type of attitude and what type
of mind process the people that I recognize
as heroes actually have.
The neat thing about those heroes is a lot
of them experience service to others as a
source of joy.
Do you experience that also?
I do, I do.
Let me just go back to that last question
for a moment about forgiveness, and here's
what I have learned.
By forgiving, everybody has their own sins
that they have committed, if you want to call
it that, or the mistakes that they have made
that they need to be forgiven for.
So what you forgive, you can't expect to be
forgiven for some of your things that you
have done if you can't forgive the people
who have sinned against you.
It's a double edged sword.
By forgiving, you do two things.
You help yourself by forgiving them and you
help them, because they need to be forgiven
too.
You have to forgive yourself for things that
you have done.
What was the question, again, Ralph?
I apologize.
That's okay.
How do you experience service to others as
a source of joy?
Oh yes, there's nothing more than going in
and for me, if I can bring it back to my ESP
mind reading show, I go in and read people's
minds.
I make them laugh, I'm a comedian.
One thing that I do is I always surprise my
clients with doing more.
When they see my program, my ESP Robert Channing
show, motivational talk, I will deliver to
them an experience that they will never forget.
How I do that, here's one of the things that
I do, Ralph.
I'm the only one in the world that does this.
I'm known as the world's foremost mind reader
and motivator.
I will mail you a prediction at your event
of what three people, including yourself,
will be wearing the night of the show.
I will mail it out a month in advance; you
give me the names that are going to be at
your key event.
This is the climax of the whole show.
I'll mail it out; you will hold it in a sealed
prediction.
I'll never touch it again.
At the end of my show, I'll say, "Ralph, do
you have the envelope that I mailed you a
month ago?"
"Yes, I do.
Robert, I have it right here."
You are 100 feet away from me.
"Ralph, would you stand up a few minutes?
Would you hold the envelope up?
Ralph, have we pre-arranged anything?"
You are going to say no.
Because I give $100,000 away to anybody in
the audience who proves that I used stooges,
meaning that I planted people from the audience
to help me out.
I don't do that.
I'll say, "Ralph, just to prove that, I want
more people to randomly stand up in the audience.
They are going to randomly stand up, doesn't
matter who they are, four people."
I'll also say I also predicted in an envelope
what these four people are going to create
in their minds as a dream vacation.
It's a lot of fun.
It's a show.
It's entertainment.
I'll say, "Sir, if you were to go anywhere
in the world on a dream vacation, where would
you like to go?"
That person might say Hawaii, or Bermuda,
or Tahiti.
Whatever it is, I'll say thank you.
The next person, I'll say, "Young lady, if
you were to go with a special person, give
me the name of the person."
They can make a name up, or they can say their
husband, wife, or boyfriend.
They'll say John.
"Okay, John, terrific!"
Next person, day month and year.
"When would you like to go?"
"March 28, 2098."
"Fantastic."
"Young lady, how much money would you like
to spend?
You like to spend money, I can tell."
They will laugh a little bit.
She'll say, "$10 million?"
I'll say, "Make it something really cool up.
They will say $10,000,428.67.
"Terrific.
Ralph, would you open that prediction?"
You open it up and it will say, "Hi, this
is Robert Channing.
I'm sitting in my office in Hartford, New
York in July 21 writing this prediction for
Ralph.
The conference is coming up in January of
2006.
I predict the following to be true.
Four people will create a dream vacation.
Given this chance, they will select the following."
And you are reading this, I've never touched
it.
It's live on the spot.
It will say, first person will say Tahiti.
The second person is going with John.
The day month and year is March 28, 2098 and
will cost $10,000,437.67.
Whatever they said, people just drop their
drawers, jaws.
Not their drawers, their jaws!
You've experienced it at the conference.
It was incredible.
I almost dropped my drawers there.
And on the back of that, I'd say Ralph, turn
the piece of paper over and I predicted what
those three names that you have given me,
maybe the VIP of the conference, or the medium
that I am performing for a corporation or
association.
They will say, "Jane Reynolds will be wearing
a red blouse with polka dots and she will
have on gold shoes with a gold ring."
Whatever it is, I get right to the details.
If I don't get that prediction correct, down
to the color of the sock or stripe in the
shirt, I give my whole fee to them, my whole
paycheck, which is substantial.
It's amazing; I don't know how you do it.
I was impressed when you bent that spoon just
by running your finger over the top of it.
I thought, oh my God; don't let him near my
mother's silverware.
That's funny.
That is astounding.
I've never been more impressed with a presentation
than your presentation that I saw at Joe's.
It was one of the highlights of my life of
being at your presentation.
It was incredible and working with you at
Joe's, I ran the computers and photos.
You did a phenomenal job Ralph; and we became
instant friends.
We did, it was just astounding, and I've never
been more impressed with any live entertainment
that I've ever seen.
It was just incredible.
I know that you maintain an incredible sense
of humor, especially in the face of serious
problems.
How important do you think humor is in your
life?
I think it's very, very important.
Humor actually is the proven fact, I think
you know this.
When you laugh, it actually creates endorphins
in your brain that stimulate your mind to
be happier.
When we laugh, you have to laugh.
I remember being depressed when these people
left me.
I popped a DVD in, Jeff Foxworthy and a couple
of other funny comedians.
I just laughed and laughed, it brought me
up.
It just brings your emotional state up.
If you ever get a depressed mood, just put
a smile on your face if you can, those endorphins
will make you in a better mood.
Try to get out, relax, laugh with your friends,
it just brings that blood pressure down, brings
the reality of life back to you.
Look around you, go out in the woods, go out
in a stream, go out with your family, your
dog or if you have a cat.
Be with that person, just look up in the sky
and say do you know what?
Life's not that bad, there are people in this
world that are dying, that are going without
food and my little problem is nothing.
It feels like a lot, but it really isn't.
That's so true.
Who are the heroes in your life?
The heroes in my life, one that comes to my
mind is Reverend Russell Little.
He is a gentleman that taught me how to do
magic and a little ESP and mind reading when
I was a child.
I used to walk to school in the morning and
pass his house.
He used to use magic in his sermons to get
attention, to make people pay attention to
the Word of God.
He used to make his thumb disappear.
He would put sugar in his hand and make it
disappear as I was on my way to school.
He's the one that I had to write a report
about, that my teacher gave me in third grade.
What did I want to be when I grew up?
I didn't know.
I want to be a magician.
I went and I did some research, I went right
to his house and said I want to be a mentalist.
That's the key, Ralph, anybody that wants
to know what they are doing, don't be afraid
to ask for advice, because people will give
it to you.
Ask and you shall receive information that
you are looking for.
Remember to ask.
So that's what happened, I asked, and he brought
me up to this room upstairs, I remember to
this day, I walked into his house, up the
stairs, and this whole room filled with magic
props, magic cool stuff, and my eyes, it was
just unbelievable.
He was a mentor of mine.
He was someone that I respected.
He put a foot in the door when I was leaving
his house.
Robert, he said, "See my foot?"
He opened his door and put his foot in the
door and said, "What I just did for you, I
put your foot in that door, now it's your
job to open it for yourself."
From that point forward, I've been opening
it for the rest of my life.
It's brought me to meet spectacular people.
It has brought me all over the world to see
different people and different cultures.
To do what I wanted to do, perform, entertain,
to make a great living performing, and have
a great speaker's bureau and entertainment
agency.
The reason that I opened that was I had my
second child; I was on the road a lot.
I told my wife I need to make some more money
not being on the road so I can spend some
time eating popcorn with you at home and still
make some money.
That's what I did, I opened a bureau and I
book people and at night, when I'm on the
road and not at home, I'm still making a decent
living and booking people that I respect and
admire.
Who do you feel are the real heroes in society
today that aren't getting the recognition
they deserve?
The mothers, the teachers.
You and I were speaking before that in a school,
the teachers are phenomenal.
They are teaching how to have a job, and to
go in the world and work for somebody else.
But I think the Heroes program that you are
working on now is going to bring a different
dimension, a different philosophy to the schools
and to kids that don't work for somebody else.
Although it's a great opportunity, try to
work for yourself and try to grow yourself
to rely on yourself.
For example, you can rent a lifestyle, meaning
you can have a job at IBM making $100,000
a year, have a beautiful home, a BMW, a car,
two children and all of a sudden BMW lays
you off, I mean, IBM lays you off.
Who are you working for?
Now you are scraping, trying to find a job,
minimum wage, a lot less than you made.
But when you work for yourself, you have investments;
you invest in yourself in your mind, and your
opportunities.
Meaning real estate, your business meaning
when you go out and work, you are being compensated
for your own mind, not by working for somebody
else to make them a millionaire.
Work for yourself to make yourself get ahead
in this life.
Does that make sense?
Boy, that's good advice, that's what all the
other heroes have said.
It's so important to become an entrepreneur
and be the captain of your own ship and direct
it to where you want to go.
Just working for other people, you never will
be able to attain the dreams that you have,
maybe retiring down in Florida when you get
to be 65.
And you forget all the things that you could
have done that you wanted to do that you should
have done.
It's the difference between having a dream
and having a life.
I agree.
Robert Kiyosaki in Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I learned
this from him by reading his books.
Books unlock the secrets of the universe,
Ralph, and I know you know this.
I teach my children this.
My daughter, I ask her all the time, "Gabrielle,
tell your teacher what we talked about!"
She says to the teacher all the time, "Books
unlock the secrets to the universe."
They really do, the books, they have studied
different subjects.
If I have an ailment, I'm not going to go
to school to be a doctor to find out how to
fix my own ailment.
I'm going to go to the top surgeon or top
doctor in the world and I'm going to get fixed.
Robert Kiyosaki has studied how to become
a successful person by investing in real estate,
and investing in yourself.
Here's the point I wanted to bring across.
Even if you have job and you are in the job
right now, and you are sitting and working
for somebody else, that's okay.
You can be wealthy, and have a comfortable
lifestyle.
I think it's a great lifestyle sometimes Ralph,
because my friends are teachers and they make
a comfortable living.
They have summers off.
But also what you want to do with your time
off.
When you go to work, that's your time to work
but that's your living.
But when you come home, if you are going to
work every day, that's when you make your
life.
That's why Robert Kiyosaki says, that's when
you go out and you find real estate, or you
find your business that you can open.
You can have the best of both worlds.
I'm not putting down going to work for somebody
else because 95% of the people in this country
do that.
The top 10% of people, entrepreneurs, they
are doing for themselves and providing these
wonderful experiences and jobs for people.
But you can do both, that's what I'm saying.
I'm not putting them down, I'm giving the
opportunity to open your mind that if you
work for somebody else on your off time, when
you go home instead of watching television
or doing something not productive, go and
look at a property.
Invest in a property, invest in real estate.
Study commodities; study how to be a marketing
person for internet products.
So that's my point with that.
Why are heroes so important in the lives of
young people?
Well, first of all, a hero, people look up
to different heroes nowadays.
There are some bad examples of heroes meaning
there are some sports celebrities and stars
that are smoking cigarettes and doing drugs
and anti-depressants, things along this line.
I remember watching Tom Cruise, a few weeks
ago being interviewed by Matt Lauer on the
Today show, talking about psychiatry and how
he thought it was a pseudo science and all
this.
I believe a little bit of that, but I believe
heroes are people that have done it before
you that are successful.
You want to model success and duplicate results.
That's the reason you have heroes in your
life.
You see something that they are doing that
you would love to emulate, that's a positive
in your life that you know if you could attain,
you would be happy.
How you do that is just model what they are
doing.
You become that much successful in your learning
curve.
You will get there that much faster.
Does that make sense?
It does.
The next question is, how does it feel to
be recognized as a hero?
I know a lot of the people that I have interviewed
don't consider themselves heroes.
But I think it's important to accept the good
that you are doing and the benefits that you
have in the lives of others and not be ashamed
to be recognized for the good things that
you do.
How does it feel to be recognized as a hero?
I'm very flattered, first of all.
It's flattering to even be considered being
a hero.
The place I always thought I was a hero was
in raising my family.
I never thought I was a hero in anything else,
other than I love doing what I do.
I'm passionate about what I do, and I try,
whoever I come in contact with is bring and
build them up.
So if that's being a hero, thank you for knighting
me a hero, Ralph.
Well, how are you making the world a better
place?
Making the world a better place, I'm providing
my experience of how to get into the industry.
For example, when I book somebody in my company,
or my sales reps book somebody, we are doing
a service to our client by giving them something
they want.
We are doing a service to the speaker, because
all we have to do is call the speaker and
the speaker picks up the phone and says, "Hello."
We say, "Hi, we have a date for you!"
So it makes their life easier, it makes my
life easier, and our client is happy when
they experience a stellar performance.
Also the people that work in my office, I
try to give them an opportunity to improve
themselves with goals.
I also try to build people, not just teach
them how to make money but build them.
If you can teach them to fish, they will do
that much better in the future.
You can show them how to do something, but
if you don't teach them and implement the
information in their minds and take consistent
action with that information, they are not
going to be able to do it on their own.
I guess what I'm saying is that I provide
an atmosphere to the people in my life to
benefit from what I can do in my own experience.
I hope I made sense with that, I tried to.
You did.
Do you have any good solutions for the problems
facing society today, especially racism, child
and spousal abuse and violence among young
people?
That's a tough question, Ralph!
Because there are so many stereotypes, there
is so much racism still.
To solve that, the solution would be to do
what you are doing right now.
To give the young kids in this world mentors,
heroes to emulate themselves by.
Let them know that if anything they are going
through now, there are people in the past
that have gone through things as bad, if not
worse and they have made themselves through
it.
They have grown stronger and more successful
in their lives because of that persecution
in their life.
If you had three wishes for your life in the
world that would instantly come true, what
would they be?
Three wishes.
One would be to the drug industry, first of
all, not to have so many drugs to fix people
but to have holistic solutions and the world
to be a better place.
This is going out on a limb here, our government,
whether people want to believe it or not is
one of the biggest mafias in the world.
We control the world but we do it for a reason
because we have to protect ourselves.
But I would love to have the world be a utopia
like John Lennon used to sing about, that
would be my wish to have a utopia.
Almost like heaven.
The second wish would be that the young people
in this world could be educated and know how
to model success when they are younger.
And the teachers that are teaching them will
learn how to teach them how to manage their
life, not so much as how to do the sciences
and mathematics but how to manage their life
with the relationship with themselves their
family, financially, emotionally.
I think they don't teach that in school now,
Ralph.
I agree.
What do you think about the "In Search of
Heroes" program and its impact on youth, parents
and business people?
I think everybody in the world should benefit
from this and will benefit from it.
I think the word has to get out.
I think I mentioned to you before that I want
to do something with you Ralph, with my Power
Performers and I'm going to promote "In Search
Of Heroes" in everything that I do.
That's one of my life goals.
What are the things that parents can do that
will help their children realize that they
too can be heroes and make a positive impact
on the lives of others?
Giving, learn that it is better to give than
receive.
Don't you feel better, I feel better, anyway.
I know that a lot of people love to get gifts.
I love to get gifts but it's always hard for
me when someone gives me a gift to say "thank
you."
I would not feel like I deserved it, I don't
know why, something in my psyche but I have
learned to say thank you and to appreciate
it.
By them giving them a gift, you are giving
them a gift.
So be giving, you will receive 100 fold.
Teach your children to give, to help, to praise
and to praise them.
Just something that I learned by some statistics,
I think there is a lot of validity here, is
that if you are a parent and you have a daughter,
you as the male person will influence your
daughter's life, her emotions and her self
confidence more so than the mother will.
And it's true of the opposite sex, meaning
the mother will dominate and influence the
child's psyche because it's the opposite sex.
If you learn this when you are growing up,
if you have children, to also compliment,
to support, to bring them up, not in a false
way.
Of course you have to correct them, but in
a delicate way.
Does that make sense?
Yes, that really does.
Robert, I just really appreciate your time.
I know how incredibly busy you are.
I was just so impressed with your presentation
and just the humor.
It still blows my mind on how you can read
people's minds.
I don't know how you do that, but it is incredibly
awesome.
I just really encourage you to do the Power
Performers and do interviews on those guys
to just spread the knowledge that they have.
Excellence is such a fine thing, it's such
a great role model for young people, for those
that are giving service above self, that are
providing quality and integrity in the fields
they are in.
That's what young people need to know, they
need to find out how these people that are
attaining the level of success they want to
attain, and listen to the people that they
become.
I'm sure that you would agree with this, you
have to become a person that is worthy of
incredible wealth and fame before it ever
shows up, or it will completely go down the
drain.
Just like a lot of people feared success,
once it arrived they completely dumped it
down the drain by their actions.
You've had a lot of impact with very famous
people.
What do you think about that idea?
What I think is you are absolutely right.
When I was younger, just to make a point back
to what I was doing was I did very well when
I was 18 or 19 years old and I was at the
top of my field performing in what I did.
People used to say to me, "This guy is going
to get involved in drugs, he's going to do
this or he's going to do that."
But I didn't do that.
You have to pay your price.
You have to do your diligence.
You have to learn.
There's a way, yes.
You can go from to zero to one hundred and
cut out that curve.
But most of the time you have to go through
the bumps and bruises.
Once you go through those bumps and bruises
and you do obtain your success, you will learn
how to keep it.
If something is given to you, if somebody
gave you one million dollars, there's an old
expression, you can spread out all the money
in the United States, put in one lump sum
and spread it out between all the people in
the United States equally.
At the end of the year, 10% of the people
would have all the money back.
That's because they learned how to control
their emotions their life and learn by their
actions.
Meaning, having their goals, accomplishing
them, going through the struggles.
Going through struggles is good.
When you go through a struggle, you are teaching
yourself a lesson in life.
When you do that, if something was given to
me, you won't appreciate it as much as if
you worked for it.
So work for what you have, appreciate what
you have, and here's something else too.
Teach your children to work for what they
have, because you as a person, if you decide
you want to build your life up to make a fortune
in wealth and riches with everything that
you do, don't give your children everything
because that generation will lose it.
The next generation, their children will have
nothing, and they will have to rebuild it
themselves.
So teach the children that you do have, and
the young people listening today, or reading
this interview, is that you don't get something
for nothing.
Work for it.
When you work for it, you will appreciate
it, and you will keep it.
That's all I can say on that.
That's so true.
I just really appreciate your time and just
the wisdom that you shared with us.
I encourage anybody listening to this interview
that if you ever get an opportunity to see
Robert perform in person, it will be one of
the high points of your life.
Again Robert, I appreciate your time and I
appreciate what you do in making such a difference
in the world today.
So thanks again.
Thank you, Ralph.
You are doing a wonderful service.
Thanks so much.
